This diary is a single link to a chilling news story I think many of you will find relevant:
Microsoft has shut down an MSN user blog that was criticizing the Chinese government.
My comment (irrelevant- pls simply read the story) below the fold:
It's widely perceived that Microsoft and Bill Gates are, overall, a progressive organization and one of the "good guys," For the record, Bill Gates is a fairly strident right-wing Republican, and Microsoft as a company almost perpetually engages in anticompetitive and antisocial behavior. Microsoft has flaunted the U.S. tax code. And, even Gates' foundations can be criticized as tax shelters for himself. Microsoft and Gates are not the worst of the bunch, for sure (indeed, within the Yahoo! news story it is revealed Yahoo! helped send someone in China to prison for 10 years for an email), but they are not the saints many mistakenly believe them to be. Their faults are extremely underappreciated. I'll go back soon and provide links to back up my assertions here.