Grab your tissues, if there are any even left after the world sees this video.With Christina Perri's "A Thousand Years" underscoring, we see a young man in pajamas sitting on a bed wearing noise-cancelling headphones. A tail-wagging black dog approaches as the TikTok chyron shares: "POV: Your autistic son was always afraid of dogs until..." @lifeotspectrum They were looking for each other ❤️ ?: @thecheyenneagains (TT) #autism #therapydog We see him doing, perhaps, some self-soothing stimming, as he timidly reaches out to pet the dog, but his trepidation pulls him back. It then reads, "A stray dog randomly shows up at your house and changed everything."As he continues to show interest, but is held back by fear, the dog sits…and waits, "allowing him the patience and time needed to work through his fears." He crosses his arms and the dog…just…keeps…waiting, while carefully sitting close enough to convey that he's safe.We see a smile from the young man. "Gunner created a safe space and allowed my son to trust," the chyron continues. And then—his smile got even warmer as he bravely reaches out his hand and gently strokes the dog on his head. A man and a dog stand near a dock. Photo by Joseph Pearson on Unsplash The music ceases and he now feels more comfortable petting sweet Gunner. The final chyron reads, "Gunner is the best." And if that wasn't heartwarming enough, Gunner the dog turns around, faces the camera and appears to smile.Originally posted on the @thecheyenneagains TikTok page and then reposted by Life on the Spectrum (@Lifeotspectrum), this video has half a million likes and thousands of comments. It clearly resonates with people in the spectrum community, dog-lovers, and just plain humans with hearts.One top commenter writes, "Dog understands autism better than 95 percent of people." Another shares how lovely it is to see Gunner show so much patience and understanding. "Gunner read his body language and energy perfectly and said 'it’s ok dude, I can wait take your time it will be worth it.'" Another shares a similar sentiment, "Gunner just knew. What a brilliant dog and probably life-changing for this young man too."As a follow-up, the OP shares another video of Gunner soothing her son after what she describes was a "tough day." In this clip, she shares that her son's name is Brodey and we see him again gently petting Gunner as the two look at one another. @thecheyenneagains Replying to @LuciaR they are so sweet together and Gunner just knows what to do ❤️ #creatorsearchinsights #fyp #fypシ #fypシ゚viral #fyppppppppppppppppppppppp #viral #viralvideo #viraltiktok #autism #autismawareness #dog #dogsoftiktok #dogs #doglover A commenter here writes, "Some dogs show up specifically to heal a part of your soul," to which the adoring mother writes, "He just loves Brodey."Another shares the belief that the two are soul-healing: "I love dogs so much. This is amazing. Not even trained service dog, yet knows exactly what your precious boy needs. I think you found his soul dog."And don't think Gunner isn't getting some great TikTok attention. After what appears to be a run-in with some skunks, he gets a bath and a talking to. @thecheyenneagains Gunner thought it would be a great idea to try and mess with a ?!!! ?‍??‍??‍??‍??‍? please pray for me #fyp #fypシ #fypシ゚viral #fypage #trending #dog #dogs #dogsoftiktok #doglover #gross #nose #bath #bathtime #clean #baddog Mom asks him, "Are you gonna mess with the skunks again? Was it worth it? No more skunks. Good grief!" A commenter playfully replies, "He absolutely said yes to both questions."

