Via Igor Volsky, here's frothing Ricky living up to his name (about 17 minutes in):
Obviously Santorum is stone crazy. But stepping back, this is an unusually clear explanation of the conservative philosophy behind social policy. Santorum doesn't care that 99 percent of women have used contraceptives, or that banning them would cause a flood of unwanted children. He's not concerned about the actual effects at all. He's only concerned about the law glorifying the status of his favored tribe: heterosexual married couples who only have sex for child-bearing purposes. Conversely, we'd be expressing social disapproval of people Santorum doesn't like: homosexuals, unmarried couples, and dirty hippies who only have sex for fun.
Paul Waldman may have put it better, talking about Rick Perry and his stuttering response about the failure of abstinence:
Obviously Santorum is stone crazy. But stepping back, this is an unusually clear explanation of the conservative philosophy behind social policy. Santorum doesn't care that 99 percent of women have used contraceptives, or that banning them would cause a flood of unwanted children. He's not concerned about the actual effects at all. He's only concerned about the law glorifying the status of his favored tribe: heterosexual married couples who only have sex for child-bearing purposes. Conversely, we'd be expressing social disapproval of people Santorum doesn't like: homosexuals, unmarried couples, and dirty hippies who only have sex for fun.
Paul Waldman may have put it better, talking about Rick Perry and his stuttering response about the failure of abstinence:
Liberals may think that conservatives support abstinence education because they believe it will reduce teen pregnancy, when the truth is that stopping teen pregnancy is at best a minor consideration for conservatives. If there’s going to be any discussion of sex in school at all, they believe it ought to express the categorical moral position that sex is vile and dirty and sinful, until you do it with your spouse, at which point it becomes beautiful and godly (you’ll forgive a bit of caricature). The fact that abstinence-only education is far less effective at reducing teen pregnancy than comprehensive sex-ed isn’t something they’re pleased about, but it doesn’t change their conviction about the moral value that ought to be expressed.
Liberals, on the other hand, think sex education ought to have as its primary goal reducing teen pregnancy and keeping kids safe from STDs. And yes, they also believe that it ought to encourage a perspective on sex that leads to a healthy, well-adjusted sex life that isn’t built on 17th century puritanical notions of shame and fear. But they weigh the practical considerations more heavily than the moral considerations.UPDATE: Dadgum copyright. Tried to fix the embed, but it doesn't seem to be working. Here's another one from years back to tide you over:
Video no longer available :-(
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