Archive for October 25, 2011

Bow to god of ‘tolerance’ or else

Posted: October 25, 2011 in TownHall.com
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http://townhall.com/columnists/byronbabione/2011/10/24/bow_to_god_of_tolerance_or_else/page/full/In New Jersey, the Township of Union Public School District has suspended a special education teacher named Vicki Knox because she sat in her own home, on her own computer, and expressed her Christian faith on her personal Facebook page.

After seeing a quasi-shrine that had been erected at her school, honoring Harvey Milk, Neil Patrick Harris, and Virginia Woolf for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History month, Knox expressed disapproval of “homosexuality based on her Christian faith.”

Just think of it – although the Bible unequivocally denounces practicing homosexual behavior, groups like Garden State Equality (GSE) have come out against Knox as if she invented Christianity’s teaching on homosexual practices, and they’re actually calling for her to lose her job.

Said GSE chair Steven Goldstein: “I find what she wrote on Facebook endangers the learning atmosphere for students beyond repair and violates the school district’s own policy of a safe and comfortable environment for all. She’s no longer in a position to teach in the classroom because she will make many students fearful of her hatred.”

Ever notice how leftists like to argue for everyone to have an opinion and the freedom to express it until a person has and expresses an opinion that runs counter to theirs? Once that point is reached, the individual is accused of espousing “hatred,” even if what she expressed on her Facebook page was: “The display should not be in the high school. [The school] is not the setting to promote, encourage, support, and foster homosexuality.”

This point is made even more poignant when one considers the fact that Knox went out of her way to say that she prays for those who are persecuting her and tells them that God loves them (which is now apparently the same thing as expressing “hatred”).

In responding to some of the hateful comments that were made about her, Knox wrote that she doesn’t “even use the word hate” unless she’s expressing how much she hates being lied about. Rather, she said she has “used words such as unnatural, ungodly, and immoral” to describe the practice of homosexual behavior.

Ironically the Apostle Paul used very similar wording when he warned mankind that individuals practicing homosexual behavior were rushing headlong toward God’s judgment and were actually examples of God’s judgment upon the earth:

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. (Romans 1:26-27, NIV)

 

Knox was very clear in her Facebook entries about the fact that she has family and friends who “practice alternative lifestyles” that she does “not condone or support.” Yet she does not force them from her life or withhold her love from them. Rather, she wrote that “Christ draws us all through a love so vast and encompassing that our human minds continue to fail to comprehend…it.”

It appears that the minds at GSE only hear “hate” when Knox says “love,” and only see aggression when Knox extends compassion. But that’s not Knox’s fault, and she shouldn’t be penalized for expressing her faith or her opinion, even if GSE is of the opinion that she should.

 
 
Byron Babione

Byron Babione

Byron Babione is senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund (www.telladf.org), a legal alliance employing a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.

 

A Fat Pride Revolution

Posted: October 25, 2011 in TownHall.com
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I hate to admit it, but somehow, I missed a landmark publication from NYU Press. (This is all the more shameful in light of the fact that I earned my M.A. and Ph.D. from NYU.) The book in question came out in November, 2009, and it marked a watershed moment in fat studies, in particular, the field of women’s fat studies. (I kid you not.)

I’m speaking of The Fat Studies Reader, edited by Esther Rothblum and Sondra Solovay, winner of the 2010 Distinguished Publication Award from the Association for Women in Psychology as well as winner of the 2010 Susan Koppelman Award for the Best Edited Volume in Women’s Studies from the Popular Culture Association.

According to the blurb, “Edited by two leaders in the field, The Fat Studies Reader is an invaluable resource that provides a historical overview of fat studies, an in-depth examination of the movement’s fundamental concerns, and an up-to-date look at its innovative research.”

Perhaps I was not the only one ignorant of the field of “fat studies” or the existence of a “fat pride” movement? But this is meant to be serious stuff, starting with the Foreword by Marilyn Wann: “Fat Studies: An Invitation to Revolution.”

