Can your iPhone operating system make you sick? Apparently so.

iPhone users all over the country who have downloaded the new Apple iOS 7 are claiming that the new operating system is making them sick. They claim the icons flying into the screen and the other animations make them feel "car sick." I am having a really hard time believing that the motion from a tiny iPhone screen can have that effect on someone. I have to admit I downloaded the new operating system with some trepidation: I had heard that it was a battery hog, so I did some research and turned off many of the settings, including the one that makes the icons seem to float on the home screen. That seems to be the source of most of the discomfort by users. Still, even that feature seems to be a stretch as a cause of being sick. One user stated "Have headaches and nausea for past 3 days. Can't stand to look at my phone screen anymore while opening/closing apps. I just close my eyes or look away." Hmmmm. Maybe it's just a case of tearing yourself away from the phone instead of staring at it constantly throughout every waking minute. Step away from the phone........

A Man-made "Natural Backyard Playground?" What Next?

The NC Natural Sciences Museum just unveiled its new "Natural Backyard Playground" in Raleigh. At a cost of $10,000 this playground features "A new natural play area with tunnels, digging sites and water experiments for young children..." “It’s very much a trend in the natural sciences to have a space like this,” said Emlyn Koster, the museum’s new director. I remember playing in a place like that. It was the large area of woods behind our neighborhood. I would disappear for hours, play in the creek,catch crawfish, imagine a fallen tree was a pirate ship and have sword fights with sticks. Have we gotten to the point where we have to build "natural" places to play so that parents can continue to "helicopter" over their kids? The article quotes one girl's mom as saying “I think it’s everything – in terms of her intellectual development and fostering her curiosity, the natural world is everything.” I guess the natural world is everything, even if its man-made. http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/09/26/3230280/nc-natural-sciences-museum-build.html

Paris Takes On Free Enterprise and Competition-Big Brother at Work

According to an article I saw today a Paris court of appeals has issued a ruling that forbids a cosmetics store on the famous Champs Elysées to stay open past 9:00 pm. instead of its regular closing hour of midnight or 1:00 am. The reason? The unions think that employers are taking unfair advantage of the workers by making them work "anti social" hours. the only thing is, half of the staff who work the long hours do it voluntarily, and get paid 25% more than the day shift. The store, Sephora, says it does 20% of its business after 9:00 pm, and many of the workers have signed a petition against the ruling. Sephora is not the only one affected. Apple has been forced to close at 9:00 as well, and Abercrombie and Fitch will face legal action soon. Retailer H&M had to fight to open on the street after the city ruled that it would be "one clothing store too many." Well, Paris has an unemployment rate of more than 10%, so you would think the unions would be fighting to help create more jobs, instead of fighting against them. The article states "France has a raft of regulations governing shopping, and its labor unions ensure that they are strictly enforced. As well as strict limits on opening and closing hours, the rules only allow sales during certain periods of the year, price promotions are circumscribed, loss leaders are illegal, store sizes are limited and even the types of shops allowed to open up are regulated." Wow! Is that where America might be headed? Instead of letting a business decide what hours to open, what to charge, how much profit (or not) even what kind of shop you can open, in Paris it is now up to "Big Brother." George Orwell died in 1950, but it looks like his 1984 prediction is finally coming true, just 29 years late.

Rewriting Tom Sawyer: Another PC Move Gone Awry

News stories this week report that a new edition of Mark Twain's classic "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "Tom Sawyer" will be release in February. The new edition will replace the "N-word" with the word "slave." The word appears in Finn over 200 times, Tom Sawyer four times.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/01/04/new-edition-removes-mark-twains-offensive-words/

The problem I have with this is that use of words such as that is what makes the books what they are. Twain was a gifted author whose books offer is a window to the time when they were written. While it is not correct to use the "N-word" today, in Twain's time that's how people spoke.

In addition to replacing the N-word, the revision changes the villain in "Tom Sawyer" from "Injun Joe" to "Indian Joe" and "half-breed" becomes "half-blood."

To meddle with such as classic as Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer is to rob us of appreciating Twain's work and reflection of his time. Twain himself said "the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter."

When will the political correctness madness stop? What's next? Will we modify Adolph Hitler's speeches to remove his derogatory references to Jews?

Remember years ago when Ted Turner came up with the idea to colorize old black & white classic movies, to make them more "up to date."? Classic movie scholars lashed back strongly, and the process was discontinued.

Let's hope the same common sense comes back again, when we think about changing classic written works.

Keep your Christmas Cheer to youself? I don't think so!

