Chuck Norris

Real-life action figure Chuck Norris is blasting President Obama for allegedly working behind the scenes to create a "pro-gay Boy Scouts of America. " Norris -- an action star and well-known conservative and gun-rights activist -- made the charges in a piece posted Tuesday on Ammoland.com , a site dedicated to shooting-sports news. Norris suggests that Americans take a closer look at the recent headlines made when James Turley, a Boy Scouts of America national board member, announced that he will work from within the scouting organization to change its long-standing position barring gay Scouts and gay Scout leaders.

With only a couple of weeks to go until election day, the fusillade of nasty political flak fills the sky. Citizens straining to find a little blue need to take a long trip. Or look for antidotes. Andy Mayer, 11, provides a bit of the latter. Andy is a 5 th grader who lives in “a beige house with green shutters” in Edison Park, in northwest Chicago, along with his mom, dad and 14-year-old brother. (That's the way he described it.) He also writes for his own little website, “The Normal Kids Nest,” and when he blogs on the presidential debates it's a scream.

Reporting from Asheville, N.C. — They stand four rows deep in the movie theater parking lot, men in leather motorcycle jackets and women in tank tops and tattoos and teenage boys wielding cellphone cameras. They look toward the sky, in part as a symbolic gesture — because heaven is the only place, really, that one should look when a film divinity like Chuck Norris is so near — but also because that's where the man with the jet pack is hovering. The crowd has gathered on this warm April weekend in Asheville, N.C., for a stunt show at ActionFest, the world's first — and, one can presume, only — "film festival with a body count."

"The Expendables 2"arrives jam-packed and fully loaded with main man Sly Stallone still leading the charge, followed by that wild bunch of aging brawn. There is some new blood in Liam Hemsworth and a lot of very old blood with nearly every AARP action hero in the book turning up at some point. And the kill count reaches into the ca-zillions. But somehow all that testosterone-infused blow-'-em-up craziness turns out to be kind of a kick. Director Simon West hasn't messed much with the basic formula of Barney's (Stallone)

Last summer, for no particular reason, Ian Spector, a computational biology major at Brown University, created the Random Chuck Norris Fact generator and put it up on a page on his website, www.4Q.cc. So far, the page has registered more than 3,000 "facts" about the actor and martial arts champion. "I'm asked a lot which facts are my favorites and my stock reply is that they all are," Spector says. He admits he answers that way because he doesn't want to hurt posters' feelings.

Martial arts film star Chuck Norris said this week he will help pay for the funeral of a Sylmar teen-ager--the son of international kick-boxing champions--who was killed Saturday in a gang-related drive-by shooting. The victims' parents, William (Blinky) and Lilly Rodriguez, are well known in kick boxing, an Oriental sport that allows use of the feet as well as fists. Norris, a family friend, knew the slain boy. Norris said he will contribute to a trust fund to cover the funeral costs.

Howard Jackson, 54, who parlayed his martial arts skills into stunt work with Chuck Norris in films and television, died March 7 of leukemia at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte. A native of Detroit, Jackson was a Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton in the early 1970s when he met Norris at a karate exhibition. After his discharge from the military, Jackson trained with Norris at his Torrance studio and with his traveling team of martial artists.

Campaigning for Mike Huckabee, actor Chuck Norris said Sunday that Sen. John McCain is too old to handle the pressures of being president. "I didn't pick John to support because I'm just afraid that the vice president would wind up taking over his job in that four-year presidency," Norris said. At 67, he is four years younger than McCain, who will be 72 in August. "So we need to find someone that can handle it for four years or eight years . . .

The last time around, Chuck Norris and his Delta Force, a special unit of the U.S. Army, took on some Arab terrorist hijackers. This time, in "Delta Force 2: Operation Stranglehold" (citywide), Norris and his cohorts zero in on the world's wealthiest drug dealer, wanted in 17 countries. If the first "Delta Force" played like a formula TV movie, the second is not even that.

Down in Texas, Jim McIngvale is known as "Mattress Mack." But that doesn't mean he plans to keep his cash in one. After conquering the Houston furniture market with a series of zany commercials that inspire comparisons to Southern California auto dealer Cal Worthington, McIngvale has turned his attention to Hollywood. He is betting $16 million from his own bank account--about 40% of his net worth by his own accounting--on a single film, "Sidekicks."

