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"MARRIAGE" In The News
(February 2007)

Enter Our Blog Spot!

"Marriage In The News" is not a representation of The Real Proposal magazine...

The news articles and features presented below are simply an indication of how topical, controversial, and all-encompassing the issues surrounding marriage are throughout our society--and the world-- today. Some of the views and opinions expressed, and their respective web sites, do NOT reflect the views or opinions of The Real Proposal magazine. Many are highlighted largely to reiterate that the alarming statistical trends on the chaotic state of "Marriage" and "Family"--outlined in "A Mere Glimpse"--will continue unabated without a fundamental grasp and purposeful dissemination of TRUTH on the issues.

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  • Court: Bury Anna Nicole Smith in the Bahamas  CNN.com, February 28, 2007 
    -- A Florida appeals court cleared the way Wednesday for Anna Nicole Smith to be buried next to her son, Daniel, in the Bahamas. The decision by a panel of three judges with the 4th District Court of Appeal upheld a lower court ruling that gave custody of Anna Nicole Smith's remains to the court-appointed guardian for her daughter, Dannielynn. Last week, Broward Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin awarded custody of Smith's body to Richard Milstein, whom Seidlin had appointed as guardian ad litem for the nearly 6-month-old girl. Smith's mother, Virgie Arthur, appealed that ruling, because Milstein wants the former Playboy playmate buried in the Bahamas and Arthur wants her daughter buried in Texas with other family members. . . . . . . But Arthur's attorneys argue that a strict reading of Florida law gives her custody of her daughter's remains. They said there is no written record of Smith's intentions, and when there is no spouse and no child at least 18 years old, custody of the body goes to the next of kin, which in this case is the mother. .
Howard K. Stern, left, Arthur and Larry Birkhead appear together after last week's burial ruling.


  • Same-Sex Marriage in California: Legal and Political Prospects  Pew Research Center Publications, February 28, 2007
    California has been one of the most active battlegrounds in the same-sex marriage debate. The fight began in earnest in 2000, when the state's voters passed Proposition 22, which defined marriage as the union between a man and a woman. Four years later, following the legalization of gay marriage in Massachusetts, San Francisco began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, a move quickly rebuked by the state Supreme Court. In September 2005, the California Assembly became the first state legislature in the nation to deliberately approve same-sex marriages. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ultimately vetoed the bill on the basis of Proposition 22. Now, the California Supreme Court is considering whether Proposition 22 violates the state constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law. . . . . . The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, The American Constitution Society, The Federalist Society and The USC Annenberg Knight Program convened a distinguished panel of experts to discuss the upcoming state Supreme Court case and other legal issues, as well as the political prospects for same-sex marriage in California and around the nation. . . . .

    READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT: Same-Sex Marriage in California: Legal and Political Prospects

An exhibit of same-sex marriage photos that was ordered removed from Cosi, a Westchester County restaurant, was allowed to go back up hours later after protests from same-sex supporters.
  • Gay-wed photos back at NY restaurant  Business Week Online, February 28, 2007
    An exhibit of same-sex marriage photos that was ordered removed from a Westchester County restaurant on Wednesday was allowed to go back up hours later.  The decision to rehang the 37 photo-collages at a Cosi restaurant came after a closed-door meeting between officials of the restaurant chain and the Empire State Pride Agenda, an advocacy group that organized the monthlong exhibit. After it went up on Monday, the eatery reportedly received several complaints about the photos, which show gay and lesbian couples and their friends and families. They are part of a statewide "family photo album" that will be used to lobby state officials to legalize same-sex marriage. . . . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  Cosi Crumbles Under Pro-Gay Pressure  Queerty- NY, February 28, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE:   The Homosexual Assault On Traditional Marriage Townhall.com, By Ben Shapiro, February 07, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE: 
Gay Marriage Advocates Don’t Want Tolerance, They Want Their Lifestyles to Become Mainstream  BlackAmericaWeb.com, By Joseph C. Phillips, November 07, 2006


  • Hawaii civil unions plan goes nowhere BusinessWeek- AP, By MARK NIESSE, Feb 28, 2007
    Hawaii lawmakers effectively killed a proposal to create civil unions for gay couples by declining to vote on the legislation. More than 100 people packed the House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, many waving pink signs reading, "Civil Unions. Equal protection, justice for all." At least 400 people submitted extensive written or oral testimony. After five hours of testimony, though, the committee declined to vote. Representatives offered little explanation to the public, but it was a sign that the bill lacked enough support to become law. . . .


  • Children need both a mother and a father  Rocky Mountain News, By James C. Dobson, Focus on the Family, February 28, 2007
    In December of last year, I received a request from Time magazine asking me to address the issue of Mary Cheney's decision to have a baby with her lesbian partner, Heather Poe. I complied, and my commentary was published in the magazine's Dec. 18 issue. Although the statement was entirely respectful to Cheney and Poe, I did express my strong opinion that children need both a mother and a father, and that the preponderance of behavioral research supports that belief. From that point forward, I have been subjected to a barrage of criticism and insults from homosexual activists, including two lesbian protesters who came to the door of our organization last week demanding a retraction. The Rocky Mountain News reported their unexpected visit, but to its credit, has now given me an opportunity to reply. . . . .

    RELATED ARTICLE: 
    Mary Cheney defends same-sex parenthood- Vice president's lesbian daughter says baby not 'prop'  San Francisco Chronicle, By Katharine Q. Seelye- New York Times, February 2, 2007

    RELATED ARTICLE:   Two Mommies Is One Too Many. Mary Cheney is starting a family. Let's hope she doesn't start a trend   Time magazine, By JAMES C. DOBSON, December 10, 2006

    RELATED ARTICLE:  It's a Cheney! Reality Is a Blessed Event   The Washington Post, By Ruth Marcus, December 8, 2006

  • Parenting Issues:  Britney Spears, America’s Troubled Girl Child
    Will the U.N.’s empowerment programs help girls move safely through adolescence to adulthood?
     TownHall.com, By Janice Shaw Crouse, Tuesday, February 27, 2007
    . . . . But when it comes to “harmful attitudes and practices,” our culture can certainly hold its own –– especially regarding the nation’s sexualized pop culture. The dangers to girls from the worst of American culture can be just as destructive as the cultural practices that are recognized around the world as harmful to girls and women. The effects of our cultural destruction can be illustrated by Britney Spears, America’s troubled girl child. Though an adult, Britney’s problems began in her childhood and only worsened as she moved through adolescence into adulthood. . . . .
    Clearly, too, those girls from every country around the world who want to emulate Britney also need help. They aren’t likely to get it from the current talks at the U.N. Their parents would be much wiser to listen to the American Psychological Association which recently warned that sexualizing girls was harmful to their health and well-being. . . .  
Britney Spears_America's Troubled Girl Child

RELATED ARTICLE:  Sandra Dee and Britney Spears  TownHall.com, By Suzanne Fields, February 26, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE:  The Celebrity Asylum  TownHall.com, By Brent Bozell III, February 26, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE:  Girls Gone Bad- Paris, Britney, Lindsay & Nicole: They seem to be everywhere and they may not be wearing underwear. Tweens adore them and teens envy them. But are we raising a generation of 'prosti-tots'?  Newsweek- MSNBC.com, By Kathleen Deveny with Raina Kelley, February 12, 2007 Issue

RELATED ARTICLE:  Movie stars plus marriage equals disaster  The Telegraph- UK, By Bee Wilson, February 11, 2007


Male Biological Clock- It Seems the Fertility Clock Ticks for Men, Too
  • Male Biological Clock- It Seems the Fertility Clock Ticks for Men, Too  New York Times, By Roni Rabin, February 27, 2007
    When it comes to fertility and the prospect of having normal babies, it has always been assumed that men have no biological clock — that unlike women, they can have it all, at any age.  But mounting evidence is raising questions about that assumption, suggesting that as men get older, they face an increased risk of fathering children with abnormalities. Several recent studies are starting to persuade many doctors that men should not be too cavalier about postponing marriage and children. . . .

  • Savage on gay marriage, parenting: "It makes me want to puke. ... I think it's child abuse"   Media Matters, February 27, 2007
    On the February 26 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, after playing an audio clip of the beginning of singer Melissa Etheridge's acceptance speech at the Academy Awards in which she thanked her wife and four children, Michael Savage said: "I don't like a woman married to a woman. It makes me want to puke. ... I want to vomit when I hear it. I think it's child abuse." Savage later similarly stated: "I want to puke when I hear about a woman married to a woman raising children because, frankly, I think that it's child abuse to do that to children without their permission. What does a child know? Ask them when they're 16 whether they want to be raised by two lesbians or two men," adding: "What are
    the two men doing behind the other wall? You think the children don't hear it?". . . . .

    RELATED ARTICLE: 
    Academy Awards  Stories In The News, By Mark Neckameyer, February 27, 2007

    RELATED ARTICLE:  I’m not Homophobic; I’m Chick-O-Centric TownHall.com, By Doug Giles, February 24, 2007

  • Suze Orman Comes Out  AfterEllen.com, By Malinda Lo, February 25, 2007
    In the Feb. 25, 2007, issue of the New York Times Magazine, financial guru Suze Orman revealed that she is a lesbian and has been with her partner, Kathy Travis, for seven years. During the interview, which covered her latest book, Women and Money, due out at the end of this month, writer Deborah Solomon asked Orman if she is married, and Orman replied initially, "I'm in a relationship with life." Solomon then prompted, "Meaning what?" and Orman replied: "K.T. is my life partner. K.T. stands for Kathy Travis. We're going on seven years. I have never been with a man in my whole life. I'm still a 55-year-old virgin.". . . .

    RELATED ARTICLE:  Suze Orman: Lesbian and Virgin?  Americans For Truth,  February 27, 2007

    RELATED ARTICLE: Questions for Suze Orman: She’s So Money  New York Times, Interview By DEBORAH SOLOMON, February 25, 2007
Financial guru Suze Orman comes out

  • The Wow Vows  The New York Times T Style magazine, By HOLLY BRUBACH, February 25, 2007
    . . . . For those of us jaded by reports of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise’s three-ring circus, or Pamela Anderson’s formal wedding for her dogs, or Donald Trump and Melania Knauss’s product-placement bonanza, it’s startling to see so-called icons like Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio getting married in a day dress and a business suit. Or Elvis and Priscilla Presley cutting a cake emblazoned with their names in winsome, irregular letters that look as if they came out of one of those squeeze tubes you buy at the grocery store — so utterly unprofessional by today’s perfectionist standards. . . . . What has become of us as a society, that orchestrating a wedding has turned into such an aggressive, obsessive, competitive pursuit? Why the compulsive flight into fantasy? Have we gorged on too many fairy tales? And when did a wedding turn into a party for and about the bride? . . . . .


