Life, or something like it.

IMMIGRATION LAWS

THERE WILL BE NO SPECIAL BILINGUAL PROGRAMS IN THE SCHOOLS.
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THERE WILL BE NO SPECIAL BALLOTS FOR ELECTIONS.
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ALL GOVERNMENT BUSINESS WILL BE CONDUCTED IN OUR LANGUAGE.
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FOREIGNERS WILL NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO VOTE NO MATTER HOW
LONG THEY ARE HERE.
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FOREIGNERS WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO HOLD POLITICAL OFFICE.
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FOREIGNERS WILL NOT BE A BURDEN TO THE TAXPAYERS.
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NO WELFARE, NO FOOD STAMPS, NO HEALTH CARE OR OTHER
GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS.
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FOREIGNERS CAN INVEST IN THIS COUNTRY BUT IT MUST BE AN
AMOUNT EQUAL TO 40,000 TIMES THE DAILY MINIMUM WAGE.
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IF FOREIGNERS DO COME AND WANT TO BUY LAND, THAT WILL BE
OKAY. BUT OPTIONS WILL BE RESTRICTED..........
YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED WATERFRONT PROPERTY. THAT IS RESERVED
FOR CITIZENS NATURALLY BORN INTO THIS COUNTRY.
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FOREIGNERS MAY NOT PROTEST; NO DEMONSTRATIONS; NO WAVING A
FOREIGN FLAG; NO POLITICAL ORGANIZING; NO BAD-MOUTHING OUR
PRESIDENT OR HIS POLICIES.
IF YOU DO, YOU WILL BE SENT HOME.
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IF YOU DO COME TO THIS COUNTRY ILLEGALLY, YOU WILL BE HUNTED
DOWN AND SENT STRAIGHT TO JAIL.
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HARSH, YOU SAY?............

The above laws happen to be the Immigration Laws of:
"MEXICO!"

How about that for an eye-opener?!!

My job is to assist God's creatures.
I was born with the drive to fulfill their needs.
I take care of helpless, unwanted, homeless creatures
without planning or selection.
I have bought dog food with my last dime.
I have patted a mangy head with a bare hand.
I have hugged someone vicious and afraid.
I have fallen in love a thousand times.
And I have cried into the fur of a lifeless body
too many times to count.
I have Animal Friends and friends who have animal friends.
I notice those lost on the road side
and my heart aches.
I will hand raise a field mouse
and make friends with a vulture.
I know of no creature unworthy of my time.
I want to live forever if there aren't animals in Heaven,
but I believe there are.
Why would God make something so perfect
and leave it behind?
Some may think we are masters of the animals,
but the animals have mastered themselves...
something people still haven't learned.
War and abuse make me hurt for the world,
but a rescue that makes the news gives me hope for mankind.
We are a quiet but determined army
and we are making a difference everyday.
There is nothing more necessary than warming an orphan,
nothing more rewarding than saving a life,
no higher recognition than watching them thrive.
There is no greater joy than seeing a baby play
who, only days ago, was too weak to eat.
By the love of those who I've been privileged to rescue,
I have been rescued.
I know what true unconditional love really is,
for I've seen it shining in the eyes of so many,
grateful for so little.

I am a Vet Tech.
I am an Animal Rescuer.
My work is never done.
My wallet is always empty,
but my heart is always full.

Okay, I tried to not say anything on this subject, but it's driving me nuts.

This afternoon, I watched Channel 4 News (sorry Fox2, I missed yours at 11)

Anyway, they were talking to Pam Akers about all of this. My heart goes out to Shawn and Ben and Bens Family, and I was really feeling sorry for the Akers. I kept thinking to myself " My God, the media needs to leave these people alone and let them get on with thier lives the best they can."

THEN I hear Pam say that they will be going out of town to be on some sort of news program and that they are now open for a movie or book deal.

Now if this was MY child. There is no way  I would agree to a movie or book deal for any amount of money. I couldn't deal with the fact that there is a movie or book out there sharing the sickening, perverted, things that my baby had to endure by this monster.

