Tankosphere Today: Sept. 17, 2008

Todd Thurman / September 17, 2008

• Taxpayer Patent Extortion – The Technology Liberation Front

Wow. Mike Masnick writes about NASA’s plan to auction off some of its patent portfolio to the private sector. When I read this I had to do a double-take: NASA has a patent portfolio?…

• Capitalism Breeds Generosity – InsiderOnline

Does capitalism make people greedy? According to a new paper from The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis, entrepreneurs give much more generously to charities than do non-entrepreneurs. Looking at tax return data…

• Santa Barbara’s Ballot Shenanigans: When “Reducing” Taxes = A Tax Hike – Government Bytes

Read this ballot question wording for the City of Santa Barbara’s Measure G: Shall Santa Barbara adopt an ordinance reducing the telecommunications utility users tax from 6% to 5.75%, to fund police, fire, 911, parks/recreation, gang prevention and after school programs for at-risk youth, senior services…

• Colorado Considering Nuclear Power – NEI Nuclear Notes

Back in April, we first wrote about the possibility of Tri-State Generation building a new nuclear plant in Colorado. In today’s Denver Post there’s more encouraging news…

• Google settlement in abortion ad case – The Christian Institute

Internet giant, Google, has settled out of court with The Christian Institute and will now allow religious groups to place factual and campaigning ads on the subject of abortion…