  • I’m not Homophobic; I’m Chick-O-Centric TownHall.com, By Doug Giles, February 24, 2007
    I think I speak for most heterosexual males when I say I’m not homophobic but chick-o-centric. Let’s keep it positive, okay? It’s not that we dislike you, the gay guy; it’s just that we really like girls. It seems no matter how long we compliantly spend in rehab undergoing the most stringent psychotherapy to rid ourselves of our knee-jerk to your mate choice, the simple fact is . . . heterosexual guys don’t “get” gays. Period. Heck, we don’t understand women. What makes you think we’ll ever understand a man who doesn’t like women yet wants to be a woman?  You just rifled right over our heads. In addition, not only are most men incapable of comprehending what a man sees in another man, we also don’t care to try to because football is on—so can we all just shut the hell up with the gay stuff and watch the game?!? . . . . . Now, let me help you, the gay constituency, to understand us girl lovers a tad. Most Chick-O-Centric males would not raise an unwaxed eye brow at a homosexual man if he would not shove his gayness in our faces. It’s the flamers that freak out most heterosexuals. Case in point: Bobby Trendy and Jay Alexander. They seem like nice guys, but the pink hair, lip gloss, heavy eye liner, constant limp wrist and lisp is overkill. Why not, instead of emulating a TBN host, you follow Rob Halford’s lead? That would make it much easier for us to have a beer with you. C’mon . . . work with us, we’re trying to get along. Here are 10 more things you should know about most typical heterosexual males:. . . . 

Generation Next Profile
  • 75% - Casual Sex Among the Young  Pew Research Center- The Databank, February 23, 2007
    A strong majority (75%) of Gen Next Americans (18-25 year olds) say today's youth are more likely to have casual sex than were young people 20 years ago. Only 7% of Nexters say their generation has less casual sex and 17% say they have about the same amount. Gen Nexters offer some other fairly harsh assessments about how their behavior and lifestyle compare with the generation that preceded them. . . .

    RELATED ARTICLE: 
    A Portrait of "Generation Next": How Young People View Their Lives, Futures and Politics  Pew Research Center Publications, January 9, 2007

  • Parenting Issues:  The Power (and Peril) of Praising Your Kids
    How Not to Talk to Your Kids:The Inverse Power of Praise.
       NEW YORK magazine, By Po Bronson, February 19, 2007 Issue

    . . . . .Offering praise has become a sort of panacea for the anxieties of modern parenting. Out of our children’s lives from breakfast to dinner, we turn it up a notch when we get home. In those few hours together, we want them to hear the things we can’t say during the day—We are in your corner, we are here for you, we believe in you. In a similar way, we put our children in high-pressure environments, seeking out the best schools we can find, then we use the constant praise to soften the intensity of those environments. We expect so much of them, but we hide our expectations behind constant glowing praise. The duplicity became glaring to me. . . . . .
The Power (and Peril) of Praising Your Kids- New York magazine

RELATED ARTICLE:  Parenting Issues: Love of Learning: Which Children Have It Most  NEW YORK TIMES, By Sam Roberts, January 24, 2007


Love will keep us together: Georgia State researchers on the puzzle of sexless marriage.
  • Love will keep us together
    Georgia State researchers on the puzzle of sexless marriage
      The Sunday Paper, By Stephanie Ramage, February 18, 2007
    It had been 12 years since Heloise and Peter had had sex. But she could not forget the experience. “In my case, the pleasures … we shared have been too sweet,” she wrote. “Wherever I turn, they are always there before my eyes, bringing with them awakened longings and fantasies which will not even let me sleep.” Their story, usually referred to as Heloise and Abelard, is one of the greatest romances in history. . . . . New research from Georgia State: At Georgia State University, sociologists Elisabeth Burgess and Denise Donnelly have been trying to decode the puzzle of the sexless marriage since 1999, when a researcher’s dream landed in their laps. . . . In their research, Burgess and Donnelly found three patterns. For the majority of those in their sample—65 percent—sex had just kind of petered out over time. “They might still be very much in love with a partner and consider that person their best friend, but they just were not having sex anymore,” says Burgess. But for about 15 percent, the sex had stopped abruptly. . . . 

RELATED ARTICLE:  Domestic duties in an erotic world  Sydney Morning Herald- Australia, Mark Coultan, February 16, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE:  "Not Tonight Dear, I Have a Headache": 4 Ways to Save Your Sexless Marriage  LifeScript.com, By Emily Battaglia, LifeScript Staff Writer

RELATED ARTICLE:  Sexless marriages: When couples stop coupling  Iconocast.com

RELATED ARTICLE:  Myths About Sexless Marriage   Passionate Marriage.com- Marriage & Family Heath Center with Dr. David Schnarch & Dr. Ruth Morehouse

RELATED QUIZ:  Do you have a sexless relationship?  Dateline-MSNBC.com, By Drs. David Schnarch and Ruth Morehouse
This quiz, based on over 40 years of clinical experience and reviewing research on sex and marriage, can help you assess the sexual side of your relationship. Rather than measuring your adequacy or rating your marriage, use it to scrutinize your love life and decide if you want to change it. Read each question and choose the answer that best fits your experience. . . . .


  • The marriage test  Napa Valley Register, By KEVIN COURTNEY, February 18, 2007
    When we are besotted with love, it's easy to skip over some of the critical relationship issues that can determine if a marriage will be a success.  And so the New York Times has published a list of 15 questions. They should be asked in the afterglow of Valentine's but before the spring wedding. For those of us already wed, this exercise is not without value. The examined life is a better life.  Over Saturday morning coffee, Cheryl and I went down the list to see how well we'd done our homework before marrying four years ago. We did not earn A-pluses.  The questions:. . . . .

  • The Romantic Life of Brainiacs  The Boston Globe, By Stephanie Coontz, February 18, 2007
    College-educated, highly successful women have long had a reputation for marrying less (and having lousier sex). But in a historic reversal of past trends, these women now triumph in matrimony. A marriage historian explains. . . . If a woman reads Proust or computes calculus, is she unable to attract a mate?  Conventional wisdom says the answer to both questions is yes. But a close look at the historical transformation of marriage in America suggests that educated women now have a surprising advantage when it comes to matrimony. . . . The flip side of the dire warnings aimed at educated or high-achieving women is an astonishing contempt for men, whose egos are deemed too fragile to handle an egalitarian relationship. Educated, high-achieving men get hit from two sides. Social scientists claim they won't accept an equal for a wife. But for a century or more, popular culture has portrayed educated men as nerds who aren't studly enough to sexually satisfy a woman. . . .
The Romantic Life of Brainiacs: College-educated, highly successful women have long had a reputation for marrying less (and having lousier sex). But in a historic reversal of past trends, these women now triumph in matrimony.

RELATED ARTICLE:  Careers and Marriage  Forbes.com, August 23, 2006 

POINT:
 
Don't Marry Career Women  Forbes.com, By Michael Noer, August 22, 2006

COUNTERPOINT: 
Don't Marry A Lazy Man  Forbes.com, By Elizabeth Corcoran, August 23, 2006

RELATED ARTICLE: 
Working women more likely to divorce  Telegraph.co.uk- UK, Jul 10, 2005


  • Blacks debate 'dirty laundry'
    Talk in mainstream media about group's problems spurs outrage
      Baltimore Sun- AP, By ERIN TEXEIRA, February 18, 2007
    Late last year, essayist John Ridley wrote an article for Esquire magazine, using an in-your-face style to rip the black underclass. He went on to describe famous blacks who've excelled in recent years - Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell - and argued that the whole group benefited from their work. It's up to us, he wrote, to emulate their success. It quickly became clear that irate readers weren't much concerned with Ridley's argument. They were derailed by the fact that a black person had blasted other blacks. In a national magazine. With a mostly white audience. Using the N-word. . . . Chris Rock was among the first to go on the attack in public. More than a decade ago, he famously - and angrily - joked in his standup act about the difference between black people and those he called a derogatory name. The latter, he said, boast about taking care of their children and not going to jail. "What do you want," Rock asked of them, "a cookie?" It's a sentiment others agree with, such as those involved in the push within the African-American community for marriage. Organizers of the fourth annual Black Marriage Day - set for March 25 - lament that nearly seven in 10 black children are born to unmarried parents. Most single parents have less time and money than married ones, they say, and children can suffer. . . . 

    RELATED ARTICLE:  The Manifesto of Ascendancy for the Modern American Nigger  Esquire magazine-  Volume 146, Issue 6, By John Ridley, December 2006

Filenes Running of the Brides Event
  • Running of the Brides  Boston Herald, February 17, 2007
    Now in its 60th year, the annual Filene's Basement Bridal Event draws crowds of hundreds in search of the perfect gown. Brides-to-be and their faithful bridesmaids, mothers, friends, and a few fiances lined up today outside the Downtown Crossing store well before the sale started at 8 a.m., braving the ice and cold for a bargain on designer wedding dresses. . . .

    RELATED ARTICLE:
      Mob scene: ‘Sopranos’ star runs with Filene’s brides  Boston Herald, By Renee Nadeau, February 17, 2007

British actor Hugh Grant and his girlfriend Jemima Khan have split up after almost three years together.

  • Trash-Talk Wife Tears into 'Cad' Kidd & His Babe Bench  NEW YORK POST, By LEELA de KRETSER and ERIC LENKOWITZ, February 17, 2007
    Basketball superstar Jason Kidd cheated on his wife with a cavalcade of women - including her pal, a Nets season-ticket holder, strippers, a team employee and several TV reporters, his jilted spouse said yesterday in her vicious response to his brutal divorce suit. Joumana Kidd - who finally broke her silence on the couple's disastrous marriage by filing a sensational counterclaim for divorce - portrays her husband as a violent, alcoholic narcissist who has impregnated women around the country. . . . .


