Tuesday Reads
Posted: August 21, 2012 Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, abortion rights, misogyny, morning reads, religion, Reproductive Rights, the GOP, U.S. Politics, Violence against women, War on Women, Women's Healthcare, Women's Rights | Tags: Cyprus, D. James Kennedy, deaths, FBI, John C. Willke, Michael Grimm, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Phyllis Diller, rape, Todd Akin, William Windom 43 Comments
Good Morning!!
The latest outrage triggered by Rep. Todd Akin’s claim that women who are “forcibly” (ALA “legitimately”) raped can somehow prevent pregnancy through a magical substance secreted by their sexual organs, has finally brought into wider public consciousness that War on Women that we at Sky Dancing have been documenting for the past year or so.
Although this topic is distasteful–even disgusting–to most of us and triggers traumatic memories in quite a few of us, I believe that Akin has done women a favor. Women around the country who don’t pay attention to daily developments in politics are now going to learn that the Republican Party is actively hostile to women and dismissive of women’s rights and women’s lives. So I’m going to begin with some links on this topic.
The New York Times spoke to experts about Akin’s odd beliefs about rape and pregnancy: Health Experts Dismiss Assertions on Rape. First, there was a doctor who made arguments similar to Akin’s:
Dr. John C. Willke, a general practitioner with obstetric training and a former president of the National Right to Life Committee, was an early proponent of this view, articulating it in a book originally published in 1985 and again in a 1999 article. He reiterated it in an interview Monday.
“This is a traumatic thing — she’s, shall we say, she’s uptight,” Dr. Willke said of a woman being raped, adding, “She is frightened, tight, and so on. And sperm, if deposited in her vagina, are less likely to be able to fertilize. The tubes are spastic.”
But experts that the NYT spoke to ridiculed Willke’s ideas.
“There are no words for this — it is just nuts,” said Dr. Michael Greene, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. David Grimes, a clinical professor in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina, said, that “to suggest that there’s some biological reason why women couldn’t get pregnant during a rape is absurd.”
Willke also claimed the rapists are often premature ejaculators, prefer anal sex, or are infertile. The experts responded:
“Yeah, there are all sorts of hormones, including ones that cause your heart to beat fast when you’re frightened,” said Dr. Greene. But he added, “I’m not aware of any data that says that reduces a woman’s risk of getting pregnant.”
As for the contention that a rape victim’s fallopian tubes tighten, Dr. Grimes, formerly of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said, “That’s nonsense. Everything is working. The tube is very small anyway and sperm are very tiny — they’re excellent swimmers.”
Think Progress examined the opinions of Todd Akin’s “spiritual mentor,” D. James Kennedy.
Rep. Todd Akin’s (R-MO) spiritual mentor Reverend D. James Kennedy harbored extreme and sometimes flatly misogynistic views about rape and abortion, according to a ThinkProgress review of Kennedy’s sermons on the topic. The Senate candidate, who set off a massive controversy by claiming this weekend that victims of “legitimate rape” don’t get pregnant, has deep ties to Reverend Kennedy, having cited some of his sermons as key intellectual influences and having been named in Kennedy’s book How Would Jesus Vote? as one of the Reverend’s “favorite statesman.”
Kennedy, who the Anti-Defamation League has termed a “Christian supremacist,” repeatedly railed against legalized abortion, calling it the “American Holocaust” and suggesting that it would lead inevitably to genocide in the United States. But Kennedy’s discussions of rape and abortion in particular betray extraordinarily disturbing views about rape victims.
Those repulsive views are listed at the link.
CNN: Leading social conservatives rally to Akin’s defense. First among those supporters of course, Tony Perkins of the non-mainstream organization Family Research Council.
Truthout’s William Rivers Pitt on Romney’s response to Akin:
Their immediate response to Akin’s statement should be a first-ballot entrant into the Vapid Dishwater Statement Hall Of Fame: “Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan disagree with Mr. Akin’s statement. A Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape.” Perhaps realizing how spectacularly inadequate that response was, the Romney campaign followed up by calling Akin’s words “insulting, inexcusable and, frankly, wrong.”
Not nearly good enough. Mr. Romney has spent his entire political career being for choice before he was against choice before he was for it before he was against it before he was for it before he was against it, and if the American people are going to cast a vote for him, they deserve to hear a better response from him to Mr. Akin’s gibberish than what has thus far been provided. “Nah, that’s not me” does not nearly make the nut, especially since he has anointed himself as the standard-bearer for a GOP base that, in large part, wants to outlaw abortion in all instances, including in cases of rape and incest.
