Large Boulder The Size Of A Small Boulder Gives Us The Moment We Need

The boulder that fell on this Colorado highway
prompted a most glorious Tweet that
made everybody's day. 

This past week on a snowy mountain highway near Telluride, Colorado, a big rock fell off a cliff and landed smack dab on the eastbound lane of Highway 145.

Not exactly a national news story until the San Miguel Sheriff's office Tweeted to the public: "Large boulder the size of a small boulder is completely blocking eastbound lane of Highway 145 mm78 at Silverpick Rd."

Everybody, including me, said, "Huh?"  

This odd tweet went totally viral, as deserved.  The absurdity of it was a winner in a week of grim tweets over impeachment, coronavirus and other lovely developments.

Reactions were classic:

"Did a self-conscious small boulder write this?"

"This is how I want to be described in my obituary."

"Americans really will use any other system of measurement than metric won't they?"

Someone else explained why this incident happened:  "It came off a large mountain the size of a small hill."

One Twitterer helped the sheriff's department by providing this update to the situation on Highway 145: "Road is closed while emergency crews bring in equipment to break it into larger, smaller boulders." 

One person cautioned people on Twitter to "not take these things for granite," to which someone else replied, "I marble at your sense of humor."

That fun tweet also inspired lots of gloriously bad puns.

OK, I love bad puns.

Someone else wanted to delve into the technicalities by asking whether a large boulder the size a small boulder is heavier than a small boulder the size of a large boulder.

Personally, I'm glad that the San Miguel Sheriff's office never deleted the tweet, and only updated motorists about the situation on Highway 145.  

Even better, a woman named Susan Lilly who works in the San Miguel Sheriff's office disclosed she was the one who wrote the now-famous boulder tweet. On Wednesday, she tweeted: "I am the author behind this now viral tweet. I own my mistake and now I rock it."

Which is the second best tweet of the week, behind the original large, small boulder missive.

I love Lilly's attitude.  She explained that she meant to write that it was a "large boulder the size of a small car," but that would have made sense and would have been no fun.

As one person replied to Lilly: "You are the reason that Twitter became a lighthearted place for awhile."

Personally, I hope the Colorado road crews saved that boulder and will put it in a prominent place. It will be labeled the "Susan Lilly Memorial Large Small Boulder."

Great John Lewis Christmas Ad, With An Even Better Reaction To The Ad

This dog feels temporarily left out of the fun in the
new John Lewis Christmas advertisement. Another dog
watching the ad does NOT feel left out. 

The British retailer John Lewis always has a charming Christmas ad every year, and this year is no exception. 

In this one, parents buy their daughter a backyard trampoline that is enjoyed by some animals, and the dog inside the family house feels left out.

The first video you see in this post is the actual John Lewis ad, and the second video is the kicker.

The second video shows "someone" watching this John Lewis ad, and having the best possible reaction to it.

The first video will bring a smile to your face, the second one will absolutely make your day:



And here's the second video that's even better.

Keep Dancing Orlando Gets Boost From Sheriffs Who Had To Deal With Pulse Nightclub Massacre

 

The best act of defiance against the homophobia and possible quote, unquote Islamic radical fundamentalism that fueled last month's Pulse nightclub massacre is Keep Dancing Orlando.

The catchphrase has turned into a rallying cry, a Twitter hashtag and a touchstone of rebellion against those not only kill people, but also kill the joy out of life.

The whole area around Orlando has adopted Whitney Houston's song "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" and the accompanying hashtag #KeepOrlandoDancing in joyful defiance of the hate that culminated in the murder of 49 people who were out dancing that night in June at The Pulse nightclub.

I like how the Orange County Sheriff Department, which includes Orlando, got involved in this, with their own Keep Dancing Orlando video.

The sheriff's office Keep Dancing Orlando video opens with what looks like a press conference featuring "an important announcement by Sheriff Demings."

