America: At the edge of history once again?

One day this past January, Mary Kim Titla's parents left their home on the San Carlos Apache Reservation in southeastern Arizona and drove across the desert to Phoenix with a single purpose in mind - getting an up-close glimpse of a long shot named Barack Obama.

With them they brought two things: handmade signs that said "Apaches for Obama" and their grandson, Titla's nephew, a third grader. Carefully, they told him why he was there that day.

"This man," they told the little boy, "is going to make history."

Across the republic, we're hearing it everywhere in recent months, weeks and particularly in the days since Barack Obama became the presumptive Democratic nominee: In America, people say, the winds of history are blowing. And many are excited.

Last week, history became a buzzword. Jon Stewart mashed up clips of pundits rhapsodizing about history lessons. "Historic Choice: Obama," trumpeted the Richmond Times-Dispatch, one of many. "Barack Obama enters the history books," enthused CNN anchor Tony Harris.

"This is one of the most significant moments in American history," says Francine Childs, who in July 1956, at 14, sat at a Dairy Queen window every day for 30 days until she was served ice cream at the whites-only counter.

Obama is the most obvious historical figure. But he, John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton have each spent months vehemently rejecting the old ways, promising that change is at hand. Each has professed to be the one to maneuver us through what they all call a pivot point in history.

"America, this is our moment," Obama said last week as his winning delegate count became apparent. "This is our time - our time to turn the page on the policies of the past."

But historic moments have everything to do with history - both what has happened in the past, and the instant or era when things change. And each of the major candidates this year is deeply connected with some unhappy aspect of our past, and the urge to move on.

For Barack Obama, it is the American tradition of racial discrimination - and finally hurdling it. For Hillary Rodham Clinton, it has been gender inequity - and the promise of a woman in the White House. For John McCain, it is the legacy of Vietnam.

In American history, certain years - 1776, 1865 and 2001 among them - have revealed themselves as obvious crossroads. But not since 1968 have we had a presidential campaign and candidates that summon so many of the fundamental tensions of our history.

So it's worth asking amid the sense of wonder: Is this election year a pivot point? When we talk about making history, can we really ever learn from our yesterdays? Are there lessons from the past for the candidates to carry into the fall campaign and the administration beyond?

"The past is never dead," William Faulkner, one of America's greatest writers, once wrote. "It's not even past."

And so it is in America in 2008. We are riding history's unpredictable currents - no matter how passionately we want to move on, no matter how much control we think we have, no matter how loudly our would-be leaders insist that tomorrow is where our priorities lie.

___

TRIUMPHANT HISTORY

What is happening in American politics this year is linked, in the oddest of ways, with Commonwealth of Kentucky Death Certificate No. 26469, a bare-bones account of the Nov. 4, 1930, gunshot murder of a 60-year-old "colored" carpenter named Ed Doneghy.

"Ed Doneghy Killed at Louisville Polls," the Chicago Defender, a black newspaper, reported a couple of days later.

Today, the Rev. Martin McMickle, 59, of Shaker Heights, Ohio, cannot stop looking at the smeared ink of the words on that death certificate. When McMickle was doing his family history several months ago, he learned of his link to Doneghy and followed up. He found out that the man was killed for trying to register to vote.

And in August, 78 years after a lethal gunshot at a Kentucky poll felled a man who wanted to vote, Doneghy's relative, Martin McMickle - minister, teacher, civil rights activist - will travel to Denver as a delegate to cast a vote for Obama as the Democratic nominee for president.

A pivot point in history? You bet. And not just because of Obama's triumph, either. To McMickle, this is a historic moment because of Clinton and McCain, too.

On Clinton: "I'm also mindful that my mother, who was born in 1914, was born into a country where women did not have the right to vote."

On McCain: "The whole idea that a person who is a senior citizen but has the energy and the vigor to sustain so far the primary campaign and is on the verge of beginning the general campaign says an awful lot about senior citizens and about when people ought to consider their active life has ended."

"So," McMickle says, "I think there's a wonderful biography in all three of them that can be instructive for the broader public: voting rights for African Americans, voting rights for women in America, and the importance of people continuing to live long beyond the artificial time lines of 65 or 70."

This sense of something special afoot - with Obama emerging last week as the most visible engine, but also including the other firsts of this unusual primary season - is part of why people who have had their own brushes with history feel a sense of it right now.

"We have had candidates who are not well known. We've had candidates who are African-American. We have had women. We have had a public which is disaffected from politics. But we've never had them all together. And in that sense, I think that makes it historic," says Natalie Davis, a political scientist who ran for the U.S. Senate in 1996.

Paul J. Matthews, a retired pharmaceuticals executive in Houston, has seen history and studied it. And he puts Obama's achievement in a very personal context.

In 1967, Matthews was a college student, a black man marching in a green ROTC uniform on a Prairie View A&M campus fired up by the battle for civil rights. He began to wonder about his choice to serve a nation that continued to treat blacks like second-class citizens.

He resolved his doubt by combing through books on military history. There, he found two paragraphs about the famed Buffalo Soldiers - the black regiments formed in the wake of the Civil War, comprised of men determined to show their worth as Americans.

It changed his attitude, and Matthews shipped off to Vietnam two years later. He logged 11 months, 29 days in a medical battalion, where he tagged the bodies of war dead and wrote notification letters to their families back home.

Today, Matthews runs the institution he founded: the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, a place where people discuss not only blacks' experience in that war but the larger issue - how American blacks over the centuries have served a system that scorned them. And now ...

"I'm so elated that starting from a situation where blacks couldn't serve in the military to the possibility of having a black man as commander in chief. ... That's quite a leap," he says. "If that's not a teachable moment, we'll never have one."

That's what history provides, says David Anderson: tangible, valuable tools for us all. It offers reserves of strength for a candidate, particularly one like Obama, who owes it to America to be a man of color rather than downplaying his race, Anderson says.

Anderson, 78, the great-grandson of an Alabama slave, spends his days portraying Frederick Douglass, the iconic 19th-century abolitionist, in Rochester, N.Y. History, insists Anderson, is not a burden. Just the opposite.

"You don't leave it behind," Anderson says. "It is NOT baggage. It is strength and it is essential knowledge. And the more you have of it, the better you can understand who you are and what you're capable of."

After visiting West Africa several years ago, Anderson decided to add something to his name - "Sankofa," a word from the Akan language that translates loosely to "go back and take." Anderson interprets it to mean this: "Retrieve from the past that which you can use to frame the future."

Learning from history, in other words.

___

UNEASY HISTORY

History, of course, can be a burden. Because the past is not even past. It's still with us.

Most prominently, Barack Obama faces the heritage of three torturous centuries of racial unease and injustice - and continuing racism in some quarters.

For months, Hillary Clinton grappled with the benefits and detriments of being a female front-runner. John McCain faces a nation increasingly obsessed with youth and detached from military culture that wonders whether, at 71, he can govern robustly - and how relevant his Vietnam POW experience is to today's discourse.

More generally, America and its past have always had an uneasy relationship.

We fashion elegies to a simpler, more unified and politically pure past yet often brush our real history aside in the name of an optimistic, forward trajectory that is part of the basic American DNA. We are quick with the word "historic," using it for everything from celebrity trials to new-and-improved snack foods, but rarely do we pause to consider what something historic really is.

The candidates don't always help, either.

"You see history abused so much in the political process," says Seth Masket, who spent part of the Clinton administration answering letters sent to the president and fashioning his written communication - the written equivalent of a speech writer.

"A lot of these historical metaphors are strained, a lot are inaccurate," says Masket, who now teaches political science at the University of Denver. People's relationship to history, he says, is visceral: "It's an exciting time to be alive, but it's also very scary. People who like the idea of tradition aren't sure what to cling onto anymore."

Then, there is the uncomfortable feeling that no matter what we do, we can't quite shake off the past. Andreas Killen, for example, surveys 2008 and sees 1973, all over again.

The themes in Killen's 2006 book, "1973 Nervous Breakdown: Watergate, Warhol and the Birth of Post-Sixties America," sound familiar today: an unpopular president presiding over a divisive war; a country full of malaise and nervous energy trying to make sense of the civil rights and women's movements; rising gas prices, a faltering economy and an expanding unease about the government and the American message.

A generation later, every single item in that list weighs upon Barack Obama and John McCain.

"There have been many moments over the past few years when I've felt like we were reliving the early 1970s," Killen says.

The heritage of the early 1970s - war, malaise - could hamper the next administration "no matter how much of a mandate for change that president has," Killen says. History isn't always willing to let go.

Sometimes the intricacies of history can be summed up succinctly. Consider Mary Ann Vecchio, 52, who earned a place in the national consciousness at age 14 in 1970 when her cry of anguish during the National Guard shootings at Kent State was captured by a photographer's lens.

Her message to the candidates of 2008 is brief. And potent, too.

"What can they learn from the past?" she says. "Don't repeat it. Don't repeat it."

___

OPPORTUNITIES FROM HISTORY?

In the end, there is this, too: We are raising a generation less mindful of the American past and its messages than any that came before.

According to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, students can graduate from the nation's top 50 colleges and universities without ever taking a course in U.S. history. And the National Geographic-Roper Survey of Geographic Literacy found in 2006 that only 37 percent of young Americans can find Iraq on a map. A recent national news broadcast, showing a screen on the famed 1858 debates between Abraham Lincoln and Sen. Stephen Douglas, put up photos of Lincoln and ... Frederick Douglass.

