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"MARRIAGE" In The News
(July 2005) |
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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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- Parenting Issues: Reviving middle-class
values Townhall.com, By Suzanne Fields,
July 28, 2005
Mom reckoned that the decline of middle-class
morality began with declining public fashion, with allowing
children to wear flip-flops and cut-off jeans to school. She didn't
advocate uniforms or strict dress codes, but she thought that how
you dressed inevitably told a lot about your character. Like
everyone else in her generation, she believed in appropriate dress
for specific occasions... Pop culture appeals to the lowest
common denominator, and the "bourgeois values" of the middle class
are always "dissed." This poses a problem for young people, black
or white... The appeal to the lowest common denominator is
particularly damaging to kids in a black ghetto, where everything
bourgeois is part of the "acting white syndrome." . .
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- Our guests didn't give wedding
gifts - they sent deprived kids on holiday! Glasgow
Evening Times- UK, July 28, 2005
A GENEROUS couple have made it possible for
25 deprived children to have a holiday - by asking their wedding
guests to donate to charity... The couple raised 1,300 pounds,
which is enough to pay for 25 children from deprived areas to enjoy
a holiday. Sue, 42, said: "We already have a home and didn't need
any wedding presents so decided we wanted our celebration to help
others... We wrote to our guests telling them a bit about the
scheme and some of the stories we had been told about children who
had benefited. ....
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- Marriage as
learned behavior: Can divorce be foretold? Seattle
Times- US, By Kyung M. Song, July 27, 2005
It may sound like a conservative's marriage
manifesto: Pick a partner with a similar background, don't shack up
without an engagement ring and stick with even a lifeless
marriage for your kids' sake. But following that creed could avert
divorce, which, statistics show, can be perilous to your health.
Researchers have persuasively linked certain demographic and
socioeconomic factors — many of which you can't control — with
higher odds of marital breakup. Your race, occupation, income, age
at first wedding, the length of courtship and whether you have
children from previous relationships all can preordain the success
of your marriage even before the "I dos.". . . Did your parents
divorce? Your own marriage is twice as likely to end that way than
if you grew up in an intact family. Do you and your spouse practice
different religions? Chances are your marriage won't endure as well
as those of couples who worship together. . .
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- Medical costs,
divorce, job loss, plus credit cards equals
bankruptcy
Knoxville
Metro Pulse- TN, July 27, 2005
...A joint
Harvard Medical School/Harvard Law School study of personal
bankruptcies in 2004 concluded that 48 percent of those filings
were driven by medical bills... A separate, unrelated survey
by the Institute for Southern Studies in Durham, N.C. reported that
seven southern states are among the 15 states with the highest
rates of personal bankruptcy, and that 90 percent of all
bankruptcies are driven by medical bills, job loss or
divorce... “If I had one thing I’d emphasize, it
would be this: You can’t borrow your way out of debt,” says Judge
Thomas Stinnett, the bankruptcy judge in the Chattanooga federal
court. Judge Marcia Parsons of the Greeneville bankruptcy court,
seconds that sentiment, but goes on to explain that the causes of
bankruptcy are “exceedingly complicated,” and no two are alike. In
her court, she says, “We do see quite a few medical bills, but
that’s not the whole story—a lot of credit-card debt, some of it to
pay medical bills; job loss; and lots of divorce.” Filings often
occur “six months before, or six months after,
divorces.”....
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- Renee Zellweger's marriage
crisis FemaleFirst.co.uk- UK, July 27,
2005
Renee Zellweger's marriage to Kenny Chesney
is said to be in crisis - after a string of arguments. Friends say
chances of the pair - who
married after a whirlwind four month romance - making their first
anniversary is virtually non existent. . . The beautiful actress is
reportedly worried Kenny is too controlling and has told pals they
were "practically strangers" on their wedding day. A source
revealed: "Renee had never even see him lose his temper before the
wedding, but now they're married he seems to think he can tell her
what to do. "He doesn't like her hanging out with friends and wants
to get her away from LA. . . .
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- Why Our Black Families Are
Failing
Washington
Post- US, By William Raspberry, July 25, 2005
"There is a crisis of unprecedented magnitude
in the black community, one that goes to the very heart of its
survival. The black family is failing."... What is
happening to the black family in America is the sociological
equivalent of global warming: easier to document than to reverse,
inconsistent in its near-term effect -- and disastrous in the long
run. Father absence is the bane of the black
community, predisposing its children (boys especially, but
increasingly girls as well) to school failure, criminal behavior
and economic hardship, and to an intergenerational repetition of
the grim cycle. The culprit, the ministers (led by the Rev. Eugene
Rivers III of Boston, president of the Seymour Institute) agreed,
is the decline of marriage...
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- Same-sex couples
warned to be careful abroad CBC
News-Canada, July 25, 2005
Same-sex marriage
may be legal in Canada, but Ottawa is warning gay and lesbian
couples to be aware of cultural – and legal – differences
abroad... the federal Consular Affairs website has a
reminder that, in some countries, homosexuality is still against
the law.The penalties if convicted in these jurisdictions can range
from prison terms, to fines, lashings, deportation, or even death.
