Hell Froze Over

Dec 22 2006 Published by under Bloggers, Craziness, Gadgets, Stuff That Sucks

I always said it would be a cold day in hell when I agreed with Kos on anything. Well, I guess it must be a cold day in Hades, because he’s right on the money with something. Fortunately for me, it has nothing to do with politics.

You know those extended warranties Best Buy and others try to sell you? Don’t buy them. They are scams.

A few years ago, I bought a Palm Pilot from Best Buy, and bought the 3 year warranty to go with it. They tell you that the warranty is no questions asked. At about the 2 year mark, the Palm Pilot completely stopped responding. It wouldn’t turn on, recharge or anything else.

I took it to my local Best Buy, which due to a move across the country was not the store from which I had bought it.

First I was told I had to have all the original receipts, so I went home, got them and brought them back.

Then I was told I had to have all the original packaging. I went home and got most of it. I was surprised at how much I could actually find. The few pieces I didn’t have were the installation instructions and the original software CD. When I got back to Best Buy, they told me the missing pieces would result in a restocking fee of about $75.

At this point, I was a little pissed, and left the store. A couple of months later, I was traveling back to New Mexico (where I bought the Palm Pilot) and decided to return to the store where it was purchased. That store gave me the runaround, but they eventually made the exchange. They actually had the balls to try and sell me the extended warranty on that one. I told them to blow it out their ass.

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Apologies?

Aug 30 2006 Published by under Bloggers, Democrats, Politics, Republicans

PoliticsI’ve seen a lot of media attention given to the now confirmed disclosure that it was Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, and not the White House, that leaked Valerie Plame’s name. Most of it points out that critics of the administration spent the better part of three years claiming those closest to the President threw her under the bus to get even with her husband.

The one thing I have not seen is any public apologies or retractions from those who so often repeated those charges. Where is the public statement from Howard Dean, John Kerry, or even Kos?

People should call on them to say, “Oops. We blew it. It turns out we were way off base. In an attempt to reset the political discourse to a reasonable level, we’ll grudgingly acknowledge that we flew off the handle, made wild accusations with no facts, and sullied the reputation of two guys that apparently did nothing wrong.”

Something tells me we won’t be seeing any comments like that.

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Disconnect

May 23 2006 Published by under Bloggers, Congress, Crime, Politics

CrimeCongressPoliticsThere is a real disconnect between politicians and the people and it’s illustrated fairly well by this post on Kos. I’m not normally one to give kudos to Kos or his minions, but they actually got this one right – sort of.

Send [Rep. William Jefferson] (and all Democrats) a message – if you wilfully [sic] corrupt our democracy, the Democratic party wants you out of Congress. Men and women like you cannot be a representative of the Democratic party.

The sort of is due to their unerring ability to go way too far.

p.s. Whatever you do, don’t act like a Republican.

The article referenced has nothing to do with “Republicans”, and in fact, points the finger at both parties.

Democrat and Republican members have united in a spirit of bipartisanship to defend the Constitution… [I]t’s a little easier to understand the sudden comity between the parties: they have a vested interest in making sure the Jefferson raid — which was the first ever FBI raid of Congressional offices, many members quickly pointed out — is the only such raid of Congressional offices. If they aren’t protecting their own skin, then they’re protecting their parties’ health, which take a hit every time Justice treats one of their members like a criminal.

I’ll ignore the temptation to wax on about the tendency of the left to over reach, and comment on the bigger issue. They’re right. Political parties would be much stronger if, rather than defending people caught exploring the gray area of the law, or outright breaking it, we would enforce a zero-tolerance policy with shady acts conducted by our representatives.

As a realist, I know that’s not likely to happen. As an idealist, that bums me out.

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Why Does Anyone Read Kos?

May 18 2006 Published by under Bloggers, eGovernment, Government, Technology, The President

technologyGovernmentMarkos loves to stoke the fire of the left-wing conspiracy engine. Now he’s working on a theory that’s truly absurd on it’s face, and totally laughable underneath.

[W]hy did Bush revoke Executive Order 13011 today? What items are in the Executive Order (or perhaps not in the Order) that might cause said order to no longer be valid? It was amended a couple of times in 2003 to include the Department of Homeland Security in the list of agencies and departments covered by the umbrella of the Executive Order.

Well, Markos, having spent a little time in government service in the IT realm, I think I can answer that for you. Are you ready?

It’s called the E-Government Act of 2002. You can find it on Thomas by searching the 107th Congress for HR 2458 as enrolled. Check it out and see if a lot of it looks familiar.

Most of what was in EO 13011 that hasn’t been codified elsewhere was codified by HR2458. Rather than having the government operating under two largely duplicative sets of rules, the EO was repealed to tidy up the government’s books.

Heaven forbid you and the rabid fringe would actually do a little research.

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Michelle Malkin on South Park

Apr 14 2006 Published by under Bloggers, Religion, Television, Terrorism

TelevisionBlogsI’m not a big fan of Michelle Malkin. I read her regularly, as I do Kos, so I can keep an eye on what the unhinged right and the unhinged left are saying.

Today, however, she’s on the money with reaction to the South Park controversy. She echoes a point I made a couple of months ago about the media’s “selective standards of religious sensitivity”.

The media has no problem showing images that are offensive to Catholics and Christians. That’s because there is little likelihood that an angry mob of Christians will burn or blow up their overseas operations and/or kill their employees. That’s not true of Islamic – Islam: The Peaceful ReligionTM – zealots.

It’s a business decision, to be sure. Comedy Central is a wholly owned division of MTV Networks, which is a wholly owned division of Viacom. Viacom has a lot of corporate interests overseas that would be subject to vandalism and destruction if the peaceful Muslims were to overreact again.

It’s unfortunate that, as Malkin reports, Comedy Central’s principled stand on freedom of expression doesn’t extend to items likely to incite an Islamic riot, but that’s probably to be expected. If you want to blame someone, don’t blame Comedy Central or Viacom. Blame the practitioners of a religion so peaceful that a cartoon caused its followers to kill many innocent bystanders.

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