SelwynDuke.com

Are Hormone-mimicking Chemicals Harming Our Children?

By Selwyn Duke

Are chemicals in our environment masculinizing girls and feminizing boys? A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that this is the case, and one of the latest studies has linked exposure to a substance known as bisphenol A, or BPA, with aggressive behavior in girls.

Liz Szabo reports on the research in USA Today, writing, “In the study of 249 pregnant women, the first to examine the effects of BPA on children's behavior, researchers found that girls ... were more likely to be aggressive if their mothers had high levels of BPA — an estrogen-like chemical used in many consumer products — early in pregnancy.”

Read the rest here.

Duke Reponds to Critics of Sexual Identity Crisis Article

This is a response to critics of my piece "Death of the West: Our Sexual Identity Crisis." It originally appeared at American Thinker.

By Selwyn Duke

Because of the controversy this article has evoked, the editor of American Thinker, Thomas Lifson, has requested that I address some of the criticisms I’ve received.  And I am happy to do so, as it’s obvious that some critics haven’t read the whole piece, have only skimmed it, or reacted to it so emotionally that they couldn’t digest what was actually written.

Death of the West: Our Sexual Identity Crisis

By Selwyn Duke

Perhaps you’ve heard the tragic story of David Reimer.  Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 1966, David was the victim of a botched circumcision that left his penis charred beyond surgical repair.  His parents Ron and Janet, no doubt beside themselves, were confused about the best way to proceed.  Then, one day, they saw a man named Dr. John Money on television.

Money was talking about his theory of “gender neutrality,” which states that “gender identity” is learned rather than innate.  The idea was that the sexes were the same except for the superficial physical differences; this implies that if a child were altered so as to superficially resemble the opposite sex and was raised as one of its members, he would be happy with that sexual identity.  Hearing this, the Reimers hoped they had found their salvation.

Latest Savage Nation Appearance: "Dr Happy" Brought in to "Toughen Up" Troops

Soda Is the New Tobacco

Ever since Barack Obama floated the idea of a soda tax, oh-so-caring politicians have been lining up to save you from yourself. Ka-ching.

By Selwyn Duke

First it was tobacco, with Al Gore, who grew the plant but never inhaled, preaching against it. Next it was SUVs, with Arianna Huffington warning that it was unsustainable for the average American to use one-tenth the amount of energy she does. Then it was the anti-tranny crowd, with localities all over banning trans-fats. Now it’s little boys’ bubbly, soda, which little boy San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom calls “the new tobacco.”

Yes, the “sin tax” crowd is at it again, preaching health and seeing wealth.

Read the rest here.

United Nations Plan: Teach Masturbation to 5-Year-Olds

By Selwyn Duke

A while back we heard about the United Nations pact that would prohibit parents from choosing their children's religion. Now the UN is issuing another dystopian proposal, a sex-education curriculum that would teach children as young as five about masturbation and "gender roles, stereotypes and gender-based violence." And those are just two elements in a 98-page report issued by the UN's Economic, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and which includes curricula for children between the ages of 5 and 18. Joseph Abrams at FoxNews reports, writing:

Under the U.N.'s voluntary sex-ed regime, kids just 5-8 years old will be told that "touching and rubbing one's genitals is called masturbation" and that private parts "can feel pleasurable when touched by oneself."

. . . By the time they're 9 years old, they'll learn about "positive and negative effects of 'aphrodisiacs," and wrestle with the ideas of "homophobia, transphobia [prejudice against transsexuals] and abuse of power."

At 12, they'll learn the "reasons for" abortions — but they'll already have known about their safety for three years. When they're 15, they'll be exposed to direct "advocacy to promote the right to and access to safe abortion."

Read the rest here.

Obama and Legislating Morality in Health Care

In an effort to regain momentum in the health-care debate, Barack Obama is attempting to reframe the push for government intervention as a moral issue.

By Selwyn Duke

Just a few short months ago, few imagined that Barack Obama would have trouble marshalling a Democrat majority for one of his major initiatives. He was the "messiah," "The One," and all he had to do was lead, and the Houses and the high and happy masses from coast to coast would follow. But that was before he stimulated us into stratospheric debt; proved he was anything but post-racial by rashly saying that dutiful Cambridge cops acted "stupidly"; and accosted us with Medical Mothra, a 1000-page, labyrinthine health-care bill that could only be adequately digested by termites. So now, with tumultuous town-hall meetings and a majority of Americans opposed to Obamacare, the president is trying to shore up support for reform by casting it as a moral issue.

Read the rest here.

Democrat Plan: Make the IRS the Internal Medical Service

By Selwyn Duke

You probably don't associate the Internal Revenue Service with health, unless it's their letterhead's ability to make your heart stop. Yet, under both the House and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions healthcare reform bills, the dreaded tax department will be a major player in making sure you comply with government healthcare dictates.

And not only do the bills require the providers of health insurance (e.g., employers) to divulge detailed information about whom they insure, they also require individual taxpayers who aren't covered by someone else to provide proof of insurance — under penalty of law.

Read the rest here.

Yet another Call to Overhaul Healthcare . . . This Time in Canada

By Selwyn Duke

In his captivating book The Screwtape Letters, the great philosopher C.S. Lewis noted that change is meant to be a means to an end and that it is only the destroyers of civilization who try to convince us that it is an end unto itself.

It is an alluring mantra, that change chant. It helped elect Bill Clinton in 1992 and, four terms later, Barack Obama. The idea is that things couldn't possibly be worse than they are now, so the unknown just must be better than the status quo. Ah, collect the frying pans — fire all the way around.  

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Fat in America: Taxing Us to Death in the Name of Taxing Us to Health

First they came for the tobacco, and I did not speak out because I was not a smoker. Then they came for the alcohol, and I did not speak out because I was not a drinker. Then they came for my food, and there was no one left to speak out for me because misery loves company.

By Selwyn Duke

We've all heard about driving while black. Now we have eating while fat. But, unlike the former, size profiling is more reality than rhetoric. As to this, and coming on the heels of the recent story about a mother arrested for having an obese son, is more folderol from the fatism front: a proposal by the Urban Institute to tax "fattening" foods to fight obesity. In other words, if you're overweight, you're guilty until proven innocent and thus fair game for the most onerous "corrective" action.

Reporting on this in the Los Angeles Times, Melissa Healy writes: "'Facing the serious consequences of an uncontrolled obesity epidemic, America's state and federal policy makers may need to consider interventions every bit as forceful as those that succeeded in cutting adult tobacco use by more than 50%,' the Urban Institute report says."

Read the rest here.