One of the main things that holds our society together is trusting one another. We, as humans, rely on other humans to follow established rules and do their “jobs,” whether it’s a surgeon, a pilot, a cop or a politician (go ahead, giggle).   

As a judge for this year’s Black Reel Awards, I am screening the shorts and features up for consideration, and at the conclusion of each new film I catch myself swelling with real pride because, through these independently produced films, I feel like the reflection I’ve been seeking sharpens as the frames settle into place.
  

WEDNESDAY NOV. 28 Whether it’s London, England or London, Ky., people tend to get pissed off when they find out their children have been banned from one day entering the pearly gates of heaven.  

Since Thelma and her new husband Bill didn’t really exist, they couldn’t attend my grandmother’s funeral.  

Once upon a time, there lived a presumptuous and possibly troubled, grown-ass man who made his living by pitching his voice cartoonishly high to the precipice of nasal annoyance.    

 Can women be funny? It’s a question so brain-numbingly idiotic that it’s best left ignored, but that’s difficult when multiple facets of the media — from pop culture bloggers to comedians on Twitter — recycle the “debate” over and over again.    

SATURDAY NOV. 24: The best way to increase public safety is to get things that imperil it off the street … and then auction them off to the public so they’ll be back on the streets. That’s the bulletproof rationale the Kentucky State Police are employing by selling confiscated firearms to gun dealers.   

Celebrity gourmand Anthony Bourdain was asked by a reader during a live chat on Gawker.com to validate the quality of Cincinnati chili; he responded that it was not good but could be “enjoyable when stoned.” CINCINNATI -2    

I was awakened by these sentences in the pre-dawn darkness of Sunday morning. Makes sense. It was our dear mother’s favorite time of day, her favorite day of the week.  

With tax hikes and spending cuts known as the “fiscal cliff” on the horizon and a Congress that has been unwilling to meet under the mistletoe to decide how they will rear the 2013 New Year’s Budget-Baby, it seems that we as citizens need to provide our elected officials an example of how to kiss and make up this holiday season.  

Even those who don’t believe in the Bible as a source and guide from a higher power would be willing to concede that the stories of Christ’s social mission speak to a degree of efficiency and discipline that could be a model, especially in today’s world.
  

Oil giant BP agreed to pay $4.5 billion in for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill — the largest criminal penalty in U.S. history. WORLD -2    

MONDAY NOV. 19: Justin Bieber won artist of the year at the AMA awards last night, leading readers of things everywhere to become less jaded by all the publications that run “Signs of the Apocalypse” blurbs within them.  

Asking the beautiful, shiny revelers occupying the part of Vine Street comprising Gateway Quarter to recall and meditate on the April 2001 riots, curfews and economic boycotts that erupted after then-police officer Stephen Roach shot and killed Timothy Thomas on Republic Street is impossible.  

While living situations in our twenties are often characterized by constant human interaction, there comes a time when circumstance will send us diving head-first into a life living alone, which, at times, feels like a behind-the-scenes look into the life of Tom Hanks’ character in Castaway.