nachtwachemachtmuede

hot flashes

2011-10-02T15:38:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting under the fan, suddenly I burn up and sweat for no good reason, so I've cut my hair short. I've even thought about shaving it all off, but haven't resorted to that yet. The slightest exertion makes me sweat so much, my shirt feels soaked. So, I hired cleaners; once a week they come and do all the vacuuming, dusting, clean the bathrooms...... I must say, it's nice to come home to a clean house.
Today after church I had a short nap. Last night I went to the movies with a friend, tonight a concert with several friends, The movie is called " Courageous" and the concert is by "Casting Crowns".
After getting up, I decided to have a healthy meal, salad, that's after I ate so e chocolate and felt guilty. Then I dragged the lawnmower out but couldn't get it started; I did however discover the body of our male cat, who hadn't been around for about a week. Right in the backyard, under junior's canoe. That shook me up a bit. I called my son and he told me he'll take care of it.
I'm also invited to dinner before the concert, so I have to go get ready.
Before I go; the other day, playing cars with Ashton, on his floor mat with streets and buildings, he pointed to the chimney on a house and said:" That's a tailpipe". He's so cute!!

Papi Memorial Slideshow

2011-08-26T07:52:00.000-07:00

7 month R.I.P.

2011-08-26T07:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was 7 months since my husband died. Our daughter posted his memorial video and I watched it, I cried, then I watched it again with Ashton. I told him when he talks to God he can ask Him to say 'hi' to Poppa; Ashton looked at his Poppa's picture and said:" Hi Poppa." ..... "HI Poppa" . Of course Poppa's picture didn't answer.
We all struggle in our own way to go on without him. But life has been alright, work is good, my coworkers are wonderful, my son has been doing a lot of the work his dad used to do around the house and especially the yard. I know mourning is a process and it takes time. It's different for everyone. So I keep going, but life sure feels surreal at times.
Many people miss him.

I'll miss his humour and intellect

2011-02-07T22:06:00.001-08:00

Hi folks,

I'm sending this out to a few (okay - eight [8]) of you hoping that
you'll get back to me with what you think a good career fit might be
for me.

The reason I'm asking is because I'm taking a course at Douglas
College and it's geared towards helping people find "THE" job for
their personality, education level, character, skill set, etc... also
helps with training upgrades if that's an area I'd like to pursue... I
know which way I'm leaning but some insight from you guys would be
helpful. So I know I'm leaving myself wide open for a couple of you
yokels... so after your shots... WHAT do you think I'd be 'good at'?
rocket scientist, hustler, mathematician, bum, cop, robber or...
centerfold?!?

You all know that I've had 'zilch' success in finding new employment
since getting laid off from The Bugel (except for 2 very short-term
jobs which both went south when one company went bankrupt and the
other into receivership)... yaya I know... I'm BAD luck for
companies... anyhow, any insight you might be willing and able to
offer me (BY THIS EVENING >:) would be greatly appreciated and I'd
think well of ya, put you in my will and basically sing your praises
for 7–10 days.

...er... oh yeah... and THANKS!!!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. friend

Stand up comic, a la preacher of fundamentalist evils. Go with your
strengths, interests, passion and ability. I think you have a gift of being
able to lighten up the bad stuff and put it out there for someone to see. I
think many would be interested in what you have to say about the religious
wars and atrocities happening in front of us today.... if it just wasn't so
terrifying, horrifying, sad and scary. I mean humour and of course, tact.
If you want to see a representation of a pretty good style, read the
paragraphs after "Hi folks", below. Let's see your shots. I think you can
write. Try making something very serious, palatable and even entertaining.
Oh.....Did you say job? Hmm, I'm leaning to centrefold.
Hope this helps.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. family

Sometimes we end up doing what we never thought we would. And it is important that we somewhat enjoy what we do (especially if we are dedicating 1/2 our day to it!) You are a people person, your not shy. You are also talented when it comes to photography.
What about starting your own business taking photos at Weddings, baby pics, grad? It could be fun...I think you'd be awsome. Remember too that when you feel fearful about doing something, fear is only False Evidence Appearing Real! Also ask God, after all He/She is our source & supply, & look for 'signs' they are everywhere, we just have to awaken to them. Uh, don't do the centerfold... maybe male stripper?? Good luck!

--------------------------------------------------------------

3. friend

Web Application Developer. You sit in your office all day, staring
at your
computer or your tools anyway; might as well put some use into your
time.

Home Depot Hardware Rental, or a tool-rental agency. I was chatting
briefly
on Sunday at church with 'someone' I have not seen for a while, and
he works
at the tool rental counter at Home Depot.

Store clerk at Lee Valley.

Camera Store clerk/consultant

Baby-sitter / ChildCare worker -- Hah! Maybe not.

Youth/Social worker for troubled teens

Canoe Rental at Pitt Lake

4. friend

I think you'd be a great sheriff, pirate, great white hunter ... okay, I've said it.

Seriously, though, I don't know if you would enjoy working at the computer all day, but I get the impression that you do enjoy computers. I've suggested before that if you're going to take any courses, how about doing something that will help you with web site? It could become full time one day and if you can get some learnin' for free, why not? If you can get a paid job doing it in the meantime, all the better!

You know yourself better than anybody, but that's my suggestion.

Let me know how it goes, I'll be praying!

-------------------------------------------------------------

5. friend

The web is not going away (you read it here first Bill Gates)

Off the top of my head I would say that the money in the internet will be made by those specializing in marketing.
There are too many cracker jack coders selling their services cheap in India that you don't want to compete with.

I'm hearing that many large companies are pulling all advertising bucks out of traditional marketing media
(TV, Radio, Newspapers) and putting it in to internet advertising.

The key is finding the most effective way to make that work.
If you can make a business case linking advertising dollars to sales you've got a highly marketable skill.

See point 4. Conceptualization and implementation of ideas

----------------------------------------------------

6. friend

Well, given your knee injury, male stripper/entertainer is out.
Given your work/luck history I would like to see you in high
management with Wallmart. Your acting career while spanning many
years has lacked "lines" and I believe you have been typecasted so I
don't see you in any leading rolls with Angelina Jolie any time
soon. I see you working with people, instructing and/or giving
advice since you have the gift to do that in a personable, caring
way. FYI psychiatrist does not fall into this job discription.
Hope that helps. What are you leaning towards anyways?

one of his answers:

Hah! Love it.. I'm going for the canoe rental guy... and work on the
side as a social worker for troubled teens... if'n they don't
listen... I'll rent 'em a 'holey' canoe >:)

I appreciate your response , thanks... and I've often thought of
applying at Lee Valley, well I thought of it... until one lady who
works there told me they only pay $9/hour.
Do you really think I'd be good at working with the public?

Now the 'Web Application Developer'... what exactly is that anyhow?
Would I be the one coming up with the idea for a 'web app' or is this
something that someone else has thought of and then requires someone
else to bring it to fruition?

---------------------------------------------------------------

and friend # 4 again:

You just tackle those hoops, D., and see where it takes you. Keep me posted, I'll be praying for that door to open up and you to recognize it when you see it!

There's a rainbow coming

----------------------------------------------------------------

It wasn't the rainbow we expected.

memories

2011-02-07T21:56:00.000-08:00

I'm so glad he went to his son's wedding in Europe! His doggy misses him, his BBQ ......

A new role

2011-02-07T21:39:00.000-08:00

Yes, I've taken on the role of being a widow. On January 25th this year, my husband went peacefully to be with his Saviour.
His son from Europe came, but too late to see his dad before he died. Our daughter came sooner from back east, but her dad was just hanging on. A second growth in his throat made it too hard for him to eat or drink and even breathe, until we discovered that he was able to breathe if he was on his side.
His mom, our daughter and I were at his side when he died. I had stayed the night and called them about an hour before, that it was getting close to the end.
So many things fell into place even before we knew of his illness. It has made a lot of tasks easier for me, less complications. My children ( I'm counting the step son too ) helped in many ways. Our daughter planned most of the memorial service, with help of her brother from Europe, they made a beautiful slide show, she placed the obituaries, decided on creative things and was a huge help. Our son helped with rides and keeping things together at home and both welcomed their brother with open arms. The whole family has accepted him fully and heartily.
My husbands brother gave the eulogy and friends shared memories. Our pastor made it the Christian service my husband wished for and many people came to share in our loss.
We didn't have to pay even one red cent and were given refreshments after the service as well from our church family, for everyone there! They've all stepped up with a huge outpouring of support!

Brian surgery

2010-11-11T20:42:00.000-08:00

I haven't been on for a while. Right now hubby is in the hospital; on the 1st of November our doc called, he had just gotten the results of the cat scan hubby had the week before and it showed a growth in his brain. Hubby's best friend of 32 years drove him to see the neurologist, who admitted hubby into the hospital the same day. Two days later he had an MRI, that gave a clearer picture of the brain and the unwelcome intruder, Friday was the day of the brain surgery. Hubby had seizures before and after the surgery. For 3 weeks before the growth was discovered, he had to start using a cane and was less and less stable on his feet. Now his right side is very weak, some might be from his brain being swollen. His memory is sketchy and he hasn't asked for a smoke!!! Hope he forgot all about that! :) We're waiting for the lab test results, although the surgeon already told us that he thinks it's cancer and a fast growing one. Surely he wouldn't say that unless he was very sure about it.
For me it's just another punch to roll with.
During this time I was able to get a job transfer back to our town and am learning new duties.
His best friend took Ashton and me to the hospital today, I've been there almost every day. Hubby's face lit up when he saw Ashton. Ashton's dad stayed home and raked the leaves, I think he filled 6 garbage bags or more. He also started to gut the one bathroom that needs a renovation badly!
Yep, life with it's ups and downs.

The Keith Green Story (FULL)

2010-07-06T10:30:00.000-07:00

a peek into hubby's brain

2010-06-30T21:20:00.000-07:00

.well, I'm almost fully re-entered... went out on some strange kind of orbit for the last several weeks (month and a half maybe... not really sure how long to be honest)... I've had a really bad episode with depression (I think this has been one of the worst I've experienced)... things just kept pilin' up in m'head, pressures at home, finances, disappointments, [insert here] and my brain decided to go 'flip-flop' and leave the rest of me behind for awhile... apparently the pills just stopped workin'... or maybe the attacks were just too severe... I dunno... anyhow, I seem to have landed. Had quite a few physical ailments also, currently I'm just getting over a case of cellulitis in the lower left quadrant...

Anyhow I'm here, so hitch up the horses there's plowin' to be dun!!!...

I've got this wife... think you know her too... ? Anyhow, she seems to have picked up on website maintenance and fiddlin' 'n' filin' really fine in regards to her own blogging space, gaming and Facebooking, so I'm gonna do what any good, red-blooded mature, male in my position would do... I'm passing the buck... university types refer to this as 'd-e-l-e-g-a-t-i-n-g' and it usually comes with some sort of responsibility that the original person doesn't wanna be responsible for...

There are only two things in life that have ever left me feeling stupid... one of them is photography – love it, wanna learn it... but just can't seem to hold on to the facts long enough in order to press the shutter release... and the other is WEBSITE MAINTENANCE....

I think that with the wife's capacity for retaining information – she's been a wife for 30+ years, so she's got this honed to a razors edge – is a better candidate than I for actually getting TCN up and running. Would you be willing to meet with both of us a couple of times in the next two weeks (she's currently on holidays so has lots of time to invest), in order to give her an overview of what is required... I'd do it myself... but as aforementioned... I've already forgotten...

Bedroom antics and other things :)

2010-06-28T14:38:00.000-07:00

My words where changing once again into a strange script, so I checked the settings and it had enabling translation into Hindi. ?? Who's been messing with my blog?
That aside and now disabled, let's get to othet things. Awhile back Hubby insisted on putting the bed's headboard up on blocks, he can't remember why, thinks it was because he had heartburn. The pieces of wood he used kept sliding out, so he made blocks with an indentation for the bed's legs to sit in. Since he got cellulitis once again in his left leg and is supposed to be elevating the leg above the heart, the wooden blocks under the headboard got pulled out, by yours truly, while hubby lifted the bed, then they got pushed under the footboard. Before the mattress was sliding towards the footboard, leaving a gap between the mattress and headboard, where my pillow would slide down. I stuffed another pillow in the gap to keep mine under my head. Now the mattress is tight against the headboard and I don't need the extra pillow anymore. The dog is firmly entrenched in the bedroom. Hubby's reason, he's old and confused and, and... no more pets after these.
I have 2 weeks off from work now and already today I watched Ashton a few hours while mom went to get her passport. She's going to Mexico in a couple of weeks. But she has no money for diapers and food a lot of the time, yet this past weekend she stayed in a hotel in town. Ashton had a babysitter overnight. Dad worked and I wasn't going to take him until the morning. We did pick him up and went to church. We were supposed to have a picnic, but because of heavy rain it got postphoned until next Sunday. Ashton's mom wasn't home after church was over, so he came home with us, we all had lunch together and he had a nap. After his nap mom came to pick him up.
She's a part time mom. Shouldn't have had any kids. Sad! Ashton loves us but he misses his mom and dad when they're away too long. He's happiest when both are with him.
Sadly I don't see them getting back together.

When Folks Stop Liking Barry

2010-06-28T12:58:00.001-07:00

When Folks Stop Liking Barry

American Thinker: A Shrink Asks: What's Wrong with Obama?

2010-06-28T12:58:00.000-07:00

American Thinker: A Shrink Asks: What's Wrong with Obama?

The World We Live In - Cliff May - The Corner on National Review Online

2010-06-28T08:54:00.000-07:00

The World We Live In - Cliff May - The Corner on National Review Online

Glenn Beck - Current Events & Politics - History of Unions in America

2010-06-25T17:25:00.000-07:00

Glenn Beck - Current Events & Politics - History of Unions in America

are we ever a mess :P

2010-06-25T16:52:00.000-07:00

Hubby has been working out in the yard a lot. Now, he has a collapsed vein in his left leg and so circulation is not ideal and he has had an infection caused by a little scratch before. This is what happened again, he says it's cellulitis. I need to look it up on google. No, it's not cellulite, it's an infection of .... the cells I guess. It's caused by bacteria, the same type that causes flesh eating disease, but a different strain. Thankfully! He went to our local hospital two nights ago and was put on intravenous antibiotics, they leave the needle and tube in your arm, send you home to come back every day to get more pumped in, then they put you on oral antibiotics. The first day he went back went well, the second day not so much. He was very upset by how unprofessional the nurse was, as well as other personal, just rude. He talked to the pharmacist and asked if he could take the IV needle out, because he wasn't going back.
Today we visited our doctor, hubby about his infection, me about my right hand middle finger. Seems to be swollen and hurts. Yesterday it didn't want to straighten up with the other fingers, then went click, click, then was straight. The doc said it was the ligaments getting caught. I haven't specifically used that particular digit for any rude sign gesturing, if it's overworked, it is from my job and maybe a bit of computer use. I vaguely remember getting a finger caught and bent, maybe I sprained it.
A couple of days ago I took Ashton to the play group, he was tired and bored, dad was tired and was it ever lucky we went! It turned out to be the last day and many moms ( one dad ) brought food for a potluck. It will reopen in September. The ex daughter in law of one of my former ( retired ) coworkers is also taking her grandchildren. Ashton had a blast.
The same day Tiggy caught a , what looked like a big mouse, but it was a baby rat. She ate almost all of it, only the head and something else where left. Junior got rid of that because it grosses me out. Yuck! I'm glad she caught it though. I don't like rats.
I have two weeks vacation right now, hopefully my finger will be much better when I go back. Even better, hopefully we'll win the lotto and I won't have to go back.
Hubby still hasn't found a job and UI is finished. In a month or less we'll be belly up, I don't earn enough to pay for everything. So we need a miracle. I just keep my head in the sand. Worry doesn't help or change a thing.
Today we replaced a water intake hose on the washer. I got soaked by the old hose, it sprayed water all over and laundry couldn't wait anymore. Now I'm going to rest my finger :)

American Thinker: Shouldn't We All Be Israelis Now?

2010-06-25T16:51:00.000-07:00

American Thinker: Shouldn't We All Be Israelis Now?

2010-05-29T15:51:00.000-07:00

We visited Dad at the care home, mom of course was there too, she visits every day. She was having coughing fits, the cold, wet weather isn't helping her asthma and she wasn't up to going out to shop.
We went to Princess Auto for some work gloves. Saw a nice cement mixer. Mixing cement by hand is an awful job. We want to replace our wooden front steps with cement steps, one day. Hubby's friends are all envious that he has a wood chipper and astonished when he tells them that I had wanted it. With so many trees and bushes that need trimming, it's practical to have one.
I'm hearing from junior's ex, that he wants her to spend time with him since his mom (me) is looking after their little one. She's not planing on doing that. So I'll find out if Ashton is still coming or not. I found a cute work teddy, sales are for charity, he's got a hard hat, tool belt and tools and is sitting in Ashton's rocking chair, waiting for him.
Tomorrow it's back to work for me. Hubby still doesn't have a job and the last unemployment cheque is at the end of this month.
That should get interesting.

2010-05-29T11:19:00.000-07:00

OK, forget it, no title as the first few letters turn into some sort arabic script. We had computer trouble, modem died. Hubby wrote to friends: '
I've been out of commish the last couple of days... network router / backup unit did an 'instantaneous death' routine on me, so I've been dealing with that... turns out, Apple knows about the problem but isn't telling anyone until everything goes south... THEN they offer to replace it... nice of 'em... now all my backups for the past year are burned. Yeah well, I don't think I was going to be needing them anyhow AND as M '( me, as in the wife )' couldn't stand to be without access to her Internet gaming - she wanted to go out and buy a new one RIGHT AWAY!... So now we've got a new and improved (and faster) one... also a replacement coming from Apple (also newer and faster), which can go in my shop... and our network is accessible from anywhere on our property!... In fact, I walked around with the laptop yesterday and was picking up all my neighbours networks as well... I'm pretty sure I could walk down to the corner store and still have access to my files!!! I figure we'll enter church this Sunday and we'll probably be glowing from all the radiation (or whatever) we're sucking in so if you need to speak with me and can't find me... just look 'for the glow'... =:)

Now I'm guessing after having said all this, the only one who has a clue what I'm talking about is Mike right?... But I enjoyed typing it all the same >:}

Have a great weekend all!'
I found it funny anyway. True, I wanted the thing up and running and since hubby was going to buy it next week anyway, why wait?
In the morning I found hubby smoking (a cigarette) in the bathroom, a usual thing, but I had asked him not to. So I said, nicely, if I hadn't asked him not to smoke in there and he dismissevely said that I ask a lot of things.
So I went out to the kitchen and put the knifes in the dishwasher that he had asked me not to wash in there, but by hand. Then I told him that I had done that and he started laughing and said 'good for you'.
He thinks he likes an obedient wife but he seems to prefer a spunky one :P Me, I don't like games, I'm up front, like it or lump it.
Now we're off to see dad and then go shopping with mom. My mom was happy I called again today. She's lonely. :(

बीn awhile

2010-05-24T04:40:00.000-07:00

Hi yall:)

One of hubby's funny emails, he's been fixin' things:' Well, happy at any rate... got this this sucker so NOW even when it's completely collapsed into itself and I pull the handle, the rubber "bumper" at the top doesn't hinder the decent... took some real pointy tweezers, split washers in strategic locations and a system of sequential tightening of the bolts that would do an engineer proud!

BTW - don't use 'Jiffy Lube' on the bottom pole, it leaves a gummy residue... contrary to what they advertise... memo to self... fire off an abusive letter in the next day or two >:)

... and just because I was feelin' so technical and inventive all at the same time today... I even figured out at way to make my dear ol' Papa's concrete roller into a functioning piece of yard equipment again... took a piece of galvanized angle iron, couple of u-bolts, whole lotta hacksawin' 'n' grindin', et voila... now I've got a 250 lb behemoth to shove around the back '40...

Well I better stop now... cuz I'm thinkin' of dismantling the dog to see what ails him...'

We went to church yesterday morning, Ashton was with us too, I've been taking care of him since Fri. afternoon. Mom's gone surfing or something. After a long nap, Ashton was playing in the back yard, he asked for his rechargable mini ATV and I helped him make the turns, after awhile, the motor still purred, but less powerful and the bike didn't move anymore. I told Ashton that it would have to get recharged and was busy with things, in and out of the kitchen, keeping a close eye on Ashton, grandpa was outside as well and then I see Ashton, elbows on the bike seat, hands folded and eyes closed, earnestly praying to God to get his bike running again. I wish I had taken a picture! It was precious!
I've got one week off, mainly because I wanted Monday night off, because I'll still have Ashton. We did some trading of holiday weeks at work, the lady that had this week, needed another one to take care of her elderly mom, the guy who had that week didn't want this week but was willing to trade one of my summer weeks because he has school aged kids and no summer holidays. So everyone was happy!
Love the little guy! He's a lot of work and strong willed! As he was feeding himself yesterday, my hand shot out to catch some falling food, knocking over my FULL cup of coffee, making a much bigger mess than a bit of food would have been. Oh well, did some extra cleaning :) Get a lot more laundry too. I'll take him to play group this week. Not today, it's a statuary holiday , in Canada it's Victoria day.

The Defense Of The Prophet SWS Campaign

2010-04-19T13:25:00.000-07:00

South Park's 200th, litigious celebs and Mohammed: Matt Stone and Trey P...

2010-04-19T13:20:00.000-07:00

Kenyan official: Obama born here

2010-04-13T13:41:00.000-07:00

Kenyan official: Obama born here

Obama off the Deep End

2010-04-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

Obama off the Deep End

2010-04-11T12:07:00.000-07:00

I'm sooooooo tired. Ashton had the flu, so I volunteered to watch him on Friday. I came home and slept about one hour after work and then watched Ashton the rest of the day. At the end I was way past tired, I didn't even feel tired anymore. His mom was supposed to come and get him after work, dad worked until 8 at night. I phoned earlier to find out when she'd be picking him up and she said that she needed to clean the daycare and had something else to do, so she'd be by around 8 / 8:30. Ok. At 8:40 I phoned her cell, no answer. Ashton had been bathed, was ready for bed and both of us were tired. So I phoned our son who didn't answer, but did call me back. She'd been begging him to take Ashton for the night. In fact, I'd be caring for him, since our son works on Saturday. I already was helping Shanon with her composting / refuse job. I had to be up at 4 in the morning. Soon after talking to junior, the awol mom called. She'd be right over, from her home! When she saw me, she mentioned that I look tired and I told her I'd slept only 1 hour and had to get up early. "I'm soo sorry!"
My two weeks vacation I spent much of the time caring for Ashton and it was both parents taking advantage of me. Poor Ashton and his sisters as well. Now I'm paying for my missed sleep. Tonight I have 2 hours overtime. So today I'm resting.

2010-03-18T07:36:00.000-07:00

I'll have two weeks off after tonight! I'll be looking after Ashton some of the time. He and dad went to the zoo yesterday. Today is junior's birthday. 31 yrs. ago I became a first time mom. A lot has happened in the years since.
Closer to the present, my boss is off this week, hubby has been driving me to work and I planned to take the bus home. A coworker who already gives a ride to another coworker, takes me partway, which saves me about 1 hour; then I only need to take one bus. It's still kind of cold out. On two days this week, our supervisor needed people to stay for overtime, but I didn't want to, since I would have had to take the bus right from there, which would be about 90 minutes travel! The boss said, he'd call me a cab to take me home! Really? OK! One of the dayshift people ended up driving me home, which was just as great! Yesterday same thing, but the big boss gave me a ride home instead. He said, the other fellow was more needed than him.
Junior is back to working full time; hubby can't seem to find a job. :(

New Indictments Hit Crumbling ACORN

2010-03-13T20:35:00.000-08:00

New Indictments Hit Crumbling ACORN

2010-03-10T12:48:00.000-08:00

The photos are from last summer. I really have to learn how to upload pictures, one of these days.

I just spent a bit more than an hour looking after Ashton. Both the men had someone to see at 11 am. Junior went to see his PO, who made him feel totally dejected the last time. He actually came home and cried. Senior sent of an e-mail to the PO and it seems that today went much better! It's good to have someone taking a stand for you sometime.
Ashton likes me sitting with him as he plays and shows me his BIG twucks. We watched some Sesame Street DVDs and had lunch. Now it's nap time, for us both :P

2010-03-09T06:57:00.000-08:00

I had to activate word verification because of spam in the comments.Sorry.
Today junior has another court day. It just drags on and on. His ex sure knows how to set him up. They're not supposed to have any contact with each other, but she'll phone, text or come by when it suits her, if she's mad about something or just doesn't want to hear from him, she'll call the cops. Not too long ago junior tried to tell her that he still has feelings for her.
She said, "write it down in a letter to me". He does just that and she thought it was a good idea to show it to the cops she called. Although the one cop said, they just went to check on her, that she didn't call them. So she even gets the cops to lie for her. They came and arrested him. Can't write a letter either.
This whole flipping mess started with her going to a fortune teller. Did I mention this before? Probably. It just galls me.
Then I asked my one coworker, who became friends with my "enemies", if she knows what makes them hate me. She didn't want to talk about it. She said :" I don't gossip about it". ???? This is concerning me. No? I guess she's their friend. That's OK, they'll turn on her one day.
I'm getting a cold or my allergies are getting worse. :(

Day 4: The Shifty U.S. Delegation

2010-03-08T11:55:00.001-08:00

Day 4: The Shifty U.S. Delegation

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Feb 26th, Ashton's 2nd Birthday

2010-02-26T19:51:00.000-08:00

Today is Ashton's Birthday and we` had a little party at our house. Ashton's daddy did all the work and paid for everything, Ashton's sisters and their dad and girlfriend came to celebrate and uncle Johnny was here too. He helped blow up balloons, pick up some things and the girls from daycare, their mom was still working there and their dad came as soon as he got off work. Ashton still doesn't really understand all the fuss. He did like the gifts, for the most part :P He's also learning to count. He'll hold up two fingers and say "two" and he's learned 'three'. After we finished with everything, presents and cake, everyone left, except for Ashton and myself. We waited for his mom to get off work and come to pick him up. She invited us for the party she'll hold tomorrow, but we want to go see the Olympic venues in Vancouver. We won't get another chance to do that. Ashton will be back here on Sunday, as mom is going to Vancouver too. Ashton got a ATV from daddy, but he was afraid of it. It's electric and he can drive it, his sister, the younger one, was on it, she's fearless. By far the favourite gift was a book about cars and trucks. His auntie called from Ontario and another call came too, but Ashton does not talk on phones. I think it seems too strange to him that a voice is coming from this contraption. One of the most said words at the moment is "NO" and another one is "Mine". Typical two year old. Since last weekend, when he spent most of Sunday being looked after by teenagers, he started to talk a lot about "bum", "my bum" and a book about the human body we have, with a small photo of a baby on the front cover, he likes to look at, it's "baby, bum". Makes me wonder what brought on his fascination with that particular body part. Yesterday he talked about going pooh and then he grabbed his tushy and said " MINE!"
He cracks me up. I'm concerned though that something went on last Sunday. We'll probably never know and maybe it's nothing, but it does seem a bit odd.
The guys are all watching the hockey game, cheering for Canada of course. All in all, we think the Olympics have been a success. The mood in Vancouver and Whistler is very upbeat and happy.

2010-02-13T12:08:00.000-08:00

Hubby said to write something, it's boring; I told him since I can't write about him, I have nothing to write about. :P
Maybe not quite, but he gives me lots of material. Ashton is growing like a weed and talking more and more. I'm aging rapidly and my knees are hurting bad! It's been established that I have arthritis in my right knee, now my left one decided to start being a pain as well.
I just talked to my mom and she said not to wait, but go see the doctor asap. I guess my whole posture is out of wack, my hips and lower back make themselves felt as well, but tolerably so; the left knee really hurts.
My mom is still waiting to get her right hand operated on, seems like the doctor that set the fracture has a bad reputation. At least someone at the bank made a comment to her. She has saints for neighbours! They are helping so much!
I enjoy some games on facebook and since I don't do much else besides working, I figure I deserve some relaxation.
Hubby cleaned the floors the other day, they're shiny! No job in sight yet. :(

2010-02-09T07:09:00.001-08:00

http://www.olympic.org/en/content/Olympic-Games/

Here it is, the "Bucket list' and hubby's is by far the funniest!