  • Anna Nicole Smithing   TownHall.com, By Doug Giles, February 17, 2007
    Not every girl wants an education, a righteous vocation, respect from decent people, excellent health, a happy family and the enjoyment of a long and fulfilling life. With the advent of Anna Nicole Smith and her ilk, Girls Gone Wild and Internet Porn, it seems as if today’s ladies would rather be known for no panties, making out with their girlfriends at Coyote Ugly, snot slinging drunkenness and having their college orgies broadcast on YouTube. You go, girl. Show you’re right. Get it right, you holier-than-thous: not all lassies want a well-thought-of life. So back off. Some girls are chomping at the bit to step into Anna Nicole’s bra and replace her as the next human freak show. And who are we to stop them? . . . . . So, instead of offering some legalistic and graceless judgmental blast towards those babes who are following (or wallowing) in Anna Nicole’s path, here instead are eight helpful tips to assist you ladies in Anna Nicole Smithing (ANS) your way through life. Are you ready? You are? Then let’s get busy!
    1. You’ve gotta have a “To hell with education” mindset. . . . . .

1st Lt. Kerry Mackey Jr. & fiancee Diedra Chism of Memphis, Tenn._Engaged when the lieutenant proposed in Essence Magazine's February issue dedicated to love. Lieutenant Mackey is assigned to the 305th Comptroller Squadron at McGuire Air Force Base, N.J. (Courtesy Photo: Essence magazine)
  • Lieutenant pops question in national magazine  Air Force Link- DC, By Tech. Sgt. Rebecca Danet, February 16, 2007
    -- A McGuire AFB lieutenant will be taking his new bride on a dream honeymoon in South Africa after their 2008 nuptials -- a trip which the couple won this week following an extreme marriage proposal in Essence Magazine's February love issue. 1st Lt. Kerry Mackey Jr., a 305th Comptroller Squadron budget officer, proposed to his longtime friend Diedra Chism of Memphis, Tenn., after beating out hundreds of other applicants for the opportunity to do so in the magazine. . . . . As all six women said yes, the magazine set up an Internet poll on its Web site and asked readers to vote for their favorite couple to win the dream honeymoon. The six couples made a guest appearance on ABC Television's Good Morning America show Valentine's Day where Essence Magazine's Editor-in-Chief, Angela Burt-Murray, was expected to announce the winning couple. "We had millions log on," Ms. Burt-Murray said. "I think they were really excited about all these wonderful stories and these heartfelt expressions of love.". . . .

    RELATED ARTICLE: 
    Magazine to send Rock Hill couple on S. African honeymoon  Rock Hill Herald SC, By April Bethea- The Charlotte Observer, February 14, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE:  Will You Marry Me?  ESSENCE magazine, February 2007 Issue

SEE RELATED VIDEO:  Good Morning America: Extreme Marriage Proposals Pay Off  February 14, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE:  Popping the question in print  Hattiesburg American, By Matt Katz, February 9, 2007


RELATED ARTICLE: Goodbye bended knee: The modern marriage proposal must be a public spectacle  MercuryNews.com, By Nara Schoenberg-Chicago Tribune, February 1, 2007

RELATED SITE:  My Super Proposal: The most public declaration of love in the history of mankind


  • N.J. to honor out-of-state gay marriages  USA Today- AP, By Geoff Mulvihill, February 16, 2007
    — Gay couples who legally married elsewhere will have all the rights of married people in New Jersey, but they can't call themselves married, the state's attorney general decided Friday.  New Jersey should consider those couples to be in civil unions rather than marriages, Attorney General Stuart Rabner said in the opinion for the state Department of Health and Senior Services, which is responsible for registering civil unions. Civil unions, which will be available in New Jersey starting Monday, grant all the benefits of marriage to gay couples. . . . . Gay couples married in Massachusetts, Canada, the Netherlands, South Africa and Spain will be recognized as civil union partners, as will couples who have entered into civil unions in Vermont and Connecticut. Domestic partners in California — where domestic partnership works much like a New Jersey civil union — will also be considered civil unions. . . .
N.J. to honor out-of-state gay marriages.

RELATED ARTICLE:  Schwarzenegger Warns He'll Again Veto Gay Marriage Bill  365Gay, By 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff, February 17, 2007


  • Facing Same-Sex Marriage  Progressive U, By Ceila30, February 16, 2007
    Every individual desires equality, especially here in the United States. Every one of us is human, we all love, and we all make decisions on what we believe is right for us. It is understandable that there are different beliefs of right and wrong and that everyone sets their own acceptance level based on their perception of that concept. Unfortunately, people on the left and on the right, ideologically speaking, have exploited the same-sex marriage debate in attempt to sway others in one direction or another. Nevertheless, same-sex marriage (SSM) is an issue that is being discussed, with regularity, around the world, as well as here in America. How ever someone may feel on the topic, some believe it is essential to look at the interesting similarities on both sides of the issue. Although some people find it morally unacceptable to allow same-sex marriage, others find it to be an equality issue that needs addressing. Therefore, leading society to the question, should same-sex marriage be legalized?. .


    Church-state showdown: Italian bill proposes rights for unwed couples
       Catholic News Services, By John Thavis-Catholic News Service, February 16, 2007
    -- An Italian legislative proposal that would grant some legal rights to unwed couples -- including same-sex partners -- has set the stage for a major church-state showdown. On one side is a wide spectrum of Italian social and political forces, including many lay Catholics, who say the bill would end discrimination against unwed couples in areas of health care, pensions, housing and employment. On the other side is the Italian bishops' conference, which has argued that the law would undermine marriage and the traditional family. Some bishops have warned Catholic legislators that they are duty-bound to vote against the proposal. . . .

Howard Stern's Valentine's Day Shocker: He's Engaged to Longtime Girlfriend Beth Ostrosky.
  • Howard Stern's Valentine's Day Shocker: He's Engaged!
    Radio veteran has a change of heart, pops question to longtime girlfriend Beth Ostrosky

    MTV.com, By Chris Harris, February 14, 2007

    When Howard Stern signed on to his satellite radio show Wednesday morning (February 14), he realized it wouldn't be long before the phone lines at Sirius were all lit up with fans and friends just waiting to ridicule him. And really, why shouldn't they? Since the dissolution of the veteran shock jock's 20-year-long marriage to first wife Alison back in 2000, Stern has repeatedly vowed — with his entire audience as his witnesses — that he would never, ever tie the knot again. At times, he'd even deride his own pals and members of his staff in the wake of their own engagements, advising them against making the same terrible mistake he'd once made. Well, it seems the 53-year-old King of All Media doesn't care about making the same mistake twice. Stern revealed Wednesday that he proposed to longtime girlfriend Beth Ostrosky the night before. . . . 

  • Most believe marriage is still for life  Reuters, By Paul Casciato, February 14, 2007
    LONDON (Reuters Life!) - 'Til death do us part. Or at least that's what most people on the planet still believe. Seven out of 10 people across the planet still think that marriage should last a lifetime, according to a Valentine's Day survey released by global research firm AC Nielsen on Tuesday. Muslim and Catholic strongholds in Asia topped global rankings in favor of lifelong marriage in the poll of 25,000 people across 46 countries. . . . . In the West, Americans turned out to be the strongest believers in marrying for life, while Europeans from Catholic and conservative countries showed an unexpected lack of enthusiasm for the concept. . . . .

    SEE RELATED POLL RESULTS: 
    With Valentine’s Day Beckoning, ACNielsen’s Love and Marriage Barometer Reveals…  AC Nielsen News Release, February 13, 2007


    RELATED ARTICLE:  Wedlock Unlocked: Old Rules Are Changing, But Most Still Expect To Join The Club   Hartford Courant, By JOANN KLIMKIEWICZ, Courant Staff Writer, February 14, 2007

    RELATED ARTICLE:  Americans Love Marriage. But Why?  Time magazine, By John Cloud, February 8, 2007


  • Words of love add up to lasting marriage Niles Daily Star, By Marcia Steffens, February 14, 2007
    I always enjoy the Valentine stories this time of the year about people who met their true love and have been happily married for as long as I have been alive. My latest issue of Michigan County Lines, the Midwest Energy Cooperative magazine, January 2007, has pages of stories in a feature article titled, "Longtime Lovers."  The winner of their grand prize of an anniversary dinner went to a couple in Manton. My heart went out to them as I read the list of trials they went through in their 51 years of marriage. The husband had a brain tumor, a son died of cancer, their home burned and their pig herd got a disease. Wow. That list can make our troubles seem quite small. . . . . Words which helped other couples stick together and still be in love after 50 years in some of the other contestants include: "communicating ... give-and-take ... mutual ... trusting ... laughter ... understanding ... learning ... equal ... faith ... tolerant."  One couple actually wrote the words to signify their "10 commandments for a happy and lasting marriage: admiration, respect, devotion, consideration, commitment, understanding, listening, patience, cooperation and honor." . .




Happy Valentine's Day!



Happy Valentine's Day!
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Happy Valentine's Day!

 

  • Love proves indescribable, especially when you're in it  St Petersburg Times- Tampa Bay, FL, By JACK BRAY, February 14, 2007
    "What is this thing called love? This funny thing called love. Just who can solve its mystery?" Seventy-eight years ago, Cole Porter wrote those lyrics for the Broadway show, Wake Up And Dream. We still ask that question and, in fact, always have since we first felt a strong, emotional attraction to someone. Today is the day that we celebrate love with the feast of St. Valentine. Across the country, candy, flowers, cards and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in his name. . . . But if we had to define love, I believe St. Paul said it best when he wrote to the Corinthians more than 2,000 years ago, "Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails." . . . .

    RELATED ARTICLE:
      Valentine's Day a waste of time  Dixie Sun- Dixie State College of Utah, By Brock Bybee, February 14, 2007


  • There are no rules on Valentine's Day  The Eagle Tribune, MA, By Everyday Etiquette , Judy Bowman, February 14, 2007
    Q: I know Valentine's Day is for lovers, but how did it originate, and what is the best gift to give my valentine?
    A: The history of St. Valentine's Day has many legends that speak of both Christian and ancient Roman myths. Although many are murky, one legend, a favorite of mine, suggests that in the third century in Rome, Emperor Claudius II believed that single men made better warriors and outlawed marriage for young men. One priest, Valentine, defied the law and performed the marriages. . . . . What women really want. . . . What women don't want . . . .

