What’s his reasoning behind this? He knows a serial rapist who never got one of his victims pregnant? Or maybe it’s personal experience?

Total fucking folklore, Akin, you ignorant moron. People this ignorant shouldn’t leave the house, much less run for the U.S. Senate. Anyone who votes for this piece of crap ought to have their head examined.

So if a woman gets pregnant following being raped, its actually her own fault — it actually wasn’t a “real” rape at all and she actually wanted it, that slut. Serves her right, really, doesn’t it.(/snark)
How much easier it would be, to be a Republican and never have to see any shades of gray at all.

If it’s a legitimate rape argument, the female body my brain has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.

In all fairness to Mr Akin, when your frame of reference regarding sexual assault resulting in pregnancy is limited to sheep, goats, pigs, and assorted barnyard fowl, his statement isn’t as unreasonable as it might seem.

Justify all you want Akin, still not going to change what you did to “Betty Sue” in the 10th grade.

Or “Pam” Senior year

Nor those 5 in college.

So if a woman gets pregnant following being raped, its actually her own fault — it actually wasn’t a “real” rape at all and she actually wanted it, that slut.

+1. Why do I get the feeling that the Red States are doing a 24/7 re-enactment of Deliverance? This guy is within about 10 IQ points of being unable to feed himself.

Oh lord, “legitimate rape.”

That’s gonna stay with me a long time. Okay, Missouri voters, please prove once and for all that you’re not a bunch of ignorant hillbillies, for God’s sake.

“Fucking lady plumbing…”

It works as an adjective and a verb! Too clever by half, Tbogg.

Now if KTVI-TV had any real reporters they should track down these “doctors” so they could have their licenses yanked. But I’m more inclined to believe that Akin is talking out of his ass.

If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.

Yeah, Moron. The female body tries to shut that whole thing down by scratching, punching, kicking (preferably in the gonads), and all manner of fighting.

Failing to “shut the whole thing down”, because a perpetrator overpowers the victim (often aided by the element of surprise and/or use of weapons and threats) then a pregnancy can occur. And you are contemptible for thinking that means she wanted it.

Asshole.

Only Slutty McSlut Whores who are clearly BEGGING for it get pregnant. Someone who is pure and, uh, ??? “godly” won’t get pregnant.

Words fail me. Talk about a conservative War on Women.

I wouldn’t see this as Deliverance (as suggested, above). More like the Handmaid’s Tale.

I don’t have any snark for such egregiously outrageous & horrifically ridiculous statements. I’ll just take this from the Handmaid’s Tale:

‘nil carborundum illegitimi’

These “doctors” would be graduates of the Southwest Missouri Naturopathic Medical College I believe. The level of ignorance and stupidity in this comment would be absolutely mind boggling if I were not from Oklahoma and had family in Missouri.

My condolences on your family.

First, he should have to define, in a way that would be precise as well as legal, what he believes ‘legitimate rape’ is. He gets to explain it to lawyers, preferably from PP and the ACLU.
Then, he gets to explain what he believes those ‘biological defenses’ are. He gets to explain that to the OB-GYNs.

All of this should be recorded and run on TV, as part of ‘know your candidates’ day.

I offer my condolences as well, and I currently LIVE in Arkansas. Fortunately the family is not FROM here, and so has escaped in large degree the widespread insanity of the region. My conservative father had three liberal children, and though the next generation is down to only two offspring, we’ve all done our level best to make sure they did not fall victim to the ignorance rampant in the entire region.

But, Oklahoma? Shit, I’m sorry, man. OK is about as reactionary as it gets – perhaps second to SC, but maybe tied neck-and-neck with them for the craziest/dumbest motherfuckers in the country. Back when I was really politically active, I used to do regular rants about how we needed to chop off Fort Smith and give it to Oklahoma, because the crazy had seeped over the border. It’s still that way; Ft. Smith is an armpit of a town – pretty much everyone in it is poor and continues to vote for people who promise to make sure they stay that way.

Akin 2012: Come on, she was totally asking for it.

“Your honor, that goat was dressed provocatively!”

How does someone this ignorant get elected in the first place? Never mind, I know the answer.

Those lady defenses probably involve coat hangers.

And what a wonderful solution to the “exceptions for rape” loophole! If you get pregnant, it wasn’t rape, so you don’t get to have an abortion. If you were legitimately raped, you won’t get pregnant, so no need for an abortion.

Therefore QED: no need for abortion exceptions in the case of rape! It’s so simple-minded, really.

