CasaSugar

Sephora is my home away from home, but even better!

emanticoff — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 07:04:10 -0800

Theres a feeling i get when i enter that black and white palace of beauty goodies! My senses are awakened by all the different scents the girlies are testing out, searching for there signature scent. Every mirror is taken over by a lovely trying on her makeup. Basking in her peaceful surroundings free of the relentless beauty counter predators hanging over her shoulder. I get all warm and fuzzy inside when i see a new makeup line, a new conquest if you will. Its like a kid in a candy store, but even better because you get to touch everything! I litteraly float down the aisles with my blush brush in hand searching for my next new blush. Then it's off to skincare heaven were i get to pick out samples I can't wait to get home to apply. It doesn't get better than this. This is every girls safe haven, a place for girls only where we can indulge in our makeup obsessions together in peace and calm. It's almost a sisterhood with strangers, you all have something in common, a beauty obsession you don't have to apologize for in our black and white pandora's box of beauty therapy.

Teamsugar - my home away from home!

tdamji — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 04:52:24 -0700

Being away from home for the year, it gets very lonely. Not only am I away from my family, I am away from everything I know and love, being in New Zealand on exchange. Going to all the great sugar sites, especially buzzsugar and geeksugar helps me feel like I really haven't left Canada/North America at all. Where else can I go where I can always find something interesting, fun, endearing, entertaining, informative, shocking...or some combination thereof? Where else can I go where everybody knows my name?

Where Everybody Knows Your Name by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo - Cheers Lyrics

Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.

Wouldn't you like to get away?

Sometimes you want to go

Where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your name.

Jamie Lynn “running away from home?”

justingirl1989 — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:07:13 -0800

Something tells me the Spears clan will never get much peace. Whenever things start to seem like they’re getting just a teeny, tiny bit better, something happens and they get five times worse. It’s kind of a one step forward, two steps back situation. Though Jamie Lynn Spears seems like the better off of the two sisters, that’s not really saying much. Who hasn’t got their stuff together when compared to Britney? The three legged dog I saw hopping down the street yesterday has got its life together - and a lot more going for it - than Britney Spears. After all, that dog may have a plastic sheet lining the floor of his crate, but he doesn’t have padded walls. While Britney is getting all the attention, pregnant 16-year-old Jamie Lynn is having a lot of drama of her own.

For the last few months sources have been saying that mother Lynne Spears and Jamie Lynn have not been getting along so well. Lynne took Jamie Lynn back home to Kentwood, Louisiana after she announced her pregnancy - presumably to keep her away from prying eyes. Jamie Lynn’s been laying low and hasn’t been photographed much, but there have been several reports that Lynne has barred Jamie Lynn from seeing her baby’s dad, Casey Aldridge. Some articles are saying that Jamie Lynn wants to marry Casey, while others say she just wants to be with him. Regardless, it seems a little late to keep the two from each other. Not much has been said about what Casey’s role will be in his child’s life, but it seems like it’d be a good idea to keep good relations between young new parents. Supposedly Jamie Lynn has become so frustrated with Lynn that she’s going to move to California to live with her father, Jamie Spears.

“Jamie Lynn is moving to Los Angeles to live with her dad,” an insider told the Enquirer. “She wants to be settled in before the baby is born in March or early April - and she wants to be closer to film projects she’d like to start after giving birth.”

But Jamie Lynn’s plans to become a working mom aren’t the only reason Britney’s little sis decided to go west. Lynne’s decided that the teenager’s baby daddy, Casey Aldridge, is off limits.

“Jamie Lynn loves Casey and wants to marry him, but her mom is dead set against it,” an Enquirer source said. “Jamie Lynn knows that once she’s out from under her mom’s thumb in Kentwood, she and Casey will be together.”

