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 Read more…