2010-01-30T22:42:00.000-08:00

Bucket List

Hit forward and place an X by all the things you've done and remove the X from the ones you have not, and send it to your friends (including me). This is for your Entire Life!

(X) Shot a gun - who at?
(O) Gone on a blind date - nah... I could see pretty much everything...
(X) Skipped school
(x) Watched someone die - too many times...
(X) Been to Canada - DOH! I LIVE in Canada!!!
(O) Been to Alaska - NEXT STOP HOPEFULLY!!
() Been to Cuba
(X) Been to Europe
() Been to Las Vegas
() Been to Mexico
() Been to Florida
(X) Been on a plane
(O) Been on a cruise ship/gambling ship - well I was 'on' one... never went anywhere though... stupid driver couldn't find the keys...
(x) Served on a jury - called 2x but I 'begged off'... pretty sure it was for the Robert Pickton trial (the 2nd call)
(X) Been lost - more often than I care to remember..
(X) Been on the opposite side of the country... well not ALL the way (Quebec border)
() Gone to Washington , DC
(X) Swam in the ocean - wid da fishes baby, wid da fishes...
() Cried yourself to sleep - refusing to answer on the grounds it may femalize me...
(X) Played cops and robbers
(X) Played cowBOYS/girls and Indians (*sniff* - that's politically incorrect)
(O) Recently colored with crayons - nah, but I paint lots...
(X) Sang Karaoke - "Trailer for Sale or Rent" (Roger Miller)
(X) Paid for a meal with coins only? - YOU MEAN THERE ARE OTHER WAYS?!?
(X) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? - I have NO willpower... sigh...
(X) Made prank phone calls - yeah, lotsa times... they're FUN!
(X) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose... I think it mighta come outta m'ears too!
(x) Caught a snowflake on your tongue
(x) Danced in the rain.
(X) Written a letter to Santa Claus - yeah, but he didn't answer...
(x) Been kissed under the mistletoe - that stuff pricks!!
(X) Watched the sunrise with someone... well we weren't exactly "watching" the sunrise...
(X) Blown bubbles - out m'nose or otherwise?
(X) Gone ice-skating
(X) Gone snow skiing
(X) Camped out under the stars...rain/snow/windstorm/ (insert here)
(x) Seen something so beautiful that it....took your breath away? (yeah, but then I could breathe again...)
(x) Married? - 30+ years
(x) Have a Pet? - many
(x) Children? - TOO many >:)
(X) Been skinny dipping outdoors - yeah... bin caught too!! (one time Momi, Maria and I jumped a fence...caught that time too... NOBODY respects yer privacy anymore!!
(X) Been fishing - yeah... but I still don't know what a 'fish' is...
(x) Been boating
(X) Been water skiing - haha... well at least I tried... skis musta bin too small or sumptin...
(X) Been hiking
(x) Been camping in a trailer/RV
(x) Flown in a small 4 seater airplane (helicopter)
() Flown in a glider
() Been flying in a hot air balloon
() Been bungee-jumping
(X) Gone to a drive-in movie
(x) Done something that should have killed you - seriously I'm amazed I'm still alive!
(x) Done something that you will probably regret for the rest of your life... yeah, coupla times actually...

1. Any nickname? Daisy... but anybody that calls me that... DIES!!!
2. Mother's name? Doris
3. Favorite beverage? IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BEANS BABY, IT'S IN THE BEANS!!
4. Body Piercing? one ear a long, long time ago... young & stupid, did it with an ice cube and sewing needle...
5. Tattoo? NOT IN A MILLION YEARS!!!
6. How much do you love your job? ...WHAT IS?!? this 'job' thing that you're referring to...?
7. Birth place? North Vancouver
8. Favorite vacation spot? anyplace with nature AND a computer
9. Been to Africa ? I "think" I'd like to go as part of a Christian organization... not really sure...
10. Ever eaten just cookies for dinner? nope!... I prefer Rice Krispies
11. Ever been on TV? I'm a MEGA star!
12. Ever steal any traffic signs? yup... they shouldn't have left it lying around... looked better on my wall anyway
13. Ever been in a car accident? ...let me count the times...
14. Drive a 2-door or 4-door vehicle? both... prefer 4 door although mine is a 2 door...
15. Favorite number? 7
16. Favorite movie? Deerhunter
17. Favorite holiday? visiting NicNac... that was GREAT! and a VERY MUCH needed break!!!
18. Favorite dessert? LEMON MERINGUE PIE!!!
19. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? A VIBRANT, BUSY, HAPPY GRAY-HAIRED OLD MAN!!!
20. Furthest place you will send this message? Ontario
21. Who will respond to this the fastest? ...whatsername?...no, no... I know this one!... oh yeah!!! NicNac!!!

Church Signs

2010-01-30T22:35:00.000-08:00

"Looking for a sign from God? This is it."
.
"No God -- No Peace. Know God -- Know Peace."
.
"Free Trip to heaven. Details Inside!"
.
"Try our Sundays. They are better than Baskin-Robbins."
.
"Searching for a new look? Have your faith lifted here!"
.
"Have trouble sleeping? We have sermons -- come hear one!"
.
"People are like tea bags -- you have to put them in hot water before you know how strong they are."
.
"When down in the mouth, remember Jonah. He came out alright."
.
"Sign broken: Message inside this Sunday."
.
"Fight truth decay . . . study the Bible daily."
.
"Do not wait for the hearse to take you to church."
.
"If you're headed in the wrong direction, God allows U-turns."
.
"This is a ch_ _ ch. What is missing? (U R)"
.
"In the dark? Follow the Son."
.
"If you can't sleep, don't count sheep. Talk to the Shepherd."
.
"God is on high . . . get your lift tickets here."
.
.

My life and hubby's :)

2010-01-30T21:44:00.000-08:00

Things have been a wee bit crazy around here, you can read hubby's e-mail to a friend below; and yes, I asked his permission. He just writes so funny :D He'd sent something to a friend, a " bucketlist", and told her that he reads my e-mail. She responded:

1:Hey hey, what is this? Does M. know this? Wait until I talk to her. I had some errands to run, have a dumb ear infection. Yucks.
A.

2:...does she know?!? Heck, she's the one who started the whole thing... that's why I gave her her own email address... she still reads mine though (even posted some of 'em onto her blog) ...ergo, I read hers now too!
Sorry to hear about the ear infection... er... does that mean your brain is going to fall out? >:}

1:Hey, don't say that! My brain has endured so darn much over all these years it could not fall OUT! You are mean. I will get even.

2:..hey!!! I'm kiddin' atcha!!! ...so has it?... fallen out I mean... hehehehehe >:}

Man! Am I ever exhausted... at my request... the doc had 'weaned' me off some drugs over the last three months... everything was fine, until the DAY AFTER I saw him a couple of weeks ago and he enquired as to "how it was going"... I said "fine" (which seemed to surprise him a bit)... until about 12 hours later!!! Since then I've been a ragin' idiot... haven't been capable of 'slowing down'... mind racing,.. need to be doing a dozen+ things all at the same time... couldn't focus... couple of times I stayed up for 40+ hours and at one point I didn't eat a particle of food for a week (figured I'd make it into a fast for the Lord... but soon realized that was a pretty dishonourable reason for a fast, so I just didn't eat)... when I explained all this (plus more) yesterday he said... 'welcome to the world of Ca...withdrawal'... YIKES!!! I don't EVER want to go through this again! He said I needed to get back on them... but in one way... "it was a good thing"... now we KNOW they work! He's also given me some other stuff until they can take hold again... cuz I'm still ragin'... not angry ragin' just kind of 'out-of-control' of my own head, my thoughts are flying all over the place and I can't relax... AT ALL!!!... er... that's why I'm telling you all this... please pray! Probably won't be in church tomorrow because I think I'll be spending most of it in bed... finally fell asleep on the floor today... I had crawled under my desk to do 'something'... can't quite remember what the heck it was... and that's where the wive found me when she came home about 3 hours later...

=============================================================================

It's true, he was sleeping on the floor, under the desk. He's lost weight. I told him to stop losing weight, otherwise I'll have to start losing some, can't have him looking better than me, now, can I? :)
He was driving me a bit insane, not going to bed 'till 5 in the morning, and some other sort of manic things. Ashton loves having a crazy grandpa though, he's lots of fun.
The two of them have been spending some quality time together, grandpa likes to show him the tools in the workshop or chase him in the house. I've started to "chase" him, wiggling my fingers and saying :" I'm gonna get you, I'm gonna get you"... and then when I do, I pick him up and tickle and hug him. Ashton absolutely loves it and he'll stand at the other end of the hallway, wiggle his fingers and looking full of anticipation, indicating that he wants me to play the game. He'll usually sort of run away, but I'm often too slow for him and he can't stand the wait, so he'll run toward me to be swept up. He laughs excitedly and squeals with delight.
He's an absolute joy and we miss him when he goes to mom's. I try to make him excited to see mom and often he'll be, until he has to go with her. A week ago he looked sooo sad and resigned. I wanted to cry.
His dad, our son, does pretty much all the work, looking after him, we mostly just enjoy his company, once in awhile we'll watch him for a short while.
I worked another Saturday with S. on the garbage truck. She was still hurting last week, but it's getting better. We have fun together, but she'll start doing the job alone again when she feels up to it.
Hubby got laid off hi one day job now too and the job he did on the side, that person running the paper just quit and left everyone hanging high and dry. Didn't pay him the last pay, stiffed the people who paid for ads and the printers who printed the papers.
Two of our big papers are bankrupt, so it's not looking good in his line of work. He'll have to find something else.

Oh Canada, stop being such a doormat!!

2010-01-26T07:05:00.000-08:00

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts we see the rise,
The True North strong and free!

From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee!

God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

SPEAK UP FOR YOUR COUNTRY CANADIANS!

Bruce Allen not out of hot water yet.

VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980) - Despite being given a show of support by Vancouver 2010 organizers, embattled music manager and CKNW editorialist, Bruce Allen is not out of hot water just yet as the fallout continues from his recent commentary indicating immigrants to Canada
should 'fit in,' or 'go home.'

Richmond Liberal MP, Raymond Chan, is set to file an official complaint with the CRTC (Cdn Radio Television Commission) about Allen's recent 'reality check' alleging the piece was discriminatory. Chan is also demanding an official apology and a retraction of the comments.

It's time we all get behind Bruce Allen, and scrap this Political Correctness business. His comments were anything but racist, but there are far too many overly-sensitive 'New Canadians' that are trying to change everything we hold dear.

For example, our National Anthem: Don't know what your opinions are, but I certainly agree. --- I am sorry, but after hearing they want to sing the National Anthem in Hindi - enough is enough. No where or at no other time in our nation's history, did they sing it in Italian, Japanese, Polish, Irish (Celtic), German, Portuguese, Greek, or any other language because of immigration. It was written in English, and should be sung word for word the way it was written. The news broadcasts even gave the translation -- not even close.

I am not sorry if this offends anyone, this is MY COUNTRY - IF IT IS YOUR COUNTRY SPEAK UP ---- please pass this along.... I am not against immigration .. just come through like everyone else... Get a sponsor; have a place to lay your head; have a job; pay your taxes; live by the rules ...AND... LEARN THE LANGUAGE as all other immigrants have in the past .. and LONG LIVE CANADA!

PART OF THE PROBLEM. Think about this: If you don't want to forward this for fear of offending someone-----YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM !!!!

Will we still be the Country of Choice and still be CANADA if we continue to make the changes forced on us by the people from other countries who have come to live in CANADA because it is the Country of Choice??????

Think about it! IMMIGRANTS, NOT CANADIAN'S, MUST ADAPT. It is Time for CANADA to Speak up. If you agree - pass This along.

I immigrated to Canada myself and would not expect Canadians to have to learn my language or adapt to me, but I adapted to my new country and learned the language spoken here!

How Taqiyya Alters Islam's Rules of War Defeating Jihadist Terrorism

2010-01-21T13:02:00.000-08:00

This is a long read and only of interest to people that would like to understand Islam, explained by authorative and scholarly sources. This is not merely my opinion.

How Taqiyya Alters Islam's Rules of War
Defeating Jihadist Terrorism

by Raymond Ibrahim
Middle East Quarterly
Winter 2010, pp. 3-13
http://www.meforum.org/2538/taqiyya-islam-rules-of-war