Lynne also worries that once her little girl’s in Los Angeles, she’ll fall under another negative influence - Lynne’s older daughter Britney! “Jamie Lynn knows Britney smoked and drank during her pregnancy - and because Britney’s boys turned out fine, Jamie Lynn thinks her baby will be fine too,” the source confided. To be continued…

[From MSNBC]

If I were Jamie Lynn, I wouldn’t just assume that I’d get to do whatever I wanted by moving in with my other parent. Supposedly the reason Jamie Spears was put in charge of Britney’s medical/legal care is that Lynne has trouble saying no to her - and Jamie doesn’t. Unless he fundamentally disagrees with Lynne about Casey, you would think that the move wouldn’t really facilitate easier access to the boyfriend. If Jamie Lynn wants to move for her career, that’s certainly not a bad idea. I’m guessing what she really wants to do is move to California and get settled with the baby, and then probably get emancipated so she can have access and control over her money. The combination of being Britney Spears’ younger sister and all the publicity from her pregnancy has certainly raised Jamie Lynn’s profile. I’m guessing she won’t have a hard time finding work - though probably not on child-friendly networks anymore.

source: celeb*tchy.com

Homeschooling: German Family Gets Political Asylum in U.S.

Yogaforlife — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:22:14 -0800

The Romeikes are not your typical asylum seekers. They did not come to the U.S. to flee war or despotism in their native land. No, these music teachers left Germany because they didn't like what their children were learning in public school - and because homeschooling is illegal there

"It's our fundamental right to decide how we want to teach our children," says Uwe Romeike, an Evangelical Christian and a concert pianist who sold his treasured Steinway to help pay for the move.

Romeike decided to uproot his family in 2008 after he and his wife had accrued about $10,000 in fines for homeschooling their three oldest children and police had turned up at their doorstep and escorted them to school. "My kids were crying, but nobody seemed to care," Romeike says of the incident.

So why did he seek asylum in the U.S. rather than relocate to nearby Austria or another European country that allows homeschooling? Romeike's wife Hannelore tells TIME the family was contacted by the Virginia-based Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), which suggested they go to the U.S. and settle in Morristown, Tenn. The nonprofit organization, which defends the rights of the U.S. homeschooling community - with its estimated 2 million children, or about 4% of the total school-age population - is expanding its overseas outreach. And on Jan. 26, the HSLDA helped the Romeikes become the first people granted asylum in the U.S. because they were persecuted for homeschooling.

The ruling is tricky politically for Washington and its allies in Europe, where several countries - including Spain and the Netherlands - allow homeschooling only under exceptional circumstances, such as when a child is extremely ill. That helps explain why in late February, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement formally appealed the Romeike ruling, which was issued by an immigration judge in Memphis, Tenn. His unprecedented decision has raised concerns that the already heavily backlogged immigration courts will be flooded with asylum petitions from homeschoolers in countries typically regarded as having nonrepressive governments.

"It's very unusual for people from Western countries to be granted asylum in the U.S.," says David Piver, an immigration attorney with offices in a Philadelphia suburb and Flagstaff, Ariz. In 2008, the most recent year for which data are available, only five Germans received asylum in the U.S. (The Justice Department declined to comment on specific cases.) Piver, who is not involved in the Romeike case, predicted the U.S. government would appeal the decision "so as not to offend a close ally

Successful asylum petitions typically involve applicants whose situations are more dire, such as women who were forced to undergo abortions or genital mutilation and men whose lives were threatened because they are homosexuals or political dissidents. But Piver believes the Memphis judge was right to grant the Romeikes asylum, since the law covers social groups with "a well-founded fear of persecution" in their home country.

In Germany, mandatory school attendance dates back to 1717, when it was introduced in Prussia, and the policy has traditionally been viewed as a social good. "This law protects children," says Josef Kraus, president of the German Teachers' Association. The European Court of Human Rights agrees with him. In 2006, the court threw out a homeschooling family's case when it deemed Germany's compulsory-schooling law as compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights, an international treaty drafted in 1950. Given this backdrop, it's little wonder the Romeikes came up against a wall of opposition when they tried to talk to their school principal about the merits of homeschooling.

