June Carbone

*Cross-posted from AlterNet.

President Obama’s strong support for same-sex marriage is strong support for the institution of marriage itself. It's a vital step toward a revitalized institution better equipped to address the needs of today’s families.



Those who think and talk...

When conservative blowhards rant, you know they have something on their minds and it's almost always themselves. So the people who yell loudest about class warfare have waged it successfully on behalf of the 1 percent. And the conservatives complaining about death panels did not object to the...

*Cross-posted from AlterNet

“Access to Birth Control Coming Under Fire."
"Rep. Darrell Issa Bars Minority Witness, a Woman, on Contraception."
"States slash birth control subsidies as federal debate rages."

Headlines like these were unimaginable to many people two years ago. Not to...

Cross-posted from New Deal 2.0.

As we celebrated Valentine's Day this week we should be aware that underlying the many stories on the changing nature of marriage and relationships is a central irony: The college-educated middle class that embraced the sexual revolution is now leading the way back...

American Public Media's "Marketplace" had a recent segment focused on why it has taken so long to bring criminal prosecutions related to the financial crisis. Reporters observed that at the beginning of the crisis, the Obama administration wanted to calm the financial industry rather than impose accountability. They...

Charles Murray is at it again. He burst onto the national scene in the eighties, announcing that he knew why the African-American non-marital birth rate had risen so dramatically: the government made them do it. He explained that welfare and a host of other liberal sins had weakened the moral...

The Obama administration’s recent decision to require most religious-affiliated employers to cover birth control for their employees is good news for the women who work for religious employers and do not share the male hierarchy’s opposition to birth control. It is also good news for a country with one of...

A recent article in The Economist on the "sorry state of marriage in the United States" quoted Census data that show that, for the first time, married couples now make up less than half of all households. The article concludes:

Do not expect the Democratic...

While New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman recently described the Tea Party as an American Hezbollah, Islamic terrorists would not have much clout without their funders in Saudi Arabia and Iran. So, too, the Republican right would be impotent without its behind-the-scenes creators. A small number of incredibly...

In the most recent polls, an overwhelming 68% of the American public want a compromise on the debt ceiling. Break down those numbers by party, however, and a different picture emerges. 81% of Democrats want a compromise compared to only 53% of Republicans. Even more strikingly, 53% of the Tea...

Cross-posted from New Deal 2.0.

A new study of newlyweds found that increases in workloads were associated with increases in marital satisfaction for both men and women. The researchers expected this to change when the newlyweds became parents, and indeed it did -- for men. For...

New research shows that women are getting married at later ages - and that the divorce rate is going down. The results reflect some good news -- later marriages are more likely to last. Most importantly, however, these figures correlate with widespread changes in the American family.

First, the...

On Mother's Day, the Washington Post published an article, "Movement to keep moms working is remaking the workplace." The article celebrates women who are part of the "opt-in movement," in which "many mothers are willing to give up income if that means taking control of their schedules, and,...

Budget cutting is serious business, and it is part of a wholesale partisan attack on the lives of those who do not vote Republican. The House has voted to cut Title X, the program that provides low-income women with family planning; $75 million of the $317 million eliminated

While Congress is in the midst of trying to toughen abortion restrictions, Barbara Bush (junior) has joined the ranks of the children of prominent Republicans who endorse gay marriage. For many conservatives, abortion and gay marriage both strike at the heart of the family. But children...

The Republican leadership is at it again. House Republicans rode into office on claims that President Obama and the Democratic Congress were promoting a "liberal" agenda rather than focusing on the real task at hand -- job creation. Yet the first act of the new Republican House was a symbolic...

I sit on the Faculty Senate of a large Midwestern university. Every meeting for the past year has been consumed with planning for this year's budget crisis. For those insulated from Washington politics, the timing is curious. The economy is improving. State revenues are increasing. Yet this year will be...

Cross-posted from New Deal 2.0.

Moving from Northern California to Kansas City, Missouri, I wondered if I would find myself surrounded by conservatives. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the people we have gotten to know are in fact not all that different from our friends in...

After the crash, the downturn was dubbed a "mancession." As the meme continues to circulate, the Roosevelt Institute's New Deal 2.0 blog asked leading thinkers to help sort fact from fiction. Are men suffering more than women in a weak economy? Is Washington doing enough to address female...

Earlier this month, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a new policy statement on sexuality, contraception and the media. It emphasized that the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rates in the Western World, and that adolescents have among the highest rates of sexually transmitted infections of...