The real problem here for the Republican campaign, however, is Paul Ryan. Mr. Ryan joined forces with Mr. Akin in 2011, co-sponsoring a bill with him to redefine the definition of rape through legislation aimed at changing the working term to “forcible rape,” as a means of annihilating the rape and incest exemptions that currently exist in abortion law. The attempt died a swift death in Congress, but the intention could not be more clear…and the driving force behind it was the Dynamic Duo of Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin and Paul “Forcible Rape” Ryan.
It is extremely important that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan not be permitted to get away with pretending that they do not hold the exact same ridiculous and cruel positions as Todd Akin.
Finally, I highly recommend this long read at Alternet by Joshua Holland: The Conservative Psyche: How Ordinary People Come to Embrace Paul Ryan’s Cruelty.
In other news,
President Obama warned Syria against using chemical or biological weapons.
Pointing out that he had refrained “at this point” from ordering US military engagement in Syria, Obama said that there would be “enormous consequences” if Assad failed to safeguard his weapons of mass destruction.
It was Obama’s strongest language to date on the issue, and he warned Syria not only against using its unconventional weapons, but against moving them in a threatening fashion.
“We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilised,” Obama said. “That would change my calculus.”
“We cannot have a situation where chemical or biological weapons are falling into the hands of the wrong people,” Obama told an impromptu White House news conference. He acknowledged he was not “absolutely confident” the stockpile was secure.
Mitt Romney was in New Hampshire yesterday, and he had the nerve to joke about wanting to pay even less in taxes than he already does.
Mitt Romney may have a lower effective tax rate than many middle-class Americans, but he’s still dreaming of ways to pay even less.
At a town hall-style event in Manchester, New Hampshire on Monday, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee told supporters that he could “save me some tax dollars” if he became a resident of the state, which doesn’t have a tax on W-2 reported wages.
“So many friends here in New Hampshire,” Romney said at the beginning of his remarks. “I feel like I’m almost a New Hampshire resident. … It would save me some tax dollars, I think.”
Not only does he insist on keeping his tax returns secret, he jokes about the possibility of saving even more on his taxes. Would any amount of money ever be enough for this Greedhead?
Romney has finally opened up a little about his religion. He invited members of the media to attend church services with him on Sunday. On Thursday night NBC’s Rock Center will offer an hour-long examination of Mormonism.
TPM learned yesterday that the reported FBI investigation of the Republicans who jumped into the Sea of Gallilee after a night of drinking was actually an investigation of just one participant, Michael Grimm of New York.
Law enforcement sources — noting that skinny-dipping usually doesn’t fall under the FBI’s purview — pointed TPM to a New York Times story from earlier this month about a trip to Cyprus that Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) made following his August venture to Israel alongside several colleagues.
Politico, which first reported the skinny-dipping anecdote, said the FBI “looked into whether any inappropriate behavior occurred, but the interviews do not appear to have resulted in any formal allegations of wrongdoing.”
But FBI agents were actually interested in Grimm’s failure to file paperwork related to his trip to Cyprus following his Israeli junket, which had been paid for by the Cyprus Federation of America. The president of that company was arrested on federal corruption charges in June. Grimm had reported the Israel trip in his initial filing in May but did not list the trip to Cyprus until he amended it in June, one day after Cyprus Federation of America’s president was arrested.
Lately it seems as if every week we lose a few more famous elderly people. Yesterday two famous entertainers died: Phyllis Diller and William Windom.
NYT: Phyllis Diller, 1917-2012: Laughs Were on Her, by Design
Phyllis Diller, whose sassy, screeching, rapid-fire stand-up comedy helped open the door for two generations of funny women, died on Monday at her home in Brentwood, Calif. She was 95.
Ms. Diller, who became famous for telling jokes that mocked her odd looks, her aversion to housekeeping and a husband she called Fang, was far from the first woman to do stand-up comedy. But she was one of the most influential. There were precious few women before her, if any, who could dispense one-liners with such machine-gun precision or overpower an audience with such an outrageous personality.
One chestnut: “I once wore a peekaboo blouse. People would peek and then they’d boo.”
Another: “I never made ‘Who’s Who,’ but I’m featured in ‘What’s That?’ ”
William Windom, one of my favorite TV actors also died. Most people will remember him from Murder, She Wrote, but since I’m so old I remember two other shows he starred in: The Farmer’s Daughter and My World and Welcome to it. He also played a lawyer in To Kill a Mockingbird.