    RELATED ARTICLE:
      Who is Valentine?  Jamaica Observer- JAMAICA, By Walda Pitt, February 12, 2007
There are no rules on Valentine's Day.

  • If you're thinking of wooing at work, then why not sign a love contract?  Western Mail- WALES, February 12, 2007
     Workplace gifts may be misinterpreted explains Molly Watson, so take care on Valentine's Day. Around £2.4bn is expected to be spent on Valentine's Day in the UK this year, making it one of the most lucrative holidays of the year. But, while it might not sound in the romantic spirit of the day, if you're thinking of wooing a colleague at work, you might want to check up on your company's harassment policy first. . . . But experts say the number of people involved in office romances is growing thanks to a culture of longer working hours, and a survey carried out last year by Lloyds TSB found more than 70% of workers have had a relationship with someone they've worked with and almost a third say they met their future life partner at work.  So it's more than likely that a large proportion of the £262m being spent on flowers, the £467m on jewellery, the £95m on chocolate or the 25 million cards being sent, will be targeted at colleagues. . . . .

Valentine's Day: Have the Ladies' Mags Lost the Love?
  • Valentine's Day: Have the Ladies' Mags Lost the Love?  Cybercast News Service, By Kristen Fyfe, February 13, 2007
    Valentine's Day. The words evoke romance, tenderness, cards, candy, and flowers.  Given that the media often turn to the subject of love at this time of year, the Media Research Center's Culture and Media Institute decided to find out what women's magazines are writing about in their February issues. The answer is, pretty much what you'd expect -- from Playboy. In 11 of the top-selling monthly women's magazines, with a combined circulation of more than 30 million, messages about S-E-X outnumber messages about love and romance more than 2-to-1. . . . In an age where divorce rates hover in the 50 percent range, cohabitation rates are high and even sex among teenagers is not universally condemned any more, the media's continual force-feeding of a laissez-faire sexual ethic has to be considered a contributing factor to the decline in public moral standards. . . . . Cultural corrosion of sexual mores has profound consequences. In a fascinating book called "Unprotected: A Campus Psychiatrist Reveals How Political Correctness in Her Profession Endangers Every Student," Dr. Miriam Grossman details the real cost of this sex obsession and doctrine of sex without consequences. . . . .

  • The best marriage money can buy  The Sydney Morning Herald, By Sam Brett, February 13, 2007
    MONEY, money, money.  Some say it's the root of all evil, others say it can never bring happiness, and most say you can't buy love (although gold-diggers would beg to differ).  Yet Forbes magazine recently concurred with the gold-diggers, taking a jab at the mega-millionaire Donald Trump. "If he were a dishwasher," it writes, "it's a safe bet that supermodels would not clamour for the opportunity to be the next Mrs Trump. But The Donald is rich, and he's famous and he's powerful. That makes him much more appealing than a dishwasher of similar age, build and comb-over." Perhaps the Renaissance English poet Christopher Marlowe was right when he said that money can't buy love, but it would certainly improve your bargaining position. . . .

  • Get Married to Debut on WE TV in April; New Magazine Show is All About Weddings  PR Web Press Release, February 13, 2007
     -- A new-concept television show about everything to do with marriage and weddings hits WE tv this spring with the debut of a weekly series, Get Married. A half-hour, news-you-can-use magazine show, Get Married will be hosted by Atlanta TV and radio personality Jenn Hobby with reports by noted wedding expert Crys Stewart and correspondent Jessica Campbell. It will cover everything about weddings, providing news, trend stories, celebrity interviews, expert tips and ideas, surveys, destination weddings, honeymoons and viewer feedback as the only show of its kind on the television landscape. . . .  
Get Married to Debut on WE TV in April; New Magazine Show is All About Weddings.

Molecular structure-Dopamine
  • An Affair Of the Head
    They Say Love Is All About Brain Chemistry. Will You Be Dopamine?
      The Washington Post, By Neely Tucker, February 13, 2007

    It's all about dopamine, baby, this One Great True Love, this passionate thing we'd burn down the house and blow up the car and drive from Houston to Orlando just to taste on the tip of the tongue. You crave it because your brain tells you to. Because if a wet kiss on the suprasternal notch -- while, say, your lover has you pinned against a wall in the corner of a dance club -- doesn't fire up the ventral tegmentum in the Motel 6 of your mind, well, he's not going to send you roses tomorrow. Dopamine. God's little neurotransmitter. Better known by its street name, romantic love. Also, norepinephrine. Street name, infatuation. . . . "Love is a drug," says Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University and author of "Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love." "The ventral tegmental area is a clump of cells that make dopamine, a natural stimulant, and sends it out to many brain regions" when one is in love. "It's the same region affected when you feel the rush of cocaine.". . . .

  • I'd Do Anything for You, or to You:
    They Clicked, Then She Snapped
      Washington Post, By Jennifer Frey, February 13, 2007

    Ah, the power of love. Makes you giddy, makes you miserable, or -- in the case of some folks -- makes you out-and-out loony. Theirs is a brand of passion destined for TV-movieland ("based on a true story" and starring Anne Heche) or, better yet, the Oxygen Network, which has an entire reality series built around women who murder their men. It's called "Snapped!" Astronaut Lisa Nowak -- she of the BB gun, trench coat and Depends -- may be the current poster girl for that kind of crazy, but she has plenty of company when it comes to Women Who Snap Over Love: . . . . * Amy Fisher. . . . * Jean Harris. . . . * Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes. . .

    RELATED ARTICLE: 
    Observers: Astronaut Lisa Nowak Suffered 'Mental Anguish' Over Career, Love Life  FOX News.com, February 8, 2007
Amy Fisher, the Long Island Lolita (with a little Annie Oakley thrown in (Richard Drew - AP)

  • Remembering Anna Nicole Smith  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.com, By Peter Leo, February 13, 2007
    Watching a train wreck . . . "There was something almost touchingly retro about her wretched train wreck of a life. She wasn't, in fact, celebrated just for being a celebrity. She'd earned her notoriety the old-fashioned way: She took her clothes off for it, then married rich. Americans have a hard time abiding a tale of struggle without reward, or a story without a happy ending, which is why we so often confer a disproportionate attention on the plucky but dubious dead.". . . The Playboy Curse . . . . The title of Playmate of the Month seems to carry a terrible curse, The Sun (London) notes. Anna Nicole, a four-time Playboy cover girl, is one of 25 women who met an untimely death after stripping for the magazine's centerfold. Three playmates have been murdered, four have died from overdoses, four were victims of car accidents, 12 died from illness including cancer, and one died in a plane crash. . . . Trying to make something of herself .  . . .

    RELATED ARTICLE:
      Who'll tell Anna Nicole's story?  Newsday.com, BY DANIEL MASSEY- Newsday Staff Writer, February 9, 2007,

J Howard Marshall II could be father of Anna Nicole's daughter, according to new book written by Donna Hogan, Smith's half-sister.
  • Marshall could be father of Anna Nicole's daughter  The Telegraph- UK, By Philip Sherwell, Feb 11, 2007
    First it was the celebrity photographer versus the Hollywood lawyer. Then Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband entered the fray. Yesterday, the extraordinary whodunnit over who fathered Anna Nicole Smith's baby took another twist - it could have been her elderly billionaire husband, who died on August 4, 1995. J Howard Marshall II's name was reportedly thrown into the paternity stakes by the half-sister of Smith, 39, the buxom, platinum blond former Playboy Playmate of the Year who died in mysterious circumstances in a Florida hotel room last week.In the manuscript for a new book, Donna Hogan says her sister froze the 90-year-old Mr Marshall's sperm and may have used it to become pregnant, according to yesterday's New York Daily News. Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern, who bears the names of two of her possible fathers and became the heir to a share of the oil baron's $1.6 billion fortune when her mother died, was born in the Bahamas five months ago. . . . 

    RELATED ARTICLE:  The Plot thickens: Is Zsa Zsa's husband father of Smith's baby?  The Chicago Tribune- AP, By Noaki Schwartz- Los Angeles, February 11, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE:  Maybe I'm the dad, says prince  The Sydney Morning Herald- Australia, By Noaki Schwartz- Los Angeles,  February 11, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE:  Glamorous Anna's Greek Tragedy: Soap opera life matched Aristotle's definition of the genre  Lexington-Herald Leader- Kentucky.com, By Derrik J. Lang, February 11, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE:  Possible father of Anna Nicole's daughter may have been a 'hoax'  Actress Archives, February 11, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE:  Legacy of a gold-digger   The Daily Mail- UK, By WENDY LEIGH, February 9, 2007


  • Movie stars plus marriage equals disaster  The Telegraph- UK, By Bee Wilson, February 11, 2007
    Can any Hollywood marriage last? Last year, like every year since celluloid began, had its fair share of 'shocking' movie-star break-ups. Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe, long touted as a relatively normal couple by LA standards, split up after seven years of marriage and two children. So did Kate Hudson and Chris Robinson (six years and one child), and Hilary Swank and Chad Lowe (eight years, several parrots and a Karu dog). . . . . The weird thing about these broken unions is not so much that they don’t last as that we ever expected them to in the first place. As Valentine’s Day approaches, it seems a good time to question our continuing desire to see movie-star relationships as in any sense ideal. . . . The divorces have become nastier, and the mud-slinging ever dirtier. This is, after all, the land of make-believe, which doesn’t mean happy endings; it means lots of people with a slim grip on reality. It should tell us something about Hollywood that the most lifelike relationship portrayed on screen is probably the one between Mr and Mrs Shrek. The real-life stars, by contrast, seem like marionettes in some twisted puppet show. The same destructive patterns repeat themselves over and over; the only variation comes from the small print on the pre-nup. . . .