Dunno. But over at the Great Orange Satan, people have provided matching samples of nutcasery from 1995 and even 1988. Same effing claims, same lack of background that would make them even remotely qualified to say anything about ladyparts.

Akin makes the uterus sound like a bear trap. Just snaps shut and says “no.” The man is beyond ignorant.

pj evans, Please, please, please let me use #14 to submit to the st louis post dispatch! I would love to read the reactions. Democrats in Missouri deserve better than this. Rove is really hurting McCaskill.

Sometimes I daydream about fleeing the USA USA USA. At least I got out of the middle of the country. Why is there no preacher standing up and saying, “Gawwd is cookin’ the brains of the middle section….. pack for the rapture!”

I looked ol’ Todd up on Wiki: seems he’s a minister’s son born in NYC, but was enrolled in a St. Louis, MO prep school as a teen. Then it was on to Massachusetts for a Worcester Polytechnic degree in Management Engineering, and a managerial-type career in industry. At some point he moved back to St. Louis, and served in the MO National Guard. He was in the MO House for 11 years before winning his US seat, apparently voting the hard conservative line consistently. In his late 30s he took a Master’s in Divinity from a MO Seminary that is aligned with the conservative, literal-Word-of-God wing of the Presbyterians.

Educational background that would teach him anything accurate about female anatomy: zip. Educational background that would, in fact, keep him well insulated from same: lots. Indications of possible daddy issues: more than a few (pastor’s son has early-middle-age Call to the ministry after a career in the wicked world of commerce and politicking… and keeps right on politicking, possibly to fulfill Dad’s agenda, or prove himself worthy of it, or who knows? Whatever his deal is, it has fuck all to do with real lives, certainly with real women’s lives.

Which is something of an accomplishment, considering he and his wife have 6 kids and 8 grandkids. Somehow that makes his blurts on “legitimate” rape and pregnancy all the more mind-boggling (if he believes what he said). He does have a history of ill-(or un-)considered blurts, which he later has to qualify.

Sure!

The sad part is that Oklahoma really wasn’t that way when I was growing up there in the 50s and 60s. It was never a progressive haven, but it was at least sane and there were progressive pockets in the state. It started changing shortly after I left in the late 80s.

Would that Akin’s mother had availed herself of that tool.

The money quotes (not from dKos):
THat particular piece of fucknuttery has been going around for a while. In 2006, an ER doctor told interviewers that the trauma of rape ‘triggers a hormonal response that prevents ovulation.’ In 1995, a republican representative told the House appropriations committe that ‘people who are raped — who are truly raped — the juices don’t flow, the body functions don’t work and they don’t get pregnant.’ In 1988, a PA state representative claimed that ‘real rape’ causes women to ‘secret a certain secretion’ that acts as a spermacide. ‘Physicians For Life’ takes a different tack, and calculates that the odds of getting pregnant from rape, using some questionable math, as being so low that there just aren’t enough rapes in a year for more than 1 or 2 pregnancies to result. (They estimate that only 1/3 of rape victims are within the right age window, and only 10% of those will be at the right place in their cycle, and onyl 3/4 of those (this is where they start cheating on the math) aren’t already infertile for other reasons, and only 85% of those aren’t on the pill, and 15% of rapists, on average, are sterile, and the base rate of conception is only 20%, and 15% of pregnancies miscarry anyway. And if you cheat and apply the numbers all in that order, the odds are astronomical. But they also throw in this gem:

I’d like to see one of those “rape prevention” female condoms – the ones with the barbs that can only be removed surgically – shut down on Todd Akin.

The sad thing is that Akin has pretty much got to be insane because McCaskill gives him no room to run on her right.

This lady’s body has a way of rejecting Akins from the Body Politic.

Two words: sick fuck.

And: if you elect him, you deserve him.

It was sane when my Mama was born in Tulsa in 1919, filled with Okies who later voted for Roosevelt and replete with serious lefties. Also Osage. I blame Texas.

Todd Akin needs to have a Pussy Riot leveled against his ass. I bet his dick is no better than a weed.

South Africa, where rape is a total epidemic ( well it pretty much is everywhere) is importing the old Freudian fear of castration by a toothed vagina. It should be available in the states her pretty soon ( unless men like Todd the Cod block it and why would they want to?).

Rapex: fighting rape with brutal force

Of course, men are saying this would incite the man. I seriously doubt having a bear trap on the end of one’s member would be anything but debilitating.
Like if somebody put a toothed clamp on my nipple, I doubt I’d be running down the street after them, I’d be trying to get it off. ( not being into S/M and all)
The fact a doctor has to remote it is the finest part. then supposedly, the upright po-lice could come arrest the MF

Well, that’s what they thought in the Middle ages, that if a woman got pregnant, she must have enjoyed it and was a “wanton”, so,I guess, it’s trying to make a comeback along with the Lord in his castle and serfs.

