|
|
"MARRIAGE" In The News
(August 2008) |
 |
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.
|
|
|
 |
- John McCain & Sarah Palin on Shattering the Glass Ceiling People magazine, By Sandra Sobieraj Westfall, August 29, 2008
Even the kids were in the dark. Meghan McCain, 23, didn't find out until a few hours before the rest of the nation. Track Palin, 19, an Army private on base in Fairbanks, Alaska, got the news in a text message an hour before his mother, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin took the stage in Dayton, Ohio, as John McCain's pick to be his running mate. "I said, 'Track! Turn the TV on in an hour,'" Sarah Palin told PEOPLE. "He says, 'What does this mean? Am I going to have to crawl in a hole?' And I said, No! Because he had no idea; he doesn't even know where we are." Where they were was the Nutter Center college sports arena in Dayton, Ohio. And PEOPLE was there for an exclusive backstage interview with the McCain and Palin families suddenly joined in the campaign for the White House. Sarah Palin, in ruby red peep-toe platform heels that showed off a pink French-style pedicure, first ducked into a holding room to change the diaper of her just-up-from-a-nap 4 1/2-month-old son, Trig. The two families were all smiles. . . . . [PEOPLE:] As a new mom, how are you going to juggle all this?
SARAH: I am thankful to be married to a man who loves being a dad as much as I love being a mom so he is my strength. And practically speaking, we have a great network of help with lots of grandparents and aunties and uncles all around us. We have a lot of help. . .
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Five Things You Didn't Know About Sarah Palin People magazine, By Lorenzo Benet, August 29, 2008
There's a lot to know about Sarah Palin, who is John McCain's surprise pick for his vice president. She's been governor of Alaska for 20 months and served two terms as mayor of her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, all while raising five children. PEOPLE sat down with Palin, 44, recently to discuss her life, career and family. Here are five things you may not know about her:
• Her youngest son has Down syndrome. When Palin announced to friends after 4-month-old Trig's birth in April that he had been diagnosed with Down syndrome, she wrote them a private e-mail she shares with PEOPLE: . . .
|
 |
|
|
|
|
RELATED INFO: Down Syndrome March of Dimes.com
What is Down syndrome?
Down syndrome is a chromosomal disorder that includes a combination of birth defects. Affected individuals have some degree of mental retardation, characteristic facial features and, often, heart defects and other health problems. The severity of these problems varies greatly among affected individuals. . . . . Women over age 35 have been traditionally considered most likely to have a baby with Down syndrome. However, about 80 percent of babies with Down syndrome are born to women who are under age 35, as younger women have far more babies (2).
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Sarah Palin: conservatives find the girl of their dreams: The Alaskan governor’s family life and political views press the right’s buttons The Times Online- UK, By Sarah Baxter, August 31, 2008
When Sarah Palin stepped into the spotlight as John McCain’s running mate in Dayton, Ohio, and promised that women could “shatter that glass ceiling once and for all”, it was an electrifying moment in a presidential election that had already produced its share of upsets and surprises. History was on the march again the morning after Barack Obama became the first African-American to accept his party’s White House nomination. After the fireworks, the 80,000-strong crowd who had cheered Obama to the skies at the Mile High stadium in Denver woke up with a hangover. “We may be seeing the first woman president. As a Democrat, I am reeling,” said Camille Paglia, the cultural critic. “That was the best political speech I have ever seen delivered by an American woman politician. Palin is as tough as nails.”
RELATED ARTICLE & COMMENTS: Sarah Palin: A Sleight of Gender? Vanity Fair.com, By Dee Dee Myers August 29, 2008
McCain made the decision to double down on his credentials as a take-no-prisoners reformer. But he did so at the expense of the more important qualifications for a running mate. It’s not political to say that John McCain turns 72 today. That he’s a cancer survivor. That he spent six years being tortured and abused in a Vietnamese prison camp. Those are the physical realities of his life, and pure and simple, they demanded that he chose a running mate who is ready, really ready. That he put country first. Today, he failed that test. Worse, when Sarah Palin falls short—and I hope I’m wrong but I think in important ways, such as her debate with Joe Biden, she will—some people will conclude that women can’t cut it. That’s unfair to Sarah Palin—and it’s certainly unfair to the rest of us.
|
 |
- Coping when a partner has a terminal illness
Confronting a fatal illness in a partner can put intolerable strain on a couple. But society expects saint-like behaviour The Times Online- UK, By Joan McFadden, August 28, 2008
No one really believes those annoying couples who claim never to fall out with their partner. Surely everyone has a moment when they wonder why marriage was a good idea: a flash of irritation at that infuriating habit or a fleeting murderous thought over some marital discord? It's all part of the “for better, for worse” element of most marriages; the moment passes and life jogs along as usual. But sometimes it's not that simple. While caring for and supporting each other seems realistic and natural in normal circumstances, everything changes when one of the couple becomes seriously ill, especially if that illness could be terminal. When this happens, the sufferer is expected to move into sainthood mode, while their partner becomes a ministering angel. The notion that couples find themselves under intolerable strain - the effects of medication, financial concerns, anxiety about the future and “petty” worries such as resentment at a disappearing sex life - is taboo. It seems so unnecessary in the face of the bravery and stoicism expected in these circumstances, especially since the public face of this kind of tragedy is now inspirational figures such as Jane Tomlinson, the amateur athlete who raised £1.5million for charity despite suffering from terminal cancer. Jon Nicholson's life was thrown into unexpected chaos when, in 2003, osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, was diagnosed in his 35-year-old wife Emma. Fourteen months later she was dead, leaving him with three young children and haunting memories of how her illness had torn apart a relationship they both treasured. “You never think about something like this when you're actually getting married,”. . .
|
RELATED ARTICLE: A diagnosis of cancer is trying for any marriage Boston Globe, By Judy Foreman, August 22, 2005
Cancer can be very tough on a marriage -- just ask Sandro Segalini, 64, of Falmouth. His first wife died of breast cancer 14 years ago. His second wife, Marcia Woltjer, 59, left him earlier this year, three years after her own diagnosis with breast cancer.
|
|
- Orthodox Join Fight Against Gay Nuptials Forward- The Jewish Daily, By Rebecca Spence, August 28, 2008
Los Angeles — The most powerful Orthodox Jewish umbrella group has thrown its support behind a ballot initiative that aims to overturn California’s historic decision to legalize same-sex marriage. In late August, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America joined a coalition of faith-based groups supporting Proposition 8, which, if passed come November, would nullify the California State Supreme Court’s May 15 ruling that gay men and lesbians can wed. Since mid-June, when the ruling took effect, hundreds of gay couples here — many of them Jewish — have tied the knot. The question of gay marriage has long been a subject of fierce debate in the Jewish community. On the one hand, liberal Jewish groups — as well as individuals, including leading civil rights lawyer Gloria Allred, who helped win the California case — have fought assiduously to win the right of gay couples to marry. At the same time, more conservative corners of the Jewish community have fought against same-sex marriage laws that have cropped up in recent years. The O.U., a New York-based group that represents some 1,000 Orthodox synagogues across the country, and other supporters of Proposition 8 — which would amend the California constitution to define marriage as being between a man and a woman — contend that the rulings in favor of same-sex marriage pose a growing threat to their religious liberties. . .
|
 |
RELATED ARTICLE: California gay marriage opponents seek religious coalition Pink News, By Staff Writer, August 28, 2008
Mormons, Jews, Sikhs and Hindu's are being asked to join forces to support an amendment to the state Constitution of California banning same-sex marriages. An interfaith alliance hopes to place one million signs in front gardens across the state late next month in support of Proposition 8. It would amend the state Constitution to provide that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognised in California," thus constitutionally eliminating the right to same-sex marriage.
RELATED ARTICLE: Most oppose bid to ban gay marriage in California, poll finds Los Angeles Times, By Jessica Garrison, August 27, 2008
Fifty-four percent of likely voters are against Prop. 8, with 40% supporting the measure. But when asked if same-sex couples should be allowed to wed, respondents were evenly split.
|
 |
- Gay Activists Target Businesses
Companies Tied To Initiative Backers Are Pulled Into Fray Wall Street Journal, By Tamara Audi, August 27, 2008
When William Bolthouse, a California philanthropist, donated $100,000 in March to support a proposition to ban gay marriage in California, calls and emails poured in -- not to Mr. Bolthouse, but to the corporate offices of a company that bears his name -- even though he sold it three years earlier. . . Bolthouse Farms is the latest target in what has become an increasingly bitter political fight in California. As gay-rights activists attempt to defeat the upcoming ballot initiative, called Proposition 8, they are going after not just individuals, but also companies to which they are connected, however tenuously. . . . Next week, Californians Against Hate is planning to push its tactic further by publishing a "Dishonor Roll," a list of individual and corporate donors who give $5,000 or more to groups campaigning on behalf of Proposition 8. The list will include the donor's name, employer and the corporate logo of that employer -- even if the company itself didn't donate to the Proposition 8 fight. Mr. Karger said the tactic isn't intended to keep individuals or companies from donating, but is meant to educate the public so consumers can make informed choices. He said including corporate logos of businesses whose employees donate is fair game, since that information is publicly available on government Web sites that track donors. "Our larger message is to other business people," Mr. Karger says. "It's a free country, you can give as much money to this campaign, but we are going to publicize that and people can make a decision on whether or not they want to support those businesses.". . . . Some large corporations have waded into the fray. San Francisco-based Pacific Gas & Electric, the state's largest utility by revenue, donated $250,000 to defeat Proposition 8. A spokeswoman said the company received some complaints from its 20,000 employees and six million customers, and it was able to handle the protests internally. Other companies haven't had it so easy. San Diego's Manchester Grand Hyatt is now the target of a boycott that was kicked off after its owner, Doug Manchester, donated $125,000 to the campaign to support Proposition 8. . .
|
|
|
 |
RELATED ARTICLE: Manchester Grand Hyatt loses two more conferences: Manchester CFO voices concerns regarding boycott Gay & Lesbian Times, By Margie M. Palmer, August 28, 2008
The San Diego County pension board and the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) last week cancelled plans to host conferences at the Manchester Grand Hyatt, while a popular local radio station hosted a thank-you party for listeners at the hotel. . . . “The Manchester Grand Hyatt is being boycotted and that boycott should be honored,” Andras said. “Star 94.1 is owned by Clear Channel, which has stations in a number of markets which are specifically targeted to the gay community. I’m having a hard time understanding how they can be OK making revenue from the gay community, but at the same time, turn around and then give money to someone who owns a hotel and donated a large amount of money to defeat equal rights for gay people.”. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Developer is foe of same-sex marriage: Manchester, others help fund initiative San Diego Union Tribune, By Bill Ainsworth, March 15, 2008
Manchester said his hotels and restaurants welcome gays and lesbians as employees and as customers. “I don't want to offend anybody,” he said. But Manchester said he decided to donate because he has heard that schools that teach that marriage is between a man and a woman could be sued for discriminating against gays and lesbians. “When they say that we cannot say that a marriage is between a man and a woman, that's where I draw the line,” Manchester said.
