Practically Ranting

OK, today, I'm ranting. Maybe it was that ONE (guess I'm a lightweight) glass of Zin last night. Maybe it was the Benadryl I took before bed after discovering I am allergic to my sofa (so much for feeling smug about the down-filled cushions). Maybe it was the combination effect. Either way, I'm pretty sure a truck ran over me in my sleep. Twice.

Let me begin with ranting about the fact that if you google my blog, it does indeed come up - the second entry in fact. Unfortunately, it seems to be followed by someone's thoughts from 2003 that begin "(bleep) this (bleep)..." Sigh. Why? Why is everything bleep this and bleep that already? I'm no puritan, but please.

Alright, we'll skip the rant and go right to the conclusion (talk about a segue - oh and fair warning, the conclusion is a rant in and of itself). We need a new political party. That's right. A new party. I'm calling it the practical party and I'm happy to lead if no one else steps up to the plate. The practical party is going to make honest, practical decisions. We are not going to bend to the pressure of special interest groups. The practical party will do things like acnknowledge that the truth is, abortion is a horrible greusome thing. We won't pussy foot around that fact. We will also acknowledge that legal or not, people will continue to have abortions for any number of reasons, but they will have them less "safely". Therefore, the best way to handle the situation is just to reduce the reason for them, not to end legal access to them. Reducing the reason requires education so that people can make informed decisions about birth control. It also means access to free contraception and perhaps the development of better contraception. It means that sex ed and the distribution of birth control in schools is not only appropriate, it's PRACTICAL and necessary. Sorry religious right, but teen-aged kids aren't going to stop having sex. That's right, they're not. Just like people aren't going to stop having abortions.

The practical party will recognize that you have to balance economic growth with environmental policy and make decisions accordingly. We will look at the data around drilling for oil in Alaska, for example, and recognize that the environmental impact is fairly negligable. Then again, the need to drill there is fairly negligable. We will then decide if the need outweighs the benefit. But we will do this dispassionately, and without the sway of big money or emotional hyperbole on either side.

The practical party will realize that it just doesn't matter who has sex with who and who marries who, and we won't even engage in those issues, except to say - leave people alone already.

The practical party will not support policies that make people feel as though their culture is being legislated away. As an aside, IMHO, the reason that the left has lost so much ground in recent years is that the policies supported by the left have degraded American culture to the point that people are now overcorrecting. That's not to say that many of those policies aren't good, just that it all got a little bit silly. Choose your battles, lefties. And let the majority have their culture already, so long as it's not actually hurting anyone.

At any rant, the practical party starts here. Anyone want to join me?

Georgia over and out.