COMEDIAN TOM PAPA NOT RIGHT OUT OF SHOOT TODAY He's at Comedy Works this weekend and he's just really funny. Buy your tickets by clicking here.
GET YOUR GRAMMAR AND WORD QUESTIONS READY FOR CHARLES HARRINGTON ELSTER As he joins us for another episode of Please Tell Me I'm Right with Charles Harrington Elster at 1pm. Find out more about Charles, submit a question or ask one by clicking here.
RON REAGAN IS A MISINFORMED ATHEIST If you watched the debate Tuesday night you saw a commercial from Ron Reagan, son of the late Ronald and Nancy Reagan, where he asked people to support the Freedom from Religion organization of atheists and agnostics. Here it is.
He makes only a couple of assertions, both of which aren't really accurate. I've got Professor Mark David Hall, an expert on American political theory and the relationship between religion and politics, at 2pm to discuss what the Founders really thought when it came to religion. PREORDER HIS BOOK BY CLICKING HERE!
AND JOE BIDEN MUST BE LIKE "COME ON, MAN!" AFTER THIS Former President Barack Obama offered a hearty endorsement...to the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. LOOK at what he said about THE CANADIAN:
Joe Biden must be spitting mad right now. Heh.
THEY SHOULD JUST NETFLIX AND CHILL BEFORE TAKING A POLITICAL STANCE As Netflix now finds itself in the position of pulling new shows being filmed in the emerging Middle East markets or keeping it's yapper shut about a Georgia fetal heartbeat bill that restricts abortion. You may remember that Netflix made a BIG DEAL about announcing it was going to pull any production from the state of Georgia after it's legislature passed that bill. Well now they are filming in places with FAR more restrictive abortion laws. Uh-oh. Consistency is hard.
MAN I WOULD HAVE LOVED TO HAVE BEEN A FLY ON THE WALL FOR THIS ONE Donald Trump is not the normal politician. A normal politician would have had a meeting with is opponents and been super nice to their faces and then slammed them to the press AFTER the meeting. But Trump is not that politician, so he gave Democrats the business and called Nancy Pelosi a "third rate politician" to her face instead. Or was it a "third grade politician"? They can't keep their stories straight.
I LOVE ALTON BROWN AND I LOVE KITCHEN GADGETS SO OF COURSE I LOVE THIS
WHY ARE TEEN SUICIDES INCREASING SO DRAMATICALLY? The Wall Street Journal reports that teen suicides have increased by 56% in ten years. Why? I have my own theories which I've talked about before, like social media creating unrealistic expectations and access for full time bullying, a lack of a religious framework and the breakdown of the family. From the column:
Despite concern over the rising suicide rates, researchers aren’t sure of the exact causes. A rise in depression among adolescents, drug use, stress and access to firearms might all be contributing factors, experts say.
Some mental-health experts suggest that social-media use among teens might be fueling the increase in mental-health conditions and leading to greater suicide risk, and some early studies have linked smartphone use to anxiety, depression and sleep deprivation among adolescents.
The recent visibility of suicide in the media and online might also increase suicide death rates, experts say.
I think access to firearms is a tiny part of this, more of a means than a cause. Note they left out any sort of lack of religious instruction in this. I always wonder why supe smart scientists choose to ignore the good that religion plays in people's lives. Because it does.
RIP REP ELIJAH CUMMINGS I hope his friends and family find peace and joy in their memories of him. Read about him here.
IN A DESPERATE MOVE TO MAKE BODY PARTS AVAILABLE, WE MAY BE DENYING SOME JUSTICE This story is sort of creepy, really. It seems that doctors are trying to harvest organs and body parts of dead people who have given such permissions in order to help others who need them. But they are doing so very quickly sometimes and it can prevent a death investigation from taking place. This is an interesting conundrum. It would seem that way if you believe these body parts are only harvested to save someone else's life. But check this out from the article:
'Although the companies have emphasized organ transplants, in far more cases nationwide they harvested skin, bone, fat, ligaments and other tissues that are generally not used for life-threatening conditions. Those body parts fuel a booming industrial biotech market in which a half-teaspoon of ground-up human skin is priced at $434. That product is one of those used in cosmetic surgery to plump lips and posteriors, fill cellulite dimples and enhance penises. A single body can supply raw materials for products that sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.'
EWWWWWWW. People are putting ground up SKIN in their faces. BLECH.
THIS SUPER SWEET STORY WILL MAKE YOU SMILE And you should just read it because you should.
WHALES ARE SUPER GOOD AT CARBON SEQUESTRATION in some cases even better than trees. So should we plant whales now?