Soap Opera: episode 9 million and one

Key teen witness in sect case denies Texas' claims

A 16-year-old girl is a key witness in the state's effort to pursue criminal charges against members of her polygamist sect, even though she denies investigators' claims that she was abused.

The girl, a daughter of the sect's jailed prophet, says she's never been married and doesn't have a baby. She denies church elders are influencing her and wants to fire her lawyer. The state can't even prove her alleged abuse happened in Texas.

A court filing shows that the girl has been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury Wednesday, the day the panel convenes in Schleicher County, home of a west Texas ranch run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The Associated Press does not usually identify alleged victims of sex abuse.

Her attorney, Natalie Malonis, was also subpoenaed, according to Tim Edwards, an attorney for the girl's mother who is trying to have Malonis removed from the case.

It's unclear who else will testify. Grand jury proceedings are secret and the Attorney General's office, which is handling the prosecution, has declined to comment.

The criminal case follows state child welfare officials' ill-fated April seizure of more than 400 children at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado.

The state accused the sect of widespread sexual abuse of teen girls, but the Texas Supreme Court forced the state to return the children from foster care in June. The high court said the state overreached in taking all the children from the ranch when only a handful of girls may have been abused.

It's not clear what, or whether, criminal indictments of FLDS members may result. But the girl scheduled to testify Wednesday illustrates that to win indictments, prosecutors may have to overcome the denials of the teens they allege were abused.

The girl initially fought attempts by Malonis to finalize an emergency restraining order issued Friday to force her mother to keep church elder Willie Jessop away from the girl.

Malonis said Jessop was influencing the teen and encouraging her to be uncooperative. The girl denies that and accused her lawyer in a letter to the judge of falsely claiming the girl was spiritually married at 15 and had a child.

The girl wants a new lawyer but agreed Tuesday to allow the restraining order to stay in place another 90 days.

Asked whether she had any comment as she left the courthouse on Tuesday, the teen said, "What do I say, except that I'm sick of everything?"

Malonis has said she would not fight with her client through the media. She has said state investigators have given her the information that leads her to believe her client has been abused.

Jim Bradshaw, an FLDS attorney, said Jessop denies any wrongdoing. Jessop has done "nothing that is in the realm of threatening witnesses," he said.

FLDS leaders have consistently denied there was any abuse at the ranch and vowed earlier this month not to sanction underage marriages.

FLDS spokesman Rod Parker said he's not sure whether the girl will be cooperative in her grand jury testimony or whether other FLDS children have been subpoenaed to appear.

"If they're going to be asked to testify against their parents, that's a real dilemma," he said. "I don't know if they're going to be that cooperative."

Under Texas law, a girl younger than 17 cannot generally consent to sex with an adult. Bigamy, which is generally considered a crime of fraud, is also illegal in Texas, although FLDS plural marriages were not sanctioned by the state.

Any criminal prosecution on sex charges is likely to be difficult. The state does have DNA material collected from most YFZ ranch residents to help them sort out family groups after the April 3 raid, and FLDS officials fear the evidence could be used against them in a criminal case.

"I thought from the beginning there was a secondary reason they wanted it," Parker said.

Texas Child Protective Services said it would turn over the DNA test results to criminal prosecutors if it were subpoeanaed by a grand jury or ordered by a court to do so.

Even if they had DNA evidence of abuse, prosecutors would have jurisdictional problems. Without the cooperation of the sect's teen girls, prosecutors will be unable to determine what state any alleged abuse occurred in. The sect has homes in Texas, Arizona and Utah and elsewhere.

The FLDS is a breakaway sect of the mainstream Mormon church, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago. Historically, church members lived along the Arizona-Utah line, where authorities had not sought criminal charges in decades until allegations of underage marriages - and willing witnesses - surfaced several years ago.

Still, just a handful of criminal cases have been prosecuted in the sect, estimated to have 6,000 members. Warren Jeffs, the girl's father and the leader who is revered as a prophet, was convicted in Utah of rape as an accomplice for his role in the marriage of a 14-year-old and her 19-year-old cousin. He is jailed awaiting trial on Arizona charges related to marriages involving young girls.

*****

OK, you folks in Texas - the laughs are getting shallower and fewer ... it's time to move on to another 'story'.

I know ... what about live sex shows with children? Oh, wait they've already done that story, too!

Sylvia Plath Reads 'Daddy'

Finnish Butter Commercial

June Posts

200 posts in June - it's been a busy month!

CDC: About 8 percent of Americans have diabetes

The number of Americans with diabetes has grown to about 24 million people, or roughly 8 percent of the U.S. population, the government said Tuesday.

A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based on data from 2007, said the number represents an increase of about 3 million over two years. The CDC estimates another 57 million people have blood sugar abnormalities called pre-diabetes, which puts people at increased risk for the disease.

The percentage of people unaware that they have diabetes fell from 30 percent to 25 percent, according to the study.

Dr. Ann Albright, director of the CDC Division of Diabetes Translation, said the report has "both good news and bad news."

"It is concerning to know that we have more people developing diabetes, and these data are a reminder of the importance of increasing awareness of this condition, especially among people who are at high risk," Albright said in a statement.

"On the other hand, it is good to see that more people are aware that they have diabetes."

A message left Tuesday night seeking further comment from the CDC wasn't immediately returned.

The disease results from defects in insulin production that cause sugar to build up in the body. It is the seventh leading cause of death in the country and can cause serious health problems including heart disease, blindness, kidney failure and amputations.

Among adults, diabetes increased in both men and women and in all age groups, but still disproportionately affects the elderly. Almost 25 percent of the population 60 years and older had diabetes in 2007.

After adjusting for population age differences between various groups, the rate of diagnosed diabetes was highest among American Indians and Alaska Natives (16.5 percent). This was followed by blacks (11.8 percent) and Hispanics (10.4 percent), which includes rates for Puerto Ricans (12.6 percent), Mexican Americans (11.9 percent), and Cubans (8.2 percent).

By comparison, the rate for Asian Americans was 7.5 percent, with whites at 6.6 percent.

*****

Not the rosiest report the CDC has ever made, now is it. Eight percent is eight percent too much. We need to find a cure and work on prevention as well. Find out all you can about Diabetes ... it is true that knowledge is power and the more you know about Diabetes the better you can handle it.

A Life 4 Sale

What is 'A Life 4 Sale' ?

Hi there, my name is Ian Usher, and I have had enough of my life! I don't want it any more! You can have it if you like!

No, I'm not contemplating suicide, I am going to sell my life!! I have my reasons, for further details click the "Why" tab below. However, I am still not sure whether this is inspired madness, complete foolishness, or just some sort of mid-life crisis.

Whatever it is, it's all going up for sale in one big auction. Everything I have and everything I am.

On the day it is all sold and settled I intend to walk out of my front door with my wallet in one pocket and my passport in the other, nothing else at all, and get on the train, with no idea where I am going or what the future holds for me.

*****

Not quite sure what to make of this story I found on the net. I know we all have entertained such notions as just chucking it all away and going 'walkabout', but this fellow seems to be planning on just that in reality. We'll see how he does.

Potty Humor

Beijing enlists army of toilet trained staff

Beijing has dispatched 8,000 toilet maintenance staff, each responsible for a specific public restroom in the city and trained in hygiene standards and techniques, Olympic knowledge and practical English expressions, Xinhua said Friday.

There will be selective inspections every week and the results will be posted on the website of the Municipal Utilities Administration Commission, said the news agency.

The city was also struggling with which style of commode would be best, noting Westerners prefer seated toilets, which are more comfortable and convenient for the elderly or infirm.

Told you So!

Long time readers may remember I said as much back on May 30th, 2008

Controversy around "uncontacted" tribe photos

Last month, this photo was released of an "uncontacted" tribe in the Amazon rain forest. It's an amazing photo, but it's now come out that the tribe had actually been known since 1910. The photographer, José Carlos Meirelles, went to where they were thought to live specifically to take their pictures. Meirelles works for Funai, the Brazillian Indian Protection Agency, and apparently was trying to attract publicity to help protect indigenous people in the area. Meanwhile, a post on the blog of Survival International, the indigenous rights group which works with Funai, denies that there's been any wrongdoing on their part at all. From The Observer:

Survival International, the organisation that released the pictures along with Funai, conceded yesterday that Funai had known about this nomadic tribe for around two decades. It defended the disturbance of the tribe saying that, since the images had been released, it had forced neighbouring Peru to re-examine its logging policy in the border area where the tribe lives, as a result of the international media attention. Activist and former Funai president Sydney Possuelo agreed that – amid threats to their environment and doubt over the existence of such tribes – it was necessary to publish them.

