Today’s Blogmarks

Grabbed from my blogmarks.

Disney’s Tigger: ‘Parent of the Year’

Last week it occurred to me that Tigger does more parenting before 9 a.m. than some parents do their entire lives.

Tigger? Yes, Tigger — the happy-go-lucky tiger from the Winnie the Pooh cartoons and lovable costumed character that wanders Disney theme parks. But there’s also a darker side to Tigger. You see, Tigger is a rogue thug who sucker punches innocent children. At least, that was the accusation made after a teen, who was posing for a picture with Tigger, yanked on the back of the costume, and Tigger reacted by swinging his left arm across his body, which brushed the kid in the face.

This isn’t just about the rope-a-dope incident at the Magic Kingdom. It’s about a parent who’s teaching a child the worst lesson of all: If anything bad happens, even if you precipitated it, lie, say it was unprovoked, and it isn’t your fault and the other party should pay. This brand of parenting is raising a generation of sniveling, lying, bullying disrespectful brats simply because a parent or parents wanted to make a few bucks.

Mitt Romney Defends Abortion Stance After Internet Video Appears

The debut of a video on the Internet this week is causing more headaches for potential Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor and recent pro-life convert was forced to defend his newfound beliefs after a 1994 video surfaced showing him defending legalized abortion.

Responding to the video, Romney appeared on a radio talk show and said, “I was wrong on some issues back then.”

“If you want to know where I stand by the way, you don’t just have to listen to my words, you can go to look at my record as governor,” Romney said during an appearance on the “Glenn and Helen Show,” a radio program.

Rise of the food tyrants

In the wake of New York City’s ban on restaurant use of trans fat, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the ban is “not going to take away anybody’s ability to go out and have the kind of food they want, in the quantities they want. … We are just trying to make food safer.”