Right now, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands are the only other
countries to officially sanction same-sex marriages...
- NZ should follow Australia and
codify Marriage law Scoop.co.nz (press
release)- New Zealand, July 24, 2005
New Zealand should follow Australia and
codify common law on Marriage... "If the Australian Labor
Party and Liberal Party can unite together and legislate to remove
the doubt over the common law position on marriage; that it is
between one man and one woman-why won't New Zealand?" asks Maxim
Institute Policy Manager Nicki Taylor... On 13 August 2004 the
Australian Senate voted 38 to 6 in favour of the Marriage
Legislation Amendment Bill. In a rare move, both major parties
agreed to codify the common law in legislation, so that the Courts
could not redefine marriage...
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- United States Urged to Learn From Canada’s
Homsexual “Marriage Disaster
Lifesite- Canada, LifeSiteNews.com, July 22, 2005
– In 1999 the Liberal majority Canadian
Parliament voted by an overwhelming 216 to 55 to uphold the legal
definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. Six years
later a Liberal minority Parliament formally legalized homosexual
‘marriage’, giving to gay partners precisely the same legal
recognition as heterosexual couples who vow lifelong
committement... “Canada shares a number of important
characteristics with the United States,” points out Watson in the
highly informative eight page document. “It has a complex federal
system, activist courts, and evolving public opinion on questions
related to homosexuality.” Which goes to say that unless Americans
learn from Canada’s demise, marriage in the United States may
suffer the same devastating blow. . .
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- Marriage Fund for Poor
Proposed Washington Post- US, By
Spencer S. Hsu, July 22, 2005
-- The
federal government would provide a marriage bonus of up to $9,000
to low-income DC residents under legislation approved yesterday by
a Senate panel, a plan that analysts said would mark the first such
use of federal funds in the country. Under the
proposal by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), District couples who set
up savings accounts to buy a home, send a child to college or start
a business would receive a matching federal contribution of $3 for
every $1 they invested, up to a maximum lifetime payment of $9,000.
They would have to withdraw the money within three years and be
married by that time... In an interview
yesterday, Brownback, a leading social conservative, called
marriage "a leading poverty reducer."
"We do know the
statistics. The best situation to raise a child is a man and a
woman bonded together for life. That's where children do best," he
said...
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- Parenting Issues: Debunking the siren song of 'safe
***' Townhall.com, By Rebecca
Hagelin, July 22, 2005
When it comes to drug abuse, underage drinking and
smoking, recent years have seen the arrival of much-needed media
campaigns and school programs designed to let kids know flat out:
Do not engage. Of course, we still have much to do to curb the use
of illicit drugs, but at least most adults are committed to telling
kids the behavior is unacceptable. So why should this rule
not apply when it comes to teen sex?... It’s important to say
what we mean and mean what we say -- and that’s what
abstinence-only sex ed does. It tells our children, just as
emphatically as we do with drugs, drinking and smoking, that we’re
taking a zero-tolerance, no-nonsense
approach...
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- Canada Gay "Marriage" Bill to be Signed
Into law Today
LifeSiteNews.com-CANADA, July 20, 2005
- In a late-night Tuesday vote the
Canadian senate voted 47-21 to pass the same-sex "marriage" bill
C-38. Three of the 95 sitting senators abstained from the vote. The
law will come into effect as soon as royal assent is given to
it... Once the bill is signed into law, Canada will become
the fourth country in the world to sanction same-sex marriage,
following the example of Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium. Four
so-called "hold-out" jurisdictions -- Alberta, Prince Edward
Island, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories -- will now be forced
to acquiesce to federal law against their better judgment...
A press release from Campaign Life Coalition, the political arm of
Canada's pro-life movement which has fought the bill since its
inception, said that the passage of the bill "reeks of dishonour,
dishonesty, and public disdain."
...
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- Parenting Issues: The Moral of the "Where's Daddy" Series? Sex doesn't just sell-- it costs BlackAmericaWeb.com, By Gregory Kane, July 20, 2005
... Here’s something black folks need to realize as we confront the problem of how too many of our boys and girls grow up in fatherless homes and find themselves disproportionately uneducated, undereducated, sexually abused, trapped in the juvenile justice system or shot dead on the streets. Sex costs. Especially sex without any sense of responsibility. It costs our black women, whose rates of HIV infection have increased at an alarming rate. Much of that has been blamed on black men living on the “down low,” but there are no hard statistics on exactly how many black women have been infected by black men who’ve had sex with other men. Black men who are intravenous drug users or have unprotected sex with a string of women are just as likely to pass on the HIV infection to black women... If every black and white conservative in America died tomorrow, it would not change one iota the conduct of those black men who are infecting black women with HIV and who are fathering children and then pulling a Harry Houdini-like vanishing act... Combine absent dads with clueless moms, and we have a real crisis. . . .