But the revelation that the existence of the tribe was already established will provoke awkward questions over why a decision was made to try to photograph them – a form of contact in itself – in order to make a political point. Link

From Survival International:

The only people who ever claimed that the Indians photographed were ‘lost’ or ‘undiscovered’ were…. the press, despite the fact that Survival has been campaigning for the protection of the many isolated Indian tribes on the Peru-Brazil border for more than twenty years.

Indeed, you might have thought that the fact that the Indians are living in a government reserve set aside for isolated Indian groups would tend to indicate that they weren’t exactly ‘unknown’.

For the avoidance of doubt, let’s just make it clear – yes, the tribe is uncontacted, that is to say, has no peaceful contact with outsiders. But no, they’re not ‘lost’ – they know where they are, and anthropologists, Survival, other NGOs and the Brazilian government have known that there are many isolated Indian tribes living in that region for decades. Link

Shipping children by postal mail: illegal since 1913

From the Smithsonian's Flickr stream of historic, public domain photos, a shot commemorating the end of being able to ship your children by postal mail:

This city letter carrier posed for a humorous photograph with a young boy in his mailbag. After parcel post service was introduced in 1913, at least two children were sent by the service. With stamps attached to their clothing, the children rode with railway and city carriers to their destination. The Postmaster General quickly issued a regulation forbidding the sending of children in the mail after hearing of those examples.

Link

Thanks to the folks over at Boing Boing for this gem.

Mission Accomplished

If you have made one person smile in your life then you have lived a life worth living.

This is a message left for me (cited in part) telling me that I have accomplished my mission in life for I have brought a smile to at least one person's face:

... just wanted to let you know that I also joined both of your communities. You're a very interesting, creative person. After leaving you a thank you message, I looked at your communities. In a manner of minutes, you brought "Sunshine Into my Foggy Day".

Enjoyed watching Mr. Carlin's video. I've been going through some horrific, storms of life; thank you for brightening my day. . You had one more joke that made me smile about "7 ... Women ... Shopping". Did you ever think of being a comedian? Maybe where you live they have comedy clubs? I believe that "knowledge is power".
Besides being a comedian, I read somewhere in your tags or blogs, that you love poetry and quotations. Now I owe you a second thank you; I've been moving around so much since college day; fav quotation book got lost along the way. After I joined your community, "lo & behold", the book that I've been missing was found. You use great quotes, but you also provide your community with info on where to go and find more info. "Seek and ye shall find." Never had chance to finish college, but they say it's never to late.

Not only Walt Disney has the power to create magic & fantasy come to life, but also each person holds the key(s) to reach their dreams. So many people wish they did this or that, why wish? It took me a long time to figure it all out. It's too late for me, but if I can help man, woman or child reach their goals or dreams, then I do.

Take care, may you and your family & friends have a great summer vacation!!!! When all is lost, but not forgotten; when life seems to fall apart; remember that after every hurricane comes sunshine. No matter what life brings us; we have to be strong; take the good, bad, ugly and sad. I think that my writer's block has disappeared.

Before you change you mind about my membership to your community, it would be an honor to be a part of either one. Are there any prerequisites for being a member? I'm new to the world of blogs. Have a "GRRRRReat" day!

In response to the last two questions: Why would I change my mind about membership in my communities ... only Haters are looked at askew? Alas, there is a prerequisite for membership ... being a human (sorry, but other species will be considered on a case by case basis only).

*****

Thank you for allowing me to fulfill my mission.
I am glad.
I am also, glad I am checking my in-box more regularly as well.

The Haters and the Second Amendment

The haters don't have a clue about anything and the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is no exception.

There is one particular verbose hater on another forum who keeps trying to dance semantic with ones who are equipped and well versed and in true fashion is failing miserably. Quoting the NRA's misinterpretation of the Amendment as holy gospel is not correct, yet he continues to blather with his blinders on full steam ahead.

No comprehension of 18th century grammar and syntax is no excuse for trying to foist what is an out-and-out lie as truth is nothing but a hater agenda ploy. The Second Amendment does not say 'every citizen has the right to own a gun' what it says (and means) is the each state has the right (and the obligation) to form and maintain a "well regulated militia". In fact the federal government does not have the right to form or maintain a military or militia under the Constitution and does so at the benevolence of the individual States - not something the haters understand either.

Some people don't deserve to be a mother

Police say DUI suspect went to bar instead of jail

A woman charged in the drunken-driving death of her son went to a bar after his funeral instead of reporting back to jail, state police said.

A judge had given Erin Howard, 26, of Corry, permission to leave the Erie County Prison for 24 hours to attend her son's funeral in Ohio, with orders to return to the lockup by 3 p.m. Saturday.

Instead, Howard went to a bar in Hamilton, Ohio, about a mile from the church where the funeral for 6-year-old Samuel Carpenter was held, police said.

Calls to Howard's public defender went unanswered after business hours Monday.

Howard had been in prison in lieu of $75,000 bail on charges that she was driving drunk when she crashed into a creek bank near Corry, killing Samuel on June 14 - her 26th birthday.

Pennsylvania police found out Sunday morning that Howard had been arrested in Ohio after her son's father allegedly tipped off authorities to her whereabouts. She was being held in Ohio awaiting extradition to Erie.

Howard has now been charged with escape in addition to involuntary manslaughter, drunken driving, child endangerment and other charges related to the crash.

*****

Let's hope they throw this bitch (pardon me, ladies, but that is the nicest way to say it) under the jail house and forget she is there!

A Nation unto himself

Man declares island (population: 1) to be new nation

A 65-year-old man who owns a 2.5 acre island in the Shetland Islands in the North Sea has declared independence from the UK.

Stuart Hill, 65, has lived in the Shetland Islands on the edge of the Atlantic since 2001, when his boat capsized there during an unsuccessful attempted to circumnavigate Britain.

He is Forvik's only resident, and his home is a tent on the storm-battered island. He says on his website that he plans to create Forvik's own currency -- the "gulde" -- print his own stamps and raise his own flag.

"There will be no income tax, VAT (value added tax), council tax, corporation tax, or any of the other taxes instituted by the British government," Hill wrote.

Link

Every Woman's favorite Latin Quote

Veni, Vidi, Visa

I Came, I Saw, I Shopped

Trial delayed in Texas sex club involving children

What is it with Texas recently?!

First the Polygamy Story, now this:

The third trial of an alleged member of a swingers club accused of forcing children into sex shows was postponed Monday amid allegations that the foster father to the young victims molested other children.

Prosecutors said the California child sex charges against John Cantrell, who has custody of three siblings who allegedly performed inside the club, has nothing to do with their case in Texas.

Cantrell, 64, was charged last week with sexually assaulting two of his foster children in 1990. His wife has denied the allegations.

Margie Cantrell first told authorities in 2005 about what the children - now ages 12, 10, and 7 - revealed to her about having being forced into sex at the former daycare.

"What does the fact that he was investigated 18 years ago, when the victims in our case were not even alive, have to do with the guilt or innocence of these defendants on trial today?" Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham said.

State District Judge Jack Skeen Jr. pushed back the start of the trial of Patrick Kelly until June 30, granting a request by Kelly's attorneys to allow time to investigate the charges against John Cantrell.

Texas Child Protective Services has temporarily forbidden the foster parent to see the children. Cantrell is awaiting extradition.

Kelly, 41, is the third alleged member of the so-called "Mineola Swingers Club" to stand trial. He and five others are accused of teaching children as young as 5 to have sex with each other and dance provocatively for crowds as large as 100 people.

Jurors this year deliberated less than five minutes before returning guilty verdicts against the first two defendants.

Thad Davidson, Kelly's lawyer, says his client passed a lie-detector test and is innocent.

Also Monday, two local reporters who have covered the swingers club trials were subpoenaed to testify Friday about allegedly dating the state's lead prosecutor in the case.

Davidson said he plans to ask Tyler Morning Telegraph reporter Casey Knaupp and KLTV reporter Danielle Capper about their relationships with Assistant District Attorney Joe Murphy.

Davidson is fighting to move the trial outside of Tyler, about 25 miles from where the club was located. He says the reporters' coverage of the case has been biased and has colored the prospective jury pool.

Dave Berry, managing editor of the Tyler Morning Telegraph, said the paper will seek to quash the subpoena at a Tuesday hearing. KLTV said it would have no comment.

*****

So, all you Texans out there - What Gives?!

Seven Simple Rules For How to Take A Nap

Seriously: we all know the whys — they improve mood, creativity, memory function, heart health, and so much else — but how many know the hows of how to take a nap.

Read more from 7 Simple Rules For How to Take A Nap

The Seven Words will never be spoken again

George Carlin, the frenzied performer whose routine "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television" led to a key Supreme Court ruling on obscenity, has died.

Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, went into St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He had performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas. He was 71.

