I am not politically savvy, so I usually avoid diving into the pool of campaign and political rhetoric. “Rhetoric” being the politically-correct euphemism for back-stabbing, hair-pulling, and-perhaps-a sprinkling of potty-mouth language.

However, when the  topic is such a no-brainer for comments, I don’t have to dive in the pool, I can sit on the steps and splash. So, don your floaties if you must. Here goes:

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota) is a Republican candidate for the 2012 Presidential election. But this post isn’t about her, specifically. If you want info on Michele, just Google her and you’ll be busy until election day.

(BTW: They don’t “have” 23 foster children. Over a period of almost eight years ending in 2000, they took in teenage girls, and homes are limited to three at one time, for periods of just a few weeks or longer. I am not denigrating the Bachmanns. I admire their willingness and kindness to take in these struggling girls. It’s just a bit disingenuous to use “have” as if they’ll be in the photo op along with their five biological children.)

This post is about her husband, Dr. Marcus Bachmann.  Dr. Bachmann, is a clinical therapist with a doctorate in clinical psychology and is president of Bachmann and Associates.  In a Point of View Radio Talk Show spot in May of 2010, Dr. Bachmann said the following when asked a question about homosexuals:

“We have to understand: barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined….

And let’s face it: what is our culture, what is our public education system doing today? They are giving full, wide-open doors to children, not only giving encouragement to think it but to encourage action steps.”

Seriously?

For starters, I know a number of gay people. None of them are from Barbary; therefore, it is impossible to label all gay people as such.

Any, anyway, barbarians? Are you ill-mannered and ethnocentric ? One might still find a number of Europeans who find Americans barbaric. Certainly, anyone who doesn’t support, cheer for and bleed LSU purple and gold, is a barbarian. Southern women think sweating (we glisten, thank you very much) and drinking out of a can border on the barbaric, and if you’re caught doing them simultaneously, well, you’re practically  inhuman.

Disciplined? Is he suggesting discipline equates with heterosexuality, so undisciplined equates with being gay? If so, he’d  be wise to buy stock in Armani because I teach, and buddy, there’s a mess of undisciplined kids ready to be unleashed on the world.

And as a public school educator, I’m encouraging my students to think about and take “action steps” toward being gay? Good grief, I can’t even get them to cover their books. Besides, defining and encouraging gay action steps aren’t on standardized tests, and aren’t measured in No Child Left Behind, so they wouldn’t get much attention anyway.

Here’s the conundrum:  if we’re going to educate the barbarians, and schools are educating children to take action steps toward being gay, well…how’s that going to work out?

You know, this really gives me an entirely new perspective on Conan the Barbarian.

(image from foleywrites)