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Companies confused over gay rights CNN International, July 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. . .
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: The road to gay marriage Jewish World Review, By Marianne M. Jennings, August 8, 2003
Infiltration of policy-maker ranks. . . . Infiltration of corporations. . . . Alignment with minority groups. . . . The gay gene myth. . . . Use of AIDS. . . . Demonizing opponents. . . . Economic pressure. . . . Suppressing free speech. . . . Infiltration of schools. . . . The anti-anti-gay movement. . . . Incremental legal inroads. . . . Silence. . . .This piece will bring condemnation, hate mail, and the usual threats to my employer. But years from now, as we assess the degradation same-sex marriage will bring to society, I shall be able to say, "I tried."
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Political bullying works Jewish World Review, April 5, 2001
The etymological evolution of the word sodomy to homosexuality to the simple term "gay'' has brought with it the very intolerance and bigotry that gay people deride when it's directed at them. Gay rights groups seek to intimidate anyone who voices opposition to their beliefs and agenda.
|
- Lesbian rights pioneer Del Martin dies San Francisco Chronicle, By Rachel Gordon, August 27, 2008
-- Lesbian activist Del Martin, at the forefront of the battle for same-sex marriage in California, died Wednesday in San Francisco. She was 87. Martin's partner of 55 years, Phyllis Lyon, was by her side at the UCSF hospice, the National Center for Lesbian Rights said. Martin and Lyon, 84, tied the knot June 16 in a ceremony officiated by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. . . . Martin fought to have the American Psychological Society declare that homosexuality is not a mental illnesses and advocated on behalf of battered women. In 1955, the couple founded the nation's first lesbian organization, the Daughters of Bilitis, and launched the first lesbian publication, The Ladder. In the 1960s, they tried to get California lawmakers to introduce anti-discrimination bills and persuaded some police officers to stop harassing gays and lesbians at bars as part of a group Martin co-founded called the Council on Religion and the Homosexual. Martin was also a founding member of several other organizations, including the Lesbian Mother's Union, the San Francisco Women's Centers and the Bay Area Women's Coalition. She and Lyon were co-founders of the first gay political group in the United States, the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, named for author Gertrude Stein's long-time partner. . .
|
 |
|
|
 RELATED ARTICLE: Gospel Music Responds to Same-Sex Marriage The Real Proposal magazine, June 7, 2008
The Real Proposal magazine impenitently adheres to the belief in an absolute moral truth grounded in Judeo-Christian principles. We have established a platform from which we intend to approach the issues in an intelligent and instructive manner, without compromising our message grounded in this truth for the sake of political correctness. Elizabeth Cady Stanton captures our philosophy when she wrote, “Reformers who are always compromising have not yet grasped the idea that truth is the only safe ground to stand upon.” Yet, in our efforts to expose and discredit the lies that are being packaged, perfumed, gift wrapped, and sold by the gay rights movement to heterosexuals and homosexuals alike, we have determined not to lose sight of the collateral damage that ensues from this “culture war” within our nation. As [Joe] Dallas declares, “I must remember, when I am tempted towards real hostility towards lesbians and gays, who…say how hateful and bigoted we are, when I am tempted to pull out all the stops to steamroll them the way they are trying to steamroll us, I am reminded Jesus said Himself, ‘My Kingdom is not of this world.’ There are more important things than temporal victories. The eternal souls of the people we oppose are certainly more important that any sociological victories that we can attain.”
RELATED ARTICLE: Responding to Homosexuality & Gay Marriage: “Love the Sinner. Hate the Sin” The Real Proposal magazine, March 21, 2008
|
 |
- Brides Look Forward to Marrying Under Tribal Same-Sex Marriage Law
Tribal Leaders Say Coquille Indian Tribe May Be the First to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage ABC News, By Sarah Netter, August 27, 2008
A request from a bride-to-be has led an Oregon Indian tribe to legalize same-sex marriage, a move leaders say may be the first of its kind in the United States. The Coquille Indian Tribe now not only recognizes legal same-sex unions from state and federal governments, but it will soon be handing out its own marriage licenses not only to heterosexual couples, but to homosexual couples as well. Kitzen Branting is like a lot of other brides who have come before her: She has already found her wedding dress, set a date for the ceremony and proudly wears her engagement ring. But her journey to the altar has been a bit different than most, since she requested new tribal legislation sanctioning same-sex marriage. Branting, 25, and her fiancee, Jeni Branting, plan to be married in May under the tribe's new law. . . . Like most other American Indian tribes, the Coquilles have their own laws and customs. "Native Americans, more than anyone, know about discrimination," Coquille Indian Tribe Chief Ken Tanner told ABCNews.com. "Our directive is to provide recognition and respect to all members of our tribe.". . . Tanner, 68, said the tribe's law was not intended to make a statement about gay marriage or advocate for similar legislation from any other tribe or governing body. . . .
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Marriage of Cherokee same-sex couple stands The Advocate, January 5, 2006
The marriage of a lesbian Cherokee couple cannot be invalidated by a tribal council, the judicial appeals tribunal of the Cherokee Nation has ruled. In a decision issued on December 22 and made public on Wednesday, the highest Cherokee court rejected an attempt by several tribal council members to invalidate the marriage of Cherokee citizens Kathy Reynolds and Dawn McKinley. . . . . In briefs filed with the court, the council members argued that marriages between same-sex couples are inconsistent with Cherokee Nation culture, heritage, and tradition. But according to an affidavit submitted to the court by Brian Gilley, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Vermont who is of Cherokee ancestry, “There is overwhelming evidence for the historic and cultural presence of multiple gender roles and same-sex relations among most if not all Native North Americans, including the Cherokee, and that they historically shared in the institution of marriage.”
RELATED ARTICLE: Battle Over Gay Marriage Plays Out in Indian Country Washington Post, By Lois Romano, August 1, 2005
Tribal sovereignty statutes mandate that Native American marriages be recognized by states, and a couple -- any couple -- could conceivably circumvent state laws to establish a legal union not approved by the state.
RELATED ARTICLE: Judaism's Sexual Revolution: Why Judaism (and then Christianity) Rejected Homosexuality OrthodoxyToday.org, By Dennis Prager
When Judaism demanded that all sexual activity be channeled into marriage, it changed the world. The Torah's prohibition of non-marital sex quite simply made the creation of Western civilization possible. Societies that did not place boundaries around sexuality were stymied in their development. The subsequent dominance of the Western world can largely be attributed to the sexual revolution initiated by Judaism and later carried forward by Christianity. . .
|
 |
- Parenting Issues: Let’s Face It, This Isn’t a Job for Supernanny New York Times, By Eric Konigsberg, August 27, 2008
The Upper East Side mother’s approach was unorthodox, to put it mildly. “My kids are a pain,” read the opening line of her Craigslist solicitation for a live-in nanny, and she specified what part of her body it was that her kids — all four of them — pained her most, each in his or her particular 12- , 9- or 6-year-old twin way. “Please help me,” she added. The listing, posted last week, was by turns self-effacing, self-justifying and extremely revelatory. It read as a participant’s critique of a particular strain of moneyed-class hyper-parenting that dominates in certain reaches of New York, as well as a desperate request for a certain kind of masochist. “I am not looking for Supernanny,” it read. “I don’t want someone who has a lot of theories on the right way to raise kids.” And: “If you are fundamentally unhappy with your life, you will be more unhappy if you take this job.” More: “If you suspect all wealthy women are frivolous, we are not for you. I do not want to hide my occasional Bergdorf shopping bag.” The post struck a chord with a number of mothers who saw in the tone and details a glimpse of themselves, or somebody they know. Within two minutes, it was making the rounds of parenthood blogs and chain e-mail messages among Bonpoint shoppers all over town. . .
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Put Your Marriage Before Your Kids Christian Science Monitor, By David A. Code, August 26, 2008
American parents shoot ourselves in the foot by making our children the center of our universe. And we certainly don't help our kids, either. Child-centered families create anxious, exhausted parents and demanding, entitled kids who act out. Schools are overwhelmed by children's special needs and a spirit of community is draining from our neighborhoods. As these self-absorbed kids enter the workplace, America's global leadership and ability to compete will be seriously compromised. But we can create healthy families and raise tomorrow's leaders -- if we focus on our marriages instead of our children.
RELATED ARTICLE: The power of parenting Townhall.com, By Rebecca Hagelin, May 19, 2006
Today, more than ever, it takes a real commitment to decide to be the mamma or the daddy - to determine that you will take control and be the one that permeates your home with tangible, unconditional love and sets uncompromising standards for yourself and your kids. Far too many parents today have morphed into a fourth type of parent, the one who thinks that they have to be their child's friend. Oh, there's plenty of love and understanding and loads of fun and games. But when it comes to rules, to setting down the law, to standing up for standards and expected behaviors from your child, many parents today are sorely lacking.
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Dishing out some Hart-felt wisdom Townhall.com, By Rebecca Hagelin, September 20, 2005
Have you ever met a perfect parent? Me neither. Yet book after book, magazine after magazine, could easily lead you to believe otherwise. Oh, they don’t literally promise perfection. But the relentless series of easy, multi-step formulas -- designed to stop tantrums, break your kids of junk food, get little ones to sleep through the night and avoid screaming matches -- certainly leave you with the impression that perfection is (more or less) attainable.
