Not Just the Unborn

Stop the silliness

2006-10-24T23:54:00.000-04:00

Vegemite crackdown fears roil expats.

It's illegal to bring Vegemite, that yeast spread Aussies so love, into the US, because it contains folate and the FDA has only approved folate as an additive in certain foods. Give me a break!

This is on the one hand so small a matter as to hardly seem worth getting roiled up about, but on the other hand, what business does the FDA have banning a food because it contains a freaking nutrient!

I've smelled Vegemite and that convinced me never to taste Vegemite, but if the Aussies want to bring their Vegemite in to the US, I say more power to them! Stores should be allowed to import and sell Vegemite so that expats can enjoy their favorite spread, and so that Americans can be exposed to this uniquely Australian .... um ... substance. (Can't say "treat;" sorry!)

What's really bizarre is that women are being told to make sure they get enough folate, because folate prevents spina bifida and anencephaly. Here's a handy folate source and it's freaking banned? Whatup with that?

FDA, get your head from out your butts! Free Vegemite!

World Vision Christmas shopping list

2006-10-17T10:42:00.000-04:00

Medical care seem to be more expensive at World Vision than at Mercy Ships, possibly because Mercy Ships relies so much on in-kind donations. So they don't have to pay a doctor or for the OR, they just have to pay for the actual surgical supplies.

Nevertheless, many things in the World Vision catalogue are exciting, and they're available for giving in a wide price range:

A fish pond for a community: $200.

Water treatment tablets to enable 250 kids to get safe water at school for a year: Just $50.

A prenatal, delivery, and postnatal care kit can increase survival and health for mother and baby: $116.

Provide a girl in China with education for a year: $350.

Provide an older child or adult with a marketable skill: $50.

Provide a child with school supplies: $32.

Provide a disabled person with a wheelchair: $14. (The wheelchairs are donated by Free Wheelchair Mission; World Vision just needs help with the shipping costs.)

Provide an injured person with a prosthetic limb: $1120

Educate an African orphan for a year: $70.

Warm, portable shelter for a Mongolian family: $1862.

Provide a family with a clean, safe stove that requires less fuel than their traditional fire pits: $150.

Provide a family with ten fruit trees: $65.

Provide high-quality crop seeds for a family: $17.

Christmas shopping season is just around the corner

2006-10-15T01:24:00.000-04:00

Consider making a donation to Mercy Ships in a loved one's name.

Just some of the gifts you can give:

$25 to provide eyeglasses for five people, $50 to correct crossed eyes, $150 for cataract surgery.

Just $125 can save a child's life by correcting cleft lip and palate, enabling him to eat.

$250 to remove a disfiguring, and possibly life-threatening, tumor.

$500 to provide potable water from a well.

Or you can help a woman set up a small, self-sustaining agricultural project so she can support her family.

Set up two snail farms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $12
Set up five mushroom farms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15
Set up a rabbit farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $19
Buy a bee hive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $59

I'm considering trying to raise money among the expats here to set up a health clinic.

Latest celebrity fashion accessory: The African baby

2006-10-14T23:44:00.000-04:00

Madonna, who has everything else she could want, has bought an African child. His family wants him but they are desperately poor. So instead of using her millions to help them earn a better living, she spread a lot of cash around and is taking their child away.

This man has already lost his wife and two children. Now his last child, picked out like a handbag by a shameless publicity hound, is being taken away from him. Under false pretenses, no less.

"People are trying to make a big deal of it..."

2006-10-10T09:49:00.000-04:00

Thus spake Deangelo Troop, the man whose girlfriend used their baby as a weapon to beat him.

The baby suffered a fractured skull and a brain bleed, and there the father is saying it's not a big deal. It wasn't that the mother intended to pick up the baby and use him as a truncheon. She was just so drunk that she didn't realize that what she was pelting the man with was her baby.

I'm sorry, but being so wasted that you mistake your baby for an inanimate object is every bit as problematic as deliberately using the baby as a billy club. And the man is just as appalling for thinking it's no big deal.

This woman has five kids, including the battered baby. All five need to be placed in an adoptive home where their mother and that man (the father of two of them) can never, never get close to them again.

And neither of these moral imbeciles should be turned loose on the streets again unless their reproductive organs are taken out and run down a garbage disposal. If you don't know it's wrong to be drunk off your skull when you're caring for children, you have no sense of right or wrong in the first place. And you're certainly unfit to be a parent.

Nobody deserves this, but especially not the Amish

2006-10-03T00:45:00.000-04:00

Fourth girl dies after Amish school shooting

These are people who mind their own business and never bother anybody. And this guy does this to them.

Nobody's kids deserve this, no family deserves this, but it just seems extra-nasty to pick people as peaceful and harmless as the Amish, who never so much as speak an unkind word to outsiders. (I don't know how they treat each other.)

Dentist belongs in jail for killing little girl

2006-10-01T19:27:00.000-04:00

Dentist Suspended After Patient's Death

This guy massively dosed a 5-year-old girl with drugs for dental work, then failed to monitor her vitals, then failed to resuscitate.

Then he lied and said she was alert when she was actually already in a coma.

His dental license has been yanked and he faces fines, but that hardly seems adequate.

WHO approves use of DDT!!!!

2006-09-16T23:28:00.000-04:00

WHO Ok’s use of DDT
Children's lives are being put ahead of politics! Praise God! And thank you, World Health Organization!

Pass it on: Document shredder danger!!!

2006-08-18T11:18:00.000-04:00

WARNING! EXTREMELY DISTURBING CONTENT!!! Household paper shredders can pose a danger to children and pets.

Read it yourself if you must, but if it doesn't leave you absolutely sick you have no heart. Helpless children and pets have been horribly injured by document shredders in the home. It's heartbreaking. Many document shredders have no safety features to keep little fingers, or pets paws, ears, and tongues from being pulled in and utterly mangled. These shredders are powerful and the damage is permanent. Pets have had to be euthanized. And children have lost fingers.

Bring your documents to work and shred them at the office until the manufacturers start putting safeguards on these things!

Pass it on! Even one more child or pet injured, even one more family traumatized, is too many!

Ohio pedophile claimes religious right to sex with boys

2006-08-03T11:06:00.000-04:00

NBC10.com - Local News - Ohio Man Claims Right To Have Sex With Boys

This ambulatory pocket of evil sexually abused disabled young boys -- almost all under the age of 13 -- and is now claiming that the apartment where the abuse took place is a religious sanctuary and that the boys were his congregants, willingly participating in sacred rituals.

The perpetrator gained access to the children by running an alternative school for autistic kids.

Evil stepmother not just a fairy-tale staple

2006-07-22T16:35:00.000-04:00

Kansas Police Find Two Starving Girls in Parents' Basement

Police found two emaciated girls, ages 6 and 7, were found secluded in a Wichita basement. They told police that they were only ever given food when their father, who travels frequently on business, was at home. Their stepsiblings, ages 4 and 8, were kept upstairs in the house proper, well-fed and healthy.

The stepchildren are in foster care. The little girls themselves are hospitalized, being treated for starvation.

Words fail me.

China: Gutting political prisoners for ograns?

2006-07-17T19:31:00.000-04:00

China 'harvests live organs':

A former Canadian cabinet member and a human rights lawyer issued a report on Thursday alleging China harvests organs from unwilling live prison inmates, mostly Falun Gong practitioners, for transplants on a large scale.

The report's authors ... implicated dozens of hospitals and jails throughout China after a two-month investigation.

The pair also identified some 41,500 suspect transplants in China since 2000, saying they were unable to track the source of the organs used.

China harvesting Falun Gong organs, report alleges:

China is harvesting organs from live Falun Gong prisoners without consent and destroying their remains, says a report from a former Liberal MP and a Canadian human rights lawyer.

....

Followers of Falun Gong say it is a spiritual movement to improve physical and mental health, while the Chinese government considers it a cult, banning it in 1999.

....

Of the 60,000 organ transplants the China Medical Organ Transplant Association recorded between 2000 and 2005, 18,500 of those organs came from identifiable sources, said the report.

....

The report quotes an organ price list on a website for a transplant centre in Shenyang City, which offers corneas for $30,000 US, kidneys for $62,000 US, livers for $130,000 US and lungs for up to $170,000 US.

....

Kilgour pointed to an interview with the ex-wife of a Chinese surgeon who allegedly removed the corneas from 2,000 euthanized Falun Gong prisoners over a two-year period. All died and their bodies were burned, said the woman, who was not identified.

Report backs organ harvest claim:

A respected Canadian human rights lawyer and a former Canadian Cabinet member have lent their weight to charges that China has been killing Falun Gong dissidents so it can use their organs.

....

Kilgour released the transcript of an interview he conducted with a woman who said her former husband, a surgeon, had taken corneas from 2000 people over two years. She said the victims would first be given an injection to cause heart failure.

China kills for organs, says report:

The lawyer, David Matas, and the former secretary of state for Asia and the Pacific, David Kilgour, spent two months investigating the accusations, which China has regularly denied.

"It is simply inescapable that this is going on," Mr Kilgour told reporters on Thursday as he and Mr Matas released their findings.

Family needs help to care for baby, beating the odds

2006-07-09T18:39:00.000-04:00

Fragile fighter: Community pulls together to help ill infant

Cameron was born with alobar holoprosencephaly (HPE) -- when he was an embryo, his brain didn't separate into hemispheres. It's estimated to affect as many as one in 250 pregnancies, but only 3 percent of those pregnancies result in live births, reports the Carter Centers for Brain Research in Holoprosencephaly in Dallas.

Baby Cameron has beaten the odds just by surviving until birth, and he's passing milestones doctors said he'd never meet.

His mother describes him as "a very happy, sweet, loving baby."

HT: My Domestic Church

If you are interested in contributing money to help Cameron, contact Assistant Chief P.K. Johnson or Sgt. Robby Johnson with the Millbrook Police Department at 334-285-6832.

Man talking, joking after 20 unresponsive years

2006-07-04T09:34:00.000-04:00

Doctors have their first proof that a man who was barely conscious for nearly 20 years regained speech and movement because his brain spontaneously rewired itself by growing tiny new nerve connections to replace the ones sheared apart in a car crash.

Doctors: Comatose man's brain rewires

Let's not be in such a hurry to declare people dead.

