The Good, The Bad, And The Romney

They say ignorance is bliss. And while ignorance certainly comes with less research, less nervous pacing, less acid reflux, and certainly less yelling at your television, ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance is ignorant. Information is bliss.

And with a much-anticipated Presidential election a mere two months away, information is everywhere. Unfortunately, so is ignorance.

Before I get too ahead of myself, I want to make one thing clear: I don't think you're ignorant if you vote Republican. I don't think you're ignorant if you vote Democrat. I don't think you're ignorant if you vote Independent. In fact, I don't even think you're ignorant if you don't vote for any candidate for President at all. That's the great thing about this country: Choice. If you don't like one guy, vote for the other guy. If you don't like any of the guys, don't vote for anyone. The choice is yours, as long as it's yours and not CNN's, or Fox New's, or the lone guy who protests absolutely everything at a college campus near you. In other words, opinions are everywhere, screaming at you from every TV show, magazine, and Facebook status. It's just a matter of what you choose to take seriously.

In case you guys are all living under rocks and have managed not to notice, many of the issues surrounding this year's election are incredibly sensitive to many people in many ways. Because of this, politicians (both left and right) have begun taking definitive stands on these controversial issues. And while each candidate wants to say the other is "dividing our country" the truth is, they all are. Everyone in politics is. We divide ourselves without even realizing we're doing it. I see a million Facebook posts a day: If you are FOR "The Family" and AGAINST abortion, vote for Romney! If you are FOR equal rights and AGAINST making abortion illegal, vote for Obama! According to the world around us, it's simple. You are either FOR or AGAINST.

Or are you?

The truth is, none of it is as simple as we might like to think. A presidential election isn't black and white, it's 50 shades of grey (sorry, had to be done!) This grey area is where we all run into problems. What happens if you are for equal rights (AKA gay marriage), but against abortion? Who do you vote for then? Or what if you like the idea of smaller government, insofar as the smaller government doesn't start outlawing things like gay marriage or abortion (which actually, while I'm on the topic, I need a Republican to explain to me how that works, because I would think that smaller government would equal less laws and less being in everyone's business...? No sarcasm, serious question. Someone get Condi Rice on the phone ASAP).

All joking aside, there is a serious lack of middle ground in politics and that's frightening in a world where virtually nothing is cut-and-dried. Sure, we technically have a third party here in the good ole U-S of A, but honestly, who takes it seriously? Remember Ross Perot? Ross Perot was basically made into a caricature and was essentially a walking, talking wet dream for Saturday Night Live writers. For all any of us can remember, he could have actually had some great ideas but when I think of him, my brain instantly conjures up Dana Carvey in a bald cap with his ears sticking out, intentionally doing the worst impression of a Southern accent known to man while I laughed my butt off. I remember very little of the actual Ross Perot. A few months ago Rosanne was claiming (threatening, really) to run for President under the Libertarian party. So there that is. Gary Johnson, the rumored real candidate and former Governor of my home state (Everyone's a Lobo! Woof! Woof! Woof!) has some decent, though vague, policies and ideas for improvement. Too bad most of us will never get to hear any of them, as he's not even allowed to come on TV and debate with the big dogs. Honestly, what's up with that? Are we humoring poor Gary by letting him be on the ballad when clearly no one up in Washington is thinking he's a viable option? Do you think Barrack and Mitt are worried about Gary sweeping in and winning? Probably not. We keep having elections based on this "lesser of two evils" concept, so really no matter who you vote for, you lose something (except for the 2000 election, which I will remain bitter and angry about until the end of time because I truly believe everything was lost in that one. I love you, Al!). Until we have a legitimate Libertarian party, elections will never truly be fair, because we will continue to never be fully informed about this mysterious third party we all keep hearing so little about.

This long, seemingly pointless tangent all comes back to one thing: Information. Know who you're voting for and why you're voting for him. More importantly, if we're all going to vote, we should vow to not take a leap-year approach to voting. As in, don't just vote every four years. If politics in general and my lone semester as a political science major have taught me nothing else (aside from the fact that if I ever went into career politics I'd have a full head of grey hair and a serious drinking problem), it's that the President is just the head. The Congress, House of Representatives and Senate are the neck. Local elections MATTER, they might even matter more than the Presidential election. If you feel you identify more with a Republican president than a Democratic president, I can tell you it's not going to matter much when the House or Senate or Congress is run by a majority of Democrats and the issues you believe in get buried or overruled (trust me, I just spent four  years watching it happen). I pride myself on staying informed (I want to make Peter Jennings proud, after all), but when it comes to politics, the same rule my mom always told me about girls in high school who would say nasty things to me still applies: Consider the source. And yes, Liberal media has a slant and Conservative media has a slant, but do you know what doesn't have a slant? Government records. If you really care about repealing Obama Care, don't say it needs to be done just because Glen Beck says Obama Care is unconstitutional. Read the bill and decide for yourself. In fact, you can read it right here. It's a doozie and will probably cure any insomnia problems you have had in the last twenty years, but there it is, unbiased and without commentary from either side. Information like this is public information and incredibly easy to come by. While I'm certainly not suggesting we all become policy experts (and in fairness, I'm using Obama Care as an example of ONE bill, so simmer down), it wouldn't kill us to know what these bills are actually about and to know what's really behind them. Can you imagine what it would be like if we were all that well-informed?

