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My brother-in-law deploys to Kuwait today. A sweet piece was written by a comrade of his.

Since arriving to support the 3rd Infantry Division’s mission to Iraq, only one Soldier I know has worked harder than I to try and secure a mission to the mideast. That man is my friend CPT Tim Hayes. This might come as a surprise to the CBB reader, but in the Army, sometimes getting deployed is not easy - it seems especially so when you really want to go. Confounding that old adage is Tim Hayes; tomorrow morning, one of the best friends I’ll ever have heads to Kuwait. From there, I cannot speak publicly of what his mission will be, but suffice it to say it involves the desert, Blackhawks, and adventure. I had wanted this mission, but I’ll concede not as badly as Tim.

He’s a brave man, and I’m proud to serve with him and all the other brave souls who willingly go into harm’s way. I don’t mean to be morbid, but Tim lives just a few houses down from a Major who was killed in Iraq since we arrived here. His kids still play with the kids of that fallen hero; and yet he stood up and gladly accepted this mission. There is an unquantifiable burning within the American who who knows he must serve and give his life if necessary - Tim is such a man, and I’m proud of him, my fellow Soldiers, and the country for which we fight.

Tim, I’ll be the “Huckleberry,” who’s got your back… I’ll be your Doc Holliday any day. Good luck and be safe, my friend.

Taken from the Corn Beltway Boys Blog.

If you haven’t noticed, since November I have had a charity button up featuring a family that is in process of adoption.  I would like to continue featuring opportunities to give but need to know of more!  For now, I will be changing the spot to links to charities that are my favorites.  If you know of or are involved in a charity that you would like to feature here and even have a support button on my page please let me know.  I will prayerfully decide what I should and shouldn’t feature.  And of course I will have to make sure it is a legitimate charity.  Please use my Contact page to contact me.

You may have noticed that toward the bottom of my sidebar I made a little I heart Huckabee button. Yes, my official endorsement for both the republican nominee. Risky for a girl with a mixed political readership? Perhaps. But hopefully you don’t just read me for my politics

If I could take 8 minutes of your time this video should explain pretty well why I love Mike Huckabee. Many of the main issues I care about our touched on. To get further information on any of the topics you may have questions about (such as “fair tax”,) Feel free to click my I heart Huckabee button and learn more. Sit back, relax, and enjoy this video.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sdZY3oSupU]

If does not work here go http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sdZY3oSupU

Card my Christmas Is having 2 giveaways right now! Please go check out both if you are interested in getting great discounts on your hip Christmas cards.

1. First up we have a free 25 pack of Christmas cards being given away as one of the hot prizes for donating to the charity featured below. You can help an incredible family give a needy child a home and at the same time be entered to win several great prizes! For more information vist Home Hope & Future.

2. Second, CardMyChristmas.com is giving away $25 onNotChinaMade.Net.

Go enter both now!

My friend Brandi, who has guest hosted here, has:

1. an incredible contest opportunity.

but more importantly

2. a great opportunity for giving.

It is for this pastor’s family’s adoption.

 

Read on her blog why you giving would be a blessing. I have met these people briefly myself and they really have such servant hearts. When we were considering joining their church during our time in Orlando we found John to be a pastor that truly cares about promoting Jesus, not himself. He served coffee himself once a week outside the front of the busy road the church sat on. He gets down with the audiance and lets them ask questions. He was more than willing to point us in the direction of other churches to try. He is humble and has a heart after God.

The prizes include:

Prize #1: TIFFANY & CO. SILVER NECKLACE (Return to Tiffany, Oval Tag)
*used but polished and comes with tiffany box complete white bow
Prize #2: Pampered Chef Basket full of fun and useful kitchen tools
Prize #3: A Goodie Bag of Professional Beauty Supplies (donated by Friends Beauty Supply)
Prize #4: Sea World Tickets for 2
Prize #5: TimeWise® Microdermabrasion Set from Mary Kay
Prize #6: A new blog header and background by Whitney R.
*the girl who just redesigned mine

* For every $5

GO NOW and read brandi’s blog about this important contest!

I beg all of you, my wonderful blog friends to go to this link immediately. You could really make a difference if you get involved! I don’t want to write about the effort too much here so as not to duplicate content. But it involves very little time and about 40 cents out of your wallet. Please CHECK IT OUT now.

Chinese Government is at it again (no surprise here) and is set on destroying 3 home churches.

You may want to look on your tee shirt tags to see where your shirts came from. Just take a look at these photos of a contaminated cotton factory and the slave labor going on therein.

A book on China human rights lawyer Gao Zheshing just came out. I will be ordering it shortly and adding it to my booklist. Here is a teaser:

Yet no words, however strong, can possibly describe the darkness and terrible barbarity of today’s dictators in China, nor the tragic annihilation of Chinese culture that they have perpetrated. Though I have strived to convey these qualities through my writing, having attempted to unveil merely one corner of China’s darkness, I cannot help but feel the futility and frailty of language.

In today’s China, where the forces of incivility run rampant, it is common practice to mock what is beautiful and to beautify what is vile. A pathological China is not ready for what I write. But I hope such a China will soon emerge.