"The Baby Boomers were forced as college students to take Western Civilization or to take American history. This new generation never had to do any of that," says Davis, who teaches undergraduates at Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama.

"These folks are in the moment. They cannot line up three presidents in the 20th century in terms of order," she says. "They are absolutely a-historical. .... It's about them - the world that surrounds them at that moment. And there's no looking back because they don't know what to be looking for."

And of course there is that niggling thing Americans have to deal with every day - the ravenous beast called the present.

"We care about politics. On the other hand, we're not going to spend that much time worrying about it," says John Hinshaw, a historian at Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania. "We're worried about $4 a gallon gas and what's going on in our kids' lives. It's intensely interesting to certain groups, but a lot of it is just not what we do all the time."

And yet ... there are times when Americans make history, or at least appreciate that they are witnesses to it. Times like 2008.

"The United States of America is an extraordinary country," Condoleezza Rice said at the State Department the other day, reacting to the flurry of Obama news. "It is a country that has overcome many, many, now years, decades, actually a couple of centuries of trying to make good on its principles. And I think what we are seeing is an extraordinary expression of the fact that 'We the people' is beginning to mean all of us."

That means the Rev. Martin McMickle, staring at a death certificate that chronicles an injustice and preparing to rectify it in some small way. It means Paul J. Matthews and David Anderson, preserving parts of the American past that they believe must be remembered.

It means Mary Kim Titla, whose parents journeyed from the reservation to see Obama. Two decades ago, she became the first American Indian TV reporter on the air in Arizona. This year, she is campaigning to be the first American Indian woman ever elected to Congress.

It means Marshall Trimble, a cowboy poet who is also Arizona's state historian. "Young black people or young women, young girls, young boys who say, `Hey, there's hope now. It can actually happen. It just isn't something that my parents talked about or that my school teacher said might happen. It did happen. It actually happened in America.' Think how that's going to provide inspiration to so many people."

And it means Francine Childs, the black girl at the Dairy Queen counter who grew up into a student activist, professor, author, world traveler. "Did I ever think this would happen?" she says. "It was something I'd always dreamed about, but (I was) never sure I would see that dream fulfilled."

Is 2008 shaping up to be a historic crossroads? It's always difficult to judge from within; in presidential election years, history is never far away and "historic" flows easily from the lips.

But this is, most certainly, a teachable moment - for the candidates and for the people they presume to lead.

In a country defined by fast-forward but never all that adept with rewind, it's a chance to move ahead with real change - not merely to leave our national scars behind but to fashion ways to carry them with us. An opportunity to show that we can do more than lose ourselves in our own history; we can find ourselves there, too.

Word that!

This is NOT Cool

US reportedly withdraws from UN Human Rights Council

The Human Rights Tribune is reporting that the US has pulled out of the United Nations' Human Rights Council, "an international body within the United Nations System. Its stated purpose is to address human rights violations."

The news that the US has completely withdrawn from the Human Rights Council spread like wildfire Friday afternoon (June 6) through the corridors of the Palais des Nations in Geneva. There was general consternation amongst diplomats and NGOS. Reached by phone, the American mission in Geneva neither confirmed nor denied the report. Although unofficial, the news comes at a time of long opposition by the Bush administration to the reforms which created the Human Rights Council in June 2006. Washington announced from the beginning that the US would not be an active member but its observer status would mean that it could intervene during the sessions. To date even this has rarely happened.

Link

One Hundred Ninety Five

As of 6PM today:

Carolina Naturally is read in all 195 countries on the planet!

Who would have thought this little old blog would be a must read for so many.

Thanks.

Wildfire keeps burning NC wildlife refuge

• Carolina News

A wildfire that has burned 30,000 acres in eastern North Carolina may smolder for months as it burns decayed vegetation that makes up the soil in the area, North Carolina Forest Service spokesman Bill Swartley said Saturday.

The fire, which was about 30 percent contained, continues to burn in the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, about 70 miles south of Norfolk, Va. The spread of the fire has slowed over the past few days and winds remain light, but it continues to threaten about 80 homes and businesses.

No injuries or structure damage has been reported.

Swartley warned that forecast temperatures near 100 degrees this weekend keep conditions ripe for the blaze, Swartley said. "When the fire comes near, the vegetation is that much more ignitable because they are already warm," Swartley said.

Gov. Mike Easley has declared a state of emergency in three counties. He warned that driving could be difficult with smoke-filled roads, but officials said none were expected to be closed.

For the past few days, smoke from the fire has blown north into heavily populated areas along Virginia's coast. But the winds have shifted, and forecasters expect the smoke to blow east toward the Outer Banks on Saturday.

Fire officials told residents that smoke from the blaze could linger in the area for months because the fire may smolder in the decayed vegetation that makes up the peat-filled soil. Peat is flammable, and over millions of years turns into coal, Swartley said.

"You won't see open flame. The ground is just really hot - you can't walk on it," Swartley said.

The only way to stop the fire from burning in the soil is to flood it. Firefighters are pumping water from nearby Phelps Lake to extinguish the ground fire in some areas. However, the only thing that will put all of it out for good would be several inches of rain at one time, like from a tropical storm, Swartley said.

The fire was sparked by lightning a week ago.

In California, a wildfire that briefly threatened 50 homes in the mountains northwest of Los Angeles pass was contained early Saturday. The blaze in the Grapevine area along Interstate 5 in the Tehachapi Mountains had charred about 500 acres - less than a square mile - of grass and brush by the time it was declared surrounded.

Residents of about 50 homes in Digier Canyon were advised to leave but the threat ended and the fire basically had stopped growing by Friday evening.

Damp weather during the night helped keep the fire down.

The cause of that fire had not been determined.

Not A Pretty Picture ...

• At this rate we could be next ...
  

Caribbean monk seal becomes extinct!

Federal officials have confirmed what biologists have long thought: The Caribbean monk seal has gone the way of the dodo.

Humans hunting the docile creatures for research, food and blubber left the population unsustainable, say biologists who warn that Hawaiian and Mediterranean monk seals could be the next to go.

The last confirmed sighting of a Caribbean monk seal was in 1952 between Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service confirmed Friday that the species is extinct.

Kyle Baker, a biologist for NOAA's Fisheries Service southeast region, said the species is the only seal to become extinct from human causes.

The seals were first classified as endangered in 1967, and wildlife experts investigated several reported sightings over the past few decades. But officials determined they were other seal types.

The federal agency says there are fewer than 1,200 Hawaiian and 500 Mediterranean monk seals remaining, and their populations are declining.

"We hope we've learned from the extinction of Caribbean monk seals, and can provide stronger protection for their Hawaiian and Mediterranean relatives," Baker said.

The Hawaiian monk seal population, protected by NOAA, is declining at a rate of about 4 percent annually, according to NOAA. The agency predicts the population could fall below 1,000 in the next three to four years, placing the mammal among the world's most endangered marine species.

"When populations get very small, they become very unstable," Baker said. "They become more vulnerable to threats like disease and predation by sharks."

Vicki Cornish, a wildlife expert at the Ocean Conservancy, said the fate of the Caribbean monk seal is a "wake-up call" to protect the remaining seal populations.

"We must act now to reduce threats to existing monk seal populations before it's too late," she said. "These animals are important to the balance and health of the ocean. We can't afford to wait."

Monk seals are particularly sensitive to human disturbance. And the sea creatures have been losing their food supply and beaches, officials say.

"Once Hawaii, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean were teeming with fish, but these are areas under severe fishing pressure," Cornish said. "They'll eat almost anything - shellfish or finned fish - but their food supply is waning and they're in competition with man."

The Caribbean monk seal, first discovered during Christopher Columbus' second voyage in 1494, once had a population of more than 250,000. But they became easy game for hunters because they often rested, gave birth or nursed their pups on beaches.

From the 1700s to 1900s, the seals were killed mainly for their blubber, which was processed into oils, used for lubrication and coating the bottom of boats. Their skins were used for trunk linings, clothing, straps and bags.

The endangered Hawaiian monk seals face different types of challenges, including entanglement in marine debris, climate change and coastal development.

About 80 to 100 live in the main Hawaiian Islands and 1,100 in the largely uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, a marine national monument.

Biologist Bud Antonelis said NOAA's Fisheries Service has developed a monk seal recovery plan for the Hawaiian monk seals.

"But we need continued support from organizations and the public if we are to have a chance at saving it from extinction," he said. "Time is running out."

As for the Caribbean monk seal, NOAA said it is working to have them removed from the endangered species list. Species are removed from the list when their populations are no longer threatened or endangered, or when they are declared extinct.

Turkish speaker wants new constitution after ruling

How typical: Fundies are wrong and try to force their wrong on everyone else and the fundies in Turkey are still trying to do just that ...

Turkey's parliamentary speaker has proposed a new constitution and the re-establishment of an upper house of parliament to reduce the power of the country's top court.

Koksal Toptan's suggestions come after the Constitutional Court on Thursday rebuffed an attempt by the Islamic-oriented government to lift a ban on Muslim head scarves in universities.

