Odessa

In reaction to Comedy Central's censorship of an episode of South Park where Mohammed was depicted wearing a bear costume, Molly Norris nominated May 20 as Draw Mohammed Day and invited fellow facebookers draw Mohammed and submit the image. The action prompted actions in support and opposition.

I completely advocate freedom of speech. However, what I do not understand is the compulsion of some to desecrate what some consider sacred.

We have had publicly funded art that shows blasphemy toward Jesus Christ, like a sculpture made from excrement. My main complaint of that "art" was tax dollars paid for its display. I also had a few choice words for the "artist", but I never wanted to kill him, only make him live in his shit . . er, I mean art. He is perfectly free to play in poo, and I am perfectly free to think he is a freak that shouldn't get any tax money. In Christianity, Christ is a savior and part of God's family, and Christians have not called for blood shed over foolish caricatures.

Now we have cartoons of Mohammed. Any depiction of their prophet gets Muslims agitated to the point of threatening death and actually carrying out murder. I do wonder, if depiction of Mohammed warrants death, what would a depiction of Allah warrant?

If I were to draw create and entry for "Draw Mohammed Day" I would take it from one of two angles:

1) Just draw a guy with traditional Arab dress from the back. Nothing special. And label it "Mohammed, any Mohammed" in response to many Arab men being called Mohammed. It could be Mohammed the prophet or Mohammed the fruit seller.

2) Draw a tent with several arrows pointing from various directions with labels of the great spiritual leaders from all over the world, including Mohammed. This would illustrate my hope that some day all religions can convene in peace.

Feel free to add your own random musings.

Saudi women are pissed and they ain't going to take it anymore. Well, they may have to take it, but at least they are showing their dissatisfaction. Although few details are available, a woman gave a beat down on one of the religious police in Saudi Arabia. From the Jerusalem Post:

When a Saudi religious policeman sauntered about an amusement park in the eastern Saudi Arabian city of Al-Mubarraz looking for unmarried couples illegally socializing, he probably wasn’t expecting much opposition.

But when he approached a young, 20-something couple meandering through the park together, he received an unprecedented whooping.

A member of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the Saudi religious police known locally as the Hai’a, asked the couple to confirm their identities and relationship to one another, as it is a crime in Saudi Arabia for unmarried men and women to mix.

For unknown reasons, the young man collapsed upon being questioned by the cop.

According to the Saudi daily Okaz, the woman then allegedly laid into the religious policeman, punching him repeatedly, and leaving him to be taken to the hospital with bruises across his body and face.

This is the latest in a trend of women fighting back. I wouldn't normally advocate violence, but in a society where women are subject to corporal punishment for simply hanging out with a guy, giving an "officer" of their kangaroo justice a beat down is completely and justifiable in my book. (Damn, wish it was recorded for youtube)

"There is some sort of change taking place," Nadya Khalife, the Middle East women’s rights researcher for Human Rights Watch, told The Media Line. "There is clearly a shifting mentality regarding to the male guardianship law and similar issues. More women are speaking out, there are changes within the government, there is a mixed university, the king was photographed with women, they want to allow women to work in the courts and there are changes within the justice ministry. So you can witness some kind of change unfolding but it’s not quite clear what’s happening and it’s not something that’s going to happen overnight."

There is hope for women in the Islamic world after all. Stand strong sisters, stand strong and proud.

I was looking for some information. A person posed a question on answers.yahoo.com and used "WTF" in their question. In response to the question, the favorite answer started:

"Just so you know, I do take offense to the WTF abreviation. In my opinion it shows low self esteem, bad social skills and lack of proper vocabulary. . . ." She ended her answer with: "Good luck to you! I hope it turns out ok, and know that I am not trying to be mean, I am just encouraging you to be a bit more classy in how you present yourself. I am a mom through and through! SMOOCHES!"

All I have to say is "Yes Mom" (eye roll included)

I use WTF occasionally, although perhaps not as much as someone half my age. Trust me, my self esteem and the frustration that occasionally causes a WTF to slip out of my keyboard are mutually exclusive. IMO, nary a stranger scantly older than I am has earned the right to chastise me (and its unlikely you know how old anyone on the internet is). Furthermore, if I post a question on answers.yahoo.com I am looking for an answer to my question, not approval by self appointed manners and good taste police. Offer me an answer on my question and keep unrelated advice to yourself, TYVM. If you lack that ability, then STFU.

BTW, offering unsolicited advice shows bad social skills. JIC you did not realize, the number of abbreviations is completely deliberate and I hope that is no BFD. And if it is, well TS.