One of the Romeikes' concerns was about their kids getting bullied. But their main objection involved what was being taught in the classroom. "The curriculum goes against our Christian values," Uwe says. "German schools use textbooks that force inappropriate subject matter onto young children and tell stories with characters that promote profanity and disrespect."

While there are no official figures, it's estimated that up to 1,000 German families are homeschooling their children. Elisabeth Kuhnle, a spokeswoman for a German advocacy group called the Network for the Freedom of Education, says a recent homeschooling meeting attracted about 50 families in the state of Baden-Württemberg, where the Romeikes used to live. She also reckons many German homeschooling families have relocated to countries like France and Britain, where homeschooling is allowed.

In 2007, Germany's Federal Supreme Court issued a ruling - which did not specifically involve the Romeikes - that parents could lose custody of their children if they continued to homeschool them. "We were under constant pressure, and we were scared the German authorities would take our children away," Romeike says. "So we decided to leave and go to the U.S."

German officials, for their part, note that the Romeikes had other options. "If parents don't want to send their children to a public school, they can send them to alternative private schools," says Thomas Hilsenbeck, a spokesman for the Baden-Württemberg education ministry. Homeschooling advocates counter that there are few private schools in Germany, and they tend to be expensive. But beyond that, many religious parents have problems with sex education and other curricular requirements. "Whether it's a state school or a private school, there's still a curriculum that is forced onto children," says Kuhnle.

And then there are the social aspects of going to school. Homeschooling parents tend to want to shield their children from negative influences. But this quest often runs counter to the idea that schools represent society and help promote tolerance. "No parental couple can offer a breadth of education [that can] replace experienced teachers," says Kraus, of the German Teachers' Association. "Kids also lose contact with their peers."

Concerns that homeschooling could lead to insularity - or worse, as Kraus puts it, "could help foster the development of a sect" - are shaping policy debates in European countries. In Britain, for example, Parliament is considering legislation that would create a new monitoring system to ensure that homeschooled kids get a suitable education.

In Sweden, where parents have to apply for permission to teach their children at home, the government is planning to impose even tougher restrictions on homeschoolers. And in Spain, parents are not allowed to educate their children at home. Period. If a child has special needs that prevent him from attending school, a teacher will be sent to his home.

By contrast, homeschooling is legal in all 50 U.S. states, some of which don't require families to notify authorities of their intent to teach their children at home. Tennessee is among the states that require some form of notice as well as periodic assessment tests.

When Uwe and Hannelore heard that the judge had ruled in their favor, they celebrated by taking their five children - who range in age from 4 to 12 - to Baskin-Robbins for ice cream. But the next day, they were back to their regular schedule. Lessons start at 9 a.m. and end at around 4 p.m. The school-age kids are learning all the usual subjects - math, science, etc. - with the help of textbooks and other teaching materials, in compliance with state law. The family has also joined a local group that organizes activities and field trips once a week for homeschooled children.

Meanwhile, the HSLDA says it is working to defend a homeschooling family in Sweden and is investigating cases in Brazil, where homeschooling is banned - all good fodder for a comparative-government class, whether it's taught in school or at home.

The original version of this article has been updated to reflect the fact that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has submitted an appeal requesting to overturn the judge’s decision to grant the Romeikes asylum.

Source:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1968099,00.html

i want my ex back

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:42:59 -0800

so the past year was a really drama filled. i was dating this guy il call him JP. we had been dating for about 6 months when i met this other guy Mace. we hung out and one thing led to another with Mace. By then JP and i were not officially official. So i had a fling with Mace and we got really close but my herat was with JP, so i stayed away from Mace but he kept coming at me with his uber super sex. so i gave in and we did the "do do" on several occasions. But i still wanted one person. JP was home, about 9 hours away from me and the long distance was killing me. he came back after a while and we got together exclusively and i neglected to tell him what had happened (coz we were not excluisive). we dated for a whole yera ands in that year it was JP, me and Mace till JP found out and yes i was dumped. During our relationship JP confesed that he he slept with his x before we were exclusive. So here is the thing, we have spent the past four months apart and i want him back. I feel selfish because he was hurt, but i was hurt too because i have never chaeted before. i have been cheated on more times than i can count .. i realy feel he is the one and i messed everything up for us,, but we are talking right now, on a freindly basis. my frends say i should talk to him, explain myself and tell him how i really feel then if he decides to take me back fine if not i should move on because i have been depressing about this all this while.. I have always been a loyal gf, i was and still am disappointed with myself for my behaviour. am i asking for too much??

