Freshman Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) has been known to say some pretty outlandish things from time to time. He’s told constituents that “Islam is not a religion,” called the President of the United States a “low-level socialist agitator,” and asked supporters to “grab your muskets!” Now, he’s outdone himself. Late last week, West spoke to the conservative group Women Impacting the Nation, and after West alleged that 33 percent of the federal budget goes to Planned Parenthood, the discussion wandered—as discussions usually do!—to the subject of the increasing sissification of America’s men. No, really, that’s what West talked about. Via Tanya Somander:
We need you to come in and lock shields, and strengthen up the men who are going to fight for you. To let these other women know on the other side—these Planned Parenthood women, the Code Pink women, and all of these women that have been neutering American men and bringing us to the point of this incredible weakness—to let them know what we are not going to have our men become subservient. That’s what we need you to do. Because if you don’t, then the debt will continue to grow.
That line about the debt sort of comes out of nowhere, right? Anyway, West, who has been floated as a possible GOP presidential candidate in 2012, went on to compare the nation’s current set of crises to those faced by the Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae, as well as those faced by the samurai in the Tom Cruise movie, The Last Samurai. I would just note that the Spartans all died at Thermopylae. Here’s the full(ish) video:
