I have to admit that I am still facepalming from Michele Bachmann's insane claim during the GOP debates in which she made up some baloney tale about some girl receiving the HPV vaccine and it apparently caused mental retardation (as if that's actually possible). But at the very least, nobody backed her on that one. Then Todd Akin comes out with his claim that "legitimate" cases of raped women can't result in pregnancy, and therefore, there's no need to offer abortions for rape victims. I especially love his use of the word "legitimate", something which I doubt many people actually mistook to mean he felt there was some sort of contextual justification for rape. No, he was pretty clearly trying to imply that women lie about being raped and use that to get abortions.
Of course there are people who lie about being victims of crimes. Any crime, and rape is no exception. But to assume that it's the rule rather than the exception is something that takes an inordinate degree of stupidity and forceful rejection of reality that I can't even begin to enumerate. The reality is that most rapes don't even go reported, and the rate of pregnancy is ~5%. This is about 1/4 the rate of pregnancy for couples when they're actually trying to get pregnant. The reason for the lower proportion is quite simple -- couples actually trying to get pregnant are also paying attention to things like ovulation cycles and so on, which simply does not fall under the attention of a rapist. It's the sort of religion-guided universal disdain for women that leads to the sort of assumption that given the opportunity, any woman will deliberately play the victim in order to shirk responsibility. This is funny, considering that 100% of religious fundamentalists play the victim whenever they feel the need to rob others of their equality of rights.
But it gets even crazier than that. There were plenty of GOP figureheads who saw the backlash and distanced themselves from him -- yes, for the first time, the opposition actually argued back with *facts* rather than just talk of cruelty or play other games. However, because Akin addressed a point that is pretty much on the core of the right-wing platform (unlike Michele Bachmann with her anti-vaccine garbage), it was inevitable that there would be support for his idiotic claims. And boy, what support.
Unsurprisingly, Kirk Cameron, the brilliant mind that stands shoulder to shoulder with those stalwarts that brought us the beliefs in geocentrism, flat earth, 10,000-yr old universes, and the belief that the sky is a carpet painted by God... came out with the important distinction that people are focusing on the wrong thing. They should be focusing on the fact that he's a "man who is advocating the sanctity of life." He respects Akin as a staunch pro-lifer. After all, the biblical purpose of all women is to be subservient baby factories and/or sex toys to be used and disposed of at will. No, Kirk... he's not talking about being pro-life. Akin never misspoke in any sense, because he seriously believed the bullshit he spewed. He's claiming that most if not all of the women who get pregnant by rape, are lying. He's claiming that pregnancy by rape is not an issue to be worried about. Note also, that there isn't any incidence of a Republican who's willing to offer abortions even in the case of ectopic pregnancies. Yep, they're pro-life all right... Just so long as we're not talking about the life of the mother.
Steve King, the same representative who argued that gay marriage is a "socialist" concept and a bill in favor of it is a monument to slavery... he doubled down on Akin's false belief. Quote, "Well I just haven't heard of that being a circumstance that's been brought to me in any personal way..." Notice how he specifically mentions that there aren't brought to him personally. As if that's the proof of all things. If I didn't personally see a monkey turn into a man, that proves evolution is false! You can f**ing read facts one of these days. Oh, wait, you're a Republican, which means it's illegal for you to know things which are actually true, you subhuman filth. Of course, you have Bryan Fischer, as well, who is probably the most anti-reality person alive today. The guy is a professional mega-bigot who uses a radio platform to posit that people should be taxed for lack of church attendance, and that the genocide of non-Christians is justified, HIV does not exist, and that Bill Clinton causes throat cancer. So is it any wonder that he'd jump on something that is so patently false, that you'd have to be mentally ill to believe it simply because it is so eminently misogynistic?
Much like the deepest valley in the depths of human immorality, AKA Rick Santorum, once said, we still have to consider life a gift. Therefore, even if a woman gets pregnant by way of rape, we have to consider that a good thing. This sentiment was echoed afterwards by the likes of Mike Huckabee and others. Because after all, who the f*!k cares about what a rape victim has to go through? Only the parasite in the uterus matters! Make some lemonade out of those lemons!
Proving that Akin is not at the peak of medical ignorance, the state of Arizona tried to go one better. They recently passed a law which now states that women are "legally" pregnant 2 weeks prior to conception. Why do this? It's like a big sign that says "Hey, Todd Akin! We're the Arizona legislature, and we're even stupiderer [sic] than you are!" I kind of get the game here, and in reality, it's their effort to try and be clever. They're trying to push trimester boundaries back a few weeks so that you can be medically considered "too late" for an abortion just that much earlier. By making a woman "legally" pregnant from the start date of their last menses, most women would already be halfway into their first trimester (legally) by the time they even know they're pregnant at all. How convenient.
