Keller @ Large: Contraception Ruling Prompts Idiotic Rhetoric On Both Sides

BOSTON (CBS) – There are times when my e-mail inbox coughs up a stream of opinion so brutally stupid and intellectually vulgar it makes you want to dig a deep hole and bury your laptop in it, preferably with concrete.

And yesterday was one of those times.

The trigger was the Supreme Court ruling on whether or not the feds could require a family-owned business to offer day-after pill contraception coverage to its workers in violation of its owners' religious beliefs.

If you take the 15 minutes or so required to read both the ruling and the dissenting opinion, you will see that this was a narrowly focused, sober, complicated adjudication of a complex case.

But that didn't stop the baby talk from flooding in.

"It's unacceptable to let five conservative male justices restrict a woman's access to health care," wrote Attorney General candidate Warren Tolman, gratuitously injecting gender into his empty rhetoric.

"Decisions regarding a women's (sic) health should be between her and her doctor, not her bosses or Washington politicians," declared Congressman John Tierney, even though the case has nothing to do with such decisions.

"Owners should not have to check their religious beliefs at the door," offered right-wing perennial candidate Rick Santorum, as if the workplace were a church.

"The mandate served only that group of women who support the president's radical pro-abortion agenda" said the group Concerned Women for America, as if there is such an agenda.

It's depressing.

As I say, read the ruling for yourself and make up your own mind.

It's the only escape from the parade of idiocy that passes for political debate these days.

Listen to Jon's commentary:

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

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