Obama: Todd Akin 'somehow missed science class'

[kpete]

Source: Politico

Obama: Todd Akin 'somehow missed science class'

By REID J. EPSTEIN | 8/22/12 8:18 PM EDT

NEW YORK – President Obama mocked Missouri Rep. Todd Akin here, telling a fundraising crowd packed with pro basketball stars that the embattled Senate candidate “somehow missed science class.”

“Recently some of you have been paying attention to the commentary about the senator from Missouri, Mr. Akin,” Obama said. “The interesting thing here is that this, this is an individual who sits on the House Committee on Science and Technology but somehow missed science class. And it’s representative of the desire to go backwards instead of forwards and fight fights that we thought were settled 20 or 30 years ago.”

The Akin remark represents the second time in three days Obama has addressed the Missouri Senate race, which pits Akin against incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill, a top 2008 Obama surrogate. On Monday Obama made a surprise appearance at the daily White House press briefing to declare that “rape is rape.”

Akin has defied efforts from Missouri and national Republicans to drop out of his race after his infamous comments about “legitimate rape” on a St. Louis television show Sunday morning.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/08/obama-todd-akin-somehow-missed-science-class-132876.html

[Live and Learn]

1. Yes. It is the ignorance of the remark that frightens me the most.

And they want all kids growing up believing tripe like this which is why they are against sex ed in school.

[efhmc]

3. It's the ignorance of the people he appeals to that frightens me the

most.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Ben Sargent nailed it too!

[Grassy Knoll]

2. Some Republicans are Embarrassed .....

That he said it out loud, others love the warm blanket this asshat spewed.
either way everybody knows how they feel.

[Freddie]

8. Exactly

They all think like Akin, he just spoke with his filter off.

[xtraxritical]

10. I think R&R paid off Aiken to spew his vitriol, it's typical GOP wedge issue nonsense

to distract from Romneys tax/finance issues. IT'S A BIG GOP DISTRACTION TACTIC.

[47of74]

4. That's not all that piece of feces missed

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. Nailed it! "Representative of the desire to go backwards instead of forwards".

Akin attitude is absolutely typical of the willful ignorance and anti-science attitudes of mainly Republican elected officials and the more conservative of their followers.

There is a very thoughtful group among conservatives (ex. William F. Buckley) but Akin is the exact opposite of thoughtful.

Keep Akin in. He's the poster boy of Republican mainstream which is the extreme part of American life.

[DallasNE]

11. What People Don't Seem To Understand

Is that people like Akin use their fundamentalist version of the Bible for guidance in crafting law. The Constitution is not part of the consideration. It can't be because they are dead set against the Establishment Clause that is part of the 1st Amendment. They don't believe America is a secular nation envisioned in the Constitution and the reason is simple; the Bible didn't establish it as a secular nation. They are not about the rule of law, they set their own rules based on what some preacher tells them the Bible says. Think not; Akin was quoting a Bible spouting doctor from la-la land and got burned.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

16. Akin has a Masters of Divinity degree (how hard is that?). nt

[Qutzupalotl]

32. It's not easy, it's just not germane to congressional representation

unless your constituents are monks and nuns.

[yardwork]

38. Obama's statement was excellent. He hit all the important points.

[Monk06]

6. Keep hammerin because Akin is just stating publically the Rs anti women agenda that they don't

want to talk about. No abortions, no exceptions for rape and incest. That's they're plank. Make Romney try to deny it and watch him and Ryan wiggle and squirm.

[blur256]

9. Did anyone see him on the Today Show this morning? Toddy boy that is.

My girlfriend had it on while I got ready for work. This was my Facebook post in reply:

Thank YOU Rep. Todd Akin for making the voters of Missouri sound like redneck hillbillies with sub par educations to the viewers of the Today Show. Maybe you are misinformed about the facts regarding the female reproductive system, but I consider myself well educated as well as most other voters in your state.

He basically said that voters would still support him for his belief versus the facts. I shake my head, because that is sadly true. They had women on the local news with reporters asking them why they said they still supported him. One said, "Well he is a man after all." Like men are incapable of navigating the woman reproductive system. I have a master's degree, but I'm pretty sure I learned this business in junior high. Or prior. I was in the gifted program in elementary, and I missed the "puberty video" because of going to gifted class that day, but I still figured it out.

[DeSwiss]

12. Nuff said.....

- K&R

[Beartracks]

13. Even Chris Christie said it's not so much that Akin SAID what he said...

... but that he THINKS it at all.

