Speaking at the graduation ceremony at Southern Virginia University, a Mormon college in Lynchburg, VA, failed Presidential candidate Mitt Romney advised the students there to get married as soon as possible and get busy making a “quiver-full of kids,”  because young people who wait until their 30s to marry are “going to miss so much of living.”

Mr. 53% went on to note that it’s okay to squeeze out the children even if you aren’t making money because “God doesn’t care if you’re rich.” Okay, good luck with that.

Mother Jones notes that the “quiver-full” reference is a nod to Psalm 127,  and a dog-whistle to the evangelical Christian Quiverfull movement that advocates a virulently anti-contraception position and embraces Biblical patriarchy.

Its followers see feminism as a slippery slope, starting with family planning—which is viewed as women taking unlawful ownership of a body that rightfully belongs to God—and ending with gay rights, abortion, divorce, and witchcraft (really).  Given their view of feminism as “a totally self-consistent system aimed at rejecting God’s role for women,” the movement’s leaders instead suggested a sort of Renaissance woman alternative for conservative Christians: They would be submissive wives, prolifically fertile mothers, and home-schoolers who train their children (especially their daughters) to grow up and do the same. The children of these families, the “arrows,” are the tools of spiritual warfare for a community that envisions a long-term campaign to win the culture wars demographically—by having more children than its opponents.

Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster, we dodged a bullet in that election.

[MoJo: Mitt Romney’s Advice]

Utah GOP and Tea Party activist Greg Peterson has been accused of raping four different women, including raping two of them at his cabin/McMansion where he hosted multiple fundraisers and events for conservative politicians.  When he wasn’t hobnobing with the likes of Senators Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee, Peterson, 37, was busy serially date-raping women he met at church or online, according to charges filed by the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office.

Peterson is a business owner who has organized several Rocky Mountain Conservative Conventions, which he said was “the CPAC of the West.”  Peterson has described himself as a “close personal friend of the Romney family” and was listed as a co-chairman of 2007 and 2011 fundraising events.  He said he befriended Tagg and Josh Romney at BYU, became friends with the rest of the Romney family during the 2002 Winter Olympics and had been in each of their homes.

Peterson is charged with two counts of aggravated kidnapping, three counts of rape, seven counts of object rape, and one count of forcible sexual abuse, all first-degree felonies (the rape and kidnapping charges carry sentences of up to life in prison); nine second-degree felony counts of forcible sexual abuse; one third-degree felony count of burglary; and one count each of assault and sexual battery, both misdemeanors.  His first court appearance is set for Monday.  Needless to say politicians are running in the opposite direction.

Yucky details after the jump. Read more »

The Gray Lady has come up with a summer reading list for Mittens. It contains the to-be-expected history/poli sci books, plus Bill Clinton’s autobiography. Good luck with that Mittens, I never got past page 60.

We won’t talk about my abortive attempt to establish a monthly book salon/Stinque Book Club/Amazon kick-back scheme. But it’s time for some Audience Participation, girlz and boyz – what books would you put on Mittens’ summer reading list?

My nomination: How to Be Your Dog’s Best Friend, by the Monks of New Skete.

Submit your nominations in the comments. Best suggestion gets a hamster toy. Or an alcoholic beverage of your choice purchased by moi the next time I’m in your town or you’re in Ess Eff.

[NYT: Mitt’s Summer Reading Assignment]

Just stumbled on this one – an image of Ann Rmoney’s birthday cake from the party/fundraiser hosted by Donald Trump.  This is downright sedate for Trump.

[TPM]

[Cake Wrecks]

“I’m not familiar precisely with exactly what I said, but I stand by what I said, whatever it was.” —Mitt Romney, trapped in a cosmic vortex. [TPM]

Hilarity ensues as Eminem learns that his rap-battle opponent attended Mitt Romney’s private school.

And here we were worrying that Mitt was too old to connect with the kids.

[via Mother Jones]

“An adviser to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign defended the candidate’s ‘kind impulses’ on Friday, pointing to his treatment of Texas Gov. Rick Perry during recent GOP debates as proof.” [The Hill]