HUMOR: Age vs race

HUMOR - Coming this Christmas

HUMOR - What NOT to do at a job interview

SPRITUALITY/RELIGION - Crazier than an imaginary friend?

HUMOR - Girl's First Moon Party

CULTURE/SOCIETY - The real truth is out there!

HUMOR - For any musicians out there looking for a day job...

HUMOR - Anarchist finds true love...

HUMOR - Funny Astronaut Baked Beans Commercial

POLITICS - As a male writer...

"As a male writer, do you feel your work distracts from your traditional role of hunting and killing wild animals?" - Luke McKinney

http://jetpackexhaust.tumblr.com/post/87683533284/as-a-male-writer-do-you-feel-your-work-distracts

MY LIFE - Intelligence vs what's really important

I was recently reminded of the time I learned my dad could have joined MENSA.

I don't really remember when this was. I could have been in high school or college, but it might have been later.

I had always known my dad was a very intelligent man, but I didn't know he was that bright.

So when I asked why he didn't join Mensa, his reply was so typically my dad! Don't remember his exact words, but it was something along the lines of "Why would I want to enjoy a snooty organization like that?! What would I do with a group like that?!"

I think my dad found the idea of Mensa as repulsive and stupid as having an organization for the top 2% richest people or tallest people.

That was the great thing about my dad, and my mom! They both taught me that intelligence is a great gift that should be prized and fostered, but that other traits, such as kindness, sympathy, understanding, patience, tolerance, among others, were more important.

After all, great as intelligence is, like good looks, it comes mostly from your genes and how you were nurtured. And is largely out of your hands. If you have it, you should prize it, nurture it, and make use of it, but you don't control that much about how intelligent you'll be.

On other hand, you DO control a lot about how kind, sympathetic, understanding, etc, you will be!

And that is a wonderful lesson my parents taught me, and I hope I passed onto my daughter, and am passing onto my stepson.

HUMOR - He had it coming!

ENTERTAINMENT - Of Muggles and Mutants: Sci-fi’s Concern for “Better” Humans

By Paul Fidalgo

I’ve moments ago finished The Bone Season, a novel by Samantha Shannon that I quite enjoyed, about a near-future world in which “clairvoyants,” those born with an ability to interact with the spirit world, are considered riffraff at best and plague-carrying criminals at worst. The layers of the world are rather quickly shown to be numerous, with a number of possible answers to the question of who is really in control (and it does get complicated). For this post, I’m primarily interested in how an aspect of the book’s premise compares to that of some other fictional universes. So be warned, ahead be great spoilers....

The idea of a special subgroup of humans being singled out by the less-special majority is not a new concept. The mind immediately jumps to X-Men, in which mutants with superpowers are mistrusted and feared, but there is still a semblance of struggle to integrate mutants with the rest of society. I think it’s safe to say that as the audience, though, we are generally expected to see the mutants as “better” than non-mutants. They are humans-plus.

Another version is the world of Harry Potter, where witches and wizards aren’t persecuted because they’re not known, other than to a handful of people. Magical folk, again, are presented as “better” than non-magical people who don’t get the benefit of amazing powers or insight into a universe beyond their graps. They even get a kid of abysmal name, “muggles.” Again, wizards and witches are humans-plus...

So why am I hung up on the presentation of normals in these worlds? Perhaps I have some kind of paranoia that the creators of these worlds see either themselves or some other group in the real world as being analogous to these humans-plus. There would be some subset of people in real society who have an ability or an insight that the masses do not possess, and are as a result either reviled and persecuted, or at least forced into total secrecy....

For more - http://www.patheos.com/blogs/imortal/2014/08/09/of-muggles-and-mutants-sci-fis-concern-for-better-humans/

HUMOR - Dog Finds Absolutely Perfect Place To Shit

SPIRITUALITY/RELIGION - I’m raising my kids atheist in a God-obsessed culture: How I learned to parent godless children

My children are surrounded by other kids' prayers and patriotism. But I'm determined to teach them to ignore it

http://www.salon.com/writer/julie_drizin/

(Credit: ideabug via iStock)

“Goddammit!” “God bless you!” “For God’s sake!” “God forbid!”

