I had delayed getting my Saturn Vue smog checked for a very long time; I paid the registration fee, but the vehicle needed to have the brakes replaced and getting a smog check costs money too, and so I put it off until we could afford it.<\/p>\n
So, today I took it in to be checked (yes, I got a pass from the DMV so I could drive it); although it passed on both emissions and visual inspection, because the OBD System was \u201cnot ready to test\u201d it failed. Emissions were as follows:<\/p>\n
CO (carbon monoxide) at 728 RPM (idle) could be a maximum of 1 per cent. My car put out 0.02 per cent.<\/p>\n
CO at 2500 RPM could be a maximum of 1 per cent. My car put out 0.01 per cent.<\/p>\n
Hydrocarbons could be a maximum of 100 parts per million. My car puts out 0, both at idle and at 2500 RPM.<\/p>\n
But because the OBD (on board diagnostic) system wasn\u2019t up and running like it should, I failed. And what does it mean that my OBD system wasn\u2019t \u201cready to test\u201d\u2014it means that I need to drive the car so it fills up with data; the reason it was not ready to test is because we had let it sit for a long time, then replaced the battery, so it was, essentially, cleared. At least the fix is easy. But I must admit to being puzzled by the State of California. If the purpose of the smog check is to see to it that emissions are kept to a minimum, then why does anything else matter? I have hardly any emissions. About the only way it would be better is if my car is electric. But because the OBD wasn\u2019t working? I don\u2019t understand. I suppose there\u2019s a reason besides just the bureaucratic.<\/p>\n
This is the same smog place I\u2019ve been going to since I\u2019ve lived here in Lancaster and I\u2019m happy with them. The nice man who did the smog test today was very friendly and gregarious. He asked me what I did and I told him I was an author, which he found interesting. He told me he had been a university professor before he came to the US six years ago, and that he also was a computer programmer\u2014he taught computer science and he\u2019s hoping to move to Seattle soon for a job up there\u2014he\u2019s got family there who work for Microsoft.<\/p>\n
So he had some questions about writing, and how to keep the text from drifting off into other subjects; he told me, in essence, that he easily gets off on bunny trails\u2014he finds something fascinating, it triggers ideas, and off he goes. He told me his students would complain about that tendency. He also kept telling me he likes to talk a lot, which was certainly true.<\/p>\n
I enjoyed listening to him, and tossing in ideas about how to write; I explained how I fix that sort of problem in rewrites\u2014that you just get the book done first, and then you go back and excise the extraneous material and rearrange things to fit the outline you created ahead of time. He likes to outline and organize before he gets started\u2014though, as he said, he has a problem ignoring the outline once he starts writing.<\/p>\n
Later he asked me what sorts of books I write and I told him science fiction and religious books. He then asked me if I\u2019d written anything about Islam. I told him I hadn\u2019t, though I had read the Quran in translation a couple of times.<\/p>\n
He asked me if he could tell me about Islam briefly (which turned into much longer than anyone\u2019s definition of brief, but he really did enjoy talking to me a lot).<\/p>\n
So he talked to me about the differences between Islam and Christianity and explained that while Islam is logical, Christianity is not. And he spent some time discussing issues he had with the trinity and the various attempts to give analogies, such as the egg (yolk, white, shell). He also didn\u2019t like the concept of God \u201cresting\u201d after creating the universe\u2014how could God be tired? And he didn\u2019t think it was reasonable that God would wrestle with Jacob\u2014how could God come down and be a man and allow a man to challenge him. In Islam, God is entirely transcendent.<\/p>\n
He also couldn\u2019t understand how or why God would have a son\u2014how could he need a companion or someone to rely on? And he explained that it made no sense for God to exist and then at some point form the Son and then the Holy Spirit. <\/p>\n
He thought it strange that most Christians, in his estimation don\u2019t think, and they don\u2019t read the Bible\u2014unlike Moslems who have to read the Quran every day. He also found it peculiar that the names of God and Jesus change from place to place in the world\u2014that in Spanish the name of Jesus is pronounced entirely differently than it is in English. He also talked about the variation from place to place with the word God, or Jehovah, or Yahweh.<\/p>\n
Unlike Christianity, in Islam, you pray to God only in Arabic, and you carefully learn how to pronounce it, and so no matter where you go, US, Saudi Arabia, Germany, China\u2014it is always Alahu Akhbar. And the Quran is studied only in Arabic, and read only in Arabic.<\/p>\n
He explained that Shiites are not Muslim at all, because they venerate a man, and that only the Suni are truly Muslim. <\/p>\n
He explained how in Islam the men who go to war, to fight jihad, expect to either be victorious or to die trying\u2014and that either one is a win for them. Unlike Americans who want to come home to their families and houses and cars. A Muslim leaves his family, leaves everything, and will either win or die.<\/p>\n
Under Islam, there is only the rule of Islam, no democracy; if you fight against Islam, then you will die. If you don\u2019t fight, then you are free to believe what you will. But if you don\u2019t accept Islam, then you must preach only in your churches\u2014and you cannot build new ones\u2014and you can worship only at home. And you must pay a tax for the privilege. He extolled the advantages of punishing wrongdoers publically and extremely: if you steal, we cut off your left hand. Do it again, your right. And how many people will steal when they see that sort of swift justice; having a lengthy trial, putting them in prison, how does that keep someone from misbehaving. You hang adulterers in the public square, let everyone see\u2014and the men and women will be constrained from that sort of thing. Same with homosexuality.<\/p>\n
He sees the conflicts, the wars in the Middle East and the beginning of the end times\u2014the great battle when Islam will become dominate. <\/p>\n
He only briefly mentioned Israel as a place that he expected Islam to soon rule over.<\/p>\n
After I had paid for the smog check\u2014he told me to pick out a drink from the cooler\u2014he liked to do that for good friends and customers. And he told me if I had any questions, or wanted to talk more, he was always open to it. We shook hands repeatedly and he kept wanting to chatter on, but said he really should stop and let me go. Which he finally did.<\/p>\n
It was an interesting discussion. He was very nice, very friendly, and I enjoyed talking with him. <\/p>\n
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