"He was a genius and I will miss him dearly," Jack Burns, who was the other half of a comedy duo with Carlin in the early 1960s, told The Associated Press.

Carlin's jokes constantly breached the accepted boundaries of comedy and language, particularly with his routine on the "Seven Words" - all of which are taboo on broadcast TV and radio to this day.

When he uttered all seven at a show in Milwaukee in 1972, he was arrested on charges of disturbing the peace, freed on $150 bail and exonerated when a Wisconsin judge dismissed the case, saying it was indecent but citing free speech and the lack of any disturbance.

When the words were later played on a New York radio station, they resulted in a 1978 Supreme Court ruling upholding the government's authority to sanction stations for broadcasting offensive language during hours when children might be listening.

"So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I'm perversely kind of proud of," he told The Associated Press earlier this year.

Despite his reputation as unapologetically irreverent, Carlin was a television staple through the decades, serving as host of the "Saturday Night Live" debut in 1975 - noting on his Web site that he was "loaded on cocaine all week long" - and appearing some 130 times on "The Tonight Show."

He produced 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, three books, a couple of TV shows and appeared in several movies, from his own comedy specials to "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" in 1989 - a testament to his range from cerebral satire and cultural commentary to downright silliness (and sometimes hitting all points in one stroke).

"Why do they lock gas station bathrooms?" he once mused. "Are they afraid someone will clean them?"

He won four Grammy Awards, each for best spoken comedy album, and was nominated for five Emmy awards. On Tuesday, it was announced that Carlin was being awarded the 11th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which will be presented Nov. 10 in Washington and broadcast on PBS.

Carlin started his career on the traditional nightclub circuit in a coat and tie, pairing with Burns to spoof TV game shows, news and movies. Perhaps in spite of the outlaw soul, "George was fairly conservative when I met him," said Burns, describing himself as the more left-leaning of the two. It was a degree of separation that would reverse when they came upon Lenny Bruce, the original shock comic, in the early '60s.

"We were working in Chicago, and we went to see Lenny, and we were both blown away," Burns said, recalling the moment as the beginning of the end for their collaboration if not their close friendship. "It was an epiphany for George. The comedy we were doing at the time wasn't exactly groundbreaking, and George knew then that he wanted to go in a different direction."

That direction would make Carlin as much a social commentator and philosopher as comedian, a position he would relish through the years.

"The whole problem with this idea of obscenity and indecency, and all of these things - bad language and whatever - it's all caused by one basic thing, and that is: religious superstition," Carlin told the AP in a 2004 interview. "There's an idea that the human body is somehow evil and bad and there are parts of it that are especially evil and bad, and we should be ashamed. Fear, guilt and shame are built into the attitude toward sex and the body. ... It's reflected in these prohibitions and these taboos that we have."

Carlin was born on May 12, 1937, and grew up in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan, raised by a single mother. After dropping out of high school in the ninth grade, he joined the Air Force in 1954. He received three court-martials and numerous disciplinary punishments, according to his official Web site.

While in the Air Force he started working as an off-base disc jockey at a radio station in Shreveport, La., and after receiving a general discharge in 1957, took an announcing job at WEZE in Boston.

"Fired after three months for driving mobile news van to New York to buy pot," his Web site says.

From there he went on to a job on the night shift as a deejay at a radio station in Fort Worth, Texas. Carlin also worked variety of temporary jobs including a carnival organist and a marketing director for a peanut brittle.

In 1960, he left with Burns, a Texas radio buddy, for Hollywood to pursue a nightclub career as comedy team Burns & Carlin. He left with $300, but his first break came just months later when the duo appeared on Jack Paar's "Tonight Show."

Carlin said he hoped to emulate his childhood hero, Danny Kaye, the kindly, rubber-faced comedian who ruled over the decade Carlin grew up in - the 1950s - with a clever but gentle humor reflective of the times.

It didn't work for him, and the pair broke up by 1962.

"I was doing superficial comedy entertaining people who didn't really care: Businessmen, people in nightclubs, conservative people. And I had been doing that for the better part of 10 years when it finally dawned on me that I was in the wrong place doing the wrong things for the wrong people," Carlin reflected recently as he prepared for his 14th HBO special, "It's Bad For Ya."

Eventually Carlin lost the buttoned-up look, favoring the beard, ponytail and all-black attire for which he came to be known.

But even with his decidedly adult-comedy bent, Carlin never lost his childlike sense of mischief, even voicing kid-friendly projects like episodes of the TV show "Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends" and the spacey Volkswagen bus Fillmore in the 2006 Pixar hit "Cars."

Carlin's first wife, Brenda, died in 1997. He is survived by wife Sally Wade; daughter Kelly Carlin McCall; son-in-law Bob McCall; brother Patrick Carlin; and sister-in-law Marlene Carlin.

Click on the Audio MP3 for George's classic "Class Clown"

Question of the Day

I hesitate to bring this up - but who do you ask if you think a word in the dictionary is misspelled?

Tainted Tomato Toll Now Stands At 552

I haven't posted on the Tomato contamination problem before but it is getting a bit worrisome.
Here is the latest:

The victim count in the tainted tomato outbreak leaped to 552 Friday even as U.S health officials announced that the salmonella contaminant did indeed come from farms in Florida and Mexico.

The huge increase in victims since the nationwide outbreak began on April 10 appeared largely a result of the state of Texas now reporting 265 illnesses, according to the latest count by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At least 53 people have been hospitalized, Ian Williams, chief of the CDC's OutbreakNet Team, told reporters at a mid-afternoon teleconference.

"The FDA is sending teams to Florida and Mexico this weekend to begin inspection of these farms," Dr. David Acheson, associate commissioner for food protection at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, added. "We are also working with the state of Texas to identify the cluster of illness there."

The increase in people sickened by the singular strain of salmonella saintpaul was not unexpected. Last week, the count was below 200; two days ago, it jumped to more than 380. At least 32 states, plus the District of Columbia, have now reported cases.

On Thursday, health officials had warned that the end was not yet in sight.

"The marked increase is not due to new infections, but mainly because some states improved surveillance in response to this outbreak, and laboratory identification of many other previously submitted strains has now been completed," said Casey Barton Behravesh, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during a Thursday teleconference.

"We are continuing to receive reports of ill people," added Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the CDC's division of foodborne, bacterial and mycotic diseases. "We do not think the outbreak is over."

On Friday, Acheson said the investigation into the outbreak has now zeroed in on "a number of farms" in both Florida and Mexico.

"These farms along with their associated distribution chains are going to be part of an ongoing investigation," he added, noting, "We do not have a specific farm involved in the contamination; we have to look at the whole chain."

Health officials last week had said that the bulk of the tomatoes available at the start of the outbreak in April had come from Mexico and parts of Florida.

But on Wednesday, Acheson seemed less certain than he has in the past that the exact source would ever be identified. "I have to acknowledge that we may not ultimately know the farm where these came from," he said. "But we're continuing to go flat-out, assuming we are going to get to that point."

Salmonella is a bacteria that can cause bloody diarrhea in humans. Some 40,000 cases of salmonellosis are reported in the United States each year, although the CDC estimates that because milder cases are not diagnosed or reported, the actual number of infections may be 30 or more times greater. Approximately 600 people die each year after being infected.

More information

Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more on the salmonella outbreak.

Rain, Mac Duff and pondering in a storm

We're getting a good taste of what the Midwest has had over the past few days - Rain ... and a lot of it and heavy at the moment.
Not that it is a bad thing right now because we are still in a drought even with all the rain the last two months but it drives Mac Duff to distraction.
I have never known a dog so afraid of rain - that and overweight cats!
Looking into those sad scared eyes pleading 'daddy make it go away' as he tries to get under my skin literally - and how does a 13 pound dog instantly weigh over 100 pounds when he's curled up on your chest?!

Things I am Pondering:

When did life get to be a job? Was it in Kindergarten? Or, maybe High School? Then again the first time you turned over in your crib?

Why are Yellow Freight trucks painted orange?

When is enough, enough?

Why are there obstacles on the road?

What is the meaning of life and did Monty Python really have the right answer?

How, do you make progress going backward?

The Soap Opera Continues ... Part twentythree and three fifths

Polygamist leader's daughter wants new lawyer

A convicted polygamist leader's teenage daughter, who was among the children removed from her sect's Texas compound during an abuse investigation, is fighting her attorney's attempt to shield her from a church official.

Teresa Jeffs, 16, is one of hundreds of children from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints with an attorney appointed by a state judge as part of a child welfare investigation into allegations of abuse. Her father is Warren Jeffs, the church's imprisoned president and prophet.

More than 400 children were rounded up as part of the Texas investigation and later released. Teresa Jeffs denies allegations by her attorney that she was forced into a spiritual marriage at age 15 with an older man and that she has a baby. She told The Associated Press on Sunday that she wants a new lawyer.

