Followup from my 7/10/07 "In Political Trouble" speech

I read plenty of articles debating the abortion issue. Mostly I was looking for those opening lines. I'm glad they were well received because I spent a long time on those first 20 seconds.

My research didn't turn up anyone who advocated a simple compromise like I did. I did get some inspiration from this article: The Rhetoric of Abortion: Reflections from a Former Pro-life Activist

Our own KPBS had a series on the issue if anyone cares to listen:
Radio: part 1, part 2, and yet another
TV: part 1, part 2, part 3

I do applaud them for at least talking about the issue.

I do have a stance, but it seems somehow wrong to spill it now. I'd be happy to tell anyone who asks. I will say that based on the comments I got back, one person did guess wrong.

The gay marriage segment was purely from my head. I've discussed my proposal with gays, atheists and Christians and they all seem to think it has some merit. I've heard a few others advocate similar positions so it is not as unique as my abortion proposal.

I considered tackling a couple more issues but had to cut them for time. The issues were affirmative action and price fixing.

Followup from my 6/12/07 "Marriage Myths" speech

A couple of articles I referenced:
http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20030807-000001.html
http://psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php?term=pto-20050614-000001&page=1

And one I didn't have time for though it had great information:
http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20001101-000012.html

Others that give a summary of the issue:
http://love.ivillage.com/snd/sndcouplehood/0,,mhrq,00.html
http://love.ivillage.com/snd/sndcouplehood/0,,mhrr,00.html

If you really want to go nuts, Rutgers University as well as Penn St. University have many articles to read on the topic of marriage.

I think if I had to summarize the issue (which I tried to do very quickly in the talk), it would go like this...

Living together for the purposes of a trial/preparing for marriage is a not the panacea that some think it is. It doesn’t do anything to develop the skills required to thrive in a life-long relationship. In fact, research suggests it hinders their development. Note that I was never able to get a figure on this … i.e. how much more likely is divorce for cohabitators?

However, these skills are not automatic for anyone. The early years of marriage for non-cohabitators don’t automatically produce well-adjusted relationships. The fact that some of them divorce as well is proof of that.

The skills we are talking about can be developed by a couple, living together or not. Intentionally trying to improve these skills will pay dividends for anyone. And by not relying on living together (on its own) to prepare oneself for marriage, you may negate whatever bad effects on relationships it may have.

Oh, and here is one article about the true divorce rate in the US:
http://www.divorcereform.org/nyt05.html

Inaugural...

Your intrepid blogmaster hereby kicks off the Torrey Pines Toastmasters Blog.