Staff: In February, the Cult of the Dead Cow famously declared war on Google for collaborating with Chinese censors:

“The cDc hereby commands that you print up t-shirts with this graphic and wear them with pride. Join our global campaign against Google’s appeasement policy with China.”

Google mouthpieces subsequently told the House Subcommitte on Global Human Rights that its self-serving and hypocritical Don’t be evil phrase isn’t arrogant or naive, but a reminder to Googlites to “consider the moral and ethical implications of every single business decision we make.” Sort of like tying a string around your finger to remind you to be good.

Along the way, CEO Eric Schmidt compared China’s efforts to those of Germany, which prevents Google from linking to Nazi hate sites.

When that didn’t work, co-founder Sergey Brin told an end-of-May audience, “Perhaps now the principled approach makes more sense.”

That comment was originally heralded across the web as an effort to recapture the Google good-guy glow… prematurely. It now appears that, in the same meeting, Brin took it back. “Say, OK, let’s stand by the principle against censorship and we won’t actually operate there. That’s an alternative path. It’s not the one we’ve chosen to take right now.”

Sigh. We hear he’s a crackerjack programmer.

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