Real-life action figure Chuck Norris is blasting President Obama for allegedly working behind the scenes to create a "pro-gay Boy Scouts of America. " Norris -- an action star and well-known conservative and gun-rights activist -- made the charges in a piece posted Tuesday on Ammoland.com , a site dedicated to shooting-sports news. Norris suggests that Americans take a closer look at the recent headlines made when James Turley, a Boy Scouts of America national board member, announced that he will work from within the scouting organization to change its long-standing position barring gay Scouts and gay Scout leaders.

Desperate to blunt the onslaught of Mitt Romney's attack machine and survive a likely loss in the Florida Republican primary, Newt Gingrich is branding Romney as a Massachusetts liberal and proclaiming himself the only true champion of Ronald Reagan conservatism. He's got Sarah Palin rooting - - or should I say “rootin' ” - - for him. B-movie tough guy Chuck Norris is in his camp. Herman Cain, who shares Newt's penchant for quirky ideas and marital elasticity, has endorsed him. And Reagan's elder son, Michael, a right-wing radio host, is campaigning at his side.

Reporting from Asheville, N.C. — They stand four rows deep in the movie theater parking lot, men in leather motorcycle jackets and women in tank tops and tattoos and teenage boys wielding cellphone cameras. They look toward the sky, in part as a symbolic gesture — because heaven is the only place, really, that one should look when a film divinity like Chuck Norris is so near — but also because that's where the man with the jet pack is hovering. The crowd has gathered on this warm April weekend in Asheville, N.C., for a stunt show at ActionFest, the world's first — and, one can presume, only — "film festival with a body count."

Campaigning for Mike Huckabee, actor Chuck Norris said Sunday that Sen. John McCain is too old to handle the pressures of being president. "I didn't pick John to support because I'm just afraid that the vice president would wind up taking over his job in that four-year presidency," Norris said. At 67, he is four years younger than McCain, who will be 72 in August. "So we need to find someone that can handle it for four years or eight years . . .

AN A-list celebrity endorsement can lift a presidential campaign. But Chuck Norris' seal of approval can kick-start the Airbus. Take Mike Huckabee's political efforts, for example. A month ago, few even knew that Huckabee was a former governor of Arkansas, let alone a Republican candidate for president. Then karate-movie tough guy Norris -- with a cult following big enough to populate three continents -- announced he was in Huckabee's camp. (They share evangelical Christian views.

Last summer, for no particular reason, Ian Spector, a computational biology major at Brown University, created the Random Chuck Norris Fact generator and put it up on a page on his website, www.4Q.cc. So far, the page has registered more than 3,000 "facts" about the actor and martial arts champion. "I'm asked a lot which facts are my favorites and my stock reply is that they all are," Spector says. He admits he answers that way because he doesn't want to hurt posters' feelings.

A Philippine Air Force helicopter hired for the filming of a Chuck Norris movie about Vietnam plunged into Manila Bay on Saturday, killing four Filipino soldiers and injuring five other people. The only production crew member injured, identified by authorities as West German Max Motschmann, had been hired by Cannon Film Group, producers of the film, to assist in filming a scene for "Missing in Action III" in Puerto Azul, a resort southwest of Manila.

Mike Norris' actions at the scene of a crime were not what you would expect from the son of karate expert and movie star Chuck Norris, but it still won him praise. Norris, 25, of Huntington Beach--who, like his father, is an actor and trained in the martial arts--was honored Thursday by the Huntington Beach Neighborhood Crime Watch program for helping police capture a purse snatcher, crime watch program spokeswoman Suzie Wajda said Friday.

Howard Jackson, 54, who parlayed his martial arts skills into stunt work with Chuck Norris in films and television, died March 7 of leukemia at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte. A native of Detroit, Jackson was a Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton in the early 1970s when he met Norris at a karate exhibition. After his discharge from the military, Jackson trained with Norris at his Torrance studio and with his traveling team of martial artists.

PAUL FARHI'S story regarding the public image of Chuck Norris ["The Man, the Myriad Myths," Jan. 6] left out one critical fact that probably has more to do with his personality and body of work than anything else. In July 1970 his younger brother, Wieland, was killed during the ferocious battle for Firebase Ripcord in Vietnam. Years afterward, Norris dedicated his "Missing in Action" movies to the memory of his late brother. Obviously, his brother's early death in the heat of battle left a lasting impression on him. In the world of Chuck Norris, the bad guys are simply bad guys, and they're going to get what's coming to them.