I am a lifelong Oklahoma resident - born and raised as they say. Over the past 27 years, I have grown accustomed to some rather obnoxious, hateful, and repressive ideologies from our leaders. Not much surprises me anymore. Every so often, however, something occurs that leaves even me slack-jawed. This is one of those instances.
Oklahoma Sen. Ralph Shortey recently introduced a 42-word bill.
No person or entity shall manufacture or knowingly sell food or any other product intended for human consumption which contains aborted human fetuses in the ingredients or which used aborted human fetuses in the research or development of any of the ingredients.
Sounds bad right? I certainly don’t want fetuses in my Tucker’s onion burger. What prompted Ralph to pursue such legislation? He must have some pretty damning evidence, right? Sean Murphy of the AP investigates:
Freshman Sen. Ralph Shortey said his own Internet research led him to believe such a ban is necessary
Hmm. His own internet research? He must be some kind of Google ninja. It turns out that he’s just a dumb ass who found a provocative story from a fringe group and failed to exercise independent thinking. Since Ralph is an expert at “internet research”, I am surprised he didn’t find this fact-check by the Miami New Times.
Murphy goes on to note what others think of Ralph’s bill:
In an e-mail to The Associated Press, U.S. Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman Pat El-Hinnawy said: “FDA is not aware of this particular concern.”
The executive director of the anti-abortion group Oklahomans for Life, which has successfully pushed some of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the country through the state’s GOP-controlled Legislature, also said he had never heard of human fetuses being used in food research.
“I don’t know anything about that,” said Tony Lauinger.
Why is this unsettling? Oklahoma, my home and the place that I love, is constantly ranked at the bottom of national surveys in education, health care, women’s rights, and more. Yet, this bat-shit-crazy buffoon is elected as a state leader. Instead of tackling issues of merit, this jackass wants legislators to carry handguns on the Senate floor, abolish the Court of Criminal Appeals, and prevent restaurants from putting dead babies on your pizza. If people want change in Oklahoma, how about starting by not electing morons like this guy. I am embarrassed and you should be, too.
Until then, I am going to have a Pepsi.