I didn’t see the The Odd Life of Timothy Green, but I take it from this video (spoiler alert!) that it has a pretty sad ending. Exit question for the parents: When you get old and your children leave you at the race track to fend for yourselves, will you remember taking this “hilarious” video of them?

As I type, my five-month-old daughter stares up at me from a Bumbo chair parked next to me on the floor. No, she isn’t strapped in. In fact, I’m in possession of one of the versions of the Bumbo chair that’s being dubbed too dangerous for use without modification: It contains only a warning on the back about a potential fall, and isn’t equipped with safety belts. 

MSNBC has reported that four million Bumbo chairs are being voluntarily recalled, because about 50 babies have fallen out of Bumbos, some from elevated surfaces. A handful of injuries were serious. Owners of Bumbos like mine can get a safety belt attached to the chair, and from now on all new Bumbos will have such safety belts. 

Personally, I’m going to be hanging on to my Bumbo as is. Yes, it’s easy to see how accidents can happen. My Maggie is getting strong and isn’t far from being able to wiggle out of the chair. That’s why I watch her and try to stay aware of what she’s doing when she’s in the Bumbo. That’s also why I try to stay aware of what she’s up to — and what her siblings are up to — when she’s laying on a mat on the floor where she could get stepped on by her older siblings, in the playpen where her three-year-old brother occasionally dives in for a visit, or just about anywhere else. 

Those declaring Bumbos dangerous might also note that babies often roll off beds and couches  (should those all be retrofitted with child safety belts?). In fact, the CDC estimates that about 2.8 million children (0-14 yrs) go to the emergency rooms each year for falls.  

We can use all the safety devices — the baby gates and the safety straps — and bad things will still happen. I sometimes wonder if all those safety devices end up being a mixed bag in terms of making kids more safe: Baby gates at the top of the stairs may create a false sense of security. They could encourage me to let my one-year-old play near stairs, trusting that the other kids have responsibly shut the gate behind them.

The hubbub over Bumbos seems part of a larger trend of trying to eliminate all potential risk from life, and to rid parents of the responsibility of keeping their children safe. The truth is there is only so much the makers of products can do to prevent people from misusing them — all the warning labels and the safety devices in the world can’t change that  Parents, imperfect as we are, are still the best safety devices available.

One afternoon in Ithaca, N.Y., my kids were playing on the swing sets in the park when a little tike wearing a football jersey ran into my daughter’s path. I lunged for the swing — I jerked the chain so abruptly that I feared whiplash — and shared a “wow, that was close” exchange with the kid’s mom.

“How old is he?” I asked. The lady looked at me as she placed her kid on the swing and said with no trace of irony, “His name is Jill, and she’s three.” 

As I tried to match the pronouns and antecedents, she explained that she belonged to a group of parents who rebelled against gender stereotypes, allowing their children to decide their genders after they’d been exposed to both options. I’d learned of this in a philosophy class at NYU. My professor argued that children are born with “sex” but taught “gender.” The claim is that children unwittingly learn certain gender signifiers that dictate their behavior. Little boys don’t naturally want to play with trucks, and little girls aren’t naturally drawn to dolls, if unsullied by eager parents who try to indoctrinate their children with heterosexist ideas about “gender.” According to my professor, gender roles cause people to live according to the very limited ideas of others. The ultimate goal, of course, is androgyny, where no differences between males and females exist.         

“I’m going to raise her as gender-neutrally as possible and let him decide which gender she prefers at the age of eight.” (Oh, eight; that’s the age at which my son dug up our Tennessee yard one square foot at a time, because he was convinced pirates had buried treasure there.)

Whenever I write about Ithaca (as I did in one of my memoirs), I invariably get e-mails asking, “Really?”

