I never like to get too serious, but my best friend is having a child, so it causes me to ponder my mortality.

Growing up in a Catholic environment had pros and cons, but in the end I tend to side with the cons, and here is why:

1. I agree with famed comedian George Carlin that rituals are important, one should have many of them to stay healthy and well, but church should not be one of them. Catholic mass took up about an hour of my Sundays growing up, that is an hour that could have been spent doing much more interesting and enlightening things.

2. One should never force their values or beliefs on another. I feel like this goes without saying, but if one does not want religion in their life, take a fucking hint and don’t try to evangelize them. I would even go as far as to say that it is unethical to force your religion on your kids, you have to feed them, but you don’t have to screw them up for life by imposing your religion on them.

3. Religion causes serious problems in the world, and the United States are acutely responsible for these problems. Christianity in the United States is responsible for so much ignorance that I don’t know where to begin, but denying climate change is a good place to start.

4. It’s 2016, we don’t need religious crusades, which is precisely what is happening right now. We don’t call it that, mainly because Christians would lose their minds thinking that a drone strike on a Muslim isn’t justified. It pains me to even write that, but any student of history could tell you that this election cycle is polarizing on an astounding level.

5. Why? Why create unnecessary conflict, why make it awkward for co-workers of another faith at the water cooler, why believe in some deity that forces you to slave away at a job you hate?

I’m not asking for an end to religion, that would be almost impossible, but I am asking for people to ignore it more often. Human lives end 100% of the time, let’s not allow the afterlife to prevent us from living a real life…

People in the United States need to stop acting like porn isn’t a thing…

…it is a thing, and here are the benefits, not that you asked for them.

It prevents sexual assault.
It prevents suicide.

If the above reasons weren’t enough for you, then I challenge you to look in the mirror and tell yourself that voting for Donald Trump is a realistic decision that you might hope to make.

I am so tired of having conversations with people about technology, and when the topic of porn comes up, people act like it isn’t available everywhere.

You cannot walk through a mall in America, without being subjected, or bombarded, with at least twenty images of women that are both tasteful and empowering.

I’m tired of pandering to the people who don’t send their kids to college, and as an American, that should be your goal, regardless of the next president.

I would say, ‘give me Bernie or give me death’, but I know we live in a place with higher standards than Florida, where the waiting room is the waiting room.

Give me liberty or give me death sounds like an empty phrase in a swamp…

I have no sympathy for people who don’t vote. If jury duty is your excuse, you deserve everything that you get. There is no excuse, especially when you consider the fact that you possess the most powerful vote in the universe. Keep in mind, when I say universe, I mean the United States of America.

This election cycle has produced a very polarizing set of candidates, and some would say that is a bad thing, but I disagree.

Before I elaborate, I am right there with you, I’m already exhausted with the 2016 process. Keep in mind, however, this is an important election.

Here is the good:

Jeb Bush is already out, and every liberal in the country should celebrate this. Now his greatest moment in politics will be stealing the 2000 election for his brother.

Here is the bad:

Donald Trump is still the front runner in a party that is so confused, it might as well be playing Russian roulette to pick its’ candidate.

I never thought I would say this, but this lot of Republican candidates makes Sarah Palin seem logical…