Gen X childhoods are often portrayed as somewhat idyllic, filled with feral freedom and hours of screen-free adventures in nature. A certain amount of that portrayal is true, and yes, it was often as glorious as it sounds. But there were some not-so-great things about growing up Gen X and older, too, that might shock some of the younger folks.For instance, corporal punishment in schools was common. Not only were teachers and administrators allowed to discipline kids, but they sometimes did it by hitting them with paddles. "Hacks" or "swats" or "licks" they were often called, with kids essentially being spanked—but with hard objects. Many people of a certain age have stories of kids being sent to the principal's office to endure a number of hacks by an adult who, for some baffling reason, felt it was perfectly acceptable—necessary, even—to beat a child with a heavy piece of wood. the simpsons paddle GIF Giphy It's surreal to imagine it now, isn't it? A (now-deleted) photo shared on Reddit of a paddle with holes in it (for greater speed and force due to less air resistance) threw Gen Xers and any Boomers reading into a vivid memory spiral as people shared stories from their own experiences. Not everyone got the paddle—some got hit with yardsticks, switches, and other objects—but it's clear that corporal punishment (i.e., physical violence inflicted in the name of discipline) was commonplace during that era. As people shared:"My fifth grade teacher had one like this — he called it 'Count Whistler.'""The worse part is some student made it for credit in shop. That's the part I never got over.""Ha! Yep. THAT thing! Good grief. Memory flood. Hung in Mr Flanagan's office beside the doorway. Fortunately, I was only a one-time recipient. Don't even remember why. Something minor and unintentional."But, the holes...THE HOLES! They possessed a mythical foreboding power, combining rough-shot aerodynamics, 1970s ambivalence, delivered randomly with casual sadistic intent!""I was never paddled but others were. One girl was so scared, she threw up on the principal. Good times." Drawing depicting corporal punishment, Theodor Hosemann Prügelstrafe, 1842Public domain "I got switched the 3rd day of kindergarten. Hated school every single day afterwards.""I remember kids getting smacked on the palm with a yardstick in front of the class in kindergarten. They had to stand there with their palm up waiting for the blow. Seeing kindergarten age kids now I just can’t fathom how anyone could do that to a little kid.""I was hit in the ass with a black-square metal device as punishment. It was In front of the whole school (we had to line up by class) by after recess. And yes by the school principal. And no it was not my fault. Still hurts to this day. More psychological than anything.""I had severe ADHD (still do) and was paddled regularly, often harshly and for reasons I didn't understand. Eventually they gave up on the beatings and just stuck me in the hallway and forgot about me. That was when I actually started learning things, sneaking into the library to read whatever I could.""Kids used to be paddled in front of school assemblies - it was terrible. It was the era of 'tough love', which gave cover to blatant abuse." Some parents didn't allow schools to physically punish their kids.If you're wondering how parents allowed schools to hit their children, some did and some didn't. There were often permission slips sent home requesting parents to consent to such "discipline" methods, and parental attitudes were all over the map. "My school required a parent to sign a form allowing them to 'discipline' a student. My mom was 'Hell No!' My mom would have shown up and paddled them.""I spent most of my life in the northeast, where this didn't happen, so imagine my surprise during my brief stint in a Florida school when I got caught chewing gum and was sent to the principal's office to be paddled. I told them they had better call my mother first, which they fortunately did.My mother, who was not a woman to be trifled with, told them if they laid a finger on me they would be sorry beyond anything they could imagine and that we came from 'a civilized place' and she couldn't believe anyone thought it was okay for 'some old pervert to put his hands on a teenage girl's ass.' I did not get paddled." Some parents said "absolutely not" to corporal punishment. Giphy by NETFLIX "My pops, who at the time did believe in a bit of corporal punishment for certain offenses, wrote them a nice note to go with the refusal which I only found out about years later. 'To whom it may concern, my penmanship sucks because the nuns at my school beat me for writing with my left hand even though I am naturally left handed. Not only do I deny you permission to strike my children I will send anyone who does so to the hospital.' Dad was actually a fairly chill guy but I have no doubt he meant every word.""My school required the same and my mom informed me she was going to sign it as the principal insisted. At 8 years old I looked her straight in the eyes and said they would have to call the police cus I wouldn’t be going down without a fight. My mom did not end up signing it.""At my elementary school they called them 'swat slips.' Well, I got one and was supposed to take it home for my parents to sign. Being a 9 year old girl, I was not down for a swat from my middle aged vice principal. The next day, I returned it unsigned and declared that my dad said he would discipline me at home. The