From the AP:

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- A North Carolina waitress is out of a job after griping on her Facebook page about the bad tip she got from a lingering table of customers.

The Charlotte Observer reported Monday that 22-year-old Ashley Johnson felt slighted after spending three hours waiting on a couple at Brixx Pizza who left only a $5 tip.

So she blasted the couple on her Facebook page while also mentioning the restaurant.

Brixx officials told Johnson a couple of days later that she was being fired because she violated a company policy banning workers from speaking disparagingly about customers and casting the restaurant in a bad light on a social network.

Johnson says she has apologized to Brixx and is looking for a new job.

Ashley Johnson - You did what many people in your age bracket consider OK - air your grievances on Facebook, which is public unless you make the effort to make it private. Airing your grievances for all the world to see is pretty stupid. Yes, it is freedom of speech and you have every right to say it, but your boss has every right to fire you for doing it. Thankfully it sounds like you are getting over it and moving on. If you want to gripe, find a blog and do it anonymously. I did, it's great.

Bixx Pizza - You suck for snooping around on your employees Facebook pages. How infantile and controlling are you? Must you control every aspect of your employees lives? Probably losing a job there was not much of a loss. If I am ever in Charlotte again, I will look you up just so I can avoid giving you business.

The cheap ass couple in question - Really? You thought $5 after camping there for 3 hours was enough? OK, it is a pizza joint, was the bill $33 or less? Did you pull out your cellphone and find $5 is 15% of $33. Ever think that might be a particular waitress's table and that you were keeping her from making tips from someone else sitting there? That if ya'll didn't hog the table, she may have been able to serve another party? Was the weather so bad that you couldn't go lolligab in a park somewhere? Sorry, absolutely NO sympathy for cheap tippers. None.

What is the lesson to be learned here? Don't put stuff on your Facebook that you wouldn't want your mother or boss to see. Many bosses can be blatant scum buckets.

We had a vendor in to speak to us at our monthly bureau staff meeting. I was actually looking forward to it - new application for a very old technology with a twist. Very cool for geeks like us. So cool, in fact, that the geeky masses swelled our meeting room to capacity with visitors from other offices that do similar work. The implications for what we do is exciting for most of us and I was looking forward to a big geekasm. What I got instead was mental equivalent of the date that talks so much about parsley on the plate that you no longer care to finish the deal.

What were my problems? He had way too much information on each slide - six bullets of two-liners plus heading and conclusion. He was supposed to speak for an hour and went more than two (and my post lunch bladder obviously has a capacity of one and a half). He went into way more detail on the nuts and bolts of his product than was necessary - I (and I am sure most of my colleagues) care far more what goes into and comes out of the little black box than what happens in it. Oh, and shamelessly sucking up to the fellow PhD's is just annoying. Maybe that's why I don't get it, I'm not in the PhD club.

Vendors should train their people to do presentations. Granted, I admittedly have a short attention span and I have been accused of being "too brief" by colleagues. However, my audiences have rarely complained. I try to keep the masses happy by keeping it short and sweet and being willing to talk to the detail oriented people after the presentation until someone kicks us out.

For your next presentation keep the following in mind: Written material may need to be seen from quite a distance away - perhaps 50 feet - that means the less stuff on the slide, the more people will be able to read. Bullets are brief thoughts not paragraphs and proper sentences are not necessary. If your old English teacher shows up, you can tell him/her to STFU if he/she points out grammar errors since it's your presentation. Keep it short. A person with a full bladder / aching back / sore ass doesn't give a crap what you are saying anymore.

Oh, and Dr. Vendor (yup, I remember that PhD after your name), since you really never got to the point and I ceased caring. I have to read the damn documentation myself because you blathered on so much I wasn't able cull out what I needed. Thankssomuch.

The Unions that represent state employees in New York and the Governor of New York are in a dispute. At a rally today, one of the union's representatives, Danny Donohue spoke. From the timesunion.com:

"Somebody said the rat is a good symbol for the governor," Donohue said, referring to a jumbo inflatable rat that local unions frequently bring to protests. "I'd say that's an insult to a rodent."

This struck me. It's true. I'm not sure where we got into the habit of calling people we dislike rats, but we shouldn't. I've had pet rats. If you can get past the tail, they can make good pets. My mother made the decision on a rat as a pet because, as she put it, anything that was a good parent was good by her.

