Army Wife Tries to Kill Husband, Instead, Kills Two Young Children

From Seattle PI:

GAINESVILLE, Ga. -- An Army wife accused of setting her apartment on fire botched an attempt to collect on her husband's $400,000 insurance policy when he survived and her two children died instead, a federal prosecutor said.

Billi Jo Smallwood, 35, was denied bond at a Friday hearing in northeast Georgia, where she appeared on federal charges of damaging government property by fire.

"She set fire to her own home in hopes of killing her husband and wound up killing her kids," Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Gabay-Smith said.

::shakes head:: What an awful story. Gay couples in Arkansas who would love to have a family can't adopt kids. Unfortunately, crazy, irresponsible bio moms everywhere are permitted to raise their children with no questions asked.

Rest in peace, Sam and Rebekah

via Slog
image via Seattle PI

Autumn is Great and All

But all the special things that happen when its winter time are incredibly enjoyable.

Here is a list:

• Christmas! This includes:
• family festivities and a giant feast
• church
• anticipation
  
• preparing; cooking and baking
  
• decorating the tree
• splurging
• shopping for, wrapping and giving neat presents
• stockings
  
• Advent calendars
• reminiscing
  
• charity
• Christmas cards
• seasonal microbrews
  

Additionally:

• flannel sheets
• pomegranates
• down blankets
  
• down vests
• bundling up; layering

Now, I'm off to find my down booties and a sweatshirt.

Tim Mollen and I Talked

and we agree that you should replace your antiperspirant with a nice, aluminum-free deodorant. I like the Crystal Rock but that's no secret. Read Mollen's take on the pits of dealing with your pits (with permission) and tell your friends:

The Lost Journal

Tim Mollen

Journal Entry: September 23, 2008 (age 39)

Sweating the Details Can Be Good For Your Health

Once in a great while, a marketing campaign can actually make you stop using a product that you’ve used for years. Recently, I’ve started seeing ads for “clinical strength antiperspirant.” So far, so good. I think I fit into the sizable demographic that doesn’t like to be involuntarily wet and smelly, or at least not during business meetings or family functions. And like most people, I usually reach for the product that says “extra strength,” rather than the one that says “regular strength.” Regular strength is for common people, not exceptional people like you and me. We have atypical needs that require extraordinary solutions. Let the peasantry get by with half-measures; we power-users must be fully satisfied!

But the next ad I saw went on to say that clinical strength antiperspirant achieves its improved results by increasing the aluminum compound content. Aluminum? Increasing the aluminum? Huh? I went to my medicine cabinet and got out my regular strength, sweat-battling stick. Sure enough, the label listed the active ingredient as aluminum zirconium tetrachlorohydrex. Just the aluminum part sounded bad enough. With the added negative connotations of zirconium (cheap diamonds?) and tetrachlorohydrex (bleached fish?), I became truly concerned.

After some online research, I realized that for the past 30 years, I have been plugging the pores under my arms with…metal?! “That oughta do it,” I imagined the product development engineers saying. But is cutting off a natural process of the body by filling openings in our skin with metal really the best option? From what I gather, the science on possible health problems resulting from this approach is unsettled. Nonetheless, the idea just sounds wrong.

That didn’t stop me from toying with the idea of stitching Reynolds Wrap into all of my shirts. Sure, I’d make crinkly sounds whenever I moved, but I could also get a little closer (and not be shy). I began to rationalize this iron-clad method of preventing B.O. The electrolytic reduction of aluminum is referred to as “smelting.” Therefore, I reasoned, he who smelts it will not smell it.

Following that kind of unassailable logic, what other innovations in personal hygiene could be achieved by getting past such outdated concepts as “safety” or “health?” We could make toothpaste that’s 50 percent bleach. Or an eye drop that actually kills blood vessels. Or skin-toned spackle to fill in laugh lines. The possibilities are endless! Cement styling gel. Lip em-balm. Flesh/odor-eaters. Q-tip drill bits. Perhaps one day, nature’s most poisonous protein could be injected into people’s faces to get rid of wrinkles. Oh wait – that one is already being used. (It’s not just toxic – it’s bo-toxic!)

On third thought, I think I’ll just try a deodorant without antiperspirant. If Mennen Old Spice can’t be Sure of the Degree to which Secret methods are being used to make their underarms Arrid, Soft & Dri, there should be a Ban.

Tim Mollen is funny and he is aluminum-free, right, buddy?

Green is Good for My Body, Good for the Planet

This past year, J and I have seriously overhauled the way we consume groceries, produce, meat, household items, gifts, personal care items and more.