school called my dad to verify this. He did take care of it at home and beat my bare ass with his leather belt. I should have taken the swat." — (@) As of 2024, corporal punishment was still legal in 17 states and practiced in 14, according to the National Education Association. Six additional states have not expressly outlawed it. While the violent discipline method has fallen out of favor for the most part, it's not gone. Roughly 69,000 students received corporal punishment in the 2017-18 school year, nearly 40,000 fewer than in 2013. The pandemic disrupting in-person schooling likely had an impact on the most recent number available—about 20,000 students in 2020-21—but even those numbers might be shocking to those of us who assume that paddling children had become a relic from a bygone era. And lest there be any question as to whether the practice is bad, The World Health Organization has classified corporal punishment as “a violation of children’s rights to respect for physical integrity and human dignity, health, development, education and freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” — (@) Of course, there are people who try to argue that moving away from corporal punishment is "what's wrong with kids these days," but there's a whole ocean of options in between beating a child and having no school discipline whatsoever. Fear of bodily harm is not a necessary component of learning how to behave in a civilized manner, and corporal punishment has been shown time and again to do more harm than good. But we don't even need those studies to know that paddling kids was wrong. Reading through Gen Xers' responses to the paddle photo, it's clear that the vast majority aren't even remotely grateful for the experience, but rather appalled that it ever happened in the first place. Hitting a child with what is essentially a bat on the arms or legs or back would be considered child abuse, but hitting them on their bottom—which we tell kids is a private area—was somehow not child abuse? There's no way to make that make sense. Thankfully, we've learned a lot over the decades, but the fact that these things are still used anywhere is shocking.

Warning: The following article discusses child sexual abuse and may be upsetting to some readers.Every parent wants their child to feel protected from any type of danger that may come their way. However, Lexi Koster, a Child Life Specialist and Certified Clinical Trauma Specialist with expertise in childhood sexual assault (CSA), says that parents should be careful how they talk about protecting their children from sexual abusers.Koster believes that parents should refrain from telling their children that if they are touched inappropriately, they will take action against them, whether it means physical harm or getting the law involved. That doesn’t mean the parents shouldn't take appropriate action if something were to occur, but they shouldn’t talk about any potential punishment or retribution around their child. @thebodysafetyexpert #bodysafety #bodysafetyeducation #csaprevention #fyp #childprotection #childsafety #protectourkids #foryou #childsafetytips #protectourchildren #parenting101 #consciousparenting “Kids will believe you when you say things like ‘If anybody ever touches your private parts, I will make sure something bad happens to them’ or ‘You will never see them again,’” she explains in a video on TikTok with over 190,000 views. “This is a big problem because kids are most often sexually abused by people they know and love, like family members.“So if they think that you’re going to hurt this person, or send them away so that they never see them again, this might scare them into not disclosing to you and enduring this abuse for a very long time,” Koster continues. “Instead, if kids ask what will happen to this person, you can say ‘I’ll make sure they get the help they need from trusted professionals, but what happens to them is not your responsibility and it is not your fault.” A young girl playing with a paper doll.via Canva/PhotosKoster’s advice is based on one of the most disturbing facts about child abuse: often, the abuser is someone the family knows and trusts. According to Darkness to Light, an organization dedicated to ending child sexual abuse, more than 90% of abusers are people that children know, love, and trust. Thirty to forty percent of abusers are family members, and 50% are someone outside of the family that the child knows and trusts. Eighty-five percent of child abuse victims never report their abuse, and a big reason is that they are afraid of harming their abuser. “This is why I get so frustrated when I see people fantasize about hurting (or worse) abusers. I get the emotional reaction, trust me, as a victim, I know, but these actions and rhetoric only make it harder for victims to feel able to come forward,” one of the TikTok commenters wrote. “This is the exact reason I never told my family. I was terrified of the consequences,” another added. “Double this with: Abusers often threaten their victims with the same line of things if not worse if they 'tell', and it's an absolute riptide current situation,” a commenter wrote. A soccer coach working with his team.via Canva/PhotosWhat are some signs that someone may be a child abuser?The disturbing things about child abusers is that they, more often than not, are someone the child and family know well. So, how can we identify if someone is an abuser before something terrible happens? Koster says there are five