Sheriff Deming steps up to the podium and says: "We're here for an important announcement today. I wanna keep Orlando smiling. Keep dancing Orlando!"

Then he places a boom box on the podium and suddenly we hear Houston singing "I Wanna Dance With Somebody," and then we're treated to many scenes of Orlando County Sheriff personnel dancing.

Not all the personnel in that office are great dancers, but who cares? Joy stomps terror.

(H/T JoeMyGod for this story.)

The Sheriff Department video is at the bottom of this post. Definitely worth checking out.  

Here's the Orlando Sheriff's "Keep Dancing Orlando video

So What Do We Do About The Idiots Trying To Blow Up The World?

Once again, we're shell shocked by yet another huge terrorist attack. (In case you've been alone in a cave the past couple of days, a coordinated attack by suspected ISIS terrorists on a concert hall, a soccer game and a restaurant/bar in Paris killed more than 120 people.)

We're all going through our usual expressions of sympathy and solidarity to the terrorism victims in Paris.

I'm not disparaging that. Paris needs all the support it can get. They need to know the world is behind them.

I'm just despairing because we've done this sad song and dance so often I've lost count. And we will do it again.

The thing about fundamentalists of any stripe is this: They lack the intellectual firepower that most of us have to live in a world in which people differ from the rest of us. So they use actual, physical firepower to demand everyone adhere to the same crude simplistic beliefs they have.

That's why 129 or so people in Paris were executed yesterday for the "crime" of attending a rock concert, or going to a soccer game, or stopping by the tavern for a glass of wine.

The Atlantic lists additional crimes we are guilty of that Islamic terrorists think should be punished by death. Such as going to a bar in Bali, watching the Boston Marathon or going to work in New York City.

Obviously, nobody knows how to stop people with this hideous mindset.  There's plenty of noisy talk and yelling over what to do. We either ISIS bomb them too much or not enough.  We're either too nice or not nice enough to refugees fleeing the ISIS-polluted Middle East. We're too Islamophobic or not Islamophobic enough.

Our world leaders' understandable inability to quash ISIS and their ilk means we're going to go through tragedies like Paris again and again, just like we saw in New York, London, Bali, Turkey and a whole bunch of other places.

There was probably a method to the madness of the Paris attacks, as there always is. The conventional wisdom, which I buy, is that ISIS wanted to provoke a backlash. More bombing, a big clampdown on refugees, discrimination against Muslims.

That way, they can say claim they are right, the West really wants to get rid of Muslims. It's a vicious cycle.

ISIS, in their fake flowery language, said they were killing western people, people of loose morals, prostitutes as they called the innocent Parisians. Again, because everybody is supposedly expected to be just like the fundamentalists, because their heads explode when people act with freedom and independent thought, and don't adhere to their gloomy, prison like mindset.

Religion through the centuries has done a lot of good in the world. But from the most hard core, rigid fundamentalists, their religion has brought us nothing but suffering, death, oppression and hate. Amazing how much damage a small minority of lunatics can cause.

It's been going on for thousands of years in one form or another, so I'm pessimistic about ever stopping it.

All we can do is defiantly put our freedoms, our intellectual skills, our social liberalism, our independent thought, our quest for peace and our desire for a full and wide ranging life front and center. Especially when something like this happens.

I do like how people initially reacted to the latest terrorist attack in France. When police evacuated the soccer stadium, departing fans spontaneously started singing the French National Anthem.  Across the world, governments lit up famous landmarks with the red, white and blue colors of the French flag, a nice symbol of solidarity with Paris combined with a perfect "fuck you" gesture toward ISIS.

Near the nightclub where the worst of the Paris violence happened, a musician named Davide Martello pulled a portable piano on his bike, set it up amid a scrum of reporters and onlookers, and played John Lennon's "Imagine," that famous ode to peace and tolerance and fairness.

"Imagine" won't change any minds among ISIS, but it is a reminder of what the rest of us need to strive toward.

