Absit iniuria verbis: A conversation as it happened through a series of emails and the aftermath.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Morocco silences sheik who OKs marrying girls - Africa - msnbc.com
Morocco silences sheik who OKs marrying girls - Africa - msnbc.com
Monday, February 18, 2008
HP purchase in mind? Caveat emptor
It would appear to be, by the claims made by the off-shore “service” person, to be company policy to claim that a warranty has expired before it actually has; then, after demanding that you send in the receipt to prove your purchase date (the same receipt that you sent to get your rebate… no copies accepted) they refuse to send an email to summarize the Official Policy decision, claiming that email confirmations are against company policy. I now have no proof that they ever made such a claim yet I have no recourse for satisfaction.
Seeking clarification, I went to the website only to find that it is not possible to contact anyone at HP stateside, except if you want to chat with the CEO on some drop-down list of pre-selected topics, none of which have anything to do with total product failure or deplorable customer disrespect (the word “service” could never sincerely be used).
Going back to Circuit City, the original retailer, I was told by the person at the Service Desk as well as the in-house service tech (Firedogs©) that, according to their own personal experience, HP routinely claims that your warranty has expired regardless of the truth in the matter and then refuses to afford any service work without first charging an out-of-warranty service fee. The manager of the computer department confirmed that this was also his experience regarding a piece of HP equipment used by the store, in the store. He stated that after 6 months it had failed and the off-shore warranty claims person stated that the warranty had expired, despite the fact that they had the original factory invoice dated 6 months prior. That’s right. The retailer was made to call the same service number as the unsuspecting consumer.
In complete amazement that this had to be completely unique, I went home and on my Mac, Googled “HP warranty complaint”. Now I had wished that I’d done that before dropping $2500 on such oversized paper weights. Sadly I discovered that my experience was not unique at all. In fact it was rather commonplace. Momentarily pondering the situation, I came to realize that a company which has been convicted of Federal charges of illegally wiretapping their own Board Members would probably have little hesitation in deceiving the public for a fee. Considering the math: $30 Service fee (desperate to salvage one’s work at the time of failure, one would likely pay this amount) times 1 million consumers, produces a profit which justifies the legal fees of defending such behavior, should it ever manage to become a class action. Then I came to realize the motivation behind behavior so likely to alienate so many potential future customers: HP realizes we’re NOT future potential customers. If the product actually lasted, the user would be least likely to make another purchase, having no interest in doing so. If the product failed, the same would apply. Therefore, the best way to capitalize on the situation would be to profit from the loss, so to speak. And I think they’ve found just that way: charge you on the way in and then ... charge you again on the way out.
Out of self-respect, I could never recommend anything HP to anyone, not even an enemy. Out of moral compunction, I urge everyone to look elsewhere unless disappointment is something for which you have an insatiable appetite, since HP has a seemingly unlimited supply. The good news is, after sharing the details of my personal experience, I have successfully convinced a friend, the owner of a large IT firm, to avoid the HP product – they switched to Dell – and have further educated the IT department in my own company to cancel the HP order slated to replace all the in-house computers. Again, Dell was the winner in the re-selection process. I bought a Dell laptop for my son for school and have a Dell pc at work. I like Dell. And it works.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Define Constitutional
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." – Declaration of Independence
It would appear that, According to the ACLU and Michael Newdow, the Preamble to the Constitution of The United States is ... well.... unconstitutional. As Mr. Newdow would be happy to explain, since atheists don't believe we have a Creator then any reference to one is unconstitutional in that it alienates those who deny that He doesn't deny them.
The very notion that Christian, God-fearing men could form a union amongst themselves, for their own purposes while giving birth to a nation under a constitution is, accordingly, unconstitutional. All such endeavors are to be, according the reasoning of Mr. Newdoubt, restricted to people who believe in themselves only. Then and only then can you have a nation of navel-gazers and psycho-introverts under an ever changing set of standards that evolve into something completely different as each generation passes so long as it results in a causeless, self-serving lack of vision, forgetting the heritage that brought the nation about in the first place.
Nice going, Mr. Noodlebrain. Why don't you and the ACLU go off with all your fiercely loyal cronies and start your own nation. This one is taken. It is founded as One Nation, Under God, whereby its inhabitants are endowed BY THEIR CREATOR with certain unalienable rights, not the least of which is the right to show you the door if you try to change the foundation of the greatest country on earth.
