We're getting a good taste of what the Midwest has had over the past few days - Rain ... and a lot of it and heavy at the moment.
Not that it is a bad thing right now because we are still in a drought even with all the rain the last two months but it drives Mac Duff to distraction.
I have never known a dog so afraid of rain - that and overweight cats!
Looking into those sad scared eyes pleading 'daddy make it go away' as he tries to get under my skin literally - and how does a 13 pound dog instantly weigh over 100 pounds when he's curled up on your chest?!
Things I am Pondering:
When did life get to be a job? Was it in Kindergarten? Or, maybe High School? Then again the first time you turned over in your crib?
Why are Yellow Freight trucks painted orange?
When is enough, enough?
Why are there obstacles on the road?
What is the meaning of life and did Monty Python really have the right answer?
How, do you make progress going backward?
Sunday, June 22, 2008
The Soap Opera Continues ... Part twentythree and three fifths
Polygamist leader's daughter wants new lawyer
A convicted polygamist leader's teenage daughter, who was among the children removed from her sect's Texas compound during an abuse investigation, is fighting her attorney's attempt to shield her from a church official.Teresa Jeffs, 16, is one of hundreds of children from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints with an attorney appointed by a state judge as part of a child welfare investigation into allegations of abuse. Her father is Warren Jeffs, the church's imprisoned president and prophet.
More than 400 children were rounded up as part of the Texas investigation and later released. Teresa Jeffs denies allegations by her attorney that she was forced into a spiritual marriage at age 15 with an older man and that she has a baby. She told The Associated Press on Sunday that she wants a new lawyer.
But the court-appointed attorney, Natalie Malonis, believes Jeffs is being swayed by a church official.
On Friday, Malonis successfully sought a restraining order against church spokesman Willie Jessop, who she said was intimidating and improperly influencing the girl.
"I believe that (the girl) was avoiding service because of coercion and improper influence from Willie Jessop," Malonis wrote the judge.
Malonis sought the protection order after the girl asked State District Judge Barbara Walther to release her from the case and appoint another attorney.
Jessop, a Utah-based member of the church, denies trying to influence Jeffs and criticized restrictions that prohibit her from visiting the sect's Yearning For Zion ranch near Eldorado, Texas.
Teresa Jeffs says she doesn't need and didn't approve of the restraining order and doesn't want Malonis as her lawyer anymore.
"I have asked her many times to please step aside," Teresa Jeffs told the AP by telephone on Sunday from Texas. "I need more help. I want my attorney to listen to me."
In one letter she released to the AP, Teresa Jeffs wrote: "Natalie, quit all your lying about everything." She asked Malonis to "let me get a different lawyer."
Malonis declined Sunday to respond to her client's complaints.
"I'm trying to help her," Malonis said. "It's really not in any child's interest to waive their attorney-client privilege. I'm not going to fight with her in the media."
Jeffs said she plans to appear Wednesday before a grand jury opening a criminal investigation into the polygamist group. The state attorney general's office refuses to confirm anything about the proceeding, saying it's secret under Texas law.
In 2003, the sect began moving some of its estimated 6,000 members to the YFZ ranch. Acting on an allegation of child abuse, Texas authorities raided the ranch April 3 and seized more than 450 children. A court returned the children this month, although a child welfare investigation continues.
Church members have traditionally made their homes in twin towns on the Utah-Arizona border. The church practices polygamy in arranged marriages, which have sometimes involved underage girls, resulting in criminal charges against some FLDS men.
The mainstream Mormon church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, renounced polygamy long ago.
Last year, a Utah jury convicted Warren Jeffs of two first-degree felony counts of rape as an accomplice for his role in the 2001 marriage between a 14-year-old follower and her 19-year-old cousin. He is currently in an Arizona jail awaiting trial on other charges related to marriages involving young girls.
*****
Round and round she goes - where she stops nobody knows!
Thanks to The 'Defective Yeti'
Typical Reaction to the Revelation That I Do Not Own a Cell Phone, By Year
1998: Solidarity ("Yeah, me neither--I hate those things!")
1999: Envy ("Lucky you; I had to get one for work.")
2000: Indifference ("Okay, what's your home phone number then?")
2001: Encouragement ("You should get one--you can play Tetris on them now!")
2002: Confusion ("I thought you were, like, a tech guy.")
2003: Sympathy ("They're getting pretty cheap. You'll be able to afford one soon.")
2004: Irritation ("So how am I supposed to get a hold of you?")
2005: Derision ("If we go out tonight I'll send you a fax.")
2006: Skepticism ("Are you serious?")
2007: Awe ("Wow, you're like the last one.")
2008: Incomprehension ("You don't ... how ...?")
*****
It is amazing that we got along so well with our lives before cell phones, isn't it?!
Miniature Paris replica made from trash
Gerard Brion's garden in the south France town of Vaissac contains a replica of Paris built from junk, trash, glue and paint.