Born in New York City on Sept. 28, 1923, Mr. Windom was named after his great-grandfather, a Minnesota congressman, senator and U.S. Treasury secretary. Mr. Windom attended Williams College in Massachusetts before joining the Army during World War II. He later attended the University of Kentucky, among several other higher-education institutions, and decided to pursue acting.
With his genial features, affable manner and extensive theater training, Mr. Windom was an in-demand television character actor for decades.
He chalked up scores of guest credits, including episodes of “The Twilight Zone” and “Star Trek,” in which he played a spacecraft commodore trying to thwart an out-of-control doomsday machine; the ’60s comedy series “The Farmer’s Daughter,” in which he played a widowed Minnesota congressman; and more than 50 segments of “Murder, She Wrote,” starting in the mid-1980s. In that whodunit drama, Mr. Windom played a Maine country doctor opposite series star Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher.
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Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
The death of William Windom is very saddening. I also remember well The Farmer’s daughter (with Inger Stevens if I remember correctly – another sad situation) and My World (which I thought was the funniest, most well done program of it’s era).
With regard the that buffoon, Akin and his cohort in women hate, Ryan – I got nothing more than what I wrote last night. Ugly, sick twisted people without a humane bone in their bodies.
Big surprise. Hypocrites!
The Anti-abortion position has been a GOP platform plank for years.It goes something like this, no abortion, no reason, no way,never, ever. Sanctity, sanctity, sanctity. That is followed by. Protect marriage, Hate Teh Gay, sanctity, sanctity, sanctity.
In contrast the DNC has showcased protecting Choice in it’s party platform. The party platform in 2008 addressed Gay rights, doing away with DADT and respect for Gay families. The most recent 2012 platform draft has the DNC party platform supporting Marriage Equality
“Democrats unanimously voted today to endorse same-sex marriage in their party’s platform, the first time a major political party has supported the issue in its statement of policies”
The DNC is also embracing immigration reform and the Dream Act in the 2012 Platform.
Here is the GOP/TP Platform Plank Draft:
“Faithful to the ‘self-evident’ truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.”
There you have it folks. They support amending the Constitution to define the first union of egg and sperm as a “person”. That is as extreme as you can get when it comes to choice because it completely eliminates choice by eliminating abortion altogether as well as most forms of contraception.
The choice is now clear on so many issues. No difference between the parties? Don’t make me laugh.
Flipping nuts, all of them.
Thanks Beata – I really needed to hear her “which side are you on”?
Just saw that, most disappointing, not even children and women where their lives are at risk were given an exception. We know that children risk death, but no, they would rather the child die, and no heart for a mother who’s live is at risk either. HEAD DESK!
We need more than 16% representation in congress, as this Witch Hunt mentality isn’t working, there is no compassion, there is no logic and this fairy science is most out of touch in the age of technology.
It’s clear that the GOP considers women as nothing more than “sluts”. Sluts must pay the price for “inviting” these sexual violations in being forced to give birth and experiencing it as a “blessing” in doing so. This passage is found in anything deemed “god’s will”.
“Forcible rape” occurs if the woman “fights back”. She must be covered in wounds and bruises – which can be explained away if necessary – and a woman who does not exhibit those markings apparently did not put up a good enough fight to be considered a victm. This might suggest a “consensual” event apparently in the eyes of the law.
Does it get any crazier than this? Have these people lost their minds? But according to something heard this on “Morning Joe” the race in MO is still “neck and neck”. So as bad as Akin may be in his thinking, he still has plenty of supporters who agree.
Decency and common sense seems to have evaporated throughout this nation since the GOP legislators in many states have been stealthily carrying out the passage of laws that prohibits exactly what Akin is promoting: the end to reproductive rights in a state by state passage.
Akin just made the mistake of saying out loud what this party has been doing for quite some time.
There hasn’t been a lot of time for the polls to change yet. The Morning Joe crew seems to think Akin will be driven from the race. I hope he stays in so the issue remains on the front burner.
His positions are definitely no different than Ryan. My guess is Romney goes along with that too. How any woman can support that duo is beyond me. It’s like signing your own death warrant.
Or anyone who has a daughter that may need to grow up with all this crap.
We got to fight fire with fire, and put up the good fight. We have got to let them know they hit a raw nerve, and we aren’t going to take the throwing of stones, or telling us to go home now……………it’s time for stretch our legs and get out there to stop this bitterness towards women.
Reminiscent of witch dunking, if she sinks and therefore drowns, she’s not a witch. If she gets pregnant as a result of a rape, she must have consented because real rape victims can’t get pregnant.