No, scumbags like the ISIS idiots aren't going away anytime soon.  But neither will the world's majority of people who only want to live their lives, as fully and freely as possible.

This desire is the ultimate and best way to torture the fundamentalists we detest.

I'll let you go with the video of Martello playing "Imagine" on that Paris street yesterday:

The Kim Davis Anti Gay Bigot Hypocricy Train Rolls On. Sigh.

The mug shot of jailed idiot Kentucky county
clerk has the right wing inflamed, and the rest
of us thinking about how tedious she and her friends are.

I know I've maybe written quite enough of Kim Davis, that idiot county clerk from Kentucky who decided to go to jail rather than issue marriage licenses to same sex couples.

I also know I won't change the minds of the people who inexplicably support her, but really, I'm one of zillions of people who MUST vent about her.

In the grand scheme of things, she's not all that important, but I still always worry when people hijack politics and policy in an attempt to force the nation to embrace their toxic "religion."

There are a lot of villians here besides Davis, that's for sure. It's amazing the creative ways find to justify this bigotry.

Some of this bigotry is just downright hilarious.  Rich Wiles, an End Times nutcase, suggested China and Russia might launch nuclear strikes against the United States in retaliation for jailing Davis and supporting the "Homosexual Gaystapo."

Um, right.

The most common trope I've seen is with the jailing of Davis, the government is rounding up Christians because of their beliefs. "The federal government has started to incarcerate Christians," Todd Starnes of Fox News breathlessly Tweeted.

No, the jailing of one person for failing to uphold the oath of an elected office after failing to follow orders of the court.

I'm being Captain Obvious here, but nobody is being jailed for their religious beliefs. Davis can say whatever she wants. And if we're rounding up Christians for proclaiming their beliefs, then why isn't Davis' fourth husband in jail as he has been very publicly supporting her beliefs.

Because the First Amendment is still solidly in place, that's why.

We'd better hope presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is never elected, as he obviously wants to turn this nation into a theocracy. Here's his Tweet: "Kim Davis in federal custody removes all doubts about the criminalization of Christianuty in this country."

Presidential candidate Ted Cruz basically said the same thing. And on the bright side, Huckabee's planned "Free Kim Davis" rally next week at the jail she's being held at ought to be a hoot

So it's OK for the government to deny services to the public because of the government official's religion?

Of course, the goverment was giving Davis some religious accommodation. She could have stepped aside and let a deputy issue marriage licenses, but she would not let anybody in her office do that.

Says German Lopez at Vox:

"So when people like Huckabee and Cruz come to Davis's defense, they're not standing for religious liberties They're advocating for someone's ability to use her role as a government official to impose her religion on others, including people on her own staff in a way that discriminates against same sex couples. If that doesn't violate the separation of church and state enshrined in the Constitution, I'm not sure what does."

Huckabee and his ilk are just rewriting history. If you don't like the facts, change the "facts" to suit your ideology.

For instance, faux historian and evangelical David Barton said the Founding Fathers "made it real clear that the laws of God are higher than the laws of man."

So that whole separation of church and state thing was just put in there as a joke then?

Some people are comparing Davis to civil rights icon Rosa Parks.

One insightful, sarcastic Tweet I saw written by Kip Manley puts that idea to shame. "Kim Davis is the bus driver, unjustly prevented from being able to force Rosa Parks to sit in the back."

The hypocricy among the Davis crowd is something else. One classic example was cited by the JoeMyGod blog yesterday. A flight attendant who is a recent convert to Islam is suing because her newfound religious fervor makes it a moral issue to serve alcohol to people on planes.

Over at the very conservative site Brietbart, Pam Geller is having none of it, asking why the Muslim would want to be a flight attendant in the first place if it involves serving alcohol. And what about the right of passengers to be served alcohol, which is completely legal in the United States. And the flight attendant is asking for special rights, which is unfair, Geller said.

All possibly valid points, really. So why doesn't it apply to Davis?