One final thought: We recently had a few friends over for dinner and naturally, the conversation turned to politics. One friend said he wasn't voting for Obama because he was a "Dishonest man". My initial response: Shock! Gasp! A dishonest politician! Say it ain't so! But the point I think (I hope, anyway) he was trying to make is that the word "Politician" is synonymous with the word "shmoozer" because they are all experts at saying what they know the voters want to hear in order to obtain the most votes. It's cynical and it sucks, but unfortunately true in most cases. The purpose of a campaign platform and endless campaign promises is to get the voter on your side, for said voter to see you as the only real option when election day rolls around. That being said, when pressed on why he found Obama dishonest, he couldn't really give a good reason why. This might irritate me more than anything else in politics. It's your right to think Obama was a terrible President because he did nothing for the economy and he wasted too much time with his own personal agenda. I don't necessarily agree with you, but I respect a direct, concise, researched opinion, as long as you can respect a direct, concise, researched rebuttal to your opinion. Having an opinion, but not knowing why you have it, in the day and age we live in is absolutely unacceptable. Information is all around you. And while the Republican and Democratic National Conventions are entertaining as hell (we REALLY know how to make a speech here in America!) I don't necessarily count them as informative. It goes back to the shmoozer factor. Of course any politician will tell you they voted for something "popular" or against something "unpopular", but again, how they voted is also public information that you can see right here. The internet, people, is a beautiful thing.

If you take nothing else away from this blog, please take this: I implore you to weigh your options in the upcoming election. Don't vote for someone because Clint Eastwood and his chair like him, or because he looks especially handsome in the reflection of Joe Biden's dentures, or because you'd want to do yoga with his wife. Learn everything you can and make the best, informed decision that is right for you. Research is as easy as a click of a mouse. So click.

My Soapbox: You're Only A Parent Once So WAKE UP!!

Here's a disturbing statistic: Twenty-three children have died this year (eight in the month of August alone and we're only half-way through the month) due to extreme heat overexposure because, in almost every case, their parents simply "forgot they were in the car".

Okay...really?!

This statistic both baffles and sickens me, but since I realize there is a fine line between outrage and self-righteousness (a line I feel I'm about to teeter precariously on), I'll try my best not to say that everyone who loses their child due to something that is entirely preventable is an idiot. They're not. I don't want to give the impression that I feel like I'm a better parent than anyone else. I'm not. No matter what, losing a child is a horrific tragedy and these tragedies aren't specific to a certain socioeconomic class, race, or gender. We're all human and we are all capable of making mistakes.

That being said...

People are not stupid, but what they are is incredibly self-absorbed, which as far as I"m concerned, can be even more lethal than being stupid. I know, I write a blog. I spent hours of my life slaving over a hot computer, trying to perfectly formulate my every thought under the guise that someone, somewhere thinks that my opinion is important and articulate enough to read and possibly take seriously. How self-absorbed this that?! The difference is, this self-absorption has never (and will never) hurt anyone. I don't leave my kids unattended in a hundred degree car for hours so I can write about issues of injustice, when I'm committing the biggest act of injustice myself; not taking care of my kids.

Here's the thing. No matter how many wonderful days you have with your children, how many hugs they give, milestones they pass, finger paintings they create and how much love you accumulate in your life, the truth is that being a parent is really, really hard. I've  had moments where I'm so overwhelmed with the sheer responsibility of being in charge of two lives that I feel like I'm hyperventilating and crawling up the walls. It can be terrifying. But it's also a choice. I choose to be a parent and I choose to do the best I can possibly do.