Understandably, people can’t quite believe that there are parents like this in America.  However, a recent New York Times article called, “What’s So Bad About a Boy Who Wants to Wear a Dress?” attempts to further push the normalization of gender-confused children into the mainstream.  It includes a very similar playground anecdote:

One day this spring I went to a playground with an 8-year-old boy named P. J. A pink ribbon with sparkly butterflies held back his thick black curls, which he occasionally flipped dramatically. He was wearing a serpent-and-skeleton bike helmet, a navy Pokémon T-shirt, black-and-pink stretch pants, a fuchsia sweatshirt and an iridescent heart necklace. As he and a friend raced happily around the park in a loud game of tag, they accumulated new pals.

After playing for half an hour, a few kids huddled to catch their breath and finally introduce themselves. One 10-year-old girl’s eyes opened wide. She turned to me, the closest adult. “Do you know she’s a he?” Yes, I nodded. Certain that I’d misunderstood, she pointed at P. J., who was right next to her. “No!” she said. “She is a he!”

The article, by Ruth Padawer, a professor at the Columbia University School of Journalism, examines how various parents deal with children when they don’t seem to fit into traditional gender roles.  Padawer — and psychologists — describe this “condition” in the following flowery terms: gender-atypical, gender-fluid, gender-variant, gender-creative.

Parents Susan and Rob have one of these “gender creative” youngsters.  Consequently, they sent an e-mail to the parents of their son’s classmates explaining their child will sometimes be wearing a dress to preschool. They explained that their son “has been gender-fluid for as long as we can remember, and at the moment he is equally passionate about and identified with soccer players and princesses, superheroes and ballerinas (not to mention lava and unicorns, dinosaurs and glitter rainbows). . . . The important thing was to teach him not to be ashamed of who he feels he is.”  When Susan let her son wear dresses around town, however, her son was upset when strangers assumed he was a girl.  He said, “I just hate being misunderstood.”

Other parents have paid for a half-day of gender-diversity training for the staff their kid’s school, though it doesn’t stop teasing during recess.

Padawer goes to great lengths to make sure her readers accept the “‘middle space’ between traditional boyhood and traditional girlhood.” She writes, “But the parents of the boys in the middle space argue that gender is a spectrum rather than two opposing categories, neither of which any real man or woman precisely fits.”  Padawer then goes on to write that this “middle space” is more acceptable these days in the form of the transgendered. The “visibility of transgender people — be it running for office or tangoing on Dancing With the Stars — has provided an opening for those who fall between genders.”

The most astonishing quote of the article was from Edgardo Menvielle, head of a program for gender-nonconforming youth at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington.  He said, “I would argue it’s not even ethical to say to a child, ‘This is the gender you must be.’ ”

The author helpfully explains what we already know about the political persuasion of the parents of these children, “Many of the parents who allow their children to occupy that ‘middle space’ were socially liberal even before they had a pink boy, quick to defend gay rights and women’s equality and to question the confines of traditional masculinity and femininity.”

In other words, I wasn’t exaggerating about what my professors at NYU taught about gender and sexuality, and I wasn’t exaggerating about what I saw on the playground in Ithaca.

Though, believe me.  I wish I had been.

Remember the Chick-fil-A employee who was bullied by the corporate executive who was ordering a water just to have a chance to berate anyone associated with the fast-food restaurant? Well, a few things have happened since that video went mega-viral.

First, the exec Adam Smith was fired from his job when people all across America saw his harsh treatment of the employee whose nametag read “Rachel.” Since then, he has apologized to her in a video which also went viral.

In a nice gesture, the employee — who hasn’t given her last name — forgave him on national television, said she felt sorry for him and his family, and asked America to forgive him as well. (Her fiance also set up a website for her, where you can get the latest information on the incident.) Rachel’s appearance on Fox was her first nationally televised interview, and she handled the questions with kindness and amazing composure.

It’s touching to see forgiveness in action! Watch the interview here.

Naomi Schaefer Riley writes in the New York Post about how education reform is no longer the domain of nerdy conservatives or outraged libertarians. Teachers’ unions have begun “looking like dinosaurs,” to everyone. After all, “hip urbanites don’t need to read Cato Institute white papers to find out how bad unions have made things.”

