Gone fishin'- for a while!

Things might be a little sporadic for a while, as I am on vacation. Well, if you can call it one. I got another show, with lots of lines, so I am having to spend time on that, as well. So, factor in trying to have a little fun, trying to borrow my sisters dsl line, trying to memorize a bunch of monologues, and my free time suddenly becomes somewhat limited.

Sis and I will be making a fun side trip for 9 days, in a few days, and if I can get Internet connection there I will post some photos. They should be beautiful. I have another week here and then a week when I get home to get ready for my out-of-town gig.

This time I'm driving! Not having a car wasn't that problematic, on the last project, but I was just blocks from the theatre and we were too busy to miss not having transportation. This time I would miss it, so, I'll pack up the car and off I go. I worked at this theatre last year, and am looking very forward to getting back, in spite of the horrendously short rehearsal period. This is why it is so important that I have all my lines down pat before I get there.

So..... see you when I can. Though I might surprise us all and post more often than I anticipate.

Blessings to you all!!

Joke of the Day: Poltics as usual- part deux

Thought this was good for a laugh, and oh so true!

Florida State Prisons curtail special meals for Jews and Muslims

The Florida Department of Corrections has decided it's too costly to serve special meals that accommodate both Jews and Muslims, so they will now {sniff} have to settle for Vegan or Vegetarian meals. Considering the small percentage of Jewish (est. 2.2%) and Muslim (est. 3.7%) inmate population, the State believes that money would be better served for educational and vocational programming. ...

... it costs about $2.66 (euro1.96) daily to serve inmates three regular meals. Kosher meals cost the same, but with costs for disposable containers and transportation, since the food was not prepared in each facility, the price came to about $4.71 (euro3.47) daily. Prepackaged kosher meals would have cost roughly $12 (euro8.84) to $15 (euro11.05) daily per prisoner, according to the department, but also may have come with additional costs for transport and supplementation with additional food items.

Kosher meals were served to both Muslims and Jews alike, because the Florida prison system does not serve Halal food and Kosher foods are prepared in a similar manner:

both exclude pork and mandate a specific way in which an animal is to be killed. Kosher laws also dictate the way food is cooked.

Florida State mandates 3 meals be served to inmates, 2 of which must be hot. It also stipulates that "inmates who wish to observe religious dietary laws receive a diet sufficient to sustain them in good health without violating those dietary laws.''

Rabbi Jack Romberg of Temple Israel in Tallahassee, who was a member of a group that reviewed religious dietary accommodations in prisons, noted that unless the vegan food is prepared separately from other meals, it would not satisfy kosher law.

Ahmed Bedier of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Tampa said vegan food would meet the religious requirements of those who follow a halal diet, but would cause undue hardship. ``Either you have a choice of violating your own religion beliefs or you're coerced to only eat vegan,'' Bedier said. ``That's probably not a reasonable accommodation.''

Call me insensitive but, hey, they're lucky they even have those options!! Now, I'm a vegetarian and I understand the need to adhere to certain dietary restrictions: when the airline industry still served food (if you could call it that) rather than those pitiful snacks, I'd always request a veggie meal or a fruit plate and they were very happy to comply. Some airlines actually had various kinds of veggie meals. But these men and women are in prison, not on some jaunt from Miami to L.A.! When you commit a crime you relinquish your rights to special dietary concessions.

No surprise, Florida State has already been sued (still unresolved) by the Florida Justice Institute on behalf of Muslims denied their right to Halal meals, and you can bet this next decision is going to cause an uproar.

Stop the Islamisation of Europe demonstration in Brussels on 9/11 banned!!

Some interesting things are happening with our brothers and sisters over in Europe. Looks like they are finally saying enough is enough, but their efforts are being thwarted at every turn, not surprisingly.

An organization- 'Stop the Islamisation of Europe' (SIOE)- has organized a peaceful, anti-Islamisation demonstration to be held in Brussels on 9/11. However, it turns out Brussels socialist mayor Freddy Thielemans felt the Muslims might be offended by this demonstration, so he decided to ban it.

The demonstration was intended to commemorate the victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks against the USA with a minute’s silence, on the 6th anniversary of those attacks. It was also intended to show that it was Islamist terrorists who carried out that mass murder and nobody else. SIOE considers that conspiracy theories blaming American and Israeli authorities for the atrocities actually dishonour the victims and their families.

