# The latest on Rick Santorum
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-latest-on-rick-santorum/304526
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [May 19, 2005, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-latest-on-rick-santorum/304526 "2005-05-19T02:57:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2005, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-latest-on-rick-santorum/304526/61 "2005-05-19T17:48:12Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#):
>
> I don’t want to interfere with your and **spectrum** ’s little love-fest, but I did think you were damning Mrs. Santorum with faint praise, myself.
I forget where I am sometimes.
I like the guy, myself. I had the pleasure of supporting him in his first run for office, and he’s treated me and my family with considerable kindness since.
---
### Author:  [@spectrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spectrum)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2005, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-latest-on-rick-santorum/304526/62 "2005-05-19T18:00:58Z")
Too bad he doesn’t have an ounce of kindness for the millions of gay Pennsylvanians he “represents.” He’s too busy trying to fuck over their entire lives.
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2005, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-latest-on-rick-santorum/304526/63 "2005-05-19T18:05:21Z")
> [@spectrum](#):
>
> Too bad he doesn’t have an ounce of kindness for the millions of gay Pennsylvanians he “represents.” He’s too busy trying to fuck over their entire lives.
It’s not just the gays Pennsylvanians-it’s anyone who isn’t an upper-class, white, well-to-do conservative right wing Catholic like himself. He’s pissed of a LOT of people here in Pittsburgh for his attitude towards those less fortunate.
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### Author:  [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2005, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-latest-on-rick-santorum/304526/64 "2005-05-19T18:08:07Z")
> [@spectrum](#):
>
> You say that as though it’s an accomplishment to be more impressive than a backwards, gay-hating, freedom-loathing, mealy-mouthed bigot like Rick Santorum.
Thank you for pointing this out. You see, despite the constant references to santorum-the-bodily-fluid, we had all forgotten that Santorum-the-senator is associated with anti-gay rhetoric. It plumb slipped our minds. I mean, even though virtually everyone mentioned it in their posts. We all forgot right afterwards. So thanks for pointing it out. It was helpful.
And thanks for also offering an insightful opinion on the matter that was actually at issue here!
---
### Author:  [@spectrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spectrum)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2005, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-latest-on-rick-santorum/304526/65 "2005-05-19T18:11:51Z")
> [@Excalibre](#):
>
> Thank you for pointing this out. You see, despite the constant references to santorum-the-bodily-fluid, we had all forgotten that Santorum-the-senator is associated with anti-gay rhetoric. It plumb slipped our minds. I mean, even though virtually everyone mentioned it in their posts. We all forgot right afterwards. So thanks for pointing it out. It was helpful.
>
> And thanks for also offering an insightful opinion on the matter that was actually at issue here!
Fine, about the topic at hand: Gross, but whatever. Santorum did something disgusting. If it helped his family get over their loss, I don’t see the harm in it.
Now, God, please reunite him with his lost child.
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### Author:  [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2005, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-latest-on-rick-santorum/304526/66 "2005-05-19T18:15:53Z")
> [@tomndebb](#):
>
> Sorry, guys, you’re over the line, here.\* Barring a citation that there was a law being broken (rather than a hospital policy) or that they hung onto the child’s body beyond a single night of grief, you are both trying to impose what you want to believe on the events for no better reason, that I can see, than that you loathe the person involved.
> One of the practices that changed for the better in recent years was permitting families to grieve over still-born infants. Throughout most of the 20th century, such children were whisked away from the mother who was never allowed to say goodbye (and the father even less so), a situation that inflicted a lot of distress (and often harm) on the families. That practice has been reversed and parents are now encouraged to hold their child’s body and grieve. If doing so overnight seems to bother you, note that we do not have the times of the birth or the point at which the child was taken to the mortician. Claims of a “decomposing” body is excessive exaggeration. Many people who die in their sleep are lying next to their spouses, who often do not wake up to find them until morning and the survivors are never cautioned that they have been at risk.
>
> Calm down. Go hate Santorum for what he does in the Senate, not for failing to match your comfortable stereotypes of what sterile North American society “should” do.
>
> - Speaking as a poster discussing acceptable social behavior, not as a Mod.
You’re right. In the heat of battle I did let my prejudice against Santorum sway my opinion on this. Blindly. I also didn’t even realize how ingrained current “death practices” are. Many have said about the “ick factor” and how different people deal differently. It still oogs me out, but I was wrong to slam them like I did.
> [@Excalibre](#):
>
> Your viewpoint seems like an interesting one in comparison with Santorum’s - he also uses invalid comparisons and the ick factor to decide which sex acts are okay and which ones aren’t.
Ouch! Point well taken… reluctantly. ☹
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2005, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-latest-on-rick-santorum/304526/67 "2005-05-19T18:16:08Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#):
>
> I highly doubt that as well. Don’t you have to sign papers before you leave a hospital? And I’m assuming that since this was an infant death, it happened soon after birth, so wouldn’t Karen have to be escorted out in a wheelchair? I thought that was hospital policy.
So they just got up and walked out. How hard’s that?
> [@](#):
>
> Not contacting a funeral home? I believe the hospital does that automatically.
Speaking from fairly recent experience, no, they do not. Obviously not, since everyone uses different funeral homes.
**spectrum:**
> [@](#):
>
> Too bad he doesn’t have an ounce of kindness for the millions of gay Pennsylvanians he “represents.”
