- Trying to self-eject from your current cell phone contract is always a costly proposition, regardless of your carrier. However, it’s about to become even costlier for customers of one prominent cell phone company. Verizon users, prepare to be f*cked over. Starting this week, if you want to get out of your contract and pick up an iPhone or simply a new carrier for the Droid you are looking to purchase odds are that Verizon is going to rape your wallet for all it can get – even more than it did previously. Currently the ETF starts at $175 and is pro-rated by $5 each month you’re in your contract, but as of this week the fee will double if you’ve bought a smartphone or other mobile the carrier considers an “advanced device” high-end enough to warrant a steep $350 penalty for ditching. Your best move is waiting until as close to the end of your contract as possible, because that $350 starting fee drops by $10 a month.
Of course, this entire scam occurs because phone companies give you a discount on new phones when you sign up for a two-year contract (standard) because they figure they will pry that cash from your hands over the course of your contract, thanks in part to the overage fees and other nice extras they ding you for. News of the supersized early termination fee has pissed off a lot of people, including some senators. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) has said that she plans to introduce new legislation to prevent wireless carriers from unfairly raising penalties on costumers who cancel their contracts early. Klobuchar wrote to the FCC, "Verizon Wireless' decision shows us once again that the wireless industry cannot police itself and will not, on its own, make its practices more competitive and consumer-friendly. who seeks to block the deal.” Rarely do I find myself agreeing with legislators (mostly because I actually have a soul and at least a shred of integrity), but I wholeheartedly agree with Sen. Klobuchar here. Stop dicking over the little guy, Verizon, just because your feelings are hurt when they look to juke you and switch to a new carrier and phone they like better………….
- She may have had to go to another country to do it, but Michelle Wie finally won her first LPGA Tour title Sunday. After nearly a decade of being a tall, awkward golf prodigy with overbearing parents, a sense of entitlement and no on-course success to back up her immense game, Wie used a 3-under 69 Sunday for a two-stroke victory over Paula Creamer in the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara, Mexico. She capped her win by nearly holing out from a greenside bunker shot on the 18th hole and then tapping in for a birdie. "It's definitely off by my back," she said. "I think that hopefully life will be a lot better, but I still have a lot of work to do." She celebrated her win by raising both of her arms in the air, turning to the gallery and letting out a big sigh of relief. Her thoughts were expressed, in grammatically stunted form, on her Twitter page shortly after the big win. "Wowww-w-w ...... never thought this would feel THIS great!!!!" she posted on her Twitter account. It was also funny to see the aftermath of Wie’s win, with Solheim Cup teammates Morgan Pressel and Creamer showered Wie with beer on the 18th green after the winning put. "Just seeing them come out and pour beer all over me, it was a great feeling," Wie said. "I've always seen it on TV and I've always wanted people to pour beer on me. It was as great as I thought it was." Hmm, why would someone who is still not of legal drinking age be so pumped about people pouring beer all over her? If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Wie has enjoyed an alcoholic beverage or five in her life. Her aforementioned overbearing parents, dad B.J. and mom Bo, were predictably there to celebrate the victory. It came on a day when Wie seemingly embraced Tiger Woods’ tradition of wearing red on the final day of a tournament and took it to the extreme, clad in red from head to toe. She won despite sporting a bulky brace to provide stability for her injured right ankle. Hopefully this win inspires her to accomplish more on the LPGA Tour and not to revisit her regrettable habit of playing events on the men’s tour, which invariably ended in disaster. Congrats on the win, Michelle, here’s hoping you go on to realize your immense potential and become a dominating force in a sport that no one cares about or ever will care about……..