Rats are social. They may squabble for dominance, but they rarely kill each other. They are great parents. They will even parent each other's young and wet nurse the young of a mother rat who has no milk. Their social structure likely has contributed to their success despite our efforts to eradicate them. They are superior to humans in many ways.

Furthermore, I would even venture a guess that your average rat might be smarter than Governor Paterson, too.

Continuation of Miguel Rodriguez says Old Glory not allowed on Cinco de Mayo

Some reports state that up to 100 students marched from the Live Oaks High School to the City Hall, supposedly in support of the assistant principal who sent students home for wearing clothing depicting the American flag. The Latino students claim it was they that have been disrespected. From www. ktvu.com

Among the demonstrators was sophomore Justina Piedra.

“We could have ignored it, but the fact that they did it to us last year -- see that is disrespect toward us,” she said of the students. “And they want to do it again and plan it out, they plan it out. They think it’s funny. It hurts us. We are just as equal as they are.”

Fellow student Lizbeth Ruiz also said she felt disrespected.

“There is no right for them to be putting us down,” she said of the t-shirt wearers. “All that proves that America isn’t what it should be.”

Who is showing disrespect for whom? No one asked either one of these girls to remove their depiction of the Mexican flag. None of the reports state that anyone said or did anything to the Latino students that would have been disrespectful. When someone wants to think they are being persecuted it is real easy to see persecutors around every corner, whether they are really there or not.

Some students showed pride for the USA on the same day Latinos were celebrating Cinco de Mayo. So what. Perhaps they could have been more supportive of their Latino classmates. Being supportive of fellow classmates might be nice but it is not necessary. Not going out of your way to be nice is a far cry from being disrespectful.

If the Latinos in Morgan Hill think that a couple of kids wearing patriotic t-shirts is disrespectful, they better stay nestled in the comfort of fellow Latinos. If they take offense at patriotism or, heaven forbid, others showing pride in their own ethnicity, they better steer clear from large swaths of the USA. All across this country there are many ethnic groups. The Irish don't get upset if someone wears red, white and blue on St. Patrick's Day. The Chinese don't flinch at the stars and strips on Chinese New Year. The French don't twitch at American pride on Bastille Day. The list goes on an on.

These whiny little brats don't know what disrespect is. Perhaps they need to plunk their asses on a NYC subway for a day or two and get to see that they are not the only the ethnic group in this country that deserves respect. Hell, Mexicans aren't the only Latino group in this country. The one thing we all have in common is we all live in the USA - that makes showing the stars and strips acceptable any day of the week and not disrespect toward anyone.

At work, we are facing the prospect of furloughs as a cost cutting measure. We may be told to stay home for one day per week. We were asked what day of the week we preferred for a furlough so that management can decide the best course of action that pisses off the least number of people. One member of group stated that he would prefer the same day as his fiance, who also works in our office, so that they can be together. Another joked that obviously they haven't been together very long, to which he replied that although they work together and live together he doesn't get tired of being with his fiance. Yet another, who has been married for about 20 years and has two kids, said she would like any day but the day that her husband works from home.

New love vs. Old love
Desire to be together vs. Desire to have some time to yourself

Makes be wonder: Is it possible for two people to want to be inseparable even when love is old?

A good joke at work can lighten a tough job. Making fun of someone's "attributes" that you only got to see using your high tech toys - Not so cool.

Rolando Negrin was repeatedly the brunt of jokes after he was scanned using one of the new scanners. He claimed he could no longer take the jokes about the diminutive size of his family jewels and decided to extract an apology from one of his co-workers using a baton.

I don't advocate violence in response to immature adolescent behavior. However, Mr. Negrin's co-works completely deserve a time-out in the corner wearing dunce caps. Mr. Negrin should have been treated with dignity by his co-workers. Furthermore, these are people who we are trusting to look at body scans of you and I. We have the right to expect them to behave like professionals and with a higher level of decorum than we might expect from an average 12-yr old.

Despite Mr. Negrin's actions, this is a clear case of sexual harassment. Mr. Negrin's tormentors should have been disciplined for their taunts. However, the very person who should have been preventing the abuse started it. His supervisor initiated the taunts.

Mr. Nagrin will have to answer for his crime. However, the whole lot have betrayed our trust that they would act with professionalism and they also deserve punishment. Mr. Nagrin's supervisor needs to be relieved of his supervisory duties.

I hope the rest of the TSA learns a lesson - They need to act like the professionals they are supposed to be. The TSA are entrusted with our safety. The traveling public is forced to have it's privacy invaded by the TSA. The more invasive the screening, the more the TSA needs to respect what little dignity we have left.