Previously, I blogged about my switch from mass market antiperspirant to Crystal Body Deodorant. I have been using it for months and not only do I still use it, I want everyone else to use it. I even started a dialog with local humorist Tim Mollen who wrote about his pits and his concerns regarding toxic antiperspirant in his weekly newspaper column. I told him about my love of the rock and love of not being poisoned; we became "sweat buddies" with an unusual commonality.

I also blogged about my switch from traditional lady part products that add waste to the landfills to the Diva Cup. I made that switch in July and, after a couple awkward months of adjustment, I now am happily using and reusing my Diva Cup and feeling good about eliminating some trash.

Recently, I have discovered LUSH Cosmetics, a company that makes handmade, 100% vegetarian cosmetics with fresh, organic fruits and vegetables. 75% of their products are vegan, they are all nearly preservative-free. PLUS Lush buys ingredients only from companies that do not commission tests on animals.

I am currently using Coalface Cleanser with ingredients including licorice, charcoal and sandalwood oil. Since it is a bar soap, the only waste is the small plastic bag in which it shipped (70% of their products are available "naked"). The scent was a bit strange to adjust to. Its very licorice-y and woodsy but now that I have grown accustomed to the smell, I find myself craving black licorice which I have previously disliked. The soap really does great exfoliating work because of the powdered charcoal, also a great detoxifier.

I have already noticed a great improvement over my previous chemical-laden, contained in several ounces of non-recyclable plastic facial cleanser. I have no more mini-breakouts along my hair line and the mini-breakouts along my jaw line are almost all gone, too!

Lush says the following about Coalface:

Removes impurities and tones combination skin

Who would have thought charcoal and liquorice could get along? One is tough and gritty, the other sweet and syrupy. But charcoal and liquorice could just be the odd couple of skin care, teaming up to fight oily, troubled skin in our Coalface cleanser. Powdered charcoal removes impurities and mildly exfoliates while liquorice heals naturally. Sandalwood oil tones the skin (and mediates should charcoal and liquorice disagree about anything).

I bet you're wondering what I use to follow such a great first act! I'm glad you're curious. I'm using Tea Tree Water toner, which I also love. I do a few quick spritzes after my licorice wash and I am ready to go. My skin feels so smooth and I love the tingly feeling I have from the tea tree oil.

LUSH describes Tea Tree Water as such:

Tea tree and grapefruit detoxifying facial spritzer A spritz of Tea Tree Water here, a spritz there and all your worries soon vanish along with inflamed pores and pesky blemishes. We combine tea tree with grapefruit water and juniper berry to make this calming elixir. Use it daily or as a pick-me-up in any dry environment. Our special mixture tightens pores and lifts away dirt and oil so your skin can breathe. What more could you ask for?

Oh, and remember I mentioned that all LUSH Cosmetics are handmade? Well, check out who made my Tea Tree Water toner. Its NIC! I've got his picture and everything.

I dig it!

Future greening of this bod: solid shampoo. NO BOTTLES!

To be continued....

Dan Savage on Bill Maher

Plus they make fun of Ashton Kutcher (referenced emails) and an Episcopalian defends gay marriage with scripture. A great show! It almost makes me regret tossing HBO and requesting the same fate for the balance of the fancy cable.

Gayest SNL Ever

SNL responded to California passing Prop 8 by doing a show packed with gayness: pixelated male nudity, man on man make out sessions, Justin Timberlake in a leotard, men proposing to men, more gay gay gay.

Also: Justin Timberlake is hilarious during the Weekend Update when he hosts the show in 2 minutes flat.

UPDATE: I had to replace Justin in a leotard with the "Kissing Family" sketch. The video I found was illegal (eagle). Boo.

I Guess I'm Not the Only One Who Thinks I Should Eat Shit and Die

My application for admission to Binghamton University for their Human Development program has been rejected.

A Baby Penguin and His New Buddy, a Toy Penguin, Will be BFF!

From Daily Mail:

A baby penguin which had to be separated from its family after a greedy sibling continually ate all its food has found companionship - with this stuffed toy.

The penguin - called Pingu - began to lose weight and appeared weak after its bigger relative regularly helped himself to all the fish on offer.

Concerned keepers were forced to remove Pingu from the enclosure, but at just three-weeks-old the penguin was in desperate need of company.