However, it seems most of the Republicans urging Akin to quit don't seem to mind what he thinks; rather, they worry that he said it out loud.

=================

[yurbud]

29. great sig line pic. Did you make or find?

[Beartracks]

40. Hey, thanks, yurbud!! Click it...

Those are 3 of my designs in my Zazzle store. The image links to the politics section of the shop.



=================

[yurbud]

41. those are great. I'll buy something when I have money.

[rks306]

14. Wait

This idiot is on the science committee. Requirement to be on GOP committee definitly doesn't invovle knowledge of anything.

[Iliyah]

15. It is called creation

......

[avebury]

17. Ignorance is part of the Republican platform. nt

[lunatica]

18. If Akin sits on the House Committee on Science and Technology

our future science and technology is fucked. People like Akin are put there deliberately to stop progress dead in its tracks. Hello Dark Ages.

[Beartracks]

42. That's like Inhofe sitting on Environment and Public Works. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

19. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[yellowcanine]

20. You are too kind, Mr. President. That is not all he missed.

When brains were being handed out he got what was in the remainder bin.

[dynasaw]

21. no they got misplaced in another

part of his anatomy.

[hedgehog]

22. Well after all, he did go to school in Missouri

"Missouri
Schools are not required by law to provide sex education, but if a school district chooses to offer such courses, the classes must include information about abstinence until marriage and prevention of HIV/AIDS and other STDs. "
http://www.teen-aid.org/State_Resourses/State_Sex_Education_Laws.htm

More details here:

http://www.siecus.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.ViewPage&PageID=1308

[Kingofalldems]

23. Don't fundies just disregard science?

[fifthoffive]

24. Every sperm is sacred...

I suspect some GOPers still believe the sperm contains a tiny homunculus that the man "plants" in the woman.

[yurbud]

28. Isn't that only how gay babies are made? I thought straights were made by

heterounculus.

Though any child fathered by an uncle...

[yurbud]

25. Republicans read THE HANDMAID'S TALE and decided it would be a good party platform.

[pnwmom]

26. And Akin's a member of the House Science and Tech committee.

Lovely.

[LisaL]

27. Akin might have missed science class, but he is on the science committee.

Ain't it great?

[wordpix]

30. Hypothesis/translation of Akin's "legitimate" rape here

My friend and I hypothesized about what Akin could have meant by "legitimate," which was no accident in wording. We surmise the following:

If it's a "legitimate" rape, the woman is uptight, tense, dry and her body will "shut that whole thing down." (Idiotic and untrue). Ergo, no abortion is needed b/c she can't get pregnant according to Akin's doctor friend-guru.

If it's an "illegitimate" rape, she's enjoying it. Ergo, no abortion is needed b/c it's not a "legitimate" rape ----she liked it.

It's a win-win for the Republics

[trailmonkee]

31. He must have went to school in Texas

[Igel]

34. And in your state?

Is there a test question on the exit-level science test in your state that asks about whether or not humans are one of the species in which the females can pick and choose which male's sperm to allow to fertilize the eggs?

You're right. It's not on the older tests in Texas. Perhaps the Biology STAAR test (new last year) has more rape-related questions.

Because if it's not on the test, it's not going to form part of the evaluations that the current Dept. of Education wants, and that means a lot of teachers don't have a lot of time to teach it.

Then again I did watch a 17-year-old girl during a review for her exit level test a year and a half ago react in shock when she was told that women produce eggs and guys produce sperm. She managed to be sexually active for several years (somehow avoiding pregnancy) and was of the belief that she produced sperm.

True, she did transfer in from Cicago just a few years before that.

[trailmonkee]

35. The goal of the right is to produce an army of Dunces...

[Strat0]

33. Crimefighting in the Akin/Ryan era.

[Jeneral2885]

36. Um

small correction. He's not a Senator yet, just a member of the House of Represensatives. But well, hopefully he won't be around there in the future.

[Third Doctor]

37. Akin says

I don't need no damned book learnin! The devil's in it!

[Act_of_Reparation]

39. It isn't his understanding of science that's the problem...

Akin no doubt understands how babies are made.

The problem is Akin believes in an omnibenevolent deity who intercedes in the affairs of man. An all-good God capable of affecting the course of history wouldn't allow a legitimate victim of rape to bear a child as a result.

Once again, magical thinking fails the reality test.