As the novacaine wears off...

I just had a root canal this morning -- number 4. My first one, 14 years ago, took 8 hours over the course of 2 visits. By the time I had the procedure the nerves had died, and the tooth had absessed, so the only pain for the procedure was the long sit with my mouth wide open. The second one (I don't remember when that one happened) was pretty much an identical situation, but with a different dentist. Number 3 was a year ago, and with the dentist I went to first -- except it was a vastly different experience. It took an hour, tops. I was stunned -- I'd taken the day off, loaded my MP3 phone with several hours worth of music -- I had prepared for the long haul. Suprise! This time I was prepared, only took a few hours off work, still took the MP3's, but didn't worry about stuffing the card full. But, because I'm getting more willing to do these things, I went in before everything had died -- so he had to spend a little extra effort with the novacaine. Which is now wearing off.

Oh, by the way, the one thing all 4 visits had in common? $800+ bills. OUCH...

Episcopalian Ultimatum

When I was in boot camp for the Navy, I was one of the company petty officers -- given the rather politically incorrect job as protestant religious petty officer. We didn't do much, say prayers at bedtime, offer to help someone with a problem get in to see a chaplain, make sure anyone who wanted to go to church could get to. One of the services we discovered we could go to were the Episcopalian services. These had the advantage of being offered Sunday Evening on the main side of the base (where normal people could be seen), so we could get away from the recruit training command for an hour or two on Sundays. It was also my first involvement with the liturgical style of worship.

Now, it would seem, the mother church has reprimanded the wayward American branch of the family. The Anglican church has told the Episcopal church to basically stop promoting homosexuality. Now, I know it sounds old fashioned, and narrow minded, and uncaring -- but please remember that this religion is based on a book that says this:

Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. (Leviticus18:22 KJV)

If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. (Leviticus 20:13 NIV)

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relation for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion (Romans 1:26-27 NIV)

This is not me saying this, this is not conservative church leaders -- these are the words of God, according to Episcopals (and any bible believing denomination) . By ignoring these verses these people are saying that God didn't really mean what he said, and if he didn't really mean that homosexuality was wrong, maybe he didn't really mean that adultery was wrong, and maybe it's ok to lie to your neighbor, and maybe there's no heaven or hell, and maybe Jesus really wasn't the only begotten son of God, and maybe he really married Mary Magdelene, and maybe believing any of the Bible is a complete waste of time.

This is a free country, and I support any one's desire to practice what ever (legal) sexual practice they want -- whether I approve of it or not is of no concern to anyone. But if you are going to be a follower of Christ, you have to follow his word (In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God John 1:1 NIV). If you want to be a religious gay person, choose a religion that doesn't condemn your behaviour -- don't expect those of us who genuinely believe the Bible to rewrite it for your own "perversions" (God's word, not mine). I heartily applaud the Anglican Church's call to return to the word of God, I hope the American Episcopal church heeds the call.

Open mouth, insert Apple -- I mean foot.

AUSTIN — Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs lambasted teacher unions today, claiming no amount of technology in the classroom would improve public schools until principals could fire bad teachers. ...

First, I should point out that Steve Jobs is fabulously wealthy because his company got the jump start on the market it needed because of teachers using his machines in class rooms. Second, he doesn't appear to know the old adage that goes, "Those who can -- do. Those who can't -- teach. Those who can't teach -- become school administrators." Third -- well, I guess I don't have a third point right now, other than to mention that Jobs is becoming less a forward thinking genius and more a self aggrandizing big mouth.

He claims "lifetime employment for teachers" is the reason behind the failure of our education system. Lifetime Employment is what turned several small Japanese car makers into huge companies that are slowing killing the big three automakers. And that "lifetime employment" leaves a teacher stuck at whatever school he or she is at, whether they like it or not. School districts seldom hire an experienced teacher full time -- it costs too much money. If they do hire one, they fire them at the end of the year -- so they don't have to offer them tenure. Teachers who worked at schools that have closed because of budget cuts and/or declining enrollments have an extremely difficult time finding new positions. Sometimes they get lucky and get in with a private school -- at sharply reduced pay.

Yes, there are some bad teachers, but the vast majority of them are good. And too many of them put in too many hours, and too much of their own money trying to educate kids with too little help from the parents to have to put up with a rich, greedy, bigmouth cutting them down.

He's probably mad that too many schools switched from apples to PC's...

Score another one for the forces of Political Correctness...

The University of Illinois is giving up it's Mascot, Chief Illiniwek. For years the PC crowd has been trying to get rid of him -- protesting to the students and staff, and even the state government. But every time they tried, the people said "Keep the Chief". So they finally went to the NCAA -- obviously us backward Illinoisans weren't going to give in to their bullying, so they went to the only outside body that could do them any good, and would listen to them.

