But reasonable people would not include the Alabama legislature, which in is great wisdom passed a law banning dildos, vibrators, and other weapons of mass stimulation.

Not content with the law as it stands, Alabama Attorney General Troy King wants the legislature to make the law even more draconian.

I remember Troy from college. He was always a little weird. He used to write frequent letters to the CW, which described in detail his disgust with homosexuals hooking up in public toilets (well before Larry Craig), a subject he seemed to be intimately familiar with, and exhorted readers to go eat at Cracker Barrel, which at the time was under fire for a policy of discriminating against having gay employees. Troy always seemed just a little too obsessed with homosexual perversion.

Alert readers may remember that Loretta Nall sent Troy King a blow up pig:

My suspicion now seems likely to have been confirmed.

Loretta explains

This is not about being gay. This is about being a hypocrite...of the highest order

There is an official denial of the rumor about Troy King now....so I can say what the rumor is.

According to rumors flying around for the last week Troy King, our
rabidly homophobic, anti-sex toy, Sunday School teaching, pro-execution Republican Attorney General is GAY! And I don't mean that as in happy either. I'd bet he is anything but happy right now. In fact, according to two sources he is about to resign. [..]

I have been sitting on this story for about a week. Truth is I am SORE from having to sit on it so long....but not as sore as Troy King is.

Loretta elaborates:

I have some friends in pretty high places in Alabama politics so I called one of them up with the juicy details. They told me they heard a rumor about his sexual orientation some six months ago from a former reporter with a large, credible newspaper in Alabama. I also know that reporter and knew them to be very credible. The rumor at the time was that Troy's mystery man was his old college roommate who he gave a position to when he took over the AG office in 2004. Supposedly when Troy was out of town so was lover boy.

The story then became that the mystery man was a young man who had just graduated from Troy University and was the Homecoming King(no pun intended) (God that gets confusing...Troy King with the homecoming king who graduated from Troy) and that was who the wife walked in on. Then a few weeks later Troy and his boy toy from Troy were spotted at the YMCA (not kidding) engaging in....ummmm....inappropriate activities. Yeah...at the YMCA...made famous by the Village People. Apparently Troy has no inkling of what it means to be 'discreet'.

I'm betting they are both true. If Troy King can be a closet gay and Alabama Attorney General at the same time then there exists in this universe the infinite possibility for him to be a promiscuous, closet gay, Alabama Attorney General. But apparently closet and promiscuous don't go so well together. But, hell, no one is claiming that he's smart are they?

As far as the significance of this story, Loretta explains:

There are so many things that make this a delicious story. Gay Sex, high ranking elected officials who are rabidly anti-gay in public but turn out to be gay in private, they get caught at the YMCA (of all places), the whole sex toy incident, the 'below the belt' legislation that Troy has made a focal point during his time in office, his desire to be the guy who injects death row inmates with deadly chemicals. I bet this is why he objects to DNA testing, ya know? Wonder where all they would find his DNA? It's really not much different than what Bill Clinton did with Monica Lewenski...except Troy is a Republican and his mystery partner is GAY!! Lordy, does it get any better than this?

Head On Radio Network is one of several sites making video and musical parodies which take advantage of Troy King's embarrassment.

Another one is found at the myspace page for Mock 5

Alabama Queen

Troy King has refused to comment on the allegations, claiming that his kids would be subject to teasing.

I only found two on my head, but I scrubbed my head with Levi's Tea Tree Shampoo tonight, just in case there were anymore. Levi always tells me "Where there's one, there's more. Where there's two, there's four!" :)

Puffy Buffy didn't mind getting a bath. She floats just like a duck. :D Dove, on the other hand, gave me a fit. What was really bad for her was on the last dunking, she decided to dip her head under. That just really freaked her out.. LOL. After that she was just downright mad at me.
So from now on, I will either put them both in with the little guineas, or the duck pen.

I have been practicing my psaltery just about every day, and I'm getting pretty good at it! I haven't been using my notebook at all, but just playing completely without the notes. It is so much easier than trying to read the notes and bow at the same time. :) I've memorized more of the up and down movements than the actual notes.

Levi took a trip through the woods to a field today, that used to have horses in it. They now have a cornfield in their place. He took the camera so he could take the pictures, since I wasn't going along with him.

