This morning on the CBS Early Show I saw a new tactic being carried out by Al Qaida.  I found the story HERE. It entails Abdullah Asieri hiding a bomb in his rectum, with a detonator, much like folks do to hide drugs. 

The scary part is, he made it past two airport security check points and past security at the Saudi prince Mohammed Bin Nayef's palace with this attempt to try and kill the prince. This guy gets it detonated via cellphone text message, but it doesn't work to kill the prince.  He blew himself up for nothing.  

But Abdullah Asieri is now with his supposed 72 virgins. Or do you get those virgins if your mission fails?  What an idiot.

Now what?  Is the fear of flying going to come back again?  What is airport security going to to do now, put x-ray machines at the airport?  How long before some idiot tries this same tactic on a airplane here in America?

Just great, now we'll all get cancer from over exposure to radiation.  Way to go Al Qaida.  Slow death to Americans...they'll stop at nothing.

So, anybody flying soon?

What a way to wake up this morning.  My husband just called and said Big West gave everyone a letter saying they were filing Chapter 11.  They're hoping to keep everyone and their salaries and benefits the same, but oooh man, it's hitting everywhere.

I don't have the details, but I took some pics....apparently there was a shooting on Oswell between Hillburn and College.  I saw one person being taken immediately by ambulance.  I saw K-9 unit looking for maybe someone who got away?

First off, don't click on the story if you don't want to see the image.

Anyway, how drunk do you have to be to have sex with your car?  Me, ummm, no, not gonna happen.  Even in my drunkest days in my 20's did I ever do anything this absurd.

Of course the man was arrested, thanks to passerbys calling the cops.  This one gets my oddest news story of the week. 

Why does this story scare the heck outta me? 

Well, okay, it's not here in the US, it's in Saudi Arabia, where if they saw one bra commercial here, they'd kill us. 

The New York Post has an article regarding the goings on of Barack Obama's former paster.  Apparently the Reverend Wright has been doing the church lady.

"Elizabeth Payne, 37, said she had a steamy sexual affair with the controversial, racially divisive man of the cloth while she was an executive assistant at a church headed by a popular Wright protégé."

She's been fired from her cushy job at the Friendship West Baptist Church.  And her husband divorced her.

Good thing Barack dumped Reverend Wright.   Remember when Wright became an embarrassment for Obama after videos of the preacher's old sermons came out.  In them, Wright blamed the United States for the 9/11 attacks and boomed, "God damn America!"

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Off the coast of Somalia and Yemen, in the Indian Ocean is Socotra.  No, there's no fancy hotels, and there's barely any roads.  This is called the Island of Bliss for good reason.  It's an eco tourism dream spot, with it's interesting terrain and flora.

This place has gotta be some kind of proof that organic cells from space landed here and produced such a array of life forms.

Any dive enthusiasts out there?  This is a hot spot of diving old shipwrecks too.

Oh, someday, I would love to explore this beautiful place.  If I ever win the lottery, lol.

Here's the LINK to this magnificent place.  Enjoy!

Found this clip from the Discovery Channel showing what an asteroid can do to our Earth .  It's a pretty depressing thing that's happened a few of times already. 

Pink Floyd music is kind of apropo.

[edit] Or, this is what a HOT FLASH feels like on me lately....lol.

This has to be one of the strangest stories I've seen in a while.  A man dies in San Juan and his last request is that his body be standing for the wake.  The funeral home has some special embalming fluid?  To make him stand?  WOW! 

Here's the LINK

Tonite I noticed a new editorial from The New England Journal of Medicine, with questions, I myself have had, in regards to Gardasil.  It's making my choice of NOT giving it to my daughters all that much better.  There's just too many uncertainties.

Questions from the article, like:

 "For instance, will the vaccine ultimately prevent not only cervical lesions, but also cervical cancer and death? How long will protection conferred by the vaccine last? Since most HPV infections are easily cleared by the immune system, how will vaccination affect natural immunity against HPV, and with what implications? How will the vaccine affect preadolescent girls, given that the only trials conducted in this cohort have been on the immune response?"

There's just NOT enough data.  And it'll take decades for all the answers to come to light.

"How can policymakers make rational choices about the introduction of medical interventions that might do good in the future, but for which evidence is insufficient, especially since we will not know for many years whether the intervention will work or — in the worst case — do harm?"

And that's pretty much my reasoning for NOT wanting to give this to my girls.  HELLO!  This has always seemed to me to be a Pharmaceutical coup from the makers of Gardasil (Merck) to profit by forcing this down our throats, and by encouraging some states to mandate the vaccine to middle schoolers.  Can you say dirty profit?