If you need ten minutes to yourself, I get that. Believe me, I get it better than anyone else. But leaving your child in a sweltering car in the summertime with the windows rolled up so you can go walk around the mall is not a viable solution. Being a parent means you now come second. I know it sucks sometimes, especially when you feel like you never get a break, but from the minute that second line shows up on the pee stick, it's not about you anymore. You have a job to do and you only have one shot at it. No one is perfect, but we can all try. And just so we're all on the same page, forgetting your kid in the car because you're too busy thinking about the Iphone 4 or what Ryan Lochte looks like shirtless does NOT constitute trying.

And honestly, how do you truly forget that your kid is in the car? Yes, sometimes they fall asleep or are occupied by looking out the window or reading a book, but generally speaking, kids are hard to forget. For one, they're loud. They talk, talk, talk or if they're too young to talk, they will occasionally cry because they're bored, hungry, or just want to remind you that they're there. At least my kids were that way and I doubt very highly that they were abnormal in that regard. So my question is, what exactly are the parents doing? What's occupying their minds? And why aren't they paying attention to their kids?

Which brings me right back to self-absorbed. If you can forget about your kids, what exactly are your priorities? I can't think of a single time I forgot about my kids. Even when my kid's grandparents keep them for a night, I still think about them. I'm constantly worrying if they've eaten enough, are behaving well or are sleeping well. I'm by no means trying to suggest that I'm a better parent that anyone else, but my kids occupy a majority of my mind a majority of the time. So for me, even a night off isn't really a night off at all. The fact is, you just don't get time off when you're a parent. You are a parent twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty-five (or six) days a year until the second you kick the bucket. There are no sick days, no calling in late, and no excuses. That is the reality. So unless you're ready to face an unspeakable tragedy and lose what should be the most important thing in the world to you, get used to it.

We only get one shot at raising our kids. So wake up, get your head where it needs to be and take care of your business. Otherwise, be prepared to face the consequences.

Thanks. I feel much better now. 

Peter Jennings Was The Love Of My Life

Hey guys.

Since my blog has felt pretty heavy the last couple of weeks, I thought I'd lighten it up for a minute. At least until my next rant comes to me. So for now, it's story time.

The following is a true story. Because there are some things you just can't make up.

One of my earliest and clearest memories was the day in kindergarten when I was given a note to take home to my mom. I was a willful and stubborn child, but also obedient to a fault and I lived in constant fear of getting into trouble, so when I was handed a sealed envelope accompanied with a stern look, I panicked. I spent all day obsessing over what I could have done wrong. Did I forget to listen? Talk during story time? Was it because I said I wanted to be a dinosaur when I grew up? Or was it because of the incident?

The day before "the note" a little boy in my class, Tommy Ulander, had called me four eyes during recess, and I had retaliated by calling him impotent. Full disclosure: I (unsurprisingly) had absolutely no idea what impotent meant, but I heard it somewhere and managed to deduce from both the context and the tone of the conversation that it wasn't a good thing. It had the desired effect; Tommy ran off crying and I acted like I could care less even though my stomach felt like I had just eaten a brick that was on fire. I regretted it the second it came out of my mouth and to this day I've always worried that Tommy Ulander did, in fact, grow up to be impotent and is somewhere blaming it all on me. Anyway, I felt like such a pint-sized douche bag for the incident that I think I almost wanted to get caught for it. So when "the note" was presented to me, I figured I was about to be in some serious trouble.

But, as fate would have it, the note had nothing to do with a potentially impotent five-year-old. In fact, I wasn't even in trouble. At least, not directly.

There's no easy way to say this, so I'm just going to say it. When I was five-years-old, I had a huge crush on an iconic television personality. No, not Zack Morris from Saved By The Bell or Leonardo DiCaprio on Growing Pains. My first love was Peter Jennings.

Yes, you're thinking of the right person. Peter Jennings, Canadian, Anchor of CBS World News Tonight from the year before I was born right up until his death seven years ago (I was absolutely devastated when he passed away, by the way). Never mind that he was old enough to be my grandfather, I adored him. I adored him so much that I watched his news broadcasts religiously, soaking up every word. And as it happened, that year there was a lot to soak up.

The year I entered kindergarten was the year the very tumultuous Gulf War began. I watched with fascination as Peter told me all about the Liberation of Kuwait, The Highway of Death, oil, and friendly fire. I don't know if it was the comforting tone of his voice or the way he could make something so complicated sound so amazingly simple, but I never felt scared while watching all of the horrific footage of the war. I actually kind of liked the fact that I knew what grown-ups were talking about for a change. I figured my fellow classmates and friends might also like to know what was going on in the world. So the more I learned, the more I went to school and shared my knowledge during show-and-tell, figuring I was probably doing the world (or at least, my own very limited world) some sort of public service by sharing what I knew.

Enter the problem.