Islam must seem a paradoxical religion to non-Muslims. On the one hand, it is constantly being
portrayed as the religion of peace; on the other, its adherents are responsible for the majority of
terror attacks around the world. Apologists for Islam emphasize that it is a faith built upon high
ethical standards; others stress that it is a religion of the law. Islam's dual notions of truth and
falsehood further reveal its paradoxical nature: While the Qur'an is against believers deceiving
other believers—for "surely God guides not him who is prodigal and a liar"[1]—deception
directed at non-Muslims, generally known in Arabic as taqiyya, also has Qur'anic support andfalls withinfalls within the legal category of things that are permissible for Muslims.
Taqiyya offers two basic uses. The better known revolves around dissembling over one's
religious identity when in fear of persecution. Such has been the historical usage of taqiyya
among Shi'i communities whenever and wherever their Sunni rivals have outnumbered and thus
threatened them. Conversely, Sunni Muslims, far from suffering persecution have, whenever
capability allowed, waged jihad against the realm of unbelief; and it is here that they have
deployed taqiyya—not as dissimulation but as active deceit. In fact, deceit, which is doctrinally
grounded in Islam, is often depicted as being equal—sometimes superior—to other universal
military virtues, such as courage, fortitude, or self-sacrifice.
Yet if Muslims are exhorted to be truthful, how can deceit not only be prevalent but have divine
sanction? What exactly is taqiyya? How is it justified by scholars and those who make use of it?
How does it fit into a broader conception of Islam's code of ethics, especially in relation to the
non-Muslim? More to the point, what ramifications does the doctrine of taqiyya have for all
interaction between Muslims and non-Muslims?
The Doctrine of Taqiyya
According to Shari'a—the body of legal rulings that defines how a Muslim should behave in all
circumstances—deception is not only permitted in certain situations but may be deemed
obligatory in others. Contrary to early Christian tradition, for instance, Muslims who were forced
to choose between recanting Islam or suffering persecution were permitted to lie and feign
apostasy. Other jurists have decreed that Muslims are obligated to lie in order to preserve
themselves,[2] based on Qur'anic verses forbidding Muslims from being instrumental in their
own deaths.[3]
This is the classic definition of the doctrine of taqiyya. Based on an Arabic word denoting fear,
taqiyya has long been understood, especially by Western academics, as something to resort to in
times of religious persecution and, for the most part, used in this sense by minority Shi'i groups
living among hostile Sunni majorities.[4] Taqiyya allowed the Shi'a to dissemble their religious
affiliation in front of the Sunnis on a regular basis, not merely by keeping clandestine about their
own beliefs but by actively praying and behaving as if they were Sunnis.
However, one of the few books devoted to the subject, At-Taqiyya fi'l-Islam (Dissimulation in
Islam) makes it clear that taqiyya is not limited to Shi'a dissimulating in fear of persecution.
Written by Sami Mukaram, a former Islamic studies professor at the American University of
Beirut and author of some twenty-five books on Islam, the book clearly demonstrates the
ubiquity and broad applicability of taqiyya:
Taqiyya is of fundamental importance in Islam. Practically every Islamic sect agrees to it
and practices it … We can go so far as to say that the practice of taqiyya is mainstream in
Islam, and that those few sects not practicing it diverge from the mainstream … Taqiyya
is very prevalent in Islamic politics, especially in the modern era.[5]
Taqiyya is, therefore, not, as is often supposed, an exclusively Shi'i phenomenon. Of course, as a
minority group interspersed among their Sunni enemies, the Shi'a have historically had more
reason to dissemble. Conversely, Sunni Islam rapidly dominated vast empires from Spain to
China. As a result, its followers were beholden to no one, had nothing to apologize for, and had
no need to hide from the infidel nonbeliever (rare exceptions include Spain and Portugal during
the Reconquista when Sunnis did dissimulate over their religious identity[6]). Ironically,
however, Sunnis living in the West today find themselves in the place of the Shi'a: Now they are
the minority surrounded by their traditional enemies—Christian infidels—even if the latter, as
opposed to their Reconquista predecessors, rarely act on, let alone acknowledge, this historic
enmity. In short, Sunnis are currently experiencing the general circumstances that made taqiyya
integral to Shi'ism although without the physical threat that had so necessitated it.
The Articulation of Taqiyya
Qur'anic verse 3:28 is often seen as the primary verse that sanctions deception towards non-
Muslims: "Let believers [Muslims] not take infidels [non-Muslims] for friends and allies instead
of believers. Whoever does this shall have no relationship left with God—unless you but guard
yourselves against them, taking precautions."[7]
Muhammad ibn Jarir at-Tabari (d. 923), author of a standard and authoritative Qur'an
commentary, explains verse 3:28 as follows:
If you [Muslims] are under their [non-Muslims'] authority, fearing for yourselves, behave loyally
to them with your tongue while harboring inner animosity for them … [know that] God has
forbidden believers from being friendly or on intimate terms with the infidels rather than other
believers—except when infidels are above them [in authority]. Should that be the case, let them
act friendly towards them while preserving their religion.[8]
Regarding Qur'an 3:28, Ibn Kathir (d. 1373), another prime authority on the Qur'an, writes,
"Whoever at any time or place fears … evil [from non-Muslims] may protect himself through
outward show." As proof of this, he quotes Muhammad's close companion Abu Darda, who said,
"Let us grin in the face of some people while our hearts curse them." Another companion, simply
known as Al-Hasan, said, "Doing taqiyya is acceptable till the Day of Judgment [i.e., in
perpetuity]."[9]
Other prominent scholars, such as Abu 'Abdullah al-Qurtubi (1214-73) and Muhyi 'd-Din ibn al-
Arabi (1165-1240), have extended taqiyya to cover deeds. In other words, Muslims can behave
like infidels and worse—for example, by bowing down and worshiping idols and crosses,
offering false testimony, and even exposing the weaknesses of their fellow Muslims to the infidel
enemy—anything short of actually killing a Muslim: "Taqiyya, even if committed without
duress, does not lead to a state of infidelity—even if it leads to sin deserving of hellfire."[10]
Deceit in Muhammad's Military Exploits
Muhammad—whose example as the "most perfect human" is to be followed in every detail—
took an expedient view on lying. It is well known, for instance, that he permitted lying in three
situations: to reconcile two or more quarreling parties, to placate one's wife, and in war.[11]
According to one Arabic legal manual devoted to jihad as defined by the four schools of law,
"The ulema agree that deception during warfare is legitimate … deception is a form of art in
war."[12] Moreover, according to Mukaram, this deception is classified as taqiyya: "Taqiyya in
order to dupe the enemy is permissible."[13]
Several ulema believe deceit is integral to the waging of war: Ibn al-'Arabi declares that "in the
Hadith [sayings and actions of Muhammad], practicing deceit in war is well demonstrated.
Indeed, its need is more stressed than the need for courage." Ibn al-Munir (d. 1333) writes, "War
is deceit, i.e., the most complete and perfect war waged by a holy warrior is a war of deception,
not confrontation, due to the latter's inherent danger, and the fact that one can attain victory
through treachery without harm [to oneself]." And Ibn Hajar (d. 1448) counsels Muslims "to take
great caution in war, while [publicly] lamenting and mourning in order to dupe the infidels."[14]
This Muslim notion that war is deceit goes back to the Battle of the Trench (627), which pitted
Muhammad and his followers against several non-Muslim tribes known as Al-Ahzab. One of the
Ahzab, Na'im ibn Mas'ud, went to the Muslim camp and converted to Islam. When Muhammad
discovered that the Ahzab were unaware of their co-tribalist's conversion, he counseled Mas'ud
to return and try to get the pagan forces to abandon the siege. It was then that Muhammad
memorably declared, "For war is deceit." Mas'ud returned to the Ahzab without their knowing
that he had switched sides and intentionally began to give his former kin and allies bad advice.
He also went to great lengths to instigate quarrels between the various tribes until, thoroughly
distrusting each other, they disbanded, lifted the siege from the Muslims, and saved Islam from
destruction in an embryonic period.[15] Most recently, 9/11 accomplices, such as Khalid Sheikh
Muhammad, rationalized their conspiratorial role in their defendant response by evoking their proghet's assertion that "war is deceit".
through treachery without harm [to oneself]." And Ibn Hajar (d. 1448) counsels Muslims "to take
great caution in war, while [publicly] lamenting and mourning in order to dupe the infidels."[14]
This Muslim notion that war is deceit goes back to the Battle of the Trench (627), which pitted
Muhammad and his followers against several non-Muslim tribes known as Al-Ahzab. One of the
Ahzab, Na'im ibn Mas'ud, went to the Muslim camp and converted to Islam. When Muhammad
discovered that the Ahzab were unaware of their co-tribalist's conversion, he counseled Mas'ud
to return and try to get the pagan forces to abandon the siege. It was then that Muhammad
memorably declared, "For war is deceit." Mas'ud returned to the Ahzab without their knowing
that he had switched sides and intentionally began to give his former kin and allies bad advice.
He also went to great lengths to instigate quarrels between the various tribes until, thoroughly
distrusting each other, they disbanded, lifted the siege from the Muslims, and saved Islam from
destruction in an embryonic period.[15] Most recently, 9/11 accomplices, such as Khalid Sheikh
Muhammad, rationalized their conspiratorial role in their defendant response by evoking their
prophet's assertion that "war is deceit."
A more compelling expression of the legitimacy of deceiving infidels is the following anecdote.
A poet, Ka'b ibn Ashraf, offended Muhammad, prompting the latter to exclaim, "Who will kill
this man who has hurt God and his prophet?" A young Muslim named Muhammad ibn Maslama
volunteered on condition that in order to get close enough to Ka'b to assassinate him, he be
allowed to lie to the poet. Muhammad agreed. Ibn Maslama traveled to Ka'b and began to
denigrate Islam and Muhammad. He carried on in this way till his disaffection became so
convincing that Ka'b took him into his confidence. Soon thereafter, Ibn Maslama appeared with
another Muslim and, while Ka'b's guard was down, killed him.[16]
Muhammad said other things that cast deception in a positive light, such as "God has
commanded me to equivocate among the people just as he has commanded me to establish
[religious] obligations"; and "I have been sent with obfuscation"; and "whoever lives his life in
dissimulation dies a martyr."[17]
In short, the earliest historical records of Islam clearly attest to the prevalence of taqiyya as a
form of Islamic warfare. Furthermore, early Muslims are often depicted as lying their way out of
binds—usually by denying or insulting Islam or Muhammad—often to the approval of the latter,
his only criterion being that their intentions (niya) be pure.[18] During wars with Christians,
whenever the latter were in authority, the practice of taqiyya became even more integral.
Mukaram states, "Taqiyya was used as a way to fend off danger from the Muslims, especially in
critical times and when their borders were exposed to wars with the Byzantines and, afterwards,
to the raids [crusades] of the Franks and others."[19]
Taqiyya in Qur'anic Revelation
The Qur'an itself is further testimony to taqiyya. Since God is believed to be the revealer of these
verses, he is by default seen as the ultimate perpetrator of deceit—which is not surprising since
he is described in the Qur'an as the best makar, that is, the best deceiver or schemer (e.g., 3:54,
8:30, 10:21).
While other scriptures contain contradictions, the Qur'an is the only holy book whose
commentators have evolved a doctrine to account for the very visible shifts which occur from
one injunction to another. No careful reader will remain unaware of the many contradictory
verses in the Qur'an, most specifically the way in which peaceful and tolerant verses lie almost
side by side with violent and intolerant ones. The ulema were initially baffled as to which verses
to codify into the Shari'a worldview—the one that states there is no coercion in religion (2:256),
or the ones that command believers to fight all non-Muslims till they either convert, or at least
submit, to Islam (8:39, 9:5, 9:29). To get out of this quandary, the commentators developed the
doctrine of abrogation, which essentially maintains that verses revealed later in Muhammad's
career take precedence over earlier ones whenever there is a discrepancy. In order to document
which verses abrogated which, a religious science devoted to the chronology of the Qur'an's
verses evolved (known as an-Nasikh wa'l Mansukh, the abrogater and the abrogated).
But why the contradiction in the first place? The standard view is that in the early years of Islam,
since Muhammad and his community were far outnumbered by their infidel competitors while
living next to them in Mecca, a message of peace and coexistence was in order. However, after
the Muslims migrated to Medina in 622 and grew in military strength, verses inciting them to go
on the offensive were slowly "revealed"—in principle, sent down from God—always
commensurate with Islam's growing capabilities. In juridical texts, these are categorized in
stages: passivity vis-á-vis aggression; permission to fight back against aggressors; commands to
fight aggressors; commands to fight all non-Muslims, whether the latter begin aggressions or
not.[20] Growing Muslim might is the only variable that explains this progressive change in
policy.
Other scholars put a gloss on this by arguing that over a twenty-two year period, the Qur'an was
revealed piecemeal, from passive and spiritual verses to legal prescriptions and injunctions to
spread the faith through jihad and conquest, simply to acclimate early Muslim converts to the
duties of Islam, lest they be discouraged at the outset by the dramatic obligations that would
appear in later verses.[21] Verses revealed towards the end of Muhammad's career—such as,
"Warfare is prescribed for you though you hate it"[22]—would have been out of place when
warfare was actually out of the question.
However interpreted, the standard view on Qur'anic abrogation concerning war and peace verses
is that when Muslims are weak and in a minority position, they should preach and behave
according to the ethos of the Meccan verses (peace and tolerance); when strong, however, they
should go on the offensive on the basis of what is commanded in the Medinan verses (war and
conquest). The vicissitudes of Islamic history are a testimony to this dichotomy, best captured by
the popular Muslim notion, based on a hadith, that, if possible, jihad should be performed by the
hand (force), if not, then by the tongue (through preaching); and, if that is not possible, then with
the heart or one's intentions.[23]
War Is Eternal
That Islam legitimizes deceit during war is, of course, not all that astonishing; after all, as the
Elizabethan writer John Lyly put it, "All's fair in love and war."[24] Other non-Muslim
philosophers and strategists—such as Sun Tzu, Machiavelli, and Thomas Hobbes—justified
deceit in warfare. Deception of the enemy during war is only common sense. The crucial
difference in Islam, however, is that war against the infidel is a perpetual affair—until, in the
words of the Qur'an, "all chaos ceases, and all religion belongs to God."[25] In his entry on jihad
from the Encyclopaedia of Islam, Emile Tyan states: "The duty of the jihad exists as long as the
universal domination of Islam has not been attained. Peace with non-Muslim nations is,
therefore, a provisional state of affairs only; the chance of circumstances alone can justify it
temporarily."[26]
Moreover, going back to the doctrine of abrogation, Muslim scholars such as Ibn Salama (d.
1020) agree that Qur'an 9:5, known as ayat as-sayf or the sword verse, has abrogated some 124
of the more peaceful Meccan verses, including "every other verse in the Qur'an, which
commands or implies anything less than a total offensive against the nonbelievers."[27] In fact,
all four schools of Sunni jurisprudence agree that "jihad is when Muslims wage war on infidels,
after having called on them to embrace Islam or at least pay tribute [jizya] and live in
submission, and the infidels refuse."[28]
Obligatory jihad is best expressed by Islam's dichotomized worldview that pits the realm of
Islam against the realm of war. The first, dar al-Islam, is the "realm of submission," the world
where Shari'a governs; the second, dar al-Harb (the realm of war), is the non-Islamic world. A
struggle continues until the realm of Islam subsumes the non-Islamic world—a perpetual affair
that continues to the present day. The renowned Muslim historian and philosopher Ibn Khaldun
(d. 1406) clearly articulates this division:
In the Muslim community, jihad is a religious duty because of the universalism of the
Muslim mission and the obligation to convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or
by force. The other religious groups did not have a universal mission, and the jihad was
not a religious duty for them, save only for purposes of defense. But Islam is under
obligation to gain power over other nations.[29]
Finally and all evidence aside, lest it still appear unreasonable for a faith with over one billion
adherents to obligate unprovoked warfare in its name, it is worth noting that the expansionist
jihad is seen as an altruistic endeavor, not unlike the nineteenth century ideology of "the white
man's burden." The logic is that the world, whether under democracy, socialism, communism, or
any other system of governance, is inevitably living in bondage—a great sin, since the good of
all humanity is found in living in accordance to God's law. In this context, Muslim deception can
be viewed as a slightly less than noble means to a glorious end—Islamic hegemony under Shari'a
rule, which is seen as good for both Muslims and non-Muslims.
This view has an ancient pedigree: Soon after the death of Muhammad (634), as the jihad
fighters burst out of the Arabian peninsula, a soon-to-be conquered Persian commander asked the
invading Muslims what they wanted. They memorably replied as follows:
God has sent us and brought us here so that we may free those who desire from servitude
to earthly rulers and make them servants of God, that we may change their poverty into
wealth and free them from the tyranny and chaos of [false] religions and bring them to
the justice of Islam. He has sent us to bring his religion to all his creatures and call them to Islam. Whoever accepts it from us will be safe, and we shall leave him alone; but
whoever refuses, we shall fight until we fulfill the promise of God.[30]
Fourteen hundred years later— in March 2009—Saudi legal expert Basem Alem publicly echoed
this view:
As a member of the true religion, I have a greater right to invade [others] in order to
impose a certain way of life [according to Shari'a], which history has proven to be the
best and most just of all civilizations. This is the true meaning of offensive jihad. When
we wage jihad, it is not in order to convert people to Islam, but in order to liberate them
from the dark slavery in which they live.[31]
And it should go without saying that taqiyya in the service of altruism is permissible. For
example, only recently, after publicly recounting a story where a Muslim tricked a Jew into
converting to Islam—warning him that if he tried to abandon Islam, Muslims would kill him as
an apostate—Muslim cleric Mahmoud al-Masri called it a "beautiful trick."[32] After all, from
an Islamic point of view, it was the Jew who, in the end, benefitted from the deception, which
brought him to Islam.
Treaties and Truces
The perpetual nature of jihad is highlighted by the fact that, based on the 10-year treaty of
Hudaybiya (628), ratified between Muhammad and his Quraysh opponents in Mecca, most
jurists are agreed that ten years is the maximum amount of time Muslims can be at peace with
infidels; once the treaty has expired, the situation needs to be reappraised. Based on
Muhammad's example of breaking the treaty after two years (by claiming a Quraysh infraction),
the sole function of the truce is to buy weakened Muslims time to regroup before renewing the
offensive:[33] "By their very nature, treaties must be of temporary duration, for in Muslim legal
theory, the normal relations between Muslim and non-Muslim territories are not peaceful, but
warlike."[34] Hence "the fuqaha [jurists] are agreed that open-ended truces are illegitimate if
Muslims have the strength to renew the war against them [non-Muslims]."[35]
Even though Shari'a mandates Muslims to abide by treaties, they have a way out, one open to
abuse: If Muslims believe—even without solid evidence—that their opponents are about to break
the treaty, they can preempt by breaking it first. Moreover, some Islamic schools of law, such as
the Hanafi, assert that Muslim leaders may abrogate treaties merely if it seems advantageous for
Islam.[36] This is reminiscent of the following canonical hadith: "If you ever take an oath to do
something and later on you find that something else is better, then you should expiate your oath
and do what is better."[37] And what is better, what is more altruistic, than to make God's word
supreme by launching the jihad anew whenever possible? Traditionally, Muslim rulers held to a
commitment to launch a jihad at least once every year. This ritual is most noted with the
Ottoman sultans, who spent half their lives in the field.[38] So important was the duty of jihad
that the sultans were not permitted to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca, an individual duty for
each Muslim. Their leadership of the jihad allowed this communal duty to continue; without
them, it would have fallen into desuetude.[39]
In short, the prerequisite for peace or reconciliation is Muslim advantage. This is made clear in
an authoritative Sunni legal text, Umdat as-Salik, written by a fourteenth-century Egyptian
scholar, Ahmad Ibn Naqib al-Misri: "There must be some benefit [maslaha] served in making a
truce other than the status quo: 'So do not be fainthearted and call for peace when it is you who
are uppermost [Qur'an 47:35].'"[40]
More recently, and of great significance for Western leaders advocating cooperation with
Islamists, Yasser Arafat, soon after negotiating a peace treaty criticized as conceding too much to
Israel, addressed an assembly of Muslims in a mosque in Johannesburg where he justified his
actions: "I see this agreement as being no more than the agreement signed between our Prophet
Muhammad and the Quraysh in Mecca."[41] In other words, like Muhammad, Arafat gave his
word only to annul it once "something better" came along—that is, once the Palestinians became
strong enough to renew the offensive and continue on the road to Jerusalem. Elsewhere,
Hudaybiya has appeared as a keyword for radical Islamists. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front
had three training camps within the Camp Abu Bakar complex in the Philippines, one of which
was named Camp Hudaybiya.[42]
Hostility Disguised As Grievance
In their statements directed at European or American audiences, Islamists maintain that the
terrorism they direct against the West is merely reciprocal treatment for decades of Western and
Israeli oppression. Yet in writings directed to their fellow Muslims, this animus is presented, not
as a reaction to military or political provocation but as a product of religious obligation.
For instance, when addressing Western audiences, Osama bin Laden lists any number of
grievances as motivating his war on the West—from the oppression of the Palestinians to the
Western exploitation of women, and even U.S. failure to sign the environmental Kyoto
protocol—all things intelligible from a Western perspective. Never once, however, does he
justify Al-Qaeda's attacks on Western targets simply because non-Muslim countries are infidel
entities that must be subjugated. Indeed, he often initiates his messages to the West by saying,
"Reciprocal treatment is part of justice" or "Peace to whoever follows guidance"[43]—though he
means something entirely different than what his Western listeners understand by words such as
"peace," "justice," or "guidance."
It is when bin Laden speaks to fellow Muslims that the truth comes out. When a group of
prominent Muslims wrote an open letter to the American people soon after the strikes of 9/11,
saying that Islam seeks to peacefully coexist,[44] bin Laden wrote to castigate them:
As to the relationship between Muslims and infidels, this is summarized by the Most
High's Word: "We [Muslims] renounce you [non-Muslims]. Enmity and hate shall
forever reign between us—till you believe in God alone" [Qur'an 60:4]. So there is an
enmity, evidenced by fierce hostility from the heart. And this fierce hostility—that is,
battle—ceases only if the infidel submits to the authority of Islam, or if his blood is
forbidden from being shed [i.e., a dhimmi, or protected minority], or if Muslims are at
that point in time weak and incapable. But if the hate at any time extinguishes from the
heart, this is great apostasy! ... Such then is the basis and foundation of the relationship
between the infidel and the Muslim. Battle, animosity, and hatred—directed from the
Muslim to the infidel—is the foundation of our religion. And we consider this a justice
and kindness to them.[45]
Mainstream Islam's four schools of jurisprudence lend their support to this hostile
Weltanschauung by speaking of the infidel in similar terms. Bin Laden's addresses to the West
with his talk of justice and peace are clear instances of taqiyya. He is not only waging a physical
jihad but a propaganda war, that is, a war of deceit. If he can convince the West that the current
conflict is entirely its fault, he garners greater sympathy for his cause. At the same time, he
knows that if Americans were to realize that nothing short of their submission can ever bring
peace, his propaganda campaign would be quickly compromised. Hence the constant need to
dissemble and to cite grievances, for, as bin Laden's prophet asserted, "War is deceit."
Implications
Taqiyya presents a range of ethical dilemmas. Anyone who truly believes that God justifies and,
through his prophet's example, even encourages deception will not experience any ethical qualms
over lying. Consider the case of 'Ali Mohammad, bin Laden's first "trainer" and long-time Al-
Qaeda operative. An Egyptian, he was initially a member of Islamic Jihad and had served in the
Egyptian army's military intelligence unit. After 1984, he worked for a time with the CIA in
Germany. Though considered untrustworthy, he managed to get to California where he enlisted
in the U.S. Army. It seems likely that he continued to work in some capacity for the CIA. He
later trained jihadists in the United States and Afghanistan and was behind several terror attacks
in Africa. People who knew him regarded him with "fear and awe for his incredible selfconfidence,
his inability to be intimidated, absolute ruthless determination to destroy the enemies
of Islam, and his zealous belief in the tenets of militant Islamic fundamentalism."[46] Indeed,
this sentence sums it all up: For a zealous belief in Islam's tenets, which legitimize deception in
order to make God's word supreme, will certainly go a long way in creating "incredible selfconfidence"
when lying.[47]
Yet most Westerners continue to think that Muslim mores, laws, and ethical constraints are near
identical to those of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Naively or arrogantly, today's multiculturalist
leaders project their own worldview onto Islamists, thinking a handshake and smiles across a cup
of coffee, as well as numerous concessions, are enough to dismantle the power of God's word
and centuries of unchanging tradition. The fact remains: Right and wrong in Islam have little to
do with universal standards but only with what Islam itself teaches—much of which is
antithetical to Western norms.
It must, therefore, be accepted that, contrary to long-held academic assumptions, the doctrine of
taqiyya goes far beyond Muslims engaging in religious dissimulation in the interest of selfpreservation
and encompasses deception of the infidel enemy in general. This phenomenon
should provide a context for Shi'i Iran's zeal—taqiyya being especially second nature to
Shi'ism—to acquire nuclear power while insisting that its motives are entirely peaceful.
Nor is taqiyya confined to overseas affairs. Walid Phares of the National Defense University has
lamented that homegrown Islamists are operating unfettered on American soil due to their use of
taqiyya: "Does our government know what this doctrine is all about and, more importantly, are
authorities educating the body of our defense apparatus regarding this stealthy threat dormant
among us?"[48] After the Fort Hood massacre, when Nidal Malik Hasan, an American-Muslim
who exhibited numerous Islamist signs which were ignored, killed thirteen fellow servicemen
and women, one is compelled to respond in the negative.
This, then, is the dilemma: Islamic law unambiguously splits the world into two perpetually
warring halves—the Islamic world versus the non-Islamic—and holds it to be God's will for the
former to subsume the latter. Yet if war with the infidel is a perpetual affair, if war is deceit, and
if deeds are justified by intentions—any number of Muslims will naturally conclude that they
have a divinely sanctioned right to deceive, so long as they believe their deception serves to aid
Islam "until all chaos ceases, and all religion belongs to God."[49] Such deception will further be
seen as a means to an altruistic end. Muslim overtures for peace, dialogue, or even temporary
truces must be seen in this light, evoking the practical observations of philosopher James
Lorimer, uttered over a century ago: "So long as Islam endures, the reconciliation of its
adherents, even with Jews and Christians, and still more with the rest of mankind, must continue
to be an insoluble problem."[50]
In closing, whereas it may be more appropriate to talk of "war and peace" as natural corollaries
in a Western context, when discussing Islam, it is more accurate to talk of "war and deceit." For,
from an Islamic point of view, times of peace—that is, whenever Islam is significantly weaker
than its infidel rivals—are times of feigned peace and pretense, in a word, taqiyya.
Raymond Ibrahim is associate director of the Middle East Forum.
[1] Qur'an 40:28.
[2] Fakhr ad-Din ar-Razi, At-Tafsir al-Kabir (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiya, 2000), vol. 10, p.
98.
[3] Qur'an 2:195, 4:29.
[4] Paul E. Walker, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam in the Modern World, John Esposito, ed.
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), vol. 4, s.v. "Taqiyah," pp. 186-7; Ibn Babuyah, A
Shi'ite Creed, A. A. A. Fyzee, trans. (London: n.p., 1942), pp. 110-2; Etan Kohlberg, "Some
Imami-Shi'i Views on Taqiyya," Journal of the American Oriental Society, 95 (1975): 395-402.
[5] Sami Mukaram, At-Taqiyya fi 'l-Islam (London: Mu'assisat at-Turath ad-Druzi, 2004), p. 7,
author's translation.
[6] Devin Stewart, "Islam in Spain after the Reconquista," Emory University, p. 2, accessed Nov.
27, 2009.
[7] See also Quran 2:173, 2:185, 4:29, 16:106, 22:78, 40:28, verses cited by Muslim
jurisprudents as legitimating taqiyya.
[8] Abu Ja'far Muhammad at-Tabari, Jami' al-Bayan 'an ta'wil ayi'l-Qur'an al-Ma'ruf: Tafsir at-
Tabari (Beirut: Dar Ihya' at-Turath al-'Arabi, 2001), vol. 3, p. 267, author's translation.
[9] 'Imad ad-Din Isma'il Ibn Kathir, Tafsir al-Qur'an al-Karim (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiya,
2001), vol. 1, p. 350, author's translation.
[10] Mukaram, At-Taqiyya fi 'l-Islam, pp. 30-7.
[11] Imam Muslim, "Kitab al-Birr wa's-Salat, Bab Tahrim al-Kidhb wa Bayan al-Mubih Minhu,"
Sahih Muslim, rev. ed., Abdul Hamid Siddiqi, trans. (New Delhi: Kitab Bhavan, 2000).
[12] Ahmad Mahmud Karima, Al-Jihad fi'l Islam: Dirasa Fiqhiya Muqarina (Cairo: Al-Azhar,
2003), p. 304, author's translation.
[13] Mukaram, At-Taqiyya fi 'l-Islam, p. 32.
[14] Raymond Ibrahim, The Al Qaeda Reader (New York: Doubleday, 2007), pp. 142-3.
[15] Mukaram, At-Taqiyya fi 'l-Islam, pp. 32-3.
[16] Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 367-8.
[17] Shihab ad-Din Muhammad al-Alusi al-Baghdadi, Ruh al-Ma'ani fi Tafsir al-Qur'an al-'Azim
wa' l-Saba' al-Mithani (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiya, 2001), vol. 2, p. 118, author's translation.
[18] Mukaram, At-Taqiyya fi 'l-Islam, pp. 11-2.
[19] Ibid., pp. 41-2.
[20] Ibn Qayyim, Tafsir, in Abd al-'Aziz bin Nasir al-Jalil, At-Tarbiya al-Jihadiya fi Daw' al-
Kitab wa 's-Sunna (Riyahd: n.p., 2003), pp. 36-43.
[21] Mukaram, At-Taqiyya fi 'l-Islam, p. 20.
[22] Qur'an 2: 216.
[23] Yahya bin Sharaf ad-Din an-Nawawi, An-Nawawi's Forty Hadiths, p. 16, accessed Aug. 1,
2009.
[24] John Lyly, Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (London, 1578), p. 236.
[25] Qur'an 8:39.
[26] Emile Tyan, The Encyclopedia of Islam (Leiden: Brill, 1960), vol. 2, s.v. "Djihad," pp. 538-
40.
[27] David Bukay, "Peace or Jihad? Abrogation in Islam," Middle East Quarterly, Fall 2007, pp.
3-11, f.n. 58; David S. Powers, "The Exegetical Genre nasikh al-Qur'an wa-mansukhuhu," in
Approaches to the History of the Interpretation of the Qur'an, Andrew Rippin, ed. (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1988), pp. 130-1.
[28] Jalil, At-Tarbiya al-Jihadiya fi Daw' al-Kitab wa ' s-Sunna, p. 7.
[29] Ibn Khaldun, The Muqadimmah. An Introduction to History, Franz Rosenthal, trans. (New
York: Pantheon, 1958), vol. 1, p. 473.
[30] Hugh Kennedy, The Great Arab Conquests (Philadelphia: Da Capo, 2007), p. 112.
[31] "Saudi Legal Expert Basem Alem: We Have the Right to Wage Offensive Jihad to Impose
Our Way of Life," TV Monitor, clip 2108, Middle East Media Research Institute, trans., Mar. 26,
2009.
[32] "Egyptian Cleric Mahmoud Al-Masri Recommends Tricking Jews into Becoming
Muslims," TV Monitor, clip 2268, Middle East Media Research Institute, trans., Aug. 10, 2009.
[33] Denis MacEoin, "Tactical Hudna and Islamist Intolerance," Middle East Quarterly,
Summer 2008, pp. 39-48.
[34] Majid Khadduri, War and Peace in the Law of Islam (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press,
1955), p. 220.
[35] Ahmad Mahmud Karima, Al-Jihad fi'l Islam: Dirasa Fiqhiya Muqarina, p. 461, author's
translation.
[36] Ibid., p. 469.
[37] Muhammad al-Bukhari, "Judgements (Ahkaam)," Sahih al-Bukhari, book 89, M. Muhsin
Khan, trans., accessed July 22, 2009.
[38] Michael Bonner, Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice (Princeton: Woodstock
Publishers, 2006), p. 148.
[39] Ahmed Akgündüz, "Why Did the Ottoman Sultans Not Make Hajj (Pilgrimage)?" accessed
Nov. 9, 2009.
[40] Ahmad Ibn Naqib al-Misri, Reliance of the Traveller: A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred
Law (Beltsville: Amana Publications, 1994), p. 605.
[41] Daniel Pipes, "Lessons from the Prophet Muhammad's Diplomacy," Middle East Quarterly,
Sept. 1999, pp. 65-72.
[42] Arabinda Acharya, "Training in Terror," IDSS Commentaries, Institute of Defence and
Strategic Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, May 2, 2003.
[43] "Does hypocrite have a past tense?" for clip of Osama bin Laden, accessed Aug. 1, 2009.
[44] Ibrahim b. Muhammad al-Shahwan, et al, "Correspondence with Saudis: How We Can
Coexist," AmericanValues.org, accessed July 28, 2009.
[45] Ibrahim, The Al Qaeda Reader, p. 43.
[46] Steven Emerson, "Osama bin Laden's Special Operations Man," Journal of
Counterterrorism and Security International, Sept. 1, 1998.
[47] For lists of other infiltrators of U. S. organizations, see Daniel Pipes, "Islamists Penetrate
Western Security," Mar. 9, 2008.
[48] Walid Phares, "North Carolina: Meet Taqiyya Jihad," International Analyst Network, July
30, 2009.
[49] Qur'an 8:39.
[50] James Lorimer, The Institutes of the Law of Nations: A Treatise of the Jural Relations of
Separate Political Communities (Clark, N.J.: The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd., 2005), p. 124.
Related Topics: Islam | Raymond Ibrahim | Winter 2010 MEQ
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What are the kids doing while mom sleeps in?

2010-01-14T09:43:00.001-08:00

Lord knows. The younger girl ( 5 yrs. old ) gets her brother a bottle, as witnessed by someone, usually we don't know what they get up to except when there's an obvious result. This past weekend the 5 yr. old found a pair of craft scissors and decided to give her little brother a haircut. It's patchy, but for a 5 yr. old not so bad, it'll grow back and luckily no blood was drawn, earlobes are still intact. The upsetting part is, where was mom when the kids where left to their own devises? Sleeping. She gave herself away when she told junior, "I got up to that!" she tried to change it to, "ah, I mean ...." but he knows very well that she was sleeping when she should have been up with the kids. He lived with her and knows what she's like.
She's caused us so much trouble with her lies and still she showed up the other morning looking for Ashton's bottle, when hubby opened the door, she tried to come in, he blocked her. He then went to get the bottle and then she asked if we had any milk. So he went and filled the bottle with milk, gave it to her and shut the door.
I was sleeping, thank God; I'm not sure what I should say to her and I haven't the heart to shut her out like that.
What a mess she has made of things.
Ashton and Dad went to playgroup and I'm still working lots of overtime plus I'll be helping S. on the compost pick up route with the Garbage truck again this Saturday. I'm starting to feel like I need a break.
The paper hubby works at 1 day a week is being sold. No idea if that's good or bad or makes no difference. I guess we'll see.
Work is great, boss is great and homelife is peaceful :)

But We’re Still Gonna Kill You by Mark Steyn on National Review Online

2010-01-14T09:43:00.000-08:00

But We’re Still Gonna Kill You by Mark Steyn on National Review Online

Last man standing--- Geert Wilders

2010-01-12T10:25:00.000-08:00

: THIS SPEECH CLEARLY SHOWS OUR SITUATION IN THE WORLD.....WELL WORTH READING !

Geert Wilders is a Dutch Member of Parliament. He's taken a stand for freedom himself and has paid a big price,: constant threat of death.

America as the last man standing

'In a generation or two, the US will ask itself: who lost Europe ?'

Here is the speech of Geert Wilders, Chairman, Party for Freedom, the Netherlands , at the Four Seasons, New York , introducing an Alliance of Patriots and announcing the Facing Jihad Conference in Jerusalem .

Dear friends,

Thank you very much for inviting me.

I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe.

First I will describe the situation on the ground in Eu rope . Then, I will say a few things about Islam. To close I will tell you about a meeting in Jerusalem .

The Europe you know is changing.

You have probably seen the landmarks. But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is another world. It is the world of the parallel society created by Muslim mass-migration.

All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Muslim neighborhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It's the world of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, or slaveholders if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. With mosques on many street corners. The shops have signs you and I cannot read. You will be hard-pressed to find any economic activity.. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslim neighborhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe . These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe , street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city.

There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe . With larger congregations than there are in churches. And in every European city there are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church in the region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.

Many European cities are already one-quarter Muslim: just take Amsterdam , Marseille and Malmo in Sweden . In many cities the majority of the under-18 population is Muslim. Paris is now surrounded by a ring of Muslim neighborhoods. Mohammed is the most popular name among boys in many cities.

In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can no longer be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig, and that w ould be an insult to Muslims.

Many state schools in Belgium and Denmark only serve halal food to all pupils. In once-tolerant Amsterdam gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslim women routinely hear 'whore, whore'. Satellite dishes are not pointed to local TV stations, but to stations in the country of origin.

In France school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is increasingly true of Darwin . The history of the Holocaust can no longer be taught because of Muslim sensitivity.

In England sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal system. Many neighborhoods in France are no-go areas for women without head scarves. Last week a man almost died after being beaten up by Muslims in Brussels , because he was drinking during the Ramadan.

Jews are fleeing France in record numbers, on the run for the worst wave of anti-Semitism since World War II. French is now commonly spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv and Netanya , Israel . I could go on forever with stories like this. Stories about Islamization.

A total of fifty-four million Muslims now live in Europe . San Diego University recently calculated that a staggering 25 percent of the population in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now. Bernhard Lewis has predicted a Muslim majority by the end of this century.

Now these are just numbers. And the numbers would not be threatening if the Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire to assimilate. But there are few signs of that. The Pew Research Center reported that half of French Muslims see their loyalty to Islam as greater than their loyalty to France ... One-third of French Muslims do not object to suicide attacks. The British Centre for Social Cohesion reported that one-third of British Muslim students are in favor of a worldwide caliphate. Muslims demand what they call 'respect'. &n bsp;And this is how we give them respect. We have Muslim official state holidays.

The Christian-Democratic attorney general is willing to accept sharia in the Netherlands if there is a Muslim majority. We have cabinet members with passports from Morocco and Turkey .

Muslim demands are supported by unlawful behavior, ranging from petty crimes and random violence, for example against ambulance workers and bus drivers, to small-scale riots. Paris has seen its uprising in the low-income suburbs, the banlieus. I call the perpetrators 'settlers'. Because that is what they are. They do not come to integrate into our societies; they come to integrate our society into their Dar-al-Islam.. Therefore, they are settlers.

Much of this street violence I mentioned is directed exclusively against non-Muslims, forcing many native people to leave their neighborhoods, their cities, their countries. Moreover, Muslims are now a swing vote not to be ignored.

The second thing you need to know is the importance of Mohammed the prophet. His behavior is an example to all Muslims and cannot be criticized. Now, if Mohammed had been a man of peace, let us say like Ghandi and Mother Theresa wrapped in one, there would be no problem. But Mohammed was a warlord, a mass murderer, a pedophile, and had several marriages - at the same time. Islamic tradition tells us how he fought in battles, how he had his enemies murdered and even had prisoners of war executed. Mohammed himself slaughtered the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza. If it is good for Islam, it is good. If it is bad for Islam, it is bad.

Let no one fool you about Islam being a religion. Sure, it has a god, and a here-after, and 72 virgins. But in its essence Islam is a political ideology. It is a system that lays down detailed rules for society and the life of every person. Islam wants to dictate every aspect of life. Islam means 'submis sion'. Islam is not compatible with freedom and democracy, because what it strives for is sharia. If you want to compare Islam to anything, compare it to communism or national-socialism, these are all totalitarian ideologies.

Now you know why Winston Churchill called Islam 'the most retrograde force in the world', and why he compared Mein Kampf to the Quran. The public has wholeheartedly accepted the Palestinian narrative, and sees Israel as the aggressor. I have lived in this country and visited it dozens of times. I support Israel . First, because it is the Jewish homeland after two thousand years of exile up to and including Auschwitz, second because it is a democracy, and third because Israel is our first line of defense.

This tiny country is situated on the fault line of jihad, frustrating Islam's territorial advance. Israel is facing the front lines of jihad, like Kashmir, Kosovo, the Philippines , Southern Thailand, Darfur in Sudan , Lebanon , and Aceh in Indonesia . Israel is simply in the way. The same way West-Berlin was during the Cold War.

The war against Israel is not a war against Israel . It is a war against the West. It is jihad. Israel is simply receiving the blows that are meant for all of us. If there would have been no Israel , Islamic imperialism would have found other venues to release its energy and its desire for conquest. Thanks to Israeli parents who send their children to the army and lay awake at night, parents in Europe and America can sleep well and dream, unaware of the dangers looming.

Many in Europe argue in favor of abandoning Israel in order to address the grievances of our Muslim minorities. But if Israel were, God forbid, to go down, it would not bring any solace to the West It would not mean our Muslim minorities would all of a sudden change their behavior, and accept our values. On the contrary, the end of Israel would give enormous encouragement to th e forces of Islam. They would, and rightly so, see the demise of Israel as proof that the West is weak, and doomed. The end of Israel would not mean the end of our problems with Islam, but only the beginning. It would mean the start of the final battle for world domination. If they can get Israel , they can get everything.. So-called journalists volunteer to label any and all critics of Islamization as a 'right-wing extremists' or 'racists'. In my country, the Netherlands , 60 percent of the population now sees the mass immigration of Muslims as the number one policy mistake since World War II.. And another 60 percent sees Islam as the biggest threat. Yet there is a danger greater danger than terrorist attacks, the scenario of America as the last man standing. The lights may go out in Europe faster than you can imagine. An Islamic Europe means a Europe without freedom and democracy, an economic wasteland, an intellectual nightmare, and a loss of military might for America - as its allies will turn into enemies, enemies with atomic bombs. With an Islamic Europe, it would be up to America alone to preserve the heritage of Rome , Athens and Jerusalem .

Dear friends, liberty is the most precious of gifts. My generation never had to fight for this freedom, it was offered to us on a silver platter, by people who fought for it with their lives. All throughout Europe , American cemeteries remind us of the young boys who never made it home, and whose memory we cherish. My generation does not own this freedom; we are merely its custodians. We can only hand over this hard won liberty to Europe 's children in the same state in which it was offered to us. We cannot strike a deal with mullahs and imams. Future generations would never forgive us. We cannot squander our liberties.. We simply do not have the right to do so.

We have to take the necessary action now to stop this Islamic stupidity from destroying the free world that we know.
Please take the time to read and understand what is written here, Please send it to every free person that you know, it is so very important.

2010

2010-01-05T09:22:00.000-08:00

I've been working lots.
Last night junior got arrested once again because his ex didn't like something he said, or sent in a text, or.... She's not suopposed to talk to him except about their son, but she does anyway, until she doesn't like something.
It's only the first week of January and this happened already, not a good sign for the rest of the year.
I'm going to bed now.

Joke

2009-12-27T07:20:00.000-08:00

No One Appreciates A Good Job
There was a man who worked for the Post Office whose job was to process all the mail that had illegible addresses.

One day, a letter came addressed in a shaky handwriting to God with no actual address. He thought he should open it to see what it was about.

The letter read:

Dear God,

I am an 83 year old widow, living on a very small pension. Yesterday someone stole my purse. It had $100 in it, which was all the money I had until my next pension payment.

Next Sunday is Christmas, and I had invited two of my friends over for dinner. Without that money, I have nothing to buy food with, have no family to turn to, and you are my only hope.

Can you please help me?

Sincerely,

Edna

The postal worker was touched. He showed the letter to all the other workers. Each one dug into his or her wallet and came up with a few dollars. By the time he made the rounds, he had collected $96, which they put into an envelope and sent to the woman. The rest of the day, all the workers felt a warm glow thinking of Edna and the dinner she would be able to share with her friends.

