Um. A Republican, Allan, is defeating a Democrat, Webb, honestly.
Allan didn't author those materials -- Webb did.
And my point is that what he wrote is NOT OFFENSIVE to anyone with even a slight knowledge of the numerous bizarre customs that actually exist on this planet.
When someone can make political hay from something as utterly insignificant as this, I then have to question the very integrity of the republican party.
If you claim moral outrage, shame on you.
I can site a dozen equally bizarre cultural traditions, and if I included them in a book, would I be a moral outcast in your eyes?
-Female circumcision
-Suspension by means of hooks inserted into the flesh
-Eating of peyote for religious purposes
-Oral maceration of casaba root as a means to make a fermented beverage
-The whipping of women and girls at Easter time
-Multiple wives
-Pagan bestiality
Ad infinitum. THIS is our world, too. Not just your anti-septic, homogenized, Disneyfied safe-room.
It is not a crime, a sin or even morally questionable to point out these practices as a means of coloring a story.
If you do not know that the context Webb's passage was a benign example of a strange cultural tradition, then educate yourself.
If you DO know it and choose to excoriate Webb still, then I for one, will never support you in that matter.