Last night I first saw this story on the news before bed.  Now on CNN.com.  This little girl needs to be found.  And as I write this, and the three times I've see this story on the news, it makes me so physically ill, it's palatable.  I feel like I want to vomit. 

Why?  Because, well, I'm sorry, the cynic in me says, I know she's not the only out there being physically abused.  Then I make myself even more sick at that thought.

Will this one story bring out other atrocities on humankind, and I'm just talking in America here?  Like the story I saw on Jon Stewart, the author escapes me, his book was about modern day slavery right here, now, in the US.

Immigrants from Thailand and other countries pay large amounts to come to the US only to have their passports taken away, and forced to work for less than they were promised, to pay back their debt for coming here in the first place.

They usually don't speak our language and don't realize the services available to them (yes there are), and are stuck here as a slave. 

If you want to understand what it’s like to be a slave, all you have to do is realize that slavery means to work on the behalf of someone else on a non-voluntary basis – without receiving compensation for your labor. That means, you work for the benefit of someone else for free, whether you like it or not.

And back to the girl, when she's found, and I so hope she is, how will she get the help she's gonna need to get over this life scarring event   She looks a lot like my daughter.   And I can't image these things happening to anyones daughter.

This fascinating map displays a brief history of the world's most well-known religions in 90 seconds: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism, with periods of inter-religious warfare highlighted. 

 It has to make you wonder if you picked the right religion.  What if you're wrong?  What if the right way is Buddhism?  What if whatever your parents taught was the wrong "way"?  What if you've been following the wrong philosophy?

I've always said I'd let my kids find there own way about religion and God. I've had them in a bible church group called AWANA for the past three years. Only because my youngest's best friend invited her to come along.  And I'm open to it.

But my youngest just shocked me with a comment she just made about one of the commandments.  She came up to me and was kind of stunned by the commandment of, " Thou shall not worship any other gods" (how she said it). She looked truly puzzled, like, what other gods? I asked her if she knew there were other gods in history?  She said, well, yeah, like Buddha, and she said she's been reading about Zeus, too. I talked with her about the others, so she gets it.  .

She also asked, why would a god say that, when the other gods don't say to not worship other gods, do they? And I just told her, if there are no other gods, why did God supposedly tell us not to worship any other gods?

Oh man, her little habitrail wheel of a brain is still squeaking hard after that comment. WOW!  She's starting to realize, she needs to absorb more on all levels.  I'm glad she's making this investigation.

My oldest daughter has declared she's not atheist, but agnostic.  She came out of AWANA a true freethinker.  I'm proud of her.  She may change her stance on the subject, but it's her decision.

As it should be for everyone.

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First good news:  It's been two months since my surgery.  I went to the doc yesterday and I finally got rid of my cast and I'm now enjoying some freedom.  But, I still have to wear an orthotic boot for at least three more weeks.   I'm now PWB - partial weight bearing, using crutches to touch the foot down a wee bit. 

I'll have to get a CT scan, to make sure it's really healing, in three weeks too.  Even the doc said, you know I said that last time.  It looked like it was healing after the last surgery, but it wasn't.  So we are gonna make doubly sure with the scan this time around.  

Sleeping last night was heaven sans the cast.  Being able to roll all around which every way I wanted was sooo delightful .  I haven't been sleeping too good for the last two months, so this was most enjoyable.  Now if only my neck pain would cease, I'd be super good.

And the rest of the good news:  I entered some pictures (photographs) in the fair for the first time this year.  And I can't believe it, I WON some awards!  I entered five photographs and I won three awards. 

We went last night for the opening of the Kern County Fair, between 3-5pm for free, and headed straight to the place were all the photos were.  Hubby pushed be around in the wheelchair, because  I didn't think that was the place to start my weight bearing - I'm just too dang slow, and I'm just super cautious right  now.

Oh, man, the weather was fantastic, albeit a bit windy, it was almost chilly.  But when was the last time you went to the fair and it was not hot?  Beautiful, just beautiful.

The three attached are:

Goose and the Supremes - that won 2nd place in the animal category

Juju Waterpark - that one got 5th place in the kids category

Dingy at Laguna Beach - won 6th place in the seascape category

I was really just hoping for an honorable mention.  This was my first time outta the gate, and I'm so jazzed.  This was the little ego boost I needed since I've been stuck home for the last two months unable to drive myself anywhere.

One more thing, I saw Hardliner For Freedom singing on the Chevron Stage too.  He's quite the hard core karaoker.

Found this story today, about an army soldier, Jeremy Hall,  stationed in Iraq.  A lawsuit has been filed suing the Pentagon for violation of his constitutional rights by  trying to force the soldier to embrace evangelical Christianity and then retaliating against him when he refused.

At Thanksgiving he was rquested to join in on the dinner prayer, and he said, no thank you.  When he told the sargent he was an Atheist, he was made to eat somewhere else in silence.

Next, after getting permission from the Army Chaplain to have meetings with other like minded individuals, he was threatened with not being able to re enlist if he continued to  hold more atheist meetings.

