For a while, it was possible to view with a detached amusement the self-destructive tendency of the Republicans to embrace Rick Santorum's sex-obsessed, bigoted, ignorant, misogynistic views on birth control, masturbation, and even marital sex not dedicated to reproduction. One could imagine that a presidential campaign fought by the Republicans on this melange of issues might result in a sweep for Obama rivalling the 1964 campaign.
But things are taking an extremely vicuous and ugly turn, in Virginia, in the Congress, in states around the country, and in the grotesque remarks of Santorum's personal billionaire, Foster Friess. The health, the dignity, the fundamental rights of women are under assault as they have not been for two generations, and however cognitively dissonant it may feel to be taking such threats seriously in the year 2012, we have no choice but to fight back as vigorously as we can.
With this in mind, let me refer you to a powerful opinion piece published by my son, Professor Tobias Barrington Wolff, on the Huffington Post two days ago. Here is the link, which can be copied and pasted into the command line of your browser:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tobias-barrington-wolff/virginia-ultrasound-bill_b_1278832.html
Now would be a good time to donate some money to any of the fine organizations dedicated to protecting the health and dignity of women.
Thank you Robert for the link, and I'm glad to hear that you are well. Bravo Tobias. I have suggested to the legislature of the great Commonwealth of Virginia that it consider a law that requires all men who want to buy a handgun to undergo electroencephalography to determine whether they have adequate brain activity and then undergo proctoscopy to determine whether they are full of s##t.
ReplyDeleteThere is a scene in the TV series The Sopranos in which the chief mobster and multiple murderer, who describes himself as a "strict Catholic" is asked by his shrink what he thinks about homosexuality; he replies that he agrees with "that Senator Sanatorium" that if we let this thing go too far, we'll be f##king dogs. "Sanatorium" is perfect. But I agree that this is serious and requires serious response. Here's a link to the scene.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e9dl6E2AjI
Thank you for the link, and this one read it through twice. It's so horrible to see women's freedom under assault in so many angles.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the DLC is not doing very much to resist this sort of thing. In fact, they're standing >against women's freedom in a lot of ways. So few people know what their policy actually is. Read:
http://higharka.blogspot.com/2011/10/democratic-plan-to-block-birth-control.html
FYI: If you go to bitly.com, you are able to shorten URL's. This helps in dissemination, given that many do not know how to cut and paste. So for example,
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/tobias-barrington-wolff/virginia-ultrasound-bill_b_1278832.html
becomes
http://huff.to/yhjRKF
This shortening thing is useful for tweeting as well.
Wow, thanks, Jerry!
ReplyDeleteErgh. Tried it, and it doesn't make it clickable. Blogger needs to work on that whole "internet" thing. Still, thanks much, and it will be used.
In the meantime, at least the prof hasn't made his fourth deletion of criticism, yet. That must be proof of how serious things are--he may be too busy calling Santorum's office or flying to Washington DC to stage a hunger strike outside Congress until they enshrine gay rights in the Bill of Rights.
Or just sleeping in. Either way.