Road Apples, #92

On This Date...in 1945 United States Marines raised a flag on Mt Suribachi in Iwo Jima.  That gave us THIS famous picture.  These days kids talk about "heroes" and more often than not refer to sports figures or entertainers.  Want some real heroes?  Read about the U.S. Marine Corps.

Ubuntu...I've been running Ubuntu 10.04 on this laptop for three days now.  I installed Ubuntu because I had a virus on my Vaio that I just couldn't get rid of, and besides, the thought of re-installing Windows XP for the fourth time just seemed maddening.  What's my verdict so far?

• Speed...my laptop boots up in about a third the time as it did with Windows.  Practically light speed.
• Look...the interface is really, really clean.
• Intuition...I've found the commands and controls to be exceptionally intuitive.  I was able to easily, without any reading, change some of my key display settings.

All told I am very happy with the switch.  Now I'll note that I haven't tried any of my disc drives and I haven't connected my printer/scanner yet.

Confirmed...Wegmans is the best place to buy fine baking chocolate.  Trust me, I have first hand knowledge of this very fact.  Oh, and I do know chocolate, as it is my favorite vegetable.

Wisconsin...I have been fighting the urge to rant about events in Wisconsin.  Why?  First, I don't consider myself to be a "union guy".  I have never been in a labor union and I never want to be in a labor union (unlike my very conservative younger brother...who hates unions...but who, as a government employee, has always been in a union...but so I digress).   Anyway, my personal feelings aside, I do believe that people should have the right to join a union if they so desire.  That is a separate issue from the economic issues facing state and local governments.  Governmental employees should not have benefit packages that are richer than those in the private sector, but that is separate issue from employee unionization rights.  This especially means that they should contribute to the cost of their own health care (for example, many teachers in the state of New Jersey do not pay a thing for health care).  The notion that a union should be re-certified every year insane.  Why not require that non-union employer have a election every year to confirm that the employees don't want a union?

Perhaps, just perhaps, Governor Walker's actions have more to do with reducing the political power of Democrats than they do with solving the very real budgetary issues facing Wisconsin. 

Bottom line for me:  Governor Walker should separate the economic issues from the union busting. Cloaking one in the other is shady at best, sleazy at worst.

Health Front...My ribs are almost completely mended, although I still get some pain when I move in certain ways.  I have had something of a latent headache over the past week, but I'm not sure if that's from the tons of Advil I've been taking, not taking Vicodin any more or the fact that I lost my glasses a week or so ago.  Getting old stinks.

One Final (but very happy) Note...Yes, happy days are here again, as Beavis and Butthead are returning to MTV.  Story link HERE.  A lot of people who don't like B&B have that opinion because they think the show somehow glorifies the worst of teenage behavior, which is not case.  B&B is a parody of stupid teenagers, and is, in my opinion, incredibly funny.