RunninG AWay

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:06:52 -0700

What happened to my mother... she is such a B****... she dont let me do anything nd she is just let her husband control her....idk why but i cant take it anymore....one of these days I'm running away...to somebodies house idk where but it will be soon!!!

RunninG AWay

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:06:48 -0700

should I leave him?

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:01:09 -0800

I have been dating a man for 10 months, living together for 5 months. It started off slow but our lives changed and we had to decide to split up or move in together. He turned out to have a really big heart; he said he wants to settle down and start a family; he is an easy going, fun, and happy person; we have the most intimate & fantastic sex life (first guy I have ever been with that I don't need to fantasize to reach orgasm); and when we argue I usually find that he is reasonable and I am not afraid to voice my opinion with him.
About 95% of our relationship is great but there is one major problem that is tearing us apart. He is a habitual liar. He would sometimes make up weird stories to get a reaction and then confess that it was not true. He said he did it because he was bored. Other times he would make up stories that would change my mood and confess that he did it because he was in a bad mood but then he would quickly be his normal self. They were never directly hurtful stories, sometimes just really odd tales. He is known is his hometown for being a joker and telling fake stories just to trick people for fun. But now I realize that he has actually been hiding the truth from me too. I am a trustful person and I never questioned anything he told me until December when something he told me really didn't make sense. So I pursued it and got to the root of the story and discovered that he had lied to me about something fairly important. He admitted it when I confronted him and told me that he planned to tell me the truth in person when he came home.
I started seeing a counsellor and she has been encouraging me to stop being so naive and to be more assertive. So I have been questioning what he tells me lately and I caught him telling 2 lies recently. They were stupid lies about whether he remembered a conversation and whether he walked my dogs. But now I feel that the trust is really eroding. I am now questioning the trust I gave him in the past. The first time I caught him in a lie I also heard that while he was away he had kissed a young (early 20s) girl, he denies it to this day and I am not still not sure if this girl was just trying to get attention or if it really happened. I finally spoke with the girl face-to-face this weekend and she told me that they did fool around and they were both drinking at the time. The last time I confronted him about this he seemed so genuine and sincere in his denial that I believed him that she was a bored girl living in a little town who had a crush on him and wanted some drama. All the other times I confronted him he would admit to his lie. If he had told me himself that he cheated on me in December I would probably be over it by now, so why would he continue to deny a lie this time? I want to get 100% certainty about that night but since it was only the two of them I don't know how I ever will. I am now faced with the decision to try and repair our relationship or move on without him.
I should mention that generally when I ask him to behave differently about matters in our relationship or house he quickly changes. He seems to want to resolve issues and is willing to make changes to work towards a long lasting relationship but then occassionally he really lets me down.
I am just not sure if I can trust him fully again without ever getting real closure on his faithfulness. He tells me he is devoted to me and will do whatever it takes to make our relationship work. But I don't want to waste my time with a man who might just be taking advantage of my trusting and loving nature. I am 27 years old and I want to start a family soon. He is the perfect man to do that with in many ways but is this something that we can resolve together or is it time to continue the dreadful search?

Children Accused of Sorcery in Congo

Yogaforlife — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:44:35 -0800

12 year-old, Henri, which is not his real name, points at a large fresh looking scar on his midriff.
"People accused me of sorcery and my mother believed them," he says.

