There’s a typically breathless article on SlashDot today about how Verizon cuts the copper lines to your house when they install FiOS, as part of an evil corporate Zionist neocon conspiracy to lock you in to Verizon’s service at the exclusion of all the other telcos who would otherwise service your telecom needs.

The piece suggests that Verizon is sneaking this in under the radar, and yet within ten minutes of reviewing Verizon’s FiOS literature it became clear that my copper lines would be cut. It wasn’t underhanded; I went ahead anyway. It’s one of those decisions individuals make on their own, when government bureaucrats aren’t available to decide for them.

I hate Verizon, and all they stand for. They’re a decrepit, old-economy, backwards-thinking telco with shitty leadership and even worse customer service. But they also offer broadband speeds in excess of ten times what I can get w/ ADSL, and as bad as Verizon may be, they’re saintly compared to Cox, the friendly neighborhood CATV Gestapo. So, in a world of evils, you pick the lesser evil. If you don’t like it, you can…you know…not get FiOS.