Virginias traffic laws provide harsh penalties for even the first DUI conviction. Fines along with increased insurance rates and other expenses involved in a DUI conviction can be more than $12,000.
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Family friendly and striving to be a worthy choice for your Internet browsing. Comments and material submissions welcome: tkforppe@yahoo.com . Pocomoke City-- an All American City And The Friendliest Town On The Eastern Shore.
I bet you didn't know that the celebration of the new year is the oldest of all holidays being observed for the first time in ancient Babylon about 4000years ago and lasting for eleven days. Each day had its own mode of celebration. The Babylonian New Year (around 2000 BC) began with the first new moon after the Vernal Equinox, which would be the first day of spring. This seemed to be the logical time to start the new year with the planting of new crops and blossoming of trees, shrubs and flowers.
Through many years the calendar changed to our new year of today which is January 1. But through the years the many traditions celebrated today have been brought forward from other lands. As Christianity spread thoughout the world these so called pagan traditions turned to more of Christian traditions. At one time the use of the baby to symbolize rebirth in the new year celebration was considered pagan and was denounced. But through the years the church finally allowed its use as the symbol of the birth of baby Jesus.
It was once thought (and maybe it is still today) that one could alter his luck and fortune for the new year by what he ate and did on the first day of the new year. So it has become common for folks to celebrate the first few hours of the new year surrounded by relatives and friends.
Then on New Years Day came the tradition of eating foods thought to bring good luck. And in many cultures anything that takes shape of a ring is good luck. While I like the tradition that the Dutch use because they believe the donut is good luck, in America it seems to be the black eyed pea. Well, good luck eating those! Usually accompanied with ham and turnip greens, my grandmother always had them on New Years Day. As a family we'd pile in the car and drive over there just for the "dose" of black eyed peas. I never saw any benefit in that but it made my mother and grandmother happy and that's all I cared about.
I find it amazing that so many traditions have a history that goes back for many years. And many families even today have their own New Years Eve and New Years Day traditions. And, yes, there are those of you that doze in the recliner until the ball drops, Auld Lang Syne is sung then stumble to your beds. That's your tradition.
Our family has always been big on celebrations. My father carried the tradition of our family having steamed shrimp on New Years Eve and bbq'd chicken on New Years Day! He kept that tradition for years and all of us would be there. And no, no black eyed peas.
So in your travels to the grocery store don't forget to buy some to cook for the family. They may bring you good luck and/or good fortune in the New Year. And don't look for me to taking a spoon full, I'm eating donuts.
Happy New Year Everyone! I hope 2010 is your best year yet.
It happens only once in a blue moon -- and scientists say a blue moon is exactly what we'll see in the skies this New Year's Eve.
Don't expect an azure glow over our lunar satellite, however. The term "blue moon" simply refers to the second full moon in a calendar month, something that hasn't happened on a New Year's Eve for nearly 20 years, NASA says.
"December 1990 ended with a blue moon, and many New Year's Eve parties were themed by the event," said Professor Philip Hiscock of the department of folklore at Memorial University of Newfoundland, in Canada. "It was a lot of fun."
Most months have just one full moon, because the 29.5-day cycle of the moon matches up pretty well with the length of calendar months. Occasionally, there will be two full moons in a month, something that happens about every 2½ years, NASA says.
But a blue moon on December 31 is rare.
Elvis Presley crooned about it when he sang the old Rodgers and Hart song "Blue Moon," in which he stood alone without a dream in his heart or a love of his own.
He struck a more hopeful tone in another tune, singing about his love returning to his arms "When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again." He also covered Bill Monroe's bluegrass classic, "Blue Moon of Kentucky."
It is possible for the moon to have a cerulean hue, NASA says, but that's sometimes caused by fine dirt circulating in the Earth's atmosphere or the dark blue tone of the sky.
A blue moon hasn't always meant the second full moon in a month. Hundreds of years ago, it simply meant "never" or "absurd," Hiscock said.
"The phrase 'blue moon' has been around a long time, well over 400 years, but during that time its meaning has shifted," he said. "I have counted six different meanings which have been carried by the term, and at least four of them are still current today. That makes discussion of the term a little complicated."
When the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa erupted in 1883, it put so much dust in the atmosphere that the moon actually appeared blue -- an event so unusual that the term "once in a blue moon" was coined, according to NASA's National Space Science Data Center. The effect lasted for almost two years, Hiscock said.
Full moons used to have 12 names, one for each month, such as "harvest moon," NASA said. The term "blue moon" referred to the 13th full moon in a year.
The term acquired its current meaning in the 1940s, after the Farmer's Almanac of Maine offered an astronomical definition of a blue moon "so convoluted that even professional astronomers struggled to understand it," NASA wrote on its Web site.
A writer at Sky and Telescope magazine in the late 1940s tried to explain the almanac's definition by saying it referred to the second full moon in a month.
"That was not correct, but at least it could be understood," NASA wrote. "And thus the modern blue moon was born."