The first is of one of the fields, full of corn. The second is of one of the vine infested places. Doesn't it look awesome? I bet there's a lot of snakes in there though.

The first here is of a turtle he found, and the second is a hawk. I lightened him up in the picture, so perhaps you can see him a bit better. :-)

I didn't go along with him because I just didn't want to handle all the attack flies, and not to mention the ticks that like to attach themselves to me. I have been seed-tickless so far this year, and I would not like to get them right now. Them little seed ticks are tough to get rid of, and on top of that, I usually get them every year. So I'm doing everything I can this year to avoid the little creatures!

• First up is Patricia from Norman (welcome back!), who wanted to know how to treat her luggage if she feared it had been exposed to bedbugs.

This is a serious (if icky!) question, as no one wants a bedbug infestation at home. Bedbugs retreat into crevices, making them extremely difficult to eliminate once they have been introduced. If you have followed the news, you will know that due to a ban on the toxic chemical once used to kill bedbugs, they have begun infesting even 5-star hotels in major cities. Once more, ick!

One of the best resources I found online addressing this came from the University of Minnesota Extension office. Most essential information is the following:

How can I assure that my items are not carrying bed bugs without throwing them away?

Many people may want to discard all luggage and clothing after discovering an infestation, but this is unnecessary. The key is to contain all items suspected of carrying bed bugs in plastic bags until the items can be laundered, washed by hand, heated, or frozen.

Before leaving the infested site, anything that can be laundered should be sorted and placed in plastic bags. Separate the laundry as you would if you were normally laundering items, specifically: light colored clothes from dark items; delicate items from items that can be laundered on wash / dry regular cycles; and finally, dry cleanable items. Separating the clothing permits easy loading of the washing machine and you can avoid escaping bed bugs as you try to sort the laundry at home.

When washing, set the washer and dryer for the hottest setting that the fabric can withstand. If you need to use a dry cleaning service, mention to them that the items may have bed bugs and they can keep the articles in the plastic bags until just before loading into the machines.

Suitcases and other items that cannot be placed into a washing machine should be carefully inspected, and if bed bugs are found (or you are not sure) place them into plastic bags, as well. Suitcases may be hand-washed. If hand-washing any items, use soapy water and make sure that the hottest water possible is used. Test the item to make sure it will not be affected by the hot water. A target temperature of 100°Fto 120°F should be sufficient. Use a scrub brush along the seams and folds.

Items that cannot be washed may be heated or frozen. Currently, research is being conducted to determine the most effective thermal conditions for killing bed bugs, while not damaging materials. However, based on related research, a two-hour core exposure at 120°F (45°C) should be considered a minimum target temperature for heat treatments. For freezing, a minimum of 23°F (-5°C) must be maintained for at least 5 days. As the temperature is decreased, the time of exposure is shortened. For instance, the articles could be “flash frozen,” resulting in a very short time of exposure, but the target temperature should be -15°F (-26°C), the conditions required to instantly freeze the eggs. Keep in mind that most household freezers will have varying temperatures between 30°F and 20°F, and a 2-week freeze time is recommended if you are uncertain of the freezer temperatures.

Remember, if heating or freezing conditions are used, remember that these adverse conditions must reach the core of the articles being treated.

Patricia chose to "treat" her suitcase by placing it in the hot Oklahoma sun for a few hours. You may have to adjust your method based on location and season.

At the time that Patricia wrote me about bedbugs, a friend of mine was dealing with a lice outbreak in the family. Here is an article with links to lice-control resources. If you are not the parent of a school-aged child, you might be surprised to learn that lice are gaining resistance to the chemical most commonly used in shampoo treatments (which you might remember from your own childhood), making nit-picking combs the most reliable method for eliminating eggs and nits. Hopefully you will never deal with a bedbug or lice infestation on vacation, but it never hurts to be prepared for these ugly sides of travel as well.

• Next we have Mark in Orlando who wanted to know the best time to buy his train tickets for a Munich-Paris trip in September.

Any time you're considering travel across Germany, you'll want to brush up on how to do it cheaply by reading the following two posts: Getting Across Germany Cheaply, Part One and Getting Across Germany Cheaply, Part Two. If you're set on the train, the first one's for you.

