Dwarf Tossing Will Remain Illegal In Florida

Florida Rep. Ritch Workman (R) was on a crusade of sorts. Since 1980, Florida law has banned "dwarf-tossing" -- the practice in which liquored-up humans of ordinary stature toss about humans of smaller stature for the pure, drunken hell of it. It was an afront to the freedom of the diminutive, said Workman. Smallfolk, like bigfolk and mediumfolk, should have the freedom to be tossed if they damned well want to be.

But Workman's giving up the fight, reports HuffPo:

After the repeal effort was reported, Workman said he was contacted by little people from all over America who asked him to reconsider.

"They are lawyers, elected officials and all struggle to get past that carnival thing from 100 year ago," he told Florida Today. "I had a doctor, a lovely woman from New York, call me and say, 'Has anyone ever stopped you on the street and hugged you? Rubbed your head? Taken pictures of you? I said, 'No.'"

"She said, 'Well, I'm a doctor, and people think I'm some sort of circus clown," he continued. "And although I agree that I should have the right to be tossed in a bar if I want to, can you please stop talking about this?'

At that point, Workman decided to stop fighting for the repeal, adding, "Not because I'm wrong on the liberty issue, but sometimes human dignity needs to prevail."

HuffPo proceeds to mention several advocacy groups and individuals who are relieved that Workman's dropped the repeal effort, and ends with a quote from Dave "The Dwarf" Flood (pictured above), an entertainer and radio personality who feels rather differently. Dave's been tossed before, as part of his work:

If I was 7 feet tall, I'd be playing basketball ... Being short gives me an advantage in dwarf tossing. I'm just playing the hand that's been dealt me.

The Evacuation Of The Titanic: Model Of Christian Charity?

The homophobes at Truth In Action are really, really into the RMS Titanic's sinking centennial. In The Truth That Transforms, the film, Truth In Action likened America to the doomed boat and gays to the iceberg that sank it. On Truth That Transforms, the website, the ministry has resurrected a clip of deceased minister Dr. D. James Kennedy likening the whole world to the Titanic and Christians to the lucky folk who escaped on lifeboats. And on Truth That Transforms, the radio show, the ministry press-ganged the Titanic tragedy into an advertisement for traditional Christian morality. RightWingWatch transcribed the relevant quotes:

People that were on board the deck of the Titanic at that time were individuals that grew up in a culture which was distinctively Christian in its perspective of the role of men and women and there’s an interesting contrast because in the year 1898 a French vessel called La Bourgogne sunk and when it sunk the sailors and the officers literally threw women and children into the water, beat them over the head, and the men lived and the women died. It sent shockwaves throughout the entire world, people said, ‘how could such a thing happen?’ And in trying to understand why that happened, the commentary was, they grew up in a culture that embraced evolution, it was the struggle of the survival of the fittest, they grew up in the culture of the French Revolution which had rejected biblical Christianity and embraced paganism and the consequences were that men treat women horrifically.

Now we flash forward to the year 2012 and this year our president has finally taken us over the abyss and we have full-fledged commitment to women in the frontlines of combat in overseas battles, we need to understand that that’s the first time in the history of the West that any nation has formally endorsed such a thing and it represents a radical departure from the values that were on board the ship in 1912.

… Evolution says the struggle of the survival of the fittest, there are no differences between men and women, there is no charity, there is no deference, and in an evolutionary world feminism reaches its height and we see no distinctions. The result is babies are killed en masse, women are treated like chattel and men no longer take on their masculine role as defenders.

... all of which warrants a brief corrective. Darwinian natural selection isn't opposed to altruism, since altruistic populations will tend to be more successful and leave more offspring. Anyway, if some unnaturally cerebral person was thinking about Darwinian reproductive strategies onboard a fast-sinking ship with too few life boats in the middle of an icy ocean, that individual would probably want to save as many women as possible. (One man and 1,000 women could conceivably have 1,000 children in a year; one woman and 1,000 men could probably have only one.)

But Truth In Action's point is ridiculous for more obvious reasons than those -- most notably, that the evacuation of the Titanic is a terrible advertisement for a Christian model of charity, or for any model at all. Despite the vessel's astounding shortage of lifeboats, what lifeboats there were mostly departed the ship at far less than full capacity. Some were only half full. And those who survived were mostly wealthy first- and second-class passengers, while those in steerage tended to drown. It's hard to imagine Jesus approving.