Toptan's suggestions appear to be aimed at rearranging the sharing of power between the judiciary and the Parliament and immediately drew the ire of the main secular opposition party.

Toptan accuses the Constitutional Court of "overstepping its power and seizing the power of the Parliament," in remarks on Saturday. The government leveled similar accusations against the court on Friday night.

There was no immediate comment from the government to Toptan's suggestions.

It will never happen the way the fundies want as long as the military supports the majority of the non-fundies of Turkey so the better get used to the idea.

And I Quote

Life is tough. Life is tougher when you are stupid.

~ John Wayne

Wonder Woman actress finds body on river in D.C.

The actress who played Wonder Woman on TV in the 1970s says she didn't do anything extraordinary when she discovered a body this week on the Potomac River in Washington.

Lynda Carter tells The Washington Post she was alone in a boat when she saw the body Wednesday. She says she didn't have a cell phone with her, so she yelled to some fishermen and asked them to call police. Carter waited until rescuers arrived and directed them to the body.

District of Columbia police say the body of 47-year-old Helen Johnstone of Washington was found floating on the river Wednesday. The medical examiner's office has not declared an official cause of death.

Carter says she "did what anybody would have done."

Way to go Wonder Woman!

Fundie's in Turkish government scold high court on head scarf ban

Fundies are fundies everywhere and never learn:

Turkey's Islamic-oriented governing party on Friday accused the country's top court of overstepping its authority when it struck down a law that would have allowed Muslim head scarves to be worn at universities.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party campaigned for re-election last year on a promise to lift a ban on head scarves, claiming the prohibition violated religious and personal freedoms. Upon victory, the government passed constitutional amendments to lift the ban.

But the court threw out the amendments Thursday, saying they violated Turkey's secular principles. The decision, which is final, threw up a heavy legal barrier to any furthur attempts to lift the ban and has deepened the divide between the Islamic-leaning government and secular institutions.

"The decision is a direct interference with parliament's authority," said Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat, the ruling party's deputy chairman. "It is a violation of the rule on the separation of powers."

Though most of Turkey's 70 million people are Muslim, many see the head scarf as an emblem of political Islam and consider any attempt to allow it in schools as an attack on modern Turkey's secular laws. Some also argue that lifting the ban would create pressure on all female students to cover themselves.

Turkey's fiercely secular military signaled satisfaction with the court's decision to uphold the ban, which has been vigorously enforced in public offices and universities since a 1980 military coup.

The Constitutional Court's ruling does not bode well for Erdogan's party, which faces the threat of being dissolved under a separate case filed by a prosecutor on grounds it is "the focal point of anti-secular activities."

Erdogan has kept silent on the court decision. But Firat said the prime minister would discuss the ruling with his fellow lawmakers in parliament Tuesday.

Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan was expected to hold a news conference Saturday on the issue.

Another top party member, Bulent Arinc, described the decision as "grave."

"It gives me goose pimples," said Arinc, a former parliament speaker. "The Constitutional Court has indirectly seized the power of parliament."

Dozens of people, including some women wearing black chadors, protested the ruling Friday in Ankara. A placard left outside the court building read: "No one can go against God's order to wear head scarves."

Hundreds of people also protested the court ruling in Istanbul and in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, following Friday prayers.

And you wonder why fundies of all stripes are looked down upon?

Don't let the sun go down on you

Like in the old Westerns the sheriff is 'suggesting' that the strangers get out of town ...

Texas governor suggests sect may want to move on.

Gov. Rick Perry hinted Thursday that members of a polygamist sect whose children were recently returned amid a botched sex-abuse investigation should pack their bags, a newspaper reported.

Perry, who was in La Baule, France, for a European business conference, said that the state of Texas has an obligation to protect young women from being forced into marriage and underage sex, The Dallas Morning News reported in its online edition.

He also warned members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that child sex abuse won't be tolerated and even suggested that followers of the renegade Mormon sect may want to get out.

"If you are going to conduct yourself that way, we are going to prosecute you," Perry said. "If you don't want to be prosecuted for those activities, then maybe Texas is not the place you need to consider calling home."

Willie Jessop, an FLDS elder who lives in Utah, said Perry's remarks were shocking, particularly given a Texas Supreme Court ruling that forced this week's return of 440 sect children on the grounds that child welfare officials provided scant evidence that the children were in danger.

"It's an outrage that he should even make such gross and broad allegations," Jessop said. "He's listening to people that tell lies about the FLDS."

FLDS officials have accused the state of persecuting sect members for their religious beliefs.

Texas authorities raided the sprawling compound in west Texas in early April after three calls to a domestic abuse hot line, purportedly from a 16-year-old mother who said she was being abused by her middle-aged husband. The calls are now being investigated as a hoax.

Perry said that using the information state authorities had at the time, "they acted with the best interest of those children."

"If responsibility needs to be taken for (court edicts) saying that we stepped across some legal line, I'll certainly take that responsibility," the governor said.

Jessop, who has insisted that children at the ranch were not mistreated, has sidestepped questions about underage marriages at the Yearning for Zion ranch. But he did announce this week that the church would no longer sanction marriages of any girl too young to give legal consent.

Though the children have been returned, a criminal investigation continues.

*****

"And MaryLou is pregnant with triplets" ... oh, sorry, that is a different soap opera. But still ...

Indicted Saudi gets $80 million US contract

ABC News reports on the humorous story of Gaith Pharaon, a Saudi financier who is wanted by the FBI for alleged bank fraud that cost US taxpayer $1.7 billion. The funny part is that the US military just awarded him an $80 million contract to supply jet fuel to US military bases in Afghanistan.

The US military has awarded an $80 million contract to a prominent Saudi financier who has been indicted by the US Justice Department. The contract to supply jet fuel to American bases in Afghanistan was awarded to the Attock Refinery Ltd, a Pakistani-based refinery owned by Gaith Pharaon. Pharaon is wanted in connection with his alleged role at the failed Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), and the CenTrust savings and loan scandal, which cost US tax payers $1.7 billion.

As a purely coincidental aside: "Pharaon was also an investor in President George W. Bush's first business venture, Arbusto Energy."

And who still believes the cabal is a group of saints, raise your hands. Come on, raise'em high.
What, no one is raising their hands, oh, well, I guess that means no one still believes the cabal are saints.

Just another in an unending litany of faux pas and peccadilloes this 'administration' is responsible for.

Notable Nudists Update

The following is a list of notable persons living and deceased who have embraced nudism.
It is a growing list ...

John Quincy Adams
Christina Aguilera
Jennifer Aniston
Fiona Apple

Kevin Bacon
Oksana Baiul
Josephine Baker
Eric Balfour
Kylie Bax
Drew Barrymore
David Beckham
Victoria Adams Beckham
Amanda Beard
Jack Black
Lara Flynn Boyle
Kevin Brauche
Melanie Brown
Jimmy Buffett
Robert Burns
Gene Burton

Winston Churchill
Kelly Clarkson
Nadia Comaneci
Billy Connolly
Cindy Crawford

Johnny Depp
Athena Demos
Alan Dershowitz
Cameron Diaz
Dido
Isadora Duncan
Erica Durance

Marianne Faithful
Ralph Fiennes
Colin Farrel
Ralph Fiennes
Colin Fletcher
Flea
Bridget Fonda
Peter Fonda
Matthew Fox
Jamie Foxx
Benjamin Franklin

Eva Gabor
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Gerald Gardner
Ian Gillian
Jeff Goldblum
Cuba Gooding Jr
Amy Grant
Macy Gray
Spalding Gray

Ginger Haliwell
Linda Hamilton
Tom Hanks
Daryl Hannah
Woody Harrelson
Melissa Joan Hart
Nina Hartley
PJ Harvey
Goldie Hawn
Carole Henderson
Robert A. Heinlein
Ernest Hemingway
Margaux Hemingway
Mariel Hemingway
Alfred Hitchcock
Paris Hilton
Fiona Horne
Kate Hudson
Kate Humble
Elizabeth Hurley
Angelica Huston

Enrique Igelsias
Julio Iglesias
Natalie Imbruliga

Hugh Jackman
Janet Jackson
Jade Jagger
Famke Janssen
Lyndon Johnson
Raul Julia

Nicole Kidman
Kiera Knightly
Olga Korbut
Heidi Klum

Avril Lavigne
Lucy Lawless
Heath Ledger
Hyapatia Lee
Lindsay Lohan
Jennifer Lopez
Mario Lopez
Peter Lupus

Andie MacDowell

Matthew McConaughey
Ewan McGregor
Sir Ian McKellen
Sarah McLachlan
Patrick McNee
Elle McPherson

Madonna
Barry Manilow
James Mason
Eva Mendes
Christopher Meloni
Helen Mirren
Demi Moore
Alanis Morrisette
Kate Moss

Jack Nicholson

Patrick "Tip" O'Neal
George Orwell

Paloma Picasso
Pink
Brad Pitt
Sidney Pollock

Sheryl Lee Ralph
Daniel Ratcliffe
Keanu Reeves
Lynn Regrave
Vanessa Redgrave
Tara Reid
Christina Ricci
Fred Rogers
Sara Rue

Claudia Schiffer
Seal
Jerry Seinfeld
Shakira
George Bernard Shaw
Sherri Shepherd
Alicia Silverstone
Jessica Simpson
Rod Sirling
PJ Soles
Britney Spears
Princess Stephanie of Monaco
Patrick Stewart
Joss Stone

Emma Thompson
Henry David Thoreau
Justin Timberlake
Leeann Tweedon

Vince Vaughn

Liv Ullman
Tracey Ullman

Robbie Williams
Bruce Willis
Walt Whitman
Katrina Witt

Xuxu

Adrian Young

Chatter

I see on several forums where Global Warming is back on the front burner and the resurgence in the 'discussion' is being fueled by the haters, deniers, and the ilk trying to shout down any who know better than to believe that Global Warming is not occurring or that humans are not the chief cause in its rapidity.