But the court-appointed attorney, Natalie Malonis, believes Jeffs is being swayed by a church official.

On Friday, Malonis successfully sought a restraining order against church spokesman Willie Jessop, who she said was intimidating and improperly influencing the girl.

"I believe that (the girl) was avoiding service because of coercion and improper influence from Willie Jessop," Malonis wrote the judge.

Malonis sought the protection order after the girl asked State District Judge Barbara Walther to release her from the case and appoint another attorney.

Jessop, a Utah-based member of the church, denies trying to influence Jeffs and criticized restrictions that prohibit her from visiting the sect's Yearning For Zion ranch near Eldorado, Texas.

Teresa Jeffs says she doesn't need and didn't approve of the restraining order and doesn't want Malonis as her lawyer anymore.

"I have asked her many times to please step aside," Teresa Jeffs told the AP by telephone on Sunday from Texas. "I need more help. I want my attorney to listen to me."

In one letter she released to the AP, Teresa Jeffs wrote: "Natalie, quit all your lying about everything." She asked Malonis to "let me get a different lawyer."

Malonis declined Sunday to respond to her client's complaints.

"I'm trying to help her," Malonis said. "It's really not in any child's interest to waive their attorney-client privilege. I'm not going to fight with her in the media."

Jeffs said she plans to appear Wednesday before a grand jury opening a criminal investigation into the polygamist group. The state attorney general's office refuses to confirm anything about the proceeding, saying it's secret under Texas law.

In 2003, the sect began moving some of its estimated 6,000 members to the YFZ ranch. Acting on an allegation of child abuse, Texas authorities raided the ranch April 3 and seized more than 450 children. A court returned the children this month, although a child welfare investigation continues.

Church members have traditionally made their homes in twin towns on the Utah-Arizona border. The church practices polygamy in arranged marriages, which have sometimes involved underage girls, resulting in criminal charges against some FLDS men.

The mainstream Mormon church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, renounced polygamy long ago.

Last year, a Utah jury convicted Warren Jeffs of two first-degree felony counts of rape as an accomplice for his role in the 2001 marriage between a 14-year-old follower and her 19-year-old cousin. He is currently in an Arizona jail awaiting trial on other charges related to marriages involving young girls.

*****

Round and round she goes - where she stops nobody knows!

Eight Hundred

Not bad for an old typewriter with an old typewriter!

Thanks to The 'Defective Yeti'

Typical Reaction to the Revelation That I Do Not Own a Cell Phone, By Year

1998: Solidarity ("Yeah, me neither--I hate those things!")

1999: Envy ("Lucky you; I had to get one for work.")

2000: Indifference ("Okay, what's your home phone number then?")

2001: Encouragement ("You should get one--you can play Tetris on them now!")

2002: Confusion ("I thought you were, like, a tech guy.")

2003: Sympathy ("They're getting pretty cheap. You'll be able to afford one soon.")

2004: Irritation ("So how am I supposed to get a hold of you?")

2005: Derision ("If we go out tonight I'll send you a fax.")

2006: Skepticism ("Are you serious?")

2007: Awe ("Wow, you're like the last one.")

2008: Incomprehension ("You don't ... how ...?")

*****

It is amazing that we got along so well with our lives before cell phones, isn't it?!

Miniature Paris replica made from trash

Gerard Brion's garden in the south France town of Vaissac contains a replica of Paris built from junk, trash, glue and paint.

The Frenchman, 29, has spent 15 years crafting landmarks including the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and Sacré Coeur out of old concrete blocks, baby food jars and soup tins.

Link

Curry vs. obesity and diabetes?

Findings presented to ENDO 2008, the Endocrine Society's annual meeting in San Francisco this week, show that a spice found in curries has remarkable properties when administered to obese and diabetic mice:

"It's too early to tell whether increasing dietary curcumin [through turmeric] intake in obese people with diabetes will show a similar benefit," Dr. Tortoriello said. "Although the daily intake of curcumin one might have to consume as a primary diabetes treatment is likely impractical, it is entirely possible that lower dosages of curcumin could nicely complement our traditional therapies as a natural and safe treatment."

For now, the conclusion that Dr. Tortoriello and his colleagues have reached is that turmeric – and its active anti-oxidant ingredient, curcumin – reverses many of the inflammatory and metabolic problems associated with obesity and improves blood-sugar control in mouse models of Type 2 diabetes.

Link

Life (in prison) is too good for them!

Texas town reels from horrific abuse in its midst

In the windowless front rooms of a former day care center in a tiny Texas community, children as young as 5 were fed powerful painkillers they knew as "silly pills" and forced to perform sex shows for a crowd of adults.

Two people have already been convicted in the case. Now a third person with ties to the club, previously known in town only as a swingers group, is set to go on trial Monday not far from Mineola, population 5,100.

"This really shook this town," said Shirley Chadwick, a longtime resident of Mineola. "This was horrible."

Patrick Kelly, 41, is charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child, tampering with physical evidence and engaging in organized criminal activity.

In all, six adults have been charged in connection with the case, including a parent of the three siblings involved.

Jurors this year deliberated less than five minutes before returning guilty verdicts against the first two defendants, who were accused of grooming the kids for sex shows in "kindergarten" classes and passing off Vicodin as "silly pills" to help the children perform.

Jamie Pittman and Shauntel Mayo were sentenced to life in prison. Kelly also faces a life sentence if convicted, and Smith County prosecutors hope for another swift verdict.

Thad Davidson, Kelly's attorney, said his client passed a lie-detector test proving his innocence and worries about getting a fair trial in Tyler, 25 miles southeast of Mineola, which is in Wood County.

"I think it's impossible to get a fair trial within 80 miles of Smith County," Davidson said.

Mineola, about 80 miles east of Dallas, is a close-knit, conservative bean-processing town of with more than 30 churches. Residents there want to put the scandal behind them as quickly as possible.

The one-story building where prosecutors say four children - the three siblings, now ages 12, 10 and 7, and their 10-year-old aunt - were trained to perform in front of an audience of 50 to 100 once a week has been vacant since the landlord ousted the alleged organizers in 2004.

Down a slight hill is a retirement home, and even closer is the office of the local newspaper. Doris Newman, editor of The Mineola Monitor, said rumors of swinger parties spread around town but that no one mentioned children being involved.

Newman, who can see the building from her office window, said she remembers the parking lot filling up with more than a dozen cars at night.

In August 2004, an editorial under the headline "Sex In the City" opined that if the swingers left quietly, "we'll try and forget they've infiltrated our town with their set of moral standards."

"It's not that we're trying to look the other way," Newman said. "But there's a lot more to Mineola than that."

According to a Mineola police report, the department first investigated a complaint in June 2005 in which the siblings' foster mother said one of the girls described dancing toward men and another child saying that "everybody does nasty stuff in there."

In the second trial, Child Protective Services caseworker Kristi Hachtel testified, "I've seen a lot and I never in my wildest dreams imagined this. They were preyed upon in probably one of the most heinous ways possible."

The children are now doing better, the welfare agency said.

"Through counseling and therapy sessions, these children are now finally feeling secure and safe," agency spokeswoman Shari Pulliam wrote in an e-mail.

Permanent custody of the three siblings was given to John and Margie Cantrell. This week, prosecutors in California charged John Cantrell with sexually assaulting a child in the state 18 years ago. Margie Cantrell said her husband is innocent.

Kelly's attorney moved Friday asking to postpone the trial in light of the allegations against Cantrell, a state witness. Texas Child Protective Services said it would be "common" for the agency to investigate.

The Rev. Tim Letsch is opening a church in the yellow-plastered building where the children were abused. He acknowledges that building a congregation might be difficult because of the stigma attached to the property.

"You got to decide whether you're willing to forgive those kind of things," Letsch said. "It's a hard deal. Especially for a spiritual person to walk in and say, 'This happened here.'"

*****
(From the AP)

Daily Thought

Ulcers are caused not so much by what we eat as to what's eating us.

Solstice came and I missed it.

No embolisms , but all day at the hospital was not how I had planned to spend my Solstice. Of course with her history of embolisms they are keeping her for a few days - so I am a 'bachelor' until at least Wednesday.

Now if I can only stay out of mischief ...

Pulmonary Embolisms

It's off to the ER ... the Mrs., survived blood clots in her lungs last year (8 out of 10 do not survive 1, she had over twenty), so we are taking no chances with what could be a new crop of clots in the deep tissues and veins of the legs.

There seems to have been a spate of clots among people we know since the Mrs'., bout last May (2007) and it has been among the 30something ladies we know. Just this past May one of our 30something friends had a clot in her lungs and in her leg and survived. So, far all our friends have survived -there have been four - and with the odds of fatality being 8 out of 10 there has been a lot more people who have had clots who have not made it.

