NEW YORK BOSTON |#Popular: Irish Celebrity Gossip Irish Pubs Irish Festivals Irish Roots Irish Entertainment Offbeat Irish

Home Page > Blogs > Entertainment blogs > Manhattan Diary > Rick Santorum should be the GOP's presidential candidate

Manhattan Diary by Cahir O'Doherty

Rick Santorum should be the GOP's presidential candidate

Posted on Sunday, March 18, 2012 at 09:21 AM

Larger Text

E-mail

35 Comments

RSS

Archives

Rick Santorum

Ladies, it looks like the hot fashion trend this year - thanks to the GOP - may soon be a burqa.

After all, Mitt Romney has just announced that as president he would cut federal funding to Planned Parenthood. Don't look startled, at this stage he's probably cut America's military spending if he thought it would help him clinch the GOP presidential nomination.

But not to be outdone in the jaw-dropping rightward lurch, Rick Santorum is already reminding us a women's place is really in the home, bearing children. For Santorum abortion rights are a non-starter, and even contraception is out of the question.

'Sex is supposed to be within marriage,' says Santorum. 'It's supposed to be for purposes that are yes, conjugal… but also procreative. That's the perfect way that a sexual union should happen…. This is special and it needs to be seen as special.'

Santorum maintains that contraception is 'a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.'

Santorum hasn't spelled out what 'how things are supposed to be' yet but you can be certain, ladies, that it involves you being barefoot and pregnant (and probably doing the dishes).

It's like the GOP are determined to take us back to the 1950's, to some bogus land of white picket fences and enforced silence, to the days when men like themselves literally laid down the law.
_________________
READ MORE:

President Obama celebrates St Patrick’s Day with another pint of Guinness

Senator Grassley moves forward with a proposal on E3 visa bill
____________________

During discussion of the mandatory transvaginal ultrasound bill that looks like passing in Pennsylvania (it already has passed in Virginia) Republican Governor Tom Corbett this week dismissed criticism of the invasive procedure by saying that any women who undergoes it will 'just have to close' her eyes.

That's right ladies, if you want medical care you'll shortly need a permission slip from the elderly white conservative men who run your state. How could you have a problem with that?

But did you know that 55% of all reproductive aged women now live in states that are hostile to abortion rights?

Did you know that the Republicans won't support the Violence Against Women Act because it includes same sex couples and migrant women in programs for domestic violence?

There is a bill making its way through the Arizona state legislature that will require women to prove to their boss they need birth control in order to treat a medical condition if they want their prescription to be covered by their insurer. Women will be forced to share their personal information with their boss in order to have access to basic health care.

How does that sound?

But it goes even further. This bill allows a woman's boss to fire her for using birth control as a contraceptive. You read that right, he can FIRE her. This bill has already been passed in the Arizona State House and is now up for debate in the State Senate.

Don't think this can't happen to you. It's already happening.

Personally I hope that the GOP pick Santorum to be their candidate this year. In past election cycles the hard right have moaned their party would have stood a better chance at the ballot box if they'd run a real conservative instead of a moderate like McCain or Romney.

So let them run their man. It would cool their ardor and stem their rhetoric to see how enthusiastically all 50 states reject this fundamentalist throwback. And perhaps a little real politic would have positive consequences for the presidential selection procedure in years to come.

E-mail

35 Comments

15 - 35 | See all comments

seanomelb | Mar 22, 2012, 06:27 PM EDT

maybe Santorum should have a vaginal ultrasound

Report abuse

Meanolgrouch | Mar 21, 2012, 08:40 AM EDT

Okie dokie, artichokie. The PT 4 from the other thread won't print here either. It's not too long and contains nothing inappropriate. Besides, the first time it got lost in cyberspace, that happened in a nano second, so I don't think even realtime human editors would've had time to read it and flag for rejection. What a mystery. Hmmmm.... Well, I'll try again tomorrow, Sparklet, in an entirely new thread and see what happens. Please stay tuned and I'll keep you in the loop.

Report abuse

Meanolgrouch | Mar 21, 2012, 08:24 AM EDT

Well, at least our voters can never claim they had no chance to see the true character of their candidates. New York Times columnist Gail Collins(?) told The Rest Of The Story on Romney for putting his Irish setter Seamus in a carrier atop his car on a long trip. People need to know he planned the outing down to the last detail, specifying ahead of time which rest stops the family (5 kids!) could make and no exceptions. At one point the kids told him Seamus had relieved himself in the carrier and the evidence was streaking down the windows. Romney had to stop then (although he made the family stay in the car) to hose down dog and car; then he put the dog back where it had been and drove on. I ask fellow Americans, does this look like an allegedly compassionate conservative? Of course the two terms are exclusive.

