The Atheist Mama

I heard about the death of Tom Fox yesterday, but I really haven’t had a chance to read anything about him or the situation until today. While reading the an article on The Washington Post online about the discovery of his body, I learned that he was formerly an assistant manager at the Whole Foods in Springfield, Virginia.
I’m from Fairfax, VA and I was a frequent shopper at that Whole Foods. I was also an employee of Whole Foods once upon a time. I remember Tom well (although I can’t say that he knew me). He was a very nice man and I saw him just about every time I went into that store.
I know that a few of my highschool friends that were also employees there knew him well. Very well infact, and I’m so sorry for their loss. I can’t imagine what they must be feeling.

Tom was a Christian peace activist, but he wasn’t in Iraq with the sole intention of spreading the word of God. He was in Iraq on a mission of peace. Regardless of his beliefs, I’m so sorry that he suffered the way that he did.

I found a link to his blog somewhere (don’t remember where). Of course, it hasn’t been posted to since November of 2005, but he was abducted that month, so that would make sense.

I also found this today:

>The body of American Tom Fox, who was among four Christian peace activists kidnapped last year, was found near a west Baghdad railway line with gunshot wounds to his head and chest and his body bore signs of torture, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said Saturday:

>I must ask you why tom had to die, yes he was in a army GODS ARMY:

>No weapons only a bible you searched him you knew this,so why, he was there to help

>you and your people.

>You had 60% of the world trying to stop the war tom was one of them but now you have now got a holy war and god will have no mercy on your souls.

>you prove once again your cowards and sick there is nothing in the koran about killing

>christians.

>And to think we where forced to pass your places of worship knowing your so called holy men were hidding guns and criminals.

>But i will say this some of the mighty leaders of the world will be in church to-day

>saying a prayer for tom and maybe end there easy going with you lot.

>I did feel that the war should be over, but im not sure now.

>And please no moslems crying on here use your energy to write on the moslem blogs

>and ask for the release of the other christian peace activists.

>THE REAL GOD IS WATCHING YOU; SO IS THE WORLD

(emphasis mine, although I should have bolded the whole damn thing)

I don’t even know where to begin with this one. How is this (above) any different than anything going on “over there”. All I know is that I’m scared.

Actually, I was tagged twice - once by Jill, and once by Cindy. :-)

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18 and find line 4

“…about it appeared in its April 4, 1983 issue describing how Ms….” - Bad Astronomy by Philip Plait

2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can, what do you find?

A painted picture of a fall tree by my 3 year old (my favorite picture - I should frame it).

3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?

Dora the Explorer

4. Without looking, guess what time it is.

8:15 pm

5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?

8:58 pm
Damn!!

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?

Nothing… It’s absolutely quiet!!

7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?

Coming home from Trader Joes

8. Before you started this survey, what did you look at?

I was looking at a blog that I found through Blog Explosion (I don’t remember the blog though).

9. What are you wearing?

Old Navy yoga pants and a shirt that has spaghetti sauce that splattered on it while I was cooking dinner tonight.

10. Did you dream last night?

Probabaly…

11. When did you last laugh?

Today at some point.

12. What is on the walls of the room you are in?

Oh, it’s a big room.
Kid art, a framed drawing done by my mom, a sketch of a naked woman holding her baby, a painting of a woman breastfeeding, and a bunch of family pics.

13. Seen anything weird lately?

I see wierd things every day.

14. What do you think of this quiz?

It’s long!!

15. What is the last film you saw?

Film?? Madagascar, I think.

16. If you turned into a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy?

An Island in the south pacific - would a multi millionaire be able to afford that?

17. Tell me something about you that I don’t know.

I have a passion for my gold fish!! I am completely obsessed with them.

18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt and politics, what would you do?

Easy. Remove religion.

19. Do you like to Dance?

Yup.

20. George Bush.

Gag…

21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?

If I had had a girl, she would have been Sedona.

22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what would you call him?

My first child was a boy, and he’s Jesse.

23. Would you ever consider living abroad?

I have! And I would do it again.

24. What would you want God to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?

Well, since I don’t believe there’s a God, there’s nothing that I would want him to say. But if I were to die, and there was a God after all, I’m sure he would tell me to go to hell.

25. 4 people who must also do this theme in their journal.

Deedee, Gratis, Jen, and Debbie .

Enjoy!

I came across an interesting blog tonight called Curious Little Monkey. I found her on del.icio.us but I’m not quite sure how I found her. She’s an ex-Evangelical and now defines herself as a weak-atheist. She has a very interesting diary of her journey to atheism.

