Looks like we have the same problem going on with patents we’ve had with so many other legislative issues over the years. There’s a kernel of a good idea (go after patent trolls), but then the lobbyists all pile on, and we get a monster of Comprehensive Patent Reform. Which works about as well as comprehensive immigration reform or omnibus budgeting.

ACU’s against it, economists are coming out against it, and so is Carly Fiorina.

Patent trolls are a real thing. The trial lawyer lobby games the system, fake inventions are jammed through the USPTO (which has an incentive to generate more patents to keep more fees), and genuine innovators get slammed. We need to fix that, but we don’t need a big, lobbyist-infested, comprehensive bill.

Big bills always help the big guy.

The President’s plan to regulate the Internet means price controls are inevitable.

I once ran into this DirecTV pricing scheme. They look low but then jack up if you’re not careful in which package you pick. Not sure it’s a scam but the advertising is misleading, I would agree.

Under Governor Rick Scott, Florida counties are getting transparent in a way Barack Obama only pretends to be.

The sales tax fight is back on for this Congress. Last time the rhetoric was strongly tuned to appeal to Democrats, the plan overreached, and was DOA in the Republican House. We’ll see what happens this time, to see whether they’re willing to dial it back, win over conservatives, and get a bill passed.

Funny that the Wikimedia foundation keeps raising money pretending the life of Wikipedia is at stake, yet they have money to blow on vanity activist lawsuits.

Once again, Ted Cruz is right and Rand Paul is dangerously wrong on NSA. Let’s hope saner heads prevail.

Also, foreigners are probably reading this, so I guess this post is a Logan Act violation.