Mark wrote in his email that online forums suggested it would be cheaper to wait until arriving in Germany to purchase his ticket. This is simply false. It is possible to purchase tickets from any computer in the world up to 90 days before your travels using Deutsche Bahn's online search function, and it pays to buy as close to the 90-day border as possible. The cheapest tickets -- inside of Germany called "Dauer Spezial," across Europe called "Europa Spezial" -- have limited numbers and will be snapped up quickly. Here is a page describing how to book your tickets online (or by phone, if you prefer), along with the delivery options (printing vs. mailing vs. picking up).

In Mark's case, there is a special sale between Munich and Paris called Europa Spezial Frankreich, with tickets available for as little as 39 euros! Unfortunately for him, on the date he wishes to travel, all of the 39-euro tickets have already sold. There are, however, three trains with 59-euro fares and one with a 69-euro fare, so it still pays to book in advance.

What follows is a quick tutorial in searching for scheduled trains and their prices for your trip:
+ Enter your information here: Munich, Paris, date and approximate preferred time. No need to change anything else. Click enter.
+ Because it's an international connection, it will ask you to enter your age, in case you are eligible for a further discount. Put in your age and hit enter.
+ On the next page, it will bring up three trains around the time you entered. If you want to see earlier or later trains as well, click on the Earlier and Later arrows in the "Time" column. You will see it also shows you the standard fare as well as the savings fares. In order to see which prices are actually available, click on "show availability for all." When you find the time/price combo you like and want to book online, select purchase. On the next page, locate the proper fare and select purchase again. You will then be taken to the booking engine, which will make you register before allowing the transaction.

• We close today with Margaret in Italy, who is wondering how to deal with a serious case of homesickness while spending the summer alone abroad.

First stop for anyone feeling homesick (or irritable, sad, or otherwise emotionally unstable abroad) is this article on culture shock. It is important to remember that what you're feeling is absolutely normal and you are by no means alone.

> Contact with home is important, but it only helps to a certain degree -- it can feed the homesickness if you dwell on it too much. That said, we all need somewhere to vent, and that generally means calling your nearest and dearest. If a phone is not available, a Skype account allows you to call people using the internet and it's pretty darn cheap.

> Is your suitcase fully unpacked and stored away somewhere, or have you been living out of it? Put your things on shelves and give yourself a mental cue of permanence.

> Make new habits and rituals. Always buy your bananas from the same guy, always get the same pastry at the same shop. As people begin to recognize you, are friendly, and can anticipate your needs, you have the feeling you belong.

> It might help to reflect on your experiences, to distance yourself somewhat from your feelings. Journaling or blogging and photography are a good way to get a new perspective: think about how you would distill this experience for others and simply document it.

> Try to cherish the opportunity everyday by doing something Italian that you *can't* do at home -- hang out on a piazza, surrounded by ancient buildings, drinking coffee or just listening, watching people parade by with their baby strollers and high heels; try a new gelato flavor (or three); visit a museum and admire the marble sculptures; go to the market and buy fresh ingredients for a bufalo mozzarella and tomato salad dinner; wander town without a map and discover new things; get on the train and take a weekend trip to Rome, Pisa, Cinque Terre, Venice, Bergamo!

> I know the saying is "Feed a fever," but a taste of home can be a quick fix. For Americans, try to:
+ bake something, anything -- banana bread's a good one, your favorite cookies or brownies are another
+ whip up something typically American: hamburger and fries or potato salad, taco salad or fajitas, BBQ chicken

> Laughter and distraction are also good cures. It can't hurt to:
+ see a movie or watch a DVD in English; serve with buttery popcorn
+ watch The Daily Show, The Colbert Report or some other (keyword: ) funny show you like [I have heard but am not condoning that a computer with internet access can find most any programs from abroad using a proxy and Hulu or Surf the Channel]

> If doing things by yourself makes you feel lonely (and thereby homesick), then take someone with you or pick up someone along the way. Read the post Meet People While Traveling for more ideas.

Thanks to these readers for writing in. If you’ve got a question, feel free to shoot me an email via the contact form.

