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In article >,
says...
>
> "Scott" > wrote in message
> ...
> > In article >,
> > "Doug Kanter" > wrote:
> >
> >> Well, YOU'RE the one describing their decision as devious! I'm pointing
> >> out
> >> that you're wasting a lot of energy over a product you don't buy, with
> >> absolutely zero knowledge of whether it might, in fact, have been a good
> >> decision for both the company and the consumer.
> >
> > Well, there you go again. Actually, you're the one who made it a major
> > waste of energy. The paragraph above is so full of errors, I shudder at
> > the effort required to address all of them.
> >
> >
> >> Uh...because you're taking the time to whine to people who can only offer
> >> POSSIBLE answers to your complaints (this newsgroup), instead of having
> >> the
> >> balls to write a letter to the company? Afraid to find out that their
> >> reasons might've been some which are perfectly acceptable to you?
> >
> > Again with the ad hominems You don't lose gracefully, do you?
>
> I have a friend who never has written, and says he never will write a letter
> to a company or any of his elected officials because "it probably won't make
> any difference". Is that you, too?

Ha! I torqued up the level of paranoia in the Rhode Island legislature
recently when a letter I'd written to the Providence Journal nearly 8
months ago was just published this past week.

Here is what I wrote:

I would find the characterizations of Rhode Island employees and their
compensation laughable, were they not so sad.

For years, Republican governors have been casting the blame on state
employees and the unions that represent some of them. Most state
employees are in unclassified positions; in essence, that means they are
subject to termination on a whim, particularly those in offices led by
elected officials.

Most of the critical departments in the state are understaffed, not
overstaffed. I wonder how people would react were the state to eliminate
20 percent of the prosecutors in the attorney general's office, or the
same percent of those in the public defender's office.

Instead, we should focus on the true wastes in government, most of which
are directly attributable to our legislature.

While I was a state employee, I saw many instances of financial
irresponsibility and outright stupidity. One was the state's purchasing
system. The Master Purchase Agreement left state agencies with shoddy
choices, which in many cases cost the state more money than they should
have. Agencies were forced to use a package called RI-SAIL, which was
despised by those forced to use it, for even simple purchasing.

So when blame is being cast, perhaps we ought to identify the correct
target, and restrain ourselves from vilifying many hard-working state
employees.

--

This caused such a tizzy on the 3rd floor of the state house. You see,
some of the people I worked with in that state job now work for the
legislature and I'm working in another state agency so the fur was
flying. I'm something of a hero among other state employees right now.