Swap Blog

Haley Spicer’s father Tommy Owen was QUICKLY found guilty of ALL COUNTS today - full story here (WBIR) - short piece and here (WATE) - full coverage - he faces sentencing on October 13th. His bond was immediately revoked and he is now in custody of the Campbell County sheriff. Hopefully this will be warning to some about child abuse and neglect.

For those that are not familar with the story Haley Spicer was a toddler that was abused to such a point she was barely recognizeable. Over 80% of her body was damaged or injured, and the father said he had no idea - though he had custody - because he left the child care to his live in girlfriend. Haley’s father - Tommy Owen - is a meth addict and admits to taking his children with him when he would go shoplifting to get money for meth. Wow and HE had custody, how bad does the mother have to be. Owen’s elder daughter - 10 years old - claimed this week on the stand that she and Owen’s girlfriend’s 13 year old daughter were the ones that abused Haley. The jurors apprantently did not believe them and convicted the father on all counts. The girlfriend and a baby sitter both pled guilty to lesser charges last week - the girlfriend for abuse and the baby sitter for neglect for not reporting baby Haley’s injuries. Haley has fully recovered now, and is now living in a safe home with a good adoptive family.

There is NO EXCUSE for child abuse like this and Tommy Owens and his girlfriend deserve to NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF FREEDOM AGAIN!!!

Ben Affleck got married to Jennifer Garner - MSNBC story here - hopefully that will end all the rumors about a Ben and Jen reunite when her marriage to Mark Anthony ends like her last three marriages have. This will be the only mention ever of this event on this site.

This week we compare herbal or folk sleep aids to medical ones and tie in the idea that many times people pursue worldly, nice, pleasant solutions - i..e ones that do not really solve the core issue - instead of pursuing a complete and total solution - i..e the one offered by God. This kind of activity is hypocritical for Christians and show’s the world that we do not really trust God with our lives.

Full post here

Took a test on commonly misused English words - test link here - and to our surprise and to the surprise of many of our readers as well I scored -
Very Literate
You scored 92% Beginner, 92% Intermediate, 73% Advanced, and 93% Expert!
You have a very good understanding of beginner, intermediate, and expert level commonly confused English words, getting at least 75% of each of these three level’s questions correct. You didn’t get as many of the advanced level questions correct, but don’t fret. This is a great score. Remember, these are commonly confused English words, which means most people don’t use them properly. You got a very respectable score.

The funny thing to me is how I can do better at expert then advanced, I guess I have a learning gap in my past, probably due to me being busy writing code instead of writing english papers…oh well…give the test a go if you like.

Yesterday President Bush approved the creation of a defense division within the FBI and within then Justice Dept. This move places part of the FBI under control of the National Security chief and presents some civil liberty issues due to spies and police working together - full story in the San Jose Mercury News here

In the past we have expressed concern over parts of the patriot act that allow warrant less search, and though we are not ACLU fans either, we have concerns about spies working within the US with federal police. Fundamentally it is not profitable for anyone when freedoms and independence are lost in the name of security and protection. We support the war on terror, we want to see America as a safe and secure nation, but we are for legal and proper uses of police and federal action, not the current move to justify any action desired in the name of security. National security is quickly becoming the new version of “it’s for the children”. In other words, a justification for anything that is desired by using something that people do not want to oppose - national security or children.

All we want is a set system of check’s and balances. Ninety percent plus of all agents may follow the law and act reasonably, but what about the rogue agents. If the rights of a citizen are infringed upon it is not sufficient for the offending agent to be reprimanded or demoted. The rights of the citizen can not be restored or replaced once they are broken. We all know of examples of excessive use of government power and authority - be it local, state or federal - and many time there is no real punishment for abuse of power.

The citizens are suppose to be the power in the government in a republic. We are not vassals, we are not given rights BY the government, we GRANT the government rights to maintain and secure a civil and just society. It is time that the government began to understand that they are not the boss of the citizens, and that it is the other way around. Citizens deserve to be treated with respect and should not have to worry about overreaching, zealous agents and their actions. There MUST be some form of severe punishment for all offenses by government employees (regardless of the department) against it’s citizens. Until this strong deterrent is in bills all expansions of government powers should be of concern to the citizens.

Wordpress has a new version out 1.5.1.3 - full post here - and they are saying it is due to a unannounced security flaw and they are encouraging all Wordpress blogs to upgrade. We are planning to do this tonight or in the morning, so if you experiance a few minutes of downtime please just check back.

[H/T to Tom E for this one]

Photo by Suthep Kritsanavarin of the World Wildlife Fund

The above image is of a 646-pound Mekong giant catfish, netted in Thailand - full story here - the fish now holds the record for the largest freshwater fish ever caught. Originally there were plans to release the fish, but it died while in captivity and was eaten by a village near where it was caught.

All I got to say is if anything like is around here it will be on Melton Hill right below the ORNL / Y-12 dump stream. That is HUGE. What a fish story too….

“Yeah babe me and the guys were busy netting a 640+ pound catfish ALL DAY. … Uh where is it….uh…well it died….so I just gave it to some guy that looked like he needed that was on the bank….”….. SURE YOU DID CLYDE AND YOU WILL BE SLEEPING ON THE FUTON FOR A WEEK FOR THAT ONE!!!!

Seriously that just is one more reminder about how little we know and understand about large species. There could be larger fish out there, and it is possible there are numerous animals in remote areas of the earth that we have never seen or photographed. This story also shows that if you give a man a fish he will eat it, but if you give him a fishing net he will feed a village and create a fish story.

2 Day’s Until The 2005 Tour De France
Only two days left before the 2005 Tour De France begins. Since two seems to be the magic number today I thought I would talk about two people that could really help or hurt Jan Ullrich’s chances of winning the Tour this year. Those two riders are Andreas Klöden (2nd in the 2004 TDF) and Alexander Vinokourov (3rd in the 2003 TDF and who Johan Bruyneel mentioned yesterday as a rival - our post about that here), and the reason I say help or hurt as they both are excellent riders that have placed on the podium in the TDF. The T-Mobile team says they are all there to work for Jan Ullrich but if Jan has a bad day Klöden and Vino are going to start thinking about their time in the sun. We could see a Lavie Claire situation (Hinult v Lemond) where the captain of the team is holding the other riders back and one, if not both, decide to revolt and go it on their own. IF they can work as a team though this trio (Klöden, Ullrich, and Vino) could present a challenge for Team Discovery to defend against for 21 days. T-mobile is so focused on beating Armstrong they left their long time spirinter, and multiple green jersey (points championship) TDF winner, Eric Zabel home where the team is not bothered with trying to work for anyone but Jan Ullrich.

The good news for Team Discovery though is Vino seems to be a bit off this year and Klöden has not been as strong as expected, but he may be peaking at the right time. In the end, T-mobile and it’s three prong attack is formidable placed to try to dissect the Discovery team that is only focused on Armstrong, his gains, his wins, and that is all. There is no doubt who runs the show at Discovery, T-mobile may not have the luxury if Jan is not 100%.

Locally we would like to thank The Bike Zoo and Harper’s Bike Shop for supporting the OLN coverage with advertising.

Official Tour De France site