Raving and Rambling

President Sarkozy has asked French “competition authorities,” whatever this may mean, to look into the possibility of imposing a tax on Google’s advertising revenue.

As the Financial Times reports:

Mr Sarkozy commented after the publication of an independent report for the French culture ministry that proposed a tax on Google, Yahoo, Facebook and other sites, to help fund initiatives for writers, musicians and publishers to make money from the web.

The report recommended issuing music cards to young people with €25 ($36) in credit provided by the government as a way of encouraging legal downloading of cultural works.

This has been the French modus operandi for a long time. If the French public stands in line to see Avatar, while some pedantic avant garde French film fails to draw a crowd, it is the fault of American cultural imperialism. If the public flocks to Disney World, if young people line up to eat le hamburger at le MacDonalds, French culture is threatened. And now it’s the Internet that is in the cross hairs of the French cultural elite.

To a certain extent I should gloat at the persecution of the hypocrites at Google. After all they support any left wing liberal agenda, except when it applies to them. But I know the result of the imposition of such a tax will be carefully studied by our politicians in Washington, always on the prowl for new revenue. Ultimately these taxes will come out of our pockets. As they always do.

Memo to Sarkozy: If you cannot sell French mouse traps without subsidies, build a better one.
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In the meantime, in New York State truckloads of unused swine flu vaccines are being returned
because demand never materialized. What happened to the end of the human race that was supposed to occur if enough vaccine was not manufactured? Politicians called press conferences to insist about the existence of tremendous demand for these vaccines, although among my relatives and friends I know of no one that intended to get vaccinated. The only person I know that was affected by the swine flu survived with no more inconvenience than a regular flu and was back at work after four days of rest.

So let's add Swine Flu to the list that includes Y2K, global cooling, global warming, breast implants, contaminated apples, farm raised salmon, tooth fillings that contained mercury, sun exposure, AIDS among heterosexuals, acid rain, cellphones, and I don't remember how many more scares generated by politicians in search of votes or scientists in search of a grant.

I guess planet earth and the human race are a lot more resilient than proponents of the nanny state want us to believe.
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Dear President Obama:

We know; everything wrong in the universe, including the shortage of Unobtainium is the fault of President Bush. Now, deal with it, you big cry baby. Happy First Anniversary as POTUS! The only gift your policies have given us is trillion dollar deficits and 10% unemployment.
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In the meantime Senator McCain has become tough and his radio ad in Arizona states that "President Obama is leading an extreme left-wing crusade to bankrupt America." Where was that aggressiveness during the presidential campaign? He found that his reelection might be in trouble and suddenly he discovered that Obama is a lefty. What a phony. Run as the gentleman you pretended to be two years ago. We can use a new senator in Arizona. If it's a democrat we won't know the difference.
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In New Jersey a Chinese doctoral student has been arrested for trespassing to kiss his girlfriend goodbye at Newark Airport, triggering a six hours lock down of the airport. He faces a $500 fine. Senator Lautenberg wants the penalty to be much tougher. Sure, Senator, lets send him to Gitmo. By the way senator, where were you when the nincompoop guard that allowed the trespassing was "reassigned"? You wouldn't dare to demand that the guy be fired. He is a union member. I hope I have not offended you using the term nincompoop. We all know that that term applies to you.
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Human sacrifices are on the rise in Uganda. I guess the next step is to make them members of the UN Human Rights Commission.
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It's freezing and raining in Florida. Can you guess that I am in a bad mood?