Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Good morning!
From a manhunt in Colorado, to a guy suing his parents for destroying his pornography, sleeping myths debunked – and a woman claiming she sees Jesus in the flames of Notre Dame (and has a picture to prove it!), here are some of Wednesday’s Gaggle-worthy headlines:
- Columbine High Survivors Are Now Parents – How Are They Talking to Their Kids About Violence?
The Atlantic profiles Columbine shooting survivors and the conversations they’re having with their children:
After 20 years of telling it, the story of the day you survived a school shooting can get a little rote, admits Renee Oakley, 35. She and her husband, Ben, 36, both lived through the shooting at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999.
“I’ve always been able to tell it as though I’m reading a story to somebody,” Renee told me over a car Bluetooth speaker as she drove through Seattle with Ben, who agreed: “It feels automated” for him, too, he says.
In some ways, that’s probably for the best. Both Ben and Renee have shared their story many times over the years, sometimes in public forums, and having a succinct, memorized script can help when you’re reliving a tragedy in front of an audience. But for Renee, the script fell by the wayside when her audience consisted of one particular person: her daughter, Emma.
Related: COS Gazette: FBI says woman “infatuated” with Columbine massacre poses threat to area schools
- Man Sues Parents After They Destroy His Collection of Pornography
From the Associated Press:
An Indiana man is suing his parents for getting rid of his vast pornography collection, which he estimates is worth $29,000.
The 40-year-old man last week filed a lawsuit in federal court in Michigan, where he moved in with his parents in 2016 following a divorce.
He says that when he moved out 10 months later, they delivered his things to his new home in Muncie, Indiana, but that his 12 boxes of pornographic films and magazines were missing. His parents admit they dumped the porn.
The man filed a complaint with police, but the Ottawa County prosecutor declined to press charges. The lawsuit includes an email excerpt from the man’s father, who told his son, “I did you a big favor by getting rid of all this stuff.”
The man is seeking triple financial damages of roughly $87,000.
- Faith-Based Adoption Agency Sues Michigan for Tying State Funding to LGBTQ Adoptions
From The Hill:
A Catholic adoption agency on Monday sued the state of Michigan over a settlement that prevents it from refusing to place children in LGBTQ homes based on religious conviction.
The D.C.-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Western Michigan on behalf of St. Vincent Catholic Charities, one of more than 90 agencies that receives state funding to place children in new households, according to The Associated Press.
“Faith-based agencies like St. Vincent consistently do the best work because of their faith, and we need more agencies like them helping children—not fewer,” Becket President Mark Rienzi said in a statement. “The actions by the Attorney General of Michigan do nothing but harm the thousands of at-risk children in desperate need of loving homes.”
- Teen girls stage school walkout to protest boys in their bathroom who claim to be ‘girls’
Courage in Iowa, as reported by Life Site News:
The backlash against the relentless assault on nearly every civilizational institution by transgender activists seems to be slowly increasing as ordinary men and women realize the implications of the transgender agenda and the abolition of gender. Muslim parents in the UK pulled hundreds of children out of school, forcing a shutdown of recently-implemented LGBT programming. And as I reported back in February, students are pushing back, signing petitions demanding the return of their gender-segregated bathrooms and even suing their high schools in order to retrieve their right to privacy.
Last week, the debate erupted again in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Two groups of students staged a walkout at Abraham Lincoln High School over bathroom privacy, with the protest being sparked by a girl who stated that her privacy was violated by a biological male who “recently began to identify as a girl” using the female bathroom. She was joined by about twenty other high school girls who left the school at 10:30 AM and began “chanting for privacy in restrooms, saying they don’t want boys transitioning into being girls to be in the restroom with them.”
- Phones Bring Ultrasounds to Parts of Africa for the First Time
Lying on a church pew with his arm over his head, 6-year-old Gordon Andindagaye whimpered a bit — in fear, not pain — as Dr. William A. Cherniak slowly swept a small ultrasound scanner up and down his chest.
Dr. Cherniak and Rodgers Ssekawoko Muhumuza, the Ugandan clinical officer he was training, stared at the iPhone into which the scanner was plugged, watching Gordon’s lung expand and contract.
“O.K.,” Dr. Cherniak finally said. “What do you recommend?”
Gordon had a persistent cough and swollen lymph nodes, and looked tired and unwell. As other boys ran around outside, kicking a soccer ball made of rags and twine, he clung weakly to his mother. The scan on the iPhone’s screen suggested his lungs had fluid in them.
- People See Jesus in Notre Dame Flames
It’s not grilled Jesus, but this going around the internet:
Jesus Christ visible through some photos of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire? Some people think so, and have started to point out his apparent image within the flames.
Lesley Rowan is one such woman who claimed to see the figure of Jesus Christ within the flames of a picture of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire on April 15.
Taking to Facebook, Rowan shared a link from British site New Musical Express, writing, “I may be letting my mind play tricks on me here, folks take a close look at this pic and what do u see. I’ve even circled it!!!”
- Photographer Captures Girls as Athletes and Princesses
In a world that wants to erase the lines between gender, it is refreshing to see girls proud of their femininity, girls who want to be strong AND girly. The TODAY Show reports:
While chatting with the other moms at her eight-year-old daughter’s softball practice recently, Heather Mitchell was hit with the inspiration to create a photo series that shows young girls dressed simultaneously as athletes and princesses.
“One of the moms told me (my daughter) was not athletic—that she was a girly girl,” Mitchell told TODAY Parents. “I couldn’t sleep that night. All I could think was, ‘Why does she have to choose?’”
After her sleepless night, Mitchell took her daughter, Paislee, into her photography studio and took a few photos of the eight-year-old dressed in princess dresses and tiaras while posing with softball and basketball gear. After posting the images to her personal Facebook account, she received requests to photograph more girls with the same theme.
Michell’s post to her photography Facebook page has gone viral, with nearly 200,000 shares of her photos and simple message: “Because you can do it all.”
- Scientists Debunk Sleep Myths
According to those in the know, we need more than we think:
Myth: You can get by on less than five hours sleep
Famously, Margaret Thatcher claimed she could get by on just four hours of sleep a night.
But the idea you can get by on five hours of sleep was among the top myths researchers were able to dispel based on scientific evidence.
They say this also poses the most serious risk to health from long-term sleep deficits.
Dr Robbins said: “We have extensive evidence to show sleeping five hours or less consistently, increases your risk greatly for adverse health consequences.”
These included cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attacks and strokes, and shorter life expectancy.
She instead recommends that everyone should try and get a consistent seven to eight hours of sleep a night.
9. The Theater Is the Phone Addict’s Last Solace
The Wall Street Journal observes:
The concept of a “digital detox” appeals to phone addicts, but it’s difficult to pull off. Five-star resorts offer packages meant to relieve visitors of daily iPhone bombardments, filling vacationers’ time with yoga classes, spa treatments and trips to tropical beaches. But even the most fortunate of us aren’t likely to relocate to Bora Bora long term. We need a place to get away from our devices more consistently.
The still-strict rules against phones at theaters gives attendees a chance to truly unplug for the night. And the allure of a forced getaway from buzzing screens may be one reason more Americans are going to performances. According to the National Endowment for the Arts, attendance is rising for the performing arts and 132 million people attended performances or visual-art shows between 2012 and 2017—nearly 54% of American adults.
Whether that increase is due to a broader thirst for culture, a wider accessibility of tickets, or the desire to unplug, I don’t know. But I do know that little imposes discipline on a phone addict like the dark, hushed focus of a classical performance. If you attend the ballet, the opera or the theater, you will not be checking Facebook until intermission.