red flags parents should look out for. @thebodysafetyexpert Replying to @tia_ftm i have a whole comprehensive resource on body safety for parents which i’ll share once I hit 1K! (I can’t post a link in my bio until that happens) Pls help me reach this goal!! ❤️ #bodysafety #bodysafetyeducation #csaprevention #fyp #foryou #childprotection #childsafety #childsafetytips #protectourkids #protectourchildren #consciousparenting #parenting101 Five red flags that someone may be a child abuser1. Insisting on alone time“First, is creating opportunities for or insisting on having alone time with a child. I've heard countless stories from parents about tutors, piano teachers, even grandparents getting defensive when the parents suggests that another adult should be present to monitor the activities. That is a huge red flag.”2. Boundary pushing and manipulation“This might look like a person insisting on babysitting your child because you really look like you need a break, or subtly testing boundaries like making inappropriate comments or jokes about or in front of children.”3. Too-good-to-be-true complex“They are available for absolutely any issue, day or night, for your family may sometimes even show up and offer this support unprovoked." 4. Downplaying or deflecting concerns"Fourth is exhibiting behaviors where they're exerting some sort of control over a child. This might look like encouraging secrecy, which is a big no no, or engaging in excessive physical contact while ignoring a child's discomfort. They might do this in order to make you feel guilty for bringing it up in the first place, and may even use their status or favors that they've done for the child and family to quickly shut down concerns.”5. Defensiveness“Anytime someone gets defensive or makes you feel stupid for insisting that they practice body safety rules with your child, red flag, no good. My best advice to you is to trust your gut. If someone feels off or too good to be true, they probably are.”

Since elementary school, we’ve been taught the general consensus of what each color looks like. Roses are red, the sky is blue, grass is green. That sort of thing. And still, more and more evidence comes along to suggest that no matter what sort of collective reality we all agree upon, color is just one of those things that is very much up to personal perception.This can lead to some, well, interesting, if not intense interactions. Many of us still have PTSD from the whole “blue and black or white and gold dress” debate, after all. Which brings us to Kristin Hughes, who aimed to sell her extra armchair—which she knew to be blue—on Facebook Marketplace. However, as she recalled on TikTok, things got confusing when the potential buyer insisted that the chair was gray. Being a woman of the modern age, Hughes naturally decided to get a second opinion from the Internet. She even set it up next to her couch, which she also "always said was blue” to help obtain a fair assessment. Let’s just say…the response wasn’t necessarily what she expected. @im.krispy WHAT COLOR IS THIS CHAIR!! ♬ original sound - kristin "It’s not only gray, it’s very freaking gray. ?," one person wroteAnother echoed, "That is the grayest gray I’ve seen.”Still another joked, “Is the blue in the room with us?”“I hadn’t seen a single person say it was blue. I really did start spiraling,” Hughes told People in an interview. “I was shocked at the number of comments—but even more shocked that people were overwhelmingly saying the chair was gray. It had never crossed my mind that it wasn’t blue.”In several subsequent videos, Hughes attempted to reclaim her sanity by pointing out several items in her home which she also thought were blue, of which many, many were in fact gray. Even with items she did correctly think were blue, she didn’t seem to notice how much different the shades of blue were from each other. @im.krispy I am unwell ♬ original sound - kristin As reality began setting in, Hughes then recalled buying her mom a blue couch as a gift. When she called her mom to talk about her now viral moment, her mom informed her that she had, in fact, bought a gray couch.“If you had a nickel for every time you bought a gray couch thinking it was blue, you’d have TWO nickels. Which isn’t a lot but weird it happened TWICE," one person quipped, referencing a Phineas and Ferb-induced meme. Upon several people suggesting she might be colorblind, Hughes recorded herself taking the EnChroma color blindness test online, where she did get some questions wrong. @im.krispy Results are in but the doctor will be the deciding factor ? ♬ original sound - kristin The good news is: after her video went viral, Hughes has been offered help in several ways, from an in-person colorblind assessment to a free couch from Wayfair—one that’s actually blue! So, her being transparent and having a good sense of humor about it seems to have only paid off. Though Hughes’ story feels unique, many do not learn that they are color blind until later in life. And while it’s normally something present early in a person's life, people can also develop color blindness when they are older, though it’s rare. All this to say, it’s not all that baffling that she went otherwise unaware until one fateful Facebook encounter. That person, whom Hughes thanked for stopping her from living “a millennial gray life,” did end up getting that decidedly not blue chair. So, happy endings all around. If you’d like to take your own EnChroma color blindness test, click here.