Happy Birthday America!
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Open Letter To Janet Travis
'In God We Trust' Scrubbed from Image of Liberty Nickel
By Jim Brown
May 30, 2006
(AgapePress) - Parents in suburban Fort Worth, Texas, are expressing anger over an elementary school's decision to remove the phrase "In God We Trust" from its yearbook cover.
Janet Travis, principal of Liberty Elementary School, explains that in making the determination, she wanted to avoid offending students of different religions. But for those who preferred, the yearbook came with a sticker that allowed students to put the phrase "In God We Trust" back on the Liberty nickel.
An attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union told the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram that the move by the school and the district was appropriate, sensitive, and constitutional. "Sometimes administrators and schools are really caught trying to make appropriate decisions with respect to people's views. Someone is always going to complain," said Dallas attorney Michael Linz. "I think that the school administrators were drawing the appropriate line by trying not to offend others."
But Debi Ackerman, whose ten-year-old daughter attends Liberty Elementary, says despite the school's intentions, it succeeded in offending "people who believe in our country and what it stands for."
Ackerman says she had a "huge problem" with the way it was handled. "Instead of printing 'In God We Trust' on the coin image, they didn't print it, and instead sent it home in sticker form in a concealed envelope," she says. The mom says it was explained to the young students that "there are some people who don't believe in God and that this might not be appropriate for some beliefs -- and when you get home, go ahead if you wish to and affix [the sticker] to the yearbook."
The decision to remove the motto from the coin's image, says Ackerman, is another example of political correctness run amok."For me it kind of stemmed from like, Christmas trees aren't being referred to as Christmas trees; they're being referred to as holiday trees," she says. "And instead of Christmas decorations, it's holiday decorations -- and Easter break isn't Easter break anymore, it's Spring break. Then this happened, and for me it was just like they seem to be worried about stepping on the wrong people's toes."
Interestingly, one of the parent leaders in the school turned the same phrase in an interview with Star-Telegram. "We are a public school," said Tom Gardner, Liberty PTA president. "We sure do not want to step on anybody's toes. I don't think any harm was intended."
In an effort to address and perhaps defuse the situation, the school district has issued what it calls an "apology letter" to parents. But Ackerman says it reads more like a "regret letter" than an apology.
It was a sad thing to read in the news that those in charge of the education of children at Liberty Elementary School are so wanting for the basics in logic, not to mention character, civic pride and rudimentary patriotism.
To have deliberately defaced the reproduction of a beautifully rendered US coin to appease the rudeness of some un-named person or persons who would condemn others’ beliefs is a tragic misunderstanding of protocol. Logic would dictate that you might provide a sticker to cover over the letters for those that so dislike our country, its motto and what Americans stand for. A permanent marker would also do the job nicely. Sadly, you chose to alter an artist’s work, as it was commissioned by our government, to avoid offending someone who disapproves of our nation’s motto. It is this very motto that compels us as a people who trust in God, to be as generous as we are with our resources to those in need and to rush, at our own peril, to assist those in trouble. Europe is free today because of the principles imbedded in that motto which the Liberty School chose to make the object of shame, as it removed it from it’s inaugural yearbook.
The idea to remove those words, all the while offending the vast majority of Americans that truly love our country, for the sake of a handful that disapprove of what we stand for as a nation, is nothing short of a disgrace for you and all who are aligned with the Liberty School, an oxymoron if ever I heard one, as true liberty has become something of an object of shame in Texas it would appear. If those whom you were trying to protect from the roots of American courage and strength were truly offended by the words “IN GOD WE TRUST”, surely they would have the strength of character to avoid that phrase where ever it might appear. If they were truly people of courage and conviction, then I could respect their position. But for people to trade with and accept a currency emblazoned with words that truly and deeply offend them, so deeply offensive that it brings an American principal over the brink of unprincipled thinking and false logic, a logic that appears more rooted in fear and shame than in true sensitivity, then they seem to have no more principle or courage than one who would trade in a currency that maligned blacks or cursed Jews. To obscure such offensive language as that would be laudable. To obliterate and make a second thought of our official motto is not.