Urgent Down syndrome adoption need

2006-06-24T22:47:00.000-04:00

The Chinese government has opened a six-day window for a family to choose a little boy with Down Syndrome. If the boy is chosen in those six days, the Chinese government will consider allowing international adoption of other kids with DS. If the boy doesn't have a family ready to commit in six days, they will withdraw permission to permit adoption and will not allow other DS kids to be adopted out internationally.

Urgent adoption need - Chinese baby with Down syndrome

The Myth of Religious Tolerance

2006-06-24T22:06:00.000-04:00

From Crisis Magazine

Voltaire took Thomas Aquinas to task for having dared to say that he wished all the world were Christian, accusing him of being intolerant. But for Aquinas, that was the same as saying he wished all men to be happy. Few would consider it intolerant to wish all people to be healthy or well-educated (though this implies “intolerance” toward ignorance and illness), and for Aquinas the Christian faith was a greater good than health and education.

Sleeping pill to be tested on "PVS" patients

2006-06-10T21:13:00.000-04:00

IOL: Sleeping pill 'woke up' man in coma
In an article about a young man awakened from a "persistent vegetative state" by a sleeping pill:

In the coming months, British company ReGen will begin clinical trials with Zolpidem on 30 coma patients in South Africa, in the hope that the drug will also bring them back to life.

How many more will be put to death for the crime of being disabled, while the clinical trials are going on?

Not Just the Unborn - War hero denied religious marker

2006-06-07T23:35:00.000-04:00

Not Just the Unborn - Stand Up, Stand Up for Wicca - Christianity Today Magazine
A self-identified Wiccan dies in the line of duty, and the Department of Veterans Affairs refuses to allow his widow to put the Wiccan symbol on his grave marker. That's just wrong.

War hero denied religious symbol on grave marker

2006-06-07T23:29:00.000-04:00

Stand Up, Stand Up for Wicca - Christianity Today Magazine

Amidst a sea of memorial plaques at the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery, one space remains blank.

That space is waiting to be filled by a plaque honoring the life and sacrifice of 34-year-old Sgt. Patrick Stewart, who was killed in action on September 25, 2005, when his helicopter was struck with a rocket-propelled grenade as it flew over Afghanistan. But it may be some time before Sgt. Stewart is remembered with a memorial plaque. That's because his war widow and the Department of Veterans Affairs are at odds over the Stewart family's request to have the Wiccan pentacle, a five-pointed star surrounded by a circle, placed on the plaque. As of May 31, 2006, government officials have refused to allow the Wiccan symbol to be placed on Stewart's plaque.

Sgt. Stewart identified himself as belonging to the Wiccan faith.

Now personally I consider Wicca to be downright silly. But it was Sgt. Stewart's identified faith. We still have freedom of religion in this country. And Sgt. Stewart's widow is right to stay firm on this. And the Department of Veterans Affairs is wrong.

I don't care if a service member self-identifies as Bokononist (a fictitious religion Kurt Vonnegut Jr. introduced in Cat's Cradle), a Wiccan, or even a Satanist. He's an American, he's entitled to have his religious symbol on his grave marker. And if the Department of Veterans Affairs puts other religious symbols on grave markers, it should put whatever symbol denotes the servicemember's religion, even if that religion is not mainstream.

C-FAM addressing sex-trafficing for World Cup

2006-05-26T20:36:00.000-04:00

WorldNetDaily: 40,000 women 'sex trafficked' for World Cup

In response to reports that 40,000 young women will be brought to Germany from Central and Eastern Europe to "sexually service" men attending the World Cup soccer championship next month, a Catholic group warns that many are desperately poor and will be "sex trafficked" against their will.

Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, or C-FAM, has launched a "Stop World Cup Prostitution" campaign on its website.

C-FAM said that most women are lured into prostitution with promises of jobs as models or waitresses. C-FAM expressed especially disgust at the support the German government is giving to the importation of young women as sexual commodities.

Because the German red light districts are too small to accommodate the soccer fans, the country''s sex industry has built a massive prostitution complex, including a "mega-brothel" in Berlin, next to the main World Cup venue, that can accommodate 650 male clients.

Wooden "sex huts" or "performance boxes" have been built in fenced-in areas the size of a football field, with condoms, showers and parking and a special focus on protecting the customers' anonymity.

Oh. My. God. Baby loses hand during candy factory tour

2006-05-15T11:47:00.000-04:00

Baby's Hand Severed At Chocolate Factory

This is just terrible for everybody. The baby was with her family on an annual Mother's Day tour of the factory when she got her left hand caught in a conveyer belt. Factory employees retrieved the baby's hand, but there is no word about whether or not it was successfully reattached.

Words can't convey how wretched everybody must feel -- the poor parents, the workers who were there, the EMS workers... And that poor baby, just reaching out an innocent little hand...

Prayers, prayers, prayers.

CASA for children: Court-Appointed Special Advocates

2006-05-14T12:15:00.000-04:00

CASA

Concerned over making decisions about abused and neglected children's lives without sufficient information, a Seattle judge conceived the idea of using trained community volunteers to speak for the best interests of these children in court. So successful was this Seattle program that soon judges across the country began utilizing citizen advocates. In 1990, the U.S. Congress encouraged the expansion of CASA with passage of the Victims of Child Abuse Act. Today more than 900 CASA program offices are in operation, with trained women and men serving as CASA volunteers. CASA is an acronym for Court Appointed Special Advocate.

You don't need a degree to be an advocate for a child. Training is provided. You would then become an advocate for a child that might otherwise get lost in the foster care system.

Hip-Hop DJ fired, may face jail. Big surprise.

2006-05-12T07:33:00.000-04:00

DJ Fired for Threatening to Sexually Assault 4-Year-Old

[A] syndicated hip-hop disc jockey was being investigated ... after making threatening racial and sexual remarks about a rival's wife and 4-year-old daughter....

The New York Police Department's Hate Crime Task Force launched the probe after the chief of detectives reviewed a transcript of DJ Star's on-air comments about DJ Envy and his family, said police spokesman Paul Browne.

Star, whose real name is Troi Torain, apologized on Thursday through his attorney....

....

In the comments ... Torain ... offered $500 to any listener who could provide information about the rival DJ's daughter's school and used racial slurs when talking about his wife, who is part Asian.

"I will come for your kids," Torain said.... "I finally got the information on his slant-eyed, whore wife."

Torain also called the couple's child a "little half a lo mein eater" and said he wanted to "do an R. Kelly on your seed, on your little baby girl. I would like to tinkle on her," according to the excerpts.

The comments apparently were referring to videotapes in 2002 showing a man bearing a strong resemblance to singer R. Kelly having sex with someone who appeared to be an underage girl and then urinating on her.

This hardly surprises me. I have a temporary job that requires me to ride for hours at a time in a van full of hip-hop fans, and it's a rare one of them that seems to have any sense of basic human decency. They're almost uniformly obnoxious, demanding, foul-mouthed, rude, inconsiderate, and unpleasant. Imagine oversexed, larcenous, chain-smoking toddlers from Hell and you'll have an idea. Imagine trying to drive a vanload of these people anyplace. The driver gets heaped with constant abuse and demands screamed in his ear at a volume that could crack concrete. And their number one demand is that the radio constantly blare a hip-hop station. (If the driver doesn't comply, one of them will leap out of her seat and commandeer the radio. And if the driver dares to change the station, turn down the volume, or -- God forbid! -- turn the radio off, the abuse is jacked up to a new level.)

I've not noticed any sense of right or wrong among them. It's purely about what they want. And they want it NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW! There's no filter on what comes out their mouths, and most of what comes out is ugly indeed.

They use the cup holders for ash trays, even though the driver could get fired for "permitting" smoking in the van. As if he could stop it. They litter the seats and floor with dropped food and trash. And the curses fly. Constantly. No noun goes unadorned with "f-ing". Most verbs are adorned likewise. There are demands to know why the driver "f-ing" chose the "f-ing" route he's "f-ing" driving, even though they know that the driver is following directions given to him by his supervisor. There are demands to "f-ing" stop to "f-ing" urinate and "f-ing" deficate and "f-ing" buy more "f-ing" cigarettes. Followed by demands that the driver "f-ing" drive "f-ing" faster to make up for the time lost in these pit stops, as if the delay is the driver's fault. And all of this at an ear-spitting volume.

They brag up their exploits in theft. A favorite is to break into vacant buildings and rip out the pipes, though cracking into vending machines takes a close second. Shoplifting and pilfering are also popular. They exchange tips on how to pull off these crimes. I'm not clear at all on why they supplement their criminal income with wages at all, unless it's a condition of their parole that they be employed.

When we get put up in motels out of town, the party begins. Fresh abuse is heaped on the hapless driver if the motel is not a quick walk to a bar or a liquor store - though the driver doesn't choose the motel. Then the agruments start about who will pay for the taxi for a booze run. Boastful stories abound of trashed rooms, encounters with the police, drugs and memory lapses. And indignation is a common theme. How dare the boss have fired so-and-so just because he smashed those beer bottles on parked cars outside the motel? Or just because he showed up for work stoned out of his mind? Or just because he heaped curses and abuse on some hapless desk clerk who tried to halt a particularly rowdy party? Some motels won't rent rooms to the company any more. Surprised? (Though the risk of being fired does make the worst of the parties -- or best, depending on your point of view -- unusual. The typical party seems to be just drinking and smoking pot until they run out of beer and whisky and then stagger back to their respective rooms or pass out where they are. Imagine for yourself how bright and cheerful they are when they tumble out of bed for work in the morning.)

This isn't a racial issue. The worst offender in the screaming-obscenities-in-the-driver's-ear department and the commandeering-the-radio depatment is a tiny pale waif with blond hair and blue eyes and a mouth that would make a sailor blush. It's the soul that's dark, not the skin.

I'm not saying hip-hop causes this sort of attitude and behavior, but it celebrates, elevates, and legitimizes it. It certainly reinforces it. It's both a symptom and a food. And the demand to up the ante, to get meaner and uglier, continues. Is it any surprise that somebody whose job is to cater to these people threatens to rape a preschooler? Why not, in a culture that's all about anger, gratification, and simply taking what you want?

