I've become so spoiled with Oracle's system of read consistency and multiversioning that nothing else comes close to making any sense. Tom doesn't name any names, but I'd like to know what DBMSes employ some of the insane logic that he describes "others" doing.
I've added Jeremy's blog to my blogroll now, and he's had some great write-ups. So he's got a better blog, appears to be younger, fitter, and much more knowledgable about Oracle than me. But I bet he doesn't have a son that makes awesome horse sounds. BEAT THAT SCHNEIDER.