RELATED ARTICLE: Fighting for our children isn't easy Townhall.com, By Rebecca Hagelin, August 9, 2005
As I travel the country speaking about my book, Home Invasion: Protecting Your Family in a Culture that’s Gone Stark Raving Mad, I’m met with nearly universal desperation from parents who are sick and tired of the battle for their kids’ hearts, minds and very souls. As the mother of three teens, I admit that I sometimes “fall back” in my own war with the culture. It’s often tough, tiresome and even tedious. But raising children who will tower above the culture makes the battle well worth my unwavering commitment. So where to start? Here are five basics:
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Poor Parenting at the Root of Problem Teens Atchison Daily Globe - KS, By Jeff Schmucker, May 19, 2005
RELATED ARTICLE: We can win Townhall.com, By Rebecca Hagelin, May 13, 2005
RELATED ARTICLE: New 'mommy wars': a fight against pop culture's excess The Christian Science Monitor, By Linda Feldmann-Staff writer, May 6, 2008
Forget about the "mommy wars," in which stay-at-home mothers were supposedly locking horns with their working sisters, at least in popular perception. What's really happening with American mothers of all stripes - from full-time homemakers to full-fledged workaholics, all income levels, all racial backgrounds - is worry about popular culture, and what feels like a tsunami of forces threatening parents' ability to impart positive values to their children, according to a new survey of more than 2,000 mothers. Moms report a cultural onslaught that goes far beyond Hollywood movies and TV, and into the world of the Internet, electronic games, and advertising.
|
- The end of the affair: Modern technology means it's never been easier to expose a partner's lies The Daily Mail- UK, By Nick Harding, August 27, 2008
What could be more family-friendly than a Nintendo Wii, a games console replete with motion-sensing technology and gleaming white purity? Just look at the marketing: families bounding around the living room, gurning with unbridled joy as they compete with each other at video tennis and baseball. The message is clear: a Wii is the new social hub, it stands for wholesome, healthy family values. It's even got brain training and fitness applications. So the recent stories about the man in the United States who reportedly filed for divorce, citing his Wii as a catalyst for his wife's infidelity, would have had Nintendo's marketing Svengalis frothing at the mouth. Returning from a deployment in Iraq, the unnamed soldier is said to have plugged in his console - no doubt for some light relief - and uncovered evidence that while he was fighting the insurgency, his wife had been conducting her own secret manoeuvres. You see, a Wii has a gizmo that allows a player to store his or her personal profile, called a Mii.The soldier discovered that his wife's Mii had spent long evenings virtual bowling with another Mii. When he confronted her, she admitted that the mystery Mii was her lover. As more and more philanderers are discovering, modern technology has an increasingly unpleasant ability to trip us up, even the whiter-than white Wii. Today, to function as an effective member of 21st century society, we have to engage with a bewildering array of electronic gadgets, few of which we fully understand. We stomp digital footprints all over the place, and the unforeseen result of engaging in the information age is that it is becoming harder to have secrets - and, as a result, harder to cheat on each other. . .
|
 |
RELATED ARTICLE: Text snooping is the latest addiction for couples! Sify.com, August 27, 2008
Melbourne: Couples Down Under have developed a disturbing new habit – text snooping. That’s the conclusion of a new survey conducted by Virgin Mobile, which has found that one in three Aussies can't help themselves and check their partner's mobile phone when they're in the shower or on the toilet. But that curiosity has blown up in their faces with 73 per cent finding things they later wished they hadn't.
RELATED ARTICLE: How to keep your computer activities out of divorce court USA Today-CyberSpeak, By Kim Komando, August 15, 2005
Employing a private investigator isn't the only way to gather evidence in divorce or child custody proceedings. Clandestine keylogging and tracking programs installed on home computers can provide digital proof. You should know the downsides before you install this type of software. (Related item: Ask Kim). Take the case of Beverly and James O'Brien. Beverly installed snoopware on her husband's computer. She attempted to admit the information she obtained as evidence in divorce proceedings. In March, a Florida judge ruled that the information couldn't be admitted because it violated a state law involving "intercepted" communications. Don't let Beverly's experience lull you into a false sense of security. The use of computer evidence in divorce proceedings is a legal quagmire. In other situations, it has been successfully admitted in court. To protect yourself, it's best to err on the side of caution. . .
|
 |
- Renewing Vows to Save a Marriage
Madonna, Guy Ritchie Pull Out Stops to Save Tumultuous Union ABC News, By Dan Childs, August 26, 2008
In an era when celebrity weddings have an almost unrivaled potential to catch the public eye, another kind of nuptial ceremony -- the renewal of vows -- seems just as noteworthy. Most recently, the celebrity power couple of Madonna and Guy Ritchie reportedly opted to tie the double knot at a private Kabbalah ceremony in Los Angeles, using the occasion to announce their pledge to try and rebuild their shaky seven-year marriage. It's a strategy that just might work. Relationship experts say that pledging to recommit to a spouse is, for many couples, an essential part in healing a broken marriage. Dawn O. Braithwaite, professor of communication studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has researched couples who opt to renew their vows. And she says that while there are a number of reasons why couples might renew their vows -- from indulging in a fantasy wedding they could never afford, to satisfying a desire to have their families involved in their recommitment -- some of those who seek a renewal do it to salvage a faltering marriage. . . .
|
RELATED BOOK REVIEW: Marriage: It gets better, or so they say Economist.com (From The Economist print edition), August 28, 2008
Should unhappily married people split up? Ms Scarf addresses this question in a chapter called “Does Divorce Make People Happy?” The short answer seems to be, rarely. She quotes a study of people in unhappy marriages which followed up the couples five years later. Its conclusion: unhappily married adults who divorced or separated were no happier, on average, than unhappily married adults who stayed married to the same partner. Only one in five of them was happily remarried. More surprisingly, a majority of those who remained married pronounced themselves happy at the end of the five-year period.
RELATED ARTICLE: Marriage as learned behavior: Can divorce be foretold? Seattle Times, 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.
RELATED ARTICLE: Would you Adam and Eve it? The Telegraph-UK, By Chloe Rhodes, July 12, 2005
The physical differences between men and women have long been understood, and can be traced directly to our primeval roles as hunters and child-bearers. But until recently, the many behavioural differences between have perplexed us. So what is it that makes women want to chat about the events of their day while men would rather reflect on theirs in silence? Why do men generally gravitate to computer and sports magazines while women prefer gossip and relationship glossies? And why do men and women often seem to want such different things from their relationships with each other?
RELATED ARTICLE: Harried marrieds Christian Science Monitor, By Marilyn Gardener, July 1, 2005
Today's long work hours and hectic schedules can interfere with relationships - unless couples take charge. . . . Like ships passing in the night. That's the way Mira Kirshenbaum describes the increasingly distant relationship she and her husband developed after years of balancing child-rearing and demanding careers. "We were so busy we couldn't connect," she says. "We just didn't have the feelings of love we used to." It's a familiar lament in a time-short culture. . .
|
- Vin Diesel: I Want To Be A Good Dad Parade magazine, August 25, 2008
Vin Diesel rose to stardom playing tough guys in action flicks like The Fast and the Furious and XXX. And he’s in for some spills and thrills in Babylon A.D., playing a veteran turned mercenary. But what’s one more big screen appearance when you’ve just become a father? Vin, whose 24-year-old model girlfriend Paloma Jimenez gave birth to their daughter in April, can’t wait to spill about how much his life has changed.
Q: Some people seem surprised that you have a baby daughter.
A: Yes. I guess it’s because of all the tough guys I’ve put on the screen. People go, 'You’re a dad? You’re changing diapers? What’s up with the world?' But someone once told me that, when you have a child, it opens up parts of your heart that you never knew existed. And it is so true. It’s like you have a child and you think, 'Everything that I’ve done up until this point is insignificant in comparison to being a father.' It’s a beautiful, beautiful thing. . .
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Turning Fool’s Gold Into the Real Thing Townhall.com, By Robert Knight, February 12, 2008
Cad: 1) ungentlemanly man— a man whose conduct, especially toward women, is considered unscrupulous or dishonorable. (Encarta Dictionary)
RELATED ARTICLE: Should Getting Married Be the Price a Man’s Willing to Pay for a Woman’s Passion? Absolutely BlackAmericaWeb.com, By Joseph C. Phillips, December 04, 2007
RELATED ARTICLE: Declining Marriage Rates Aren’t Just a Black Family Thing – They're an American Thing BlackAmericaWeb.com, By Joseph C. Phillips, July 17, 2006
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Will Baby Strengthen or Strain Your Marriage? WebMD, By Sherry Rauh— Reviewed by Michael Smith MD, August 2, 2005
Whether a new baby brings spouses closer together or drives them apart has a lot to do with the pre-baby relationship, says Jerrold Lee Shapiro, PhD, a clinical psychologist and chairman of the department of counseling psychology at Santa Clara University in California. "Having a child intensifies everything in a relationship," he tells WebMD.
RELATED ARTICLE: The Perils of Playing House Psychology Today, By Nancy Wartik
Living together before marriage seems like a smart way to road test the relationship. But cohabitation may lead you to wed for all the wrong reasons -- or turn into a one-way trip to splitsville.
|
|
 |
- Obama Loses Gay-Media King NY Post- Page Six, August 25, 2008
Paul Colichman, the William Randolph Hearst of the gay media, is not supporting Barack Obama for president. But that doesn't mean he's backing John McCain. "I'm a die-hard Democrat," he tells Page Six. But Colichman was also a die-hard Hillary Clinton supporter. He and Harry Thomason produced a documentary, "The Hunting of the President: The 10-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton." Colichman, 46, who owns The Advocate and Out magazines, GayWired.com, and Here, the premium cable network for gays, said he finally dealt with his disappointment over Clinton's defeat last week and came around to Obama. "I thought, 'Get over yourself!' I had literally written out a check to the Obama campaign. And then I saw him in front of an evangelical group in Anaheim," he said. Before Rick Warren at the Saddleback Civil Forum, both Obama and McCain defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman. "I thought, 'Wow! He just threw the gay community under the bus,' " Colichman said. "My partner looked over at me, and we tore up the check.". . .
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Anti-Obama Stand Riles Gays NY Post- Page Six, August 26, 2008
Gay media czar Paul Colichman's vow in yesterday's Page Six not to support Barack Obama over the candidate's opposition to same-sex marriage has other gay media bigs aflame. "By tearing up his check for Obama, he basically wrote one to McCain," Genre editor Neal Boulton told us. "I openly - no, flamingly - endorse Obama, whether he says he's for gay marriage or not. . . . I know under Obama, it will only be a matter of time until the country sees the legalization of gay marriage." James Hipps, project manager for gay-marketing firm Vibe Media, wants gays to cancel their subscriptions to The Advocate. "I am appalled," he said. "For our gay-lesbian- bisxexual-transgender rights to continue to grow and not further diminish, then we need to stand behind [Obama]. Good luck with your life, Mr. Colichman. I hope you get to sleep well at night after McCain becomes elected. Shame on you."
RELATED ARTICLE: Where Obama and McCain Stand on Social Policy Issues US News & World Report, August 24, 2008
|
- Michelle Obama: Politics Hasn't Changed My Husband People magazine, By Sandra Sobieraj Westfall, August 25, 2008
Michelle Obama gave the kind of intimate, emotional endorsement only a wife could give in her headlining speech kicking off the Democratic National Convention on Monday night. She recalled her husband, Barack Obama, as a nervous new dad, before the hype and hoopla of his life on the national stage, and said he has not been changed by politics. "He's the same man who drove me and our new baby daughter home from the hospital 10 years ago this summer," said Michelle, "inching along at a snail's pace, peering anxiously at us in the rearview mirror, feeling the whole weight of her future in his hands ... [He was] determined to give her what he never had, the affirming embrace of a father's love." Her voice caught with emotion and she sniffed several times. At the start of a four-day gathering that will culminate in her husband receiving the Democratic nomination for president, Michelle, 44, remembered the long, hard-fought primary season. "After all that's happened these past 19 months, see, the Barack Obama I know today is the same man I fell in love with 19 years ago.". . .