As Joe Jervis of JoeMyGod writes:

"Brand new religious fervor? Check. Won't do the job she was hired for? Check. Demand for special exemption? Check. Public denied totally legal service? Check. But hey - this time it's not a godly white Christian woman, therefore very suddenly (and only-this-one-time-plus-for-all-other Muslims) separation of church and state is an actual THING."

All these threats to civil and religious liberties that Davis thinks she is "protecting" is reason to worry, of course. We need to counter their silly arguments even as we know we won't convince people like Davis, Huckabee and the Right Wing Nut Brigade.

Still, we need to laugh, too.

To celebrate our contempt for Davis, here's a nice ditty Sandy and Richard Riccardi wrote and posted about her, called "Shut Up And Do Your Motherfucking Job"

As you can tell by the title, there is some NSFW language in here, but it is FUN!
Watch:

A Donald Trump Pinata Is Going To Be A Big Seller

Wouldn't you just LOVE to have this
Donald Trump pinata.  

I think a guy named Dalton Javier Avalos Ramirez is going to be a rich man, all because of Donald Trump.

No, The Trump Of Amazing Hair isn't giving any of his (alleged) millions to Ramirez. Nope. Ramirez is an enterprising artist.

It all started with Trump's hilarious annoucement earlier this month that he is a candidate for U.S. President.

During the announcement, Trump had this to say about Mexico and Mexicans crossing the U.S. border:

"They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime.....They're rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards and they're telling us what we're getting."

Trump also said he'd like to build a Berlin Wall type barricade along the border to prevent illegal immigrants from coming into the United States.

Lots of Mexicans, American Latinos and others were offended by Trump's comments. Ramirez was among them.

So, according to the Independent UK, Ramirez made a great piñata of Trump for people to release their frustrations against Trump, and get candy in the process.

Ramirez only got about 10 orders for the pinata on the first day he announced he was making them, but I have a feeling as publicity spreads, he;s going to be an incredibly busy Trump pinata maker.

They sell for about $33.

No word yet if any American retailers are carrying these items. But stay tuned

There's also no word on whether Ramirez will appear on The Apprentice, hosted by Trump, to try to show off his wily capitalist ways with the pinata.

But that would be one episode of The Apprentice  I'd surely tune into.

Will Curt Schilling Start Welcome Trend In Outing The Worst Trolls?

 Curt Schilling and his daughter Gabby discuss
the cyberbulling she experienced, and the
response to it by Curt Schilling on "Good Morning America"  

Congratulations to Curt Schilling, former Red Sox baseball great and current ESPN analyst, who has been getting tremendous Internet buzz the past couple of days for outing some terrible online trolls who attacked his daughter.

At least two of the trolls are learning that we indeed have freedom of speech, but there are always consequences to exercising that freedom.

If you're an awful person saying awful things, there's a chance awful things might happen to you.

The background:

The other day, Schilling Tweeted an innocuous congratulations to his daughter Gabby, because he'd just learned she'd be pitching for the Salve Regina University Seahawks next year.

Nice, but it shouldn't be a big deal. A proud dad celebrating his successful daughter. What's wrong with that?

Well, as is seemingly always the case, the trolls attacked.  The gleefully Tweeted very disgusting sexual and perverted insults against Gabby Schilling or gawd knows why.  Just wildly horrible jerks, I guess.

Curt Schilling decided to ignore the advice about ignoring the trolls and unloaded on them in his blog with a just perfect and aggressive flair. Don't mess with a dad whose daughter ahs been insulted.

The best part of Curt Schilling's blog post, and the part that's gotten the most attention, is how he outed a couple of the trolls who tweeted such awful things about his daughter.   He figured out exactly who they were, and identified them by name in his blog.

First, Schilling said this:

"Now let me emphasize again... I was a jock my whole life. I played sports my whole life. Baseball since I was 5 until I retired at 41. I know clubhouses, I lived in a dorm. I get it. Guys will be guys. Guys will say dumb crap, often. But I can't ever remember, drunk, in a clubhouse, with best friends, with anyone, ever speaking like this to someone."