Staff bought a £3.99 toy penguin from the zoo shop which acts as a surrogate sibling to the chuffed chick - who cuddles up to its new friend all day.

via Slog
ridiculously adorable images via Daily Mail

Anti-Gay, Anti-Family

Dan Savage's 11.11.8 NYT OpEd:

Countless Americans, gay and otherwise, are still mourning — and social conservatives are still celebrating — the approval last Tuesday of anti-gay-marriage amendments in Florida, Arizona and, most heartbreaking, California, where Proposition 8 stripped same-sex couples of their right to wed. Eighteen thousand same-sex couples were legally married in California this past summer and fall; their marriages are now in limbo.

But while Californians march and gay activists contemplate a national boycott of Utah — the Mormon Church largely bankrolled Proposition 8 — an even more ominous new law in Arkansas has drawn little notice.

That state’s Proposed Initiative Act No. 1, approved by nearly 57 percent of voters last week, bans people who are “cohabitating outside a valid marriage” from serving as foster parents or adopting children. While the measure bans both gay and straight members of cohabitating couples as foster or adoptive parents, the Arkansas Family Council wrote it expressly to thwart “the gay agenda.” Right now, there are 3,700 other children across Arkansas in state custody; 1,000 of them are available for adoption. The overwhelming majority of these children have been abused, neglected or abandoned by their heterosexual parents.

Even before the law passed, the state estimated that it had only about a quarter of the foster parents it needed. Beginning on Jan. 1, a grandmother in Arkansas cohabitating with her opposite-sex partner because marrying might reduce their pension benefits is barred from taking in her own grandchild; a gay man living with his male partner cannot adopt his deceased sister’s children.

Social conservatives are threatening to roll out Arkansas-style adoption bans in other states. And the timing couldn’t be worse: in tough economic times, the numbers of abused and neglected children in need of foster care rises. But good times or bad, no movement that would turn away qualified parents and condemn children to a broken foster care system should be considered “pro-family.”

Most ominous, once “pro-family” groups start arguing that gay couples are unfit to raise children we might adopt, how long before they argue that we’re unfit to raise those we’ve already adopted? If lesbian couples are unfit to care for foster children, are they fit to care for their own biological children?

The loss in California last week was heartbreaking. But what may be coming next is terrifying.

Overheard in the J and L House

Lisa to Jesse, showing off a bloody thumb: I cut my thumb when I was cooking dinner. I told you I should have bought those pickle band-aids.

This is Perfect for You, Mikus!

Its do-it-yourself and it makes all sorts of noise after you do-it-yourself. It might just be the most appropriate thing for you ever.

via SpoonSisters

I Don't Know about These Mittens

At least they're unisex, only $25 and fire-resistant.....


via SpoonSisters

Some Random and Unrelated Things

I made a Cherry Fudge Brownie Torte with Marscapone Mousse for my Uncle Richard's birthday. It was soooooooo yummy. It came from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours. You should make it. Seriously.

My dad caught this big fish and a bunch more on his birthday fishing trip!

Today we have had rain, snow, sleet and snow again. Although the snow melted as soon as it hit the ground, it makes me think of the time when it will be piled everywhere and I won't have to shovel any of it. Then I will say, "Suck it, Eddie!"

Guns Don't Kill People

Parents who buy their 8-year-old son a .22 and teach them not to fear the weapon kill people.

From CNN:

FLAGSTAFF, Arizona (AP) -- A man who police believe was shot and killed by his 8-year-old son had consulted a Roman Catholic priest about whether the boy should have a gun and had taught him how to use firearms, the clergyman said.

Vincent Romero, 29, and Timothy Romans, 39, were found fatally shot in Romero's home Wednesday. The Very Rev. John Paul Sauter said the man, Vincent Romero, 29, wanted his son to learn how to hunt, but the boy's stepmother, Tiffany, suggested that he have a BB gun.
Police say the boy used a 22.-caliber rifle Wednesday to kill his father and another man, Timothy Romans, 39, of San Carlos.
Romero was an avid hunter who taught his son how to use a rifle to kill prairie dogs, said Sauter, of St. Johns Catholic Church.
"He wanted to make sure the kid wasn't afraid of guns, knew how to handle it," the priest said. "He was just too young. ... That child, I don't think he knows what he did, and it was brutal."
The boy, who faces two counts of premeditated murder, did not act on the spur of the moment, St. Johns Police Chief Roy Melnick said.

Utah Boycott Urged After Calif. Vote

From the Washington Post:

SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 7 -- Utah's growing tourism industry and the star-studded Sundance Film Festival are being targeted for a boycott by bloggers, gay rights activists and others seeking to punish the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for its aggressive promotion of California's ban on gay marriage.