I guess stupidity is the new Politically Correct thing because any who have called those trolling and spewing such refuse on their nonsense have been censored on all forums I have checked in on. Even one dedicated to the topic(s) of Global Warming and the Environment, where the haters, deniers, and the ilk have invaded and have been trolling unabated for a week now.

So in lieu of discussing solutions the forums have been debased into ranting platforms for the haters, deniers and the ilk and all who opposed the haters, deniers, and the ilk are censored when they have the temerity to present facts and reality in place of lies and fantasy and to name the haters, deniers, and the ilk for what they are - haters, deniers, and the ilk.

George Orwell wherever you are you have to be laughing your ass off at this moment.

Turkish court upholds college head scarf ban

In World News:

Turkey's top court ruled Thursday that Islamic head scarves violate secularism and cannot be allowed at universities, deepening a divide between the country's Islamic-oriented government and secular institutions.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government had tried to allow the scarves at universities as a matter of personal and religious freedom.

But the Constitutional Court verdict said constitutional amendments that were passed by Parliament in February went against secularism.

The head scarf issue is an explosive one Turkey, where the government is locked in a power struggle with secular groups that have support from the military and other state institutions.

The verdict is likely to bode ill for the government. Turkey's chief prosecutor is seeking to disband the ruling party on grounds that it is "the focal point of anti-secular activities" in a separate case at the Constitutional Court. The prosecutor - who has also asked that Erdogan and other party officials be banned from politics for five years - has cited attempts to allow head scarves at universities as a case in point.

Many see the head scarf as an emblem of political Islam, and consider any attempt to allow it in schools as an attack against modern Turkey's secular laws.

There was no immediate comment from the government. Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said the government would like to see the court's reasoning behind the decision before commenting.

But Bekir Bozdag, a senior lawmaker of the ruling party, said "the Constitutional Court has overstepped its power and interfered in democracy."

"However, this verdict is binding and will be obeyed," he added.

Devlet Bahceli, the leader of a nationalist party which backed the amendments, predicted the decision would accelerate "the divide over religion."

The court's 11 judges voted 9-2 to annul the amendments, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported. At least seven votes would be required to disband the party.

A brief statement from the court said the amendments were annulled because they were in violation of some articles of the Constitution, including one that states that "The Turkish Republic is a secular state" and another that says that altering the secular nature of the state "cannot even be proposed."

Onur Oymen, a senior lawmaker of the opposition Republican People Party, said the verdict spelled the end to such amendments.

"From now on, no one will be able to attempt to change the Constitution," Oymen told NTV television.

"This decision reminds the ruling party what it can or cannot do despite winning 47 percent of the votes," Husamettin Cindoruk, former parliament speaker, told NTV television. "This decision has set the boundaries and reshaped the state."

In February, Parliament passed constitutional amendments to allow head scarves to be worn at universities - but not in schools or state offices. The secular opposition immediately appealed the ruling to the top court.

Turkey's 70 million people are predominantly Muslim. But secularists feared that lifting the ban at universities would erode Turkey's secular nature and create pressure on all female students to cover themselves.

Pious female students have been forced to remove their head scarves at the entrance to campuses. Some have attended classes wearing wigs.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded modern Turkey after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, banned religious attire in daily life. The ban has been vigorously enforced in public office and schools after a 1980 military coup.

It just goes to show that the very in the minority fundies are trying to dictate to all everywhere.

Everyone remembers that fallacy we had here called the "moral majority" which was neither moral or a majority - not even close to either one.

These idiots are the same no matter what grandiose self labels they claim for themselves, they are petty, small-minded, haters and no amount of protestation on their part will alter reality.

The court in Turkey ruled as the law is and should be, something the fundies are finding more and more as their whiny tirades have worn out a long time ago for everyone with a functioning brain in the world - which has caused those tirades to become even more and more shrill as the desperation sinks in deeper and deeper into their fragile ideology.

Lesbian kiss at Seattle ballpark stirs up gay-friendly town

Off the Newswire:

Most of the time, a kiss is just a kiss in the stands at Seattle Mariners games. The crowd hardly even pays attention when fans smooch.

But then last week, a lesbian complained that an usher at Safeco Field asked her to stop kissing her date because it was making another fan uncomfortable.

The incident has exploded on local TV, on talk radio and in the blogosphere and has touched off a debate over public displays of affection in generally gay-friendly Seattle.

"Certain individuals have not yet caught up. Those people see a gay or lesbian couple and they stare or say something," said Josh Friedes of Equal Rights Washington. "This is one of the challenges of being gay. Everyday things can become sources of trauma."

As the Mariners played the Boston Red Sox on May 26, Sirbrina Guerrero and her date were approached in the third inning by an usher who told them their kissing was inappropriate, Guerrero said.

The usher, Guerrero said, told them he had received a complaint from a woman nearby who said that there were kids in the crowd of nearly 36,000 and that parents would have to explain why two women were kissing.

"I was really just shocked," Guerrero said. "Seattle is so gay-friendly. There was a couple like seven rows ahead making out. We were just showing affection."

On Monday, Mariners spokeswoman Rebecca Hale said that the club is investigating but that the usher was responding to a complaint of two women "making out" and "groping" in the stands.

"We have a strict non-discrimination policy at the Seattle Mariners and at Safeco Field, and when we do enforce the code of conduct it is based on behavior, not on the identity of those involved," Hale said.

The code of conduct - announced before each game - specifically mentions public displays of affection that are "not appropriate in a public, family setting." Hale said those standards are based on what a "reasonable person" would find inappropriate.

Guerrero denied she and her date were groping each other, saying that along with eating garlic fries, they were giving each other brief kisses.

On Tuesday, Guerrero said a Mariners director of guest services had apologized to her. The team spokeswoman could not immediately confirm that.

After the story broke, the Mariners were blasted by the sex-advice columnist Dan Savage, who wrote about the incident on the blog of the Stranger, an alternative weekly paper.

"I constantly see people making out," Savage said. "My son has noticed and asked, `Do they show the ballgame on women's foreheads?'"

Savage called for a "kiss-in" to protest against the Mariners.

Web sites have been swamped with blog postings for and against Guerrero and her date. And the story has people talking in Seattle.

"I would be uncomfortable" seeing public displays of affection between lesbians or gay men, said Jim Ridneour, a 54-year-old taxi driver. "I don't think it's right seeing women kissing in public. If I had my family there, I'd have to explain what's going on."

"It all depends on the degree," Mark Ackerman said as he waited for a hot dog outside Safeco Field before Wednesday's game. "Even for heterosexual couples."

Since the incident, Guerrero's job and her past have come under scrutiny. She works at a bar known for scantily clad women and was a contestant on the MTV reality show "A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila," in which women and men compete for the affection of a bisexual Internet celebrity.

"People are saying it's 15 more minutes for my career," Guerrero said of the ballpark furor, "but this is not making me look very good."

In 2007, an Oregon transit agency chief apologized after a lesbian teenager was kicked off a bus when a passenger complained about her kissing another girl.

Also in 2007, a gay rights group protested a Kansas City, Mo., restaurant they said ejected four women because two of them kissed, and a Texas state trooper was placed on probation in 2004 for telling two gay men who were kissing at the state Capitol that homosexual conduct was illegal in Texas.

"There's a double standard. That's the bottom line," said Pat Griffin, director of the It Takes a Team! Education Campaign, an initiative from the Women's Sports Foundation to eliminate homophobia in sports.

*****

I agree with Mr. Ackerman's assessment it all depends on the degree of 'affection' being shown in public by anyone.

Holding hands or a kiss - even one of those deep sweep'em off their feet ones ... depending on the situation - are fine by me. Hell, the Mrs., is forever wont to grab my ass in the grocery store and I've seen others doing that as well.

Grabbing the genitals off your significant other in public is pushing the line out of the way and is not appropriate public behavior. Also, the horizontal mambo is best kept out of public view.

So, unless the ladies were involved in mutual public masturbation or copulation there is no problem.

All right there is a problem ... and it is in the mind of the 'woman' who complained, who is just another example of ignorant busy-bodies trying to dictate what others can do.

Woman who cut national forest trees fined $100,000

A judge has spared a Nevada woman prison time but ordered her to pay a $100,000 fine for hiring a company to chop down three large trees on national forest land to improve her home's view of Lake Tahoe.

Judge Brian Sandoval accepted a plea deal Wednesday that also called for 57-year-old Patricia Vincent to do 80 hours of community service.

Sandoval could have sentenced Vincent to up to six months in prison. He says he decided against it because he felt she had been embarrassed and humiliated by the publicity of the case and seems to have learned her lesson.