Funny this comes up today, because just the other day I was reading about the fact that military personnel can't get dog tags that say, "Atheist".  The only option they have is "No Preference", which means if they are out in a foxhole, someone will still pray over them, if they're dying, even if they don't want it. 

This guy, Daniel O'Neal, went so far as to order his dog tags from a private company, but to his dismay, the tags read "Athiest" .  Either the tag shop had godbots or maybe they were just illiterate.

Miltant Christians, now drop down and give me twenty Hail Marys. 

OK I get they're trying to make a point when I read this CNN article, because it wouldn't have much media coverage if they were suing the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy, and I've leaving Santa out this one...I still have young 'uns at home, don't ya know.

This is really about Chambers who decided to file this lawsuit after a suit was filed in early September in federal court against Lancaster County Judge Jeffre Cheuvront. He's the judge who was hearing a sexual assault case, where the woman wants to use the words "rape and victim" during her testimony.

 Chambers lawsuit, which was filed on Friday in Douglas County Court, seeks a permanent injunction ordering God to cease certain harmful activities and the making of terroristic threats.

 The lawsuit admits God goes by all sorts of alias, names, titles and designations and it also recognizes the fact that the defendant is “Omnipresent”.

 In the lawsuit Chambers says he’s tried to contact God numerous times, “Plaintiff, despite reasonable efforts to effectuate personal service upon Defendant (“Come out, come out, wherever you are”) has been unable to do so.”

Wow they'll go far to prove a point, it's just too bad they're wasting tax payer's money to prove a point.

Twice today I've received phones calls from someone of Pakastani or Indian descent. 

The first one this morning asked if I had visited a baby website and am I expecting.  They asked for me by my first name.  I told them no, I'm not expecting and I don't remember going on any baby websites.  And that was the end of that.

Now, just now, I got another phone call, sounded like the same guy, and he asked for me by name also.  Again, just my first name.  He said something like I notice you were on a website about ebay and I want to send you a packet in the mail....blah, blah blah, and  I stopped him and said, I'm not intersted and please remove me from your list.

The thing on this one that was weird was I was looking on MSN about Ebay and Swap Meets just minutes before the phone call. 

Our phone number is unlisted and I'm kind of freaked out about "being watched" online....anyone know anything about this.  Am I infected with a spy?  

I just mentioned this to my husband and he thinks maybe someone got my information from one of my blogspots, but I don't have my real first name listed on there. 

Anyone, have this happen to them? 

Enraged bee bursts Taiwanese woman's breast implant

Ok, I read this story, it's out of Belgium, and I'm sure you all thought I'd jump on this like hot cakes.  And I am, but before I put this out there, I decided, I better go more in depth on what I know about Scientology.

When the book Dianetics came out, I use to joke with my friends that it was a book about me.  My name is in the title.  I even owned the book.  But I  blew it off as bullstuff.

Scientology was at first secular; Hubbard began to characterize Scientology's beliefs and practices as a religion in 1953, and by 1960 he had redefined it as a "religion by its basic tenets."

All I needed to know to really blow this off was this:  When a person dies – or, in Scientology terms, when a thetan (their version of soul) abandons their physical body – they go to a "landing station" on the planet  Venus, where the thetan of the is re-implanted and told lies about its past life and its next life. The Venusians take the thetan, "capsule" it, and send it back to Earth to be dumped into the ocean off the coast of California. Says Hubbard, "If you can get out of that, and through that, and wander around through the cities and find some girl who looks like she is going to get married or have a baby or something like that, you're all set. And if you can find the maternity ward to a hospital or something, you're OK. And you just eventually just pick up a baby." To avoid these inconveniences, Hubbard advised Scientologists to refuse to go to Venus after their death.

Criminal charges should be happening here in the states too.  Everybody's got to believe in something, but this "religion" sounds like extortion.

Nepal Airlines said the animals were slaughtered in front of the plane - a Boeing 757 - at Kathmandu airport.

The offering was made to Akash Bhairab, the Hindu god of sky protection, whose symbol is seen on the company's planes.

The airline said that after Sunday's ceremony the plane successfully completed a flight to Hong Kong.

The belief in "god" seems to be ubiquitous through the ages.

We know, for example, that the ancient Egyptians believed in their gods so fervently that they built massive structures like the Great Pyramid -- still today one of the largest and most enduring human constructions ever created. Despite that fervor, however, we know with complete certainty today that the Egyptian gods were imaginary. We don't build pyramids anymore and we do not mummify our leaders.

More recently we know that tens of millions of Romans worshiped Jupiter and his friends, and to them they built magnificent temples. The ruins of these temples are popular tourist attractions even today. Yet we know with complete certainty that these gods were imaginary because no one worships Zeus any more.

Much more recently, we know that the Aztec civilization believed in their gods so intensely that they constructed huge temples and pyramids. In addition, Aztecs were so zealous that they were sacrificing hundreds of human beings to their gods as recently as the 16th century. Despite the intensity, however, we know today that these gods were completely imaginary. The Aztecs were insane to be murdering people for their gods. Killing a person has no effect on rainfall or anything else. We all know that. If the Aztec gods were real, we would still be offering sacrifices to them.

Today's "God" is just as imaginary as were these historical gods. The fact that millions of people worship a god is meaningless.

