Better hope you don't need these one day, Mr. Senator.
Among the many lessons that your mother taught you, or at least should have taught you, is that two wrongs do not make a right. And, you shouldn’t act like a child when you’re 43 years old.
But not all mothers teach their children these lessons, apparently – or, more likely, not all children listen to their mothers. Among those “children” is a local politician – surprise, surprise – Democratic state Senator Larry Farnese.
Farnese, who has been representing the state’s 1st district, which includes parts of Philadelphia, since 2009, apparently thinks that the best way to show those crooked Republicans how ridiculous their ideas are is to propose an equally ridiculous idea of his own. Here’s the gist, courtesy a story in The Morning Call:
The House is considering legislation, sponsored by Republican Rep. Kathy Rapp, that would require women who want an abortion to undergo a mandatory ultrasound 24 hours before the procedure. Under this requirement, these women would most likely be forced to undergo an invasive transvaginal ultrasound – where a probe is inserted into her vagina and maneuvered to produce an image.
As if getting an abortion doesn’t seem fun enough!
But this just doesn’t sit well with Farnese, who believes it’s a preposterous requirement. So, in response, he’s planning to introduce a bill to the Senate that would require men who are seeking prescriptions for erectile dysfunction meds to receive equally-invasive tests.
In addition to a full prostate exam and a cardiac stress test, men who want little blue pills would have to submit themselves to further humiliation by:
• Watching a video detailing the side effects of ED medication
• Providing a signed affidavit from his sexual partner saying that the dude suffers from ED
• Participating in sex therapy to see if there are non-physical reasons for his ED
Here’s a quote from Farnese, in The Morning Call’s story:
“I’m submitting legislation that will require men to undergo a few similarly evasive tests in order to show that this effort is ridiculous and that we should be protecting and expanding, not watering down, health services for women.”
That’s just pure genius, and, unfortunately, it’s so typical of narrow-minded politicians, on both sides of the spectrum.
The Republican-sponsored bill affecting women is nuts, that’s for sure. But proposing a similar bill that would affect men is equally as nuts, if not more so.
Farnese, apparently, thinks it’s prudent to waste his time crafting bills for no other reason than to prove a point, or to throw a big “F-U” to his Republican counterparts. I guess he has nothing better to do with his time that’s supposed to be spent serving his constituents – no taxes to help cut, no social programs to expand, no roads to fix, no mouths to feed.
What happens if this tactic backfires, and both bills pass? Then our politicians will have infringed upon everyone’s privacy, for the good cause of political mudslinging.
What an idiot!
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