Word to the wise:

If you can flex your foot back toward the leg and you can see a redness in the skin that was not there before you flexed your foot go to your doctor or better yet the hospital and have it checked out - it could be that in doing so you save your life. Clots in the leg are not fatal per se but they tend to travel and if they get into the lungs you might not beat the odds.

SAY WHAT!?

MPAA - "We shouldn't have to prove infringement took place before collecting $150k per file in damages"

In an amicus brief filed in the Jammie Thomas trial, lawyers for the MPAA argued that it was unreasonable to ask copyright holders to prove that infringement had taken place before awarding them damages of up to $150,000 per file.

"Mandating such proof could thus have the pernicious effect of depriving copyright owners of a practical remedy against massive copyright infringement in many instances," MPAA attorney Marie L. van Uitert wrote Friday to the federal judge overseeing the Jammie Thomas trial.

"It is often very difficult, and in some cases, impossible, to provide such direct proof when confronting modern forms of copyright infringement, whether over P2P networks or otherwise; understandably, copyright infringers typically do not keep records of infringement," van Uitert wrote on behalf of the movie studios, a position shared with the Recording Industry Association of America, which sued Thomas, the single mother of two.

Link

Say what! You don't have to prove your case before you are awarded monetary compensation! Alrighty then, where do I go to collect my compensation just because I say I should be compensated!

A Slice of Philosophy

Utility is when you have one telephone; luxury is when you have two, and paradise is when you have none!

And I Quote

“There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.”

~ (Ret.) Major General Antonio Taguba

South Carolina executes James Earl Reed by electrocution

A South Carolina man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend's parents 14 years ago was executed in the state's electric chair Friday night after a last-ditch effort to halt the sentence was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court.

James Earl Reed was pronounced dead at 11:27 p.m. Friday in the state's death chamber in Columbia. He did not issue a final statement.

The execution, first scheduled for 6 p.m., had been put on hold as defense attorneys successfully obtained a stay from a federal judge, only to see it vacated by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Their attempt to get the U.S. Supreme Court to block the execution was subsequently denied.

Reed, 49, was the first person executed by electric chair in the U.S. in nearly a year and South Carolina's first since 2004. He had been on death row since 1996, after being convicted of murdering Joseph and Barbara Lafayette in their Charleston County home two years earlier. Prosecutors said he was looking for his ex-girlfriend.

In South Carolina, anyone sentenced to death may choose the electric chair or lethal injection. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, eight other states electrocute inmates.

During his trial, Reed fired his attorney and represented himself, denying the killings despite a confession and arguing that no physical evidence placed him at the scene. Jurors found him guilty and decided he should die.

In the request for the stay that was granted Friday, the defense attorneys cited a U.S. Supreme Court decision made the day before regarding defendants' rights to represent themselves. The high court on Thursday said a defendant can be judged competent to stand trial, yet incapable of acting as his own lawyer.

Thousands revel at Stonehenge for summer solstice

The summer solstice drew thousands of revelers to Stonehenge to watch the sun rise over the ancient monument Saturday for the first time in the new season.

Beating drums and wearing rainbow cloaks, the celebrants walked through light rain Friday to talk, dance and meditate as they awaited the start of the event.

Ray Smith, 60, of Hengistbury in southern England, came wearing blue face paint and a multicolored skirt.

"I think it's a place of our ancestors, its a shrine to our ancestors, and I think it's very important to celebrate each season," he said.

Zoe Neale, 48, cheerfully admitted her visit to Stonehenge "is part of my mid-life crisis." She left her West London office amid gentle teasing from her colleagues Friday afternoon to see a very English tradition.

Organizers expect 25,000 people to journey to the ancient site. They will be allowed access to the stone circle, which is usually closed to visitors. Representatives of English Heritage, the monument's caretaker, will be on hand to make sure no one carried away with the celebratory spirit climbs on or vandalizes the stones.

"People generally respect the stones and we don't have a problem," English Heritage spokeswoman Rebecca Milton said.

The solstice in England occurred at 12:59 a.m. Saturday (7:59 p.m. EDT Friday), marking the start of the day with the most sunlight of the year.

Stonehenge, on the Salisbury Plain about 90 miles southwest of London, was built between 3,000 B.C. and 1,600 B.C. It is one of Britain's most popular tourist attractions, drawing more than 750,000 people visit every year.

Solstices were an important part of Europe's pre-Christian calendar and many speculate Stonehenge's orientation offers clues to its creators' pagan traditions.

The original purpose of Stonehenge is debated, but recent evidence has shed some light on the mystery. In May, researchers reported the stone circle was used as a burial ground since its initial construction. Cremated remains found at Stonehenge date back to 3,000 B.C. and radiocarbon dating shows burials continued at the site for at least 500 years. It is estimated that at least 240 people were buried at Stonehenge.

One of these years I will make it there for the solstice.

Thought for the Day

Everything is possible, just not too probable.

Wouldn't Surprise Me If ...

Bill O'Reilly = Child Molester?

Why was Billy Boy in Child Whore Houses in Panama

in 1978-1979 having sex with 12-15 year old girls?

Now this I believe:

Damn, the asshole can speak the truth, who knew!

Life (about a third of it is anyway) Is But A Dream

. . . We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
Shakespeare: The Tempest

You spend roughly one third of your life asleep. But that doesn't mean that it's wasted time. Many believe that the dreams you have during the night offer insights into aspects of your waking life.

Plus, theories abound on how the brain actually problem-solves while you're asleep. That's why you sometimes wake up in the morning with the answer to something that has been puzzling you. Dream symbolism and interpretation can provide a fascinating glimpse into your psyche.

The Four Stages of Sleep

Stage 1: The first stage of sleep is very light and usually lasts just a few minutes. If you are not disturbed, you will quickly journey into Stage 2.

Stage 2: This is a much deeper sleep than Stage 1. In Stage 2, dreams start to form. Although there are no clear images, vague thoughts and ideas drift through your mind. If undisturbed, you will soon drift off into Stage 3.

Stage 3: This is a deeper sleep than Stage 2. Your muscles are all relaxed by now and your heart rate has slowed down. Your blood pressure is also falling and your breathing is steady and even. You are very difficult to wake now. Only two things can wake you: a loud noise or a repetitious calling of your name. Before long, you will venture into Stage 4.

Stage 4: This is the deepest sleep of all and is the time full-fledged dreams occur. You are difficult to wake now. If there is a loud noise or if you are shaken, it will take a few seconds to wake up. Both your blood pressure and heart rate fluctuate and your brain heats up slightly. Then comes REM (rapid eye movement). If you are woken up during this period, you will be able to remember recently dreamt dreams. The first REM period lasts only about ten minutes. After that, you go back into a deep Stage 4 sleep. Again, you go into another REM stage after a short period and cycle through REM and Stage 4 until you awaken.

Check out the links below for more on dreams and even learn how to remember more of your nocturnal adventures!

Assoc. for Study of Dreams

Lucid Dreams
Freud's Take on Dreams
The Dream Foundation
On Dreams by Aristotle

Working with Dreams

Paraguayn inmates riot for more sex

Paraguayan prisoners rioted Friday to press a list of demands including more sex.

Inmates seized the Esperanza prison's director and other administrators, demanding nighttime conjugal visits and an end to mistreatment by guards.

Paraguayan prisons allow such visits during the day - but that clashes with working hours at Esperanza, where inmates have jobs, such as at a prison clothing factory.

Justice Minister Derlis Osorio said the riot ended after four hours with no deaths or injuries.

It was not clear whether prison authorities agreed to allow nighttime conjugal visits, but local media reported that they agreed to investigate claims of abuse and end strip searches of visitors.

*****

Mistreatment, I can see fixing that, but just because you have a conflict with work and afternoon nookie is no reason to riot ... besides you're in prison - there are some limitations placed upon you in prison ... don't want the limitations, don't be in prison - it is that simple.

Be a leech in only two years

Chicago's Northwestern to offer 2-year law program

Northwestern University School of Law will offer an accelerated, two-year program for law degrees starting in 2009, becoming the only law school among top-tier institutions to offer both two- and three-year programs, university officials said.

The accelerated track will require the same number of credits as the three-year program, but will cost less because the study will take place in a compressed five-semester period.

The new program is aimed at high achievers eager to begin their law careers, Dean David Van Zandt said, noting that Northwestern will require accelerated candidates to have at least two years of post-undergraduate, full-time work experience.

The plan requires two new courses for both two-year and three-year degree candidates. They will cover analytic skills like accounting, finance and statistics, and "legal services behavior," which will involve social networks, teamwork, leadership and project management.

*****

Just what we need more leeches faster!

Cambodia destroys Ecstasy ingredient

Well, your next RAVE may not be such a rave ...

