What on earth could Ballmer be saying here? Did he just finish Jerry Yang’s prostate exam? Or perhaps his own? Is he maybe reacting to this blog post by Google’s chief legal officer? This is the one where Google says they’re not upset about having a big competitor — oh no. That’s not the problem. The problem is that the proposed deal is a threat to freedom and apple pie and motherhood. This is Google’s favorite song. They sing it whenever they want to get their way. Whether the issue is net neutrality, or the bid for wireless spectrum, or now this — these guys do their best Eddie Haskell impersonation and look everyone straight in the eye and say it’s not that they’re concerned about their stock price or their revenue growth, it’s that they’re concerned about users, because gee whiz these evil guys who are opposing our efforts could really mess things up for everyone. The Google guys are the good guys, see? They’re the ones who put the needs of Internet users first. The amazing thing to me is that so many people believe this bullshit. I’m sure Google will try to use it on us when we start kicking the shit out of Android. Wait and see.