Rick Santorum should be an unworthy target for anybody with half a brain. The former Pennsylvania senator surely is one of the most simple-minded politicians to achieve national notoriety since, well, since Michele Bachmann.
The problem, of course, is that Mr. Santorum is a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination. That makes him a legitimate subject of scorn and ridicule, despite his unfortunate intellectual shortcomings. Read More
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum has become the darling of the Republican Party’s religious right as we head into the second quarter of the presidential primary season. Mr. Santorum’s views on many social and cultural issues are unabashed, although they are not particularly unique. He opposes gay marriage and the very idea that gay people deserve fair and equal treatment in civil society. He has attacked feminism as an assault on family values. And he opposes abortion rights.
Frankly, this critique is hardly new, as far as it goes. But Mr. Santorum actually goes further in his assaults on modern life. He has attacked the very idea of birth control, an issue that many Americans probably regard as having been settled 50 years ago.
Ordinarily, Mr. Santorum’s views could be dismissed as those of a crank. The problem is, it’s becoming clear that his growing numbers of supporters apparently agree with his implicit contention that contraception should be outlawed—in the name of Christianity. Read More
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, in Nevada for the Republican primary caucuses, has scheduled a mysterious press conference in Las Vegas later tonight. Active candidates typically hold a rally regardless of voting results; Mr. Gingrich’s presser has prompted The New York Times to report via its political blog The Caucus that “rumors have been flying” in Nevada that Mr. Gingrich will cease his run for the presidency. Read More
If you’re feeling withdrawal symptoms from reduced doses of Occupy Wall Street rabble-rousing (we hear they’re just hibernating), the success of last week’s SOPA blackout ought to cheer you up. Read More
How can you tell 2012 has begun with a bang? Just log onto Twitter: the hot topics since Jan. 1 are a Venn diagram of American life—from pop culture to politics, to sports and even race relations. It’s beginning to feel an awful lot like looking into a microcosm not too dissimilar to those sea monkey kits we cried enough about to have Mom and Dad buy one, only to have it sitting in garage next to whatever Santa had brought us the year before. In fact, Twitter has morphed into This American Life. Well, again, for sea monkeys. At least there’s a community spirit in the barrage of 140-character thought bubblettes: it’s one of the few times that you’ll find New Yorkers venturing outside their insular world and joining in the national dialogue … even if it’s only online and it turns out that our sea monkeys are just brine shrimp with great marketing.
So here was your week on Twitter. Read More
