The scariest proposal from the World Intellectual Property Organization, an arm of the United Nations, aims to let big corporations protect facts in their databases.
It was characterized by a kind of one-upsmanship of ridiculousness, with MPs trying to outdo each other with absurdly protectionist -- and downright scary -- proposals.
Labour MPs in traditional Labour areas could wave around copies of "The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism", which contains a series of scary, market-friendly proposals for the public services written by prominent Lib Dems.
There were some clunkers, as there always are, but there were also some scary good, real-world proposals from students who don't have to think out of the box because they were never in one to begin with.
But what's scary is that this proposal is so divorced from reality (Beijing would never agree) that it suggests that policy is being formulated by ideologues sealed within the Pentagon.
But here's another way to look at her proposal: It's scary to think the world will outlive us.
It is scary that such an unrealistic financial proposal for an enormous human tragedy gets so much attention.
The St Mungo's chief executive, Howard Sinclair, said the potential impact of the proposals on vulnerable people was "scary" and would leave the charity with an estimated £12m annual shortfall by 2019.
"Proposal 2 is a very scary thing to me," said Ralph Beebe, president of Highland Engineering, a military equipment manufacturer.
To be sure, the Treasury proposal does hope to curb the growth of large, systemically scary companies by raising their costs of doing business.
The digital divide is a scary vision, so addressing this serious-sounding issue is great cover for otherwise ridiculous proposals.