"Look, here on my stomach. She tried to kill me with a knife. It really hurt and I cannot understand why my mother did it."

Henri, who is now being given help by a children's charity, had been playing outside his home in Goma, eastern Congo, when the accusations began.

His eyes begin to water as he remembers pleading with his mother, telling her that the claims were completely untrue. Not that this made any difference.

"She threw me out of the house and told me to go away," he says.

Henri was then forced to live on the streets until charity workers convinced his mother that the allegations were untrue.

Growing problem

His is just one of a fast growing number of children accused of sorcery to come to the attention of Unicef's head of child protection in Congo, Alessandra Dentice. "Children accused of witchcraft is unfortunately one of the major increasing child protection issues in the country," she says.

Unicef's latest available statistics show that around one hundred cases of child sorcery allegations were referred to them in 2008 in the North Kivu province of Eastern Congo alone. That number increased nearly fivefold to 450 in the same area last year. Alessandra Dentice believes this may be explained by a growing awareness of the problem that has led to more reports rather than more cases. But, she says, recent events in violence-plagued Eastern Congo might also explain the rise.

"This is a country where is no social cohesion any longer, there is no sense of community, no sense of family," she says.

"So, whenever anything happens at family or community level it is very easy for them to blame someone who is powerless and seems to have no rights."

Ms Dentice went on tell me how serious sorcery allegations can be for the children concerned. "A lot of these children are beaten up or burnt. Unfortunately it is very common," she says. I have just received this morning a report about a girl of 12-years-old who has been burnt because she was accused of witchcraft."

The Anglican Bishop of Bukavu, Josue Bulambo Lembelembe, is also very concerned by the apparent increase in sorcery allegations against children here. "It only takes somebody in a family to fall ill and a child can be accused of sorcery," he says. "Particularly if the youngster accused lives on the street. Then they point to him or her and say they caused the illness or other problem."

Death threat

Not far across Goma, I approached the offices of the charity, Childrens Voice. Having heard that I was coming, more than 200 youngsters, standing in long neat lines, burst into song as I drove through the gates. In charge was the charity's local Director, Monossay Bodween Odette. "We found many of these children on the streets without parents or any kind of support," she says. "When children accused of sorcery of sorcery are abandoned on the streets life is very hard for them. People throw stones at them and many get badly hurt. "That is why we go from house to house telling people not to listen to claims of child sorcery. We know that if our message fails to get through, some children will die."

It is here that I met 14-year-old, Jean, though I have been asked not to give his real name because of past threats against him. A tall sullen looking boy, Jean seems nervous and withdrawn. But when I ask him to tell me about the witchcraft accusations against him he sits up straight and begins to tell me his story.

It all started, he says, after he went to see a Nigerian horror film about zombies. "In this movie one person was raising the dead with a stick. I was with a friend and we went to a cemetery to play and try and act out the movie," he says. "But when my friend saw me doing this he ran away and accused me of being a sorcerer to his parents."

Jean goes on to tell me that his friend's parents came to his grandparents house where he was living and told them that he was a sorcerer and would have to be burned. Then, he says, his grandparents gave him a beating before taking him down to the offices of the local authority. "The head of the authority beat me with a stick and told me to say that I was a sorcerer. He forced me to say it. People were waiting outside to kill me," he says. Jean was then brought before a local priest who confirmed that he was a sorcerer. It was only after the Children's Voice charity visited his grandparents and warned them that making witchcraft allegations against children is now illegal, that the matter was finally dropped.

But the existence of a recently introduced law under the Child Protection Code is one thing. Enforcing it can be quite another, according to local lawyer, Antonie Famber. "The trouble is that most people here still believe in witchcraft so this makes the law very hard to enforce," he says. "To make matter worse even some government officials believe in sorcery themselves. Take the case of a colleague of mine who is also a lawyer. He knows that the law does not recognise sorcery but he has accused his own children of witchcraft." But Unicef's, Alessandra Dentice says the new law, which took eight years to get on the statute books and carries a maximum penalty of three years jail, is helping . She believes that it has helped make people take a current radio and television campaign seriously and may also have prompted more people to report accusations made. Not that such legal threats are making everyone here contrite.

