I’m going to write this entire post without ever once mentioning dogs. Did I just write that? Oh damn it all to hell, I did, but I won’t do it again. I’m a grown man, with all of his faculties about him, fully capable of exercising a little self restraint by writing a short blog post about Rick Santorum without ever mentioning dogs. Shit! Do over.
So how many of you had the stomach to read Rick Santorum’s recent book It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good? If you’re anything like me, you couldn’t bring yourself to do it. I think it’s important, however, to keep up on Rick’s comings and goings, because he’s not only one of the most powerful men in the country, he’s also a total freak show and a hate filled bastard to boot. Luckily, one of my favorite bloggers, Above Average Jane, possesses nerves of steel and read the book cover to cover, documenting the atrocities in an eight part series. You can get started with her brief intro, and I’ll put links to the whole thing after the jump. As you read through it, think about just how much fun we could have had beating Rick this November, had Chuck Schumer and Ed Rendell not inserted themselves into the primary process. Whatever. That’s a river I’ll cry you some other night.
Speaking of Rick, have you seen this little gem yet?
In the course of a one-minute speech delivered recently at the Abington Township
Rockledge Boro Republican Organization Annual Dinner this past Friday, Renee Amoore,
co-chair of the state GOP committee, stated:
"…Regarding Santorum, I know some of you may want to just hold your noses,
but please vote for him anyway!"
"Shouldn’t the Montgomery County Republican Committee be united in the most important
election of 2006?"
Ouch. You wouldn’t treat a…Crap!
Reading Rick: Part I (It Takes a Family)
Reading Rick: Part 2 (Social Capital and the Ties That Bind)
Reading Rick: Part 3 (The Roots of Prosperity)
Reading Rick: Part 4 (Moral Ecology)
Reading Rick: Part 5 (Culture Matters)
Oh God, do I have to?
Didn’t you get the memo? You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, except for the stuff that’s demanded of you by unknown bloggers and short, nerdy guys. I’m both, so you better get busy reading.
Must have deleted it before reading it–by mistake?
LOL! Every once in a while, I wonder over to rabid right wing sites like freeperville and red state, just to get a feel of my enemies, and it is repulsive at best. Given that, even reading a review of Dog-Boy’s book is making me sick to my stomach. I know it has got to be an interesting review, but I still cannot make myself click on the links. Well, to be fair, I might give it a try after I’ve had another beer. ;>)
the funniest part is how the “hold your nose” imagery dovetails with the Spreading Santorum meme.
Who wouldn’t hold one’s nose when coming into contact with the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex.
It’s not a metaphor, it’s metonmy? is that the right word?
until it shows up on the “$1 or less” table at my local bookstore…doubt if liberal Silly Con Valley libraries would have it in their collections.
The title is a direct attack on Hillary Clinton’s It Takes A Village. But you know, when I was growing up, we had a village — it was called the neighborhood. I could go out and play with my next door neighbors, or walk down the street by myself to my piano teacher’s house, because there were neighbors who knew me and knew who belonged in the neighborhood. And we had Mrs. B., who seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time at her kitchen window which overlooked the neighborhood — there was no getting away with anything with Mrs. B. around; she was our “neighborhood watch” before neighborhood watch was cool.
Now, though, kids don’t go outside and play because their parents are scared someone’s going to kidnap them or molest them or something — we know a few of our neighbors to wave to or nod “Hello” on the way to/from the laundry room, but none of them close. We’ve become an insular society, afraid to reach out…and that’s the way the Republicans prefer it, because if we reach out we might find out that we have more in common with our neighbors than we think, and (horrors!) might actually join together and accomplish something positive…their best strategy is to keep us divided, in the “us vs. the world” universe…
Mocking the title of Clinton’s book is so 2000, but Rick has never been afraid to be behind the times. At least he’s only going back 6 years or so, instead of his usual millennium.
As for neighborhoods as villages, I actually know two or three neighborhoods that aren’t too far from what you described in your second paragraph. I even lived in one for a while. It was strange because people stayed even after their kids were old enough to go to school, instead of doing what they usually do in my part of the world, which is to run to New Jersey and never look back. Lots of kids out on the street and lots of nosy adults watching after them from their stoops and front windows. Odd really.
Pretty much the only time things change is when someone dies, and the kids sell the house. The kids grow up and head out, but the parents remain, even after one spouse passes — the old neighborhood is mostly made up of widows, I have to admit. It’s going to take a few more years to completely revitalize the old neighborhood — my in-laws live half a block away, so I still drive through; it’ll be interesting to watch the changes…
I think I’m going to pass on Rick’s book. I don’t want to suck dry my well of outrage on an out of state Senator when I anticipate needing every last ounce for an in-state project.
One of MY republican senators (Kit Bond) is writing an anti-terrorism book to be published next year. Who knew that Kit Bond, of all people, is an EXPERT on terrorism? We thought he was just an expert on drinking.
We’ll have to be sure to have a giggle over it when Kit’s expert analysis hits the shelves. I’m not really encouraging anybody to read Santorum’s crap, because most sane people will just whither under his blazing insanity. That’s what makes Jane so special in my mind – above average, even. She’s willing to go where few mortals dare venture and report back with all the gory details.
When former Senate majority leaders and former top party presidential contenders come in to PA to preach the gosspel (literally) of this goon? What does it say period that this theocrat is one of the most powerful men in Washington??
And finally, what does it say when this off the chart, crusade era mentality theocract is only challenged by the opposition party by another theocrat (maybe only from the dark ages era) almost as bad????? To me, it makes me really worried about any chances for a tolerant secular democracy to survive in America! That my friends is what this next election SHOULD be mainly about, and the fact that it is not is a major question that all real progressive thinkers must ask themselves right now!
It’s a great summary of the book. I read it back when Jane posted it in December. I was wretching just from the quoted passages. I couldn’t imagine reading the entire thing. Blech.
Amoore’s comment is priceless, because it really emphasizes the alternate definition of Santorum.
Who wouldn’t hold their nose when dealing with such a yucky substance?