Spamming Democracy

Microsoft has teamed up with China to keep that nation’s citizens from sending the word “democracy” or similar terms for political freedom over the Internet. Give them a red star for trying, and let the word games begin. It’s Demokrati in Norsk, Dan chu in Vietnamese, Demokratyyaya in Azeri. Eastern Europe’s democratic revolutions -- “Rose,” “Orange” and “Tulip” -- make fine code words, and Spamworld offers a zillion permutations of dem*cra*y. We’ll give Bill Gates and those 30,000 Chinese censors democracy -- as in iberty-lay, eedom-fray and “yo, don’t be treadin’.”

-- Drex Heikes