Schilling outed one of the trolls as Adam Nagel, who went to Brookdale Community College and was a DJ on the college's radio station.

Schillling had this to say about Nagel: "You don't think this isn't going to be a nice compilation that will show up every single time this idiot is googled the rest of his life? What happens when a potential woman he's after googles and reads this?"

Well, aside from having a hard time getting dates, Nagel's time at Brookdale Community College appears to be over.

This person has been identified in media reports
 as Adam Nagel, one of at least two people
Curt Schilling tracked down as cyberbullies
against his daughter, Gabby Schilling.  

On its Facebook page, Brookdale posted this:

"Students and community members have rightfuly expressed concerns regarding recent social media comments made by a Brookdale student. 

The Twitter comments by this student are unacceptable and clearly violated the standards of conduct that are expected of all Brookdale students."

Though they didn't mention him by name, Brookdale officials said on the Facebook post that the student had been suspended, further disciplinary action would be taken, and Brookdale Police are also investigating the matter.

Brookdale also apologized to Gabby Schilling and said her accomplishments should be celebrated and "not clouded by offensive comments."

Most of the comments on Brookdale's Facebook page were supportive of the college, and urged officials to fully follow through on their discipline.

Then there's the other guy Schilling outed. He wrote:

"The other clown? He's VP of the Theta Xi fraternity at Montclair State University. I gotta believe if Theta Xi is cool with a VP of one of their chapters acting like this I'd preer to have no one I know in it. Also, does anyone attending Montclair State University have a student handbook? If so, can you pass it along because I am pretty sure there are about 90 violations in this idiot's Tweets."

This idiot is named Sean MacDonald. He actually recently graduated from Montclair State University so college officials really can't do anything about him. MacDonald recently started a job as a part-time ticket seller for the New York Yankees, but the Yankees quickly fired him when Schilling's blog post came out.

MacDonald's former fraternity isn't amused, either, saying "......inappropriate and offensive tweets that were posted by an alumnus of Theta Xi Fraternity. We agree wholeheartedly that cyber-bullying is unacceptable and should not be tolerated."

Predictably, neither Nagel nor MacDonald have responded to media requests for comments, says Heavy.com. 

Schilling says he knows the identity of some of the other trolls, and is considering legal action against them. However, several law experts said it might be difficult to bring criminal charges, because the troll comments didn't represent "true threats" that are likely to be carried out, says the Asbury Park Press of New Jersey.

Judging from the current Internet zeitgeist, most people seem pretty supportive of Schilling. Some are questioning why he's being so harsh on people who were supposedly only joking.

It's true pretty much everyone, including yours truly, has said moronic things in social media. We delete them, we explain them, we apologize for them and move on. But most of the stupid things we say on Facebook or Twitter or whatever reflect a momentary bout of ignorance, sarcasm, anger.

That's really not so bad and we shouldn't face severe criticism or life-long consequences for our little on-line mistakes.

Schilling points out that the trolls he outed went well beyond a bit of ignorance or posting something rashly.

"A mistake is tweeting once and saying, 'damn, I'm an idiot' and taking it down. These guys? They're making conscious choices to cyberbully an amazing and beautiful young woman in the Internet, and none of them know by the way, because they don't like her dad or they somehow think saying words you can teach a 5 year old is tough? Cool? Bad ass? Something I am missing? 

My right hand to God I promise all of you that tweeted that stuff, the friendsd around you saying, 'dude that's hilarious' and 'OMG that's awesome'? Those people? Inside they're actually thinking, 'what an ass#$!Q' and 'holy crap what a piece of trash,' no matter what they say to your face.'"

And the First Amendment?  As I noted, the government really can't prevent you from saying what you want. But they can stop you from making threats. The First Amendment also doesn't prevent employers, educators, friends and everyone else from shunning you because you are so awful.

