Monday, August 20, 2012

God's little shield


You heard about Rep. Todd Akin's comment that victims of "legitimate rape" don't get pregnant, right? Crazy, isn't it?
“First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare,” Akin told KTVI-TV in an interview posted Sunday. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” ...

A 1996 study by the American Journal of Obstetricians and Gynecologists found “rape-related pregnancy occurs with significant frequency” and is “a cause of many unwanted pregnancies” — an estimated “32,101 pregnancies result from rape each year.”

But do you know what's even crazier? Akin isn't just a Republican Congressman; he's on the House Science Committee!

How crazy is that? That would be like Michele Bachmann being on the Intelligence Committee, or Joe Barton being on the Energy Committee. (Oh, wait, they are!)

Of course, Republicans today don't "believe" in science, so I suppose that Akins fits right in. At least, he's apparently not alone in his belief about God's little shield.

Well, Republicans are faith-based, not evidence-based. They believe what they want to believe. That's the whole problem. That's why we're in such a mess here in America these days.

2 comments:

Jeff said...

The really scary part is the "dittoheads" will buy Akin's bullshit hook, line, and sinker. They are a bigger threat than the Republican politicians themselves.

"Parsons was Winston's fellow employee at the Ministry of Truth. He was a fattish but active man of paralyzing stupidity, a mass of imbecile enthusiasms-one of those completely unquestioning, devoted drudges on whom, more even than on the thought police, the stability of the Party depended."

- George Orwell, 1984

Bill Garthright said...

Nice quote, Jeff! :)

Note that the Republican leadership is backing away from Akin as fast as they can. But that's not because they dislike what he said, I suspect. They just know it won't be popular.

As Republicans have gotten crazier and crazier, as they've seen their positions become less and less popular, they haven't changed those positions, but only tried to keep them a secret from most Americans.

It's like Mitt Romney and... well, pretty much everything. It's not just his tax returns. Want to know what his plans are? Sorry, but that's a secret.

The Republican leadership is angry because Akin said this out loud, that's all.