Friday, December 07, 2007

Boycott Overstock.com

I'll admit up front that I have never shopped online at Overstock.com. So it won't be a huge imposition on me to boycott them, but now that the Xmas shopping season is upon us, I want to urge anyone and everyone who has even thought of purchasing something at Overstock.com to reconsider.

And here's why: In Utah this year there was a ballot measure concerning funnelling state school money into private schools. Every time this has been on a ballot anywhere in the US it has been roundly defeated, usually by landslide margins, and Utah was no exception:
The measure lost in every single county in the state.

Americans have always seen this as the proverbial nose in the tent by the Religious Right, whose main goal is to siphon off financial support from the public schools, put their special little children into those private, mostly-Fundo-Xian schools, and ultimately destroy the very fabric of our public school system.

Oh, and incidentally, those precious little white babies won't have to rub shoulders with all those dirty and smelly minority-type kids, who seem to just litter the public schools.

So what's Overstock got to do with all this, you say?

Well, I'm glad you asked. The HMFIC* of Overstock, one Patrick Byrne (who has more legal problems than Carter has pills -- and see the Crooks and Liars piece on him as well), has been pouring tons of his own money into these ridiculous campaigns for years now, including the one in Utah. And when I say "his own money", what I really mean is the money he gets as a profit from operating Overstock.com. Which, if you happen to spend money there, is cash going
out of your pocket and into the already-overstuffed wallet of capitalist-pig fat-cat Patrick Byrne.

Update: Be sure to check out Whitecollar Fraud and O-Smear for more info on Byrne and his problems, legal and otherwise.


[* Head Mother Fucker In Charge -- it's an old Army term that I still use, nearly 40 years later.]


10 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Holy crap.

I haven't heard a "Carters" reference in ages. Laughed my ass off.

Farnsworth68 said...

Well, I AM old...
Thanks for the post.

Sam Antar said...

Don't mess around with Patrick Byrne.

Read my blog item:

11/19/07: Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff Panders to Campaign Contributor Overstock.com and Defames CEO Patrick Byrne Critic

Link: http://whitecollarfraud.blogspot.com/2007/11/utah-attorney-general-mark-shurtleff.html

Listen to a tape recording:
11/29/07: Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff Caught Lying on Behalf of Overstock.com and Patrick Byrne

Link: http://whitecollarfraud.blogspot.com/2007/11/utah-attoney-general-mark-shurtleff.html

Bloggers beware. Stay away from Patrick Byrne.

Patrick Byrne is INSAAAAANE!!!!!

Respectfully,

Sam E. Antar (former Crazy Eddie CFO & convicted felon)

Farnsworth68 said...

Wow, thanks Sam! Here are the clickable links to your blog posts:
·Utah Attorney General Panders
·Attorney General Caught Lying
Yeah, it sure sounds like you got caught up in something you didn't bargain for.
Well, let the Attorney General or Patrick Byrne try to stifle me. Little do they know that I have literally dozens of readers who will leap to my defense.
This whole situation bears watching. I'll keep an eye on your blog, and good luck with the batshit loonies.

Sam Antar said...

farnswoth68:

Thank you for providing the links. Patrick Byrne's henchman, Judd Bagley, a company spokesman, tried to blackmail another blogger into silence. The blog's name is O-Smear. Byrne and Bagley have smeared other bloggers, too, including Herb Greenberg and Gary Weiss.

If they try to play games with you, let me know.

Respectfully,

Sam E. Antar (former Crazy Eddie CFO & convicted felon)

derekstaff said...

I'm afraid I'm too young to understand the "Carters" reference. But I do understand that not only did Byrne try to single-handedly fund the vouchers takeover, but then insisted that our Pretty Great State (tm) flunked an IQ test for not buying this pet project of the free market zealots. Great.

Farnsworth68 said...

Carter's Little Liver Pills were a patent medicine "remedy" that had a long and successful run, from the late 19th Century up until sometime in the 50s, when those killjoys in the Federal Trade Commission decided that, (1) They didn't do anything for your liver, and (2) They didn't have any liver in them as an ingredient.
After that they became Carter's Little Pills. Their chief (and only) "medical" effect on the body? They were a strong, irritating laxative.
Since the pills were advertised widely and repetitively, the phrase "more [blank] than Carter's has pills" entered the lexicon.
Nowadays you'll only hear old geezers like me using it -- or younger people who somehow picked it up by osmosis or something, probably from their grandparents.

Anonymous said...

"Oh, and incidentally, those precious little white babies won't have to rub shoulders with all those dirty and smelly minority-type kids, who seem to just litter the public schools."

"We' re...
Different colours / one people
Different colours / one people
Hey you government
Never try to seperate the people
Hey you politician
Never try to seperate the people
They were created in the image of God
And who are you to seperate them
Bible says, he made man in his image
But it didn' t say black or white"
-Lucky Dube

Marlin said...

My daughter attends one of the schools who would have benefited by vouchers.

Here is the breakdown in her class

Hispanics 9
Black 8
Caucasian 7
Asian 1

Looks like a voucher student coming into this school would have rub shoulders with a few of those—how did you put it—“…dirty and smelly minority-type kids, who seem to just litter the public schools.”

We have had her friends over (from each one of these races) and I have yet to notice a distinct odor.
Could you help me describe the smell?

Oh, my daughter is Caucasian.

Farnsworth68 said...

cbryan and marlin:
I would guess that the two of you are products of those private -- and voucherless -- schools, since you are apparently unable to understand or comprehend satire.
If that's the case, then the two of you are living proof as to why we need to keep the money in public education.
Why don't you toddle off and get an education, and maybe then you can get a clue.