Quote:
Originally Posted by classicman
Oh ferchrissakes...
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That horse can’t be beaten enough. I remember all too well the times when abortions were illegal and birth control could be difficult for a woman to obtain. In college and high school I had teachers and professors who felt women were not equipped to study science and mathematics. In high school I had a chemistry teacher who believed that women's brains could not grasp the fundamentals of even introductory chemistry. The first day of class he would announce that no woman in the class would receive a grade lower than a "C" (since our brains didn't work like a man's). Nor would a woman receive a grade higher than a "B" (since our minds didn't work like a man's). Santorum is living proof that the old bigotry against women is still alive and well.
In Santorum’s 2005 book, "It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good," his opposition to contraception (as well as to abortion, even in the case of rape) seems part and parcel of a deep hostility toward women. Santorum has stated that " Life beginning at conception is not a belief, it is not an article of faith, it is an article of fact. It's a biological fact that life, in fact, begins as conception…”
Errr… wrong. All those little wigglers that we call sperm are very much alive BEFORE conception. And they can stay alive for a day or more. What an outrage that all those potential human beings aren’t provided an egg (also alive all by itself) to penetrate, so none of that DNA goes to waste and those poor little HUMAN sperm have to die. Tisk, tisk.
Santorum’s little diatribes may seem beyond the pale to most of you, but not all that long ago, abortions were illegal and women died in back allies at the hands of butchers, as a result. I remember those days. In Colorado, the only way a woman could get an abortion was if the woman’s life would be endangered by carrying the fetus to term. You either found an understanding shrink and told him that you would kill yourself if you had to have the baby (and thus went on record as being mentally unstable), or if a woman had the money, she flew to California which had just legalized abortions. And remember that back in the 60’s, it was shameful for a woman to have a baby out of wedlock – not like today where it seems like there are more single mothers than married ones. I knew several women my age who suffered terribly because of the laws against abortion then on the books.
In addition, Santorum has shown nothing but contempt for what his book called the "radical" feminist "pitch" that "men and women be given an equal opportunity to make it to the top in the workplace." Obviously, women should live at home and be supported by their parents until the knight in shining armor shows up to whisk her away and keep her pregnant and working in the kitchen. After all, the Bible says that. Somewhere.
Then there’s the book's dismissal of programs to help impoverished single mothers improve their job prospects by returning to school: "The notion that college education is a cost-effective way to help poor, low-skill, unmarried mothers with high school diplomas or GEDs move up the economic ladder is just wrong." Oh, really? So what are these women supposed to do? Work for minimum wage at some dead end job? How will they support their children on such low wages? I guess these women and children deserve what they get for not having a man around to support them. After all, the Bible says that. Somewhere.
Santorium’s world view is shared by the religious right who have already proved they can get out the vote, and by Southern state’s rights whackos like Merc. “Oh, Georgia (Alabama, South Carolina, etc.) are going to prove that the South can rise again by exercising their state’s “right” to make birth control and abortions illegal. Don’t think it couldn’t happen. It could.
So take your dead horse and ride him off into the sunset.
Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/14/opinio...rum/index.html
http://www.womenarewatching.org/candidate/rick-santorum