Anyway, while looking around on her site, I found this:

>The Crocheted Vulva is an intermediate-level pattern in chart form. The model includes labia majora, labia minora, clitoris, urethra, and vagina. It also includes information about these parts of the female body and directions to helpful books and websites.

$3.50 - Go get yours!

It was in May in 1997 that I found out that I was pregnant.

I was 18 years old. I had graduated highschool the summer before. Instead of going to college (I did have the opportunity but turned it down), I chose to move from Northern Virginia to Asheville, North Carolina with my boyfriend.

I was living every young hippie’s dream. The mountains, a dog, a few cats, and 60 acres of land. I spent my days hiking and studying the medicinal plants that grew all over western NC. My dream was to become a midwife or an herbalist, or Dr. Quinn - Medicine Woman.

When I wasn’t pretending to live in Little House on the Prarie, I was working as a hostess at a fancy Italian restaurant near the Biltmore Estate. I probably made no more than $6.00 an hour. My boyfriend was working for our landlord building houses. He made $7.00/hr. We had a 6 month lease on this house, and it was in the month of May that our lease was up. See, our landlord rented this house out for the winter and in the summer months, his parents would come back to NC from FL and live there. So, instead of searching out another place to rent for the summer months, the landlord offered to put us up in one of his campers rent free so that my boyfriend could continue to work and live close by.

Since it was to be rent free, I decided to stop working for a while so that I could “study” (this was all independent study) full time. So we were bringing in a little over $13,000 a year. We were staying in a 20′ camper. It was actually pretty cool. We looked at it as camping for the summer. We stored most of our stuff and filled the camper with books and food and music and flowers. It was parked on the land and we were plugged in to electric. We were young, we were poor, we were childless, and we were camping for the entire summer in what we considered paradise.

Things slowly started to go sour though. Living in this small trailer was not easy. Yeah, it would have been fun for a week or two, but we were crazy to think that it would work for as long as we were planning for. It was hot. The water situation was just horrible, and we ended up with no running water. The landlord was being stingy with the pay and hours, and we were making next to nothing. We turned into slaves of this man. He was taking advantage of 18 year old kids, and we were having a hard time finding a way out. We didn’t have enough money to make a deposit, pay a month of rent, get utilities turned on, get gas in the car, and eat, so we felt very stuck. Both of our parents lived 8 hours away. It was then that I found out that I was pregnant.

After taking the 3rd pregnancy test, we accepted it. We spent a day straight crying. But we made the decision. We had to have an abortion. Bringing a child into the horrible situation that we had gotten ourselves into would not have been good for anyone. We didn’t have health insurance. We didn’t want to end up on welfare, and WIC, and food stamps. While we were in a tight spot, we KNEW that we would have pulled out of it eventually. But there would have been no chance of that if a baby had come into the picture.

I called the clinic (this clinic was later bombed and shot at) the next day from a payphone, and tried to make an appointment. It turned out that I was way to early in the pregnancy to actually have an abortion, and that I would have to wait 2 weeks before having the procedure. We’ll just say that it was the longest 2 weeks of my life.

When I finally was able to make the appointment, I put the $450 on a credit card. My appointment was on a Saturday morning. We drove up to the clinic and had to drive through the mass of protesters standing outside of the parking lot. Luckily the clinic had a large chain link fence around it, so we were able to park and go into the clinic without having to walk through them. But you could still hear their screaming and yelling. I remember the word “whore” clearly.

I won’t go into much more detail about the procedure. It was painful, it was scary, but it was done, and I was thrilled to be able to go on with my life. I was able to make a choice about my own future. It was a choice that I will never regret. I am where I am today because I was able to have that abortion.

We pulled ourselves out of the misery that we were in. We moved on with our lives. Later, we split up. There were some big differences between us. One of the biggest being the fact that he didn’t want to ever have children.

I’m writing this in response to South Dakota’s Governor, Mike Rounds and his decision to strip the women of his state their Constitutional rights. Fuck you Governor Rounds.

I am a woman. IT’S MY BODY. Let ME choose.

Please see Miz BoheMia’s post and Pia’s post.

Need an abortion but your state won’t let you have one? Here’s another interesting link that Jim posted about.

Sorry, this post isn’t very organized. I have a lot to say, and it’s not easy organizing my thoughts right now. I’m having a very hard time wrapping my head around the fact that the government is taking my rights away. I knew it was coming in SD, but it’s really hitting home now. Please, if you haven’t done so already, sign Planned Parenthood’s Save Roe Campaign. Write letters, make phone calls, SAVE WOMEN and their futures!!!