Five students in a California school were asked to remove or cover their display of the 'ol red, white and blue yesterday. The t-shirts and bandannas displaying the stars and strips would be acceptable any other time, just not on May 5th. May 5th, Cinco de Mayo in Spanish, is Mexico's Battle of Puebla Day and displays of red, white and green were plentiful and welcomed in the Hispanic neighborhoods around the USA (Note, Cinco de Mayo is a minor holiday in Mexico itself).

According to the Morgan Hills Times:

The five teens were sitting at a table outside during their brunch break about 10:10 a.m. when Assistant Principal Miguel Rodriguez asked two boys to take off their American flag bandannas. The boys said they complied. In the same conversation, sophomore Dominic Maciel said, Rodriguez told the group to "walk with him to the office.

. . . The boys were told they must turn their T-shirts inside-out or be sent home - and that it would not be considered a suspension - but that Rodriguez did not want any fights to break out among Mexican-American students and those wearing American flags.

If these kids were just hanging out talking among themselves, they were not being "incendiary" as the assistant principal claimed. Maybe it's just me, but if someone takes offense to these boys wearing images associated with the American flag and trouble starts, I think the person slinging the first slur or throwing the first punch should be disciplined, regardless of what they are wearing. Furthermore, the principal's suggestion to turn the t-shirts inside out can be construed as disrespect by some.

Even the School District is not standing behind this assistant principal:

The Morgan Hill Unified School District issued this statement: "In an attempt to foster a spirit of cultural awareness and maintain a safe and supportive school environment, the Live Oak High School administration took certain actions earlier today. The district does not concur with the Live Oak High School administration's interpretation of either board or district policy related to these actions.

I am all for ethnic pride. I take pride in my ancestry, as do many Americans. If we didn't, we wouldn't have social clubs for so many ethic groups. I do not have a problem with immigrants who come to this country legally and are constructive contributors to our society. I do not have a problem with Mexican Americans showing their ethnic pride on Cinco de Mayo. There is room for all of us to have pride in our heritage AND our country of residence.

I do have a problem with someone who loses sight that they live in the USA. I do have a problem with someone who puts nationalism for another sovereign nation over pride in the one they live in. In other words, if Mr. Rodriguez and anyone who is like minded has a problem with American pride they might feel more comfortable living in Mexico. Perhaps you should celebrate in Mexico (that's right, not a big holiday there). I, as an American, do not appreciate someone telling me or any fellow Americans that our pride needs to be suspended for another person's heritage.

If you want respect for your heritage, you damn well better be willing to give it. If you are incapable of showing that respect, then feel free to go where your heart is.

*** NOTE *** I originally incorrectly identified Cinco de Mayo as Mexico's Independence Day, when it is in fact a minor holiday in one Mexican province.

I've been hearing about the detailed Census questions that are going to be sent out to select households, as is done every 10 years with the Census. Imagine my surprise when in the mail I see a "2010 Congressional District Census". I open it and I am bit confused as I read the questions. It asks which way I lean when I vote and various questions and about how dissatisfied I am with the Obama administration. It asks me about various issues. Then I get to the back. What is that I see? Is that a solicitation for a donation? Yes, yes, it is. It is for a donation to the Republican Party. Pick you amount. You can even charge it to your charge card for convenience. And my favorite option: "I cannot send a donation at that level right now. But I am enclosing $15 to help defray the cost of Processing my Census Document."

OK. That is just plain cheesy. It is not a Census sanctioned questionnaire. Honestly, I don't even think the GOP gives a flying fuck about me or my opinions. They just want me to open my wallet and give them some green backs.

Well, guess what, they will not get it. I may answer the silly questionnaire. However, as long as the GOP panders to the Christian radical fundamentalists they will not get one cent from me. Sometimes I even wonder why I stay registered with a party that has diverged itself so far from issues close to my heart. But, hey that is pretty much all politicians so what difference does it make.

The United Nations has proved once again how irrelevant and clueless they really are.
From the press announcement for the April 28, 2010 organizational session of the Economic and Social Council:

. . . the Council elected 11 new members to fill an equal number of vacancies on the Commission on the Status of Women for four-year terms beginning at the first meeting of the Commission’s fifty-sixth session in 2011 and expiring at the close of its fifty-ninth session in 2015. (listing countries elected) . . . Iran . . . .

The commission is supposedly "dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women. It is the principal global policy-making body. Every year, representatives of Member States gather at United Nations Headquarters in New York to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and advancement of women worldwide."