It's time more Internet trolls learn this lesson, and Schilling is definitely helping with this process.

Schilling retired from playing baseball years ago, but he's still hitting at least metaphorical home runs. He definitely hit a grand slam with this blog post. Congratulations, Curt!

Gruff Sportcaster In Dallas Offers The BEST Reaction To Gay Likely NFL Pick

The sports world, and a lot of the rest of the world has been abuzz for a week now with the news that Mizzou football star Michael Sam is gay.   

Dallas sportscaster Dale Hansen has
this whole Michael Sam gay thing
figured out, brilliantly.  

And he's likely to become the first openly gay NFL player. Lots of people are fine with this and feel like it doesn't matter, as long as the guy can play a decent game of football.

A few people have been weirded out by it, for no good reason.

OMG! What if he sees me naked in the shower, a few big, supposedly tough (but squeally and wimpy) NFL guys are saying.

Um, he'll probably ignore you? You're probably not his type anyway.

Along comes Dale Hansen, the gruff no-nonsense sportscaster for television station WFAA in Dallas to put the issue to rest, brilliantly. No further comment from me, because Hansen says everything perfectly:

DOMA Demise Is Personal For Me

Being married to an awesome guy, yesterday's Supreme Court decision striking down the so called Defense of Marriage Act made the day very sweet.

Our accountant is going to be pissed, though. Our tax situation might get a lot less complicated, which means less work for him, and maybe less income.

The great Edith Windsor, plaintiff in
the Supreme Court ruling that overturned DOMA. 

Well, there's winners and losers everywhere, aren't there?

Speaking of winners and losers, it's been fun watching the reaction to news of the court decision.

Tweets are always fun:

Two of my favorite: "Free gay wedding idea: Dress all the servers like Paula Deen." (look up the whole Paula Deen controversy if you need an explanation)

Justice Antonio Scalia, a big guy, really hated the majority opinion. Humorist Mo Rocca Tweeted that it is apparent Scalia wont' be going to Bear Week this year.

Like most major civil rights cases that end up at the Supreme Court, a plaintiff is taken from relatively obscurity to become the face of the cause. Think Rosa Parks, for instance.

In the DOMA case, it was the smart, brave, personable Edith Windsor who was the centerpiece.  As journalist Glenn Greenwald Tweeted: "Edith Windsor joins the pantheon of great Supreme Court litigants who secured the rights of everyone."

The more strident opponents of gay marriage were hysterically funny in my mind. Talk about over the top fears and statements. Here's some:

Bryan Fischer: The DOMA ruling has now made the normalization of polygamy, pedophilia, incest and bestiality inevitable. Matter of time.

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: "Today is a tragic day for marriage and our nation. The Supreme Court has dealt a profound injustice to the American people....

This one from something called Freedom Outpost is particularly unhinged: 

 "The America that our Founding Fathers fought and bled for is now gone my friends.  It is high time to do something about it.  When you get to Heaven and stand before Almighty God, and you are asked to account for all your deeds, or lack of them, and The Lord asks you, “why did you stand by and allow my children in the womb to be murdered in the most horrific ways, WHY did you allow perverts that I have deemed an abomination to over run the country I gave you, WHY did you sit in your home at your computer bellyaching about these things but did nothing…”, WHAT WILL YOU SAY?"

Um, I said "I do."

As I said on Facebook yesterday, I never thought I would feel MORE married to my husband than I already did, but the death of DOMA really did make me feel even more married.

It's hard to explain exactly what that means. Obviously, I've always felt my marriage is every bit as legitimate as it is for heterosexual couples. But with the court decision, I hold my head a little higher, and I'm prouder yet of my marriage. It might be my crowning achievement.

I buy the argument that marriage, overall, is good for society, at least if done right. I want my marriage to Jeff to be an example of how to do marriage right.

I sure have the incentive: How could I possibility treat Jeff in any way other than with love and respect?  He deserves the best.

