Dumb: Poll Concludes That Church-Goers More Likely to Be Obese

Good grief.

I have a hypothesis: Democrat politicians are more likely to be tax cheats than the general population. Seems plausible enough on its face. One would think some enterprising research group out there might want to connect the dots on that one. I mean, scientifically.

But no. Instead, we get a steady stream of inane studies like this.

No doubt, you know who is taking copious notes.

The more you go to church, the more likely you are to be fat.

That’s the conclusion from a new study from Northwestern University, which found that young churchgoers who go to services weekly, or more, were much more likely to become obese in their middle-age years than those who rarely, or never, attend.

What’s to blame? One of the authors said a culture of eating, as well as a focus on more obvious vices, could be the culprit.

“Churches pay more attention to obvious vices like smoking or drinking,” Matthew Feinstein, lead author of the research and fourth-year medical student at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, explained to CNN. “Our best guess about why is that…more frequent participation in church is associated with good works and people may be rewarding themselves with large meals that are more caloric in nature than we would like.”

Sounds like Mr. Diligent University Research Student pulled that wild guess out of thin air.

Hey, maybe church-goers like to sneak extra wafers during communion. Who knows? It could be anything! I'm just brainstorming!

“There’s certainly a church culture around eating,” Erik Christensen, a pastor at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church of Logan Square in Chicago, told CNN.” What I see among congregants in their 20s and 30s is they are very fit and what I see among congregants in their 50s and 60s is disproportionate obesity.”

Of course, the pastor could just as easily be talking about a random sample of humanity there.

And what are we to make of this this beastly heathen? I guess he's just an outlier.



Via The Blaze.

Cross-posted.

Cross Thief Contacts the Media?

H/T to Jonn over at TAH, whom I'm shamelessly lifting this from.

An oxygen thief purporting to be somebody who knows one of the supposed scum-sucking carbon-based life-forms who stole the cross erected in the Mojave Desert to honor our veterans called a newspaper in Barstow, California and issued his insane ramblings on why the cross was taken.

This refugee from a mental institution wants to somehow make us feel better about the theft by saying he took great care with it and that it wasn't about religion but rather a blow against discrimination. Like all left-wing pseudo-intellectuals, which by his manifesto he fancies himself to be, he fills it with references to the Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln and Supreme Court justices, as if that makes everything alright.

I only regret that this pond scum did not fall victim to a Mojave green rattlesnake while carrying out his act of cowardice.


I am not posting any parts of the supposed letter, but I hope they have some sort of CSI group out there that is tracing phone records as I write to track down the caller and then after going Jack Bauer on him find out just how close a relationship he has to the person who he claims perpetrated this act.

I will leave the "Fair and Balanced" stuff to Fox News.

Senior Citizens Ordered To Quit Saying Grace Before Meals

Want to say grace before a meal? Not so fast. That is the message given to some senior citizens at a nursing home.

But Senior Citizens Inc. officials said Friday the meals they are contracted by the city to provide to Ed Young visitors are mostly covered with federal money, which ushers in the burden of separating church and state.

On Thursday, the usual open prayer before meals at the center was traded in for a moment of silence.

Being raised in the south seeing people say grace before a meal is so woven into the fabric of life that I doubt many folks even give it a second thought and they certainly don't ponder the ramifications of what that action could mean just because the meal they are about to eat is somehow funded by the federal government. In fact I think the attitude may very well turn to telling the nursing home to cut the contract and if all they have to eat is pork and beans and macaroni and cheese, well then so be it.

This is just further evidence of what life is like under the heel of government which wants to protect you from cradle to grave. The problem is trying to figure out just what it is they are trying to protect you from.

For the record their is no separation of church and state. That whole thing came about because of letter Thomas Jefferson wrote one time that was then cited in a 1878 case involving a Mormon and his claim that bigamy was allowed under the Mormon religion. In fact part of the quote was misinterpreted.

