As IF Times

link EU Formally Ends Microsoft Antitrust Case – WSJ.com

As if we needed more proof that the winds of socialism are blowing ever stronger worldwide; and this has got nothing to do with weather change. This headline released a few days ago created very little fanfare in the news because there were more salacious stories on the front pages everywhere.

The sheer numbers of dollars spent on this issue, $2 billion dollars in fines by the EU, not to mention hundreds of millions of legal fees spent by both sides are disturbing given what was at issue. It would be curious to see where these fines go. Do they go to general revenue of the ‘EU regulators’? Do they go to compensate the other software makers who were hard done by Microsoft?

The main issue being fought was the accusation by the EU and a consortium of browser makers led by Opera, that Microsoft, because of their dominant position in software distribution due to the ubiquity of the Windows operating system, was crowding out other competitors in favour of their own Internet browser.

So?

Let’s employ a simplistic analogy;

Microsoft starts a restaurant business with a menu that everyone suddenly wants and will pay for. They build stores and successfully dominate the food business. As time goes on, they start refining their menu including packaging meals with their own burger/fries combo. A competitor decides he wants to sell their burgers as part of the meal combos claiming that their product is better and that for the restaurant to deny them is uncompetitive.

“Not a fair analogy”, I hear from the back of the room, “because in the real world, people can go to other restaurants”. “The better analogy is that Microsoft builds the roads and restricts which cars can drive on them, since you don’t necessarily have a choice of roads”.

I suggest both are somewhat valid in illustrating the principle. Bill Gates and his crew not only developed and marketed a product for which the world had a huge demand, but were shrewd enough to manage the distribution of their goods against other competitors. If the folks at Opera, a competing browser, genuinely had a superior product, consumers would buy their product as opposed to Internet Explorer. (Purely coincidentally, Opera is based in Norway, home of the Nobel Peace prize ). But rather than expose their products to the votes of the consumer, they choose to enlist the EU to come to their aid in order to force Microsoft to sell their products alongside Microsoft’s’.

I’m unaware of why the Apple operating system was not targeted for this concern. Apple as we know, have their own proprietary system as opposed to Microsoft which has an ‘open’ system, thereby allowing 3rd party vendors to make products compatible with their systems, thus enabling competition and development. But just because you allow for competitors shouldn’t mean you have to market them actively as well.

Socialist capitalism is upon us. It’s a leap perhaps to extrapolate this trend into the future, but it certainly points to a climate where innovation is allowed to succeed only ‘so’ much, at least until someone else wants a piece of the success. The surest way to kill innovation is to remove all incentives for it’s commercial development. Free markets should be kept free without governments stepping in to bully fines from successful companies. We can all remember Sony Betamax formats, 8 track tapes, AMC Pacers, film cameras and the 3 major TV news networks.

Eventually, something better comes along and consumers vote. Without the help of lawyers.

link Danish police hold 240 climate protesters | Reuters

As if. Who are these ‘climate protesters’? Who pays for their trip to Copenhagen? Do they bunk up or do they get private rooms? Who creates the placards, organizes the slogan shouting; is it all to be in English? If all the yelling and signs are in English, does that mean they’re catering to a specific audience? Who decides when to rush the cops and who is going to be dragged off yelling and screaming?

Are we to believe protesters showed up spontaneously and created impromptu demonstrations? If I had to bet, I’d wager that somebody, some months ago created and orchestrated this public display of activism because, well, cameras would be there.

Exactly what are they protesting? There’s already this great spectacle of nations coming together to try and agree on some terms for ‘fixing the weather’. Apparently, they protest that….the talks are not moving fast enough? Or is it that there’s not enough money thrown on the table? Frankly it’s unclear to me what all the pushing and shoving is about. Maybe the reporters were mistaken, perhaps it was just soccer hooligans; it is Europe. Maybe the bars had just closed.

A few points are worth considering before we get sucked into believing the media’s portrayal of how great the clamor is for movement on changing the weather.

1. How can 300, 500 or 1000 protesters expect to usurp the will of hundreds of millions in duly elected democracies in determining how to spend their money on this charade of an issue. Remember, that’s what we’re really talking about; money and a slamming of the west, as usual. If this were not the case, they would be demonstrating in Chinese or Hindi, since China and India are among the top weather contaminators.

2. During a speech given by the ever enlightened gasbag Hugo Chavez, the crowd in the room really showed their colors when he expressed the following (from Andrew Bolt Blog):

“…..When he said the process in Copenhagen was “not democratic, it is not inclusive, but isn’t that the reality of our world, the world is really and imperial dictatorship…down with imperial dictatorships” he got a rousing round of applause.

When he said there was a “silent and terrible ghost in the room” and that ghost was called capitalism, the applause was deafening.

But then he wound up to his grand conclusion – 20 minutes after his 5 minute speaking time was supposed to have ended and after quoting everyone from Karl Marx to Jesus Christ – “our revolution seeks to help all people…socialism, the other ghost that is probably wandering around this room, that’s the way to save the planet, capitalism is the road to hell….let’s fight against capitalism and make it obey us.” He won a standing ovation…..”

3. There has never been a calamitous ‘issue’ in the world that the west, mainly the U.S. and to a lesser degree other western nations, were not held guilty of perpetrating. Despite the fact that the west has been primarily responsible for ALL of the advances in technology, in medical achievements, charitable humanitarian giving and general increase in living standards for the world as a whole, somehow capitalism is evil. As a matter of fact the last thing the non western world developed was the number zero. The west just happened to run with it. Do we really want to cede control of our economy, our tax money and our right to self determination to people who think soccer is a entertaining? The real entertainment here are the self important ‘leaders’. What a marxist muppet show.

Sadly our own western politicians are looking like hand puppets.