Showing "Cred"

This from CNN, concerning how much "cred" the candidates have. Gotta love John Edwards response of "I was with Benazir Bhutto in Abu Dhabi in the Middle East just a few years ago. We spoke at the same conference..." Geez, John. That close? You know, I was with George W. Bush. Yes, my wife and I had dinner in DC just last week. And Dubya himself was in town parked at the White House. Our restaurant was just down the street. So, you know, my wife and I are, like, in. We, of course, couldn't help but stop in and give The Man himself some pointers on how he can not look like a complete ass.

I realize CNN couldn't help but finish the article by throwing a jab at Dubya. They ended by stating,

But ignorance of Pakistan's travails may not necessarily prove damaging to a candidate's political aspirations. In 1999, shortly after Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup, a Boston television reporter asked a U.S. presidential candidate if he could name the general in charge.

"A new Pakistani general has just been elected," the candidate responded, then corrected himself. "He's not elected. This guy took over office. He appears he's going to bring stability to the country, and I think that's good news for the subcontinent."

"And you can name him?" the reporter asked.

"General. I can name the general," the candidate said.
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"And it's?" the reporter pressed.

"General," said Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

Oh, you go, guys. Now, let me throw a hypothetical at you. Tomorrow, the head of the country of Yemen announces that they've killed Osama bin Laden and will be providing his body for confirmation to any country with interest. (I know, I know. Fat chance. But this is a hypothetical.) Okay, who would that person be?

Why All Big Companies Suck

I work for a big company. A VERY big company. And, frankly, it sucks. Don't know if its because of the example shown by the Bush administration (Ve must ave all power at ze top!) or what. But the amount of bullying we, the American people, are allowing is, well, bad. And getting worse.

My bitch today? I use Mathcad. A lot. And today it won't run. Don't know the reason. But when a piece of software, for which I've paid over one thousand dollars to have the rare privilege of running, doesn't work, what is the first thing most Internet-savvy people do? They go to that company's web site and look under "Support". When Mathsoft owned Mathcad, it was complicated enough. Mathsoft became a big company. And it was a pain. Log in, find the right forum, dig for the answer. It was truly annoying. Now, what happens when a big company gets bought out by an even bigger company? It becomes even more of a pain. Tell me this. Why does a person have to "log in" when looking for tech support? Is there some deep, dark secret waiting in the bowels of the support web site? Or, as I suspect, is it that the company wants to watch what you're looking for to figure out if you should be targeted better for ads? Of these two, which is more likely?

Okay, I've made my point that having to log in for tech support, again for a program for which I paid over a thousand dollars, is annoying. What's more annoying than that is when I have to re-sign up every time the company switches hands. Mathsoft was bought by PTC (whoever the *#*@&! they are). So, now, I have to re-sign up through PTC to gain access to their tech support, again for a program for which I paid over one THOUSAND dollars! (Are you getting a hint here that when the price goes over several weeks of income the support should go up accordingly?)

What a complete, total, utter crock.

UPDATE: It works now. No thanks to PTC (which obviously stands for "Pathetic Total Cockbreaths"), either. Turns out that they have a special licensing program running in the background. I thought that Paint Shop Pro had loaded that. Nope. It was Mathcad. I turned that licensing program off just yesterday. When I turned it back on, lo & behold! It works again! As for PTC, when I finally logged in, I discovered that I don't have the "privileges" to peruse the technical support! UFB!