Opinion - Blogs - What a joker

What a joker
Published: 2/17/2012 4:13 PM
Last Modified: 2/17/2012 4:13 PM

I’m really reluctant to blog twice in a row about Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, but he (or his helpers) keeps saying stuff that is, well, outrageous.

The latest kerfuffle is courtesy of one of Santorum’s big financial backers, Foster Friess. I had to pause there for a chuckle. I just can’t help thinking this guy’s name sounds like a frozen drink at a drive-inn. “I’ll have a strawberry Foster Friess and an order of cheese fries.”

Anyway, Friess was being interviewed on MSNBC about the controversy concerning the Catholic church and government-mandated health care. You know what that’s about so I won’t bother explaining it again.

Friess, what a funny guy, said that back in his day women used Bayer aspirin for birth control. "The gals put it between their knees, and it wasn't that costly," he quipped.

OK, we’ve all heard that joke before. Well, maybe not since around 1970 but, nevertheless, we were aware of it. It’s still not funny.

Well, all hell broke loose and Friess issued an apology and candidate Santorum went on defense and disavowed the comment.

The apology by Friess rang hollow to me. He wrote in a blog: "After listening to the segment ... I can understand how I confused people with the way I worded the joke and their taking offense is very understandable. To all those who took my joke as modern day approach I deeply apologize and seek your forgiveness."
He later suggested that aspirin as a form of contraception "is pretty ridiculous and quite funny."

Yeah, that’s funny stuff, Foster. I don’t think anyone actually was offended that he might have suggested the aspirin trick as a modern-day approach to contraception. They took it for what it was, an offensive joke.

Then along comes Santorum with his evasive approach. On a CBS morning show he said: "It was a bad joke, it was a stupid joke. It's not reflective of me or my record on this issue. This is the same gotcha politics that you get from the media and I'm just not going to play that game."
Ah, the old Sarah Palin-Newt Gingrich “lame stream media” attack.

He then dragged out the Obama-Rev.Wright controversy of three years ago. "With President Obama what you did was you went out and defended him against someone who he sat in a church for for 20 years and defended him that oh, he can't possibly believe what he listened to for 20 years. It's a double standard, it's what you're pulling off and I'm going to call you on it."

Call away, sir. Where was Santorum three years ago? The media dogged Obama for weeks after Wright’s heated comments were aired.

But truth has no place in today’s politics. It’s easier to get your followers to believe a lie than it is to explain the truth.

The more Santorum talks, the more it is obviuos that his views of women and their place in our world are at odds with the majority of women in the country.

The “joke” taken on the surface is just a bad one. But it also sends the message that women should abandon any personal, sexual life until a man comes along willing to impregnate her. After all, as my colleague Janet Pearson pointed out recently, to many men, women are little more than a “container.”

How’s that for a laugh?

Reader Comments

7 Total

Show: Newest First

Learn About Our Comment Policy

ozarkokie (last year)

And they're mainly concerned with the container's shape, not its substance.

ClanJoyWalkSig (12 months ago)

I'm glad Santorum is running for President. Exposing sexism on an almost daily basis lately could turn out to be a good thing, possibly even yank these yahoos into the 21st century. I'm not holding my breath or anything, but in the words of an old Beach Boy's song, "Wouldn't it be nice?"

FS (12 months ago)

That's it, Mike - use anything you can and twist the facts because a Conservative just might take the President's office from the social democrat/communist/ liberal you love.

Start worrying about what your pet in the White House has done to the country. Rest assured, you WILL NOT be one of his chosen few, rather, only another "useful idiot".

out here in the middle (12 months ago)

Mike, like you, I heard that joke back in the 70s. It was mildly funny then, and I have thought about it a few times over the years.

Let me offer you some advice that will help you not be so offended by this comment.

If you want it to be a benign comment that is neither funny, or offensive, pretend that an Obama supporter said it. Pretend that George Soros said it. Or Rev. Wright. Then it will be completely benign, and not worthy of the time you wasted on this blog.