What happens when the government meddles

2006-05-12T07:24:00.000-04:00

Medical charity illegal, government says

In the late 1960s, Dr. James Baker of Aberdeen WA charged $8.00 for a standard office consultation. But when a patient on blood pressure medicine came in to have blood pressure checked, Dr. Baker couldn't justify charging the full $8.00 so he charged a more charitable $4.00 instead.

Because the government had to get the best price, the Medicare bureaucrats informed the doctor that as far as the Medicare program was concerned his fee for his standard office consultation was actually $4.00, not $8. So, the government would pay him or reimburse patients the usual 80 percent, or $3.20.

Oh, yes, and he better try really hard to collect that other 80 cents or the government would conclude that his usual fee was actually only $3.20, and the government would pay 80 percent of that, or $2.56; the formula spirals downward from there.

So, if a doctor charitably charged less to poor patients, the government paid the doctor no more than the fee paid by these charity patients.

Which may explain why my family practice clinic now charges $68 for what used to be a $35 office visit, hence putting going to the doctor out of my budget reach. And I'm betting I'm not the only one suffering because of this sort of thing.

Good news for folks in developing nations on the DDT/malaria front

2006-05-06T12:07:00.000-04:00

DDT: A Weapon of Mass Survival

The U.S. Government has finally begun to reverse policy on the insecticide DDT. Let's hope that this policy shift represents the beginning of the end of what can only be called a crime against humanity: the decades-old withholding of the world's most effective anti-malarial weapon from billions of adults and children at risk of dying from the disease.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) told the Washington Times this week (May 3) that it endorses and will fund the indoor spraying of DDT in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria kills more than one million Africans annually, mostly children under five and pregnant women.

....

USAID reportedly will use about 20 percent of its $99 billion budget to fund indoor spraying with DDT, according to the Times. "Between 1 million and 1.5 million people will be protected," a USAID official told the Times.

It's about freaking time! How many millions of people have died needlessly? Let's get the ball rolling on this!

The policy change is timely given a recent commentary published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet (April 25) in which a number of researchers accuse the World Bank of deception and medical malpractice in the struggle against malaria.

The researchers charge that the World Bank reneged on its promise to spend $300 million to $500 million for malaria control in Africa; concealed the actual amount of its expenditures; reduced its staff of malaria experts from seven to zero shortly after promising to do more to fight the disease; published false epidemiological studies to exaggerate the performance of its projects; and funded clinically obsolete treatments, against the World Health Organization’s advice, for malaria in India.

The Lords of Poverty were cheating and lying? Who woulda thunk it!

There never was any scientific evidence that DDT posed a risk to humans or wildlife. ....

DDT was nonethless banned in the U.S. when then-EPA administrator William Ruckleshaus reversed without explanation the decision of the judge who actually heard all the DDT testimony – Ruckleshaus heard none of it and never read any of the transcript. As it was later revealed, Ruckleshaus was a member of the Audubon Society and raised money for the Environmental Defense Fund – the two activist groups that led the charge for the DDT ban.

The fix was in for DDT, as environmental activists subsequently exported the ban to the rest of the world – with horrific consequences, including tens of millions killed and billions made ill by malaria over time.

So a few troublemakers get a wild hair up their asses, and millions -- mostly children and pregnant mothers -- die a horrible, needless death as a result. This is a crime against humanity and I wish that the perpetrators could be held accountable.

For more information, see Three Billion and Counting.

New autopsy raises allegations about teen's death at "boot camp"

2006-05-06T12:01:00.000-04:00

New Autopsy Finds Fla. Boot Camp Victim Suffocated by Guards

TAMPA, Fla. — A 14-year-old boy ... at a juvenile boot camp died because the sheriff's officials suffocated him, a medical examiner said Friday, contradicting a colleague who blamed the death on a usually benign blood disorder.

"Martin Anderson's death was caused by suffocation due to actions of the guards at the boot camp," said Dr. Vernard Adams, who conducted the second autopsy.

Adams said the suffocation was caused by hands blocking the boy's mouth, as well as the "forced inhalation of ammonia fumes" that caused his vocal cords to spasm, blocking his upper airway.

....

Martin Lee Anderson's body was exhumed after a camp surveillance videotape surfaced showing the guards roughing him up and shoving ammonia pills up his nose Jan. 5, a day before he died. ....

....

No one has been arrested in connection with the death, which sparked protests at the state Capitol, forced lawmakers to scrap the military-style camps and led to the resignation of the state's top law enforcement officer.

....

The videotape shows Anderson being kneed, struck and dragged by guards on his first day at the Bay County Sheriff's boot camp for juvenile offenders. He was eventually taken to a Pensacola hospital, where he died a few hours later.

....

Anderson had collapsed while doing push-ups, sit-ups, running laps and other exercises that were part of his admission process at the camp. The sheriff's office said force was used on Anderson because he was uncooperative.

He had been sent to the boot camp for violating probation by trespassing at a school after he and his cousins were charged with stealing their grandmother's car from a church parking lot.

Yeah, we need to teach teen offenders some discipline, but abuse is not discipline.

Important new link in the sidebar

2006-04-30T13:54:00.000-04:00

I've added a link to Operation Lifesaver, a rail safety education site. A girl from the church I attended in Texas was killed at a railroad crossing, less than a quarter mile from her home, on her way to school. She was in a hurry and running late and evidently never saw the train coming.

In 1972, when Operation Lifesaver began, there were approximately 12,000 collisions between trains and motor vehicles annually. By 2005, the most recent year for which final statistics are available, the number of train/motor vehicle collisions had been reduced by approximately 75% to 3,010. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) within the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) is responsible for collecting information about highway-rail grade crossing and pedestrian/trespasser incidents.

Fatalities have falled from 728 to 355.

Operation Lifesaver has a great set of PSAs available here.

Don't race trains to the crossing. Stop, look, listen. Don't drive around gates. Abandon a stalled car. Always check for a second train before proceeding.

And if your car does stall and you have to abandon it, move away from it toward the oncoming train, at an angle away from the tracks. This will prevent flying debris from hitting you.

What happened in the Sago mine

2006-04-30T08:26:00.000-04:00

From Snopes.com:

At least four of the miners' air packs did not function, so McCloy shared his own rescuer with another miner, and the miners trapped with him shared theirs with the other three men whose own devices did not work.

1. God bless these men for behaving so selflessly in a life-or-death situation.

2. Shame on the Sago mine owners/operators for sending men in with not just insufficient but broken lifesaving equipment! These guys deserve not just to get their butts sued off, but to be charged with negligent homicide in the deaths of those miners.

Clear thinking on physician-assisted suicide

2006-04-29T13:56:00.000-04:00

Crisis Magazine has a great article, Five Strategies for Talking to Democrats About Euthanasia. This works you through ways to address the underlying problems that lead people to support PAS, like lack of understanding of pain management or clinical depression in the chronically or terminally ill.

Take your fingers out of your ears, people!

2006-04-28T23:03:00.000-04:00

Harvey Robinson, adolescent serial killer - the Crime Library - The Crime library

Joan May Burghardt, 29, ... had reported that someone had entered her apartment by cutting through a screen door. She assured her parents that she would be more careful about locking her doors and windows, but two days later, on August 9, 1992, she was unaware that a man watched her through a window as she began to undress. She entered the living room with some milk and cookies, and suddenly the man tore through the front window screen and came at her, smacking her so hard in the head he knocked her glasses off and spattered the wall with her blood. Although trapped, she managed to run past this intruder and get to a room where she pounded on the wall and screamed for help. In fact, a neighbor on the floor above her heard her but declined to do anything.

The intruder turned on the television, increasing the volume over her screams. Other neighbors reportedly heard this, but no one intervened or asked her to turn it down. The intruder bludgeoned Burghardt with a blunt weapon until she fell to the floor and kept hitting her in a rage, delivering some thirty-seven blows to her head. The impact was so hard that he drove strands of her hair into the skull fractures. Once he was certain she was dead, he looked for a pair of her panties in a drawer and then used them to masturbate over her prostrate body.

My friend's sister, likewise, was brutally murdered in her apartment. Not one neighbor was moved by her screams to call 911 or to do anything to investigate.

If you hear a woman screaming, screaming, screaming, do something! Wouldn't you rather call 911 about a loud fight, or even over a movie being played too loud, than be one of the indifferent neighbors who fail to call the police while a woman is murdered virtually under their noses?

These cases never fail to outrage me. That ordinary people can put their fingers in their ears while a woman is murdered -- loudly, brutally, horribly murdered -- because they can't be bothered. They think surely somebody else will call. Whatever excuse they make up.

Consider a donation to Downi Creations and Band of Angels

2006-04-28T16:58:00.000-04:00

Downi Creations: These beautiful dolls can be used to educate people about Down Syndrome. Downi Creations is asking for donations so that these dolls can be donated to families with a child with Down Syndrome, or so that the dolls can be provided to medical professionals or schools.

Personally, I'd like to have one of these dolls in the arms of somebody outside every abortion clinic in America, so that women considering abortion of a child with Down Syndrome can be given a preview. Not to mention every CPC in America should have one.

Band of Angels also sells products celebrating the special beauty of children with Down Syndrome. I'd like for there to be a selection of products in every CPC and in the hands of sidewalk counselors. Band of Angels requests donations to give a packet to parents who've just learned that their child has Down Syndrome.

Band of Angels also sells beautiful developmental milestones books specific to children with Down Syndrome, with a boy version and girl version. And though they're out of stock right now, they also carry a line of baby announcement cards specific to a boy or a girl with Down Syndrome.

Please consider supporting one of these fine organizations. When I get back to Korea, I'll start a challenge to see if we can get these products into CPCs and outside the abortion mills.

Let 'em eat sand

2006-04-23T00:53:00.000-04:00

From Jewish World Review

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced a goal of putting an American on the moon by the end of the decade. That goal was achieved eight years later. What drove America was the "space race" with the Soviet Union. ....

It is going to take an enemy to break our oil addiction. The perfect enemy is the oil-producing states with a track record for funding terrorism and whose brand of religion produces young fanatics determined to destroy the West.

If we can get to the moon, virtually from scratch and in just eight years, we can become independent of the mullahs, ayatollahs, sheiks, imams and whackos like the president of Iran and assorted other world criminals who hate us and want to destroy us.