Hollywood is even getting into the education reform. Riley writes:

Maggie Gyllenhaal, the ultimate hipster actress, stars in “Won’t Back Down,” an education-reform drama that hits theaters next month. When did school choice became cool?

The film is the tale of two parents (one a teacher) who decide to save their own kids and many others by taking over a failing school in a poor Pittsburgh neighborhood.

This follows “Waiting for ‘Superman,’” the 2010 documentary that depicted the fortunes of those desperately competing for a place at a charter school — from the same progressive filmmaker who gave us “An Inconvenient Truth.

In fact, a whole lot of 20- and 30-somethings across the political spectrum now believe something’s seriously flawed in our public-education system.

Indeed.

In conjunction with the film, Wal-Mart and Walden Media are putting on a concert benefiting teachers airing on CBS next Friday with artists like Garth Brooks, Dierks Bentley, Fun, and Carrie Underwood. Every day, Walden is awarding a different teacher with a $500 Wal-Mart gift card to help cover the out-of-pocket expenses every teacher eventually ends up incurring. (Have a favorite teacher? Nominate here.) Tweet a shout out to your favorite teacher, using the hashtag #TeachersRock, and your tweet will appear on a huge billboard in Times Square.

That’s not your mother’s school reform.

It makes me a little nervous to tweet the name of my favorite teachers, however. Twitter-acceptable abbreviations and misspellings won’t fly with my favorite 5th grade English teacher, Mrs. Frazier, or my 6th grade English teacher, Mrs. Elliott.

To be safe, I think I might just nominate a math teacher.

Rebecca Cusey reviews the new Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones movie Hope Springs:

It’s become quite fashionable to cluck and sigh at romantic comedies that end with the girl getting her guy and, perhaps, a ring.

“That’s just the beginning,” we scold, “What happens after that? What about grown-up romances? The ones that happen after ten or twenty seven years of marriage? What about love that lasts?”

Hope Springs, opening Wednesday August 8, is just the kind of pro-marriage, grown-up romance we say we want.In fact, quite grown-up.

As in Baby Boomer.

Read the rest of her review here.

When Gabby Douglas exuberantly gave thanks to God after winning gold in the Olympic women’s all around gymnastics competition, my husband knew there would be a backlash. 

Sure enough, Salon published a snarky take-down of the young teenager who has fought through her father’s multiple deployments and her parents’ consequent marital strain. Salon’s critique includes part of a conversation about Gabby that the author had with a colleague who said, “I would like her more if she were not so, so, so into Jesus.”

Iraq veteran David French responds to Salon and explains how Gabby’s faith sustained her through turmoil most Salon writers can’t fathom.

According to Business Insider:

“Adam Smith, former CFO and treasurer of medical supplies manufacturer Vante, caused quite a stir today when he put up a video of himself bullying a Chick-fil-A drive-thru employee in Tucson on YouTube.

Smith berates the worker about her company in the video, which was initially titled ”Reduce $’s to Chick-Fil-A’s Hate Groups.” It has since been taken down (though others have uploaded it too).”

If you want a good illustration of who’s bullying whom in this Chick-fil-A brouhaha, you can see the video here.  It might just be because I’m a mom, but I was so proud of the Chick-fil-A employee.  She handled the criticism with dignity, manners, and respect.

Give that girl a raise!

All of this talk of Chick-Fil-A really makes it hard to stay on one’s diet.

It also brings up some questions, mainly about supporting businesses which hold different political views. My friends are lamenting that they can no longer listen to Carrie Underwood because she recently came out for gay marriage. They also were saddened that they cannot shop at Target because of the new wedding-registry ads featuring a gay couple and the greeting cards targeting homosexuals. Of course, they can’t eat Proctor and Gamble foods, because of the “gay Oreo” ad made for “pride” month. Additionally, they wondered if they should still shop at Office Depot, in spite of its association with Lady Gaga’s pro-homosexuality “Born This Way Foundation.”