I will add that Gao is also a Christian.

Read a full book review on A China More Just.
Read previous news items on Gao Zheshing.
Read my previous posts on China.

I did what MoTu suggested and called my pediatrician this morning. I am still waiting to hear back a definite referral but her nurse said she has little doubt that she will want them to go to our Children’s’ Hospital Close to Home practice and get blood tests.

My friend and regular commenter, T.Y., sent me an article from the New York Times last night that I find interesting regarding this Thomas recall and the rising rate of recalls of toys Made in China.

If you have read me more than a couple weeks you know that I had already decided to ban (as much as possible) new made in China products from being bought by our household. This article, this recall, and other toy recalls are only strengthening my resolve and confirming my beliefs that this is necessary.

It isn’t easy! I went to the drug store on the way to the pool last week in effort to find pool toys NOT made in China. I found ONE boat, so I bought two. Everything else was made in China.

The problem is, beyond boycotting we need to scream out to the toy companies about this. It is impossible to compete with the manufacturers in China’s bottom line, but at what cost? It may mean nothing to them when a few parents are boycotting because of the human rights abuses in China, but another when it is actually putting our children’s lives at stake and affecting their health. This movement has to gain momentum and parents have to demand safer products, and in my opinion China can not ensure that. I’m not going to feel safe purchasing another Thomas Train, even if I didn’t feel strongly about the boycott previously.

The article that T.Y. recommended goes on to name other recent safety recalls. A fake eyeball (I have seen these) that had KEROSENE in it! Are you kidding me? Other wooden toys have also been painted in lead. Despite the US having a ban on lead paint since the 1970’s, China has not banned lead paint. Considering all of the other things their government restricts, this baffles me. Perhaps it is another form of population control for them?

Please see this article for more details.

As for me, these trains are not being sent back yet- no such luck for them. I will definitely be holding on to these until I am absolutely sure my children have not been effected.

On a side note: Does anyone else realize how expensive these “designer line” wooden Thomas Trains are? This is their top of the line toy, they are expensive! Why couldn’t they have at least manufactured these in the states or somewhere else more safe? When I’m paying 15-29 dollars for a silly train do they really need to have it manufactured in China for cents on the dollar?

Update as off 1pm eastern, The doctor did order a lead test and we will be going to the hospital after nap time. It will be a few days for the test and they will call if positive or negative. PLEASE if your children have been exposed to these trains call your pediatrician… if they do not know of the recall for some reason fax the articles I have been linking to. And by all means make sure your friends that have little ones are aware of this.

Previous posts regarding Thomas Recall and reasons to Boycott China:
Thomas & Friends Recall Update
Thomas & Friends Recall
China Organ Harvesting
Still Thinking about Women in China
61 Women Forced to Have Abortions in China

Are you able to do a simple sewing project? Do you have extra fabric laying around your house? Do you have a heart for the orphans in China? (as China is obviously on my heart latley.)

You can make little SIMPLE blankets for orphans in China. Learn how by going to the Skip to My Lou Blog.

Thanks for the Tip Southern Girl!

I have been keeping my lips shut on an issue burning inside of me. Normally when injustice boils my blood I can do nothing but shout it from the proverbial rooftops. But this… this has been so hard to digest.

I’m not sure why I have been clueless. After I learned of it, I brought it up on seperate occasions to both my father and brother and they both knew about it. I can not fathom why this isn’t on MSM (main stream media) and why there isn’t total OUTCRY about it! Please Media don’t tell me for the one MILLIONTH time what Paris Hilton is up to and not report what may possibly be one of the biggest human rights violations of our time!

It isn’t bad enough that China forces abortions on women about to give birth. And repetitively commits religious persecution by imprisoning people for their faith. But what do they do with these prisoners???

THEY FREAKING HARVEST THEIR ORGANS TO MAKE MONEY FROM RICH FORIEGNERS DESPERATE TO LIVE!

This has been on my mind for awhile now, unable to imagine the depths of depravity one must be in to be able to kill a person, even 5 people at times, for the possibility of finding 1 kidney for well funded person.

Of course, China denies this. Hard proof of the practice is difficult to find, but I have been reading incredible research on the topic and believe there is more than enough convincing evidence This Report on Organ Harvesting takes an investment of time to read… but if this issue breaks your heart the way it has mine you need to schedule the time and read it.

I have not been able to figure out how to sum up my thoughts on the process, or how to appropriately compile talking points from the report… I have not attempted discussing it on Mommyzabs previously. I wanted to do this topic justice. But all I can do now is pray and beg people to listen, even if my writing can appropriately reflect the urgency. My influence in this world is completely minute. However, I’m compelled to do whatever I can.

I’m not typically a boycotter. Mostly because Christians seem to take boycotting to a ridiculous extreme. It takes A LOT to make me boycott. I’m just not sure I can give another penny to support China knowingly. The more I talk to others, the more insight I gain… the more I have to speak with my money. Sometimes it is the only language people listen too.

