by El Zorro Viejo (aka; Jim)

I've just spread the word among my more immediate family that I do, indeed, have a presence here in the world of Blog--our little corner of cyberspace. I'm hoping that at least one or two of 'em (you) will drop by and become intrigued by what this space has to offer. If you do, you might want to check out Blogger which is the tool I use to publish this Blog. I would suggest that you begin using Blogger and Blogger's Blog hosting as a single unit. Later, if or when the spirit moves you , you can begin hosting your blog like I do, on my free webspace provided by Earthlink. Speaking of Earthlink, for those who are not tied to a particular ISP, Earthlink has a lot to recommend it over services like...ohhhh...AOL and its ilk. Anyone who has a smidgeon of computer literacy needs...that is needs to be using an internet company other than AOL. The Internet is about freedom, choice and diversity...and that, strangely enough, brings me to Comcast and Disney.

Merger mainia. We had it once in the early 80s when the name of the game was...merge. It seems that merger mania like this happens when the economy is more or less stagnent. For all the optimistic talk coming out of the Bush administration, there is still a good deal of skepticism about the reality of the "economic recovery". All through the first half of the 80s, mergers were the order of the day. In the second half of that decade, and all through the 90s, the order of the day was to invest money in technology. Tech was king and the economy was hot and expanding. What mergers there were happened with the new companies as Darwinian economics separated the survivors from the dead. That kind of merger activity is more or less healthy and does not end up concentrating wealth...at least not too much. It is these big mergers (the Comcast/Disney deal is said to be worth 66 Billion now and who knows how much the next wave of offers will be) that concentrate both wealth and power in fewer and fewer hands. This is not good for either the economy or for our society as a whole.

For now, if the subject comes up in coversation, express a guarded concern about the deal. (Unless, of course, you know why it is a bad thing...then talk it up for all you're worth.) I'll come up with a post dedicated to exposing how this type of deal is a real threat to our status as a nation of sovereign citizens in the near future. Then you can see whether you think I am doing anything more than blowing smoke.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. ©El Zorro Viejo 2002-2005