Month: January 2008

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Hosting Woes

Note: the post below is replete with opinion based on a year’s suffering through with Fatcow (sucks dead bunnies through a straw). Be warned.

Napolean is reported to have said,

Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity.

By this time, there is some small degree of doubt on my part that stupidity alone can account for all the misbehavior of my former hosting company, Fatcow (sucks dead bunnies through a straw). After all, I canceled the account last month and was assured (“assured” by a Fatcow representative–now there’s a laugh!) that I would not be charged by Fatcow for any further service.

I shoulda known.

Sure enough, a charge showed up yesterday on my bank account. From Fatcow. Wonder of wonders, it at least reflected ONE of the two offers of three free months’ service (not quite 1/3 and a little more than 1/4 of an annual charge had been deducted from my account–IOW, not anything like an honest 3 months’ service, let along the SIX monts’ service Fatcow–sucks dead bunnies through a straw–people had CLAIMED they were crediting my account with. Oh, and yes, the account charged is a debit account. Philosophical reasons. Just ask sometime.) But… if they were going to steal from me–and they were stealing from me–why deduct ONE of TWO offers for free service?

Idiots? Diabolical? Diabolical idiots? I’m going with door number three.

So, I called Fatcow (sucks dead bunnies through a straw) to discover what tales the people there would spin (surely you do not think I would expect anything approaching honesty or accountability!).

It’s all my fault, I discovered. Of course. I canceled at the wrong time. Why, I should have known that they’d be swamped in December and allowed for the inevitable failure of the cancellation to wend its way through to actually being effected! Shame on me for expecting that the poor, beleagered minions of Satan at Fatcow would have the time or inclination to actually DO THEIR JOB any time in December! No! Impossible! What in the world was I thinking?!? Why, as much expect honesty from a politician *spit* or news from a Mass Media Podperson!

But wait! There’s more! Not only that, but Fatcow has also supposedly issued a refund for the theft!

“Gimme your money!”

Days (or weeks or months) later, “Here’s your money back. I’ve used it in the meantime, but you have it back, now dontcha?”

Except… I don’t have my money. They stole theirs (with a canceled authorization) some days ago, but the return they say was effected… isn’t in my hands.

Question: If someone steals money from me and then shrugs me off with a callous, “The check’s in the mail,” type answer, what am I to think?

Riiiiight. As I said, “I don’t care what your records show. Your records have lied–or Fatcow reps have lied–repeatedly to me in the past. Give me my money.”

Pushed that last one hard enough I at least got someone to say (do you think I can believe them? Me neither) that Fatcow’s legal department would give me a call.

Now, that’s a call I welcome. What could be more fun than talking to the lawyers of the most disgusting, incompetent, dishonest business I have ever done business with?

Just waiting for the state attorney general’s office to open so I can lodge a complaint for fraud, theft, whatever I can.

Fatcow sucks dead bunnies through a straw.

Methinks a comment that differs to no small degree from the opening quote could well apply to all the lies, distortions, incompetence and outright idiocy I have experienced at the hands of Fatcow (sucks dead bunnies through a straw). At least some of the “I’ve followed policy and helped you all I can” B.S. I’ve had to put up with, now even past when I had severed all ties with Fatcow (sucks dead bunnies through a straw):

When a stupid man does something he knows is wrong, he always claims it is his duty.–G.B. Shaw

Update: Well, Fatcow (sucks dead bunnies through a straw) did finally come through with the refund. Finally. Doofuses.

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Trackposted to Nuke’s, Outside the Beltway, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Allie is Wired, Woman Honor Thyself, Shadowscope, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Big Dog’s Weblog, Wolf Pangloss, and Conservative Cat, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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2009 Resolution-Per-Day #4

Develop a deeper appreciation for the people of our armed forces. I like to think I appreciate their service, but I doubt my appreciation is as deep or wide as it ought to be. Here, try this for a semi-musical thought-provoker (Thanks, Hugh, for sending this):

While listening to this, I was reminded of the (apocryphal, perhaps) “comment from a centurion” often referred to by Jerry Pournelle:

“We hear that there are tumults and riots in Rome, and that voices are raised concerning the army and the quality of our soldiers. Make haste to reassure us that you love and support us as we love and support you, for if we find that we have left our bones to bleach in these sands in vain, then beware the fury of the legions.”…” (Centurion in a letter home from North Africa, 3rd Century)

Now, I do not fear “the fury of the legions,” but I do fear our society becoming callous to their dedication, their service, their honor, their sacrifices*. A society that ceases to value such service is a society that does not deserve to survive.