My mother came to visit for a few days, so I was away from the computer for a bit. Nice break from the internet, the television, cooking (we eat out a lot when family are in town) some help with the kids…
But we’re back to reality today.
I finally managed to get a copy of The End of Faith by Sam Harris. I hear nothing but great things about this book. Just a few dozen pages in, and I can tell that it’s great. My mother started to read it while she was here (when I wasn’t reading it) and wanted to take it with her. So I had to go and pick up another copy today.

We’re planning a trip to Hawaii. My husband has family living there so we’ll be crashing at their place and we’ll be without children. Can not wait. So if you know of anything that is must see/do, let me know. :-)

Blah. That’s all I got, folks. It’ll probably be slow around here for a few days.
Stay happy!

Last night I stumbled upon Blog Mad.

I’ve never seen anything like this before, but apparently there are lots of different types of “programs” out there to increase traffic to your blog.

It was an invite only type of thing last night. So I got my invite and joined. It’s pretty interesting. I don’t really know exactly how to describe it, because it’s so new to me, but I guess the bottom line is to increase your traffic.
That wasn’t the reason that I joined, but lemme tell you: at this point, I’ve had 76 visitors today. That’s about double the norm. Crazy!

Anyway, check it out if your interested. Yes, I do get some kind of credit for referrals. There is some kind of point system that I have yet to really figure out. But I just thought I’d share it. I’m not sure if it’s invite only now or not. If it is, and you want an invite, let me know.

>Reclaiming America for Christ 2006 is a high-energy, two-day Christian boot camp experience that will enrich you with ideas, information, and enthusiasm. Learn from and interact with speakers who are engaging the culture for Christ.

This conference will be in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, March 18-19, 2006.

There are quite a few “big” speakers (18 of the). But a couple stood out.

First, there’s Governor Mike Huckabee from Arkansas.

Did ya get a good look at that picture? No, I don’t think that you did. Click on it.

There. Better, huh?? That’s Governor Huckabee from Arkansas, in case you’ve never seen him before.

Now, this guy, according to his website, play the bass in a band called “Capitol Offense.” That’s not a good sign.

Anyway, I digress. He is a speaker at this Reclaiming America for Christ Conference because he is “on the frontlines of Christian social involvement.”

Next, we have Kathrine Harris, Representative of the 13th District of florida (who is now running for Senate).

Ok, I admit that I don’t really have anything “good” to tell you about her. But they sure do!

These are just 2 of the 18 speakers lined up for this “powerful event.”

What’s on the schedule??

Well, there’s America’s Judeo Christian Heritage vs. ACLU Religion of Secularism, “Winning the Battle Against Planned Parenthoodâ€Â?, Bringing Faith to the Public Forum, and Bringing God to Soldiers and Soldiers to God, just to name a few.

This party is being put on by the Center for Reclaiming America for Christ. Check out their FastFacts on subjects like Abortion, Anti-Christian Bigotry, Tolerance, and Judicial Tyranny. All are a must read!!

These are the people who are in office!! Just 2 of them!! How scary is that?

Thanks to Bring it On! for the tip. Go there to read more!

Welcome to the first FWJ!
Unfortunately we have 0 entries. :-)
That’s ok, because we have had a little interest, and in time, I’m sure this “event” will grow.

There are a few things to mention though. Jen, over at For the Love of Bluegrass has posted her weekly “Girl Friday.” For those of you who don’t know, “Girl Friday” was the inspiration for FWJ. Every Friday, Jen profiles a woman in Bluegrass.

>Behind the biggest bands and the most important festivals is an intricate network of wives, business partners, mothers, sisters, and daughters, well known and relied upon by practitioners, but somewhat invisible to the rest of us.

Today, she takes a look at the life of Louise Scruggs, wife to Earl Scruggs. Make sure you drop by and take a look! Jen’s posts are always very touching.

As for me - today suddenly took on new meaning. My great aunt is at the hospital right now. I found out a few days ago that she has breast cancer. She’s about to have a mastectomy. What she isn’t sure of is if she’ll be waking with one breast, or no breasts at all. The doctors will be making that call while she’s in surgery.

Not only that, another woman in my life had a heart attack a few days ago. It’s another great aunt of mine, and the sister to the aunt who has breast cancer. She’ll be having angioplasty in the next couple of days.

Today, I urge the women and men reading this to think about health.

Ladies, make your appointments if you are due. You know what I’m talking about!
Men, help the women in your lives take care of themselves. Remind the to make that appointment. It may have slipped their minds. I know it slips my mind sometimes.

Take care!

Well, almost.

34%, incase you haven’t already heard.