Oppressors - What a Country?

Hi All!

A couple of things brought my blood to a slow boil this weekend.

My wife and kid's cars bear special plates that indicate that dad got a DUI. Hey, I'll take my medicine, but it really irks me that innocents have to suffer by relationship to a jerk.

Son has been pulled over twice in two weeks for the sole reason of having these plates. Wife has been followed several times and left alone.

I have taken pains to make sure that the oil is topped up, the lights work, the rear-view mirrors are adjusted, drivers don't drink,wear seatbelts and don't smoke (even potential laws must be observed) not to mention slavishly obeying even ridiculously slow speed limits.

Isn't there a 4th amendment or something?

Hard to confess this, but I have made a complaint with the ACLU, an organization I have not often thought of in a positive light, to say the least.

If the cops can really pull over people for no other reason than this, conservatism and strict constructionism has a long way to go. If Kerry gets to choose the next few Supremes, we are truly screwed for our lifetimes.

To add insult to injury, my Mozilla browser choked on the ACLU "intake form" so I reluctantly invoked Microsoft Internet Explorer, which automatically sent me to their "automatic update" feature. Like a sap, I figured, what the hell. They say I need Service Pack 2, and even though I've heard it is a pile of crap, so I went ahead and told them to "do your worst."

I'm getting so fed up with my PC that I might break down and hire someone to backup and reinstall everything, so I didn't think I had much to use.... that was a Freudian typo left in intentionally. I meant, of course, "lose."

After 90 minutes of god knows what was happening to my poor computer, Microsoft informed me that I had an invalid registration code, so all that downloading was for naught.

OK, I confess that I bought the PC preloaded with XP Pro from a shady character a few years ago when it first came out and I had a pretty good feeling that it was an equally shady copy. But it HAS worked fairly well. The main trouble I've had is from all the hidden crap that my kids have acquired via Napster and KaZaa.

However, wouldn't you think Microsoft would offer a guy a one-time amnesty if for nothing else than improving their "bad guys" rep?

I am reminded how Microsoft slew IBM. I hope the same thing happens to Gates and his Brownshirts. Don't tell me to go Apple. Too proprietary, just like Wang was, and look what happened to them (as well as DEC, HP, Texas Instruments). If Apple hadn't have been brainwashing school kids since the '80s, they'd be Aztecs as well.

Linux holds some hope, but it is scary to leave Microsoft.

In the meanwhile, I am having great success with Mozilla and Open Office. Heck, they are free and they make XP run pretty better than it does with Microsoft's overpriced, overcomplicated software!!

End of Rant

End of Fair

Fall descends on Minnesota, seemingly instantly,year after year, as soon as the Fair closes its gates for the last time.

Cheers!