"In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history will be the majority and will dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance."
I think the “Western Civ” t-shirt from http://www.protestwarrior.com is a good way to key in on a few of the issues in the current culture war:
“Besides Monotheism, Code of Law, Philosophy, Mathematics, Chemistry, Literacy, Physics, Modern Medicine, Sanitation, Electricity, Transportation, Electronics, Computers and Space Travel, WHAT HAS WESTERN CIV EVER DONE FOR THE WORLD?”
Indeed.
Let the game begin.
[heh]
[Speaking to self: Self, read yesterday’s post. OK, now you can write this one. 🙂 ]
Wednesday, I recieved the motherboard I was waiting on. Put it away, cos, well, family was here, it was The Anniversary and the next day was Thanksgiving. Very “righteously” avoided even looking at it on Thanksgiving Day.
This morning, opened it up, put all tools, etc., out, arranged everything and began the process of installing the new board.
It was not the board I ordered and paid for. It was not at all the board advertised, promised for delivery or confirmed as being shipped. The company I ordered from stiffed me by shipping me an inferior product.
Not an explosion, but a very, very fast burn…
Later, more calmly, after being stiffed multiple times by a disfunctional voicemail/phone system at the other end of the pipe, I sent an email detailing the need the company had to make me whole, in order to demonstrate good faith.
Hours went by… more attempts to penetrate the impregnable defenses of a disfunctional voicemail/phone system.
Nearly twelve hours later, an email. Their remedy? They’re sending me an RMA#. I am to ship the inferior product that I did not order back to them. The company makes NO representation in the email concerning either replacing the inferior product with the product they advertised, which I ordered and paid for and they said they had shipped OR any reference to a refund!
Now, am I thankful for this lil difficulty (and admittedly, it is a small difficulty)?
Well, yes. And here’s why. I responded to the “RMA” email by detailing a few of the ethical and legal lapses in the company’s behavior. I very truthfully pointed out that should the company NOT make every effort to make me whole that I would bring their illegal bait and switch behavior to the attention of the federal fraud folks (http://www.ftc.gov/sentinel/ 😉 and two States’ Attorneys General, as well as complaints to Yahoo (since it was a “Yahoo Store”).
Why take such a hard line?
Well, while it’s no big deal for such companies to cheat me on such a small scale, unless a few folks (metaphorically) rap them upside the head with a brick bat for such behavior, they can mulitiply it hundreds or thousands of times, defrauding–harming–hundreds or thousands of other people.
So, I am grateful for the opportunity to climb on my swaybacked white horse, don my flowerpot helmet and take up my mop-handle in poor imitation of Don Quixote in hopes that this lil inconvenience for me may not be so readily perpetrated upon others, who may very well not find it a small inconcenience, but a heavier burden.
BTW, if you want to drop by the business that stiffed me and just let them know you’ll be spreading the word that you give credence to my opinion (based on my experience with them) that they are unethical, unreliable and altogether despicable, here’s their site and email:
One more dishonest place to avoid doing business with, IMO.
Update [11/30/04] Spent an hour on the phone with a “manager” at Justdeals.com having the distinct pleasure of lecturing him on the moral. ethical and legal failings of his firm. Finally wringed from him the “concession” that he would refund the transaction on our credit card (as though he could avoid doing so: by this time, our next step was calling the credit card company to report their fraud and have the CC company get the charge reversed, which they would certainly do [heh]–and he very well knew it by the time he made the “concession”.) By this time, he was also offering to avert complaints to the California Attorney General’s office and the FCC as well, so he told me to simply keep the product we had not ordered (as though he had the ability to demand a return of something we had not ordered! [heh]).
[sigh] Some people are really dense. (Of course, there was also the language barrier… 🙂 I had both those “offers” in my pocket to begin with!
Well, eventually (when it’s convenient for me to be near a UPS dropoff) they’ll get their inferior product back. IF the refund is posted to our account by Thursday.
Warn folks you know: in my opinion doing business with this company means you don’t necessarily have any kind of chance of getting what you pay for and getting any kind of good faith behavior out of them after the sale is a chancy thing at best.
But when you get right down to it, having the distinct pleasure of exercising my “prophetic gift” (speaking forth hard truths, clearly, unequivocally, unreservedly) was nearly worth the inconvenience of doing so while burdened with a (temporarily) deaf “phone ear”… (Laid up today with a frequently painful stopped up left ear… sometimes clears temporarily only to plug up again… drainage? wax? If it goes on, I’ll have it seen to [sigh]).