Cambodian authorities working with Australian police destroyed an enormous stockpile of 33 tons of safrole-rich oil, a key ingredient used in producing the synthetic drug Ecstasy, officials said Friday.

The amount could have been used to produce 245 million tablets of the drug. It had a potential street value of more than 7.6 billion Australian dollars (US$7.3 billion), the Australian Embassy said in a statement.

The oil, which is extracted from the roots of the sassafras tree, was burned over a three-day period starting Wednesday, said Lour Ramin, a police lieutenant general and secretary-general of the National Authority for Combating Drugs.

"If this oil had been used to produce Ecstasy tablets, millions of people would have suffered," he said.

Members of the Australian Federal Police oversaw the burning of the oil in a remote village in Cambodia's Pursat province, about 100 miles northwest of the capital, Phnom Penh, he said.

"These seizures demonstrate that Cambodia faces the challenges of suppressing drug production for regional export, as well as challenges faced as a transit center for regional and international drug market," Philip Hunter, an official from Australian Federal Police, said at the ceremony.

The destruction "was a significant blow to the trade of illicit drugs in the region," Hunter was quoted saying in the embassy statement.

At the request of the Cambodian government, an Australian police team of four technicians and two forensic chemists traveled to Pursat province this week to help destroy the oil, it said.

Cambodian authorities have been working since 2002 to stem the distillation of the oil and since then have succeeded in detecting and dismantling more than 50 clandestine laboratories capable of producing up to 15 gallons of oil a day, it said.

In addition to cracking down on the drug trade, Cambodian officials are trying to preserve the sassafras tree, which is classified as a rare species that grows mainly in Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains, said Lour Ramin. To distill oil from the tree's roots, the entire tree is cut down.

With 7 plus billion gone somebody is gong to to be pissed. We can look for more from this story.

Random Photo

Just a random photo

Thought for the Day

Never knew there was so many ways to obfuscate but the haters are masters at it. Reality must be so painful to them.

Hoops and garters

If you have never seen a bunch of Rennies sewing costumes you have really missed something!
The topics of conversation would make the saltiest sailor blush as would the language - remember there are sharp pointy objects all about not including the scissors that everyone has in multiples so you know we're all on our best behavior!

How many overskirts does one woman need anyway?

Needless to say I have just experienced this phenomena again for the billionth time this evening and it is still going on ... going into phase three - yes, there are phases each 'session' goes through.

The Entry phase ... where all is discussed at length and then some before the first stitch or cut is made. It is in this phase that sizing and colors are determined.

The Whirlwind phase ... where there are at least ten different costumes being worked on at the same time (more likely 15, but who's counting).

The Frenzy phase ... when the realization that there are ten costumes in various stages of development and they all have to be finished by 8am.

The Solution phase ... where all costumes are completed and discussion begins on the next set of costumes they are going to make (this phase has been known to morph directly into the Entry phase and the whole thing start over again immediately - there have been three such instances in the past month alone where one of these sewing sessions lasted the entire weekend - literally)

Through all four phases whips and chains; nude sunbathing; cooking; belly dancing; British comedies; film noir; dogs; motorcycles; learning to speak with an accent; babies; sex in general; shopping; making candles; swords and blades; sports and more that I cannot remember at the moment were the topics of conversation ... and this is the ladies.

911 call released in case of NC teen tied to tree

Two callers didn't answer a 911 dispatcher's repeated questions about what a 13-year-old boy was doing before he stopped breathing on a tape released Tuesday by investigators, who have said the teen was tied to a tree for two nights.

"Our little boy stopped breathing," a woman tells the dispatcher. Later she pleads, "Please hurry. Please hurry."

Brice Brian McMillan, 41, and his wife Sandra Elizabeth McMillan, 36, of Macclesfield are accused of killing their son, Tyler, by tying him to a tree for two nights for punishment. The Edgecombe County Sheriff's Office wouldn't immediately confirm whether they believe the callers are the McMillans but said the recording was related to the case.

The dispatcher repeatedly asked the woman and later a man what the child was doing before he stopped breathing, but neither respond. The man said the boy did not have any medical problems. Toward the end of the call, neither responded to repeated questions from the dispatcher as they apparently performed CPR on the teen, who later died at a hospital.

Headlines

Just a few News Headlines. Presented without reference or explanation. I wonder what conclusions you make from just the headline?

Midwest feels misled by feds

Poison sue royalty

Kentucky indicts Ohio over rock

Two longtime survivors meet

School gets transvestite bathrooms

Hula Hoop turns 50

Hats and heels take the day

Rape is a way of life

Man who proved true birth year dies at 83

Bush tells no one he's listening

Germany seeks Nazi from US

Ok, there are a few key words missing from some of the headlines - but not from all of them ... can you tell which ones?
Hint: They're not the ones you might think.
So what do you conclude from these headlines?

Group files suit over 'I Believe' plates in SC

A group that advocates separation of church and state filed a federal lawsuit Thursday to prevent South Carolina from becoming the first state to create "I Believe" license plates.

The group contends that South Carolina's government is endorsing Christianity by allowing the plates, which would include a cross superimposed on a stained glass window.

Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed the lawsuit on behalf of two Christian pastors, a humanist pastor and a rabbi in South Carolina, along with the Hindu American Foundation.

"I do believe these 'I Believe' plates will not see the light of day because the courts, I'm confident, will see through this," said the Rev. Barry Lynn, the group's executive director.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for South Carolina, asks a judge to stop the state from making the plates and rule that the law allowing them violates the First Amendment.

A spokeswoman said the state Department of Motor Vehicles had not yet received the lawsuit and planned to go ahead with the plates unless told otherwise. The agency plans to unveil the final design and start taking orders by late August.

The bill sailed through the Legislature with little discussion earlier this year. Gov. Mark Sanford let it become law without his signature because the state already allows private groups to create license plates for any cause.

Republican House Speaker Bobby Harrell said residents asked for a way to express their beliefs, and legislators responded.

He disputed Lynn's accusation that they were pandering to constituents in an election year.

"That's what critics always say when they see something they don't like," Harrell said. "I think this has less to do with the First Amendment and more to do with their disdain for religion generally."

Lynn said his group would not have opposed the "I Believe" plates had they been advocated by private groups. State law allows private groups to create specialty plates as long as they first collect either a $4,000 deposit or 400 prepaid orders.

Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer said last week that he is willing to put up the money, then get reimbursed, though the Department of Motor Vehicles spokeswoman said that isn't necessary. Bauer said the idea came from Florida, where a proposal for an "I Believe" tag failed.

He called it a freedom-of-speech issue.

But a Methodist pastor who joined the lawsuit, the retired Rev. Thomas Summers of Columbia, said the plate provokes discrimination.

"I think this license plate really is divisive and creates the type of religious discord I've devoted my life to healing," he said.

Another of the ministers, the Rev. Robert Knight of Charleston, said the plates cheapen the Christian message.

"As an evangelical Christian, I don't think civil religion enhances the Christian religion. It compromises it," Knight said. "That's the fundamental irony. It's very shallow from a Christian standpoint."

This is one more minister here who joins in saying that the separation of church and state is paramount and these vanity plates should never be allowed. Being a scientist as well as a minister I am not blinded by dogma as are those attempting to foist these plates on the people of this nation (you know they won't stay in SC if they are allowed to see the light of day as another put it).

It's not McPain's age - it's his judgment

John McPain's campaign is accusing Democrats of ageism because they say McPain is "confused", "oblivious", and "out of touch".

But this isn't a criticism of McPain's age because the shrub is far younger than
McPain and the shrub is also confused, oblivious, and out of touch.

The problem with McPain isn't his age, it's his poor judgment.
It's not that McPain is to old, it's that McPain. like the shrub, is just
plain wrong and he hasn't learned anything from the shrub's mistakes.

Sixth foot a hoax

Canada's Sixth Foot!

British Columbia's coroner's office is calling the discovery of a sixth floating human foot a hoax, saying it was really an animal paw stuffed inside a running shoe.

At first, Wednesday's discovery deepened the mystery surrounding the feet, all found floating along island shorelines in the Strait of Georgia near Vancouver.

But the coroner's office Thursday called the latest find a hoax, saying an animal's foot had been inserted inside the shoe.

Authorities say they haven't reached any conclusions about the origin of the five human feet.

*****

Ok, who is doing this and what is going on and why are the hoaxers getting in on the action?!

Haters Scream Loudly

What I find utterly amazing is the haters on an old forum are spouting off about 'angry' posters when it is they who are the angry ones and brook no deviation from their proscribed dogma.

People are ceasing to go to that forum because of these people, who have reared their heads once again and are all chorusing the same tune claiming they debate ideas and everyone else 'ruthlessly attacks them personally' when the reverse is reality.

Haters have a problem with reality - it seldom, if at all, meshes with their dogma.