If you want it to be a funny comment, pretend that President Obama said it. Then you would right a column about how outrageously clever and witty our president is.

You might as well. It would be about as believable as your feigned offense over Santorum's supporter.

Tough but Fair (12 months ago)

out here in the middle: I heard that old saw back in the 1950's - and it wasn't a joke then, and it came from my own mother's mouth. She was giving me some sound, practical, sex education - and she used that example as one NOT TO BELIEVE - because she was a sensible, practical woman who understood that young girls can very easily be persuaded by any old tale at all when a man comes around them - unless they've been well-informed with facts beforehand. We didn't have many convenient, practically fail-safe birth control methods back in the late 1950's when my mother sat me down for that common sense 'birds-and-the-bees' talk. The intelligent, well-informed, and cognizant among us simply abstained from sexual activity, since that was our only option for preventing unwanted, unplanned pregnancies.

But within only a few years, we women DID have something to guarantee (well, almost guarantee) that an unwanted, unplanned pregnancy would not result from our deciding to participate in a sexual relationship. We weren't any less 'moral' than we had been in the past - we simply didn't want to bring an unwanted, unplanned child into the world because of our own self-indulgence.

Santorum and his rich backer can 'play dumb in public' all they like - but if they keep on with this particular asinine, cave-man, inappropriate, dialogue, they are going to find out what ALL smart women do when they have no other choices - they cut off all the sex. Period. No further discussion.

Get ready, Ricky-BOY - you're on FIRST.

out here in the middle (12 months ago)

*write

RandyD (12 months ago)

FS must stand for full of $prunes.

7 comments displayed

To post comments on tulsaworld.com, you must be an active Tulsa World print or digital subscriber and signed into your account.

To sign in to your account, go to tulsaworld.com/signin.
To activate your print subscription for unlimited digital access and to post comments, go to tulsaworld.com/activate.
To purchase a subscription, go to tulsaworld.com/subscribe.

Jonezin

Mike Jones is a native Oklahoman (not an Okie), born and raised in Seminole, Okla. He began his career at the Tulsa World in 1971 as an oil writer for the late Riley Wilson. After three years as an oil writer, he became a copy editor on the national desk. He moved to the city desk in 1974 where he also worked as a general assignment reporter. After stints on the late city desk, he became assistant city editor and in 1979 succeeded longtime city editor John Gold, one of his mentors, as city editor. He served as city editor for almost four years before joining the editorial staff as a layout editor and editorial writer in 1985. He was named associate editor and has since written a Sunday column and daily editorials. He has a son, Sam, who is a local musician with the reggae band Sam and the Stylees. Jones is the honorary CEO of that group, a title of which he is most proud.

Subscribe to this blog

2/10/2013		"Fat butt" remarks about Michelle Obama insulting
2/3/2013		The road to immigration reform remains rough
1/27/2013		President, Congress must tackle immigration reform
1/20/2013		Fairmont Terrace killings raise age-old questions

2/2013	1/2013	12/2012	11/2012	10/2012	9/2012
8/2012	7/2012	6/2012	5/2012	4/2012	3/2012
2/2012	1/2012	12/2011	11/2011	10/2011	9/2011
8/2011	7/2011	6/2011	5/2011	4/2011	3/2011
2/2011	1/2011	12/2010	11/2010	10/2010	9/2010
8/2010	7/2010	6/2010	5/2010	4/2010	3/2010
2/2010	1/2010	12/2009	11/2009	10/2009	9/2009
8/2009	7/2009	6/2009	5/2009	4/2009	3/2009
2/2009	1/2009	12/2008	11/2008	10/2008	9/2008
8/2008	7/2008	6/2008	5/2008	4/2008	3/2008
2/2008	1/2008

Your bookmark will appear on your Profile page. Please give it a title, and short description so that visitors to your page will understand where the bookmark leads.
Bookmark Title :

Bookmark Text :