hell’s handmaiden

While Apple is getting kudos for refunding the money people spent on the i-phone the first 8 weeks it was out on shelves, they’ve taken to a new business practice that is decidedly less deserving of applause. Having stopped into the Apple store to get an estimate on time for fixing my laptop (using my Applecare that I bought for an extra $250 when I bought the $2500 computer) I was told by the junior sales rep that it was just too difficult to give a time frame. I asked if there was an average, you know, 3 days, 3 months? Again, the answer was “it’s just too difficult to say”, but he was happy to sell me Apple’s new product Procare. Apparently for another $100 Procare will bump my job up in line to get repaired. As a professional in the media, I have been a long and faithful supporter of Apple, owning 10 different Macintosh computers and two i-pods. I pay 2-3 times as much for the privilage of using my mac, and now with System x have taken to buying Applecare on all my new computers. When the young gentleman at the Apple store refused to tell me a time frame for repairing my laptop, but was able to provide me with Procare, I was insulted and enraged. Having supported Apple through the lean times (remember that point when the market share was less than 5%?), and gratefully seeing them giving Mr Gates a run for the money, I must say I am very disappointed in this new business practice. Is it not enough that I am paying more for my Apple products or that I buy Applecare to fix them? Now I have to be sleazed on with Procare just to make sure I can get my product fixed in a reasonable time frame? What’s wrong with just fixing my computer? Come on Mr. Jobs, I thought Apple succeeded by being innovative, this kind of thing just makes me think now that you have tasted success it isn’t enough, it’s just so…Microsoft of you.

Well, whaddayaknow? Some nations hold their government responsible for its actions.

Stop and ponder the consequences… then panic.

My God, Man! What is the world coming to? Pretty soon elected officials will be following the rules. Campaign promises might have to be kept.The rule of law will… gasp… mean something. Lawbreakers in office might actually be tried as if they were common criminals. How will civilization survive?

The Federal Government is facing a lawsuit for its failure to take action on global warming and address Canada’s commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.

Yesterday, I was driving down Hwy 52 headed toward I-25. I’m being very specific about the location so that the cretin who inspired this post– on the off chance that said cretin is literate enough to read a weblog and clever enough to get online (To paraphrase Homer Simpson, “Oh, they have the internet on computers now.”)– can identify him or herself. But back to the story proper. I was behind a tractor trailer. No big deal. I don’t get bent out of shape over such things. Suddenly, the truck swerved sharply onto the shoulder and then came back onto the road. I couldn’t figure it out. There was nothing in the road that I could see that would explain the behavior. “Wierd,” I thought. “Maybe the driver fell asleep or something. Or maybe just made some kind of dangerous mistake.”

Straight from my home state, though I’ve moved and I’m not going back except maybe for the Tex-Mex which is the best food on the earth and I miss it terribly…

Ahem… let me restart.

Watch the video and ask yourself, “Is a representative Democracy supposed to work this way?”

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In a comment on my recent post about Decadent Old Europe, SamD, of SamuelDouglas.wordpress.com, pointed me towards an article worth quote mining. The piece is from the Journal of Religion and Society. It is cross-national comparison of the more secular vs. the more religious developed democracies. The numbers in square brackets, [], indicate paragraphs as numbered in the original document and numbers inside the sideways carets, <>, indicate footnotes in the original document.