China has been having trouble with Al Quaeda.  This is their response:

“Predictably, a Uighur stands before the court. His name is Alimujiang Yimiti. Is he accused of running amok and slaughtering Han Chinese in the turmoil earlier this month? No – not even the Chinese can pin that on him. He has been in custody for the last 18 months. And he’s not even a Muslim – he’s a Christian.

…

Although the general assumption is that his crime is bearing Christian witness among the Uighurs, he will be charged with “revealing State secrets”. Well, we are invited to reflect, that’s pretty serious. It’s hardly a sign of tyranny – you get prosecuted for that over here. The problem is that, under Chinese law, any information which has not been specifically released by the government’s information office is a state secret.”

Add to this the fact that most of Mao’s laws have never been repealed, but are used selectively, and one can see the trouble the people are in.

The West sees nothing wrong with this behavior and hopes to have the same kinds of policy here.

Is this what we really want?

Some youth got quite a nasty surprise when they were visited by some deputies:

“Without physical provocation and/or physical gestures from B.B., Deputy Bowers held B.B. down on his bed and shocked him repeatedly with a taser. While he was tasing B.B., Deputy David Bowers threatened to sodomize B.B.”

This is only part of the story.  Other things happened to the three other youths in the story. And the four youths in this story were not the ones the center called the deputies for .

The guardian of the youth has filed a lawsuit and rightfully so.   I don’t know what was going through the minds of the deputies, but how awful for these youth to most likely be traumatized again by authority figures in their lives.

The next summer Olympics will be held in London.  They are already gearing up for the games by emulating the Chinese:

“Little-noticed measures passed by the Government will allow officers and Olympics officials to enter homes and shops near official venues to confiscate any protest material.

…

But the law has been drawn so widely that it also includes ‘non-commercial material’ – which could extend its reach to include legitimate campaign literature.”

There are people who are concerned about this law and the implications it has for civil liberties.  Scotland Yard has said they do not intend to take down protest posters,  and the government says it will not use those powers.If that’s true, then why make the law in the first place?  Repeal it if it’s not going to be used.

Don’t believe them?  Neither do the folks in London.

We have had VBS this week and tomorrow is the last night…hooray!!  We have enjoyed it don’t get me wrong, but it means being out of the house every night this week.  Since I am one of the leaders I need to be there earlier than every one else.

My blessing is enjoying it and she even has her verse memorized.    She was also able to say what one of the attributes of God is…I was so proud of her!

One of her teachers gave her something special as the first night they ran out of flip flops, so she doesn’t have a pair..the only kid that doesn’t have a pair.  The next night she burned her finger on hot glue…again the only one to do that.  Her teacher felt bad that these things keep happening to her so she gave her an extra special gift tonight…bless that teacher!

It makes my heart glad to see that someone cared enough to make sure my blessing did not feel left out of things.

Mrs. C has a post about  happenings in one Kentucky county for home educators.   The gist of it is that the new Pupil Personnel Director wants to come into homes to check on the progress of the students….presumably to make sure they are getting the same education as everyone else.

So many troubling things about this…first off when did students become personnel?   According to Merriam-Webster,  the first, and therefore the most common usage of the word is”: “a body of persons usually employed (as in a factory, office, or organization)”.   I think the parents should ask the DPP  when their students will be getting their wages?  I’d love to see the reaction to that question.

Secondly, asking the community to report to her all children out and about during school hours is atrocious.  This is not the way to foster good relationships in the community, when everyone could be spying on everyone  else.

Later on the article states that the parents have the option to meet the DPP on neutral ground. Notice that there is presumably no option for not meeting with her.

She also says later that parents who do what they are supposed to should have no fear.   Translation is that if you do what she tells you to do, you’re fine.  If not, then I guess she will show you who’s boss.

And as if this wasn’t enough, now she will have access to your child’s medical records.

“Upon Williamson’s recommendation, the board adopted a new attendance policy and medical excuse form that must be turned in for students that miss in excess of 10 days.

The form is a more in-depth response from doctors, detailing the reason a child is or must be absent.”

So if you have a child with a serious medical issue, you now have more forms to fill out and the knowledge that other people will have access to this personal information.  And Williamson ( the DPP)  thinks this is going to be less stress for families?

Have you tried making crockpot lasagna and even though you followed the recipe exactly,  ended up frustrated because:

1) The bottom ended up burned, and

2) The noodles were mushy?

This happened to me too but I tinkered with a couple of recipes and have discovered the right way to do this.  Be frustrated no more!

