A parable about Microsoft
In response to the Nov. 8 column by Dave Winer, "Microsoft deal fans flames of revolt:"
At the risk of sounding paranoid, my thoughts have followed along these same lines. We've lost more individual rights and freedoms in less than 60 days than I can remember.
Let's deal with the Microsoft matter. My analogy to this charade of a proposed settlement goes something like this: A man intending to rob a bank parks his car and walks away without feeding the meter. While walking to the bank, a parking enforcement person places a ticket on his car. The man proceeds to rob the bank
and walks briskly back to his car with $20,000 tucked in a bag. Noticing the ticket, he rips it off the windshield and escapes.
The ticket prompts the police to investigate him as a suspect. He's arrested and goes to trial in what everyone presumes to be an open-and-shut case. In the meantime, having not paid his parking ticket, he's served with papers to appear in traffic court where he's found guilty and fined $100. In a surreal dream, the assistant district attorney strikes a plea bargain: Pay the $100 parking fine and we'll drop the bank-robbery charges. This is no stupid man. He walks out of the courthouse minus $100, but enjoys the freedom to return to a locker at the bus station where he retrieves $20,000 in ill-gotten gains. He uses the $20,000 as a down payment on a Krispy Kreme franchise.
Winner takes all!
Unfortunately, for those of us who have failed to fall into a comatose existence over the past 10 years, this surreal dream (or nightmare) does not appear to be ending anytime soon. We witness more of the unimaginable each day perpetrated by insane terrorists on one hand and by our elected officials on the other. They're using their pockets padded by special interests to open Krispy Kremes in all 50 states.
I've always had a skeptical belief in the ability of free markets to police themselves. But the president of the bank didn't think twice after the robbery before calling the local police in an attempt to enforce the rule of law. And without a few diligent regulators, DOJ attorneys and federal judges we should just kiss this great country good-bye.
Dennis Jugan |
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