Atlas Shrugged
28 May, 2004
Reason number 18,142 I'm glad I don't live in the People's Republic of California anymore:
Wired News: Tightening the Reins on Gmail
If Atlas Shrugged had been written in 2004, this could well be one of the absurd laws and regulations that ultimately cause all of the nation's thinkers and doers to give the the collective finger to the government, and then disappear off the face of the earth to let the Liz Figueroas and ignorant citizens of the world deal with the mess they've made of things with bullshit lawmaking like this.
I am reminded of the time the city of Santa Monica tried to ban ATM surcharges - (How dare banks charge money to let non-customers use their infrastructure!) Once the ban was announced, all of the banks in Santa Monica got together and said, "OK, not a customer? Then you can't use our ATMs AT ALL. Are you happy now?"
How grand it would be for Google to just give California a hearty FU, re-incorporate in Sealand, and block every single IP address in California.
Standard I-am-not-an-Ayn-Rand-kook Disclaimer
Intellectually, I love Atlas Shrugged. The only problem with her philosophy of, "If the government would just get off the backs of the titans of industry and let them run things the way they want, everything would be fine" is that it's dependent on executives of giant corporations being honest, ethical people who care about their employees and think beyond the next quarter's numbers. Yes, it seems awfully naive these days.
Intellectually, I love Atlas Shrugged. The only problem with her philosophy of, "If the government would just get off the backs of the titans of industry and let them run things the way they want, everything would be fine" is that it's dependent on executives of giant corporations being honest, ethical people who care about their employees and think beyond the next quarter's numbers. Yes, it seems awfully naive these days.
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