DISQUS

I know you probably don't care, but just FYI I'm unsubscribing from your blog after being a long-time reader. Those photos by Jill Greenberg are, by almost unanimous consent, disgusting and unprofessional - why didn't you go ahead and link to the photo of the monkey defecating on John McCain's head while you were at it? She also violated journalistic standards by manipulating McCain into posing for intentionally unflattering photographs.

For a long time during the democratic primaries, I was not only planning on voting for Obama, but excited about doing so. I have felt for so long that we needed "real change" in Washington, and that maybe Obama meant what he said and could bring that kind of change to our political system. I was incredibly disappointed when, after securing the nomination, he reversed himself on many issues that are important to me.

In addition, one thing I really liked about Obama was his post-partisan take on politics - how his campaign was not going to be politics as usual, etc. But since he picked Joe Biden as the VP nominee, and especially since McCain selected Sarah Palin, the Obama campaign and its supporters - including, unfortunately, people like Ms. Greenberg and you, have engaged in some of the harshest attacks I've ever seen in any campaign. And they're not only partisan - they're not even political or professional. They're personal and completely unnecessary.

Do you think that your linking to the above image of John McCain is going to swing one vote in favor of Obama? It will have the exact opposite effect - it will make people who are on the fence so offended and disgusted with these tactics that they will vote for McCain instead - or at least for a third-party candidate like the libertarian party, etc. Anyone who would not be offended by that image - who agrees with portraying a presidential candidate in that way - is already planning on voting for Obama. So all you're doing is enraging the right, offending the independents (on which Obama must count if he wishes to win this election), and further emboldening similarly ineffective tactics by the left. It makes no sense.

I'm not a troll, and I am not a McCain-Palin supporter. I won't be voting for them either. What I am is an informed voter who typically votes libertarian b/c that party's platform coincides with my fiscal and social views - but who was excited about voting for Obama because he seemed to be a new and different kind of candidate. A voter who is now so disgusted with his and his supporters' tactics and antics that I am even doing things like unsubscribing from technology-related blogs that I've read for years because of them.

I don't agree with everything you say, but I usually respect your opinion. But I think this time you've crossed the line - for me at least. That's my real email address below, so if you want to respond to this, feel free. I won't be reading your blog anymore to know whether you respond there or not. Good luck to you.

I think the difference is Microsoft has 90-whatever percent of the operating system market - meaning that basically every computer comes with Windows and IE preinstalled. So if, as you say, people don't typically change the default search engine, and the default search engine on 90+% of computers is IE, that's anticompetitive. Here, Google Chrome will not come preinstalled on 90+% of computers. You will have to voluntarily install it as your browser of choice. Or it could come pre-installed on some computers via deals with OEMs like Dell. But it's never going to be the default on an anticompetitive percentage of computers. Your argument implies that when people download and install Yahoo Toolbar, Yahoo should be forced to give its users the choice of using alternative search engines from within Yahoo Toolbar. It makes no sense. To me at least.