And Iran will make a good steward of these causes because? It's a country that flogs women they deem as dressing immodestly, which means showing anything but hands and face in some areas; a country that still stones women to death for adultery; a country where many women still have little choice in whom they marry. Iran is a country that really needs to learn a thing or two about equality before they should be allowed on any council advocating for women.

Some dissension has come from within Iran itself:
International Campaign for Human Rights In part:

We, a group of gender-equality activists, believe that for the sake of women’s rights globally, an empty seat for the Asia group on CSW is much preferable to Iran’s membership. We are writing to alert you to the highly negative ramifications of Iran’s membership in this international body.

Iran discussing issues related to women. What was the UN thinking. Oh that's right, they don't.

New York is considering an "opt-out" versus and "opt-in" approach to organ donation. In other words, we'll assume you're OK with donating your organs when you die unless you tell us otherwise. This bothers some people. (All-Gone, Or-Gan) Other people object for religious reasons. Most of us expect to be able to be on a list to get an organ if we need one. In this scenario, New York's "opt-out" proposal is reasonable. Why should anyone expect to get something that they would begrudge another when they die?

The reality is, the lists of people waiting for organs is long, and longer than some will survive. In Singapore, where they have an "opt-out" policy, waiting lists are short. If saving lives is important, our system of organ donation is broken. It shouldn't be the doctor's job to ask grieving family members if they want to donate the organs of the recently deceased.

What should we do? I think, every one should be asked the question "Do you want to donate your organs when you die?". Perfectly reasonable question. The answer should be made perfectly clear and an "I don't know" should be considered unacceptable. I know that no one wants to think about it, but death is a fact of life. The answer should be on everyone's drivers license or ID card - a yes or a no. Any qualifiers (such as exclusions, etc.) could be added at the individuals request. It would certainly cut down on the family wondering what the dearly departed would have wanted.

I also thought, those choices should come with consequences. While doing some digging, I found some information that some Orthodox Jews considered it a desecration of the body to have organs removed after death; however they had no similar reservations about receiving organs. (To be fair, there are Orthodox Jews that endorsed organ donation as the highest form of charity). I consider taking without considering giving a bit hypocritical. I didn't think it very fair. I pondered how that could be managed.

I propose that along with asking the question "Do you want to donate your organs when you die? Yes or No", that someone who answered "Yes" would get priority over someone who answered "No" when handing out a transplant. I mean, shouldn't someone willing to put their money (or kidney or liver or heart) where their mouth is, be given a higher priority over someone who will not pass on the gift of life?

To make it simple - If you want to take your organs to the grave, don't expect anyone to give one to you if you get sick. If you expect to be considered for a transplant, make an effort to sign up for donation and/or make your family aware of your wishes to donate.

I can't answer any of these questions for anyone else. I know some might say "Fuck you, it's my body" and I agree it is. Hopefully I or no one reading this will never be in the position to need an organ. However, I do know that I want what ever is usable to go on without me and help someone in need. I consider it only fair since I would hope I can get get an organ if I ever need it.

Some Jews and Muslims can get along. However, Jews and Muslims are noted more for their distrust and dislike of each other. Considering that, it is interesting to note their similarities, particularly among the more "conservative" or "orthodox" adherents.

1) Both avoid pork.
2) The dietary laws of Halal and Kosher are similar, so are the butchering techiques.
3) Both require some level of physical separation of the sexes of non-related people.
4) Both proscribe modest dress for women that includes the covering of the head (orthodox Jewish women frequently use wigs rather than cloth)
5) Both have similar procedures for handling the dead, like avoiding desecration of the body (no autopsy, for example) and burying the body quickly

I'm sure there are more, but I my intent was not to explore every detail. I know some might say this over simplifies things, that things are more complicated than that. I say that is just hair splitting.

So I guess my question is: Since the two religions diverge after you get past the monotheistic aspect, then isn't possible that all the stuff listed above is more cultural than spiritual? No flaming needed, it's just a simple question.

Dear Hick Town HS, Class of 19XX,

In recent days there has been a focus on school bullying. You should hang your heads in shame at the way you treated me and a few of my friends. You know who you are. Thank God my friends and I had each other. If it we didn't have each other during those dark times, I'm not entirely sure what we would have done. Perhaps we all would have tried to slit our wrists like Patti. Luckily she didn't succeed, but it was no thanks to the bunch of you, before or after.

