Friday thoughts

Dear James, Daniel and Emily

Musing on different things today. Stayed home yesterday as Emily got another ear infection and I had to take her to the Dr. Back at work today, trying to catch up on the Internet boards. James and I have been learning to play the Star Wars pocket model card game, and having some fun with it.

There appears to be a genetic weakness in my kids on this ear infection thing. James had a few, although he is especially susceptible to strep throat. But Daniel kept getting ear infections, eventually having to get tubes put in. And this is 3 for Emily in 4 months, so as the Dr. said, if she gets another one too soon it may mean tubes for her as well. No fun. Poor Emily was just miserable yesterday, she would try to sleep, and wake up after 20-30 minutes crying, then try to get back to sleep. The longest she napped was the hour or so I had her laying on my chest while I slept. But she actually slept most of the night last night, and was in a much better mood this morning.

So I spend a lot of time arguing politics on the Gamers Haven site. And my primary opponent is a vehement libertarian, often arguing with him is like trying to convince a dog to act like a cat. But it is entertaining most of the time. And taking a day off means a whole days worth of arguments to catch up on and refute.

I came across great article today which goes a long way toward refuting this whole pile of crap that the McCain campaign is spouting about Obama being a socialist. The reality is that a graduated tax system is not socialist, and it is in fact a foundation of our economic system. What some people seem to forget is that programs like the New Deal, and many of the regulations that were dropped during the Reagan-Bush Era Republican administrations were there to 'save' Capitalism from itself, a fact that even Alan Greenspan has been forced to concede on some level.

So my friend Rob gave me some Promo packs for this Star Wars game. Initially I was going to hand them out in the goody bags for James' birthday, but Kim thought that wasn't a good idea so we kept them. So he and I have been punching out the ships and I watched the instructional video on their web site. So I decided to teach him the basic rules, and we have been having fun playing it. Now it is time to make the rules more complex, and possibly pick up a regular starter set. It's a fun little diversion for me, and James seems to really dig it.