"the legislative powers of the government reach actions only, and not opinions", Jefferson's original handwriting reads "the legitimate powers of the government reach actions only, and not opinions.".

This Week In Religion

Jedi religion founder accuses Tesco of discrimination over rules on hoods
Daniel Jones says he was humiliated and victimised for his beliefs following incident at store in Wales

Tesco has been accused of religious discrimination after the company ordered the founder of a Jedi religion to remove his hood or leave a branch of the supermarket in north Wales.

Daniel Jones, founder of the religion inspired by the Star Wars films, says he was humiliated and victimised for his beliefs following the incident at a Tesco store in Bangor.

The 23-year-old, who founded the International Church of Jediism, which has 500,000 followers worldwide, was told the hood flouted store rules.

But the grocery empire struck back, claiming that the three best known Jedi Knights in the Star Wars movies – Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker – all appeared in public without their hoods. Jones, from Holyhead, who is known by the Jedi name Morda Hehol, said his religion dictated that he should wear the hood in public places and is considering legal action against the chain.

Now it gets really good: Morda starts whining like a Kosling.

"It states in our Jedi doctrination that I can wear headwear. It just covers the back of my head," he said.

"You have a choice of wearing headwear in your home or at work but you have to wear a cover for your head when you are in public."

He said he'd gone to the store to buy something to eat during his lunch break when staff approached him and ordered him to the checkout where they explained he would have to remove the offending hood or leave the store.

"They said: 'Take it off', and I said: 'No, its part of my religion. It's part of my religious right.' I gave them a Jedi church business card.

"They weren't listening to me and were rude. They had three people around me. It was intimidating." Jones, who has made an official complaint to Tesco, is considering a boycott of the store and is seeking legal advice.

Grow a pair, Morda. Real Jedi don't whine.

Tesco said: "He hasn't been banned. Jedis are very welcome to shop in our stores although we would ask them to remove their hoods.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and Luke Skywalker all appeared hoodless without ever going over to the Dark Side and we are only aware of the Emperor as one who never removed his hood.

"If Jedi walk around our stores with their hoods on, they'll miss lots of special offers."

ROTFLMFAO

Dr. Rusty?

Via The Guardian

UPDATE: Dr. Rusty links Děkujeme vám!

Horror in France: Sarko Wants to Remember the Holocaust

Not only does he want to honor French victims of the Holocaust, he has the temerity to suggest France remember their Christian faith.

Why, is this man crazy or something?

President Nicolas Sarkozy has triggered a row over religion by saying faith has a place in the public sphere and schoolchildren should study the 11,000 French Jewish child victims of the Holocaust.

Sarkozy has angered secularists with repeated praise for faith and references to France's Christian roots, and he told a French Jewish organization that the violence and wars of the 20th century were due to an "absence of God".

Why do these lefties get so angry when someone expresses their faith.

Perhaps they ought to attend anger management classes and seek to find the root cause for their anger.

Ten-year-old pupils "should know the name and life story of a child who died in the Holocaust", he told the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) on Wednesday.

He attracted criticism on Thursday from two camps -- secularists keen to keep religion out of public discourse and those worried that pupils could be traumatized by studying the Holocaust through child victims with whom they could identify.

"The president should not turn into a kind of preacher, as he is doing now," said left-wing Senator Jean-Luc Melenchon. Centrist deputy Francois Bayrou predicted "a clash between France's values and those of Nicolas Sarkozy".

What values are those? Capitulation? Collaboration? Laziness? Whining?

Does (R) stand for religious?

You know, those little letters they put behind everyones name to denote which political party they belong to. (R) for Republican and (D) for Democrat. Unless of course that (D) is involved in a scandal or in legal trouble, in which case you have to read the story to the end to try and deduce it for yourself.

Rule of thumb. If the story is about illegal, immoral or scandalous conduct and no party is shown in the first paragraph it is a safe bet to assume that it involves a Democrat.

