Rosa Flora: Flower Failure

Rosa Flora is a failure as a flower-selling company. Jessica tried calling them a number of times to see about flowers for our wedding reception, and each time was greeted by an unhelpful tool. Said tool consistently referred her to a nonexistent woman who was never available and never returned calls. Upon arriving at the physical location, which was not easy to find after a five-hour* drive, most of the staff were ignorant and brusque and condescending. One guy was nice, but that was to be expected since my fiancee is super hot. She was surprised and annoyed to find out that Rosa Flora, for all its splendid advertising, only carries three kinds of flowers, at least at the current season (SPRINGTIME). It would have been a simple matter for the original tool to tell Jessica this in response to her questions over the phone, rather than make her drive all the way out for nothing. THEY GET ZERO STARS. CAVEAT EMPTOR -- LET THE BUYER BEWARE.

Thuggish Congressman

Update: Let’s qualify some things. We totally understand the representative’s feelings, which are not at issue here.

And yes, the students are almost certainly political hacks. This kind of thing happens all the time, and congresspersons should know how to handle it by now. Here’s one example: have a card printed and ready, the size of a business card, explaining that a congressman’s time and space need to be respected and that you’re available to speak with constituents and journalists by appointment. Politely ask the person which group they are in. Give them the card and highlight the number they can call and explain that you’re busy. If they claim they are a constituent, request to see a driver’s license or other proof that they are who they say they are, then assure them that you will see that their request for an appointment is honoured. If they are a journalist, request them to seek access through the same channels as the rest of the media.

Just throwing some ideas out there. It’s not that hard to avoid being rude and immature on camera.

His response of course makes one suspect that this was the latest incident in a pattern of extended stalking, but the representative’s apology makes no mention of this being the case.

Yale book about Muhammad cartoons to exclude: the cartoons themselves

Yale is publishing a book about the famous Danish Muhammad cartoon controversy. But they have decided to censor the cartoons themselves.

The main reason given was not even cultural sensitivity, but fear of violence.

I am interested if anyone out there is willing to defend this move.

Welcome to Any Defenders

Every once in awhile some person or group of persons does something so obviously stupid that there never really is any true debate on it. This blog serves as a kind of last call for public defenders in these cases. On the off chance that offending person or idea has some sympathizers, somewhere, who are both clear-thinking and loyal enough not to mind looking a bit foolish, the matter is brought up here for debate before history renders its verdict.

I will usually announce new posts on my personal twitter account, looking for some feedback. If a post generates zero relevant comments, it is deemed to amount to a unanimous verdict of guilty.

The site's mascot is a cricket for obvious reasons.

Occasionally I may be wrong — that is, I may post something that seems stupid but for which there is an entirely good reason, in which case I will be the first to recant and proclaim the thing is something about which reasonable people may disagree. After all, the whole point of the trial is generally to insure the innocent is not unduly punished. I'm not interested in needless snark or cheap shots; only in ensuring that the thing is, in fact, indefensible, before consigning it to the dustbin — and I'll do my best to reflect that perspective in my tone.