Vincent has already paid the restitution and completed her community service.

She had the 80- to 100-year-old Ponderosa pines removed in April 2007.

*****

She should have been given the maximum prison time and fined and community service!

The height of the gall to cut trees on the public's land to improve your private view of a lake is unforgivable.

Homeowners near NC wildfire told to evacuate

Hey! This is a California thing ain't it?

Authorities in eastern North Carolina are telling 39 homeowners to evacuate after a wildfire jumped containment lines.

The blaze in the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge has burned up to 10,000 acres, or nearly 16 square miles. Fire officials say it's likely to continue growing because of hot and dry conditions.

Firefighters have started to establish new containment lines to the north and east of the blaze, hoping that access roads will help corner it. The fire jumped previous lines Tuesday night and has been threatening the area south of Lake Phelps.

Emergency workers said Wednesday they evacuated a community around the lake, telling 39 homeowners to leave.

Officials said lightning started the blaze Sunday.

The World rejoices in Obama's victory.

Excitement about Barack Obama emerged as a global phenomenon Wednesday as commentators and citizens around the world welcomed the news that he had sealed the Democratic presidential nomination.

The excitement was less about Obama's foreign policies - which remain vague on many fronts - than a sense that the candidacy of a black American with relatives in Africa and childhood friends in Asia marks a historic moment.

Michael Cox, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics, said Obama's win "has sent out a lot of positive signals around the world."

"He has a very appealing persona - elegant, fluent, strings lots of sentences together into paragraphs," Cox said. "But in terms of (his) actual policies towards the Middle East, Iraq, Iran, China, Europe - actually, we don't know."

In Kenya, home to Obama's family on his father's side, the Kenya Times newspaper devoted its front page to Obama's victory, under the headline "Obama makes history."

"I've just watched him on television, and as a family we are very happy. Really, it is something that is a trendsetter," the politician's uncle, Said Obama, told The Associated Press from the port city of Kisumu in western Kenya.

Indonesians were rooting for the man they consider to be a hometown hero. Obama lived in the predominantly Muslim nation from age 6 to 10 with his mother and Indonesian stepfather and was fondly remembered by former teachers and classmates.

"He was an average student, but very active," said Widianto Hendro Cahyono, 48, who was in the same third-grade class as Obama at SDN Menteng elementary school in Jakarta. "He would play ball during recess until he was dripping with sweat.

"I never imagined he would become a great man."

In Mexico City, hairdresser Susan Mendoza's eyes lit up when she learned Obama had clinched the nomination.

"Bush was for the elite. Obama is of the people," she said.

The German government's coordinator on U.S. relations, Karsten Voigt, said many Germans "find (Obama's) mixture of Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy very attractive."

In an editorial, the Times newspaper of London said Obama's campaign "has rekindled America's faith in its prodigious powers of reinvention - and the world's admiration for America."

Obama opposed the invasion of Iraq and has called for an early troop withdrawal. He also has shown willingness to engage in dialogue with Iran, North Korea and Cuba - nations long isolated by the policies of Bush.

"He seems to be a peace lover," said Ngo Van Hung, a Vietnamese real-estate salesman. "He would have a better understanding of how to treat people of different nationalities and different countries."

A Chinese scholar said that while he did not expect major changes in U.S. foreign policy, an Obama White House would have a very different tone to a Bush one.

"He will bring new energy into America's domestic politics and foreign policies," said Zhu Feng, deputy director at the Center of International and Strategic Studies at Peking University in Beijing. "It's a good choice for the Democrats."

*****

And to think the myopic nincompoops still think they have a shot with Mc Pain.

Yes We Can

The politics of No and Hatred are over! The real America is speaking out in terms that are very clear and they are not those of the haters and the naysayers.

Wow, I am a Nerd King!

Well, considering my degrees are in the sciences and history fields I better have done well in those areas. But the dork, awkwardness areas is a bit too high - my athletic prowess is/was far in excess of the level indicated so the 'test' is not as accurate there.

Donate a net!

The big thing in charity right now is $10.00 donations for mosquito nets, especially among the teenagers surfing the web, to give to children in malaria plagued regions.

Who said the internet was only for looking at porn - yes I know, they are usually looking for porn when they come across the site to donate the nets (it's linked everywhere) - but still!

It is not a bad idea, having lived in a few or more of 'those regions' myself (and lucky enough to escape unscathed by malaria), I know first hand the irritant those mosquitoes are and to contract a disease - which is quite fatal by the way in those regions - because of those irritating pests would be the height of misery. The young and the old are the most susceptible ... aren't they always ... so I encourage any who would to donate a net, who knows the life it may save could be the next Einstein or Picasso.

I do not have the link here yet. I guess I don't spend as much time as some do surfing for porn to have found it and for the life of me I can't remember the address from the newspaper article I read this morning before the Mrs., used the paper for cleaning the windows.

Thanks to the world.

Thanks to all the regular readers in:

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Holland, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, Venezuela, Vietnam, and the United States

for making Carolina Naturally a world wide success.

Banality Saps Vitality On Many Forums

"In the mad dash for Homo geniality and banality the allowance of ignorant blather continues while any opinion other than the proscribed conservative dogma is removed as insults to the ignorant."

It appears that on-line forums are the last gasp of the wing-nuts.

They having fucked up the entire world and being surprised that we noticed, have lost all other outlets to their spew of bile and venom so they congregate on forums that have cravenly caved into their shrill whining while censoring any who would stand up to say no to these miscreants.

Once vital forums are languishing in the doldrums of banality and pablum - and it did not take long for any forum that cow-towed to fall from grace - many will not make it and deservedly so for their cowardice in the face of the wing-nuts.

Forums where they are not allowing such drivel as the wing-nuts regurgitate ad nauseum are going strong and even growing.

Even this blog, which does not kiss wing-nut arse, is growing in readers - and from some pretty far flung places as well. But before any new readers get the impression this blog is of the persuasion of "not of the right" ... ok, you are correct there, it is not 'of the right' ... it is of the "I have a mind that works and can make my own decisions about things in life". Which makes it very dangerous to the 'right' because I can think for myself, not so much so, the 'left' as they tend to be more inclined to use of their brains as well.

Draconian to Anarchical, depending on the issue at hand, is what this blog is about and that is why its readership is growing.

Bo is gone but not forgotten

We lost a great one today!

Thanks, Bo Diddley and farewell.

And The First FUCK YOU Award Winner Is

Remember Kieffe & Sons, the California Ford dealership that ran a radio ad saying that they were Christians, and non-believers could therefore "sit down and shut up" and stop demanding separation of church and state?

Remember how they apologized for saying this really dumb thing?

They take it back. They really did mean it.

SO ...

For this they have been awarded the first ever FUCK YOU.

This coveted award will be bestowed on any and all who so richly deserve it.

Judge orders return of polygamist group's children

A judge on Monday ordered the return of more than 400 children taken from their parents at a polygamist group's ranch, following the state Supreme Court ruling that the state's seizure of the youngsters wasn't justified.

The order signed by Texas District Judge Barbara Walther allowed parents to begin picking up their children from foster care at 10 a.m. CDT.

In exchange for regaining custody, the parents are not being allowed to leave Texas without court permission and must participate in parenting classes. They were also ordered not to interfere with any child abuse investigation and to allow the children to undergo psychiatric or medical exams if required.

"We're really grateful to get the order signed," said Willie Jessop, an elder of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the sect that runs the ranch in West Texas.

The judge's order requires that parents allow children's welfare workers to make unannounced visits and that the families notify CPS if they plan to travel more than 100 miles from their homes.

Jessop said without elaborating that he had hoped for a less restrictive order.

The order comes just days after the Texas Supreme Court said Texas Child Protective Services overreached its authority in seizing custody of the children nearly two months ago.

The group denies any abuse of the children. Church officials say they are being persecuted for their religious beliefs. The FLDS, whose members believe polygamy earns glorification in heaven, is a breakaway sect of the Mormon church, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago.

The Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed an appeals court ruling ordering Walther to reverse her decision in April putting all children from the ranch into foster case. The Supreme Court and the appeals court rejected the state's argument that all the children were in immediate danger from what it said was a cycle of sexual abuse of teenage girls at the ranch.

Half the children sent to foster care were no older than 5.

The Third Court of Appeals last week ruled that the state failed to show that any more than five of the teenage girls were being sexually abused, and that it had offered no evidence of sexual or physical abuse against the other children.

Roughly 430 children from the ranch are in foster care after two births, numerous reclassifications of adult women initially held as minors and a handful of agreements allowing parents to keep custody while the Supreme Court considered the case.

It's not clear how many might return to the ranch right away. Many of the parents have purchased or rented homes in Amarillo, San Antonio and other places around the state where the children were placed in foster facilities.

(From the AP)

*****

The latest installment in the ongoing Soap Opera ...

At least the judge had some sense pounded into her brain by something and complied with the higher court's ruling that she change her ruling.

Now we wait for the next chapter ...

And I Quote

Many people lose their tempers merely from seeing you keep yours.

~ Frank Moore Colby

Question of the Day

Why do birds sing, grass grow and the last of the toilet paper run out just before you need to use the toilet?

Daily Funny

Technical Difficulties

It appears the "Server Error 502" is fixed now.