But man! The guy had to deal with me while I was nursing a case of deaf phone ear… Personally, I bet he’d rather have had to deal with a bear with a toothache. [heh… heh]
The story of the following hymn speaks for itself. Draw your own comparisons to your own life and responses to your own struggles.
Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.
O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessèd peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!
All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;
The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;
The one eternal God, Whom earth and Heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.
Here’s what one account of the circumstances surrounding this hymn’s authorship says:
“Martin Rinkart was a pastor in the little city of Eisenberg [sic] in
Saxony during the Thirty Years’ War. This walled city was the goal of refugees
during that time. They came and ate all the food, and then there was starvation.
With the starvation came pestilence, until practically the whole population of
the city died. Martin Rinkart, the only pastor left in the city, had as many as
fifty funerals in one day. One evening after having conducted funerals all day,
he sank down exhausted, thinking that he could bear it no longer…”
Actually, Eilenberg was the town’s name, and it was sacked three times during Rinkart’s pastorate. One of those many funerals Rinkart held was for his own wife.
And yet, he wrote the words of this hymn as a response to the trials of the Thirty Years’ War in 1644, toward the end of active conflict.
Consider that as today’s turkey and dressing and the sauces and pies and trimmings wend their way slowly through your system, likely adding another five pounds’ weight by the end of the holidays…
Got troubles?
Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.
Twenty-six years ago today, two became one. Eventually, two more were added. Today, the children are home from college/grad school celebrating that day with us.
Nice. I certainly know that I had no idea how much getting married during Thanksgiving weekend 26 years ago would make this holiday so very special in years to come. Yeh, it was a great time for obvious logistical reasons: families used to getting together for the day/weekend, several days “off” for most, etc., but that future Thanksgivings would always carry the blessing of the intervening years’ time spent together building family—that I, at least, had no way to foresee.
Tomorrow, I’ll probably post my typical Thanksgiving note. Today, spent with Sue at her cardio appointment, shopping, then at home with the kids, was filled with reflection on all the years spent together… so far. And hopeful prayer for more years together to come.
That’s all. Back to “fam time”…
I’m a little out of the loop, so I just now heard (thx, Meg) that Dan Blather is leaving CBS “News” in March.
Too little, too late.
I’ve not watched ANY CBS programming since Rathergate. Not missed it either. (What’s to miss? Their flagship entertainment franchise, the “CSI” stuff, is lame; what else is there?) Nope, I think that CBS has probably lost more than a few viewers of ALL their programming. Better stuff all over the place. And news? C’mon! None of the Mass Media Podpeoples’ Army on ANY channel report news. Fugeddaboutit.
Nope, CBS: too little, too late. B’bye!
This observation at Polipundit inspired the comparison that follows…
“Well, it has been 28 years since a Democratic nominee for president won a bare majority (50.1%) of the popular vote. And no Northeasterner has won the presidency in 44 years. And that guy, the real JFK, hardly could be described even as resembling a liberal on such things as, oh, say, foreign policy, taxes, and law enforcement.
Of course, over the past 14 years, the Democratic Party has lost 12 net U.S. Senate seats, as many as 67 net U.S. House seats, and has gone from holding a 30-18 advantage, in state governorships, to possibly facing a 21-29 disadvantage in governorships (depending on the Rossi-Gregoire recount)…”
That lil set of facts leads to the inevitable conclusion that the DNC has cast itself in the role of the Black Knight in Monty Python’s “Search for the Holy Grail”… Just substitute the DNC for Black Knight in the dialog below:
__________________________________
Scene 4
The black knight
[King Arthur music]
[music stops]
BLACK KNIGHT:
Aaaagh!
[King Arthur music]
[music stops]
BLACK KNIGHT:
Aaagh!
GREEN KNIGHT:
Ooh!
[King Arthur music]
[music stops]
[stab]
BLACK KNIGHT:
Aagh!
GREEN KNIGHT:
Oh!
[King Arthur music]
Ooh! Uuh.
[music stops]
BLACK KNIGHT:
Aaaagh!
[clang]
BLACK KNIGHT and GREEN KNIGHT:
Agh!, oh!, etc.
GREEN KNIGHT:
Aaaaaah! Aaaaaaaaah!
[woosh]
[BLACK KNIGHT kills GREEN KNIGHT]
[thud]
[scrape]
BLACK KNIGHT:
Umm!
[clop clop clop]
ARTHUR:
You fight with the strength of many men, Sir Knight.
[pause]
I am Arthur, King of the Britons.
[pause]
I seek the finest and the bravest knights in the land to join me in my court at Camelot.
[pause]
You have proved yourself worthy. Will you join me?
