If there were a Pulitzer Prize for news network hosts who say stupid shit, Fox talkers would definitely constitute the bulk of the nominees. Leading contenders, of course, would be Steve Doocy, Brian Kilmeade, and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. But they might have some competition in Eric Bolling who, on occasion, makes the gang on the curvy couch look like MENSA members. During Monday night's discussion about recent SCOTUS decisions, Bolling showed us, once again, that he just doesn't play one on TV - he is an idiot!
In defending the Supreme Court's decision in favor of Hobby Lobby, Bolling advanced the anti-choice/Catholic position, not supported by the medical science community, that because a pregnancy begins at conception, any drugs or devices that disrupt the passage (which emergency birth control pills don't do) of a fertilized egg to the uterus is an abortion, Bolling demonstrated his clear ignorance of science:
"I mean, the four abortifacients, right, this is what Hobby Lobby said. We're OK with the 16, we provided 16, but the four that would actually abort a fetus after it's been brought into life, they said they had a problem with those."
Fact: A fertilized egg is a "cell in diploid state following fertilization" a fetus is "an unborn offspring, from the embryo stage (the end of the eighth week after conception, when the major structures have formed) until birth." What is prevented from attaching to the wall of the uterus is NOT A FETUS.
In whining about how President Obama could (as suggested in the SCOTUS Hobby Lobby decision) could, through HHS, change the ACA rule regarding how religiously based companies cover birth control, Bolling advanced the right wing meme that the President is exceeding his authority:
"I mean, executive action, correct me if I'm wrong, used to be things like, let's declare, I don't know, next Tuesday national donut day or some important stature died and will fly the flags at half-staff."
Fact: Some of the nation's most important policies have established through executive action - Equal Employment Opportunity, Affirmative Action, Works Progress Administration, Desegregation of Schools, and last but not least The Emancipation Proclamation.
If Eric Bolling thinks he's providing informed and intelligent commentary, he can keep on pretending!
That, Eric, was in the mid-1980s (I want to say 1985 for some reason—don’t feel like Googling it). And, as noted, signed by St Ronnie who decided that a part of the Executive Branch’s powers included extortion (raise your drinking age or we won’t send you money to fix your roads) and, let’s not forget St Ronnie was supposed to be one of these “the less Federal regulation, the better/let the states decide local issues” guys.
So, Eric. Why should that be a better use of executive power than anything Obama does? Oh, right. Obama has too much melanin for you reich-wingers.