Back on topic now. In listening to the political pundits and all the talking heads as well as more then a few of the caucus goers from Iowa it would seem that the (R) now stands for Religious. I guess it means I will have to change my party registration now. I am not what most people would consider religious. I don't attend church every Sunday, heck I don't even attend on Easter or Christmas. The reasons are varied.

I grew up in a household that was Episcopal and Baptist, but mostly Episcopal. Well the Episcopal church left me long ago to begin their grand social experiment. Episcopal services now are merely a Sunday morning meeting for the local GLBT (Gay Lesbian Bi Transgender) coalition.

The Baptist church just couldn't quit asking for money. They asked at church, they sent pleas in the mail, they called and they sent people door to door. They worked so hard on shaming me for not giving enough that I hung my head in shame when I walked out of the church.

So here I am. No religious preference and the front runner for the Republicans is a Baptist minister and everybody tells me he got there because of the Evangelical vote. What about the issues? Oh never mind he gives a good sermon and that is good enough for them.

The runner up has had so much made of his religion, not of his own doing but because everybody felt it necessary that since he was running as a Republican his religion or lack of it should be important to us. Never mind that there are at least half a dozen other members of congress or other elected officials who are also Mormon and have never been asked about their religion. Right Harry Reid?

The man that came in third, earlier had made a statement that he didn't attend church regularly. Did that play into the voting?

I will gladly go to being an Independent since I don't seem to have the proper credentials to be a Republican.

So why isn't it a big deal about religion when it comes to the Democrats? Why don't these evangelicals expend their energy on getting the word out about the Dems religion or lack of it? Why don't the pundits ever bring up their religious credentials?

Oh sure you can find a Democrat in church. Normally it is predominately black churches in the south pan handling for votes. Why are there never any questions brought up about the Dems campaigning in church instead of how many times a Republican attends church? How is it that Dems can go to churches asking for votes when most of what they stand for goes against what most religions stand for?

Year after year the Dems go into the mostly black churches, and just because they are Dems the congregation will vote for them. Never mind the fact that they do not live the life these churchgoers strive for or preach about. It is just good enough that they have a (D) behind their name. Doesn't make sense to me.

I am not such a slave to a religion or a political party that I am willing to vote for it just because the person has the right letter behind their name.

If Huckabee winds up being the (R) choice, which is still a long shot, for the first time in 30 years I will sit out the presidential election.

Just to prove how Independent I am here are my previous choices.

Carter (Hey I voted for the home team)
Reagan
Reagan
Bush
Perot (Another time when I was fed up with the status quo)
Dole (Against Clinton more then for Dole)
Bush

By not voting however I am going against one of my guiding principles, and something I have admonished many people on. If you don't vote, you can't complain! But this year I may not have any choices. I may wind up having to vote for a religious leader with no principles or the Democrat.

If the Democrat wins I will take steps in the time leading up to them actually taking office to protect my assets, but there is very little I can do to protect my paycheck. So well my gross pay may increase with a (D) in office there is no doubt my take home pay will continue to shrink since the government will be taking more and more of it to pay for their grand plans.

I will continue to work only up to the point where I can make money sitting at home. You know, like a Katrina survivor.

Mrs. Clinton Finds Religion

This story sets new standards for sycophantic nonsense. Can you ever imagine the New York Times slavishly extolling the virtues of the religion of a Republican in such a fawning way?

I didn't think so.

Clinton Dwells on Faith as a Central Part of Her Life

WASHINGTON — Long before her beliefs would be tested in the most wrenching of ways as first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton taught an adult Sunday school class on the importance of forgiveness. It is a lesson, she says, which she has harkened back to often.

“We all have things that often times we’re upset about, or ashamed of, or feel guilty over, and so many people carry these enormous burdens around,“ she said in a recent interview. “One of the great gifts of faith is to let it go.“

Please. This vomit-inducing garbage goes on for three pages.

UPDATE: Contrast the Clinton story with this absurd piece about Jeri Kehn Thompson. More from Hugh Hewitt and Ed Morrissey.