A Florida state representative, Ritch Workman, is pushing a campaign to lift the ban on “dwarf tossing.” The strange activity is it exactly what it sounds like, and (not surprisingly) often takes place in bars or other events involving alcoholic libations. In this activity, dwarves wear some sort of padded clothing, usually with Velcro, and are then thrown (or “tossed”), usually onto a mattress or similar surface coated in Velcro. It may come as no surprise that dwarf tossing is nearly universally banned, both in America and the world.

The idea of dwarf tossing is certainly not appealing to the wide majority of people, and Workman’s proposal has garnered considerable media attention, even getting picked up (and duly mocked) by Stephen Colbert. But, what may surprise you, however, is that Rep. Workman is not the only one who has proposed lifting the ban on this bizarre activity. For example, a French dwarf appealed the ban all the way to the UN in 2002, claiming that the ban violated his economic freedoms and human rights. His appeal was unsuccessful.

When asked why Workman was pushing for the overturn of this ban, he said in a local newspaper that he is “on a quest to seek and destroy unnecessary burdens on the freedom and liberties of people” and that dwarf tossing is “an example of Big Brother government.” Workman has gone out of his way to call dwarf tossing “repulsive and stupid,” yet he still doesn’t believe the government has the right to ban it.

Despite the initial shock that dwarf tossing causes, perhaps Workman does have a point. Does the government have the right to ban activities that are clearly “repulsive” because they believe them to be bad for people, or society? What implications would a successful repeal of dwarf tossing have on other government policies? Based off Workman’s argument is it within the government’s prerogative to ban certain drugs, or even prostitution? Doesn’t banning prostitution cut off the economic freedom of prostitutes, just as Workman claims dwarf tossing infringes on the freedoms of dwarves?

What do you think? Should the ban on dwarf tossing be lifted? Is Workman being outrageous, or does he have a real point to make about the role of government? Does the government have a right to ban seemingly “unethical” activities? What about ones that aren’t so bizarre…like driving without a seatbelt? Engaging in high risk behavior? Eating fatty food? Where can we draw the line between healthy paternalism and an overstep of the governments authority?

John P/onemansblog.com via Flickr

The first ever time I read about LFL, I thought it stood for Ladies Football League. I pictured women in shoulder pads and helmets and you know, football. Well, I was right about all of that except for the “Ladies” part, and from the title, I’m sure you know what is coming.

Yes, LFL stands for Lingerie Football League, and it is, as the name suggests, women playing football in their lingerie.

Attractive women in lingerie playing football? It probably does not take wild imagination to realize why it attracts a primarily male audience.

Judging from the highlights, the football part is real and it is definitely not just a strip show designed to appeal to men’s pleasure. In fact, judging from everything I’ve been reading, the women players love it—many of them have actually been playing for free.

But this just does not seem quite right to me. I think it is awesome that there is a league that supports women football players, and I most definitely understand the need to distinguish from NFL and drive in profit, but dressed in that? Does that really help promote women’s football? And what kind of message is it sending out to society?

This reminds me of Eddie’s post on “PETA porn” and my other post on, well, “news porn.”

So now that we are also throwing “football porn” into the mix, is this really what we want from our society? If not, how do we ensure that the “market pull” does not turn everything we know into something like that? (I personally don’t think high school teachers in bikinis teaching trigonometry is a good idea.)

And if you agree with me that LFL is not that great of a concept (and if you disagree with me, I would love to hear your point), how do we also approach the fact that the women players seem to have zero problems doing this? Even if a less scantily clad version of women’s football exists, I am guessing that many of the players would rather play in lingerie and be watched than play in an empty gym.

(On a more unrelated note of the day, should little kids play football like this?)

The contest occurred at a local NZ elementary school…after all, what third grader doesn’t want to toss a possum during recess? For the animal-tossing uncultured among us, a possum-tossing contest entails the following: one, catching and humanely killing possums; two, tossing them as far as you can. That’s about it. See the video below for an example.  Sounds like a normal Sunday for me…

The principal of the elementary school that had this contest has come under fire, but he maintains that the kids, who were almost all from rural NZ farms and “had a good understanding of life and death,” were just having “harmless fun.” Moreover, the contest was part of a larger fundraising gala for the rural school. So, really, they’re tossing for a good cause he seems to be arguing.

New Zealand animal rights activists, however, beg to differ on the harmless fun aspect of this argument and insist that “it is immoral to toss dead animals around.” Here, there may be a point. After all, how many of us would enjoy spending an afternoon tossing around Fluffy and Sparky in the backyard? (If you would in fact find this fun…please don’t get a dog.)

But, here’s the kicker that makes the possum tossing much more acceptable to most than simply killing the family dog for a tossing contest: in New Zealand possums are not native and are actually classified as pests. Essentially, it’d be like if we here in America found some really big rats, humanely killed them and tossed them around. Though I become queasy at the idea of this, it doesn’t seem like too terrible a thing. We kill bugs, mice, rats and other “pests” regularly. What makes a possum different?

In case you think this is an isolated occurrence, the art of tossing bizarre animals or people is not exactly a new phenomenon in society. And yes, that did say tossing people, for we need only look to the bar sport of dwarf tossing. In fact, the game is so widespread, particularly in Australia, that scholars have debated whether or not dwarf tossing is unethical. Before anyone gets too concerned, I should clarify that the dwarves are not “humanely killed” pre-tossing as in the case of the possums. They are alive, suited with padding, and are often paid for offering themselves to be tossed. Dwarf or possum, which one would you prefer to toss?

Of course, before answering that question, there is one huge aspect of this possum-tossing contest that we haven’t even touched on: the humane killing of the possums. In theory, humane killing sounds like a mixture of a great idea and a great euphemism to make us feel better about killing defenseless creatures…I mean pests. But, in practice, I think we all knew our fair share of sadistic ten-year-old boys, and I can’t see them being so humane to the possums they want to toss.

Personally, I find that the idea of tossing any dead animal (pest or not) makes me quite squeamish, and it’s certainly not something I’d want to do in a school sanctioned setting. As for the dwarves, I have neither the strength nor desire to ever toss one anywhere. In fact, the mere idea of relegating a dwarf to the status of a baseball is even more hard for me to handle than tossing possums.

So, when all is said and done, would you toss a possum?