Christmas came and went. A few days later, another letter came from the same old lady to God. All the workers gathered around while the letter was opened.

It read:

Dear God,

How can I ever thank you enough for what you did for me?

Because of your gift of love, I was able to fix a glorious dinner for my friends.
We had a very nice day and I told my friends of your wonderful Gift.

By the way, there was $4 missing.

I think it might have been those Bastards at the post office.

Sincerely,

Edna

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas

2009-12-27T05:54:00.000-08:00

I worked a full week of 12 hour shifts just before Christmas, one day I stayed 13 hours and could have stayed 14 hours each day, but didn't. As it was, I was exhausted and so was everyone else that worked hard to get as much of the Christmas mail out as possible. On the 24. I slept during the day, then again at night and still felt I needed more rest. I had a short nap on the 25., before heading out to the in-laws.
I'm fortunate to have a wonderful mother-in-law who still cooks the holiday meals and has all the kids and spouses over. We're the only ones who have our son here and now our grandson, otherwise it's the older generations.
There's no way I could put on such a dinner and work. Christmas is one of the busiest seasons at work.
Now the four legged grandchildren are welcome too, as are some of our friends. Shanon popped in for a bit and our dog and my brother -in law and his wife's dog where there and got spoiled by 'grandma'.
Ashton gave everyone big smiles. He was such a good boy, curious, but not wild, gentle with the dogs and just a joy. He'll pat the dog once, carefully and then smile.
When mom brought Ashton on Christmas day a bit before noon, there was a stocking waiting for him by the fire place, but he first greeted dad and grandma, then he saw the dog "daa" and as we steered him to his stocking, he saw "kitty" in the dog bed, not until he saw the sweets in the stocking did he get interested, he wanted a red sucker, so dad took of the plastic and gave it to Ashton, after some prompting and help from dad, he opened a couple of presents and shared his sucker with me. Then he saw a green sucker he wanted and dad gave it to him, he had two suckers in his mouth, decided to keep the green and shoved the red one in my mouth.
He got lots of "Biiiig twucks", also one wooden one my mom sent, that my dad made while he was still healthy, he's been pulling it around everywhere, as it has a string to pull.
His mom is so paranoid, she cut any string or plastic line off, in case he might strangle himself.
I sent some people a bit of info of what's been happening, here is an edited copy:

Rest..... for a couple of days :P
Merry Christmas!
Work has been insanely busy and we couldn't catch up, no matter how hard we tried. Well, some of us tried harder than others.
We're even going to work Sunday night, even though we should be off. I really feel exhausted. I slept most of yesterday and most of last night. Hubby still asked "Anything for dinner?", lol, I suggested he make one of his creations, since all ingredients were handy.
He grew up with a mom and dad that had their typical traditional roles, neither ever thought that dad should do anything in the kitchen. Mom did sewing from home and helped with the blue berries, but didn't have a job outside the house until dad retired and drove her crazy enough to go work for home care.
Here I guess all is same old, same old. I'm not much in a Christmas spirit, but then I'm not into all the shopping frenzy that happens this time of year, I prefer some reflective time and Christmas carols. I'm looking forward to watching Ashton open some of his gifts. He's getting to do it at mom's, then at dad's. I think the best gift for him would be having his parents together, but that's another story. Drama, drama, drama!
Last weekend Ashton's mom smelled cigarette smoke, the office door was open and hubby smokes in there. He puts a towel at the bottom of the door and opens his window..... personally, I'd prefer if he didn't smoke at all, but at least nowhere in the house, but you can't control others.
Well, Ashton has bronchitis, so does his dad and mom has a cold too, but she blamed it on people smoking in the house and refused to bring Ashton back here. She sent our son some angry text messages and wouldn't answer her phone. I left a nice message and she called me back and voiced her concerns. I agreed that I didn't like any smoking in the house, but assured her that our son didn't go in the office to smoke, as she accused him of; then I asked hubby to call her, since her concerns where with his doings. He did and they hashed it out. Hubby's take on the whole thing is: 'How did kids ever survive before?'
She asked if all ..(Family name).. men are selfish and lazy.
That probably explains a bit why I'm not much in a festive mood. But the show must go on, so off we go today to celebrate gift giving and stuffed people, ahem, turkeys.....
Hope you enjoy a feast and joy!

That's only part of it, the drama of "he was going to hit me" hasn't ended yet, next will be sentencing, as our son didn't want to make it more dramatic and emotional, he pled guilty to disturbing the peace, which he did. He needs to learn to control his temper and his emotions.
Strange how he can be so gentle and patient with his son and he's always been good to animals too.
I liked not getting lots of presents! The name draw is working well. Dinner was delicious, as always and all went well. Our son left earlier, as Ashton was getting tired; we all talked about this and that, hubby jokes and sometimes his bro's wife doesn't get that he's not serious. Hubby was talking about having no patience with people in certain situations, others chimed in, two of us said we have patience and it gave SIL an opening for her spiritual opining. She said, being impatient isn't very Christ like and that we're all supposed to try for Christlikeness. I agree, but I said, it takes some a bit longer, she carried on about Christ likeness.... and said Krishna likeness. I looked at her, certain I heard right, but asked what she has said, she repeated it and went on to explain that in India the also call Christ Krishna. RIGHT.
I didn't say anything, just looked at her, probably with a disbelieving expression on my face and I didn't pursue the subject.
She doesn't want to hear any disagreements and I can't agree, so I say nothing.
Tonight I should still be off, but we've been asked to work an extra shift.
We do like earning the extra $, I've been told, that in my old work place, my abusers got no over time at all. Justice grinds her wheels slowly but surely.
Yesterday morning, Shanon took me shopping and today we'll go to a store that opens later. Grocery shopping that is. She paid, but I'll work it off, I'll go along while she drives the garbage truck and help dump on a couple of Saturdays.
I baked some chicken breast last night, with brown rice and we have salad. Everyone ate at different times and the chicken is almost all gone, except a little piece of my half, as I only ate half. Now I'm marinating more.
Still hoping hubby will get a full time job, but January will be slow. Last week he was supposed to work 2 days, but the second one got cancelled.
I promised hubby not to write unflattering things about him.
Next weekend we'll be at his folks' place again, this time Shanon will come to dinner too and we'll all bring something to eat.

Best wishes for 2010 to everyone!

2009-12-27T05:53:00.000-08:00

It was nearing the holiday season, 1994, and it was time for the young Russian orphans I was teaching to hear, for the first time, the story of the first Christmas. Throughout the story of Jesus’ birth the children sat on the edges of their stools, trying to grasp every word. Completing the story, I gave each child a piece of paper and a small box of crayons I had brought from the United States and instructed them to draw a picture of the scene.
.
The orphans were busy drawing as I walked among them to see if they needed any help. All went well until I got to one table where little Misha sat. He looked to be about 6 years old. As I looked at the little boy's drawing, I was startled to see not one, but two babies in the manger. When I asked him why there were two babies in the manger, he told me the following story.
.
“When Mary laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay. I told him I have no mamma and I have no papa, so I don't have any place to stay. Then Jesus told me I could stay with him. But I told him I couldn't, because I didn't have a gift to give him like everybody else did. But I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought about what I had that maybe I could use for a gift. I thought maybe if I kept him warm, that would be a good gift. So I asked Jesus, 'If I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift?' And Jesus told me, 'If you keep me warm, that will be the best gift anybody ever gave me.' So I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and he told me I could stay with him -- for always."
.
The little orphan had finally found someone who would never abandon nor abuse him, someone who would always stay with him.
.
-Author Unknown

that was supposed to be the title

2009-12-18T22:12:00.000-08:00

I guess certain keys will publish when accidentally hit. I'm basically working, cleaning the kitchen, letting Ashton take my hand and following him (sometimes) sleeping. This week I've done less on FB, hardly saw Ashton or my son and hubby, worked 10 hours every night and am working an extra shift tomorrow night. I'm tired, everyone at work is tired. One guy, who's a bachelor, said that his dishes are piled high in the sink, that he's done nothing but work and sleep.
I wrote 4 cards at work, this year there won't be anymore cards getting sent. I started a letter on the computer, if that get's finished, it's going out per email.
Tonight I had Ashton for a bit while his dad took a break. It's actually mom's night to have him, but since he'd be back at 8 in the morning, he might as well stay the night.
She's going back to the Christmas hamper 'store', where single parents get to pick out free clothes and toys. We've been paying bills and have no money for presents. So no presents.
But about Ashton. I sat with him in his room while he showed me all his big twucks, then we went downstairs, dad had cut up strawberries for him, I got yoghurt and he had a nice snack, then more playing and he wanted to watch the 'baby Einstein' tape about amimals, or something like that. I can understand that he says animals, he just says he a little different. Pillow is piwow. He chatters very happily away, he loves lights - 'ights' and is getting easier to understand every day.
Daddy put down the mattress of Ashton's big bed, so I decided to fold up the baby bed and after bath time Ashton yawned and was more than happy to climb in his new bed with a piwow.
He fell asleep fast and when I went to check a bit later, he'd moved and was laying across the bed, instead of lengthwise.
I moved him back and he became aware a bit that I was there, he babbled a bit and then laughed happily and went back to sleep.
He might roll out of bed, as he's not used to having no sides and moves a lot in his sleep.
I'm happy at work, no harassment as the last place, the boss drives me home, also to work if I don't work OT, hubby, our son and Ashton's mom have given me rides to work for OT, mostly my hubby. He's working two days next week, finished the furniture; he used his paint sprayer on the chairs and they're beautiful! Even he's happy with the outcome.
If he can get full-time work, we'll be OK.
Our son has to go to court over K. allegations that he came to hit her, on Tuesday, December 22. Merry Christmas!
I've seen his temper more than I cared to, he has a bad temper, he's broken things, maybe pushed people, but never has he tried to hit me or her. She on the other hand has hit him, where I had to stop her, while expecting Ashton.
Merry Christmas all, I don't need gifts to appreciate the reason for the season :)

What date is it, when did I write last ?????

2009-12-18T22:10:00.000-08:00

It's nice to have our shower!

2009-12-05T15:57:00.000-08:00

Now I don't have to share with our son and grandson. It's finally all put together and usable.
Hubby got a on call / part time job. A friend from work told me via face book about it being advertised. Hopefully it'll work into full time. It's a long way to go, but it's something. He took on a refinishing project of a table and chairs for our corner store owners. I now have to listen to complaints about all the problems with this work. I wish he hadn't taken it on and I told him before he started, that he could refuse it. He kept saying he was enjoying the work, ok, if you do, great. Sure didn't sound like it. Today I told him that I wished he hadn't taken it on and he admitted that he also wished that.
The Christmas performance rehearsal is today and he's one of the kings again. Junior is at work. He only works weekends right now, because he's taking care of Ashton through the week. Ashton's mom started to work at a daycare, where her daughters attend and wanted Ashton in daycare too. Our son didn't want him in daycare yet. Ashton is 21 months old and if he can be with family, I think it's better for him.
We had a big 'family conference', with Ashton's mom, her parents, her ex, his mom, sister and aunt, our son and us, social worker, support workers and the facilitator. Considering the people that were there, it went pretty good, of course emphasis was on being positive and working on what's best for the kids. The two ex mother in laws got the most negative. Not too much was accomplished. I had two hours sleep before spending the day there. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn!
The social worker said all the children had to be in daycare for some stability, I objected to Ashton being in daycare. He's still small and he's happy and loved at our house.
Work is going good.
I spoke to my mom today, she broke her hand a couple of weeks back, when she fell. She was in the hospital but is back home. The neighbours are wonderful and she also gets homecare and meals delivered.
Now back to cleaning.

ClimateGate: The Fix is In

2009-11-24T13:43:00.000-08:00

ClimateGate: The Fix is In

Stinks to Be You ( if you're sick and old or disabled or otherwise deemed not worth saving )

2009-11-15T04:18:00.000-08:00

Health Care and the Utilitarian Calculus

November 11, 2009

As I have said before on Breakpoint, much of the hype and even hysteria surrounding the H1N1 flu strain is unwarranted.

That’s not to say that the swine flu’s potential impact isn’t devastating—it is, but not in the way cable news would have us think.

And now the Florida Department of Health has issued a set of guidelines that instructs hospitals on what to do “if the state is overwhelmed by [H1N1] cases.”

The guidelines recommend that hospitals bar “patients with incurable cancer, end-stage multiple sclerosis and other conditions from being admitted to hospitals.” Another “recommendation” is that doctors “remove patients with poor prognoses from ventilators to treat those who have better chances of surviving.”

To facilitate this culling of the herd, the guidelines “suggest” that “intensive care unit patients and those using ventilators to be reassessed after 48 to 72 hours.” Those who have gotten sicker “would be taken off the machines or discharged from critical care” and replaced by those “who may have a better chance of survival.”

Not surprisingly, the Department of Health has not “publicized the guidelines or solicited input from the general public.” Not a bad strategy, given that Florida is packed with elderly retirees who may be less than thrilled by the news that the state proposes to make it easier to deny them emergency medical care.

Superficially, the guidelines resemble what on the battlefield is called triage. But that resemblance is just that—superficial. On a battlefield or in an emergency, medical personnel make agonizing decisions about whom they can and cannot save. No one is excluded before the actual emergency.

Here, the distinction is between those they will and will not save. It’s designating, in advance, those groups whom are regarded as expendable. And, as ethicist Wesley J. Smith pointed out, removing people from ventilators goes beyond triage principles to “indiscriminate rationing.”

Actually, there’s nothing indiscriminate about it. In a drill for a similar set of guidelines in Utah, a physician told a mother that her daughter with cerebral palsy could not be admitted to the hospital. He told her that “our list is our list.”

That’s why Smith is rightly concerned that guidelines like Florida’s could easily degenerate into judgments about the quality of life, age discrimination, and disabilities.

The triage consistent with Christian moral principles acknowledges that you try to save everyone, even if you can’t. But what Florida is proposing is a utilitarian calculation that seeks to do, in their words, “the greatest good for the greatest number,” by excluding the most vulnerable members of society. That’s the utilitarian formulation which led to the horrors of eugenics.

Christianity teaches that all life is sacred from birth to natural death. Florida, however, has already decided that some lives aren’t worth saving even if natural death is years away.

So enjoy your retirement while you can. But you really need to understand this issue. Please go to the Colson Center and click on my Two-Minute Warning for this week. It’s on the home page. And then download the free materials off it. Your life my depend on it—literally.

Learn from the Danes

2009-11-14T13:55:00.000-08:00

Susan MacAllen is a contributing editor for (FamilySecurityMatters.org)

Salute the Danish Flag - it's a Symbol of Western Freedom
By Susan MacAllen

In 1978-9 I was living and studying in Denmark .
But in 1978 - even in Copenhagen, one didn't see Muslim immigrants.

The Danish population embraced visitors, celebrated the exotic, went out of its way to protect each of its citizens. It was proud of its new brand of socialist liberalism one in development since the conservatives had lost power in 1929 - a system where no worker had to struggle to survive, where one ultimately could count upon the state as in, perhaps, no other western nation at the time.

The rest of Europe saw the Scandinavians as free-thinking, progressive and infinitely generous in their welfare policies. Denmark boasted low crime rates, devotion to the environment, a superior educational system and a history of humanitarianism.

Denmark was also most generous in its immigration policies - it offered the best welcome in Europe to the new immigrant: generous welfare payments from first arrival plus additional perks in transportation, housing and education. It was determined to set a world example for inclusiveness and multiculturalism. How could it have predicted that one day in 2005 a series of political cartoons in a newspaper would spark violence that would leave dozens dead in the streets -all because its commitment to multiculturalism would come back to bite?

By the 1990's the growing urban Muslim population was obvious - and its unwillingness to integrate into Danish society was obvious. Years of immigrants had settled into Muslim-exclusive enclaves. As the Muslim leadership became more vocal about what they considered the decadence of Denmark 's liberal way of life, the Danes - once so welcoming - began to feel slighted. Many Danes had begun to see Islam as incompatible with their long-standing values: belief in personal liberty and free speech, in equality for women, in tolerance for other ethnic groups, and a deep pride in Danish heritage and history.

An article by Daniel Pipes and Lars Hedegaard, in which they forecasted accurately that the growing immigrant problem in Denmark would explode. In the article they reported:

'Muslim immigrants constitute 5 percent of the population but consume upwards of 40 percent of the welfare spending.'
'Muslims are only 4 percent of Denmark's 5.4 million people but make up a majority of the country's convicted rapists, an especially combustible issue given that practically all the female victims are non-Muslim. Similar, if lesser, disproportions are found in other crimes.'

'Over time, as Muslim immigrants increase in numbers, they wish less to mix with the indigenous population. A recent survey finds that only 5 percent of young Muslim immigrants would readily marry a Dane.'

'Forced marriages - promising a newborn daughter in Denmark to a male cousin in the home country, then compelling her to marry him, sometimes on pain of death - are one problem'

'Muslim leaders openly declare their goal of introducing Islamic law once Denmark's Muslim population grows large enough - a not-that-remote prospect. If present trends persist, one sociologist estimates, every third inhabitant of Denmark in 40 years will be Muslim.'

It is easy to understand why a growing number of Danes would feel that Muslim immigrants show little respect for Danish values and laws.
An example is the phenomenon common to other European countries and Canada .: some Muslims in Denmark who opted to leave the Muslim faith have been murdered in the name of Islam, while others hide in fear for their lives. Jews are also threatened and harassed openly by Muslim leaders in Denmark, a country where once Christian citizens worked to smuggle out nearly all of their 7,000 Jews by night to Sweden - before the Nazis could invade. I think of my Danish friend Elsa - who as a teenager had dreaded crossing the street to the bakery every morning under the eyes of occupying Nazi soldiers - and I wonder what she would say today.

In 2001, Denmark elected the most conservative government in some 70 years - one that had some decidedly non-generous ideas about liberal unfettered immigration. Today Denmark has the strictest immigration policies in Europe . ( Its effort to protect itself has been met with accusations of 'racism' by liberal media across Europe - even as other governments struggle to right the social problems wrought by years of too-lax immigration.)

If you wish to become Danish, you must attend three years of language classes. You must pass a test on Denmark 's history, culture, and a Danish language test :
You must live in Denmark for 7 years before applying for citizenship.

You must demonstrate an intent to work, and have a job waiting. If you wish to bring a spouse into Denmark , you must both be over 24 years of age, and you won't find it so easy anymore to move your friends and family to Denmark with you.

You will not be allowed to build a mosque in Copenhagen . Although your children have a choice of some 30 Arabic culture and language schools in Denmark , they will be strongly encouraged to assimilate to Danish society in ways that past immigrants weren't.

In 2006, the Danish minister for employment, Claus Hjort Frederiksen, spoke publicly of the burden of Muslim immigrants on the Danish welfare system, and it was horrifying: the government's welfare committee had calculated that if immigration from Third World countries were blocked, 75 percent of the cuts needed to sustain the huge welfare system in coming decades would be unnecessary. In other words, the welfare system as it existed was being exploited by immigrants to the point of eventually bankrupting the government. 'We are simply forced to adopt a new policy on immigration'.

The calculations of the welfare committee are terrifying and show how unsuccessful the integration of immigrants has been up to now,' he said.

A large thorn in the side of Denmark 's imams is the Minister of Immigration and Integration, Rikke Hvilshoj. She makes no bones about the new policy toward immigration, 'The number of foreigners coming to the country makes a difference,' Hvilshøj says, 'There is an inverse correlation between how many come here and how well we can receive the foreigners that come.' And on Muslim immigrants needing to demonstrate a willingness to blend in, 'In my view, Denmark should be a country with room for different cultures and religions. Some values, however, are more important than others. We refuse to question democracy, equal rights, and freedom of speech.'

Hvilshoj has paid a price for her show of backbone. Perhaps to test her resolve, the leading radical imam in Denmark, Ahmed Abdel Rahman Abu Laban, demanded that the government pay blood money to the family of a Muslim who was murdered in a suburb of Copenhagen, stating that the family's thirst for revenge could be thwarted for money. When Hvilshoj dismissed his demand, he argued that in Muslim culture the payment of retribution money was common, to which Hvilshoj replied that what is done in a Muslim country is not necessarily what is done in Denmark.

The Muslim reply came soon after her house was torched while she, her husband and children slept. All managed to escape unharmed, but she and her family were moved to a secret location and she and other ministers were assigned bodyguards for the first time - in a country where such murderous violence was once so scarce.

Her government has slid to the right, and her borders have tightened. Many believe that what happens in the next decade will determine whether Denmark survives as a bastion of good living, humane thinking and social responsibility, or whether it becomes a nation at civil war with supporters of Sharia law.

And meanwhile, Canadians clamour for stricter immigration policies, and demand an end to state welfare programs that allow many immigrants to live on the public dole. As we in Canada look at the enclaves of Muslims amongst us, and see those who enter our shores too easily, dare live on our taxes, yet refuse to embrace our culture, respect our traditions, participate in our legal system, obey our laws, speak our language, appreciate our history
.. . we would do well to look to Denmark , and say a prayer for her future and for our own..

The shower is almost finished and more

2009-11-10T08:42:00.000-08:00

only about 12 years after the old shower was ( mistakenly ) demolished, we'll soon have a shower once again in our on-suite bathroom.
I was taking care of our grandson this past weekend, because both his parents were working, it's tiring to look after a busy 21 month old! Sunday we went for a little walk; every vehicle that past had to be looked at " BIIIIG twuck" .... he loves trucks and cars! We stopped at our neighbours' who also enjoy the little tyke, then headed back home. At home we sat on the carpet in his room, where most of his toys are. Lots of cars and twucks of course. I decided to keep him company and he was playing with his cars, babbling away. Some I understand, he loves to say " Biiiiig twuck ", or if he doesn't know the word, " biiiig that ". He loves sounds and roars really good to imitate a lion, he can neigh like a horse, but often says " mooohhh " for both cows and horses. He likes to look at books and loves kitties. He'd love to be able to touch our cats, but they usually get away and hide. He's pulled their tails a few times and is quite loud when he runs toward them :) Dogs he's not so sure about.
He used to like pushing the vacuum hose back and forth, but lately he's scared of the machine. I don't know if something happened at mom's.
As we sat in his room, he got up and came to me to give me a kiss. He repeated that a few times. He'd play for awhile, then decide that grandma deserved a kiss.
In church on Sunday I had to stay in the nursery with him, he'd been crying and I was called, he wanted someone he knew.
He also loves baths and of course he can say duck. The bathroom floor is usually soaked. This coming weekend I'll taking care of him again. We miss him when he's at mom's place :p
Switzerland is having some referendums to vote on. One of them is an initiative to stop the construction of Muslim towers. Mosques are less controversial, I guess. I've been reading some of the reasons and commentary and am glad to see not all of Europe has it's head stuck in the sand.
Funny that Saudi Arabia questioned the referendum, where there's no tolerance for any other religion! There it's forbidden to change your faith, hold other worship ceremonies aside from Islam, even if you're of another faith, from another country, you may not worship according to your religion. A couple of years ago, a priest from the Philippines was kicked out of the country, because at Christmas he celebrated mass at someone's home. How the authorities found out, I don't know.
I've sent in my vote.

NaBloPoMo

2009-11-02T09:05:00.000-08:00

It's NOVEMBER!! when some bloggers commit to blog every day and I'm already one day late. :P November is the month as well for hubby's birthday and our anniversary. 31 years ago, on Nov. 11th I arrived in Canada, ever since I've known the 11th as Remembrance Day. :), on the 23rd we got married, before that hubby had his birthday, I was (the) present.
Our on-suite shower stall is finally getting put in. Halfway there!
Now I'm going to sleep, worked 10 hrs. last night, another 9 tonight.

I knew it would come to this

2009-10-21T09:54:00.000-07:00

October 20, 2009
"Death With Dignity" Threatens Sanctity of Life!!!

This summer we sent you an alert on the dangers of euthanasia, physician assisted suicide and the threat they present to the elderly, disabled, and terminally ill. Now the threat is even greater as hospice care in many places is beginning to look more and more like euthanasia.

Hospice, also known as palliative care, is medical care given to terminally ill patients that limits suffering and pain in the last periods of life. Properly administered, it is a humane and necessary way to improve the quality of life of patients as they approach death.

However, due to the introduction of new formalized "pathways" for dying, hospice care in many countries is becoming more and more a way to hasten death. Under the guise of compassion, new hospice practices are enforcing the belief that a painful or burdensome life should be ended as quickly as possible. As a result, this brings us closer to the terrifying institution of involuntary euthanasia and "duty to die."

Terrifying New Trends in Hospice Care

Britain is probably the most pressing example of this subtle progression from hospice care to euthanasia. Under the guidance of the National Health System, over 300 hospitals, 130 hospice centers and 560 care homes in Britain have adopted what is called the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP). LCP is an end of life care program designed to guide medical teams in diagnosing a patient's nearness to death and assigning proper end of life treatment. The "treatment" usually includes withholding food and water, removing medication and invasive procedures, and inducing palliative sedation, which is the practice of relieving distress through high dosages of sedative drugs.

This form of treatment is what one doctor calls "a self-fulfilling prophecy." Once placed on the "death pathway," a patient is essentially assigned to die. Any medicines that might assist in recovery are abandoned, sedative drugs conceal any improvements in health that might occur, and the patient is essentially starved or dehydrated until dead.

Furthermore, the diagnosis of a patient's nearness to death is by no means an exact science and symptoms of curable problems can often be mistaken for indicating nearness to death. For example, patients on pain killing drugs such as morphine can become semi-conscious and confused if they are also dehydrated, a primary symptom used to diagnose nearness to death.

Numerous cases of elderly individuals being mistakenly placed on the pathway have already occurred across Britain. Just this month, a 76 year-old British man was mistakenly diagnosed with cancer and placed on LCP, inevitably resulting in his death. Tests after his death revealed that he was actually suffering from pneumonia and would have recovered with proper treatment. Similarly, an 80-year old grandmother was diagnosed as "near to death" by her doctors, who withdrew her medication and artificial feeding, essentially leaving her to starve. The woman's daughter claims she had to fight for weeks to have her mother taken off the plan. Nine months later, the woman is still alive.

Sanctity of life v. Quality of life

Arguments used in defense of this terrifying practice is the same as that used to defend euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide-"death with dignity." These practices indicate a general cultural movement away from valuing the sanctity of life to valuing only the quality of life. To value the sanctity of life is to believe that human lives, from conception to death, should be universally cared for, protected, and valued.

It is the quality of life view that has allowed the complete devaluation of the lives of unborn children, and threatens the lives of the elderly, disabled, depressed, and underprivileged. Once the sanctity of life is no longer the standard by which we judge the morality of our actions, the value of every human life is dictated by those in control of defining what a "quality" life actually is.

Dangers of the "Death Pathway"

The "advanced" hospice care procedures that explicitly hasten death, such as the UKs LCP, cannot be accepted. These aggressive procedures fundamentally and irreversibly change the way we view human life and the value we put on it, thus opening the door for a flood of dire and inevitable consequences.

These practices put undue power in the hands of doctors to dictate the viability, length, and value of human lives, when medical diagnoses of nearness to death are notoriously flawed. Furthermore, no matter the guidelines put in place, medical services are always practiced through the prism of social and personal biases, leaving the most vulnerable the most exposed.

Additionally, these palliative care practices enforce the dangerous and barbaric belief that when a life becomes too painful or burdensome it should be ended as quickly as possible. In the age of rising health care costs and socialized medicine, advanced palliative care practices pose the very real threat of progressing to involuntary euthanasia and "duty to die."

Conclusion

The UK is not the only country on this slippery-slope to devaluing human life and exposing its most vulnerable to involuntary and early death. Similar "death pathways" are being developed around the world and palliative sedation is already common practice in most countries. Just last year, the American Medical Association (AMA) released a statement ethically approving the practice in the U.S.

