Moving away from pit and pendulum...

While retaining my political independence, I can still love a horse race. Regardless of my ambivalent feelings about dem Dems, I still enjoy watching the Republicans get their greasy hats handed to them. There may be 57 varieties of Heinz ketchup, but sacre bleu, there will be 58 senators (update: 59 - thank you Ted Stevens) with a parenthetical "D" after their names if Jim Martin trounces that galumph Chambliss in the upcoming Georgia runoff. That's just two (one) senators shy of the filibuster-proof "magic 60" mark.

I want to echo something I heard the other day: Enough of the pendulum swinging. In other words, it's time to interrupt the exhausting cyclical push and pull between liberal and conservative values and agendas. Time to release the people from the terror of the pendulum and to agree on some mutually beneficial progress. Time to let go of certain attributes and approaches which have outstayed their welcome regardless of party. Racism, fear-mongering, ignoring the needy, defiling nature, the list is pretty intuitive.