Idiots’ Delight


It almost seems superfluous to have to say this, but this month’s winner of the Idiots’ Delight segment is one for the ages.  In other words it goes without saying.  That’s because each month stupid just keeps getting more and more, well, stupider.  I don’t know, maybe there’s something in the water.  Who knows?

For the record, there were going to be three winners this month, but, given the egregiousness of this particular nincompoop’s offense, it was obvious that no one could touch him with a ten-foot pole.

So, without further ado, let’s have at him.

Todd Akin: I won’t bother repeating Akin’s whole statement – it was offensive enough listening to it the first, second, third and fourth times.  What kind of depraved mind thinks that there is such a thing as a difference between a legitimate and illegitimate rape?  Furthermore, how stupid does one have to be to seriously suggest that a woman can prevent a pregnancy from happening simply by “shutting down” her body during the assault?  Like turning off a switch, or something?

The fact is that there are more than 32,000 cases of rape-related pregnancies each year in the United States.  More than 5% of women who are raped get pregnant.  Far from being rare occurrences, the evidence suggests that women who get raped have a greater chance of getting pregnant than women who have consensual intercourse.   Anyone with half a brain and access to a computer would know that.  But then Todd Akin is clearly brainless, not to mention insensitive.

And now you can add alone to that list.  The man for whom the term brain fart was apparently invented has stepped in it so deeply that he is now a Senate candidate without a party.  Virtually the entire GOP has thrown him under the bus for his outlandish remarks.  Even the Tea Party Express has disowned him.  How bad do you have to be for that motley crew to turn their backs on you?  Pretty damn bad, that’s how.

But before we serve up mutton head for dinner, it’s important to remember that Akin’s Neanderthal views aren’t exclusively his own.  The scary truth is that in the Republican Party today they are now considered “mainstream.”  While it’s true that few if any in the GOP would be dumb enough to utter in public what Akin said in his infamous interview, privately, virtually all of them agree with his opinion.

For well over two decades, certain social conservatives, opposed to abortion under any circumstances, have been making up their own pseudo-science to support their political agendas.  Chief among them was this idiotic idea that women can somehow control their bodies through secretion of certain hormones during a rape to prevent pregnancies.  Over the years it has gained traction within the Party.  Akin is hardly a newcomer to this myth; he was simply dumb enough to let the genie out of the bottle.

And now Mitt Romney has yet another problem to go along with all the others he has. Seems his running mate, Paul Ryan, co-sponsored a bill with none other than numbnuts himself, which, if passed, would’ve drastically narrowed the exceptions by which federally funded abortions are allowed to incidences of “forcible rape” and incest.  For all intents and purposes, the terms forcible rape and legitimate rape are one in the same so far as both these two bozos are concerned.

The prevailing logic – if you could call it that – is that date rape doesn’t really count as forcible / legitimate rape, since according to idiots like Akin and his fellow co-sponsor it’s just consensual sex that got a little out of hand.  Sadly there are quite a few men who hold this view; unfortunately many of them are members of the Republican Party.

Yes, Todd Akin really outdid himself this month.  Not only has he given his opponent, Claire McCaskill, a badly needed boost in the polls - perhaps even cost his Party a chance at retaking the Senate - he might very well have dealt a serious blow to Mitt Romney’s White House aspirations.  I’d call that killing two birds with one stone.

Who knows, Akin might end up getting the reluctant hero award in November. As of now he’s certainly got the inside track.


Links: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/79895.html

http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/106329/ryan-akin-romney-abortion-forcible-personhood-record

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