from my local paper, bill gates throws $400 million at india, some of it ostensibly for "charitable" works. uh huh.
www.therecord.com/business/technology/z111219A.html you have to love the idea of the "bill and melinda gates foundation" -- the perfect vehicle for legal bribery. honestly, i can just see the top-secret microsoft board meeting now ... "OK, guys, you know that we've been controlling all these foreign markets basically by buying off those cheap, local politicians. But, man, with this antitrust nightmare, and all those yahoo open-source fanatics jumping up and down, we have *got* to be more careful. I mean, if it comes out that we're just bribing these guys, the sh*t is seriously going to hit the fan. We need another approach. Well?" "Um, how about, lessee, we can still bribe them, we just don't call it a bribe. We call it ... uh, charity. Yeah, that's it. Charity. Money for ... what's that big word everybody likes to use ... 'humanitarian' purposes. Yeah, that's it." "We start a charitable foundation. But, Bill, we can't just put your name on it. I mean, come on, nobody's gonna buy that the world's most predatory, convicted monopolist suddenly grew a conscience or anything, know what I mean?" "So ... yeah, that's it, we put your wife's name on it, too. Gives it that nice, motherly touch. I mean, you have to be pretty callous to criticize moms, right?" "And we need a good cause. Big time good cause. Save the whales? Nah, who gives a crap about the whales? Whoa, brainstorm! AIDS. Does it get any better than AIDS? I mean, there's even *kids* with AIDS. It's perfect. Can you *imagine* anyone trying to pick a fight with you over AIDS? This is perfect! We start this foundation, and we can plow millions, I mean *millions* into these other countries, call it ... whatever ... humanitarian support for AIDS. We look like heroes, Bill ... I mean, freakin' heroes! And once we get the cash to those guys, well, who's to say where it really ends up? Know what I mean? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Know what I mean?" "And ... oh, man, here's the best part ... it's *tax deductible*! Can you believe this?? We're gonna bribe foreign officials, and we're gonna get a tax writeoff for doing it!" "Is this a great country or what?" rday p.s. yes, i really do have better things i could be doing right now. -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:redhat-list-request@;redhat.com?subject=unsubscribe https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
