markomalley

Pawtucket, please allow me to join the others in expressing my condolences for your loss. It is a terrible tragedy losing a parent, spouse, or child, regardless of how well prepared one might be for the eventuality. You are in my prayers.

I"ll PM you later and leave the stars out (I just don't like posting people's names without their permission in the open). It'll be later tonight, as I don't have the time to write that much right now.

When I read this from the 1991 Supreme Court decision on the case, (note text highlighting is mine)See, if it wasn't for the kind of stuff mentioned in the above quoted paragraph, I would agree with you and, frankly, would not have ever posted about this in any way. You are right, trafficking may not be the right word, but when I read stuff like what I quoted above, then I get really suspicious as to what was going on. So, if trafficking is not the right word, I would wonder what is the right one. Why would xxxxxxxxxx convince xxxxxx that xxxx was cheating on her? Why would xxxxxx go into hiding after being convinced of this? A lot of questions...

Johniam: Interestingly, according to the court documents, what spurred xxxxxx to try so hard getting her child back was when they watched a Geraldo show that talked about dangerous cults (TWI being prominently listed). She supposedly watched this with xxxxxxxxxx. So, presumably, both were no longer involved at the time. As to the lawyer, I checked in the Martindale-Hubbell lawyer directory, and xxxxxxxx is currently listed as a managing partner for a small law firm in NC. The lawyer representing xxxxxx is listed as a sole practitioner. The lawyer representing the xxxxxxxxx through the appeal process, etc., is listed as not currently practicing.

I am curious if anybody has knowledge of baby trafficking that may have been going on in TWI. I ask this as the result of a court case that involved some TWI people a few years ago in NC and MI. I've done some research on this case. Turns out it is fairly famous and is often cited as a precedent in child custody cases. So, here's the basic scenario. This is synopsized from law review articles and court decisions I retrieved via LexisNexis: A young lady by the name of xxxxxxxxxx lived in Michigan with her boyfriend, xxxxxxxxxxxx (Note: different documents refer to him as "the father," "husband," "ex-husband." In 1987, she got pregnant. At some point shortly thereafter, she met xxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx, who recruited her into TWI. In February of 1988, xxxxxx began to work with xxxxxxxxxx cleaning houses. As is the norm for TWI, xxxxxx began to distance herself from her former friends. xxxxxxxxxx began to work on xxxxxx and convinced xxxxxx that her boyfriend was sleeping around on her and, in fact, he might be questioning whether he was the father of her child. In May of that year, xxxxxx left xxxx and moved back in with her mother. After leaving xxxx, xxxxxx began to think about giving her unborn child up for adoption. She discussed this with xxxxxxxxxx. xxxxxxxxxx told xxxxxx that there were plenty of people in TWI who would love to adopt a child. xxxxxxxxxx called a member of the Way to let him know of the possible adoption and that person contacted xxxxxxx and xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx who lived in North Carolina. The xxxxxxxxs retained an attorney who was also a member of TWI by the name of xxxx xxxxxxxx and paid him a retainer of $3,500 to assist with the adoption proceedings. xxxxxxxx flew to Michigan to meet with xxxxxx and xxxxxxxxxx in June of 1988. xxxxxxxx paid to fly xxxxxx and her two other children to NC one week later, apparently in an effort to avoid being served a summons from xxxx (who was attempting to get visitation rights for the other two children -- one of which was xxxxxx and xxxx, the other was xxxxxx' baby from a prior marriage). xxxxxxxx met xxxxxx at the RDU airport and arranged for her to be housed with xxxxx xxxxx, another TWI member in the area, for the duration of xxxxxx' pregnancy. In order to meet the requirement for the father's signature or proof of abandonment, xxxxxxxx placed a legal notice in a small, local NC paper (Remember, xxxx, the father, was still in Michigan and apparently had no idea that his girlfriend was in NC preparing to have the baby adopted upon its birth). xxxxxxxx was aware of the fact that there was no reasonable way that xxxx would ever see the notice, but he was concerned with filling the legal square. xxxxxxxx arranged for xxxxxx to meet with a DSS person to receive the appropriate approval for the private adoption; the court documents indicated that he coached her on the proper responses to give to let the DSS social worker that the adoption was truly voluntary. The baby was born very shortly after the initial DSS interview. xxxxxx had access to the baby for only a couple of minutes before it was taken from her. She signed the adoption consent papers and gave permission for the baby to be taken from the hospital by the xxxxxxxxx. xxxxxx flew back to Michigan shortly after the baby's birth. Shortly after returning to Michigan, xxxxxx decided that she wanted the baby back and expressed the same to her friend, xxxxxxxxxx. Her boyfriend, xxxx, also indicated the same. He, apparently, was threatened by representatives of TWI as he was trying to track down xxxxxx so he could find his child. Anyway, to make a long story short, there was a fairly long court battle over this, resulting in xxxxxx and xxxx getting back their child. Now, let me make a couple of editorial comments on this: First, being a pro-life person, I am all in favor of adoptions. So, that in of itself, is not an issue. Second, the expenses for xxxxxx (the biological mother) were paid for. Again, I don't have an issue with that (although, apparently, that is against NC law). This is no personal case against the xxxxxxxxx or xxxxxx and xxxx; I have no indication that they did anything other than what they believed was the best. What I do have an issue with is this: 1. xxxxxxxxxx apparently tried to convince xxxxxx that xxxx was cheating on her and questioning whether or not he was the father. This seems to me like she was trying to set up a circumstance to get xxxxxx to want to get rid of her child. 2. The biological father, xxxx was not contacted. They intentionally did not contact the father. 3. The mother's whereabouts were hidden from her family and from the father, xxxx. 4. Somehow (and this is not supported by evidence, it is just a gut feeling), I have this feeling that some more money changed hands than came out in the court documents. So, why am I bringing this ancient case up? I am curious to see if this is the only case of its type or if other cases like this occurred within TWI. I would be curious to know if baby trafficking was something that happened with any degree of regularity. See, since TWI was a pro-abortion organization (as I recall), I am sort of surprised that xxxxxx was not taught that the baby was not alive until its first breath and encouraged to simply have an abortion. This would follow with what I understand is TWI's normal method of operating. So, if anybody can provide any additional information, I'd appreciate it. If anybody is actually interested in reading the source documents, I have them copied over to my computer from the LexisNexis database. They are far too long to post here, but if you PM me with your e-mail addy, I will be happy to forward them to you. The names are sort of blanked out here; they are not blanked out in the original documents.