I once told my daughter that the US wouldn't put up with sky-high gas prices for long because of our "f-you" attitude. "If they jack the prices up too high for too long, we'll find alternatives and tell OPEC to go eat sand."

Maybe it's time that became policy.

If abortion reduces crime...

2006-04-16T08:51:00.000-04:00

Independent Conservative - ABCNews' 20/20 Gives Freakonomics Pro-Baby Killing Analysis Much Time. Opposing Economist Gets 8 Seconds.
Here's a thought:

30 years ago Blacks had a much lower high school drop out rate, a higher rate of 2 parent households and a lower percentage being locked up. Today, Blacks get a disproportionally high number of abortions, while there is a stunningly higher drop out rate, over 70% of Black babies are born out of wedlock and in the last 30 years we've seen Blacks (men in particular) ending up in prison at an alarming rate. Estimates for the future of many young Black men is bleak. If abortions reduce crime, then why is a group that gets a dispassionately high rate of abortions seeing the opposite result?

Yeah! And observant Jews have the lowest abortion rate, so why hasn't there been an explosion of criminal behavior among them?

At any rate, go read the whole thing. It's really well done and says a lot that needs to be said.

Cat saves baby's life

2006-04-16T08:16:00.000-04:00

Cat saves baby's life - Yahoo! News

A cat saved the life of a newborn baby
abandoned on the doorstep of a Cologne house in the middle of
the night by meowing loudly until someone woke up...

Temperatures fell to below freezing that night. The homeowner opened the door to see what ailed the cat and found the infant, already beginning to show signs of mild hypothermia.

Immigration laws that hurt families

2006-04-14T19:07:00.000-04:00

Jeff Jacoby

When Sumathi Athluri met the man she was destined to marry, it was love at first sight. She sensed at once that Jeevan Kumar, a young physician working on a World Health Organization project to eradicate polio in India, was someone special. ....

Jeevan was equally taken with Sumathi, a software engineer from Hyderabad who had moved to the United States on an H-1B work visa in 1999 and had become a legal permanent resident ... in February 2002. The couple was married in India in August 2002, and for the first three months of their marriage they were virtually inseparable.

But green-card holders are not permitted to remain abroad indefinitely, and when the time came for Sumathi to return to the United States, she was a wreck. "It was so painful to leave him," she says. "I was crying in the plane all the way to the US."

Hoping to be quickly reunited with her husband, Sumathi filed a Form I-130, an application for an immigrant visa that would allow Jeevan to enter the United States. That was when she ran headlong into what has been called the most anti-family, anti-marriage, anti-immigrant aspect of American law: the prolonged and pointless separation of legal permanent residents from their spouses and children.

Read the rest. It's outrageous.

I'm late on the uptake, but this is a goodie....

2006-04-09T10:52:00.000-04:00

Race Baiting

Dateline sent "Muslim-looking men" to a NASCAR race to try to catch some footage of redneck rage.

The NASCAR fans were -- big surprised -- pretty much indifferent to the NBC Stunt Muslims. They were too absorbed in the race.

NBC assumes that Muslim men all look alike, but NASCAR fans are the narrow-minded bigots. Yup.

HT: Michelle Malkin.

Help Antoine Rolle, a little boy with an aggressive eye cancer

2006-04-05T18:32:00.000-04:00

Antoine Rolle needs medical help

One can not imagine Antoine Rolle’s shock when his child, Antoine Rolle, Jr., was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, an aggressive cancer of the eye. A check-up for what he believed to be a simple infection, turned into a painful diagnose of cancer. The recommended treatment involves not only the removal of the left eye but also pre-surgical chemotherapy to prevent the spread of the life-threatening disease. Antoine needs your help. If treated immediately, there is an excellent probability that this little three year olds life and the sight in his right eye can be saved but his parents don’t have the funds to pay for his life-saving treatment. Please send your donation today!

Did Pedophilia Hysteria Cause Child's Death?

2006-04-05T11:48:00.001-04:00

Did Pedophilia Hysteria Cause Child's Death?

Consider what happened to Abby. The toddler wandered from her nursery school ... through a door left open. A bricklayer named Clive Peachey drove past her in his truck. At the inquest, he stated, "I kept thinking I should go back. The reason I didn't was because I thought people might think I was trying to abduct her."

.... A few minutes thereafter, Abby fatally fell into an algae-covered pond. ....

Last summer, an Illinois man lost an appeal on his conviction as a sex offender for grabbing the arm of a 14-year-old girl. She had stepped directly in front of his car, causing him to swerve in order to avoid hitting her.

The 28-year-old Fitzroy Barnaby jumped out his car, grabbed her arm and lectured her on how not to get killed. Nothing more occurred. Nevertheless, that one action made him guilty of "the unlawful restraint of a minor," which is a sexual offense in Illinois. Both the jury and judge believed him. Nevertheless, Barnaby went through years of legal proceedings that ended with his name on a sex offender registry, where his photograph and address are publicly available. He must report to authorities. His employment options are severely limited; he cannot live near schools or parks.

Arguably, the law would have punished Barnaby less had he hit the girl or not cared enough to lecture her. ....

Again, Barnaby is an extreme case. But ordinary people make decisions on how to interact with children based on such high profile stories.

Did Pedophilia Hysteria Cause Child's Death?

2006-04-05T11:48:00.000-04:00

Did Pedophilia Hysteria Cause Child's Death?

Consider what happened to Abby. The toddler wandered from her nursery school ... through a door left open. A bricklayer named Clive Peachey drove past her in his truck. At the inquest, he stated, "I kept thinking I should go back. The reason I didn't was because I thought people might think I was trying to abduct her."

.... A few minutes thereafter, Abby fatally fell into an algae-covered pond. ....

Last summer, an Illinois man lost an appeal on his conviction as a sex offender for grabbing the arm of a 14-year-old girl. She had stepped directly in front of his car, causing him to swerve in order to avoid hitting her.

The 28-year-old Fitzroy Barnaby jumped out his car, grabbed her arm and lectured her on how not to get killed. Nothing more occurred. Nevertheless, that one action made him guilty of "the unlawful restraint of a minor," which is a sexual offense in Illinois. Both the jury and judge believed him. Nevertheless, Barnaby went through years of legal proceedings that ended with his name on a sex offender registry, where his photograph and address are publicly available. He must report to authorities. His employment options are severely limited; he cannot live near schools or parks.

Arguably, the law would have punished Barnaby less had he hit the girl or not cared enough to lecture her. ....

Again, Barnaby is an extreme case. But ordinary people make decisions on how to interact with children based on such high profile stories.

Florida courts and teachers work hard to shaft students

2006-03-28T22:48:00.000-05:00

Florida case underscores wrongheaded opposition to school vouchers

What Florida’s teachers unions consider a menace, and what Florida’s Supreme Court considers an affront to the state’s constitution, weighs 105 pounds, smiles shyly, speaks softly and wants to be a nurse. Octavia Lopez, 17, an 11 th-grader at Archbishop Curley-Notre Dame High School in the heart of Miami, was enabled to come to the school because of the smallest of three schoolchoice programs enacted under Gov. Jeb Bush.

There aren't words for how disgusting this is. The teachers unions are probably the single greatest force promoting poverty and ignorance in the world. They make Pol Pot look downright pro-intellectual.

Legally blind musher completes Iditarod

2006-03-19T09:51:00.000-05:00

NOME, Alaska – Rachael Scdoris and her Iditarod sled dog team were navigating a treacherous cliff, crisscrossed with switchbacks, when her sled slammed into a thick spruce tree.

“It was the worst run I've ever done,” said the legally blind musher, who finished the 1,100-mile race early Saturday in Nome.

Scdoris managed to recover from the fiasco in the Alaska Range and crossed the Iditarod finish line in the post-midnight chill of the old gold rush town, becoming the first legally blind musher to bring a sled dog team more than 1,100 miles from Anchorage to Nome.

Brit girls torment one girl into quitting school, another into suicide

2006-03-13T09:39:00.000-05:00

Telegraph | News | The girl who was bullied for being tall

Caroline Stillman, 6'3" at age 13, was bullied so relentlessly for being tall that she quit school. Morgan Mussen, a 6ft tall 13-year-old from Nottingham, died after taking an overdose of painkillers in 2001 because she couldn't face the school bullies.

Girls can be cruel.

Man dies after cop bars bystanders from performing CPR

2006-03-09T20:54:00.000-05:00

This is beyond appalling.

Lawsuit: gay man dies after cop prevents CPR

A federal discrimination lawsuit was filed Thursday by the surviving family members of a man who died of a heart attack after the police chief allegedly prevented his friend from performing CPR.

…According papers filed in court Thursday Snead had begun performing CPR by the side of the road when Bowman arrived and told Snead to stop because Green was HIV positive.

When Snead didn’t stop the CPR, Bowman grabbed Snead by the shoulders and physically barred Snead from continuing CPR at a critical point in Green’s resuscitation. Snead, who had not realized at first that Bowman was a police officer, obeyed his commands.

While Green fought to stay alive, Bowman prevented anyone else from aiding Green until EMS workers arrived approximately 10 minutes later.

Lost in Translation (Just for fun)

2006-03-09T20:47:00.001-05:00

Chinese menu

Perhaps brought to you by the people who translated this menu.

BTW, Asians seem to shorten "sandwich" to "sand" all the time. There was a shop called "Coffee and Sand" next to the school where I used to work in Incheon, Korea.

Courts trying to kill another baby parents want life for

2006-03-09T19:35:00.000-05:00

Baby M.B. has a degenerative muscular disorder. His family lavishes him with love and attention, and want to be able to bring him home. Doctors and the courts want to yank his life support.

So much for "choice." They're only for "choice" if it's a decision for death.

CPS lets another child be killed

2006-03-06T10:09:00.000-05:00

The Original Musings: Chalk Up Another One For CPS

Though the children's aunt and uncle were trying to adopt them, CPS adopted them out to abusive foster parents. The aunt and uncle got to learn from the news that their nephew had been beaten to death by his new "parents."

CPS is broken beyond repair. We need to scrap it and start over with something else.

Just for laughs

2006-03-01T01:00:00.000-05:00

Dick Cheney's Smoking Gun

Some of my favorite snippets:

Like so many of Bill Clinton's misadventures, this was nothing more than an accidental, messy discharge between two consenting adults.�

As scandals go this comic interlude is sillier than the uproar over the make-believe outing of a CIA agent who was operating about as covertly as Paris Hilton at the time.�

If Al Gore had shot somebody during the 2000 campaign he’d be president today. OK, he’d president of the Islamic Republic of the United States. But that’s still a kind of President.

