Oh, that Rick Perry.

Our secretary of energy was in South Africa recently, for Africa Oil Week. Whenever the word “oil” is mentioned, Perry responds like a dog on the scent of a hamburger. So no surprise there. We wouldn’t even have noticed he was gone, except for the part where he suggested that fossil fuels would protect women from sexual assault.

Full article here.

Noooooooo Rick, nooooooooooooooo.

Poor Rick Perry, trying his hardest to wage a tough battle as Energy Secretary and just absolutely botching it on every level.

Any time you start a story with “Let me tell you where people are dying is in Africa,” you are at risk of saying something cringeworthy, that risk is upped drastically if you are named Rick Perry and an imbecile. Unsurprisingly, Rick loses control of his thought thread almost immediately, “But also from the standpoint of sexual assault […] When the lights are on, where you have light that shines, the righteousness, if you will, on those types of acts. So from the standpoint of how you recall affect people’s lives, fossil fuel is going to play  a role in that.” Oh boy, Rick. I’m torn here, because on one hand, sexual assault is a sensitive issue and when you don’t have a solid grasp on the factors that encourage, and even allow rape to occur and be overlooked, you should avoid speaking on it. On the other hand, if you’re the Energy Secretary of the United States and you treat rapists like you would vampires, people should know.

So thank you, Rick; this whole time we’ve been thinking the problem has been toxic masculinity, when really we just keep on forgetting to use our crucifix of electricity!