From Psychology Today:
Santorum has argued that contraception is morally wrong because, “It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.” But human beings happily experience, witness, imagine, and lament a cornicopia of erotic encounters that couldn’t possibly result in conception. Leaving aside the many “perversions” happily practiced by humans the world over, the human female is available even for Vatican-approved missionary position intercourse—at least theoretically—when she’s menstruating, already pregnant, post-menopausal, or otherwise precluded from conceiving. Is this, too, an abomination? Even Santorum and his wife, who have had more children than most couples, have certainly had a lot more non-reproductive than reproductive sex over the years.Read the entire article. Santorum's brain seems not to be able to absorb the rudimentary realities of human sexuality (and those of our cousins the chimps and bonobos!). Nothing anyone says shakes his rock-solid conviction that the talking points straight out of the Vatican are the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Thanks to Paul (A.) for the link. See? Paul (A.)'s contributions to Wounded Bird are not confined to jokes. He also contributes stimulating intellectual content.
Nothing anyone says shakes his rock-solid conviction that the talking points straight out of the Vatican are the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
ReplyDeleteOnly on sexuality.
When the Pope talks about the need for healthcare for everyone and the sinfulness of economic policies that give preference to the wealthy and hurt the poor and families, Santorum is suspiciously hard of hearing....
Doxy, only on sexuality. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteOne might even say that Santorum is a pick-and-choose Catholic, the kind the Vatican deplores. When will the pope tell faithful Roman Catholics that they must not vote for a candidate who opposes universal health care and supports unregulated, greedy, corporations?
Does the Vatican really say they approve of the missionary position? ... Shurely not.
ReplyDeleteRe Sanitorium's brain, Mimi, is it certain that he has one?
Only to make a baby, Cathy.
ReplyDeleteAs to the brain...
Wasn't the "Rhythm Method" allowed at one point? I don't think it was non-procreative sex they were concerned with, it was unnatural sex as defined by Thomistic Natural Law...
ReplyDeleteWade, the rhythm method was allowed and presumably is still allowed. There is now what is professed to be a better way called Natural Family Planning, but I don't know much about it.
ReplyDeleteMimi--NFP is a much better way to GET pregnant than to keep from getting pregnant. It involves tracking your ovulatory cycle, so that you can know the time when you are most likely to conceive. The thought is that you simply avoid having sex during that time period.
ReplyDeleteI used that method when I was trying to get pregnant with my last child. I am grateful for it, because all the tracking helped us to realize that I needed medical intervention to hold a pregnancy once I achieved it. But I would NEVER use it as birth control. Bodies are funny things--they don't always work according to the chart...
Doxy, I know. My second son was a rhythm baby, or a Natural Family Planning baby, the key being to avoid sex during ovulation. Obviously, it's not rocket science. He was conceived 5 months after my firstborn son, a bit sooner than I would have chosen, but I love him anyway. ;-)
ReplyDeleteSantorum is a joke. Unfortunately, he is not funny.
ReplyDeleteThe joke who could be president is not at all funny.
ReplyDeleteI am pretty sure that I am older than any of you women posting here. So I can remember how relieved my friends and I were when the fairly safe IUD's and pills came out. And certainly our husbands were relieved also for obvious reasons. To us then, it was almost miraculous to be free of concern and able to control the size of our families. What is puzzling me is where did this drive to go backwards and actually make illegal this wonderful step forward? A great many of these R. wing folks are not RC, so why are they hootin' and hollerin' about contraception?
ReplyDeleteIt's almost like they got so carried away against abortion that they didn't know when to stop and so their anti-abortion stuff morphed into anti-contraception also. Truly, what fools we mortals be!
If Santorum got to be president, that would really be scary because it would mean that that many people believe that dreck! And that would be scary enough to make u wonder just what the heck the schools r teaching!
nij
Nij, surely you're not staking a claim to be older than moi. If you like, we can have a contest.
ReplyDeleteI wonder, too, how we got stuck in reverse, and are now driving backwards. In another thread, susan s. spoke of how JFK went to great lengths to assure the American people that he would NOT take orders from the pope on how to govern the country. That was then. Now we have Rick Santorum running on the platform that he is more Catholic than the pope. How did we get here from there?
Gosh yes, the funny thing is that when I spoke of my real age to MP, he said: "You're even older than Grandmere Mimi" and I don't think has overcome his amazement yet :>)
ReplyDeleteA lot of this ultra conservative stuff Started when many Catholics and Episcopalians got "converted" to the Charismatic and Evangelical versions of faith. But they didn't leave their respective churches. Feeling greatly empowered they volunteered for every job going in the parishes and instead of teaching the Texts provided by the parishes, they taught their new very political religion. And, as the saying goes, "As ye sow, so shll ye reap." Some day I'm going to write the book.....
ij
Nij, I'm amazed about your age, too, and I don't know if I will get over it. I thought I was the doyenne of our blog world, and now I feel like a displaced person.
ReplyDeleteOh please do write that book.
Dear Mimi,
ReplyDeleteRe: age. I think at some point one's increasing age ceases to be fun and various bodily parts start to be cranky, I would gladly trade with you :>).
Last spring I had a knee replacement an now the other knee is acting up. Went to see the surgeon the other day and he is going to inject into the knee a substance that he calls "Jiffy lube" for the joints.
Ouch! that first injection hurt and 4 more to go! As he said to me when I asked about injections "Be careful what u ask for."
So enjoy your years and good health and don't, for heaven's sake, ask for more years than u have, Gee!
nij
Nij, my knees are bad; my back is bad; and sometimes my hips are bad, but they still work, more or less, so I ain't complainin'...much. I've had steroid shots in the knee and the foot, and they were not too painful, but I've never had your type of treatment. We go on... ;-)
ReplyDeleteMimi, about your "going backward" comment above: yes, I was just thinking the other day, what the hell goes on here in 2012? Abortion has a been a big controversy for the last forty years, especially in election years . . . but now they want to do away with contraception??? Who are these millions of fools donating money to the pols who advocate that?
ReplyDeleteI have it on good authority that for many years now, most practicing Catholics don't hesitate to use contraception, so who does?
And what's next on this backward time machine? Will someone propose repealing the Civil Rights Act, restoring segregation? Not to mention different pay scales for women?
For one brief moment when Obama was elected, I had the happy fantasy that now the country would begin to recede from the Moral Majority conservatism that swept in with Reagan. But it's only gotten worse, much worse. I truly shudder to think what would happen if one of these GOP clown car riders by some fluke (can you say Bush v. Gore?) got into the Oval Office.
Russ, I just can't believe that all the folks who give money to Santorum's campaign want to do away with birth control, which is actually a very good way of limiting the number of abortions. Most Catholics disregard the church's teaching on birth control. In fact, I doubt most young Catholics even give thought to the restrictions but plan their families just like anyone else
ReplyDeleteActually, the present Supreme probably wouldn't mind doing some of the the things you suggest, in the name of states' rights or non-interference with businesses.
I had hopes that were dashed, too, when Obama began to govern, but if we think of the alternative...