Of course, with patents on life forms, Jesus would end up in prison if those loaves contained genetically modified grain. I guess he’d better steer clear of the US & countries with similar patent laws…

What it sums up to, gain or loss for Bethesda, is impossible to say without doing serious research. What can be said, though, is this: Certainly, if they’re so confident in their claim of loosing huge amounts on file sharing, the industry must have funded plenty of research to prove it. Where is this research? Why has nothing substantial been published to support industry claims?

Based on this suspicious behaviour from the industry, I’m willing to proceed on the assumption that they have attempted to prove their theory, and failed miserably. If they want me to believe differently, that’s easily accomplished: Publish peer-reviewed research, complete with underlying data. Without copy protection, and without trying to get paid for it.

However, the extremely wealthy aren’t the only job creators. Small businesses are great job creators. Like all business, they depend on infrastructure and other public goods and services. Unlike big business, they don’t have the clout to make sure that they get serviced, no matter what. If the service is in short supply, small business will loose out.

The middle class and small business owners simply can’t afford to pay for public services both for the super wealthy and for themselves. The middle class and small business (the biggest job creators) are subsidizing the super wealthy, providing more than they receive, and receiving less than they need. This isn’t new, it’s just more visible in bad times.

So, the question becomes: What creates more jobs, tax cuts for the wealthy, or having the wealthy pay their fair share, allowing the small businesses and regular people to get back on their feet, and stay on them? Choosing the poorer alternative will, for all practical purposes, kill jobs.

Global warming…

Never mind what the “Liberals” say. Instead, have a look at what the insurance companies say. They aren’t annoyingly liberal, are they?

What they are, is a big industry that will be among the first and hardest hit during climate change. They have spent huge resources on research, analysis and risk assessment, and they are deeply worried. They have already detected shifts in the number, types and sizes of the damages and injuries in insurance claims, affirming pessimistic climate models and forecasts. As a statistical sample, insurance claims is huge and world wide, and would be stupid to ignore.

So, like I said: You don’t trust the “The Liberal Elite”? Fine. Trust the free market experts on comprehensive real world risk assessment. Or, perhaps… Does this mean that The Free Market has become “Liberal Elite”, and thus no longer can be trusted by you and your like?

Also, believe what you want about global warming – but if you don’t think we should have policy around it and innovate around it – we’ll be left in the dust (perhaps literally if you are wrong) while the rest of the world innovates, creates jobs and works for a cleaner local environment. What’s wrong with clean energy? It is created at home, doesn’t pollute, no war, no smog, new innovation. What the heck – who cares if there is human influence on the climate – let’s just run with it and make cool stuff. Sheesh!