It started off so good too.  The home nurse came by for a visit and the baby has only lost 4 ounces since birth!  She was very encouraging and we had a great visit.  Then we went on with the day, thinking it was going to be a day of relaxation and recovery.  But no.  Kelly kept scratching her head, complaining it itched.  So I told her she probably had dandruff and to let me check.

I pulled her hair over and discovered those little bugs crawling all over her head!  "Ewwwwwe!  Oh nooo!  She has lice!"  I freaked.  I was so disgusted, and Scott knew to get out the door and to the store right away, where he spent $150 on lice treatment products! 

So we started with Kelly and she was covered.  I'm not talking about just a little lice.  My mom used the comb on her hair after Scott shampooed it and she covered 3 paper towels with lice and nits!  It was so disgusting. 

Then we checked our hair and sure enough, Mom and I both had nits and then we found two live lice on Madison's hair, so we treated her too (although we found no nits/eggs). 

We spent the entire day dealing with the lice infestation.  Laundry, hair, bagging up pillows and stuffed animals, clean up, etc.  My poor feet were so swollen by the end of the day, which was crazy because they hadn't swollen up the entire pregnancy.  But I had to get that stuff taken care of right away.  It was making me crazy just thinking about it, and you can bet I've been picking through the baby's hair just looking for signs of lice on her head. 

Oh, and if the baby blue's hadn't set in yet, Lice will most definitely make a postpartum mom cry!  Yesterday was Scott's last day off and I was really looking forward to some bonding time.  Instead, we spent the day just dealing with nasty bugs.  Fortunately, he's still working from home the rest of the week, but he isn't off work.  I'd love his full attention right now, but I'm thankful he's at least home!  I love having him around right now. 

Today I continued to find lice in Kelly's hair so we treated it again and I pulled out several more nits and a couple of lice.  Ugh!  It's certainly not how I anticipated spending the last 2 days, but thank God for my wonderful mom and husband!  I don't know what I'd do without them! 

So, now I get to start making some phone calls to let our friends/family who've been exposed, know about the situation.  The call I'm dreading most?  My Doula.  That's going to be a fun one!

Yes, our girls got head lice. They did not get them in school or camp, but from a friend they were soooooooo excited to see after 5 weeks in Germany. We had a fantastic time there, but they did miss their friends at the end. So, we get back and get one lousy reception ;-) (I had to get that pun in!)

But, how do we get rid of these pesky, little parasites? After being alerted about a week ago I read everything I could find. I also told friends, who had been over so that they could make sure they had not taken any unwelcome guests home with them or on vacation.

Emily had nits (eggs) and a few lice, but Michael, Anna and I had been spared. Emily had not gotten to the itchy-head stage yet, so it was pretty early in the game. Poisonous pesticide and diligently combing through her hair daily, washing everything she had touched and might have touched, vacuuming every bare space in the house was going to do the trick ... or so I thought. A week later, another treatment was going to kill any new critters. That would have been the picture book case of head-lice.

Hm, maybe we should have isolated Emily from everybody and everything to make sure she does not get in touch with anybody - literally - because when I checked Anna yesterday, there it was, a nit (egg) and one adult specimen running around between her curls. So, her lovely curls were treated to a poisonous marinade, too. You might realize that I am not a big fan off dousing my dear little girls heads in pesticide, but I found myself yesterday almost buying a pesticide spray to spray on anything in sight. I decided to go the nicer route. Anna and Emily are now sleeping on mattresses in our room and their rooms are off limits for a few days. Then, their rooms will be critter free like the rest of the house. Michael and I don't have any. Michael's short hair is easy to look through in about 30 Minutes, but it took Michael at least 1 1/2 hours to go through my long, thick hair. I think that was the first time EVER he cursed my thick, long hair! One good thing came out of that - he pulled out any grey hairs he could find, which, thankfully, were not many.

One way to get rid off these pests on your things is, to put stuff in the freezer that is not washable. So, we have kids jewelery, pillows and baby dolls in the freezer. Because pillows take quite a bit of space, the freezer outside popped open, and we just found out this morning.

So, dinner was whateverwasthawedinthefreezerandstilledible crock pot soup and dessert apple strudel. YUMMY!!! A cleaned out freezer and a great dinner are certainly a welcome side effect of the lousy mayhem at our house lately.