My children have heard me take “the Lord’s name in vain.” These expressions slip out as easily as expletives and are part of my vernacular, even though I don’t believe in God.

God is not exactly welcome in our home.

I’m not a hater (at least not anymore). I’m an atheist. My daughters know I’m the tooth fairy; they have no use for Santa Claus; and would consider the Bible a collection of boring, inaccessible stories (at worst) or fables on par with Greek and Roman mythology (at best).

I’m raising good kids. They are good without God. They will not go to hell … because there is no hell. Neither will they go to heaven … because there is no heaven. I have taught my girls that “heaven” and “hell” are what we humans create for ourselves and each other right here on earth.

Atheist. Say it over and over again and it sounds like a meaningless label.  I prefer to call myself a humanist, which expresses what I embrace rather than what I reject. Humanism is my religion. I have faith in the higher power of people – our capacity, indeed our yearning, to do good.  If you think sustaining faith in an invisible God or his sacrificial dead son is challenging, try being a spiritual humanist. People fuck up all the time: We disappoint, we hurt each other, we fail miserably. To err is human. But to forgive at least feels divine.

For more - http://www.salon.com/2014/08/05/im_raising_my_kids_atheist_in_a_god_obsessed_culture_how_i_learned_to_parent_godless_children/

SPIRITUALITY/RELIGION - Obama NSA Now Wiretapping the Prayers of All Christians

Kansas resident Amy Grant noticed that every time she went to her local prayer booth to pray, she would suddenly develop ‘intense migraine’ pain.  New revelations from Edward Snowden reveal how Obama and the NSA have developed a way to ‘wiretap’ the prayers of all Christians and archive what people have been praying for in a large database.

The END TIMES are truly upon us, my friends.   The Age of Liberal Darkness is here.  The Bible warns that the day shall come when Christians will be hunted down and persecuted by non-believers, forced to accept the Mark of the Beast lest they get tortured.

Today when I woke up, I prayed for the usual:  1)  Obama to get impeached 2) The Atlanta Falcons to win the Super Bowl 3) A safe upcoming school year without any tragic stories 4)  China’s economic demise 5)  A good breakfast.

It is terrifying for me to know that my simple prayer, which maybe lasted about 2 minutes, was probably wiretapped by Agents of Obama and there is some government database that has an archived recording of my conversation with God.

For more - http://christwire.org/2014/08/obama-nsa-now-wiretapping-the-prayers-of-all-christians/

HUMOR - Dyslexics are teople, poo!

CULTURE/SOCIETY - This American Life Episode 285: Know Your Enemy, Act Two: I Am Curious, Jello.

About 20 years ago, a Los Angeles prosecutor named Michael Guarino thought he'd make a name for himself by taking the lead singer of the Dead Kennedys to court for obscenity. He was so sure of success, he didn't even bother to listen to the lyrics. As the trial wore on, Guarino began to think twice about his mission. Reporter David Segal tells the story. — David Segal

http://tal.fm/285/2

HISTORY - Stark color photos of segregation-era U.S. thought lost, rediscovered in photographer’s storage

BY ABRAHAM  /  January 16, 2014

In 1956, photographer Gordon Parks was hired by Life Magazine to follow and document the everyday life of a southern Black family. Twenty of these photos were published in Life’s September issue that year with an article titled “The Restraints: Open and Hidden.”

Of course, Parks snapped many more photos than actually made it to print, but these were thought to be lost. However, in early 2012 the Gordon Parks Foundation was going through several storage boxes and came upon a taped-up paper package labeled, “Segregation Series.” In it they found 70 more color photographs from Parks’ 1956 work.

Here are just a few of the pics, both the published and the rediscovered…

To see more - http://twentytwowords.com/stark-color-photos-of-segregation-era-u-s-thought-lost-rediscovered-in-photographers-storage-10-pics/

MY LIFE - Can you tell that I'm a dad?