Obama wants to cut off your penises!

Or such is the latest insane claim from the right-wing kooks and demagogues. Currently, the CDC is merely considering adopting a policy that would promote and encourage circumcision, on the basis that it reduces risk of disease (which is proven, anyway).

Now, run such information through the wingnuts' filters, and you get this:

Ed Morrissey of the conservative blog Hot Air writes, "If the CDC -- which is part of the same government that will control health care -- decides that circumcision is beneficial and cost-efficient in the long term, that same mechanism would create pressure on doctors and patients to perform them."

I don't think Morrissey could've chosen a more aptly-named blog to write on.

As the author himself states:

Morrissey's argument has the same basic flaw that animated the "death panel" fears: an inability to distinguish between advice and force. If this CDC proposal goes into effect, it, like the now-dead end-of-life counseling proposal, would make available some valuable medical advice. There's nothing on the table to penalize doctors who don't circumcise newborns, or parents who decline the procedure. To have a "mechanism [that] would create pressure on doctors and patients," you need, well, a mechanism. Morrissey can't come up with one. [My emphasis]

Pretty much. But, just for the heck of it, I'd be remiss if I didn't include some more blabbering from the odious gasbag of the radiowaves, Rush Limbaugh:

But when was the last time that stopped these guys? Two days ago, Rush Limbaugh claimed, "It is President Obama who wants [to] mandate circumcision ... And that means, if we need to save our penises from anybody, it's Obama."

I do hope they keep their government hands out of Limbaugh's pants – we'd hate to see the global average penile length drop by half, wouldn't we?

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

Technorati tags: republicans · healthcare reform · circumcision · rush limbaugh · ed morrissey · dishonesty