A fat pride revolution?

Part 1 of the book is entitled, “What Is Fat Studies? The Social and Historical Construction of Fatness,” containing these two foundation-laying chapters: “The Inner Corset: A Brief History of Fat in the United States” and “Fattening Queer History: Where Does Fat History Go from Here?” (I’m not making this up.)

Part 2, “Fat Studies in Health and Medicine,” includes chapters like, “Widening the Dialogue to Narrow the Gap in Health Disparities: Approaches to Fat Black Lesbian and Bisexual Women’s Health Promotion,” and “Quest for a Cause: The Fat Gene, the Gay Gene, and the New Eugenics.”

If you think you see a pattern emerging (fat pride and gay pride; a fat gene and a gay gene), you’re right, as confirmed in Part 3 of the book, with chapters on, “Fat Youth as Common Targets for Bullying” along with “Double Stigma: Fat Men and Their Male Admirers.” Indeed, LGBT parallels are prominent in the book, especially in the chapter “No Apology: Shared Struggles in Fat and Transgender Law.” And, just as “gay” replaced “homosexual,” this book makes clear that “fat” should replace “obese.”

Part 4 is entitled, “Size-ism in Popular Culture and Literature” (another “ism” to be deconstructed), while Part 5 focuses on, “Embodying and Embracing Fatness,” indicating that fatness is something to be embraced (and celebrated?). And this paves the way for the concluding section of the book, “Starting the Revolution,” which ends with the chapter, “Are We Ready to Throw Our Weight Around? Fat Studies and Political Activism.” Following this is Appendix A: “Fat Liberation Manifesto, November 1973.”

Well, I must confess my ignorance. I had no idea such a manifesto existed, let alone one dating back to 1973 (the same year that homosexuality was depathologized by the American Psychiatric Association), and so, I decided to educate myself in the area of fat pride.

I learned about NAAFA , the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, founded in 1969 (the same year as the Stonewall riots). “NAAFA’s goal is to help build a society in which people of every size are accepted with dignity and equality in all aspects of life” (naafa.org). I discovered the Fat Times Pride publication, billed as “Breaking Food News You Can Use Since 1985,” and I picked up a new word, “avoirdupois,” having to do with a person’s weight or heaviness, as found in Juliet Samuel’s October 23, 2007 article posted on Reason.com, “Fat Pride World Wide: The growing movement for avoirdupois acceptance.”

According to this article, fat pride activists claim that “the American medical establishment has lost its head over the nationwide ‘obesity epidemic,’ and its prejudice is claiming victims.” In response to these perceived abuses, “fat people are mobilizing. The ‘fat pride’ or ‘fat acceptance’ movement might provoke the scorn of skinnies, but it is growing in number and makes a compelling case.”

To be sure, there is an unhealthy overemphasis on perfect bodies in our society today (especially for women), not to mention the image of almost skeletal fashion models, while on the flip side, there certainly is an obesity epidemic in America. And no one who has ever struggled with his or her weight would make light of those struggles.

Still, I wasn’t quite ready for a fat uprising, a fat pride movement, or a fat revolution. Who knew?

 
Tags: Obesity , Health
 
Michael Brown

Michael Brown

Michael Brown is host of the daily, syndicated talk radio show, The Line of Fire, and author of A Queer Thing Happened to America: And What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been.

The 8th Miracle To Save America

Posted: October 25, 2011 in TownHall.com
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http://townhall.com/columnists/chucknorris/2011/10/25/the_8th_miracle_to_save_america/page/full/Despite high unemployment, continued bad news across fiscal America and a presidency that has lacked luster and restorative productivity, Barack Obama’s stats continue to rival his top GOP challengers. And let’s not forget that he still has the mainstream media hypnotically backing him or that his campaign machine hasn’t even unleashed its billion dollars, according to Mike Huckabee, to combat his competitor.

 

Conservatives are right in asking, “Which GOP presidential candidate could survive, let alone have victory over, the Obama machine?” But maybe the strategy for victory lies in a unique plural solution.