My Boycott won’t be able to be 100%. Sometimes it just is not feasible (like when my child gets a McD’s kids meal with his friends and there is a made in China toy with it, It is hard to tell a 3 year old they can’t have it when all their kids have their kids meal toys at the table…) But I have already begun looking at labels on everything and staying away from China.

On that tangent… since boycotting China makes it quite difficult to buy toys for your children, I found a helpful link for finding products (including toys and toy brands) that are not made in China.

I am going to publish the following article in my blog in full and I do hope that isn’t inappropriate. I want you to read it as it is a better summation than I can do. Please do take the time to read the Full Report. There is more information than could ever justly be summarized.

Organs harvested from live prisoners
Allison Hanes, CanWest News Service
Published: Friday, May 18, 2007

TORONTO — Foreign patients who travel to China for transplants are likely receiving organs culled from political prisoners who are alive when their corneas, kidneys and livers are harvested, then left to die, an international group of doctors armed with a chilling Canadian report is warning.

In a new twist on an old practice of using organs from executed criminals, China has since 2000 turned to living donors and outlawed Falun Gong members to supply a growing trade in medical transplants, Doctors Against Organ Harvesting said Thursday during a public forum held at the University of Toronto.

With increasing numbers of Canadians on long waiting lists turning to China to save their own lives, the newly formed organization is seeking to warn patients that someone else’s life is likely being sacrificed in the process of obtaining organs.

“Each person who travels to China for an organ causes the death of another human,” said Dr. Torsten Trey, a Washington, D.C.-based physician and founding member of Doctors Against Organ Harvesting.

The group is sounding the alarm in the medical community about mounting evidence of unethical transplants in China. They want doctors to impress the information upon their patients. They want hospitals and universities to close their doors to visiting Chinese physicians and scholars looking to hone their techniques. And they want medical journals to reject research on transplants conducted in China.

“Medical science cannot build up any knowledge which is based on inhuman and unethical procedures,” said Trey, who compared China’s pilfering of organs from Falun Gong practitioners to Nazi medical experimentation during the Holocaust.

Doctors Against Organ Harvesting was formed in the wake of a Canadian investigation first released last year.

Authored by former Liberal MP David Kilgour and Winnipeg human rights lawyer David Matas, the report claims there is a widespread and systematic policy in China of selling organs from living donors to a growing clientele of desperate patients.

Kilgour said Thursday it is clear Falun Gong members are being targeted over other ethnic groups and religions, as a part of a campaign to villainize their spiritual practice since it fell out of favour with the government in 2000.

The report’s conclusions were drawn from interviews with a handful of eyewitnesses from the medical side, recipients of organs harvested in China, official government pronouncements, statistics showing a sudden explosion in the number of transplants performed, marketing Web sites and undercover inquiries to hospital.

In one instance, an Asian patient recounted that after rifling through a list of potential donors, a military doctor departed and returned to the hospital several times, bringing back a total of eight different kidneys before finally settling on a match.

In another, a sick patient found out one day he needed a transplant and had an organ within 24 hours.

Web sites market transplants in China in five different languages and in some cases guarantee availability of a matching organ within two weeks. The average wait time for a kidney in Canada is 32.5 months, while in British Columbia it is 52.5 months.

In surreptitious phone calls to Chinese transplant hospitals by Mandarin-speaking investigators, medical staff admitted organs came from Falun Gong prisoners.

While he is sympathetic to the plight of ailing Canadians who wait years for a transplant and face the prospect of dying before a match comes along, Kilgour said patients and doctors cannot turn a blind eye.

“Medicine cannot be practised by killing innocent people like chickens,” he said.

Gerry Koffman, a Toronto general practitioner and member of Doctors Against Organ Harvesting, said there are about 100 confirmed cases of Canadian patients from Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver having transplants done in China.

original report from Leader-Post (Regina)
(hat tip: ChinaView)

I wrote the author of the China View Blog a couple times to gain further perspective on what we can do. He is busy but has been very helpful. His 2 pieces of advice on what to do were the following:

A. as an individual, for our safety reason, buy as less Chinese products as we can. The bottom line is do not make our own life difficult, if the Chinese product is the only choice.

B. Urge/push the government/trade companies take action to boycott
until the situation is changed. Government action is the most effective way,
because for business companies profit is always their first choice and
they seldom really care about human rights.

To make it happen, we need to raise awareness and educate the officals,
NGOs, trade companies,etc, by make appointment/writing letter/email/fax,
and also the most important thing we are doing now, blogging.

I would like to add… If boycotting China gained enough buzz… like THE ONE campaign has, I do think it could be possible to effect the commerce world. If awareness was raised to the point that people were boycotting en masse and deciding to live with less in order to come against China’s human rights violations, some businesses would take the hint.

You may think, “this republican has fallen off her rocker” But realize that I serve Jesus Christ before any political party. And though Republicans have more the reputation of ruthless capitalists, and though I do believe capitalism is the less of evils in economic systems, ethics are not to be forsaken. We must always respect human life because God created it. Innocents must always be protected. Always.

PLEASE bookmark the China View Blog and stay up to date on the CONSTANT human rights violations by the Chinese government. We as a nation have got to stop turning a blind eye toward what they are doing.

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