Fellow Marine Lost

On leave from the violence he had survived in the war in Iraq, a young Marine was so wary of crime on the streets of his own home town that he carried only $8 to avoid becoming a robbery target.

Despite his caution, Lance Cpl. Robert Crutchfield, 21, was shot point-blank in the neck during a robbery at a bus stop. Feeding and breathing tubes kept him alive 4 1/2 months, until he died of an infection on May 18.

Two men have been charged in the attack, and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason said Friday the case was under review to decide whether to seek the death penalty.

"It is an awful story," said Alberta Holt, the young Marine's aunt and his legal guardian when he was a teenager determined to flee a troubled Cleveland school for safer surroundings in the suburbs.

Crutchfield was attacked on Jan. 5 while he and his girlfriend were waiting for a bus. He had heeded the warnings of commanders that a Marine on leave might be seen as a prime robbery target with a pocketful of money, so he only carried $8, his military ID card and a bank card.

"They took it, turned his pockets inside out, took what he had and told him since he was a Marine and didn't have any money he didn't deserve to live. They put the gun to his neck and shot him," Holt told The Associated Press.

The two men charged in the attack were identified as Ean Farrow, 19, and Thomas Ray III, 20, both of Cleveland. Their attorneys did not respond to The Associated Press' requests for comment.

Crutchfield knew he was returning to Iraq for another tour of duty, but had hesitated to tell his family until he was nearing the end of his 30-day leave.

He apparently had a troubled family. Holt wouldn't discuss it except to say "his mom and dad didn't raise him, just his grandmother and me." He didn't smoke or drink, she said.

He had attended Cleveland's inner-city East High School, but asked that he be allowed to live with his aunt and grandmother and attend suburban Bedford High School for his final two years.

"He saw his school was in turmoil and asked to get out," Holt said.

Bedford High teachers recalled Crutchfield's smile, his pride in his appearance, his determination to join the Marine Corps after graduation in 2005 and his aspiration to become an architect.

"He was friendly and kind and willing to help out in any way that he could," counselor Yvonne Sims said in an e-mail.

Connie LaNasa, who works in the school office, said Crutchfield was a well-behaved student and went about his school work with little notice.

"He lived out what he wanted to do and that is to be a Marine," LaNasa said.

Faculty members remembered Crutchfield as a top student in the computer design program, an office assistant and participant in the prom fashion show.

After his long hospitalization, an infection broke out a week before he died. "He said it felt like he was getting hit by lightning," Holt said.

When Crutchfield's body was laid out Tuesday in the Sacrificial Missionary Baptist Church, his white military dress hat was tugged down close to his eyes to conceal the skull flap that had been kept open to relieve swelling in his brain.

Marines provided an honor guard at his funeral service and carried the casket to his grave at the Western Reserve National Cemetery near Akron.

He was buried there on the same day as a Vietnam veteran, two veterans from World War II and three from Korea.

*****

What they hell do they mean "under review to decide whether to seek the death penalty"! Having survived his attempted murder by proxy that the shrub and cabal set up for him in Iraq to be gunned down by a couple of petty two-bit pieces of shit ... under review my ass! The line for volunteers for the firing squad forms behind me - and I don't think there will be any lacking in numbers of those standing in line.

Semper Fi

Lance Corporal Crutchfield

Carolina Naturally is read in ...

Toronto, Ontario - Atlanta, Georgia - Ithaca, New York - Fairfax, Virginia - Tripoli, Tunisia - Lufkin, Texas - Venice, California - New York, New York - Sanford, North Carolina - Asheville, North Carolina - Dallas, Texas - Portland, Oregon - Elk River, Minnesota - Brooklyn, New York - Altamonte Springs, Florida - Cedar Rapids, Iowa - Bandung, Indonesia - Houston, Texas - Tulare, California - Jerusalem, Israel - London, England - Sydney, Australia - Baltimore, Maryland - Moncton, New Brunswick - Glasgow, Scotland - Guleph, Ontario

Celebration

Carolina Naturally is having a month long celebration for its first birthday coming this July 1st.

Hopefully you will find something informative, amusing or unexpected here during the month of June.

Stay Tuned!

Daily Funny

Screengrab from donut sleeper cell training video surfaces

So they were right. Oh, and pssst: I am wearing nothing but a glazed kaffiyeh at this very moment!

(Thanks to the folks over at Boing Boing)

All is not well in Extremist Fundie-Land

Muslim extremist women are challenging al-Qaida's refusal to include - or at least acknowledge - women in its ranks, in an emotional debate that gives rare insight into the gender conflicts lurking beneath one of the strictest strains of Islam.

In response to a female questioner, al-Qaida No. 2 leader Ayman Al-Zawahri said in April that the terrorist group does not have women. A woman's role, he said on the Internet audio recording, is limited to caring for the homes and children of al-Qaida fighters.

His remarks have since prompted an outcry from fundamentalist women, who are fighting or pleading for the right to be terrorists. The statements have also created some confusion, because in fact suicide bombings by women seem to be on the rise, at least within the Iraq branch of al-Qaida.

A'eeda Dahsheh is a Palestinian mother of four in Lebanon who said she supports al-Zawahri and has chosen to raise children at home as her form of jihad. However, she said, she also supports any woman who chooses instead to take part in terror attacks.

Another woman signed a more than 2,000-word essay of protest online as Rabeebat al-Silah, Arabic for "Companion of Weapons."

"How many times have I wished I were a man ... When Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahri said there are no women in al-Qaida, he saddened and hurt me," wrote "Companion of Weapons," who said she listened to the speech 10 times. "I felt that my heart was about to explode in my chest...I am powerless."

Such postings have appeared anonymously on discussion forums of Web sites that host videos from top al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. While the most popular site requires names and passwords, many people use only nicknames, making their identities and locations impossible to verify.

However, groups that monitor such sites say the postings appear credible because of the knowledge and passion they betray. Many appear to represent computer-literate women arguing in the most modern of venues - the Internet - for rights within a feudal version of Islam.

"Women were very disappointed because what al-Zawahri said is not what's happening today in the Middle East, especially in Iraq or in Palestinian groups," said Rita Katz, director of the SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that monitors militant Web sites. "Suicide operations are being carried out by women, who play an important role in jihad."

It's not clear how far women play a role in al-Qaida because of the group's amorphous nature.

Terrorism experts believe there are no women in the core leadership ranks around bin Laden and al-Zawahri. But beyond that core, al-Qaida is really a movement with loosely linked offshoots in various countries and sympathizers who may not play a direct role. Women are clearly among these sympathizers, and some are part of the offshoot groups.

In the Iraq branch, for example, women have carried out or attempted at least 20 suicide bombings since 2003. Al-Qaida members suspected of training women to use suicide belts were captured in Iraq at least three times last year, the U.S. military has said.

Hamas, another militant group, is open about using women fighters and disagrees with al-Qaida's stated stance. At least 11 Palestinian women have launched suicide attacks in recent years.

"A lot of the girls I speak to ... want to carry weapons. They live with this great frustration and oppression," said Huda Naim, a prominent women's leader, Hamas member and Palestinian lawmaker in Gaza. "We don't have a special militant wing for women ... but that doesn't mean that we strip women of the right to go to jihad."

Al-Zawahri's remarks show the fine line al-Qaida walks in terms of public relations. In a modern Arab world where women work even in some conservative countries, al-Qaida's attitude could hurt its efforts to win over the public at large. On the other hand, noted SITE director Katz, al-Zawahri has to consider that many al-Qaida supporters, such as the Taliban, do not believe women should play a military role in jihad.

Al-Zawahri's comments came in a two-hour audio recording posted on an Islamic militant Web site, where he answered hundreds of questions sent in by al-Qaida sympathizers. He praised the wives of mujahedeen, or holy warriors. He also said a Muslim woman should "be ready for any service the mujahedeen need from her," but advised against traveling to a war front like Afghanistan without a male guardian.

Al-Zawahri's stance might stem from personal history, as well as religious beliefs. His first wife and at least two of their six children were killed in a U.S. airstrike in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar in 2001. He later accused the U.S. of intentionally targeting women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I say to you ... (I have) tasted the bitterness of American brutality: my favorite wife's chest was crushed by a concrete ceiling," he wrote in a 2005 letter.

Al-Zawahri's question-and-answer campaign is one sign of al-Qaida's sophistication in using the Web to keep in touch with its popular base, even while its leaders remain in hiding. However, the Internet has also given those disenfranchised by al-Qaida - in this case, women - a voice they never had before.

The Internet is the only "breathing space" for women who are often shrouded in black veils and confined to their homes, "Ossama2001" wrote. She said al-Zawahri's words "opened old wounds" and pleaded with God to liberate women so they can participate in holy war.

Another woman, Umm Farouq, or mother of Farouq, wrote: "I use my pen and words, my honest emotions ... Jihad is not exclusive to men."

Such women are al-Qaida sympathizers who would not feel comfortable expressing themselves with men or others outside their circles, said Dia'a Rashwan, an expert on terrorism and Islamic movements at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo.

"The Internet gives them the ideal place to write their ideas, while they're hidden far from the world," he said.

Men have also responded to al-Zawahri's remarks. One male Internet poster named Hassan al-Saif asked: "Does our sheik mean that there is no need to use women in our current jihad? Why can we not use them?"

