Interesting, most of my friends and church for that matter would take this approach. In fact, my pastor specifically says that making changes like this (fewer abortions) cannot be legislated. Remember the media only shows the crazies! Ultimately, there is an answer to your question, ” Who gets to decide?” It’s the woman. Whether it’s legal or not, the decision will be made. It’s just easier when it’s legal. And again, you have to remember that the folks that want to change the law don’t see it as a choice, but as the taking of life. So they are equating the choice of taking the life of a unborn baby, to the life of a person. That is why they want to change the law. We certainly don’t give people the “right” to murder a person that is living outside the womb; I’m sure you wouldn’t agree to that. So that is truly the argument, and since there is no way to “prove” that a fetus is a person—we move to the choice argument.

Hi Belinda, I certainly understand your comments about serious stuff—but this is where I get my serious conversation. Most (not all) of my friends are busy discussing potty training, boob jobs, and other lighter issues. I absolutely agree she will not be malleable and will certainly push her own objectives—of course, that could be bad or good depending on your perspective. But I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and support and pray for this administration. I am pleased that Pres-Elect Obama is putting in an experienced cabinet, though I don’t agree with all their views. He was right when he said it would have been irresponsible for him to do it any other way. I am not here to defind Bush, but we have yet to see if Obama will make any mistakes or not—he hasn’t even started! :-) Except, of course, to name a cabinet with experience in government (not always a good thing). But I will ask you this—do you truly care what the whole world thinks of us? We are an extraordinarily generous nation who gives and helps over and above the rest of world and gets little credit. In fact, Pres Bush increased the AIDS funding to an incredible amount over and above what other modern presidents have done. I would be rather be safe and prosperous, so that we are able to help the rest of the world—than liked. We were attacked just 8 months into the Bush presidency, so it wasn’t him that caused us to be attacked. Did they not like Pres Clinton either? No, I don’t think we are liked because we are capitalistic, free to express our views, and more successful than most countries. I think we might find that Pres-elect Obama is liked more, but I’m guessing we do not get any more cooperation and help than we did before. I guess that remains to be seen.

Elaine, thank you! With many liberal friends, two gay uncles, and lots in between—I’m always trying to simplify my views while keeping them sane and respectful. I appreciate your words. I too, have seen your posts and enjoy them. By the way, great name—my middle is “Elaine” and it has also been passed to my daughter.

One has to understand the pro-life movement better to debate it properly. The primary concern is not about what you do with your body, but what you do to the baby growing inside you. With that in mind, the ultimate concern is with taking the life of the baby. So most pro-life advocates see this as murder and thus should be subject to law. I am pro-life and feel that laws or politicians will not change hearts and that is where abortion stops. If we teach women and girls to have self-confidence and responsibility, then there will be fewer abortions. I understand that rape and incest is another situation and much more delicately handled, but most abortions are not for this reason. Most of my friends who wanted to get pregnant did not call their baby a “fetus”—even at 8 weeks. I guess it’s easy to be pro-life when it’s your baby. My hope is that many more will give their babies life. But I don’t judge or look down at those that have an abortion—they certainly have their own decisions to make.

Carmel, I’m afraid you don’t know a lot of the women who call themselves pro-life. Very few of them I know are anything like the radicals that are out there on the news or bombing abortion clinics. The ones I know would be more likely to volunteer at a crisis pregnancy center, love their friends and sisters who have had abortions, and support women no matter what their choice is. In reference to Jesus, our political labels don’t apply at all to ancient times. Jesus respected life in all cases, so it’s likely he would support finding another option besides abortion. But as for war, maybe you are right and he would try to find another way. But I wouldn’t call Him liberal or conservative—for that matter. I guess I’m a Jesus freak and I supported President Bush in some ways, because I think you are wrong about his motives. But either way, you shouldn’t lump every pro-life person in the country with the Taliban. To answer the main question—should this be a political issue? I think probably not—because limiting abortions will never be changed by laws or politicians. But it’s really not a thing about “bodies”—I believe it’s about the heart! And the changing of hearts is what will change the amount of abortions.

I hate to rain on this party—but I was really hoping to hear more about her accomplishment than her choice for burgers. I don’t think she was the most experienced person Obama could have picked for Secretary of State. Unfortunately, I think this was a political decision and they both have little foreign policy experience. Someone is welcome to give me 10 reasons why she makes the best Secretary of State.

