I don’t know if I should be happy the stupid flag-burning amendment failed or sad that it failed by just one vote.  This little piece of election year politics should never have been put up for a vote and shame on every Democrat who voted for it.  I love the flag as much as the next person.  It’s a beautiful symbol of what so many have fought and died for, and a reminder of how much we’ve lost under the Bush II administration.  Be that as it may, our constitution guarantees every citizen the right to free speech and that include stupid things like flag-burning.  This just shows how little Republicans really respect the constitution.  To this it’s jsut a political tool to use in their pathetic attempts to curry favor with voters.  The real pathetic part about that is the vast majority of voters don’t see a need for this amendment. Shame, shame, shame.

Sometimes I think I’m the only person in the world who doesn’t use Google.  Hell, I can’t recall the last time I visited Google’s sight and I never use their search service unless it’s all I have.  I’m a Yahoo man myself.

According to several news stories, Google is preparing to enter the online payment market with this own service, GBuy (how original).  Of course, this is meant to be a direct competitor to eBay’s PayPal service, but will they actually hurt PayPal?  eBay is the dominant online auction site and they push PayPal at every turn.  In addition, PayPal is the most popular payment service on all the other little auction sites including Yahoo Auctions and ePier (probably the closest thing to a rival eBay has).  People seem to think that just because Google slaps a "G" in front of some product name they will automatically be successful.  Has GMail hurt Hotmail or Yahoo Mail?  No.  Is Google Desktop causing anyone pain?  No.  Is their video service hurting YouTube? No.  Personally, I think Google’s attempt to create their own payment service is a waste of money.  There are better ways to ensure their dominance and create growth.