Mark America

Still Taking a Beating

This is simply pathetic.  Carbonite has announced it is pulling all of its advertising from Rush Limbaugh, even though he has already apologized.  After “re-evaluating” over the last 24-48 hours, Carbonite decided it has had enough. Well, so have I.  I don’t care what they sell, or how good it may be.  I will never purchase or use their products and services, but I have held that opinion for some time based on some product  research.  I read this statement, and even if it wasn’t written in the tone of a simpering whiner, I would still be left with the impression that Carbonite CEO David Friend is gutless, based on his decision:

“No one with daughters the age of Sandra Fluke, and I have two, could possibly abide the insult and abuse heaped upon this courageous and well-intentioned young lady. Mr. Limbaugh, with his highly personal attacks on Miss Fluke, overstepped any reasonable bounds of decency. Even though Mr. Limbaugh has now issued an apology, we have nonetheless decided to withdraw our advertising from his show. We hope that our action, along with the other advertisers who have already withdrawn their ads, will ultimately contribute to a more civilized public discourse.”

Mr. Friend has two daughter around thirty? I’ll accept that.  Did either of them testify before Congress recently demanding that somebody else bear the exorbitant costs of their contraception expenses, thereby airing the details of their intimate lives? No?  Then what do Mr. Friend’s daughters have to do with any of this?

“Courageous?”  What is courageous here?  She testified before Congress. She didn’t scale any fortifications or charge any machine-gun nests.  I grant that speaking before large audiences can be daunting, but this young woman is a professional activist. I don’t know by what measure “courage” was required.  “Well-intended?”  In what respect was this well-intended?  I don’t think there were any good intentions in any of this Pelosi-prompted circus.  I think it was all a put-up job aimed at creating the kind of thing that has happened in its wake.  I don’t know how well-intended a thirty-year-old law-school student is who is advancing an agenda that attacks the religious liberties of all Americans.  Is that “well-intended?” I don’t think so.

“Contribute to a more civilized public discourse?”  More civilized than what, exactly?  Limbaugh didn’t run up to Georgetown and spit in this woman’s eye, or beat her up, or do her any physical harm.  He used two pejoratives to describe her based on her own testimony.  What is more uncivilized than going to government to ask them to aim their guns at religious institutions and coercing them to pay for one’s contraception?  Uncivilized?  This is the spew of a servile dolt.

Mr. Friend and his products and services now go on my permanent black list.  If I need a server or a workstation backed-up, I will use a stone tablet and chisel before I resort to Carbonite.  This is an obscene statement, and it deserves the scorn of any thinking person who can look at it in details rather than in the vague impression of indignation it seeks to create.  Who does this guy think his customer base is?  Fortunately, there are viable alternatives to Carbonite.  Mozy comes to mind.

I think this guy is about to learn that loyalty goes with the talk-show host, and not an easily substituted product or service. I understand that Rush apologized, but frankly, Friend’s piling-on with this statement looks like an attempt at ingratiating himself with a segment of the market.  If I dropped every friend who ever said one annoying or “inappropriate” word, I’d be in short supply of friends.  I know Friend has a business to run, and businesses try to stay well away from any undue burdens of controversy, but to compare his own daughters to Ms. Fluke in this context seems a little overwrought. I myself have a daughter somewhat younger than Ms. Fluke and I doubt he would care to hear her opinion on the matter.