In order to stop this slow devaluation of life and reaffirm the sanctity of every life from conception to death, we need to stand now against any and all legislation that implies the quality of life supersedes the sanctity of life. It is time to make our voices heard and stand for life.
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Withholding food and liquids is down right murder.
Who do these people think they are? Judge and jury over others right to live?

no title

2009-10-17T19:22:00.000-07:00

just a medley of things
My week vacation is coming to an end, tomorrow night it's back to work. I wanted to do all kinds of things, but things happen and plans change. Junior decided to move the beds and furniture. The room he shares with Ashton is actually divided into two rooms; a wall between them and an open doorway. He moved Ashton to the window side, so he doesn't disturb him when he goes to bed. He hung a blanket in the doorway and evicted a lot of my things that were in there. Well, some of it belongs to our daughter, some to me. So the first few days I was busy rearranging and finding spots for some of it. I gave junior a couple of his boxes that I had stored for him in the storage room, to make space for my stuff. I've been helping Shanon move her mom's things out of the apartment, convincing her to give things to charity instead of throwing it into the dump. Her and hubby both love to throw things out and then buy new things.
I kept some things, gave some to charity, have more for charity, urged Shanon to sell some in a consignment store, since she's paying off her mom's bills. Her mom is in hospital waiting for a spot in a care home. Shanon asked her what she wanted to take there and is storing it. Hubby has moved some of the bigger things in our trailer.
Yesterday we did more cleaning, visited her mom, then Rick's grave. It was 2 years ago that he died. Shanon took some roses; she's handling it much better now.
She wanted to take us out for dinner because we helped a lot, but hubby woke up with pink eye and wanted to stay home, so the two of us had a late lunch together. Yesterday felt a bit like a vacation for me.
This morning I got Ashton up and fed him breakfast, we had oatmeal, an orange and toast with jam. Then I called his mom that he was ready, she came to pick him up and junior went to work for 10 am 'till 8pm.
Last Sunday we had thanksgiving dinner at hubby's parents' place and mom gave us some turkey soup this week. I brought a plate home for junior, as he worked late Sunday night. Tuesday we got our fridge back.
Did I mentioned it stopped working, less than a year old? It's still under warranty, thankfully. We bought it at Sears, who pride themselves on customer satisfaction.
First we were told on a Thursday, that a technician would come out on Sunday. Sunday hubby called and found out that the tech'-s don't work Sundays and since Mondays service calls had already been scheduled, we had to wait until Tuesday.
A few things went bad. Tues. a repairman shows up, replaces the circuit board and it blows the same way the old one did. He has no other boards and orders a pick up of the fridge and a loaner fridge for us. I think the next day we got that, put our food into the much smaller fridge. We wait to hear, get conflicting reports, one guy has no record about our fridge, someone else says parts are on order, then someone says parts are there, then again, parts are on order. Several days pass, hubby requests a different fridge. No dice, the warranty is only for repairs.
No customer satisfaction here!
Turns out, they replaced over $600 in parts, so there was a whole lot wrong with it.
But the local store absolutely refused to even consider letting us have a different fridge or our money back. Head office tried to sway them, but no way would they do it. While we still waited and had the loaner fridge, I noticed that the temperature didn't seem very cold and I set both the freezer and the fridge on the coldest setting. I hadn't put any food into the freezer, but then hubby bought fish and chicken and put them into the fridge freezer. I didn't know. When I opened the freezer, I found both defrosted. That day I cooked 8 pounds of chicken. The fish I put into our big freezer.
So the loaner was a lemon too.
Headoffice tried to make sure we'd be covered should the fridge die again.
Ashton's parents had issues again and his mom got the police and court involved, it's a mess, they're supposed to have no contact, yada,yada.., now they're wanting to work things out again, but off course now the court issues have to get sorted out. She has some issues and is in counseling. He has issues too and needs to work on them.
Ashton is doing well.
I could use more time off.

2009-10-06T14:03:00.000-07:00

First shift - doughnut holes, last night - peanut butter cookies. Last time I worked in this place, I gained weight. Just wait 'till Christmas! Party time at work :)
One hour overtime tonight and the boss will give me a ride :)

New location

2009-10-05T17:02:00.000-07:00

Aside from the distance, the new place is awesome! People are nice and do their work without trying to control others, the atmosphere is friendly, cooperative and easy going. The boss is great too. :)

2009-09-22T06:18:00.000-07:00

A woman loved is a happy, lovable woman.

I need to learn to lean on Him more

2009-09-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

Daily Encounter by
Richard (Dick) Innes of ACTS International

Monday, September 21, 2009

1. In Sorrow's Hour

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God."1

A Daily Encounter reader writes: "We just found out that my mother has lung cancer that has spread to her liver. I know the Lord holds us in his arms, but how do we find the strength and courage to handle what we know is coming? I know Mom needs a rest from her pain, and that the chemo will make her sick, but I'm not ready to let her go. How do I stop being so selfish? It's very hard to 'Let go and let God.'"

I don't think it's selfish to feel the way you do. In fact, I'd say it's normal. It's always difficult when loved ones suffer and when there is a possibility of losing them, and even harder when we do lose them.

Unfortunately, loss is a part of life and all of us will experience it at some time, and it's never easy.

I don't think there are any easy answers except to daily commit and trust your life and that of your loved one to the Lord. Tell God exactly how you feel (he knows it anyhow), and tell him you choose to trust him even if you feel you can't. Do this every day or even more if necessary. In time your feelings will catch up with your choice to trust God. It is also very important not to bottle up your feelings of grief. Tears are a gift from God to help drain the pain of sorrow and loss. Pray that God will give you a friend with whom you can cry without being criticized or told you shouldn't feel that way. Remember that when Jesus was sad, he wept! We need to do the same.

I'm reminded of a song that Danny Gaither sang so marvelously before he died of cancer. The words of the chorus went like this:

Through it all,
Through it all,
I've learned to trust in Jesus,
I've learned to trust in God.
Through it all,
Through it all,
I've learned to depend upon his Word.

It's only through the rough times that we truly learn to trust in God. And in the end for all who trust God and have committed their life to him, we will meet again where there will be no more sickness, sadness, sorrow or dying, and where God himself will wipe away every tear. What a glorious day that will be. In the meantime we also need understanding and caring friends on whom we can lean.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, in all of life's circumstances I choose to trust in you no matter how I feel. Please help my feelings to catch up with my choice to trust you, and even if my feelings don't catch up, I choose to trust you regardless. So help me God. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

so laugh if you can

2009-09-21T14:01:00.000-07:00

From The Diary Of A Pre- School Teacher

My five-year old students are learning to read.

Yesterday one of them pointed at a picture in a zoo book and said,

“Look at this! It’s a frickin’ elephant!”

I took a deep breath, then asked...“What did you call it?”

“It’s a frickin’ elephant! It says so on the picture!”

And so it does…

” A f r i c a n Elephant “

????

2009-09-21T13:18:00.000-07:00

How is it, I come home after taking care of something to do with junior and I get greeted with:" How come you have $ for him(junior) and not me?" Huh? I didn't give him any, I had to sign a paper I missed last time.
I'm not sure if hubby realizes it, but then began a litany of accusations and complaints about what I do, shouldn't do, did, am, feel and at the end it was, "well, if you'd made yourself more lovable" and "I did it again", meaning, it's fruitless to try and talk to me.
And he says I nag and criticize. He's written junior off again. You know, I've been called every ugly name possible by our son, but it doesn't stop me from loving him as my 'child' and having a relationship with him.
There's a lot of hurt between these two guys, perceived or real, unless one works at developing a caring relationship, these things don't get resolved.
Yes, our son has lots of maturing to do.
He's making slow progress, but as long as there's some progress, I have hope.
I try to help where I can, if my husband needs a hand, I'm there if possible, I try to help our children, my friends, family, neighbours, coworkers.... really, I try to be considerate of others. Funny how those closest don't appreciate the ones they're supposed to love.
I don't sleep around, I don't shop 'till I drop. I buy practical and needed things, like food. Sometimes I buy fun stuff. But I'm not a wasteful person. I don't ride my husband to do things or tell him what to do, like some wives we know. I haven't screamed in years! I'm reasonably attractive and clean. I bring home the bacon.
I think I could be perfect and I still wouldn't be good enough.
Maybe I should have become a nun. :d Just kidding.
So I'm not lovable enough. I guess not, I'm feisty and I don't kiss a$$ or beat around the bush. Oh to be good at womanly flattery and persuasion. I wish.

Job is moving, I must follow :p

2009-09-20T03:03:00.000-07:00

So now I know, it's been in the works, the job I'm doing is getting moved to another city, everyone had to rebid for the jobs by seniority and I have to go with my job. About 3 or 4 people all together are having to start working in the new city. Actually, one might get shoved elsewhere, but not I.
I'll have to file a grievance with the union, since a new guy was put into our station, who'd had an issue at his station, so they just moved him to ours, but he never bid in and they let him bid with us on this. He shouldn't have been able to. He's a nice enough guy, it's not his fault. Management also didn't expect one person who's been off ill, to be coming back; so one more position got spoken for.
I'll be phoning a coworker who works at the new place and ask to get to ride in with her. The bus takes me about one and one half hour to get there. It's where I used to work before I got the transfer out here. No more walking home from work.
We're to far away from the big city, because we're sure that's where the jobs will get moved to eventually, but by our contract our jobs can't get moved past a certain distance. They'll move us to one city and from there to Vancouver.
It's constant change. Years ago all this work was getting done in the smaller towns, then they moved everything to Vancouver, then they moved it all out to the smaller towns again and now they're moving it all back to Vancouver.
Who cares that it's been done before, it's disruptive to people's lives.
One of the guys could retire, he just doesn't want to.
The bright side to it all is that I'll be working with nicer people and get a break from the nasties. I feel sorry for the new guy that's going to have to work with them.
I'm not happy to be relocated. I finally got close to home and now I'll have to start all over to try and get back.
Yet, things happen for a reason, you just never know what will happen.

2009-09-18T07:34:00.000-07:00

English Is So Hard And Confusing Language
The bandage was wound around the wound.
The farm was used to produce produce.
The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
We must polish the Polish furniture.
He could lead if he would get the lead out.
The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
I did not object to the object.
The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
They were too close to the door to close it.
The buck does funny things when the does are present.
A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
After a number of injections my jaw got number.
Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Golden Saloon
A guy comes home completely drunk one night. He lurches through the door and is met by his scowling wife, who is most definitely not happy. “Where the hell have you been all night?” she demands.

“At this fantastic new bar,” he says. “The Golden Saloon. Everything there is golden. It’s got huge golden doors, a golden floor, the works – hell, even the urinal’s gold!”

The wife still doesn’t believe his story, and the next day checks the phone book, finding a place across town called the Golden Saloon. She calls up the place to check her husband’s story.
“Is this the Golden Saloon?” she asks when the bartender answers the phone.

“Yes it is,” bartender answers.
“Do you have huge golden doors?”
“Sure do.”
“Do you have golden floors?”
“Most certainly do.”
“What about golden urinals?”
There’s a long pause, then the woman hears the bartender yelling, “Hey, Duke, I think I got a lead on the guy that pissed in your saxophone last night!”

Americans Just Love Mexicans
Jose and Carlos are panhandling at the freeway off ramp.

Jose drives a Mercedes, lives in a mortgage free house and has a lot of money to spend.

Carlos only brings in $20 to $30 dollars a day.

Carlos asks Jose how he can bring home a suitcase full of $10 bills every day.

Jose says, "Look at your sign." It reads: "I have no work, a wife & 6 kids to support." “Now look at my sign.”

Carlos looks at Jose's sign.
It reads: "I only need another $10.00 to move back to Mexico."

Mother Of The Bride
Jennifer's wedding day was fast approaching. Nothing could dampen her excitement -- not even her parents' nasty divorce. Her mother had found the PERFECT dress to wear and would be the best dressed mother-of-the-bride ever!

A week later, Jennifer was horrified to learn that her father's new youngwife had bought the exact same dress! Jennifer asked her to exchange it, but she refused. "Absolutely not. I look like a million bucks in this dress, and I'm wearing it," she replied.

Jennifer told her mother who graciously said, "Never mind sweetheart. I'll get another dress. After all, it's your special day." A few days later, they went shopping and did find another gorgeous dress.

When they stopped for lunch, Jennifer asked her mother, "Aren't you going to return the other dress? You really don't have another occasion where you could wear it."

Her mother just smiled and replied, "Of course I do, dear. I'm wearing it to the rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding!"

Drinks of the 21st Century
Absolute Zero = Absolut vodka over frozen nitrogen

Alexander the Grrreat = Gin, creme de cacao, and sweet cream over corn flakes

American in Paris = Kentucky bourbon and champagne

Black Sabbath = Kahlua and Mogen David wine

Blind Faith = Wood alcohol and sacramental wine

Blood Clot = Vodka, tomato juice, and Jell-O

Bloody Awful = Vodka and ketchup

Blue Moon = Corn whiskey and Aqua Velva

Brown Bowl = Vodka and Prune Juice

Coleman Cooler = White wine, soda, fried chicken crumbs, and sand

Fuzzy Naval Base = Peach schnapps, orange juice, and ammonia

George Bush = George Dickel bourbon and Busch beer

Gorbachev = Vodka with a splash of port wine

Honeydew the Dishes = Midori and Dawn

Marie Antoinette = Bourbon, cake mix, and flat beer

Martinizer = Gin, vermouth, and carbon tetrachloride

Mary Poppins = Vodka, tomato juice, and a spoonful of sugar

Mexican Hairless = Tequila and Minoxidil

Oil of Ole = Mazola and Sangria

Peter, Paul, and Mary = Potassium nitrate, Paul Masson wine, and tomato juice

Phillips' Screwdriver = Vodka, orange juice, and milk of magnesia

Port in a Storm = Red wine and rainwater

Quack Doctor = Cold duck and Dr. Pepper

A Rum with a View = Bacardi and Visine

Rum-Pole of the Bailey = Bacardi rum, Popov vodka, and Bailey's Irish Cream

Sake-to-me = Rice wine, punch, and nitrous oxide

Scotch Tapeworm = Dewar's and Mescal

Shipwreck = Cutty Sark on the rocks

Short Wave = Ripple in a shot glass, ginger, syrup, and pomegranate

Sinead O'Connor = Irish whiskey and Nair

Skid Roe = Muscatel and caviar

Sour Kraut = Schnapps and lemon juice

Sundae Driver = Vodka, orange juice, and ice cream

Tequila Mockingbird = Jose Cuervo and birdseed

Ferrai Vs Moped
A hip young man goes out and buys a 1997 Ferrari GTO . It is the best and most expensive car available in the world, costing about $500,000. He takes it out for a spin and while stopping for a red light, an old man on a moped (both looking about 90 years old) pulls up next to him. The old man looks over the sleek, shiny surface of the car and asks, "What kind of car ya' got there, sonny?"

The young man replies, "A 1997 Ferrari GTO. They cost about a half million dollars!"

"That's a lot of money," says the old man, shocked. "Why does it cost so much?"

"Because this car can do up to 320 miles an hour!" states the cool dude proudly.

The moped driver asks, "Can I take a look inside?"

"Sure," replies the owner. So the old man pokes his head in the window and looks around.

Leaning back on his moped, the old man says, "That's a pretty nice car, all right!"

Just then the light changes so the guy decides to show the old man what his car can do. He floors it, and within 30 seconds the speedometer reads 320 mph. Suddenly, he notices a dot in his rear view mirror. It seems to be getting closer! He slows down to see what it could be and suddenly, whhhoooossshhh! Something whips by him, going much faster!

"What on earth could be going faster than my Ferrari?!" the young man asks himself. Then, ahead of him, he sees a dot coming toward him. Whoooooosh! It goes by again, heading the opposite direction! And it almost looked like the old man on the moped!

"Couldn't be," thinks the guy. "How could a moped outrun a Ferrari?!" Again, he sees a dot in his rear view mirror! Whooooosh Ka-BbblaMMM! It plows into the back of his car, demolishing the rear end. The young man jumps out, and it IS the old man!!! Of course, the moped and the old man are hurting for certain. He runs up to the dying old man and says,

"You're badly hurt! Is there anything I can do for you?"

The old man moans and replies, "Yes, Unhook my suspenders from your side-view mirror!"

humour is what keeps me sane, I think :)

2009-09-15T06:43:00.001-07:00

2009-09-14T11:40:00.000-07:00

I've embedded a video below, about a guy who claims to be a psychopath. It's a documentary about him.

2009-09-14T11:21:00.000-07:00

why posts on psychopathy ?

2009-09-13T04:52:00.000-07:00

Because I live with two people that have mental disorders and both fit some of the behaviours described in articles or stories about people who are described as psychopaths.
One day ago hubby was watching a show documenting a self declared psychopath. I saw only a few parts, but some of his interactions looked familiar and since I'd long ago read a book called "Son", who's described behaviour and personality traits seemed so similar to some of my spouses traits, I asked him if he'd ever considered himself to be a psychopath. I belief his answer was:"I have no doubt."
Now I've lived with him for over 30 years and some things don't quite fit, so I decided to read up on clinical definitions of the disorder. There's some interesting research on it. Following is just one interesting description of behaviours of two different types. So it's complex and not everyone is the same.

PCL-R Factors

Early factor analysis of the PCL-R indicated it consisted of two factors.[40] Factor 1 captures traits dealing with the interpersonal and affective deficits of psychopathy (e.g. shallow affect, superficial charm, manipulativeness, lack of empathy) whereas Factor 2 dealt with symptoms relating to antisocial behaviour (e.g. criminal versatility, impulsiveness, irresponsibility, poor behaviour controls, juvenile delinquency).[40]

The two factors have been found by those following this theory to display different correlates. Factor 1 has been correlated with narcissistic personality disorder,[40] low anxiety,[40] low empathy,[41] low stress reaction[42] and low suicide risk[42] but high scores on scales of achievement[42] and well-being.[42]

In contrast, Factor 2 was found to be related to antisocial personality disorder,[40] social deviance,[40] sensation seeking,[40] low socio-economic status[40] and high risk of suicide.[42] The two factors are nonetheless highly correlated[40] and there are strong indications they do result from a single underlying disorder.[43] However, research has failed to replicate the two-factor model in female samples.

===============

It is funny, in a strange sort of way, that I've always been interested in psychology. Maybe that's why our marriage has lasted, because I try and figure out what makes someone do things and if I need to, I try to learn to change my responses to get different results. I have changed but so has my husband, for the better. Some things that are described as tendencies seem to not change though. Poor money management is one.
It explains a lot. Maybe Bi-polar disorder is related to this, since a lot of the traits are similar or the same. Manipulation, impulse buying, lying seem to be part of both disorders.
Maybe I'll get my PhD when I'm 80 :)

2009-09-13T04:47:00.000-07:00

A better definition of ‘Psychopath’
By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on July 3, 2006

Are some corporate CEO’s, doctors, lawyers, politicians and scientists psychopaths? The answer could be “yes” if you use a definition which labels individuals who are often intelligent and highly charismatic, but display a chronic inability to feel guilt, remorse or anxiety about any of their actions. Tack on the use of violence and intimidation to control others and satisfy selfish needs and the label expands.

Typically the term “psychopath” evokes thoughts of violence and bloodshed - and evil of the darkest kind. But during 25 years, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has built a body of work that may help temper such deeply ingrained perceptions.

Sure, people do commit horrific, unimaginable crimes. But does that automatically mean they are psychopathic? And what is “psychopathy” anyway? With unique research access to prison inmate populations in Wisconsin, Joseph Newman has devoted his career to answering such questions.

The proper understanding of psychopathy has implications for the treatment of inmates everywhere - particularly for those who are wrongfully labeled. Newman’s work could also serve as the backbone of new behavioral interventions that target psychopathic behaviors.

“My main concern is that the label (of psychopath) is applied too liberally and without sufficient understanding of the key elements,” says Newman, who is chair of the UW-Madison psychology department. “As a result, the term is often applied to ordinary criminals and sex offenders whose behavior may reflect primarily social factors or other emotional problems that are more amenable to treatment than psychopathy.”

But trying to alter stereotypes about a reviled segment of society has been a long and uphill road. For one thing, prison studies are notoriously difficult to do, as researchers must contend with a laundry list of challenges such as issues of access and other constraints related to the protection of inmate rights. The field of psychopathy is also a contentious one, and Newman - who has put forward a provocative theory about the condition - has consistently faced opposition from his scientific peers.

The scientist has persevered, however, demonstrating in study after study the potential merit of his claims. And during the years, Newman’s patient, steady approach has earned the respect of top researchers in the field.

“In looking back, I see (Newman) as one of the preeminent research scientists in the field - his work is ingenious, meticulous, methodologically sophisticated and driven by theory,” says Robert Hare, a leading psychopathy expert at the University of British Columbia. “I really think he’s the top man in the area.”

So who are psychopaths? Broadly speaking, they are people who use manipulation, violence and intimidation to control others and satisfy selfish needs. They can be intelligent and highly charismatic, but display a chronic inability to feel guilt, remorse or anxiety about any of their actions.

Scientists estimate that 15-25 percent of men and 7-15 percent of women in U.S. prisons display psychopathic behaviors. The condition, however, is hardly restricted to the prison system. Newman estimates that up to 1 percent of the general population could be described as psychopathic. Surprisingly, many who fall into that bracket might lead perfectly conventional lives as doctors, scientists and company CEOs.

“Psychopathy appears to exist throughout the world and has probably existed throughout history,” Newman says.

Behavioral specialists now use the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised - a diagnostic questionnaire created by Hare - to detect psychopathy. But although there is finally consensus on the best way to identify the condition, there is still a lot of disagreement on why it occurs in the first place.

The dominant scientific model asserts that psychopathic individuals are incapable of fear or other emotions, which in turn makes them indifferent to other people’s feelings.

But Newman has a different idea entirely. He believes that psychopathy is essentially a type of learning disability or “informational processing deficit” that makes individuals oblivious to the implications of their actions when focused on tasks that promise instant reward. Being focused on a short-term goal, Newman suggests, makes psychopathic individuals incapable of detecting surrounding cues such as another person’s discomfort or fear.

In a study he repeated in different prison populations, for instance, Newman examined how quickly psychopathic and non-psychopathic individuals respond to a series of mislabeled images, such as a drawing of a pig with the word “dog” superimposed on it. Researchers flashed each image and then timed how long it took for subjects to name what they saw.

Over and over again, Newman found that non-psychopathic subjects subconsciously stumbled on the misleading labels and took longer to name the images. But psychopathic subjects barely noticed the discrepancy and consistently answered more quickly.

Newman says the result is one instance of how psychopathic individuals have difficulty processing peripheral cues, even when those cues are entirely obvious to everyone else. Furthermore, the study task didn’t involve any of the emotions that people commonly associate with psychopathy, such as anger or a lack of fear. So the fact that psychopathic subjects barely noticed the wrongful labels - even in the absence of emotional cues - supports the idea that a psychological deficit might be at play.

“People think (psychopaths) are just callous and without fear, but there is definitely something more going on,” Newman says. “When emotions are their primary focus, we’ve seen that psychopathic individuals show a normal (emotional) response. But when focused on something else, they become insensitive to emotions entirely.”

Such studies certainly haven’t been easy to do. Prison staff, space and financial resources are usually in short supply, and because inmate movements are restricted, Newman and his students routinely work under challenging time limitations. Still, the unwavering cooperation from the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) has far outweighed any problems. Indeed, the willingness of the DOC to grant him research access was one of the main reasons why Newman, a New Jersey native, decided to join the UW-Madison faculty in 1981.

“The cooperation that exists between the Wisconsin DOC and my university project is unprecedented and enviable,” says Newman. “Over the years, the project has involved thousands of inmates, prison staff, university research assistants and correctional officials. We have never had a negative incident or breach of confidentiality and I believe everyone has benefited from this collaboration and found it to be enjoyable.”

Dale Bespalec, the psychologist supervisor at the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility, believes that Newman’s work is crucial at a time when correctional authorities nationwide are struggling to understand the most effective ways to work with psychopathic individuals.

“We need to know more about this population as it presents unique challenges to the prison system and our efforts at rehabilitation and treatment,” he says. ” Everything that we can learn (about psychopathy) can impact our attempts to change people’s patterns of behavior. Newman’s work is likely to impact the entire field and not just Wisconsin.”
But in order for psychopathy research to give rise to new behavioral treatment approaches, Newman says scientists need to get together, discuss ideas and continually challenge the status quo. “There has been a tendency to recycle the same intuitively appealing ideas rather than pursue critical tests of new ideas,” he says.

To help generate fresh discussion and debate, Newman and others recently founded the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy. The group, which has about 100 members, held its first international meeting in Canada last year.

“In addition to attracting talent to the field, it is important for investigators to cooperate,” says Newman. “We need to listen to each other to benefit from feedback, we need to acknowledge the importance of diverse questions, and we need to cooperate in communicating the importance of this significant mental health problem.”

Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison

2009-09-13T04:30:00.000-07:00

Definition of psychopathy
noun (psychopath, ies)

1. A personality disorder indicated by a pattern of lying, exploitiveness, heedlessness, arrogance, sexual promiscuity, low self-control, and lack of empathy and remorse. Violent and criminal offenses may be indicative of this disorder.

Translations:

* French: psychopathie
* German: Psychopathie

Etymology: From psyche "soul" + pathos "suffering".

will the drama ever end???

2009-08-29T02:24:00.000-07:00

Our son had someone hit his car two days ago. This is the 3rd time in 3 years. Each time he was stopped, the first time at a red light and he got rear ended really hard, pushed him into the car ahead of him. That one really hurt his spine, because he saw the truck bearing down on him and had turned his head, looking back. Almost exactly a year later he was waiting to make a turn and got rear ended again. This time, a bit over a year more, he was stopped, waiting to turn left and got hit on the left front of the car. Each time it aggravates the initial back injury. He also had to vomit the next morning, after he got hit.
He was scheduled to return to work this weekend, which of course didn't happen. Instead, he's fighting with Ashton's mom. They're on again, off again. She's met someone else, but just a week ago our son stayed at her place. They each tell me their version, not exactly everything. I know that our son has issues and even though he says he's done with her, he's jealous, angry, hurt and can't let it go. Tonight I guess he was texting her, I've been told, not nice things. He says that she was texting back. But he's much more tight lipped and she told me that she only wrote 'leave me alone', several times. Hmmm, both need to change, but she called the police and he got arrested at home at 1:30 in the morning. The banging on the door woke me up. I didn't expect he'd get arrested, just talked to, but they took him to jail.
He acts out of his mind when he gets upset and needs a shrink. It seems to me that each generation the men seem to have escalating issues. How much that is from learning things while watching dad and how much is mental problems I don't know.
There's no going back and undoing things, only forward and trying to deal with what life throws our way.
I'd like to see some positive changes in my family. I can't change anyone but myself and so each person has to do changes for themselves. It would sure be nice because my heart keeps breaking the way things are.
My mother in law told me once, that every so often she has a good cry and then she's fine again. I don't think I'm that strong.
You can divorce a spouse and make a new life, but you can't divorce a child. You can disown one. Do I want to do that to stop my heart ache? I doubt that would stop it, it would still hurt, different, but hurt.
I really, really want our son to get help for his mental issues, his tortured soul, his bleeding heart. He'll take my hugs, but not my counsel.