Okay, this recent news story has to take the cake. A high school group calling themselves the "Christmas Sweater Club" finds itself being disciplined by the school for spreading a little Christmas cheer.

http://princewilliamcounty.wusa9.com/content/christmas-sweater-club-punished-local-high-school

The students wear the craziest Christmas sweaters they can find, sing Christmas songs and try to spread a little Christmas cheer to their fellow students. Now they are in trouble and sentenced to dentention and two hours of cleaning.

The violation: throwing out candy canes to their fellow students.

The charges went from intent to "maliciously maim students with the intent to injure" (you could sharpen the ends of the candy canes and use them as weapons) to littering.

But the issue seems to go deeper than that. It seems the adminstration just thinks the ten youths should just keep their Christmas cheer to themselves.

One mother said she was told by a school adminstrator "not everyone wants Christmas cheer. That suicide rates are up over Christmas, and that they should keep their cheer to themselves, perhaps."

First, its just an urban legend that suicide rates go up over Christmas, there is no evidence that is true. Second, no one has the right to tell anyone to "keep their cheer to themselves."

Similar stories are appearing this season. One story reported that we should refrain from displaying Christmas trees because atheists and other unbelievers might feel "left out" or it might depress them.

Give me a break. Take your cue from the members of the Christmas Sweater Club. The news report says they are still wearing the sweaters, and singing their songs.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Finally! Some common sense in this absurd politically-correct world!

Small town bank employees wear Merry Christmas buttons. Small town bank puts a daily Bible verse on its website. Big bad Feds (read Scrooge) say its not allowed.

That was the situation earlier this week when the Payne County Bank in Oklahoma was told by the Federal Reserve that the symbols were "inappropriate" and had to be removed. It cited the the discouragement clause of Regulation B of the bank regulations. According to the clause, "...the use of words, symbols, models and other forms of communication ... express, imply or suggest a discriminatory preference or policy of exclusion." Whaaaattttt?

Well, after a national outcry, the number two man at the Fed notified the bank that it could put the decorations back up, and restore the daily Bible verse on its website. A little common sense, thank you!

http://www.koco.com/news/26174152/detail.html


What has this country come to. It's CHRISTmas! We seem to worry more about offending non-believers that protecting the rights of Christians to freely practice our beliefs.

I loved one of the responses to KOCO 5, the TV station the aired the story: "They may take the symbols of God off the walls and the building,but the whole bank is filled with 'In God We Trust.' Take that Federal Reserve."

I couldn't have said it any better.

Michelle Obama: "Stay out of my kitchen!"

Well, the Nanny-State has finally shown its true colors. At the December 13 signing of the new "Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act," First Lady Michelle Obama said out loud what we all suspected the liberals have been thinking but haven't said: parents are not smart enough to decide what is best for their own kids. She stated that "We just can't leave it up the the parents" to decide what our kids eat.

http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-spokane/michelle-obama-on-child-nutrition-we-can-t-just-leave-it-up-to-the-parents

Now granted, we may not all make the best decisions when raising our kids. My wife and I certainly made our share of mistakes. But I don't think anyone sets out with the intention to be a bad parent. Our son ate his share of Mickey D's fries, chicken nuggets and Happy Meals growing up. Is he obese? No, and never has been. He played sports, camped, enjoyed hiking and high adventure and stayed active, he needed those calories to feed that high metabolism.

Outlawing toys with Happy Meals (i.e. San Francisco) isn't going to be the answer. If a parent who has run out of patience wants to drive through the fast food drive-in because the kids are screaming in the back, not getting a toy will not make a difference. Three dollars is a small price to pay to get the kids fed and quiet.

Parents will not stop buying fast, convenient food for their kids. McDonald's chief executive Jim Skinner said as much when he described those against Happy Meals as the "food police" and accused them of undermining the decisions they make for their families.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/77523de6-06f7-11e0-8c29-00144feabdc0.html#axzz187EqJo5O

“We’ll continue to sell Happy Meals,” Mr Skinner, told the Financial Times, referring to the new San Francisco rule that takes effect in 2011. The new rule “really takes personal choice away from families who are more than capable of making their own decisions”.

Interesting war of words between Mr. Skinner and the First Lady.

I noticed that McDonald's has launched a counter campaign of sorts. I viewed a commercial recently that emphasized that each Happy Meals sold helps support the Ronald McDonald House. The phrase "Hope is good" is repeated throughout the ad (apparently a jab at Obama).

The liberals are constantly telling the conservatives to stay out of their bedrooms. I say, liberals stay out of my kitchen!