All of this makes it complicated when you’re just trying to pick up a few things at the store.

How do we navigate these waters? Do conservatives need to boycott Target, Office Depot, Carrie Underwood, Procter and Gamble, and — perish the thought — Ben & Jerry’s?

As I said while discussing this with the kids today (while we were decidedly not back-to-school shopping at Target): it’s complicated.

First, Carrie Underwood answered a question put to her by an interviewer, just like Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy did. She’s not out there singing songs like “Jesus, Give Me the Wheel Because I Think Gay Marriage Should Be Fine.” She has a great voice, and everyone — no matter your political persuasion — can appreciate a girl taking a Louisville slugger to a cheater’s truck. Chick-fil-A makes great food, and everyone — no matter your political persuasion — can enjoy a fantastic chicken sandwich.

However, Target, Office Depot, and Proctor and Gamble are trying to shove their political opinions down their customers’ throats by actually incorporating gay themes into ads and initiatives. To me, its less obvious how to deal with these businesses. I’m not advocating for a boycott of Target, but this year I bought all my kids’ binders from Pottery Barn. (Yes, it cost more, but I could’ve gone to Wal-Mart where it costs less.) And we bought our back-to-school clothes somewhere else too.

Is it an iron-clad rule that I’ll never frequent these stores again? Not necessarily.

However, I definitely consider their in-your-face politics when I get in the car and decide where I’m going. After all, is Office Depot better than Staples? I can drive to one just as easily as the other.

Are there generic cookies just as good as Oreos? Well, my friends and I are having a good time taste-testing those other options.

Again, sticking to your principles has been pretty tasty lately.

Constitutional attorney David French further explores why he too is deeply ambivalent about boycotts and generally doesn’t participate in them in his article “Chick-fil-A, Boycotts, and Our Free Speech Culture.”

A man who runs one of the most successful and respected fast-food companies in America says that, based on his faith, he strongly supports the idea of a married mom and dad raising their kids together. I assume that is what he meant by “traditional family.” This businessman told a reporter:

We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.

Oh, he also feared we might win God’s disfavor if we tinker with the family as He created it. That is all he said. And now all of this!

He did not utter a word about homosexuality, about same-sex marriage, or about people who identify as homosexuals. He said he believes in the biblical view of marriage and family. Essentially what Christians have believed since Christians started believing.

But today, we see powerfully demonstrated before us that such talk is now considered hate speech. The blogosphere is teeming with judgment. In fact, Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post says by his words and support for organizations that work for strong, married mom/dad families, Mr. Cathy, his family, and his company are “actively working to deny fundamental rights to same-sex families who want nothing more than to share fully in the American dream.” Really?

So it’s not just, “Say something untoward about gays or lesbians and we will shut you down!” but, “Say something good about the virtue of intact mom/dad families, and throw in a tidbit about your Christian faith to boot, and we will shut you down!” Mayors and politicians will seek to ban you and your business from their towns. Schools will have your business ejected from their campuses. Journalists will call you nasty names. Activists will slander you and demean your company.

Well, millions of Americans protested such nasty thuggishness today by taking up the delicious but humble chicken sandwich (with waffle fries and a refreshing, ice-cold lemonade), thereby making a statement that they also support the biblical definition of marriage. Or at least they support a nice family-businessman’s right to communicate his convictions, which were not denigrating to anyone.

Dan Cathy simply said that he supports the traditional family and donates to organizations that do so as well. And it appears that is enough to get your neck wrung today.

Today, of course, is Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, a moment when customers head out to literally “Eat Mor Chickn” to show support to the company which has been under siege after an executive admitted he supported traditional marriage. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is asking customers who appreciate Chick-fil-A’s traditional stance on values to enjoy some waffle fries.