I feel that if Shawn wants to write a book or movie when he is an adult and has healed from this with many years of counseling, then so be it. Shawn has been through a life altering ordeal and is STILL a child. I hope they think about it long and hard before they agree to something that could inhibit Shawns healing or possibly something that may haunt him in his adult life.

What are your thoughts?

God be with Shawn, Ben and thier families.

Nasal decongestants are a dime a dozen. The things are everywhere and they will advertise themselves as being able to do just about everything...including unclogging the kitchen sink. What they don't tell you is what an idiot you can make of yourself in public while using decongestants.

For example, there are the kind with labels that read, "for nighttime use only". These are the pills that self-destruct after daylight. It is advisable that you keep them in your medicine chest and only open it after the sun goes down. These "vampires" of the drug set are designed to relax you to the point of entering a light coma. Operating a moving vehicle while under the influence of one of these is not a good idea.

If you come up behind a car that is sitting at the red light for the fourteenth time, it is an easy bet that the person behind that wheel is zonked into la-la land by a dose of antihistamine sleeping dope. Car horns and screaming do not affect people in this condition. Simply pull your car into oncoming traffic and move around them. Hopefully the oncoming traffic will understand. If not, you can always claim it was the other driver's fault, you know, the one with the really big eyes and hair that stands straight up on end? He will use a few finger gestures and shout a few obscenities but then he will get over it... eventually.

Then there is the other kind of decongestant, that you are not allowed to use before retiring for the evening. This stuff is lethal if used anywhere near a pillow. You take a dose of this stuff and your eyelids will pop as big as cookies the second your head comes to rest. Then you spend the rest of the night wide awake, listening to your heart running the Indy 500 and hoping you'll win the race. Counting sheep will not work in this situation, and it is for this reason that online chatrooms are always open 24/7. The people who run them are insomniacs, hopped up on decongestants.

Of course it is always wise to read labels when dealing with the mystery drugs that are put forth on the market these days. There is always that one ingredient which is apparently added to the mix for the sole purpose of making you sicker than you already are. You have a couple of options here.

You can either be drowning in your own phlegm and unable to catch your breath, or you can breathe easily but not in your bathroom because you have non-stop diarrhea, a side effect of the pills. Or you can sleep well at night without suffocating under a stuffy nose, but you have the added bonus of perhaps not awakening in the morning. Your choice. Oh, and don't forget to take another totally different kind of pill when you do remember to wake up in the morning. You don't want to be the guy sleeping behind the wheel at the intersection, now do you?

Trial and error is the only way to truly determine the correct dosage of the correct decongestant for you. How else will you know if the darn thing will float your head from your shoulders, or put you into a coma? Also this is a good way of determining how you will react when the pill finally wears off, four, six, eight or twelve hours later. It is a lot of fun finding out the hard way that the twelve hour caplet you took twelve hours ago has just quit working and your body is now prepared to retaliate. It has been saving its favorite miseries up for the past twelve hours and will now eagerly dump them all on your head at once.

You are sitting down (if you are lucky) and your head suddenly begins to swim like a goldfish in a bowl, a small bowl at that, and the fishy is swimming in circles. You try to stand up, and thud, someone pops two big corks in your nostrils, disabling your nose-breathing apparatus for the duration. You are now a dizzy mouth-breather.

Try not to be out in public when this happens because if you are, you will soon achieve a brand new reputation, and quite possibly a new knick-name to go with it. Goober comes to mind. You will be staggering around like the town drunk, and walking into really big walls that most people somehow manage to avoid. Don't even think of trying to cross the street. That car that is flying through the intersection with a sleeping driver at the wheel, (yes, sometimes the car is not in the stop position when the dope takes effect) has your name written all over it. You will cough, choke, retch, gag, develop a gonging headache, sneeze every second for the next fourteen years, and will not be able to walk a straight line when the nice officer asks you to.

