Link to article at Yahoo: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/pastor-corporal-punishment-advice-scrutinized-child-deaths-160004793.html New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/us/deaths-put-focus-on-pastors-advocacy-of-spanking.html?_r=2 Wow. About time, but how sad that it took the death of several children before anything will be done about him.

Yeah but someday she will. :auto: Might need to start planning your escape now.

Call your local police station and talk with them about it. They will be able to tell you what officer was legitmately in your area and that might give you a chance to talk with the officer. Did the girls say that he left "mid-sentence". It does seem VERY odd to me that he drove off as soon as you approached. While it is possible that he was just being friendly with them, the driving off bothers me....if it was because a call came in you or the girls should have heard the very loud radio dispatch call AND he would have immediately picked up the radio to answer. Decades ago when I was a teen, a police mechanic was finally arrested for rape of young women. Late at night he'd cruise around in a vehcle that was supposed to be in for repairs, turn on the lights to pull over a young woman all alone. Of course because he was in a uniform (stolen from an officer's locker) the woman didn't resist when he asked them to get out of the vehicle. Soon as they unlocked the door he attacked them. Obviously, not saying it's even remotely the same thing, and your's was in broad daylight....but just because he looked like an officer and a real police car does not mean it was. Your peace of mind deserves an answer and the best way to get it is to ask the officer what happened.

I'd take it but only for a year. I would sock away all of the money I made and tell the kids that this is a year for them to buckle down and get way ahead in their school work. Then in a year we'd have the money to take some very nice educational trips. But...I'm of the mindset that I can do anything for a short period of time....even unpleasant things.....so long as I know there is an end to it, and hopefully some sort of reward for putting up with it, lol. If you'd enjoy the work and it wouldn't hamper your children's education, but in fact in a year could enhance it, then yes, it's worth the short term sacrifice. Also, you get off work at 2pm....doesn't sound like the work would be completely exhausting, and most museums around here are open until at least 5 and usually have one evening they're open much later....so you COULD still fit in trips if you wanted. I think your kids ages are kinda on the brink of whether I'd be comfortable dropping them off at a museum/zoo by themselves while I went to work......it would really depend on the kids. My twins will be 15 next month and we have started letting them be on their own for several hours at a time....very safe environments like the library and museums where staff know them. Never the mall or something insane, lol. And they never go alone, must be both and stick together. Of course, I also have dreams of being able to take long trips to places we've studied.....which aren't cheap of course, and your situation sounds perfect...work for a year and then have enough to take a couple of months and wander the world. If the kids worked diligently on their school work and got ahead then I wouldn't have the guilt of letting them slack off on some subjects while we travelled, considering the education they'd get just travelling.

Many victims of abuse believe that THEY are to blame for the abuse, that they did something wrong or were bad and therefore deserved the abuse. It's a large part of the reason that abuse doesn't get reported and/or that someone stays with their abuser. Obviously this is something that most people who have never experienced abuse simply can't comprehend.....but it's how the abused feel and to them it makes sense...."if I could just behave like he wants (or whatever) then he wouldn't abuse me, so it's MY fault". Most abusers are also quite accomplished at manipulation and certainly help the victim feel that it's their fault.

Yeah....and she kept this "secret" for so long because?????? She's desperate and not quite sane.......and sadly her attorney's have no choice but to go with the story she tells them. Oh...and let's not forget that KNOWING that someone caused the death of another and hiding that fact is also a felony....but certainly less of a prision sentence which at this point is about all she has left to hope for. This poor child....my mind just can't handle thinking about what her few years on Earth must have been like with this as her family. Excuse me...I have to go hug my kids. :sad:

First question of course is was this child conceived and born in California? Arnie has only been Gov for 2 terms, so it’s possible the laws of another state would prevail. California paternity law can be very complicated and also very different from many other states. First, a man is "conclusively presumed" to be the father of a child if he is both married to and cohabiting with the mother, as long as he is not sterile or impotent. As I recall the article, it was acknowledged at the mother was married at the time….but were they living together or separated? In law, a "conclusive" presumption usually means that it cannot be rebutted. But this presumption actually can be rebutted, within two years of the child's birth, with blood tests showing that the husband is not the biological father of the child. That's why many divorces also include paternity testing for very young children....just to be sure that Dad doesn't pay 18 years of support for a child that isn't his...it's also a tactic to humiliate the Wife. And sadly, the court condones it by always overruling objections that no infidelity has been accused. Nice eh? Since we can probably presume that if Hubby had found out 8 years ago, he’d wouldn’t have been quiet about it….it sounds like Arnie is off the hook legally as far as supporting the child, or of having himself declared the legal father. And it also means that the child will have an uphill battle being declared an heir. Of course, I fully expect the Husband and child to file suits about emotional distress and maybe even Mom….so that Arnie has to pay someone for something. I'm sure the scuz attorney's are already doing their research. And Arnie will likely pay, if for nothing else than to make it all go away. Poor poor Arnie (do we have a sarcasm icon?).

I feel sorry for the child. They gave enough information that it's only going to take a day or two for the mother's name to come out (she'd worked for the family for 20 years, retired in January...child is about 10....hmmmm, even as big a staff as they had can't be a lot of choices. ) That child spent the first 10 years of her life believing that the man married to her mother was her Dad. And now she has to deal with the truth. And not privately and on her own timetable, but in the public eye with cameras inevitably following her around constantly. NO child should have to switch gears like that, but to do it in the public eye is just so sad for the child. As for Maria....she defended his "groping" so that he could become Gov....and like so many of the woman in her family (and in politics in general) they put up with a lot for the sake of the power it brings. She is simply too intelligent for me to ever believe she had no clue of his infidelity. Curious when she learned of the child. Could have been years ago and she smiled through the cameras to keep the power....and now that Arnie is done as a politician and going back to his horrible Hollywood habits she's done. If she thought he couldn't keep it zipped before, Hollywood shouldn't wouldn't help. My thoughts and sympathies go to the child in question and to Maria & Arnie's kids....they do NOT deserve to have to deal with this garbage at their ages. They deserve better.

I agree with your DH about the repairs being less than a car payment and therefore worth doing IF....and for me it's a HUGE IF....if those repairs are not something that left the driver stranded. Or that it's not rapidly headed in that direction. To me that is simply unacceptable for either me and the kids or my spouse to be put into a potentially dangerous situation by a vehicle breakdown. If the repairs didn't involve it stopping running then if your husband has the skills and time necessary to do the repairs cheaper than the costs of a car loan and the higher insurance, then yes, I'd probably keep repairing it. Now-a-days another consideration is gas mileage....obviously you're not going to save $400 a month in gas, but some of those old clunker types get half what the newer cars do, so that's simply a number your accountant hubby would be plugging into the equation too. As for the tires....if when you decide that the old car has breathed it's last.....remember that used tires especially ones with loads of tread left can boost the price you may be able to get for it from a junk yard. Or they can be sold by you without the rest of the car attached and the dead car donated to charity for the tax write off (they don't car about the condition of the car, they take the old clunks and sell them to a junk yard or may be running a junk yard themselves).

Log into your Groupon account and hover over your name in the upper right hand corner. A pull down menu should appear....choose "My Groupons" and you will see the offer you purchased.

Were it not for incessant advertising (even the grocery ads blast it into my face) I wouldn't know that the game was this weekend, lol. No sporting event means anything to my family, thankfully!

You need to contact your doctor and get examined. Often times chemo can do really odd things to your body, and inflammation is definitely one of them. So while your worst fears may be true, it could also be just a side effect of the drugs that are being pumped into your body and will go away as your body grows used to the drugs. The ONLY way to know which it is will be an examination by a qualified doctor. Contact your doctor or the clinic where you receive your chemo as soon as possible. :grouphug:

And then there are the pushing-50 men who STILL will sit there and grin almost like they're looking for you to acknowledge that they've done something wonderful....when all we want to do is run from the room. :confused:

Wow...if drunk driving is considered a "good kid"....I wonder what these friends think it takes to be considered a "bad" kid. Not sure I'd want to know! I guess we are ultra conservative, because we don't do sleepovers with same gender even. I wonder how these same parents are going to feel when these co-eds come to them with the news that they're going to be grandparents? Stay tuned.

Mine you just unplug it and let it stay unplugged for 5 minutes or so and the settings will go away. But if you unplug and immediately plug back in it's memory hasn't cleared yet. If not, yes, you can transfer it to the oven to darken a little more.