And that’s exactly what my family is doing. We live in Columbia, Tennessee, located about an hour south of Nashville. Because it doesn’t strike me as an overly political town, I was curious to see how many people would even know that today was a special day for the franchises.

Well, apparently, word got out. Five police cars are parked out front, with several police officers directing traffic, yelling at cars to move on because they’re unable to even turn into the parking lot. We’ve been here for half an hour and we only now have gotten inside the doors. Literally, it is standing room only, but everyone is in good cheer. There’s a man walking around yelling, “There’s hope for America!”

I have to wonder what it’s like at the Chick-fil-A in Philadelphia the kids and I used to frequent. Nevertheless, here in Columbia, Tennessee the line is incredibly long and the mood is festive. So, I’m taking the opportunity to interview people I encounter in line. I asked a few people why they were eating at Chick-Fil-A. Here are their responses:

Michael Parks Lawrence, 19, a full-time student at UT Chattanooga and vice presidnet of the College Republican Chapter at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga told me:“I believe in what they stand for — marriage is between man and a woman.”

Steven Dvorak, 19, a student at Florida College in Biblical Studies said,“We came here to support freedom of speech, because the current media is attacking a lot of religious speech.”

Alex Dvorak, 21, a full-time student of mechanical engineering at Tennessee Tech University, told me,“Christian beliefs are under attack. We heard it was Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day.”

Jackie Quillen, a retired teacher, said,“I came here to support Mr. Cathy’s constitutional right to express his opinion. I heard of it all over Facebook and the news. They are crucifying people for their opinion. I hope all these customers vote.”

#more#Donald W. Quillen, an engineering consultant, told me:“I came to honor Chick-fil-A and their purpose. I’m here to honor America, our constitution, and our freedoms. Plus, they give the cleanest and best food to the people of America.”

Steve Konz, elected county treasurer, said,“I enjoy chicken. Plus, I think it’s important to enjoy first amendment rights. I ate breakfast here, I ate lunch here, and I may eat dinner here. My favorite item is, of course, the sandwich. I think people have a right to express their interests even though they are business people. Occasionally people try to squelch my opinions, and I have the right to have opinions on things.”

Harriet Jett, a retired elementary-school teacher at Columbia Academy, said, “I support Mr. Cathy 100 percent!”

Shelia Butt, Tennessee state representative, told me, “First of all, I love Chick-fil-A anyway and would eat here twice a week. I appreciate that they don’t mind speaking their religious beliefs and exercising their freedom. We should all use that opportunity, because that is one of the greatest things about the United States of America . . . I represent the people of Maury County and the state of Tennessee, and I’m happy to say that in the state of Tennessee, our constitution says that marriage is between a man and woman.”

Barry Hensley, an IT computer analyst, said, “I brought the family and we made it a day to support Chick-fil-A’s right to voice their opinion. After all, it’s the law of the land. He [Mr. Cathy] has the right to have his opinion. I don’t understand why people should boycott what’s the law.”

Donna Stewart, activity coordinator for a senior center, told me,“I left for work an hour early, to wait in line for forty minutes to eat breakfast — I ordered a chicken biscuit. For lunch, I’ll have chicken fingers and waffle fries. For dinner, my husband and I are going to get chicken sandwich or a salad. I came because I want to show support for family values and our right to believe in what the Bible says is truth. I love my gay friends, but I don’t agree with the sin.”

Ken, retired, said, “Well, I think when people take a stand for what they believe in, particularly when it’s something in the Bible, they should be supported.”

Peggy Rector, retired, told me, “Because I believe in the owner’s values, and I’m so proud that Mr. Cathy stood up for the American people like he did.”

Jean Sherrill, retired from DuPont, said, “I believe in the cause, I do not believe in gay marriage.”

Joey Hensley, state representative running for state senate, said,“I’m here to show my support of the philosophy of Chick-fil-A, I certainly very much agree with it. I had legislation this year that would prevent schools from teaching about homosexuality in Kindergarten through eighth grades. I believe in the traditional family, that God meant marriage to be between a man and woman. The fact that we recognize other situations as marriage is part of the problem with this country today.”