To accept the benefits of a God loving country and the protections which such a God loving country affords, while denying the same God that compels most Americans to be the truly courageous and generous people that they are, is nothing short of parasitic. To deface a work of art as it appears in the form of official US currency for the sake of spinelessness and false concern founded more in timidity than sensitivity, is to be willing to hand over the keys to the kingdom to anyone who cries foul because of your own beliefs. That is just tragic and anyone who subscribes to such a lack of character and principle doesn’t deserve the benefits provided by countrymen who truly do trust in God and are willing to put their lives on the line for those beliefs. Anyone willing to accept the benefits of a country which is primarily and overwhelmingly God-trusting while denouncing in shame the beliefs of those who provide those very benefits is disgraceful at best. There’s really no excuse for protecting, defending and preserving the denunciation of the roots of America. To remove the words which were rightly there by an act of Congress for the sake of those who cannot accept it is just weakness, not strength. A true educator would recognize such inverted logic and know that. A true educator would promote a tolerance for the country in which one lives and a gratitude for the benefits provided by a people that trust in God. A warped sense of values would do otherwise.
The fact is, those who don’t trust in God do surely trust in those that do as they stand, defended by the greatest army in the world, the vast majority of whom do trust in God and love this country because it does too. The greatest source of charitable giving in this great country is from the people who go to church on Sunday… people who trust in God. Without that great trust in God, it is unlikely we would be here today as a free people, since it would have been politically correct, at least according to the principles demonstrated by Liberty Elementary School, to hand over the US Constitution to the Nazis or the Japanese Emperor simply because they were so deeply offended by the principles of trusting in God, as ensconced in that document. Or maybe even obscure the nation’s motto to avoid offending those who are, in their ingratitude and lack of acceptance of our great country’s principles, offended because we believe as we do; and all the while sucking up all the resources that such God trusting people provide. Such cowardice and unprincipled behavior is a disgrace and I just needed to say so.
Education can come in either of two forms: what to do and what not to do. In God I trust that the children in Texas can distinguish between the two.
Thank you for your time
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Congress To The Rescue
As with all working titles, the name connotes more the intentions of the bill more than the “selling points”, however it does speak directly to the problem at hand and the usual muster of support from Congress while keeping a realistic awareness of the nature of the fix in the fore.
Taxes
Underwriting
Fiduciary
Fiasco
Specially
Honoring
Illegal
Transition
Thank goodness help is on the way!
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Ahmadinejad: Oil Price Is Lower Than Value - Yahoo! News
When we're all running on clean burning hydrogen, oil as well as costly clean air accords, will be of very little value indeed.
"Wading into oil politics for the first time, Iran's hard-line president said Wednesday that crude oil prices — now at record levels — still are below their true value."
Thursday, April 13, 2006
...A Texas-based pro-life advocate wants to help...
"...A Texas-based pro-life advocate wants to help get the truth out about the world's largest abortion-provider. John Pisciotta of the group Pro-Life Waco has been working to publicize the fact that the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure -- a breast-cancer research fundraiser -- donates large amounts of money to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. He says Planned Parenthood has done a good job of painting itself as a group that helps women. But that is not the truth, says Pisciotta. "I call this organization 'Planned Promiscuity' -- and one of the things they're about is luring our children into promiscuous sex where they can sell them birth control and so forth and also make money off of diagnosing their STDs," the pro-life activist says. "They're an 'anything goes' sex philosophy, and they're the nation's number-one provider of abortions -- over a quarter of a million a year nationwide." Pisciotta encourages people to conduct their own research on Planned Parenthood, which he believes will reveal to them that the abortion-provider makes money through the suffering of women" (Agape Press)
TIMe to think: Wouldn't it be great to erect 250,000 billboards across America, one for each of this year's murdered unborn, that simply states the truth about Planned Parenthood:
"When women and children suffer,
Planned Parenthood make$ a profit"
What a great use for lottery winnings.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Family Advocate Fears Pro-Homosexual Education...
After reading the following article, it was easy to see that in California, there is a reduced need to teach other subjects of learning, since in California there would be a reduced need to learn them.
If, according to the direction being taken by the homosexual agenda people (there's really nothing gay about them... they're actually more nasty than most folks), the state of California needs to spend more time and money teaching about deviant sexuality, then it probably could drop altogether the idea of teaching language and math. That could create significant savings.
