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.

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?

What happened is Golfer 1 shanked his drive 40 yards off the fairway. He double bogeyed the hole. Golfer 2 parred it and got in.

But the real story is Golfer 1, Grant Whybark lost on purpose. In an interview, he said:

“We all know Seth very well,” Whybark explains, “and he not only is a very good player, but a great person as well. He’s a senior and had never been to nationals. Somehow, it just wasn’t in my heart to try to knock him out.

“I think some people were surprised, but my team knew what I was doing and were supportive of me. I felt Seth deserved to go (to nationals) just as much as I did.

“It was one of those things where I couldn’t feel good taking something from him like this. My goal from the start was to get (to nationals) with my team. I had already done that.”

Dads, listen up. This is absolute B.S.

What Whybark did is not selfless, admirable, or even remotely close to sportsmanship. What he did is an insult to him, his team, his sport, and most importantly, his opponent, Golfer 2 named Seth Doran.

How do you think Doran feels this morning? If I was him I would feel horrible. “woo hoo I got into Nationals…..because someone let me win”

All along Grant Whybark is sitting back thinking he did something admirable. Who is he to “let someone win” or decide who “deserves to win”.

This is a teaching moment for your kids, guys. Don’t miss out on using it.

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.

Any trip to a fast food restaurant would see that most of the time
the lines are packed with men, not women. I’m not saying that there
should be dad-only groups, just that we would have the opportunity to
join in on the conversation.

Hey McDonalds: I have consumed more fat content under your roof than any other establishment. And me and my stomach have been around. I used to even work there in high school. I know a thing or two about fast food and what it means to my family. I should be part of your group. Give me a ring.

There is discussion on this topic at Quickservekids.com .

I read the news. I see what guns do 

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

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:
-There was an article on Thomas Beatie in the latest issue of People magazine
-He was on Oprah

If your wife asks if you would ever consider being pregnant instead of her I have found the only acceptable answer is to not say anything, avoid eye contact, quickly change the subject, and then go do something nice like fold some laundry.

In the end, if you don’t have a uterus, you ain’t got the goods to be pregnant so you don;t have to worry about accidental pregnancy. But knowing these facts, I wouldn’t consider yourself covered and say that you would consider getting pregnant. The reason is simple:

Your wife will tell her friends that you said you would do it. Then her friends will tell their husbands and then you will be known as the “dude who wants to be pregnant” at the next poker game.

This public service announcement is courtesy of Noodad.com.

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 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.

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.

It was a subtle move. The author of the video disabled the comment feature on the video. Then he posted the following update to the video:

02/26/08 Update: Wow. What was expected to be a short movie that would circulate within a small circle of friends has turned into something much more very quickly. I’m thrilled that so many people have enjoyed this video but also somewhat mortified that I added this without my daughter’s knowledge or consent. Maybe someday she will find some humor in it.

Comments: Have been disabled. I think they have run their course. To those who have sent positive comments, thank you very much. You’ve made us appreciate what we have even more than we already do. To those of you who’ve said you’ve changed your mind about having children, well, have at it.

Business inquiries/agents: Thanks for your interest. At the current time we have no intention of exposing our little one to the destroyer of youth that is the entertainment industry. Hopefully if she chooses to follow this path on her own someday she will find a door still open for her.

Other things:

She has never seen Pokemon so I don’t think she’s making a reference to the ball on that show. I think she just means pokey ball as in “a ball that is pokey.” (And yes, I know what the pokey balls really are! Stop emailing )

Three year olds can’t read. I’m sure there are exceptions to that rule.

Here’s the scary thing. When you post a video on YouTube and share it to the general public, there is a chance that it will catch fire and it will be plastered all over the internet. Then jackasses will post creep, absurd, or downright racist comments about your kid!

Let this be a lesson. Be careful.

Would you change your mind if you thought that this could prepare them for a career that made a difference? Video game tester? Hardly. Pro gamer? Nope. Surgeon. Maybe! A study showed a strong correlation between the ability to play video games and the abilty to succeed in surgery drills.

While I still do not advocate putting your kid in front of a console or PC (or a Mac for Noodad) before they are 7 years old (social skills article link), maybe there is some value to all those hours of Warcraft 3 I played. I think I’ll go practice operating on Noodad right now!

How do you deal with video game usage in your household?