RELATED VIDEO: Michelle Obama at the 2008 DNC YouTube.com- BarackObamadotcom
|
 |
RELATED ARTICLE: Mrs O: The truth about Michelle Obama's 'working class' credentials The Daily Mail- UK, By Sharon Churcher, February 23, 2008
When The Mail on Sunday went back to the gritty district of Chicago where Michelle LaVaughn Robinson was raised, we found a rather different picture from the one so single-mindedly promoted by Camp Obama. Instead of the one-room tenement that now appears in most accounts of her upbringing, we found a well-kept neighbourhood of red-brick Arts and Craft-style houses which have long been home to respectable black families.
RELATED ARTICLE: Michelle Obama thesis was on racial divide Politico.com, By Jeffrey Ressner, February 22, 2008
Michelle Obama's senior year thesis at Princeton University, obtained from the campaign by Politico, shows a document written by a young woman grappling with a society in which a black Princeton alumnus might only be allowed to remain "on the periphery." Read the full thesis here. . .
RELATED RESOURCE: Candidate Match Game USA Today
RELATED RESOURCE: On the Issues- Every Political on Every Issue: Barack Obama
RELATED RESOURCE: On the Issues- Every Political on Every Issue: John McCain
|
- Critics Slam Elizabeth Edwards for Silence on Husband's Affair FOX News- AP, August 26, 2008
Two weeks after a devastating revelation sent her husband into political exile, Elizabeth Edwards isn't getting the steady sympathy usually afforded to a woman scorned. Instead, she's faced criticism from dedicated Democrats who think she was too willing to keep the affair a secret to help John Edwards' political ambitions, as well as her own.
RELATED ARTICLE: How to own up to an affair The Times Online- UK, By Dr. Pam Spurr, August 28, 2008
If there's one theme that I regularly hear from those who've been unfaithful to their partners it's that, at the time, their affair seemed so right, but with hindsight it ended up feeling so wrong. It's staggering how powerful illicit passion can be in convincing a person that their behaviour is acceptable. A guilty conscience usually tries to justify what it's doing as a salve: it's a type of defence mechanism to deny that your actions could be bad. Owning up to that harsh reality could take the zing out of the fling, which defeats the underhand purpose.
RELATED ARTICLE: Couples' counseling Chicago Tribune, By Dianne Kinzer, August 25, 2008
Here's a novel idea for politicians and the rest of us: Let's keep sex in marriage, especially for spouses in crisis situations (such as those fighting cancer or enduring three years of waiting for a husband to return from prison camp). Difficult? Yes, sometimes. But surely such a course is better than dealing with the fallout of betrayal.
|
 |
- Referendum on 1913 marriage law passes first test Boston Globe, By Globe Staff, August 25, 2008
The state attorney general today approved paperwork filed by opponents of same-sex marriages who are pushing a statewide referendum that would reinstate a 1913 statute that prevented gay and lesbian couples from marrying in Massachusetts if their union wouldn't be legal in their home state. The paperwork, which included the signatures of 10 registered voters, was filed Aug. 13 by the group Mass Resistance. They now need to gather signatures from 33,297 registered voters by Oct. 29 to get the referendum on the ballot in November 2010. “After a thorough review by our office, we have concluded that this referendum petition has met the technical requirements that govern such petitions.” Attorney General Martha Coakley said today in a statement. “Our decision that this referendum meets the Constitutional requirements as to subject matter does not mean that it has our support, but simply that the constitutional requirements are met for the proponents of the referendum to obtain further signatures.”. . .
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Gay marriage opponents seek to reverse new law Boston Herald.com- Associated Press, August 15, 2008
The gay marriage fight in Massachusetts may not be over after all. Opponents of same-sex marriages have filed paperwork for a ballot question that would repeal a new law that nullified a 1913 statute that prevented gay and lesbian couples from getting married here if their union wouldn’t be legal in their home state. Brian Camenker of the group Mass Resistance says lawmakers and Gov. Deval Patrick bowed to the will of the "gay lobby" by approving the repeal of the 1913 law last month. . . .Mass Resistance filed paperwork with the secretary of state’s office on Wednesday. It is unlikely any question would go on the ballot before 2010. . .
|
|
|
|
- McCain and Obama Largely Avoid Abortion, Gay Marriage
Social issues are largely out of the spotlight in the presidential election US News & World Report, August 24, 2008
Since Barack Obama and John McCain became the presumptive presidential nominees, they have been attacking each other on the slowing economy, the high price of gas, and the war in Iraq. But one thing this already bruising election has yet to feature is another round of the culture war. While the two candidates have been more than eager to share their views on, say, nuclear energy, when it comes to same-sex marriage and abortion, two hot-button issues that have loomed large in the past few presidential races, both Obama and McCain have been relatively quiet. The two senators spoke candidly about their faiths, and their views, recently with the Rev. Rick Warren, the evangelical minister of Saddleback Church, but on the campaign trail, they have largely evaded the hard details of social policy, cloaking their language instead in vague references to judicial appointments. "There's an understandable reluctance to address these issues in public forums," says John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. "For everyone you please, there's someone you irritate." Still, the candidates' avoidance of these issues has puzzled some activists at both ends of the political spectrum. . . . . . So, a few carefully worded equivocations aside, why all the tip-toeing around? There is at least one easy answer. "Both Obama and McCain have said they want to reach out to the middle," says Brian Schaffner, a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. "Abortion's not something you talk about when you're trying to win the center." There's no question the country remains deeply divided on these matters. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Where Obama and McCain Stand on Social Policy Issues US News & World Report, August 24, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Democrats Strive to Show They Got Religion Too The Christian Post, By Michelle A. Vu, August 25, 2008
The Democratic National Convention looks different this year as Christian and other religious leaders take center stage this week as part of the Democrats’ effort to show a more faith-friendly image to American voters. . . This year, religion is playing such a prominent role at the Democratic Convention largely in part because of Obama’s own emphasis on reaching faith voters. From Gospel concerts to meetings with some of the nation’s top Christian leaders, the Obama campaign has made connecting with faith voters one of its top priorities.
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Saddleback: The Inner Game of Politics Wall Street Journal, By Daniel Henninger, August 21, 2008
First question from Pastor Rick Warren to Barack Obama and John McCain: "Who are the three wisest people you know in your life?" Come again? Can I get back to you on that? No you can't, not if you plan to run for the presidency of the United States. In 21st century America, a candidate better be ready to output an opinion about everything. Everything. What would be the greatest moral failure in your life? What does it mean to you to trust in Christ? What's the toughest decision you ever had to make? At what point does a baby get human rights? Does evil exist? What about stem cells? Define marriage. This was just the tip of a submerged iceberg. At one point in the Saddleback Presidential Forum, Rick Warren said he had "about 200,000 questions." How has it come to pass that presidential candidates must talk about such things?
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Why Christians Leave Out God in the Marriage Debate The Christian Post, By Rhonda Tse, December 10, 2005
Christians suggest why so often one hears, ''one man and one woman,'' as the correct model, but leave out God. – As the marriage debate rages across the country, some are wondering why they so often hear, “one man and one woman,” as the correct model, but leave out God. A national marriage expert, the president of a regional marriage protection ministry, and a publicist and lay leader – all Christians – suggest a few reasons, but all agreed that Christians should not leave God out because He is integral to every successful marriage. Christian publicist and a regular churchgoer Mike Paul has worked with Christian groups both large and small, and to his dismay found that when up on a podium, leaders “from Billy Graham’s daughter to Chuck Colson” failed to mention God when addressing crowds about the correct model for marriage. “It is not one man and one woman, but it’s a triangle with God at the top,” said Paul.
|
|
 |
- Obama: Bill unnecessarily burdened doctors with … babies HotAir.com, By Ed Morrissey, August 21, 2008
Yesterday, a YouTubed audio snippet of Barack Obama’s defense of his vote against the Illinois state legislation that required medical providers to give normal life-supporting medical care to infants born alive during an abortion appeared on several blogs. Neither Allahpundit nor I could determine the legitimacy of the clip at the time. After all, AP had just inveighed against Think Progress for Dowdifying John McCain on the draft, and it hardly seemed fair to propagate a potentially similar edit job on Obama. Guy Benson did some research on the quote and discovered that not only did the audio come from the Chicago Tribune, Obama had made similar remarks in the Illinois legislature. Here’s the audio alone, without the musical overlay: "I suspect that doctors feel that they would be under that obligation, that they would already be making these determinations, and that essentially adding an additional doctor, who then has to be called in an emergency situation to come in and make these assessments, is really designed simply to burden the original decision of the woman and the physician to induce labor and perform an abortion". . . .
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: John McCain or Barack Obama? For us, there’s only one option The Real Proposal magazine, August 18, 2008
The sad reality is that both presumptive candidates for the presidency of the United States — chosen, ultimately, from a decidedly tainted pack from both sides of the Democratic-Republican divide — constitute a less-than-stellar reflection of our spiritual and moral condition as a nation, and it is delusional to believe that there isn't a leadership crisis in America. An old proverb reminds us, "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD," which, if applied to the upcoming presidential elections, would imply that whichever candidate prevails has been ordained for this juncture of our history. That said, however, we ought not be fooled into believing that the outcome will necessarily be "good."
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Obama's Infanticide Disgrace Townhall.com, By Guy Benson, August 18, 2008
Average Americans, many of whom hold complicated views on the issue of abortion, may wonder why such a bill would even be necessary in the first place. Once a child is born, she becomes an independent human being who's entitled to the same rights and legal protections afforded to all citizens, right? Wrong, said State Senator Obama. Earlier this decade, the Born Alive Infant Protection Act was introduced in the Illinois state legislature after a Chicago area nurse named Jill Stanek blew the whistle on a practice she personally witnessed at her hospital. Babies who managed to survive late term abortions were being abandoned in soiled linen closets and left to die.
RELATED ARTICLE: Above my Pay Grade? Townhall.com, By Kevin McCullough, August 17, 2008
When asked most forthrightly by Warren as to when a child should have its God given rights protected, Obama balked and claimed "knowing when something" that is obviously living, "begins to live" was, "above his pay grade." Even as a father he knew it was a lie. . . .And yet this flail speaks to his fundamental misunderstanding of morality and whether or not his moral judgement could be trusted as the most powerful man on earth. Obama has added even further doubt by outright lying about why he supported the exact same "Born Alive Infant Protection Act" that was even too radical and immoral for Barbara Boxer, Hillary Clinton, and Dianne Feinstein to support. Put differently Obama is the only elected official on record to ever vote in favor of denying life-saving medical care to children who had been born but that were struggling for life. Is that a decision too confusing so as to be "above the pay grade" as well? It isn't for most Americans.
