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How "Two and a Half Men" Damaged Marriage

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  When people talk about Two and a Half Men , they usually describe it as lighthearted fun, a classic sitcom built on raunchy jokes, exaggerated characters, and over-the-top scenarios. But underneath all the easy laughs, the show quietly delivers a message about marriage that is far darker and more corrosive than most viewers ever acknowledge. And I think that message has done real harm. The problem isn’t that the writers set out to attack marriage, or that the show is making some philosophical argument. Intent doesn’t matter. Impact does. And the impact is plain: the show repeatedly portrays marriage as a terrible deal for men, something naïve men fall into and pay for the rest of their lives. For 12 seasons, Alan Harper is the audience’s case study in marital misery. His divorce isn’t just a plot point; it becomes the defining feature of his entire life. He is chronically broke, paying alimony, paying child support, losing his home, and losing his dignity. And every time he tries...
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I Take God for Granted, Because I Can

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  I take God for granted Because I can I’ve done no deed No righteous plan To deserve Him To earn His gaze Not the slightest Totally depraved Yet still He saves With His irresistible grace He takes me in all the same He loves me for who I am He loves me despite my sinful shame. I take nothing for granted Not my family, nor friends I hold Not my money, nor things, Not even myself, truth be told For I am not my own. Yet I take God for granted still Unconditional: this election For I can’t choose what bends my will As I am nothing but His sheep As I am nothing but His son. So I take God for granted Along with His comfort, His unbinding love, And His boundless mercy Forever preserved And granted to me.
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Our Tooth Fairy Tale

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  When my son was six years old, he lost his very first tooth. He was so excited that his tooth finally came off after so long. He carefully put the tooth in a Ziploc bag and placed it under his pillow when he went to bed that night. I waited for a few hours to make sure that the boy was deep in sleep. Then my wife and I sneaked in. Then I searched for the Ziploc bag under his pillow. Then I placed a dollar bill there. My son was still sound asleep. Mission accomplished. We could not breathe. The next morning, my son excitedly showed us his one dollar bill from the tooth fairy. “The tooth fairy must be very tiny!”, he said. “She left me one dollar and I could not tell!” My son also bragged about it at school. Then his classmate Boden said: - That’s nothing! My sister got TEN dollars for her tooth!
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Indians are Now Turkeys

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  When I was a baby in Vietnam, my father would hold me and sing me a song he found in the English book. The song went like this: One little, two little, three little Indians Four little, five little, six little Indians Seven little, eight little, nine little Indians Ten little Indian boys! A few decades later, now I lived in the U.S. My son came home from kindergarten and taught me a song he had learned in his class for the upcoming Thanksgiving. It went like this: One little, two little, three little turkeys Four little, five little, six little turkeys Seven little, eight little, nine little turkeys Ten little baby turkeys! No, I am aware that singing about “little Indians” has become somehow offensive and therefore unacceptable. So now we sing about turkeys.  But what if the people from Turkey also get offended?
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"How to" Celebrate Father's Day in a Meaningful Way, Pt. 2

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 Continued from Part 1 . Another way is to punch some bricks for coins, obviously!
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2 and 70 in The Bible

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  Some numbers hold special meanings in the Bible. I have never really paid attention to numbers 2 and 70 which are quite fascinating. The number 2 in the Bible represents union, division, and the verification of facts through witnesses. It symbolizes the unity of a man and woman in marriage (Gen. 2:23-24) and the union between Christ and the church. The number 2 also signifies the division of God’s testimony into the Old and New Testaments. The number 70 has a sacred meaning, made up of the factors of two perfect numbers, 7 (representing perfection) and 10 (representing completeness and God’s law). As such, it symbolizes perfect spiritual order carried out with all power. What is cool about 2 and 70 is that these two numbers are paired in significant moments. At the beginning of humanity, there were 2 people: Adam and Eve. By the time humanity was scattered, there were 70 nations scattered from the tower of Babel. The Jews started out with Abraham and Sarah. At the end of Genesis ...
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A Father's Dismay

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  In the movie A Christmas Story , a little boy named Ralphie was helping his father fixing a car tire when he dropped the nuts he was holding. In a panic, he blurted out: “Oh, sh*t!”, much to his already-grumpy father’s dismay. Unlike Ralphie’s father who used swearwords often, I rarely applied foul language in my daily speech. Nonetheless, I feared of one day when my son, Spidey, would muster something like Ralphie did. I wouldn’t know what to do. Then something happened. I was at my desk working at home and Spidey was playing with his Transformers toys on the floor nearby. Spidey liked to talk to himself while playing, pretending that his robots were interacting verbally. Suddenly, I noticed that Spidey was shouting “Dammit! Dammit!” “Oh great”, I thought to myself, “so the day has come.” Did he learn that from me? Did he learn that from his friends at school? At church? From TV? More importantly, what am I supposed to explain to him now? Parenting is hard. I had a quick prayer ...
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