RELATED ARTICLE: As His Son Was Selling Drugs and Getting Shot, Where Was 50 Cent's Father? BlackAmericaWeb.com, By Gregory Kane, July 7, 2005
RELATED ARTICLE: As Young Black Girls Continue to be Preyed Upon, Where Are Their Fathers? BlackAmericaWeb.com, By Gregory Kane, June 29, 2005
RELATED ARTICLE: Bill Cosby: African-Americans 'Not Holding Up Their End of the Deal' ABCNews.com, June 29, 20006
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- Pam to marry Tommy a
third time? AZ
Central.com- AZ, July 19,
2005
Pamela Anderson may be planning a triple
threat with twice ex-husband Tommy Lee. PageSix reports that Lee
proposed to the notorious bombshell again on Friday at the Palms
Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, just a week after the two enjoyed
a Hawaiian vacation with their two sons, Brandon and
Dylan....Anderson first wed Lee in 1995, divorced him
a year later, then remarried him 18 months after that only to
re-divorce in 1998 after Lee was convicted of beating her in front
of their two young children. After Lee served 6 months of a
three-year sentence, all was forgiven for the kids' sake, or so say
insiders...
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- Health Issues:
RED ALERT The Independent Online-UK, By Jeremy Laurance, July
19,2005
-- There have
been two warnings in a little over a month about the dangers of
eating lots of red meat. The first, a huge European study,
suggested a strong link with bowel cancer, and now a smaller
British study has found a powerful association with the
inflammatory bowel condition Crohn's disease. Now consider this
puzzle. Mormons and Seventh-Day Adventists lead similar lifestyles
- they don't smoke, they don't drink and they go to church. But
there is a key dietary difference: Mormons eat meat while most
Seventh-Day Adventists are vegetarians. If red meat is a major
cause of bowel cancer, then Mormons ought to have higher rates of
the disease. But they do not...
RELATED ARTICLE: Red Alert on Red Meat TIME magazine, June 24, 2001
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- Impairment Begins with the
First marriage: Popenoe's New Study Blogcritics.org, Posted by James D. Carmine PhD, July 20,
2005
-- Friends don’t let friends marry friends, or drive drunk.
David Popenoe’s new study published yesterday, The State of
our Unions, demonstrates what most young men already figured out
after they saw what their dads went through: If you never marry you
never pay the penalty of divorce... That’s right boys, if you
never marry, you can keep your car and your house and even your
retirement. The cost of child support is tolerable, but the
violence of joint property distribution is a 90-mile-an-hour
car wreck. But what is truly best, is that if you never marry you
are more likely to keep the woman you love too. There is no
monetary or legal incentive for her to leave you or you
her.What
Popenoe is telling us, whether he means to or not is that guys have
finally figured out that the divorce industry is a booming
predatory industry that eats, for the most part, straight
men...
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- 'Cohabitation is replacing dating' USA TODAY, By Sharon Jayson, July
18, 2005
Testing the marital waters by living
together is a common practice among today's marriage-wary
20-and-30-somethings. The number of unmarried couples living
together increased tenfold between 1960 and 2000, the U.S. Census
says, with about 10 million people living with a partner of the
opposite sex. . . . . . "In some sense, cohabitation is
replacing dating," says Pam Smock, an associate professor of
sociology at the University of Michigan. She's among researchers
bringing greater attention to a living arrangement that is almost a
foregone conclusion for many singles...
Stanley, co-director of the Center for Marital and Family
Studies at the University of Denver and author of "The Power of
Commitment," says it's relationship "inertia:" "People who are
cohabiting might end up marrying somebody they might not otherwise
have married," he says. They're "sliding, not deciding.". . . . .
"In focus groups, women perceive cohabitation as a step before
marriage to that partner, whereas men are tending to see
cohabitation as something to do before you make a
commitment"...
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- Sweden's
'marriage lite' gets closer examination USA Today, By Sharon Jayson,
July 18, 2005
The rise of cohabitation
in the USA has prompted those who track the state of American
marriages and families to take a closer look at Sweden, where
unmarried, opposite-sex partners routinely live together. Slightly
more than 8% of coupled households in the USA are cohabiting
heterosexuals; in Sweden, it's 28%. . . . . Data from the
U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey shows that of the
USA's more than 5 million households of unmarried heterosexual
couples, almost 2 million have children under age 18 living there.
That's about 40% of such couples. They're the ones Popenoe worries
about, because unmarried partners who live together have higher
breakup rates than those who tie the knot. That shaky family
structures is placing a growing number of American children in an
increasingly unstable family situation. . . .
RELATED ARTICLE: 'Cohabitation is replacing
dating' USA Today, By
Sharon Jayson, July 17, 2005
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- Updated: The
Celebrity Wedding Scorecard NBC10.com, July
18, 2005
- Maybe opposites really do attract. Sandra
Bullock and her boyfriend, tattooed TV mechanic Jesse James, have
gotten married. The nuptials come on the heels for suprise wedings
for Ben and Jen, and Renee and Kenny. But in a busy celebrity
marriage season that has included Prince Charles, Donald Trump, and
supermodel Heidi Klum, the marriage between the movie star
(Bullock) and the mechanic (James) is the talk of Hollywood...
