Long-term relationships pick up each other’s unhealthy habits

 

While previous research links marriage with multiple health benefits, a new US research has suggested 

that married straight couples and cohabiting gayand lesbian couples in long-term intimate relationships may pick up each other’s unhealthy habits as well.

Corinne Reczek, a University of Cincinnati assistant professor of sociology, reports three distinct findings into how unhealthy habits were promoted through these long-term, intimate relationships: through the direct bad influence of one partner, through health habit synchronicity and through the notion of personal responsibility.

Reczek reports that gay, lesbian and straight couples all described the “bad influence” theme, 

while in straight partnerships men were nearly always viewed as the “bad influence”.

“The finding that one partner is a ‘direct bad influence’ suggests that individuals converge in health habits across the course of their relationship, because one individual’s unhealthy habits directly promotes the other’s unhealthy habits,” said Reczek.

“While previous research focuses nearly exclusively on how intimate relationships – particularly marriage – are health-promoting, these findings extend this research to argue that intimate partners are cognizant of the ways in which they promote the unhealthy habits of one another,” she stated.

The findings will be presented Aug. 23 at the 106th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Las Vegas.

http://news.bioscholar.com/

Adam Carolla To Gays: ‘Shut Up, You’re Ruining My Life’

You might think that being the host of a high-profile TV show would cause a performer to watch his mouth.

You’d be wrong.

At least in the case of Adam Carolla, the comedian who is also one of the hosts of “The Car Show,” which launched in July on Speed TV.

In his most recent podcast, using the tongue-in-cheek Internet campaign to have Sesame Street‘s Bert and Ernie get married, Carolla embarked on a foul-mouthed and abusive rant against gay, lesbian, and transgendered people.

He even named names, going so far as target Cher’s son Chaz Bono (born Chastity) specifically.

Confusingly, he claimed LGBTQ people are “ruining his life” and commanded all of them to “shut up.”

It could almost bring to mind the famous quote, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

 We’ve editing out the NSFW parts of his rant, of which there are quite a few. Read here for some of the uglier, more graphic language.

Needless to say, protest and pushback arrived immediately.

Carolla then tweeted a half-hearted non-apology, saying, “I’m sorry my comments were hurtful. That being said, I’m a comedian, not a politician.”

And there it stands.

But the GayWheels blog (republished by Jalopnik) raises an interesting question: Could the backlash over Carolla’s anti-gay rantdamage, or even kill, “The Car Show”?

As certain other public figures have learned at their peril, propounding venomous anti-gay slurs on air tends to scare advertisers. We’re lookin’ at you, Dr. Laura. And, more recently, Tracy Morgan.

Let’s be clear: We draw a clear distinction between a polite statement of principles (e.g. “I personally don’t agree with same-sex marriage, but I recognize that others feel differently”) and the kind of potty-mouth teen bigotry that Carolla engaged in.

So we’d like to get your views on two related questions. First, do you think “The Car Show” will suffer from Carolla’s comments? And, second, should his comments in a personal webcast affect the show?

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com

GOP candidates have no time for your "science," scientists,environment

BY ALEX PAREENE

•  

AP/Richard Shiro/Butch Dill/iStockphoto/uzuri71

Rick Perry, a chimpanzee and Michele Bachmann

Jon Huntsman has easily won the "liberals on Twitter" primary byannouncing that he ... believes in evolution, a theory that is almost universally accepted by scientists and rejected primarily by people looking to preserve the myth that every word in the self-contradictory, partially incorrectly translated, and occasionally quite ridiculous ancient scriptures of the Jewish and Christian faiths is literally true. (Huntsman also said he likes Captain Beefheart, which handily won him the "aging dudes with big vinyl collections" primary.)

It's only remarkable that a well-educated prominent political figure believes in a nearly century-old scientific consensus because many other members of the political elite don't. Huntsman's tweet was prompted by Rick Perry telling a child that he has his doubts about evolution.

"I hear your mom was asking about evolution," Perry said today. "That's a theory that is out there -- and it's got some gaps in it."

Perry then told the boy: "In Texas, we teach both creationism and evolution. I figure you're smart enough to figure out which one is right."

Yep, that's how schools work. You tell kids some things that are true and some things that are made up and you trust that the children will be "smart enough" to figure it out. "America's first three presidents were George Washington, John Adams and the Green Lantern. Good luck on your AP History test."

Here we are in 2011, and we are still daily relitigating the Scopes Monkey Trial, and indeed some not insubstantial number of grade school graduates are still under the impression that "evolution" means "my grandpa was a monkey." Huntsman's acceptance of evolution is proof that he's a joke candidate not worthy of coverage, actually. (Even blue state "moderate" Chris Christie has his doubts..)