RELATED RESOURCE: Index of Documents regarding Obama Cover-up on Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Bill National Right to Life (NRL).org
RELATED SITE: National Right to Life
The Obama Born-Alive Infants Debate: On August 16 Obama Said NRLC Was "Lying" -- But What Does He Say Now?
|
- Now on the Hallmark aisle: Gay marriage cards Associated Press, By Sarah Skidmore, August 21, 2008
The nation's largest greeting card company is rolling out same-sex wedding cards — featuring two tuxedos, overlapping hearts or intertwined flowers, with best wishes inside. "Two hearts. One promise," one says. Hallmark added the cards after California joined Massachusetts as the only U.S. states with legal gay marriage. A handful of other states have recognized same-sex civil unions. The language inside the cards is neutral, with no mention of wedding or marriage, making them also suitable for a commitment ceremony. Hallmark says the move is a response to consumer demand, not any political pressure. "It's our goal to be as relevant as possible to as many people as we can," Hallmark spokeswoman Sarah Gronberg Kolell said. Hallmark's largest competitor, American Greetings Corp., has no plans to enter the market, saying its current offerings are general enough to speak to a lot of different relationships. Hallmark started offering "coming out" cards last year, and the four designs of same-sex marriage cards are being gradually released this summer and will be widely available by next year. No sales figures were available yet. . . . The gay-friendly business can be challenging, companies said. Hamm said although she has found many vendors willing to work with her company, some have asked to be removed from the Web site because of hate mail or some other backlash. Hallmark says all of its stores can choose whether they want to add the latest offerings. . . .
|
 |
RELATED ARTICLE: Some Shops Reject Same-Sex Wedding Cards: Owners Of Several Idaho Hallmark Stores Won't Sell New Line Catering To Same-Sex Partners CBS News.com, August 26, 2008
A manager says seven Hallmark greeting card stores in the Treasure Valley will not carry the company's new same-sex marriage cards. Cassi Jacobsen, an assistant manager for the Jordan's Hallmark store in Nampa's Karcher Mall, says the family that owns the seven area stores has decided against carrying the new line of greeting cards. . . . Reaction to the cards has been mixed. Idaho Values Alliance Executive Director Bryan Fischer sent out a press release Thursday calling for local-area Hallmark stores not to carry the cards. "Hallmark, the venerable greeting card company, is doing nationwide what 48 states and the federal government have refused to do, and that is to recognize homosexual marriage," Fischer wrote.
RELATED BLOG & COMMENTS: Same-sex greetings World on the Web- Worldmag blog, Posted by Mickey McLean, August 21, 2008
RELATED INFO: Find your local Hallmark store contact information here
Let your voices be heard on this issue!
|
 |
- A revolution in the boardroom: Why it pays to be gay
Homosexuals are being courted by employers – from spooks to the city The Independent- UK, August 19, 2008
When Angela Mason began her 10-year directorship of the Stonewall gay lobby group in 1992, she had a friend in the corporate world who had two phones in his house. One he used to take personal calls for him and his partner. The other was for the office. When it came to being out and proud in the workplace, few and far between was the employee who would happily step out of the closet and declare: "I'm gay, let's do business." "People used to genuinely fear that they would lose their jobs if they were outed, and many did," Mason remembers. "If you were found out it was absolutely the end." It was with some sense of satisfaction, therefore, that Ms Mason read the news this week that MI5 was finally going to step out of the closet itself and begin openly recruiting people from within the gay community. One of the last bastions of the British establishment, a place that, until the early 1990s, had actually banned hiring gays because of fears that outed spies could be blackmailed, had finally capitulated and realised that if you want to hire the best talent, you have to look at all sections of society. The days of the Oxbridge don giving white, male graduates a tap on the shoulder and a nod towards Thames House were truly over. The domestic intelligence service is now not only going to start actively employing openly gay recruits, it is also hiring Stonewall (a group once associated with, and run by, former radicals such as Ms Mason) to advise the security services on how to encourage its spies to be more open about their sexuality and how to persuade more gay applicants to apply for jobs there. But as dramatic as MI5's announcement seems, it is part of a much wider silent revolution that Stonewall has been pursuing for much of the past decade – persuading the corporate world to love gays. And in the past few years it finally seems to be working. . .
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Selling Homosexuality to America Regent University Law Review, By Paul E. Rondeau
This article explores how gay rights activists use rhetoric, psychology, social psychology, and the media--all the elements of modern marketing--to position homosexuality in order to frame what is discussed in the public arena and how it is discussed. . . . The economics and education of homosexuals makes them prime players in a capitalistic society. Money means power, and education means the knowledge to use that power to gain more. Homosexuals have demonstrated they have access to the leadership in media, government, education, business and other centers of influence as well as access to capital. These are hardly traits of an oppressed minority. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: How America Went Gay Leadership U, By Charles W. Socarides, M.D.
Gays said they could "reinvent human nature, reinvent themselves." To do this, these reinventors had to clear away one major obstacle. No, they didn't go after the nation's clergy. They targeted the members of a worldly priesthood, the psychiatric community, and neutralized them with a radical redefinition of homosexuality itself. In 1972 and 1973 they co-opted the leadership of the American Psychiatric Association and, through a series of political maneuvers, lies and outright flim-flams, they "cured" homosexuality overnight-by fiat. They got the A.P.A. to say that same-sex sex was "not a disorder." It was merely "a condition"-as neutral as lefthandedness.
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: 'Gay-friendly' companies up 41%: Marriott, Macy's, Mastercard, Yahoo! join annual list World Net Daily, September 17, 2007
RELATED ARTICLE: Homosexual-rights group's 'perfect' corporations: 195 U.S. businesses recognized for benefiting 'lesbian, gays, bisexual, transgender' employees World Net Daily, September 17, 2007
Below is the list, in alphabetical order, of companies scoring a perfect 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign's 2008 Corporate Equality Index, with policies beneficial toward homosexuals:
RELATED ARTICLE: 'Big Macs fund training for homosexual activists' : Boycott McDonald's campaign cites company's support for 'gay' activism World Net Daily, August 15, 2008
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Don't be manipulated by the master marketers Townhall.com, By Rebecca Hagelin, October 4, 2005
. . . Few people realize it, but the same marketing techniques that companies use to induce us to buy a particular product are just as useful when it comes to selling us an idea. . . . We’re bamboozled daily on a wide variety of subjects, from abortion on demand for any reason to same-sex “marriage.” As David [Kupelian] notes in his new book, The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom: “The plain truth is, within the space of our lifetimes, much of what Americans once almost universally abhorred has been packaged, perfumed, gift-wrapped and sold to us as though it had great value. By skillfully playing on our deeply felt national values of fairness, generosity and tolerance, these marketers have persuaded us to embrace as enlightened and noble that which all previous generations since America’s founding regarded as grossly self-destructive -- in a word, evil.” . . .
|
 |
- Doctors Can't Deny Lesbians Care on Religious Grounds
Ruling Was Unamimous, Unlike Legalization of Gay Marriage Case ABC News, By Susan Donaldson James, August 18, 2008
The California Supreme Court today ruled unanimously that doctors cannot cite their religious beliefs as grounds to deny gay and lesbian patients medical care. Justice Joyce Kennard ruled that two Christian fertility doctors who refused to artificially inseminate a lesbian couple cannot claim a free speech or religious exemption from California's anti-discrimination law. The ruling extends a state law barring sexual orientation-based discrimination to the medical profession. The case, which drew 40 "friends of the court" briefs, pitted gay advocacy groups against religious and medical organizations. Guadalupe Benitez, now 36, had maintained that the California medical clinic that was treating her polycystic ovary syndrome had "dumped" her when she asked for artificial insemination. In 1999, after a year of surgeries and hormone treatments — all covered by insurance — Benitez was finally ready to get pregnant. But at the crucial moment, her doctor refused to do the procedure for "religious" reasons. Benitez is a lesbian and sued her doctors under California's civil rights laws, charging that they discriminated against her because of her sexual orientation. . . . . . The doctors received support from the American Civil Rights Union and anti-abortion groups, according to the Associated Press. The California Medical Association initially supported the Christian doctors, until they received criticism from gay rights groups and joined the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan to oppose them. . .
|
 |
RELATED BLOG & COMMENTS: California Doctors Can’t Refuse Care to Gays on Religious Grounds Wall Street Journal Blog, Posted by Jacob Goldstein, August 19, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Honda Criticized for Discriminatory Insurance Practices August 19, 2008
-- Doctors and health care professionals at Alabama Fertility Specialists were caught off guard when they looked into Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) insurance coverage for one of their patients. ART includes costly, but effective procedures like in vitro fertilization, intra-uterine insemination and other methods used with women who are having difficulty getting pregnant. Those doctors and health care professionals became concerned when they discovered Honda Manufacturing of Alabama refuses ART coverage for same sex couples.
|
RELATED ARTICLE: California Supreme Court Ruling Threatens Medical Care and Religious Freedom, Says Americans United for Life FoxBusiness, August 18, 2008
----The California Supreme Court today ruled that patient demand for nonessential, elective care trumps the freedom of conscience of physicians and their ability to practice medicine in accordance with their religious or moral beliefs. Denise Burke, Vice President & Legal Director of Americans United for Life (AUL), said, "This ruling will deny physicians and other professionals the ability to freely exercise their religious convictions." . . . . The case -- North Coast Women's Care Medical Group v. Superior Court of San Diego County (Benitez) - involves a situation where artificial insemination was not provided due to the marital status of the patient (Ms. Benitez). Ms. Benitez filed suit arguing that she was not provided the procedure because she is a lesbian.
