Musings Early February

Musings feb 8 2012

The Nation’s Katrina Vanderheuvel says, about President Obama’s decision to allow superpacs in his campaign, that though she is reluctant, “There are times when you cannot win with one hand tied behind your back, when you cannot fight fire only with a philosophical opposition to fire.”

Stephen Colbert says, of Obama’s  singing:  Once again, Obama is playing his same old dirty political trick of being irresistibly appealing.  You’ll never see Newt Gingrich stoop that low.

Keith Ellison said: “If we can walk with Obama, we should…if we can’t then we should walk ahead of him.”

Sen DeMint likens the rivalry between the Democrats and Republicans to a football game—argues that when the two teams go out onto the field they have no intention of “cooperating” or “collaborating.”  They do not share the same goals.   So now we understand—it really is their “game plan”.

Romney:  I will put an end to this kind of assault on religion, if I am president of the United States.

Romney apparently objects to the auto industry  “bailout” because it didn’t hurt workers enough.

Romney would “take us back to the good old days,” while at the same time he would “Restore Our Future.”  [How do you restore something that has never been?]    He wants our country to be “the shining city on the hill” that would presumably hold out the hope of freedom and democracy for the world, but he would also have it to be the mightiest military power in the world so that all who look us it would tremble in fear.

Handel, of Komen,  says private organizations have a right to make their own decisions about grants, etc., without being subject to vicious attacks—but after all, people have the right to object to your right to make decisions that we don’t like, to criticize and withdraw support, etc.

Julian Epstein, Democratic strategist, just said that Newt Gingrich is “collapsing of his own weight.”

The Man Who Would Be Pope:  Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum reminds me of no one so much as Brother Jerome, the self-righteous monk of the Brother Cadfael chronicles.

Santorum says: 

·         When you give government power, they will use that power over you.  [much better to give the pope that power]

·         Catholics are told that they have a right to health care, but the health care will be what the government tells you you have to give your people, whether it is against your church or not.

·         Says he will fight for “your voices for freedom in America” [yes, freedom for religion but not freedom for the people]

·         Says his grandparents and parents came to this country for freedom, because they didn’t want a government  telling them what to believe, that we had a first amendment that actually stood for freedom of conscience, and not that we would have a president that would impose his secular values on the people of this country [but they meant that we should submit to a pope, represented perhaps by Santorum himself, telling us what to believe, and imposing his religious values on the people, even though we didn’t elect him]

Rick Santorum says, of gays who glitterbomb him, that they represent “true intolerance.”

Rick Santorum, inveighing against the contraceptive rule, equates that to providing coverage for toothpaste and deodorant.  Previously, he had ridiculed the idea that contraceptives were expensive—they are cheap and insurance shouldn’t have to cover cheap things.  I recall reading recently of a man who died of a tooth infection because he didn’t have $24.00 to get his prescription for antibiotic filled.