Friday Afternoon Around the Horn

I tend to post a lot of NYT articles to my blog.  What can I say, I enjoy The Times?

The first article that I found noteworthy was this one, in which Rick Santorum equated Mitt Romney with Barack Obama in terms of his anti-gun views.  Really, Rick, you are doing a fabulous job in ensuring that I never dream of voting for you.  Have you been watching the news lately?  Have you seen just a handful of the devastating tragedies that lax gun laws have caused?  To name a few off the top of my head, does Trayvon Martin's name ring a bell?  George Zimmerman should not have been allowed to own a gun, period.  How about the former student of Oikos University, who killed, in a calculated manner, a number of students at the school?  Yeah, maybe he shouldn't have been allowed near a gun either.  Obama, in a speech four years ago in Pennsylvania, "had said it was 'not surprising' that their residents 'get bitter [due to the declining economy and poverty in small-town America], they cling to guns or religion'".  I think our president is on to something.  I certainly don't agree with everything that he says, but I think that both guns and religion are both used as weapons, both literally and figuratively.  Giving people access to guns scares me, because, like George Zimmerman and One L. Goh, so many people abuse their constitutional right to own a weapon.  I'm not saying that all gun-toting Americans abuse those privileges, because those are cases that are sensationalized and blown out of proportion by the media, but I don't think I want to leave that to chance.

Another way in which I hope the Republican Party has put its foot in its mouth: American women (myself included!) are starting to get angry about how so many Republican lawmakers and conservative institutions (Catholic Church) and organizations (Susan G. Komen, led by a right-to-lifer) are waging a culture war on women's health (more specifically, women's reproductive health). I really loved the quote by Stephanie Schriock, the president of Emily's list, who said: “What we are committed to doing at Emily’s List is drive a political movement to get these Republican men out of office. What’s going on in the Republican Party is that they are being hijacked by an extremely conservative faction of the party, and the entire party has taken up the right-wing social agenda to prevent women from having all the choices they need in their lives to be successful.” Her organization is aimed at electing more pro-choice women to office (you can put the emphasis on pro-choice or on women, but both are very noble goals).  And yes, I am not saying that there are not far left-wing liberals who push their own agenda in Washington, but the fact that moderate and liberal women are so grossly underrepresented in positions of power is truly saddening.  In that sense, Decision 2012 is a very exciting time for American women, because enough of us are angry that we are willing to take a stand and stick up for ourselves.  I think that an organization like Emily's list is so invaluable, and I will definitely consider becoming a part of it!!

That's all I have time for...off for a long weekend of Easter revelry with family and friends.  Only a few more days until I am reminded of what sweets taste like :)