RELATED ARTICLE: California gay marriage decision: The battle is on for our freedoms! The Real Proposal magazine, May 22, 2008
Anyone who thinks that the watershed issue of same-sex marriage is ultimately about what consenting adults do in the privacy of their bedrooms or a fundamental constitutional right to marry whomever we fall in love or want to form a family with, regardless of their gender, is being either naive, misinformed, misled...or, simply, disingenuous. . . . . . Anyone who does not recognize or understand the inherent conflicts between same-sex marriage rights being entrenched into law and our religious liberty — and, yes, even our free speech rights — had best wake up and smell the stench of what's festering right under our noses. Moreover, do not expect to be objectively informed on the issues by a largely liberal media that keep us distracted with trivial pursuits and inane drivel disguised as entertainment. As we argued in our last few blog entries, much of the media are now so closely aligned with the LGBT agenda, or involved in heretic pursuits that there is no longer a discernible difference in their apparent cohesive mission with respect to normalizing and legitimizing homosexual behavior.
|
- The First Lady of Turks & Caicos releases exclusive statement about her current condition Essence.com, By Kenya N. Byrd, August 19, 2008
After a whirlwind courtship, fairy-tale wedding and two years of marriage, the First Lady of Turks & Caicos and actress LisaRaye McCoy-Misick and Premier Michael Misick have separated and are headed for divorce court. On August 14, 2008, McCoy-Misick was taken to the island’s police department by her publicist, Lynn Jeter of Lynn Allen Jeter and Associates, and her personal bodyguard and cousin, Phillip Travis. The former star of sitcom "All of Us" spent nearly seven hours filing a report following an alleged altercation between herself, husband Misick, the couple's personal security, and Jeter, that took place on August 13 at the presidential palace, the premier’s mansion. When contacted by ESSENCE.com, Misick’s office had no comment. . . . . . Despite allegations of corruption and rape charges against the premier (which Misick strongly denies), McCoy-Misick has never publicly spoken about the charges against her husband, but she recently released a statement announcing their separation. “I ask that my privacy be respected in these difficult times and I believe that the people of the Turks & Caicos Islands will understand and support my wish to receive the necessary independent representation from the legal counsel of my choosing. I hope that, in time, the Turks & Caicos Islands government will come to share that view. Although I have always been a supportive wife even in light of the very serious allegations currently pending against the premier, there are limits even for me.”
|
 |
RELATED PHOTOS: LisaRaye After Turks And Caicos Altercation: An Exclusive First Look Essence.com, August 19, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Actress LisaRaye McCoy, Husband Call it Quits People magazine, People magazine, By Steve Helling, August 14, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Fairytale marriage could be at an end for Turks and Caicos premier Caribbean Net News, By Tricia N. Henry, June 11, 2008
In April of this year, Misick was accused of sexually assaulting a US citizen on a visit to his and Lisa-Raye’s home in the TCI. It was reported that the female visitor in question was a friend of Lisa-Raye’s. Just days after the allegations were made, the TCI premier issued a televised statement that “strongly and categorically” denied the charges. . . . Although Misick denied the charges, reports from other media sources, including internet sites and Bahamian newspapers, stated that Misick admitted there was sexual contact but claims that it was consensual.
|
|
|
T.D. Jakes: Let's Stay Together
In his new book, Before You Do, Bishop T.D. Jakes helps Black men and women find mates with whom they can go the distance Essence.com, By Demetria L. Lucas, August 18, 2008In between tears of joy, you'll squeak out a yes! if the man you love ever proposes. But put your happily-ever-after fantasies on pause until you consider these sobering truths from the Center for Marriage and Families: About 45 percent of marriages fall apart. And the rates of divorce and separation for Blacks have risen during the last several decades. "We date who a person appears to be, but we marry who they are," says Bishop T.D. Jakes, pastor of The Potter's House and author of the relationship self-help book Before You Do (Atria). These are the minister's best tips for getting to know your boo before he mentions jumping the broom: Prepare for a Lifetime. . . Do Your Research. . . Give up on Perfection. . .
RELATED SITE: Before You DoRELATED SITE: Bishop's Blog TD Jakes.com
|
RELATED BLOG: Before I Did TD Jakes.com, By Sarah Henson, August 28, 2008
Several weeks ago my dad shared his thoughts and feelings on my recent marriage. I thought it would be fun to share my side of the story. . . As I am sure you know, my dad is quite the craftsman with words. He did in 30 minutes of conversation what six weeks of premarital counseling failed to do - he gave us an unfiltered view of marriage. Before we walked into the restaurant to discuss our plans to wed, Robert and I prepared ourselves for the potential questions we thought my father would ask. Little did we know, there is no preparing yourself for my father.
|
 |
- Robert Wagner finally talks about Natalie Wood's death The Austrailian- News.com.au, By John Harlow in Los Angeles, August 18, 2008
* Robert Wagner, Natalie Wood were Brad and Ange of their day
* She died as he grew jealous of co-star Christopher Walken
* Wagner admits he also wanted to shoot Warren Beatty
For 27 years, Hollywood actor Robert Wagner has refused to discuss the night his wife and fellow film star Natalie Wood vanished from their yacht and drowned. Now, at 78, Wagner is to break his silence in the hope of dispelling rumours that he was somehow responsible for the death of Wood, the Oscar-nominated actress he had married twice, or that she fell overboard as they partied drunkenly with another actor, Christopher Walken. In a forthcoming autobiography, Pieces of My Heart, he admits for the first time that he was jealous of Walken, whose performances in The Deer Hunter and Pennies from Heaven had made him a rising star. He says he felt his wife was being "emotionally unfaithful" to him on the set of Brainstorm, the film she was then shooting with Walken. According to Wagner's account, tensions boiled over during a late dinner on the yacht, which was moored off the island of Santa Catalina, near Los Angeles, after Walken suggested that Wood should star in more films instead of caring for two young children. Wagner lost his temper and, he admits, smashed a wine bottle on the table, prompting Wood to go below to their cabin. He says that when he put his head around the door of the cabin and saw his wife for the last time, she was fixing her hair and apparently preparing for bed. . .
|
RELATED ARTICLE: How Great Is Your Marriage? Emotional Infidelity: How to Affair-Proof Your Marriage and 10 Other Secrets to a Great Relationship Not Alone.com, By M. Gary Neuman
"I don't believe in 'okay,' 'decent,' or 'solid' marriages. I'm against them," says M. Gary Neuman. "I believe only in great marriages, and that you should expect and reach for no less." In the last fifteen years, M. Gary Neuman, marital therapist and architect of the Sandcastles Divorce Therapy Program, has helped thousands of couples in crisis. Couples who fight. Who've grown apart. Who are stuck in relationships that run more on routine and rancor than love and understanding. What he's found is that, contrary to popular belief, the problem is usually not poor communication. It's the failure to put most of your focus into your marriage. You've only got so much energy. Are you spending it by being emotionally unfaithful? Take a quick check.
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Emotional infidelity - fact or fiction? Health24- South Africa, By Susan Erasmus, December 27, 2006
Your husband's friend Angela has just phoned again. For the third time this week. And while you're slaving away in the kitchen, you hear them laughing on the telephone and your hackles rise. Are you being unreasonable and petty, as you know they are only friends and nothing more? "Not necessarily," says Cape Town psychologist, Ilse Terblanche. "When much of the social attention that is usually present in a marriage is diverted elsewhere, it is perfectly normal to feel betrayed in some way. Infidelity is not necessarily only sexual – it can be emotional too. And yes, this can make a marriage suffer."
|
- McCain, Obama share their views on evil, marriage, abortion at faith forum Dallas Morning News, By Wayne Slater, August 17, 2008
— Barack Obama and John McCain offered a sharply different prescription of how faith would inform their presidency during a joint appearance Saturday at a California megachurch. In a two-hour, nationally televised forum, the presidential candidates made an explicit appeal to values voters on the issues of poverty, AIDS, abortion and human rights. Mr. Obama said the biblical injunction to care for the disenfranchised “applies to poverty, it applies to racism and sexism, it applies to not thinking about providing ladders of opportunity for people.” Mr. McCain recalled how his religious faith sustained him in the face of torture as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. “It took a lot of prayer,” he said. The candidates’ sharpest differences were on abortion, the appointment of Supreme Court judges, restrictions on faith-based groups that take federal money and how to deal with evil. . . . . There were areas of agreement. Both men said that marriage is a union between a man and a woman but that gay partners should have certain legal rights. East Texas evangelist Rick Scarborough, president of Vision America Action, said Mr. McCain offered concise, conservative answers that should help win over religious voters. He took Mr. Obama to task for not answering when life begins. “This brilliant Harvard grad could not say the obvious,” said Mr. Scarborough. “He’s the most radically pro-abortion candidate our country has ever fielded.”. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: John McCain or Barack Obama? For us, there’s only one option The Real Proposal magazine, August 18, 2008
The sad reality is that both presumptive candidates for the presidency of the United States — chosen, ultimately, from a decidedly tainted pack from both sides of the Democratic-Republican divide — constitute a less-than-stellar reflection of our spiritual and moral condition as a nation, and it is delusional to believe that there isn't a leadership crisis in America. An old proverb reminds us, "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD," which, if applied to the upcoming presidential elections, would imply that whichever candidate prevails has been ordained for this juncture of our history. That said, however, we ought not be fooled into believing that the outcome will necessarily be "good."
RELATED ARTICLE: How McCain Won Saddleback: In an unusual setting, his experience overwhelmed Obama. National Review Online, By Byron York, August 17, 2008
— It’s fair to say that in the hours before John McCain appeared with Barack Obama at the “Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency,” here at Pastor Rick Warren’s famed southern California mega-church, there were at least a few McCain insiders who were a bit nervous about their candidate’s prospects. Obama can be remarkably polished in this sort of situation. Unlike other Democrats, he’s not afraid to hang out with evangelicals. McCain, on the other hand, can at times be cranky and take pleasure in irritating his base. Could he come out ahead in this one? Team McCain needn’t have worried. This was not your usual political TV show.
RELATED ARTICLE: Presidential Race Draws Even: GOP Base Getting Behind McCain Pew Research Center, August 13, 2008
With less than two weeks to go before the start of the presidential nominating conventions, Barack Obama's lead over John McCain has disappeared. Pew's latest survey finds 46% of registered voters saying they favor or lean to the putative Democratic candidate, while 43% back his likely Republican rival. In late June, Obama held a comfortable 48%-to-40% margin over McCain, which narrowed in mid-July to 47% to 42%.
RELATED BLOG: GODSTUFF: I have Faith that Obama Has faith Falsani.blogspot.com- The Dade Abides, By Cathleen Falsani ("God Girl" — Chicago Sun-Times religioun columnist) August 5, 2008
Who is a Christian? It seems like a simple question, but when I typed my inquiry into Google earlier this week, the answer came back in 20 million hits, each of them a little different from the other. I've always understood a Christian to be someone who believes Jesus was who he said he was and tries to live the way Jesus said to live. Period. But there are many people who find that answer lacking, apparently. What got me thinking about this question was a recent commentary by the syndicated columnist Cal Thomas, based in part on an interview I did with Barack Obama about his spiritual life back in the spring of 2004.
RELATED ARTICLE & COMMENTS: Obama is No Joshua Human Events Online, By Cal Thomas, June 11, 2008
Barack Obama’s presidential campaign plans to strike at the heart of the Republican base by attempting to woo Evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics to his side. The Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody first broke the story on his blog “The Brody File.” Obama’s campaign for the conservative Christian vote, which has largely gone to the Republican presidential candidate in recent elections, has been dubbed the “Joshua Generation Project.”