    RELATED ARTICLE: 
    Short Shelf Life of Celebrity Marriage  BBC News- UK, Sept 16, 2005

  • Uncivil Unions  The American Spectator, By W. James Antle III, February 11, 2007
    What harm is there in redefining marriage to include same-sex partnerships? It's a reasonable question. One might begin to answer by looking at the ongoing Miller-Jenkins v. Miller-Jenkins case, in which a woman may see her biological child taken from her home and placed in the custody of her former lesbian lover. . . . But a new definition of marriage that does not consider childrearing very important is especially likely to subordinate children's interests to adult desires. When a woman with a troubled family history enters into a relationship with another woman and conceives a child with a stranger's sperm, potential difficulties are easy to foresee. Yet an increasing number of states want to rewrite the basic assumptions of the family to accommodate such arrangements. . . .
Uncivil Unions: What harm is there in redefining marriage to include same-sex partnerships? It's a reasonable question.

RELATED ARTICLE:  About Isabella  Washington Post magazine, By April Witt, February 4, 2007


Evelyn Vermouth visits her husband Vernon at the Soldier's Home in Tilton. Photo Credit: Ken Williams / Concord Monitor
  • As bodies falter, love survives
    Bonds often remain for separated couples
      Concord Monitor, By MEG HECKMAN-Monitor staff, February 11, 2007
    They hold hands, laugh, dance to "Crazy" or "To Each His Own." When their visits end, they ride the elevator to the lobby where he kisses her goodbye, leans on his walker and waves as she drives away. This isn't how Vernon and Evelyn Vermouth imagined their seventh decade together: he a resident at the New Hampshire Veterans Home in Tilton and she commuting a half-hour from Bristol to visit each week. They miss the routines of cohabitation, like sharing meals or squabbling over who gets the shower first. But they say that, in many ways, separation has rendered their marriage as pure as courtship. . . . For the Vermouths, who are both 82, living apart has forced them to focus on being together, much like when they first started dating many decades ago. They met in high school at the beginning of World War II, but they didn't get together until after Vernon finished his Army service and returned to their small Vermont town. Around Thanksgiving 1945, he wandered into the jewelry store where Evelyn worked. "We greeted each other. I made the purchase," he said. "She wrapped it. We shook hands and neither one of us let go." . . . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  DOWNEY:  'Until death do you part' ends 39-year marriage covenant (Part 5)   Olean Times Herald- Bradford Publishing (Z-wire.com), By Joe Downey, Sept 09, 2006

RELATED ARTICLE:  DOWNEY: Despite her illness, Ruth Ann hung tight to her Lord’s teaching(Part 4)   Olean Times Herald, By Joe Downey, August 25, 2006

RELATED ARTICLE:  DOWNEY: Marriage series focuses on relationship with Christ, ‘King David complex' (Part 3)  Olean Times Herald, By Joe Downey, August 25, 2006

RELATED ARTICLE:  DOWNEY: Marriage Reflections: A covenant with Christ of 39 years (Part 2)  Olean Times Herald, By Joe Downey, August 18, 2006 

RELATED ARTICLE: DOWNEY: ‘Marriage Reflections’: A look at 39 years of a covenant (Part 1) Olean Times Herald, By Joe Downey, August 12, 2006


  • The truth about the first Cosmo girl  The Daily Mail- UK, February 11, 2007
    . . . . More than three decades after she became Britain's first ever Cosmopolitan cover girl, Julia Crosthwait still possesses that exhilarating blend of sensuality, empowerment and self-assuredness that helped define a generation. But appearances can be deceptive. While Cosmopolitan, which celebrates its 35th anniversary this month, has become ever-more sexually explicit in the name of female equality, Julia's life has unfolded in a very different direction. The Mail on Sunday tracked Julia down to her home in Santa Monica, California. In an exclusive interview, she revealed that, far from being strong, independent and promiscuous, she has had three marriages, shunned drink and drugs and is shocked by the licentiousness of the magazine which helped launch her career. . . . .

    RELATED ARTICLE: 
    Woman to Woman:  Is the trend of unmarried women positive or negative?  Atlanta Journal Constitution (Free Online Subscription), February 1, 2007

    RELATED BLOG:  Finally, The Real Proposal™ magazine BlogSpot!  The Real Proposal magazine BlogSpot, November 19, 2006 
First British Cosmo Model Julis Crosthwait

  • Parenting & Health Issues: Generation Confused
    Cancer vaccines, birth control, emergency contraception -- with all these options, are teens any sexually healthier?
      San Francisco Chronicle, By Heather Boerner, February 11, 2007
    . . . .  "When you have so much stress and emotional baggage around a topic, you're not thinking clearly," said Claire Brindis, who has studied teenage pregnancy in California and is acting director of UCSF's Institute for Health Policy Studies. "There's this gap between the advances of technology and where we are as a society. There are these new technologies -- the availability of Plan B and now the HPV vaccine -- but parents and teenagers themselves have to learn how to navigate in uncharted terrain."  What fills that gap is sexual schizophrenia: lots of flash and little of substance to help teens understand desire and how to navigate the tricky world of first relationships. . . . . A sign of our sexual schizophrenia is how little the worry about teen sex corresponds to what teens are actually doing. A recent study by the New York-based Guttmacher Institute found that teens were waiting longer to have sex in 2002 than they did in 1995, and when they did have sex, they were far more likely to use protection. . . . 

Being single: blessing or a curse?
  • Being single: blessing or a curse?  The Manila Times, By Patricia B. Gatbonton MD, Health News Magazine, February 10, 2007
    I PASSED the big 4-0 milestone and I am single. Still single. Single still. Single. At least people have stopped asking me at weddings, reunions and funerals the embarrassing question, “So, when is it your turn?” My last public humiliation was in 2000 when one of my best girlfriends—one of three who made a pact in medical school to be each other’s bridesmaids—actually called in the favor after 9/11 and before her 40th birthday. I couldn’t believe it, she wanted to beat the deadline saying, “Life is too short, I want to be married before I am 40.” Fortunately, she found a willing groom. . . . For the record, I am single, but not alone. Single, but not necessarily celibate. This is the age of the new millennium spinster, though I prefer Bridget Jones’s term, “singleton.” I am single by choice, not by circumstance. . . The myth: Mr. Right for me versus Mr. Right for now. . . The myth: Marriage is a must. . . .The myth: Marriage a guarantee of happiness. . . .

    RELATED ARTICLE:
      Wedlock Unlocked: Old Rules Are Changing, But Most Still Expect To Join The Club   Hartford Courant, By JOANN KLIMKIEWICZ, Courant Staff Writer, February 14, 2007

  • BOOK REVIEW: 'Waiting for Daisy' by Peggy Orenstein
    The anguish and upheaval that is fertility treatment
      The Los Angeles Times, By Janice P. Nimura, February 9, 2007
    . . . . .  The result, "Waiting for Daisy," is riveting. That ridiculous subtitle ("A Tale of Two Continents, Three Religions, Five Infertility Doctors, an Oscar®, an Atomic Bomb, a Romantic Night and One Woman's Quest to Become a Mother") goes for the cheap thrills and leaves out the anguished heart of the book: the breast cancer diagnosis at 35, the three miscarriages, the relentless cycles of hope and despair, the cracks in her marriage, the persistent fear that it's all her fault for waiting too long. It's no small feat to write a page turner that gives away the ending on the dust jacket, but "Waiting for Daisy" is more than just the Perils of Peggy. Orenstein has written a memoir, a confession, a polemic and a love story all at once, describing the most frantic and confusing period of her life with clarity and candor. . . . .

    RELATED ARTICLE:
     
    The Parent Hood: How technology and social progress are turning procreation into self-actualization.  The Daily Standard, By Claudia Anderson, December 4, 2006

RELATED ARTICLE:  The fertility lottery  Sunday Business Post- Ireland, By Jennifer O'Connell, January 14, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE:  'Embryo Bank' Stirs Ethics Fears: Firm Lets Clients Pick Among Fertilized Eggs  The Washington Post, By Rob Stein, January 6, 2007


Exes Who Remarry Feel Lucky For Second Chance; Some Divorced Couples Give Marriage Another Shot.
  • Exes Who Remarry Feel Lucky For Second Chance
    Some Divorced Couples Give Marriage Another Shot
      10News.com, February 9, 2007
    For Pepper and Ron Miller, divorce was the best thing to happen to their marriage. The pair wed in 1988, split in 1996 and then tied the knot again in 2001. They say being married the second time around has been healthier and more stable thanks to the time they spent apart. . . . . It's not just celebrity couples who get hitched again after a well-publicized break, though there have been plenty of those. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton did it in 1975, but split a year later. . . .  There are no statistics on how many people remarry their exes, or how many of those remarriages succeed. But nearly half of first marriages in the United States end in divorce, and more than 60 percent of second marriages do. So what compels couples to try again?. . . . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  Make marriage No. 2 -- and the finances -- work  MSN Money- Moneycentral.com, By Janine Latus Musick, Aug 11, 2005


  • Australia Rejects Same-Sex Marriage Bill  247Gay.com, February 9, 2007
    Federal government in Australia said no to a proposal that would allow gay marriage. The government was worried minors would get married under the bill, according to Attorney General Philip Ruddock. This is the second time the Commonwealth has rejected the Australian Capital Territory Bill. The first time was last June. The reason the government gave that time was that they were concerned it would ruin marriage as an institution. The Australian Capital Territory government changed the bill’s phrasing—using the words “civil partnership instead of “civil union”—but that did not change the mind of the Attorney General. . . . .  Mr. Ruddock was especially disturbed by the fact that children under 18 would have been allowed to get married under this bill. . . . .

    RELATED ARTICLE:
     Australia capital district civil union law blocked for second time   JURIST, By Katerina Ossenova, February 6, 2007

  • Marriage is for the kids? Okay, then require them
    This ‘DOMA’ thumbs its nose at a ruling against same-sex vows
      Gay People's Chronicle. By Anthony Glassman, February 9, 2007
    --Last July, the Washington State Supreme Court upheld laws restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples, citing procreation as the foundation of marriage. Advocates for same-sex marriage are taking the ruling one step further, gathering signatures for a ballot initiative to require that married couples have children. The Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance, whose DOMA initials are a play on “Defense of Marriage Act,” introduced Initiative 957, which would add the phrase “who are capable of having children with one another” to the state’s definition of marriage. It would also require married couples to have children within three years or have their marriages automatically annulled. . . . .
Marriage is for the kids? Okay, then require them.

