In Response to Don

First of all, the Easter service we attended this church was lovely...the pastor apparently started there in '03, so I was like "ooh, look who's been at his profession LESS time than me?! ha! Hey, kiddo...you old enough to preach?" Sorry, I've been waiting to dish that at someone for four years... But he has an earring, so I thought of Don. Also, he preached from the end of Mark, and was happy to point out that the concluding text (after "and they were afraid") was all added a coupla centuries later. So I thought, wow, that's pretty ballsy.... shooting down the inerrancy thing in the first 2 minutes of your Easter sermon! But he did a great job tying the whole piece together so as to not be detrimental to the Ressurection and the faith as a whole. Kinda cool.

Don says, "This wave of anti-smoking legislation has come as the result of those of us who do not feel we should have to breathe others' smoke saying, "If they want to smoke, fine, but I should not be forced to breathe it.""

True. But you don't have to breathe it. There are tons of non-smoking bars that you're welcome to go to, just as there should be smoking bars for smokers. Most of us aren't so inclined to watch naked women dance, SOooooo we don't go to Club Secrets. (inside Columbus joke; I was sad to see that place go, cuz every time we drove past, Rachel or I would say in a cartoon-like falsetto, "NEEWWWdie bar!".... not unlike Randall in Clerks says it.)

I've gotten to the point, now that I'm "old" that I don't care to watch college kids "dancing" at their "clubs." So I go to other clubs. I feel we should let the market decide. If all the hospitality employees STOP working at those smoking facilities, then they'll go under. If no one patronizes them, same deal. -I- for one would like people to stop attending knee-jerk right-wing fundamentalist "churches" like Rev. Phelps' in Kansas, but I wouldn't suggest legislating against people attending the church of their choice (even if they do espouse hate.)

My point is: are smokers really SO bad, in their limited bar-space left to them that you have to force them outside to freeze in 15 degree weather during the winter? Granted, smoking under those conditions is doubly ironic, as A) you have to have your fingers extended to grip the butt (ha! I said grip the butt...) which makes them colder and B) the nicotine causes peripheral vasoconstriction, thereby making them even COLDer. Funny, ironic, but mean, I think.

Yep, Don...the Cerec machine has been in existence for at least 10 years, I believe; they're on the third generation of it now...or maybe the fourth. Bill Thompson at Grandview Dental has one and my mom has a couple of those crowns.

I didn't hear the NPR on amalgam/composite, but I did read a new mailing from the ADA that sites some new J. of the Am. Med Assoc studies that provide MORE evidence that the mercury therein does nothing to harm kids behavior, learning and cognition and their kidney function. So.

Last thought: How many of you would think it's odd if you went to the dentist, and instead of telling you if you had cavities or not, they said, "Well, we'll look at the xrays later and call you if anything shows up."? just curious.