You might not be surprised to learn that other kids my age didn't want to know what I knew. In fact, the things I knew scared the bejesus out of them (apparently, I didn't have Peter's knack for presenting vast knowledge in a simple, non-terrifying way) and worse, my antics really pissed off their parents. In turn, the pissed off parents started complaining to my teachers and demanding an end to my little impromptu news reports. This is where "the note" comes in.

While I have never known the exact wording of "the note", in my imagination it said something like this:

"Dear Debbie: Your insane five-year old future tree-hugger is scaring the crap out of the other children by coming in here and talking about depleting uranium and bulldozer assaults. Perhaps a cuddly teddy bear to bring in and show the children would be a nice change. P.S.: Ever heard of Sesame Street?!"

But that's just a guess.

What I do know is that if "the note" bothered my mom, she didn't show it. I was still allowed to watch the  news (and more importantly, Peter) but she did suggest that I do more showing and less telling. Suffice it to say, I took my Barbies to school the very next day.

To this day, I still like to watch the world news and still have an unexplainable attraction to news anchors that I've never quite been able to pin down. I don't know what it is...Maybe knowing exactly what's going on in the world before anyone else and knowing just how to explain it all to me? A certain sense of authority? Either that, or I have way more Daddy issues than I'm willing to admit.

And while I've loved others (Bill Weir, Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw to name a few), I will always have a special place in my heart for Peter Jennings. He taught me the importance of knowing what was going on in the world around me, no matter how much the events of the world might freak me or anyone else out. He taught me that it was important to have my facts straight, to be well-informed, and that it was okay to be passionate about the issues that were important to me. All-in-all, not too bad for a first crush.

Let He Who Is Without Sin Cast The First Stone

There is entirely too much injustice in the world right now. Wars are being fought, car bombs are exploding, innocent people are dying in movie theaters, people are getting laid off, children are being abused and neglected, the environment is imploding, and according to the media, people are only as worthy as their number on a scale. You can't help but see the world crumbling wherever you look, in the unnecessary violence, the corruption, the way we can't even look one another in the eye and have a conversation anymore because we're too busy tweeting Justin Beiber, desperately hoping for a response. You would think that in a world full of awful things, we would be trying to be civilized and respectful and work together as a country, but we're not. In fact, it feels more like the exact opposite is happening. It's like we're actively searching for reasons to hate or discriminate, to prove that "we are right and they are wrong" and nowhere is this more true than the issue of gay marriage.

I thought long and hard about whether I wanted to address this issue or not and to be honest, I wasn't really planning on it. It's tough. There's really no right or wrong answer (although plenty of people are willing to disagree with me on that). There are varying opinions, even within my own family. It's sticky, uncomfortable, and controversial, much more so than anything I've ever attempted to write about. It makes breast feeding and 50 Shades of Gray look like flowers and lollipops and given the fact that I got more than my fair share of backlash for writing about those issues, I had all but decided not to touch this one with a fifty-foot pole.

But then Chick-Fil-A happened. Suddenly it was an issue of a Christian organization donating money to anti-gay marriage organizations because they wanted to maintain the "traditional family". Suddenly it got personal. It got personal because I, like the president of Chick-Fil-A, am a Christian. But maybe I bought the wrong version of the Bible, because in mine Christianity is not synonymous with hatred. It's not synonymous with ignorance. It speaks about loving people and accepting them for who they are, no matter how different they are from you. While part of me thinks "Hey, it's his money, he can donate it to whatever he wants" a louder, stronger part of me thinks that Dan Cathy could have found a much better cause to donate to: Food banks, literacy programs, churches...anyone who would be willing to take millions of dollars and put that money towards a good cause, and to genuinely help people who are in need. I'm at a loss to understand how anti-anything organizations actually help anyone.

Before I get too ahead of myself, I want to express how grateful I am to live in a country with free speech rights, a place where everyone can express their opinion, and express it in a peaceful, thoughtful, intelligent way (if they so choose). Dan Cathy certainly had no problem expressing his opinion, so here is mine:

First and foremost, I believe in God. I believe in the word of God. I'm not going to sit here and try to convince anyone that the Bible is outdated, a work of fiction, or irrelevant because I don't believe any of those things to be true. I know exactly what the Bible says about homosexuality. But I don't want to focus on that. I think that part of the Bible has been focused on enough as it is. I want to focus on two things: First, what exactly constitutes a traditional family and when did politicians (who are notorious for cheating, lying, and general acts of douche baggery...John Edwards, anyone?!) suddenly decide they care so much and secondly, what do hate and hypocrisy have to do with anything?