Mitt Romney, of course, used to believe in evolution (or at least natural selection controlled by God, the mildest form of "intelligent design"), because he used to govern a very liberal state that contains a lot of well-educated people. But he used to believe a lot of things. Now, his thoughts have ... "evolved."

Michele Bachmann -- well, she became prominent in local Minnesota politics running for school board on an anti-science platform. She has actually slightlymoderated her language on the subject, as she toned down the end times Dominionist language a bit upon entering national politics. (You can trust Michele Bachmann to tell your kids the truth -- she used to call herself a doctor!)

Newt Gingrich used to be fine with it, too, though he doesn't bring it up much, now. (Ron Paul thinks it's irrelevant.)

And this is just evolution. Global warming, or anthropogenic climate change, is a lot more contentious, because certain powerful industries have a powerful financial interest in denying it. On that one, well ... Newt Gingrich used to believe in it. Tim Pawlenty apologized for agreeing with it before. Mitt Romney believed in it before, too. Rick Perry believes in curing droughts by praying. God help us.

• Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon. Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene More: Alex Pareene   salon.com

Rick Perry MIGHT Have a Gay problem But He DOES Have porn problem

An investment in a video rental chain was once a target of conservative protests

BY JUSTIN ELLIOTT

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AP/Cheryl Senter/iStockphoto/07_au

Here's an interesting tidbit from Rick Perry's past to keep an eye on. In the mid-1990s, the presidential candidate owned stock in a video rental store chain whose hardcore porn offerings drew the ire of conservative groups, according to a 2006 report on a liberal Texas blog. That item was resurrected by several liberal web sites this week.

Burnt Orange Report, a site founded by a Democratic activist, reported in 2006 that Perry's 1995 financial disclosure showed he owned between $5,000 and $10,000 in stock in the company Movie Gallery. He was at the time state commissioner of agriculture.

Why is that significant? Because the now- defunct Movie Gallery, once a competitor to Blockbuster, was known for offering XXX porn rentals along with conventional Hollywood fare. (FireDogLake offers a useful sampling of titles here.)

Ironically, it was the social conservative crusaders at the American Family Association -- the very group that helped organize Perry's stadium prayer rally this month -- who spent years on an anti-porn campaign targeting Movie Gallery. AFA was active targeting Movie Gallery both before and after Perry owned the stock; at one protest event outside Movie Gallery's Alabama headquarters in 2000, AFA members held signs reading "Serve God or Serve Money," "Pornography hurts families," and "Porn dishonors mothers."

An AFA spokesman complained to a local newspaper, "There were hundreds of these hard, nasty-looking videos that were extremely graphic."

Asked about the investment by Salon, Perry spokesman Mark Miner argued that it is a non-story. "It was a regional video chain just like a Blockbuster or any other," he said, adding that Perry had bought and sold the stock in 1995. (Perry's stock holdings were put in a blind trust in 1996, so what he has owned since that year is not publicly known.)

1995 was a long time ago, but never underestimate how intensely social conservatives in places like Iowa abhor porn. Prominent Iowa GOP activist Bob Vander Plaats told me in a recent interview, for example, that he favors an outright ban on smut.

For now the Perry-porn story seems to have mostly generated interest among liberals hoping it will become a problem for him. But it's not beyond the realm of imagination that it could become a real headache.

After all, it's not unprecedented for a GOP presidential candidate from Texas to catch heat for ties to the porn business. Back in 1995, the presidential campaign of Senator Phil Gramm was dealt a blow after the New Republicreported that he had invested in porn films with his brother-in-law. One of the films involved in the scandal was titled "Truck Stop Women."

• Justin Elliott is a Salon reporter. Reach him by email at jelliott@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @ElliottJustin More: Justin Elliott  http://www.salon.com/

George Michael is making new gay album with a “gay collective”artists

George Michael

Posted by LGBT Weekly

George Michael has announced that he is planning to make a new album with a “gay collective” of artists in an effort to “correct the damage” his recent behavior had caused in “letting young gay kids down.”

He told the U.K.’s NME, “For this album I’m going to be working with either gay or gay friendly artists, and it’ll be a mixture of tracks sung by me and others by young gay artists – possibly unknown ones. And I’ve lined up some really great dance producers to work on it too, so it’ll be a pretty stunning record. I’ll be 48 when the album comes out, but I have to say that gay men’s relationship with dance music probably doesn’t end at the same time as straight people’s does!”

Michael has been arrested twice for sex offenses and convicted for drug and driving violations. Last year, he spent four months in prison after crashing his car while under the influence of cannabis.