- Tonight was actually a solid episode of Heroes and not just because it marked the return of my man Mohinder Suresh and featured some Hiro Nakamura time-travel antics. Hiro was at the heart of it all, facing a demand from the megalomaniacal Samuel Sullivan to teleport back in time eight weeks to retrieve a roll of film that was destroyed. Doing so is the only way Hiro can save his beloved Charlie after she was banished to another place in time by Samuel and his friends last episode. Blackmailing Hiro is how Samuel intends to get his film and so Hiro complies. In going back, he meets Mohinder, whose journey since the end of last season has apparently taken him back to a professorship in India and his wife Mira. He’s given up his father’s research into people with powers and when Mira digs up a box of Chandra Suresh’s research that Mohinder has hung onto, he agrees to throw it away. But late at night, he can’t help himself an digs the box out of the garbage. Inside is a film from his father’s work at the Coyote Sands research facility that was featured extensively in last season’s final few episodes. On the film, he sees exposition of the story of a pregnant woman at the camp and her gifted child, who literally causes an earthquake when he is born. That baby is Samuel Sullivan and he is central to Chandra Suresh’s theory that when PWP gather together, their power is magnified. Samuel seems the most affected by this phenomenon and has the potential to increase his powers one thousand fold if he can gather enough PWP. That would explain his carnival and desire to recruit new PWP to join. The caveat is that, at the time Mohinder discovers the film, Samuel has no idea of his powers. When Mohinder uses his father’s research to build a compass (i.e. Samuel’s compass that he uses and which has appeared prominently throughout this season) and it leads him to the Sullivan Bros. carnival in Texas, he meets Joseph, Samuel’s brother who we know is deceased in the present day. Joseph shields his brother from Mohinder and then informs Mohinder that he’s been keeping Samuel’s powers secret because he knows how powerful he could become. Mohinder is sent away with a promise that Joseph will continue to keep up the lie, but it turns out that Samuel overhears the conversation and follows Mohinder to his hotel room. However, he arrives too late an Mohinder is burning the film by the time Samuel shows up. This is the wrong that Samuel, his present day self anyhow, wants Hiro to fix. And so Hiro does, traveling back in time and swapping the film out for a dummy roll and accomplishing his mission. However, he also saves Mohinder’s life in the process. On his first teleporting attempt, he arrived after Samuel killed Mohinder in anger, but on his second attempt Hiro protects his friend by fitting him with a bulletproof vest that stops the flying shards of stone that Samuel used to kill Mohinder the first time around. Even after having his life saved, Mohinder refuses to cooperate with Hiro as he attempts to save Charlie. Hiro wants Mohinder to lay low for the next eight weeks because Samuel thinks he’s dead and if he’s not, Samuel might not help him get Charlie back. Mohinder says no and Hiro rectifies the problem by stopping time, then teleporting with Mohinder to Baudelaire, Fla., where he places him in the Riverdale psychological facility under a false name, keeping Mohinder hidden for now. Hiro then travels back to the future, film in hand, and turns it over to Samuel. Samuel promises that he’ll get Charlie back soon, but the promise seems dubious at best. Meanwhile, Tracy Strauss is in Washington, D.C. and has a crisis on her hands. She is losing control of her powers and freezing everything in sight. Her first instinct is to run to her pal Noah Bennet for help, but he’s not home and she elects to wait inside his apartment. The first Bennet to arrive is actually Claire and after her initial surprise at finding an intruder, she tries to help Tracy, first by having her soak in a tub full of boiling hot water and then by making her some hot tea. Those attempts fail and Tracy manages to freeze even the hot bath water. She walks into the kitchen and when Claire touches her accidentally, Tracy freezes her too. A popsicled Claire falls to the floor, where Tracy tries to drag her to the bathroom to warm her up with hot water. However, Claire’s foot breaks off on the way and Tracy is distraught to the point of tears. Claire is obvisouly fine, as her power to heal from any wound takes over and she grows a new foot. Afterwar, the two sit down for a nice talk and Claire manages to calm Tracy to the point that she’s able to gain control over her powers. Noah arrives home to find the two sitting on the couch talking, with a severed foot on the table nearby. During the conversation, Tracy also mentions her encounter with Samuel and her plans to possibly go join his carnival. Upon leaving Noah’s apartment, Tracy meets Samuel at a neary diner and starts the process. Speaking of processes, Nathan Petrelli is in the process of trying to figure out why he hasn’t felt like himself lately. He and brother Peter embark on something of a tour of Nathan’s life, including a visit to his Senate office. There, Nathan’s aide welcomes him back from vacation – a vacation he doesn’t remember. Nathan’s mother Angela has told the vacation lie to cover up his recent disappearace. While at the office, the Haitian, a.k.a. Rene, visits and asks to talk to Peter. He hands Peter the location of a storage center where he should go if he “wants to know the truth.” Peter and Nathan go to the facility – the same one where Peter found files and weapons stored by H.R.G. last season – and inside is a casket. The casket contains Nathan’s body, the one Sylar killed in last season’s finale before having his own mind forced out of his body by Matt Parkman so Nathan’s mind could be inserted. Touching the body, memories of that day flood back to Nathan. He and Peter decide to find Parkman for answers. Nathan’s aide tracks Parkman down in the hospital in Texas, where he resides after being shot by the police last episode in an attempt to kill Sylar, who currently resides inside his mind, haunting him. The Petrelli brothers sneak into Parkman’s hospital room so Peter can use his new power to heal others. Peter sucks the injury and sickness out of Parkman and Parkman wakes up. Unfortunately, this also brings Sylar back to