We Must be Talking

Abortion - A Different Perspective            Gerry O'Shea The issue of abortion came up in a recent Friday night PBS News Hour program when David Brooks and Mark Shields were reviewing the events of the week. Shields began his comments on the subject by noting the ambivalence of most Americans about this emotive issue. He pointed out how studies show that while people recoil from approving abortion, they also   favor maintaining the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that permits a woman to decide whether or not to end her pregnancy. About 25% of American women have an abortion during their lives. Polls show that close to 60% of Americans   favor maintaining the legal status quo, but that leaves more than 40% demanding the reversal of that controversial court decision. Incidentally, despite repeated   strong condemnation of abortion by the Catholic bishops, polling results reveal   little difference between their congregations and other Americans. In an article last June in th

Review of McCarten's Book on the Two Popes         Gerry O'Shea Anthony McCarten, a distinguished   novelist and screenwriter from New Zealand, is best known for his celebration of the genius of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything , and   for highlighting the crucial importance of Winston Churchill's   eloquence in   defeating the Nazis in The Darkest Hour .   His latest work The Pope: Francis, Benedict and the Decision that Shook the World   attempts to explain the ramifications of having two popes, one in his early 80's and the other ten years older, both active within the narrow confines of the Vatican. These two men, Joseph Ratzinger or as he is now titled emeritus Pope Benedict and   Jorge Bergoglio , Pope Francis, represent two different approaches to the Roman version of Christianity. Ratzinger is a brilliant German theologian, a rather dour and introverted academic with little pastoral experience, while Bergoglio, comes across as a   charisma

v Brexit in Crisis        Gerry O'Shea In the 1992 Presidential election which pitted Bill Clinton against the sitting president George H.W. Bush, senior Clinton adviser, James Carville, famously advised his candidate to focus on dinner table issues with the pithy and oft-repeated political wisdom statement "it's the economy stupid." That advice did not prevail with the British people who in 2016 voted in a referendum by 52% to 48% to leave the European Union. They disregarded the steady and substantial growth in their country's wealth, in their GDP, since they became part of the EU in 1973. Since joining, the median income for wage earners in Great Britain has increased by an impressive 79%;   by comparison, using the same measure, the United States registered a modest improvement of 16%.   Within the EU, over the last 45 years, the British economic   growth rate slightly exceeded Germany and was well ahead of France. There are three main trading bloc