You hit it on the head, Pat. Akin simply spoke aloud what the radical right really thinks.
I really hate them all. (radical right)
Surrogates admit Romney will cut Medicare for current seniors.
I’m supposed to get Medicare Nov. 1. If Romney wins, I could lose it again quickly….
Another Rmoney example of 2+2=576. Can’t hold Medicare constant after it goes bankrupt in 2016 under his plan. I really hope people, outside of politics, can do basic arithmetic!
Politico suspends reporter Dave Catanese, who repeatedly tweeted in support of Akin’s views on rape.
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/todd-akin-politico-suspended.php?ref=fpb
Brad Delong showed his twitter stream. It was disgusting!
Tony Scott’s family denies rumors that he had brain cancer.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/08/tony-scott-death-family-denies-brain-cancer-reports.html
This Scott story is so disturbing to me. So is the Akin one ( for very different reasons ). I need a break. 🙂
Peace, everybody.
I was worried that it would bother you, Beata. I understand why you need a break, but I will miss you. Take care of yourself. You are a wonderful, valuable person.
What BB said!
Beata, xoxo…
If Mitt Romney thought there were votes out there from those who advocate bludgeoning baby seals, he would be in favor. Even if he condemned that practice last week he would find a reason to support his stance.
Again, how anyone could support this ticket must be braindead. I have never seen such an odious combination than Romney/Ryan reaching for the brass ring.
Romney is effing dangerous! So many impossible lies that he won’t be able to govern at all without the country falling apart around us.
Where are the democrats…………why aren’t they on TV calling for Todd to be fired………….I see McCaskill accepted his apology, but I can’t be sympathetic…………….we have a great deal to lose as women.
McCaskill wants to run against him not some replacement. When you’re opponent is drowning, throw him an anvil is the name of this game.
Every MSM outlet should be doing this non-stop until they stop the lying.
Michael Tomasky: The Only Big Idea Coming Out of the Romney-Ryan Camp Is the Big Lie
I must say, Claire McCaskill does her self no favors with that statement she made arguing for Todd Akin to stay in the race, saying they would be kicking sand in the primary voters….hemmm, really I don’t recall her defending Hillary’s right to continue, nor the fact that Hillary got the most votes. Honestly, all the news orgs are playing up her pretend ‘itty bitty’ voice of a demur opponent, while saying he is genuinely sorry. The Republican spokes woman just said she qualified for a nomination for best actress. Can she at least keep quite, she just reminded people why they don’t like her.
Head DESK!
Rick Klein @rickklein
Akin tells Huckabee, again, that he’s in. And he insists he has the support of “good friends…”
I read the beginning of the article in the Daily Mail but couldn’t continue, Huckabee is saying that great things come of rape, then mentions two prominent people who were born of rape, which goes along the lines of the GOP platform adopted today.
Lie back and think of England.
and another teabagger from Iowa:
Rep. Steve King: I’ve Never Heard Of A Girl Getting Pregnant From Statutory Rape Or Incest
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/steve-king-statutory-rape.php
Exactly, but with Claire MacCaskill defending them as sorry…shish… I mean Todd Akin has been saying these same sort of fairy science statements since 1988….and no Rep Steve King, while loosing focus on the GOP platform. Argh.
The shocking thing to me is why Todd Akin is a member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee with his make belief science positions since 1988…and going and going…
It is no wonder the country is going broke with the likes of Steve King and Todd Akin on powerful government positions. Argh….
Head Desk!
emptywheel @emptywheel
OK, Democrats, let’s practice this again: The “Ryan-Akin Redefining Rape Bill”
PBS’ To The Contrary @ToTheContrary
A new study shows women seeking abortion are more likely to be victims of abuse.http://tinyurl.com/8rea428
Not surprised, and it is more shocking that these representatives have no compassion nor understanding of ABUSE and RAPE. It makes me even angry to think that they are shamelessly so patriarchal toward the women of the United States of America.
The fact that Paul Ryan had been so closely associated with Todd Akin makes it a problem for the GOP, especially their more to the center women, within their party. In the West Coast the GOP women candidates are doing interviews trying to distance themselves from Todd Akin and his politics. It will be interesting what they do when it becomes clear of how close Paul Ryan is to dear Ole Todd Akin and his coo coo science theories.
I expect mass denials of any involvement between Ryan and Akin etc. What else are they gonna do?
Some fine satire from Alex Pareene 🙂
Salon: Get ready for Vice President Hillary!