Faux Abduction

Mom abducted, daughter missing

My first thoughts upon hearing this story yesterday were, what do two black men (a lot of the news stories I've read gloss over that little tidbit) want with a white woman and her little girl? My second thoughts were, who is so inept as to not take the cell phones from their kidnap victims? Turns out sister girl who called 911 to say that she and her daughter had been kidnapped and stuffed into the trunk of a car by two black men was telling stories to cover up a run for Disney World with the 9 year. Apparently the police were appropriately suspicious from the get go.

Ed Morrissey of Hot Air asks, Can we put an end to “white women in peril” journalism now?

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for/that:

1. Ibuprofen. It does wonders for fevers.


2. Another mom who took Sophia to school for me yesterday then took her home for a play date and dinner.


3. The kids went to bed without too much fuss last night.


4. All the other stuff I'm thankful for but can't seem to remember at the moment. Feverish headaches mess with your memory.

What are you thankful for?

Earth and Soul Dance Workshop

www.fullmoontribal.com presents
Earth & Soul
Featuring

Kalilah of Sword and Scarab
Rochester NY

Earth: North African – Bedouin Harvest Basket Dance A Celebration of Mother Earth’s Offerings
10 am – 12 pm - 2 Hours - $ 40
www.swordnscarab.homestead.com
&
Zoe Artemis of NYC
Founder of Gypsy Fire Syracuse NY

Soul: Contemporary World Belly Dance
Embrace the art of being soulful and sassy!
Mudras (divine hand gestures) & Theatrical Expression To create moving images of art
2 pm – 4:30 pm – 2.5 Hours - $ 50
www.zoeartemis.com

* Take both workshops have lunch on us!

Saturday June 20, 2009

Poetry – Henna – Massage - Shopping

Special show with Kalilah, Zoe & Guests 7 pm - $10

Location: The Spa at 500, 500 W. Onondaga St., Syracuse NY
Schedule your spa services: www.thespaat500.com
Contact: Chelle Naef - Director Full Moon Tribal
www.fullmoontribal.com
fullmoontribal@yahoo.com

Global Warming Solution of the Day

Obama's green guru calls for white roofs: President Obama's energy adviser has suggested all the world's roofs should be painted white as part of efforts to slow global warming.

I'm hoping that this was a throw away idea in a brainstorming session 'cause if he was serious...

Just what percentage of the planet is covered by roofs, roads, and sidewalks? Perhaps my sense of proportion is a bit off but I always thought not much. How much of that is already shaded by trees? One of the nice things about dark road surfaces and roof tops in the higher latitudes is that they get warmed up and thawed out faster in the winter. How are we supposed to compensate for that lost heat during the winter?

Disability, Discipline, Restraint

I was going to do an extensive write up about several stories on NPR this about individuals with learning disabilities and/or mental illnesses and the beating (figurative and literal) they often take at the hands of authority figures who are supposed to help and protect them (teachers, law enforcement officers, etc.). However, reading the comments on the first story in the list below really soured my stomach on the topic. I'd like to say that I'm surprised to see so much anger and hostility displayed towards individuals with learning disabilities and/or mental illness and their families but I'm not.

Here's a thought to chew on for anyone who might be disgruntled that students with learning disabilities, mental illnesses, or behaviour problems may be in classrooms with "normal" students. This isn't a case of coddling a few problem students at the expense of others. Teaching students to manage "problem" behaviours is equipping them to learn and fulfill their potential. Avoiding situations that lead to "problem" behaviours creates a situation more conducive to learning for all students. Finally, is it really fair to dump on special education students when it is already clear that public schools regularly fail to educate regular education students?

Report: Discipline Methods Endanger Disabled Kids
by Joseph Shapiro

Morning Edition, May 19, 2009 · A large number of schools use potentially dangerous methods to discipline children, particularly those with disabilities in special education classes, a report from Congress' investigative arm finds.

In some cases, the Government Accountability Office report notes, children have died or been injured when they have been tied, taped, handcuffed or pinned down by adults or locked in secluded rooms, often to be left for hours at a time.


********

Training Police To Handle Mental Illness Cases
by Joanne Silberner

Morning Edition, May 21, 2009 · In 1987, a Memphis, Tenn., police officer shot and killed a mentally ill man who was cutting himself and threatening others. The incident inspired training programs to help police handle these tricky situations. Those programs are catching on.