RELATED SLIDE SHOW: The
celebrity wedding scorecard
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- Jude and Sienna 'split' This is
London-UK, By Nicole Lampert-Daily Mail Showbusiness Editor, July
18, 2005
Jude Law and Sienna Miller were believed to
have broken up last night after
he was
accused of sleeping with his children's nanny. The relationship
between showbusiness's 'golden couple' is said to have been rocky
for some time and sources close to Miss Miller say the final straw
was when he blamed her for his infidelity. The
23-year- old actress, who is appearing in As You Like It in the
West End, shares a London home with Law. She was said to be in
floods of tears after finding out about her fiancee's alleged
affair by reading it in a Sunday newspaper....
- Actor Law's apology over
affair CNN.com-UK, July 18, 2005
-- Hollywood star Jude Law has
apologized publicly to his fiancee, actress Sienna Miller, after a
newspaper reported he was having an affair with his children's
nanny. The Sun on Monday said the actor began his affair with Daisy
Wright, 26, in the American city of New Orleans as the actor filmed
"All The King's Men." Law was in the news earlier this year when it
was reported that he and ex-wife Sadie Frost had taken part in
"wife-swapping" sessions with friends Danny Goffey and Pearl
Lowe...
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- 'Cohabitation is replacing dating' USA Today, By Sharon Jayson, July 17, 2005
Men and women who
moved in together used to raise eyebrows. Living together out of
wedlock, once considered "shacking up" or "living in sin," has lost
its stigma as cohabitation has become mainstream. What a
difference a few decades makes. More than two-thirds of married
couples in the USA now say they lived together before marriage. And
the number of unmarried, opposite-sex households overall is rising
dramatically — even in seven states where laws against intimate
relations between unmarried partners are still on the books. USA
TODAY's Sharon Jayson examines how the rapid growth of cohabitation
is reshaping the landscape of family and social life in the USA. .
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- Church Cannot Baptize Babies of Same-Sex Couples Says Quebec
Cardinal LifeSiteNews.com- CANADA, July 15, 2005
-- Just how confusing and damaging the
official legal recognition of same-sex 'marriage' will be has been
made apparent by Cardinal Ouellet's recent remarks to the Senate's
Bill C-38 committee. "If I take the example of the
ceremony of baptism, according to our Canon law," said the Cardinal
during his testimony at the Committee on Wednesday, "we cannot
accept the signatures of two fathers or two mothers as parents of
an infant. With a law that makes these unions official, situations
of this will multiply and this threatens to disturb not just the
use of our territory, but also our archives and other aspects of
the life of our communities."... Paragraph 868 of the Canon law
states that: "For an infant to be baptized lawfully it is
required…that there be a well-founded hope that the child will be
brought up in the catholic religion. If such hope is truly lacking,
the baptism is, in accordance with the provisions of particular
law, to be deferred and the parents advised of the reason for
this."...
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- Health Issues: Birth Control Patch Claims
23 Lives and Counting LifeSiteNews.com, July 15, 2005
- Federal drug safety reports obtained by The
Associated Press under a Freedom of Information Act request,
"indicate that in 2004 -- when 800,000 women were on the patch --
the risk of dying or suffering a survivable blood clot while using
the device was about three times higher than while using
birth control
pills." ...AP points
out that the majority of the women were young and in otherwise good
health and at low risk for blood clots -
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- AFA Chairman Urges Consumers Not to Support Pro-Homosexual Companies Agape Press, By Allie Martin, July 15, 2005
- The chairman of the American Family Association says consumers need to know which companies are actively promoting homosexuality and same-sex "marriage." Diversity Inc. recently published its "Top 10 Companies for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Employees " list, which includes some "household names" that might surprise many pro-family householders... Pro-homosexual activists "are using major corporations to secure money from them to push homosexual marriage," Wildmon contends. "The sooner that the American public sees that and realizes and responds to that," he says, "the sooner we can halt this trend and turn it around.". . .
- Companies confused over gay rights CNN International, Jul 13, 2005
-- Art Weidner describes himself as an easy-going guy. An engineer based in Seattle, Art enjoys spending time outdoors. He usually avoids public confrontation. But a recent e-mail from his boss explaining why his company was supporting gay pride month prompted Art to speak out. "I felt that this was something beyond the realm of what a CEO should be doing," Weidner told CNN. "I felt he was pushing a political, social and personal agenda on company time." Art sent a reply to his boss and copied it to several Christian groups whose members, he felt, would share his belief that corporate endorsement of gay pride and gay rights equaled a tacit approval of gay marriage. . .
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- 'Gay Marriage' Passes Committee in
California -- Again Christian News Wire (press
release)-DC, July 13, 2005
-- On July
12, AB 849, a bill that seeks to legalize same-sex marriage in
California, passed through California's Senate Judiciary Committee.
The first rendition of the gay marriage bill failed in the
Legislature, but was resurrected by its author, Assemblyman Mark
Leno. Unwilling to let his ambitions die for legalizing homosexual
marriage in California this year, Assemblyman Leno "gutted and
amended" a bill that already had passed the Assembly Floor and
transformed it into another attempt to legalize gay marriage. .
