In case you missed when President Barack Obama dropped 8BD’s favorite “f-bomb” (fatherhood) about two-thirds of the way through his State of The Union Speech last week Tuesday, here’s the segment:

“[W]e’ll work to strengthen families by…doing more to encourage fatherhood – because what makes you a man isn’t the ability to conceive a child; it’s having the courage to raise one.”

Later last week in Chicago, President Obama was again talking about parenthood (in a variety of forms) and specifically fatherhood as a hedge against many of America’s social ills. The President appears to be “ramping up the rhetoric” in the best kind of way.

Along the same line of scumbag dad who shot up his daughter’s laptop to “discipline” her, we have a new story of a dad who used a recently purchased AK-47 to settle an argument between he and his daughter about her academic performance.

The high points of the daughter’s complaint, taken by a social worker at her school the day after the argument, are that the dad had recently purchased the AK-47 in the midst of recent gun controversy in the USA and widespread fear of assault weapons gun bans, and that he used that gun to threaten his daughter and her mother, who he also reportedly threw to the ground.

This scumbag of a parent is exactly the kind of person for which we have both gun control laws and child abuse laws. Of course there is more to be said about a culture that allows, and does not abhor, the use of gun in solving problems, but for now I have to suffice for pointing my sternest ridicule in this loser’s direction.

Taken 2 – Bryan Mills (played by Liam Neeson) is a dad “with a particular set of skills” who, in the prequel film (2008), rescued his daughter from an Albanian human-trafficking syndicate, using the unconventional tactic of applying his experience as expert CIA operative in a merciless rampage across Europe.

In this year’s sequel, Bryan is still trying to get close to his daughter Kim (played by Maggie Grace), while working off-and-on as a high-profile personal security consultant. When he finds out that his ex-wife Lenore (played by the stunning Famke Janssen) is having a rough time at home with an estranged husband, Bryan invites Kim and Lenore to visit him in Istanbul after his next assignment for a few days vacation.

Meanwhile, in Albania, trafficking kingpin Murad Krasniqi (played by Rade Serbedzija) plots revenge against Bryan, and travels with his goons into Istanbul just in time to catch the family reuniting for their vacation. During one outing, Bryan and Lenore seem to be reigniting an old flame just as Murad’s goons barge in with orders to take Bryan alive. Needless to say, a series of kidnapping attempts against Bryan, Lenore, and even Kim ensues, while Bryan spends much of the movie performing his signature vicious rampage.

But you already knew that, didn’t you? Check out the rest of the review after the button…

Very soon, I’ll be returning home from Afghanistan, where I’ve been deployed away from my family for nearly a year. Let me tell you that I am absolutely thrilled to see my wife and kiddos, and I bet they are stoked to have me home as well.

I’m fortunate that this is only my first deployment, and also that it will likely be my last for some time. For a lot of American military families, this is not the case, and some military members with multiple deployments have been away for three, four, even FIVE years of their childrens’ lives.

The sweetest part of a military deployment is probably the homecoming, where we reunite with the people in our lives that we love most. Amidst the countdowns and preparations, a lot is built up around having the family intact again. Military parents make plans just as much as I am sure the children do. I’ve got some plans of my own that I thought I would like to share at 8BD. So here’s a list of the 5 things I can’t wait to do with my kids once I get home from Afghanistan.

After trying CrossFit at the beginning of last year, I wrote about how CrossFit dads turn their kids into beasts, using daily Workout of the Day (WOD) exercises from CrossFit and CrossFit Kids. I’ve been off-and-on with my own CrossFit exercise routine, but I check in regularly to the “main site” and keep a log with my wife, who holds me accountable and I appreciate that.

The CrossFit main site usually features a cool image of an athlete performing some awesome feat of strength from the CrossFit repertoire, but lately I’ve noticed lots of images creeping into the mix of men with their children, who are also attempting some similar exercise as their daddy. I thought it was pretty cool, and began saving a few of the images to show here on 8BitDad:

A few of these came up at the main site, but the rest I culled off the internets, where I also bumped into this cool dad’s blog: CrossFit Dad’s Blog. I’ve even bumped into one creative CrossFitter who has designed WOD toys that are fun and safe for budding athletes three years old and older.

Are you a CrossFit dad? If so, holler back at us, or feel free to send us a photo of you doing epic feats of strength with your kids. We’ll post it here at 8BitDad.

Boy, howdy! Did that video of a father shooting up his daughter’s laptop for mouthing off on Facebook get around the internet quickly or what? It almost happened so quick we didn’t see the point in covering it outside of the 24-hour meme-cycle of the internet. But we did want to go ahead and put it up on 8BitDad.com for those of you who have either been doing something productive with the last day or so, or those of you who deeply rely on our expert fatherly opinions (trust us, we’re a doctor…well, one of us is).

First a little background. The video you are about to see is of the father of a teenage girl named “Hannah.” Recently, Hannah put her parents on blast, using Facebook to vent three paragraphs of her teenage frustrations about chores. She was able to conceal the post from her parents using Facebook security settings, but Hannah’s father discovered the post during some expensive “software upgrades” that he performed on her laptop. With a lot of agitation, Hannah’s father reads the post aloud on video, and then shoots up Hannah’s laptop with his .45 pistol. He promises to post the video on Hannah’s Facebook immediately before grounding her for the rest of her childhood.