Bradd Kimes, financial planner, maybe said it best: “I heard they had chicken.”

If you haven’t made it to a Chick-fil-A yet, you might enjoy the photo slideshow, which really show why that random guy was yelling, “There really is hope for America!” (And click on the captions for the explanations.) 

Written from the kids’ play place in Chick-fil-A in Columbia, Tennessee

Karol Markowicz writes in today’s New York Post on Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to get more moms to breastfeed by making it harder to get formula while babies are in the hospital:

In the hazy hours after her new baby is born, a mother faces the decision of whether to breastfeed or use formula to feed her child. She may try to breastfeed and succeed right away — or it might take a little time to figure out.

But should she choose to supplement with formula, she’ll now find New York City standing in her way.

Under a new Mayor Bloomberg-led initiative, Latch On NYC, moms will have a tougher time making the decision to formula-feed.

As The Post reported last weekend: “With each bottle a mother requests and receives, she’ll also get a talking-to. Staffers will explain why she should offer the breast instead.”

Since newborns need five to six bottles in a 24-hour period, that’s going to be a lot of lecturing.

Though formula-makers themselves note “breastmilk is best” in their ads, Mike Bloomberg feels that what is lacking for women, should they decide not to breastfeed, is education. They must not know that breastmilk is best. Never mind if they physically can’t breastfeed or don’t get any maternity leave or simply find breastfeeding to be more trouble than it’s worth. They will be educated.

The Post story also quoted Lisa Paladino of Staten Island University Hospital: “The key to getting more moms to breastfeed is making the formula less accessible. This way, the RN has to sign out the formula like any other medication. The nurse’s aide can’t just go grab another bottle.”

Yeah, that’s a good idea. Make more work for the nurses in the neonatal unit. The rest here.

From CNN:

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley’s husband received orders from the South Carolina National Guard on Monday and is expected to deploy to Afghanistan in January, a spokesman in her office said.

1st Lieutenant Michael Haley will deploy to Afghanistan, spokesman Rob Godfrey said.

Michael Haley said in a Monday statement that “this deployment is the reason I joined the National Guard.”

His year-long deployment begins in January. Let’s keep First Lieutenant Haley, Governor Haley, and their two children (daughter Rena, who is 14 years old, and son Nalin, who’s ten) in our prayers.

According to Reuters:

Michael Haley said he looked forward to serving but not to being away from his family for a year.

“But in the end, I can’t help but to think giving one year along with my fellow soldiers, as many have done before me, to secure a life of freedom for my family is well worth all that comes with it,” he said.

I recall a Barbie game from my childhood called “We Girls Can Do Anything” that encouraged girls to envision the career of their dreams. The game came in a box featuring pictures of a doctor, a singer, a journalist, and an astronaut, among others.

The idea was to encourage young girls (like me) to picture ourselves attaining professional success in any field we chose. But of course this only helped so much: After all, Barbie was a make-believe character with make-believe success. It was nice to pretend, and important to imagine, but it would be sad if that’s how I learned to dream big. The good news is my childhood was also filled with real-life examples of women blazing new trails and proving, without Barbie’s frills, that we girls really can do anything.

Sally Ride, who died yesterday at age 61, was one of those examples. She was the first American woman in space, and it was important for a generation of women following her to see her included in the photograph of the Challenger STS-7 crew.

Importantly, Ride wasn’t selected to join the Challenger crew for appearances or political correctness. She had a Ph.D. in physics and a distinguished career before going into space. She was not a publicity stunt. She deserved to fly with the guys.

Ride’s legacy is not simply that she was the first American woman in space. After her trip on the STS-7, the U.S. sent dozens of other women into space in the 80’s, 90’s, and 2000’s. Today, Ride’s legacy is the millions of women who work in physics and aeronautics around the world. She devoted much of her post-space-travel career to educational programs encouraging girls with an interest in science to pursue their dreams.