Last week, I concluded my recommendation of the book “Seven Miracles That Saved America” by noting: “I also believe we need an eighth miracle to save America — a providential and pivotal moment that spares our country from falling off into four more years of the Obama transformational abyss.”

Here is what I believe that eighth miracle would look like. It’s not a single person, but a group of people, a formidable team — brought together by an unparalleled idea and unbridled patriots — that ensures the ousting of our incumbent president and the restoration of our country.

As a six-time undefeated world karate champion, I, like any long-term titleholder, will tell you that I obtained such a status by (among other things) mastering my opponents’ strategies, not approaching every competition the same way, and by leveraging my foes’ weaknesses and strengths against my own.

In a column a few months back, I introduced a martial arts practice that does just that; the art of jujitsu is to use an opponent’s weight and strength to your advantage. I believe that this is what the GOP candidates and anti-Obama citizens must do in the 2012 presidential election.

This presidential race is unlike any before it. It is unique on many fronts, not only by the size and formidableness of the Goliath in the White House but also by the unique wisdom, experience and skill set of each potential GOP presidential nominee.

How many times have you heard from others, “There are strong elements I like in all of those running for the GOP nomination”? (During one debate, even the candidates themselves were splicing one another together as possible vice presidential nominees.) You may not want to see all of them sitting in the Oval Office, but wouldn’t you want to see most help the country by serving in some position in the next president’s administration?

Who wouldn’t want to see a brilliant, experienced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as a part of the Cabinet? Who doesn’t appreciate the resolve and moral fortitude of Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Sen. Rick Santorum? Who doesn’t want to utilize the business backgrounds and leadership of Herman Cain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney? Who doesn’t like the emboldened constitutional spirit and frugal fiscal passions of Rep. Ron Paul? Who doesn’t appreciate Gov. Rick Perry’s advocacy for Texas jobs and against frivolous lawsuits with tort reform? And who wouldn’t want to use the foreign affairs experience of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman?

So herein lies my political jujitsu idea. After a fair fight for the GOP nomination, why couldn’t the Republican contenders join together with an unparalleled strategy that could send the Obama campaign compound (including the mainstream media) in a tailspin? Why couldn’t the winner create a united front and say, “A vote for one of us is a vote for all of us”? Why couldn’t they create a Cabinet that would utilize all their skill sets to resurrect our republic? Why should the next GOP president try to sell the American public on new, obscure Cabinet members when these candidates have been vetted before our eyes for months? Would this idea not also rally those following the various candidates and keep our votes from splitting over a third-party candidate?

I can’t think of any preceding presidential race in which this could have been done with the field of GOP nominees, but I also can’t think of any preceding presidential race in which an idea such as this was needed more than it is now. This GOP political dream team also would be a true test of the contenders’ patriotism and leadership servitude. Do they love and want to save our country enough to take a second, third, fourth, fifth, etc., seat among the presidential administration?

No idea is without its limitations and faults, but 99 percent of those across this country with whom I’ve broached this idea are certain that it would rally the majority and usher in a new president. Almost everyone who hears it also asks, “Why haven’t the presidential candidates thought of this?”

That is exactly my question and challenge. Does any GOP presidential candidate have the courage and resolve to rally the GOP contestants and then the American public behind a political dream team comprising all of them?

Forget the presidential rhetoric. Forget presidential election business as usual. Forget typical GOP infighting. Desperate times call for desperate measures and strategic ingenuity.

I will conclude by repeating the impassioned plea at the end of last week’s column. I feel as if we are standing at a crossroads similar to that at which George Washington stood when he wrote to James Madison in 1786, just a few years before the first president’s inauguration: “No morn ever dawned more favorable than ours did; and no day was ever more clouded than the present! Wisdom, and good examples are necessary at this time to rescue the political machine from the impending storm.”

 
 
Chuck Norris

Chuck Norris

Chuck Norris is a columnist and impossible to kill.
 
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