Amazon Honor System

I just wanted to post a quick rant about Amazon Honor System and customer service. I just got on the phone with them after finding two transactions where they withdrew money from my account, without my permission. I opened the account, which was supposed to be free and they charged my account to verify it is valid. Now Paypal does the same thing, sort of, when you verify and that's just fine. They actually make very small deposits into your account though and they let you know in advance. The problem I have is that there was no advance warning, and that is what irks me. You should always let someone know upfront before you even think about withdrawing any money from them.

Customer service was sort of okay. I could tell he was reading from a script. Then he asked me for my credit card number, which they have in the system already, since they took money from me. I refused about three or four times, because he kept going back to his damn script and asking me three or four times. The only good thing is I think he asked someone for help and they came up with the real answer. This is normal and I will be seeing those verification withdrawals reversed.

Anyways, these postings do take time to do and if you are amused and appreciate them feel free to donate some change via the Paypal link below and to the right. The Amazon Honor System link has been removed due to my irritation and won't be back. If you don't want to donate, well thats fine as well. Just enjoy the posts or comment that you don't enjoy them, or whatever.

Dissent is not Treason

I was just over at BlogCritics.org reading an article by Patrick and posted a comment to it as well. I was so irked by the article that I wrote what seemed like a book and felt I had to post my comments here. Check out the article over here first though-- Patrick's article



Man oh man! I could go on forever with this article. I barely even know where to begin. In trying to remain civil in my dissent, I'll simply say that I disagree with almost everything you have said. Obviously I am a conservative, but definitely not aligned with any political party. I would consider myself an independent, but the one thing I can't stand is Bush bashing. Fine he isn't the greatest leader we've ever had. There's a big mess in Iraq. Everything that is wrong with the world is all Bush's fault and since Patraeus works for Bush, well he is a traitor isn't he?

Look we are at war! Like it or not we are at war in Iraq, we are at war in Afghanistan, we are at war in places that neither you, I, or even the government fully know about as well. The War on Terror is global. We have been at war with Islamists for a quarter century at least, but just started fighting it after 3,000 civilians lost their lives in 2001. Bush didn't figure it out until it was too late, Clinton didn't have a clue, Bush 1, and even Reagan never took a serious look at this quagmire that started years ago. The bottom line is that they all suck!

To win a war, we need some unity though. No running, like the Dems want to do, no calling our generals traitors like MoveOn.org , no spitting on our troops like in the Vietnam war. Dissent is perfectly fine. You can have unity and dissent at the same time, if only you keep it respectful. When our "leaders" act like stupid children, the enemy sees us as weak and they keep fighting us even harder (ie Vietnam and Iraq). Laws won't save us, running from Iraq won't save us, and going at each other's throats won't save us either.

When the surge began I was actually a bit disappointed, because we sent so few soldiers(not victims like you claim) to clean this mess up. I thought we needed to send enough troops into Iraq to lock that country down, finish the job, and then get the hell out of there. Instead we got 30,000 troops(which really isn't enough) sent into a still prolonged, bloody war. We need to finish the job, politics aside, and get our families home, period. Leaving early under any circumstance is a horrible mistake which I believe we will pay for with our nations blood and probably our children's blood one day.

Vote Fred

I'm joining the Blogroll for Fred Thompson. Why? Well I want to see someone win who has at least a semblance to America's traditional values. Personally I might vote for Obama if I had to vote Democrat but I would much prefer a Republican president. So with that in mind, Fred Thompson seems like the best dog in the race for now. He seems like the kind of no-nonsense guy this country needs to stay on track and win this fight we are in ( and no I'm not talking about Iraq only, there is actually a real war we need to be fighting.) It's too bad we didn't have someone in charge before 2000 that realized we were at war already (sorry Bill Clinton you did drop the ball big time). Anyways, vote for Fred, he's the only candidate who I believe can lead us through the next 4 or 8 years. Check out the blog below too!!

Al-Qaeda in Iraq Leader Killed Again....

The leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq was killed today, again..... Abu Usama al-Tunisi was killed in an airstrike by US forces. Not only was he killed, well he apparently was killed once before too :)
Here is an excellent post from Counterterrorismblog.org

Evan Kohlmann writes that he was reportedly killed last year. Peculiar?!? Hey and remember Abu Musab al Zarqawi. He's the one who was on a video beheading an American and when he was killed, the military made a big deal of it. You know I think it's absolutely wonderful to kill any terrorist that we can, but killing the leader of the group doesn't seem to make much difference, when there's always another leader to take his place. Personally I won't rejoice until Usama bin Laden is killed and this darn fight is over, but then neither might even happen in my lifetime.

Meathead endorses Clinton

Rob Reiner, according to a Yahoo news story I just read, has endorsed Hillary Clinton for President. This is really a non-story if you ask me. A Hollywood big-wig endorses a Democrat for some position. It's not at all unusual and seems pretty typical. So what I wonder is this -- Why should I care and why did I waste my thirty seconds reading that story anyways?

New Affiliation with BlogRush

To those who haven't had the chance to read my blog, after you do read it, check out the BlogRush links to other blogs on the side. If you have a blog and wish to join, please use this link http://www.blogrush.com/r54499462
to credit me for the suggestion.

thanks much,
Therealisttruest

Michael Freakin' Vick

Mike, Mike, Mike, are you kidding me? So you got caught doing something stupid and quite frankly inhumane. You said you're sorry and now you're awaiting sentencing in court for the stupid stuff you did. So how can you pass your time? You can't play football, hmmm .... What's the most fun and very best thing you can do before you get your prison sentence. Hey, I know! How about you do something else stupid and by the way, illegal. Way to impress the judge! Now pass that blunt!

My rant for today

This rant is actually overdue. So I had a good job with a pretty good company, but wasn't doing enough development work there. I decided to get a job elsewhere and ended up at a startup as a Junior Developer(I just graduated last year and am trying to gain more experience.) I took a huge gamble with this company and it didn't work out for me.

I got off to a bad start because I honestly was a bit complacent. I did not apply myself as much as I should have and because of that I was put in a bad situation. So when I did finally start busting my tail, I was told it wasn't enough. AHHHH! The fact of the matter is there are two reasons I was let go.

1. I really didn't work hard enough at the start. Lesson learned.
2. They didn't want someone who had little to almost no real world experience, they wanted someone who knew what they were doing, which at this point in my career I don't fully know that much. I can code, but I've never been involved in a serious project before. I needed leadership and guidance and they had neither of those qualities. Anyways, it sucks that it didn't work out, but I will be fine. Now to just find a job.....
   

Iranian prez is an idiot

So there are no homosexuals in Iran, really? Well that is what the president of Iran said at Columbia U. Yeah, about that.... Anyways, what's worse is that as stupid as he sounded, Bollinger from Columbia sounded more stupid. By berating the leader of a sovereign nation, Bollinger, came off as arrogant and ignorant. So instead of accomplishing anything, hoping to put the Iranian president in check, he made Americans look like rude pigs. Then the American delegation leaves right before Mahmoud A's speech at the UN, because like little children, we aren't talking to Iran.

Does anyone else see why we are losing respect in the world? Despite the strongest military in the world, we can't defeat a bunch of disorganized terrorists in the middle of the desert. We have a little imp in North Korea that is constantly spitting at us, and then we have this other troll in the Middle East that is helping a bunch of disorganized terrorists fight us, but we can't solve that issue either. Seriously, please let's end the politics and fight this war! The only way to not lose it to win. The only way to win is to kick some a##.

What do you think the Iranian President will say at Columbia?

Does anyone else out there think that President Ahmadinejad (wow that is not so easy to spell) is going to be a coward when he speaks at Columbia U? Seriously, does anyone think he will actually say 'Death to America' or 'Death to Israel' when he is in the U.S. ? I don't think so, as I have seen his rhetorical web-weaving when confronted on Holocaust denial and other such things. Do we hate America? , no he' ll say only the policies of the current government. Meanwhile back in Tehran he would be leading the chants of 'death to america'. I mean seriously, I think we should let him go ahead and visit the WTC site too, only without security. Then let the Good People of New York show him some American hospitality. Anyways, just my thoughts on the subject....

Hello Blogosphere

Okay, well this is my first blog, ever. I don't really know what to put here, yet, but I am thinking this will just be rants, software stuff(since I am a programmer), and maybe politics. I'm about to turn in, but I wanted to put something up here since I opened it up this evening and thought I would just say 'Hi' to anyone who might come across this.