It could be a heavy price to pay. Tourism brings in $6 billion a year to Utah, with world-class skiing, spectacular red-rock country and the film festival founded by Robert Redford among popular tourist draws.

Gay rights activist John Aravosis, whose well-trafficked AmericaBlog.com is urging the boycott, is unapologetic about targeting Utah rather than California, where voters defined marriage in the state Constitution as a heterosexual act.

Utah, Aravosis said, "is a hate state," and on this issue, "at a fundamental level, the Utah Mormons crossed the line. . . . They just took marriage away from 20,000 couples and made their children bastards. You don't do that and get away with it."

cartoon via Slog

90-Year-Old Living with Dead Sibings

From The Seatte Times:

EVANSTON, Ill. — A 90-year-old woman apparently has been living in a house with the bodies of her three siblings, one of whom may have been dead since the early 1980s, police in suburban Chicago said.

The bodies were found Friday morning after an advocate called police, said Evanston police Cmdr. Tom Guenther.

The woman was taken to a hospital for observation. The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office said Saturday that the siblings had died of natural causes, but it would not say how long they had been dead.

The office has identified the dead as Anita Bernstorff, who was born in 1910, Elaine Bernstorff, born in 1916, and Frank Bernstorff, born in 1920. Anita Bernstorff was last seen alive in May 2008, Frank Bernstorff in 2003 and Elaine Bernstorff in the early 1980s....

Day One

via TruthDig

Barack, You Really Are Great!

“You have more than earned the puppy that is coming with us to the White House.”

Now, can I have a puppy?


via Slog

Michael Crichton Dead at 66

John Michael Crichton, MD
1942-2008

My favorite Michael Crichton book was Rising Sun. I remember reading it repeatedly.
Rest in Peace, Michael.

via CNN
image via Forbes

The Last Poll

via TruthDig

Rest in Peace, Madelyn Dunham

According to CNN, Barack Obama's beloved grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, 86, died at home in Hawaii shortly before midnight on Sunday.

From this morning's New York Times:

His world is awash in powerful, conflicting emotions: the realization, presumably, that he may be about to become president; the huge optimism that he has unleashed, evident in the crowds he is drawing (and something he has told aides worries him a bit, given the expectations set for him); the weighty thinking he is gradually giving to how he would staff a government and deal with a transition in such a difficult time. All of this is taking place as a woman who played a large role in raising him, his grandmother, is approaching death.

Doug Mill's stunning photograph (above) accompanied the NYT article.


via Slog

L and J in the Pitts

The weekend of October 24-26, Jesse and I were in the Pittsburgh area for Emily and Philip's wedding. We left on Friday morning and had a long and arduous drive. Google took us through extensive construction and a number of small towns with frustratingly low speed limits. We reached the hotel in Belle Vernon, PA, ate dinner at a nearby sports bar and retired early in preparation for the next day.

Saturday morning, we got on the road early and headed into Pittsburgh to check out the Strip District, a busy market district with lots of cafes, ethnic food shops, kitchen stores, fresh produce and flowers. Some highlights: In the Kitchen, an independently owned kitchen store; Mon Amiee Chocolat, a chocolate and gourmet sweet shop which resulted in serious sensory overload; Pennsylvania Macaroni Company, one of the many specialty food shops in the foodie destination that is the Strip District. The best meal I have had in a long time was lunch at Cafe on the Strip, a hole-in-the-wall Italian cafe with the best Italian Wedding Soup and baked mancotti I'm sure I've ever had. We left the Strip full and content and pleased with our Christmas present purchases.

Jesse and I returned to the hotel to clean up for the wedding. Before leaving town, I purchased my first curling iron ever for the occasion. Kathy, the woman who cuts our hair, recently cut mine and convinced me I was grown up enough to own and operate such an appliance. Feeling empowered, I took her advice and bought one that was identical to hers and ridiculously inexpensive ($8, the perfect price for what amounted to an experiment). So, we got fancy and it was off to the church.

Our seats were right up front and we couldn't see much of the hot action since it was blocked by the wide array of groomsmen. The ceremony was performed by Philip's uncle.

The reception was the Cedarbrook Golf Course. The food was really good and the booze was plentiful.

Find more pictures from our trip into Pittsburgh and from the wedding and reception on flickr.

By the way, the Hampton Inn we stayed at does not recycle. I informed the staff that I was completely disappointed to learn that they don't recycle and I took my breakfast cereal box and a couple other cereal boxes home to NY to recycle them. I have to do some research and find out if all Hampton Inns are as environmentally irresponsible as the Belle Vernon location. If so, we won't be staying with them anymore.