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- California
Same-sex Marriage Bill to be Reconsidered in the
Senate Christian Post CA,
Jul 12, 2005
Advocates of same-sex marriage in California plan to
seek legal status once again, this time in the Senate. Last month, a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in
California, sponsored by Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco),
was four votes short of approval in the Assembly. Despite the
defeat, supporters have revised the bill and introduced it in the
Senate, where a Judiciary Committee will consider the bill on
Tuesday. . .
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- Parenting issues: Child's-eye view of
divorce
Telegraph.co.uk-UK, Jul 12, 2005
What does a child really feel when his parents
divorce? The BBC gave 10-year-old Ben a video camera and asked him
to confide in it. For his family, Olga Craig learns, the results
add up to an uncomfortable evening's viewing... Boarding
school, Ben Gedye has decided, could solve all the anxieties and
dilemmas of his 10-year-old life... For many young children, the
introduction of a parent's new partner is upsetting. Ellie, 10, who
like Ben made a video diary, told how, though she liked her
father's new girlfriend, she felt "my tummy churning and upset''
when she was around her...
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- Parenting Issues: We
Can't Blame White Folks For Our Missing Fathers And Unknown
Grandfathers BlackAmericaWeb.com, By Gregory Kane, July
13, 2005
When I went to give a Black History
Month speech at a Baltimore middle school a few years ago, I tried
to teach the students that black history isn’t just something
learned in books, but something that exists right in their
families. Big mistake. In a classroom full of 20 to 30 students,
all black, I asked for names of parents. Then I asked for names of
grandparents. Most students could name only one parent. That
was usually the mother. A few could name their mothers and
their grandmothers. One may have known a great-grandmother’s name.
Not one knew the name of either a maternal or paternal
grandfather. How did black folks get in this pathetic state in
21st century America?... It’d be nice if we could trot out
the convenient white villain to blame for absent daddies and
unknown granddaddies.... Black kids growing up without a
daddy around? Black children looking completely baffled when asked
to name their grandfathers? Well, white folks have done a lot to
us. But they didn’t do this. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: As His Son Was Selling Drugs and Getting Shot,
Where Was 50 Cent's Father? BlackAmericaWeb.com, By Gregory Kane, July 7,
2005
RELATED
ARTICLE: As Young Black Girls Continue
to be Preyed Upon, Where Are Their Fathers? BlackAmericaWeb.com, By Gregory Kane, June 29,
2005
RELATED
ARTICLE: Bill Cosby: African-Americans 'Not
Holding Up Their End of the Deal' ABCNews.com, June
29, 20006
- Parenting techniques mirror marriage
quality
SheKnows.com- AZ, July 12, 2005
Just because a married
couple has a good relationship when a child is born is no guarantee
the marriage will stay that way as their child grows older, a new
study suggests. Researchers found that how a couple manages their
parenting responsibilities when their child is 6 months old is
related to the quality of their marriage when their child is 3.
Couples who had a good relationship with each other when their
child was an infant – but had conflicts regarding parenting – were
more likely to have a poorer couple relationship when their child
was 3... "The issues you confront in parenting aren't
typically the kind of issues you've confronted before you had
children. That can make a big difference in your
relationship."...
- Love is ... a
cash divorce This is Money- UK, By Richard
Dyson, July 12, 2005
A GENERATION
ago, a typical couple shared a bank account and probably had joint
savings or an endowment policy. Times
have changed. Now they have a multitude of financial products and
most are held individually. The marketing gurus already have a name
for it - Financial Divorce. Romance takes a back seat when money is
the issue - sharing our worldly goods is not the way in modern
relationships. Only one in three couples relies completely on a
joint bank account and almost half have three accounts ... one each
and one joint. The remainder choose to bank entirely separately. .
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- Queen of England asked to Intervene to
Stop Gay ‘Marriage’ in Canada
Lifesite- LifeSiteNews.com- CANADA, July 13, 2005
– Former television host of 100 Huntley Street and
leader of a pro-marriage group, David Mainse, is appealing to Queen
Elizabeth to order Canada’s Governor General not to sign bill C-38
into law if it is passed by the Senate as expected. “Our beloved
Queen Elizabeth II, I know that the refusal of the Governor General
to give royal consent would precipitate a crisis,” Mainse wrote in
a letter sent last week. “Millions have nowhere else to turn but
you. Please help humanity everywhere to begin a reversal of this
morally and socially destructive trend.”...
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- Would You Adam and Eve it? Telegraph.co.uk- UK,
July 12, 2005
Men and women act differently
because their brains are built differently.... In dealing with
the psychological pain of divorce, the sex-divide is just as
pronounced, though women are the ones most able to cope... "After a
relationship breakdown, men tend to pursue sex as a solution,
seeking a new sexual relationship to restore their self-esteem
rather than taking time to reflect on why their marriage has broken
down."...Similar characteristics determine men's behaviour at the
start of relationships, too. Contrary to popular belief, they are
far more likely than women to fall head over heels in love, because
they are more likely to follow their instinct to pursue a woman
they find attractive...