Wino, this is one of the most profound suggestions I've heard on this board. I heartily agree, sir.

Fox Channel 25

Cowgirl, I truly appreciate hearing these lovely tones.

Well, just forget it then (music off) ;)-->

There. Is that less iritating? I'm perfectly open to suggestions, though, if you'd like....

Hey, I said it was annoying!

Question 1 For MIDI files, go to www.google.com and in the block put the following entry "filetype:mid" and it will return only files with a .mid extension. For WAV files or MP3s etc, I suggest you go to www.altavista.com Question 2 To tell the tag how to many times to play, put the following attribute into your tag: loop="n", where n=the number of times to loop. -1 = infinite loop. So the tag in the end will look like this: {bgsound src="http://URL and filename" loop="-1"}

You're welcome. BTW, for those who really do not like to hear sounds (I somehow have a feeling we will be hearing a cacophony of sounds now), here's how you can turn it off: If you are in Internet Explorer, go to "Tools" "Internet Options" -- click on the Advanced tab, -- scroll down to the multimedia section -- remove the checkmark next to the "Play sounds in web pages" option. -- Click OK. That should help eliminate the aggrevation.

There, got it fixed. BTW, if you want any kind of reference on HTML, I would recommend the following site: http://www.w3schools.com/ I use it as a reference all the time -- you have actual examples for just about all aspects of HTML, XML, JS, CSS, VBScript, etc. from that site.

You mean like this? {bgsound src="http://home.comcast.net/~markomalley12345/guns_n_roses-sweet_child_o_mine.mid") I'd really rather not, its somewhat annoying, imho. (LOL) Insert the following tag: {bgsound src="http://URL and filename"} (replacing the "{" with " (btw, I keep editing this fool thing to find the clip that will work--but the tag works fine)

We want pictures of the show!!!

And its curious that Wal-Mart used to be cited as an example in a lot of management books as an example of how you should leverage your power over suppliers. Now, of course, it is far too politically incorrect. But, still, they are trying to get the cheapest price possible for the stuff they sell over here. I don't know what company that would do otherwise. Because they are so big, they are able to leverage that market share to force their suppliers to produce the parts they want. Nobody is going to force a company to add or subtract features from their product; nobody is going to force them to sell their product for $___ per unit. But, if they want to sell to this one company, they will. Otherwise, they can peddle their wares elsewhere. BTW, what explains why there are people working in China for .25/hr is that there are more people than jobs. Employers do not have to pay them more than that, because there are people waiting in line to get those good jobs when a person decides that .25/hr is not good enough. But, the situation with Wal-Mart is that when China becomes too expensive, they will engage factories in Bangladesh. When Bangladesh becomes too expensive, they'll start up factories in Tanzania.

ExC, Sorry (blush). But the point is that you can get a decent rate of return on savings. As long as you invest a little every month, you can make a decent return. You just set a goal (retirement, kid's college, buying a new car in a few years, or whatever) and discipline yourself to save for it. Realistically, a disciplined savings plan like what I outlined can yield about 8-9% per year (on average) if you look at it over five or ten years. As long as you don't call it an IRA, you can pull the money out when you have your goal set, whether you are 35, 50, or 70. But the key is to dedicate to regular savings.