For your personal safety it is advisable in the case of emergency allergy relief, to simply call your mother on the phone, and ask her what it was that she used to feed you when you were a little kid. Whatever it was, it always worked exactly the way it was supposed to, no matter what, because moms always know. Always. Do not be surprised when you ask her, if she informs you that it was a jelly bean that always did the trick for your childhood ailments. You were from a different planet when you were a child.

Wow, seems like forever since I've been here. I miss all of my friends here so much and I'm sorry I just up and disappeared on you guys. I was going through a real difficult time and thought it would be best for me to deal with it alone, rather than be a big downer in the group. I thought I was losing my mind, was a total emotional mess, had no idea what was happening to me. I "knew" something was wrong, I wasn't feeling like "Tina". I went to the doctor, had alot of tests done, including a psych evaluation lol. Well come to find out I wasn't crazy, I was really sick. The breast cancer was back, and this time it was worse than before. It's amazing how when your body is sick, it affects your mind! I thought I was really cracking up. Cried at the drop of a hat, then turn around and be on top of the world. NUTS. Sooo to make a long story short, I beat the breast cancer AGAIN. Although I no longer have my long hair because of chemo, I have my body and mind back. Now I just hope I can have my friends back. I missed you all terribly.

Much love,

Tina

p.s. If anyone wants to be friends with me on MySpace, my page is...

www.myspace.com/munchkin1016

A 101 year old woman beat up and mugged....

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/10/elderly.robbed.ap/
index.html

This story and video made me sick! Not much surprises me these days, but this was just too much. I sat here watching this video and all I could do was cry. Dear God, what is this world comming to?

To whom do you compare yourself?  If you spend too much time looking at fashion magazines, you could very well feel inadequate.  Most of the models wear dangerously thin bodies and wastefully expensive clothing.  If you spend too much time watching TV sitcoms or soap operas, you might be tempted to think your spouse is not built the way he or she should be.

Look around you.  Look at all the other people just like you.  They are real.  You are real.  Some have more stuff, some have less.  Some have better builds, some have less.  Some smile more, some less.

Don't compare yourself to others, because you can never be them and they can never be you.  Be yourself and love it!

Breed specific legislation (BSL) is being passed in many different states, counties, towns and countries, and is a detriment to the survival of the Pit Bull. All owners should concern themselves with the matter of BSL.

What is BSL?

BSL is legislation that targets specific breeds of dog (namely Pit Bulls and "pit bull types") because they are supposedly inherently dangerous and therefore deserving of prejudicial rules and regulations. BSL can be loosely divided into two types:

Type 1--Bans

Bans make it illegal to own, house, harbor, import, train, or breed any of the dogs listed in the legislation in a particular location. Dogs that already exist in the area of the ban are usually grandfathered in, but their owners have to comply with extensive laws in order to keep their animals. These laws usually require owners to take out expensive liability insurance on their dogs, muzzle the dogs in public, keep the animals confined in kennels, mandatory spay/neuter, among other things.

Type 2--Ownership regulation

Regulation legislation doesn't outright ban a breed, but rather makes it extremely difficult to own a certain breed. Requirements such as liability insurance, mandatory spay/neuter, higher licensing costs, muzzling in public, etc. are typical of legislation like this. Ownership regulation also places age limits on who can own or handle certain breeds. Through this type of legislation, the government is basically deciding who is and who is not allowed to own certain dogs.

What's the point of BSL?

The supportors of BSL claim their goal is to put an end to dog attacks by targeting certain breeds of dog that are "inherently vicious/dangerous", and dogs that tend to appeal to people who are involved in criminal activity (i.e. drug dealers, dog fighters, gangbangers, etc).

What About Bite Statistics? Do They Prove We Need BSL?:

Dog Bite Statistics are unreliable sources of information regarding the "viciousness" or dangerousness of breeds for the following reasons:

1) Very few people can accurately identify dog breeds.