Now, I don't know who owns this small strip of stores and I don't really care. I do not know who works in any of these businesses. But what I DO know is that all of you are a bunch of creeps and uncaring citizens of the United States of America to allow the flag of this country to become this raveled and torn. Not to mention the fact that you don't appreciate where you live to even look at it to see if it is there or to care about it's condition! Shame on everyone of you. I have never shopped or stopped into either of those businesses and don't care to now at all.
If anyone knows who owns this area please let me know so that I may contact them to have it removed! As far as I am concerned if you don't care about the shape of your flag you can't possibly care about too much of anything.
And the plot thickens….
So Blink may really be Shannon Stoy who creates her own storyline to further her own financial interests, which is none other than her own Public Relations and Communications company.
She is basically a modern day P.T. Barnum “who was remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes.”
Well at least now we know why she outed Todd Black – he was a direct competitor to her and she was probably jealous he had inserted himself directly into her dream case.
It would really be interesting to know what her financial arrangement is with Internet News Network, LLC the owner of ScaredMonkeys.com (psyche – no PR Google backlinks for that site).
But back to Internet News Network and the entity who so gratuitously set up Blink’s solo site after apparently luring her away from WebSleuths.com.
So basically, Ms. Stoy is just another Merchant in Misery who profits off of other people’s misfortune; a real life Crime Profiteer if you will.
But to profit, she must create stories where there are none; so as to hype her site, which I assume Internet News Network pays her to maintain. I mean, it costs me a total of $100 a year to maintain both my sites ad free (my hosting company is Arvixe – a really great web hosting company by the way).
So this explains the obnoxious advertisements everywhere on all those affiliated sites and the stat checkers at the bottom of all their hideously designed sites. (I mean crikey, haven’t you mentally challenged people over at Internet News Network heard of Google Analytics?)
So basically, ScaredMonkeys, Blink, and Co. are nothing more than ad based Merchants in Misery. The more visitors they draw the more ad revenue they get I presume. And Blink with her over-hyped and sensational stories must have been the main reason Internet News Network lured her over to ScaredMonkeys from WebSleuths in the first place – to drum up business. (WebSleuths is a much better forum, more well intentioned, and much better off without her I must say.)
UPDATE: I was informed by credible sources that Blink actually got the Boot from WebSleuths because of her sensational and inflammatory postings. Blink, Blink, got flushed down the sink… LOL!
But I must go now, and dig up some more dirt; and I will have more…
For now though, this post will just be a work in progress where I will think out loud about Blink, very loud.
I’m coming Ms. Stoy, I am coming…
But first Baez…
SOURCE: HERE
Read Richard Hornsby Blog HERE
Quote from: Blink34 on Today at 09:04:00 AM
That letter is heartbreaking, but I have to point out that blog is part of the problem.
We uncovered a registered sex offender in an officers position who would have access to children at some of their events; that blog went on a smear campaign of me, blinkoncrime.com, and Scared Monkeys as a result of us disclosing that information.
Most recently, the incident I mention above, regarding Scott Mitchell's failure to arrest a child rapist, was also defended by this blog.
How is it the author thinks he can have it both ways? Complete hypocracy, imo
I do not want to make Sarah's thread about issues involving other cases, I just want to point out their is a responsibility on behalf of blogs/forums to take a stand against crimes against children whomever they are perpetrated by.
What were the conditions of this guys bond and were they being enforced?
Authorities also intended to charge Thomas James Leggs, a 30-year-old registered sex offender residing with his parents off Bennett Road in eastern Wicomico County, in connection with the girl's kidnapping, Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis said late Wednesday.
The case of brown-haired Sarah, last seen in Christmas-themed pajamas inside her Old Ocean City Road residence about 9:30 p.m. the day before, by Wednesday evening had been re-classified from a "missing person" investigation to a "non-family abduction," said Lt. Babe Wilson of the Wicomico County Sheriff's Office.
Several dozen police officers were joined by volunteers from as far as the western shore and northern Delaware who searched in freezing nighttime temperatures Wednesday as authorities questioned Leggs at the Sheriff's Office.
The suspect is known to the girl's family, according to a police official.
Earlier Wednesday, the search focused on a radius about three miles in either direction of Sarah's residence, Wilson said.
A police command center was established about noon Wednesday at a church on Zion Road at Zion Church Road, a location that is central to the residences of both the girl and the suspect, Lewis had said.
Details about the suspect's conviction for a sex crime were not immediately available, Lewis said.
A national Amber Alert about the 4-foot 8-inch tall Sarah also was issued.
By early evening, scores of both law enforcement personnel, local Samaritans and professional volunteers from outside the area had either joined the search or were on standby to help. Police helicopters from both Maryland and Delaware state police agencies joined, as did the Maryland Natural Resources Police Search and Rescue, Salisbury Police Department, Worcester Sheriff's Office and Delmarva and East Coast k-9 search and rescue units.
"Everybody is offering," Wilson said outside the command center. "(Police) officers from Fruitland, Delmar, Ocean City have contacted us."
If necessary, searchers would continue the search through the night, Wilson also said.
