ted stevens dreamt my worst nightmare

Thursday morning my internet connection died. I troubleshooted every angle with my ISP's tech support help line. No dice. We concluded I was receiving no signal from the outside. Luckily, earlier in the week I had scheduled a service appointment for Friday morning to have a new coaxial outlet installed upstairs. At least the problem would be resolved when the installer arrived (I hoped).

Friday morning at 8:30am the installer arrived. First, he said that he could not install a new outlet (that's why I scheduled the appointment in the first place). He could only drill holes in my ceiling and run a coaxial wire down to my modem in the computer room. Regarding the lack of signal entering the house, he determined there was a problem with the large cable utility box outside in my development. While trying to open the cable box he broke the fucking lock. Worse, he lacked the correct tools fix his mistake. He then left, telling me someone would return in a couple hours to drill the lock, restore my internet connection and add my new outlet.

Two hours came and went. Two more passed. I waited home all day calling my ISP hourly for updates. Tech support, the department that schedules installations, operates from Ohio. They have no way of communicating with the local technicians in Orange County. The system merely showed that my work order had not been completed. They referred me to the billing department (who knows what state or country they're located in). They can send one-way text messages to the local dispatchers and their technicians in the field but cannot communicate with tech support. They sent several text messages to the technician to call me with an update. The dude went AWOL. I never heard back from anyone, so around 4pm I called for the fourth time and reached a supervisor. I scheduled a new appointment for Saturday morning - that was the only way to get an actual person to return to my house and fix the problem.

This morning a technician arrived with two helpers. First, they discovered my cable internet line had been disconnected from the exterior cable utility box. Apparently an auditor clipped my connection because "it was unmarked". My connection had been working uninterrupted and unmarked for over three years and they just decided to kill it now.

The technician plugged my line back in, marked it with my name and address, and then I was back up and running. As for installing another coaxial line in the computer room, he recommended buying a wireless adapter for my PC (duh, why hadn't I thought of that in the first place) which I'm now running.

Sorry to bore you with this tale but I had to vent my frustration. Now I'm heading to BevMo to pick up a good bottle of red wine. The moral of the story is: go wireless and do not do business with Cox Communications!

Read more...

first as tragedy, then as farce

One of the severe side effects of imperialism in its advanced stages seems to be that it rots the brains of the imperialists. They start believing that they are the bearers of civilization, the bringers of light to "primitives" and "savages" (largely so identified because of their resistance to being "liberated" by us), the carriers of science and modernity to backward peoples, beacons and guides for citizens of the "underdeveloped world."...

My own view is that if Charlie Wilson's War is a comedy, it's the kind that goes over well with a roomful of louts in a college fraternity house. Simply put, it is imperialist propaganda and the tragedy is that four-and-a-half years after we invaded Iraq and destroyed it, such dangerously misleading nonsense is still being offered to a gullible public. The most accurate review so far is James Rocchi's summing-up for Cinematical: "Charlie Wilson's War isn't just bad history; it feels even more malign, like a conscious attempt to induce amnesia."

Chalmers Johnson, discussing Tom Hanks' latest crapfest.

Read more...

what's worse than christmas music?

The dreaded annual Christmas letter! Luckily, I haven't had the pleasure of being the recipient of this fine holiday tradition. My parents receive a few of them every year from various family members and friends. It must be a Boomer phenomenon. The Gen X'ers aren't much into letter writing - I sure am not.

Check out last year's submissions for worst all-time Christmas letter. The following selection contains the perfect blend of gloating, callousness and denial...

"We have put on a 1,000 square foot addition on the back of the house this past summer. (See enclosed digital photos.) This was Doug's dream. He and the boys love playing on the $5,000 pool table. Personally, I think it was just a little too expensive for a pool table, but if my boys are happy, I'm even happier! Yes, I am. This addition, along with the new kitchen last year, has definitely made this a home for the ages!"

Wow, thanks assholes! We declared bankruptcy this year and can barely make our housing payments thanks to Bob's medical bills, but other than that we're just swell...

Read more...

peyton manning, corporate whore

Somehow this dude has managed to place himself in every goddamn commercial that airs during Sunday NFL games. He sells televisions, electronic gadgets, credit cards, cell phones, satellite service...you name it and he will sell it.

I've been occasionally checking the teevee for the score of the Patriots-Jets game, but every time I glance at the idiot box there's good old boy Peyton telling me to buy something. His on-field antics - pacing back and forth while yelling at his offense line - are annoying enough. Now I have to watch him run through the hallway of the hotel from the Shining...

Read more...

fuck the new york times

If you have an extra $200 lying around I'm sure you'll want this.

Read more...

bush meets the press

Mr. President, have you decided what to do about Iraq yet?*

Tags: bush, video, media, press, journalism, video, little britain

Read more...

too bad there wasn't an iraq study group at yale

a snippet from the President's press conference today:

I understand how tough it is, sir. I talk to the families who die. I understand there's sectarian violence. I also understand that we're hunting down Al Qaida on a regular basis and we're bringing them to justice. I understand how hard our troops are working. I know how brave the men and women who wear the uniform are. And, therefore, they'll have the full support of this government.

I understand what long deployments mean to wives and husbands and mothers and fathers, particularly as we come into a holiday season. I understand. And I have made it abundantly clear how tough it is. I also believe we're going to succeed. I believe we'll prevail. Not only do I know how important it is to prevail, I believe we will prevail. I understand how hard it is to prevail. But I also want the American people to understand that, if we were to fail -- and one way to assure failure is just to quit -- is not to adjust and say it's just not worth it.

I sense a theme emerging here. Oh, that's it! He understands. Our leader is not only a decider, but he is also an understander. And then there's the line: "I talk to the families who die". Either the president has mastered the art of the seance or he's managed to excrete another priceless Bushism. I'd opt for the latter.

Tags: iraq, isg, iraq study group, baker hamilton, bush, blair

Read more...