The Flying Nuns

Do not mess with nuns. They will beat you down.

[Source]

This One's On Its Last Legs

To protest the (super-wacked-out) Westboro Baptist Church's hate group's protest of his movie premiere at Sundance, Kevin Smith held up this sign:

I guess he's not over the whole Southwest Airlines thing just yet.

Sadly, the "God Hates Fat" joke ain't as original as Smith and his fans might think. These folks over here already pointed out (three years ago) that there are passages in the Bible that condemn fat. And Landover Baptist already hates fat people. So does this Facebook page.

The joke's getting a little tired. (See, e.g., God hates runners.)

Link Dump: Thanksgiving Edition

It's been a long time since I served up a bunch of links -- so here goes:

• Cooking with butter this Thanksgiving? Wondering if it’s Paleo-approved? The Whole 9 folks weigh in.

• We still eat butter, by the way. We get the grassfed stuff -- KerryGold – from Trader Joe’s. Also: organic ghee from Purity Farms.

• You know your pain-in-the-butt relatives are going to ask you over Thanksgiving dinner why you’re risking your health by eating saturated fats instead of lowfat items like bread and rice. Point them to this meta-analysis, which examined 21 studies involving more than a third of a million subjects. It concluded that there is no link between saturated fat intake and increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

• These researchers also pointed out that replacing saturated fat in your diet with carbs causes the formation of small, dense LDL particles – bad news! Thus, “dietary efforts to improve the increasing burden of [cardiovascular disease] risk associated with atherogenic dyslipidemia should primarily emphasize the limitation of refined carbohydrate intakes and a reduction in excess adiposity."

• Really. Throw around terms like “atherogenic dyslipidemia” at the dinner table. It’ll shut everyone up.

• And if some crazy uncle asks, tell him that contrary to reports, saturated fat won't mess up your sperm count. (Especially if you’re female.)

• Do watch your sugar and carb intake, though. According to the Healthy Skeptic, “normal” fasting blood sugar isn’t what your doctor says it is.

• But frankly, “[y]our post-meal blood sugars and A1c levels are more important” than your fasting blood sugar level. So try not to eat a doughnut-stuffed turkey, brined in Dunkin’ Donuts coolattas and served with coffee gravy and mashed hash browns.

• Another question you might be asked between bites of ham by your God-fearing family and friends: How can a good Christian go Paleo? Jimmy Moore surveyed the big names in caveman eating -- take a look and see which answer resonates best with you. (My two cents? You’re not going to fry in hell for eating Paleo. There are other, much better reasons to cast you into eternal damnation, like the fact that you secretly watched that porn clip of Maren from P90X.)

Cavemen for Christ?

• Speaking of Jimmy, he recently posted an interview with Mat Lelonde, hero to all science-minded low-carb Paleo eaters. Listen to it here.

• Try to enjoy yourself this Thanksgiving, and don’t spend the long weekend severely restricting your caloric intake and exercising like a maniac. Really – it's not good for you.

• Finally, when you're ready to work off Thursday's dinner, check out this old but super-awesome interview with Starting Strength’s Mark Rippetoe about the best way to get in shape. It’s only ten minutes long, but it’s chock-full of great fitness advice, such as: “Learn how to squat. It works more muscles than any other exercise, it’s harder, it’s a longer range of motion, and it will make more difference in your appearance over a shorter period of time than any single thing you can do. You have to learn how to squat correctly. Correctly is below parallel.”

Listen to it here:

(Photo: Tammy Green)

The Word "Jog" is Not in the Bible, Sir.

God hates runners.


(Source: Dangerous Minds)

The Road to Hell is Paved with Yoga

Prominent Christian leader Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary -- one of the world's largest theological seminaries -- is not a fan of yoga. (This probably isn't surprising, given that he thinks Hinduism exhibits "satanic powers.")

A recent post on Mohler's blog explains:

[Y]oga is not merely about physical exercise or health. “All forms of yoga involve occult assumptions,” [Douglas R. Groothuis, Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary] warns, “even hatha yoga, which is often presented as a merely physical discipline.” While most adherents of yoga avoid the more exotic forms of ritualized sex that are associated with tantric yoga, virtually all forms of yoga involve an emphasis on channeling sexual energy throughout the body as a means of spiritual enlightenment.

Maybe he's got a point:



So should Christians add yoga to the list of fun things they're not supposed to do, like premarital sex and buying music from places other than Wal-Mart? WWJD about yoga? Must we burn our Christoga DVDs to save our souls from Janine Turner? Is yoga evil?

Pat Robertson thinks so. He says yoga's "really spooky." And Robertson knows spooky.

My two cents? If you're not confident that your faith is strong enough to withstand a couple of sun salutations (OH NOES -- I JUST WORSHIPPED THE SUN!!!), you're probably not very religious in the first place.

And why single out yoga? If I were Mohler, I'd point to much more salient examples of the devil's handiwork, like gourmet cupcakes, the Salahis, honor killings, and the excruciating sounds of Justin Bieber. (In no particular order, obviously.)

(Source: BoingBoing)