Report abuse

Meanolgrouch | Mar 21, 2012, 08:15 AM EDT

Eiriamach, aren't political cartoons great? Garry Trudeau can't be beat, but I always loved Benson's View as well. Benson's the one who escaped his ultraconservative background to be a liberal hero. Don't you wish we had Pogo back? Such a wise little possum.

Report abuse

eiriamach | Mar 20, 2012, 04:47 PM EDT

"If it doesn't sound too cruel," Meanolgrouch, I'd like to think you're right. But all depends on the moral courage of people in the media. When Garry Trudeau tried to show the public how barbaric the vaginal probe legislation is, some newspapers refused to carry his "Doonesbury" cartoons for fear of upsetting children who read the comics. How would anyone explain to a child the FACT that state lawmakers have mandated obtaining uterine sonograms by coerced penetration of women's bodies? A few Texas MDs have condemned the Texas law, women who have had the sonogram are "outraged," and women's health center directors are speaking out against the law-- but also obeying it because they fear having their clinics shut down. Just what we needed: fear-driven medical practice! Bravo Texas lawmakers!("Burnt Orange Report" is running the Doonesbury cartoons and reports on the Texas law.)

Report abuse

Meanolgrouch | Mar 20, 2012, 12:43 PM EDT

If it doesn't sound too cruel, I'm almost glad to see the use of vaginal probes now mandated by at least two US states. Women are turning to neighboring states for their critical medical treatment, but when and if no safe place can be found, at least then they'll turn on their tormentors to exact revenge. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, remember. Santorum and fellow travelers would force a woman to carry to term regardless of whether her own life would certainly be terminated by giving birth. Doesn't matter; she doesn't count. Let their outrage go on too long and we'd find ourselves in ancient Greece (and other early cultures) where they nobly debated whether women have souls at all. You know how the rabid rightwingers would vote. A pox on their house.

Report abuse

eiriamach | Mar 20, 2012, 11:38 AM EDT

Thanks to Meanolgrouch also for the reminder about the arc of history. It has become difficult to see it bending toward justice lately, what with all the Tea infusion swirling through the political atmosphere like storm clouds shrouding the path of progress. Even if an authoritarian like Santorum could be elected, it would take years for the federal courts to deal with lawsuits from disenfranchised seniors, minorities, and young voters, not to mention constitutional challenges to regressive laws from Arizona and other state legislatures. The reactionary right has constructed roadblocks, but there ain't no U-turn ahead.

Report abuse

EphraimKibbey | Mar 20, 2012, 12:55 AM EDT

I too would like to see the reactionary right put in its place, but Cahir, be careful what you wish for! All it takes for evil to triumph here is for good men and women not to go to the voting booths as happened in 2010 or be kept from them as is happening this year wiyh voter ID laws. For those of you who believe that this is all a liberal hoax - there are none so blind as those who will not see. @Meanolgrouch - thanks for defending a REAL christian and a great mind in C. S. Lewis.

Report abuse

Meanolgrouch | Mar 19, 2012, 05:27 PM EDT

Eiriamach, you're an inspiration indeed. Another thing the GOP sheep never stop to consider is the true cost of financial exploitation of the working class. Or the once middle class for that matter. They're mostly the ones in Occupy. When the dispossessed do finally rise up, as human nature impels them to do, it will be Katie Bar the Door. "The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice." Even grandfatherly old Warren Buffet doesn't give a rat's patootie about the 98%. He simply has enough brains to know that a fat cow gives more milk than a starving one. The latter tend to kick too hard for comfort.

