Free Republic

Washington, DC -- Abortion advocates complain bitterly any time pro-life people refer to them using the moniker pro-abortion. However, US News & World Report contributing editor Bonnie Erbe has written an editorial inviting the description as she is celebrating the fact that the poor economy is causing more abortions.

(US News) Watching Iowa straw poll winner and would-be Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney squirm on Fox News Sunday was a bit discomfiting as the former Massachusetts governor tried to explain away his now infamous 180-degree flip-flop on abortion rights to host Chris Wallace. He essentially said (to paraphrase former Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry), "I was never really for it, but I pretended to be for it before I was against it" (meaning a woman's right to choose). Check out the transcript of the show, and decide for yourself. But dig a bit deeper, and there's an even more...

Pope Benedict's Christmas message was one of great importance, no matter one's spiritual bent. "Does a 'Saviour,' " he questioned, "still have any value and meaning for the men and women of the third millennium?" This, he queried in his Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) message to 10,000 faithful in St Peter's Square," Reuters reported. Sounds to me like a man on a mission, a worried man on a worrisome mission. Would you be asking these questions if business were good, if your flocks were growing? He went on: People should not allow technology to trump...

Welcome to Conflagration Central, otherwise known as Washington, D.C. We unfortunate denizens are beyond exhausted from observing repeat rounds of the low state of American politics' never-ending series of bar brawls. We will be all the more drained after we observe the pending battle between the fire-breathing, over-reaching, power-drunk far Right-ies and the limp, listless Left-ies. That, as each side seeks to destroy the other over the next U.S. Supreme Court nominee. It's come down to this in American politics: Do you want venal, overt prevarication or do you want inept, feckless incompetence? The former is today's GOP. The latter...

Welcome to Conflagration Central, otherwise known as Washington, D.C. We unfortunate denizens are beyond exhausted from observing repeat rounds of the low state of American politics' never-ending series of bar brawls. We will be all the more drained after we observe the pending battle between the fire-breathing, over-reaching, power-drunk far Right-ies and the limp, listless Left-ies. That, as each side seeks to destroy the other over the next U.S. Supreme Court nominee.

Former Massachusetts congressman Robert Drinan, a Jesuit priest who supported legalizing abortion when he served in Congress, still uses the authority of his collar to cheerlead for evil causes. On Easter Sunday, he turned up at various television studios to praise the starvation to death of Terri Schiavo. Drinan was apparently Tim Russert's idea of a sturdy Catholic authority on this matter. Even as Drinan praised the killing of a disabled woman he mused nostalgically about passage of the "Americans with Disabilities Act," a glorious piece of legislation, he said. A host not willing to play the stooge to a...

"Love Hurts," said the Everly Brothers. And Life Costs, say I. Florida lawmakers should bear that in mind as they conjure up a bill to keep Terry Schiavo forever alive (as opposed to productively alive). Yes, in that persistent vegetative state known as Florida, lawmakers seem to believe they have no poverty to eradicate, no children to educate, no affordable houses to build and no health care to provide to walking, talking people. So they've decided to spend their time passing a law that would make it a crime to unhitch Terry Schiavo's feeding tube. Lost in this debate over...

By BONNIE ERBE, Scripps Howard News Service March 15, 2005 "Love Hurts," said the Everly Brothers. And Life Costs, say I. Florida lawmakers should bear that in mind as they conjure up a bill to keep Terry Schiavo forever alive (as opposed to productively alive). Yes, in that persistent vegetative state known as Florida, lawmakers seem to believe they have no poverty to eradicate, no children to educate, no affordable houses to build and no health care to provide to walking, talking people. So they've decided to spend their time passing a law that would make it a crime to...

The media are rife these days with stories of highly qualified executive-level women who blithely discard careers for the preferred occupation of full-time motherhood. The New York Times tried to launch what writer Lisa Belkin titled the "Opt-Out Revolution" last fall. Last week, Time magazine followed with a somewhat closer-to-reality account. The gist of both articles was the best and brightest of America's women (especially young women) have had it with work. Their role model is June Cleaver, not Carly Fiorina. Domestic bliss, full-time homemaking and child-rearing trump wheeling, dealing and real world success. This is hardly the first time...

Remember Olivia Newton-John's early '80s tune "(Let's Get) Physical?" Well, change the words to "Laura Gets Political," and you have the 21st century version. Laura Bush, that is. The so-far apolitical first spouse — the most apolitical first lady of our time — is vaulting into politics with a capital P. There is this week's voyage to France and Russia, which reporters dutifully note promoted the lofty goal of "improving U.S.-European relations." This would be quite the task even for an astute career politician or diplomat. But "improving relations" with Europe would seem to be all the more insurmountable for...