Of course, I don't mean to make it sound like there's nothing but glowing praise for the sort of stupidity that permeates the conservative culture. The reality is that the majority of the Republican party has recognized that this has cost them dearly, and they're all trying to distance themselves from him, while simultaneously urging him to drop out of the race, thereby cutting their losses and letting Claire McCaskill take the win for the Democrats. But then, there's the nature of this rejection of Akin that's really interesting. The very same people who would just as likely push to eliminate all rights for women are pushing Akin out of their association because of their fear of damage to the GOP party label. They're not worried about the statements or the broad-sweeping accusation he essentially made against all women. That doesn't matter. What matters is that the cat's out of the bag, and they don't want people to see that they really are this stupid and evil. It's sort of a whisper in the ear saying "Dude, we're totally with you!" while shouting out to the crowd that you think he's a total douchebag.
Meanwhile, the democrats are of no help. They're weak pathetic underlings. We only had one erstwhile strong democrat in the House, and he's gone now. The closest thing we currently have in the Senate is Al Franken, and while he's indubitably clever enough to soundly thrash idiocy by actually reading and verifying real factual sources, he's not quite the screamer that Grayson was, and politics is generally a game of who yells the loudest. That too, even if he was, he would stand alone. It's sad that the main reason Obama is effectively more conservative than even the likes of Ronald Reagan is because he's so weak and pitiful that he capitulates on everything. He's the lifeguard who sees a man drowning 100 yards out to sea, and throws a life preserver 50 yards out... then gives himself a pat on the back saying "I went halfway." Sure, they might say that they believe in a woman's right to choose, but it's far too late for me to see them as a party that would actually deliver on something that actually matters. It effectively makes a vote for Democrats not really a vote for the right guys, but against the wrong guys.
Ultimately, it means that women are screwed, the right wing favors said screwing, and wants to codify into law that screwing them is morally correct (because that's what the law is all about, right?) , and it's their own fault. The crime they committed was being born without a Y chromosome... somewhere in that second X chromosome is the fruit that Eve ate in spite of the fact that she, the tree, and the garden demonstrably never existed. But then... we're talking about Republicans, so why should we even consider the possibility that facts ever count for anything?
Of course there are people who lie about being victims of crimes. Any crime, and rape is no exception. But to assume that it's the rule rather than the exception is something that takes an inordinate degree of stupidity and forceful rejection of reality that I can't even begin to enumerate. The reality is that most rapes don't even go reported, and the rate of pregnancy is ~5%. This is about 1/4 the rate of pregnancy for couples when they're actually trying to get pregnant. The reason for the lower proportion is quite simple -- couples actually trying to get pregnant are also paying attention to things like ovulation cycles and so on, which simply does not fall under the attention of a rapist. It's the sort of religion-guided universal disdain for women that leads to the sort of assumption that given the opportunity, any woman will deliberately play the victim in order to shirk responsibility. This is funny, considering that 100% of religious fundamentalists play the victim whenever they feel the need to rob others of their equality of rights.
But it gets even crazier than that. There were plenty of GOP figureheads who saw the backlash and distanced themselves from him -- yes, for the first time, the opposition actually argued back with *facts* rather than just talk of cruelty or play other games. However, because Akin addressed a point that is pretty much on the core of the right-wing platform (unlike Michele Bachmann with her anti-vaccine garbage), it was inevitable that there would be support for his idiotic claims. And boy, what support.
Unsurprisingly, Kirk Cameron, the brilliant mind that stands shoulder to shoulder with those stalwarts that brought us the beliefs in geocentrism, flat earth, 10,000-yr old universes, and the belief that the sky is a carpet painted by God... came out with the important distinction that people are focusing on the wrong thing. They should be focusing on the fact that he's a "man who is advocating the sanctity of life." He respects Akin as a staunch pro-lifer. After all, the biblical purpose of all women is to be subservient baby factories and/or sex toys to be used and disposed of at will. No, Kirk... he's not talking about being pro-life. Akin never misspoke in any sense, because he seriously believed the bullshit he spewed. He's claiming that most if not all of the women who get pregnant by rape, are lying. He's claiming that pregnancy by rape is not an issue to be worried about. Note also, that there isn't any incidence of a Republican who's willing to offer abortions even in the case of ectopic pregnancies. Yep, they're pro-life all right... Just so long as we're not talking about the life of the mother.
