Is there anything more aggravating than being immensely proud of one's sense of ethics, and never getting a chance to demonstrate them by turning down a big, fat, juicy bribe?

I guess I'll never know, because Microsoft did not find me a Blogger Worth Bribing with a superhot top-o-the-line new laptop:

Several bloggers reported last week that they had received Acer Ferrari laptops, which can sell for more than $2,200, from Microsoft. A spokeswoman for Microsoft confirmed on Friday that the company had sent out about 90 computers to bloggers who write about technology and other subjects (such as photography and, oddly, parenting) that could be affected by the new operating system.

Parenting?? You need a 2-friggin-grand laptop (you can get a perfectly decent brand new laptop, and a way better known name than Acer, for a quarter of that at the moment) to write about parenting but not politics? I am so pissed. My only consolation is that the teeth of conscience, not to mention public opprobrium, are gnawing at the bones of the undeserving wretches who did get the machines :

But while those on Microsoft’s mailing list initially greeted the machines with enthusiasm, many in the blogging community soon objected — and not only because they were left off the list — arguing that bloggers are bound by the same rules as traditional journalists, who should not accept expensive gifts from companies they cover.

Damn right. I'm at least as pretentious as any of those tech and photo and whateverthehell bloggers are. And on top of it I'm the one who, by sheer force of my astounding loathing of change and having a whole website dependent on another Microsoft product, has actually stuck with Windows and IE and Outlook and the rest of their crappy line, and defended them in public (well, here anyway) for lo these many years. Suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous Linux and Firefox and Mac user abuse for this sterling show of committment (as in "I should be committed to a laughing academy for continuing to use this junk.")

Just call me Rodney. I get no bribes no respect I tell ya.