I couldn't wait to get away from you narrow minded bunch. I couldn't care less when one of my tormentors wrapped his car around a telephone pole after some drunken partying on the beach, killing himself and two other tormentors. I did feel bad for his brother, since he was one of the few who ever defended me. I didn't care what happened to most of you. I didn't go to graduation because I didn't care to share the moment with you. Graduating high school was my accomplishment and it was despite the abuse from all of you.

I have moved on. College was everything high school was not. People liked me. I would venture to say that I was popular, even though college was close to home (forty miles away). I found out that it wasn't me that was damaged, it was all of you. As an adult, I have forged a life a couple hundred miles away, a reasonably successful life. Many of you can't seem to extract yourselves from the old town or grow up. I'm still in contact with a person or two in the town, so I hear the news. Many of you still go to the stock car races, get hammered, cheat on each other and generally act like the hicks you are. Now who is the loser?

Yours truly, Someone who survived

We all need to stop bullying in school. It didn't get me to take my life, but I did think about it. A lot. My friend actually tried, and thankfully failed. Visiting her in the psych ward was disturbing. The little bit I know about her adult life, I think she was scarred. She, another friend and I drifted apart since high school. Looking back, perhaps we were only friends to survive the torment. A torment that should have never been.

The scars of torment from bullying run deep for many. Some recover, some don't, some do what Miss Prince did, and what my friend Patti tried to do, and end the torment the only way they think will work. I learned to stand up for myself and strike back. It didn't make me popular, but having the jerks fear what I may be capable of kept them away. Now I have the best revenge anyone can get - I live well.

I went out for a walk at lunch time. When I came back in, I could smell freshly baked brownies from the cafe in the lobby. I went back to my cubie, but all I could think about was a chocolate brownie. No matter how I tried to ignore it, the thought would not leave. So I run back down to the lobby.

I get in the cafe, a lady has one and I see no more. I cannot imagine that a whole tray went that quickly, so I inquired if there were any more. The lady that runs the cafe tell me that they are for the other office building nearby. I had three choices: (1) Throw money on the counter, grab the brownie and run (not a good choice, I still have to work here); (2) Beg the lady to willingly give me the brownie (humiliating); or (3) Leave before the delicious odor makes me do something I will regret. I choose (3).

How can you make our whole lobby smell like brownies and have none to offer? There is something completely wrong about that. And if I did do something stupid, is "the brownie made me do it" a viable defense?

Nobody better come bother me for the rest of the day without something chocolate. Grrrr.

Computer Renaissance you dissed my friend and everyone that has a "built" computer and I am calling you out!

My friend is not the most computer suave person on the planet. I recommended that she get wireless in her apartment so that she could use her laptop in another room from where the router and desktop are located. One thing I forgot to mention was that she should password protect that connection. Oops, my bad. According to Time Warner, her provider, someone has been sending spam from her location. It is unlikely that it is her computers causing the problem, since she only has the computer on for a short period at night. More likely is some scum sucker in a nearby apartment has been using her connection to send spam, and probably is some newb doesn't have a freakin' clue that their computer is infected. Due to the spam, Time Warner, her internet provider has terminated her service until she gets her computer serviced and she shows a receipt (which is abusive in it own right, but I told her to contact the Public Service Commission on that one)

To get it "fixed", she packs up her tower and goes to a local Computer Renaissance. Her father built the tower so it is not some mass produced pile of circuitry that most clueless people haul in for repair. The guy rolls his eyes and says "there is no sticker on this thing". He says he can't do anything if the hard drive needs reformatting because it is a "built" computer and implied that it might have a pirated operating system. She tells them that she bought the operating system. Tech ignored her and talked down to her.

That tech's response is a slam to all of us who have "built" systems. We aren't all cruisin' on pirated versions of XP (no one would want a pirated version of Vista). We aren't all hackers. Some of us wanted something different from what the mass producers (*cough* Dell) spits out and at a better price. There are other advantages. I know how my computer comes apart and goes together. I have no qualms yanking out the video card or slave drive because I put them there in the first place. We also chose our own operating systems, XP over Vista, for example. We paid for that operating system with the same hard earned cash that we paid for all the parts with. So Mr. Comp Renaissance techie, go sit on it and rotate. And by the way, I am a woman, too. Don't talk down to women. Some of us probably know our way around hardware and software better than you, twerp.

*******
P.S. When my friend went back the tech pretty much apologized and offered to check her laptop for free. The desktop was "clean". They have redeemed themselves somewhat. However, let this be a word to all computer techs - There are those of that do not do IT stuff for a living, but we are still plenty competent. And some of us are women, too. If we are unfamiliar with something or don't understand we will tell you.