World News Korner

Courtesy of HuffPo:

President Barack Obama revealed what he loves most about being president while speaking at the White House Summit on Working Families Monday.

"It's true, Air Force One's on the list," Obama said as the crowd laughed. "The Truman balcony is a really nice view."

But Obama said even those perks aren't the best part of holding the nation's top office.


"One of the best perks about being president is almost anyone will hand you their baby," Obama joked before imitating handing off a baby and saying, "Here!"

"I get this baby fix like, two or three times a week," Obama said before reflecting on spending time with his own daughters during their infancies. (Here is the video.)

Man I am right there with the President on this one.

There is very little as wonderful as holding a baby, and the idea that he is handed babies to hold several times a week kind of makes me a little jealous.

Once many years ago I worked for a facility that had children of all ages in it, and as a joke the director had me work in the room with the babies for the afternoon, assuming that the big bad bodybuilder would be too macho to feel comfortable in there.

Still one of the best days at work I ever had.

By the way I think this story gives me an excuse to post this video. Still one of my favorites.

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Courtesy of Freakout Nation:

In Joplin, Missouri, a church is being criticized after raffling off two AR-15s during last week’s Father’s Day celebration in order to increase attendance and “get more people to follow Jesus.” The church is stroking guns for Jesus because we all know He carried a Glock.

The church uploaded a video on YouTube to advertise the promotion.

The lead pastor told the Joplin Globe “We’re just dudes,” adding, “If we can get more people to follow Jesus, I’ll give away 1,000 guns. I don’t care.”

You know one has to wonder if these idiots have EVER even read the Bible that they are supposedly preaching from. The fact that the religion supposedly inspired by the guy who said, "Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword," is now offering military style weapons in order to attract parishioners takes irony to a whole new level.

And is it just me or is this guy just about the most inarticulate pastor to ever preach from the pulpit?

He looks like some guy they recruited from their lawn maintenance crew to come in and say a few words about the Lord.

"Get your butts to church. If your late don't cry to me that you're a pansy and cannot set your alarm. Alright you're a big boy, you got big balls between your legs, your a dad right?"

You know it's almost like hearing Jesus speak directly to me.



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I first have to explain that this graphic, which somebody posted on Reddit, is not entirely accurate.

According to this source, two of the pastors were charged with sexual battery, one embezzled funds to pay for his prostitution habit, two were simply a peeping toms, and one hired a couple to burn down his house with his wife trapped inside.

So that means that out of twenty five, six are not pedophiles, but still incredibly creepy, abusive, and in one case homicidal.

The other nineteen are indeed nasty men who raped or sexually assaulted underage children.

You know yesterday I sort of tongue in cheek suggested that if you wanted to connect a certain demographic to pedophilia, that it would be more appropriate to avoid any homosexual connection, and instead focus on the stronger one between fundamentalist Christians and child rapists.

Today my tongue is not even touching my cheek.

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Courtesy of the Wasilla White Walker's Facebook page:

Kings are running in Bristol Bay! These are the world's richest salmon spawning grounds, and Rainbow Bay Lodge can take you there. Todd's weathered in tonight, staying in a yurt somewhere on the water; it's guaranteed that weather dictates one’s schedule in these majestic locales accessible only by air. What a way to get away! The guys' lodge has openings in September if it's on your bucket list; you'll not catch kings that late, but so many other species await, including guides showing you where the indescribably delicious halibut are. I can't do justice describing this world class sport fishing lodge that Todd's very excited to be a part of, so here's info: www.rbrlodge.com (contact: jspippen@aol.com).

God sure dumped a bucket load of heaven-on-earth beauty and abundance up here, and we share! There's something for everyone here, especially anglers because the only other fishermen are bears.

- Sarah Palin

Holy crap! Palin has now gone from a Vice Presidential candidate whose every word was covered by the national media, to hawking her husband's fishing lodge on Facebook in a desperate attempt to make some money.

I find this interesting since just the other day Palin was openly lamenting the fact that she was having trouble luring Todd away from the fishing resort so that he would accompany her to the Teabagger's Last Stand in Tennessee, and today she is working to attract business for his business.

This makes me think that my theory that Todd's contract has run its course might have been on the money.

If Palin cannot legally compel Todd to accompany her on anymore of her political pole dancing gigs, she will have a much harder time selling her happy marriage and well adjusted family mythology.

Let's face it Todd has only been seen on the peripheral for the last several years, but at least he was usually present. Now it is beginning to appear that he is done with this shit, and just wants to ride snowmachines, fish, and avoid contact with the crazy lady.

Can't say that I blame him. If it were me the ONLY way I would spend time with Sarah Palin was if I were legally obligated to do so.

Gee I wonder if this means there will soon be an opening for the First Dude slot?

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Courtesy of Yahoo News:

Seeking to encourage social conservative activists to persevere in the fight against same-sex marriage, Faith and Freedom Coalition founder Ralph Reed drew parallels between the ongoing debate over marriage equality and the nation’s long struggle over slavery and civil rights for African-Americans.

Speaking to about 40 attendees at an afternoon breakout session during the organization’s annual “Road to Majority” conference in Washington, D.C. on Friday, Reed gave a speech in which he suggested the 1857 Dred Scott Supreme Court decision —which ruled that African American slaves remained the property of their owners even if they traveled to or resided in free states — held a lesson for contemporary conservative activists concerned about what they see as judicial overreach on the issue of gay marriage.