I get it you guys, I really do. We all wish it was 1950 and we had a family with the loving, hard-working dad, the mom who wore pearls while she vacuumed and had dinner on the table by six pm sharp. The perfect family rounded out by two perfect children (a boy and a girl, both honor roll students, she would be a cheerleader, he would be captain of the football team, naturally), an adorable dog and a white picket fence. A good old fashioned traditional family living happily ever after. In the land of delusions.

The truth (which is probably fairly obvious to all of us by now) is that we don't live in that world. Families don't look like that, and the reason they don't isn't because of homosexuality. Gay people didn't ruin marriage or put a scar on the face of the traditional family. Straight people did actually, with a little thing called divorce and worse, extra marital affairs that lead to divorce. I'm not saying that I'm anti-divorce (unless you're a Kardashian) but divorce put a whole new spin on families. Blended families were created. Kids spent weekdays with family number one and weekends with family number two. White picket fences were replaced with pull-out couches and bribing your kid into liking you more than the other parent. And yet, no one is saying divorce should be illegal because making divorce illegal would be taking away from people's rights, nor are there any limits placed on how many times people should get married or divorced for the same reason; No one wants their right to marry on a whim, get divorced three days later, and remarry a week after that taken away because it would be unfair and unconstitutional. Hmmm. How interesting.

My other big issue when people talk about traditional families is the hypocrisy factor. Everyone's favorite nut-job Sarah Palin tweeted pictures of her and her husband at Chick-Fil-A last week with huge smiles and even bigger, greasy bags overflowing with waffle fries. I found this development especially interesting, given the fact that her daughter had a baby out of wedlock at seventeen to a guy who wants absolutely nothing to do with his own son. How, exactly, is that a traditional family? Or is it acceptable because her daughter isn't gay, so the rest can just be swept under the rug?

Maybe it's because I was raised in a non-traditional family by a single mother who had to work hard (and do it all by herself) to raise a family, but the way I see it, a child being raised by two dads or two moms who are committed to each other and love their child is twice the love and twice the parenting I had. To me, those kids are lucky. Those kids are blessed. Some might argue that I don't understand traditional values because of my childhood, and maybe they're right. But the person who raised me taught me to accept people for who they are and to not judge because it isn't my place to judge anyone. And right now, that lesson seems infinitely more valuable than a white picket fence.

My second point is, no matter what your opinion or what you decide is right or wrong at the end of the day (so long as it's not a politician making the decision for you), the hatred has to stop. I've seen enough "God hates Gay People" signs to last three lifetimes and each and every one makes me sick to my stomach. Know who God hates? Absolutely no one. Anyone who thinks it's okay to say God hates anyone needs to go back and read one of the most famous Bible quotes ever, John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only son". I've read it a million times and I've never noticed a footnote that says *Unless you're gay or *Unless you're a woman or *Unless you like Batman better than Spiderman. Here's some food for thought: After Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was approached by a leper, who's flesh was literally crumbling off of his face, asking to be healed. Back then, it was against Jewish law and custom for Jesus to even touch this person because he was "unclean". He could have been considered a heretic for even acknowledging the man, but instead saw that we are all people, deep down we all need love and acceptance, no matter how different we may be, and he chose to heal him. Talk about someone who understood the importance of doing the right thing, no matter what the people around you consider "right" or "wrong". It would be nice to see even a little bit of that spirit these days.

Yes, the Bible speaks against homosexuality, calling it a sin. And yes, a sin is a sin is a sin. I get it. But is hatred an appropriate response? Is ignorance an appropriate response? Far more times than homosexuality, the Bible talks about loving each other as we love ourselves, accepting one another, and not judging one another, treating others as we would want to be treated. One of my favorite stories in the Bible is John 8:2 in which a woman who is accused of adultery is brought by her accusers to stand before Jesus. He doesn't condone the sin of adultery, but he recognizes that the men who brought her to him are sinners too, and are hypocrites for trying to single her out as a sinner when they were sinners too, just for different reasons. Back then, the punishment for things like adultery was being stoned to death and Jesus challenged the men to face their own hypocrisy by saying that "He who is without sin may cast (throw) the first stone".  My point is, no one in the world is without sin of some sort, and yet here we are, throwing rocks at each other, so ready to think that we're "good" and we're living "the right way" and someone else is "wrong" or that their sin is any worse than ours. It's not. There's no magic chart that lists sin in order from harmless to harmful. It's easy to be a hypocrite, to point out what people are doing wrong to take attention and accountability away from ourselves. It's infinitely harder to take accountability for our actions (or sins) and to realize that when it boils down to it, we're all the same. 