********

Schools Using Dangerous Discipline Methods

Talk of the Nation, May 21, 2009 · Handcuffs, tape and isolation are tools used on children with behavioral disorders in some classrooms. Restraint and isolation techniques are sometimes necessary to prevent students from harming themselves and others. But some educators argue for emphasizing prevention.

The following two stories, one encouraging and uplifting the other not so much, also caught my interest this week. They may get their own posts at some point. For now I will say two things. First one of my goals as a parent is that none of my children grow up to tell a story like Mr. Greenfeld's. Second is a bit of advice for any of you who are dealing with disability or mental illness, do not let yourself be over come by anger and despair. Easier said than done I know but anger and despair will eat away your soul, steal any joy there is to be had, and leave you unprepared for the challenges you face.

A Brother Recalls Life In the Shadow Of Autism
The audio version of this story contains footage provided by CBS' 60 Minutes.

All Things Considered, May 18, 2009 · Journalist Karl Taro Greenfeld has lived in the shadow of autism his whole life. He does not suffer from the disease, but his only brother, Noah, is severely autistic, a fact of life that has penetrated every aspect of the Greenfeld family.

In his new memoir Boy Alone, Greenfeld recounts his experiences growing up in the shadow of his brother's condition. As he tells Michele Norris, "when you have a developmentally disabled person in your family ... the gravity of the family is tilted disproportionately toward that person. In my family, Noah became the center of everything."

********

Disability Sometimes A Difficult Lesson

Tell Me More, May 19, 2009 · Teaching kids to accept and respect differences is an ongoing challenge for many parents, especially when it comes to approaching people's disabilities. Jeannette Betancourt, Vice President for Outreach and Educational Practices at Sesame Workshop, shares insights about teaching acceptance. David Gorman, Executive Director for Disabled American Veterans, and freelance journalist William Scheltema share what they have learned from living with disability.

Thankful Thursday

Today I'm thankful for/that:

1. Sophia willingly dragging my bag around the doctor's office last week when my back hurt too much for me to carry anything.


2. A fast recovery from last week's back muscle spasm. I occasionally have to say things like, I can't bend that way right now, but for the most part I'm back carrying my usual load.


3. I was already home and in the driveway when I locked the keys in the car this week.


4. I had a functioning cell phone to call hubby with when I locked the keys in the car.


5. Hubby was only 10 minutes from home when I called him after locking my keys in the car.


6. I had a baggy of Kix cereal to keep the girls happy and yarn and my crochet hooks to occupy me while I waited for hubby to get home and get my keys out of the car.


7. It's been a lot easier to keep the living room clean since I banished a bunch of the kids' toys from the house. I'll be repeating the process with kid and grown up stuff in every room of the house multiple times.


8. Green growing things in the garden (on the cheese not so much).

What are you thankful for?

Yet Praise Him

At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Phillipians 2:10, 11

A stunningly beautiful collision of cultures. 2000 year old religion, rooted in Judaism, practiced by Asians, in a style developed by the descendants of Africans and Europeans in the North American continent. Fascinating on so many levels.

Note to Self

Exodus 20:16 (English Standard Version)

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Some weeks ago I read some excerpts from the blog of someone who identified as a Christian and was a leader in their church. This person indulged in the kind of conspiracy fear mongering that is so prevalent on the internet. It struck me that making baseless clams that the entirety of the medical profession (except for a few brave souls who agree with you), the government (except for a few brave souls who agree with you), and research scientists (again except for the few who agree with you) are in a global conspiracy to harm people is a clear violation of the commandment that believers not bear false witness against others. This kind of behaviour, conspiracy fear mongering, seriously damages our Christian witness. Christians really ought to know and behave better.

Monday Morning Minutes

Back after an unplanned break. So...

1. Nancy Pelosi taking pot shots at the CIA? Really? I know that they regularly take one for the team but the CIA knows how to fight dirty (if they don't we're in bigger trouble than I thought). My money is on the CIA in this fight.


