The American Spectator

br> Re: Tom Elliott’s Tear Down That Firewall : /p>

I write with respect to Tom Elliott’s fine recent piece entitled “Tear Down That Firewall.” I thought it pertinent, and wished to point out to your readers, that it has recently come to light that personnel at Microsoft’s Seattle headquarters have acknowledged they are cooperating with Chinese authorities in efforts to censor the blogs of Chinese posters. Although I am not sophisticated in “hi-tech” matters, and so cannot say with any degree of assurance what might be the ultimate impact of such cooperation, I thought the matter was worth noting in principle.

I am old and my memory has, alas, grown fuzzy with age; however, I can recall some words uttered by a communist leader of the Cold War to the effect that he would sell us the rope with which we would hang ourselves. By that he meant, I take it, that certain excesses of capitalism would result in our self-induced demise.

Thankfully, and with much due to the endless sacrifice of countless heroes of freedom, both noted and “unsung,” the Cold War is over and the side of freedom won. Yet the world is still demonstrably a very dangerous place, and the fruits of freedom are yet to be reaped by many. One is left to ponder whether, perhaps, the sort of profit-at-any-price mentality which leads Microsoft to assist the Chinese authorities in stifling dissent is the sort of thing to which this communist Cold War leader referred?

p>Just thinking out loud. br> — Rufus Thompson /p> p> NO PRICE TOO HIGH br> Re: George Mellinger’s letter (under “The Right Appreciation”) in Reader Mail’s NIMBY Recruitment