What we are seeing and hearing now is the last screams of the Hater Movement ... the shrub and the rest of the cabal have seen to their death knell by their 'activities' over the last seven plus years - it is the one thing the shrub and the cabal have done that is good for the nation and the world.

Too, bad they have come to dominate a forum that was once vibrant and vital but now is totally irrelevant just as they have done on numerous forums before.

"A" Flirt

Having grandkids I get a lot of MySpace stuff - that and a slew of Rennies on MySpace as well.
I just took one of those tests - this one on flirting - no surprise, I scored an "A" (a professional).
Since my main job at the Renaissance Faire on show days is flirting with the ladies from age 2 to 200 I better have scored an "A".

Poll: Obama leads McPain in swing states

Sen. Barack Obama is leading Sen. John McPain in the crucial swing states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, according to a new survey.

Obama lost the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania by 9 percentage points. But a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday shows him leading McPain by 12 points, 52 to 40 percent.

In Ohio, a state Obama lost to Sen. Hillary Clinton by 10 points in March, he's leading McPain 48 to 42 percent.

And in Florida, where he did not campaign this primary season and lost an unsanctioned Democratic contest, he leads McPain 47 to 43 percent.

The Ohio and Florida results are reversals from Quinnipiac polls published a month ago, when Clinton was still in the race and McPain led Obama in hypothetical match-ups.

In the waning days of her campaign, Clinton argued to voters and superdelegates that she should be the nominee because she was the stronger candidate to beat McPain in these swing states during the general election.

Democrats in all three swing states say they'd like to see her on the ballot this fall, but independent voters give the idea a thumbs-down by margins of 9 to 16 percent.

Florida clinched the presidency for the shrub in 2000, and Ohio did the same in 2004.

Quinnipiac surveyed between 1,300 and 1,500 voters in each state June 9-16. The polls had margins of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points for Pennsylvania and 2.6 percentage points for Ohio and Florida.

If the swing state momentum for Obama catches on all over the country, there may be a new electoral map.

The latest CNN national poll, conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation, shows Obama running strongest in the West -- and not just California.

"The 10 Rocky Mountain states have been traditionally the most Republican part of the country. So that's why it's so amazing that the polls show Obama doing well out here," said Bob Loevy, a political science professor at Colorado College.

Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado, three Western states that Bush carried by narrow margins in 2004, now look vulnerable to a Democratic takeover, even though they all border McPain's Arizona.

So what's behind the change?

"In the upper-class suburbs of Denver that used to be so solidly republican, a lot of aspects of the shrub's administration have not played well there," Loevy said. "His war policies, his policies on abortion, gay marriage ... simply have not played well with the old republican party out there in the Rocky Mountain west. So it's in the upscale suburbs that we see the strongest shift to the Democrats."

Hidden ingredients are making your fast food healthy

PIZZA

The tomato paste on your pizza is said to help beat sunburn and wrinkles.

Researchers believe that lycopene, the antioxidant in tomatoes which gives them their colour, is responsible.

Tomato paste is made from highly concentrated cooked tomatoes which boosts the level of the super-nutrient.

Read more from Hidden ingredients making your fast food healthy

13 Dangers of Excessive Sun

Getting a tan?

We tend to think of a nice tan as something glamorous, healthy and attractive, but actually the process is far from it and is very dangerous. In fact your skin tans in order to protect itself from more skin damage! The sunshine makes people feel good, but the cost of a bronzed body is become steeper and the idea of the healthy tan is slowly evaporating. People are becoming educated in the risks of excessive sun exposure and many are realizing that too much of it will come back to haunt you. Here are some of the dangers that could affect you and your children.

Read more from 13 Dangers of Excessive Sun

However, some vitamin D is good for you, yes? Some people think the higher incidences in the US Pacific Northwest of MS is perhaps due to less sunlight/vitamin D. And what about the better fake tanning products, which have come a long way in ten years?

Man who took parts from corpses gets 9 to 27 years

I should hope so!

From the News Wire:

A man convicted of secretly cutting up corpses - including that of "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke - has received a sentence of nine to 27 years in prison for his role in a ghoulish multimillion-dollar body parts scheme.

Christopher Aldorasi, 36, was convicted in April of 20 counts, including enterprise corruption, grand larceny and reckless endangerment

Prosecutors said Aldorasi and others took bone and tissue without family permission and sold the pieces to medical companies for use in transplants and other medical procedures.

Aldorasi chose to have a judge hear his case instead of a jury. He could have faced up to 60 years in prison.

The scheme's ringleader, Michael Mastromarino, 44, pleaded guilty earlier this year and admitted that he didn't get consent for any of the hundreds of bodies he plundered.

Mastromarino, who publicly apologized for his crimes last week, will be sentenced June 27. He faces a maximum of 54 years in prison.

At Aldorasi's trial, Cooke's daughter testified that she had never spoken to him or to Mastromarino about harvesting her father's body.

Stupidity Exemplified

Teen from faith-healing family dies at Oregon home

A 16-year-old boy whose parents rely on prayer instead of medical care has died after an illness marked by stomach pains and shortness of breath. Gladstone police say relatives and church members told them Tuesday that the teenager refused treatment for the illness, as he was entitled to do under Oregon law.

"All of the interviews from last night are that he did in fact refuse treatment," said Sgt. Lynne Benton. "Unless we can disprove that, charges probably won't be filed in this case.

She said state law allows minors 14 and older to make such decisions.

Benton said officers and a deputy medical examiner were called to the house of Neil Beagley about an hour after his death late Tuesday afternoon.

Benton said the boy was surrounded by family members when he died, and a board member of the Followers of Christ church contacted the authorities.

The boy got sick about a week ago and - like all members of the religious order - did not receive medical attention. His condition worsened Sunday and members of the church gathered for prayer, Benton said.

An autopsy was scheduled.

In March, the boy's 15-month-old cousin, Ava Worthington, died at home from bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection. Her parents, Carl and Raylene Worthington, also failed to contact a doctor and are awaiting trial on criminal charges in her death.

Oregon lawmakers passed new laws striking down legal shields for faith-healing parents after several children from the Followers of Christ church died in the 1990s.

The Oregon City church is not associated with a mainstream denomination.

*****

Where to begin ...

First - relying solely on 'prayer' for anything is insane ... much less medical care. While there are all types of alternative methods of health and medical care, some more effective than others - prayer isn't one of them.

Second - what were those who enacted the laws that allow a child of 14 or older to make the type of decision such as denying themselves medical attention, thinking when they enacted them, especially if it is due to the brainwashing of a cult.

Third - should the parents of the 15-month old 'get off' for their neglect and abuse of their child ... something definitely stinks in Denmark (excuse me - Oregon).

Thought for the Day

How is it that stupidity is lauded and genius is reviled?

Nude Cooking

Learn to cook with Nude Cooking Lessons
Check out Bunny Buns and learn to cook with style.

Sensible Advice

Once and a while one of those 'Advice' columnists gets it right ... or at least close to right.
Here is Amy's response to a recent letter (Amy took over for Ann Landers, by the way):

Dear Amy: My husband and I have vacationed with another family for the past 20 years. Now that all our kids are grown, we decided for the first time to take a "couples-only" vacation.

Our friends went to a nearby lake where nude bathing is permitted, and they enjoyed it. Now they want to go to a nude resort.

My husband and I frequently sleep in the nude, and before kids we used to go skinny-dipping at a secluded pond.

My husband is willing to try this nude resort, but as much as I like being naked in private, I just can't imagine being comfortable naked in front of strangers. Our friends say we'll feel totally comfortable au naturel once we are surrounded by other naked people.

We are both 50, and our bodies are not nubile.

We are looking forward to this joint vacation. I would hate giving it up, and I also hate being the only person objecting to it.

Will I lose my inhibition, as they say, or will I likely be miserable?

––Shy Nude

Dear Shy: My only experience visiting a nude beach was in Europe, where I got used to the nudity very quickly (I stayed fully clothed).

Once I was used to looking at naked strangers, I realized that I didn't enjoy it very much.

Suffice it to say that most of us have bodies that are best viewed through more than just a layer of sunscreen. For people who enjoy being publicly nude, however, nudity is not about looking at beautiful bodies, but about the freedom of being without clothes. You never know––you could be one of those people.

You can find out for yourself by visiting your nearby nude lake for a test run before committing to this.

Daily Funny

Two boys were walking home from Sunday school after hearing a strong preaching on the devil.

One said to the other, "What do you think about all this Satan stuff?"

The other boy replied, "Well, you know how Santa Claus turned out. It's probably just your Dad."

Current TV worth a view

My favorite Television channel is OFF, but when I do turn the idiot box on I tend to go for shows that are informative and entertaining as well.
Currently I try to catch the following shows as regularly as I can.

