Sounded Good at the Time...

Now that the jiggle and hunk fans have moved on, for the rest of you I want to fill you in on Babs’ latest spewings. She doesn’t have the nerve to allow comments on her site, so this is the next best thing.

The first thing to address is Babs’ quote from Thomas Jefferson: “Dissent is the essential aspect of patriotism.” Interesting. Looks like Babs has fallen victim to a scam by historian Howard Zinn (according to About.com at http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/a/146858.htm). Actually, this quote is his, not Jefferson’s, at least according to The Etext Center at the University of Virginia Library (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/). Of course, even if she did fall for this distortion of Jefferson, she has the right to voice her opinions. Too bad she doesn’t want us to do the same by posting comments on her blogsite.

A good definition of “patriotism” can be found in Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary: “Love for or devotion to one’s country.” I guess Babs is using “tough love” on her country, beating us all into submitting to her ideas of right – or should I say far left?

At one point, she states that “Saddam Hussein had begun to comply with the administration's demands.” I’m not quite sure where she got that idea. What intelligence was she privy to that Congress and the President were not, and why didn’t she show it to them? Or is she saying that they were privy to this intelligence and shared it with her, just to show their appreciation for her long career in show business? Maybe she got the idea in the same place she bought the black, off-the-shoulder gown she is wearing in the queenly photo of herself (holding pink roses and sitting on a pink throne – er, chair) on her blogsite. Clearly, Hussein was a threat to this country and to the very freedom that Babs is abusing with her emotional tirades (not factual dissent or criticism). He certainly seems to have had a lot of liberals in this country, including Sean Penn, convinced that he was just a nice guy trying to do the best he could for his people, just like Castro (according to Chevy Chase).

Some more definitions of patriotism:

• The Free Dictionary (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/patriotism) - Love of country and willingness to sacrifice for it.


• Datasegment.com (http://onlinedictionary.datasegment.com/word/patriotism) - Love of country; devotion to the welfare of one's country; the virtues and actions of a patriot; the passion which inspires one to serve one's country. --Berkley. [1913 Webster]

I also came across an interesting “musing” on the definition of patriotism at http://www.headlinemuse.com/Politics/musingonpatriot.htm. Good reading.

As for impeaching President George W. Bush, we have to keep in mind that Babs is in the camp that supported Al Gore and then John Kerry, two Democratic candidates that couldn’t go the distance and convince the American people to vote for them. Even Democratic attempts to keep military members’ absentee ballots from being counted in Florida did them no good in keeping the White House in their party’s hands. A lot of boo-hooing has gone on since then, with Babs wailing as loudly as any of them.

My guess is that Babs just needs a stronger sleep aid. Then, she won’t be online spewing her liberal pea soup at the world. The latest is her disappointment with the editors of the L.A. Times for cutting down her overly long letter. Gee, Babs, they do it to us, too. Get over it.

Copyright © 2005 A.C. Cargill

High-tech devices, like our 32” Sony TV, don’t respond to either action. Nor to banging on the side like the old tube TVs. Our set went belly-up after 14 months, about two months after the manufacturer’s warranty had expired (our previous 29” Sharp TV lasted 10 years with no problem). We had extended coverage with the retailer (Circuit City) but nevertheless had to endure a five-week-timeframe to get the set repaired. (Thank goodness we have spares.) The repairman wasn’t very sympathetic, stating: “Your more advanced electronics are going to break down more. You just have to expect it.”

Oh, goodie, I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Even our toaster is far more complex than the ones my father used to repair on our dining table for friends and neighbors. Don’t even get me started on the microwave that began making a mysterious rattling sound about two weeks after we bought it (the repairman just scratched his head and said maybe we were using it too much – gee, sorry). Then, there’s the clothes dryer that wouldn’t start except when we took it back to the retailer. (Turns out that the power cord had been installed wrong at our house but at the store they bypassed the cord and hooked up the electricity directly to the dryer, thus missing the problem.)

Sure, some of the problems are user error. Still others are poorly trained repairmen. However, my money is on increasingly poor quality and rushing a product to market before it’s thoroughly tested. This is an old Microsoft trick, where software often is released with “bugs” in it, which they then fix by sending out “patches.” Their track record on hardware such as the newly-released Xbox 360 is apparently no exception, with mid-game crashes a common complaint by the “lucky” customers who were able to buy one before they disappeared off of store shelves. (See what a billion dollars of marketing will do for product demand?)

You’re probably looking around your home or office right now with a wary eye. Have no fear. It’s part of our high-tech lifestyle. Be prepared to reboot or replace. As the repairman said, “You just have to expect it.” Yippee.

Not to add to your feelings of apprehension, but on top of such kinks, there are the patent fights, such as the one going on between NTP and Research in Motion (the maker of the popular “Blackberry” PDA). In a move straight out of a fairy tale, NTP attacked the golden goose, claiming patent infringement. So far, they seem to be in the right, but by rejecting a $450 million settlement as being chump change, they could end up shutting down the “Blackberry” network and lose not only the original settlement amount but any possible future revenues share, since there’s already talk that company IT managers are looking at switching to Palms instead. No amount of turning on then off, unplugging and replugging, jiggling, juggling, and banging would work that kink out.

Copyright © 2005 A.C. Cargill