Nate Silver suspects this asshole will be down ten points as soon as they can get people out there to poll. By the end of the week, he’ll be wishing he was sharing a cell with Pussy Riot. But they’d probably kick him in the nuts so many times he wouldn’t actually be able to legitimately rape anyone forever.

Akin Comments Could Swing Missouri Senate Race

One would think it would create a landslide for McCaskill

HEH

*sigh* Oklahoma resident here. I…can’t disagree, JennofArk. All I can tell you is that there are occasional secret meetings of Normal People at Rick’s Coffee Shop in Guthrie. We keep our voices down while we talk.

“Let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something,” Akin said. “I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.”

Pardon my Norte Americano English but Jesus.Fucking.Christ this guy is an asshole. Apparently the only two biological units of any concern here are the rapist and the zygote. WHAT ABOUT THE WOMAN WHO WAS RAPED?!!! God I hate these self-righteous pricks.

Excuse me, I have to go get my blood pressure checked.

And notice how he suggests that if the woman doesn’t perform a spontaneous, (and non existent), rejection of pregnancy, then it isn’t a “legitimate rape”. She got preggers so she must have enjoyed it and encouraged it.

I’m also reminded by the floating test for witches used many hundreds of years ago: you know, if you drown, you were innocent and vindicated (though dead), if you float you’re a witch.

Also too, because of the hormones or whatever only “1 or 2 pregnancies a year result from rape”???? I’m sure the actual over 32,000 or 5% of rape vicitms who become pregnant every year will be very, very surprised to hear that. But I guess their slutty asses just need to own up to what they really were!

I know right. Who should I believe the National Institute of Health and their methodology or Akin and his quack(Who I suspect is THIS guy. http://www.christianliferesources.com/article/rape-pregnancies-are-rare-461 .)

You and me both, brother.

Thanks. I think.

My favorite part about that doctor is that he goes out of his way to crticize the projections that places like RAINN or the NIH make regarding the 5% number and then proceeds to give us a convoluted methodology filled with conjecture such as females only ovulating for a certain amount of time, men being sterile, etc,etc.

His methodolog is so completely flawed with the whole “you can only get pregnant during your fertile time” idea on two levels: a) he uses it to immediately decrease the number of women getting pregnant by alomst 80%. Since we cycle at different times of the month, obviously there’s always someone fertile. It doesn’t decrease the number by 80%.

b) Why does this myth still persist? If it really were true the rhythm method wouldn’t have a 25% percent failure rate (about the same as “pulling out”). We’d hardly have unplanned pregnancies of any kind. I also loved the whole “also look how long most couples spend trying before they get pregnant”. So I guess he believes that “you can’t get pregnant if it’s your first time”, as well, huh?

To put both of those fold tales to rest: I knew exactly when my daughter was conceived (non-fertile time) and I had just gone off birth control—–and that was all it took. The male midwife first assigned to me insisted I had to be mistaken as well. I requested my care be switched

Yep. At least with the RAINN numbers they state straight up that the numbers can be higher or lower based on many factors such as the fact that they only considered the demographics 12-45. This guy out and out tries to sell his methodology as precise science.

Wasn’t that the same strategy the priests used in the Dark Ages to test for witchcraft?
They would dunk the supposed witch in the river. If she didn’t drowned, she was a witch and was burned at the stake. If she did drown, she wasn’t a witch…

Maybe all the sane Okies left during the Depression and never came back. Kinda like Grapes of Wrath.

Seriously, the CDC needs to do some studies. This shit is catching — and it’s spreading.

As for Akin, a non-apology carefully crafted by his handlers. Todd-boy will never understand what he said wrong.

Yes it is.

Chickens signal and the rooster comes running.

Four legged animals do not get raped; he’s helpless when he’s on his hind legs only, and she only has to move. Move anywhere: Left, right, up, down, foward, or backward, she can kick the shit out of him from any position, and all she actually has to do is hold her tail down. They all have a tail to hold down. Even sheep’s tails cover their vulvas. Typically he never even gets set before she runs out from under him and turns to fight, so all the above is mostly fluff. He pretty quick gets the idea that this is a waste of energy unless she’s inviting the contact.