RELATED ARTICLE:  'Absurd' Measure Would Require Couples to Have Kids  Christian Post, By Rachel La Corte, February 7, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE:  Ending Childless Marriage As We Know It  The American Spectator, By Robert VerBruggen, February 8, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE:   
The Homosexual Assault On Traditional Marriage Townhall.com, By Ben Shapiro, February 07, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE: 
Gay Marriage Advocates Don’t Want Tolerance, They Want Their Lifestyles to Become Mainstream  BlackAmericaWeb.com, By Joseph C. Phillips, November 07, 2006


  • Just the Facts
    More mainstream media cover gay issues, but with mixed results
      The New York Blade, By KEVIN NAFF, February 09, 2007

    KEEPING TABS ON mainstream media coverage of gay issues is becoming a full-time job as gay visibility increases and more outlets devote time and space to our plight. Two recent examples illustrate ways in which old-school journalists and online upstarts still get our stories wrong. A Washington Blade reader e-mailed an interesting tidbit last week. It seems there’s been a debate raging over at Wikipedia about the biographical entry for openly closeted CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. . . . The reality is that without speculation, we wouldn’t know about the sexual orientation of a great many notable people. But times have changed and laws have changed. No one is going to charge Anderson Cooper with sodomy if he comes out. And the point of my original editorial wasn’t so much to “out” anyone, it was to highlight how ridiculous and insulting it is for rich, famous, successful people to refuse to answer “the question.” No straight person denies being straight. .  . . .

What Does the Future Hold for Dannielynn?
  • What Does the Future Hold for Dannielynn?  Entertainment Tonight, February 8, 2007
    Now that five-month-old little DANNIELYNN HOPE has lost her mother, ANNA NICOLE SMITH, what will happen to the infant?  The tiny baby girl has been in the center of a heated paternity battle in recent months -- both LARRY BIRKHEAD, who claims to have had a relationship with the former TRIMSPA spokesperson, and Anna's partner, HOWARD K. STERN, claim to be Dannielynn's father. In the latest development in this story, an emergency hearing has been scheduled for 8:30 Friday morning in Los Angeles. Birkhead's attorney, DEBRA OPRI, has requested an immediate DNA test on Anna Nicole's body.  Just the day before Anna's death, a judge in Los Angeles had set a deadline of February 21 for a DNA test to determine the baby's paternity.  Now that her mother has died, will either man obtain custody of the little girl?. . . . .

    RELATED ARTICLE: 
    The end of a party girl  The Sydney Morning Herald, By Ben Cubby and Emily Dunn, February 10, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE:  Pop icon's life was a mess Americans loved to watch: Anna Nicole Smith was never offstage  The Tennessean, By ANN OLDENBURG- USA Today, February 7, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE:  Anna Nicole Smith Dead  People magazine, By Howard Breuer, Wendy Grossman and Jon Warech, February 8, 2007

SEE RELATED TRIBUTE: 
Larry Birkhead Posts Online Tribute to Anna Nicole

RELATED COVERAGE:  Anna Nocole Smith  People Magazine

RELATED ARTICLE:  A story of modern celebrity: The trials of Anna Nicole  The Independent Online- UK, By David Usborne, September 30, 2006


  • Rev. Ted Haggard Heterosexual -- Total  The Conservative Voice, By Grant Swank, February 08, 2007
    "Forced by a gay sex scandal to resign as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, the Rev. Ted Haggard now feels that after three weeks of intensive counseling, he is ‘completely heterosexual,’ says an overseer of the megachurch Mr. Haggard once led," per Neela Banerjee of The New York Times. Haggard has been so caught up in his own ego that now to preserve his presence as well as marriage and family he will claim "healing by Jesus." He’s into the usual quick-fix healing mode of untold numbers in evangelical Protestantism. Yes, Jesus as God incarnate can heal instantly. And He does. However, it is one grandstand punch for Haggard to be healed of homosexuality in three weeks of counseling. Many won’t believe it any more than they believed Jim and Tammy Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart and countless Roman Catholic priests who claimed to be something they weren’t. . . . . .
Rev. Ted Haggard Heterosexual -- Total.

RELATED ARTICLE:  Mike Jones responds to Ted Haggard's announcement of his heterosexuality   Page One-Q, By David Edwards and Michael Rogers, February 7, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE:  The tragedy of Ted Haggard    Houston  Chronicle- Blue Bayou Blog, By John Whiteside, Nov 10, 2006

RELATED ARTICLE:  10 Ways to Lift Yourself Up When a Spiritual Leader Lets You Down Beliefnet.com- NY, By Valerie Reiss, Nov 9, 2006

RELATED ARTICLE:  Signs of a Restorable Spirit: What are the tangible evidences of repentance?  Christianity Today, Posted by Marshall Shelley, Nov 8, 2006


Astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak_ Orange County Sheriff's Department File Photo
  • Other Man's Mother: Nowak Broke Up My Son's Marriage  FOX News- NY Post.com,  By JEANE MacINTOSH in Houston, LORENA MONGELLI in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and LUKAS I. ALPERT in New York, February 08, 2007
    —  The star-crossed space cadet who allegedly made it her mission to murder the woman dating her Cape Canaveral crush helped break up his 17-year marriage, his former mother-in-law said yesterday. Shuttle pilot Bill Oefelein's ex-wife's mom claimed yesterday that Lisa Nowak's gravitations toward the flyboy caused his marriage to crash and burn in 2005. She said their relationship devastated his wife, Michaella, who filed for divorce. . . . Nowak, 43, is charged with trying to kidnap and kill Oefelein's new flame, NASA worker and Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman, 30. Although Davis did not say her son-in-law was having an affair with Nowak, she strongly hinted that an inappropriate relationship had begun between the two married astronauts. . . . .

    RELATED PHOTO ESSAY:
      Bizarre Astronaut Love Triangle  FOX News, February 8, 2007

  • Observers: Astronaut Lisa Nowak Suffered 'Mental Anguish' Over Career, Love Life  FOX News.com, February 8, 2007
    Anyone who's read Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff" or seen the movie based on it knows about the mental and emotional stresses astronauts face as they train for space travel. But those trying to explain the apparent breakdown of Lisa Nowak say the pressure can be even higher for female astronauts, who not only face the same work stresses as their male counterparts but often face high expectations at home.  "They made more sacrifices than the 'Right Stuff' guys," said Dr. Jon Clark, a former NASA flight surgeon who lost his wife, astronaut Laurel Clark, in the 2003 Columbia disaster. "They have to balance two careers — to be a mom and wife and an astronaut. ... You don't come home at night, like most of the male astronauts, and have everything ready for you." . . . . .




RELATED ARTICLE:  SPACED INVADER 'BROKE UP' MARRIAGE OF FELLOW ASTRO  New York Post, February 8, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE:  Astronaut's Family Speaks Out  People magazine Cover Story, February 7, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE: 
'Lust in Space' Astronaut Nowak Returns to Texas; Family Says Actions Are 'Out of Character' 
FOX News.com, February 7, 2007


Skeletal embrace discovered in Mantua, Northern Italy_ Eternal Love?
  • Yes, love can be eternal  The Daily Mail, By Sally Emerson, February 8, 2007
    Well, we know about the Taj Mahal as an image of eternal love. We know about the heart-snatching beauty of Rodin's sculpture The Kiss, two marble bodies clasped in a timeless embrace, for ever holding each other, for ever in ecstasy. We know about Romeo and Juliet dying together near Juliet's tomb, to rapturous poetry. But now we have a new image which tells us something about the power of love: that of a young man and a woman discovered in Mantua, Northern Italy. The tenderness in the photograph of two lovers embracing each other in death is strangely uplifting. They died more than 5,000 years ago. . . . What a Valentine's gift for us all from the past, reminding us that, in the words of King Solomon's Song Of Songs, 'love is as strong as death . . . Many waters cannot quench love, no flood can sweep it away; if a man were to offer for love the whole wealth of his house, it would be utterly scorned.' . . .

  • Americans Love Marriage. But Why?  Time magazine, By John Cloud, February 8, 2007
    Just in time for our annual ritualistic exchange of chocolates for sex on Feb. 14, the New York Times brings this lonely news: 51% OF WOMEN ARE NOW LIVING WITHOUT SPOUSE. The story has been thoroughly blogged, and readers have been dutifully reminded of all the usual statistics suggesting that marriage is threatened in the U.S., an abiding worry of some social commentators at least since the '70s.  But many of those statistics are commonly misread. If you look at the raw data, it's clear that while Americans aren't marrying at the Ozzie and Harriet rates of the 1950s, marriage faces no dire threat today. . . . .Let's start with the basic health of the institution: Americans still love matrimony. We spend more than $50 billion a year on weddings. As the National Marriage Project at Rutgers in New Jersey has pointed out, "More than 90% of women have married eventually in every generation for which records exist, going back to the mid-1800s." Even the most extreme predictions for the current generation of women say that at least 4 in 5 will marry. . . . . 



  • The Homosexual Assault On Traditional Marriage Townhall.com, By Ben Shapiro, February 07, 2007
    There are those who do not believe that the institution of marriage is under assault. There are those who do not believe that same-sex marriage is a knowing attempt to undermine the nature of marriage. There are those who do not believe that many homosexuals bear a particular animus for heterosexual marriage, and have designs beyond mere tolerance. Then there are those of us who live in the real world. In Washington, proponents of same-sex marriage, under the banner of the falsely named Defense of Marriage Alliance, have proposed a state ballot initiative that would require straight married couples to have children within three years or face annulment. "For many years, social conservatives have claimed that marriage exists solely for the purpose of procreation," explained DOMA organizer Gregory Gadow. "The time has come for these conservatives to be dosed with their own medicine. If same-sex couples should be barred from marriage because they cannot have children together, it follows that all couples who cannot or will not have children together should equally be barred from marriage." . . . . .