Oddly, I remember some frustration as a girl that, by the time I grew up, there would be no “female firsts” left for me! But of course, this was childish — mostly selfish — thinking. Today women in the United States have little left to prove, and that’s a huge relief for women in my generation. It’s common knowledge that girls can do anything.

Ultimately, success for women shouldn’t be measured by how many women enter professions in science, engineering, or space travel. We don’t have to be the “first female” anything. We don’t have to think about the traditional division of certain industries as male- or female-dominated. We can just do whatever it is that brings us the most happiness. Thank you Sally Ride, for your part in creating this reality.

— Hadley Heath is a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum.

Bristol Palin, who writes for my Faith and Family Channel at Patheos, asked her readers to send in photos of their small businesses. (The above photo is one of them!)

I’m not sure if I’m particularly sappy or if it’s because my mother is one of those small business owners, but I found the photos very touching. My mother, a teacher, couldn’t find a job in our school district after we moved into town, so she created a day care center in Tennessee to help pay for our education. It wasn’t easy work, and I remember the “what have I done” look on her face when she only had eight enrollments and a pile of bills. ( She now has a waiting list from conception!) Whatever the reason, I think this video is incredibly poignant. I hope you do, too! UPDATE: This video has gone seriously viral, at over 110 K views!

Rolling Stone doesn’t seem like the most natural place for the articulation of a pro-life position, especially from a pop star. But, it just happened:

Teen heartthrob Justin Bieber has said that he does not believe in abortion, and that it equates to “killing a baby.” The singer’s comments come in a personal interview in Rolling Stone magazine, where he discusses various hot button topics such as premarital sex, and abortion in the case of incest and rape.

Bieber explained that he “doesn’t really believe in [abortion]. I think an embryo is a human. It’s like killing a baby.”

Rolling Stone then asks Bieber what about abortion in instances of rape or incest, to which Bieber responded, “I think that’s really sad, but everything happens for a reason. I don’t know how that would be a reason. I guess I haven’t been in that position, so I wouldn’t be able to judge that.”

The teen star has never been shy to express his religious views, and during the last MTV Video Music Awards he gave praise to God and Jesus. Speaking about his relationship with God, Bieber has explained: “I focus more on praying and talking to Him.”

Read more here.

On Wednesday, the national fast-food chain, Chick-fil-A reaffirmed its pro-traditional-marriage stance.

The LA Times reports president Dan Cathy’s public announcement: “Chick-fil-A is very much supportive of the family . . . the biblical definition of the family unit.”

Though Chick-fil-A’s dedication to Christian values is nothing new — the chain is closed on Sundays for religious observances — the announcement sparked an immediate online uproar, especially on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

From the LA Times:

Here’s a sampling of how Cathy’s comments are playing out elsewhere online: From the company’s Facebook page:

– “Knowing your stance on gay marriage, I will eat here more often!” and “I LOVE Chick-fil-A!!! Love your food and your family values!!!”

– “boycotting this hateful company with immediate effect” and “Served with an extra helping of hate! BOYCOTT!!!!”

From Twitter:

– “There is no better fast food place than Chick-Fil-A”

– “Chick-fil-A’s Delicious Chicken Sandwiches Are Deep Fried in Hate”

And from BuzzFeed:

– “What if he is right? What makes anyone who disagrees right? What standard and authority are you using?”

– “Looks like I’ll be headed to Wendy’s when I’m craving a chicken sandwich.”

What do you think about Cathy’s decision to go public on this hot-button issue: Smart business move? Or one he’ll regret?

In an interview on The Ken Coleman Show, Cathy revealed that those advocating for same-sex marriages will in turn bring “God’s judgment” upon us. “I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage. I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about.”

