Top House Democrats on Tuesday slammed insurers who claim that domestic violence is a pre-existing condition that can be used to deny coverage to battered women.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was among those targeting the coverage practice.

They pledged to incorporate a ban on the practice in the health care reform legislation winding its way through Congress.

Forty-two states have passed such a prohibition, according to a recent report from the National Women’s Law Center. Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Wyoming and the District of Columbia have not, however.

“Think of this,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. “You’ve survived domestic violence, and now you are discriminated [against] in the insurance market because you have a pre-existing medical condition. Well, that will all be gone.”

The ban would be part of a broader prohibition against the use of pre-existing conditions to deny care, a component of all the reform bills now under consideration.

via Democrats vow to ban domestic violence as ‘pre-existing condition’ – CNN.com.

My wife and I are actually thinking about homeschooling our two boys this year.  Our youngest, David, just seems to need it and we feel like he might do better through homeschooling. Our oldest, Cole, wants to eventually overtake Tiger Woods on the PGA tour and wants to be homeschooled so he can practice and play golf more (which I’m all for an easy retirement plan!).

So…we have no idea where to start in terms of finding the best curriculum for our kids. I’ve talked a little bit with a friend about Sonlight, but I’m just not sure where to turn to figure out the best homeschool plan. Your help would be greatly appreciated, so any comments are welcomed with open arms!

via Theater Review – ‘Tyler Perry’s The Marriage Counselor’ – From Tyler Perry, Couples Therapy, for Better or Worse – NYTimes.com.

If you think marriages are in trouble, then what better way to make an impact than creating your own marriage movement.  I read this gem on the Smart Marriages email list and thought I should share it with you: 

YOUR OWN GRASSROOTS CAMPAIGN

I just got off the phone with a coalition member who reminded me that I have not reminded the list in a long time about the things you can do in your own family to effect culture change.  She says she’s changed the culture in her family with these suggestions that I used to harp on ten years ago  that she has established “new traditions” that her grandkids now assume is how it’s always been. She says it’s also spread beyond her family to friends, colleagues, congregation, her hair salon – a very grassroots way to change the culture that spreads. So, here they are, again:

1) Celebrate wedding anniversaries in a BIG way. In the olden days it was a big deal to reach each birthday milestone.  We can now take birthdays more for granted, and in our age of a 50% divorce rate, it makes more sense to celebrate wedding anniversary milestones. So celebrate your own and your adult children’s wedding anniversaries EACH year – don’t wait till 25th or 50th.  Parties, big gifts, big TAH DAHs.  It’s a strong marriage message to your kids, grandkids, community.

2) Give marriage education courses as engagement, wedding, new baby gifts.

http://www.smartmarriages.com/giftcertificates.html

3) Establish a Gramma Week where you babysit your grandkids but you make the point clear that the purpose is to give their parents a “romantic week” torenew their honeymoon spirit.  Or, do a weekend or two if that’s all you can manage.  The message is what’s important.  Speaking of which, I start Gramma Week this coming week.  I do two weeks, partly because a week is never long enough for this Gramma and my five grandkids.  I can attest to the fact that my married adult children look forward to this all year – they tell me how great it is for their marriage. And, the kids definitely get the “romantic marriage message”.

“Diane, Regarding the Cohabitation article: 

In general, I can tell you that we are continuing to get the pattern of significantly increased risk for cohabiters who began cohabiting either prior to engagement or marriage.  In other words, people appear to be at increased risk when they cohabit prior to BOTH partners being very clear about future plans to marry (whether that is because they waited all the way until marriage or were at least engaged).  We are finding this pattern to hold up (more or less) in very recent samples, including for those who only cohabited with their eventual mate, and for first or second marriages, etc.  

As you know, I and Galena Rhoades and Howard Markman (and colleagues) are conducting what may be the largest study ever specifically designed to answer complex questions about cohabitation.  We have developed a sample now of 1200 people that we are following over time at this critical stage of relationship development.  We are just beginning to have the data from this new sample in this ongoing study available for analysis, and we and colleagues will have many important findings and results to share in the future. 

Scott Stanley

Our friend, colleague, and fellow champion for marriage, Dr. Stephen Judah, passed away peacefully on Friday evening, ending his short battle with esophageal cancer. We honor his faithfulness, integrity, passion for his work and devotion to his family.

Please be in prayer for his wife of 37 years, Sharon, and their daughters and sons-in-law, Heather and Daniel Wood, Hillary and Graham Rouse, and Holly Judah.

Donations in honor of Steve may be made to the Healthy Marriage Collaboration, of Central Ohio at 1085 Pauline Avenue, Columbus, OH 43224 (for more?information, visit heathymarriagecolumbus.org) or Upper Arlington Lutheran?Church.

For more about Steve?s brave battle with cancer, please visit, http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/stevejudah

Stephen, we miss you but take comfort with the knowledge that this is your homegoing.

Diane Sollee, Director of Smart Marriages, had this to say about Steve:

I just received this notice from the Marriage Comission and want to share it
with the Smart Marriages list. Stephen has been a vibrant force in the
Marriage Education movement, in the Ohio Marriage Education movement, and in
our Smart Marriages Coalition. He presented in Denver and was very much
looking forward to presenting his Essential Disciplines model in San
Francisco. He will be missed by so many. – Diane

I’m not a doctor, but something just doesn’t sit right with me and the fact that 100% of all girls are being asked to take it. Do not forget that Merck recently had to pull all of its arthritis medicine off the shelves because it caused major heart issues.

Check out this young woman’s site for HPVTruth.org:

What’s the Truth About HPV and The Cervical Cancer Vaccine?

I’m a young woman concerned about my health, about preventing illness, and about the well being of young women everywhere. With these concerns in mind, I looked into Merck pharmaceutical company’s new product, Gardasil, a vaccine that claims to prevent cervical cancer by preventing infection with Human Papilloma Virus (HPV).

Experts say HPV is a sexually transmitted disease that may cause some forms of cervical cancer. The concept behind the Gardasil vaccine is that if women avoid HPV infection, they will avoid developing the forms of cancer HPV is thought to cause.

Gardasil works by introducing ?dead? HPV virus into our bodies through series of three injections that cause us to produce HPV antibodies. It is believed that these antibodies will protect us from contracting HPV if it is passed on to us during sexual intercourse.

After reading up on HPV and Gardasil, I have a lot of questions. For example: