Bill Gates Learns to Say Please and Thank You: Michael Lewis

I've spent most of the last three weeks in a courthouse in Washington watching the U.S. government sue Microsoft Corp. The judge, Thomas Penfield Jackson, intends to rule against Microsoft, as far as I can tell. Of course, court is still out, or rather, in. And there are many different ways in which the judge might rule against the company. But rule against the company he must, as it is now impossible to imagine him closing the ceremony with a paean to Microsoft's essential innocence.

For the past three weeks he has been lied to by Microsoft and its lawyers and, most spectacularly, its chief executive officer. The judge looks to his right and sees Bill Gates saying that he never did anything to hurt anyone. Then he looks to his left and sees the e-mail and the memos from inside Microsoft that proves the company enjoys a monopoly -- and enjoys using it to destroy others.