12-year-old Henri, who revealed how he was stabbed by his mother after neighbours accused him of sorcery, told me how she responded after accepting that he was not guilty after all. "She didn't say sorry to me. She didn't say anything."

Source:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8530000/8530686.stm

Tax Status Of Lawmakers' Religious Refuge Disputed

Roarman — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:26:46 -0800

The three-story, brick townhouse at 133 C Street S.E. sits a half-block from the Cannon House Office Building, roughly three blocks from the Capitol - the home-away-from-home for a regular contingent of fundamentalist Christian members of Congress, who can pray in the living room and walk to work.

The C Street Center, which owns the 1880-vintage townhouse, claims status as a church. And as with other religious organizations, the IRS takes the center's word that it is a church. As a result, the center doesn't have to file public tax returns, as most non-profit organizations must do.

The arrangement fits the C Street Center's practically invisible public presence. But now a group of 13 ministers has asked the IRS to revoke that church status.

Their complaint, delivered to the IRS Tuesday, says, "An organization whose chief activity is providing room and board to members of Congress is not a church." It cites a list of 15 factors that the agency considers in granting church status.

"Is there public worship?" said the leader of the ministers group, Pastor Eric Williams, of the North Congregational United Church of Christ, in Columbus, Ohio. "Is it open to the public? Are there trained leaders who serve the church? C Street really has none of those marks that make it a church."

And if it is not a church, Williams says other questions come up, as to whether the C Street Center's fundraising and other activities meet the requirements for 501(c)(3) charities.

NPR couldn't call the center for an interview, because it doesn't reveal its phone number - or numbers for lawyers or other contacts - on property records, other public documents or, seemingly, any other documents.

The townhouse would likely go unnoticed, except that its denizens keep popping up in embarrassing news stories.

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford lived there when he was a Republican member of the House. Last June, he got caught going to visit his mistress in Buenos Aires. Sanford held a tearful press conference, where he said he'd turned back to C Street for help.

"I was part of a group called C Street when I was in Washington," he said. "It was a - believe it or not - a Christian Bible study, some folks that asked members of Congress hard questions that I think were very, very important. And I've been working with them."

Then, three weeks later, Leisha Pickering filed an alienation-of-affections lawsuit against the mistress of her husband, Mississippi Republican Chip Pickering. Mrs. Pickering alleged that the pair carried on a home-wrecking affair while he was in Congress, and living at the C Street house.

And then, in November, two Republican senators drew still more publicity to C Street.

Nevada Senator John Ensign owned up to an affair with a staffer. And Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma said he had been a go-between as Ensign and the woman's husband fought over a financial settlement. Coburn defended his actions in an interview on the ABC program This Week, saying, "Look, my whole goal in this thing was to bring two families to closure of a very painful episode."

While the vast majority of lawmakers who stay at C Street are Republicans, regardless of party, they are all followers of an intimate, high-powered - and some say closed - Christian network.

And they belong to House and Senate prayer groups at the Capitol. Those groups are organized by the Fellowship Foundation, a $19 million entity that builds alliances of leaders "led by God," as it said on a 2005 federal tax return. The Fellowship Foundation also organizes the annual National Prayer Breakfast, where every president since Dwight Eisenhower has spoken.

As recently as 2006, the Fellowship Foundation's tax return listed the C Street Center as a "related organization." But in an interview Tuesday, foundation president Richard Carver said he's been to 133 C Street only once, and that was six years ago.

He drew a bright line between the Fellowship and C Street. "There are members of Congress there who may very well be part of the prayer groups in the House and the Senate," he said. But "the Fellowship Foundation has never owned the C Street facility. The C Street facility has its own board of directors, which sets its own policy. And we have no operational control over what happens at C Street, to the best of my knowledge."

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124031022