He was in the minority. Dozens of postings were signed by men who agreed with al-Zawahri that women should stick to supporting men and raising children according to militant Islam.

Women bent on becoming militants have at least one place to turn to. A niche magazine called "al-Khansaa" - named for a female poet in pre-Islamic Arabia who wrote lamentations for two brothers killed in battle - has popped up online. The magazine is published by a group that calls itself the "women's information office in the Arab peninsula," and its contents include articles on women's terrorist training camps, according to SITE.

Its first issue, with a hot pink cover and gold embossed lettering, appeared in August 2004 with the lead article "Biography of the Female Mujahedeen."

The article read:

"We will stand, covered by our veils and wrapped in our robes, weapons in hand, our children in our laps, with the Quran and the Sunna (sayings) of the Prophet of Allah directing and guiding us."

(From the AP)

*****

If anyone needed further evidence of the insanity of extreme fundamentalism I submit the above ... substitute any religious sect or conservative political group in lieu of Islam in the piece above and you will see it applies to all.

Texas CPS Under the Microscope

For nearly two months, Texas child welfare officials had insisted conditions at a polygamist group's ranch were so abusive that none of its members should be allowed to keep their children.

Now, however, one of the largest custody cases in U.S. history is unraveling, and some are looking for what went wrong when the state raided the Yearning For Zion Ranch and removed more than 400 children.

Since the state Supreme Court ruled that the Texas Department of Child Protective Services overreached when it swept the children into foster care, agency officials have been unwilling to discuss the case, their strategy or what went wrong.

However, some close to the debacle say the operation was doomed from the start by a series of missteps.

First is the oddity of a religious sect the agency knew little about, exacerbating the inherent perils of balancing parents' rights and child safety. Then there were the abuse allegations, starting with a mysterious telephone call and echoed by disgruntled former members, seemingly accepted at face value.

And an ill-fated 1992 brush with another religious sect - which led to the fiery deaths of 21 children at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco - still lingers on the agency's collective conscience.

"It's difficult to know whether, in fact, they screwed it up," said Linda Spears, vice president of the Child Welfare League of America, a national collection of nonprofits that aid abused and neglected children. "It's the 20/20 hindsight thing."

Folks in Schleicher County, a dusty patch near the middle of Texas, had been at least curious, if not suspicious, of members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a breakaway from the Mormon church whose members believe polygamy earns glorification in heaven.

Members of the group revered leader Warren Jeffs as a prophet. Since the start of the group's Texas ranch, he has been convicted in Utah as an accomplice to rape and is jail in Arizona awaiting trial on separate charges.

Sheriff David Doran cultivated a confidential informant to monitor the group's activities, and former FLDS members recounted abuse and forced marriages to anyone who would listen.

Investigators "listened to a lot of misinformation and allowed themselves to be kind of captivated by these anti-FLDS people," said FLDS spokesman Rod Parker.

When someone purporting to be a pregnant 16-year-old called a domestic abuse hot line claiming her middle-aged husband beat her, authorities went in with Child Protective Services workers on April 3. But the calls may have been a hoax.

"We had no choice but to treat those calls as credible. If we had not treated them as credible and something bad happened, people would be very upset," said Tela Mange, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety, which is still investigating possible sex abuse at the ranch in addition to the origin of the hot line calls.

Children and mothers were taken away from the ranch because CPS workers thought it would be better to interview them at a neutral location, something that wasn't done in the last high-profile brush the agency had with a religious sect - the Branch Davidians.

CPS workers were confused about names, ages, and relationships of the children and adults in the complicated group marriages of the FLDS. The agency said at the time it believed sect members were deliberately misleading investigators about the names, ages and parentage of the children.

Although caseworkers said when they took custody of all the children that the sect was forcing underage girls into marriage and sex and training boys to be adult perpetrators, only a few dozen of the children swept into custody turned out to be teenage girls, and only a handful had children or were pregnant. Of 31 mothers CPS said were minors, at least half turned out to be adults.

David Schenck, an attorney for some of the mothers, said CPS workers were confronted with a decision when they arrived at the ranch: identify all the men who might be suspected abusers or grab all the children.

"They were interested in taking care of kids, but the problem is they took on more than the evidence is going to support," he said.

Parker called the agency "heavy-handed." A state appeals court essentially agreed, saying the state failed to show that any more than five of the teenage girls were being sexually abused, and had offered no evidence of sexual or physical abuse against the other children. The Texas Supreme Court agreed in a ruling issued Thursday.

Spears, a caseworker-turned-advocate, said that despite the high-profile nature of the FLDS case, the dilemma faced by CPS is little different than in most removal cases.

"At the time you walk in, you have very little information even in the best cases," she said, noting the snap risk assessments caseworkers are often asked to make.

The second-guessing, too, is typical. CPS also was criticized for its handling of the Branch Davidians cult at its ranch compound outside Waco. Allegations of abuse at the Waco ranch had swirled for years, but interviews with children at the compound produced no outcry of abuse and CPS closed its investigation in 1992.

A year later, federal agents raided the fortified compound in a weapons investigation. Fire broke out and the 21 children died.

Spears said agencies worry about making wrong calls and seeing harm come to children. Decision-making often swings in reaction to criticism of previous cases or child deaths.

"It swings back and forth," she said. "There's no exact science being practiced here."

So, the Soap Opera continues ...

There Goes The Neighborhood

A weak tropical storm formed Saturday off the Yucatan Peninsula and quickly made landfall at the Belize-Mexico border, dumping rain and kicking up surf.

The first named storm of the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season, Arthur was moving northwest across the Yucatan with maximum sustained winds near 40 mph (64 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The storm formed one day before the official start of the season June 1, hitting land near the Mexican port city of Chetumal and Belize's Corozal city. It dumped rain as far south as Belize City and kicked up strong surf on the popular tourist island of Ambergis Caye.

Tropical storm warnings were issued for Belize and Mexico's Caribbean coastline.

In the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, which includes the popular resort of Cancun, ports were closed and all water sports were banned. Residents and tourists were encouraged to take precautions in coastal areas, said state Civil Protection Director Carlos Rodriguez Hoy.

Ports were also closed on the islands of Cozumel and Isla Mujeres and in Chetumal.

Authorities expected rains of up to a little more than 1 inch (30 millimeters) due to the passing remnants of Arthur, Rodriguez said.

In northern Belize, the National Emergency Management Organization expected about 4 inches (102 millimeters) of rain and warned of possible flooding around the Azul Hondo River.

Rain and rough seas ruined vacations for tourists in Ambergis Caye.

"I just came to lay in the sun and get a nice tan, but so far there hasn't been any sunshine," said Debbie Fountaineau, a police officer from Lake Charles, Louisiana, who arrived on the island Thursday.

The storm was projected to weaken as it crosses the Yucatan before moving out into the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical depression early Sunday.

There was chance it could strengthen back into a tropical storm before hitting Mexico again south of Veracruz on Wednesday, said Jamie Rhome, a meteorologist with the Hurricane Center. It was not expected to become a hurricane.

At 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT), the center of the storm was located about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of Belize City, and about 195 miles (314 kilometers) southwest of Cozumel, Mexico. It was moving to the west-northwest near 7 mph (11 kph).

The storm was expected to stay well away from the U.S. Gulf Coast.

*****

I guess that next trip to my old stomping grounds down that way will have to wait, phooey!

Question of the Day

Why is it that those devoid of mirth seek to deprive those that have mirth of it?

Stonehenge served as a burial ground

England's enigmatic Stonehenge served as a burial ground from its earliest beginnings and for several hundred years thereafter, new research indicates.

Dating of cremated remains shows burials took place as early as 3000 B.C., when the first ditches around the monument were being built, researchers said Thursday.

And those burials continued for at least 500 years, when the giant stones that mark the mysterious circle were being erected, they said.

"It's now clear that burials were a major component of Stonehenge in all its main stages," said Mike Parker Pearson, archaeology professor at the University of Sheffield in England and head of the Stonehenge Riverside Archaeological Project.

In the past many archaeologists had thought that burials at Stonehenge continued for only about a century, the researchers said.

"Stonehenge was a place of burial from its beginning to its zenith in the mid third millennium B.C. The cremation burial dating to Stonehenge's sarsen stones phase is likely just one of many from this later period of the monument's use and demonstrates that it was still very much a domain of the dead," Parker Pearson said in a statement.

The researchers also excavated homes nearby at Durrington Walls, which they said appeared to be seasonal homes related to Stonehenge.

"It's a quite extraordinary settlement, we've never seen anything like it before," Parker Pearson said. The village appeared to be a land of the living and Stonehenge a land of the ancestors, he said.

There were at least 300 and perhaps as many as 1,000 homes in the village, he said. The small homes were occupied in midwinter and midsummer.

The village also included a circle of wooden pillars, which the researchers have named the Southern Circle. It is oriented toward the midwinter sunrise, the opposite of Stonehenge, which is oriented to the midsummer sunrise.

The research was supported by the National Geographic Society, which discusses Stonehenge in its June magazine and will feature the new burial data on National Geographic Channel on Sunday.

The researchers said the earliest cremation burial was a small group of bones and teeth found in pits called the Aubrey Holes and dated to 3030-2880 B.C., about the time with the first ditch-and-bank monument was being built.

