C'mon, guys.

Someone seriously needs to get all the Republican men alone in a room and explain to them that they should stop talking about rape and abortion. They need to just stop. They're not making it better. We all pretty much get where they stand. So they should shut the hell up.

Honestly, the Paul Ryan remarks making the rounds today don't bother me. I get what he's saying and I think it's stretching it to suggest from that one remark that he doesn't take rape seriously. But he should know that his remarks on the subject will be picked apart and in light of his sponsorship of the "forcible" rape bill, most people on my side of the aisle won't be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Now Tom Smith, Senate candidate from Pennsylvania, has stepped in it, too. I'm not entirely clear on exactly what he said from this story. But here's a transcript in which, yep, he sure said a child out of wedlock is a similar situation to rape. From the father's perspective, that is. I've known my dad for about 39 years now and I feel quite comfortable saying he would most definitely not feel the same about me being raped as he would about me having a child out of wedlock. He would be quite fine with me, a home-owning professional, having a kid without being married. He would absolutely not be fine with me being raped.

I think the real problem here might be that Mr. Smith (and a few other of these men) doesn't see the difference between consensual sex outside of marriage and rape because they're both not the way his god intended sex to be or something. But I sure as heck hope he wouldn't rather his daughter be a poor victim than a willing slut. I would like to believe he can see the difference between a woman choosing to have sex and a woman having that choice taken from her. But I don't have a whole lot of faith in this guy getting anything that has to do with women and choice.

I would hope that from here on out, the men of the Republican party have learned their lesson. You don't have to understand what's wrong with what you say, guys. You don't have to try to further explain your position. You're not gonna get it and we're not gonna agree. So just stop. Because I'm tired of hearing about it.