Sorry...the best CD rate going today is 4.97%. However...where do I have my savings? In equities... my company's stock fund is up almost 40% this year... s&p index fund is up 13% vanguard windsor is up 11.5% oakmark global is up 13.9% pimco bond fund is up 6.85% and my GNMA fund is up 31% So, yes I get a little better than 5%, thanks... (btw, what I did was took 15% out of my paycheck and put it into a liquid fund that paid an even 5%. When the market hit rock bottom in spring 2003, I transferred all of it over to the S&P fund -- and then had all my deductions go into a diversified portfolio since that time -- because of that, I've made over 40% on my investments in the past 3 years). Most funds will allow you to begin with as little as $50 per month and zero down, as long as you have the money transferred through payroll deduction.

Savings: put money away for yourself first. Highest priority. Even a little bit saved over time will have a tremendous effect over time. For example, $50 per month @ 5% interest will add up to over $20,000 in 20 years. That's not much but it adds up. Debt: Get real about whatever debt you have. Know your debt. Figure out which credit card is costing the most money (the highest interest rate). Pay that credit card off first. If you pay more than minimums on all your cards, switch around to pay as much as you can on the highest interest rate card until it is paid off, while paying minimums on the other cards. Once the first card is paid off, close it and work on the next card and the next until they are all paid off. Start a warehouse buying club up with neighbors. You can leverage the larger sizes that you get at a Sam's Club, Costco, etc., by going in together with neighbors. If you have three families that can go in on buying quantity, you can buy the 10 lb package of meat and split it up three ways -- and that is often cheaper. Get a Foodsaver to repackage and vacuum seal the food once split up. Also a foodsaver is helpful for freezing. Since it gets the air out of the packaging, you can freeze food while delaying the onset of freezer burn (also helps you leverage grocery store sales on perishables). If your kid goes to parochial school, you can apply for scholarships. You can also get a part time job at the school -- and they will reduce the tuition cost significantly, if not eliminating the cost. I know about four families whose mothers work in myu kid's school as "para-professionals." The pay is pretty low, but their kids' tuition is 100% paid for. If you are buying a car, use the Carfax service to check on past accidents involving the car. It won't save any money initially, but it may help avoid expensive repairs in the future.

Satori: I created a blank base layer that was 8 1/2 X 11 at 300 dpi. I then grabbed the individuals from other pictures using a lasso select, so I could just grab their bodies and not a ton of background that I didn't want (having said that, if I had the time, I would then erase up to the edge of their bodies, but I was a little sloppy -- 'cause I wanted the girls to be able to take the picture home with them). I then cut and pasted the objects onto the base layer. I smoothed them out by making a 50 pt. soft edge for each of the objects. I arranged the picture objects on the base layer to be somewhat attractive and adjusted the lighting on some of them as needed to make them appear somewhat homogenous (PhotoImpact has an AI lighting feature that can simulate different lighting effects). Again, if I would have had more time, I would have done a little more (erased the lamp stand that appears in some of the pix using a cloning feature, etc.). Finally, I put a pattern on the base image using a feature called "magic gradient." After all the editing, I saved the object-based image (so that I could edit it more if I wanted) and then merged the objects onto the base image and saved it as a JPEG (the version I have here is a scaled-down version more suitable for the web -- the original object-based image is 46 MB and the original JPEG is about 3 MB -- this scaled down version is 146 KB). For printing, I used a HP 952 and some 24 lb 108 brightness paper. Not the best stuff in the world, but plenty good enough. Oh, btw, this program (PhotoImact)is more analogous to Photoshop CS rather than Photoshop Elements. It has advanced features like cloning, dynamic transform, AI filters, path and raster drawing, histogram image management, etc. that put it on a par with professional products.

Thanks for the feedback folks. There were 6 of them spending the night. I made that collage as a little keepsake for their party. As far as how it was done...the pictures were taken with a Kodak DX 3600 camera and the photo-editing/ composition was done using a software package called Ulead Photoimpact. Free advertising, here: I have been formally trained on the use of Adobe Photoshop and will tell you that this Photoimpact program is every bit as capable as the Adobe program, but, instead of costing over $600, it costs about $85-$90. Oh, btw, the collage took about an hour to throw together. Software is a beautiful thing.

My daughter had a slumber party last night. Amazingly, I survived the event. The girls didn't manage to kill each other and they aren't enemies for life upon the end of the party, so I guess it worked out pretty good. Hope y'all enjoy the above collage.

Hey, haven't these crazy men figured out how to keep their pants zipped (except for with their spouses)???????

And I hadn't checked out any of the case law on this. That's why I said "that I'd heard of." If there's already black letter law on the subject, I'd just wonder why NOW would be pitching a b*t*h about the charge? (See this thread) But, shucks, "HotShot" coming from you is quite the high praise! Shucks ((blush))