Report abuse

eiriamach | Mar 19, 2012, 02:06 PM EDT

Looks like Irishmathair's ignorance is invincible. She says she pays for her own insurance. Working women who use gynecological services do the same. But irishmathair thinks a woman who uses contraceptives has no right to have insurance cover her prescriptions while irishmathair has a right to insurance for her dyspepsia Rx. What is so terrifying to her about working women taking control of their reproductive capacities and having sex? If women would just accept the complete dependency that "Nature," aka the USCCB, Santorum, the AZ legislature, etc., intends for them, men could easily underpay women, exclude them from public office, and batter and rape them, like the 56-year-old woman whom Christian Tea Party PR Director Michael Kobulnicky allegedly kidnapped and raped in San Diego Thursday. "Teaching her her place" no doubt, he was just demonstrating his cherished "freedom" to follow a testosterone urge as "Nature" intends, just doing his PR job. Santorum would deny the victim emergency contraception, Sarah P. would insist that she pay for police to collect evidence, the GOP would fire her rape counselor by voting down the Violence Against Women Act, and the USCCB would condemn her for violating natural law by going alone to the supermarket! It may be ignorance for irishmathair to support this politics with her vote, but the sociopaths who manipulate the votes of the ignorant know just what they're doing.

Report abuse

irishmathair | Mar 19, 2012, 10:12 AM EDT

To the obvious Libs: The comments made about my thoughts regarding contraception are stupid and lame. I don't care how much sex anyone has - they can do what they want but don't expect me to pay for it! If a business owner is forced to provide this, the cost gets passed on to me. If the insurance companies are forced to provide this, the cost again gets passed on to me. So how do you figure I and millions of others will not have to pay for it?? I have worked for a living my whole life and pay for what I need including my health insurance - these are my concerns - not your nasty statements. If more attention was paid to the really important matters affecting the citizens of this country, we'd all be better off. As for the comments on color, I have lived in the North my whole life and grew up with blacks, went to school with blacks and have never had a problem with blacks. I have in the past voted for blacks and my choice to not vote for Obama has nothing to do with his color - you are the one who makes an issue of it, not me!!!!!!

Report abuse

Meanolgrouch | Mar 19, 2012, 01:17 AM EDT

One last note: My thanks also to the many fine comments from most of you who sound like moderates or even liberals. But Sophium, you seem to forget CS Lewis declared the absolute necessity of some form of socialism to truly follow a Christian life. Look it up in his book "Mere Christianity". Then go read and re-read "The Screwtape Letters" until that book's true meaning begins to dawn on you.

Report abuse

Meanolgrouch | Mar 19, 2012, 12:56 AM EDT

Mr. Cahir O'Doherty, sir! I almost shut down for the night before reading anymore on this website because it invariably leads to endless responses on my part. So glad I hung on for one more as I wish I'd written your item myself. Don't know how to offer a bigger compliment. You did indeed hit this one out of the park.

Report abuse

DsM2shoes | Mar 18, 2012, 11:02 PM EDT

I pray I'm wrong, but obviously "irishmathair" is a product of the Rick Santorum Home School. I would suggest they read the artical again. Or Google "ironic/sarcasm". That as it is, in 1910 there were millions of people throughtout the country who were laughing at the ideals put forth by Carrie Nation. And we all know how that worked out. Santorum is not to be dismissed as a freak, he is dangerous. He has a following as great as Carrie Nations if not greater. And they are the people who rise every morning terrified by the "fact" that THEIR White House has been stolen and now occupied by a foreign born Muslim nigger and they want it back. I have been involved with presidental elections since 1960 and I have never seen or heard the type of behavior or language that is taking place today. These people don't want to defeat Obama they want to destroy him. That and everything he stands for. They are ignorant, self-absorbed, mean spirited and spiteful.

Report abuse

eiriamach | Mar 18, 2012, 10:56 PM EDT

Like the GOP, irishmathair seems unusually interested in other people's sex lives. She(?) seems to need some excuse for her prurient interests, so she fancies that she's paying for other people's sex: "Our economy is in such bad straights [sic] now why are we to be expected to foot even more for someones decision to have free sex." But she's not footing the bill for anyone. The Obama HHS mandate pertains to health insurance for employees--you know--people who work for a living. Health insurance is an employment benefit, for which the worker pays directly through a payroll deduction or indirectly when the employer pays the insurance as part of compensation for work. Women visit gynecologists to keep their reproductive systems healthy. Effective contraceptives for women are prescribed and monitored by gynecologists, and these services will be paid for by insurance which the Affordable Care Act requires employers to make available. So irishmathair is not paying for any worker's contraceptives, and she has really no reason at all to complain about anyone's "free sex." As contrasted with what? Paid-for sex? Does she think of sexually active women as unpaid prostitutes? That would be a strange, atavistic view of women AND of sex!

Report abuse