Photo courtesy of Abalder

It’s that time of the year when it is advisable to air the mattress and later, to turn it over. This is to ensure that lice are uncovered and other prickly bedbugs are crushed. Stubborn stains, if any, are best treated in an open public space under a glaring sun.

During the day or when I'm awake and she's around, she sleeps either on my chest or snuggled right next to my arm, hip or leg. She's really affectionate and playful. She's also quite athletic and curious about what is around her. She plays with Spike all the time and they get along well. After the first night and after having her defleaed and deliced, she's purring a lot when I pet her.

She's doing pretty well and she's incredibly cute. I've successfully taken a few pics which I'll upload over the weekend.

I'm always amazed at how tiny she is. I'm glad that Spike gets along well with her. In the end, I think that he needed the company. For now, she stays crated during the day when I'm at work and at night. She sleeps most of that time anyway.

I took her home and left her on the porch behind the kitchen, where the washing machine is. The weather was hot and she'd be comfy. I left her some milk and water, a towel in a box to serve as bedding and even some of Spike's dog food and left for my jog.

While I was jogging, I noticed that a few young people were trying to coax kittens out of a locked shed. Apparently a cat had given birth a while ago and Mr. Micro Cat was a result.

When I came home, my wife was already home. She was talking on the phone and hadn't noticed Mr. Micro Cat. I showed it to her and she almost cried of the cuteness and the hard life that Mr. Micro Cat must have endured. Mr. Micro Cat is actually a missus and she's extremely cute.

I tried to find someone to take her but to no avail. I left her most of the day in the same spot. When I came home, I took her to a pet grooming place. Initially I wanted to take her to a vet, but finding one wasn't easy. So I remembered that there was a pet grooming store nearby. I stopped there and the lady knew exactly what to do. The kitten was actually being quarantined away from Spike because of the fleas and the lice.

She was going to be deliced and defleaed. I was extremely relieved that she was going to be alright. The pet grooming store owner showed me how to feed the little kitten with a little itty bitty milk bottle. I was told that she needed to be fed four times a day. She would have to come back six times this month to completely delice and deflea her.

I brought her home in her new cage and set about the task to feed her. I immediately introduced her to Spike and they have begun a fast friendship. She is very calm around him and Spike enjoys her a lot. He's kind of become her foster dad. It's very cute to watch.

Right now, both have been fed and are hanging on the sofa with me. I've decided to call Mr. Micro Cat Yoda. She's mews a lot when Spike isn't around and loves being near him. It's the start of a beautiful friendship. I've always wanted to get another dog, but Spike is enough work on my busy schedule. Yoda won't be that much trouble I gather. She's awfully cute and I haven't taken any pictures yet.

My wife tried to do so yesterday before she left for Canada for a few weeks, but Yoda was just too fidgety. Yoda has stopped mewing and is sleeping by my side. Spike is fast asleep near my feet.

But then I checked my email. And while I'm still not so pleased about the current state of my scalp, the world is a beautiful place and, in the words of my father (which I repeat to myself often enough that I think I'm eventually going to get them tattooed somewhere) 'this too shall pass.' Thank you all for continuing to send me so much love.

Decimos que es una fórmula clásica ya que a últimas fechas se ha utilizado para empresas que, por ejemplo, dan clases de yoga, o para marcas que fabrican aires acondicionados o ventiladores, etcétera. Sin embargo yo, en lo personal, todavía me sigo riendo del resultado de dicha fórmula, aunque parece que si seguimos a este paso en poco tiempo (o en pocas campañas), ésta se desgastará a tal grado de ya no ser más divertida:

Crest - Bulldozer:

Crest - Lice:

Crest - Prenup:

Como un mal chiste en un momento ameno, es divertido y te da buena risa. Vamos, podrían haber hecho una ejecución donde un niño le dice a su mamá que es gay, obviamente siempre manteniendo su sonrisa entre muchos más, pero creo que el target y el cliente procteriano fueron los culpables de que las ejecuciones se mantuvieran un tanto a "raya" y no hablaran de temas más delicados.

La oficina de Saatchi & Saatchi Nueva York fue la culpable de esta campaña; de ahí lo agringado que pueden llegar a ser estos comerciales.