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- MISSY: 'I'M STRONGER
SINGLE' Contactmusic.com-UK, July
12,2005
Hip-hop
star MISSY ELLIOTT cites her mother's independence following her
divorce as the reason she is single..."I think I'm happiest by myself. I know that's
crazy - people don't want to die alone. But most of my friends are
in relationships and they're miserable. They call me on the phone,
like, 'He did this!' 'She did that!' I'm like, 'Wow, is anybody
happy?'"...
- SNOOP CANCELS DIVORCE Contactmusic.com- UK, July 12, 2005
Rapper SNOOP DOGG has decided not to get a divorce from his
wife of eight years, SHANTE... I need my wife and kids in my life.
So if you hear about a divorce, it'll be my wife divorcing me. It
won't be me divorcing
her."...
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- Parenting Issues: Natalee Holloway Is A
Victim of Irresponsible Parenting American Daily- OH, By Dave
Gibson, July 10, 2005
If
Beth Holloway Twitty (Natalee's mom) is looking to point the finger
of blame for the tragic loss of her daughter--she need look no
further than a mirror. She allowed her eighteen year-old daughter
to celebrate her high school graduation, by taking a trip to 'Sin
Island.' Thousands of young Americans choose Aruba as their party
destination because they can legally drink and gamble and illegal
drugs are so readily available. Over 70 percent of Aruba's tourists
are Americans...This article represents the first time I have heard
Natalee's parents publicly criticized for their role in this
tragedy. The lack of responsibility placed upon her parents is
another glaring example to the erosion of personal
responsibility...
- Working women more likely to
divorce Telegraph.co.uk, UK, Jul 10, 2005
--Women working full-time are 29 per
cent more likely to get divorced than those who stay at home and
raise children. Research to be published this week
in the European Sociological Review finds that the probability of
divorce is in direct correlation to the number of hours a woman
worked...
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- Big weddings are big threat to sanctity of
marriage (Subscription) San Jose Mercury News,CA,By Sue
Hutchinson,July 9, 2005
--First, I would like to take this opportunity to
thank Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner for having a stealth wedding
last week on a tiny island in the British West Indies and sparing
us the horror of Bennifer I ...If only the same could be said about
other weddings. It's odd that at the same time we are hearing an
outcry about the abomination of gay marriage, there is increasing
media coverage of obscene heterosexual weddings that feature
profligate spending, naked materialism and breathtaking rudeness.
Consider the evidence: The Women's Entertainment network unveiled a
series called ``Bridezillas'' about brides behaving badly. . . . .
Then there is the continuing bizarre tale of Jennifer Wilbanks, the
runaway bride from Georgia. By now, just about everyone knows the
story of how Wilbanks fled her April wedding, where she was to have
600 guests and be attended by 14 bridesmaids. . . . .
Having the spotlight on over-the-top weddings should
do even more than Prince Charles and Princess Diana to illustrate
that too often the fairy tale ends up being a horror story. .
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- Love and marriage Newsday-NY, By Lauren F Winner, Jul 10,
2005
--For most of Western history, marriages were based on
political and economic expediency, not love. Husbands and wives
might have come to love each other during marriage - but they
didn't marry because they'd fallen in love with their intended, and
they didn't marry expecting that intimacy and emotional
satisfaction were the primary goods of marriage. . . . . It
was not until the 18th century, says Stephanie Coontz in her
sweeping new history of marriage, that companionate marriages -
love matches - gained ascendancy. . . .
. Of course, one doesn't write history - perhaps
especially the history of marriage - neutrally, and Coontz's
ideological commitments shine through. She can be accused, perhaps,
of downplaying the deleterious effects of divorce on children; she
fails to adequately acknowledge that, although much was gained in
the rise of companionate marriages, many things were lost, too. For
all its refreshing verve, what's lacking from Coontz's analysis is
any sense of the goodness of obligation, that marriage might be
about sanctification as well as (or, more daringly, instead of)
satisfaction. . . . .
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- Canadian
homosexuals to demand government retaliation against conservative
churches Concerned Women
For America, July 8, 2005
Even before Canada approved same-sex “marriage” one of the
nation’s leading homosexual activists was quoted as saying that
churches refusing to endorse homosexual’s “right” to marry should
have their tax exempt status revoked. That is just one example of
what is hiding behind the mask of
“tolerance.”...
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- Angelina adopts AIDS
orphan SkyNews.com, July 8, 2005
Suddenly Angelina Jolie's trip to the
baby department of Harrod's last week makes sense. The 30-year-old
actress is about to become a mother again... but to an adopted
daughter...The actress picked out the little girl after Maddox blew
her a kiss-- she's a five-month-old Aids orphan from Addis
Ababa..."I believe I'm meant to find my children in the world
somewhere and not necessarily have them genetically....
- Adoption clash WOWT-NE, Jul 8,
2005
A Madison County man has filed a $15
million lawsuit claiming that his son was taken for adoption
against his wishes...According to the lawsuit, Ashby and Monica
Kilmer were engaged to be married and were living together when she
became pregnant. Two days before the wedding, according to the
lawsuit, Kilmer broke off the engagement at the insistence of her
parents...