LinkThe Frenchman, 29, has spent 15 years crafting landmarks including the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and Sacré Coeur out of old concrete blocks, baby food jars and soup tins.
Curry vs. obesity and diabetes?
Findings presented to ENDO 2008, the Endocrine Society's annual meeting in San Francisco this week, show that a spice found in curries has remarkable properties when administered to obese and diabetic mice:
"It's too early to tell whether increasing dietary curcumin [through turmeric] intake in obese people with diabetes will show a similar benefit," Dr. Tortoriello said. "Although the daily intake of curcumin one might have to consume as a primary diabetes treatment is likely impractical, it is entirely possible that lower dosages of curcumin could nicely complement our traditional therapies as a natural and safe treatment."LinkFor now, the conclusion that Dr. Tortoriello and his colleagues have reached is that turmeric – and its active anti-oxidant ingredient, curcumin – reverses many of the inflammatory and metabolic problems associated with obesity and improves blood-sugar control in mouse models of Type 2 diabetes.
Life (in prison) is too good for them!
Texas town reels from horrific abuse in its midst
In the windowless front rooms of a former day care center in a tiny Texas community, children as young as 5 were fed powerful painkillers they knew as "silly pills" and forced to perform sex shows for a crowd of adults.
Two people have already been convicted in the case. Now a third person with ties to the club, previously known in town only as a swingers group, is set to go on trial Monday not far from Mineola, population 5,100.
"This really shook this town," said Shirley Chadwick, a longtime resident of Mineola. "This was horrible."
Patrick Kelly, 41, is charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child, tampering with physical evidence and engaging in organized criminal activity.
In all, six adults have been charged in connection with the case, including a parent of the three siblings involved.
Jurors this year deliberated less than five minutes before returning guilty verdicts against the first two defendants, who were accused of grooming the kids for sex shows in "kindergarten" classes and passing off Vicodin as "silly pills" to help the children perform.
Jamie Pittman and Shauntel Mayo were sentenced to life in prison. Kelly also faces a life sentence if convicted, and Smith County prosecutors hope for another swift verdict.
Thad Davidson, Kelly's attorney, said his client passed a lie-detector test proving his innocence and worries about getting a fair trial in Tyler, 25 miles southeast of Mineola, which is in Wood County.
"I think it's impossible to get a fair trial within 80 miles of Smith County," Davidson said.
Mineola, about 80 miles east of Dallas, is a close-knit, conservative bean-processing town of with more than 30 churches. Residents there want to put the scandal behind them as quickly as possible.
The one-story building where prosecutors say four children - the three siblings, now ages 12, 10 and 7, and their 10-year-old aunt - were trained to perform in front of an audience of 50 to 100 once a week has been vacant since the landlord ousted the alleged organizers in 2004.
Down a slight hill is a retirement home, and even closer is the office of the local newspaper. Doris Newman, editor of The Mineola Monitor, said rumors of swinger parties spread around town but that no one mentioned children being involved.
Newman, who can see the building from her office window, said she remembers the parking lot filling up with more than a dozen cars at night.
In August 2004, an editorial under the headline "Sex In the City" opined that if the swingers left quietly, "we'll try and forget they've infiltrated our town with their set of moral standards."
"It's not that we're trying to look the other way," Newman said. "But there's a lot more to Mineola than that."
According to a Mineola police report, the department first investigated a complaint in June 2005 in which the siblings' foster mother said one of the girls described dancing toward men and another child saying that "everybody does nasty stuff in there."
In the second trial, Child Protective Services caseworker Kristi Hachtel testified, "I've seen a lot and I never in my wildest dreams imagined this. They were preyed upon in probably one of the most heinous ways possible."
The children are now doing better, the welfare agency said.
"Through counseling and therapy sessions, these children are now finally feeling secure and safe," agency spokeswoman Shari Pulliam wrote in an e-mail.
Permanent custody of the three siblings was given to John and Margie Cantrell. This week, prosecutors in California charged John Cantrell with sexually assaulting a child in the state 18 years ago. Margie Cantrell said her husband is innocent.
Kelly's attorney moved Friday asking to postpone the trial in light of the allegations against Cantrell, a state witness. Texas Child Protective Services said it would be "common" for the agency to investigate.
The Rev. Tim Letsch is opening a church in the yellow-plastered building where the children were abused. He acknowledges that building a congregation might be difficult because of the stigma attached to the property.
"You got to decide whether you're willing to forgive those kind of things," Letsch said. "It's a hard deal. Especially for a spiritual person to walk in and say, 'This happened here.'"
*****(From the AP)
Solstice came and I missed it.
No embolisms , but all day at the hospital was not how I had planned to spend my Solstice. Of course with her history of embolisms they are keeping her for a few days - so I am a 'bachelor' until at least Wednesday.
Now if I can only stay out of mischief ...
Now if I can only stay out of mischief ...
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