It's a fascinating aspect of modern culture that even as we gain ever greater access to information, news and entertainment there are puritanical groups in our society who repeatedly attempt to push us back to some better, nicer, safer, prudish and, in many ways, more ignorant society. And the villain in the quest to "clean up Dodge" is not always who it might appear to be.

The state of Illinois made it a law this week that convicted sex offenders cannot use social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

Just two weeks after a task force whose formation was spearheaded by MySpace delivered a report saying that social networking sites were safer from sexual predators than many people had assumed, MySpace finds itself dealing with a new inquiry related to registered sex offenders by Connecticut's attorney general.

Who would have thought the government's proposed Internet filtering scheme would bring together so many disparate groups all united in their opposition to mandatory censorship?

Why would jurors in a huge murder trial violate a judge's order to not discuss the case by posting seemingly innocuous comments about the trial on their Facebook pages? That's what the judge, the court, the lawyers, and the public in Lancaster County, Pa., want to know.