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- Canadian Senate passes second reading of gay
“marriage” bill LifesiteNews.com-Canada, July 8, 2005
– The Canadian Liberal-dominated Senate passed the Bill
C-38 same-sex “marriage” legislation through second
reading by a 43-12 vote
Wednesday. . . . Long-time champion for life and family, Senator
Anne Cools, voiced her opposition to the bill. “...I believe that
the issues have been falsely framed as Charter rights issues and
equality issues. Marriage is not now, and never has been, a right.
It has always been a grand privilege, with its origins as a
sacrament of the church, governed by the canon law, received from
the civil law into the common law. No sacrament of the church is
now, or has ever been, a right...”
- First
international conference on Asia's gays begins in
Thailand Washingtonblade.com-AP, July 7, 2005
Delegates from 24 countries
attend...Scholars, activists and artists opened the first-ever
regional conference on Asia's gay, lesbian and transgender
communities on Thursday in Bangkok, tackling issues ranging from
discrimination to how transsexuals are portrayed in films..."Gay,
lesbian and transgendered Asia has arrived. It is here and it is
real," declared Peter A. Jackson, an Asian history fellow at the
Australian National University and a co-organizer of the event. .
.
- Spain's gay marriage law hits
snag Washingtonblade.com,AP,July 6, 2005
Foreigners may only be able to marry if permitted in home
country...Spain's new gay marriage law hit its first snag Wednesday
as a court said a Spanish man can't wed his Indian partner because
India does not allow same-sex marriage...The
court's comments — released in a statement prompted by media
inquiries, not in a formal ruling — suggest that for the time being
at least, gay Spaniards seeking to marry foreigners can only do so
with people from the Netherlands and
Belgium...
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- Parenting Issues: As his son was
selling drugs and getting shot, where was 50 Cent's
father? BlackAmericaWeb.com, By Gregory Kane, July 7, 2005
. . .
For the past two weeks, this column has been devoted to what
happens to black kids when their daddies aren’t around. Some --
like half-brothers Kim Nichols, Michael “Mousey” Dowdy and Kevin
“KK” Dozier -- end up shot dead. Others, like the 12-year-old girl
mentioned in last week’s column, end up pregnant by men in their
20s and 30s. And some end up like Fiddy (50 cent), shot nine
times after slinging drugs for a living and surviving only because
of good genetics, some damned excellent surgeons and by the grace
of a loving God. . . . . According to one
not-very-reliable web site (it says the man known as Curtis Jackson
was born in 1976 AND 1977), 50’s mother also slung drugs and was
killed when a drug deal went bad. He was then raised by his
grandparents, did some slinging himself and was shot before he got
very lucky and hit it big in the rap game. And 50’s daddy? Not
one word. Not one detail. . . .
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- Book Review: Real Sex- The
Naked Truth About Chastity Breakpoint.org,
Review By Kate Harris, July 6, 2005
When Lauren Winner
wrote about her conversion from Orthodox Judaism to Christianity in
her 2003 memoir, Girl Meets God, her frank recognition of
the complexities of newfound faith were unpredictable and
charming. As she takes up the question of sex and chastity in
her new book Real Sex, her candor is not only resonant, it
is uniquely insightful...It’s no surprise to
anyone who watches television or shops at a mall that traditional
sexual morality is on the decline. According to current statistics,
about 65 percent of teenagers have sex before they finish high
school and approximately 75 percent of adults have sex before they
get married. What may come as a surprise, however, is how steep the
decline is—not only within the culture, but also within the Church.
In the 1990’s three separate surveys of single Christians showed
only one-third of unmarried Christians are virgins. Likewise,
of the students and young adults who signed abstinence pledges as
part of religious sex-ed programs, 61 percent of students broke
their pledge and of the 39 percent who kept it, 55 percent admitted
to having oral sex, which they didn’t consider to be
sex...
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- Till death do we pay? Spousal
support case a landmark Montreal Gazette- Canada,
Jul 6, 2005
The Supreme Court of Canada will be
asked to decide if divorced couples remain at permanent risk of
being forced to support their ex-partners, even after a court
declines to award support or cuts off spousal support...Last
Tuesday's bombshell judgment by a special panel of five judges
unanimously overruled two decades of Ontario Court of Appeal case
law. . . . . Now, the "until-death-do-us-part" bonds of matrimony
might more aptly describe the shackles of spousal support. . .
.
- For richer or poorer... the 'divorce
mortgage' In2Perspective-UK, July 6,
2005
The first mortgage aimed at the UK's 150,000
couples who get divorced each year has been launched Yorkshire
Building Society. The "Fresh Start" mortgage has interest-free
repayments for the first six months and cashback of £400 to help
with legal bills. It is also possible to borrow up to 100% of the
value of the property with no higher lending charge. Rachel Court,
head of mortgages at Yorkshire Building Society, said: "Fresh Start
should at least make the buying of two homes out of one a little
easier at a time when everything can seem difficult." . . . . .
.