Continue reading “2009 Resolution-Per-Day #4”

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Ave Jerry! *heh*

Ave Jerry!

If we have to be ruled by an elite (and it seems we are *sigh), I’d rather have such an elite ruled by an emperor with views such as these:

There will always be a ruling class. What I want is to limit its power over us, and where there is real personal power keep that local and responsible.

What I’d rather be governed by is a combination of local leaders, justices of the peace who live in their neighborhoods, school boards that control local schools and local taxation to finance them and hire the teachers and leave neighbors in the next community to run their schools as they wish; local constables who live in the neighborhoods they police and bring in the Big City cops only when they have to; and in general the horse whip theory of government: I want the guy who makes most of the decisions critical to my life to be accessible to a group of constituents with a horsewhip. I want Roe vs. Wade thrown out on the grounds of Federalism and States rights. I want Washington DC to be mostly irrelevant to my life, and make Congress learn to govern that city before it tries to govern me directly.

It seems to me that that is the view most favored by the Framers. After all, it is the primary reason they framed the Constitution to form a Republic and not a democracy and then gave that republic a very strictly delineated and restricted set of powers, subservient to the States and the People whose interests it was to serve.

And, further, it seem that only one sane candidate for the presidency has even the remotest idea what the Founders and Framers were about, or even with the slightest respect for the Constitution and its republic which they created for our benefit:

The Framers drew their design for our Constitution from a basic understanding of human nature. From the wisdom of the ages and from fresh experience, they understood the better angels of our nature, and the less admirable qualities of human beings entrusted with power.

The Framers believed in free markets, rights of property and the rule of law, and they set these principles firmly in the Constitution. Above all, the Framers enshrined in our founding documents, and left to our care, the principle that rights come from our Creator and not from our government.

We developed institutions that allowed these principles to take root and flourish: a government of limited powers derived from, and assigned to, first the people, then the states, and finally the national government. A government strong enough to protect us and do its job competently, but modest and humane enough to let the people govern themselves. Centralized government is not the solution to all of our problems and – with too much power – such centralization has a way of compounding our problems. This was among the great insights of 1787, and it is just as vital in 2007…

…It is as true today as it ever was: the closer a government is to its people, the more responsive it is to the felt needs of its constituencies. Too often, however, state and local leaders have to answer to federal bureaucrats first and their constituents second. When the federal government mandates a program that states and localities are forced to implement, or when a federal grant program is created to fund a specific state or community need, it blurs the lines of accountability…

[More, much more, at the link above.]

If we can’t have Jerry for emperor, I’d be satisfied with Fred as president, I suppose. *heh* In fact, if this were Fred’s only position, it would be enough to raise him head and shoulders above any other supposedly sane candidate.

Trackposted to Rosemary’s Thoughts, Faultline USA, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Adam’s Blog, The World According to Carl, Shadowscope, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, and Adeline and Hazel, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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People are stupid

You know it’s true. One can scarcely get through a morning without being reminded multiple times that 99% (plus) of Americans are proof that the counter-evolutionary pressures of a modern society are enabling people who are too stupid to survive outside a cocoon.

Of the many examples I’ve witnessed just today, one was truly irritating. Kathleen Parker, a syndicated supposedly “conservative” columnist (add 5 IQ points to the Mass Media Podpeople average–*heh*) had this to say in a column about–Barack Hussein Obama-Winfrey and Billary “Whitewater” Clinton duking it out over their respective foreign policy dredentials,

“…this presidential election isn’t about hair-poofing, cross-dressing or floating crosses, entertaining as those digressions have been. Until further notice, it’s primarily about terror…”

Please. Perhaps the election can be characterized as “primarily about terrorism” but few folks I know feel terror when contemplating the election. Well, unless it really sinks in what electing someone like The Breck Girl (Or The Prancing Pony–whichever works better for you in thinking about Little Johnnie Edwards’ campaign) to the presidency might mean *shudder*.

