Several Things...

Went to Rabun Camp grounds this weekend, mostly because I didn't want to be left alone for 4 days...

It was so cold... I hated that aspect of it. Most who know me, know that I don't deal well with cold temperatures at all. 37° temperatures at while trying to sleep is not my idea of fun at all.

Midget had a blast, however. She loved being outdoors. Collecting firewood, going for walks. Sunday we went to Helen, rode on a horse drawn carriage, and we bought her a life-size (well Midget size anyway) Simba. Monday we went to Tallulah Falls. She was in awe of the water, and the suspension bridge.

Fast forward to Tuesday morning...

Noon: I tell Linda, "Watch her, I have to finish packing up so that we can leave." (Trent had to be at work at 5:30, and it was a 2 hour or more drive back)

1:30pm: I finish loading the car, and the only thing left to do is deconstruct the tent equipment. She comes over to help, leaving Midget in the camper. I put the last of the rods and stakes in the tent bag and walk over to the camper, Midget is standing in the doorway, with this disgusted look on her face and white particles on her lips and chin. Curious, I wipe them off. Instantly I know, they are parts of a pill... or what's left of a pill. I gave her to Linda, screaming. I went into the camper to find that she had gotten into Linda's UNLOCKED, RIGHT OUT IN THE OPEN, pill box... 2 pills were missing. 1 Metformin (a diabetes drug) 500mg pill (the white particles I swept away were what was left of that pill), and 1 Simvastatin (a cholesterol drug) 20mg pill (of which we never found). Chaos is the best word I can describe the next 40 minutes. Linda cramming salt water down Midget's throat... thinking it would make her vomit, me screaming at her to stop, James scrambling for cell phone signal... Finally a moment of clarity comes and I run to the pay phone at the top of camp, getting to the phone I dialed 911, there were two gentleman unpacking their SUV, getting ready for a day of bear hunting. Needless to say I am screaming, I am crying and I am largely hysterical... Yelling at the 911 operator, I didn't know how to instruct them to get to us... I was losing what little composure I had left, when the man took the phone from me and instructed the 911 operator how to get to us, turns out that man, whom I only know by Michael, was a doctor, he rushed back to our camp and immediately took over, trying to keep Midget awake until the paramedics arrived...

Michael I will forever be in your debt for helping us... Though we will most probably never see each other again. Thank you so much...

2:30pm: We are on our way to the hospital. The paramedics largely didn't know what to do. They wanted to call Poison Control, but they too, had no cell signal.

2:48pm: 3 minutes away from the hospital, Josiah, the paramedic, gets through to the Poison Control. They tell us there's nothing to worry about. That the Simvastatin would cause an upset stomach, and that the Metformin was harmless under 1700mg. We then pull over into the supermarket parking lot, and offload a very scared, sleepy Midget, and start the drive home.

3:30pm: We are at the Dairy Queen eating swiftly to get back on the road so that Trent can get to work, when Midget starts projectile vomiting ALL OVER ME!

4:19pm: We are back on the road after cleaning Midget and myself up.

We got home just as Trent was supposed to clock in for work. Calling his work he explained what had happened and left for work.

The rest of the night was uneventful...
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Wednesday:

My legs are KILLING ME from that run up to the phone... it hurts with every step... my legs didn't like the marathon speeds... Midget is feeling okay, she is watching Lion King with Simba.

I am listening to the GazettE's new album TOXIC... I am disappointed, only liking one song, and seeing 5 of the 14 songs are from singles released over a year ago, and 2 instrumentals... this feels like an even more shitty version of DIM...

I am also sitting here reading about a German man having been deported at the ripe age of 96 for "war crimes", having been an SS guard at Sobibor in World War II. Having been charged with 200,000 counts of "accessory to murder". I find this to be absolutely absurd... he was a guard, doing his job in war time... he would have been charged with treason and executed if he didn't follow orders. Instead he survived only to be charged 50+ years later... give me a break...

Why aren't we charging the pilots of the Enola Gay for 200,000 deaths, after all they were only doing their jobs as well.

How about the American pilots of Vietnam and Korea shooting random civilians for kicks... why aren't we tracking them down and charging them with "war crimes" as well...

I am disgusted with how we have given the Jews and Israel carte blanche in prosecuting "Nazis"... It's over...

Seriously Alabama... unconstitutional immigration laws... I think Obama said it best.

"We need to put a stop to this, what Alabama is doing, what Arizona tried to do, and other states who are attempting to follow, it's out of control. We can't have a patchwork of 50 states with 50 different immigration laws. We can't have a situation in which individual counties are trying to enforce their own immigration laws rather than having a national approach and following it."

One last thing... Pastor Joel Osteen needs an education... 90% of America's are NOT Evangelical Christians.

Anyway, I think I am going to spend some time with Midget, rest my throbbing legs, and sort ebooks...

