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PUBLIC CONVERSATION Upcoming conversations at our Center for Public Conversation:
April 26, 2012, "Is Casino Gambling Cocaine for the Brain?" A Conversation with Hans Breiter, M.D., Associate Professor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Associate Psychiatrist in Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and Paul Davies, Maggie Walker Fellow in Thrift and Generosity, Institute for American Values. Moderated by Kathleen A. Kovner Kline, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, The Consortium, Philadelphia, PA, and Affiliate Faculty, University of Pennsylvania. Research into the reward circuitry of the brain indicates that cocaine and gambling produce the same addictive effects on the brain. Should the state knowingly contribute to an increased risk of gambling addiction in pursuit of new revenue? What is the state's ethical responsibility to vulnerable citizens? Join our distinguished speakers as they consider the still unaddressed public health and ethical consequences of expanded casino gambling in New York. See the most recent event held in our Center for Public Conversation: Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas A Conversation on March 22 with Dale Carpenter, Earl R. Larson Professor of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law, University of Minnesota Law School on his book Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas. Hosted by Elizabeth Marquardt, Director of the Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values. Hear Professor Carpenter tell the story of the landmark decision and its implications for today. THRIFT AND GENEROSITY If Debt Is the Problem, Could Thrift Be the Answer? Staff, Mercator Net, March 29, 2012 "As debt threatens the security of nations and individuals, the rediscovery of thrift becomes urgent. The Institute for American Values is running a thrift project (the Centre for Thrift and Generosity) in conjunction with the John Templeton Foundation and last year staged the first national Thrift Week since the 1960s." Beyonce Could Live at the Revel, and It Wouldn't Save Atlantic City Paul Davies [Institute Fellow], The Philly Post, March 21, 2012 "Atlantic City is abuzz with the news that Beyonce plans to perform to help hype the April 2nd opening of the lavish Revel casino. The struggling gambling town hopes the $2.4 billion casino resort provides a much needed shot in the arm. But for the seaside resort, the arrival of the Revel is more likely to be a last gasp." Delaware Rolls Over For Casinos Paul Davies [Institute Fellow], Town Square Delaware, March 20, 2012 "Delaware Governon Jack Markell has just set the new high water mark for the dumbest gambling proposal ever. Markell wants to expand gambling to every corner of the tiny First State so he can give the struggling but influential casinos there a giant tax break. Markell's policy is a reverse Robinhood: Take from the poor and give to the rich." VeriFone CEO on Europe, Lottery Card Payment Screens Fox Business News, March 6, 2012 [Les Bernal, Executive Director of Stop Predatory Gambling and Institute Partner said] "The leaders of our country including the CEO you are going to talk to--by allowing these people to lose money in taxi cabs and at gas pumps--it tarnishes his brand and his image. His company is playing the American people for suckers." Illegal Gambling Sentences Stalled Heather Wysocki, Cape Cod Times, March 24, 2012 "Nearly a year after they pleaded guilty and six months after they were originally scheduled to be sentenced, three Cape men who ran a sports betting business are still walking free. The delay 'minimizes the impact of what a predatory gambling business has on a community. These guys weren't doing this for social reasons. Or Catholic Church bingo,' said Les Bernal,[Institute partner and] national director for the advocacy group Stop Predatory Gambling 'This was a highly profitable business.'" Stop Predatory Gambling's Les Bernal on State Sponsored Casinos Clayton Henkel, NC Policy Watch, March 27, 2012 "[Les Bernal, Executive Director of Institute partner Stop Predatory Gambling:] 'The question is why is the state government of North Carolina encouraging a business that is . . . based on people losing money? It is a failed policy. It has failed across the country--you can't name a state that has casinos that s been successful. This is not a left or a right issue--no matter where you stand on the political spectrum, you have self-interest in seeing North Carolina get out of this predatory gambling business.'" Guess Who Seldom Loses Money Gambling? Charlie Butts, OneNewsNow, March 25, 2012 "The group [and Institute partner], Stop Predatory Gambling, has produced a video to answer the question of why the federal and state governments have done so little to stop gambling. Les Bernal, who heads the organization, says, 'I think the video, which we have titled "The Smartest Guys Not in the Room," goes right to the heart of one of government's biggest failed public policies in the last 40 years.'" More Students Raising the Stakes, Becoming Addicted Trevor Allison, Baylor Lariat, March 8, 2012 "Gambling addiction in college students is on the rise because of modern technology and government involvement, according to gambling experts from [Institute partner] Stop Predatory Gambling and Purdue University." MARRIAGE AND FAMILIES Gov. Cuomo Should Not Jettison the "Spousal Refusal" Allowance in State's Medicaid Program Elizabeth Marquardt [Director, Center for Marriage and Families], Huffington Post, March 27, 2012 "Getting rid of the 'spousal refusal' allowance will heartlessly force elderly New Yorkers to consider divorce in order to qualify their sick spouses for the care they need." What Fewer Married Americans Means for the Nation Rachel Sheffield, Heritage Foundation blog The Foundry, March 29, 2012 "As David and Amber Lapp of the Institute for American Values report from their research on working-class single parents, marriage and parenthood have become disconnected. For example, one young unmarried father in a working-class community noted: 'It's kind of biased if you say you have to be married because you have a kid, you know. 