It may be evil and against all that I believe...

... but I knocked out about 1/3 of my xmas shopping yesterday at Amazon and avoided carrying gifts on cross-country flights and the nasty seasonal mall crush. Was it worth the potential erosion of privacy and civil liberties? The road to Hell is paved with little comforts, compromises, and conveniences.

Speaking of which, I heard a great analogy on NPR this morning: SUV owners who want better gas milage but value their comfort, cargo space, etc, more are like people who want to lose weight and yet don't want to diet. I think I resemble on one of those groups of people right now...