Heavens - and still so many months to go

IF YOU'RE LIKE ME, you're having a harder time each day understanding the social and religious conservatives on matters like breast cancer and abortion. For example, there's a Republican state senator in Tennessee - Stacey Campfield, by name - who swears that abortions cause breast cancer. (He swears about a lot of other things, too, such as the unrefined evils of homosexuality and AIDS, which he claims began when a man "screwed a monkey". Campfield is further proof that our electoral system's safety net has holes in it.)

Anyway, I coughed up Stacey Campfield when I read a similar version from the GOP's current hallowed rock star, Rick Santorum, who could win the party's nomination by default. But I don't want to say more about that at this time. Rather, McRick has clearly suggested to the Fox News gang that, indeed, abortions cause breast cancer. It was his way of supporting the Komen foundation's defunding of Planned Parenthood, a decision that caused Komen a triple-Excedrin headache that wasn't relieved when the foundation reversed itself.

On matters of his committed Catholic faith, you must understand that he's the real thing who opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest . He is, of course, entitled to that view, but you could say the same about the great majority of folks who are entitled to a less Draconian view.

So are we going to have to suffer the path of the most theocratic major candidate in our lifetime all the way to the Republican convention? I'm afraid so.

PS: Considering all of the local media fuss over Santorum's scheduled visit to Akron Saturday, I continue to acknowledge my losing battle by asking: What do Santorum, McMitt Romney, McNewt Gingrich and McRon Paul have in common with Abraham Lincoln? Very little, if anything. But they do show up for the Lincoln Day dinners, misnomers that any sponsor would be hard-pressed to defend, particularly this year when the GOP field has done its damnedest to cheapen the party of Lincoln's name.