European Regulators Disregard Fairness, Undermine Property Rights (Again) ... While the U.S. Government Remains Silent

The European Commission (EC), in all its zeal to control competition worldwide by targeting successful U.S. corporations, has once again shown its anti-American stripes, disregard for fairness and contempt for intellectual property rights. This week, the EC issued an unprecedented ruling and levied yet another astronomical fine totaling $357 million against Microsoft Corporation for what the Commission said was the U.S. software giant's failure to comply with its 2004 "antitrust" order....

If this were just another ho-hum antitrust case, there would be little cause for alarm. Even if this was just about slapping Microsoft on the hand for some supposed offense, few would take notice. But clearly this case has significant ramifications. Indeed, the EC's latest action is further evidence that it cares for nothing more than controlling worldwide competition, and undermining property rights and the foundation of free-enterprise that is intellectual property.

You see, Microsoft's competitors want access to its valuable source code, which is the core of the company's business, so they can further profit from Microsoft's success by plundering its intellectual property. Failing to acquire free access to the source code, in which Microsoft invested tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars to develop, under the terms of the company's 2001 court-approved settlement with the U.S. government and state plaintiffs, those competitors are now colluding with all-too-willing, power-hungry EC regulators. As the EC's arrogance grows, so does the threat to the U.S. economy. All successful U.S. companies, their employees and consumers worldwide beware!

The long-term impact of the EC's actions is nauseating to consider: It is a simple fact of economics - without private property rights, no incentive to innovate exists. No incentive to innovate, no innovation. No innovation, less jobs. Less jobs, less money for consumers to buy new products -- new products that won't exist because the incentive to innovate is eliminated.

It goes without saying that unchecked power in the hands of unaccountable bureaucrats is the most dangerous threat to individual freedom and free enterprise. Bit by bit they will undoubtedly and mercilessly claim one right after another until competition is eliminated, innovation is crushed, taxes are beyond oppressive and economies become trampled under the feet of unmotivated, apathetic consumers and business owners...

If the EC's unprecedented, self-appointed powers continue unchecked, coupled with its growing anti-American sentiment, no American company -- large or small -- expanding business overseas is safe from the foreign regulatory body's wrath or cynical manipulation.

More here

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ELSEWHERE

Radioblogger has a good chart of the decline in the circulation of the L.A. Times. I wonder when the morons who own the paper will realize that turning your paper in a propaganda sheet is not good for business. Rupert Murdoch has been so successful in part because he realizes that BALANCE is good for business.

Just the title of the following book would seem to recommend it: "The UN Gang: A Memoir of Incompetence, Corruption, Espionage, Anti-Semitism and Islamic Extremism at the UN Secretariat"

What's wrong with the Democrats?: "The Democrats' fundamental weakness is that even after four decades of their strenuously celebrating the moral supremacy of every organized minority, our political system remains, more or less, one of majority rule. It's hard to win a majority if you don't personally want to be part of the majority because your ego centers around visualizing yourself as better than the average American. If you don't like the American majority, either in principle or in person, the majority won't like you. The GOP, in contrast, presents itself as the party of normal American voters, whose demographic transformation lags decades behind the raw population totals."

Troubles of transition: "To get a good sense of the practical consequences of socialist economies, whatever the new label they have been given, it would be valuable for proponents to get a close look at what has happened in the former Soviet bloc countries. Even though nearly two decades have passed since the Soviet system has collapsed, the signs of socialism are everywhere. That's in part because these societies have not yet managed to generate the wealth that would be required so as to replace all the horrible leftovers of the socialist system with what a free and prosperous country can produce. Rows of dilapidated apartment houses, factory buildings, government offices, schools and the like are strewn across these countries with little evidence that purging them soon is very likely. After all, even though the Draconian type socialist planned economy is now part of the miserable past in most of these places, a robust recovery has not yet taken place, so that people, companies, and communities could afford to get rid of the remains of the socialist era."

San Francisco acts against graffiti: "Carlos Romero left his spray-painted graffiti marks around San Francisco for years, tagging everything from fences and walls to street signs and trash cans with such monikers as CREAM and QUESO (which in Spanish means cheese).... San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera announced Monday that his office obtained a civil injunction and $20,000 in financial penalties against Romero, whom Herrera called "one of San Francisco's most prolific graffiti vandals." The case marks the first time the city has filed a civil lawsuit against a graffiti tagger. "We want to send a message to vandals that we are going to do whatever it takes to go after them," Herrera said... Earlier this month, Mayor Gavin Newsom announced a new effort to streamline the city's efforts to clean up graffiti by centralizing all removal and abatement through the city's Department of Public Works, rather than having several city departments respond to the problem. The hope is that public property will be cleaned more quickly. Newsom also earmarked $475,000 in his 2006 proposed budget to help pay for the new plan. As for Romero, officials are confident he won't strike again. In a news release announcing the settlement, Herrera even called the young man, who still lives with his mother, a "reformed tagger." He has a day job at the Pottery Barn that could help cover the costs."

In case you have not seen it already, there is a great video link here to a powerful attack on Islamic "civilization" that originally aired on Al Jazeera television. The female speaker is Wafa Sultan, an Syrian-Arab psychiatrist now living in Los Angeles.

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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