life in Parkman’s mind. Matt tries to explain what he did to Nathan and Sylar but Sylar turns the tables by taking back control of Parkman’s body and trying to talk Nathan into taking his hand, thus allowing Sylar to transfer himself back into his own body. Trapped outside of his body, Parkman pleads with Nathan not to, as does Peter. Hospital security barges into the room trying to stop the incident, but Nathan/Sylar throws Peter aside, brushes the hand of Sylar/Parkman (confusing, I know) and then grabs Peter before flying out the window. It’s unclear if the transfer was made, but afterward Parkman is back to normal. He uses his mind control powers to talk his way out of the hospital and into the “borrowed” uniform of a police officer, then calls his wife Janice to tell her that he’s okay. Peter and Nathan land in a mountainous region in an undisclosed location and Nathan tells Peter that he can’t be near people right now. Peter convinces him otherwise and after absorbing Nathan’s power to fly, they take off and return to Peter’s apartment in New York. There, Nathan ruminates on his predicament, not knowing who he really is and if Sylar is in fact back in his body. He worries that from now on, whenever Peter looks at him, all he will see is Sylar, a man who has murdered dozens of people. The episode ends there, leaving a Thanksgiving-themed episode next week to continue the drama………
- Score one for the suppression of information and against those kooks at the American Civil Liberties Union, courtesy of the Pentagon, which is blocking public release of photos apparently depicting abuse of suspected terrorists and foreign troops in U.S. custody. The military is also imploring the Supreme Court to dismiss a lower court ruling ordering the photos to be publicly disclosed. Those revelations come from Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who notified the high court late Friday that he was issuing an order to block the release of the images, which are at the center of a years-long lawsuit by the ACLU. Joining Gates on the side of censorship is Congress, which last month gave the Obama administration specific authority to prevent any release of the 44 photos. Gates followed that up by signing a certificate of authorization to prevent the photos' release, saying their disclosure would endanger U.S. troops serving abroad. It’s a blanket authorization, covering all photographs taken of people captured or detained in overseas military operations between September 11, 2001 and January 22, 2009. The decision marks a stark reversal for the Pentagon, which was all set to release the images of Iraqi and Afghan prisoners in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the ACLU. Obama and the Justice Department would have none of it and reversed the earlier executive decision, a move that surprised many. I find the whole situation comical because those who oppose the photos’ release argue that the images could incite anti-American sentiment for our enemies. Umm, I’m fairly certain that such hate exists in abundant qualities all around the globe and at this point, those enemies know that we tortured and tormented captives, whether they have pictures to fill in the exact details or not. This does put me in an awkward position, as I hate the ACLU but also disagree with the decision not to release the photos. The ACLU has ripped Obama for the decision, saying it "makes a mockery" of Obama's campaign promise of greater transparency and accountability. The images were gathered as part of a military investigation into allegations of abuse against prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to documents in the investigation, some the pictures show "soldiers pointing pistols or rifles at the heads of hooded and handcuffed detainees," while other images allegedly show prisoners in restrained and humiliating positions. The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in September 2008 that the photos must be released, but that decision has yet to be enforced as the case, Department of Defense v. ACLU (09-160), winds its way through the court system. Stay tuned to see which despicable side wins out in this case………
- The NFL might not be down with Tennessee Titans owner Bud Adams hitting Buffalo Bills fans with a double middle-finger salute near the end of his team’s 41-17 win in Nashville Sunday, but I certainly am. Any time an 86-year-old dude wants to bust out the double bird, it’s cool with me. Adams was seen making the gesture while in his luxury suite and again on the field after the game. The gestures were caught on video and posted on YouTube within a few hours. In the video, Adams can be seen in a YouTube video flashing the hook 'em sign of the Texas Longhorns, whom Titans quarterback Vince Young played for, before extending each hand with the middle finger individually, then together, after pointing toward the Bills' sideline. For some odd reason, the league has fined Adams $250,000 for the incident, terming it conduct detrimental to the NFL. I’m deeply disappointed in Adams for kowtowing to the NFL and acting all contrite and apologetic in the aftermath of his obscene display. He issued a statement, saying: "I need to apologize for my actions yesterday near the end of the game. I got caught up in the excitement of a great day, but I do realize that those types of things shouldn't happen. I need to specifically apologize to the Bills, their fans, our fans and the NFL. "I obviously have a great deal of respect for [Bills owner] Ralph Wilson and the history we have shared. I also understand there will probably be league discipline for my actions and I will accept those." Don’t apologize, Bud. An 86-year-old dude with enough attitude and toughness to hit people with a double bird is cool in my book. Most people of any age don’t have enough testicular fortitude to blast people with two middle fingers, let alone a senior citizen. Making it that much better is the fact that commissioner Roger Goodell was at the game after having breakfast with Adams. He supposedly didn’t witness the double bird, having left Adams' suite at the end of the third quarter and spent the fourth quarter sitting with fans in the end zone before leaving the stadium. Personally I don’t believe Adams should be fined for showing some (obscene) team pride; perhaps he should be rewarded. Way to stay classy, Bud………
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