Disclosure time -- my great grandmother (or possibly my great great grandmother, I'm not exactly sure) was half Cherokee. I am not enough of a fan of genealogy to trace every last possible ancestor to see if I am descended from a person listed on the Dawes List (which would allow me to apply for citizenship in the Cherokee Nation). Most of my heritage is Anglo Saxon (and fairly heavy on the Scottish) -- with a great Grandfather coming to this country from Ireland when he was but a young lad. So unless some one offers the documentation for me to become Cherokee, my investment in Native American interests is somewhat limited.

The latest word is that they're going to go after the name "Fighting Illini" next. Yippee. You know what? The Illiniwek tribe is pretty much forgotten these days. You never see them mentioned in movies, or in the news opening a new casino (nothing crass or commercial about that, is there). You take away the reference to them for the University, they'll be forgotten in 20 years. They'll be a mere footnote in history as the source for the name of our state -- unless of course the PC nuts start demanding that we rename the state.

Here's what they should have done...

Tribal leaders and the University could have worked together to start a scholarship available to young Native Americans to attend the university and be one of a rotating group of mascots. A couple of times each year they could have had representative come to events and perform genuine tribal dances as a way of educating the rest of us on the culture. Instead of taking advantage of an opportunity to share a fading bit of our past, the PC culture of victimization will doom more people to marginalization.

Wow, how's that for a big word...

Am I Missing Something?

I could have sworn there was something else posted here, but I can't for the life of me remember what...

Another non-personal Apple post...

Again, Apple shows it's arrogance -- and I'm not referring to the "Apple doesn't need a major hardware upgrade to use the new OS", just look at a the previous posts to see all that I had to do to get my iMac up to speed for OS/X. No, this is all about the wonderful iPhone Lawsuit. Steve Jobs is trying to use something that doesn't belong to him -- again.

This isn't like his company name (the first time someone sued Apple for trademark infringement) -- The iPhone from Apple is a telephone, just like the Iphone from Linksys is a telephone. They may do things differently, but in the end, the main function is to let 2 people talk to each other. The solution to this whole mess was really simple, and could have easily been done -- before Jobs opened his mouth.

Call the stupid thing an iCell! The iMac isn't called the iComputer, even though that's what it is. The iPod isn't called the iPortable Music Player, even though that's what it is. So would it have killed them to call their new smart CELL phone the iCell instead of iPhone (especially since they knew the name was already used). But I'm sure Steve Jobs (who also flagrantly violated SEC regulations concerning stock option dating) decided he could do whatever he wanted to. Again. Except this time he's going up against someone more his size.

Better yet, just imagine if all those Cisco routers connecting the Internet suddenly started dropping traffic to and from apple machines...

Distractions

It's been a while since I've posted -- I know, shame on me. I've been distracted though -- I've had yet another tooth die on me, so there's been the litany of pain to go through (my root canal isn't until the end of the month). The visit to my regular dentist has opened up the possibility of a new hobby -- pinball machines. Before Christmas my wife pointed out a home pinball machine in the Best Buy flyer, so I got it for her for Christmas. When we were younger, we'd go up to the arcade from time to time, and she'd spend several dollars each time playing the Time Machine pinball game ($2400 on eBay, I looked). She plays this new one occasionally -- it's not a real machine though, it's about 3/4 size -- and though it has real flippers and bumpers, the ball feed is manual - the back "glass" is a sticker on a plastic panel, and the tilt detection is non existent. He has an old Hokus Pokus machine in storage, good condition, that I might be able to get for less than the toy machine -- and he knows a guy who has 3 machines that are missing the back glasses (a big sin as far as collecting goes), but apparently work otherwise. These could be had even cheaper...

I've also been eBaying for Harleys. This is probably the cheapest time to buy that I'm going to get -- once it gets warmer the prices will start going up. In fact, I've got a second chance offer on a dressed out soft tail fatboy for under $10,000 -- it has the looks I've always liked in Harleys: saddlebags, windscreen, passenger backrest, long pipes, classic paint job, chrome. The only down side is that I'd be paying the same amount for a brand new 1100 Vstar Silverado that I would for a 12 year old 12000 mile Harley. Still, it could be worth it -- maybe I'll be heading to Mattoon this weekend to check it out...

And last, but certainly not least, I've had health problems. More than just the teeth, although I'm sure they're a big part of it. I spent most of last weekend dealing with nose bleeding -- not just a little seepage, but the big "OMIGOSH WHAT HAPPENED" kind of stuff. Besides having my blood thinned out too much by the ibuprofen for the tooth ache, and having a sinus infection as well -- my blood pressure was stoopid high. So, now I'm on antibiotics and otc claritin for my sinuses, off the ibuprofen for my tooth (just the occasional Tylenol if it gets too bad), and on some other stuff for my blood pressure.

But I finally got this posted...