Atomictumor

Word around the campfire is that the state has laid down the hammer on public smoking, with the house passing a bill 84-10 that would ban smoking in all public places but bars.

Now, I was on the fence about this back in March of last year, and am still kinda there now, maybe more so.

My problem is I don’t like seeing the Man telling people what they can and can’t do in their business. A private business should be just that, private. Market forces should be driving health initiatives, ideally. If Joe the diner operator wants to allow people to smoke, thats his right, but he should be aware that he’s going to lose the business of people who aren’t interested in getting smokey second hand death with their grilled cheese.

When the government steps in (and this is where I’m going to be looking all Ruby Ridge, so just bear with me) telling people what they can and can’t do, it moves us one step further from a free state, and I have a basic fundamental problem with that.

Yes, smoking is bad, and Flo the waitress will very likely get sick breathing Jack the Truck Drivers cigarette smoke working at the diner. Its unfair to Flo to have to either find another job or jeopardize her health by working there, I conceed that, but thats freakin’ capitalism for you.

I like the idea of taxing smokes. Make em unaffordable, sure, because that’d still be the market correcting the problem. I’d get all behind the idea of having to make a bar, or restaurant, or whatever get a smoke license, laying down money that would go to funds to pay for workplace second hand smoke sufferers, sure, that’d work too.

Bannination, tho, is unamerican.

When the hell did I become such a capitalist?

Wingnut is on his second round of antibiotics in so many weeks[edit: 3rd in three weeks] all for a hardy ear infection. He appears to have picked up a runny nose from Lugnut. Eaves and I were up with him off and on last night. To make matters worse, the antibiotic has upset his stomach. On the bright side, we’re using cloth diapers now so we don’t have to throw away those diapers he’s blowing through. :)

Then there’s Lugnut who had to come home early from nursery school yesterday. He has the afore mentioned head cold. Right now he’s lounging on the couch. No he’s up and wants to play with the dog. Now he has a flash light.

October has a fouled up ear lobe from one of her new earrings.

Spotz and the Missus are wearing biohazard suits and I also have our friendly head cold which I’ll name, Reginald, or Reggie for short.

Want one, too?

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Two are sick this morning. The Missus and October both have a stomach bug. I’ve called in sick so I can clean up after them. So far I don’t feel so bad, save I can’t see straight at times because of the pollen in the air. Is you vehicle covered in a yellow dusting? Is that pine pollen or what?

We’ve been working on putting down pea-pebbles near the front foundation of the house. Wal*Mart has bags of them cheap @ $2.47 a bag. Well, it’s cheaper than Lowes. If I don’t start puking I’m going spread the thirteen I bought this morning when I went out for the necessary ginger ale.

So, yesterday MastaG had his dental checkup, and of course, him being of prime “make money off his teeth” age, they referred me to an orthodontist for an overbite problem.  I was waiting for this.

While I never had braces myself, I’ve always had an overbite.  Mom was told that I’d need braces, and I think not getting them was great, seeing as how

• Middle school sucks enough without metallic pain on your teeth
• I had a tendancy to get migraines
• They’re hella expensive
• No problems later in life.

Now, ol’ MastaG fits the first three settings there, and doesn’t have any eating/biting/mouthy problems that he complains of now.  He does have a snaggletooth, where a tooth is determined to grow in where it doesn’t have room, but nothing that affects him negatively.

So, why get braces?  America does have a certain amount of a straight tooth fixation that other countries in the world lack, and the way I see it, as long as his teeth and mouth are otherwise healthy, I don’t want to put the boy or my wallet through the trouble of braces.  I know, in my case, the mouth pressure would have triggered headaches, and I have a feeling for him that it would.  I don’t see the point in putting him in pain for vanity.

Problem is, I doubt an orthodonsist, who sees my kids mouth as a boat payment, would necessarily tell me “Well, by the standards we like to set in the AMA, in that he doesn’t have a ‘perfect’ set of teeth, he could use braces, but for all practical purposes they wouldn’t do him any good”.

That’d be super, but hell, everybodys gotta make a buck, right?

So, whats a boy to do?  My instinct, and MastaG’s request, is to avoid braces if at all possible.  He had a clean bill of dental health otherwise, no cavities or nastyness, so I’m wondering.

Hmm.

And so I submit it to the Atomictumor Hive Mind, what do you figure?  Of course, I’ll take him to the orthodontist, have the guy check it out, and if it looks like there’ll be developmental problems that’ll crop up, we’ll suck it up and do it.