[Liberals'] favorite game is “Six Degrees of Global Warming,” in which any weather pattern -- hot, cold, wet, dry, plague of frogs, whatever -- can be linked to so-called “global warming” in six moves or less.

For you “What Did He Know…?” fans currently playing along at home, remember: if you’re ever involved in a non-fatal hunting accident you’re supposed to call a press conference immediately, ideally while the victim is till bleeding. Whereas if you drunkenly drive off a Massachusetts bridge with a woman you’re not married to in the back seat of your car you can wait up to nine hours before reporting it.

Like a child’s favorite video played over and over, this pageant of irrelevancy has kept the Cheney haters occupied while the grown-ups continue to run the country, fight terror, keep Courtney Love off the streets, and so on.

Support Denmark!

2006-02-27T12:18:00.000-05:00

Some of what people are saying and doing:

TCS Daily - The Most Important Nielsen Rating

In the wake of the Cartoon Jihad, as Daniel Pipes has called it,
Danish embassies have been attacked and burned, while Moslems are
calling for a boycott of Danish products. Meanwhile, those of us who
feel sympathy for Denmark are at a loss to know how we can stand up for
this tiny and beleaguered nation. There are those who had urged us to
buy Danish. But how many Danish plum hams and delectable Danish butter
cookies can you eat before endangering your waistline, and possibly
even your health? Certainly, there must be a low-calorie alternative.

In fact, there is a simple and less fattening way of standing firm
with Denmark. Buy one of the marvelous symphonies of the Danish
composer, Carl Nielsen (1865-1931). By doing this, you will not only be
showing your support for the Danes, but you will be discovering the
music of one of the most neglected of all the great composers.

Stand up for Denmark!

The incredible thing about the ongoing Kristallnacht against Denmark ... is that it has resulted in, not opprobrium for the religion that perpetrates and excuses it, but increased respectability! A small democratic country with an open society, a system of confessional pluralism, and a free press has been subjected to a fantastic, incredible, organized campaign of lies and hatred and violence, extending to one of the gravest imaginable breaches of international law and civility: the violation of diplomatic immunity. And nobody in authority can be found to state the obvious and the necessary—that we stand with the Danes against this defamation and blackmail and sabotage. Instead, all compassion and concern is apparently to be expended upon those who lit the powder trail, and who yell and scream for joy as the embassies of democracies are put to the torch in the capital cities of miserable, fly-blown dictatorships. Let's be sure we haven't hurt the vandals' feelings.

.... It was the arrogant Danish mullahs who patiently hawked those cartoons around the world (yes, don't worry, they are allowed to exhibit them as much as they like) until they finally provoked a vicious response against the economy and society of their host country. For good measure, they included a cartoon that had never been published in Denmark or anywhere else. It showed the Prophet Mohammed as a pig.... As I write this, the death toll is well over 30 and—guess what?—a mullah in Pakistan has offered $1 million and a car as a bribe for the murder of "the cartoonist." This incitement will go unpunished and most probably unrebuked.

.... And there remains the question of Denmark: a small democracy, which resisted Hitler bravely and protected its Jews as well as itself. Denmark is a fellow member of NATO and a country that sends its soldiers to help in the defense and reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan. And what is its reward from Washington? Not a word of solidarity, but instead some creepy words of apology to those who have attacked its freedom, its trade, its citizens, and its embassies. For shame. Surely here is a case that can be taken up by those who worry that America is too casual and arrogant with its allies. I feel terrible that I have taken so long to get around to this, but I wonder if anyone might feel like joining me in gathering outside the Danish Embassy in Washington, in a quiet and composed manner, to affirm some elementary friendship.

Reports on the gathering:

The Anchoress: The Danish Embassy March - UPDATED

Michelle Malkin: Sammenhold

Instapundit

The Political Pit Bull: Rallying for Denmark and Free Speech

A discussion of the event

Let's set an example

2006-02-17T09:20:00.000-05:00

abortionclinicdays: Accutane: The intersection of medicine and politics

I'm seeing a lot of fatalism: "Everything that can possibly be done to drive the risks through the skulls of women on Accutane is being done. The responsibility now lies in the hands of those women themselves."

But I think that more is possible. I think that it's possible to have a joint prolife/prochoice effort to prevent Accutane tragedies. The prochoice can make themselves available to help women remember to stay on their birth control. The prolife can make themselves available to help women remain chaste. We can let dermatologists know that this resource of 1:1 support is available. But how?

Sad anniversary: Lisa Bardsley's death

2006-02-17T08:38:00.000-05:00

Lisa Bardsley, age 26, died in 1995 after an abortion by Arizona abortionist John Biskind. Biskind was censured by the state medical board for the death.

Biskind went on to get into further trouble for delivering a live, nearly term infant during an abortion performed on a teenager, and for the abortion death of Lou Ann Herron. Herron's death got far more press than Bardsley's, whose death for some reason did not capture public attention or generate outrage the way Herron's death did.

Biskind's license was finally revoked in 1998.

The clinic where Lisa died was owned by abortionist Moshe Hachamovitch, who was implicated in the abortion deaths of Christina Goesswein, Tanya Williamson, Jammie Garcia.

Prayers needed for sick little girl

2006-02-12T14:49:00.000-05:00

pray for candace

Little Candace has some sort of infection that is eating away at her bones and soft tissue. She's had surgery, antibiotics, and hyperbaric oxygen treatment. Please pray for this precious child!

Mercy Ships saves life of boy with cleft palate

2006-02-04T18:48:00.000-05:00

Read the story here

Mamadou was eight months old, emaciated, and on the brink of death when he was brought onboard a Mercy Ship docked in the Conakry Harbor, Guinea. His cleft palate made him unable to take in food. Under the nurses' care, he gained enough strength to undergo surgery. The Mercy Ships' surgeon safely repaired his cleft lip and palate.

As you can see, not only did Mamadou get a fine functional result, but a marvelous cosmetic result as well.

There is more information here on Mercy Ships, and how you can contribute.

Why we need school choice

2006-02-01T09:48:00.000-05:00

In 72 hours, a private company did what government schools could not do in over 12 years

ABC news took a virtually illiterate high school senior, sent him to Sylvan Learning Centers for 72 hours of tutoring. He went up more than two grade levels.

Stop rewarding failure! Put parents back in control! Stop letting the NEA hold children hostage.

Canadian miners rescued -- Safe thanks to emergency supplies

2006-01-30T21:21:00.000-05:00

Rescuers Bring Up All 72 Canadian Miners

Rescuers retrieved all 72 central Canadian potash miners who were trapped underground by a fire and survived until Monday by using oxygen, food and water stored in subterranean emergency chambers.

I've wondered, in the face of the two recent US mine disasters, why the mines don't put in emergency supplies for the miners. It'd be easy enough, and comparatively cheap, to make boxes with oxygen tanks, water, MREs, and maybe even a few space blankets, and deploy them throughout a mine. The Canadians were doing it. Why aren't we?

Little boy with cancer needs help

2006-01-21T09:53:00.000-05:00

A fun has been set up for Jacob Powell, a 10-year-old boy with juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma carcinoma. The fund is at First Altoona Savings. You can contact Edna Louk at 814-356-9972. You can also email Edna at louksgr@yahoo.com.

Florida mom arrested in deadly Christmas scalding

2006-01-02T16:47:00.000-05:00

From Fox News:

A 3-year-old boy died after his mother held him in a tub of scalding water as punishment on Christmas Day and his grandmother, who had custody, failed to get him medical care for a week, authorities said Monday.

The mother had lost custody of the boy for previous abuse.

First stage removes upper part of 16-lb tumor

2005-12-21T19:41:00.000-05:00

But Marlie Casseus still has to have surgery in about eight weeks to remove the growth from her lower jaw.

She's regaining her strength. The first surgery went so well that doctors removed the growth from both parts of her upper face, rather than only half as originally planned.

You can click on the link above to donate to help cover the costs of Marlie's care. Here are some International Kids Fund success stories.

Interstate child-prostitution ring busted

2005-12-16T20:18:00.000-05:00

Gonzales Announces Prostitution Crackdown

Sight restored to the blind in Africa

2005-12-04T10:39:00.000-05:00

A light in the darkness for Africa’s blind

Read this inspiring article. Good people can do good things!

Nose cells may help man walk again

2005-12-03T12:12:00.000-05:00

Travis Robinson will travel to Portugal for experimental surgery using stem cells from his nose to repair the spinal cord damage that left him quadriplegic.

His family set up a web site, Help Travis Walk, to help cover expenses.

Mercy Ships take load off boy's shoulders -- literally

2005-12-01T18:12:00.000-05:00

Nine-month-old Momoh weighed 16.5 pounds before surgery to remove a tumor from his upper back. After surgery, the malnourished baby weighed only 11 pounds. Now, free of the tumor that was sapping his strength, Momoh may grow strong and healthy.

Bruce Willis will boost troop morale with film based on their experiences

2005-11-27T10:28:00.000-05:00

Bruce Willis comes out fighting for Iraq’s forgotten GI heroes. I can't do the article justice. Read it. Go, Bruce!

Girl with no face speaks first words

2005-11-27T10:12:00.000-05:00

Faceless Girl Speaks First Words
A toddler with Treacher-Collins Syndrome, born missing half the bones in her face, spoke her first words after surgery to begin building facial bones for her. Doctors hope she will eventually be able to speak, eat, and breathe normally. The original story of little Juliana is here.

Juliana's parents consider her a gift from God not just to her family, but to the world. Students who raised money for Juliana were enchanted with her, one girl commenting, "She's just the cutest little thing!"

When I worked at an institution for the mentally retarded, I learned that the people hurt most by institutionalization aren't the people who end up in the institution, but those who never get to know them because they're hidden away from the world. Maybe part of why Juliana is with us is to teach us what we lose when we reject people because they're different in ways that make us uncomfortable until we get to know them.