Incomprehensible Newtown Massacre: A Few Thoughts.

Like everybody else in America, I can't get my head around the Newtown, Connecticut school massacre, in which 27 people died, including 20 young children.

A mother comforts her daughter after
the Newton, Ct. school shooting. Photo by
Melanie Stengel, New Haven Register

The news channels have been on for 24 hours now, trying to explain the unexplainable. It's too much for me to get to the heart of the matter. It's too big. Too baffling. My thoughts have gone around the edges of this, touching upon just a few of the millions of issues, concerns, thoughts, prayers this all leads to.

We don't know what led Adam Lanza, what could lead any human to kill innocent young children.

Most people who are seriously mentally ill people,  holding vicious grudges or harbor white hot anger don't spray bullets into crowds, especiallly when the crowd consists mostly of kindergarteners.

I was listening to an NPR report last night on the profile of mass killers. The problem is, millions of people have the same mental traits as these monsters, yet these millions of people never hurt anyone.  So how do we weed out , in advance,   the people that would cause such heartache. You can't.

Of course we hurt for the families of the people who lost their children, their joy. Nothing we say and do can help, really. I know it's our responsibility to make some good come of this, but obviously no amount of good will fix this. The world, unfortunately is much worse for this.

 What would have become of the children had they been allowed to grow up, thrive, live?  Many of them would have contributed wonderful things to the world. We've all lost that.

I also worry about the police and other emergency responders who raced to that school.  Yeah, cops are tough, paramedics are seasoned, but not tough enough or seasoned enough to live with the horror of those poor children, gunned down. Let's hope they find the peace they need.

As an aside, I want to especially congratulate the cops and responders who led the children out of the school, and had them cover their eyes as they did so, so the children wouldn't have to see the carnage they were seeing. These responders surely spared these kids a lot of mental trauma.

One of the best things I saw rattling around social media yesterday was a link to the Mr. Rogers Company, which offered help and how to talk about something like this to kids. 

The best part of the link is this quote from Mr. Rogers:

Mr. Rogers passed away ten
years ago, but left
behind comforting words
for situations like this.

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.' To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother's words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers - so many caring people in the world."

As in every American disaster, there's been a huge outpouring of help for the people in Newtown. I know. Because I looked for the helpers on the news and saw lots of them.

But now I have to go negative. There are a minority of people who insist on not helping. To make things worse. To further their agenda. Yes, I know there's a renewed debate on gun control. There's that. Some of the gun control debate is healthy. Some not.

However, I really want to touch on people who are even more vile with their agenda. People like Bryan Fischer and Mike Huckabee are going around saying the reason this happened is prayer was taken out of the schools and God doesn't go where he's not wanted so he didn't protect the kids in that school when the shooting started.

What sad lives these people live if they think a God would be so spiteful that he's allow a bunch of innocent kids to be killed. What these people are really after is a theocracy, and they're on a religious war to bring us that weird, right wing form of Christian theocracy.  And they'll stoop to something like this to advance their agenda.

Next up: The gays did it. Some of the same people who say God was kicked out of schools will repeat the nonsense we hear in every disaster: That God is killing our children, our innocent people in shooting sprees, hurricanes, tornadoes and floods because many of us are accepting of our gay families, friends and neighbors.

We're loving thy neighbor. But I guess that part of the Bible isn't important to the likes of the religious wing nuts. And I'm sure they're offending the vast majority of Christians who are good, loving and giving.

Oh, and by the way, I'm not aware God has been kicked out of schools. Organized, coerced Christian prayer has, because there's a variety of religions in this nation, in our schools, and we have to respect that. Even if we don't like somebody else's religion.

People are free to pray silently, however they want, to whatever diety they want, in our schools. The following sentence is going to sound inappropriately flip,  but it's heartfelt: I bet there was a lot of praying in that school during the shooting spree.

Now,  there's a lot of praying going on across the nation and world.   I bet, I hope, a lot of those prayers will be  answered.