Bits and Pieces 6/20/2004
I have to blog soon on the religious dimension of this presidential election, from the Catholic church displaying hypocrisy by denying communion to Democrats who are pro-choice, but not denying the same to Republicans who are pro-choice; of denying attendance or speaking rights at religious-themed events to people like Kerry because he is pro-choice, but letting Colin Powell speak, even though he also is pro-choice. Now, the church is even telling voters that, essentially, if they vote for Kerry they’ll go to hell. That, combined with Bush not only using religion as a campaign tactic and as a political weapon, but also actively seeking alliances with religious personages from ministers to the Pope, we see the church making specific choices about interfering with the political process–something dangerous for the church as much as it is for the people.
And Bush is now being told, not just by myself and other bloggers, but by senior intelligence officials, that he is not only playing right into al Qaeda’s hands, but he would, without a doubt, be the candidate of choice for terrorists, could they vote. Quite a charge there. The official seems very intelligent, for s/he only publishes under the name “Anonymous”–necessary these days, since Bush & Co. have shown time and time again that if they find someone has spoken against them, they will break any law and stop at nothing to vilify and destroy them.
Meanwhile, in less political news, Hotmail is now going to offer more hard disk space with its email, too. While Google allows 1 GB, Yahoo only went as far as to offer 100 MB, and Hotmail–which was the chintziest with 2MB before, is still chintziest, expanding their offer to only 25 MB. You wouldn’t think that Microsoft was one of the richest companies in the world, to see their policy.
I should add that the Hotmail 25 MB policy is only for selected users–others will have to keep putting up with the 2 MB limit on their accounts. It really comes down to not much more than a PR stunt for Microsoft, which apparently is completely unready for such an upgrade, but figures that it at least has to appear like it’s doing something.
Hotmail has just upped the stakes by offering users 250MB per account plus paid users will get 2GB of mail storage.