Just ask a moth.

Happy Holidays!

Update: Merry Fucking Christmas!

I was reading a USA today article today about the antitrust lawsuit brought against Starbucks. There was plenty of the olde standby argument ‘were just a poor ma pa store please federal government protect us from competition’. Underneath this tired argument there seemed to be a legitimate grievance. The lady bringing the suit against Starbucks alleges the company is offering exuberant payments well beyond market prices to lock up all the ideal coffee locations in an area of the city. Given Starbucks size they can offset the cost of paying large sums for prime real estate in a way other small coffee vendors can’t. I can see strong arguments for why this is wrong primarily because it enables Starbucks to eliminate competition not through efficiency but brute force. It’s possible I would support city regulation trying to manage this problem.

However one should note that Starbucks is leaving them selves vulnerable to a larger company that can take advantage of their strategy of tying up so much of their free capital in locking down prime real estate locations. In this way it’s possible to see free markets solving this problem without government intervention.

I advocate free markets as a function of generating competition. Business should remain unfettered provided this fosters an environment of competition. Business practices that reduce competition need to be regulated.

Animus as a way of truth

Nothing like hatred to increase the expediency of mankind’s development of ‘truth’.

It goes without saying that this kind of strong reporting was already covered by the likes of MSM sources. These criticims go along way towards allowing me to understand the problems in Iraq. Hopefully some of this reporting will have a more subtle effect on Iraq policy as opposed to the more typical response of either we should pull out or stay.

Assisting Darwin with his arguments for why government needs to regulate business i provide to you all ticketmaster.

One of the conditions to purchasing tickets through them is by giving them extensive information that they can use to advertise to you. As a business model they seem to pay large sums of money to venues so that they are the sole ticket seller. I suspect one way they offset the additional cost of locking up a venue is by forcing consumers to agree to being put on mailing list and whatnot.

Pardon mine non libertarian argument but lets gets some federal regulation up into that hizzouse.

This post reveals just how effective the terrorists at stopping the US military. We need to get the hell out of there.

It goes without saying that the MSM was already all over this.

Clearly not the at the same level but there are similar themes.

You know you want to.

This post talks about how serial dramas have taken over as the main kind of show broadcasted on the national networks.

24 has become an icon in television viewing. The television world has become serialized due in large part to 24’s success. I really think that 24 changed the way we view TV. Networks are realizing that we as a viewing audience can follow a show from week to week, season to season without becoming lost. We don’t need everything spelled out for us in one episode. In consequence the networks have had to up the ante and give us higher quality more complex shows. 24’s success has truly been instrumental in altering the TV world.

I have never seen 24 but the fact that Heroes, a laugabaly bad series drama, is phenomenally popular lends credence to his position. Its interesting to note that now that the national network are facing stiff competition from cable networks their product has increased in quality. The production quality of many of these shows nears the same level found in cinema.

Capitalism. Is there anything it can’t do?