Interesting Thanksgiving

Last night, Lisa and I went to the ecumenical Thanksgiving service. This year, it was at one of the Methodist churches. As usual, it was a beautiful service.

Today, we were supposed to go to Lisa's parent's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Before Lisa got up to go to work we got a call. Lisa's mom was sick. Change of plans. I pulled out a chicken from the freezer and went to the store. After Lisa got home from work, I made a nice little dinner here.

Later, it became obvious that our furnace was on the blink. I called a local place, fully prepared to pay a premium for the call. The guy comes out to the house, cleans the flame detector, shows me how to do it myself, and suggests that I do it before each heating season. He then says that since that was all it was, that he will pretend he wasn't even out here (IOW, free of charge). I was floored. So, any of y'all in the Watertown area need a new furnace, I am definitely going to suggest Klecker's. Real stand-up bunch of folks.

Well, I hope y'all had a good Thanksgiving. Later.

Busy Time of Year...

If you have been coming here looking for new posts or something, sorry. When combining Thanksgiving and Christmas and all the family events entailed therein with the year-end stuff that has to get done at work, this is a very, very busy time. Thus, I have not been blogging lately. I haven't really even been reading any posts that are more than 3 paragraphs long, either...

Anyhow, I'll try to keep in touch, but if you don't see anything here or see my comments elsewhere, it is probably not because I am dead or anything, just really busy, which I am thankful for.

Have a happy thanksgiving, and remeber to take the time to be thankful and to express that to those who are important to you.

Kurt Busch - Zero to Idiot in No Time

I remember seeing Kurt Busch race to the checkered flag in a truck race at the Milwaukee Mile. He was only about 18 or 19 years old at that time and had a great race. It was at that race that I became a fan of his. Since his moving into Nextel Cup a few years ago (when it was still the Winston Cup), he has really been alienating fellow drivers and fans alike.

For his latest issue, he was busted for erratic driving and is suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol. Bad idea, especially when you are sponsored by a liquor company.

Some of Jack Rouch's comments show just how much of a jag Kurt Busch has become. Team owners usually support their successful drivers. However, Busch is such a jag that, even though he has been successful, Rouch doesn't have much good to say about him (of course, the way Busch is handling his moving the Penske next year isn't helping matters any).

Jack Roush, Busch's current team owner, said he is glad the driver is "not my problem" next season after learning of the incident Saturday morning.

When told that Busch had gotten belligerent with police officers, Roush said with a big sarcastic smile, "Imagine that. It's so uncharacteristic of Kurt Busch."

On a final note, the latest news is that Rouch did the right and suspended Busch for the rest of the season.

Some People Were Just Born to be in Prison

A year of two ago, Steven Avery made headlines when he was released from prison after serving 18 years for a rape he did not commit. It was a case of mistaken identity, and he was exhonorated by DNA evidence. Now it looks like he is headed back to prison. This time, it is for murder, and this time the DNA evidence may convict him rather than exhonorate him.

Avery's mother's reponse is precious: "I don't know why the hell they do that stuff," she said of the plan to charge Avery with killing Halbach. "They must like wrecking people's lives."

Yes, those evil policemen who just get off on ruining your son's life. It is not like they found parts of a dead body on his property or anything. Oh wait, that's right, they did. Look, Ms. Avery, the first time they put your son away was a tragic mistake that never should have happened, but it is not like he was exactly squeaky clean, either.

So, I wonder, was his thought something like "well shit, dude, I already did the time, I may as well do the crime"?

Should the Packers Pick Up T.O.?

That is a question that is being tossed around in these parts. Popular opinion is no, but then again, T.O. is a total ass. Ass or not, the Packers could certainly use him. I think if Philly releases him, and we can actually pick him up off of waivers, then it's worth a shot. We can then always dump him if things don't work out. It is not really much of a risk for the Packers. Things can't really get any worse.

From the article:

Offensive lineman Grey Ruegamer said it would be a mistake to disrupt team chemistry for someone whose only focus is himself.

Really? What chemistry is that? The chemistry that has allowed you to get a whole whopping ONE win so far this season? The chemistry that has caused the offensive line to be one of the suckiest lines in the NFL? For that matter, why should anyone listen to someone who can't even be a starter on one of the suckiest offensive lines in the NFL?

Maybe a little "disruption of team chemistry" would be a good thing. The only thing I know is that it can't make things any worse. Of course, Philly is not likely to actually get rid of T.O. at this point.

UW System Hates God!

OK, not really. But they evidently have something against Christians, or at least Christians who are RAs and want to lead a bible study. What is the UW system afraid of? The Associate Director of Housing and Residence Life at UW Eau Claire, Deborah Newman, explains her concerns in an e-mail to the RA. Apparently, having an RA lead a bible study might put undo pressure on other residents, might cause the RA to not be available, and might otherwise conflict with RA duties.

Of course, the key word there is might. It seems to me that if any of those problems do occur, they can be handled on a case by case basis rather than enacting a pre-preemptive ban. Let's look a little more closely at some of Ms. Newman's e-mail.

As an RA you need to be available to your residents both in reality and from their perspective.

Someone please explain to me how leading a bible study in your own dorm room makes you any less available than if you were leading a study group, or any other such activity that is common in a dorm. The answer is that it doesn't. If the RA is needed, the bible study can be interrupted just as easily as any other study.

As a "leader" of a Bible study, one of the roles is to gather and encourage people to attend. These two roles have a strong possibility to conflict in your hall.

Then deal with that if it actually happens. The fact of the matter is that no one is going to feel any more pressured to attend a bible study if it is lead by the RA than if it is lead by someone else on the floor.

I just want to make sure we don't put ourselves in a position where we fail to meet the needs of all of our students, either on purpose or by accident!

Again, then deal with it if it happens. In my experience in living in dorms, the RA basically just keeps the peace and makes sure no one is doing anything blatantly illegal in their rooms. Sometimes, there may be a student having some issues that the RA may need to deal with, but for the most part they just keep some semblance of order. Leading a bible study is not going to interfere with this.

In the end, this is just another example of a school system violating someone's first amendment rights. They are so afraid of violating the establishment clause in some subtle way, but have no qualms about violating the "free expression thereof".

Update: According to a news report I saw on TV regarding this, the ACLU has weighed in on this, and suprise, suprise, they are on the school's side, even though the school is clearly violating the RA's civil rights (specifically, his right to freely express his religious beliefs).

Flyleaf

Video code provided by HotCodez.com


I downloaded Flyleaf's debut album from iTunes yesterday. I really like it. HotCodez only had the Breathe Today video. I was hoping they would have I'm So Sick, since that is a much stronger song. Oh well, this is good to.

The singer has a voice similar to Avril Lavigne, only without the silly, vapid, high school'ish lyrics. The band tends to have a heavier sound, but there are a couple of tunes on there were they start to sound a bit too much like Avril (still without the shallow, vapid lyrics of Avril, though, so it is tollerable).

Anyhow, if you like somewhat heavy rock fronted by a strong female voice (which is a combination I just love), then I would suggest you check Flyleaf out...