Jon Stewart was back with a vengeance last night, first ripping Rick Santorum and the rest of the GOP for their theocracy-loving stance on birth control coverage, and then ripping into the Catholic bishops who went on Sean Hannity's show and claimed this was just like what Hitler was doing.
It appears, though, that Rick Santorum, earlier in that clip, takes issue with the President imposing his values on other Americans with the government's arm, when everyone knows whose arm it is you use to impose your values.
RICK SANTORUM (11/19/2011): As long as abortion is "legal", at least according to the Supreme Court, legal in this country, we will never have rest because that law does not comport with God's law.
RICK SANTORUM (1/13/2012): I am for a federal marriage amendment. ... I am for reinstating Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
RICK SANTORUM (11/19/2011): Rights come to us from God, and that when God gives us rights, He doesn't say, "well, here are your rights, just do whatever you want to do with them"; that in fact He has laws that we must abide by.
Got it. So in the American system of government, you're saying we should all be free to live by Christian law.
....
Do some Christians face persecution today? Absolutely. In Egypt, China. Believe me, the Christian guy making bricks in a Chinese forced labor camp? He'd love to be on Hannity complaining about a $20 co-pay for orthotrycycline.
So I know you're not seriously equating yourselves with victims of actual religious persecution and wars.
ERIC METAXAS (2/7/2012): You read about what happened to an amazingly great country called Germany. ... In the beginning, it always starts really, really small.
RICHARD LAND (2/10/2012): Martin Niemöller said it during the Nazi era in Germany: I didn't speak up when they came for the Communists because I wasn't a Communist.
(in Joe Pesci voice) You wanna do the Nazi dance? Is that what you wanna do? You wanna do this? All right, let's do this!
First of all, when the Nazis came for people, they also left with them. It wasn't a metaphor. And as for your slippery slope, Hitler did not start small. His deliberate annihilation of a religion didn't kick off with insurance reform. He started by trying to take over all of Germany with a machine gun in a beer hall. They saw him coming.
....
You've confused a war on your religion with not always getting everything you want. It's called being part of a society! (wild audience applause) Not everything goes your way.
You know, I don't let my kids eat ice cream every night. They wish I did. But even they know that doesn't make me the Hitler of ice cream.
Videos and transcript below the fold.
RICK SANTORUM (2/10/2012): This is simply someone trying to impose their values on somebody else with the arm of the government.
NEWT GINGRICH (2/10/2012): And I frankly don't care what deal he tries to cut, this is a man who is deeply committed, if he wins re-election, he will wage war on the Catholic church the morning after he's re-elected.
Oh wow. (audience boos Gingrich's response) If only there was some sort of pill you could take to prevent Obama's re-election the morning after, a Plan B for his re-election, if you will.
But more importantly, it appears that Rick Santorum.... (wild audience applause) I think we're finding the audience's G-spot. Not that I would know, because I wouldn't know.
It appears, though, that Rick Santorum, earlier in that clip, takes issue with the President imposing his values on other Americans with the government's arm, when everyone knows whose arm it is you use to impose your values.
RICK SANTORUM (11/19/2011): As long as abortion is "legal", at least according to the Supreme Court, legal in this country, we will never have rest because that law does not comport with God's law.
RICK SANTORUM (1/13/2012): I am for a federal marriage amendment. ... I am for reinstating Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
RICK SANTORUM (11/19/2011): Rights come to us from God, and that when God gives us rights, He doesn't say, "well, here are your rights, just do whatever you want to do with them"; that in fact He has laws that we must abide by.
Got it. So in the American system of government, you're saying we should all be free to live by Christian law. I gotta say, it's the kind of rigid thinking that got Santorum drummed out of the Senate. Nobody in the cooling sauce of our democracy is going to take that bait now.
2/12/2012:
BOB SCHIEFFER: Senator Blunt from Missouri, one of your Republican colleagues, he wants an amendment now that would allow any group that had a moral objection to this to not have to pay for birth control pills. ... Would you be willing to push that in the Senate?
...
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, R-KY: Of course I'd be happy to support it, and intend to support it.
Really? Cuz you know what that would be? Fucking chaos. You realize that, right? That's chaos. "All right, I'm a Christian scientist. I don't have to provide any health care, I don't believe in it." It's all up to your boss.
"Uh, I work for the head football coach at my high school, I got my new health care plan, and it just says, walk it off, you pussy."
You can't just decide on your own! We're either in a society or we're not in a society. You can't walk off lymphoma.
....
So. I guess for Republicans, liberty means liberty for employers. Employees can go fuck themselves. My guess is, they'll be doing it bareback.
A concerned Sean Hannity convened a diverse panel of experts on the subject of contraception: Catholic men, Jewish men, Baptist men, black men, white men. Absolutely everyone who might have something relevant to say on women's reproductive health.
Of course, where you might see a disagreement over bureaucratic details of employees' preventive health care benefits, the world's holiest sausage fest saw something much bigger.
2/10/2012:
SEAN HANNITY: Is there a war, now, against... on religion in America, Father?
FATHER: There certainly is.
I gotta hand it to these guys on imagination. First, wine becomes blood, then insurance reform becomes war! It's getting pretty dramatic.
....
Do some Christians face persecution today? Absolutely. In Egypt, China. Believe me, the Christian guy making bricks in a Chinese forced labor camp? He'd love to be on Hannity complaining about a $20 co-pay for orthotrycycline.
So I know you're not seriously equating yourselves with victims of actual religious persecution and wars.
ERIC METAXAS (2/7/2012): You read about what happened to an amazingly great country called Germany. ... In the beginning, it always starts really, really small.
RICHARD LAND (2/10/2012): Martin Niemöller said it during the Nazi era in Germany: I didn't speak up when they came for the Communists because I wasn't a Communist.
(in Joe Pesci voice) You wanna do the Nazi dance? Is that what you wanna do? You wanna do this? All right, let's do this!
First of all, when the Nazis came for people, they also left with them. It wasn't a metaphor. And as for your slippery slope, Hitler did not start small. His deliberate annihilation of a religion didn't kick off with insurance reform. He started by trying to take over all of Germany with a machine gun in a beer hall. They saw him coming.
In jail, he authored a little best-seller, writing:
The personification of the devil as the symbol of all things evil assumes the living shape of the Jew.
By the way, doesn't sound nearly as bad in its original Angry German. That's a real font, by the way.
So in the early 1930s, when you're saying Hitler was making subtle and incremental changes to tax policy and health care that's a slippery slope, he was actually focusing on more broad-based changes, like 1932, when a "little" group of half a million brownshirts shot hundreds of his political opponents in the street. Not to mention those intimate little backroom gatherings the Nazis held every year at Nuremberg.
My point is, Hitler didn't play small ball. So lighten up, Francis. America isn't Nazi Germany. And the secret police aren't coming for you. Hell, the IRS isn't even coming for you! This government hates religious organizations so much, it lets them keep $100 billion dollars a year in offerings tax-free! Persecute my ass like that! I'd love it!
....
You've confused a war on your religion with not always getting everything you want. It's called being part of a society! (wild audience applause) Not everything goes your way.
You know, I don't let my kids eat ice cream every night. They wish I did. But even they know that doesn't make me the Hitler of ice cream.
Jon also
blasted CNN for how they covered Whitney Houston's death.
Meanwhile, Stephen covered the current case of
Linsanity sweeping New York.
Stephen profiled
Steve Gass, who wants government to implement his safety technology for saw manufacturers. Stephen then asked his fans to go to Ben & Jerry's today for a free scoop of
his ice cream flavor.
Jon talked with Ali Soufan, and Stephen talked with Bill McKibben.