Life :d a carousel you can't get off

2009-08-24T14:22:00.000-07:00

Saturday I was up in the middle of the night and everyone else was sleeping.
I think my husband is getting crazier as he gets older. I'm fairly certain he's bipolar, our doc is treating him for it, but no shrink has actually diagnosed him. He shows typical behaviour of the disease, up and down moods, terrible with money, addictive personality, will lie to get what he wants.... during the day I did a lot of work while he mowed the lawn, weed wacked and puttered in the yard. I wondered why he didn't do some of the yard work through the week, since he has no job at the moment. I used to cut the lawn on weekends most of the time. I'm having less energy now but I still strip the bed and make it up, wash the bedding and do most of the cleaning .....
so I sat down, our son sat beside me watching TV while I caught up on fb and the games, fighting with myself to stay awake when hubby, who'd been having his beer while working outside came and asked if I'd fed the dog, I said no, he said could you do it and I asked if he could since he was up, so he yelled for me to get off my f'ng fat, lazy ass...
he's never said that before, he's said other nasty things, but this was a first. I fed the dog and went outside to tell him that it was unacceptable for him to talk to me that way and he owed me an apology. I didn't get one. I asked why he was so angry. He'd been in a lousy mood all day and he said he didn't know.
Probably stress, money, job search etc., seeing his dad call his mom stupid and be nasty to him and mom all the time didn't teach him good skills either.
I talked to Nicole soon after; she called me. She made me promise to talk to someone. It's easier to write down. Words are hard to find for this. I find emotions make words get stuck in my throat. I'm thinking of going to see a counselor for myself. Really, what does one do with a mentally sick person?? He's not crazy enough to be committed. Here pretty much anyone has to give consent for treatment anyway. And what is illness and what's just plain misdirected anger? Or do the lines blur? Could behaviour therapy help change this pattern? Certainly he's not happy and makes the rest of us unhappy too.
Last night he was in a rage again, about what he perceives as a big mess our son has beside the hedge, where our son's car is parked. He wrote a sarcastic letter to junior and taped it to the door. When I got up he told me about the letter, which wasn't sealed in anything. I read it and hubby asked what I thought. I was getting ready for work, eating dinner as we talked. I said that I understood from the letter, that he put some things away in the crawl space and some things he took to the dump. I also said that junior had cleaned some of it up, it was tidier than it had been, also because I'm not as bothered by some things sitting beside the hedge, hubby figured I was taking our son's side against him and started to go into a rage. I could see it escalate, he works himself into this blind rage. He even said that if he had a gun he'd shoot him (our son), or maybe put the gun into his own mouth. Too me, about a few kids outdoor toys and some car parts, that's over the top, I don't find that worth such anger. He also once again repeated that he'd leave if he had the money....You know, it was nice to go to work.
I'll be alright, (I think) been at this for over 30 years, it's wearing though :P It's just hard to talk to anyone about it.
Ashton is cute as always and even makes grumpa smile. I wish he'd find it in himself to love his son and not look at it as a rivalry for my love between him and our son. I feel like he's rejecting our son and as a mother, that's hurtful and brings out a protective instinct.
So we go round and round on the carousel, repeating the same old mistakes. Me too.
Junior and the momma of his boy are in a similar rut. No wonder the world can't get along, if two people can't manage to life together in peace.

UN Health Data Show Liberal Abortion Laws Lead to Greater Maternal Death

2009-08-19T06:07:00.000-07:00

August 13, 2009

By Aracely Ornelas

(NEW YORK – C-FAM) The world's largest abortion provider, International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), has recently acknowledged an alarming "surge" in maternal deaths in South Africa, challenging the pro-abortion mantra that liberal abortion laws decrease maternal mortality. Maternal deaths increased by twenty per cent in the period 2005-2007 in South Africa, a country that since 1996 has had one of the most permissive abortion laws on the African continent.

While deaths attributable to HIV/AIDS account for the biggest portion of maternal deaths in South Africa, IPPF acknowledges that a portion of deaths are "due to complications of abortion" in a country where the procedure is legal and widely available.

Developing countries have been badgered in recent years by various United Nations agencies and pro-abortion civil society organizations, including IPPF, to decriminalize abortion as a measure to reduce maternal mortality rates. However, the latest IPPF revelation is the latest fact in a growing body of evidence showing the opposite relationship in which legal abortion and high maternal deaths coincide.

To illustrate, the nation with the lowest African maternal mortality rate is Mauritius, according to a 2009 World Health Organization (WHO) report. Mauritius' laws are among the continent's most protective of the unborn. The report further shows how countries that have decriminalized abortion in recent years in response to pressure, such as Ethiopia, have failed to lower dramatic maternal death rates. Ethiopia's maternal death rate is 48 times higher than in Mauritius.

According to WHO, the country with the lowest maternal mortality rate in South America is Chile, which protects unborn life in its constitution. The country with the highest is Guyana, with a maternal mortality rate 30 times higher than in Chile. Guyana has allowed abortion without almost any restriction since in 1995. Ironically, one of two main justifications used in liberalizing Guyana’s law was to enhance the "attainment of safe motherhood" by eliminating deaths and complications associated with unsafe abortion.

Nicaragua has been in the crosshairs of the international pro-abortion lobby since it amended its law three years ago to grant full protection to prenatal life. Sweden, for example, reportedly cut over $20 million in foreign aid as a result. More recently, Amnesty International issued a report claiming maternal death rates increased following Nicaragua's law going into effect. Media critics, however, have contested the veracity of Amnesty's claims , and Nicaraguan government statistics show a decline in maternal deaths since 2006.

Similarly, WHO statistics for the South East Asia region show Nepal, where there is no restriction on the procedure, has the region's highest rate of maternal mortality. The lowest in the region is Sri Lanka, with a rate fourteen times lower than that of Nepal. According to the pro-abortion public interest law firm Center for Reproductive Rights, Sri Lanka has among the most restrictive abortion laws in the world.

Worldwide, the country with the lowest maternal death rate is Ireland, a nation that prohibits abortion and whose constitution explicitly protects the rights of the unborn.

going to gather some apples and other stuff

2009-08-13T02:11:00.002-07:00

I already picked some up last week, I took one of the small wagons, set Ashton in it and gave him a ride to the apple tree, which he enjoyed, picking up apples didn't seem to appeal to him however. Everyday there are more to pick up, so yesterday I grabbed a basket and headed out the gate along our little path, and right beside the path lay a dead, black rat. SCREAM. I always do that. I hate rats but I can't abide dead animals, any dead ones make me shudder. I don't enjoy cooking meat and I don't eat a lot of it either.
I headed back since hubby didn't seem to hear me call him as I stood frozen on the spot. I could get abducted and he'd never hear me. I've decided his hearing is worse than mine. I'll have to ask him to acknowledge it if he hears me, so I'll know that I don't need to repeat myself. That's the word I couldn't think of last time, harping, he said that I must not have harped enough that he didn't hear me. Yea, nice. Not. That sort of stuff is just hurtful, not funny.
He hadn't heard me and said I should pick it up with the pooper-scooper. No thanks, I don't want to go anywhere near the thing. I went through the house and out the front door instead to get the apples.
Now I'll have to seriously get busy making the apple sauce. I'll eat some raw too, but with worms they don't last long. Maybe we should spray a bit. It doesn't bother me to cut out the wormy parts though.
Our cherry tomatoes are ripening and taste so sweet, hubby started this cleanse, along with it he has to eat really healthy, so our homegrown green peppers and chives are perfect. He's been cooking, which means more cleaning for me, but at least I'm not doing both. He tried Quinoa, one of the ancient grains that are getting popular again, and he likes it.
Yesterday my mom's parcel arrived already! That was quick. Now I can regain any weight I lost during my 'cleanse' :) I gave junior some, it makes him happy. He wasn't very happy with me after I gave him a talking to about how he talks to Ashton's mom. His dad, hubby, was there too, so junior stayed cool. I started with saying to hubby, that it's about time that his Dad's legacy is stopped, where he learned disrespect and abusive talk towards women, junior from him and that Ashton didn't need to learn that. I said to junior that he needed to end it and the best way to love a child as a dad is to love their mother. I said that it wasn't OK for him to talk to her the way he does when he's mad at her.
I guess he's angry because she's decided to stay away from him and just have contact because of Ashton. Why do guys (or gals) think they'll win a person back with verbal attacks? I know it's from hurt feelings and hurt pride, but it only makes everything worse.
I believe in grabbing the bull by the horns, so to speak. Deal with the problem, not avoid it.
My mom's parcel also contained some of her beautiful woven creations. She wove some towels with new material, more the bath towel type and she loved it. That's her exercise, working on the loom, at 83. She always includes newspaper clippings of news she thinks might interest me. Usually a couple of obits, this time another relative, but also several shots of my cousin's daughter, who won a beauty contest. :)
What can I say, it runs in the family. Haha. But good for her. I found her on facebook and sent a message congratulating her. I also asked her to say hi to her dad from me and get him on fb. :)
Our sweet daughter called too and we talked for awhile. She had some pangs of home sickness. Not enough to make her want to come home though and she's taking a course in medical terminology, those stressed out engineers are making her think she'll not want to work there forever.
I'll spend some time tomorrow with Ashton and his momma, Friday S. and I are going to see a movie. Her mom agreed to be moved to a home where she'll receive more care.

How true

2009-08-13T02:11:00.001-07:00

A Message by George Carlin:

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways , but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, ' I love you ' to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

from a ministry that monitors persecution of Christians

2009-08-12T12:47:00.000-07:00

Sunday, August 09, 2009
“We will not deny our faith” declare Iranian women

We have just received an update Elam Ministries regarding the situation facing two Iranian Christian women, Maryam Rustampoor (27) and Marzieh Amirizadeh (30), who have been detained for five months in Evin Prison in Tehran for their conversion to Christianity. You will recall that last night we received news from Elam Ministries that these two courageous women had unexpectedly been told that they would brought before the courts on Sunday morning at 7:00 am. Here is what happened:

In a dramatic session before the revolutionary court today in Tehran, Maryam Rustampoor (27) and Marzieh Amirizadeh (30) were told to recant their faith in Christ. Though great pressure was put on them, both women declared that they would not deny their faith. Maryam and Marzieh were originally arrested on March 5, 2009 and have suffered greatly while in prison, suffering ill health, solitary confinement and interrogations for many hours while blindfolded.

On Saturday August 8, Maryam and Marzieh were summoned to appear in court on Sunday August 9 in order to hear a verdict on their case. The chief interrogator had recommended a verdict of ‘apostasy.’ However, when they arrived, no verdict was actually given. Instead, the court session focussed on the deputy prosecutor, Mr Haddad, questioning Maryam and Marzieh about their faith and telling them that they had to recant in both verbal and written form. This made it clear that in the eyes of the court, Maryam and Marzieh’s only crime is that they have converted to Christianity.

Mr. Haddad, asked the two women if they were Christians. “We love Jesus,” they replied. He repeated his question and they said, “Yes, we are Christians.”

Mr. Haddad then said, “You were Muslims and now you have become Christians.”

“We were born in Muslim families, but we were not Muslims,” was their reply.

Mr. Haddad’s questioning continued and he asked them if they regretted becoming Christians, to which they replied, “We have no regrets.”

Then he stated emphatically, “You should renounce your faith verbally and in written form.” They stood firm and replied, “We will not deny our faith.”

During one tense moment in the questioning, Maryam and Marzieh made reference to their belief that God had convicted them through the Holy Spirit. Mr. Haddad told them, “It is impossible for God to speak with humans.”

Marzieh asked him in return, “Are you questioning whether God is Almighty?”

Mr. Haddad then replied, “You are not worthy for God to speak to you.”

Marzieh said, “It is God, and not you, who determines if I am worthy.”

Mr. Haddad told the women to return to prison and think about the options they were given and come back to him when they are ready (to comply). Maryam and Marzieh said, “We have already done our thinking.”

At the end of the session, Mr. Haddad told them that a judge will give them his verdict, though it is not clear who will be the judge in their case now. He also allowed Maryam and Marzieh to have a lawyer represent them in the case for the first time since their arrest.

Both women are back in Evin prison tonight. During their five-month ordeal, both have been unwell and have lost much weight. Marzieh is in pain due to an on-going problem with her spine, as well as an infected tooth and intense headaches.She desperately needs medical attention. Two months ago the prison officials told her the prison had proper medical equipment and that they will attend to her, but so far no proper treatment has been given.

Despite the concentrated effort of officials to pressure them into recanting their faith, Maryam and Marzieh love Jesus and they are determined to stand firm to the very end no matter whatever happens. They have demonstrated their love for Jesus and would offer their lives for Him if they were called to do so. After today’s court session they said, “If we come out of prison we want to do so with honor.”

Maryam and Marzieh’s case is a clear and harsh violation of human rights and religious liberty by Iran’s authorities. They deserve the support of all those who respect human rights and to be released without charges so they can pursue a life of freedom.

Please uphold Maryam and Marzieh in your prayers. Pray that God would minister to their physical needs and give them the courage to continue to witness boldly for Christ before authorities and their fellow prisoners. We invite you to post a special prayer on their behalf on our online Persecuted Church Prayer Wall.

We also recommend IRAN 30 as a valuable resource in praying daily for Iran. Visit www.iran30.org to learn more.

Posted by Glenn Penner at 8/09/2009

about freedom and peace in Islam

2009-08-12T10:51:00.000-07:00

The article by Nonie Darwish below provides great insight into the “Muslim world.” The iron grip of Islam on society is not maintained through love, understanding, and tolerance, but through fear, oppression and violence. “Apostates” face death; women who do not submit face physical violence and even death; non-Muslims face persecution and even death.

This world of Islamic shariah has come to America. You may recall the video we emailed a few weeks ago, where the Muslim “security guards,” verbally and physically assaulted a handful of Christians at a festival in Dearborn, Michigan. You may recall the hate and anger espoused by pro-Palestinian demonstrators here in America in December and January, who were reacting to Israel’s military responses to the missile attacks from the Gaza Strip.

These are just two examples of the fear, oppression and violence that are part and parcel of radical Islam. Even some Muslims are awakening to the brutal reality of the religion they thought they knew. As Ms. Darwish notes:

“There are daily news reports of heart-broken Muslims who say they cannot believe what is written in Muslim scriptures and say that Muslims have been living under the greatest lie in human history.”

If You Convert You Die
By: Nonie Darwish
Monday, August 03, 2009

http://frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=35777

A Muslim woman openly challenges Islamic apostasy laws from within the Muslim world.

Very few people in the West know what is going on inside the Muslim world and what it portends for them. The fact is that through the dominant media, such as CNN, Americans are subjected to much of the same misinformation with regard to Islam that I grew up with inside the Muslim world. The result is that Americans are in the dark attempting to formulate their strategy of how to defend themselves against the threat of terror, domestic jihad and Sharia. While Americans get ridiculed for being “Islamophobes,” the Muslim world itself is undergoing a huge and painful awakening.

For instance, a prominent Egyptian lawyer and women’s rights activist, Nagla Al Imam, recently announced her conversion to Christianity in Cairo, Egypt. The announcement brought shock waves in and beyond Egypt. This is perhaps the first case ever of its kind, where a Muslim woman, who is also a Sharia expert, has openly challenged Islamic apostasy laws from within the Muslim world.

Ms. Al Imam’s incredible courage was on display in an internet chat room, where she announced that she is not afraid, will stand up for the human rights of apostates and refuses to leave her homeland, Egypt. This was immediately followed by attacks and calls (‘fatwas’) for death of the 36 year-old graduate of Al Azhar Islamic University.

Egyptian media not only reported the threat but also participated in the attacks. Ms. Al Imam was literally entrapped by a TV station ‘Al Mihwar’ with the pretext of inviting her for an interview. Upon arrival to the TV studio she was told the show she was to appear on was cancelled. She was then taken forcibly to a room where she was held against her will for hours inside the studio. She was assaulted, threatened and insulted by several people. She was able to escape, and went to her internet chat room telling the world what happened and said she will demand protection from the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Such action is common not only against apostates but anyone who deviates from the dictates of Islam or demands reform. Many Muslim journalists, intellectuals and feminists who consider themselves Muslims but are critical of Sharia are often intimidated, threatened or even killed for the slightest independent views using the apostasy card to keep them quiet.

Another recent case in Egypt is that of a brilliant intellectual by the name of Sayed Mahmoud El Qemany. He was recently accused of apostasy even though he denied it on TV and insisted he is still a Muslim. But fatwas of death were immediately issued against him. Mr. El Qemany recently wrote the following:

“I was granted the State Award for Social Sciences, on June 25th 2009. The hard-line radical militant groups considered that the state has adopted this intellectual secular trend officially, infuriating the mentioned group which called on the State to withdraw the prize with the declaration of my defection from Islam and excommunication which means in our country, I could be slain; any citizen is allowed to kill me and be awarded by God in Paradise. The following parties have participated in the statements of atonement:

1 - Al-Azhar Scholars Front headed by Yahya Ismail Habloush, which issued the first statement of atonement on July 10, 2009.

2 – The Islamic Group (condemned terrorist group) issued a statement of atonement on July 10, 2009.

3 - The Muslim Brotherhood hailed the atonement, and were presented at the parliament by Hamdi Hassan requesting the withdrawal of the award and the declaration of religious-defection and excommunication on July 7, 2009. The Muslim Brotherhood also declared my excommunication on Mohwar Channel on July 11, 2009 and on Al Faraeen Channel on July 13, 2009.

4 - The Salafi (Fundamentalist) Group (condemned terrorist group) dedicated its Internet site named "The Egyptians" for excommunicating me and incitements to kill me, since the date of obtaining the prize until today.

5 – Al Nas channel, which represents the theoretical side of bloody terrorism which declared excommunication and demanded “all citizens who can” to kill me immediately, on July 24 and 25, 2009.

6 - The Hisbah Sheikh Youssef Al Badri in Egypt declared on the channel "ON TV" on July 3, 2009 that I have cursed God and the Prophet Mohammad in my books even though I have challenged him and others to refer to a single text written by me where such claims were made. Due to this proclamation, he has issued an incitement to kill me.

7 - A member of the Al-Azhar scholars, Sheikh Mohammed El Berry, on Mihwar TV Channel on July 11, 2009 announced my atonement as he also said that he did not read any of my writings since he does not read "garbage”. He repeated the same words on the channel "ON TV" on July 22, 2009.

8 - Sheikh Ali Gomaa, the former Chairman of the “State Religious Affairs Advisory Board”, issued a statement declaring my infidelity and calling for slaying me for "insulting the Prophet of Islam, the God of Islam” on July 24, 2009.

9 - The Sheiks of more than 5000 mosques on Friday prayers on July 24, 2009 declared the incitement to kill me, especially in my hometown, which led to the rampage against my family and relatives, and that could possibly evolve to some serious consequences in the coming weeks.

Due to the above, I call upon the conscience of all humanity in the free world to come to me and my children’s rescue by providing moral support and the condemnation and denunciation of the radical thinking with quick solutions to save us from the danger that is luring around us. This is a distress call to all bodies and individuals. A call to the consciences of every free individual in the world.

Signed: Sayed Mahmoud El Qemany- Researcher.”

In spite of the cover up, this is perhaps the first time in the history of Islam that Muslims finally have access to the truth about their own religion, thanks to the Internet and satellite dishes (invented by infidels). There are daily news reports of heart-broken Muslims who say they cannot believe what is written in Muslim scriptures and say that Muslims have been living under the greatest lie in human history. Others simply deny and say that it can’t be so. While Saudi Arabia is spending billions to Islamize the West, many Muslim prisoners of Islamic submission are dying or leaving the religion quietly.

The relatively few number of Muslims who dare to convert to Christianity do it in extreme secrecy. That is because the penalty for leaving Islam is death in all schools of Sharia, both Sunni and Shiite. Those who wrote Sharia centuries ago knew that keeping Muslims in total submission would be very difficult to maintain, and thus they established barbaric laws condemning Muslims to death for exercising their basic human rights to choose their own religion. Sharia never entrusted its enforcement only to the formal legal system. Islam promises heavenly rewards to individual Muslims who take the law into their own hands. Sharia also states that the killers of apostates and adulterers are not murderers and therefore are not to be punished. That is why, for Islam to achieve 100% compliance to Sharia enforcement, Muslim individuals are encouraged to take matters into their own hands.

The end result is a chaotic society where everything happens behind closed doors but at a very heavy price to interpersonal relationships. Fear and distrust of others exists in all Muslim societies. Muslims are not just distrustful of the West, but they are distrustful of one another. In Muslim society, people are often more afraid of their neighbors and family members than of the police. Thus, we see husbands or fathers pressured to apply Sharia by killing an adulterous wife or daughter, or a perfect stranger participate in the killing of an apostate in the public square. Very few get arrested or punished for such crimes across the Muslim world. The ingenious Sharia uses vigilante street justice to bring about Islamic submission. That is why civil unrest and honor crimes go wherever Islam goes. The power of Islam comes from turning Muslim against Muslim -- with a reward in heaven.

The above two examples of Islamic tyranny are not unique to Egypt, but exist in all Muslim countries. Islamic tyranny is encapsulated in a law that some Muslims claim to be their religious right in America. Many American citizens who left Islam are living in constant fear from Islamist individuals and groups right here, in the land of the free and home of the brave. I am one of them.

Start of my 1 week holiday

2009-08-12T00:47:00.000-07:00

I can almost count on getting sick as soon as I'm on holiday. Luckily I'm at home and had no plans to go away. This time it's a stomach flu. Maybe I'll loose a couple of pounds. Middle age has set in and some extra weight is settling around the middle, where I usually pack it on, and higher up tops are tight, I've long had trouble with button up clothing. It fits everywhere but pulls across my chest, bosom... whatever. Very annoying. So I have to wear sizes that are too big everywhere else to fit there.
I picked some plums from our Japanese plum tree and a branch hanging over the fence had a lot on it, so I pulled it toward me, held it with my left hand while picking the plums with my right. It seemed a bit hard to hold. The next few days my left arm and elbow really hurt. I guess the tennis elbow didn't like the strain put on it.
It's getting a bit better.
Hubby came home with a cleanse kit, to rid the body of toxins. Who needs that, he could just have caught my flu. I'm certainly feeling cleansed right through....
He wants to stop smoking... but he doesn't, he wants to stop drinking, but he doesn't. Yesterday we went to S. where he was going to set up her computer. She finally has one that works! On the way there I pointed out a new place to eat and said I heard it was expensive. A bit later he said, that it seems to draw some big names, music entertainers. I asked how he knew and his answer was " I can read ". I thought about that for a moment then asked, yes, but where did he read it? " On signs " he said that in a tone as if I should have read it too. I'm not sure did he gesture toward a sign, in any case, I saw one, kind of handmade sign with a couple of names I didn't recognize and no mention of the venue. So I said that it didn't mention any place where they'd play and got: "it's on signs all over town!" Like I should know! I finally asked why he had to be so $%@!& ignorant with his answers his reply was that my cussing really bothers him. Don't make me mad then by being an ignorant jerk!
Today I asked, once again, if he could fix the CD drive on my gettoblaster, he said, he didn't know that there was anything wrong with it. I've only asked since he's gotten back from Switzerland. His response was that I obviously hadn't nagged him enough so he didn't hear it. He didn't use the word nag, but meaning the same thing. I just can't remember the word he used, but to me it sounded worse than nagging.
I asked today why he keeps saying that I don't do anything. He says he doesn't know. Now, did he hear me? Often I don't know if he hears me and is ignoring me or just didn't hear.
Is that how his dad treated his mom? In a lot of ways yes. Our son has picked up a lot of the behaviour and attitudes.
Can you love someone even if often you don't like them? Or are they just a habit and fear of the unknown keeps you there?
I know that all the unloving treatment from him chips away at any positive feelings I have.
He's loved by people, utterly charming to others except family. He certainly has good points too, I don't experience them often enough.
On our finances he goes from oblivion/ denial to despair. No reasonable way of looking at it and making good choices. I'm always the bad guy, that says no and 'nags' .....
Who needs it? To me, death seems like welcome relief. Separation and divorce are so messy and then I'm not sure I want that anyway. No, I'm not suicidal nor homicidal. Life just seems too complicated and difficult.
I don't like writing letters anymore, haven't for a long time, because when you think of what to write, inadvertently it brings all this unresolved stuff to the surface.
Yes, the stomach flu is mild compared to the emotional ills.

The Alinsky Way Vs. the American Way

2009-08-11T23:24:00.001-07:00

The Alinsky Way Vs. the American Way

Shared via AddThis

Sheriff Joe

2009-08-11T23:03:00.000-07:00

OK, I copied this from an e-mail we got:

I Absolutely Love this Guy!
Prisons would be almost empty as people would STOP Re-offending if they were all like this!
Canada Has Tons to learn from This policy!

You all remember Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona , who painted the jail cells pink and made the inmates wear pink prison garb. Well.........

SHERIFF JOE IS AT IT AGAIN!

Oh, there's MUCH more to know about Sheriff Joe!

Maricopa County was spending approx. $18 million dollars a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs. Sheriff Joe offered to take the department over, and the County Supervisors said okay.

The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who'd like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dogs off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows.

The best part? His budget for the entire department is now under $3 million. Teresa and I adopted a Weimaraner from a Maricopa County shelter two years ago. He was neutered, and current on all shots, in great health, and even had a microchip inserted the day we got him. Cost us $78.

The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals.

I have long wondered when the rest of the country would take a look at the way he runs the jail system, and copy some of his ideas. He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand.

He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which provides meat, and fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery, where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 - $8 for the Holidays, and plant it later. We have six trees in our yard from the Prison.

Yup, he was reelected last year with 83% of the vote..
Now he's in trouble with the ACLU again. He painted all his buses and vehicles with a mural, that has a special hotline phone number painted on it, where you can call and report suspected illegal aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn't doing enough in his eyes, so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing immigration laws, started up his hotline, and bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the border He's kind of a 'Git-R Dun' kind of Sheriff.

TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO

HE IS THE MARICOPA ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF

AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER
THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (In Arizona ) who created the ' Tent City Jail':
He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.

He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. Took away their weights Cut off all but 'G' movies.

He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects.

Then He Started Chain Gangs For Women So He Wouldn't Get
Sued For Discrimination.

He took away cable TV Until he found out there was A Federal Court Order that Required Cable TV For Jails So He Hooked Up The Cable TV Again Only Let In The Disney Channel And The Weather Channel.

When asked why the weather channel He Replied, So They Will Know How Hot It's Gonna Be While They Are Working
ON My Chain Gangs.

He Cut Off Coffee Since It Has Zero Nutritional Value.

When the inmates complained, he told them, 'This Isn't The Ritz/Carlton......If You Don't Like It, Don't Come Back.'

More On The Arizona Sheriff:

With Temperatures Being Even Hotter Than Usual In Phoenix (116 Degrees Just Set A New Record), the Associated Press Reports:
About 2,000 Inmates Living In A Barbed-Wire-Surrounded Tent Encampment At The Maricopa County Jail Have Been Given Permission To Strip Down To Their Government-Issued
Pink Boxer Shorts.

On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached
138 Degrees Inside The Week Before.

Many Were Also Swathed In Wet, Pink Towels As Sweat Collected On Their Chests And Dripped Down To Their PINK SOCKS.

'It Feels Like We Are In A Furnace,' Said James Zanzot, An Inmate Who Has Lived In The TENTS for 1 year. 'It's Inhumane.'

Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city
and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink,
and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic.
He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates:

'It's 120 Degrees In Iraq

And Our Soldiers Are Living In Tents Too,

And They Have To Wear Full Battle Gear,

But They Didn't Commit Any Crimes,

So Shut Your Mouths!'

Way To Go, Sheriff!

Maybe if all prisons were like this one there would be a lot less crime and/or repeat offenders. Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for their parole, only to go out and commit another crime so they can get back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves.

If you agree, pass this on. If not, you need some common sense. :}

I did change the last phrase a little :) I think this guy is awesome. Of course you couldn't do this exactly the same everywhere. For one thing, not all places have such warm weather that tents would be an option. A lot more common sense and less "it's their right" BS, genuine care about what's good for the inmates, like some tough love. Caring for animals, wonderful idea. Animals can heal a lot of past emotional pain. Only psychos would not learn to love the furry charges.

New World order?

2009-08-09T20:29:00.000-07:00

it's not a fruitless male

2009-08-06T06:40:00.000-07:00

That volunteer plant I wrote about has started to grow little round fruit/ vegetable. It's probably a squash, so it isn't a zucchini male plant, as I thought. :) Our cherry tomato plants are producing some sweet tomatoes and I'll have to start making apple sauce soon.
Two days ago it was my mom's birthday and today it's hubby's mom's birthday, both born in 1926. Two days and continents apart.
My mom sent a package with chocolate to me. It's on the way. I said that's what I wanted for my birthday, but she wouldn't have it. She said that she was sending that anyway. What do I want? Sleeeeeep, less debt, a job for hubby, happiness for all and more kindness in this world. A massage!
Now I have to quickly catch a rainbow, do some jobs.... dealing with all the requests and stuff people send me on facebook is by far the most time consuming thing I seem to do on there. I've started to 'ignore' and click 'no thank you'.

With age comes wisdom.

2009-07-30T15:10:00.000-07:00

A guy is 72 years old and loves to fish. He was sitting in his boat the other day when he heard a voice say, 'Pick me up.' He looked around and couldn't see any one He thought he was dreaming when he heard the voice say again,'Pick me up.'

