Umm... Not to burst your conservative bubble or anything, but if that were true, wouldn't Amazon also be folding like a card table with one leg? I do believe they operate in the same economic free-trade market as every other retailer in the country.

Perhaps you should wield your wrath at shareholders who demand constant profits over customer satisfaction and return patronage.

See, the problem we have here is commun-ah-kayshun.

I'll back you up on that. I got my Supernova there for just over $150 which was, when counting the shipping/handling I'd have had to pay online, a much better deal in my estimation. Granted, they were prolly just trying to unload post-xmas stock, but lots of time BB has cool stuff like that.

And you know what? Now that I've rooted it, gotten rid of most of the B&N crud and installed my own personalized start-up screen (thank you Gimp), it's a pretty bad-ass little tablet! Thanks Best Buy:)

(Now if I can just figure out how to jink the firmware and install CyanogenMod...)

Is that big box stores have just forgotten how to be profitable. WalMart is a prime example of this: in their never-ending spiral of death to please those 5 greedy children of Sam's (and to a greater degree the shareholders of other such venues - ie, Sears, Kmart, et al) they've forgotten to put choice and quality in volume on par if not above the constant profit gain motive. Sam never did that - he knew if he could find it cheap enough and buy in bulk, he could pass those savings on to the average Joe and still make a handy profit in volume. He was also mighty keen on buying stuff made in the good ol' USofA. A good conservative if ever there was one.

Not so any longer. Go to a WallyWorld looking for something as innocuous as a stereo splitter cable and if you're lucky you'll get your choice of 1, and that at 300% over what you could find it for online. ShowCaseMuch? Yeah. But then meander over to the iPod accessories aisle and - looky golly gee! 223 different colors of earbuds from three manufacturers (low, middling and pricey)! Wow, that's helpful. Why don't I want an iPod/iPhone/iPad? Because every retailer in America is trying to shove one down my throat!

At least online, we have variety at reasonable prices. Too bad the big boxers have forgotten that.

On the bright side: look for your local small business to get a bump in sales when they're gone!

And y'know - if you SHOUT LOUD ENOUGH maybe someone in JAPAN WILL HEAR US!

Later, Sony. I, for one, will be dropping your future platforms as a source of entertainment. I have truly enjoyed my PS3, PS2 and yes, even my venerated and much-wobbly PS/One. But attempting to control a free-trade aftermarket by locking users into your wonky website as the sole provider of goods is right out. What do we do with those shiny new units when you decide to upgrade your hardware again - toss them in a landfill? Try to make end-tables out of them? I think this is where I get off the planned obsolescence bandwagon. Bye now.

As for Micro$oft: pfffft.

The question here, of course, is whether or not a human being owns their own body.

The answer to which is (equally as obvious): No.

You do not own your body, the State does. And it can do whatever it damned-well pleases with it, when it pleases, and how. Should you fail to recognize this in the course of your dealings with the State, I'm sure they can show you just how incredibly wrong you are.

Examples? See the whole of the internet.

Thank you Con Agra & Monsanto for manhandling state regulated school lunch programs: F*CKERS.

Yeah, sure, Bub. You're one of those hyper-dramatics who start coughing a block away when you see us exiled to our little smoking quadrant marked off in white paint 80 feet from from the nearest exit at the back of the building by the loading dock, aintcha? Sink Me! I'm not a car and yet intimidation doesn't work on me for some odd reason, either! Perhaps it's because I can see through the non-smoker/pro-pot BULLSHIT.

'At's ok. You'll be singing the same tune as me 5 years after you get it legalized. You'll get yours - all's I gotta' do is not cough up a lung before I see it happen with my own two, gleeful little bloodshot eyes.

'80's vintage 10-speed, btw. Bet you drive a disgusting, carbon monoxide, lead-emitting car, don'tcha? Cuz you have to -right, Hypocrite?

Dyslexia seems more likely.

True enough, but they still have to "grow" their business - ie, make new, future customers.

As an "unlicenced" musician with free stuff on the web which might be blocked, I don't plan on using Virgin now, do you? Would you recommend their service? How about just a little office smack-talk on behalf of how 'wonderful' Virgin Media is for sniffing your ass every time you decide to connect to their servers?

Yeah - that's the pro-active ticket.

The only reason anyone anywhere is getting away with anti-smoking legislation is because cars can't be intimidated.

Oh, and the majority of those calling for an all-out ban are pro-NORML hypocrite asshats.

Yes. That is exactly what 'they' are expecting. And, as it happens, working towards bringing about.

Fair enough: you feel absolutely no remorse nor have any empathy for those who have paid their so-called "debt to society" as dictated by the law.

You see, of course, how this only contributes to the problem, though, right? 8,000,000 people in prison in this country and yes - I'm blaming you. Why? Because if "paying your debt to society" means absolutely NOTHING to you, Mr. Law-Abiding Citizen...

...Why should it to a criminal?

Until it's you.

Lipstick on a pig.