I just got back from a three-night getaway.

Some generous friends from out in the valley (hi there – you know who you are *wink*) have a place that I now refer to as Martha Stewart Unkempt (the Unkempt is a compliment. And the inside is kempt. The outside is just all lovely and done, but not manicured). An acreage, a vast lily and fish pond, berry bushes, garden, and tall, very tall trees that seclude the property.

The dogs are welcome too, much to their delight. It’s doggy disneyland: squirrels, crows and for once in their blessed lives, a green yard (they’re concrete jungle urban daschunds). Oh, and a geriatric, ever-tolerant, black lab.

And the sounds: birds at night, creatures rustling in the bushes, the zap of bugs getting to close to the light, chain saws and trains in the distance.

The point is this: truly, truly the best things in life are free.

Readers: any best-things-in-life moments that you’ve had this summer?

Well, well, well.

It’s about bloody time Canadians refused to bend over, and fought back, nice and loud, about the iphone. Or rather, about how Rogers planned to personally bankrupt Canadians foolish enough to purchase the bright, shiny object under Rogers Rule.

So here’s what happened:

Rogers data plan was so obscene some good folks created a blog: RuinedIphone and started collecting signatures. (And as a point of interest, the original domain name was not so polite. The original name started with an f.) Within hours it had the 10,000 signatures needed to bring it to the competition bureau; within days, it had 50,000 signatures and Rogers had a serious PR nightmare on its hands. The story got picked up by the globe, the sun, 24 hours …

and the blogosphere

and rumour has it that apple itself was disgusted, and a) diverted 20% of the phones from Canada to Europe and b) will not be selling the iphones in their own retail stores.

and this morning, Rogers finally dropped their rate from $100 to $30 for the 6G data plan – provided you lock in for 3 years, and pay for a voice and voicemail (?) plan. And of course there are always those hidden fees.

Personally, I’m staying in touch with Peter’s Useful Crap to weigh my cel phone options. (err, Peter, will you be sharing your thoughts on iphone v instinct etc.?)

Meanwhile, I really am wondering: where are our politicians in all this?

A. Conservatives: let the free market rule, even if it screws our peeps

B. Liberals: what will get us elected again? what will get us elected again?

C. NDP: there are people starving. apple-what?

_______________________

Readers: do you believe politicians should have any interest in this? or is something like obscenely overcharged consumer goods not worth the time and energy of our government?

OK, this video from the Washington Post un-nerved me entirely.

The written journalist piece that originally accompanied the video said he’s usually pretty calm, cool collected.

Not so much, this day.

ARE WE GOING DOWN?