… please no! Santorum got bad enough that I voted for Bob Casey in 2006. Here’s why I’m not going to be voting Rick for the GOP nod in 2012:
In 2001, Santorum tried unsuccessfully to insert language which came to be known as the “Santorum Amendment” into the No Child Left Behind bill that sought to promote the teaching of intelligent design while questioning the academic standing of evolution in public schools. The amendment, crafted with the assistance of the Discovery Institute, would have required schools to discuss possible controversies surrounding scientific topics, and gave the theory of evolution as an example, opening the door for intelligent design as an opposing theory to be presented in science classrooms.
I don’t have any problem with Intelligent Design being taught in a class on religion, but it’s not science, and does not belong in science classrooms. But it gets better:
On April 14, 2005, Santorum introduced the National Weather Service Duties Act of 2005 to “clarify the duties and responsibilities of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service (NWS), and for other purposes”.[39] This legislation, if enacted, would prohibit the NWS from publishing weather data to the public when private-sector entities, such as AccuWeather, a company based in Santorum’s home state, perform the same function commercially. Accuweather employees have contributed at least $5500 to Santorum since 1999, according to the Federal Election Commission.
So my tax dollars are paying to gather this data, but we can’t have them present it to the public? If the NWS is useless, then get rid of it. But if it’s useful, which I suspect it is, then it’s data ought to be presented in a form that the public can read. I’ve used NWS’s site for years because it’s got no flash, and no ads. But gets even better:
“If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything.”
Hyperbole much? I might have a problem with how Griswold was reached, but I think it’s difficult to argue that the state’s police powers are so unlimited that citizens don’t have some unenumerated right to be left alone by it. I have a big issue with a politician who thinks the government’s powers extend into the bedrooms of consenting adults.
I am not a fan of Santorum’s social conservatism, and think he was partly responsible for destroying support for the GOP in Pennsylvania, so count me among those who wish he’d just go away.
