Barbaric Idiots

It isn’t necessary to look for evidence that the right wing is insane, but it’s fun. A small example that dropped my jaw on Friday night. I was watching McLaughlin on PBS. I don’t know why I subject myself to it but I’ve always enjoyed the shouting match, and for the past few years McLaughlin’s apparent senility has been a special pleasure. And Pat Buchanan may be my favorite right wing lunatic after Barry Goldwater. The question of the morning after pill decision by Katherine Sebelius came up. James Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute agreed with her decision to not allow girls under 17 to buy the drug over the counter. His rationale was that it had no net effect on teenage pregnancies. McLaughlin, temporarily lucid, asked if he was saying that the drug didn’t work. No no, he wasn’t saying that. What he was saying was that the availability of the drug would encourage teenagers to have unprotected sex. It was, he said, like safety belts in cars. Safety belts, he said, only encourage people to drive badly. I guess an education and a suit only encourage people to act like barbaric idiots.