"To a <em>dark place this</em> line of thought will take us"<br>-Yoda<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 4:09 PM, Collin Kidder <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:adderd@kkmfg.com">adderd@kkmfg.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div class="Ih2E3d">Tim Schmidt wrote:<br>
><br>
>> The actual point I was trying to make, however, is that businesses<br>
>> making business decisions (the merit of those decisions notwithstanding)<br>
>> is not in the same category as government censorship or government civil<br>
>> rights abuses. I was not trying to argue whether Comcast is or should<br>
>> or shouldn't be a government-sponsored monopoly. Because it is a<br>
>> privately-held (even if publically-traded) business, it can make<br>
>> whatever decisions it wants to make. That's not draconian.<br>
>><br>
><br>
> It _is_ when the government doesn't allow competition. A private<br>
> business can be every bit as much an arm of the government as a local<br>
> / state / federal agency.<br>
><br>
><br>
</div>I'd say that this is my opinion as well. The government has given<br>
telephone and cable companies access to public poles and is very VERY<br>
resistant to allowing anyone else to run more cabling. In many cases<br>
they've even subsidized the running of the lines. Now we're stuck with<br>
our government sanctioned monopolies. And those companies are nearly as<br>
evil and self serving as the government itself. So we're screwed but we<br>
have some hope that the corrupt government might accidentally do<br>
something good for us for a change and force the carriers to not screw us.<br>
<br>
This highly cynical opinion was brought to you by Ed's Pizza. Call Ed's<br>
Pizza for all your Pizza needs.<br>
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