Kyle Mantyla's blog

Last week, Rick Santorum explained that he was opposed to any plans by the Pentagon to place women in combat positions, asserting that the "types of emotions that are involved" would compromise combat effectiveness.

Santorum quickly "clarified," saying that he didn't mean that women were emotionally unsuited for serving in combat but rather that male soldiers would be protective of female soldiers and inclined to compromise the mission in order to defend them.

Not surprisingly, Bryan Fischer agrees with Santorum ... and is even willing to defend the view that Santorum himself rejected: that women are inherently emotionally unfit for combat:

But not only are women emotionally unfit for combat but also physically unfit because, as Fischer explained in his column today, "the average female soldier does not even have the arm strength to throw a grenade far enough to keep herself from getting blown up."

• Miranda @ PFAW Blog: What War on Women?
• Towleroad: Santorum Visits Washington as Marriage Equality Bill is Signed, Tells Anti-Gay Clergy Not to Give Up.
• Ian Millhiser @ Think Progress Justice: Texas Federal Judge Demagogued By Gingrich Fights Back — ‘You Should Be Ashamed.’
• Eric Kleefeld @ TPM: Bob Marshall, George Allen’s Primary Challenger, Argues Health Care Reform ‘Economic Rape.’
• Left In Alabama: Shadrack McGill's No Good, Terrible, Very Bad Public Meeting.
• Nick Sementelli @ Bold Faith Type: Mike Huckabee Falsely Attacks Obama’s Personal Charity; Inadvertently Makes the Case for the Safety Net.

• Are people seriously no longer watching Fox News because it has become too liberal?
• The Hubble Telescope proves the accuracy of the Dead Sea Scrolls?
• Examples A and B of why conservatism will never be cool.
• Things are getting ugly over at the Trinity Broadcasting Network.
• Finally, the Purity Bear is back:

To say that the Religious Right is apoplectic about the Obama administration's contraception mandate would be a bit of an understatement.  It has seemingly been all that they have been capable of talking about for the last week and that trend continued today as Tim Wildom and Tony Perkins hosted Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) on this morning's edition of "Today's Issues."

Wildmon and Smith wondered how HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, or anyone other politician for that matter, could consider themselves to be Catholic if they support reproductive rights, while Perkins wondered how anyone who did so could even consider themselves to be a Christian.

The discussion eventually turned to President Obama and his citation of scripture in support of his political views, which Smith claimed was all part of a long-term effort by population control proponents to undermine Christianity by using Scriputure to promote evil, which prompted Perkins to responded by claiming that it is "the Left" that is out to create a theocracy:

Among the guests on the Family Research Council's anti-contraception coverage webcast held last week was Walker Nickless, the Bishop of the Diocese of Sioux City, who warned that the contraception mandate was literally a plot by the Devil to undermine morality and that Christians "have to stand up and violently oppose this" in order to avoid being overtaken by Darkness:

As we noted yesterday, the Family Research Council hastily organized a webcast last week to voice the Religious Right's opposition to the Obama administration's rule requiring health insurance plans to cover contraception. 

Among the guests who participated was Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission who declared that "government-run clinics" will give away birth control pills for free, so the only reason that the government would require employers to offer such coverage is because to government wants to "set the precedent of ramming this down our throats" and destroy their freedom of religion. 

But, Land declared, his Baptist fore-bearers "went to prison and died" to defend these rights so, make no mistake, "we are not going to comply":

• Sahil Kapur @ TPM: McConnell: GOP Will Fight To Let ANY Employer Deny Birth Control Coverage.
• Huffington Post: Cal Thomas Apologizes To Rachel Maddow For Contraception Comment.
• Nick Sementelli @ Faith in Public Life Action: Rick Santorum Dissents from Catholic Teaching on Health Care.
• Ben Armbruster @ Think Progress Security: Fox Pundit Says Women In The Military Should ‘Expect’ To Be Raped.
• Towleroad: Washington Governor Chris Gregoire Signs Marriage Equality Bill Into Law.
• Trudy Ring @ The Advocate: Progressive Clergy: Get Perkins Off MSNBC.

• Mitt Romney won the CPAC Straw Poll but Rick Santorum is accusing his campaign of rigging the vote.
• While in town for CPAC, Santorum had a private lunch with some 90 conservative leaders and vowed that if he wins the GOP nomination, he will not move toward the center.
• The idea that Santorum is some sort of secret liberal is laughable, but that is the case that Newt Gingrich supporter Chuck Norris is trying to make.
• Speaking of Gingrich, the National Review is calling on him to withdraw.
• Finally, Joseph Farah wants Ruth Bader Ginsburg impeached.

Last week, amid the Religious Right freak-out over the Obama administration's rule requiring health insurance plans to cover contraception, the Family Research Council hastily organized a webcast to rally the opposition called "Healthcare Mandate: Violating the Separation of Church and State."

Among the guests was Sen. Orrin Hatch who claimed that the issue was not about contraception but rather about abortion as he asserted that abortion constitutes 95% of what Planned Parenthood does as an organization:

If that sounds familiar, it is probably because Sen. John Kyl made the same claim last year. Kyl's claims was so thoroughly debunked as patently false [in reality, it is about 3%] that his office was reduced to laughably asserting that "his remark was not intended to be a factual statement."

Apparently Hatch missed that entire spectacle, or simply doesn't care, as he freely repeating the falsehood as FRC's Tony Perkins assured him that he was correct.

Buster Wilson, General Manager of the American Family Association's American Family Radio Network and host of the radio program "AFA Today" was particularly incensed on Friday that Fox News' Bill O'Reilly had defended JC Penney's decision to hire Ellen DeGeneres as its spokesperson.

Given that the AFA is responsible for the entire campaign to get DeGeneres fired and has been using every arm of the organization to promote it, it is no surprise that Wilson would be outraged by the fact that O'Reilly compared it to a McCarthyist witch hunt, prompting Wilson to declare that he would never watch O'Reilly's program again! 

Wilson sought to explain that this was not simply a "business decision" on the part of JC Penney, but an effort to normalize and promote homosexuality.  Wilson falsely claimed that Ellen was "kicked off" of her sitcom for coming out and then lamented that a homosexual like DeGeneres would become a role model for young girls because it is "morally wrong":

It is worth noting, as we have done before, that if Wilson is so concerned about the messages being spread by designated spokesmen, he might want to have a talk with relenetless bigot Bryan Fischer, the AFA's official spokeman for the and host of a two hour radio program every day on Wilson's radio network.