Al parecer es una campaña de branding que Procter solicitó, en respuesta al reciente y desafortunado caso de demanda que Colgate (de Colgate Palmolive) sufrió, debido a que se detectó que algunos de sus productos contenían una cantidad considerable de un componente dañino para la salud, directamente de sus productos fabricados en China. Sin embargo la empresa se apresuró a decir que eran productos falsificados adquiridos en tiendas del tipo "todo por un dólar", e incentivó a los consumidores a adquirir productos en supermercados, asegurando que dichos productos sí cumplían con los estríctos estándares de calidad que la empresa siempre mantenía. Poco después se descubrío que también los productos manufacturados en Thailandia venían infectados, pero la respuesta fue la misma.

Con noticias como ésa, es claro que Crest se tiene que hacer de la rebanada que Colgate dejó descuidada y que implica más de tres mil millones de dólares que este mercado deja anualmente en el mercado de Norteamérica.

A plague on your house...
Shakespeare

A plague?  Oh yes, we got 'em.  There was the virus I got, and shared with the kids.  Nice.  Luckily the recipients didn't get the ear infection and fluid in the lungs, that I also had.  No.  Instead they brought home lice.  Again.  Sorry, just keeping it real.  It's been fun.  And you know what?  It HAS been fun.  I was home alone while I was very sick, with books and the fire burning.  And the kids were not so sick to be needy, but sick enough to be grateful for the time out of school - and they didn't fight!  For real.  The only real problem was that it has been the most busy time EVER for me to be ill or casting chemical warfare on the travellers on the kids' scalps.  Which, if I ever listen to my mother, is exactly the reason it happens: the Universe telling me to slow down...and all that.  You know what?  I didn't realise that I was a 'I'll sleep when I'm dead ' kind of person.  I thought I was too lazy.  I was wrong.  Having learnt that very valuable lesson about myself, Universe, could you do me a favour and stop with the Plagues now? It's making my head itch and my Bettie Page fringe looks even more weird when it's not straight.

Lice. The word is enough to make your head itch. And like it or not, all children are at risk of getting lice, no matter how good their hygiene. Mayo Clinic has some advice on ways to get rid of head lice if your kids bring the bugs home from school.

Understanding Divine Knowledge from God--Part One

2Co 4:6

For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
(New King James Version)

_______________________________________

This verse begins with the word "for" which is translated from the Greek word hoti. One of the other English words for this Greek word is "because”.  Because God performed a certain divine act in the life of the believer, there was a manifested change in the mind of the believer.  The manifested change came in the form of divine revelation knowledge concerning the glory (doxa) of God.  Because God infused, (breathed into the spirit) of the believer, this came about.  This is the working of regeneration as a part of the salvation plan of God.  This regenerative act is a part of 2 Corinthians 5:17  speaks of the "newness" the believer. What was old has passed away, and replaced with all things new.  Our minds have been renewed through this divine act (Romans 12:2).  We have been made alive by God's Spirit.  Old things--concepts and perceptions have been replaced with fresh spiritual enlightenment. This spiritual enlightenment is an ongoing process in the life of the believer. This renewal process began at the moment we accepted salvation.  Now we are responsible to walk in the light as He is in the light on daily basis.  This will help us to learn the new spiritual knowledge of Him through our growing relationship with Him. 

The action God performed came through a commandment.  The word "command" comes from the Greek word epo, which finds its root in a primary verb, which is used, only in the definite past tense.  The other tenses of this word are borrowed from the Greek word ereo which is translated into English as say 57 times, speak 7 times, tell 4 times and speak of 2 times for a total of 71 times in the King James Version.  It means to utter, to speak, or say.  The other alternate form of epo is rheo, which can be understood as a pouring forth.  In this divine act of God, He poured forth into the new life of the redeemed the knowledge of His glory. 

God broke the silence that had existed for 400 years.  All man had to go on was the laws and commandments that had been received by Moses on Mount Sinai.  Since then, many more man-made laws had been added making the total number of laws 613.  To break one of these laws was to break the whole law.  These inconsistencies were among the many things that Jesus pointed out to his disciples. It was time for humanity to hear and receive the revealed Truth of the One True living God.  It was time for them to come to the knowledge of truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ--God's only begotten Son.  It was time to set the record straight.  It was time for humanity to get the true description of Who He was, and the love He had in His heart for them.