That dispensed with (it’s “terrorism” not “terror”–think it through, please), the American electorate is being told loudly and clearly: “You are all idiots!” After all, what are the two major parties offering to this election that is “primarily about terrorISM“–and what is the Mass Media Podpeople’s Hivemind elevating with its attention?

Billary Whitewater Clinton–what you see is what you get: someone who is better suited to a role that deposits her under a house blown by a Kansas tornado.

Barack Hussein Obama-Winfrey–give him a talk show, but never the presidency.

The Breck Girl. There’s really no “there” there.

Senator Plagiarism. Cheap, crooked politician; sells his soul for a law school paper or a stolen speech. All the character of a person who cheats at solitaire.

None of them have the character OR experience to provide what is needed.

Rudy “Grab the Govt Money and Run” Guiliani. Just another shadow of Tamany Hall.

The Holier-than-thou Governor from Tyson Foods. I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him, even if I could throw him from the pulpit to the mourners’ bench.

John Never-Saw-a-Free-Speech-Right-I-Didn’t-Hate-or-a-Wetback-I-Didn’t-Love McCainiac. Snake McCain. Serial liar.

Nutso Paul. Gee, I want to like the guy, but I’m seriously afraid that he’d get mistaken for a garden gnome in the Rose Garden. Or maybe not mistaken for…

The Android Which Will Say ANYTHING to Get Elected Romney. About as much integrity as The Governor from Tyson Foods, but with less consistency of position.

Again, nothing in character or experience commends any of these to office higher than they have already attained (and at least two were obviously elected to offices they should not have been, IMO).

But what of Fred, who appears to be the only person whose views and public life are fairly consistent with the Founders’ and Framers’ views? Obviously that renders him unelectable by an electorate dominated by subliterate sheeple who have no idea (nor any means to gain any idea) what that means.

The vote come election day will be mostly neither “Nay” nor “Yea” on any candidates but simply a loud and grating “Baaaah.”

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New Year’s Wishes

A few New Year’s wishes (and some stinky fishes) to spread around…

For Mass Media Podpeople, I wish for a year in which the Hivemind from the Mothership orbiting Uranus gets a severe head cold and sets you free from its control. *heh*

For Academia Nuthouse Fruitcakes, I wish a year at hard labor. No, NOT deconstructing Western Civilization, you dopes: making small rocks out of big ones. Using your heads for hammers.

For the vast (VAST) majority of politicians *spit*, I wish you far, far better than you deserve: another year of grace allowing you time to repent (instead of the mass necktie party hosted by Dr. Tarr and Mr. Fether that you so richly deserve).

For public school (AKA “prisons for kids”) administrators, remote educrats and their ilk, I wish you a future in a society peopleed by the dummies you are intent on creating. I just hope (a continually diminishing hope) that it doesn’t have to be our society. *sigh*

For Islamic splodydopes everywhere, if you cannot find within you the intelligence of a head of cabbage (and thereby the ability to reject the religion of hate you espouse), I wish you premature explodiation and a quick trip to hell where you can commune with your “prophet” *gag*.

For the American electorate, I wish a falling of scales from eyes made blind by Mass Media Podpeople, Academia Nut Fruitcakes and politicians *spit* and an awakening to the dire peril presented by the ballot box–dire peril and faint hope. *sigh*

Lastly, I wish for all men of good will (that’s a generic “men” for those pseudo feminists out there who don’t understand plain English) a prosperous, healthy and interesting 2008.

At least I’m sure of one wish coming to pass: 2008 will be interesting. (Though that may be more curse than blessing; we shall see, eh? :-))

Trackposted to Nuke’s, Outside the Beltway, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, Stageleft, and Church and State, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.