[pause]
You make me sad. So be it. Come, Patsy.
BLACK KNIGHT:
None shall pass.
ARTHUR:
What?
BLACK KNIGHT:
None shall pass.
ARTHUR:
I have no quarrel with you, good Sir Knight, but I must cross this bridge.
BLACK KNIGHT:
Then you shall die.
ARTHUR:
I command you, as King of the Britons, to stand aside!
BLACK KNIGHT:
I move for no man.
ARTHUR:
So be it!
ARTHUR and BLACK KNIGHT:
Aaah!, hiyaah!, etc.
[ARTHUR chops the BLACK KNIGHT’s left arm off]
ARTHUR:
Now stand aside, worthy adversary.
BLACK KNIGHT:
‘Tis but a scratch.
ARTHUR:
A scratch? Your arm’s off!
BLACK KNIGHT:
No, it isn’t.
ARTHUR:
Well, what’s that, then?
BLACK KNIGHT:
I’ve had worse.
ARTHUR:
You liar!
BLACK KNIGHT:
Come on, you pansy!
[clang]
Huyah!
[clang]
Hiyaah!
[clang]
Aaaaaaaah!
[ARTHUR chops the BLACK KNIGHT’s right arm off]
ARTHUR:
Victory is mine!
[kneeling]
We thank Thee Lord, that in Thy mer–
BLACK KNIGHT:
Hah!
[kick]
Come on, then.
ARTHUR:
What?
BLACK KNIGHT:
Have at you!
[kick]
ARTHUR:
Eh. You are indeed brave, Sir Knight, but the fight is mine.
BLACK KNIGHT:
Oh, had enough, eh?
ARTHUR:
Look, you stupid bastard. You’ve got no arms left.
BLACK KNIGHT:
Yes, I have.
ARTHUR:
Look!
BLACK KNIGHT:
Just a flesh wound.
[kick]
ARTHUR:
Look, stop that.
BLACK KNIGHT:
Chicken!
[kick]
Chickennn!
ARTHUR:
Look, I’ll have your leg.
[kick]
Right!
[whop]
[ARTHUR chops the BLACK KNIGHT’s right leg off]
BLACK KNIGHT:
Right. I’ll do you for that!
ARTHUR:
You’ll what?
BLACK KNIGHT:
Come here!
ARTHUR:
What are you going to do, bleed on me?
BLACK KNIGHT:
I’m invincible!
ARTHUR:
You’re a looney.
BLACK KNIGHT:
The Black Knight always triumphs! Have at you! Come on, then.
[whop]
[ARTHUR chops the BLACK KNIGHT’s last leg off]
BLACK KNIGHT:
Oh? All right, we’ll call it a draw.
ARTHUR:
Come, Patsy.
BLACK KNIGHT:
Oh. Oh, I see. Running away, eh? You yellow bastards! Come back here and take what’s coming to you. I’ll bite your legs off!
__________________________________
Yep. The DNC has become the Black Knight of American politics, all right.
Target for the holidays? I say Scrooge ’em!
It’s all over the web, the blogosphere and even in the mouths of some few Mass Media Podpeople: Target has given the Salvation Army “ringers” the boot.
Do your shopping elsewhere for the holidays… and perhaps even beyond. And tell Target you’re “Scrooging” them with an email or a call.
1-800-440-0680
Be polite, but be assertive. I canned my first couple of tries at an email cos they spoke my mind too clearly. [heh]
Take aim at target. Fire away (with some “Scrooge you” messages… 🙂
All the bloviating by LLMs and MMPs about a marine shooting a supposedly unarmed and wounded terrorist in fallujah and a “RCB” (Red Curtain of Blood) threatens to descend over my eyes. Placing these folks one at a time in a pool of hungry —unarmed and wounded—sharks seems to be the only proper response.
“Terrorists wear no uniforms, and answer to no government; under all the Laws of War they may be shot out of hand. The only reason to preserve their lives is for the information they can give, or as an act of grace by civilized people to barbarians. And this be law… “ Jerry E. Pournelle
Idiots who can’t tell the difference between an accidnetal shooting of an unarmed civilian by police in an American city and shooting a terrorist combatant who is feigning death (as so many of his comrades have done while holding armed grenades, etc.) are less than Loony Left Moonbats; they are idiots who ought to be cleaned from the shallow end of the gene pool by being fed to the sharks.
And they’d probably even give sharks indigestion.