2) Breeds are not listed individually, but rather under group headings. For instance, under the heading "pit bull", you will find no less than 3 distinct breeds, mixes of any of those three breeds, any dog that appears to be one of those breeds, plus any misidentified dogs. And make no mistake, dogs get misidentified all the time. There is a case of an Akita attack that was reported as a "pit bull attack" in the media. This author's dogs have been mistaken for Boxers, Bulldogs, and yes, one was even mistaken for an Akita. Just about any Pit Bull owner can tell you of many cases where their dog has dealt with a case of mistaken identity.

3) Bite stats take into account only reported bites.

4) Bite stats do not take into account the dogs of a specified breed who do NOT bite. No one knows the overall percentage of Pit Bulls who bite compared to, let's say, the percentage of Dalmatians or Golden Retrievers who bite.

5) Bite stats do not list "provoked" bites that occur at grooming shops and veterinary offices. If you took a survey of groomers and veterinarians, I'm sure you'd find an overwhelming majority of them would tell you that the small, "cutesy" dogs that people generally hold as harmless are the dogs that give them the most trouble. I'm a Vet Tech and can attest to the fact that the big dogs, particularly the Pit Bulls, and other similar breeds, are by far the most cooperative.

6) Bite stats DO list the truly provoked bites, i.e. dogs who have bitten after being teased/harrassed/abused.

BSL Is Not The Answer:

While it is quite obvious that there is a problem in some communities regarding loose dogs harrassing/attacking people, criminal activity involving the use of dogs, and dog attacks in general, BSL fails to reduce the occurance of these problems because it fails to address the root cause: people. BSL doesn't work because it is purely predjudicial in nature. Instead of punishing owners who are irresponsible and criminals who use dogs for illegal purposes, the legislation targets dogs for simply existing, and people's rights to own the breed of dog they so choose.

BSL is also largely based on misinformation and truth-twisting, its authors citing the "inherent viciousness" of certain dog breeds as plenty reason to outlaw even those dogs that have never acted in a criminal fashion. Bite statistics are also used as justification since "pit bulls" often top such lists. Of course, no breed is inherently vicious, and the accuracy of bite stats are suspect as best.

BSL doesn't work because...

1) Current laws are barely enforced. New laws are going to be heaped on top of old ones, for what purpose? Take something as simple as the leash law. It is not very often enforced. Leashes save lives, they prevent dog bites and attacks. It is a simple, yet extremely effective means of lessening dog problems. The blatant disregard for leash laws is not something that should be allowed to go on.

2) BSL takes time, money and man-power to enforce. The responsibility for the enforcement of laws falls on Animal Control and sheltering systems. These are agencies that are already dealing with massive surpluses of animals, more calls than they can sometimes handle. Now they are being forced to deal with the additional weight BSL dumps on their shoulders.

3) BSL is predjudicial in nature. It punishes dogs and owners who have done nothing wrong. It is discriminatory against people who choose to own a particular breed of dog.

4) All dogs bite. All dogs can inflict harm. There is no scientific study to prove that one breed of dog bites more or causes more injury than any other breed of dog. There have been cases of tiny dogs, under 20 pounds killing or seriously injurying children.

5) If Pit Bulls and similar breeds are outlawed or severely restricted, one of two things happen: criminals and irresponsible owners will continue to get their hands on the dogs and simply ignore laws, or they will turn to other breeds to suit their purposes.

Alternatives to Breed Speficic Legislation:

1) Enforcement of generic dangerous dog laws, laws that hold owners accountable for the actions of their dogs regardless of breed.

2) Enforcement of leash laws. Let's be real strict about this. Tickets should be handed out like candy to individuals who disobey this law. Fine owners who let their dogs run loose or fail to keep them in enclosures that they cannot escape from. Let's have a 3-strikes and you're out law for people who refuse to keep their dogs under control. Use the money collected from these fines to fund community dog safety and responsible ownership programs.

3) Stop making excuses for animal cruelty, neglect, and irresponsible ownership. There need to be huge fines for those involved in any inhumane or irresponsible activity with animals.