The "God" and the "Jesus" that Christians worship today are actually amalgams formed out of ancient pagan gods. The idea of a "virgin birth", "burial in a rock tomb", "resurrection after 3 days" and "eating of body and drinking of blood" had nothing to do with Jesus. All of the rituals in Christianity are completely man-made. Christianity is a snow ball that rolled over a dozen pagan religions. As the snowball grew, it freely attached pagan rituals in order to be more palatable to converts. You can find accounts like these in popular literature:

• "The vestiges of pagan religion in Christian symbology are undeniable. Egyptian sun disks became the halos of Catholic saints. Pictograms of Isis nursing her miraculously conceived son Horus became the blueprint for our modern images of the Virgin Mary nursing Baby Jesus. And virtually all the elements of the Catholic ritual - the miter, the altar, the doxology, and communion, the act of "God-eating" - were taken directly from earlier pagan mystery religions."

   

• "Nothing in Christianity is original. The pre-Christian God Mithras - called the Son of God and the Light of the World - was born on December 25, died, was buried in a rock tomb, and then resurrected in three days. By the way, December 25 is also the birthday or Osiris, Adonis, and Dionysus. The newborn Krishna was presented with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Even Christianity's weekly holy day was stolen from the pagans."

It is extremely hard for a Christian believer to process this data, but nonetheless it is true. All of the "sacred rituals" of Christianity, and all of Christianity's core beliefs (virgin birth, resurrection, etc.) come straight from pagan religions that were popular around the time of Jesus. Articles like this and this can help you learn more. Once you understand the fundamental truth of Christianity's origins, the silliness of this whole thing becomes apparent.

Obviously the pagan believers, from whom Christianity derived its myths, worshipped gods that were imaginary. And thus our "God" today is just an extension of these imaginary forerunners. All human gods are imaginary.

The news of Mexican Truckers hitting our highways soon has my fur raised. 

We are assured, supposedly, that the Mexican Truckers will have to be insured and must be able to speak and read English in order to travel on our highways.  I picture shoddy, polluting, and broken down trucks on our highways.  Will they be up to American standards?  This sounds like a big burden for the DOT.

In 1997, roughly 3.5 million trucks entered the U.S from Mexico. Of those, roughly 17,000 were inspected. "Of those Mexican trucks inspected, about 44 percent were placed out of service (percentage of trucks removed from service because of serious safety violations.) This contrasts with a 25 percent out-of-service rate for U.S. trucks and a 17 percent out-of-service rate for Canadian trucks.  This fact taken from here and there's alot more interesting stuff...so please read on. 

Thanks to Clinton back in 1995, the Mexican truckers couldn't drive into the country more than 20 miles, where they dropped their loads into a warehouse or American truckers took over.  Now they'll be all over the country.  SCARY!

Let's take into account these facts from the same article above:  

Of greater interest is the report's focus on Mexican truckers who violate the law and operate beyond the 20-mile area north of the border. The DOT distinguished between those that are beyond the 20-mile border but still operating within one of the four border states of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, vs. those who are roaming freely beyond those border states.

Of the Mexican trucks stopped north of the border but within the four border states, 32% of the trucks were found to have serious safety violations and were taken out of service. But outside the border states, the rate fell to a mere 19%. This is lower than the U.S. failure rate of 25% found among trucks stopped within the U.S. for road-side inspections.

This makes me feel worse.  Jobs are being stolen from Americans.   When will cheap labor be something of the past.  It's all about cheap shipping rates, isn't it? Which will put hard working AMERICANS out of work. 

How do you guys feel about this one? 

Pastor Has Sex with Daughters for Scripture

Religion strikes again.

Sydney Morning Herald:

A fundamentalist church pastor had sex with two of his teenage daughters to educate them on how to be good wives, a South Australian court has heard.

The 54-year-old man, who cannot be named, was today sentenced in the SA District Court to eight and a half years jail after pleading guilty to seven counts each of incest and unlawful sexual intercourse.

The court heard that the man had sex with his daughters for nearly a decade from 1991 when they were aged 13 and 15 at the family property.

The sex took place at various locations including in a shearer’s shed, a paddock, on the back of a ute and, on one occasion, at the girls’ grandparents house.

The man told the court the sex was not about fulfilling his desires but about teaching his daughters how to behave for their husbands when they eventually married, as dictated in scripture.

In sentencing, Judge David Lovell said the misrepresentation of scripture used to justify the abuse of the girls “defied belief”, and that he had “hypocritically betrayed” his religion and principles.

“You said the acts were about learning about sex rather than engaging in the acts of sex,” Judge Lovell said.

“I do not accept that.

“You treated your daughters as your property … using them to satisfy and gratify your sexual urges.”

Judge Lovell gave full credit for the man’s guilty pleas, saying he was genuinely remorseful and had a good chance of rehabilitation as his wife and the church remained supportive.

The man will be eligible for parole in four years.

Ick.

One of the frightening aspects of religion is that the devout believe their value system transcends human law. Religion offers a subjective value system that pontificates its placement above all other moral, ethical and legal standards.

As long as religion reigns, people will use it as an excuse to do the inexcusable.