First thing you to remember is that in order to be successful you need more noodles, sauce and cheese than for conventional lasagna.  3 cups of ricotta or cottage cheese,  2 of the 29 oz cans of sauce, and lots of lasagna noodles.  I know recipes say 8-10 but that is not enough. 1 lb of meat is still enough. And your mozzarella cheese as well, 3 cups I think.

Prepare the meat and sauce the way you normally do.  Add in whatever vegetables and spices you like.  Same with the cheese…some recipes call for adding 2 eggs into the cheese…I don’t, but you can.  If you think you need the eggs for extra moistness, you don’t, but if you like it that way, more power to you.

I use a 5 1/2 quart crockpot.  Spray it with cooking spray first then put in 1 cup of sauce for the bottom layer.  Do not put in less, otherwise you have the scorched bottom.  Then put the lasagna noodles on top of sauce.  I find two is what I can fit in my pot and you need to break about a 1/4 piece off the top of each noodle to get it to fit.  Now do a 1/3 cup of sauce, 1/3 cup of cheese, 1/3 cup of mozzarella cheese and repeat until done.

I keep adding layers until all of my ricotta cheese is gone.  Then I do the last layer of lasagna noodles and pour the remaining sauce on top of and then all around the sides of the lasagna.  Your pot may look pretty full at this point, but as it cooks down it will shrink. After adding the last of the sauce, put the last 1/3 cup of mozzarella on top of the last two noodles.

The layers get pretty high so about halfway through I press gently on the noodles before adding sauce and cheese to help the noodles stay put and also to keep them straight.

Here is the most important part: cook time.  Cook on low for 3 hours.  I know that this is not what the recipes say but as full as your pot is, that’s all the time it needs. Trust me, every time I did the 5-6 hours on high, I ended up with the soggy noodles on top and the burnt bottoms.

If you have any noodles or noddle parts that are sticking up and don’t look like they are cooking, gently push them down into the sauce and let it cook a few minutes.

Last tip: a few minutes before serving, turn pot off and take lid off for 2-3 minutes…no more. This helps the noodles firm up slightly before eating.  Don’t do it any longer than that or the noodles end up with that heavy pasta taste.

Now you can have lasagna without turning the oven on in the summer heat!

Post for Tasty Tuesday and Kitchen Tip Tuesday.

There is concern in Pakistan for the workers of the oldest profession in the world, so a workshop was held on how these folks can protect themselves from disease.

Given the culture over there, I am not so sure this will be successful.  What good is it knowing the precautions if the clients refuse to do their part?

Then there is this information:

“But prostitution remains illegal and anathema to many in Muslim-majority Pakistan. It is an ever-present fact of life, but never really acknowledged.

The last two decades, given the increasing Islamisation of Pakistani society, have further reinforced stereotypes about such women.

But the profession has only grown.”

One has to wonder why the profession is growing, given the above statements.

“Power sockets can be used to eavesdrop on what people type on a computer.”

I don’t make this stuff up.  Gives new meaning to the words “world wide web” and “internet“, doesn’t it?

Kindle is a wireless reading device sold by Amazon.   You purchase books and/or newspapers and those books are transmitted to the device.  This way you can have numerous books in one place and only carry one device with you.

People seemed happy with this arrangement until:

“In a move that angered customers and generated waves of online pique, Amazon remotely deleted some digital editions of the books from the Kindle devices of readers who had bought them.

An Amazon spokesman, Drew Herdener, said in an e-mail message that the books were added to the Kindle store by a company that did not have rights to them, using a self-service function. “When we were notified of this by the rights holder, we removed the illegal copies from our systems and from customers’ devices, and refunded customers,” he said.

…

“I never imagined that Amazon actually had the right, the authority or even the ability to delete something that I had already purchased.”

Amazon did say it was a bad idea to just delete the books from Kindle and they say it won’t happen again.  But the fact that they have the power to make any book purchased for the Kindle disappear is disturbing.  And how long will it be before other books disappear?  All Amazon has to do is say that those books were also violations of copyright…who will have the time to check to see if that is the case?

“Thousands of jumbo flying squid—aggressive 5-foot-long sea monsters with razor-sharp beaks and toothy tentacles—have invaded the shallow waters off San Diego, spooking scuba divers and washing up dead on tourist-packed beaches.

…

“It was an amazing privilege to touch a creature like that and see how amazingly beautiful it was,” she said. “They have these wonderful eyes. … They look all-seeing, all-knowing.”

I do find this fascinating, but the comment about the all seeing, all knowing eyes does bother me.  Animals do not have that capacity and it is dangerous to promote that kind of thinking.