Controversies

It bothers me not one bit that Virgin Atlantic is showing the silly "documentary" Loose Change on flights. If I'm on a flight with anyone foolish enough to be captivated by Loose Change, I'd just as soon they be kept occupied as much as possible during their time in the air. Really, would you rather have them seeing imaginary monkeys on the wings, fiddling with the engines? (see the excellent Screw Loose Change if you've been tempted to believe our government is capable of pulling off the kind of fraud alleged in Loose Change)

The other recent controversy, Verizon offering downloads of their featured "artist", Akon hits a little closer to home. I'm not happy that my kid might be exposed to this kind of vulgar crap, plus, I don't like thinking that I could be billed for it. I say could be billed because who really knows what they're being billed for with Verizon? When you have to delete pictures of grandma to make room on the hard drive for a PDF version of their bill, you know it's going to be too much information. They could slide Akon downloads in there and by the time I find it Akon tunes will be golden-oldies.

Anyway, writing Verizon will be a waste of time. Believe me, no real people are involved in the Verizon/customer interface. You want to get their attention, go into the Verizon store and use Akon lyrics to communicate with the staff. "Hey ladies, drop it down, Just want to see you touch the ground," Sure, you might get smacked but there is really no other way to get their attention. I've actually seen customers in the Customer Service line die of old age before reaching the counter. "Don't be shy girl go Bananza, shake ya body like a belly dancer, and can anyone tell me if this Samsung battery is bad?" Watch out though, some of the sales girls carry tasers.