He looked in the water and there, floating on the top, was a frog.

The man said, 'Are you talking to me?'

The frog said, 'Yes, I'm talking to you. Pick me up then kiss me and I'll turn into the most beautiful woman you have ever seen.

I'll make sure that all your friends are envious and jealous because I will be your bride!'

The man looked at the frog for a short time, reached over, picked it up carefully, and placed it in his front breast pocket.

Then the frog said, 'What, are you nuts? Didn't you hear what I said? I said kiss me and I will be your beautiful bride.'

He opened his pocket, looked at the frog and said,

'Nah, at my age I'd rather have a talking frog.'

With age comes wisdom. Hopefully

There's a saying," Most people learn from their own mistakes, wise people learn from other peoples mistakes and a fool never learns."
Don't be a fool.

garden

2009-07-29T14:45:00.000-07:00

everything is growing, despite the heat- due to hubby's faithful attention, watering, weeding.... we have lots of flowers, looks like I'll be busy peeling, cutting and cooking apples; green peppers are growing well in a big pot and we have cherry tomatoes in those upside down tomato growers. I had the first one. It was so sweet! A zucchini plant started growing all on it's own, I was all excited then it turned out to be a male plant :(, unproductive....it's flowering a lot, but no little zucchinis.

Heatwave

2009-07-29T13:51:00.000-07:00

It's very hot the last few days. These are the times we wouldn't want to be without some air conditioning. Hubby is getting very tanned. I got a little bit of colour :p and a little burnt. I never had a sunburn on my lip before.
Walking home in the morning, it's just starting to get a bit brighter when I start out at 5am. If we're all done with our work, we can leave early. I usually don't leave before 5, that's when the sun is starting to appear and by the time I get home, it's fully daylight. It's nice to walk in the still quiet neighbourhood. The birds are already up and looking for their worms or whatever they can find to eat. Yesterday a small black cat charged at a crow and just about into the street. The crow took off and the cat stopped just short of an oncoming car.
In someone's yard there was lots of fresh cut wood; I love that smell. Some blooms emit a wonderful fragrance, squirrels chase each other, the sky often has beautiful colours and interesting clouds.
Three nights ago, J. must have decided that he did his share of the work and even though there was still a little bit to do, he started to tidy up, walk around very obviously not intending to do any more. I told him, that there was still more work and he put out both hands, palms up towards me in a gesture indicating that it was for me to do it. I replied "You can to some too", he also had cleared some of the items we clear in the morning, from each area, but he didn't clear the case I was working on and he took some of it to one of the places we're supposed to put it, so I spoke up again, asking why he did that, since my items hadn't been collected. He shrugged and walked over to D. to talk, so I followed him, I said "That's abuse", "do you want me to file harassment charges?" I also told him that I will be reporting what happened. I phoned the union, our prez is on holidays. The lady I talked to was very nice and she said that they could call someone in to try some mediation. I'm certainly willing to do that. I have my doubts that it would work with J. He definitely needs some professional help. He's older than I am and behaves like a highschooler, or even younger.
The boss is away this week as well. The next two days he behaved, more or less.
Junior just got Ashton and he's taking him to the beach. Both love the water. Yesterday Ashton took a tumble at mom's house and he's got a big scrape on the side of his forehead. K. thought he had some head injury because he got a nose bleed. She called an ambulance, they stayed in the hospital for a few hours, with mom and dad, but he seems alright. If his noggin is as hard as his dad's, he can take a few blows and not be worse for it.
He has a big head, like grandpa. The other day junior mentioned that Ashton seems more balanced if his diaper is full, not so top heavy. :) That cracked me up.
Going back to bed now. :D

modern day funnies

2009-07-29T13:49:00.000-07:00

10. Being told to 'Think outside the Box' when you're in a box all day long.

9. Not being able to check e-mail attachments without turning around to see who's behind you.

8. Fabric cubicle walls do not offer much protection from any kind of gunfire.

7. Always having that nagging feeling that if you press the right button, you'll get a piece of cheese!

6. Lack of roof rafters for the noose.

5. The walls are too close together for the hammock to work right.

4. There are 23 power cords but only ONE outlet.

3. Prison cells are not only bigger... they also have beds.

2. When tours come through, you get lots of peanuts thrown at you.

and the Number One Drawback to Working in a Cubicle. . . . .

1. You can't slam the door when you quit and walk out. (I have a piece of cardboard with a knob drawn on it. I slam that quite often. Not the same effect as wood, though.)

Clean jokes

2009-07-29T11:09:00.000-07:00

PALM SUNDAY:
It was Palm Sunday and, because of a sore throat, five-year-old Johnny stayed home from church with a sitter. When the family returned home, they were carrying several palm branches. The boy asked what they were for.

"People held them over Jesus' head as he walked by,"

"Wouldn't you know it?" the boy fumed. "The one Sunday I don't go He shows up!"

CHILDREN'S SERMON:
One Easter Sunday morning as the minister was preaching the children's sermon, he reached into his bag of props and pulled out an egg. He pointed at the egg and asked the children, "What's in here?"

"I know!" a little boy exclaimed. "Pantyhose!"

SUPPORT A FAMILY:
The prospective father-in-law asked, "Young man, can you support a family?"

The surprised groom-to-be replied, "Well, no I was just planning to support your daughter. The rest of you will have to fend for yourselves."

GRANDMA'S AGE:
Little Johnny asked his grandma how old she was.

Grandma answered, "39 and holding."

Johnny thought for a moment, and then said, "And how old would you be if you let go?"

FIRST TIME USHERS:
A little boy in church for the first time watched as the ushers passed around the offering plates. When they came near his pew, the boy said loudly, "Don't pay for me, Daddy. I'm under five."

PRAYERS:
The Sunday School teacher asked, "Now, Johnny, tell me, do you say prayers before eating?"

"No, sir," he replied. "We don't have to. My mom is a good cook!"

CLIMB THE WALLS:
"Oh, I sure am happy to see you," the little boy said to his grandmother on his mother's side. "Now maybe Daddy will do the trick he has been promising us."

The grandmother was curious. "What trick is that?" she asked.

"I heard him tell Mommy that he would climb the walls if you came to vist," the little boy answered.

THE MOOD RING:
My husband bought me a mood ring the other day. When I'm in a good mood, it turns green. When I'm in a bad mood, it leaves a red mark on his forehead.

THE WATER PISTOL:
When my three-year-old son opened the birthday gift from his grandmother, he discovered a water pistol. He squealed with delight and headed for the nearest sink.

I was not so pleased. I turned to Mom and said, "I'm surprised at you. Don't you remember how we used to drive you crazy with water guns?"

Mom smiled and then replied, "I remember."

LIFE AFTER DEATH:
"Do you believe in life after death?" the boss asked one of his employees.

"Yes, sir," the new employee replied.

"Well, then, that makes everything just fine," the boss went on. "After you left early yesterday to go to your grandmother's funeral, she stopped in to see you!"

Anyone out there hear about this??

2009-07-25T22:31:00.001-07:00

Journalist Files Charges against WHO and UN for Bioterrorism and Intent to Commit Mass Murder
by Barbara Minton, Natural Health Editor
See all articles by this author
Email this author

(NaturalNews) As the anticipated July release date for Baxter's A/H1N1 flu pandemic vaccine approaches, an Austrian investigative journalist is warning the world that the greatest crime in the history of humanity is underway. Jane Burgermeister has recently filed criminal charges with the FBI against the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations (UN), and several of the highest ranking government and corporate officials concerning bioterrorism and attempts to commit mass murder. She has also prepared an injunction against forced vaccination which is being filed in America. These actions follow her charges filed in April against Baxter AG and Avir Green Hills Biotechnology of Austria for producing contaminated bird flu vaccine, alleging this was a deliberate act to cause and profit from a pandemic.

Summary of claims and allegations filed with FBI in Austria on June 10, 2009

In her charges, Burgermeister presents evidence of acts of bioterrorism that is in violation of U.S. law by a group operating within the U.S. under the direction of international bankers who control the Federal Reserve, as well as WHO, UN and NATO. This bioterrorism is for the purpose of carrying out a mass genocide against the U.S. population by use of a genetically engineered flu pandemic virus with the intent of causing death. This group has annexed high government offices in the U.S.

Specifically, evidence is presented that the defendants, Barack Obama, President of the U.S, David Nabarro, UN System Coordinator for Influenza, Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO, Kathleen Sibelius, Secretary of Department of Health and Human Services, Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Department of Homeland Security, David de Rotschild, banker, David Rockefeller, banker, George Soros, banker, Werner Faymann, Chancellor of Austria, and Alois Stoger, Austrian Health Minister, among others, are part of this international corporate criminal syndicate which has developed, produced, stockpiled and employed biological weapons to eliminate the population of the U.S. and other countries for financial and political gain.

The charges contend that these defendants conspired with each other and others to devise, fund and participate in the final phase of the implementation of a covert international bioweapons program involving the pharmaceutical companies Baxter and Novartis. They did this by bioengineering and then releasing lethal biological agents, specifically the "bird flu" virus and the "swine flu virus" in order to have a pretext to implement a forced mass vaccination program which would be the means of administering a toxic biological agent to cause death and injury to the people of the U.S. This action is in direct violation of the Biological Weapons Anti-terrorism Act.

Burgermeister's charges include evidence that Baxter AG, Austrian subsidiary of Baxter International, deliberately sent out 72 kilos of live bird flu virus, supplied by the WHO in the winter of 2009 to 16 laboratories in four counties. She claims this evidence offers clear proof that the pharmaceutical companies and international government agencies themselves are actively engaged in producing, developing, manufacturing and distributing biological agents classified as the most deadly bioweapons on earth in order to trigger a pandemic and cause mass death.

In her April charges, she noted that Baxter's lab in Austria, one of the supposedly most secure biosecurity labs in the world, did not adhere to the most basic and essential steps to keep 72 kilos of a pathogen classified as a bioweapon secure and separate from all other substances under stringent biosecurity level regulations, but it allowed it to be mixed with the ordinary human flu virus and sent from its facilities in Orth in the Donau.

In February, when a staff member at BioTest in the Czech Republic tested the material meant for candidate vaccines on ferrets, the ferrets died. This incident was not followed up by any investigation from the WHO, EU, or Austrian health authorities. There was no investigation of the content of the virus material, and there is no data on the genetic sequence of the virus released.

In answer to parliamentary questions on May 20th, the Austrian Health Minister, Alois Stoger, revealed that the incident had been handled not as a biosecurity lapse, as it should have been, but as an offence against the veterinary code. A veterinary doctor was sent to the lab for a brief inspection.

Burgermeister's dossier reveals that the release of the virus was to be an essential step for triggering a pandemic that would allow the WHO to declare a Level 6 Pandemic. She lists the laws and decrees that would allow the UN and WHO to take over the United States in the event of pandemic. In addition, legislation requiring compliance with mandatory vaccinations would be put into force in the U.S. under conditions of pandemic declaration.

She charges that the entire "swine flu" pandemic business is premised on a massive lie that there is no natural virus out there that poses a threat to the population. She presents evidence leading to the belief that the bird flu and swine flu viruses have, in fact, been bioengineered in laboratories using funding supplied by the WHO and other government agencies, among others. This "swine flu" is a hybrid of part swine flu, part human flu and part bird flu, something that can only come from laboratories according to many experts.

WHO's claim that this "swine flu" is spreading and a pandemic must be declared ignores the fundamental causes. The viruses that were released were created and released with the help of WHO, and WHO is overwhelmingly responsible for the pandemic in the first place. In addition, the symptoms of the supposed "swine flu" are indistinguishable from regular flu or from the common cold. The "swine flu" does not cause death anymore often than the regular flu causes death.

Burgermeister notes that the figures for deaths reported for the "swine flu" are inconsistent and there is no clarity as to how the number of "deaths" has been documented.

There is no pandemic potential unless mass vaccinations are carried out to weaponize the flu under the guise of protecting the population. There are reasonable grounds for believing that the mandatory vaccines will be purposely contaminated with diseases that are specifically designed to cause death.

Reference is made to a licensed Novartis bird flu vaccine that killed 21 homeless people in Poland in the summer of 2008 and had as its "primary outcome measure" an "adverse events rate", thereby meeting the U.S. government's own definition of a bioweapon (a biological agent designed to cause an adverse events rate, i.e death or injury) with a delivery system (injection).

She alleges that the same complex of international pharmaceutical companies and international government agencies that have developed and released pandemic material have positioned themselves to profit from triggering the pandemic with contracts to supply vaccines. Media controlled by the group that is engineering the "swine flu" agenda is spreading misinformation to lull the people of the U.S. into taking the dangerous vaccine.

The people of the U.S. will suffer substantial and irreparable harm and injury if they are forced to take this unproven vaccine without their consent in accordance with the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act, National Emergency Act, National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD 51, Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-20, and the International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza.

In the U.S. since 2008, Burgermeister charges that those named in her allegations have implemented new and/or accelerated the implementation of laws and regulations designed to strip the citizens of the U.S. of their lawful constitutional rights to refuse an injection. These people have created or allowed provisions to remain in place that make it a criminal act to refuse to take an injection against pandemic viruses. They have imposed other excessive and cruel penalties such as imprisonment and/or quarantine in FEMA camps while barring the citizens of the U.S. from claiming compensation from injury or death from the forced injections. This is in violation of the laws governing federal corruption and the abuse of office as well as of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Through these actions, the named defendants have laid the groundwork for mass genocide.

Using the "swine flu" as a pretext, the defendants have preplanned the mass murder of the U.S. population by means of forced vaccination. They have installed an extensive network of FEMA concentration camps and identified mass grave sites, and they have been involved in devising and implementing a scheme to hand power over the U.S. to an international crime syndicate that uses the UN and WHO as a front for illegal racketeering influenced organized crime activities, in violation of the laws that govern treason.

She further charges that the complex of pharmaceutical companies consisting of Baxter, Novartis and Sanofi Aventis are part of a foreign-based dual purpose bioweapons program, financed by this international criminal syndicate and designed to implement mass murder to reduce the world's population by more than 5 billion people in the next ten years. Their plan is to spread terror to justify forcing people to give up their rights, and to force mass quarantine in FEMA camps. The houses, companies and farms and lands of those who are killed will be up for grabs by this syndicate.

By eliminating the population of North America, the international elite gain access to the region's natural resources such as water and undeveloped oil lands. And by eliminating the U.S. and its democratic constitution by subsuming it under a North American Union, the international crime group will have total control over North America.

Highlights from the complete dossier

The complete dossier of the June 10th action is a 69 page document presenting evidence to substantiate all charges. This includes:

Factual background that delineates time lines and facts that establish probable cause, UN and WHO definitions and roles, and history and incidents from the April, 2009 "swine flu" outbreak.

Evidence the "swine flu" vaccines are defined as bioweapons as delineates in government agencies and regulations classifying and restricting vaccines, and the fear of foreign countries that "swine flu" vaccines will be used for biological warfare.

Scientific evidence the "swine flu" virus is an artificial (genetic) virus.

Scientific evidence the "swine flu" was bioengineered to resemble the Spanish flu virus of 1918 including quotes from Swine Flu 2009 is Weaponized 1918 Spanish Flu by A. True Ott, Ph.D., N.D., and a Science Magazine report from Dr. Jeffrey Taubenberger et.al.

The genome sequence of the "swine flu"

Evidence of the deliberate release of the "swine flu" in Mexico

Evidence as to the involvement of President Obama that delineates his trip to Mexico which coincided with the recent "swine flu" outbreak and the death of several officials involved in his trip. Contention is made that the President was never tested for "swine flu" because he had been previously vaccinated.

Evidence as to the role of Baxter and WHO in producing and releasing pandemic virus material in Austria includes a statement from a Baxter official stating the accidentally distributed H5N1 in the Czech Republic was received from a WHO reference center. This includes delineation of evidence and allegations from Burgermeister's charges filed in April in Austria that are currently under investigation.

Evidence Baxter is an element in a covert bioweapons network

Evidence Baxter has deliberately contaminated vaccine material.

Evidence Novartis is using vaccines as bioweapons

Evidence as to WHO's role in the bioweapons program

Evidence as to WHO's manipulation of disease data in order to justify declaring a Pandemic Level 6 in order to seize control of the USA.

Evidence as to the FDA's role in covering up the bioweapons program

Evidence as to Canada's National Microbiology Lab's role in the bioweapons program.

Evidence of the involvement of scientists working for the UK's NIBSC, and the CDC in engineering the "swine flu".

Evidence vaccinations caused the Spanish killer flu of 1918 including belief of Dr. Jerry Tennant that the widespread use of aspirin during the winter that followed the end of World War I could have been a key factor contributing to the earlier pandemic by suppressing the immune system and lowering body temperatures, allowing the flu virus to multiply. Tamiflu and Relenza also lower body temperatures, and therefore can also be expected to contribute to the spread of a pandemic.

Evidence as to manipulation of the legal framework to allow mass murder with impunity.

Constitutional issues: the legality vs. illegality of jeopardizing the life, health and public good by mass vaccinations.

The issue of immunity and compensation as evidence of intent to commit a crime.

Evidence as to the existence of an international corporate crime syndicate.

Evidence of the existence of the "Illuminati".

Evidence as to the depopulation agenda of the Illuminati/Bilderbergs and their involvement in the engineering and release of the artificial "swine flu" virus.

Evidence that weaponized flu was discussed at the annual Bilderberg meeting in Athens from May 14-17, 2009, as part of their agenda of genocide, including a list of attendees who, according to a statement once made by Pierre Trudeau, view themselves as genetically superior to the rest of humanity.

Media is keeping Americans clueless about the threat they are under

Jane Burgermeister is a dual Irish/Austrian who has written for Nature, the British Medical Journal, and American Prospect. She is the European Correspondent of the Renewable Energy World website. She has written extensively about climate change, biotechnology, and the ecology.

In addition to the charges currently under investigation that she filed against Baxter AG and Avir Green Hills Biotechnology in April, she has filed charges against WHO and Baxter among others concerning a case of exploding "swine flu" vials meant for a research lab on a busy IC train in Switzerland.

In her view, control of the media by the ruling elite has allowed the world crime syndicate to further its agenda unabated while the rest of the people remain in the dark about what is really going on. Her charges are an attempt to get around this media control and bring the truth to light.

Her greatest concern is that "in spite of the fact Baxter has been caught red handed nearly triggering pandemic, they are also moving ahead, together with allied pharma companies, with supplying the vaccine for pandemics." Baxter is hurrying to get this vaccine to market some time in July.

For more information:
http://www.naturalnews.com/025760.html
http://birdflu666.wordpress.com/200...
http://in.news.yahoo.com/137/200906...
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...

Once again taking some time to blog

2009-07-24T16:16:00.000-07:00

It gets harder to know what to write, the longer I wait. Every day something pops into my mind that I think I should write down. Of course I don't, then when I sit down to write, I can't remember the things I meant to write about. I've been following the news a lot less, taking time to relax and play some games on facebook, but now it seems more like a chore, when I get too much chunk in the inbox. Invites to all sort s of games I'm not interested in and have no time for anyway. At least hubby has layed off badgering me about spending time to play games. He can't understand why I'd be doing that. Because I'm enjoying it. ? Now of course I get feeling guilty when I spend too much time on it, then feeling rushed and worried when I get another remark, it's not much fun anymore.
I asked hubby if he ever considered himself to be controlling. Actually, since I asked that, he's backed off.
At work for one week there were only 2 of us. I worked overtime on 4 of the days. Now J. is back, still the same. He ignores me, I now ignore him, altough I frequently get the urge to tell him what a major a$$hole he is, or even go and smack him, because, even though he ignores me, he still plays games with the workload. I had to talk to myself last night, to ignore it, let it go, not let it get to me.... I talked to God and that helped. The guy is happy if he can make me upset, so that's the last thing I should be doing. The other guy, D., is able to talk to me in a decent tone when he needs to ask or say something about work, but he will otherwise act as if I don't exist, walk past me staring ahead if I say "Hi" or "Bye". It's just the 3 of us this week, the boss is away for 2 weeks, bu G., my buddy, is back. In a week or two D. will be on holidays for 3 or 4 weeks. There are big changes coming, new equipment, change of some work for the outside workers and with that also for the inside workers. Our area boundaries are changing, which will mean another round of bidding for jobs. I have no idea what I'll end up with or where. I'll cross that bridge when I get there.
You can say "I'm not going to worry about..." whatever, you still have it on your mind and get stressed without even realizing it.
I often find myself tense. The atmosphere at work has an impact, life's challenges... I guess that's what I liked about playing the games on FB, I can relax and have fun, at least I could until I was made to feel bad about it.
I got a cold from Ashton about 3 weeks ago, I'm still all snotted up. Doc says a lot of mucus is a sign of infection. I'm on the 4th day of taking antibiotics and so far it hasn't helped much. If I don't keep blowing my nose, it builds up and becomes painful. It's an ongoing problem.
Hubby is still looking for a job, EI, employment insurance, want to retrain him. The place where they send people for retraining think he should be self employed. I don't think he's confident enough in his on abillities and I don't know if you can learn to be confident.
We're still waiting for more EI cheques. They paid one payment, then he was nice and honest and declared the $ he earned from his parttime (maybe 1 day a week) job. Ohhh, need to reasess! Meanwhile the bills keep coming, needing to get paid and EI drags their heels, "by Wed....., no, by Fri...., next week.."
I get frustrated that hubby keeps smoking and that he keeps smoking in the house. He figures, if he just smokes in the bathroom and 'his' office, it's OK, not to mention the cost of it. There are a few things that frustrate me to the point where I'm really angry about it and it doesn't matter if I voice my frustration or not, things stay the same.
Junior is off work due to his back pain. He has no money.... He just called wanting me to watch Ashton. I said no. After writing this, I want to sleep some more. Tomorrow where going to the beach, my blog & facebook friend has arranged a BBQ get together and hubby actually agreed to go! He wants to leave early, because the fireworks are on tomorrow night and parking will be hard to find if we go later. I'll call my mom later tonight, when she has her morning :)
Walking home from work the last couple of days the air and temperature reminded me of being out in the evening twilight as a kid, on a mild summer night. Here it was the morning twilight, but it transported me back to those carefree summer evenings a long time ago.
Shanon is planing to celebrate my 50th with a bang :) I don't know all she has planed, but she also wrote to my sis about some idea she has, what I would like. I don't know what she wrote, she keeps asking if I'd heard back yet. She's definitely not a procrastinator and can't understand when other people don't act as quick as she does.
She has a couple of surprises for me in September :)
So, on one hand, I'm fairly content, but on the other hand, I'm stressed and carry lots of anger about some things.
Now I'll go and try to sleep some more, I only had 4 hours so far. "Till next time.

2009-07-09T13:26:00.000-07:00

Some Funny Proverbs Of All Time

1. If you're too open minded, your brains will fall out.

2. Age is a very high price to pay for maturity.

3. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you a mechanic.

4. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

5. If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you ve never tried before.

6. My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.

7. Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.

8. It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.

9. For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.

10. If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.

11. Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks.

12. A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.

13. Eat well, stay fit, die anyway.

14. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.

15. No husband has ever been shot while doing the dishes.

16. A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.

17. Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.

18. Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.

19. Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.

20. There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.

21. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.

22. By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.

23. Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator.

24. Someone who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the real world.

25. Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused.

and us?

2009-07-06T13:04:00.000-07:00

Ashton is back to his happy toddling self, mom went home from the hospital on Saturday. She's a trooper! Dad is happy as a pig in mud to have mom back, he said so himself. This morning there was a meeting with a health rep. to arrange more home care, to give mom a rest. Yesterday went to visit after church. First we took Ashton home to daddy, he needed a nap and I grabbed mom's tupperware container to bring it back. It seems everyone has been helping, the SIL coked dinner and the other SIL did as well, I made lunch yesterday, so mom could sit and rest. Hubby's job loss is a blessing in disguise, because he can help his parents a lot more now.
Shanon is busy planing my 50 birthday bash for Sept., she's always way ahead with everything. It wasn't my idea. I'd be happy without one. Thankfully it won't be too many people.
Junior is off work due to his back. Hopefully he'll get a better seat in his truck, that he can go back to work soon. He's considering getting custody of Ashton. K. thinks she's missing out, she's tired of 'playing' mom and today she left Ashton with a neighbour, so she could sleep. This is the neighbour who she'd been fighting with, who had climbed through a window, into K.s place and stolen a bunch of things, who's an ex druggy, has a mental illness, is unstable and has had her children taken away in the past. A neighbour K was apparently not talking to. This morning I heard junior curse and then he went out. The unstable neighbour had called to tell him she had Ashton, so junior went to get him.
I've known a few negative things, but wanted ( and still do) to be supportive. I wonder if K. will realize the only thing she's missing, is enjoying her children's growing years, while she yearns for her carefree, childfree youth.
Luckily both dad's, the girls' and Ashton's, are involved and love the children.

2009-07-06T11:51:00.000-07:00

Music in Utero
The Smiling Unborn Child

In 1984, a video called The Silent Scream helped change the way people think about the unborn child. The footage of an actual abortion and the fetus’s reaction reminded us that abortion involves the death of a real person.

A recent bit of footage has similar potential, only it couldn’t be more different from The Silent Scream.

The footage was part of a recent PBS special, The Music Instinct: Science & Song. The program was an exploration of, among other things, music’s “biological, emotional and psychological impact on humans.”

Part of this “exploration” included how music affects babies. If we are, as some scientists believe, “wired for music,” then babies are ideal test subjects since their reactions are, by definition, instinctual.

Part of this research involved the effect of music on fetuses. While we knew that mothers often sing to their unborn children, we weren’t sure that the unborn child could hear them.

We are now. A segment of The Music Instinct featured Sheila C. Woodward of the University of Southern California, who has studied fetal responses to music. A camera and a microphone designed for underwater use were inserted into the uterus of a pregnant woman. And then Woodward sang.

The hydrophone picked up two sounds: the “whooshing” of the uterine artery and the unmistakable sound of a woman singing a lullaby.

Then something extraordinary happened. Upon hearing the woman’s voice, the unborn child smiled.

It was one of those moments that makes you catch your breath. The full humanity of the fetus could not have been clearer if he had turned to the camera and winked.

Apparently, fetal responses to music aren’t limited to smiling. They have been observed moving their hands in response to music, almost as if conducting. They have been soothed by Vivaldi and disturbed by loud tracks from Beethoven. They have even responded “rhythmically to rhythms tapped on [their] mother’s belly.”

Perhaps understandably, the connection between fetal responses to music and abortion weren’t mentioned in the show. What is not so understandable is that the program’s website contains no mention of Woodward and her findings. It’s as if someone realized the implications and hoped nobody would notice.

I don’t think that there’s some kind of conspiracy afoot. I just think that the PBS people’s worldview won’t allow them to make the obvious connection. Abortion on demand is only possible if people minimize the similarities between the fetus and us.

That kind of denial is hard work because what we have learned in the past 25 years makes any denial of the fetus’ humanity absurd. So instead of looking at the evidence, many people don’t see it. Call it “worldview-induced blindness.”

In other words, they have eyes but cannot see, ears but cannot hear.

Humans, we are told, are a “musical species” whose brain devotes more to the appreciation of music than even the processing of language. That makes someone who smiles and moves his hands in response to music undeniably human, whether we notice it or not.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I had started to watch the movie "The silent scream", but I couldn't continue. I couldn't get myself to watch a baby being murdered on camera.

