f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

 

 

in the dentist’s waiting room

    tulips with their petals

           tightly shut

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

spring flood

two wooden shoes float by

taking turns being first

 

 

 

 

 

lightning flash

crows sitting under

the scarecrow

 

 

 

 

 

 

after the rain

a white butterfly

on the clothesline

 

 

   George Swede 

“in the dentist’s waiting room” & “spring flood” – from Almost Unseen (2000) 

“after the rain” from Haiku Moment (B Ross, ed, 1993) ; Inkstone I:1 (1982)

“lightning flash” – Haiku Moment; High Wire Spider (Three Trees Press, 1986)

 

 

 

 

by dagosan:  

almost late   

to see the dentist —

flossing twice as long

 

                                           [May 10, 2005]

potluck – competition stew

 Prof. Hurt at Conglomerate Blog is pleased, as are we, that the

Department  of Justice seems poised to sue the National Association of Realtors for

bylaws that appear aimed at stifling competition by discount and unbundled brokers

(e.g., not allowing realtors to share inventory with brokers charging less than

the local standard fee).   We recently noted a joint FTC/DOJ submission to

the Texas Real Estate Commission with similar concerns that competition and

consumer choice is being restrained (purportedly to protect consumers — sound

familiar?).  Click here to find a website that offers a home seller many levels of

service, at prices far below the full-priced, full-service broker.[via LEF]

 

The gang at the American Antitrust Institute has been very busy lately:

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  AAI filed an amicus brief in Monsanto v. Scruggs, saying that it raises

  
  

  vital issues about the relationship between patent law and antitrust law.

  
  

  The brief is by Fordham Law School Professor Mark R. Patterson, and

  
  

  it is focused on the “question of whether a patentee should be allowed to

  
  

  use license restrictions to exercise and maintain long-term control over and

  
  

  maintain long-term control over downstream markets.”
  
  
• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  On May 4, AAI posted an important Debate over Vertical Restraints

  
  

  and Antitrust Law.  The debate was started by an FTC staff paper, which

  
  

  was critiqued by three AAI advisors (Comanor, Scherer and Steiner). 

  
  

  The FTC staffers then offered their reponse, and AAI’s crew gave a reply.  

  
  

  AAI is more optimistic than the FTC staff that enforcement against vertical

  
  

  restraints can yield benefits for competition and consumers. [“Vertical

  
  

  restraints” take place between buyer(s) and seller(s) and “horizontal restraints”

  
  

  are between competitors.]

  Prof. Bainbridge doesn’t like the way wineries are competing for the 

growing “girlie wine” market –seems so tacky and tasteless. (via George M. Wallace).

Prof. B, usually a free-choice kinda guy, wants to protect women from the abomination

of drinking immature and inferior wine. “You vill trink quality red wine, und like it!”

 

  Competing for Souls:  At his other sight, I imagine Steve Bainbridge will

be posting soon to decry Nicholas Kristof’s op/ed piece today.  Kristof suggests that

the Catholic Church needs to change its total opposition to birth control measures, or

face a Re-Reformation in Latin America.  (NYT, “Catholic Devotion, Doubts,” May 10,

2005).   At the rate it’s going, the self-proclaimed One True Church is going to fit into

a Very Small Cafeteria.   Pretty soon, we might be able to put a leaf or two in the Last

Supper table, and seat all the “Faithful.”    Who’ll get Mary Magdalene’s seat?

 

 

   What happened to the New York Times Link Generator?  Does NYT have a

new competitive strategy online that will sink the Link Generator and make us pay for

everything in their archives?