What do you do when you cannot stand either presidential candidate?

On November 8, 2016, we will choose our 45^th American president. The final two candidates are Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (D), and Donald John Trump (R). So which candidate deserves to become the next president? What happens if you don’t like your options? This election features two of the most disliked and untrustworthy candidates we have seen in years.

Last week, Christie Thompson of the Cincinnati Enquirer addressed the same question that’s been on my mind and the minds of others. She wrote a great story titled “Ohio voters don’t like Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. Now what?”

Unfortunately, Thompson couldn’t suggest anything to make anyone feel more secure in choosing a candidate. Both candidates have different backgrounds. Trump is a wealthy land developer that loves making money. He even wrote a top seller called “The Art of the Deal” and graduated from the Wharton School of Business—a fine school that sends thousands of smart businesspeople into the world.

Trump’s opponent, Clinton, is a former first lady, Secretary of State and graduate of the Yale law School, which is another fine institution that educates many of the world’s finest barristers. However, Clinton, is a career politician. Although some claim Trump’s inexperience in politics should exclude him from the presidency. 

I disagree with this assessment since career politicians become set in their ways and focus more on keeping their power than worrying about their constituents. 

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Man forced to pay $750 per month in child support for another man's child

Americans will always consider Colorado and Washington pioneers in legalizing marijuana. But, Colorado child support laws aren’t so liberal. Just ask Chris Atkins, a father on the hook for paying $750 per month in child support while Logan Doolen, the known biological father, doesn’t pay anything.  Atkins shared his story with Fox 31 Denver.

Atkins had once dated a woman named Lori Lonnquist. Eight years later, she wanted to change their child’s last name. Atkins refused. Afterward, she dropped a bomb on him. After eleven years of supporting his daughter, Lonnquist told Atkins the child wasn’t his. DNA testing confirmed Atkins wasn’t the father. Logan Doolen, the biological father didn’t know about the child.

Atkins went to court with the paternity results. He told the court he shouldn’t have to continue paying support because he hadn’t seen the child in four years. He claimed the court wasn’t too concerned with enforcing visitation, however, the court wanted him to continue paying $750 per month for a child he hadn’t seen in four years. 

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Roadside crosses ease the pain of surviving family

For nearly twenty years, I have driven the same route to visit my parents. The drive is always peaceful and usually takes two hours. I rarely see anything extraordinary or unusual like strange animals or UFOs.

But on my latest visit, I did notice some new roadside memorials. These can be seen along many different roads across America. Since childhood, I can remember seeing them along highways and country roads. While in Kindergarten, three crosses were staked into a road near my school. I asked my father about them. He told me it was how grieving family members remembered loved ones who died in automobile accidents.

I have been making the trip to my parents’ home since the early ‘90s. Although many memorials are withered and beaten by harsh weather, they remain standing. Some are plain crosses while others have flags, pictures, pinwheels, and other trinkets attached to them.

I had read somewhere that many people dislike roadside memorials because they consider crosses a religious symbol. These same people claim religious artifacts have no business on state property. However, one memorial has stood out in my mind for the past nineteen years. Why? Because it honors a deceased state trooper. 

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Why do we love flesh-eating zombies?

The following is an excerpt from my recently released book titled “Just Bite Me: A Guide to Zombies, Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Walking Nightmares.” The book is now available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.  

The sun is blinding and shares its warm rays with anyone who can appreciate its warmth. It’s a time for family vacations, grilling out, swimming, and romance. Couples are visiting local parks, holding hands, and sharing embraces. The dog walkers and elderly also enjoy frequenting local parks. But only a few miles away, turbulence is stirring in the local boneyard.

Silent chants float through the air.

A chilling breeze silently whispers, Brains! Brains! Brains! The chant becomes one with the old boneyard and caresses the remains of its residents. The remains are rotten and long forgot. Madness soon rises from underneath crusty ground. Dirt covered phalanges protrude through unholy mounds of earth. Prodding fingers still wear wedding rings, necklaces, and other reminders of a former life. Other fingers clutch handfuls of dirt clumps encased with shreds of grass.

Skeletal arms puncture the soft dirt and raise their arms in protest. These dead creatures once held jobs, wrote poetry, and held loved ones in what they used to call arms. Now, the dead fingers writhe and clutch dirt and shards of their rotting coffins. The living don’t hear the cracking phalanges and metacarpal bones. These creatures now seek sustenance.

Zombie skulls resemble burned out Jack-O-lanterns. The skulls no longer contain eyeballs or flesh. The worms have taken residence. In harmony, the dead have returned to lay waste on the living. With tattered flesh dangling from bones like wind chimes, the dead silently infiltrate the surrounding subdivisions. 

Ragged burial clothing wrap long-dead skeletons like a bandage. These horrors do not speak or dance. They only exist to collect their pound of flesh. They will soon feast on blood, brains, and pale fleshy skin. The zombies are on the march.

Before 1968, zombies weren’t flesh-eating monsters. Director George Romero introduced flesh-eating zombies in a movie titled Night of the Living Dead. After Hell closed its doors, evil had nowhere to go. Their only recourse was to kill the living and inherit the planet.

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Was the image of a dying man's spirit captured in an eerie photograph?

Life-and-death are our only guarantees in this lifetime. When we enter this world, we are already dying. Since no one has returned from the grave to report what happens after death, we are left with our faith in a higher being. But every so often, we see a picture or video that makes us wonder about what happens to us after we die.

Earlier in the week, a driver named Saul Vazquez came upon a crash scene while driving through Powell County, Kentucky. A motorcyclist had crashed his bike and was near death. Vazquez snapped a picture of the police officers surrounding the victim. After viewing the picture, Vazquez noticed a strange mist rising above an officer at the scene.

The biker didn’t survive his injuries and died at the hospital. In the picture, a strange mist resembling a person is visible. Some think it was the biker’s spirit leaving his body. But if he died at the hospital, does this mean his spirit left before his body died? 

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Why does the racial divide in American continue to widen?

Last week was a bloody one for Dallas police officers. A former soldier named Micah Xavier Johnson opened fire on police officers at a Black Lives Matter march in Dallas. The event was peaceful until Johnson fired at police officers from a parking garage. Johnson shot twelve officers and two pedestrians. Unfortunately, five officers didn’t make it home to their families.

The police used a robot to detonate and kill Johnson. Authorities found an arsenal in Brown’s home and learned that Johnson had retaliated for two police shootings involving black men in Minnesota and Louisiana. Johnson acted on hate when he shot twelve police officers. Based on social media comments, Americans are divided on racial discrimination.

Unfortunately, racism has always existed in America. American Indians, Chinese railroad workers, African-Americans, and Japanese-Americans have experienced hate based on their skin color. During WWII, the American government placed innocent Japanese-American citizens into internment camps. So racism is nothing new. 

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