The demonstration was also to protest against the growing Islamisation of Europe whereby Islamic practices and sensitivities are increasingly placed above those of non-Muslims. In a meeting on 7th August with the Brussels police SIOE organisers, Anders Gravers, Stephen Gash and Udo Ulfkotte were informed that policing the demonstration would be no more difficult than for any other similar event. However, on 9th August Mayor Thielemans (now known as Caliphate Freddy the Grand Mufti of Brussels) declared he banned the demonstration because he could not guarantee public safety. The mayor’s spokesman Nicolas Dassonville said: “The danger to public order is too high, to allow the Brussels protest to go ahead. The sizeable foreign community living in the area could react to the action.”

Though Thielemans has officially banned the SIOE protest he has, however, okayed a demonstration (for Sunday, September 9th) by an anti-American group of wacko Truthers (“United for truth” ) who claim Israel and the U.S., not the Islamists, were responsible for the 9/11 tragedy. Yes, they are everywhere and spreading like a fungus. [sigh]


What has always been intended as a peaceful demonstration has now been classified, by Thielemans, as criminal. Not that he used those exact words, but by stating the following he is, in essence, saying as much:

Such incitement to discrimination and hatred, which we usually call racism and xenophobia, is forbidden by a considerable number of international treaties and is punished by our penal laws and by the European legislation. The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly pronounced judgements condemning this type of acts.

Now the latest news from Brusselistan is that the Arab Europe League (AEL) has announced a counter-demonstration, set for September 11, against

“Islamophobia and racism in Europe”. The AEL is known for some violent protests in Antwerp some years ago.It was founded by Diab Abu Jahjah. During the war last year, he went back to his homeland Lebanon to join Hezbollah in it’s fight against Israel. Diab didn’t return. He decided to stay in Lebanon to start apolitical party there. Since then we didn’t here from the AEL anymore,until now.

According to SIOE, Thielemans is waiting for specifics from the Police before he decides whether he will ban the AEL demonstration or not. I think we all know what the outcome will be.

So much for equality and freedom of speech!!

Although there's not much we can do, there is a petition that you can sign, here, asking Thielemans to allow the SIOE protest.

Our European friends are planning on demonstrating anyway, brave souls. I join them in spirit!!

In solidarity,

Incognito

H/T Cassandra over at The Lighthouse .

Email Virus Alert: Storm Trojan invading your email inbox via invitation to join various groups

Here we go again!!! Our inboxes (or bulk folders, thankfully for me) are being invaded by spam emails containing the Storm Trojan, which seems to have re-incarnated from the greeting card format into an invite to join various membership clubs. They ask you to log in and change a temporary password, and that's when the fun begins, for them! Whatever you do, DO NOT click on the URL, and immediately delete the messages!

Also be very, very careful if you surf other blogs, because during a google search, I discovered that there are certain blogs that are exclusively posting the info from those particular infected emails, with the URL link intact!! Not sure what is going on there, and whether the blogs have somehow been hijacked by the spammers, but I have tried to contact Blogger.com about that, as challenging as that is.

SAMPLES from my mailbox

Pet World
Aug 21 (3 days ago)

1. Dear Member,
Are you ready to have fun at Pet World. Member Number: 74545713955627Temp Login ID: user7950Password ID: ql918
This Login Info will expire in 24 hours. Please Change it.
This link will allow you to securely change your login info: {URL removed}
Thank You,
Confirmation Dept.

2. Welcome Member,
We are so happy you joined WebTunes.
Membership Number: 2252917475
Temorary Login: user5886 Temorary Password: uj818
Please keep your account secure by logging in and changing your login info.
Click on the secure link or paste it to your browser: {URL removed}
Welcome,
Membership Services
WebTunes

Others came from the following sources:

Office Antics
MP3World
Wine Lovers
Funworld
Downloader Heaven

How to protect yourself:

Make sure you have good Antivirus Protection. Never click on attachments or links in emails from people you do not know. And even if you do know the sender, confirm that it actually came from them. If you use Outlook Express for accessing your email, disable the preview pane: Some viruses can actually infect your computer without even opening the email.

To disable Preview Pane in Outlook Express:

Click on "View" then "Layout" and uncheck Preview Pane.

Sigh!

Chavez loves Chavez- sends Peruvian quake victims cans of tuna with his photo on label

Narcissist Hugo Chavez is at it again!! Still attempting to curry favour with the peoples of other South American countries, he promised to send 120 tons of aid to the quake victims of Peru. And what did he send? ... a load of canned tuna fish, with photos of his beloved self and the Peruvian opposition leader Ollanta Humala on the labels!!