The reason rape is an option in homo sapiens sapiens is not so much sexual dimorphism as the salutary effect of a punch in the nose or a knife held at the throat. Only human beings can throw a fast-ball, or a devastating punch. Only human beings have deadly weapons in their pockets. It’s not imaginary.

ryan is against choice in cases of rape, incest and even if the mothers life is in danger. Why the fuck are we talking about dickhead Akin. Its rynm who is the knuckle-dragger on this issue. ryan authored FEDERAL legialation on this and trans vag ultrasounds.

Yeah, well apparently Eddie and Thurston see what loser this can be because they (along with a variety of anti-choice Puggies) have already made statements along the lines of “oh, THAT kind of rape? Why didn’t you say so? Of course those raped ladies can get abortions”

About rape and animals—actually there are a few species in which that’s pretty much the ONLY way they have sex (Muscovy ducks, baboons and walruses), as well as gang rape (bottle noses dophins). There are also certain species that engage in prostitution.

Or how about a PAC called I opened my mouth and let what I think out. This is called misspeaking.

This could be applied universally in Republican Land.

I think it’s probably mistaken to observe the sexual behavior of other species and superimpose our own ideas on what we observe. My understanding of the biomechanics of cats, for instance, is that the little barbs on the tomcat’s penis stimulate the female cat’s ovulation — so her ear-splitting yowling during mating and the likelihood that she will turn like lightning, mid-copulation, and smack the tom with her claws (feline sex is VERY dramatic stuff) are all part of the evolved interaction. But of course he has only approached her after being signaled at like nobody’s business, visually, vocally, with scent.

Cats are erotically obvious, even to us apes – there’s no mistaking a female in heat. Other species are probably not so readily interpreted. I had the chance to watch a wild mallard drake establishing his territory along a small stretch of stream one spring day, chasing off all possible competitors — flashy, energetic, aggressive, a most impressive display. Ducks are often characterized as mating via “rape”, but is it possible for us to know the internal state of the female duck who wound up in that bit of stream with that drake balanced on her back, thrashing his wings, curling his tail under hers and holding her head down just under the water? Ducks are evolved to graze for water plants with their heads submerged for considerable periods, so he’s not endangering her that way. Do we understand the communication that takes place between duck and drake prior to copulation, when they’re choosing each other as mates?

I take RaggMopp’s point about weapon use among humans being a factor, but I think the prevalence of rape in humans has more to do with several other human peculiarities: Like the fact that we don’t have a hormone-driven mating season keyed to the external environment; our extreme dependence on culture as a behavior regulator (rather than instinct) and our propensity for tribalism and inter-tribal conflict with the enemy being stereotyped as Other, not like Ourselves; the connection between control of females and their children and the control of territory/resources, especially once people started settling down to either transhumant territories or agricultural territories.

And with that last one, I think that sexual dimorphism has a good deal to do with it. Speaking as a smallish female, I can say positively that there’s been a fair amount of crap I never would have put up with if I’d been the same size as the men who were unloading it. I may not ever know what’s going on in a female mallard’s heart and mind, but I know what’s going on in mine!

I wasn’t anthropomorphising any of these species, all of i what I mentioned is well researched and pretty much universally accepted as zoological fact.

As for the size factor—sadly, there are scores of very large women who are just as bullied as you are. It’s more of a reflection of our rampantly misogynistic society.

But what is the zoological definition of the word “rape”?

It may be inapropos to bring up insect behavior, but does a female praying mantis murder her mate when she eats his upper part while his lower part is still copulating? What is the zoological – or in that case, entomological – definition of “murder”? I guess the point I was circling around is that the concept of rape, AFAIK, is a social, human one based on the concept of consent. I don’t know how anyone, be they lay observer or trained scientist, can objectively establish either the presence or absence of consent, in the human sense of that word (which – again, AFAIK – is the only sense of the word we have) in the interactions of courting and copulating birds.

The possibility for interpreting observed behavior accurately may well be greater when the species is closer to ourselves, like baboons. I don’t know what the current ideas about this are among specialists in zoology and animal behavior. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that there is a range of opinions. But it seems to me that until a method for establishing actual empathic contact between people and animals is developed, the best we can do is speculate; we can’t know.

As for the size thing — of course, larger women get bullied and oppressed by men. I was just bringing things down to my own anecdotal level. A feeble rhetorical gesture maybe! However, pulling back out to the species-wide biological viewpoint, if humanity was NOT sexually dimorphic as to size and strength (this was what I was sort of getting at, backhandedly) I doubt that the societies we developed over the millennia would have so overridingly been stacked against females — or indeed weighted either for or against either sex.

Tbogg, extra points for the Dusan Makaveyev reference. Expect a gold star on your report card this term.