OK, so here’s my story. I ordered a couple of things (a USB CD/DVD drive enclosure for a laptop drive, and a new graphics tablet) about two weeks ago, which were shipped on 6/19 via FedEx. On 6/21, online tracking indicated that they had been delivered, by leaving them on the front porch, which is typical (even though somebody was home at the time). I got home, only to find no package. I immediately called FedEx, only to find out that the package had been left on the porch of an address somewhat similar to mine – except on the other side of town. I was told that the driver would be going out to get it the next day. I heard nothing the next day, and called FedEx again. No information, no change in the tracking (still showed delivered). I e-mailed them again on Tuesday, and was advised that I should file a loss claim, which I did. On Wednesday, the local FedEx called to tell me that they’d “try” to recover the package the next day. I heard nothing from them, and today, I got an e-mail stating that my claim had been decided, and they’d be sending me a letter in a week or so to tell me what it was they decided. So, I e-mailed them and asking what the hell they decided. Turns out, they denied my claim, with no reason as to why. So, I called them, and was told “sorry, the person handling your claim is gone, call her Monday.”

I am unable to properly express my frustration and anger at this. These fuckers knew immediately that they’d delivered it to the wrong address, and they have totally blown me off through the whole process, never communicated with me unless I initiated it, and I still don’t have the goddamn stuff I ordered. And now it looks as if they want to screw me out of the money entirely. I’m pissed. It’s not that they delivered it to the wrong address, so much (shit happens), but that they have totally blown me off.

I, personally, will never do business with a company that ships via FedEx ever, ever, again. And I sure as hell won’t be shipping anything with them again.

OK, I’m done. Gonna go see Sicko today, even though we already had a little “sneak preview” of it last week. I think everybody ought to get out there and see it. The fucking insurance companies must have given FedEx a lesson on how to screw people over.

Hard to believe it’s Friday already, isn’t it? So, dubya is now so impotent, he couldn’t even get his boys in the Politburo Senate to pass his immigration bill. I have some pretty unmixed feelings on that. I think it was a shitty bill that only served to help greedy corporations obtain slave labor. And if it makes dubya look even dumber than normal, then so much the better. Of course, the immigrants continue to get screwed, and the whole reason it failed was due to ignorance, racism, and xenophobia, but, well, whattya gonna do? Dubya also stamped his feet and plead executive privilege in a very Nixonesque kinda way. Unfortunately, the law is whatever the Supreme Court says it is, so if he can’t run out the clock with legal maneuvers, he’ll still win. But, hey, it’s Friday, so who cares, right? Unfortunately, I have to train some new faculty today, on things that I know nothing about. I can hardly wait. Let’s get this week over with already.

Much like everybody else, apparently, I don’t have much to say. This sorta sums it up:

It’s too damn hot, and my brain is kinda all melted, so I’ve got nothing much to say. At least it’s supposed to cool off tomorrow.

Well, it aint Friday yet, but at least Monday’s over with. A couple of interesting Supreme Court rulings yesterday. First, they decided (by a 5-4 vote, thanks very much to everyone who helped Bush steal two elections) that there’s no such thing as free speech anymore, and you can’t hold up a “bong hits for Jesus” sign on public property. Then they ruled (yep, 5-4) that American citizens don’t have the right to file a law suit against the king executive branch. They also wiped out a provision of the already inadequate McCain Feingold campaign finance bill (do I need to say it was 5-4?). And, again by a 5-4 vote, the Supremes ruled to neuter federal regulators, to the benefit of developers (say, “bye-bye” to the Endangered Species Act). Just another day in Bush’s ‘merika. And another 573 or so to go.

When I was in about fourth grade or so, I read a book called “Johnny Got His Gun,” by Dalton Trumbo (who was one of the Hollywood Ten who refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947, eventually being convicted of contempt of Congress – unlike, say, Bush, Cheney, Gonzalez, et al. – spending 11 months in prison, and blacklisted by Hollywood). The book was about a soldier in WWI who has his face blown off by an artillery shell, is deaf, blind, unable to speak, and gradually loses all his limbs to amputation. His attempts to communicate with the outside world (banging his head up and down in Morse code) are taken to be fits, and “treated” with morphine, which induces visions of Jesus Christ, among other things. Yeah, the fact that I read this kind of stuff when I was seven or eight goes a long way in explaining why I turned out a little on the twisted side.

