Wow, I am going to get in so much trouble for divulging this, but heck, I don't care (or maybe I do).

Last night, my friend Bjorn was poking around WSS v3 using Reflector, and he found something interesting -->

   1:    private static bool TryForceDeactivateFeatureAnyway(Guid featid, string urlScope);   

   2:    Declaring Type: Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFeature

   3:    Assembly: Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0

Now, here is the exciting part. In the NEXT version of SharePoint, due for release in 2010, this method will no longer be "private", it will instead by "public".

This will allow you to write code as shown below ....

   1:  if (!TryForceDeactivateFeatureAnyway(featGuid, strScope))

   2:  {

   3:      SPFarm.Local.BlameSomeoneElse(strExcuse);

   4:  }

Good thinking on Microsoft's Part, because usually I have to give excuses in person in meetings, now I can do it right through code in a much more automated and efficient manner. And if you're still wondering, yes, this is a joke, there is nothing I know or can tell about v4.