I see it this way: If God truly thinks homosexuality is wrong, that's His place to decide, not mine. All I know is that we are all perishable and I want to spend the limited time I have on this earth loving people, not judging them. I believe we should all have access to the same rights and privileges. We are all human beings. It's a crappy world and we should be in it together, not constantly looking for yet another way to be divided. I think whether you agree with me or not (just for the record, most people in my life fall into the "or not" category, and that's okay with me) I think we should at least agree to treat one another with respect and kindness, no matter what side of the debate we fall on. I have kids to raise in this crazy place and I want them to understand and exercise tolerance, acceptance, open-mindedness and to love with their whole hearts. If that means never again stepping foot in an establishment that doesn't abide by those things, then so be it. 

My point of this blog/amateur Bible study/rant is that, despite being a Christian, I don't stand with companies like Chick-Fil-A. I believe that being a Christian shouldn't automatically mean that I don't support gay marriage. I do support it. I support anything that gives people the rights they deserve and showcases us as equals because we are all equal. I love God and I also love all of the people He created, whether they're black, white, gay, straight, batman, or whatever. I don't think I should have to choose between one or the other. You can think what you want, but that's what my religion means to me.

So all of you Mike Huckabees, Sarah Palins, and Dan Cathys of the world, please do me a favor. Yes, I might be a Christian like you, but clearly our similarities end there. Don't be so quick to lump us all together.

I can only hope that some day everyone in the world will be allowed to marry the person they love more than anything. It's a great experience and we should all have the right to make it our own.

We Have Nothing To Fear Except Absolutely Everything

He was a neuroscience PHD student. He was involved heavily in his church. He was shy and well-mannered. He had never had so much as a parking ticket. But he randomly walked into a movie theater and brutally killed twelve people and injured fifty-nine for absolutely no reason. It's appalling how little sense the world can make sometimes.

Waking up to the tragic story of the killings in Aurora, Colorado makes the things I thought I'd be worried about when I woke up this morning seem pointless and contrite. Tiny bumps on the road of life, not real problems. Going to see a midnight showing of a new movie and winding up dead, that's a real problem.

To be honest, my first reaction to this story (my first reaction to any like it for that matter) is "The world is full of bad people and horrible things, I never want to leave my house ever again", and I suspect that's a pretty common thought. All I want to do on days like this is hold my kids close to me and forget that an outside world even exists. But the outside world does exist. And ultimately hiding from it won't do anyone any good. Neither will attacking outside sources. I keep waiting for the media fall-out, with people blaming everything from video games, to comic books, to Marilyn Manson (no one's blamed him for anything ridiculous and out of his control in awhile, so he's probably due) on this tragedy. I'm not looking forward to the bashing because I simply don't agree with it. I think that art can inspire and entertain and maybe even influence a person's actions to an extent. But art didn't pull the trigger, James Holmes did.

I think that despite this tragedy and those like it, we should try to remember that the world isn't full of bad people; there are amazing people doing amazing things every day, they're just a little bit harder to find. Fortunately, I know some really great people and I can give a couple of great examples of wonderful people in this crazy world.

First, My friend Alison who started the organization Humans Helping Humans, which does exactly what it sounds like it does: Helps humans. She's organized drives to help with the Colorado wildfires and is currently helping out the families of the victims of the Aurora shootings. Or my friend Jeremy, who inspires us all with his work to help find a cure for Leukemia and Lymphoma through The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society . What both Alison and Jeremy have in common is that they are sincerely and proactively trying to make the world a better, more positive place. It's times like this when I try to think about people like Alison and Jeremy and how we can all strive to make positive contributions in this crazy world we live in. And how making positive contributions trumps living in fear any day.

What's funny is that during all of this, I keep thinking about something George W. Bush said right after 9/11. Now, I can tree-hug and Bush-hate with the best of them, but his words were actually amazingly appropriate then and I think they apply now. He said that people shouldn't be afraid to leave their houses or live their lives. If we didn't make an effort to keep going and keep persevering, it just meant the bad guys were wining. They want us to be afraid and the worst thing we can do is give in to fear.

I, for one, don't want to live my life in fear, no matter how scary the world is. And I don't want my kids to grow up learning to live in fear either. As easy as it would be to board up my windows, order my groceries online and never let my kids see the light of day again for fear of something bad happening to them, I'm going to take my chances. I'm going to continue to raise them to believe in good people and good things. I won't let my life be consumed by tragedies and "what-ifs". That's no way to live a life.

