Marc Perkel Rantz

Will the Bankruptcy Bill Kill Christmas?

Letter to the Editor

Now that the credit card companies have their debt slavery bill it makes me wonder if they are going to be happy with what they got. This bill might result in people changing their behavior and becoming more responsible. And what do I mean by more responsible? I mean - people spending less money. No more impulse buying. After all - if you are going to protect yourself against bankruptcy, it means that you are going to be a lot more careful in your spending. The bottom line is - it's going to hit the economy hard. The law goes into effect in October and that's when people will really stop spending money,. We'll see if the credit card companies are happy come Christmas. Looks to me like Christmas has been cancelled.

Does God choose the Pope?

In theory - God controls the cardinals when they choose the pope so that the cardinals choose the pope that is God's choice. If that is true then:

1. Why doesn't it take only one vote that's unaminous?
   
2. If some cardinals vote for someone other that the elected pope - does that mean they are out of touch with God's will?
   
3. If enough cardinals are out of touch with God - then could they elect a pope that God wouldn't have chosen?
   
4. Why doesn't God just show up and pick the pope?
   

I just hope that God doesn't pick a pope who allows preists to have sex with children.

Unimpressed with Mozilla Thunderbird

I've yet to figure out what all the hype is about Mozilla Thunderbird. I'm an old Netscape user and been using the old swiss army knife Mozilla all in one package for years. Mozilla is deviding it up into separate applications and is phasing out the original Mozilla. And I ask myself - why?

Additionally - the new versions of the software - Firefox and Thunderbird don't have all the features of the original Mozilla. After trying Thunderbird for about a month I decided to switch back. Thunderbird left me wanting.

It may sound trivial but you would think that if they are creating Thunderbird of of Mozilla code that it would have all the features of the original - but is doesn't. Little things like in the pannel that shows the folders - Thunderbirs doesn't allow you to see the total number of messages in each folder. That's something I want to see.

And - with Mozilla - when you get new email in your inbox - you can see the new message appearing at the bottom of the list without having to scroll down. Thunderbird doesn't have that.

The only advantages of Thunderbird that I noticed are:

1. I like the name better.
   
2. I looks better.
   
3. When something crashes - the browser and the email crash separately.
   

Other than that - I'm not impressed. I think they shouldn't phase out the old until the new one is as good.

My 2 cents ...