Mr. Gates goes to dinner with Beijing

G. B. (that would be George Bernard) Shaw once famously, as you know (I'm only pointing this out in case some doofus who doesn't wanders in), asked a female dinner companion if she would go to bed with him for some outlandish sum of money, say $100 million. I don't know exactly how much but $100 million sounds pretty big, considering this was a long time ago when $100 million would have actually been worth something. And this happened in London so of course he would have said pounds, not dollars, but we speak English here.

So anyway he asked her would she sleep with him (notice how I'm dancing around the real word here) for $100 million and she said yes. Well then, Shaw said, how about for $10? What do you think I am, she protested, a prostitute?

"Madame," Shaw replied, "We've already established that. Now we're just haggling about the price."

Mr. Gates burnished his own credentials the other day when Microsoft unplugged a dissident blogger at the request of the Chinese government.

"Comply with global and local laws," (global laws?) the company mumbled (according to the Times). "This is a complex and difficult issue," mumble mumble.

And, oh yeah, this: "We think it's better to be there with our services than not be there."

Ahhh. Not so complex and difficult after all. And would Microsoft do the same to you? We're just haggling about the price.

There is a great deal of money to be made in China and the pressures of the "global market" (a far more marketable term than "prostitution," to be sure), yada yada yada. You know the rest. There is a great deal of money to be made everywhere - and yes, dear valued customer, this means you.

Reflect for a moment on the fact that virtually all the US "news" media are owned by giant corporations with a great deal to gain from government favors. And just about everything else is too.

And the whole place is starting to look a little bit like a brothel, isn't it?

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