  • Despite Media Reports to the Contrary, the Death of Marriage Has Been Greatly Exaggerated  BlackAmericaWeb.com, By: Joseph C. Phillips, February 06, 2007
    . . . . Indeed, after sifting through the testimonials of single or divorced women that are enjoying their lives sans mate, you discover that, although in smaller numbers than in years previous, the majority of women (as opposed to teenagers) are married. In fact, once you discover that the Census estimates that 90 percent of women will get married, it becomes clear that the Times report of the demise of marriage was greatly exaggerated. . . . . And this is what really irks: Like so much else, the progressive left pushes forth this medicine they prescribe for the rest of us that they do not themselves imbibe. Even according to the figures reported in the Times, all this single woman bliss is primarily concentrated among black and brown women. Only 30 percent of black women and 49 percent of Hispanic women are living with a spouse, compared with 55 percent of non-Hispanic white women and more than 60 percent of Asian women. Combine that with a 70 percent illegitimacy rate among black women and a 45 percent and rapidly climbing illegitimacy rate among Hispanic women, and one might be inclined to ask those on the cultural left, how’s all this deconstruction working out?


  • Parenting Issues:  Are some youngsters simply born to be bad?   The Daily Mail- UK, By JAMES ASHCROFT -February 4, 2007
    Disruptive and aggressive children are often born that way, scientists claim. A study has found that behavioural problems are imprinted in a child's DNA. The findings overturn conventional thinking on the nature versus nurture debate. In recent years, the prevailing view has been that the environment in which children are brought up dictates how they interact with their peers. But the study concluded that naughty youngsters aren't simply copying behaviour they may have been subjected to at home. Instead, traits such as bullying, lying, or being argumentative could be passed on in the genes. . . .
Are some youngsters simply born to be bad?

  • About Isabella  Washington Post magazine, By April Witt, February 4, 2007
    Janet Jenkins and Lisa Miller got hitched and had a baby together. Vermont says that's a simple truth. Virginia said it was all null and void. The future of a little girl hangs in the balance. . . . . Unlike most warring couples, however, the once hopeful and happy Miller-Jenkinses are at the center of a high-stakes, ideologically charged legal dispute waged across several courtrooms in two states. On one side are lawyers who are leading gay-rights activists; on the other are legal combatants for a conservative Christian foundation associated with Jerry Falwell. These lawyers are sifting through every detail of the Miller-Jenkinses' lives -- from how Isabella was conceived to who burped the baby. They are not fighting over the mundane detritus of love lost: Who gets the house? Who gets stuck with the old car? Who is on the hook for braces should Isabella require them? They are debating questions so profound that the answers have the power to affect legions of families gay and straight: Who is a parent? Who has the legal rights of a parent?. . . . .

Barack Obama celebrates with his wife Michelle and their daughters at their election night headquarters in Chicago Illinois
  • Obama prepares to unveil secret weapon The Telegraph- UK, By Toby Harnden in Washington, February 4, 2007
    Her admirers believe she combines the poise of Jackie Kennedy with the brain of Hillary Clinton and the uncomplicated charm of Laura Bush. Many Democrats believe she will be a powerful asset to her husband's presidential campaign. Michelle Obama, educated at Princeton and Harvard Law School, is described by friends as Senator Barack Obama's "true north". Her salary is twice his and she still spends most of her week looking after the couple's daughters Malia, eight, and Sasha, five, at their Chicago home. The Obama campaign is preparing to introduce the woman who could become America's first black First Lady to the nation as soon as her husband formally announces his candidacy at a rally in Illinois a week today. Some advisers view Mrs Obama as the campaign's secret weapon. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  Senator Barack and Michelle Obama: America's Next First Couple?  BlackNews.com- Press release, January 9, 2007


  • Girl's sexuality is personal property  The Milford Daily News, By Betsy Hart/Syndicated columnist, February 03, 2007
    Years ago a dear young friend of mine married and at the reception her mother-in-law commented to me how thrilled she was to have learned that her new son's new bride was a virgin. I remember making a note to myself: Never get or share information about the "history" of my children's' betrothed. Recently I wrote about "experts" who essentially applauded even very young girls "dressing provocatively, dancing seductively and posting salacious photos on social networking (Web) sites" because, in doing so, the girls were showing their "confidence." I commented that these folks were more than a little out of touch with reality, and I bemoaned the hyper-sexualization of our youth. Fast forward again. Glamour Magazine this month reports on the growing popularity among some evangelical Christians of so-called "purity balls," apparently now the cutting edge of the teen abstinence movement. . . . .

    RELATED ARTICLE:
     
    Would you pledge your virginity to your father?  Glamour magazine, By Jennifer Baumgardner, January 2007 Issue

    SEE RELATED VIDEO:  CARENET PURITY
At 'Purity Balls' all over America, young girls pledge to remain virgins until marriage.

RELATED ARTICLE:  Study: Abstinence pledges may trigger risky sexual behavior  USA Today, March 18, 2005

RELATED ARTICLE & STUDY: 
Teens Who Make Virginity Pledges Have Substantially Improved Life Outcomes  The Heritage Foundation- Center for Data Analysis, By Robert E. Rector, Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D., and Jennifer A. Marshall, September 21, 2004


Katie Holmes_Harper's Bazaar March 2007 Cover.jpg


  • Heche's Hubby Files for Divorce  E!Online, By Natalie Finn, February 2, 2007
    Coley Laffoon wants some of that Men in Trees money. The cameraman filed for divorce from Anne Heche Thursday, nine days after the couple confirmed that they had broken up after more than five years of marriage. Laffoon cited, wonder of wonders, irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split, according to court documents filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. Heche, meanwhile, has already been linked to Men in Trees costar James Tupper, who is also recently single, having parted ways with his wife in November. . . .
Anne Heche_Coley Laffoon_1.jpg

RELATED ARTICLE:  Ellen's Ex, Anne Heche, Splits From Husband   365Gay.com- AP, January 27, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE:
Anne Heche's New Romance! Entertainment Tonight Online, January 25, 2007


RELATED ARTICLE:  Heche Memoir Toes 'Ex-Gay' Party Line  365Gay.com, September 13, 2006

RELATED WEB SITE:  Exodus International- The largest information and referral ministry in the world addressing homosexual issues


Same sex partners Mary Cheney_Heather Poe
  • Mary Cheney defends same-sex parenthood
    Vice president's lesbian daughter says baby not 'prop'
      San Francisco Chronicle, By Katharine Q. Seelye- New York Times, February 2, 2007
    -- Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, has for the first time publicly defended her decision to become pregnant and asserted that same-sex couples were equally capable of raising children as heterosexual couples. . . . She then gestured to her middle -- any bulge was disguised by a boxy jacket -- and asserted: "This is a baby. This is a blessing from God. It is not a political statement. It is not a prop to be used in a debate by people on either side of an issue. It is my child." Cheney, 37, was speaking Wednesday at Barnard College in Manhattan in a panel discussion sponsored by Glamour magazine. . . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  Mary Cheney’s pregnancy is, indeed, political  PopMatters, By Andrea Lewis-Progressive Media Project, February 11, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE:  Mary Cheney makes big news at Glamour’s event  Glamour magazine, February 2007

RELATED ARTICLE:  Who's Your Daddy? My Father Was an Anonymous Sperm Donor  The Washington Post, By Katrina Clark, December 17, 2006

RELATED ARTICLE: Two Mommies Is One Too Many. Mary Cheney is starting a family. Let's hope she doesn't start a trend   Time magazine, By JAMES C. DOBSON, December 10, 2006

RELATED ARTICLE:  It's a Cheney! Reality Is a Blessed Event   The Washington Post, By Ruth Marcus, December 8, 2006

RELATED ARTICLE:  The Revolution in Parenthood: The Emerging Global Clash Between Adult Rights and Children's Needs   AmericanValues.org


  • Michigan Court: No Same-Sex Benefits
    Mich. Court: Gay Partners Can't Get Benefits From Public Universities, Government Agencies
      ABC News- AP, By David Eggert, February 2, 2007

    — Michigan's ban on gay marriage also blocks public universities and state and local governments from providing health insurance benefits to the partners of gay workers, the state Court of Appeals ruled Friday. A three-judge panel cited the language of a 2004 voter-approved constitutional amendment making the union between a man and woman the only agreement recognized as a marriage "or similar union for any purpose." . . . .

    RELATED ARTICLE: 
    Appeal likely in gay case: Battle looms in ruling against same-sex benefits   Detroit Free Press, BY DAWSON BELL and FRANK WITSIL, February 3, 2007


  • Israel recognizes first 'gay marriage'; Hawaii legislators may pass civil unions bill; ...  Baptist Press, By Michael Foust, Feb 2, 2007
    --Israel registered its first "gay marriage" Jan. 29, two months after the nation's highest court issued a landmark ruling for homosexual couples. Binyamin and Avi Rose, two homosexual men from Israel, became the first couple to have their marriage license recognized, the Jerusalem Post reported. They "married" in Canada last June. The November decision by the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the country to recognize "gay marriages" from other countries, such as Canada and Spain. Although the ruling didn't allow same-sex couples to get "married" within Israel's borders, it nonetheless put the country at odds with other nations such as the United States and Great Britain, neither of which recognizes foreign "gay marriages.". . . .

  • Clerk protests gay marriage ban
    Activists hail symbolic move in Yolo; critics decry 'stunt'
      Sacramento Bee- CA, By Jim Sanders, February 2, 2007
    In a slap at California's ban on gay marriage, the elected official who oversees civil marriages in Yolo County will distribute "certificates of inequality" to same-sex couples on Valentine's Day. Freddie Oakley, Yolo's clerk-recorder, said she designed the certificates herself as a way to ease her soul over having to deny marriage licenses to gays and lesbians. . . . The constitutionality of California's current law banning gay marriage is pending before the state Supreme Court.  Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, recently reintroduced legislation to legalize gay marriage after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the idea in 2005. Critics blasted Oakley for planning to distribute from a public building -- her Woodland office -- a document that criticizes state law. . . . .
Yolo County Clerk-Recorder Freddie Oakley.jpg

RELATED ARTICLE:  Madison OKs swearing-in statement protesting gay marriage ban  Pioneer Press- AP, By RYAN J. FOLEY, January 17, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE: 
Don't tamper with oath of office   Wisconsin State Journal- Editorial, January 14, 2007


Stan_Stella Hegarty_Europe's First Christian Sex Shop Founders.jpg
  • Holy inappropriate! Britain's first Christian sex shop  The Daily Mail, By JENNY JOHNSTON, February 2, 2007
    Divine inspiration can strike at unlikely moments. Stan Hegarty was outside - painting the decking, no less - when God spoke to him. He ran indoors to tell Stella, his wife of ten years, what God had said. Stella's first reaction was to wonder if her nice, respectable husband was having some sort of mid-life crisis. Little wonder. The Hegartys would commonly be regarded as "churchy people". . . . . "That night we went over all my reservations and I found myself thinking maybe Stan was right. "Sex is a huge part of marriage, and to simply ignore that is asking for trouble. By the next day, we were talking seriously about it. Now here we are." Here we are indeed, three years on, and well down the path that God supposedly suggested. The stockroom of Wholly Love - the Hegartys' rather unholy business venture - is filled with boxes of things called Please Teasers and Wiggle Wands. The place is awash, so to speak, with Lust Dust and Candy Panties and kits that promise 'screaming orgasms'. . . . .