Clockwise beginning upper left: Holmes on Homes; Gene Simmon's Family Jewels; The naked Archaeologist; The Graham Norton Show

Mike Holmes - I love this guy - he takes on projects that others have basically fucked up, takes them apart and does them the way they should have been done in the first place ... and always a cut or two or three above what is 'standard'. This is one Canadian that makes watching TV worth your time. Make sure you see him in action on Holmes on Homes on Discovery/Home.

Gene Simmons - Okay, so you love him or hate him but you differently notice him. I like his show because it shows his life as real as a TV show can - I know there are editors and writers so it is a fantasy reality ... but it is fun anyway and it dispels a whole slew of 'Rock-God Myths" (and confirms others). Check out Gene Simmon's Family Jewels on A&E.

Simcha Jacobovici - A bibical archaeologist who has at least accepts that the bible might not be the tell all it has been made out to be while trying to prove that very thing in the region wherein the bible was 'written'. I don't catch this show as much as the others, my being an archaeologist as well - not a bibical one mind you, but a real one - I tend to disagree with a lot of his conclusions because I look at the region as a whole and do not try to fit things neatly into what a book says they should be. Having said that, The Naked Archaeologist is still worth a look on History/International every now and again.

Graham Norton - This Irishman has a talk show in Britain that is actually interesting and funny - unlike those tired shows we have with the "L's" (Letterman and Leno). I hate talk shows as a rule (especially after the opening monologue) but I have a belly laugh for an hour while this guy is on. So catch The Graham Norton Show on BBC/America for an hour of fun.

NC state trooper fatally shot during traffic stop

Authorities charged a Florida man with murder Wednesday in the shooting of a North Carolina trooper during a traffic stop in Canton the night before.

Edwardo Wong II, 37, of Ormond Beach, Fla., was charged with the first-degree murder of Trooper David Shawn Blanton Jr., said Highway Patrol spokesman Lt. Everett Clendenin.

Blanton, a two-year veteran of the highway patrol from Sylva, was the first North Carolina trooper to die in the line of duty since 1997.

"Incidents like this remind us of what a dangerous profession law enforcement is," Secretary of Crime Control and Public Safety Brian E. Beatty said in a news release.

Wong does not yet have an attorney but is expected to appear with a lawyer at an initial court hearing Wednesday, said jail administrator Lt. Lucrecia Ray.

Blanton, 24, was shot twice Tuesday night on Interstate 40 after he stopped Wong's vehicle, which was towing a passenger car, Clendenin said. The trooper died at a hospital in Asheville.

The violation that prompted the traffic stop wasn't immediately known.

Authorities said a passer-by called police to report that Blanton had been shot and Wong was arrested shortly after the shooting by nearby Haywood County sheriff's deputies and Canton police.

Clendenin said Wong fled the scene with Blanton's sidearm, but it was not yet clear if it was used to kill the trooper. Authorities found weapons and narcotics in Wong's vehicle, the spokesman said.

Wong has 19 criminal convictions dating to 1996 that include armed burglary, assault with a weapon, carrying a concealed weapon, sale and possession of marijuana and escape, according to records from the Florida Department of Corrections.

Comments on Comments

While those commenting on this blog via e-mail have been quite generous in the quantity and quality there has been a dearth on the blog itself.
Not that I am overly concerned - I believe I know why there are few comments on the blog ... I have it set up so that I have to 'approve' all comments before they post.
This I am sure keeps the haters from commenting as they falsely believe that their comments would be summarily dumped in the waste bin.
Not true - point of fact: early in this blog's infancy I actually posted one such hater comment on the blog-face so all could see the narrow-mindedness of the poster at work (I published in in the comment section as well).
The fact I posted that comment ... with an accompanying shredding of it ... along with the aforesaid 'approval' of comments has kept the comments herein (especially those from the haters), to a minimum.
So, to those who have expressed 'concern' over the lack of comments here - get over it, comments are nice but are not the measure of a blog.

On a similar note: readership is growing as are the kudos, so maybe the entire opening paragraph of this post only reflects to calm before the storm so to speak.

Psychic ... more like psychotic!

From the I can't believe some things people do department:

The following is a story of, well, 'mis(reading, information, etc.) and over(reaction, sensitive, etc.) on the part of persons untrained or ill trained at best as it appeared in CityNews on Monday June 16, 2008

The Mother, The Child, The School Board And The Psychic

Colleen Leduc already had a lot going against her. The Barrie woman was holding down a job while struggling to raise her autistic 11-year-old daughter. She couldn't afford to give the child the intensive therapy she needed, and was forced to send her to a public school in the area.

So she was completely unprepared for what happened to her and the youngster, an almost unbelievable tale of red tape involving a strange claim from a teaching assistant, a bizarre decision by a school board, a visit from the Children's Aid Society (CAS) and most improbably of all, the incorrect pronouncements of a psychic.

Leduc's weird tale began on May 30, when she dropped young Victoria off for class at Terry Fox Elementary and headed in to work, only to receive a frantic phone call from the school telling her it was urgent she come back right away.

The frightened mother rushed back to the campus and was stunned by what she heard - the principal, vice-principal and her daughter's teacher were all waiting for her in the office, telling her they'd received allegations that Victoria had been the victim of sexual abuse - and that the CAS had been notified.

How did they come by such startling knowledge? Leduc was incredulous as they poured out their story.

"The teacher looked and me and said: 'We have to tell you something. The educational assistant who works with Victoria went to see a psychic last night, and the psychic asked the educational assistant at that particular time if she works with a little girl by the name of "V." And she said 'yes, I do.' And she said, 'well, you need to know that that child is being sexually abused by a man between the ages of 23 and 26.'"

Victoria, who is non-verbal, had also been exhibiting sexualized behaviour in class, actions which are known to be typical of autistic behavior. (See other typical actions here) That lead authorities to suspect she had a bladder infection that may have somehow been related to the 'attack.'

Leduc was shaken by the idea. "It's actually your worst nightmare your child being violated," she admits. "So for them to even suggest that, and that be my worst nightmare, it was horrific."

But things got worse when school officials used the "evidence" and accepted the completely unsubstantiated word of the seer by reporting the case to Children's Aid, which promptly opened a file on the family.

"They reported me to Children's Aid," Leduc declares, still disbelieving. "Based on a psychic!"

The mom, who is divorced and has a new fiancé, adamantly denied the charges, noting her daughter was never exposed to anyone of that age. And fortunately she had proof. The mother was long dissatisfied with the treatment her daughter had received at the school, after they had allegedly lost her on several occasions.

As a result, the already cash strapped mom had spent a considerable sum of money to not only have her child equipped with a GPS unit, but one that provided audio records of everything that was going on around her.

So she had non-stop taped proof that nothing untoward had ever happened to her daughter, and was aghast that the situation had gone this far. But under the Child and Family Services Act, anyone who works with children and has reasonable grounds to suspect a youngster is being harmed, must report it immediately - and the CAS has an obligation to follow up.

And so a case worker came to the Leduc home to discuss the allegations of sexual misconduct, only to admit there wasn't a shred of evidence that anything had ever happened at all. They labelled Leduc a "diligent" mother doing the best she could for her child under difficult circumstances, closed the file and left, calling the report "ridiculous."

"It is highly unusual, I will admit, to have a case called in based upon what a psychic might say," concedes Sue Dale of the Simcoe County CAS.

And what does the admittedly red-faced school board have to say about all this? "I don't have the information yet, but when we proceed with our own investigation we'll know more about that," is all Dr. Lindy Zaretsky, the Simcoe County Superintendent, was willing to allow.

And what does the local board have to say about all this? "I don't have the information yet, but when we proceed with our own investigation we'll know more about that," is all Dr. Lindy Zaretsky, the Simcoe County Superintendent, was willing to allow.

But that wasn't the end of the story.

While the board agrees it may have overreacted, accepted a rather dubious source and misinterpreted the signs of the so-called abuse, Leduc is now more convinced than ever that her daughter isn't safe at the campus and that she needs more intensive therapy.

As a result, she's refused to send Victoria back to class - or to the educational assistant who allegedly started the entire chain of events in the first place.

As a result of her stress and the need to stay home with her daughter, Leduc is now unable to work, has no place to send her child for the rest of the year, isn't sure where she'll go when school begins in September and is seeking legal advice.

Her goal: get the board to pay for the IBI therapy she believes her child should have had in the first place. She wants them to foot the bill for the expensive treatment - it can cost more than $50,000 annually - at least for the rest of the semester.

But school officials have refused.

Asked if she feels whether her entire support system has been yanked away, her answer is succinct and simple. "Yep," she nods.

And you don't need a psychic to know what that answer means.

Learn more about autism here

Autism Q&A

Is your child autistic? The early signs