We can pay the big bucks ($375) for the series of three shots, but still not be covered against the few types it's suppose to protect against.  What?  The girls may need another booster shot down the road ten years?  Umm, that's not what I understood originally during their intimidating commercials of doom and gloom.

That's just not good enough for me or my kids.  I want straight answers, not maybes.  I'm not going to pay for maybe.

As the last couple of sentences from the article say:

"With so many essential questions still unanswered, there is good reason to be cautious about introducing large-scale vaccination programs. Instead, we should concentrate on finding more solid answers through research rather than base consequential and costly decisions on yet unproven assumptions."

^{Yep, unproven assumptions for large scale (profitable) vaccination programs.  Do you really want to do that to your kids with out answers?  Shouldn't we be more informed before making these decisions for our children?} 

I know I've harped about this subject before on these blogs, and will probably have the same responses on the topic.  I have to go with my gut, it just doesn't feel right FOR MY FAMILY. 

My usual day starts with some surfin' for content for my other personal blog, but today this story begs an entry here.

Can you believe there's actually a society of people who still belive the world is flat?  Okay, stop laughing, because, I'm not joking.  It's call The Flat Earth Society. 

"From the BBC article: 'Are there any genuine flat-earthers left? Surely in our era of space exploration — where satellites take photos of our blue and clearly globular planet from space, and robots send back info about soil and water from Mars — no one can seriously still believe that the Earth is flat? Wrong. Flat earth theory is still around. On the internet and in small meeting rooms in Britain and the US, flat earth believers get together to challenge the 'conspiracy' that the Earth is round.'"

All I can muster between gut hurting giggles is WOW.

As some of you may know, I love my Dog, Ginger.  I take her everyday (ok, maybe only 6 days a week) to the University Dog Park around 7am.  She loves hanging out with her other doggie buddies.  I can even mention the other dog's names,  instead of saying the word "park" and she knows where we're going.

Me: You wanna go see Sammie, or  Muki, or Bubba, or Luca, or Barette

Ginger: *hops around with glee* We're going to the park!

People have to bring in water for the dogs and we all thought it would be nice if there were a dog fountain in there.  It really gets hot for them, I don't care how much "hair" you have shaved off them.

So if you go there too, or want to do something nice for the animals, please help support the installation of the dog/people water fountain in University Dog Park in Bakersfield.

We need to raise $2,140.  The total cost is $4,280. BUT, the city of Bakersfield has agreed to co-share the cost with the public.

There's a couple of ways to donate. One being, you could....Make a check payable to:

OR: Click the Donation Button at www.universitydogpark.blogspot.com.  I started this blog and I've helped raise $200.00 so far.  Cash and checks have been given to designated people that I know in the mornings at the park (they've, last estimated, have taken in over $500..  Email me, if you want to know more.  But the easiest way is to donate online anonymously.   

PLEASE BE SURE TO FILL IN THE DONATION FORM BOX, on the blog, "Designate My Donation (optional)" with the words "UNIVERSITY DOG PARK FOUNTAIN". The funds will not be designated properly WITHOUT this completed.

Any monies over the goal will be used for other things at the Dog park. Such as, more benches, and canopies over the benches. Your suggestions are welcome!

Remember your donation is TAX DEDUCTIBLE.

Thank You for your support.

Some of us had a good time playing Word Association yesterday.  Bakonative was with me on playing Three Word Story.  See the Wiki,  but in essence, all you do is tell a story,  three words at a time.  So I say let the games begin again.

I unfortunately have a mountains of laundy so I'll be sparce, somewhat.   I *DO* take coffee breaks.... 

Keep it Real, plz.

TO start it off with my three words, ummmmmmm:   They started to...

It sounds weird, but I had a dream Saturday night (which is amazing, because I swear I haven't slept in days.  Insomnia has been hitting me hard) about doing a blog on "Word Association" and I thought that was silly.....but I can't get it outta my mind.  So join me please in a little blog game, okay?

I'll start it off with the word:  DREAM

Please use only ONE word...if ya'll can, lol.  Respond to the last word on the list and let's see how far it goes.....  

I can't imagine anyone, even Homer Simpson, saying, "Mmmmmm, Yak's Knob is sooo tasty!".  But, apparently, penis and other genitalia are all that's on the menu in a Chinese restaurant in Beijing. 

You can have your penis roasted, steamed or boiled.  There's water buffalo member, or deer penis, dog penis (“The only one with a bone in it”, and served with a glaze cherry placed pointlessly on the tip).  Or maybe you'd like some goat or bull penis.