    RELATED SITE:  WhollyLove: Products and resources celebrating God's fantastic gift of sex within marriage

RELATED ARTICLE:  One preacher's message: Have hotter sex  MSNBC.com- America Unzipped,  By Brian Alexander, December 4, 2006

RELATED ARTICLE:  Tupperware parties with a twist:  Sex toys are for sale at these ladies-only gatherings  MSNBC.com- America Unzipped, By Brian Alexander, Oct 15, 2006


  • EDITORIAL: What was he thinking?  San Francisco Chronicle, February 2, 2007
    MAYOR Gavin Newsom's affair with his appointments secretary would have represented a horrible lapse in judgment even if she weren't married -- and even if her husband had not been a longtime friend of Newsom who dedicated his considerable professional skills to helping advance the mayor's career. The aggravating factors -- betrayal of a friend, violation of one of the most fundamental rules of the workplace -- assure that the sordid episode will damage Newsom's stature even in a city with famously tolerant attitudes about sex. The mayor, who likes to quote from his voluminous collection of the latest "best practices" books on business management, seems to have missed Lesson One from sexual harassment training: Avoid intimate relationships with subordinates. . . . .


  • AIDE QUITS AS NEWSOM'S AFFAIR WITH HIS WIFE IS REVEALED
    Campaign manager confronts mayor, who is 'in shock'
     
      San Francisco Chronicle, By Phil Matier, Andrew Ross, Cecilia M. Vega, Chronicle Staff Writers, Feb 1, 2007
    San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's re-election campaign manager resigned Wednesday after confronting the mayor about an affair Newsom had with his wife while she worked in the mayor's office, City Hall sources said. Alex Tourk, 39, who served as Newsom's deputy chief of staff before becoming his campaign manager in September, confronted the mayor after his wife, Ruby Rippey-Tourk, told him of the affair as part of a rehabilitation program she had been undergoing for substance abuse, said the sources, who had direct knowledge of Wednesday's meeting. Rippey-Tourk, 34, was the mayor's appointments secretary from the start of his administration in 2004 until last spring. . . . .
Newsom-Tourk Sex Scandal Triangle.jpg

RELATED ARTICLE: See Text of Mayor Gavin Newsom's statement at his news conference   February 2, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE & VIDEO: 
Newsom Admits Affair With Campaign Manager's Wife   CBS5.com February 1, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE: 
Adultery Is Killing the American Family The Conservative Voice, By Nathan Tabor, Sept 22, 2005


Silvio Berlusconi_Wife Veronica.jpg
  • Rome Journal: Berlusconi Flirts. His Wife’s Fed Up. Read All About It.  New York Times (Free Online Subscription), By IAN FISHER, February 1, 2007
    — “Dear Editor,” began a letter published Wednesday on the front page of La Repubblica, the newspaper that Silvio Berlusconi hates most. The scalding letter demanded an apology from Mr. Berlusconi for flirting publicly — and it was signed by his wife. And so, a nation bored and a little down at its return to semi-normal politics woke to a juicy news cycle with an inescapable conclusion: in or out of power, Mr. Berlusconi may behave reprehensibly, but Italy cannot keep its eyes off him. . . . . It turns out that the 70-year-old former prime minister, whose own heart now beats with a pacemaker, attended an awards ceremony last week and was overly friendly with two young and beautiful guests. . . . . . . There seemed little question here that Ms. Lario’s letter deserved its spot on the front page. “It would be like Hillary Clinton asks for the public apology from Bill Clinton,” said Ezio Mauro, La Repubblica’s top editor. . . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  Sent With a Kiss: Italians are agog over a sex spat involving their former first couple. Could the Berlusconis have a broader agenda?   Newsweek International Edition, By Barbie Nadeau, February 2, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE: 
Berlusconi spat with wife--melodrama, Italian style  Washington Post, By Philip Pullella, February 1, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE: 
ITALY: MYSTERY SURROUNDS BERLUSCONI'S CONJUGAL SPAT  AKI- Italy, February 1, 2007


RELATED ARTICLE:  The Berlusconi guide to marital harmony   BBC News Magazine, By Megan Lane, February 1, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE:  Meanwhile: Straying isn't what it used to be, Silvio   International Herald Tribune, By Pamela Druckerman, February 2, 2007


  • Separate and unequal  WorldNetDaily, By Rebecca Hagelin, February 1, 2007
    One of the most critical values my husband and I try to teach our three teenagers is the importance and joy of marriage. After my desire for my children to be at peace and have a personal relationship with their Creator, my second greatest desire is that they would one day be happily married and raise children of their own. Why? Because I know the joy of this great blessing, and because I've seen the pain and heartache of divorce, out-of-wedlock births and single parenting. Yet our modern culture refuses to spread the truth because it is politically incorrect. . . . . How many single-mother families will you find living below the poverty line? According to Hymowitz, 36 percent – more than one out of every three. How many married couples? Only 6 percent, or about one out of every 20. That's a huge difference – one that Americans need to hear about. But good luck finding any class-warfaring politician who will admit this crucial factor. . . .

  • Civilization of love’ or ‘culture of death'  The Pilot- MA, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, February 1, 2007
    . . . . A recent article in the British news magazine, The Economist, indicates the present demographic crisis in the West. In the European community there is a 1.4 fertility rate -- that means that in five years deaths will outnumber births. The most prosperous areas have less children. The fertility rate in Italy and Spain is 1.2, that translates into a population in 20 years to half of what it is today. And the typical citizen will have no brothers and sisters, no cousins, no aunts and uncles. The British news magazine went on to say that our situation in the United States is better because Americans are more devout -- we are churchgoers and churchgoers get married and have families. The churches in the United States are family friendly and nurture family life. They even quote Hilary Clinton, “It takes a village to raise a child,” but they added the Church is that village. I like that. I believe it is true. One of the reasons the Church defends marriage in the face of divorce, cohabitation and redefinition of marriage by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is that marriage and family are the sanctuary of life and when that sanctuary is violated, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, real happiness, society itself is at risk. . . . .

Goodbye bended knee: The modern marriage proposal must be a public spectacle.
  • Goodbye bended knee: The modern marriage proposal must be a public spectacle  MercuryNews.com, By Nara Schoenberg-Chicago Tribune, February 1, 2007
    Forget candlelight dinners.  In the 21st Century, nothing says romance like an intimate moment shared with millions of perfect strangers. Just ask J.P., the anonymous blogger who says he has raised more than $70,000 in his quest to obtain Super Bowl ad time to propose to his girlfriend. Or Ian Johnson, the Boise State University running back who proposed to his cheerleader girlfriend on national television, shortly after scoring the game-winning two-point conversion against Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. Or the six men popping the question in the February issue of Essence magazine. . . . Public proposals aren't for everyone -- some women aren't interested in, say, a particular sports event or they may just want an intimate evening for two. But Bratten at Brides magazine says that, in an age when 60 percent of couples live together before marrying, it makes sense that men are seeking a dramatic way to mark the beginning of a new stage of life. . . .

RELATED SITE:  My Super Proposal: The most public declaration of love in the history of mankind

RELATED ARTICLE:  Will You Marry Me?  ESSENCE magazine, February 2007 Issue

RELATED ARTICLE:  Popping the question in print  Hattiesburg American, By Matt Katz, February 9, 2007


  • Woman to Woman:  Is the trend of unmarried women positive or negative?  Atlanta Journal Constitution (Free Online Subscription), February 1, 2007
    Diane Glass, a left-leaning columnist, writes the commentary this week and Shaunti Feldhahn, a right-leaning columnist, responds:
    Diane Glass: . . . . According to Cosmopolitan Magazine, and nearly every other woman’s magazine, women are supposed to care. They’re expected to read article upon article about how to keep a man, seduce a man, and have sex with a man. And if they aren’t sure about what to do with a man, there’s always a quiz to find out more about how you feel in relationship to a man. It’s really unfortunate that single women are stereotyped as cat-owning lonely hearts, dependent on the Oxygen channel as their only defense against utter despair. Because, well, this just isn’t true anymore. . . .

    Shaunti Feldhahn: . . . . Honestly, the marital trend that is the most negative for women in America is the constant attack of marriage by dissenters. As I’ve said many times in this space, nearly every reputable study demonstrates that marriage as an institution — and as a place for personal commitment and intimacy — protects and enhances the lives of women and children more than any other factor.  So much so, in fact, that Diane isn’t even right about finances being the primary appeal. . . . 

    RELATED ARTICLE: 
    Women don't want men? Ha!  Chicago Tribune, By Jeffery M. Leving and Glenn Sacks, January 21, 2007

  • Here, women propose marriage and men can't refuse  CNN.com- AP, February 1, 2007
    ORANGO ISLAND, Guinea-Bissau (AP) -- He was 14 when the girl entered his grass-covered hut and placed a plate in front of him containing an ancient recipe. Like all men on this African isle, Carvadju Jose Nananghe knew exactly what it meant. Refusing was not an option. His heart pounding, he lifted the steaming fish to his lips, agreeing in one bite to marry the girl. "I had no feelings for her," said Nananghe, now 65. "Then when I ate this meal, it was like lightning. I wanted only her.". . . .
Orango Island, Africa: It is the women that make their proposals public by offering their grooms-to-be a dish of distinctively prepared fish, the equivalent of a man offering a woman a diamond ring. Photo credit: Rebecca Blackwell, AP



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