Catch up time again, grandkid's tumble and grandma needs oxigen

2009-06-26T22:27:00.000-07:00

I've been very neglectful of this blog. My relatives can still get news bytes from facebook. so that leaves my two loyal readers out of the loop. But I know they're busy with their own lifes, not pining for news from me. :)
I got into playing a couple of games on facebook, it can get rather time consuming! :p Ask my hubby, he says I'm addicted. I've refused to start any other games and am cutting back. I do really enjoy lil' green patch. The games aren't actually from fb, but they work with the game providers, I guess. It's also fun to chat (in writing mostly) with people all over. Ontario, England, the USA and a soldier in combat.
It's my kick back time. I could be watching TV or playing games. Well, I hardly watch TV.
I've written great posts in my head but usually feel too tired to sit and think. Games take much less effort, although you do need to think some. Not to worry, my brain gets a workout at work, where I have to memorise info and also solve crosswords when I'm on break.
It's very peaceful and quiet now that the one instigator has left.
We had a horrible scare here last weekend, on Father's Day. Hubby had planed a big BBQ, with family and friends. I missed it because I sleep before work on Sunday afternoon. Everything went well and people had fun. Shanon told me she missed me, that it's not the same without me. That was nice to hear. Her and another friend also helped a great deal with the clean up. Junior was getting Ashton ready for bed and probably from all he'd had to eat, Ashton got sick and threw up on daddy. Junior ran downstairs to throw his shirt in the wash and for whatever reason, didn't close the door all the way to his bedroom, leaving Ashton. Obviously not thinking it through. Ashton of course wanted to follow daddy. Our upstairs landing and the stairs have no railing, an unfinished reno project. Ashton got out before dad was back and he proceded to the edge of the landing and fell over, onto the stairs below. Not tumbling down the stairs, but free fall, about 8 feet. I cringe just thinking about it.
I was in bed, been trying to sleep ever since hubby's buddy decided to yak right into the bedroom, waking me up. I heard the thump, but I thought Ashton had just fallen on the floor, which he still does frequently, since he toddles. Then I heard sirens and the front door opening. I jumped up and ran out, junior was already trying to get the ambulance's attention, running down the sidewalk with a bleeding Ashton in his arms. I took Ashton from him, he was screaming and bleeding from his mouth. Hubby was on the phone to emergency, who must have told him not to move Ashton. "Hold him still" Well, Ashton was in pain and he was moving on his own, writhing I guess you call it. The ambulance pulled up, the paramedics took some info and junior had to run to get something, so I ended up in the ambulance with Ashton, giving what info I could, trying to comfort Ashton and making myself heard over his screams. It was decided, that grandma, me, would go to the hospital with Ashton, even though I was in my PJs, junior grabbed me shoes and later he went to get me a coat. I didn't see that Ashton actually had bitten a hole in his tongue. He calmed down somewhat and I cuddled him. As I sat in ER, just holding him, I started to cry quietly, thinking of the fall he had and also how his dad must feel. The nurses where nice, but until a doctor was available, we just had to sit and wait. Ashton's mom came after a little while and soon after the doctor showed up too. I told him what I knew, Ashton was now in his mom's arms and our son came to take me home. I had to go to work!
Ashton had bit his tongue almost through, just short of having to get it stitched. Mom and dad took turns checking on his vital signs through the night and I got him up and changed when I got home. He was not himself! He was aggressive, temperamental and a little terror. He also gasped with every breath and step. When his mom got up and observed all this, she worried about his lungs. I told her that his breathing sounded like he was in pain. I She said she would take him back to the hospital to get checked. I needed to get some sleep, as I hadn't had near enough the day before and had been up all night. After sleeping about 3-4 hours, I got up and K. was still lying on the couch, saying she'd go to the hospital. Ashton was still upset and screamed about everything. Finally hubby had enough and he told K. that she had to leave. Hubby likes his solitude and this drove him crazy. Maybe not the best timing, the day after Ashton's fall.
In any case, it got her moving and she actually finally took the little guy to the hospital, where they called in a pediatrician. He told her that Ashton was in a lot of pain. That's what I told her, more or less.
The doc said after the fall, Ashton's body would be aching and the bite in his tongue must have really hurt. Luckily, the tongue is apparently the part of our body that heals fastest. They took some x-rays to make sure he didn't have any broken bones. He must have had angels watching over him not to get hurt any worse! But what a scare.
You know, you want to say "What were you thinking??" to his dad, but I'm sure he's asking himself that and kicking himself, so I don't need to add to that.
Hubby's mom has been having trouble breathing, thinking she has asthma. The inhalers she has haven't helped and it's been getting worse. Yesterday hubby's sister called to take mom to the hospital while she stayed with dad. Hubby got in the car and before he left the driveway, he called emergency to send an ambulance. They just got there as he did, but they have instant access to ER, while people that get there on their own, sometimes sit for hours in the waiting room.
Mom will be staying in the hospital tonight. They couldn't get her oxigen levels up. She has COPD chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She used to smoke, but quit many years ago. Dad however kept smoking for many years after she'd quit and people weren't aware of the damages of second hand smoke. Even today, some smokers just don't care about the damage they can do to others. Now we have a law that forbids smoking in cars if children are present. You'd think parents would care enough about their kids. No, some have to be threatened with fines to try and make them do the right thing.
No bites in the job search for hubby, so things are beyond tight. His EI should start in a couple of weeks.
Otherwise I've just been working and having fun with games.

The Importance of Getting Along.

2009-06-12T23:58:00.000-07:00

This isn't from myself, but a friend. I just felt that it's really good and since I'm not famous or widely read, I'm sure I can borrow it from her. :)

So, what a week its been. Without going into all the gory details, suffice to say, its been one of "those" weeks.

What is it about some people that they just refuse to get along with others? And what exactly is wrong with getting along? Did I miss the memo that said getting along was old fashioned and outdated and we weren't going to go it anymore? Cause it sure feels like I may have.

Truth be told, I'm a "get along" kind of girl. In my defense, I just find it so much easier. Granted its true that I have run across people in my 40 plus years on this planet that I could of done without the pleasure of meeting but for the most part I just want everyone to get along. Its the Mother Hen in me. I've been like that since I was a kid. I always try to see the good in people no matter how deep I have to look to find it.

Some of my friends call it a character flaw. In my social circle we have one particular friend, who over the years, has been the biggest of screw ups. Stolen from some of us, left us hanging on commitments, borrowed money without repayment, just never quite got her act together. I especially, have let myself be taken advantage of time and time again. Because I truly believe in her. That by helping her just once more, maybe, just maybe, that once more will be the time all the pieces to her puzzle click into place and she will finally be the great person I've always known she is.

Do I have a big "S" tattooed to my forehead? Well maybe. But I know if she was to call me tomorrow (she's since moved back to Calgary to get herself out of the line of fire for awhile) I would be there willing to help.

Because I just want everyone to get along. I agree that you don't have to like everyone you encounter or work with, but you also don't have to go out of your way to make them miserable.

Cause what kind of a person does that? Are you so insecure about your place in the universe that you only feel good about yourself if you're trying to upset someone else? What exactly does that say about you as a person? Not too much I would think.

And I think your energy could be spent better elsewhere. The time it takes to plot and plan to make someone unhappy could be spent making yourself happier. So do that little something for yourself. You might be happy that you did.

Far as I can tell, the only perfect person died on the cross. The rest of us are just doing our best to get through every day the best way we know how. If someone is doing something that upsets you and effects you personally, definitely speak up. But if you're just being a "rhymes with hit" disturber, why bother?

Here's hoping this finds you getting along with the people in your world.

How things have changed

2009-06-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

Black and White
(Under age 40? You won't understand.)

You could hardly see for all the snow,

Spread the rabbit ears as far as they go.
Pull a chair up to the TV set,

'Good Night, David.

Good Night, Chet.'

My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get food poisoning.

My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter and I used to eat it raw sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in ice pack coolers, but I can't remember getting e.coli.

Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then.

The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA system.

We all took gym, not PE...and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic
shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors. I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now.

Flunking gym was not an option... even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much harder than gym.

Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem, and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention.

We must have had horribly damaged psyches. What an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses?
Ours wore a hat and everything.

I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself.
I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations.

Oh yeah... and where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been killed!
We played 'king of the hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction sites, and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn't sting like iodine did) and then we got our butt spanked.

Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $49 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.

We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either, because if we did we got our butt spanked there and then we got our butt spanked again when we got home.

I recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing his tricks on the front stoop, just before he fell off.

Little did his Mom know that she could have owned our house.
Instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a goof. It was a neighborhood run amuck.

To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a dysfunctional family.

How could we possibly have known that?

We needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes.

We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac!

How did we ever survive?

LOVE TO ALL OF US WHO SHARED THIS ERA. AND TO ALL WHO DIDN'T, SORRY FOR WHAT YOU MISSED.
I WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR ANYTHING!
Pass this to someone and remember that life's most simple pleasures are very often the best.

powerful! America the late great?

2009-06-09T10:26:00.000-07:00

President Obama’s speech in Cairo last week generated an enormous amount of “buzz” in the print, television and online media. Yesterday Brigitte Gabriel shared her reactions in “An Open Letter to President Obama.”

Today, we thought we would share with you the biting analysis and sardonic wit of author and columnist Mark Steyn, published in the National Review Online.

June 6, 2009 7:00 AM

‘The Muslim World’
One-way multiculturalism.

By Mark Steyn

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=M2JmNDJlYTBiMGY2MzNkZDg2ZWM4ZTYzNjVhODU3YmI=&w=MA

As recently as last summer, General Motors filing for bankruptcy would have been the biggest news story of the week. But it’s not such a very great step from the unthinkable to the inevitable, and by the time it actually happened the market barely noticed and the media were focused on the president’s “address to the Muslim world.” As it happens, these two stories are the same story: snapshots, at home and abroad, of the hyperpower in eclipse. It’s a long time since anyone touted GM as the emblematic brand of America — What’s good for GM is good for America, etc. In fact, it’s more emblematic than ever: Like General Motors, the U.S. government spends more than it makes, and has airily committed itself to ever more unsustainable levels of benefits. GM has about 95,000 workers but provides health benefits to a million people: It’s not a business enterprise, but a vast welfare plan with a tiny loss-making commercial sector. As GM goes, so goes America?

But who cares? Overseas, the coolest president in history was giving a speech. Or, as the official press release headlined it on the State Department website, “President Obama Speaks to the Muslim World from Cairo.”

Let’s pause right there: It’s interesting how easily the words “the Muslim world” roll off the tongues of liberal secular progressives who’d choke on any equivalent reference to “the Christian world.” When such hyper-alert policemen of the perimeter between church and state endorse the former but not the latter, they’re implicitly acknowledging that Islam is not merely a faith but a political project, too. There is an “Organization of the Islamic Conference,” which is already the largest single voting bloc at the U.N. and is still adding new members. Imagine if someone proposed an “Organization of the Christian Conference” that would hold summits attended by prime ministers and presidents, and vote as a bloc in transnational bodies. But, of course, there is no “Christian world”: Europe is largely post-Christian and, as President Obama bizarrely asserted to a European interviewer last week, America is “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.” Perhaps we’re eligible for membership in the OIC.

I suppose the benign interpretation is that, as head of state of the last superpower, Obama is indulging in a little harmless condescension. In his Cairo speech, he congratulated Muslims on inventing algebra and quoted approvingly one of the less bloodcurdling sections of the Koran. As socio-historical scholarship goes, I found myself recalling that moment in the long twilight of the Habsburg Empire when Crown Prince Rudolph and his mistress were found dead at the royal hunting lodge at Mayerling — either a double suicide, or something even more sinister. Happily, in the Broadway musical version, instead of being found dead, the star-crossed lovers emigrate to America and settle down on a farm in Pennsylvania. Recently, my old comrade Stephen Fry gave an amusing lecture at the Royal Geographical Society in London on the popular Americanism “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade” — or, if something’s bitter and hard to swallow, add sugar and sell it. That’s what the president did with Islam: He added sugar and sold it.

The speech nevertheless impressed many conservatives, including Rich Lowry, my esteemed editor at National Review, “esteemed editor” being the sort of thing one says before booting the boss in the crotch. Rich thought that the president succeeded in his principal task: “Fundamentally, Obama's goal was to tell the Muslim world, ‘We respect and value you, your religion and your civilization, and only ask that you don’t hate us and murder us in return.’” But those terms are too narrow. You don’t have to murder a guy if he preemptively surrenders. And you don’t even have to hate him if you’re too busy despising him. The savvier Muslim potentates have no desire to be sitting in a smelly cave in the Hindu Kush sharing a latrine with a dozen halfwitted goatherds while plotting how to blow up the Empire State Building. Nevertheless, they share key goals with the cave dwellers — including the wish to expand the boundaries of “the Muslim world” and (as in the anti-blasphemy push at the U.N.) to place Islam, globally, beyond criticism. The non-terrorist advance of Islam is a significant challenge to western notions of liberty and pluralism.

Once Obama moved on from the more generalized Islamoschmoozing to the details, the subtext — the absence of American will — became explicit. He used the cover of multilateralism and moral equivalence to communicate, consistently, American weakness: “No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons.” Perhaps by “no single nation” he means the “global community” should pick and choose, which means the U.N. Security Council, which means the Big Five, which means that Russia and China will pursue their own murky interests and that, in the absence of American leadership, Britain and France will reach their accommodations with a nuclear Iran, a nuclear North Korea, and any other psycho-state minded to join them.

On the other hand, a “single nation” certainly has the right to tell another nation anything it wants if that nation happens to be the Zionist Entity: As Hillary Clinton just instructed Israel re its West Bank communities, there has to be “a stop to settlements — not some settlements, not outposts, not natural-growth exceptions.” No “natural growth”? You mean, if you and the missus have a kid, you’ve got to talk gran’ma into moving out? To Tel Aviv, or Brooklyn, or wherever? At a stroke, the administration has endorsed “the Muslim world”’s view of those non-Muslims who happen to find themselves within what it regards as lands belonging to Islam: The Jewish and Christian communities are free to stand still or shrink, but not to grow. Would Obama be comfortable mandating “no natural growth” to Israel’s million-and-a-half Muslims? No. But the administration has embraced the “the Muslim world”’s commitment to one-way multiculturalism, whereby Islam expands in the west but Christianity and Judaism shrivel remorselessly in the Middle East.

And so it goes. Like General Motors, America is “too big to fail.” So it won’t, not immediately. It will linger on in a twilight existence sclerotic and ineffectual, declining unto a kind of societal dementia, unable to keep pace with what’s happening and with an ever more tenuous grip on its own past, but able on occasion to throw out impressive words albeit strung together without much meaning: empower, peace, justice, prosperity — just to take one windy gust from the president’s Cairo speech.

There’s better phrase-making in the current issue of Foreign Affairs, in a coinage of Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Committee on Foreign Relations. The president emeritus is a sober, judicious paragon of torpidly conventional wisdom. Nevertheless, musing on American decline, he writes, “The country's economy, infrastructure, public schools, and political system have been allowed to deteriorate. The result has been diminished economic strength, a less vital democracy, and a mediocrity of spirit.” That last is the one to watch: A great power can survive a lot of things, but not “a mediocrity of spirit.” A wealthy nation living on the accumulated cultural capital of a glorious past can dodge its rendezvous with fate, but only for a while. That sound you heard in Cairo is the tingy ping of a hollow superpower.

Vancouver

2009-06-08T23:07:00.000-07:00

Despite a bit of a headache, we decided we couldn't miss the chance to see my cousin and her spouse while they stayed in Vancouver. Shanon tagged along and we headed straight into a traffic jam our side of the bridge. There had been an accident on the bridge and traffic was backed up so far, hubby thought we'd be 2 hours late.
Lucky for us, the clean up was almost done and we were only about 10 minutes late. I called ahead that we'd be a bit late, just to give them a heads up.
We stopped one building too soon and I looked at the hotel's name, saying I didn't think this was it. We asked at the reception and were told the hotel we were looking for was next door. I also asked if they knew about the revolving reastaurant on top of the old Sears tower, was it still in business? Yes, it is.
We told hubby to drive to the next building and we walked over. In the lobby we asked for my cousins and the concierge phoned their room, handing me the phone. They answered and came downstairs right away, after saying hello we moved outside to find hubby.
More greetings and discussion where to go. Stanley park came up. Someone always wants to go up a mountain. We drove to the bottom of Grouse mtn. and Shanon went to check about visibility. They couldn't guarantie a view and later I was told how sinfully expensive the tickets for the gondola were. We decided finally on Stanley Park, had a bit of a traffic jam before the Lion's Gate bridge, because 4 lanes of traffic had to merge into one.
On the bridge one has a beautiful view across the water and at the other end is Stanley Park. We stopped at the tea house for coffee/tea, but first went on a little walk. When Shanon went to use the rest room, she took a long time and we found she'd gone and paid the bill. Sneaky. That was very sweet of her.
After getting back into the car, we drove through the park, where the fallen trees from a storm a couple of years ago could be seen. There are still lots of trees standing and some places the view of the water is awesome.
S. & W. wanted to treat us to dinner, so did Shanon. Some restaurants were mentioned and I suggested the revolving restaurant. S. & W. liked that idea and we went to Gastown, to park and walked to the tower, where an elevator with glass doors takes you up to a viewing deck or to the restaurant.
The view is outstanding. We could see all around to North and West Vancouver, Burnaby the inlet, False Creek and Stanley Park, downtown Vancouver, the harbour, Gastown and the food was 1st class, as was the service. We had fun, our waiter offered to take our picture, a passing patron clowned around and sat with us for a minute and we really enjoyed ourselves and each others company.
Hubby offered to drive to some parts in Vancouver they hadn't seen yet, like UBC, Spanish Banks and the old mansions in that area.
Tomorrow they're off to Victoria, to see some whales, hopefully! Also we're hoping the weather will hold.
Wednesday is a free day until it's time to go to the airport and back to Europe. I'll have to go back to work tomorrow, unless I feel worse.
Shanon will be back in Vancouver on Wednesday, with another friend, to walk along the seawall. I'll be sleeping.

2009-06-08T23:06:00.001-07:00

An Open Letter to President Obama

by Brigitte Gabriel

Dear Mr. President,

You face difficult challenges in matters such as achieving peace in the Middle East and protecting America from the threat of radical Islam and terrorism. These are challenges that have vexed past presidents, going as far back as our second president, John Adams. I have no doubt you appreciate both the gravity of these challenges and the enormous obstacles that exist to solving them.

I also have no doubt that you and your staff understood that, no matter what you said in your speech last Thursday in Cairo, there would be those who would take issue with you. That is always the case when attempting to solve problems that are as deep and emotionally-laden as these challenges are.

I am assuming it is your sincere hope that the approach you have chosen to take, as evidenced by what I’m sure was a carefully crafted speech, will ultimately prove successful. However, it pains me to say this sir, but, while you said in your speech that you are a “student of history,” it is abundantly clear that, in these matters, you do not know history and thus, as Santayana noted, you are doomed to repeat it. In doing so your efforts, however well-intentioned they may be, will not produce what you profess to hope they will produce.

A wise man once said that if you start with the wrong assumptions, no matter how logical your reasoning is, you will end up with the wrong conclusion. With all due respect Mr. President, you are starting with certain assumptions that are unsupported by history and an objective study of the ideology of political Islam.

You began in your speech by asserting that “tensions” exist between the United States and Muslims around the world, which, of course, is correct. Unfortunately, you then proceeded, incorrectly, to lay virtually all the blame for these tensions at the feet of America and the West. You blamed western colonialism, the Cold War, and even modernity and globalism.

A student of American history, who is not trying to reconstruct it to fit a modern politically correct narrative, would state that tensions between America and Muslims began with the unprovoked, four-decades long assault by the Muslim Barbary pirates against American shipping in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. I find it telling that you mentioned the Treaty of Tripoli in your speech but ignored the circumstances that led to it. That treaty was but one of numerous attempts by the United States to achieve peace with the jihadists of the Barbary Coast who were attacking our shipping and killing and enslaving our citizens and our soldiers – and who by their own admission were doing so to fulfill the call to jihad.

These jihadists were not acting to protest American foreign policy, which was decidedly isolationist, and there was no state of Israel to scapegoat. They were doing what countless Islamic jihadists have done throughout history – acting upon the hundreds of passages in the Qur’an and the Hadith that call upon faithful Muslims to kill, conquer or subjugate the infidel.

A student of world history would know that, for all the acknowledged evils of Western colonialism, these evils pale in comparison to the nearly 14 centuries of Islamic colonialism that began in Arabia under the leadership of Mohammed. The student of history would know that Islamic forces eradicated all Jewish and Christian presence from Arabia after Mohammed’s death, and then succeeded in conquering all of North Africa, most of the Middle East, much of Asia Minor, and significant portions of Europe and India – eventually creating an empire larger than Rome’s was at its peak.

The number of dead and enslaved during these many centuries of Islamic imperial conquest and colonialism have been estimated to total more than 300 million. What’s more, the wealth of many of the conquered nations and cultures was plundered by the Islamic conquerors, and millions of millions of non-Muslims who did survive were forced to pay onerous taxes, such as the “jizya,” a humiliation tax to the Islamic caliphs. Indeed, in some areas Christians and Jews were made to wear a receipt for the jizya around their neck as a mark of their dishonor.

These facts have not been invented by Christian or Jewish historical revisionists, but were chronicled by Muslim eyewitnesses throughout the past 14 centuries and are available to be researched by any person seeking an objective understanding of how Islam spread throughout the world.

You say in your speech that we must squarely face the tensions that exist between America and the Muslim world. That is a laudable notion with which I agree, but by casting Islam as the historical victim and the West (and by implication, America) as the aggressor, you do not face these tensions squarely, but alleviate the Muslim world from coming to grips with the jihadist ideology embedded in its holy books and acted upon for 1,400 years.

Even worse, you empower and embolden militant Islamists who regard your gestures as signs of weakness and capitulation.

The issue is not that all Muslims are terrorists or radicals or extremists. We all know that the majority of Muslims are not. We also know that many peace-loving Muslims are victims of Islamist violence.

The issue is this: what drives hundreds of millions of Muslims worldwide to call for the death of Jews?

What drives millions of Muslims to riot, destroy property, and take innocent lives in reaction to the Danish cartoons?

What drives tens of thousands of Muslims to demand the execution of a British teacher whose only “crime” was allowing her students to name their teddy bears “Mohammed”?

What drives countless Muslims worldwide to actively participate in, or fund, or provide nurture to, terrorist organizations?

What drives Muslims in mosques in America to proclaim and distribute materials that call for hatred of and the destruction of infidels?

What drives entire Islamic countries to prohibit the building of a Christian church or synagogue?

To assume, as you apparently do, that what drives these actions is not an ideology embedded in the holy books of Islam, but rather other “root causes,” most of which you lay at the feet of America and the West, is at best naïve and at worst dangerous.

Lastly, I must address your statement that “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance.” Unfortunately, the examples you gave are the exception rather than the rule.

Historically speaking, I seriously doubt the Egyptian Copts, the Lebanese Maronites, the Christians in Bethlehem, the Assyrians, the Hindus, the Jews, and many others who have been persecuted by Islamic violence and supremacism, would agree with your assertion.

For instance, Christians and Jews became “Dhimmis,” a second class group under Islam. Dhimmis were forced to wear distinctive clothing; it was Baghdad’s Caliph Al-Mutawakkil, in the ninth century, who designated a yellow badge for Jews under Islam, which Hitler copied and duplicated in Nazi Germany nearly a thousand years later.

I witnessed first-hand the “tolerance” of Islam when Islamists ravaged my country of birth, Lebanon, in the 1970’s, leaving widespread death and destruction in their wake. I saw how they re-paid the tolerance that Lebanese Christians extended toward them. My experience is not an isolated one. When you make an unfounded assertion about the “proud tradition” of tolerance in Islam, you do a great disservice to the hundreds of millions of non-Muslims who have been killed, maimed, enslaved, conquered, subjugated or displaced – in the cause of Islamic jihad.

Mr. President, those of us like me who are ringing the alarm in America about the threat of radical Islam would like nothing better than to peacefully co-exist with the Muslim world. Most Americans would like nothing better than to peacefully co-exist with the Muslim world. The obstacle to achieving this does not lie with us in America and the West. It lies with the hundreds of millions of Muslims worldwide, including many of their spiritual leaders, who take seriously the repeated calls to jihad in the Qur’an and the Hadith. Who regard “infidels” as inferior and worthy of conquering, subjugating and forcibly converting. Who support “cultural jihad” as a means to subvert non-Muslim societies from within. Who take seriously the admonitions throughout the Qur’an and the Hadith to convert the world to Islam – by force if necessary – and bring it under the rule of Allah.

Unless you are willing to courageously and honestly accept this, your aspirations for worldwide comity and peace in the Middle East are doomed to fail.

Sincerely,

Brigitte Gabriel

Brigitte Gabriel is the New York Times bestselling author of They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It. She is the founder and president of ACT! for America, www.ActforAmerica.org.

Bad timing for a flu

2009-06-08T02:04:00.000-07:00

Poor little Ashton has the flu. He stayed here with dad on Saturday and later I watched him. He'd gotten sick when dad gave him something to eat and dad thought it was just Ashton not liking it, but when I gave him dinner, he got sick again. He was eating alright but then it wouldn't stay down. He doesn't even complain. He just calmly lets it go the 'wrong' way. Bath time!
By Sunday morning he was feeling hot and I checked his temperature, it was 37.6; a bit too high for normal. He'd slept 12 hours! Sunday was also his 2. sister's birthday and dad took him to the party. I told him not to give Ashton hotdogs, or he'd get sick for sure. I guess he didn't hear me and mom gave Ashton some of a hot dog and he got sick.
I'd given him some baby tylenol, only cammomile tea to drink and a bit of birchermuesli for breakfast. He was able to keep that down.
I started getting a bit of a headache and later hubby mentioned starting to feel unwell. Great, we're supposed to meet up with my cousins who are in Vancouver today.
Do I go and probably pass on the bug or not go see them? What lousy timing. I even took 2 days (nights) off from work, so I could enjoy visiting with them and not have to worry about going to work.
Shanon is still feeling fine. I'll see if we feel any better. :(

Recession hits home

2009-06-05T13:43:00.000-07:00

Hubby went off to work this morning only to find out that he'd been laid off. He's very good at graphic design, designing adds and such. Has had awards for designs. Anyone need a great graphic artist?

2009-06-04T06:05:00.000-07:00

Another day, another dollar. One more night, then a long weekend. I'm taking next Monday and Tuesday off, because my cousin and husband are coming to town. They're on a tour of the Rockies, up through the States, to Vancouver, where they'll go whale watching among other things and we plan to meet up.
This morning we finished early again and I called Shanon to see if she'd give me a ride home on her way to work. She's very upset with some of the things people do at work. It helps her to have someone listen to her grievances and I'm a good sounding board. I hope today she'll have a better day than yesterday.
Hubby phoned a mac computer store, and amazingly, they had a cord for the laptop. He misses it more than me! As he went to pick it up, happily using his new GPS and the airconditioner, probably the radio or his ipod, he drained the car battery.
I'm glad I'm not the only one doing silly things. I had to walk to work.
My wrists hurt from work :(
K. is still having problems, still bleeding. Yesterday she got a check up by the surgeon.
We have a family here in Vancouver, that came from Russia and because the father had worked for the KGB, Canada wants to deport him. Immigration officials say he's a security risk. I say bull.. He and his wife and son have lived and worked here for years and been good, law abiding citizens. The son and his mother are allowed to stay, but the dad has to leave. How stupid is that? Tear families apart? I would think that it would not be going well for him back in Putin's Russia. He left, he's said he didn't like the KGB.... I see no reason why he cannot stay.
I remember when immigration sent back a Chinese refugee claimant, because he/she said they were facing persecution because they're Christian, but because that person didn't know who the Pope was, immigration didn't believe them. Not everyone is Roman Catholic! In China many Christians don't even have a Bible, they're lucky to have part of it; they're isolated from the rest of the world. I just couldn't believe how stupid immigration pencil pushers can be!! They have no compassion. They go after families that work, contribute to society, but leave the drug pushers.
A church has now given the Russian man sanctuary. Good for them!
There's a push from ordinary people and some elected officials to get immigration to change their mind.
I just read about another couple, I guess she's Canadian and he's from SA. Immigration is wanting to deport him too. They have 4 daughters and the wife is expecting another baby. Obviously he's been here awhile. It should be like court cases, if the matter cannot be processed in a reasonable amount of time, then they shouldn't get deported, unless they're comitting crimes.
Anyway, tired. Ciao.

2009-06-03T07:17:00.000-07:00

ooooohhhh I'm tired, I'm achy, I can barely talk. Hubby is back, brought chocolates and yesterday Shanon came by to pick up hers. The weather is beautiful, great for walking home in the morning.
Our local paper sent a reporter around, she came and talked to me and the story is apparently on the front page. My boss joked about my being in the paper, but there's no photo and only my first name. I'll have to get one so I can read it. We don't get that paper anymore, they can't find anyone to deliver it.
Yawn. 'Nights.