Doc kills self after euthanizing depressed woman

2005-11-26T23:47:00.000-05:00

Euthanasia Doctor Commits Suicide after Finding Patient He Killed Was Not Terminally Ill

ZURICH, November 21, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A doctor acting for the Swiss euthanasia group, Dignitas, has committed suicide after learning that a German woman he euthanized was not terminally ill. .... The 69-year-old woman contacted Dignitas with a medical report stating she had terminal liver cirrhosis; an autopsy conducted later in Germany revealed the woman was in good health other than depression, and that the medical report was falsified. The woman, whose name was withheld, allegedly convinced her German GP to falsify the report so that she could get sick leave from work.

What's also disturbing is that the founder of the euthanasia group defended the whole incident: "The doctor's report that I was given indicated the woman was suffering from cirrhosis of the liver as well as hepatitis. And in any case every person in Europe has the right to choose to die, even if they are not terminally ill." What powerful compassion this guy has for people with depression! Last year this same guy told the Telegraph that Dignitas would kill anybody who asked for death, "irrespective of medical condition. It does not matter what people are suffering from, we do not refuse anyone."

Phantom AIDS Epidemic?

2005-11-18T21:37:00.000-05:00

African AIDS: A Phantom Epidemic?

[I]t is possible to suggest not only that the AIDS "epidemic" is vastly overstated and overrated, but also that resources spent fighting it might better be employed on more basic, and more general, infrastructure and health needs. This is not to deny the reality or the tragedy of this disease or the many other diseases rampant in poor parts of Africa. It is to point out that, when medical realities collide with scaremongering and false realities, the latter too often triumph.

....

Proper diagnosis can require trained medical people, medical history, physical examination, blood tests and sophisticated facilities. [In Africa, diagnoses are made based] on "points" .... Because of this lack, the meeting participants concluded that AIDS in Africa could be diagnosed without a blood test by scoring 12 points out of a possible total of 50, based on symptoms and signs alone.

People having the first three (10 percent weight lost, protracted asthenia [weakness] and repeated attacks of fever for more than a month) have already racked up a score of 11. A cough scores two more points, and "the diagnosis of AIDS is established."

Many other non-specific signs are worth points, such as diarrhea, lung disease, signs consistent with herpes virus infections, generalized lymph node enlargement and "neurological signs." In other words, many Africans diagnosed with AIDS would not carry the diagnosis in the developed world. And many people have these qualifying symptoms from the many other diseases prevalent in poor regions.

....

Committing resources to fight a non-existent epidemic makes no sense, except to those making a living off the funds generated by the scares. Resources fighting phantom epidemics can't be used to improve basic sanitation and nutrition, the foundations of health.

CPS fails again

2005-11-13T12:25:00.000-05:00

Baby Dies After Breast Feeding Incident

OSHKOSH, Wis. — A 4-month-old girl died when her inebriated mother fell asleep on top of her while breast-feeding, prosecutors said. ....

Hawkins was charged Friday with one count of child neglect causing a death. If convicted as a repeat felony offender, she could be sentenced to 29 years in prison and fined $100,000. ....

The 27-year-old — who was on probation for child neglect — had consumed six double-shot alcoholic beverages at a bowling alley, the criminal said. A toxicologist estimated her blood alcohol level ranged from .15 to .27 percent. ....

Hawkins was on probation for neglect of the same child, and was prohibited from drinking alcohol and from having unsupervised contact with all four of her children at once, court documents show.

Is it just me, or does it seem that the more appalling the parents are, the more likely CPS workers are to let them have custody of their kids?

I want to deserve a man like that

2005-11-12T23:23:00.000-05:00

Even if God never sends one to me, I pray he make me into a woman who deserves a man like C.S. "Jack" Lewis, a man described vividly in this interview with his stepson.

Jack was a man who was always available, and I think this is the crux of Christianity. .... His message is, "Stop talking about it, stop studying it, just get out there and do Christianity." Jack did it. .... A guy approached Jack on the street one day and asked him if he could spare a few shillings. And Jack immediately dove into his pocket and brought out all his change and handed it over to this beggar. And the chap he was with—I think it was Tolkien—said, "Jack, you shouldn't have given that fellow all that money, he'll just spend it on drink." Jack said, "Well if I had kept it, I would have only spent it on drink."

Kansas AG to address statutory rape

2005-11-12T19:13:00.000-05:00

The Kansas AG is going to review birth certificates for children born to underage mothers in order to prosecute men who were victimizing the mothers. It's about time!

Girl with 16-lb tumor on face needs help

2005-11-12T12:39:00.000-05:00

Marlie Casseus, age 16, has a disfiguring and life-threatening 16-lb tumor on her face. If we each chip in a bit toward her surgery and pass the message on, it'll mean so much to her!

Woman asks for help - Father being Schaivoed

2005-11-11T22:28:00.000-05:00

Read it here.

Another call for DDT

2005-11-11T11:44:00.000-05:00

Let's kill the malaria mosquitoes now

Tolerance and Diversity

2005-11-02T13:03:00.000-05:00

Black Dems pelt Black Republican with Oreos

Yup, the Democratic Party is the party of tolerance and diversity, as long as you are exactly like them.

New hope on the horizon

2005-10-28T16:32:00.000-04:00

Congress is considering legislation that would bring DDT back into the fight against malaria.

Over a million people each year -- mostly children and pregnant women -- die of malaria every year, and these deaths are due to politics. The number of deaths may be as high as 2.7 million per year. Environmental hysteria about DDT has taken away the most potent weapon in the arsenal. It's about time we started putting people's lives ahead of the DDT myths.

Think about it: When the concentration camps were liberated at the end of WWII, the prisoners were de-loused with DDT -- a move that saved them from deadly diseases, without causing any harm to them despite their fragile health.

In 100 things you should know about DDT, Junk Science points out:

Dr. Paul Müller won the Nobel Prize in 1948 for his work on DDT. Not his work banning it, mind you, but his work producing it.

"In May 1955 the Eighth World Health Assembly adopted a Global Malaria Eradication Campaign based on the widespread use of DDT against mosquitos and of antimalarial drugs to treat malaria and to eliminate the parasite in humans. As a result of the Campaign, malaria was eradicated by 1967 from all developed countries where the disease was endemic and large areas of tropical Asia and Latin America were freed from the risk of infection." [Bull World Health Organ 1998;76(1):11-6]

"In little more than two decades, DDT has prevented 500 million human deaths, due to malaria, that otherwise would have been inevitable." [National Academy of Sciences, Committee on Research in the Life Sciences of the Committee on Science and Public Policy. 1970. The Life Sciences; Recent Progress and Application to Human Affairs; The World of Biological Research; Requirements for the Future.]

In the 1960s, World Health Organization authorities believed there was no alternative to the overpopulation problem but to assure than up to 40 percent of the children in poor nations would die of malaria. As an official of the Agency for International Development stated, "Rather dead than alive and riotously reproducing." [Desowitz, RS. 1992. Malaria Capers, W.W. Norton & Company]

No correlation at the population level can be demonstrated between exposures to DDT and the incidence of cancer at any site. [IARC Sci Publ 1985;(65):107-17] (NB: Even if DDT did increase the risk of cancer, don't you think parents in developing countries would rather see their kids live long enough to worry about cancer than watch them die of malaria in infancy?)

Men who voluntarily ingested 35 mgs of DDT daily for nearly two years were carefully examined for years and "developed no adverse effects." [Hayes, W. 1956. JAMA 162:890-897] (And again, I'd rather live long enough to worry about cancer then die of malaria before age 5!)

Many experiments on caged-birds demonstrate that DDT and its metabolites (DDD and DDE) do not cause serious egg shell thinning, even at levels many hundreds of times greater than wild birds would ever accumulate. [Cecil, HC et al. 1971. etc. ]

We in the developed world used DDT to eliminate malaria in our homelands, then deny it the the people who need it the most. Then we wonder why they hate us.

Take this great quiz!

2005-10-26T21:16:00.000-04:00

Play Quiz: Population: Bomb or Bottleneck? now!

Come back and tell us your score. I got 7/10.

A victim of the war on drugs

2005-10-24T10:16:00.000-04:00

Richard Paey, a 46-year-old father of three, was sentenced to 25 years in a Florida prison for having obtained sufficient medicine to treat his chronic, debilitating pain. Irony of ironies, now that he's in prison he's provided with the very pain relief he was imprisoned for trying to obtain. Read all about it here.

This is a double-whammy. Not only does the "War on Drugs" put non-criminals in prison, it feeds the euthanasia monster by making illness and injury needlessly agonizing. Patients denied necessary medications are left to choose between agony and death.

If there's any justice in this world, the people who locked Paey up will face the same cruel dilemma he faced.

Prayers needed for snake-bite girl

2005-10-23T17:49:00.000-04:00

A 14-year-old Pennsylvania girl was bitten by a copperhead a boy had caught and put in a shoebox to show other students on a day off from school. She'll survive but may lose her arm.

Some good news for Baby Charlotte

2005-10-22T16:40:00.001-04:00

A judge has thrown out the do-not-resuscitate order on Baby Charlotte, but doctors still have permission to refuse care if they decide it's in Charlotte's "best interests." Considering that it's been the doctors trying to kill her for the past year and a half, that's cold comfort, but it's better than things had been.

By the way, Baby Charlotte is now two years old!

Fast-food style health care

2005-09-25T10:28:00.000-04:00

Wal-Marts and other convenient locations are opening up walk-in acute care clinics where patients can get quick treatment for simple ailments such as athlete's foot, or get a vaccination.

Critics complain that this will isolate patients from their doctors, but as somebody who's spent a lot of time uninsured, I think it's great. If you don't have a regular physician and you need acute care, it can be tough to find a doctor who accepts new patients -- especially uninsured new patients. And new-patient visits are often terribly expensive. Not to mention this puts people more in control of their health care spending.

The care is provided by nurse-practitioners with physician backup, which is the kind of inexpensive but high-quality care my family got at a local practice in Pennsylvania. Our doctor used physician assistants who saw most patients, and who called in the doctor when the patient's needs demanded more expertise. We got great care for only $35 a visit -- something that a hand-to-mouth family can manage. The social worker there also helped patients to get free medications through pharmaceutical company programs.

Sometimes cutting corners reduces the quality of care, but for simple ailments like athlete's foot, pinkeye, or a simple sinus infection, these places make sense. They give patients who couldn't otherwise afford to go to a doctor a chance to get care instead of suffering longer trying home remedies.