Since we have been given this knowledge, it should be understood that no man could successfully preach and be of much good if they do not have a working relationship with the Lord and His Written Word.  The individual mind cannot vacillate and hesitate concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ nor did the life that must lead.  When the mind is filled with doubts, there is no faith.  When there is timidity in doing the work of the Lord, then the boldness that is promised has not been received.  The individual who declares what he has no acquaintance with the Lord cannot be effective.  If there is no deep-felt conviction concerning the words written in the Bible, then how can this individual be effective for the kingdom of heaven?  There is a lack of understanding concerning what the individual affirms.  How can they stand by something that they do not understand? 

What then should be the standard by which to measure the effectiveness of a person's words concerning Jesus and His gospel?  This lesson teaches that there must be God-given spiritual enlightenment.  The individual must be God-breathed upon in order to receive the right illumination.  There are illuminations that have their source in the rulers of darkness, and then there is the true Illuminator who shines through to the heart causing a change.  There must be a relationship developed through personal interaction and experience with Jesus Christ. 

Copyright©2008Pamela Ann Williams-Paige. All rights reserved

Well, what can I say? There are just some incidents that lend themselves to further exploitation.

Check it out!

*****************************

May 15th: submission deadline for articles to appear in the June 1st installment of Root & Sprout

*Call for Special Content* Father's Day is almost here (June 15th)! How will you celebrate Dad? Please submit special Father's Day stories, crafts, and recipes. Have your child write a letter to Dad, and we will post it here (on Root & Sprout) so the world will know what a special guy he is!

Now, I realize that it's Mother's Day that's almost here . . . but publications, whether print or web-based, need material in advance, hence the reason why I am requesting Father's Day goodies.

Put on your thinking caps and get writing!!

Remember the crazy guy who claims he has specially bred giant Japanese crab lice that don't bite? And that they make great pets? ("Like Sea Monkeys in Your Pants!")

So, when I wrote about that--and how utterly full of shit that website is--I got an email from a reporter. The LoveBugz.net website offers to send you your very own "pets" if you send them your address and a buck. The reporter wanted to buy some lice and have me look at them.

I thought the site was just a creative ad-farm scheme, so said "Sure! Send 'em to me!"
Because, seriously.
It had to be a a scam. Who is going to go to the Better Business Bureau and complain that they didn't get the pubic lice they paid for?

Just in case, though, I gave him my home address, rather than my work address, since I have only been in my new job 7 months and wasn't sure what might show up in the mailroom.

And then: An envelope DID show up. (Sealed with duct tape, too!)

It appears to have a postal mark from Teterboro, NJ. And scrawled across the front: "Live Insects! Handle with Care!"

Inside was a folded letter, and inside the letter was this:

I think most of you are having the same reaction I did: EW.

The letter that came with it had instructions:

I think I can safely speak for the vast majority of the readers of this blog when I say "Oh, HELL no!"

I'll wait while the mass collective shuddering dies down.

So--I put the "specimen" in a sealed tupperware container with a moist towel, set it on my plant warming pad (since lice are triggered to emerge by moisture and heat), and took them to work with me the next day. Where 2 graduate students were fascinated, and 1 was pretty much traumatized by the whole concept and probably tried to autoclave herself after I left the lab.

[Also, a tip: if you walk into your new workplace brandishing a container of putative pubic lice and sand, you may want to provide a more detailed back story than "I bought them on the internet." Just some advice.]

Anyway, we looked carefully under the scope, and aside from documenting that Mr. LoveBugz is (a) brunette; and (b) has pubic hair that is very smooth and well conditioned; we found no nits or lice.

There was sand; and there was some stuff that looked like seed capsules; but unless lice have developed egg capsules that look remarkably like they have cell walls, there were no nits, dead or alive.

Here's the closest thing to a nit I found (additional photos here and here.) Nothing that I have read in any taxonomic descriptions so far mentions this kind of pattern.

While plant cells have cell walls, no animal cells do. Ergo: This ain't an animal.
Everything I picked out of that sample turned out to look very similar--plant material, not animal.

There are regrettably few photos of crab lice nits available online, although plenty exist for head lice. You can see some sculpturing of the outer egg case in this photo, but nothing like...well, cell walls. You don't see it in this electron micrograph, either.

