Parenting FAIL

Wow. Imagine how hot that kid is behind this guy on a sweaty subway with a blanket over his head? Shame. Via

End Child Slavery and Prostitution

Nothing sickens me more than the thought of a person compromising the innocence of a child. Every kid has the right to come of age when they are ready and should not have to take on the burdens of adulthood before their time. They certainly should not what physical or mental abuse is at least not above a level beyond normal playground bullying. Yet this is happening everywhere. Love146 is an organization that is attempting to put an end to child slavery and prostitution. That’s right. They are dealing with the lowest of the low. The dirtiest, depths of the darkest, murkiest, scummiest pond.

I learned about Love146 via Spike Jones of Brains on Fire. He and his partner Geno Church are stand-up guys who do great work. They are not into self promotion at all so when Spike asked me to consider a cause that he believed in, I figured it must be something worth paying attention to. This is a problem that has been bothering me for a long time but that I have had no idea how to do anything about solving.

How Love146 got its name:

“We found ourselves standing shoulder to shoulder with predators in a small room, looking at little girls through a pane of glass. All of the girls wore red dresses with a number pinned to their dress for identification. They sat, blankly watching cartoons on TV. They were vacant, shells of what a child should be. There was no light in their eyes, no life left. Their light had been taken from them. These children…raped each night… seven, ten, fifteen times every night. They were so young. Thirteen, eleven… it was hard to tell. Sorrow covered their faces with nothingness. Except one girl. One girl who wouldn’t watch the cartoons. Her number was 146. She was looking beyond the glass. She was staring out at us, with a piercing gaze. There was still fight left in her eyes. There was still life left in this girl…

“…All of these emotions begin to wreck you. Break you. It is agony. It is aching. It is grief. It is sorrow. The reaction is intuitive, instinctive. It is visceral. It releases a wailing cry inside of you. It elicits gut-level indignation. It is unbearable. I remember wanting to break through the glass. To take her away from that place. To scoop up as many of them as I could into my arms. To take all of them away. I wanted to break through the glass to tell her to keep fighting. To not give up. To tell her that we were coming for her…”

“Because we went in as part of an ongoing, undercover investigation on this particular brothel, we were unable to immediately respond. Evidence had to be collected in order to bring about a raid, and eventually justice on those running the brothel. It is an immensely difficult problem when an immediate response cannot address an emergency. Some time later, there was a raid on this brothel and children were rescued. But the girl who wore #146 was no longer there. We do not know what happened to her, but we will never forget her. She changed the course of all of our lives.” -Rob Morris, President and Co-founder

I made my donation to the Asia Prevention Fund. I half seriously made a comment that I hope it pays for bullets that make an example of the people who are responsible for this terrible industry and to those who would support it.

The earth does not need them.

Why NAIA Golfer Grant Whybark’s Loss is Not Honorable

Guys, sometimes a story comes along where I feel compelled to sit down my kids and use another kids stupidity as an example for them. It is my duty as a dad to not raise a bunch of egotistical, condescending d-bag kids. This is one of those stories and one of those times.

This morning on my commute I heard Mike and Mike in the morning from ESPN Radio talk about this story. You can go and read the full story about Grant Whybark and Seth Doran here but let me summarize:

2 college golfers were duking it out in a one hole playoff where the winner got a guaranteed spot in Nationals. Golfer 1 had already gotten into Nationals because his team qualified granting him a spot already. Golfer 2 needed to win the hole to get in.

So what do you think happened? Read the rest of this entry »

Hey McDonalds and KFC, Dads Have Something To Say

In an effort to learn about the trends of 21st century families, restaurant chains like McDonald’s and KFC have developed “Advisory Boards” for parents to meet with representatives of the company on a regular basis. These groups will shed light to the big bad fast food chains on what parents really want. Sounds great right?

Not so great from where I’m standing. Apparently, to these chains, men do not matter because these groups consist of mothers and mothers only. I
understand that this is a great move to get to know the levers and barriers to selling their food to the next generation of fast food eaters. But to disregard the father’s role in these types of lifestyle decisions is absurd.

Read the rest of this entry »

Idiot Parents Put Three Year Old in Situation to Shoot Six Year Old

Let me just start by saying that I am not some hippy, tree hugging, make-love-not-war guy. I understand why someone would want to own a weapon.  The second amendment to the Constitution of the United States ensures us all the right to bear arms. And whether you are of the belief that "guns kill people" or "people kill people" the fact that even one person owns a gun ensures that someone else is going to want to own a  bigger gun in order to keep the other in check. 

I read the news. I see what guns do 

I have never felt compelled to own a weapon of my own.  

Read the rest of this entry »

What You Need to Know About the Pregnant Man

You have probably heard about the pregnant man but obviously have some serious questions. If you are like me, the questions start like this:”What the #$@%?” and “How the hell….”. What you really need are answers to the questions your wife will ask you.

Here’s what you need to know:
-The pregnant man’s name is Thomas Beatie.
-He is a transgendered man.
-He used to be a beauty queen.
-He has a uterus.

Now, here’s what you need to know when your wife starts to talk about it: Read the rest of this entry »

Matt Chumbley is a Hero

When Matt Chumbley’s two and a half year old disappeared down a well while chasing the family cat, he did what any noodad would do. He panicked.

He quickly cleared away debris and wood and accidentally hit his son on the head with a cinderblock. Matt dove in after his son and pulled him out. Watch video about (not of) the event here: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/03/28/dnt.ia.boy.well.kcci

Connor’s Quest for Sight

We spend a lot of time around here talking about dad topics in a funny light. But every once in a while we tell people about some serious stuff.

Connor John Corkern is a 15 month old boy from Amite, Louisiana and he was born with two rare conditions, Congenital Panhypopituitarism and Optic Nerve Hypoplasia. This means he is hormone deficient and blind.

The good news is there is a procedure that has been proven to help and even give Connor a chance to see. The bad news is it is performed in China and is not covered by insurance. So Connor’s family are trying to raise $60,000 to send Connor to China to get the procedure and spend a month in China to recover.

Connor is the nephew of a friend of Noodad and his story has touched me greatly. As an artist and designer I know the importance of sight. As a dad I know the feeling of looking at your kid and your kid seeing you back.

If you wish to donate to this cause, go to www.connorsquestforsight.com or click here.

How YouTube Can Accidentally Exploit Your Kids

Have you seen this recent YouTube phenomenon? It features a cute 3 year old girl explaining the plot of Star Wars. She has great lines like, “Don’t talk back to Darth Vader, he’ll get ya!” and “he tried to block the little poke ball” and calls Obiwan, “Obie Kenobi”.

The point is, it is damn cute and thousands of people have watched it and have made comments on the YouTube page. But then something happened. Read the rest of this entry »

Counter Strike Today, Surgery Tomorrow?

Get off that computer and go outside! You are limited to 30 minutes of video games per day. Those games are too violent. As a kid, I heard all of this and many of you are saying the same things to your kids. You are concerned by the amount of time they are spending with a controller in their hand or sitting at a computer terminal questing for XP, blowing away aliens, building, deploying and destroying armies and socializing with their friends.
Read the rest of this entry »