Some people ought not to reproduce...

2005-09-25T09:22:00.000-04:00

Sorry, but if you don't have time for sex, you don't have time for a baby. Still, IVF clinics in the UK report that many woman are demanding IVF because they want babies right now, thank you very much. IFV gives you a one-in-three chance of getting pregnant during that month's cycle, whereas having sex gives you only a one-in-four chance. Read Women bypass sex in favour of 'instant pregnancies'.

Does anybody else find this disturbing and, well, creepy?

Purpose Driven in Rwanda

2005-09-23T22:00:00.000-04:00

Read this excellent article in Christianity Today. Pray for this effort.

Taking no chances in Galveston

2005-09-20T08:35:00.000-04:00

According to this AP article at Breitbart.com:

[O]fficials in Texas were taking no chances Monday as Tropical Storm Rita headed for the gulf.

With the storm still more than 1,000 miles away, the island city of Galveston ordered a voluntary evacuation to start Tuesday, and the Texas National Guard recalled ... members ... in Louisiana to prepare.

...

Residents who can't evacuate on their own will be able to take buses to shelters starting Wednesday.... And in another lesson from New Orleans' troubled evacuations, Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said residents who take the buses will be able to bring their pets with them, as long as the animals are caged.

....

Galveston... was wiped out 105 years ago this month by a hurricane that remains one of the deadliest in U.S. history.

For more information on the Galveston Hurricane, see this CNN web special.

Vogons at work in Katrina relief effort

2005-09-19T23:04:00.000-04:00

Vogonish FDA bureaucrats are threatening to destroy food relief sent from Europe and Israel to Katrina victims because they consider it "unfit for human consumption.

Business leaders pushing Big Easy's recovery

2005-09-10T09:52:00.000-04:00

this New York Times article notes something that's both amazing and, in retrospect, perfectly logical: the business leaders of New Orleans are already gathering, networking, and making plans to get their businesses -- and therefore, the city -- up and running again.

Corporations have been tracking down their workers, setting up command centers, and setting the course for recovery.

I have a suggestion. Similar organizations across the country ought to take the lead in making disaster plans for their own cities. They have the know-how that government bureaucrats constitutionally lack, and the motivation that a distant agency can't possibly have.

Folks, we need to stop looking to Washington for solutions. If the New Orleans business community had been leading the way, all their employees would have been safely evacuated and kept track of. Their customer base would have been looked after. It makes economic sense and it would be far more effective than asking politicians, whose primary skill is schmoozing, not doing things, to come up with plans to accomplish tasks they can't accomplish. After all, if they had the skills they needed to coordinate what New Orleans needed, they'd have been business leaders in the first place.

For Katrina help and info

2005-09-08T12:22:00.000-04:00

After Abortion has posted this comprehensive list.

I've not been ignoring y'all, or the Katrina victims. I've been cut loose from my moorings (left Korea) and am not in a new home yet, just visiting non-online relatives.

The tour guide told us about this elephant

2005-08-28T20:11:00.000-04:00

A Thai elephant injured by a land mine six years ago is being fitted with a prosthetic foot.

When I was at the Hill Tribe village where we spent the first night, I jointed a large tour group whose guide seemed hell-bent on making the trip as depressing as possible, telling us many heartbreaking stories about miserable elephants. The first he told us about was this one.

He did lighten up later, though, and tired to tell us some local legends. But his English wasn't very good so all I really got out of it was that some hunter was befriended by a female spirit from a banana tree, and the whole story had something to do with why wolves howl.

Second resident dies at downgraded nursing home

2005-08-28T06:27:00.000-04:00

This Associated Press story reports on two deaths at a Pennsylvania nursing home. Paul Miller, 80, and Sylvia Rodkey, 85, each died several days after they sustained injuries when their wheelchairs rolled down a steep driveway outside the facility. Both Miller and Rodkey were unattended at the time.

The state Health Department says that the facility has already had its license downgraded several times since an unsatisfactory inspection in May of 2004.

Strange bedfellows indeed!

2005-08-28T05:48:00.000-04:00

World Net Daily and NOW are both very concerned about what an Islamic Constitution will mean to the women of Iraq. Prayers needed more than ever. And it's refreshing to see right and left sharing a common concern. The question is, can we all find a way to work together to protect the woman our soldiers have died for?

Quadriplegic woman to sail solo across the channel

2005-08-23T08:55:00.000-04:00

Read all about it! Too awesome!

Thailand - Second temple

2005-08-20T12:10:00.000-04:00

There were two identical five-headed snakes forming the sides of this walkway. They are even more beautiful and impressive than they seem to be in this picture. My guide, Oi, stumbled over explaining the snakes to me. I think she was thinking they were the seven-headed snake Lek told me about in the first temple I visited. So, sorry, can't tell you much about the snakes other than that they look really cool.

I really never did get a clear grasp of this snake guy, and Oi couldn't seem to get a grip on him herself to explain it. But he looks interesting enough. In a really alarming sort of way. Snakes don't seem to have the negative connotations to Buddhists that they have to Christians.

My guide, Oi, tried to explain the multiheaded elephant to me, but stumbled the way a typical Christian would probably stumble while trying to explain the Plagues of Egypt. So I'm not clear on the significance of the elephant, but I do know a cool looking piece of sculpture when I see it.

At a pagoda I was mobbed by these kids, who are studying to be tour guides. Their English teacher was with them but we couldn't understand each other so Oi, my guide, had to translate. This temple was the only place I went in Thailand where I was mobbed as a novelty rather than mobbed by people trying to sell me stuff.

You could see this shrine in the middle-distance from the pagoda where I was mobbed by the little kids. Oi, my guide, says that the statue is of some woman of particular interest to the Chinese Buddhists. I'm not clear on what she's doing in Thailand. That said, she is impressive and beautiful.

A whole troop of these fellows were holding up the temple. I'm not sure what they were representing, but they certainly are something to look at.

If you rub it right, this gong sings. Oi, the guide, and I both tried but couldn't make it sing. But occasionally somebody would manage, and the sound was eerie and beautiful.

My guide was very pleased with this shot of the golden statues. I didn't ask about them; as a Christian I'm uncomfortable in a Buddhist temple and really don't now what I ought to be saying or doing. So while it was a beautiful place where people are pursuing holiness, I really just wanted to get out of there.

Oi, my guide, is Buddhist and explained all the paintings to me. This shot captures the character of the paintings and the brilliance of the gilded and jewel-like ... What should I call the spaces between the frescoes? They were each different. But the Buddhist temples all had similar decor, with the gilding and the jewel-like effect that I was told was colored glass. It looks much to bright to be just colored glass. Perhaps it's backed with silver to give it that sparkle.

Elephants and lions on the Great Plains?

2005-08-17T23:26:00.000-04:00

Fox News posted this story about how some folks are suggesting that we set up game preserves in the midwest and Texas with endangered non-native wildlife such as elephants and lions.

On the one hand, why not? It'd just be like a bigger version of the drive-through zoo. On the other hand, it'd be kind of hard to contain lions to a preserve. They'd be bound to find a way out and start munching cattle and sheep, if not the occasional person.

I've not formulated an opinion, though my leanings are slightly in favor. There are already more tigers in Texas than anyplace else in the world. If it preserves endangered species and doesn't threaten the balance, why not? Lions and tigers and elephants are much bigger than the rabbits that overran Australia.

Thoughts?

Thailand - Orchids and Butterflies and such

2005-08-17T09:30:00.000-04:00

I visited a beautiful orchid farm, and took pictures of the flowers I saw all over the place. August isn't the flower season in Thailand, so I'll have to see what I see next time, when I'm there for an entire year.

I don't remember where I saw these, but they surely are lovely. I love the color and the form.

These were just growing over a wall along a roadway near the beach. It was noplace special, but the flowers were beautiful. The wind was blowing so I steadied them with one hand and shot the picture with the other.

These were growing at the whitewater rafting place. There were a lot of great flowers and plants growing there and I had a lot of fun walking around and checking them out while I was waiting for my ride back to Phuket.

These were growing in what looked to be some sort of drainage ditch on the grounds of the hotel in Phuket. Again, there were beautiful plants and flowers all over the place.

These beauties were growing on the grounds of the hotel in Phuket. I spent the time one day between breakfast and my pick-up just wandering the grounds and checking out the flora.

Look at them all. Aren't they lovely? The colors were vibrant and the whole atmosphere was very serene.

Here's a shot of the orchid farm that shows how they're grown, and how many there were.

This photo doesn't show the amazing yellow-green tint of these orchids. They were absolutely startling.

This tree was growing just outside the first village where we stopped to rest. If you recall the picture of me by the stand of bamboo, these were just across the trail from the bamboo.

These were growing next to the restrooms at the rafting place! There were so many beautiful plants there.

And let's not forget the butterflies I photographed at the butterfly farm inside the orchid farm.

A reminder of the need for DDT

2005-08-16T19:59:00.000-04:00

DDT Ban Led to 50-80 Million Deaths.

The effect of banning DDT is like loading up a jumbo jet full of people -- mostly children -- every single day, and crashing it into the side of a mountain. Why are we tolerating this? Because people exposed to DDT might get cancer one day? Hello! The people who need DDT dream of living long enough to get cancer!

First temple

2005-08-16T11:10:00.000-04:00

My guide, Lek, is a Buddhist, and he brought me to a temple that was dedicated to the monk who founded it. The monk died 17 years ago and his body is preserved in the glass coffin you see here. There was a biography of the monk and he was an impressive man.

The whole experience of visiting a Buddhist temple was awkward for me, as a Christian. I want to show respect for other folks' desire to pursue holiness, without giving the impression that I make no distinction between Christianity and other faiths. I dealt with it by behaving the way I'd want a Buddhist to behave when visiting a Christian church. I was quiet and respectful, asked first before taking pictures, and listened to what Lek was telling me about the temple, the monk, and so forth. I asked questions about various things and found commonality with Christianity wherever possible. Lek showed me the Five Precepts of Buddhism, and I explained that we have Ten Commandments.

And I prayed quietly that all the hunger for holiness will help the Buddhists to find their way to the Father, as I do in Korea when confronted with Buddhism.