There was a hole in the envelope, so it is entirely possible that the nits that were promised fell out of the envelope in transit. However, why in the world would you not send them in a sealed container of some kind? Even a paper towel in an unsealed Baggie™ would have worked.

And why mail them in sand? Sand is abrasive, and likely to crush anything else during transit in surface mail. Sending the lice packed in sand, and telling the recipient to put sand in their undies and not wash for a week?
Yeah, that'll happen.

Conclusion: The Site is Still Bullshit.
But they are willing to go a long way to keep up their hoax and/or delusion.

EDITED TO ADD: Some folks are arguing that I haven't "proven" that the site is BS. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. They claim to have lice that don't drink blood and aren't irritating--which contradicts what we know about all 3 types of human body lice for recorded history, as well as physical evidence for an even long period of time.

They have provided no additional evidence for me to evaluate that claim, and in fact set things up so it would fail. I stick with my conclusion.

Gitzin-Adiram said she spent weeks exploring the gallery's theme of "hosting," turning to philosophers such as Jacques Derrida and even the Bible for inspiration. She received proposals from around the world but was won over by the lice.

"The idea is that we live in the museum as their guests, and at the same time we are hosting lice on our heads," said artist Vincent Grunwald, 23, wearing a plastic shower cap to prevent the lice from spreading.

... The group acknowledged that living with lice was uncomfortable, but said it was worth it for the sake of art.

Cripes. These folks are hosting regular head lice, BTW.

Waggle of the antennae to Neatorama for finding this.

Related posts:

• Pubic Lice: "Sea Monkeys in your pants!"
• Genetic History of Lice
• September is Head Lice Awareness Month
• Mummified Lice (and a book endorsement)

Another exhibition presents seven German artists, who are playing with the idea of 'hosts and guests', hosting lice in their hair for a period of three weeks while they are themselves guests in the museum.

I don't know what you think about it, but that type of art leaves me cold, artistically anyway...

From pickled cows to elephant dung, the art world is no stranger to offbeat ideas. But a group of lice-infested Germans? Seven young artists from Berlin are trying to stretch the boundaries of art by living in an Israeli museum for three weeks with lice in their hair.

"Art is no longer just a painting on the wall," Milana Gitzin-Adiram, chief curator of the Museum of Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, told Reuters. "Art is life, life is art."

Thankfully, this is very tame compared to what Yale "art student," Aliza Shvarts, considered "art."

Speaking of talent-challenged Ms. Shvarts, while the controversy she caused focused entirely on her, there was one person we all forgot: her advisor, the "performance artist" Ms. Pia Lindman.

Apparently Lindman didn't do much advising when it came to Shvarts. Upon reviewing some of Lindman's "art," however, one shudders to imagine what advice Lindman might have imparted on the 22 year old Shvarts.

Of course, Lindman is much older than 22, so she should know better than post the following revolting comment online:

Working with video, I perceive the act of recording as a performative gesture and part of the content of the work. In residency at the World Financial Center, I submerged a camera in the harbor nearby, in an attempt to create a point of access to an otherwise impenetrable corporate environment further rendered paranoid by the traumas of the World Trade Center disaster.

Confused? You should be. Academics long ago turned writing into an impenetrable fog. Bear with me while I untangle Lindman's mess:

When I video record something, I make it part of my art. If you thought the corporate types around the WTC were bad before, you shoulda seen what wackjobs they were AFTER 9/11! They wouldn't let me video record when and where I wanted, so I dunked a camera into the water near the WTC to show what it would look like underwater.

Imperfect, yes, but at least my translation is comprehensible.

So the World Trade Center was an "impenetrable corporate environment" which was "rendered paranoid" by 9/11. I can't imagine why any corporate environment should be "penetrated." Nor can I understand why anyone in lower Manhattan would be "paranoid" after their neighborhood was turned into Danta's Inferno.

Sticking a camera into a harbor was supposed to achieve exactly what? Insofar as it takes zero talent and less imagination to dunk a video camera into water (No, I don't care how she did it) I cannot fathom how such a project would be deemed "art."

With this academic "advising" Shvarts, little wonder that Shvarts found phony abortions to be great for an art project.

Yale University, ladies and gentlemen!