Posts with Category Mad World

Stand Up

Eagle Scout returning badge(I’m at the right, attempting to grow into my ears and noes at my 1997 Eagle Scout court of honor)

In case you haven’t heard, I have joined the ever-growing number of Eagle Scouts across the country who are turning in their awards in protest over Boy Scouts of America’s anti-gay policies.

I first announced my position here on my blog and then I cross-posted over to the Huffington Post. Three days later the Huffington Post approved the post and placed it on their front page for more than a day.

Folks at Talk of the Nation read the post and invited me on. Listen to me chatting with host…

Read More >
 
12 comments

An Eagle Scout No More: Why I’m sending my badge back to Boy Scouts of America

Adam and I snuggled in the woods beneath our makeshift lean-to. We were 14. We weren’t gay; we were cold. If we were gay, we would have been booted from Scouts, at least according to the discriminatory policies of the Boy Scouts of America’s national leadership.

We adhered to our own don’t ask don’t tell policy. When our Wilderness Survival merit badge instructor asked us how we survived our night alone in the woods, we left out all the details about spooning and just told him about the structural integrity of our shelter.

Adam and I both went on to become Eagle Scouts.

Now I’m worried about the moral integrity of Boy Scouts of America and whether they can stay relevant and survive in…

Read More >
 
19 comments

Gay men can't donate blood but former sex tourists can

Questions on blood donor questionnaire:

Have you had sexual contact with someone who has HIV /AIDS or has tested positive for HIV/AIDS?

Have you had sexual contact with a prostitute or someone else who takes money or drugs or other payment for sex?

From 1977 to the present have you received money, drugs, or other payment for sex?

(Males Donors) Have you had sex with another male (even just once)?

Yesterday the local blood center was giving away 2 pints of Baskin Robbins ice cream for 1 pint of blood. Since the average human has 10 pints of blood, that means that I would have to donate 5 times before my body would be coursing with 100% cookies ‘n’ cream.

We all have our dreams.

They didn’t want my blood. But not for any…

Read More >
 
2 comments

Dear ExPat Dude, Thanks for Leaving

You can’t miss the Dude’s wife. She’s got it and by it I mean a combination of plastic and animal tested beauty products filling out and shining up her slender yet curvy frame. She’s a model 20 years his junior.

I shared a plane with the dude. We shared an airport shuttle. We share a homeland, but that’s about it.

On the bus he told me that he was in finance and chose to leave. He said something like, “Things were going to shit in the United States. Money is fleeing. If you knew what I know you would leave too.”

I complimented Colombia, the country I had spent the past two week in and the woman’s homeland. The people were lovely and so was the…

Read More >
 
3 comments

Porn + wedding rings = Christian Porn

A while back I was trying to think of a name for a Christian porn magazine.  I know; it’s a weird way to spend a Sunday.

I was making fun of myself for starting a pitch to a Christian magazine with this sentence: “I slept with the prophetess.” (I actually just spent the night at her house.) At the time I hadn’t heard back from the magazine and figured that the opening would have probably been better suited for a Christian porn magazine.  That’s why my mind went there.  As it turns out, they published the story I pitched a few months later.

I eventually settled on Porn-Again Christian as the title for my fake magazine, but not before stumbling upon some sites advocating for…

Read More >
 
7 comments

"I can't help everyone, but I can help some."

As much as I love meeting students at universities when I visit to speak, meeting the faculty is pretty cool too.

After a recent talk at West Texas A&M I had a chance to talk travel with a few faculty. One of the professors was a horse trainer who told a hilarious story about being invited to Saudi Arabia to judge racing camels. Another was Dr. James Hallmark, Provost/Vice President of Academic Affairs. James (we’re Facebook friends, so I’ll drop the formalities) told a rip-roaring tale about traveling in Turkey and how he thought he had been abducted by al Qaeda.

Following my visit, James wrote an editorial for the Amarillo Globe News about my visit. In Consider Where Our Clothes Are Made James writes…

Read More >
 
23 comments

The profit will go somewhere

If you buy this piece of crap, a percentage of the proceeds will go to helping orphaned puppies achieve their dreams of catching rainbows.

How much will go there and how will you know if I follow through with this? You can trust me. I’m a guy that loves orphaned puppies; how could you NOT trust me?

Shopping Greifportunities

This is my biggest beef with social entrepreneurs. Most of the time there is a complete lack of transparency and accountability.

The Colbert Report did a bit on “Shopping Greifportunities” last night with a focus on 9/11 stuff. You can buy 9/11 shoes, merlot, a chessboard with firefighters and police officers going at it, and even a dog collar (in dog years the tragedy was only 1 ½…

Read More >
 
4 comments

Why do we hate teachers?

Okay, maybe the title of the post is a bit inflammatory, but consider this excerpt from a recent column in the NYTimes by Charles Hill:

McGraw-Hill Research Foundation and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that one of the differences between the United States and countries with high-performing school systems was: “The teaching profession in the U.S. does not have the same high status as it once did, nor does it compare with the status teachers enjoy in the world’s best-performing economies.”

The report highlights two examples of this diminished status:

• “According to a 2005 National Education Association report, nearly 50 percent of new teachers leave the profession within their first five years teaching; they cite poor working conditions and low pay as the chief reason.”
• “High school…

Read More >
 
22 comments

"Poor" living like they just won a showcase showdown

There’s this argument out there that poor people in the United State have stuff and that if you have stuff and are poor you aren’t living frugal enough. A recent segment on FOX News reported that 99.6% of those living in poverty have a fridge, 81.4% have a microwave, 78.3% have air conditioning, 63.7% have cable, 54.5% have cell phones, 48.6% have a coffee maker, 32.3% have two or more TVs, 25% have a dish washer.

The same folks making this argument would tell the poor to pull themselves up by the bootstraps. I’d like to make a couple of points.

  • If you don’t have a fridge, you have to eat out, which is more expensive.
  • If you don’t have a microwave, how do you cook a warm meal when…
Read More >
 
5 comments

Radioactive Balls (yes, those kind of balls)

Anti-radioactive-underwear

Hey baby, I'm radioactive-free Down There. My place or yours?

Do you carry your cell phone in your pocket? Do you Facebook with your laptop on your lap?

If you answered “Yeppers” to these questions, you could be suffering from radioactive balls. Radioactive balls can lead to impotence, infertility, and the the production of offspring with genetic mutations that give them superpowers for which society simultaneously loves and shuns them.

And it’s never easy being the parents of a superhero.

Batman’s parents = Dead
Superman’s biological parents = Dead
Superman’s earth parents = targets of evil geniuses
Spider-Man’s parents = Never heard from
Spider-Man’s Uncle = Shot

If impotence, infertility, and superhero parenting aren’t your thing, I’ve got just the…

Read More >
 
14 comments