RELATED ARTICLE & COMMENTS: Barack Obama: The 2004 “God Factor” Interview Transcript —Interview conducted by Cathleen Falsani ("God Girl"), Chicago-Sun Time religion columnist, April 30, 2008
Editor’s Note:
At 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 27, 2004, when I was the religion reporter (I am now its religion columnist) at the Chicago Sun-Times, I met then-State Sen. Barack Obama at Café Baci, a small coffee joint at 330 S. Michigan Avenue in Chicago, to interview him exclusively about his spirituality. Our conversation took place a few days after he’d clinched the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat that he eventually won. We spoke for more than an hour. He came alone. He answered everything I asked without notes or hesitation. The profile of Obama that grew from the interview at Cafe Baci became the first in a series in the Sun-Times called “The God Factor,” that eventually became my first book, The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People (FSG, March 2006.) Because of the staggering interest in now U.S. Sen. Obama’s faith and spiritual predilections, I thought it might be helpful to share that interivew, uncut and in its entirety, here. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Obama: I have a deep faith: Barack Obama credits his multicultural upbringing for his theological point of view Chicago Sun-Times, By Cathleen Falsani- Sun-Times Columnist, April 5, 2004
|
 |
- Ellen and Portia Get Married People magazine, By Julie Jordan, August 17, 2008
Ring the wedding bells! Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi have tied the knot. "Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi were married tonight in an intimate ceremony at their home in Los Angeles," their spokesperson tells PEOPLE exclusively. DeGeneres, 50, and de Rossi, 35, both wore Zac Posen and exchanged rings by Neil Lane during the Saturday ceremony. Their big day also featured arrangements by L.A. florist Mark's Garden. The intimate ceremony was attended by 19 guests, including DeGeneres's mom Betty and de Rossi's mother Margaret Rogers (who flew in from Australia for the occasion), who witnessed the couple exchange handwritten vows. . . .
RELATED ARTICLE & PHOTOS: Ellen DeGeneres marries lesbian partner Portia de Rossi in sunset LA ceremony The Daily Mail- UK, August 18, 2008
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: School’s in (especially for John McCain): A “conservative” defense of Marriage The Real Proposal magazine, May 28, 2008
This is the “conservative” candidate for the presidency of the United States, who cannot, when asked, give a clearly articulated argument in favor of his foundational beliefs in the institution of marriage? He is an embarrassment. And so are his handlers, who allowed him to wander into "Ellen" territory ill-prepared. Indeed, did they expect that he would make an appearance on a television talk show hosted by a widely popular, openly lesbian comedienne one week after a landmark California Supreme Court decision to legalize same-sex marriage in that state and the issue would not be raised?
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
It is not tolerance gay activists are after. They already have that. Generally speaking, Americans do not overly concern themselves with what their neighbors do in the privacy of their own homes. "Live and let live" is the American refrain -- that is, until one decides to expose those private behaviors to the light of day, and demands are made that those behaviors are sanctioned and condoned by the larger society. The mainstreaming of homosexuality is, of course, the true aim of gay activists, and there is no quicker or final way to accomplish this than to erase objective standards of moral behavior; to argue -- as homosexual marriage advocates and liberal judges have -- that the union of a man and a woman and that of two men or two women is objectively equivalent.
RELATED ARTICLE: Gay "Marriage" Townhall.com, By Thomas Sowell, August 15, 2006
The "equal protection of the laws" provided by the Constitution of the United States applies to people, not actions. Laws exist precisely in order to discriminate between different kinds of actions.
RELATED ARTICLE: The Dangers of Same-sex "Marriage" BreakPoint.org- By Regis Nicoll, May 26, 2006
But to the larger issue: if marriage is primarily about love and commitment, why should it be limited to two people? Why not three, five, or twenty? Why not allow a brother to marry his sister, a father marry his daughter? For that matter, why should marriage be limited to the human species? Why not have cross-species marriages for a woman and her dog, a man and his goat, or three women and a horse?
RELATED ARTICLE: Comparing the Lifestyles of Homosexual Couples to Married Couples Family Research Council, By Timothy J. Dailey, Ph. D.
Many times, homosexual relationships are touted as being no different than ordinary married couples. But research shows that in several key respects, the homosexual lifestyle differs radically from other types of relationships.
|
- 'Shameful and disgusting': The No1 song which has sparked outrage - from the singer's own parents The Daily Mail- UK, By Caroline Graham, August 17, 2008
With its irresistibly catchy, upbeat tune, Katy Perry’s I Kissed A Girl has become the undisputed song of the summer, rocketing to No1 last week. The singer’s parents, you might have imagined, would be bursting with pride and rushing to congratulate the 23-year-old on her achievement. But instead they have launched a ferocious attack on their daughter, and branded the controversial lyric of her song – about two girls kissing – ‘shameful and disgusting’. Katy’s parents, both evangelical Christian preachers, say they are deeply ashamed of the star for ‘promoting a sin’. And her mother, Mary Hudson, declared: ‘I hate the song. It clearly promotes homosexuality and its message is shameful and disgusting. ‘Katy knows how I feel. We are a very outspoken family and she knows how disappointed her father and I are. I can’t even listen to that song. The first time I heard it I was in total shock. When it comes on the radio I bow my head and pray.’. . . . . Just over a week ago she leapt into the crowd at a gig and kissed a 16-year-old lesbian fan. But Mrs Hudson claims her daughter, who grew up singing in church, has been led astray by the music industry. She said: ‘Katy is our daughter and we love her but we strongly disagree with how she is conducting herself at the moment. . . . . Her first bid for fame was an album of Christian songs in 2001 as Katy Hudson, which hardly sold. . .
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: "Bi-Curious" Summer Townhall.com, By Brent Bozell III, July 11, 2008
When our culture merchants calculate how to exploit societal attitudes toward the homosexual lifestyle, one factor doesn't enter into the equation. Frankly, they don't give a d--- about people who believe it's a sin against God. Those religious people with their religious hang-ups aren't likely to watch MTV, so why bother with their silly complaints? Religious concerns safely tossed aside, producers are free to explore how best to profit from pushing envelopes. They know that (most) men don't enjoy watching gay men, but enough do like to watch women flirt with lesbianism to make it a commercially viable enterprise. Enter the idea of women being "bi-curious," as the slang goes. The trend has landed on top of the Billboard pop charts and has dominated the top of the i-Tunes download list in the form of Katy Perry's song "I Kissed A Girl."
RELATED ARTICLE: Want a Shocking Dose of Reality? Try Listening to the Songs on Your Child’s MP3 Player BlackAmericaWeb.com, By: Joseph C. Phillips, December 11, 2007
It is often jarring when the cleanliness of theory meets the messiness of reality. Such was the source of the recent smack in the face I received when I purchased one of my sons a MP3 player for his birthday. . .
|
 |
- TV's contempt for Marriage Townhall.com, By Brent Bozell III, August 15, 2008
Doug and Annie Brown became a hot topic of conversation in June when his book came out, called "Just Do It." The married couple from Denver made a decision to do something dramatic to their marriage and have sex for 101 days in a row. They called it a "sexpedition." They expressed surprise at how much closer they became, relishing conversations, holding hands and strengthening their marital bond. They felt like courting each other the way they did when they first met in their twenties. On the jokey surface of our popular culture, we consistently encounter the idea that marriage ruins sex. But pop culture is just plain wrong. Study after study has shown that married people have higher rates of sexual activity and satisfaction than singles. The problem for Hollywood in all that is that marital sex just isn't naughty enough for envelope pushers. Like overgrown teenagers, TV producers are stuck in arrested social development, and seemingly can't visualize Mom and Dad having an active and fulfilling sex life. They would rather visualize the crazy and the kinky side, featuring the single swinger. . . . Never mind the impact this warped worldview has on impressionable youngsters, so many of whom are hit with these messages early in the prime-time hours. Consider the effect on teenagers and young adults, the kind of demographic over which TV advertisers drool. In most cases, they are unmarried, but close to the age when marriage could happen. If they're watching television, the prospects of a happy, healthy marriage with sexual fulfillment in it look horrendously dim. Consider a few examples:. . .
|
RELATED ARTICLE: 101 days of sex brought couple intimacy ... and fatigue: Book ‘Just Do It’ relates ‘colorful romp’ that left them exhausted, but closer MSNBC.com, By Mike Celizic, June 10, 2008
A lot of people may think they want to have sex every day — but actually doing it for 101 straight days is more than an adventure, it’s a book. That’s what Annie and Doug Brown discovered after she suggested they embark on a journey that her friends told her she was crazy for even thinking about. Married for 11 years, the couple had a 7-year-old, a 3-year-old, careers, and dozens of demands on their time and energy. And she wanted to have sex every day for 101 days?
RELATED ARTICLE: 3 Reasons Why Married People Have Better Sex American Chronicle, By Dan and Jennifer, April 22, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Why Marriage Is Good For You City Journal, By Maggie Gallagher, Autumn 2000
|
|
 |
- Shaq's wife says marriage is on the mend Kansas City Star- AP, By Sarah Larimer, August 14, 2008
The wife of Phoenix Suns center Shaquille O'Neal said Thursday that her marriage to the NBA star is on the mend. During an interview about the launch of her new video-sharing Web site, Shaunie O'Neal told The Associated Press that the couple plans to stop divorce proceedings soon. "Neither one of us could probably answer why we were getting one in the first place," Shaunie O'Neal said. Shaquille O'Neal filed for divorce in Miami-Dade Circuit Court in September 2007, after nearly five years of marriage. "Things have been going so great, that someone actually had to remind us that 'Hey, you do remember those papers are still there.' Literally, it was days ago," Shaunie O'Neal said. "So, we've agreed that before we leave Florida in a few days we'll make sure that that's gone away." The couple has six children: four together, and each had one of their own before the Dec. 26, 2002, wedding. . .
RELATED VIDEO: Shaq and Shaunie Back On! ExtraTV, August 15, 2008
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Shaquille O'Neal's Wife: 'I Want To Save Our Marriage': She asks court to disregard his divorce application... Entertainmentwise.com, By Harjeet Mander, October 9, 2007
Shaquille O’Neal’s divorce battle may be postponed, as his wife Shaunie Nelson has filed papers to the court denying that her marriage is irretrievably broken down.
RELATED COURT DOCUMENT: La' Shaundya Nelson O'Neal answers divorce complaint
RELATED ARTICLE: Shaquille O'Neal Files for Divorce People magazine, By Sara Hammel, September 5, 2007
RELATED COURT DOCUMENT: Shaquille O'Neal v. La' Shaundya Nelson O'Neal
RELATED ARTICLE: The Marital Money Pits: Don’t Let Finances Drive You Apart LifeScript.com, By Emily Battaglia, August 15, 2007
RELATED ARTICLES: Men, Women & Money Money magazine- CNNMoney.com
|
- Steven Curtis Chapman Shares His Family's Story of Healing People magazine, By Eileen Finan, August 13, 2008
Unimaginable tragedy struck the Chapman family the evening of May 21 when their 5-year-old daughter Maria Sue was accidentally killed by an SUV driven by her 17-year-old brother, Will Franklin. "At first you don't even know if you can breathe. You don't know if you are going to survive the grief and the deep, deep, deep sadness," says Grammy-winning Christian singer Steven Curtis Chapman, who sat down with his family for an emotional interview with PEOPLE at their Franklin, Tenn., home. "You just want to lay down and die." Wrestling with the pain of his daughter's death and the anguish of the son who was at the wheel, Chapman says, "every lyric I've ever written has been tested beyond what I ever imagined.". . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Steven Curtis Chapman's Daughter Killed in Accident: 5-year-old daughter Maria Sue struck and killed Wednesday by a sport utility vehicle at home Christianity Today, By Andree Farias, May 22, 2008
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Greg Laurie's Tragic Loss: Where, O Death, is your sting? The Real Proposal magazine, July 28, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: The Journey Through Sorrow: When a Child Dies-- Surviving the death of dreams. BeliefNet, By Carol Staudacher
How do you survive the death of your child? As a parent, you're supposed to be the provider, the nurturer, the protector, the mentor, the guide. You invest love and hope and certain beliefs in your son or daughter. But most of all, you do not outlive your child. When tragedy strikes and you do bury a child, you're faced with reconstructing a life that has been suddenly robbed of its parental responsibilities and joys
RELATED ARTICLE: Surviving Loss: Living After the Death of a Child Adrr.com, By Stephen R. Marsh
Stephen R. Marsh and Winifred L. Marsh (Steve & Win Marsh to their friends) were married on January 26, 1985 in the Oakland Temple. They are the parents of five girls, Jessica, Heather, Courtney, Robin, and Rachel, 3 of whom have died in early childhood.
