As if it wasn't bad enough that some lamebrain legislator reached a compromise over gay and lesbian state rights, now we learn that pro-choice and pro-life groups are...dare I say it...working together to find common ground.
Listen, people, enough is enough! Had I written a parody about this, people would have told me to lay off the Jamesons (Irish Whiskey for those of you denied one of life's great pleasures)--that it was just too weird to even rank a parody.
Well, in the Washington Post yesterday, E.J. Dionne Jr., an op-ed columnist wrote an article Bridging the Divide on Abortion.
But there is a new argument on abortion that may establish a more authentic middle ground. It would use government not to outlaw abortion altogether but to reduce its likelihood. And at least one politician, Thomas R. Suozzi, the county executive of New York's Nassau County, has shown that the position involves more than soothing rhetoric.
Last week Suozzi put money behind his words. He announced nearly $1 million in county government grants to groups ranging from Planned Parenthood to Catholic Charities for an array of programs -- adoption and housing, sex education, and abstinence promotion -- to reduce unwanted pregnancies and to help pregnant women who want to bring their children into the world. Suozzi calls his initiative "Common Sense for the Common Good" and, as Newsday reported, he was joined at his news conference by people at both ends of the abortion debate. (Emphasis added for the gag factor.)
While Suozzi was criticized by Kelli Conlin, exec. director of NARAL Pro Choice New York, even she had to admit that "the vast majority of it we are totally in agreement with" -- adding that "prevention is the key."
The national NARAL group ran an ad last year inviting--inviting mind you--the "right-to-lifers" to work with them to develop programs to prevent abortions. They're working with Senator Harry Reid, an anti-abortion guy, to pass a bill promoting conception.
Alas, but the title of this blog, Parodies Lost, becomes more true every day. Initially, I thought it was because the world was becoming so weird that just reporting the truth would cause people's eyeballs to bulge and even pop. Now, there's evidence that reason may be raising its weed-like head, and we all know that once weeds get in your garden, you're hosed.
Sigh.
In Jamesons Veritas
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