Separation of Church and State???

If you're charged with a nonviolent crime in one Alabama town, you might just have the chance to pray it all away.

Starting this week, under a new program called Operation ROC (Restore Our Community), local judges in Bay Minette, Alabama, will give those found guilty of misdemeanors the choice of serving out their time in jail, paying a fine or attending church each Sunday for a year.

The goal of the program is to help steer those who are not yet hardened criminals the chance to turn their lives around. Those who choose to go to church (there are no mosques or synagogues in the area) will have to check in with a pastor and the police department each week, CNN affiliate WKRG reported. Once you attend church every week for a year the case would be dismissed.

Police Chief Mike Rowland said the measure is one that would help save money and help direct people down the right path. Rowland told WKRG it costs $75 a day to house each inmate.

"Longevity is the key," he told WKRG.

He said he believes 30-day drug programs don't have the long-term capabilities to heal someone in the ways the ROC program might.

Police in the town said they think it is a simple choice, but others think it's a choice that shouldn't even be offered.

The ACLU in Alabama said the idea is "blatantly unconstitutional," according to the Alabama Press-Register.

"It violates one basic tenet of the Constitution, namely that government can’t force participation in religious activity," Olivia Turner, executive director for the ACLU of Alabama told the paper.

Rowland acknowledged there were concerns about separation of church and state complaints but said he didn't see it as too big of a problem because offenders weren't being forced to attend church, they are just being given the option.

The offenders who voluntarily choose church over jail get to pick the churches they attend. If they complete a year’s attendance, Rowland said, their criminal case would be dismissed and your record would be expunged.
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Hmmmm, 12 months of weekend tedium in honor of a incorporeal being that I can't prove exists...? I'd choose jail time personally... Before anybody thinks that going to church serves any real identifiable purpose, should we not do some investigating first? I mean, the majority of inmates in jails and prisons all over the United States, are religious and are attending some sort of church service in prison. This is just an excuse for the state to save money, a highly illegal way, but a way none the less.

The religious state it's voluntary (I am sorry, but even if the "separation of church and state" was found to be "technically" not problematic because it was "voluntary", this is still discriminatory against those who are non religious.), and the non-religious are already calling upon the ACLU. To which I say, no folks... It's going to require going a bit higher on the food chain than that, as this concerns a little known thing called the US CONSTITUTION.

But can you just imagine it: The wealthy prim and proper lady in her perfectly starched dress and every hair in place, sitting next to the guy who looks and dresses like Jesus but who's beard smells like onions and beer and is only there because he beat the shit out of his wife and child the night before and doesn't have the money to pay the fine, and doesn't want to sit in jail...

In my opinion, the asinine, ignorant fanatic, judge stepped way over the line. It is not in his authority to send people to "church". This man should be removed from the bench, though I should note that I find the idea of "church as a form of punishment" to be immensely amusing.

This isn't about my hating religion. It's about hating the fact that religious people are telling people "If I commit a non-violent crime, I won't have to go to jail, I'll just sit through some church services." and letting people get away with criminal activity, becuase of the misguided childish notion that if they go to church somehow somehow they will magically be turned into non-criminals. You can believe that naive notion if you want and no one will hate you for it, but keep it out of government, and don't make it law, that's just absurd. Instead, let's do away with the foolishness and brainwashing of religion and give folks the option of jail in other ways, a fine, or community service, where they can actually HELP the society they wronged. Going to church does no good to anybody except the church itself, who without the ignorant and the easily brainwashed filling a collection plate week after week, would lose their tax-free income and go out of business.

This also lends the assumption that people who attend church regularly are more moral and ethical than those who don't. That has not be my experience of life, nor is there any objective evidence of that. Also, this assumes that someone who attends church every week – against his or her free will – is the same as someone who attends by choice. Not true, either. And, oh yeah, some of us are sick of having Christianity shoved down our throats and fear a society where the lines between church and state are blurred. Believe what you choose, but leave me alone to believe what I choose.

It also violates the equal treatment clause. Those who can attend church without compromising their beliefs get to have their case dismissed, others do not. This is obvious coercion.

If you pay the fine, you'll have a criminal record...
If you go to jail you'll have a criminal record...
If you attend church they drop the charges and your record will be expunged.

The potential for abuse here is endless. Are there now going to be a rash of arrests for jaywalking and sidewalk spitting of all those either not Christian or not Christian "enough"? Attend church every week or rot in jail......sounds way too close to "Convert or die" to me.

Personally, I don't give a fuck where the jail is. I'd gladly strike up a romantic relationship with some tatted butch chick before listening to some religious ass-hat spew his brainwashing poison in my general direction every week for a year. Wait, scratch that, how about I instead embrace Pastafarianism and buy myself a certificate of ordination for $20, declare myself a church and be misdomeanor free...

 

THE FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER FOR LIFE!