Everyone knows that the real homosexual lifestyle (not the hetero-wannabe that screams for "marriage" rights as if two people sharing the same bed constitutes a marriage) is all about multiple, if not innumerable, sex partners. Hence the rampant spread of venereal disease within that community. San Francisco was just named the "Gayest City in The World" where one in every five residents professes to be homosexual. That doesn't take into account those that don't profess to be so. With such demography and seemingly preferred lifestyle being taught in the schools, one can surmise that there would little need for spelling, since you'd only have to spell the other person's name once, if at all. One of the many benefits of anonymity. And since the number of partners would no longer be of any consequence or significance, why would one need to know how to count?
Now who was it that's sponsoring a movement to give California back to the Mexicans? I can't remember his name but I think I'd like to make a donation to the cause.
Family Advocate Fears Pro-Homosexual Education Bill Will Pass California Senate
By Jim BrownApril 11, 2006
(AgapePress) -
A California pro-family activist says a bill in the state Senate requiring public schools to teach homosexual, bisexual, and transgender history is an assault on the minds and bodies of school children.A bill sponsored by lesbian Senator Sheila Kuehl, SB 1437, places new mandates on California public schools to approve a curriculum that promotes and celebrates the lives of transsexual, bisexual, and homosexual "role models." The legislation has already passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, despite pro-family opposition.Randy Thomasson with the Campaign for Children and Families (CCF) testified against SB 1437 at a recent hearing. He is calling on California citizens to ask Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to veto the controversial measure.Thomasson believes the pro-homosexual bill is aimed at encouraging children not just to tolerate but to emulate homosexual behavior. "This is really teaching children this is how [they] can be, too," he says."Under the proposed curriculum changes homosexuals, transsexuals, and bisexuals will be depicted as 'heroic,'" the pro-family activist contends, "and this is all part of their agenda -- to be role models for children, so more children will enter these sexual lifestyles, perhaps even get a sex change."According to Thomasson, the California Department of Education will undoubtedly use SB 1437 to erase all traditional distinctions or gender standards. He says the bill is designed to penetrate the academic purpose of schools with sexual, social engineering targeting children as young as kindergarten by requiring every aspect of the public education system in California to accept, embrace, teach, and promote homosexuality and other harmful sexual lifestyles.The CCF spokesman fears the bill is likely to pass the Senate. For that reason, he is urging Californians to contact their governor and ask him to pledge to veto SB 1437, as his response to the measure is not something conservative and pro-family citizens dare take for granted."We need to understand that Democrat politicians all across California and more so across the country are in favor of all of the transsexual, bisexual, and homosexual agenda," Thomasson asserts. "We also need to understand that liberal Republicans like Arnold Schwarzenegger are going to go back and forth on whether to sign or veto."SB 1437 is "frightening for parents who want trustworthy schools," the pro-family advocate adds. He hopes those parents and other Californians will join him in calling on Governor Schwarzenegger to veto a bill that requires schools to teach students favorably regarding deviant and unhealthy sexual lifestyles.Thomasson believes Christians in particular should be speaking out against SB 1437. He says the church is a problem when it is uninvolved and a solution when it is involved in fighting such proposals.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
Monday, April 10, 2006
Representation Without Taxation
One way to pay for all of this would be for the churches and other non-profits who advocate amnesty for criminals to agree to the revocation of their own tax-exempt status. Then, at least, when they call for the tremendous increase of the burden in the national budget they've shown their sincerity and pure-heartedness by putting our money where their mouths are.
Oxymoron: Peaceful Islam
"...An authority on Islam believes President Bush and his administration have blinders on when it comes to the true nature of Islam. Randall Terry, who has been involved in in-depth studies of Islam over the past several years, says the idea that Islam is "peaceful" denies the history of the religion. He insists that tolerance of other faiths and religious freedom do not exist in the Muslim faith. "The historic facts are clear. The words of Muhammad are clear," says Terry. Any Muslim who leaves Islam for another faith is to be executed -- and that is a fact Terry says cannot be sugar-coated. "We hear the phrase that Muhammad was a man of peace -- and yet we see historically that he decapitated people and called for the execution of those who left Islam." Terry says historical fact demands that people recognize Islam is not a religion of peace, but a religion of the sword. [Bill Fancher]