As if the talk about death books and death panels were not enough, on a recent telephone townhall meeting Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann called on her constituents to fast and pray to defeat healthcare reform.

The 6th district Republican quoted the late British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, attacked Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for receiving political contributions from a medical doctor who was murdered in May, and called on everyone to get down on their knees and pray that health care reform fails. Bachmann didn’t always make sense, but she undoubtedly scared the living daylights out of anyone on the line.

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She [Bachmann] also suggested that it might be some kind of religious destiny that hardy souls such as herself are in Congress at this time.

“We all need to consider that in God’s timing that he may have allowed us, as members of Congress, to be in the position that we’re in just for this specific issue right now,” she said. “Everything that all of us have worked together and labored for over the years, all of it could be undermined with this one bill. President Obama realizes that. The radicals that are on the pro-abortion left, they realize that. They could win it all. And the unborn, and the vulnerable, the disabled and those at the end of life could lose it it all.”

But it was Bachmann’s fervent call to utilize prayer and fasting to beat back health-care reform efforts that was the true highlight of the call.

“That’s really where this battle will be won — on our knees in prayer and fasting,” she told the listeners. “Remember: faith without works is dead. So we’re asking you to do all of it: pray, fast, believe, trust the Lord, but also act.”

Here’s hoping her listeners are covered if any of them fast themselves into a coma.

Last week the Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness (a mouthful I know), wrote a letter to CEO Steve Jobs condemning the tagline for Apple’s newly released iMac. Apple and Steve quickly buckled under the pressure, changing the tag line from “The new iMac. You can’t be too thin. Or too powerful.” to “The all new, all-in-one, iMac.”

As a card carrying member of the LTLC (the Larger than Life Consortium), I applaud Apple in their quick response. Words are powerful and those of us with a girth greater and smaller than Lindsey Lohan can suffer tremendous setbacks when such language is used. Words trigger emotions. Words trigger memories. Unpleasant ones. Sometimes it is difficult to simply get through the day, as we are constantly bombarded by language and images of what the media and middle Americas perceive as ideal.

As many of you know I am huge Apple supporter, some might even call me a zealot, but always in the kindest and most humane of terms. Our home is just just brimming with the fruit with a small bite taken out for good measure. From laptops to iPods, and iMacs to AppleTVs. And if there is one thing they all share in common, other than just being fabulous hardware and software, it’s that practically each and everyone of them…
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