As an antidote to all the ranting I’ve done this week, here’s something to laugh at/with.

I blogged earlier about the new iPod developments, and I was most excited about the new search feature, thinking that since this is all software it would be trivial to deploy it on all iPods, not just the new ones. Well, I am sure I am not wrong, I get new firmware pushed to my player all the time but Apple, in their finest capitalist moment, aren’t going to do it - only the brand new models will have the feature. Presumably they think I’m going to rush out and drop $300 on a new player but instead it has me more inclined to look elsewhere when my current battery dies.

Its one year from my mother’s death; sometimes it feels like yesterday, sometimes it feels like a long time ago, yet other times I don’t actually believe any of it happened. But, without reason or justice, it did and our lives are the poorer for it. I don’t know how the rest of my family will choose to recognise the date, but I know I’ll be raising a glass in her memory, and to the celebration of being her son.

I suppose that if CostCo has Christmas decorations for sale in September, I should not be surprised that the local stores have switched to “winter fashion” and its now impossible to buy a short-sleeved shirt anywhere. Only long sleeve lumberjack shirts and nice wool-knit sweaters for sale now. Don’t worry that the temps are still in the high 90s and, lets face it, aren’t going much below 90 even in the “winter”. This is Southern California and, dammit, we’ll wear scarves and down jackets even if its still 75F out, even if we do look stupid.

So… the Pope makes a remark in where he quotes a 14th Century Christian emperor who said the Prophet Muhammad had brought the world only “evil and inhuman” things, and Muslims get a little pissed. The Pope says he’s sorry they took it that way but doesn’t say he’s sorry he said it, and Muslims get a bit more pissed and start killing nuns, burning churches, the usual stuff. No “evil and inhuman” in that response, then.

As somebody put it on the BBC News website, if I was to go stand outside a Mosque shouting for the clerics to renounce the violence I’d probably be put in jail. But when its the other way around, its called exercising their right to free speech (and free hatred). Its a lot like immigration these days. The only people with rights are those who seek to change the way of life of everyone around them rather than fit in themselves: criticise and you’re an anti-fill in the blank, and intolerant. Surely, if you don’t like the (ahem) “white christian oppression” then go somewhere else. It really does seem pretty simple.

Anway, props to the Pope for sticking to his guns (and the way its going, he may need them for real).