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Sea World Orca Attack on Trainer Demonstrates Human Cruelty
Tweet Share on Facebook February 25, 2010 Comment (91)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
An article on BBC online today reads:
The recent attack by a captive orca on its trainer at a SeaWorld facility in Orlando, Florida, has again raised questions about our relationship with these top marine predators.
But really, the "killer" whale's deadly attack in Florida this week raises a much larger question: What in the heck are humans doing keeping undomesticated and "killer" animals in captivity to begin with?
At least there is little or no talk, that I've heard of, of "euthanizing" (which really means slaughtering) this poor whale, who was only doing what instinct tells him to do.
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Congressional Christian Hangout Should Not Be Tax-Exempt
Tweet Share on Facebook February 24, 2010 Comment (8)Let's hear it for a group of mainline Protestant Ohio ministers who are reporting religious groups they think are bogus to the Internal Revenue Service for abuse of churches' tax-exempt status. It takes a lot of guts to do what, according to today's New York Times, this group did:
A group of ministers has sent a complaint to the Internal Revenue Service saying that a town house on Capitol Hill that provides inexpensive lodging and meals for conservative Christian members of Congress is not a church and should no longer be granted the tax-exempt status afforded a house of worship. The C Street Center, valued at $1.8 million, offers inexpensive lodging and meals for conservative Christian members of Congress. The town house, known as the C Street Center, received a jolt of notoriety last year after Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina said he had sought spiritual counseling there in connection with his affair with an Argentine woman.
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Obama’s Pre-Summit Proposal Is Healthcare We Could Use
Tweet Share on Facebook February 22, 2010 Comment (98)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Now here's the kind of healthcare reform we could use! Oh, I know it increases the government bureaucracy, but finally President Obama is proposing a version of healthcare reform that everyone, save insurance company executives, will appreciate. CNN reports:
The Obama administration will propose legislation that would allow the government to block excessive rate hikes by health insurance companies.
This is part of the administration's attempt to smooth out differences between the two versions of healthcare reform passed by the House and the Senate. Parts of his proposal are good and parts are bad. But he's trying to find middle ground in legislation filled with more land mines than DMZs, and this particular piece of reform is a good place to start.
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An Inflation-Free Era? Think Again
Tweet Share on Facebook February 19, 2010 Comment (7)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
The Federal Reserve's decision to begin scaling back emergency measures to support the economy is coming too soon, according to many economists. They rightly fear that the economy is only being held together by government sustenance (in the form of stimulus funds) and historically low interest rates. I agree with that. But I have one foot in the other camp: I'd love to see interest rates come off historic lows as I'll never invest heavily in the stock market again. I rely mainly on interest-sensitive investments in my portfolio and they have offered ridiculously low returns for a long time.
I do take major issue, however, with something said by one economist, and backed up by government data: that we are not suffering from a bout of inflation. The New York Times reports:
"Despite the extraordinary fiscal and monetary stimulus injected into the economy, many prices are still stagnant or declining," Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist for Miller Tabak, wrote in a research note on Friday. He added, "The pricing situation still remains fragile."
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Women Weathering Recession Better Than Men
Tweet Share on Facebook February 18, 2010 Comment (12)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Here's a good news, bad news, piece of reporting from the Wall Street Journal:
Steady increases among women with college degrees over the past two decades apparently paid off during the recession, with government statistics showing they fared better than men over the past year, and for the first time surpassed the number of men holding payroll jobs.
Every woman (and most men) I know want women to succeed in the workplace, but no one wants that to come at the cost of men losing jobs. The good news is that women are doing so by earning more college degrees than ever before, but the bad news is men are becoming an endangered species on campus.
Women were earning about 166 associates degrees and 135 bachelor's degrees for every 100 earned by men in 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Perhaps as a result, more women were employed in teaching, government and health care, sectors that held up better in the recession.
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The Perils of Facebook
Tweet Share on Facebook February 15, 2010 Comment (10)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
When I see teenagers and children publishing self-destructive information online, I understand, sort of. They have little or no comprehension of the harm they are doing to their future careers. But when I see adults do the same, I am flummoxed.