My heart goes out to the victims and the families of the victims of last night's shooting. I can't imagine what they're going through. My prayers are with them. My prayers are also with James Holmes' family. I always tell my kids that I will love them no matter who they are or what they do, and I can't fathom my own child doing something like this. I can't imagine those words being tested in such an extreme way. It must be agonizing for them.

In the meantime, I'm going to turn off my computer for the rest of the day and stop reading about this. I'm going to take my kids swimming and out in the sun to play. We are going to live our lives, not hide from them.

My Soapbox: DOWN WITH "THINSPIRATION"!!

Anyone curious to see what "fat" by American standards looks like? Apparently, it looks like Kate Upton, and Kate Upton looks like this:

I know, right? You have got to be freaking kidding me.

For those of you who haven't heard about this yet, here's the back story: A wannabe hack of a blogger recently wrote on a pathetic excuse for a legitimate website (Skinny Gossip) that the gorgeous twenty-year old blonde pictured above doesn't have "the body" for modeling, calling her  “thick, vulgar, almost pornographic". 

Anyone want to join me in a "Say whaaaaaat?!" moment here? I could use about a million words to describe this person's body and among them would be "perfect" and "holy crap, I'm jealous", but apparently, that's just me. This writer (if we even want to stretch the word enough to call her that) is actually delusional enough to think that slamming a body like Upton's is inspirational to people who are trying to lose weight and obtain the "perfect body" (whatever the hell that may be) and the truly terrifying part is that she's not alone.

After reading about Upton's "fat shaming" I did a little research on the subject and was absolutely horrified to discover that this is all part of a movement of sorts called "Thinspiration" which basically convinces women to lose as much weight as humanly possible (whether they need to or not, and the latter is usually the case). It's all about those flat, perfect stomachs, protruding hip bones, and the ability to count your own ribs. As if that wasn't bad enough, Thinspiration sites say really asinine things like "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" (which always makes me think of Liz Lemon: "I don't know! Ever put a doughnut in the microwave?"). And worse of all they (proudly and unapologetically) advocate anorexia. No, you didn't read that wrong. They Advocate. Anorexia. You know, that horrible disease where you completely stop eating, waste away to nothing, and eventually die a horrible death usually involving some kind of cardiac arrest? They advocate it! Good God, wasn't anyone else required to watch "The Karen Carpenter Story" in seventh grade health class?! She died because she didn't eat, but that's perfectly acceptable to these lunatics. It's encouraged even, because it's all about looking good, right?

No, not right. So not right.

Allow me a minute to be completely honest here. If my life was just about me, I'd think "Wow, those people are real creeps for calling that beautiful girl fat", and that just might be as much thought as I'd give the whole ordeal. But my life is not just about me, it's also about my daughter and the sucky fact that she has to grow up in a world where a size eight is considered "plus size", a healthy body is called fat, and exercise is seen as the thing you do as a last resort if you don't have the willpower to starve yourself. It's disgusting in every sense of the word and it has to stop.

Women of the world, I implore you: Stop calling yourselves fat. Stop calling celebrities fat. Especially don't call yourself fat in front of your daughter because she might look in the mirror someday and think that horrible word applies to her. In fact, let's just take the word "fat" out of our vocabularies. It's a small word used by small people. Replace "I'm fat" with "I would like to be healthier". And just so we're clear, starving yourself is not healthy. Exercise because you want a heart that's healthy enough to see the day your grandchildren are born, not because some dumbass on a horrible, meaningless website tells you that your thighs are too big. Counting calories is no way to go through life and if you miss counting something so badly, go back to school and take a math class.

My bottom line is this: Bodies change and evolve over time. I've had two kids, so I know that mine has, but it doesn't have to be a bad thing. It only becomes a bad thing when "skinny" becomes a priority over living your life.

And for the record, I think Kate Upton looks great. She looks healthy. And healthy will trump skinny any day.

Thanks, I feel much better now.

The Kids DO Stand A Chance

Something that's really important to know about me is that I endorse practically nothing.

In fact, if you've ever watched TV with me, you know that I'm not exactly what you would call any "easy sell". Actually, that's putting it nicely. A more honest statement is that I can pick apart and cruelly mock a product with the best of them. Worst of all, this isn't a habit I want to change, it's actually one that I take a sick sort of pride in. Have an advertisement for a cell phone that can play music, surf the internet faster, and give you a map if you get lost while running? Well unless you show someone actually making a call on it, good luck trying to sell it to me! Cynical? Probably. Flat-out refusal to buy into everything that's put in front of me? Absolutely.

