Cultured Media

As you know, I support listening to opposing viewpoints. I offer the following discussion as part of that ethic.

“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I strongly believe that an embryo does not have more rights than a women, and that an embryo is not an independent life at that point [14 weeks pregnant].” - Susan Wicklund

On today’s show Diane Rehm interviewed a doctor that performs abortions on her show. The doctor’s point of view was that abortions would be performed no matter what–whether the procedure was legal or illegal. As an example, she told the story of her grandmother (a non-medical person) killing a friend while trying to perform an abortion more than fifty years ago.

She states that if women cannot decide when to bear children, then she no longer has control over her own education, her financial situation, emotional and physical health. She believes that pro-life advocates want to force all Americans to have sex only to procreate and that having sex out of wedlock should not be shameful.

Halfway though the show, Diane talked to Lori Campbell who wrote an article for Vogue magazine about her own partial birth abortion. The article was called “Private Lives” and is on page 66 of the January 2008 volume. The subtitle is “When Lori Campbell’s second pregnancy
developed complications, she was faced with a painful decision. But she was thankful it was hers to make.”

The author recounts how her water broke at 22 weeks pregnant. She and her husband were devastated when the doctors told them there wasn’t much chance for the baby to survive if it were born at this point. They insisted the best course of action for her would be to terminate the pregnancy.

After thinking it over, while Mrs. Campbell said she wished for the child to live, she felt the most “humane” thing to do was to take the option of terminating the pregnancy via partial-birth abortion, since the chance of the child living was slim. She decides to make the decision to abort the child. She justifies her decision by saying she is saving the baby from needless suffering if it is only going to die anyway.

What surprised me was in the interview on the show, she has no problem using the word “child.” I have always thought for most of my life that abortion was framed from perspective on whether you thought that a fetus has a life and soul. I’m assuming by her phrasing that Mrs. Campbell does believe that her child had a life. She believed that euthanizing her child was the most humane thing to do. She believed that it was the path of least suffering for her unborn child and her and her family.

When did the path of least suffering begin to justify euthanasia?

Listen on the Diane Rehm Show to an interview with Susan Wicklund

The Internet has changed the way we do business and the way we conduct our politics. The first blogger permitted to officially cover a White House press briefing examines how the world wide web will transform political campaigns in the new century.

Listen to Garrett Graff interviewed on the Diane Rehm Show

The award-winning adventure writer describes his voyage to the Antarctic with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in the midst of 30ft waves to stop an illegal Japanese whaling fleet.

Peter Heller: “The Whale Warriors” - Listen on Diane Rehm

For more than 30 years, professor and political scientist Larry Sabato has been examining the workings of the U.S. Constitution - in the classroom, in the court room, on the campaign trail, and at the ballot box. He talks with Diane about why the Constitution is in need of updating and offers 23 specific proposals to end the political dysfunction in America today.

Larry Sabato, founder and director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia and author of some 20 books.

Larry Sabato on The Diane Rehm Show

Evangelicals, once at the periphery of American life, now wield power in the White House and on Wall Street, at Harvard and in Hollywood. How have they reached the pinnacles of power in such a short time? And what does this mean for evangelicals–and for America? Drawing on personal interviews with an astonishing array of prominent Americans–including two former Presidents, dozens of political and government leaders, more than 100 top business executives, plus Hollywood moguls, intellectuals, athletes, and other powerful figures–D. Michael Lindsay shows first-hand how they are bringing their vision of moral leadership into the public square.

D. Michael Lindsay is a member of the sociology faculty at Rice University where he is also the Faculty Associate of Leadership Rice and Assistant Director of the Center on Race, Religion, and Urban Life. He is the author of two books, both with George Gallup, Jr., and has written many scholarly and popular essays.

This Authors@Google event took place October 5, 2007 at Google Headquarters in Mountain View, CA.

YouTube - Authors@Google: Michael Lindsay

Throughout the years, I’ve enjoyed many of Charlie Rose’s interviews with well-known people , but I’m not one to watch a television show regularly. You can watch the most recent shows in their entirely. I’m not sure about the archives. Too bad there is no podcast. If you know of one, please comment.
CharlieRose.com

Two Moms from The Story in North Carolina Catherine and Kathleen McAuley are expecting a baby boy next week. They’ve been together for 6 years; about 9 months ago, Catherine got pregnant through artificial insemination. Both moms are joyous, but the most typical reaction they encounter in other people is confusion: “How did you decide which one of you would get pregnant?” or “How will you explain the gay thing to your kid?”

Catherine and Kathleen talk to Dick Gordon about sharing the pregnancy and figuring out how to talk to other people about it.

Gilbertson grapples with the day-to-day life in Baghdad–sniped soldiers and dog ravaged human carcasses. He does not condone torture, but states that it has saved lives in Iraq. He also worries that he only photographing the demise of the Iraqi state as it falls apart and into a civil war.

Award-winning photographer Ashley Gilbertson has spent much of the past five years in Iraq, taking incredible photographs for The New York Times and other publications. Born in 1978, Gilbertson has captured some of the world’s most dangerous places on camera. A book of his work, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: A Photographer’s Chronicle of the Iraq War, will be published this fall.

Fresh Air Interview with Ashley Gilbertson