Presidents

[Briar]

I don't have any issue with Santorum taking his 20 week old child home for his children to see. They didn't "play" with him. It teaches the children a lot about life processes and helps the whole family heal with the loss.

[Shadow]

Pretty sure there is no reason to do that other than to make a political statement about abortion. And a profoundly creepy one at that.

[Briar]

If there is one thing that I've noticed about Santorum is that he is quite sincere in his actions. Honestly, if I was unfortunate to lose a child early in it's development and already had children, I would want them to see him/her.  Especially when children know that their mother is expecting, it helps with avoiding too much of the "Mommy/Daddy where is my brother/sister?"

This is how the Santorum family chose to deal with their loss.  I think it is wrong of any media source to scrutinize the choice they made.

[Genevieve]

IT'S GROSS!

[Neobaron]

Briar, you realize it was a 20 week old fetus right?

It wasn't a 20 week old baby.

It was born prematurely.

I just want to make sure.

[Peace Alliance]

I don't really care that he showed his kid the fetus. Thats kinda his own business. The scarey thing is that he wants to take his own business and impose it on other people.

[Neobaron]

Ehh, I can understand that sentiment to a point.

Being a fan of RASSLIN or bucking the political correctness trend out of spite are things I would agree with as being personal choices.

Taking a dead fetus home to your kids and singing songs to it is... weird. And the fact that he is willing to treat said fetus as a child and do that kind of gives a glimpse into the extremes of his conservatism. I guess if prompted, my response would be that he is free to traumatize and warp his children if he wants, but I would be concerned that it is an example of what he expects from every person.

So again, we're more or less saying the same thing, I'm just taken a bit more aback by the bizarreness of the situation.

[Peace Alliance]

Taking a dead fetus home to your kids and singing songs to it is... weird. And the fact that he is willing to treat said fetus as a child and do that kind of gives a glimpse into the extremes of his conservatism. I guess if prompted, my response would be that he is free to traumatize and warp his children if he wants, but I would be concerned that it is an example of what he expects from every person. 

I don't exactly want to argue for the guy. But you have to recognize the vastly different ways that cultures treat the pregnancy and birthing process. What he did is weird to us, but it makes sense from the culture that he's in. The reason people aren't treating that culture sensitively (as you would when encountering an African culture, or any other distant culture that differs greatly from ours) is because socially conservative anti-abortionists have not been sensitive to anyone elses culture.

What he did with the fetus didn't hurt anyone. At 20 weeks a fetus does not look overly grotesque (it's just 2 weeks shy of the earliest you can give birth and have a chance of survival). And to the kids this was normalized, so they wouldn't be shocked and alienated. Talking about the dead is also healthy, studies show, because it allows people to openly mourn and to share the burden.

Ultimately it is the fact that he wants to take his culture and enforce it upon others that disturbs me (radical Islam anyone?). Considering how many people are mad at Obama for making catholic hospitals carry birth control, the same argument could be used for this.

[Neobaron]

I understand what you're trying to say, but I guess it would make more sense if Santorum wasn't a rich white guy. The fact that I know catholics who lost kids and didn't take them home coupled with his very strong stance on the abortion issue cause me to default to thinking he was making a statement rather than being genuine, but at the same time he seems to genuinely believe the poo he says.

Different strokes I guess.

But its still weird. :3

[Peace Alliance]

Ya, but Catholicism is not a culture. In fact of all the Christian denominations Catholicism probably includes the most diverse cultures because it's almost everywhere in the world. His culture would probably be one of the hard-right christian conservative American.

That said I don't think that Sanatorium is above petty political gestures, as the rest of the article outlines clearly.

[Dark Claws]

I don't think many people like Obama because of the debt crisis. They also don't give him credit for Osama (he deserved at least something), taking out Ghandafi (I think I'm spelling it right), and having the dow hit 13,000. He doesn't deserve full credit for this, but some credit wouldn't be bad. I like Santorum, but Romney probably will beat him. So I voted Romney. And Catholics aren't what they used to be. Now protestants are more plentiful. Just saying.

[Rakefur]

Obama didn't take out Osama. The Navy Seals did.

[Dark Claws]

Gave an order to look in Pakistan. Big gamble and proved fruitful. Had a bunch of advisers say yes and a few said no. He went with the majority and the Seals got him. Indirectly did it.

[Peace Alliance]

I don't think many people like Obama because of the debt crisis. They also don't give him credit for Osama (he deserved at least something), taking out Ghandafi (I think I'm spelling it right), and having the dow hit 13,000. He doesn't deserve full credit for this, but some credit wouldn't be bad. I like Santorum, but Romney probably will beat him. So I voted Romney. And Catholics aren't what they used to be. Now protestants are more plentiful. Just saying.

I find it a bit on that you are defending a leader based on his kills. That is almost as strange as picking someone based on how popular their religion is.

BTW, Mormon is /not/ a Christian denomination. I believe it was debated somewhere on these forums... But they don't study the Christian bible, so they can't really be Christians.

[Dark Claws]

I'm saying that he did stuff. Killing Osama was a morale victory for the U.S. Say what you want, but it was. Anyway, I'm not saying he's good because of his kills, but he proved himself. And I know nothing about mormons. I think they are ranked with Jehova Witnesses, close to Christians but not really. Yeah, the UMD has some discussion on this.