Shining a spotlight on Apple's shenanigans

Apple will be releasing a new line of notebooks tomorrow, but, if you want to take a break from checking for Chinese leaks on tech specs, developer Peter Hosey has just finished updating the iPhone App Graveyard, (h/t Ars Technica which memorializes the apps that Apple has kicked off the App Store, and thereby placed off limits to everyone whose iPhones and iPod Touches aren't jailbroken.

Some of the dead are victims of copyright problems like Tris (a Tetris remix) while others fell afoul of Apple's apparent no-absurdism policy (I am Rich, an app that cost $999.99 and displayed a glowing, red jewel on the iPhone screen above the words "I am rich"), but only one of the dead apps has me boggled.

Freedom Time displayed a countdown to George W. Bush's last day in office above the words "...until the end of an error." Apple dropped the app, claiming it was defamatory. (They also supposedly booted a Bushisms app, which only showed actual Bush quotes for the same reason. It does make you wonder if Bush can sue himself for defamation of character.)

Steve Jobs responded to criticism by saying,

I think this app will be offensive to roughly half our customers. What’s the point?

It's puzzling that Jobs thinks that his business won't succeed if he allows anyone to sell anything that might annoy some fraction of his target population, particularly when he could make money when Democrats buy the app.

Ah, well. Guess that puts the kibosh on writing an app to display the image below whenever the user navigates to the iTunes store.

I'd rather leave (Bristol's) baby in the corner

...because I'd rather talk about this.

Arguing that religious faith is pertinent inasmuch as it relates to character is one thing, but (according to this NYT profile her mayoral campaign took it way too far.

The traditional turning points that had decided municipal elections in this town of less than 7,000 people — Should we pave the dirt roads? Put in sewers? Which candidate is your hunting buddy? — seemed all but obsolete the year Ms. Palin, then 32, challenged the three-term incumbent, John C. Stein...

“Sarah comes in with all this ideological stuff, and I was like, ‘Whoa,’ ” said Mr. Stein, who lost the election. “But that got her elected: abortion, gun rights, term limits and the religious born-again thing. I’m not a churchgoing guy, and that was another issue: ‘We will have our first Christian mayor.’ ”

“I thought: ‘Holy cow, what’s happening here? Does that mean she thinks I’m Jewish or Islamic?’ ” recalled Mr. Stein, who was raised Lutheran, and later went to work as the administrator for the city of Sitka in southeast Alaska. “The point was that she was a born-again Christian.”

Palin wasn't just skillfully using the wedge issue for personal gain; it appears that questions of faith make too big a difference in her governing:

In her speech to the Wasilla Assembly of God in June, Ms. Palin said it was “God’s will” that the federal government contribute to a $30 billion gas pipeline she wants built in Alaska.

Her religious rhetoric is not just a veneer to sugarcoat policy choices, it is the basis of those choices. Time is reporting that:

Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor.

Please let me know when the talking heads leave Bristol alone and start discussing these choices. When faith trumps facts on issues of public policy, you're damn right it's a character issue.