Nonetheless, the need to tell certainly outweighs the will to restrain oneself for many American adults and all one need do is to have a Facebook account to witness adults making fools and worse, targets, of themselves on a daily basis. -
Is Sarah Palin’s Bid to Be President Over Before It Starts??
Tweet Share on Facebook February 11, 2010 Comment (55)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
It's been a rough week for rogue Republican Sarah Palin. A new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows that more than half the nation, or 55 percent of Americans, view her unfavorably and almost three fourths or 71 percent of Americans see her as unqualified to be president. All this inside of a week when she was caught writing notes to herself on her palm for a speech to her tea party followers, thereby becoming fodder for late-night comedians.
And her almost son-in law Levi Johnston not only posed in the buff for a magazine cover but also is fighting a very public court battle over child-support payments for Palin's grandson, to be made to the baby's mother, Bristol Palin.
But perhaps the worst news of the week comes in the ABC News/Washington Post poll, which also finds that 52 percent of Republicans think she's not qualified to be president and only 37 percent of all Americans hold favorable views of her.
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Forty-Something British Women Matching Teen Pregnancy Rates
Tweet Share on Facebook February 11, 2010 Comment (4)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
About 20 years ago I remember a friend coming up with a fabulous line: "You know you're getting old when your friends are having trouble getting pregnant." So true! Then along came what was to become the multi-billion dollar in vitro fertilization industry, which turned that line (and human reproductive biology) upside down. The only women who are too old now to carry to term are those in their 70s. And some day someone will come along and break that age barrier, we can all be sure.
The problem is, according to a new British report, the in vitro industry may have done too good a job at publicizing the inability of some, particularly older women, to become pregnant. Many British women (and one can assume something similar is happening here in the United States) believe they are too old to conceive and so they stop using birth control too young. Turns out they do so at their own peril. Women over 40 in England and Wales have similar rates of unplanned pregnancies and abortions as they under-16-year-old counterparts. According to the report:
Data for England and Wales from the Office for National Statistics shows abortion rates in the 40-44 age group are four per 1,000 women--the same as for girls under 16. The Family Planning Association (FPA) said warnings about declining infertility and age may have gone "too far" and could be encouraging older women to abandon contraception. Fertility among those over 40 has more than doubled since 1988, from 5.1 to 12.6 per 1,000 women. There were 26,000 live births in this age group in 2008.
So the 2010 version of my friend's great line might be, "You know you're getting old when you're close to traditional retirement age, and not before!"
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Palin Defenders Need to Check Their Facts
Tweet Share on Facebook February 9, 2010 Comment (39)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I agree with my colleague Mary Kate Cary and commend her for taking on the female star of her party. In her most recent blog entry, Mary Kate discussed the discovery that Sarah Palin had scribbled notes on her palm while speaking to the Tea Party Convention this past weekend.
The notes, which say, "energy, cuts and lift American spirits" display in bold print, Sarah Palin's inability to speak off the cuff. Mary Kate generously noted that many of use have trouble remembering every point we wish to make, especially in front of a crowd. Nonetheless, Mary Kate notes:
Unfortunately, Mrs. Palin didn't write down a reminder for an everyday errand. Instead she felt she had to write down basic political priorities, core issues for the GOP. That's the problem. Imagine if President Obama were at a similar Q&A session and the camera caught the words "Hope ... Change" on his hand.
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Scott Brown For President? Only If Republicans Don’t Mess It Up
Tweet Share on Facebook February 5, 2010 Comment (22)By Bonnie Erbe, ThomasJefferson Street blog
Scott Brown will have a lot of "'splainin'" to do (in the infamous words of Ricky Ricardo) now that he's been sworn into the U.S. Senate. He's a moderate Republican, an almost-dead wing of the GOP, my hope is party leaders won't crush him, pulverize him and stuff him into the right wing mold.
He's already announced to the world he's pro-choice, and carefully campaigned as a non-partisan Republican. In that respect, and one or two others, he's kind of like President Obama's GOP twin. The difference is, however, President Obama is the leader of his party and Sen. Brown is a very junior member of his.
