I like to use this little section of the site to spread the word about bad (and perhaps good?) companies, because I believe a big mouth is part of a great free market.

I’m not a mother (by choice) and probably don’t care that much about homeschooling. Except. I do believe there are some real problems in public education, and I think people ought to have absolute right over what to teach their kids. And I also think kids probably get a better education at home.

You have to be a very dedicated parent to invest that kind of time in your kids. God bless.

A blogger I happen to LOVE is speaking out against Subway and Scholastic because they’ve specifically excluded homeschooled kids from a contest. That’s not right, so I’ll give them a mention here. Shame.

Subway’s Discrimination by Dana Loesch

Two families have filed suit against Horizon Insurance because their children were denied mental health coverage. The insurance based their decision on the kids’ personal writings on Facebook and MySpace.

This officially proves that NOTHING is sacred. Move over, Google and start selling those private medical records to the highest bidder. It’s only going to take one or two disgruntled employees to open that can of worms…or a nice, fat check on the side. If UCLA Medical Center employees will sell celebrity medical records to the tabloids, you can be sure a Google employee can’t be far behind. Read more…

John Stossel has written a number of times about the success story of UPS, showing that private enterprise trumps government department. I agree with him, and I normally agree that UPS is a great example.

But UPS is going downhill and service is in the toilet, at least in my experience and the experience of friends around the country. Read more…

Perhaps the reason you cannot view the Health Alliance Insurance website unless you have MSIE (which isn’t even made for Mac anymore) is because they have not updated their website since 2001. This means I have to fire up Windoze just to view their crappy site to find some people to yell at, and I resent being forced to use Windoze. I am a Mac person.

That’s what it says. It also says they won some kind of bullshit award. Read more…

Preface: Health Alliance sucks so much that when I go to their website, they tell me I have to bow to the Microsoft Corporation, and get Internet Explorer, because their shitty website only works with IE. (They obviously have also cut corners when hiring web designers - that old “This website optimized for Explorer” crap went out with embedded midi files, in about 1998.)

My mother is visiting for Mother’s Day and had a small medical issue, but one that required immediate attention.

She doesn’t get Medicare (or Social Security) because she’s a retired Illinois teacher. They have Health Alliance, which is a real crapola of an insurance company. They’ve been pissing me off since my mother retired from teaching. Now that I have my “Corporation Misery” page, I’ll just add them to the list of corporations that suck. Read more…

In its ongoing quest to make Sam Walton roll over in his grave, Wal Mart has announced it will add a number of drugs to its program of “Let’s give cheap drugs to the American people and pretend we give a crap.”

Remember when Wal Marts first steamrolled across America? There were signs that said everything there was made in the USA.

Unfortunately, many of these newly-added prescription drugs are made in China, according to an investigation by KMOV.com. Read more…

I haven’t used Network Solutions for a few years. I can’t stand them, and I’ll give a rundown in a minute.

It wasn’t enough that they made it very difficult to transfer to another registrar. Now, if you search for a domain via their site, they’ll put the domain name “on hold” for four days. If you need the domain earlier than that, you MUST buy it from NS. If you can wait beyond the four days, it goes back into the pool and you can buy it from a cheaper/better registrar I heartily recommend Go Daddy.

They claim to do it for consumer protection (rofl), but that’s a load of crap. I’ve searched for domain names so many times, and the name has never been snagged by a broker just because I searched for it. In fact, I’d never heard of that tactic until now. All of the good names are long gone, anyway. (I’ve had some tasty offers for ect.org, but the answer is always no thanks.)

No, despite their claims of altruism, it’s just another Network Solutions trick as far as I’m concerned.

I first heard of this trick (I would term it a scam) on the Kim Komando Show. While I’m recommending Go Daddy, let me recommend Kim’s radio show. Read more…

My God, this new year has started off as…how did Queen Elizabeth call it…annus horriblus? Read more…

People hate Wal Mart because they’re an evil corporation, don’t pay their workers enough and suck because they don’t have a good benefits program. Whatever.

I just hate them because they suck. Yet I believe they have every right to rip off anyone who wants to save a buck and shop there. I hear so many people bitching about crappy, poison Chinese products, just as they’re headed to Wal Mart to buy a bunch of junk. And it’s mostly made in China. Hmmm.

I don’t like Wal Mart because it’s junky; if it’s a Super Duper Wal Mart, it’s too damn big and takes too long to find what I need, and the lines are too long. It’s just not a pleasant experience for me. Of course, I really don’t care much for shopping to begin with, but Wal Mart shopping is just a trip to hell as far as I’m concerned. I’ve felt that way since Wal Marts first started taking over. Read more…