Remains from the surrounding ditch included an adult dated to 2930-2870 B.C., and the most recent cremation, Parker Pearson said, comes from the ditch's northern side and was of a 25-year-old woman. It dated to 2570-2340 B.C., around the time the first arrangements of large sarsen stones appeared at Stonehenge.

According to Parker Pearson's team, this is the first time any of the cremation burials from Stonehenge have been radiocarbon dated. The burials dated by the group were excavated in the 1950s and have been kept at the nearby Salisbury Museum.

In the 1920s an additional 49 cremation burials were dug up at Stonehenge, but all were reburied because they were thought to be of no scientific value, the researchers said.

They estimate that up to 240 people were buried within Stonehenge, all as cremation deposits.

Team member Andrew Chamberlain suggested that that the cremation burials represent the natural deaths of a single elite family and its descendants, perhaps a ruling dynasty.

A clue to this, he said, is the small number of burials in Stonehenge's earliest phase, a number that grows larger in subsequent centuries, as offspring would have multiplied.

Parker Pearson added: "I don't think it was the common people getting buried at Stonehenge - it was clearly a special place at that time. One has to assume anyone buried there had some good credentials."

The actual building and purpose of Stonehenge remain a mystery that has long drawn speculation from many sources.

And not all archaeologists agree with Parker Pearson's theory.

Indeed, the June issue of National Geographic Magazine quotes Mike Pitts, editor of the journal British Archaeology, as saying some details of the theory are problematic with gaps remaining to be filled. Uses of the landscape in the area for farming and grazing, for example, do not seem compatible with a ritualized place.

"The value of this interpretation is not just the idea of linking stones and ancestors, but that it works with the entire landscape," Pitts was quoted as saying.

Life's Helpful Hints

HOW TO GIVE THE CAT A BATH
(In TEN easy steps)

Step One: Lift both lids and place liquid soap in toilet.

Step Two: Locate cat and soothe cat as you transport him to toilet.

Step Three: Place cat into toilet closing both lids.

Step Four: Stand on toilet to prevent cat from exiting toilet prematurely.

Step Five: Allow ten minutes for cat to self agitate giving rise to the appropriate amount of suds.

Step Six: Flush Toilet three(3) times to complete cycle and form a powerful vaccum rinse.

Step Seven: Open door to exterior.

Step Eight: Stand as far away as possible from toilet.

Step Nine: Lift both toilet lids completely.

Step Ten: Allow the cat to rocket out of toilet and out the door where he will air dry.

This instructional guide was provided to you by Kaynine Press.

You Know and Only a

You know you are from the South if...

The men call it "glavantin" when they go out on Saturday night.

You do ok with 3 channels on a B&W TV.

You put ATV tires on the rear of your Poulan lawnmower so it wont get stuck mowing the barn pasture.

Your nickname has nothing to do with your real name or anything you did.

When picking huckleberries you put a joint of stove pipe on each leg to keep away the rattlesnakes.

You know that "mustard" is not only the yellow stuff you put on hot dogs, but that it is a type of green vegetable.

You know what a taw and an aggie and a cat's eye are.

You know what Jack rocks are and what a Jack leg mechanic is.

You know where the jumping-off place is and someone who has gone there.

You know what "wool gathering" means.

You know what "the short rows" are.

You know what it means when your ma is 'fixin to snatch a nappy knot in your behind'

Only a Southerner knows the difference between a "hissy fit" and a "caniption", and that you don't "have" them you "pitch" them.

Only a Southerner knows how many fish, collard greens, turnip greens, peas, beans, etc., constitutes a "mess" ... and we ain't givin' up our secrets to no Yankees.

Only a Southerner can point out the general direction of "yonder".

Only a Southeren knows exactly how long "directly" is - as in "Going to the store, be back directly".

Even Southern babies know that "Gimme some sugar" is not a request for the white granular sweet substance that sits in a pretty bowl in the middle of the table.

Only a Southerner knows when "by and by" is. They may not use the term but they know the concept well.

Every Southerner knows instinctively that the best gesture of solace for a neighbor who's got trouble is a plate of hot fried chicken and a big bowl of potato salad. If the neighbor's trouble is a real crisis they also know to add a large banana puddin'.

Every Southerner grows up knowing the difference between "right near" and "a far piece". They also know that "just down the road" can be one mile or twenty.

Only a Southerner both knows and understands the difference between a redneck, a good ol'boy, and po'white trash.

No true Southerner would assume the car with the flashing turn signal is actually going to make a turn.

Every Southerner knows "fixin'," can be used as a noun or a verb.

Southerners make friends while standing in lines. We don't do "qeues", we do "lines" and when we're "in line" we talk to everybody.

Only Southerners know grits come from corn and how to eat them.

Every Southerner knows that eggs, bacon, grits and iced tea are great together: that "red eye" gravy is a breakfast food and that fried green tomatoes are not.

When you hear someone say, "Well, I caught myself a'lookin'," you are honored to be in the presence of a genuine Southerner.

A true Southerner knows you don't scream obscenities at the little old lady that drives 30mph on the highway. Just just say "Bless her heart" and be on your way.

To all of you that are still having a hard time understanding this Southern stuff: "Bless your hearts." They are a'fixin' to have classes in how to understand the Language of the Gods.

For all those that were NOT born Southern, but have been here a long time need a sign for your front porch that reads, "I ain't originally from the South, but I got here as fast as I could!".

Things I've learned from living in the real world

A backache is Man's greatest labor-saving device.

Inside of every large problem the is a small problem struggling to get out.

Two lessons are to be learned from Bees; One - Not to be idle, Two - Not to get stung.

If you're leading a dog's life, please stay off the furniture.

In an arguement with even one woman, she has you outnumbered.

The most profound commentaries on the human condition are found on the restroom walls.

The raunchiest literary porn is found on the walls in the ladies room.

Do not complain about a fly in your soup because everyone will want one, too.

Peanut butter and chocolate really don't mix.

Humor is to life what shock absorbers are to a car.

If you think you're a person of influence, try ordering somebody else's dog around.

At 55, everything's starting to click for me - my elbows, my neck, my knees ...

The quickest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it back in your pocket.

Most times, with free advice, you get exactly what you paid for.

Some people get carried away with their own importance. The trouble is, it's never far enough.

Middle age is usually reckoned at between 40 - 60, or whenever a night on the town takes about 15 minutes.

If you find yourself in a hole, first thing to do is to stop digging.

In order to keep a true perspective of one's importance, everyone should have a dog that will totally worship him and a cat that will totally ignore him.

A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.

The last one out usually forgets to lock the door.

Pecans in the cemetary

On the outskirts of a small town, there was a big old pecan tree just inside the cemetary fence.
One day, two boys filled up a bucket full of nuts and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and began dividing the nuts.
"One for you, one for me. One for you and one for me, " said one boy. Several dropped and rolled down toward the fence.
Another boy came riding along the road on his bicycle.
As he passed, he thought he heard voices from inside the cemetary.
He slowed down to investigate.
Sure enough, he heard, "One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me."
He just knew what it was.
He jumped back on his bike and rode off.
Just around the bend he met an old man with a cane hobbling along.
"Come here quick," said the boy, "You won't believe what I heard! Satan and the Lord are down at the cemetary dividing up the souls."
The man said, "Beat it kid, can't you see it's hard for me to walk."
When the boy insisted, though, the man hobbled slowly to the cementary.
Standing by the fence they heard, "One for you, one for me ..."
The old man whispered, "Boy, you've been telling me the truth. Let's see if we can see the Lord."
Shaking with fear, they peered through the fence, yet we still unable to see anything.
The old man and the boy gripped the wrought iron fence tighter and tighter as they tried to get a glimpse of the Lord.
At last they heard, "One for you, one for me. OK ... that's all. Now let's go get those nuts by the fence and we'll be done."

They say the old man made it back to town a full two minutes ahead of the boy on the bike.

Waking Moments

Waking Moments

---

The trouble with life is that you're halfway through it before you figure out it's a do-it-yourself thing.

Aiming for the lowest common denominator sometimes causes division by zero.

The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys the same good things for the first time several times.

A couple of months in the lab can often save a couple of hours in the library.

When the last note is played, how will we know?

Some people are wise. Some people are otherwise.

When walking in the dark it is best to stop when your nose touches the wall.

Marsie-does and dosie-does and little lambsie-divies.

Remember it is ... pillage THEN burn!

Silence is the best answer when a woman asks you "Does this dress make me look fat?".

Plane on the highway - Pilot Injured

From the Newswire:

The pilot of a single-engine plane that crashed on Interstate 85 in central North Carolina is in critical condition at a local hospital.

The pilot, Richard Fuller of Durham, was the only one on board when the plane crashed Friday night. No other injuries were reported.

FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen says the Piper J3 Cub was made in 1947 and registered to Fuller.

The plane went down about 7 p.m. near an airport about 15 miles west of Durham. It wasn't immediately clear if the airplane was trying to reach the runway.

Durham County Sheriff's Capt. Ricky Buchanan says Fuller lives in a subdivision near the airport.

The FAA is investigating the cause of the crash.

The crash occurred near an unrelated tractor-trailer wreck earlier Friday that spilled diesel fuel.