'Cause I mean, that's not the point. I mean, that doesn't matter. . . . Of course a child needs a father figure and of course a child needs a mother figure . . . [but that] really has nothing to do with the marriage.'" David Quinn: Rising Divorce Rate No Help to Any Society David Quinn, Independent.ie, March 30, 2012 "A 'good' divorce is obviously much better than a bitter and acrimonious one, but it is still not good in the real meaning of that term. The children have still experienced the break-up of their parents and suddenly find themselves having to shuttle between two separate houses, 'Between Two Worlds' as Elizabeth Marquardt [Director of the Center for Marriage & Families, Institute for American Values] says in her book of that name." Reproductive Technologies and the Quest for Immortality Alana S. Newman [FamilyScholars blogger and founder of the Anonymous Us Project], Public Discourse, March 1, 2012 "I believe genetic and memetic reproduction through child-bearing is a privilege that also comes with heavy responsibilities, and both the biological mother and father are liable for meeting such standards of care. We're losing those standards. We should be fighting for a society where every man who pursues an act that effectively creates a child, should be held accountable to that child for moral and financial support." Are You My Mother? The Changing Norms of Adoption and Donation Lisa Belkin, Huffington Post, March 22, 2012 "Most states still have laws that protect the identity of sperm donors from offspring who want to find them. Egg donors too are generally anonymous. Should they be? Elizabeth Marquardt thinks not. [Director of] the Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values, a controversial think tank centered around the idea that families with a mother and a father are best for children and society, Marquardt's specialty is the study of assisted reproduction, specifically the effects of egg and sperm donation on the children who are conceived." A New Normal for the American Family: Kids Outside of Marriage Amber and David Lapp [Researchers at the Institute], The Atlantic, March 16, 2012 "A 23-year-old unwed mother, Tori is the new normal. As The New York Times recently reported, more than half of births to American women under 30 now occur outside of marriage, most of which are to women without a college degree. While Tori and her child's father, Aaron, talked about marriage and stumbled into a jewelers at the mall once, they had no immediate plans for engagement. But they did want a child." What Marriage Means in Today's "New Normal" David and Amber Lapp [Researchers at the Institute], Public Discourse, March 13, 2012 "The takeaway for most of the young adults we interviewed is that the surest way to test if you've found the 'right person' is to live together, perhaps for years, before you marry. That's a view shared nationwide by a majority of young adults, according to a 2001 State of Our Unions nationally representative survey of twentysomethings: 62 percent of young adults agreed that 'living together before marriage is a good way to avoid an eventual divorce.'" What's Normal for Marriage Today Mark Misulia, First Things blog First Thoughts, March 13, 2012 "David and Amber Lapp, research associates at the Institute for American Values, have written a provoking piece for Public Discourse that dismantles popular myths about successful cohabitation and fragmented family life entitled 'What Marriage Means in Today's "New Normal'." Why Working Class Young Adults Are Missing Out on Marriage Carolyn Moynihan, Mercator Net, March 21, 2012 "For some years, now, researchers at the Institute for American Values have been pointing out that, while the great majority of people still highly value marriage, the meaning of marriage has undergone a profound change. David and Amber Lapp, a young married couple who have been doing qualitative research for the IAV on how young working class adults view marriage, have written about their findings from face-to-face interviews." Living Together Trumps Matrimony for Recession-Wary Americans Stephanie Armour, Bloomberg, March 22, 2012 "'In today's economic climate, many young adults are reluctant to pull the trigger,' said W. Bradford Wilcox, [Senior Fellow at the Institute and] Director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, which monitors the health of marriage. 'They may be unemployed or underemployed or not know what the future looks like. They're hedging their bets.'" College Degree, Religious Faith Help Marriage 'Survive' to 20th Year Cheryl Wetzstein, Washington Times, March 22, 2012 "A major reason why divorce rates are stubbornly high 'is because Americans have largely embraced the individualistic ethos ushered in by the 1970s, and are often unwilling or unable to navigate marital difficulties that creep up after several years of married life,' said sociology professor [and Institute Senior Fellow] W. Bradford Wilcox, who also directs the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia." In Sickness and in Health: A Vow for a Lifetime Amy Ziettlow [Affiliate Scholar at the Institute], Huffington Post, March 1, 2012 "Successful aging often means growing old in a relationship that eventually leads to caregiving. Sunday's Chicago Tribune highlighted the growing trend in men caring for impaired loved ones." Children of Divorce: An Overview of the Recent Literature Lisa Lickona, Humanum Review "[Director of the Institute's Center for Marriage and Family, Elizabeth] Marquardt's Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce (Three Rivers Press, 2005) is the fruit of a controlled study that Marquardt conducted with noted family researcher Norval Glenn, aimed at understanding the hidden experience of children of divorce." Marriage: The Heart of a Healthy America Rachel Sheffield, The Heritage Foundation blog The Foundry, March 20, 2012 "Professor [and Institute Senior Fellow] Brad Wilcox observed that the breakdown of marriage in lower-income white America, as opposed to the relative stability among the upper-income, is fueling inequality by creating 'a growing marriage divide . . . through the heart of white America.'" The Importance of Marital Generosity Dr. Yvonne K. Fulbright, Huffington Post, March 2, 2011 "In examining 10 aspects of modern social life and relationships, ranging from sexual satisfaction to religious faith to shared housework, researchers [from the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia and the Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values] surveyed 2,870 couples and found that spouses benefit when they practice the "ethic of marital generosity." This virtue basically gets at how husbands and wives go out of their way to be affectionate or forgiving." Why Bigger Might Be Easier Betsy VanDenBerghe, First Things, March 28, 2012 "In the National Marriage Project's exhaustive 2011 'State of Our Unions' report, a sidebar among the analyses and graphs draws attention to a subset social scientists tend to ignore in their ubiquitous research on marriage and parenting: big families . . . [Institute Senior Fellow] W. Bradford Wilcox and [Director of the Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute] Elizabeth Marquardt tease out of the report some curious counterintuitive data, especially when considered against studies that suggest that having children lowers happiness." |
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