Series of Tubes

This is a prime example of why our country is so messed up.

United States Senator Ted Stevens described the Internet as a "series of tubes", while discussing network neutrality.^[1] On June 28, 2006, he used this metaphor to criticize a proposed amendment to a committee bill. The amendment would have prohibited Internet service providers from charging fees to give some companies higher priority access to their networks or their customers. This metaphor, along with several other odd choices of words, was widely ridiculed as demonstrating Stevens's poor understanding of the Internet.