2. Drought, Politics Trouble Farmers In California. Why is it that when there is a dispute over water farmers (the ones responsible for growing the food you stuff your face with every day) get shafted? Why turn around and complain about how much food costs if you're going to do stuff that ruins crops or keeps farmers from planting enough to meet your demands? Trying to portray as "greedy" farmers who want enough water to keep their crops alive long enough to harvest them suggests a complete disconnect from what the lives of farmers are actually like. Why aren't the people who live in an arid climate but want to act like they live in a rain forest not the greedy ones? In the long run cheap food is more important to me than a green lawn in the desert, a full pool, a clean car, and 20 minute showers everyday. But that's just me.


3. People are still flipping out about swine flu. At this rate I almost expect roving gangs of health officials to start accosting small children with runny noses out of fear they may be carrying the virus.


4. I found it interesting that just as the Sri Lankan government started their final push to defeat separatist Tamil Tigers we suddenly started getting all these stories about how the conflict was hurting civilians and maybe the Sri Lankan government should pull back and not be so hard on the rebels for the sake of the people they'd been holding hostage all these years. Well the Sri Lankan government bit the bullet and forged ahead despite the bad press they were getting. Now they are claiming to have killed the leader of the Tamil Tigers, Sri Lanka Claims Victory, Rebel Leader Killed.

   The announcement sparked mass celebrations around the country, and people poured into the streets of Colombo dancing and singing.
   
   Prabhakaran's death has been seen as crucial in bringing closure to this war-wracked Indian Ocean island nation. If he had escaped, he could have used his large international smuggling network and the support of Tamil expatriates to spark a new round of guerrilla warfare here.
   
   "Myself and most of my friends gathered here have narrowly escaped bombs set off by the Tigers. Some of our friends were not lucky," said Lal Hettige, 47, a businessman celebrating in Colombo's outdoor market. "We are happy today to see the end of that ruthless terrorist organization and its heartless leader. We can live in peace after this."

   I wonder what they would be the news in Sri Lanka today if the government had responded to the bad press by delaying their advance.


5. For those contemplating the greatness (or not) of a national health care system (or not), contemplate this (which I believe refers to this) and this.

Swine Flu Swindle

I'm still steaming over the swine flu swindle of 2009. And I'm not talking about those hucksters selling fake remedies and preventatives to panicked consumers.

A crash effort to analyze the genes of the swine flu virus has revealed that it first emerged in humans last year — most likely last fall.

"The consistent range we're getting out is the second half of last year — between June and December," says Oliver Pybus of Oxford University. "The best estimate is the middle of that range, kind of September."

That means the newly recognized virus has been hiding in plain sight for the past eight months or so. Researchers say it probably had been circulating in Mexico and causing disease there, but its presence was masked by cases of regular flu and the absence of lab tests to identify the newcomer.

Seeing as how no one noticed a statistically significant rise in flu deaths last flu season I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this "new" virus isn't any more menacing than the old ones. Of course those who fanned the flames of hysteria over this have to say things like,

"We're going to be actively monitoring what it does as it moves through the population," says Joan Nichols. "As it turns around and comes back to us in the fall, we'll know much more about it."

If it starts causing severe and fatal disease at a high rate in the Southern Hemisphere, that will be obvious enough. Scientists will quickly analyze viruses from such cases to see if they can identify the genetic changes that correlate with increase virulence.

But unfortunately, the absence of such an obvious signal this summer may not mean the virus won't evolve into a pandemic killer in the fall. That's because researchers know relatively little about the genes that confer virulence.

I'm wondering why it took so long for someone to ask this question, Why So Many Swine Flu Deaths In Mexico? Shouldn't that have been the first question to ask, along with the question of whether the deaths were statistically significant, before panicking the world? And given that the virus has been circulating since last fall shouldn't we also be asking why it wasn't noticed until April of this year (aside from the fact that symptoms are indistinguishable from those of regular flu)?

There is a saying that a lie can run 'round the world while the truth is still getting its boots. Well here comes a bit of truth and reasoning.

Deaths In Early Virus Outbreaks Can Be Misleading
The first reports about swine flu in Mexico made the disease sound highly lethal. But now, public health officials are saying the new H1N1 strain may be no more deadly than plain old seasonal flu.


With swine flu, as with SARS and West Nile, the first identified cases in Mexico were people in hospitals who'd become very ill.

Initially, health officials had detected a surprising number of otherwise healthy young people hospitalized with pneumonia. Many of them died. And the first tests for swine flu were done in this group.

That made sense, says Dr. Frederick Hayden, a flu expert at the University of Virginia, but was bound to make the virus look more dangerous than it actually is.