This is a restaurant that caters mostly to male Communist party members.  They seem to be the only ones that can afford such a "delicacy". 

Here's the full story at TimesOnline.  Enjoy!

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Have you heard about this one?  Now flip flops can cause cancer.  This from, this is London.

Quoting the article:  Doctors issued a warning today about the risks of "flip-flop cancer".

They fear the rising popularity of open-toed sandals and designer flip-flops is putting people at risk of getting skin cancer on their feet.

I didn't know Bob Marley, the reggae singer, died from a melanoma on his foot he believed was a football injury. He refused to have his toe amputated for religious reasons and died when the cancer spread.

Here's my photos from the blogger picnic at Beach Park this past Saturday.   We're all famous now because we're in the SNAP! Galleries online. Food was good and the company fun. And it was so nice to meet some other new faces.

Let's do it again real soon.

I found a way cool tutorial on making a cool photo "in the round".  I'd like to do a Bakersfield in the round using the most notable buildings in town.   So tell me, what do YOU think are the buildings I need to take photos of, that say "Bakersfield"...?

On my list so far is, the Fox Theatre and of course the Bakersfield sign, the Kern County Museum including the clock tower.   What else?

Can you all help me with more please....?  Of course I'll post the picture here when I get it done.

"Transcendental social" is a phrase used in the article I found yesterday from New Scientist.  Because we are such social beings, we have developed religion out of a need for camaraderie and to share our imaginations.

This is something I didn't need a scientist to tell me. But at least it explains how and when we developed these skills of using our imaginations.

I've always said to my kids, that other people talk about God and an afterlife, well what about other lifeforms. Where's their God, where's their afterlife? These are the weird things I think about when I look at my dog, Ginger. She's not worried about what's going to happen to her when she dies. She just lives for today. But she doesn't have an imagination.

People practice religion because they're the only creatures to have evolved imaginations.  From the article:

Maurice Bloch believes our ancestors developed the necessary neural architecture to imagine before or around 40-50,000 years ago, at a time called the Upper Palaeological Revolution, the final sub-division of the Stone Age.

At around the same time, tools that had been monotonously primitive since the earliest examples appeared 100,000 years earlier suddenly exploded in sophistication, art began appearing on cave walls, and burials began to include artefacts, suggesting belief in an afterlife, and by implication the "transcendental social".

Just the word "transcendental" means  anything "without outflows," ie, free of the three marks of greed, anger and delusion.   Which I find kind of funny, considering how I feel about the delusion of religion. 

I "get" so many people need religion, it gives them great comfort.  I'm still against children being indoctrinated into something they have no choice to follow when they're children.  Kids can't make informed decisions about these things.  They'll root for Daddy's favorite football team, because that's what daddy likes.  They don't have a clue on why they like that team. Geez, why not let  your kids make stock picks for you.  Or pick a lawyer.  They just aren't informed enough to make those decisions.  But they can be lead blindly into religion with no choice, except  to follow their parents imaginations. 

Has anyone heard about this? A tomb has been found, believed to be Knights Templar, but it could possibly hold the body of Mary Magdalene.

The tomb is in the mountains of the Languedoc region of southwest France. This may help substantiate the existence of a Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene bloodline.

The chamber holds a mummified corpse on a rose-colored plinth under a shroud bearing the distinctive red cross of the Knights Templar, and is surrounded by wooden chests, revealing a cache of gold chalices and coins.

Here's a link to a photo from inside the tomb.

Anyway, I heard about this, this morning, from my dog walking partner. He has a producer friend who knows someone involved with this new documentary movie, BLOODLINE, coming out this May. It'll be in Los Angeles May 16th.

"After the Crusades, it was rumored that the Templars had discovered treasure underneath the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem that could debunk the Catholic Church's doctrine," said Bruce Burgess, of the unprecedented discovery of what appears to be an intact Knights Templar tomb. "This treasure was believed to be priceless relics -- documents, the Holy Grail, even the embalmed remains of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene -- which was then brought to southern France, and hidden."

The team was able to take some hair strands from the woman's corpse and do a mitochondrial DNA test. "We were able to determine a Middle Eastern maternal origin of the individual based on haplotyping information. After we found out where this hair sample came from, we realized the significance of this work."

The rare find will be further examined at a Monday, May 5 news conference at the Jewish Museum in New York City.

This'll be VERY interesting to see how this plays out. Will it shake The Vatican to it's core?   We'll just have to see.