Wow—this certainly shows her priorities. I didn’t think she was saintly, but I thought she loved her kids. I think she loves her money a lot—how sad, money can never make you happy. And I’m really impressed with her husband; like someone else said—classy. And obviously puts his kids needs first.

Hello Diana, Some in the country did vote for her (me being one) and I don’t think her comments were any worse than those coming out of Obama and Biden’s mouths. This is politics. It doesn’t work in your local neighborhood or you wouldn’t have any friends—but they all made mis-statements, mischaracterizations, etc. I don’t like any of it—but it is what happens. I’m not happy with the Republicans, nor am I happy with the Democrats. People get into government and lose focus, reason and perspective. I “hope” Obama is the best President we’ve ever had. But I really don’t like a lot of his policies—so hopefully he’ll abandon some of those and come to the middle—like so many moderates hope he will. I just feel like the Obama supporters are so biased on here, they can’t see anything he said or did as out of line.

The reality is that this cyber-romance is a way of “leaving the marriage” and is analogous to a porno addiction. I don’t think she should have left, but it sounds like they needed some serious counseling and he needed to come back to the romance in his marriage. Too many affairs have been started by online affairs; this may have been going in that direction.

I see your point regarding the severity of offense and in what venue it’s committed, but laws are laws. And I feel our government should have the utmost responsibility to abide by them. I know these opinions are all a matter of opinion, but I don’t recall Sarah Palin exhibiting “glee” when talking about serious subjects. But either way, the lies you are referring to are again an “equal opportunity” political campaign problem. The Obama/Biden campaign had it’s share of manipulation of numbers/votes, misinterpretation of comments or taking things out of context, and also disregarding facts that don’t align with their policies or opinion. What’s unfortunate is that we really don’t have any objective reporting anymore, which puts all of US at a disadvantage unless we want to spend hours researching. But I suppose, the good news for is that they won. So Sarah Palin is irrelevant.

I see your point regarding the severity of offense and in what venue it’s committed, but laws are laws. And I feel our government should have the utmost responsibility to abide by them. I know these opinions are all a matter of opinion, but I don’t recall Sarah Palin exhibiting “glee” when talking about serious subjects. But either way, the lies you are referring to are again an “equal opportunity” political campaign problem. The Obama/Biden campaign had it’s share of manipulation of numbers/votes, misinterpretation of comments or taking things out of context, and also disregarding facts that don’t align with their policies or opinion. What’s unfortunate is that we really don’t have any objective reporting anymore, which puts all of US at a disadvantage unless we want to spend hours researching. But I suppose, the good news for is that they won. So Sarah Palin is irrelevant.

Quite honestly, I find a lot of women (and a lot of my friends) find it too much work to know about finances (there are men like this too). They leave it to their husbands and let it go. It takes time to manage a budget, talk about investments, college accounts, retirement, mortgages, wills, track expenses, etc. I know, because I do it. I started when I was single and my husband and I consult together regularly. You have to be willing to learn and spend time on it. Unfortunately, a lot of people would rather watch tv. Look at the statistics and you’ll see.

Rita, You are so right. I have extremely bright friends who don’t want to “get into the finances” and let their husbands handle all of it. And it’s partly because I think they want to spend what they want and not worry too much about it. But several know nothing about life insurance (or the amount), amount of investments for retirement, or college, or anything. What happens when something happens to their husband or even divorce? A lot of the bad decisions made on house buys for instance were made because of the need to “keep up with the Joneses” whether your house was a $1m or $100K. (We are financial advisors and see these examples all the time.)

Yes, they are all miracles—but it IS more of a miracle when you are 40 and haven’t been able to carry a baby. But it sounds like this is God’s timing for her, in this marriage where she is so happy. I live in Nashville and “folks” around here say she is really nice—it’s good to see her blessed like this.

This is a relevant article—in fact I was looking for it today and found it buried. It’s relevant because people didn’t vote for McCain because of these lies and it affected the election. I’m not saying Obama wouldn’t have won, but it shows how duped people can be by the media. I saw at least one person on a blog say they weren’t voting for McCain/Palin anymore because she read/heard this and didn’t think she “was one of us” anymore. I feel fundamentally most voters don’t know real policies of their candidaters, they vote because of things like this—very sad.