Citing the Geneva Convention only demostrates how idiotic they are. Sure, if the terrorists would sign the accords and abide by them, they might be afforded some of their protections, but even under the Geneva Conventions, it’s legal to kill an enemy combatant who is feigning death in order to facilitate an attack… But since they are not signatories or the representatives of signatories and are themselves of a class of combatants outlawed by the Convention and completely outside of any protections it might otherwise offer, NO SOLDIER is obligated IN ANY WAY to place themselves at greater risk by giving them a pass because they have feigned being dead…
So there, idiot LLMs. Go put a rag on your heads and play dead in Fallujah. Please.
Update: Well, more of an addendum. I am disappointed that the marine filmed shooting a terrorist is “under investigation” at all. Ideally, everyone in his chain of command—all the way up to his CINC, President Bush—would have said to the LLMB and the MMPA, “Tough noogies, losers. It’s open season on terrorists. A bullet (or five or six) is the best that they can reasonably expect. Spread the news. I say again: it is open season on terrorists. Hands in the air, playing dead, unconscious, wounded, unarmed: no matter their contemporary condition, they are under sentence of death. Should any soldier decide it is safe to spare a terrorist in hopes of gaining information on where to find more terrorists to kill, well, we’ll allow a certain amount of thyat, but the rule of engagement is this: dead terrorists are preferred 100 to 1 over live ones.”
Now, that would be an appropriate response to the weenies in the LLMB and MMPA who want to excuse the barbarians.
Of the two best things about four more years of a Bush administration, I’d be happy to give up four more years of lower taxes if it would contribute to four more years of (many more) dead Islamic jihadist terrorists. Hands in the air, playing dead, unconscious, wounded, unarmed: dead is the preferred condition. And as many of them as possible.
They’re slow learners (besides being about 80% illiterate). But “evolution in action” might, just might teach the few that remained that their idea of Islamic jihad is just plain counter-survival.
You noticed no blogging yesterday? Yeh, well. My “blogging” comp is under the weather. You know the old saw about the cobbler’s kids needing shoes? Yep. The comp guy’s computer needs a new mobo. Soooo…. I’m getting what lil bit I’m doing on comp done on two other machines not situated in my “nesting zone” but elsewhere on the lil network here (could be larger network, but the cobbler’s kids don’t get new connections, eh?).
Light reading suggests that Bush’s re-election is the gift that keeps on giving.
Powell out at State. Was a good general and indifferent Sec of State. Sure, he had lotsa dead weight to push/pull in the Dip Corps(e), but he was NOT the consumate team player COndi will be. Dems are already bad-mouthing her appointment cos some are saying she’s “too close” to the President, reads too much from the same page. Well, of course that’s pure and simple bullshit. The State Department has too long been an advocate of other countries’ agendas and MUCH too much in the pocket of the Saudis, kissing up to the French and so many of the other “Hate America First” crowd. It’s about time someone rattled their cages.
And similarly for the CIA (ought to be re-named CYA [heh]). I do very sincerely hop that a crackdown by a new head of th4 agency DOES result in mass self-firings. Badly needs a shakeup. Badly. Can anyone say “Valerie Plame”?
I’d have been even happier, in terms of shakeup potential, to see Rumsfeld at either post, but there’s only one of him to spread around. As it is, Condi at State makes it possible to groom her for 2008, at least for the VP slot.
And boy, will it put Chirac’s panties in a knot! (BTW, lotsa grinning going on over Chirac’s need to hang onto the presidency of his beloved cash cow because it shields him from prosecution for his corruption… )
Lotsa good stuff going on. Check the Belmont Club and Chrenkoff regularly for the real news from Iraq.
Apparently, Kerry supporters couldn’t find any Jewish folks who actually read Hebrew…
From the Protocols of the Yuppies of Zion came a link to this, at INDC Journal:
A reader [of the INDC Journal] e-mails:
Have a good friend in NYC who’s a hebrew scholar. He sent me the following about his dad wearing the button below. Kerry’s campaign apparently “misfired” again. I’ll let the story speak for itself:
“Did my father tell you about his Hebrew Kerry button? The democrats, trying to drum up more Jewish vote, printed campaign buttons with “Kerry” spelled phonetically in Hebrew. Unforturnately, no one told them that that spelling happens to be a Hebrew word. It means: “Seminal discharge”! Maybe we can save them for Clinton rallies…”
Apparently, there was a ‘dishonorable discharge’ after all …
[heh]
Now, while I do not have independant verification from an Hebrew scholar (the only one I know personally left the field and went into… lawyering [shudder] :-), this is at least humorous enough to attempt spreading the “discharge” meme a little…
After all, it sure beats the LLMB/MMPA/sKerry meme of talking terriosists into being nice guys and treating Islamic jihadists blowing up civilians as a “nuisance.”