"The search has been going on since around 10 a.m.; there's a number of people searching, about 30 or 40," Wilson said. "We will continue; we're staying. This is a search and rescue -- we're optimistic."
Police ask anyone with information about Sarah's disappearance to contact the Sheriff's Office at 410-548-4891.
An armed disabled man was holding five people hostage nearly four hours after his takeover of a Virginia post office on Wednesday, the town's mayor said.
The man entered the Wytheville, Virginia, post office about 2:30 p.m. and fired a shot, Mayor Trent Crewe said. No one has been hurt, but three postal workers and two customers are being held hostage, he said.
There also are reports that the man has a "device" and it appears the man's car, parked outside the office, is equipped with some type of device, Crewe said. He did not elaborate on what the device could be.
The surrounding area of downtown Wytheville has been evacuated, Crewe said.
Agents with the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are also on scene, said Crewe.
"Hopefully it'll be shortly resolved in a peaceful manner," he said.
Wytheville is a small town in southwestern Virginia at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It has a population of just over 8,000.
By Mike Cope
I actually got to meet Dr. Channing Barrett, though I don't remember the meeting because I was too young. But that doesn't change my picture of him as a young man walking a marathon of miles every weekend. In my mind, I see him returning home to
Channing Barrett was one of eight boys and was the first ever in the Barrett family to go to college. From his medical school, he walked twenty-five miles home each weekend, always returning a couple days later with clean clothes, a food packet, and a dollar. That dollar might have been a bill, but in my mind it was four quarters.
Dr. Barrett became one of the first ob-gyn's in
With a growing, respected medical practice, a wonderful wife, and three children, this young physician seemed to be living the idyllic life. He enjoyed riding horses and lifting weights, and was an early member of the Polar Bear Society-that "unique" group that takes to the chilly waters of Lake Michigan in January each year to prove -- well, who knows what they're trying to prove?
And then World War I interrupted this Norman Rockwell life. Dr. Barrett left
As long as he could, Barrett sent money back to his wife and daughters. But by the last year of the war, his funds were nearly exhausted. He had no more to mail home. Mrs. Barrett sold most of what they owned, trying desperately to keep her daughters fed and clothed without having to lose their house.
By the time Christmas rolled around in 1918, there were no presents to place under the tree. They were lucky to have a place to live.
But Mrs. Barrett had managed, despite all the financial scrimping, to save two quarters. So on Christmas morning, when the girls emptied their stockings, under the paper dolls their mother had cut out for them and under a couple pieces of candy, they each found a coin.
Previous Christmas mornings had been more lavish, filled with frilly dresses and expensive toys. And there would be more such mornings in the future. But this was the Christmas the family would always remember.
In the future, even during the years of plenty, when the girls emptied their stockings, they always found -- under the apples, oranges, nuts, and candy -- a quarter.
It was a reminder -- a reminder that some years are good while others aren't too good. Some years deliver new babies, promotions, raises, and great promises. Other years offer sickness, failure, death, and deep disappointment.
The quarter reminded them about both possibilities. It warned them not to write off all the pain of the past as if it didn't exist. It taught them that the sorrows and wounds of their lives had shaped their characters as much as their joys and accomplishments.
Anyone who takes seriously the Christmas stories of Scripture knows that the first Christmas had more than angels, shepherds, wise men, and a mother nursing her baby. There was also the anguish of childbirth. There were the pungent, impolite odors of an animal pen. There was an old man who held the baby and told his mother, "A sword will pierce your own soul too." There were the voices of many mothers screaming for their baby boys being slaughtered by a demented ruler named Herod. There was a breathless escape to
The entrance of God's Son into the world meant peace -- but it didn't assure that people would get along. It meant great joy -- but it didn't mean we'd always get to grin. And it meant unconditional love – though it never implied that everyone would act lovingly.
And so one family, year after year, continued dropping a quarter of remembrance into the bottom of each child's stocking.
At least one of Channing Barrett's children picked up that tradition. Every year through the '30s, '40s, and '50s, her five children, Dr. Barrett's grandchildren, pulled their stockings off the chimney on Christmas morning to find quarters buried under fruit, nuts, and candy.
It's the message of Christmas!
The quarter has mysteriously tied this family together -- binding even generations who never met. Together they have remembered that bad year in 1918 and other bad years since.
* One year brought the safe birth of a new nephew; another brought
the self-inflicted death of a relative who couldn't keep fighting
the demons of his life.
* One year brought the thrilling news from the gynecologist that a
baby was on the way; another brought the news from the pediatrician
that the baby wasn't developing right.
* Some years brought joy; others brought deep, deep pain.
The quarter is a remembrance that the meaning of Christmas is deeper than our triumphs and sorrows. It is a joy that can't fully be expressed, a peace that passes understanding.
For years my children have followed this tradition started by their Great, Great Grandmother Barrett. Together, we've experienced the love of God, woven through the fabric of good days and dark days.
But by God's grace we will survive. We're still together, we still love, we still hope, we still believe in that one who was born in
And even more, it's the message of Christmas!