Grief in Mexico

I know this is nothing new for this part of Mexico, but still….

Death in Chiapas

When the 11-year-old daughter of Antonio Gomez became ill of a stomach ailment, her father decided that it was due to witchcraft committed by his evangelical neighbor.

Gomez, of the Jolitontic community of Chalchihuitan municipality in Chiapas state, gathered seven friends to kill the family of the supposed culprit. After midnight on August 23, they allegedly killed three adults – the parents and their eldest son – and wounded six children with machetes.

Mariano Lopez Perez, public prosecutor of Indian Justice, reportedly said neighbors regarded the father in the attacked family, Pedro Gomez Diaz, as “an evangelical who prayed a great deal.” The neighbors reportedly denied that the family believed in or practiced any kind of witchcraft as far as they knew.

According to Tuxtla Gutierrez-based Cuarto Poder newspaper in Chiapas, all eight of the men who participated in the massacre of three Indians in Jolitontic are now in jail in San Cristobal de las Casas, awaiting justice.

The attackers burst into the hut of the family to kill first the eldest son, Rene, 32. They then slashed the mother, Marcela Hernandez Giron Gomez, and the father, Gomez Diaz.

Before he died Gomez Diaz’s cries alerted the rest of the family, but the murderers managed to seriously wound six other children: Esteban, 4; Ernesto, 6; Anita, 7; Maria, 14; Petrona, 16; and Martin, 18. They were all taken to the public health hospital of San Cristobal de las Casas.

Cell Phone Peril

This is a public service warning to all cellphone users and photographers and videorecorders living in or visiting Oregon: Get permission for the audio part!

Oregon law allows audio material to be recorded only if one of the parties is aware the recording is taking place. Judge said Vang was recording video and audio using his cell phone camera. Only the audio recording violated Oregon law, she stressed.

And failing (or opting not) to get permission for the audio, turn it off before shooting your video.

If you’re reading this from an Oregon prison cell due to your video indiscretions, be advised to read Ain’t Complicated daily.

Punished or Blessed?

I know, this is old news, though very pertinent. And thought provoking.

From LifeNews on April 22, 2008:

As many as 80 percent of unborn children diagnosed with Down syndrome become victims of abortion, but Alaska Gov, Sarah Palin didn’t let her child become a statistic. Palin, who has deeply-felt pro-life views, gave birth to her fifth child this week and the baby was diagnosed with the condition.

On Tuesday, Palin confirmed her baby, named Trig Paxson, has Down syndrome.

“Trig is beautiful and already adored by us,” Palin said in a statement LifeNews.com obtained.

“We knew through early testing he would face special challenges, and we feel privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives,” she said.

‘We have faith that every baby is created for good purpose and has potential to make this world a better place. We are truly blessed,” the 44 year-old governor added.

Trig was born on Friday, one month before his due date, and he weighed 6 pounds, 2 ounces.

Then there’s this from CBN on March 31, 2008:

“I’ve got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. I don’t want them punished with an STD at the age of 16. You know, so it doesn’t make sense to not give them information.”

And this from Psalm 139:14:

“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.”

Disclaimer: Though it quotes two prominent political figures, this isn’t a post to make a political point.

(By the way, try searching for news reports of Mr. Obama’s remarks.) 😯

BwaHaHaHa!

The Neanderthal Thinker

Going veggie can slash your carbon footprint: study

Giving up meat could drastically reduce your carbon footprint, with meat-eaters’ diets responsible for almost twice the emissions of those of vegetarians, a German study said on Tuesday.

A diet with meat is responsible for producing in a year the same amount of greenhouse gases as driving a mid-sized car 4,758 kilometres (2,956 miles), the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IOeW) said.

But the food a vegetarian consumes in 12 months is responsible for generating the same emissions as driving 2,427 kilometres, the IOeW said in a study commissioned by independent consumer protection group Foodwatch.

😆

OK, I’m sure that’s a serious study. But I still think it’s kinda funny.

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the “photo” at the top, it goes with this story:

Neanderthals were not stupid

Neanderthals were not as stupid as they have been portrayed, according to new research Tuesday showing their stone tools were as good as those made by the early ancestors of modern humans, Homo sapiens.

When I saw that headline, I wondered if it had some sort of potentially-humorous connection to the veggie/carbonfootprint story. I assumed ole Neander and Friends were meat consumers…and look what their carbon footprint got them.

Anyway, I went beyond the headline into the story itself and found this gem of a concluding paragraph:

Other studies have claimed that Neanderthals may have died out because they struggled with changing conditions brought by increasingly cold temperatures, failing to adapt their hunting methods when species such as mammoth and bison fled south and a once-forested Europe changed into a sparsely vegetated landscape during the last Ice Age.

So there you are. If they would have increased their meat consumption, they would have increased their carbon footprint. That would have resulted in more global warming which might have reversed those “increasingly cold temperatures.”

Maybe they weren’t so smart after all. 🙄

Oh well.

Global Cell Phone

I read this earlier this morning in an email I received from Brigada Today:

Check out their product called Celtrek Global SIM Card. It provides the latest in global communications technology by allowing users to travel practically anywhere around the world and use their own cellular phones to make and receive calls at a fraction of the rate their network carrier would normally charge. You simply replace your network carrier SIM card with the Global SIM Card and start saving up to 90% or more on mobile calls from overseas. Best of all, you have one U.S. based phone number assigned to you no matter how many different countries you travel to. If you happen to be from the USA, this allows for all calls from friends and family in the states to be local calls. If you’re from other countries, check with GlobalAirtime about other deals for your land. Learn more at http://www.globalairtime.com.

I haven’t yet, but I want to check into this. It sounds like a very neat and handy service.

Above all, love God!

since November 9, 2005