The NCAA is requiring the complete removal of Native American imagery from teams that participate in NCAA events. Hey, that’s fine. They voted on it, and so they can make the rules.

Interestingly, the Seminole tribe in Florida and the Ute tribe in Utah have both approved the current usage of their names and symbols by the teams using them (The Florida State University Seminoles and the Utah State University Utes). The NCAA didn’t ask THEM, though. They just had their vote, and decided that Native American team names and mascots were insensitive and racist and had to be phased out.

I wonder… how long will it be before the states of Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas, and Iowa are asked to change their names? And then there’s the cities of Omaha, Sioux Falls, and Minnetonka (off the top of my head) that will need to be renamed. And poor Dakota Fanning… by the time she’s a budding starlet with an ID that will get her into bars, she’ll have to prove not only that she’s 21, but that she has actual Dakota ancestry if she wants to use that name.

You want irony? The NCAA met in Indianapolis to make this decision (the word “Indian” has been decried as racist when applied to Native Americans, so obviously “City of the Indians” would have to go), and they lauded the University of Iowa as a model example for not using ANY Native American mascots, names, or imagery (except, of course, for the name “Iowa.”)

If we play our cards right, we can completely erase any and all linguistic and cultural evidence that somebody lived here in North America before the european folk moved in. And then we wouldn’t have to worry about racism at all, right? How much momentum does this stupid PC pendulum have left in it, anyway?

–Howard

Last night I slammed two Lortab and a Soma at 11:30pm. At 11:45 I turned on my sleepy-time music (Vangelis Oceanic) and climbed into bed. I looked at the clock and thought “it’s been almost twenty minutes… where’s the brick?”

You know, the brick that is supposed to hit me, letting me know the drugs are starting to work? THAT brick.

11:46pm — I look back at the clock, still no brick.

6:45am — I wake up wondering what time I got hit by the brick. I never even saw it coming.

And now, the good news: Sandra said at one point I rolled over onto my right side. Since I don’t remember waking up screaming, I must have slept through it.

I just read that The DaVinci Code author Dan Brown won his suit against The Daughter of God author Lewis Perdue.

I love this quote:

Perdue alleged that Brown copied the basic premise of Daughter of
God, including notions that history is controlled by victors, not
losers, and the importance of the Roman Emperor Constantine in
requiring a transition from a female- to a male-dominated religion.

The Constantine bit aside, who does Lewis Perdue think he is, trying to “copyright” the notion that history is controlled by the victors?

Oooh! I’m going to copyright the “notion” that the Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies are on a collision course! While I’m at it, I’ll copyright the “notion” that mercenaries are people who will perform acts of violence in exchange for money!

Based on what Perdue was asking for, it’s a good thing he lost the suit. I could care less whether Dan Brown won.

–Howard

I went swimming this morning. It works out my shoulder nicely through the full range of motion, but the water was cold enough (read that “cooler than my body temperature”) that my back, shoulder and neck started to seize up.

Let’s rewind 12 hours. When I went to bed last night I was in a TERRIBLE mood, and I decided NOT to take any drugs. The pain kept me awake, on and off, until 4am. At 4:45 I muttered some epithet or another and took two of my last three Lortab and one of my last two Soma. Sleep came quickly, and I felt really good. Good enough to go swimming with the family at 10:30am.

After the swim I realized something: As long as I behave sensibly during the day, I only really need the painkillers at night. Without them, I don’t get enough rest.

So… contrary to my original plan, I’ve gotten some more Lortab, and some more Soma. I’ll keep taking them until I can sleep without ’em, and that probably means being on the drugs every night until I can roll over on my right side and not notice.

I hate being dependent on drugs. I hate pain-induced insomnia more. Hopefully I’m striking the right balance here.

–Howard