Welcome to your Thursday open thread. This has been an interesting week for a news junkie. There’s just too much going on to keep up with. Use this open thread to help highlight those stories that we miss.
Scott Walker is not the only new governor raising some eyebrows. Maine’s new teabagger governor opposes regulation of Bisphenol A for ummmm….interesting reasons.
In his comments last week, LePage said he has yet to see enough science to support a ban on BPA, a common additive to plastics that some research suggests may interfere with hormone levels and could cause long-term problems. LePage said until scientists can prove BPA is harmful, the state should not rush to restrict its use.
“Quite frankly, the science that I’m looking at says there is no [problem],” LePage said. “There hasn’t been any science that identifies that there is a problem.”
LePage then added: “The only thing that I’ve heard is if you take a plastic bottle and put it in the microwave and you heat it up, it gives off a chemical similar to estrogen. So the worst case is some women may have little beards.”
I suppose if you complain, it means you’re prejudiced against people with facial hair.
Rick Santorum is running for president for some reason. I would label his level of historical understanding as “Palinesque.”
“The idea that the Crusades and the fight of Christendom against Islam is somehow an aggression on our part is absolutely anti-historical,” former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) told a South Carolina audience yesterday. “And that is what the perception is by the American left who hates Christendom.”
Santorum’s defense of the Crusades came in Spartanburg, S.C. reports Andy Barr of Politico. South Carolina is an early and important GOP presidential primary state, and Santorum is considering a presidential run.
Referring to the “American left,” Santorum observed: “They hate Western civilization at the core. That’s the problem.” Sanoturm also suggested that American involvement in the Middle East is part of our “core American values.”
There’s so much wrong in that statement it’s hard to begin. For one, the Crusades had nothing to do with American values. For another, Europe sent armies to the Middle East to take over the historical Holy Land. I don’t know how Santorum defines aggressor, but that seems like a textbook case to me.