Brandie Halls

I was so disappointed that Cody and Juliann got voted off Dancing with the Stars last night.  I was hoping it would be Cody, Lance and Brooke but instead it’s Warren, Lance and Brooke.  I bet Brooke will take the mirror ball home.  Well she will unless Lacey comes up with a totally awesome freestyle dance for her and Lance and blows everyone away.  That could very easily happen too.  Lacey is really good.

I just read a story about a 73 year old man in Austria that imprisoned his daughter when she turned 18 in his basement.  He then fathered all seven of her children.  One of the seven became ill when it was a baby and he would not take it to the doctor, allowed it to die and then threw it in the furnace to get rid of the body.

This ’so called man’ raped his daughter repeatedly for the past 24 years, kept her and three of her children imprisoned in his basement while his wife took care of the other three children.   DNA tests prove that he is the father of his daughters children.   So why didn’t his wife, the mother of his daughter stop him?

Now this man faces a 27-page indictment for his crimes but will only go to prison for 15 years which is the maximum prison sentence in Austria which is like other European countries and has no death penalty.  I think in a case like this, he should be imprisoned for as long as he kept his own daughter imprisoned and the same things he did to her, should be done to him but that’s just my opinion.

Mom and I went and voted this morning.  This is the first year I have been old enough to vote.  Mom always votes and has made sure I understand how important it is to exercise our right to vote.  She said that women had to fight for that right and if we as women don’t vote, it’s like spitting in the faces of all those women that fought so hard for us to have the right.

Mom also says that our country was built on fighting for freedom and this is the one freedom that we have that helps to keep the other freedoms alive.  I didn’t realize just how important it was until my mother opened my eyes.  It’s not just a right, it’s an obligation as an American to help chose who we want to run our country for the next 4 years.  I just hope I made the right choice no matter who wins.

I listened to all the speeches and debates, I read all their plans, and I stopped and looked at what I thought was important for me and my family and voted for the candidate that I thought would best serve not only my family, but our country.  I hope everyone else cast an informed vote too instead of just marking the party they always vote for.  That’s one thing Mom taught me too.  Don’t vote for the party, vote for who you think is the best candidate no matter what party they represent.  Mom is a smart woman and I am lucky to have her for my mother.

Did you hear about the three white tiger cubs that were rejected by their mother?  Well Isabella, a golden retriever took them in.  She nursed the ‘puppies’ and loved them just as much as if they barked instead of meowed.  People think animals don’t have feelings but I disagree.  Some animals have more feelings it seems than some people I know.  If it hadn’t been for this dog, those tiger cubs would have died.  Now the small safari park in Kansas will have the three cubs thanks to this amazing dog.

I’m sure a lot of you have seen the movie ‘The Horse Whisperer’.  Well the book is even better and I absolutely loved the movie.  The book covers more which is always the case when they turn something into a movie.

Well the man that wrote the book is named Nicholas Evans.  It seems he was hospitalized because of eating poisonous mushrooms while on holiday in Scottland.  His wife, her sister and his wives sisters husband all got sick after they picked some mushrooms in the woods and ate them.  They were all hospitalized but are all expected to make a full recovery.

The mushrooms were tested and the tests established that the mushrooms included the highly toxic variety Cortinarius speciosissimus, which attacks the kidneys.  I’m really glad they are all doing better but one thing is for sure, I won’t be picking any mushrooms and eating them.  That was a good lesson for anyone that read about it and didn’t already know about how poisonous mushrooms can be.