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Vatican Accepting Darwin is a Blow to Intelligent Design Fantasy
Tweet Share on Facebook February 12, 2009 Comment (31)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
Dear Mr. Luskin: I understand your abhorrence for name-calling. I'm not in love with it either.
But if you're going to publish online, get used to it. The Internet is the Wild West of the publishing world.
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Antiabortion Fanatics' New Invasive Attack: the Forced Ultrasound
Tweet Share on Facebook February 12, 2009 Comment (59)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
You have to give members of the religious right credit for one thing: No matter how resoundingly voters whack them into oblivion, they come right back fighting. To clarify, I'm not talking about average, conservative, pro-life voters. I'm talking about fanatics and activists.
Exhibit A:
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Senate, Barbara Boxer Take Big Foreign Policy Step For Women in Poverty
Tweet Share on Facebook February 11, 2009 Comment (6)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
I covered the United Nations Conference on the Status of Women in Beijing, China in 1995. I watched then-first lady Hillary Clinton make her now-renowned remarks equating women's rights with human rights. When the late Sen. Jesse Helms chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he obliterated U.S. support for a series of international conferences the United Nations used to hold. When the economy improves, perhaps President Obama will bring them back, as they were the launch pad for major international initiatives to raise women in developing nations out of poverty.
For the moment, however, the Democratic-controlled Senate has taken an important step to raise the visibility of third-world women in poverty. This alone is of historic significance. I understand we have huge economic issues in our own country right now, and that comes first. But that does not mean we neglect the concerns of people overseas, who also need us:
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Bill O'Reilly Attacks on Helen Thomas Are Ugly, Petty and Hateful
Tweet Share on Facebook February 10, 2009 Comment (176)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
Bill O'Reilly mocks everyone—all right, I get it. He's a venom-spitting curmudgeon and works hard to build that image and protect his niche. But calling veteran journalist Helen Thomas a "wicked witch" after her question to President Obama at his news conference last night was not only ugly, it was petty.
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Catholic Marriage Preparation Alienates Potential Church-Goers
Tweet Share on Facebook February 10, 2009 Comment (30)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
As a follow-up to my blog of yesterday, I wanted to thank readers for some of the thoughtful comments on my friends' premarital church counseling experience. I also did some more looking online about what such programs are supposed to entail.
In the 2002 book, Divorce, Annulments, and the Catholic Church by Richard J. Jenks and Craig A Everett, there is some background on this topic. The authors write that couples preparing for marriage normally have several options:
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Bush, Cheney Should Pay Impoverished Iraq War Widows
Tweet Share on Facebook February 9, 2009 Comment (16)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Here's a sad story, sure to tug at your heartstrings. The Iraqi state minister for women's affairs has resigned in protest, because the country's puppet government (set up by the invading Bush administration, claims of a democratic election notwithstanding) is not giving her enough money to support the women driven into poverty by the U.S. invasion of Iraq:
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Catholic Marriage Counseling Is Driving Couples Away
Tweet Share on Facebook February 9, 2009 Comment (34)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I have always thought that one terrific thing churches provide is counseling for engaged couples before they marry, to make sure they are ready for the rigors of "til death do us part." That is, until this weekend when an acquaintance of mine described her own premarital weekend retreat at a Catholic campus.
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Michelle Obama: First Lobbyist, Stepford Wife or Mom in Chief?
Tweet Share on Facebook February 6, 2009 Comment (27)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
Is anyone else confused about Michelle Obama's role as first lady? She refers to herself as "Mom in Chief," as I've blogged before. She renounces her own hard-won, successful career to become her husband's adviser. But then in just his second week in office, she tours government agencies, touts his stimulus plan and, in effect, lobbies for government workers' and public support.
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Obama Bests Bush, Clinton on Faith-Based Government Funding
Tweet Share on Facebook February 5, 2009 Comment (11)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
God bless, er, Thank God, er, praise be to President Obama. He has the courage to put his foot down against all the government-funded proselytizing expanded by President Bush and started by President Clinton.
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Sarah Palin May Not Be Dumb, but She's Not Smart
Tweet Share on Facebook February 5, 2009 Comment (139)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
A recent post on Sarah Palin by my colleague Robert Schlesinger began: "I don't think Sarah Palin is dumb, but I do wonder how ready to work she is."
I don't wonder how ready to work she is. And I'm not prepared to say she's dumb, because I've not met her in person and a judgment under that circumstance would not be fair. But let me ask you this: Is there anyone out there who would claim with a straight face that Governor Palin is a terrific intellect? I don't think so.
Bonnie Erbe
Bonnie Erbe is a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report and hosts PBS's weekly news analysis program, To the Contrary with Bonnie Erbe. She also writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column for Scripps Howard News Service.
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