Quote of the Day

"Put yourself in a father's position. Yes, it is similar."

-- Republican Senate candidate Tom Smith of Pennsylvania

So, what's he comparing? Having a child out of wedlock with having a child produced by rape. Really.

See, Smith was speaking to the Pennsylvania Press Club and said that while he disagrees with Todd Akin's recent comment about "legitimate rape" and the fact that a woman's body can shut down pregnancy in instances of rape -- the latter being especially amusing seeing how there's nothing to agree or disagree with since it's science -- he still doesn't believe that abortion should be legal in cases of rape or incest. When a reporter then asked him how he'd personally respond to a daughter or granddaughter having to carry a child created by rape to term, Smith said he'd already gone through something similar within his own family and that the person in question made the right decision by "choosing life." When pressed, Smith explained in detail: His daughter had gotten pregnant even though she wasn't married. To Smith, that's very close to having his daughter be raped.

You don't have to put yourself in a father's position to understand the comparison.

You have to put yourself in the position of a sociopath with Down Syndrome.

I wonder how Tom Smith's daughter feels about her child's grandfather implying that he or she may as well have been the product of rape. And I'll bet Smith's daughter would absolutely know the difference between her specific pregnancy and one caused by rape -- just a hunch.

Quote of the Day

“I’m so relieved to know that my child’s father, the man who muffled my screams as he forcefully penetrated me over and over and left me hemorrhaging to death on the street, is not a rapist.”

-- From The Onion story, "Pregnant Woman Relieved To Find Out Her Rape Was Illegitimate"

Assistant to the Quote of the Day

"They keep making this case in public because it has important policy consequences for them. You see, if you can't get pregnant by being raped then anybody who is pregnant by definition was not raped. It could not have been a rape; no matter what you say you must have wanted it if you ended up pregnant. And if you wanted it there's no reason to feel sorry for you and let you end this pregnancy. You should have thought about that before you lured your supposed rapist to do this thing that you obviously secretly wanted. What was the line there? 'To get pregnant takes a little cooperation.' So we know you secretly wanted it otherwise you wouldn't be pregnant and we wouldn't now be talking about what the government is going to force you to do with regard to your pregnancy."

-- Rachel Maddow, brilliantly turning the argument around, exposing the true motives of those pushing the false claim that women who are raped can't get pregnant and basically annihilating the anti-abortion legislation crowd

Seriously, set aside twenty minutes and watch this.

It's just a masterful takedown.

Quote of the Day, Jr.

"Well I just haven’t heard of that being a circumstance that’s been brought to me in any personal way, and I’d be open to discussion about that subject matter."

-- Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa on the ongoing "debate" over whether a woman's body can prevent pregnancy in cases of rape or incest

It's almost not worth quoting King -- he's that crazy. But there it is again: the idea that proven scientific fact is up for discussion and that if someone doesn't have personal experience with a given situation, it diminishes the truth of it. We see this all the time when some idiot says, "Well, it's really cold where I live in Missouri right now, so global climate change must be a hoax."

It's just staggeringly stupid.

Pussy Riot

Today's column for the Daily Banter takes a look at the less incendiary thing Todd Akin said on Sunday, but the more thoroughly insane -- and how it's just the latest example of the right's ongoing anti-intellectualism and its willingness to gleefully wallow in absolute know-nothingness.

Here's the opening shot:

"I’d really like to be surprised by Republican Rep. Todd Akin’s breathtakingly contemptible comments about “legitimate rape” and the inner-workings of the female reproductive system, but doing so would mean that I haven’t allowed myself to be completely overcome by cynicism and disgust at the state of American politics in general and the Republican party in particular — and believe me, I have. By now you all know what Akin said, you’ve heard his half-assed non-apology for it and you’ve felt the seismic backlash it’s unleashed; it’s rare that the mainstream GOP attempts to behave like a sane political entity anymore, so when even the normally tea-bagger-beholden mouthpieces of the party release the Outrage Kraken on you and demand that you submit or else, you know you’ve done something indefensible."

Read the Rest Here