Two different cultures.

by Matt Agorist, The Free Thought Project: (Reclaim The Net) The Senate has taken a significant step toward federal regulation of stablecoins by advancing the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS Act), a proposal designed to lay the groundwork for the mainstream adoption of digital currencies in the United States. The bill cleared […]

Tickets On Sale Now for the 78th Running of the Peoria TT – Round #13 of the 2025 Progressive American Flat Track Season JD Beach (95) races ahead of Briar Bauman (3), Trevor Brunner (21), and Brandon Robinson (44) at the Peoria TT during the 2024 Progressive AFT season [Photo: American Flat Track/Tim Lester] DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (June 13, 2025) – Progressive American Flat Track’s most storied TT returns to central Illinois on Saturday, August 16, 2025, when the 78th Peoria TT thunders into the Peoria Motorcycle Club’s legendary natural amphitheater. The race marks Round 13 of the 2025 championship and the midway showdown for every title chase on the tour.  Fan-first ticket deal  For a limited time, General Admission is just $30 in advance—the most wallet-friendly Peoria TT price in recent memory. Upgrade options and VIP hospitality are also available, but quantities are limited. Fans can lock in their seats now by clicking HERE. Remember, every ticket is a pit pass.  Festival vibes all day  Free dirt-bike giveaway: One lucky ticket holder will ride home on a brand-new machine courtesy of World of Powersports and the Peoria Motorcycle Club.  Boonie Bike Bash: Grab a cold one and watch backyard legends trade elbows on mini-bikes provided by Walter Brothers Harley-Davidson.  Kids Zone: Demo striders, all the fun, and shaded viewing so the next generation can get hooked early.  Bands Behind the Jump: Live music fires up between practice and every race—literally behind Peoria’s iconic TT fly-away.  Adventure on the attack Peoria is one of just four events hosting the wildly popular AFT AdventureTrackers division in 2025. All eyes will be on home-state hero Henry Wiles—the 14-time Peoria TT winner—as he muscles the Walter Brothers Harley-Davidson Pan America up and over the infamous “V-jump” in search of yet another slice of Peoria glory.  Get in the gate When: Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025 (exact schedule TBD)  Where: Peoria Motorcycle Club – 605 S Cameron Ln, Bartonville, IL  Tickets: $30 advance GA (while they last) + VIP options – https://www.tixr.com/groups/peoriamotorcycleclub/events/2025-peoria-tt-129191  Kids 12 & under: Free GA with a paid adult  Ready to feel the roost? Grab your $30 ticket, stake a spot on the hill and watch the 78th Peoria TT write its next chapter. The post 78th Running of the Peoria TT: Tickets On Sale appeared first on Bikernet.com - Online Biker Magazine.

In the unique rhythms of blended families, God brings purpose, healing, and love that holds every heart on Father's Day.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a nationwide alert to all 94 U.S. Attorney Offices on Thursday, urging preparation for possible criminal investigations in connection with planned protests against…