Social Issues - links
It’s a Faith Thing
By BRIAN S. WESBURY
October 17, 2006; Page A14
With equity markets steadily gaining ground and the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaching record highs, it is getting harder for cynics and pessimists to argue that the U.S. economy is doing poorly. But this does not stop them from trying. Lately, the old class-warrior standby, that “Wall Street may be doing fine, but Main Street suffers,” is echoing down the alleyways…
Oct 17, 2006
Topic: Family, Living, Finances, Citizenship, Legislation, Social Issues, Issues
‘Fertility gap’ helps explain political divide
By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
September 27, 2006
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic mother of five from San Francisco, has fewer children in her district than any other member of Congress: 87,727.
Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, a Mormon father of eight, represents the most children: 278,398.
These two extremes reflect a stark demographic divide between the congressional districts controlled by the major political parties.
Republican House members overwhelmingly come from districts that have high percentages of married people and lots of children, according to a USA TODAY analysis of 2005 Census Bureau data released last month.
Sep 28, 2006
Topic: Family, Marriage, Parenting, Citizenship, Christian Citizenship, National, Social Issues
Danforth Warns of Christian Right but Says Tide Will Turn
The potency of the Christian right in the Republican Party is limited, former senator John C. Danforth of Missouri is telling audiences this month. A lifelong Republican moderate disturbed by his party’s direction, he contends that the political center has a future.
Sep 28, 2006
Topic: Faith, Citizenship, National, Social Issues
Republicans’ Fertile Future
Republicans’ fertile future
Through the past three decades, conservatives have been procreating more than liberals
San Fransisco Chronicle
Vicki Haddock, Insight Staff Writer
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Sep 19, 2006
Topic: Family, Marriage, Citizenship, Christian Citizenship, Church and State, National, Social Issues
Marriage Gets the Silent Treatment
“You people need to address the problems of your families. The lack of fathers is at the heart of the ills you face,” spoke the patronizing white-haired, Caucasian minister. His intentions were great but in a myopic way, he had just looked past the problems of his own community and zeroed in on mine. He, like many others, dismissed the true national urgency around the soaring out-of-wedlock birthrates and genocidal abortion rates in the black community. He had distanced himself from these statistics by making them “a black problem.” As long as family breakdown is viewed as an ethnic or minority problem, the average American will not feel that he must address it.
Sep 19, 2006
Topic: Family, Marriage, Parenting, Citizenship, Social Issues
House Republicans Will Push for 700 Miles of Fencing on Mexico Border
House Republicans announced Wednesday that they would move swiftly to pass legislation requiring the Bush administration to build 700 miles of fencing along the Mexican border to help stem the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs into the United States.
Sep 14, 2006
Topic: Citizenship, Legislation, National, Social Issues
Immigration Movement Struggles to Regain Momentum Built in Spring Marches
For a moment, it sounded like one of the spirited crowds from this past spring. There, at the foot of the Capitol, flag-waving immigrants chanted and cheered and warned lawmakers in Congress to take notice. But this time, only a few thousand people protested, not the hundreds of thousands that organizers had expected at the rally here on Thursday.
Sep 11, 2006
Topic: Citizenship, Immigration, Legislation, National, Social Issues
Embryos preserved in stem-cell creation
Scientists yesterday reported that they have devised a way to create human embryonic stem cells that does not harm embryos. Cell extraction was criticized on moral grounds by Richard M. Doerflinger, deputy director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities. “It is widely believed that one cell of a very early embryo may separate and become a new embryo, an identical twin,” he said yesterday.
Aug 24, 2006
Topic: Life, Stem-Cell Research, Citizenship, Social Issues, Science, Issues
In New Method for Stem Cells, Viable Embryos
Biologists have developed a technique for establishing colonies of human embryonic stem cells from an early human embryo without destroying it. This method, if confirmed in other laboratories, would seem to remove the principal objection to the research.
Aug 24, 2006
Topic: Life, Stem-Cell Research, Citizenship, Social Issues, Science, Issues
How We Ended Welfare, Together
TEN years ago today I signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. By then I had long been committed to welfare reform.
Aug 22, 2006
Topic: Family, Citizenship, Legislation, National, Social Issues, Issues