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- Celebrities gone wild Townhall.com, By Rich Lowry, July 6, 2005
-- I have been following
Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey's marriage closely. Not because I
care about the state of that particular union, but because I have
little choice. At the newsstand where I buy my newspapers, the
celebrity magazines are displayed right next to the register, and I
can't avoid the blaring headlines...They all chronicle the ongoing
sagas of Tom & Katie and Brad & Jennifer (scratch that — I
mean Angelina) and Paris and Britney and Justin & Cameron and
Charlie & Denise. . . . Celebrity family values are so
complicated. Kevin Federline dumped his girlfriend Shar Jackson
when she was seven months pregnant with his child to marry Britney
Spears. Now, Britney is six months pregnant, so it's that time
again. . . .
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- The
Heterosexual Revolution
The New York Times, By Stephanie Coontz, July
5, 2005
THE last week has been
tough for opponents of same-sex marriage. First Canadian and then
Spanish legislators voted to legalize the practice, prompting
American social conservatives to renew their call for a
constitutional amendment banning such marriages here. James Dobson
of the evangelical group Focus on the Family has warned that
without that ban, marriage as we have known it for 5,000 years will
be overturned. My
research on marriage and family life seldom leads me to agree with
Dr. Dobson, much less to accuse him of understatement. But in this
case, Dr. Dobson's warnings come 30 years too late. Traditional
marriage, with its 5,000-year history, has already been upended.
Gays and lesbians, however, didn't spearhead that revolution:
heterosexuals did. . . .
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- Not Our Parents' Marriage ChristianityToday.com, By Jaime Lackey, July 5,
2005
When their marriage didn't match Mom and
Dad's, Brian and Jaime Lackey had to adjust their expectations.
. . . Jaime's side: Marriage means "together time"...After
six months, I knew I had to tell him the truth and make him
understand how unhappy I was. "Marriage is about spending time
together," I said finally one evening as he prepared to head out on
another bike ride. "Lately it feels as though I'm last on your list
of priorities. You say you love me, but it sure doesn't feel like
it." . . . . . Brian's side: I need my hobbies...My self worth is
connected to staying fit. I was so happy to be getting back into
shape, I never realized I was hurting Jaime's feelings. While I
didn't want to let her down, I also didn't want to make myself
miserable by giving up my hobbies. . . . . What they did: . .
.
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- The artful dodge of
housework Christian Science Monitor, By Marilyn Gardner,
July 5, 2005
--More men pitch in to
help around the house these days. But women still do more. Will the
load ever balance out?...For
21st-century couples, the answer appears simple in theory. But "we
both will" often becomes "she will" in practice. Yes, many more men
are willingly pitching in at home these days, especially in caring
for children. But the gap between the amount of housework fathers
do and the amount mothers do has actually widened
slightly...Some men complain that even though they're
doing more around the house, it never seems to be enough to satisfy
their wives. A little appreciation goes a long way, they say. . .
"Too tired" to help is one of the excuses Coleman hears frequently
from men. Others include "I don't know how," "I earn more than you,
so I shouldn't have to do anything when I get home," and "I
contribute in other ways . . . .
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- HUDSON AND ROBINSON MAKE DIVORCE
PACT Contactmusic.com- UK, July 5, 2005
--Movie beauty KATE HUDSON and her rocker husband
CHRIS ROBINSON have agreed to end their five-year marriage if
either of them commits adultery..."I'd love to say I'm the kind of
person who'd say, 'I'm going to go through the bad and ugly,' and
'Oh God he cheated on me, but we're going to regain our trust.' I'd
be gone. You move forward.". . . .
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- Octogenarians divorce over
affair Daily Times- Pakistan, July
5, 2005
A German woman, aged 83, has divorced her
81-year-old husband after 60 years of marriage because he was
caught having sex with his mistress at work.... The divorce court
heard the couple had met over 60 years ago as allied bombs fell on
Bonn and have since raised three children
together...
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Happy 4th of July!
Celebrate the American
Spirit!
You have powers you never dreamed of. You can do
things you never thought you could do. There are no limitations in
what you can do except the limitations in your own mind as to what
you cannot do. Don't think you cannot. Think you can. -- Darwin P. Kingsley |
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- CANADA: A Nation of
Wimps Canada Free Press, By Klaus Rohrich, July 4, 2005
Now that we
have watched the fireworks, sang ‘Oh Canada’, celebrated our moral
superiority and drunk our beer, we can return to doing what we do
best: stand in line and apologize. I can’t think of another country
that isn’t under the thumb of a military dictatorship that lets its
government get away with the things Canadians allow their
government to do. The idea of ‘democracy’ is predicated on the
principle that the will of the majority prevails. In Canada it’s
the other way around- the will of the minority prevails. . . . .
While over 65% of Canada’s population is in favor of preserving the
traditional definition of "marriage", a small minority of left-wing
activists in Ottawa enacted a law that totally negates the concept
of marriage as we know it. While we were assured by Paul Martin and
his Liberals that this would go no further, clearly the Pandora’s
box has been opened and the definition of marriage will be
revisited, mark my words. . . . .
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