Texas Polygamy: the soap opera continues

More than two months after being forced to return children from a polygamist sect to their parents, Texas child welfare authorities want eight of the youngsters put back in foster care.
Individual hearings for the four mothers of the children, ranging in age from 5 to 17, are set to begin Monday.
Child Protective Services has asked Texas District Judge Barbara Walther to return the children to foster care because their mothers allegedly have refused to limit their contact with men accused of being involved in underage marriages.
"We continue to have concerns in particular for these eight children, which is why we have asked the judge to review the case," said CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner.

*****

Awww, here I done gone and thought is was over, yet it continues.

And I Quote

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

~ Albert Einstein

(The ol'boy had a sense of humor did he not?!)

Floods in the canyon

Days of heavy rains around the Grand Canyon caused an earthen dam to fail earlier today and created flooding that forced helicopters to pluck hundreds of residents and campers from the gorge.
No injuries were immediately reported.
The failure of the Redlands Dam caused some flooding in Supai, a village on a canyon floor where about 400 members of the Havasupai tribe live, said Grand Canyon National Park spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge.
The current floods and potential for more required the evacuations, she said.
No structures were damaged after the dam failed about 45 miles upstream from Supai, but some hiking trails and footbridges were washed out, she said.
Trees were uprooted, the National Weather Service said.
Nearly 80 people had evacuated as of early Sunday evening, said Red Cross spokeswoman Tracey Kiest.
Evacuations were still in progress.

As much as 8 inches of rain since Friday caused trouble even before the dam burst.
A private boating party of 16 people was stranded on a ledge at the confluence of Havasu Creek and the Colorado River on Saturday night after flood waters carried their rafts away, Oltrogge said.
The boaters were found uninjured and were being rescued from the Grand Canyon, whose floor is unreachable in many places except by helicopter.
Rescuers were trying to find visitors staying at the Supai Campground and escort them to safety, Oltrogge said.
Evacuees were being flown to a parking area 8 miles from Supai and then, if needed, bused to a Red Cross shelter in Peach Springs, about 60 miles southwest of Supai, the spokeswoman said.

The area got 3 to 6 inches of ran Friday and Saturday and got about 2 more on Sunday, said Daryl Onton, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Flagstaff.
"That's all it took - just a few days of very heavy thunderstorms," he said.Supai is on Havasu and Cataract creeks about 30 miles northwest of Grand Canyon Village, a popular tourist area on the south rim.
Havasu Creek feeds the Colorado, which runs the length of the canyon.

The flooding came on a weekend during the busy summer tourist season, when thousands of visitors a day flock to the canyon for spectacular views, hikes or to raft its whitewater.
The helicopters lifting residents out were from the National Park Service, the National Guard and the Arizona Department of Public Safety, Oltrogge said.

In 2001, flooding near Supai swept a 2-year-old boy and his parents to their deaths while they were hiking.

The Grand Canyon has been the traditional home of the Havasupai for centuries.

Disaster Area Tour

A fact we humans tend to overlook ...

... Nature's laws are the invisible government of the Earth.

The Warrior

The Warrior

Echoes among the laughter
show the hidden truths.
Everlasting sorrows wail
casting a pall over the Earth.

Even as the Demon's daughter
comes to ease and soothe.
Shadows etch across the pale
moon, void of its mirth ...

The Warrior stands tall
face toward the specter
answering the Clarion's call
to raise the Ancient Scepter.

Cold steel rises above
glistening with malicious intent
ever the Ewer devoid of love
arching upon its murderous descent.

The clamor of arms severe
spark the forest aflame.
Deafens all that are near.
So foul as to have no name.

Rage and ruin rain upon the soil
to the last gasp of the defeated.
In defending the One Soul
never hath he retreated.

When the battle has ceased
and the Light shines in the world
one stands increased
as all the banners are furled.

The Warrior has battled yet again
to win Light from Dark
with his body wracked with pain
He stands ... and he makes his mark!

*****

(From my book Through Different Eyes)

Fay is coming ...

... and it's best to be out of town when she does.

Officials urged visitors to leave the Florida Keys on Sunday ahead of Tropical Storm Fay, which forecasters said could strengthen to a hurricane.
Fay could start pelting parts of the Keys and south Florida as soon as Monday.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said a hurricane watch was in effect for the Florida Keys from south of Ocean Reef to Key West, and along the mainland from Card Sound Bridge west to Bonita Beach.

And I Quote

This will come as a shocker to some, but ...

The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.

~ George Washington

I will be there, how about you?

In Yucatan, a maze of Maya stone temples found in underground caves

Email Picture

Mauicio Marat / EPA

An undated handout picture shows the inside of what Mexican archaeologists believe is the ancient Maya tribe underground network of caves called Xibalba, the underworld of these people is located in the Mexican state of Yucatan.

Archaeologists say the Maya believed the complex of water-filled caves leading into dry chambers was an underground road to a mythical underworld.

From Reuters

Mexican archaeologists have discovered a maze of stone temples in underground caves, some submerged in water and containing human bones.

Clad in scuba gear and edging through narrow tunnels, researchers found the stone ruins of 11 sacred temples at the site on the Yucatan peninsula.

Archaeologists say the Maya believed the underground complex of water-filled caves leading into dry chambers, including an underground road stretching about 330 feet, was the path to a mythical underworld known as Xibalba.

According to the Popol Vuh, an ancient Maya scripture, the route was full of obstacles, including rivers filled with scorpions and houses shrouded in darkness or swarming with shrieking bats, said Guillermo de Anda, one of the lead investigators at the site. The souls of the dead were said to have followed a mythical dog who could see at night, he said Thursday.

"It is very likely this area was protected as a sacred depository for the dead or for the passage of their souls," De Anda said.

Different Maya groups who inhabited what is now southern Mexico and northern Guatemala and Belize had their own entrances to the underworld that archaeologists have discovered at other sites, almost always in cave systems buried deep in the jungle.

Excavations at the Yucatan site over the last five months revealed stone carvings and pottery left for the dead. Scientists found one 1,900-year-old ceramic vase, but most of the artifacts date between AD 700 and 850.

"These sacred tunnels and caves were natural temples and annexes to temples on the surface," De Anda said.

Eden in the Sahara

Scientists uncover skeletons thought to be as old as 10,000 years, when monsoon rains created a 'green Sahara.'

By Thomas H. Maugh II,
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

The tiny skeletal hand jutted from the sand as if beckoning the living to the long dead.

For thousands of years, it had lain unheeded in the most desolate section of the Sahara, surrounded by the bones of hippos, giraffes and other creatures typically found in the jungle.

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  Photos: When the Sahara was green

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  National Geographic video

A chance discovery by a team of American scientists has led to the unearthing of a Stone Age cemetery that is providing the first glimpses of what life was like during the still-mysterious period when monsoons brought rain to the desert and created the "green Sahara."

Read the article: LA Times

A fascinating piece on what many do not realize ... that the Sahara desert at one time was a paradise and could that it is remembered as Eden, Shangra La, Utopia, etc., in our collective consciousness.