It may have been naïve of me, but I kept hoping the Sons of Italy, the Italian-American Anti-Defamation League or some such outfit would have spoken up by now on what an embarrassment NY Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino is to… Read full post »

           Coastal New Englanders have a love-hate relationship with hurricanes. They detest the damages and havoc such storms threaten to cause, but they also secretly welcome any challenge to their native New England resourcefulness. I… Read full post »

Not long ago I posted examples of ads from the 1950's and 1960's with images that were degrading and offensive to some many women and men. Those images included violence against women and the sexual objectification of women and, sometimes, children.

Many readers were appropriately disgusted and shock… Read full post »

The FDA is out of control and something needs to be done.

Recently, a respected Rhode Island medical practice fell under health department scrutiny for admitting it was implanting contraceptive intrauterine… Read full post »

http://www.archive.org/details/CharleyPilloy-BrotherCanYouSpareADime

(Click above and please try to listen to the song to its end.

then hit back button to return to post. Thanks.)

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The FBI report on the late Senator Edward Kennedy released today under the Freedom of Information Act is receiving significant attention for the number of threats against the late senator’s life. Those of us in Kennedy country aren’t surprised at all: The Kennedy’s have alway… Read full post »

If confession is good for the soul, it must be a real tonic for Newt Gingrich. The former Speaker, married three times and drummed out of political power after 84 ethics violations were filed against him later became a Catholic. He joins a list of celebrities drawn to R… Read full post »

This Saturday, June 6th in Cyprus at the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East the Vatican's "Instrumentum Laboris" (Work Plan) will be released. The document challenges the usual pro-Israel chorus of US leaders and articulates the growing displeasure with Israel which Americans fearful… Read full post »

www.usmemorialday.org  -- a  web site devoted entirely to Memorial Day  -- defines it  as, "Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service."

If we differ on the definition of "our… Read full post »

Just when you think the rampant sex scandals may have taught Catholic clergy not to throw stones from the front lawns of their glass houses, someone like Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix, Arizona decides he has to declare Sister of Mercy Margaret Mc Bride excommunicated.

W… Read full post »

Vintage ads from the legitimate" press that spoke  (and speak) for themselves...(In case you thought that "Basic Family Values" were stronger 50 or 60 years ago.)

And the absol… Read full post »

            This post is from my book Abortion:The A Word  and I am reprinting it in honor of "Juanita" -- a good mother who probably didn't get remembered or honored on too many Mother's Days.

     &… Read full post »

As the print media makes its way down the skids, I-- like many of you-- have watched my daily newspaper (once ranked in the top 30 in the country) turn into something even the parakeet doesn't want to read on the floor of his birdcage. Shrinking advertising dollars and… Read full post »

  The Meeting between Pope Leo the Great and Attila 
Fresco by Raffaello Sanzio  - 1514

Catholics are told to accept a number of what the Vatican calls "mysteries" (that Christ allegedly changed water into wine at the wedding feast of Cana, for example.) These are of… Read full post »

I have been a feminist much of my adult life, so I have spent a lot of time lobbying for equal rights for women in those areas of daily life where men-- especially white men--have had a distinct advantage. I've written about, lobbied for, testified in favor of and demonstrated… Read full post »

Earlier this week it was reported that the president had checked off “Black” on his 2010 census form question about race. There was a momentary blip on the media screen in reporting this: most of the discussion/commentary centered around Obama’s apparent se… Read full post »

1. If Hillary Clinton had been elected president, could she have possibly called upon Bill Clinton for help any more than Barack Obama has?

2. What do Mary Matalin and Jim Carville talk about when they are not getting paid to talk?

3.  Is it okay that the preside… Read full post »

Easter 1951 in my family's post-war America meant an idyllic Italian-American family gathering that might inspire a Norman Rockwell poster (if Rockwell's last name had been "Sassobuono" instead.)

My Dad, ever the romantic, bought a gardenia corsage for me and an orchid for my… Read full post »

Many of you never heard of Cranston, RI until the major networks started highlighting it this week as flood waters drowned the Providence suburb and, eventually, became the statewide nightmare Rhode Island had feared for centuries.

You've seen the images of homes submerged, and homeowner… Read full post »

A quarter century ago-- at a time when about 10 priests in RI had already been accused of sexually abusing children-- the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence tried to stop my then-14-year-old daughter from making her confirmation because of her mother's work with Planned Parenthood.  Whe/… Read full post »

The healthcare reform debate in Congress has brought to the fore a sharp division within the Catholic Church. The lines are drawn by gender: Catholic bishops focused on the unborn on one side; Catholic nuns advocating for the already-born on the other.

 The bishops have opposed President… Read full post »

27-year-old Angie Jackson decided to use Twitter as a public stage for her private decision to terminate a pregnancy using RU486, the miscarriage-inducing drug legally available in the US for a decade.

Jackson, who has a 4-yea… Read full post »

For Patrick Kennedy, the hundreds of political groupies who have followed him, and the scores of political hacks who-- for generations-- have gotten fat at the Kennedy trough, February 12, 2010 will be remembered as the day Ted's dream finally died after all.

Sure, the work will go on, a… Read full post »

(As a follow-up to my previous post on the abortion issue from a woman's perspective, I thought it appropriate to post the chapter in my book on one man's point of view.)

                     … Read full post »

Maybe it’s something in the water in South Carolina.           

How else could you explain the seemingly high percentage of politicians from that one state with such an uncontrollable urge to say outrageous things to the press. First it wa… Read full post »