"The hospitalized patients really represent only a fraction of all those affected," he says.

And mild cases of swine flu could have gone undetected for weeks, Hayden says. But this time, flu experts got a break. They found out that the virus had infected dozens of students from a high school in New York after some of them had visited Mexico.

A Week after I started the first draft of this post people are still doing a Chicken Little dance over swine flu. W.H.O. May Raise Alert Level as Swine Flu Cases Leap in Japan.

Now seems to be a good time to book a trip to Mexico since everybody else is staying away out of irrational fear of the flu.

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for:

1. My personal tech guru. I'd be so lost with out him.


2. Friends.


3. My family doctor. We shared stories of our back muscle spasm episodes in the office this afternoon.


4. The happy meds that will hopefully take effect soon.


5. A good meal shred with friends.


6. Sunshine and rain.

What are you thankful for?

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thnkful for/that:

1. Those who think of everything that could possibly go wrong...and then think of preventative solutions (you know who you are). That second part there is the key to making one a great asset rather than a kill joy.


2. Bird song. I don't know if it's me or the birds but they sound happier and louder than they have in years.


3. Frolicking at the park with the kids.


4. Spring blooms.


5. Friends.


6. All those who lend a helping hand to their fellow man, not for gain, not for fame, not so they can get up on a soap box and admonish others, but because it is the right thing to do.

What are you thankful for?

Monday Morning Minutes

I'm a day late with this since the swine flu hysteria came to my neighbourhood. Honestly 36,000 people die of the regular seasonal flu in the US every year and people are freaking out about a flu that has thus far killed less than 100 world wide.

1. Here's what the CDC says about seasonal flu.
   

   Every year in the United States, on average:

   • 5% to 20% of the population gets the flu;
   • more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu-related complications; and
   • about 36,000 people die from flu-related causes.

   
   I'm wondering if every running nose will get school closed down this fall when the regular flu season starts again.
   
   There have been 279 confirmed US cases of swine flu so far and 1 death, of a kid who came from Mexico to get medical treatment. World wide there have been 1276 confirmed cases so far. Is this worth China rounding up every Mexican it could find and essentially holding then hostage? No. Is it worth keeping thousands of kids out of school? No.
   
   I know people are blaming the media for hyping this up but they seem to be getting a lot of help.
   

   In the US, the swine flu virus spread to 30 states Sunday with a total of 226 confirmed cases, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.
   
   Health officials cautioned that the rise in cases had more to do with increased and better reporting of test results than a rapid spread of the virus.
   
   While Mexico claimed the virus was 'declining', the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva said the virus could return and the world might even witness a surge in the spring.
   
   The WHO rejected an assertion by the CDC that the mutated swine flu virus A/H1N1 did not appear to have the same deadly power as the Spanish influenza virus of 1918 that killed more than 25 million people.
   
   WHO director Michael Ryan said that 'these viruses are very unpredictable' and that it could still turn out that the swine flu could develop into a pandemic.
   
   Ryan said that the WHO still had to assume that alarm level 6 - that of a pandemic - would be reached. At the moment, WHO has an alert status of 5.




2. Why are people freaking out about pork products! How thick can you get? Wash your hands and leave the bacon alone okay. Good grief.



3. Anybody know anything about the American journalists kidnapped by North Korea? I bet they'd give them back if we told the North Koreans they had been exposed to swine flu.



4. I don't get all the fuss over Senator Arlan Specter jumping ship and siding with the Democrats. After the stimulus debacle he had to do something to try to save his political career. That whole stimulus mess will be a lead life preserver around the necks of a lot of politicians come election time.

Oink Oink

Chicken little has come home to roost. The boys school will be closed all week thanks to fear of the swine flu. The closure could continue into a second week. The boys are just going to love this. Not. They really like school and this change of routine is going to really throw them for a loop. Apparently a student who was sick had some connection to the St Francis Prep school in Queens that seems to be the source of most cases in New York state.

There Will Be Blood

As I failed to fall asleep in the wee hours this morning I heard the news on NPR that Justice David Souter will be retiring from the Supreme Court. I would have liked for President Obama to have a little more experience under his belt before he had to make a decision like this. I think what is about to go down will make the Roberts and Alito confirmation processes look like slumber parties. Obama doesn't have a good track record so far when it comes to choosing individuals to serve in public office.