My fear isn't being unpopular; it's that I don't want to teach other people of other faiths that Christians are jerks. I want to leave a positive impression of Christians so that they'll be open to the Gospel. And frankly I don't know what to do around folks who actually have another faith. I'm used to dealing with straightforward unbelievers.

Just a little of what was going through my head and heart as I visited this beautiful site and pondered what the appropriate Christian response should be.

So, enjoy the beautiful pictures.

Thailand Ride

2005-08-15T19:49:00.000-04:00

For some reason, Lek always insisted on feeding me too much toast for breakfast. So this particular morning I shared my toast with one of the ubiquitous dogs. This fellow was very happy to have bits of toast fed to him. I mopped up the drippings on my plate first to make the toast tastier.

Here we have two of my favorite subjects: plants and poultry. The area around my cottage looked like Mom's living room had exploded. The plants all looked pretty familiar, but here they just grew out of the ground instead of growing in pots.

Here's the vicious attack goose that had kept me from exploring the town earlier in the morning. He kept pecking at my toes. I don't mess with geese, so I stuck near the rafting place and our cottage after running into this guy.

The driver came and got Lek and me. Here they are. The driver is rolling up the truck sides so I can ride al-fresco, since the rain had let up by this time. Evidently a lot of folks make a living hauling tourists around, because these trucks were all over the place.

We had a ride of about an hour to the temple from the village. It was a beautiful drive. The road was a bit on the bumpy side but I didn't mind since the view was lovely.

A tour guide told us at one point that there are only about 4,000 elephants left in Thailand. I must have seen every single one of them because there were elephants all over the place. Here we're approaching another elephant camp catering to tourists.

My view from the back of the truck. I must have taken fifty pictures, figuring that some of them were bound to turn out nicely.

This shot of the river gives you a better idea of what it is we went rafting down! Imagine standing on a few bits of bamboo, ankle-deep in this!

This is a fairly tame stretch of road. Usually the ruts were deeper and the drop-off to the river much steeper. But this is a pretty shot. During this ride I often thought of P.J. O'Rourke's various writings on driving in third-world countries.

This picture shows how well the rural Thai people have adapted to the new realities of world travel. In the foreground, traditional rice paddies still being farmed. In the background, farmers haul tourists around in water-buffalo carts. I'm betting the big money is in the water buffalo.

More details on RU-486 deaths

2005-08-15T08:04:00.000-04:00

Recent news articles have released the names and some information about two of the women who died of sepsis after chemical abortions. Chanelle Bryant, age 22, died in 2004. Oriane Shevin, a 34-year-old mother of two, died in 2005.

More on this story as it develops.

Thailand Pictures - Second Full Day

2005-08-14T21:13:00.000-04:00

Day two dawned rainy, but it sounded a lot rainier than it really was. I guess that was because there was just so much leafy stuff for the rain to hit.

Lek fixed me a very yummy scrambled-eggs-and-toast breakfast and we set off up the mountain. Lek was hung over from the election party the night before, so I got a chuckle out of how Granny was outhiking the guide.

We had to wait a while at the elephant camp, but I had a good time there.

The Thai play a game -- I can't remember the name -- that's like a cross between volleyball and hacky-sak. Imagine hands-off volleyball with a lower net. A few of the tourists decided to give it a try while they were waiting for their elephants. They were pretty bad at first, but they got the hang of it after a while and had fun. It was fun to watch them.

It was also fun to watch the elephant who moseyed over into their neighborhood. Here he is with his home-made flyswatter.

I also fed some corn cobs to the elephant. He wasn't happy with the second corn cob. I'd taken it away from some chickens and they'd dragged it in the dirt. I guess the elephant wanted a cleaner-fresher corn cob. He was not happy with me. He seemed a lot closer to me when I was there than he looks in this picture.

We set off down the river. I was alone on my elephant, and she was first in line when we set off. Yikes! She was an Elephant with Attitude! She'd meander off to munch on something tasty and the guide would yell at her and she'd ignore him. At one point he hopped down off his elephant and came charging toward my elephant, brandishing a machete and shouting. "Is he threatening my elephant with a machete!?" No. He was just hacking off some snacks for her to get her moving.

My elephant had a baby who toddled along with us. He did a lot of swimming. At first we fretted about him, but then we noticed he was playing in the water and seemed to be having a lot of fun.

He also frequently stuck his head into the other elephants' butts, and sometimes gave them a little nip in the backside.

He also stopped sometimes for a snack. Isn't he cute?

Lek went by on a raft. This was a preview of what we'd be doing later!

We had a great lunch at the second elephant camp. Lek made me some fried rice. Yum! And more pineapple. Enough with the pineapple, Lek! I bought a bag and a belt from the two quiantly-dressed Hill Tribe women who were hawking goods. I didn't get any pictures of them because at the time they weren't quaint native women. They were very annoying salespeople interrupting my lunch.

Then we set off on the rafts. We were standing up to our ankles in the water. When we looked around, the other rafters looked like people just standing in a row and floating down the river. Our stuff was double-bagged and hung from tripods on the rafts. And down we went.

I went overboard in the first rapids. Then we ran aground and had to fight to get it loose. We ran aground a second time in a rougher rapids, and as we were struggling to get it loose another raft came bearing down on us. "Off! Off! Off!" We scrambled off the raft and watched the other raft go under ours. Their tourists ran across our raft to stay on theirs, except for one guy who ended up with us. The guides chased us ashore and we rushed along among the rocks and rough foliage as the guides freed our damaged raft and rode it the rest of the way through the rapids. "Our stuff! Our stuff!" Our money, passports, and cameras were on that raft! Yikes!

But the guides got it to a calm spot okay and we all waited while they patched up the raft. We made it to the next village, where Lek and I got off for the night.

This village looked like Mom's living room exploded! Beautiful plants all over the place.

I had a nice cozy room. This one had electricity and glass windows. It was a chilly night so I closed the windows. Very pleasant!

I had another great dinner and chilled out for an evening. It was a very nice mix of adventure and rest.

Thailand Pictures - First Full Day

2005-08-12T19:18:00.000-04:00

Though this is usually a "causes" blog, I figured it's a good place to share my Thailand pictures. Do go to Thailand! It's a wonderful place and their economy can use the boost from tourism after the tsunami.

First stop, the market! Here's where my guide and I went to get supplies for our trek in the mountains. I'd seen fried pig faces for sale in Seoul, but this was my first time to see fresh pig faces. Another stall was selling various innards. Different strokes for different folks.

To the right, some delicate snow-white mushrooms that made my mouth water. To the left, some sort of wasp nest, from the looks of it, with live wriggling larvae. I'm guessing they're an acquired taste. But then, I was drooling over the fungus.

On the mountain top with Lek, my guide. I was the only tourist in my group, so I had Lek all to myself.

How's this for some gorgeous landscape? By the end of the first half hour of tooling around northern Thailand in the back of an open trek-tour truck, I was in love. And I fell more in love each passing hour.

Here's one of the tourist lodgings at the village where we stayed. Our tourist lodge, to be specific. I'd feared that there'd be a "human zoo" element to visiting the Hill Tribes, but there was none of that on this hike. The folks in the village were just ordinary folks living a simple life in an isolated area, who'd noticed that they could forge a mutually beneficial relationship with tour guides and tourists, and decided to take advantage of the situation. They built lodges for the tourists, offered drinks and a few souvenirs for sale, and otherwise behaved like anybody else who happens to live in a town that tourists pass through.

Here you can see that the sleeping quarters are clean, comfortable, spacious, well-aired, and complete with mosquito netting. I had the room to myself, since Lek had his own private room just off his private kitchen area.

Here is Lek in his kitchen, with one of the local guys who helped him. The stoves appear to have been clay buckets once, and are painted with bright scenes under the soot. The floor is soft and comfortable, because it's made of split bamboo. They simply split the bamboo open and lay it flat, then tack it down over a row of bamboo support slats. I'm guessing that they have to replace it fairly often because it gets burned by coals that fall out of the stove.

Lek's regular job is as a chef in his brother-in-law's restaurant. So I had my own private chef!

And here I am on the porch of our lodge, enjoying the dinner Lek cooked for me. Rice, curried chicken and potatoes (yum!), sweet and sour chicken and veggies (yum!), tofu and veggie omelette (yum!) and half a pineapple (yum!). Pineapples were selling for 15 bhat each (about 30 US cents) in the market. And these were the northern Thai pineapples -- very sweet and juicy, without the tartness or acidic aftertaste of the southern pineapples.

The folks in the village were having a party that night, because one of their own had just won an election. Each family has a solar cell that charges up a battery all day. They use it for light at night -- and evidently to operate a CD player, because the music was going until the juice started to conk out. Then they switched to singing. But it was a pleasant sound to fall asleep to. I slept like the dead, comfortable and cozy.

By the way, the toilets are flush toilets; you just flush them with a bowl of water you bail from a large tub of water kept handy. They were squat toilets in little outhouses. I've been trying to research exactly how sanitation made its way through the mountains; I suspect the royal family's efforts to help the rural folks to thrive played a part. The running water and flush toilets system depended on hoses and cisterns, and was primitive, but very effective. All I'd want to do is add a solar water heater for showers, and a bamboo floor for a shower area.

This was a very pleasant, clean, friendly place where nobody got in anybody's face. I want to go back.

Back from Thailand

2005-08-09T19:06:00.000-04:00

I've not been posting for a while because I've been on vacation in Thailand. What a great place! And I have to sing Queen Sirikit's praises up to the skies -- I'm guessing that her efforts on behalf of the rural people of Thailand are a big part of the reason there was no village I saw so remote that it didn't have flush toilets and toothbrushes. Okay, you flushed the toilet by scooping a bowl of water from a storage tank and dumping it in, but it did the job very well, and much cheaper and quieter than noisy ordinary flush toilets.

Appallling conditions at California mental hospital

2005-07-29T08:43:00.000-04:00

The Washington Post reports on a disgusting, dangerous mental hospital. I worked MH in Pennsylvania when the state closed the notorious Byberry State Hospital, so although this disgusts and appalls me I"m not too surprised.

PETA files

2005-07-13T23:18:00.000-04:00

PETA isn't about treating animals well. It's about achieving power by exploiting people's natural compassion for mistreated animals. Read "Dying for Liberation: Why is PETA killing animals?", by Wesley J. Smith in The American Spectator.