The totals are in from this week’s Watchers Council vote and once again, yours truly managed to come out on top. Also once again, the Watcher himself had to exercise his powers as Chairman and cast the tie breaking vote. This time, it was between my post “Please Don’t Run, Newt’ and an article I voted for from The Glittering Eye entitled “Intellectual Property and the Trade Deficit.”

The Eye’s article was an eye opener (sorry ‘bout that, but it fit too nicely!). Did you know that 90% of application software in China is pirated? It’s unbelievable the amount of money this country is losing not just in software, but in other intellectual property like music and movies. It’s so bad that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has estimated U.S. companies lose more than $200 billion in China each year because of sales of counterfeited and pirated goods:

Yes, $200 BILLION. Our trade deficit with China in 2004 was $162 billion or, said another way, if China were playing fairly and honestly all other things being equal we’d be running a $48 billion dollar surplus with China. And nobody (except for the Chinese) would be talking about revaluing currencies or Americans consuming too much.

I don’t see any real likelihood of this situation righting itself, the Chinese are unlikely to take anything but show measures to correct things, and I don’t believe that any outside agency (like the WTO) will actually do anything to correct the situation.

And the scary and depressing thing of it is; nothing can be done.

Read the whole thing. It’s, as I said. a real eye opener.

In the non-Council categoy, Varifrank won with an excellent essay “I Got Your Desecration Right Here Pal.” A sampling:

Hello, my name is Fabrizio Quattrocchi. I was captured by Muslim holy warriors and tortured before cameras, just for their sport. In the end, they set aside of any respect for international law common, human decency or even the restraint of their own religious doctrine and beheaded me. I shouldn’t have expected any special treatment as this is a common act that they perform even among their own people. However, you won’t see the video of my beheading because I died like a man rather than the sniveling coward they wanted me to be.

I just want you all to know that I find all Muslims who decry to horrors of “George Bush and abu-ghraib” and now this desecration of the Koran to be a bit, shall we say “shallow” in light of the fact that the same “abu-ghraib” that you decry under Bush was a charnel house under Saddam, and yet you said nothing since it was a fellow Muslim doing the killing Oh, and I tell you, the International Red Cross coming out for concern over “civilian deaths in iraq” now that Saddam is gone is rich, real rich. Where was all the concern when the Kurds were being gassed? Where was all the concern for the marsh arabs then, eh? Where’s all the indignity when the supposedly holy kingdom of Saudi Arabia works so hard at killing and subjugating so many of the worlds Muslims. See any Christians in Arabia? No, Golly why is that? Oh that’s right, because it’s a death sentence

I think he’s upset. We all should be.

Second place in the non-Council category went to Austin Bay for his thoughtful article on the fallout from the Newsweek scandal, calling it the press’ “Abu Ghraib,” and a great round-up of reaction from the world media:

But why might this be the press’ Abu Ghraib? Here’s the connection: globe-girdling technology has once again amplified foolish behavior, lack of professionalism, and disregard for consequences into a tragedy. Consider Abu Ghraib, without the fevered hyperbole of The Nation or The Guardian. The behavior of US troops at the prison was inexcuseable –frat rat hazing, trailer trash porn, street punk threat taken up ten quanta to felony prisoner abuse. But dump the hyperbole and call Abu Ghraib what it was: rank felony abuse, not deadly torture. The global dissemination of Lynndie England’s dog leash photos, etc., (and magnification of the abuse by anti-American critics) made Abu Ghraib the political and historical scar it is. The US soldiers committed a crime, but information technology made the crime an international fiasco.

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