For a long time, this was never a problem. Then I had kids. Then those kids became susceptible to advertisements and commercials, which inexplicably led to the desire to play video games and computer games. Naturally, I dug my heels in the ground for as long as possible, reasoning that there was nothing you could do on a computer that would be more educational than reading a book or just going outside and exploring. I reasoned that my kids get enough "screen time" just by watching Sesame Street alone and the longer I could hold off on the inevitable the better. After all, we have done so much as parents to mold their brains, why give up now?  This theory held up for awhile until I realized that weekly computer lab days were part of school curriculum and I might actually be holding my kids back by not teaching them what are now considered "basic" computer skills. And it turns out that holding your child back from doing anything productive is a terrifying thought for a parent. I finally realized it was time for me to stop dragging my feet and hop on board. In other words, it was time to cave.

I had no idea where to start, so we just started exploring our options. The games on PBS and Sprout were cute, ABCmouse.com was nice, but the membership fees are astronomical, and Layla's personal favorite, The Build-A-Bear Workshop game was cute too, but I failed to see any real educational value in it. In fact, the more we explored the vast world of online gaming for kids the more I noticed a running theme: Cute and fun. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with cute and fun; cute and fun is a good thing and has its time and place. But if you're anything like me and looking for something that will not only entertain your kids for a minute but actually educate them a bit in the process, you'll probably want more than just cute or just fun. Additionally, many of the sites that claimed to be "educational" didn't really strike me as such and as an educational late-bloomer myself, I've discovered an increasing level of paranoia about what goes into the minds of my kids. Simply put, cute and fun just aren't going to cut it.

I was beginning to feel really desperate when I got the chance to work with an up-and-coming educational children's website called Tropic Mind. Tropic Mind features games and short educational videos about everything from biology to physics to math to cute and fun things, like decorating and using the coins you earn by excelling at games in the fashion shop. The site itself consists of several islands which the player travels to by boat, including an island of their own to do whatever they want with. Each island hosts specific games and videos related to the subject (an Island for the Food Pyramid or The 5 Senses, for example). Layla's personal favorite island is Pet Island, which allows the player to custom create and subsequently care for an animal of their choice. The basic functions of the site are delightfully simple (especially for  younger kids just learning the basic computer skills or inept parents like me who feel like they don't know a computer from a toaster some days). The site is colorful and cheerful while at the same time practical and functional, with gentle but firm reminders to use your nickname, not reveal your password, and to generally interact with caution. Every post or interaction with any other member is closely monitored by the site, which I appreciate as a paranoid parent (although I'd be remiss if I didn't  point out here that it's always a good idea to monitor your child's computer use yourself anyway, but I digress. A little extra security never hurt anyone).

The best way to describe Tropic Mind  is like an educational Sims for kids. It teaches great subjects like math and science that kids, unfortunately, lose a lot of interest in by a certain age, by making them bright, interactive, and fun. What's even better is that games that may seem like they are just for fun (like creating and adopting a cute little pet or using your coins in the Fashion Shop) teach subtle lessons of responsibility and money management without kids even realizing they're learning a lesson. As a whole, I have very few complaints about the site, a majority of my issues came from just signing up (I have no idea why it took the parrot asking me for my information three tries before he accepted my email address as valid, but oh well, all's well that ends well, right?) Some of the games were a little advanced for Layla, but I knew this going into it (the target age range for the site is six to eleven years old) so it wasn't exactly an issue that I didn't see coming. While the site isn't necessarily structured enough to use as, say, a curriculum tool for homeschooling purposes, it is still a great tool for casual learning, basic computer skills, and cute and fun activities with a solid educational slant. All-in-all, I can honestly say that it blows all of it's "educational website" competitors out of the water (pun completely and whole-heartedly intended!)

By now the more cynical among you might be thinking that my recent opportunities are fueling my praise for the site (and as a hard-sell myself I can appreciate your reluctance), but I can assure you that you're wrong. Actually, I can do better than assure you, I can prove it.

I have the opportunity to give away a free (and I know you all like free!) one-year membership to Tropic Mind to anyone who is interested or doubts that this site is half as awesome as I'm claiming it to be. There's only one catch-- Since I know so many wonderful moms/dads/aunts/uncles with kids who I know would love this site, I'm going to make you work for it. All you have to do is take a minute (either in the comments section on this blog or at Deliberations Of A Domestic Diva) and tell me all about your worst computer gaming experience. Annoying characters? Grating theme songs? Flat-out pointless? I want to know! It's not necessary to actually name names as far as the actual websites go, but please include your email address so I can send you the code for your membership. I can give you the Domestic Diva guarantee that both you and your kid(s) will love Tropic Mind. 

I look forward to reading the responses of my clever readers! Game on!