Earlier this month, Knox College psychologists Gail Ferguson and Christy Starr released troubling findings showing that girls as young as age six view themselves as sexual objects. “The new study is the first to identify self-sexualization in young girls. The study, published online July 6 in the journal Sex Roles, also identified factors that protect girls from objectifying themselves.”

The study was conducted on elementary school girls ages 6-9 in the Midwest. The study used two differently dressed paper dolls, one dressed provocatively and the other in normal attire. When asked which doll the young girls wanted to look like, 68 percent of the girls indicated the provocatively dressed doll; 72 percent indicated that the sexy doll “was more popular than the non-sexy doll.”

Lead researcher Christy Starr said of the results that, “it’s very possible that girls wanted to look like the sexy doll because they believe sexiness leads to popularity, which comes with many social advantages.”

The results, however, are not all negative. A specific group of girls recruited for the study from a local dance studio “chose the non-sexualized doll more often for each of the four questions than did the public-school group.”

Starr explained that, “being involved in dance and other sports has been linked to greater body appreciation and higher body image in teen girls and women.”

The study also showed that young girls with “mothers who reported often using TV and movies as teaching moments about bad behaviors and unrealistic scenarios were much less likely to have daughters who said they looked like the sexy doll. The power of maternal instruction during media viewing may explain why every additional hour of TV- or movie-watching actually decreased the odds by 7 percent that a girl would choose the sexy doll as popular.”

Summer, a time of warm, school-free bliss, has come under fire.

Peter Orszag, former director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Obama administration, recently penned, “How Summer Is Making U.S Kids Dumber and Fatter.” In his article, Orszag makes the case that multiple studies released as far back as 1970 have proven that during the summer, “children return to school one month or more, on average, behind where they were when the previous year ended. Kids also tend to put on weight in the summer two to three times faster than they do during the school year.”

Orzag sites multiple sources for this conclusion. In 1996, Harris Cooper of Duke University and several co-authors revealed research indicating that U.S children experience a “summer fade effect,” which is when “students’ academic skills atrophy during the summer months by an amount equivalent to what they learn in a third of a school year.”

The “summer fade effect” has been researched further by Barbara Heyns, a sociologist at New York University who studied Atlanta schoolchildren in the late 1970’s. Her research indicated that this effect “varies substantially by income and race, and its impact persists even past childhood.”

Solutions to this issue are varied. Orszag personally suggests the solution lies in extending the hours of the school day. Other solutions, such as federal government action, have been proposed.

Is the Dark Knight Rises striking a blow for the Obama reelection effort? Rebecca Cusey reports:

The Obama campaign reportedly is interested in connecting Romney’s past at a firm called Bain Capital with the villain in The Dark Knight Rises named Bane.

Paul Bedard writes at the Washington Examiner:

“Bane” is the terrorist in the new movie who drives the caped crusader out of semi-retirement. Democrats, who believe they have Romney on the ropes over the president’s assault on his leadership at Bain Capital, said the comparisons are too rich to ignore.

“It has been observed that movies can reflect the national mood,” said Democratic advisor and former Clinton aide Christopher Lehane. “Whether it is spelled Bain and being put out by the Obama campaign or Bane and being out by Hollywood, the narratives are similar: a highly intelligent villain with offshore interests and a past both are seeking to cover up who had a powerful father and is set on pillaging society,” he added. 

Even Rush Limbaugh sees a conspiracy in the well-timed homophones. He said the following yesterday on his show:

The villain in The Dark Knight Rises is named Bane, B-a-n-e. What is the name of the venture capital firm that Romney ran and around which there’s now this make-believe controversy? Bain. The movie has been in the works for a long time. The release date’s been known, summer 2012 for a long time. Do you think that it is accidental that the name of the really vicious fire breathing four eyed whatever it is villain in this movie is named Bane?

So what about it? Is Batman striking a blow against capitalism and against Romney?

Rebecca Cusey, who’s seen and reviewed the movie, tells conservatives to relax.  After all, Governor Romney actually has more in common with the hero than the villain.