What a lovely afternoon.  My husband had the day off and we went for lunch at a downtown cafe.  He had the French Dip, and me, I had the curry chicken sandwich on a croissant.  We both enjoyed sitting outside, with a nice breeze, shooting the breeze.

After lunch,  we went to a local antique shop and browsed around.  The older gentleman inside the shop, who's been here his whole life, shared with us something quite interesting and downright made me *gasp* outloud.  He said a woman had come in recently with some "artifacts".  Those consisted of a few old postcard type pictures and a full white outfit, including a "pointy hat".  He said the arm of the "outfit" had been torn off at the elbow, and he said he could only imagine what the story behind that might be.   He then reached into a drawer and pulled out  some of the photos along with a KKK statue about 6 inches high and showed them to us.

I don't really know why he felt it was okay to bring these things out and show US, but we looked at the postcard type photos  from 1924.  The first one I saw was a parade showing a KKK float, YES, A  KKK PARADE FLOAT going down, downtown Bakersfield. Next was the whole "gang" dressed in their  KKK outfits.  I was standing there with my mouth wide open, disgusted and horrified. The little KKK statue was of a man made of bronze standing there pointing at us.  UGH!

I came home and thought about "The Grapes of Wrath" after Googling:  1920  Ku Klux Klan Bakersfield.  I found  this (link)  and it's small blurb from a book about our checkered past.  And, how funny is this, my OWN blog popped up in there on Google too, thanks to Hardliner4Freedom's comment on my Dolphin post from October '07. 

This excerpt is from the NewYorkTimes link above:

The Klan's allure in Kern County and other parts of Southern California lay as much in clever marketing as in its traditional message of racial hatred. The group pitched itself as a Christian fraternity that could combat the frontier corruption plaguing Bakersfield and other cities of the era. As such, it was able to attract not only avowed racists, but also ordinary members of the community who had tired of the open culture of vice--and who were willing to tolerate the Klan's brutality if it meant cleaning up the streets, trading one form of crime for another. The KKK in Kern County billed itself as the scourge of immorality, but it simply recruited the corrupt, rather than combat them, then launched its own brand of terrorism and thuggery on dissenters of every race

Anyway,  I'm flabbergasted.  Mostly  from the pictuire of the KKK float.  And the fact Bakersfield was like this in the early part of the Twentieth Century, with it's mirroring the Deep South.  I had a history lesson about this town today and it's past.  I need to get the book " The Grapes of Wrath" out and re read it.   Bakersfield has quite the colored (no pun intended) past, and I'm not feeling too proud of this town right now.  Call me naive, if you will, but I can't stand that anything like this still happens in today's world. 

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Better late than never.  Here's the pics I took from the blogger meet n greet.  It was wonderful to meet some new folks and say "hi" to ones I've met before.

I 'm always looking online for the perfect part time job, even though I'm not really looking for a job.  I always research the phone numbers of ads I might be interested in, so I won't apply for something like the Kitty Cat Adult Bookstore (yeah, something like that's happened).....well I just found this online in the Bakersfield Classifieds:

RECEPTIONIST Fun & fast paced office ! No exp nec. Start now! 324-4188

So, I google the phone number and find THIS.  It's a RIP OFF report and this job posting seems to be a scam.

Anybody care to investigate this to see if it is in fact a scam????

Wow, just read this on CNN.com.  People are switching faith faster than you can say "Does God Exist?"  And when they say "switching faith" it seems to mean they're dropping out of religion all together.

"The Roman Catholic Church has lost more members than any faith tradition because of affiliation swapping, the survey found. While nearly one in three Americans were raised Catholic, fewer than one in four say they're Catholic today. That means roughly 10 percent of all Americans are ex-Catholics."

Wow, being an "ex-Catholic", that's a no brainer considering the Pope won't let priests get married so most of them turn out to be pedophiles.  I wouldn't want my kids near Father Molester.

It also states atheists or agnostics account for 4 percent of the total population, but that number has to be growing considering the amount of people who considering themselves "not religious" anymore.   So I think that number is askewed. 

Plus, will organized religion finally come clean and admit that money is its true God?

Here we go again....holy apparition, Batman.  This time, and it's not the first time, a Rold Gold Pretzel is being sold on Ebay in the shape of, supposedly, the Virgin Mary.

The last time a Virgin Mary pretzel was on the auction site, it sold for over $10,000.  I just looked up the pretzel on Ebay, and it's already at $6,000 with 55 bids on it. The auction doesn't end until March 1st, nine days away.

Such a crazy obession that too many people believe as a sign from above.  What do you think?