Before the abolitionists triumphed, Reed reminded, it appeared for many years that the courts would squash the hopes of human rights reformers.

“The battle looked like it was lost, but it really wasn’t,” Reed said of the immediate aftermath of the Dred Scott decision, which went on to embolden abolitionist activists. “And that’s kind of like where we are right now. Anybody heard lately that we’re losing the marriage issue? Anybody heard that argument? You notice some similarities? I’m not comparing slavery to same-sex marriage, OK? (Yes you are.) I’m just pointing out that when you have these fights, what’s interesting is that if you look at same-sex marriage, it’s now legal in 17 states.”

Continued Reed: “Only six of them, six out of those 17, six out of 50 states, had done it by referendum or by state legislature. In every other case, it was imposed by courts. Just like the courts had to impose Dred Scott. Because they couldn’t do it on the country because the country didn’t agree with it. The country, by the way, doesn’t agree with same-sex marriage.”

Seriously what part of the country is HE looking at? Just the South?

There is literally progress being made almost on a daily basis for gay Americans, and if the conservatives keep fighting against granting them rights, the Republican party will go the way of the Whigs well before 2024 when they might actually have a shot at the Presidency.

Which by the way might not be a bad thing.

And if that were not batshit crazy enough Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal seemed to be calling for an open revolt against President Obama and the White House in his speech on Saturday.

Courtesy of NBC News:

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Saturday night accused President Barack Obama and other Democrats of waging wars against religious liberty and education and said that a rebellion is brewing in the U.S. with people ready for "a hostile takeover" of the nation's capital.

Jindal spoke at the annual conference hosted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a group led by longtime Christian activist Ralph Reed. Organizers said more than 1,000 evangelical leaders attended the three-day gathering. Republican officials across the political spectrum concede that evangelical voters continue to play a critical role in GOP politics.

"I can sense right now a rebellion brewing amongst these United States," Jindal said, "where people are ready for a hostile takeover of Washington, D.C., to preserve the American Dream for our children and grandchildren."

The governor said there was a "silent war" on religious liberty being fought in the U.S. — a country that he said was built on that liberty.

"I am tired of the left. They say they're for tolerance, they say they respect diversity. The reality is this: They respect everybody unless you happen to disagree with them," he said. "The left is trying to silence us and I'm tired of it, I won't take it anymore."

You know usually the domestic terrorists are more low key than this.

Exactly what does one do when the governor of a state is calling for a hostile, and I assume heavily armed, takeover of the United States government?

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Courtesy of Raw Story:

A recent study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry concluded that child abuse contributes to a reduction in the volume of grey matter in the brains of its victims.

According to Lena Lim, Joaquim Radua, and Katya Rubia, child abuse — or “childhood maltreatment,” as it is called in their study — leads to lifetime-long alteration in brain structure.

“Childhood maltreatment,” they write, “acts as a severe stressor that produces a cascade of physiological and neurobiological changes that lead to enduring alterations in brain structure.”

Using an imaging method that allows them to compare differences in brain anatomy between groups of individuals called “signed differential mapping,” the researchers studied structures of 331 individuals with a history of child abuse, and 362 without.

They discovered that individuals who had suffered abuse had reduced brain matter in areas of the brain related to the cognitive process of decision-making.

The most salient reduction in grey matter volume among victims of child abuse occurred in the ventrolateral prefrontal and limbic-temporal regions — areas of the brain linked to cognitive control.

I have no difficulty at all believing these findings.

I have worked with emotionally disturbed and cognitively impaired children for years, and one thing that is universal to all of the cases is abuse and some form of neglect.

I also suffered some fairly life altering abuse when I was a child.

Considering that I am fairly high functioning I am not sure how much brain matter was beaten out of me, but it certainly fucked up my ability trust or interact with people for quite a number of years.

Trust me when I tell you that no matter how extreme the behaviors might be, using violence as a behavior modification tool only creates far more problems than it appears to solve.

I have worked with kids who called me every name in the book, spit at me, pulled my hair, and even threatened to kill my whole family. In the end the techniques I utilized brought them out of crisis and put them on the path toward becoming contributing members of society.

Hell more than one of them now works with troubled kids themselves.

If you want to create loving children then love them.

If you want to create future guests of a Federal penal institution then by all means beat them into compliance.

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A little girl was bothered that her daddy worked too hard, so she wrote a letter on his behalf to his employer, who happened to be Google.

Just in case you can't read it clearly:

Dear Google Worker,

Can you please make sure when daddy goes to work, he gets one day off. Like he can get a day off on Wednesday. Because daddy only gets a day off on Saturday.

From, Katie

P.S. It is Daddy's BIRTHDAY

P.P.S. It is summer, you know

Yeah, it's summer you know.

Believe it or not, Katie's dad's boss at Google wrote back.

Wow, he got a whole week off for vacation. Nicely done Katie!

You know the only time my daughter got me out of work was when I had to use vacation days to stay home with her when she caught chicken pox.

We still kind of had fun. You know in between the itching and applications of calamine lotion.

(H/T to Business Insider.)

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