How sick is that? Politicizing a natural disaster by sending food with photos of 2 comrades-in-arms pasted all over the cans. He obviously wanted to make sure the people knew from whence it came, in order to bolster the vision of himself as some kind of saviour for the common man. Sending just plain old cans of tuna wasn't enough. As Kate at Colombo-Americana's Perspective states, it could be a clever photo-shopped pic, though I doubt it.

The Venezuelan Ambassador to Lima emphatically denies the food arrived pre-labeled with Chavez's mug on the tin, but the fact that the Peruvian President, Alan Garcia, actually commented that he doesn't believe Chavez was trying to use the situation as a means of propaganda, confirms (in my mind) that the Chavez label Tuna exists, and originated in Venezuela. It's absolutely in line with Chavez's personality disorder (like North Korea's Kim Jong Il) to want to see his face plastered everywhere.

Kate also mentioned that she's waiting to see when Chavez starts blaming the U.S. for the labels. Me too. Everything is blamed on the U.S., so why not this?!




H/T A Colombo-Americana’s Perspective via This Aint Hell, but you can see it from Here

French pedophile, given viagra in prison, rapes 5 year old boy upon release!

Francis Evrard, a 61-year-old (repeat-offender) pedophile raped a 5-year-old boy he kidnapped from Roubaix, a small northern town in France less than 2 months after he was released from prison. Evrard, who was sentenced to 27 years in prison, was released after serving only 18 of those years.

Police said the pair were discovered later in the day partly clothed in a garage used by Evrard after the use of a new nationwide search system. [fashioned after the U.S's "Amber Alert"]

Described as an

“incorrigible hunter of young boys” by a prosecutor at his trial in 1989. He also has three other convictions for sexual crimes in 1975, 1985 and 2004. The latter offence was committed in Caen prison, where he was discovered with child pornography on his personal computer in his cell. A psychiatrist who examined him for the court hearing in 2004 said that he had a “homosexual paedophile perversion causing a danger of a crime”. The psychiatrist added that Evrard was “barely readaptable”.

and yet, he was released!

The kicker: Evrard was found with Viagra in his pocket and, according to his lawyer, the drug was prescribed by none other than a prison doctor who claims he had no idea what Evrard was in for; in spite of the fact that three quarters of the inmates, in that particular prison, are child sex offenders.

I'd like to think that people can change, with treatment, but the recidivism rate for pedophiles is extremely high, and that's just those who happen to be caught in the act. Who knows how many are re-offending without being caught. Those sexual urges are extremely difficult to control and offenders usually wind up giving in to those compulsions. There's a very disturbing but powerful film "The Woodsman", starring Kevin Bacon, that deals with those issues. A convicted child molester, Walter (Kevin Bacon), is released after a 12 year sentence, and tries desperately to lead a normal life, but is ultimately unable to ward off the demons that push him to commit such despicable acts.

The French are outraged about the case, but the same thing happens in this country: repeat sex offenders are released early, re-offend and sometimes even murder their victims. Jessica Lunsford, case in point. At least Evrard's victim is still alive, although the young boy will probably need therapy for a very long time.

The problem is our laws are too lax and offenders are not required to undergo therapy, although who knows if that would even help.

Many of those committed get no treatment at all for sex offending, mainly by their own choice. In California, three-quarters of civilly committed sex offenders do not attend therapy. Many say their lawyers tell them to avoid it because admission of past misdeeds during therapy could make getting out impossible, or worse, lead to new criminal
charges.

We need to get tougher on violent sexual predators/rapists who are considered dangerous, particularly those who are repeat offenders. Treatment should not be optional! It should be mandatory. Intensive therapy plus drugs or chemical castration, or keep them off the streets, forever. Whatever it takes.

Incognito is in-transit

We have our final brunch tomorrow a.m. and then we all head back to our respective homes. The actors etc. involved came from all over the country: from L.A. to New York and places in between. Everyone was wonderful! It's not often that you have a group of people that mesh so well, so we were very blessed to have that. There will be many people missed, but I think we have forged some bonds that will continue past this experience.

It's been a very busy 2 weeks, exhausting but incredibly fulfilling. I had less free time than I had expected, but it has been a marvelous experience! We performed the readings Friday and today, and they went extremely well. I loved the 2 projects I was involved with, and I think we managed to accomplish what we set out to accomplish.

I don't arrive until late tomorrow night, and starting Monday, I will enjoy catching up on people's blogs.

Meantime, have a blessed Sunday. See you soon!