Anyway, I was reminded of this book when I read about 24-yr old Joseph Briseno Jr, who was shot in the back of the head in Baghdad four years ago, shattering his spinal cord, and leaving him blind, brain damaged, and paralyzed from the neck down. He is considered by some to be the “most severely wounded” soldier in Bush’s war.

He lies flat, unseeing eyes fixed on the ceiling, tubes and machines feeding him, breathing for him, keeping him alive. He cannot walk or talk, but he can grimace and cry. And he is fully aware of what has happened to him.
[…]
He was 20, attending George Mason University, when he was called up from the reserves and sent to war.

I’m sure that turning a smart, strong, young kid into a blind quadriplegic who has had untold surgeries, bladder problems, high blood pressure, a breathing tube, dead tissue on his tongue, and osteoporosis, who can “respond to questions by grunting or grimacing” is somehow worth everything we’ve “gained” in Iraq. At least to people like Joe Lieberman, George Bush, Dick Cheney, and all the other chickenhawks who have never lifted a finger to serve this country, and who will never have to visit their kid in some cockroach infested army hospital.

It sure doesn’t seem worth it to me, though.

Saw an, um, advance release version of Sicko last night. I highly recommend it. As the British Lefty Tony Benn says, “if you can find money to kill people, you can find money to help people.” This movie is more effective in two hours, than a month of Sunday Boobleheads. Speaking of which…

On Press the Meat, it’s a debate about immigration, with the ever-obnoxious Pat Buchanan, and some guy named Luis Gutierrez, who is a Democrat from Illinois (I’m sure his being Hispanic is a mere coincidence). Then, it’s a bunch of flat heads at the round table, with the increasingly senile Bush apologist, Dean David Broder, Wall Street Journal hack, John Harwood (who compared John McCain’s military experience to Rudy Guiliani, claiming that Rudy has a “claim to combat in a different way, because he was on the ground in 9-11,” PBS’s Gwen Ifill & the chief political columnist for the often wrong, always inane Politico.com, Roger Simon.

Depending on where you live, Faze the Nation appears to be preempted or delayed by Golf or auto racing or something this week. If you’re “lucky” enough to see it, you’ll get to see Ed (aint he dead yet?) Koch, some schmuck Republican consultant named Ed Rollins, and the person from Law and Order who ought to run for preznit, Sam Waterson.

Over at Fux News Sunday, Weaselface Wallace hosts Senator Brylcreem^®, Trent Lott, plus occasion Democrat, Dianne Feinstein, and a man who has no use for Brylcreem^®, Cal Ripken. And of course there’s the usual noxious group of assholes, including the truly disgusting Brit Hume, asshole son of a douchebag, Bill Kristol, and a pair of graduates from the NPR school of hackery, Juan Williams and Mara Liasson. Woo-hoo.

On This Weak, George Snufalufagus hosts Teddy Kennedy and little Jeffy Sessions, and then at the roundtable, it’s Fareed “Token” Zakaria, former Pentagon spokesbitch Torie Clarke, ABC News hack Jake Tapper, and George :jerk: Will. Then we’ll hear from David Hyde Pierce, about losing his dad and granddad to Alzheimer’s (a scary thing to have run in your family, to be sure).

Wolf Blitzer’s Late Emission is basically a pile of crap, except for those purists out there, who will probably enjoy listening to Ralph Nader (no doubt being coy about making another run – if you can call it running – for preznit in ’08).

Later, on 60 Minutes, Anderson Cooper does a story on Joe Darby, who did the right thing by turning in his fellow soldiers for abusing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, and has stopped bing punished for it yet. Then it’s a Steve Kroft re-run piece on how sperm donations are making lots of anonymous siblings out there, and Scott Pelley has a look at Hitler’s Secret Archive.

Enjoy your Sunday – back to freakin’ work tomorrow.

Lots to do this weekend, and only a crappy two days to get it done. I’ll be lucky if I get the grass cut, do my laundry, and brew a batch of beer. So, I guess I’d better get busy. With the beer.

And so another week drags to a close. It’s actually been a pretty quick week. Two weeks, even, since it’s payday once again. So, let’s get this party started, so we can get it over with. One week to Sicko (unless you’re lucky enough to live where it opens this week, that is).

Yay! No federal funding for stem cell research. Sammy’s safe, since the republicans wouldn’t dare override dubya’s veto – no matter how many people want them to.

Oh, and happy summer solstice, as summer arrives at about 18:06 GMT. From here on out, the days start getting shorter. Bummer.