[Vision2020] It Sounds Official, So It Must Be True

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (February 8, 2006) Lewiston Tribune with a special thanks to
Tom Henderson.

It is almost humorous, and definitely sad, how low some people (or blogs)
will go merely to exhibit a false sense of authenticity.

I am certainly glad that nobody I know would cite such an unethical source.

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"It Sounds Official, So It Must Be True"

By Tom Henderson
Lewiston Tribune
February 8, 2006

This just in: Homosexual parents are evil -- evil! 

Don't take my word for it. The American College of Pediatricians reached
this conclusion after an in-depth analysis of its own beliefs. 

Forget what you read in books like "Heather Has Two Mommies." That
nice-looking lesbian in the anti-nuke T-shirt? She probably watches Heather
take showers. 

God only knows what happens to Heather's little dog. 

It gets worse. The study noted a higher rate of domestic abuse among
homosexual partners. (But you know gays. It probably just involves slapping
each other and making cruel remarks about the drapes.) 

Homosexuals are also shamelessly frisky. Unwilling to control themselves,
the study concluded, they will parade armies of lovers into the home and
perform wanton acts of carnality. 

"Given the current body of research, the American College of Pediatricians
believes it is inappropriate, potentially hazardous to children and
dangerously irresponsible to change the age-old prohibition on homosexual
parenting, whether by adoption, foster care or by reproductive
manipulation," the study insists. 

"This position is rooted in the best available science." 

Leapin' lizards! 

These are shocking revelations from an official-sounding group with a crest
and everything. And words like "science" and "research" are used several
times. 

Many a social conservative is naturally flopping about the floor in a
convulsive fit. But just as naturally, the mainstream liberal press has
virtually ignored this story. 

Why? Glad you asked. It's five pounds of B.S. in a four-pound bag. 

The American College of Pediatricians was founded just three years ago. Its
dinky membership got bent out of shape after the American Academy of
Pediatrics -- with 60,000 members, many of them leaders in the field --
found no difference between children raised by gay and straight parents. 

In reality, the so-called college is as much a professional organization as
the Partridge Family is a rock band. Its staff consists of one person to
answer the phone. 

But it gets a lot of attention from conservatives desperate for something --
anything -- with an official-sounding name to back up their prejudices. 

The American College of Pediatrics gets a lot of its manure from teeny tiny
think tanks like the Family Research Institute and its founder, Paul
Cameron. 

Cameron prides himself on getting articles like "Gay Foster Parents More Apt
to Molest" published in academic journals. There are a lot of misnomers
flying around at this point. 

First of all, take Cameron's think tank. In terms of size and depth, it's
more like a birdbath than a tank. 

Then there are these academic journals that print Cameron's work. 

Psychological Reports, a small journal based in Montana, says its studies
are peer-reviewed. However, editor Doug Ammons says no reviewer has veto
power. 

Ammons calls this a "scientific manifestation of free speech." Well, it's
not quite free. The journal typically charges $27.50 per page to print an
article. 

At real academic journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, any
article is rejected if a reviewer raises serious objections. 

The American Psychological Association dropped Cameron as a member in 1983
after he refused to cooperate with an investigation of his methodology. 

"We are concerned about Dr. Cameron because we do believe that his
methodology is weak," Rhea Faberman, a spokeswoman for the association, told
the Boston Globe. 

And the American Sociological Association issued a resolution saying:
"Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented sociological
research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism." 

People like to have their prejudices confirmed. So when people or
organizations come along with a cool-sounding titles, the gullible snap at
the bait. 

Thank goodness for the Internet. Anyone who spends more than 30 seconds with
Google would know not to take horror stories about gay parents at face
value. 

What kind of rube could possibly be taken in by this hokum? 

"Studies have shown that the ideal is where a child is raised in a married
family with a man and a woman" -- President Bush, Jan. 27, 2005 

Yikes.

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Take care, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

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"People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that distinguish me
from a doormat." 

- Rebecca West (1913)
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