Le Politics

We are catching up on about a week's worth of Colbert and Stewart, and I've finally started catching up with The New Yorker, and, well, I'm not living under a rock right now.  So of course, my head is spinning with all the ridiculousness that is the Republican Primaries.

I'm not going to go into why I think these Republican candidates are all major jokers, but I am going to list out some bullet points. Questions, statements, notions, whathaveyou...things that just blow my mind.  Oh, and I'm not going back to edit, because what's the point of a rant if you go back and edit afterwards?

Rant: begin

• If you don't want to have an abortion, don't have an abortion.  Don't force someone to have a child they don't want, whether she was abused, raped, or otherwise unable to give her consent OR she just didn't want to have a child.  Women are simply not running out to get abortions right and left because that's more convenient than using contraception.  Making abortion illegal will not stop abortions; it will just stop abortions from happening safely, putting more women in harm's way.  So shut up about it already.  I don't care about your religious beliefs.  You certainly don't care about mine.  So get out of my body.
• If you don't like gay marriage, don't get gay married.  If you believe that two men or two women in a loving, consensual relationship are doing more harm to "The Institution of Marriage" or "Family Values" than a man who is on his third wife after cheating on the first two while they were ill (ahemnewtgingrichahem) or a woman who marries a clueless basketball player because she's afraid her sisters are more grown up than she is, spends a quajillion dollars on a very public wedding for her TV show, and then divorces the poor sucker a couple months later (kimkardashianyouareadisgracetothenamekimbutsomehowistillpayattentiontoyou)...well, then you're an idiot.  It's fine to believe that your God doesn't believe in gay marriage.  It's fine to privately believe it's wrong (you'll be close-minded and on the wrong side of history, but you are entitled to your beliefs).  It is not fine to treat people like second-class citizens because of their sexual preferences.  It is not fine to pretend that someone else's happy, loving marriage in any way devalues your own. 
• Just in general, keep your religious beliefs out of politics. It drives me batty when politicians are favored because they let God guide them through their decisions.  Hello! Last time I checked, we had a separation of Church and State, and we are a country made up of people with many different religious beliefs!  Since when does the Christian God get to make decisions for the rest of us?  I want a leader that does not make decisions for this country based on his or her religious beliefs, but on his or her rational, logical decision-making skills, and actual knowledge of politics and foreign affairs.  Weird, I know.
• On that note, I don't want people in positions of power in areas about which they know nothing.  See this clip from The Daily Show if you don't know what I'm talking about.  Too lazy?  Ok.  How about how the fine gentlemen in charge of internet legislation having no idea how the internet works?  How about old white men claiming to be the best experts in women's reproductive issues? 

Those are my main gripes for now.  Political rant over.  For now...