Just out of curiosity, what is the population of Pennsylvania and just what percentage of its population do you think is gay? 🙂
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### Author:  [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2005, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-latest-on-rick-santorum/304526/68 "2005-05-19T18:24:33Z")
Pennsylvania population: 12,281,054 according to 2000 census. Ranks 6th by population.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-latest-on-rick-santorum/304526/69 "2005-05-19T18:26:59Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#):
>
> It’s not just the gays Pennsylvanians-it’s anyone who isn’t an upper-class, white, well-to-do conservative right wing Catholic like himself. He’s pissed of a LOT of people here in Pittsburgh for his attitude towards those less fortunate.
Gee, when I worked for him I was dirt poor, living in the Mon Valley, and a Methodist. Yet somehow I was able to get a position with him.
Imagine.
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2005, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-latest-on-rick-santorum/304526/70 "2005-05-19T18:27:11Z")
**RickJay** -I already admitted I was misaken.
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### Author:  [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2005, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-latest-on-rick-santorum/304526/71 "2005-05-19T18:34:44Z")
> [@Excalibre](#):
>
> Thank you for pointing this out. You see, despite the constant references to santorum-the-bodily-fluid, we had all forgotten that Santorum-the-senator is associated with anti-gay rhetoric. It plumb slipped our minds. I mean, even though virtually everyone mentioned it in their posts. We all forgot right afterwards. So thanks for pointing it out. It was helpful.
>
> And thanks for also offering an insightful opinion on the matter that was actually at issue here!
You’re really being an insufferable, self-rightous, smug, wanna-be junior mod, combative prick all over the Pit these last few days. Take a break.
---
### Author:  [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2005, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-latest-on-rick-santorum/304526/72 "2005-05-19T18:35:15Z")
> [@Scumpup](#):
>
> Pennsylvania population: 12,281,054 according to 2000 census. Ranks 6th by population.
But it’s actually 12, 281, 053. The census taker pissed me off so I included the dog in the headcount for my house.
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### Author:  [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2005, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-latest-on-rick-santorum/304526/73 "2005-05-19T18:44:20Z")
> [@spectrum](#):
>
> Now, God, please reunite him with his lost child.
**spectrum** , ratchet back your venom. You’ve already been warned in a different thread about wishing death on a poster. Get a grip already. Cool it.
TVeblen
Pit mod
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2005, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-latest-on-rick-santorum/304526/74 "2005-05-19T18:45:06Z")
> [@spectrum](#):
>
> Now, God, please reunite him with his lost child.
Wow. You really are an ass.
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### Author:  [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2005, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-latest-on-rick-santorum/304526/75 "2005-05-19T18:45:16Z")
> [@Mr. Moto](#):
>
> Gee, when I worked for him I was dirt poor, living in the Mon Valley, and a Methodist. Yet somehow I was able to get a position with him.
>
> Imagine.
Well of course the HELP doesn’t have to be rich, white and homophobic. Or they wouldn’t be the help, now would they?
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### Author:  [@spectrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spectrum)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-latest-on-rick-santorum/304526/76 "2005-05-19T18:53:43Z")
> [@TVeblen](#):
>
> **spectrum** , ratchet back your venom. You’ve already been warned in a different thread about wishing death on a poster. Get a grip already. Cool it.
>
> TVeblen
> Pit mod
Since when is Rick Santorum a poster?
Is it also against the rules to hope for the deaths of the insurgents in Iraq? Of Osama bin Laden? I see little difference between them and those like Santorum, who would put down every homosexual on the planet if they had half a chance.
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2005, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-latest-on-rick-santorum/304526/77 "2005-05-19T18:59:48Z")
While it’s unusual today, this practice wasn’t terribly uncommon even less than 100 years ago. Before we started sanitizing death by hiding anything to do with it behind pretty flowers, satin covers and polished wood, laying a corpse out in the home before burial was common. Saying goodbye to stillborn children by bringing them home for a day before burial was common.
As much as I despise the man, I refuse to kick him for something done during the most horrible moment in a parent’s life.
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2005, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-latest-on-rick-santorum/304526/78 "2005-05-19T19:11:04Z")
**Veb:** _You’ve already been warned in a different thread about wishing death on a poster. Get a grip already. Cool it._
**spectrum:** _Since when is Rick Santorum a poster?
Is it also against the rules to hope for the deaths of the insurgents in Iraq? Of Osama bin Laden?_
I’d like to know that myself. AFAICT, the question “Is it okay to wish death on a non-Doper/public figure?” has been repeatedly asked in the “Wishing death on someone…” sticky thread here in the Pit, but the mods have not yet issued a decree in response.
So what’s the Straight Dope? Is wishing for the death of **anybody** forbidden, or only if it involves other Dopers? Are the rules different in different forums? I think it’s time to get a clear ruling on this (although personally, I have no intention of wishing death on anyone, but I’m tired of the squabbling over the issue).
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2005, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-latest-on-rick-santorum/304526/79 "2005-05-19T19:35:21Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#):
>
> **RickJay** -I already admitted I was misaken.
I think it’s called the Doppler effect. At least, that’s the way I usually think of it, when I see it, so it **should** be.
As to the issue of **TVeblen** ’s warning to **spectrum** , nobody knows for sure that Senator Santorum is _not_ a Doper. Best to be on the side of caution, IMHO.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2005, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-latest-on-rick-santorum/304526/80 "2005-05-19T20:01:09Z")
Hell, I have considerable evidence that Jonah Goldberg of _National Review_ lurks here frequently and might be a poster.
You never know who you’re talking to.
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