Steve King, the same representative who argued that gay marriage is a "socialist" concept and a bill in favor of it is a monument to slavery... he doubled down on Akin's false belief. Quote, "Well I just haven't heard of that being a circumstance that's been brought to me in any personal way..." Notice how he specifically mentions that there aren't brought to him personally. As if that's the proof of all things. If I didn't personally see a monkey turn into a man, that proves evolution is false! You can f**ing read facts one of these days. Oh, wait, you're a Republican, which means it's illegal for you to know things which are actually true, you subhuman filth. Of course, you have Bryan Fischer, as well, who is probably the most anti-reality person alive today. The guy is a professional mega-bigot who uses a radio platform to posit that people should be taxed for lack of church attendance, and that the genocide of non-Christians is justified, HIV does not exist, and that Bill Clinton causes throat cancer. So is it any wonder that he'd jump on something that is so patently false, that you'd have to be mentally ill to believe it simply because it is so eminently misogynistic?
Much like the deepest valley in the depths of human immorality, AKA Rick Santorum, once said, we still have to consider life a gift. Therefore, even if a woman gets pregnant by way of rape, we have to consider that a good thing. This sentiment was echoed afterwards by the likes of Mike Huckabee and others. Because after all, who the f*!k cares about what a rape victim has to go through? Only the parasite in the uterus matters! Make some lemonade out of those lemons!
Proving that Akin is not at the peak of medical ignorance, the state of Arizona tried to go one better. They recently passed a law which now states that women are "legally" pregnant 2 weeks prior to conception. Why do this? It's like a big sign that says "Hey, Todd Akin! We're the Arizona legislature, and we're even stupiderer [sic] than you are!" I kind of get the game here, and in reality, it's their effort to try and be clever. They're trying to push trimester boundaries back a few weeks so that you can be medically considered "too late" for an abortion just that much earlier. By making a woman "legally" pregnant from the start date of their last menses, most women would already be halfway into their first trimester (legally) by the time they even know they're pregnant at all. How convenient.
Of course, I don't mean to make it sound like there's nothing but glowing praise for the sort of stupidity that permeates the conservative culture. The reality is that the majority of the Republican party has recognized that this has cost them dearly, and they're all trying to distance themselves from him, while simultaneously urging him to drop out of the race, thereby cutting their losses and letting Claire McCaskill take the win for the Democrats. But then, there's the nature of this rejection of Akin that's really interesting. The very same people who would just as likely push to eliminate all rights for women are pushing Akin out of their association because of their fear of damage to the GOP party label. They're not worried about the statements or the broad-sweeping accusation he essentially made against all women. That doesn't matter. What matters is that the cat's out of the bag, and they don't want people to see that they really are this stupid and evil. It's sort of a whisper in the ear saying "Dude, we're totally with you!" while shouting out to the crowd that you think he's a total douchebag.
Meanwhile, the democrats are of no help. They're weak pathetic underlings. We only had one erstwhile strong democrat in the House, and he's gone now. The closest thing we currently have in the Senate is Al Franken, and while he's indubitably clever enough to soundly thrash idiocy by actually reading and verifying real factual sources, he's not quite the screamer that Grayson was, and politics is generally a game of who yells the loudest. That too, even if he was, he would stand alone. It's sad that the main reason Obama is effectively more conservative than even the likes of Ronald Reagan is because he's so weak and pitiful that he capitulates on everything. He's the lifeguard who sees a man drowning 100 yards out to sea, and throws a life preserver 50 yards out... then gives himself a pat on the back saying "I went halfway." Sure, they might say that they believe in a woman's right to choose, but it's far too late for me to see them as a party that would actually deliver on something that actually matters. It effectively makes a vote for Democrats not really a vote for the right guys, but against the wrong guys.
Ultimately, it means that women are screwed, the right wing favors said screwing, and wants to codify into law that screwing them is morally correct (because that's what the law is all about, right?) , and it's their own fault. The crime they committed was being born without a Y chromosome... somewhere in that second X chromosome is the fruit that Eve ate in spite of the fact that she, the tree, and the garden demonstrably never existed. But then... we're talking about Republicans, so why should we even consider the possibility that facts ever count for anything?
The Retardicans never did believe in facts. They just go with their gut and the close-minded, tunnel vision view that they always had of the world.
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