RELATED ARTICLE: Surviving the Death of a Child Menninger Clinic, By Donna Lamb, LSCSW
Numerous secondary losses accompany the death of a child, including loss of the family as it existed prior to the death. Surviving children lose the emotional, and perhaps physical, availability of their parents, grandparents “lose” their children to parental grief and spouses lose the support of each other–each whose emotional plate is so full that they cannot be there for the other. The impact of a child’s death on a marital relationship cannot be underestimated. Neither parent will be the same person as they were before the death.
|
 |
- Psychiatrist is spilling the secrets of a happy marriage The Patriot-Ledger, By Deborah Allard-GateHouse News Service, August 13, 2008
— Ladies, what if you told your best friend you actually enjoyed cooking your husband’s favorite meal for him or taking him his morning coffee in bed? Would she think you were acting like a 1950s housewife? That your husband’s a grown man and should do for himself? That you don’t need to do those things because you already have a full-time job and kids to take care of? What if you told this same friend your husband brings you your morning coffee in bed and makes you dinner? “Women are almost afraid to do things for their husbands,” said Dr. Scott Haltzman, co-author of “The Secrets of Happily Married Women: How to Get More out of Your Relationship by Doing Less” with Theresa Foy DiGeronimo, published by Jossey-Bass, a division of Wiley. Women have worked so hard fighting for equal rights that they’re afraid of losing the power they’ve achieved in the last several decades, Haltzman said. But, it’s OK for husbands and wives to do things for each other. It’s a way of showing love and respect. “Women are putting pressure on themselves,” Haltzman said. “But if you ask women what they’d like their son’s wife to be like. They want someone who will take care of him a little.”. . . . Haltzman said men’s and women’s brains are wired differently, which affects the ways they communicate, solve problems and even think of sex. Some “secrets” include: Learn how to communicate about the connections you seek — it’s as simple as asking for what you want; accept that your house doesn’t have to look like the Barbie Dream House; nurture your husband’s strengths and don’t try to change what you can’t; speak in shorter sentences — don’t skip from subject to subject — and pause frequently; and take time for your own exercise, spiritual and intellectual needs. . .
|
|
|
RELATED SITE: DrScott.com —An Internet Community for the support of husbands, wives and families
RELATED ARTICLE: Husbands, Your Wives Want You to Read This ABC News.com- Good Morning America, Jan 26, 2006
— Dr. Scott Haltzman admits that his 17-year marriage has its flaws (as does everyone's, he says), but you can still learn plenty from him. Haltzman, author of "The Secrets of Happily Married Men: Eight Ways to Win Your Wife's Heart Forever," shared his tips on "Good Morning America."
READ EXCERPTS: "Secrets of Happily-Married Men"
|
|
 |
- Photo Essay: Tabloid Truths Time magazine, August 13, 2008
This Just In: Edwards Infidelity October 2007 - August 2008
The National Enquirer reported in October 2007 that presidential candidate John Edwards had an affair with a woman he met in a bar. By December, the tabloid reported that the woman was Rielle Hunter — who had made campaign films for Edwards — and that she was pregnant. After Enquirer staffers caught Edwards visiting Hunter at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in July, other news organizations began to take the story seriously. Weeks later, the Enquirer published a blurry "spy photo" purporting to show Edwards holding Hunter's newborn. Two days later, he admitted on national television that he did have an affair with Hunter but claimed he was not the father of her child. . . . Next: Rush On Drugs. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: The Edwards Affair: The Mysterious Other Woman, Rielle Hunter People magazine, By Nicole Weisensee Egan, Frank Swertlow and Lorenzo Benet, August 14, 2008
Rielle Hunter, the 44-year-old campaign aide with whom former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has admitted to having an affair, seems to have had as many personal transformations as she's had names.
RELATED ARTICLE: The Edwards Affair: Elizabeth's 'Excruciating Anguish' People magazine, August 13, 2008
Behind the public show of strength, the Edwards' household has been a scene of turmoil and tension since John, 55, first began revealing the truth about his affair with former campaign aide, Rielle Hunter, 44, after the formal launch of his campaign in the final days of 2006. "He told the truth slowly," according to one source close to the couple.
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Edwards' Ally Explains Money to Mistress AOL News- AP, By Pete Yost and David Scott, August 15, 2008
-- New questions emerged Friday about John Edwards' longtime chief fundraiser and secret efforts that protected the pregnant woman with whom the former presidential candidate has admitted a shameful affair in 2006. Fred Baron, Edwards' national finance chairman and a wealthy Dallas-based trial attorney, has acknowledged he quietly began sending money to Rielle Hunter, Edwards' mistress, to resettle in California, along with the family of Andrew Young. Young is the campaign aide who has said he is the father of Hunter's daughter, born after her affair with Edwards. But Baron is far more intertwined in the matter than previously known, with longstanding personal connections to the lawyers who represented Hunter and Young, according to a review of legal findings by The Associated Press.
RELATED ARTICLE: FIRST PERSON: What Rielle Hunter Told Me Newsweek.com, By Jonathan Darman, August 18-25, 2008 Issue
A seeker and a New Age spiritualist, John Edwards's other woman believed she could help him make history.A seminal book for her had been Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now." Her purpose on this Earth, she said, was to help raise awareness about all this, to help the unenlightened become better reflections of their true, repressed selves. Her latest project was John Edwards. Edwards, she said, was an old soul who had barely tapped into any of his potential. The real John Edwards, she believed, was a brilliant, generous, giving man who was driven by competing impulses—to feed his ego and serve the world. . .
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Our Sick Edwards-Excusing Media Townhall.com, By Brent Bozell III, August 13, 2008
You know there are some in the liberal media who have simply lost touch with reality when the headline reads "John Edwards Cheats on Wife With Cancer" and they ask with great detachment whether he'll be able to run for office again soon. These people's morality is so bizarre that they showed more outrage at John McCain featuring a picture of Paris Hilton in a commercial for two eye-blinks than for Edwards catting around on a dying spouse. . . . Throughout this time, the very same media that almost immediately spread unproven trash on John McCain's alleged "romantic" relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman because the source was the allegedly professional New York Times now remained as quiet as a cabin full of Carthusian monks. Only when everyone was familiar with the story thanks to the New Media and Edwards was forced to confess did the networks break their obedient silence.
RELATED ARTICLE: Edwards, Obama, and the Perils of Narcissism Townhall.com, By Michael Medved, August 13, 2008
The shocking part of the Edwards story doesn't involve the sad fact that he cheated on his sick wife; as his forlorn defenders righly point out, he's got plenty of company (in both parties) when it comes to marital infidelity. The detail that makes this scandal so much worse than most other Washington melodramas of straying husbands is the fact that Con Ed apparently completed his affair and confessed it to his wife, before he launched his second campaign for the presidency. This means that he collected money from grandmothers and struggling farmers and idealistic teenagers in Iowa (where he finished second in the caucuses) while harboring a secret guilt that he knew could destroy his campaign. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: The Values Dance Joseph C. Phillips.com, October 15, 2007
In America we do not anoint royalty infallible, but public servants with “servants” being the operative word. Our elected officials serve at the pleasure of the people. We rightly expect that those entrusted with the nation’s security and purse strings will exercise their obligations with prudence and clarity. It is not scandal mongering that sparks our interest in the private lives of public servants but the fact that public indiscretion calls into question one’s decision making skills. Or at least it should. Trust is essential to public service. In truth though, if a man would break a sacred vow he makes to the mother of his children, why should we believe for one moment that he holds the promises he made to nameless faceless citizens in any higher esteem. I struggle with the idea that any man bent on fulfilling his own personal desires, even at the expense of the best interests of his children, can be trusted to oversee the interests of the general public. . .
|
- Could Bernic Mac’s Early, Impoverished Years Have Contributed to His Fatal Lung Ailments? BlackAmericaWeb.com, By Tonyaa Weathersbee, August 13, 2008
Bernie Mac was born poor, but his humble beginnings turned out to be the straw that he would spin into comedic gold. Yet I’m left to wonder whether those beginnings ultimately claimed him in the end. Mac -- a comic whose edginess laughingly pulled us headlong into the tough-love world of child rearing and other hardscrabble places -- left us last week at the age of 50. The official cause of his death was complications from pneumonia. But I can’t help but to ponder whether the poverty of his early years was an unofficial cause. It is, after all, a cause that tends to be the culprit behind the numbers of black people who die from respiratory ailments at disproportionately higher rates than their white counterparts. Think about it. Mac suffered from a condition called sarcoidosis. It is a disease that, among other things, causes scarring of the lungs. When a person has scarred lungs, it makes it tough to fight off opportunistic ailments such as pneumonia. According to the Chicago Tribune, experts believe that environmental contaminants can help to trigger one’s susceptibility to sarcoidosis, and it has been linked to tree pollen, insecticides and moldy environments. Now I don’t profess to know how poor Mac was . . . . But here’s what I do know: I know that a number of studies have shown that poor people are more likely to live in homes that are older and more prone to accumulating mold. They are also more likely to live in homes that have infestations of cockroaches -- meaning that many times, a lot of insecticide is used to fend them off. . .
|
 |
RELATED ARTICLE: Bernie Mac's Wife: 'I Knew This Could Be It' People magazine, By Hillary Shenfeld, August 15, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Isaac Hayes and Bernie Mac... the Soul Men stars who died before the film's release The Daily Mail- UK, By Graham Smith, August 13, 2008
One was a legendary singer/songwriter who changed the direction of soul music for ever, the other was a comedian and award-winning actor. But when Isaac Hayes and Bernie Mac signed up to star alongside each other in the upcoming movie Soul Men, nobody could have predicted both men would be dead before the film's release. By an incredible coincidence which is sure to give the film's other star, Samuel L Jackson, the willies, Hayes and Mac passed away just one day apart.
RELATED ARTICLE: Bernie Mac's Death: What Happened? People.com, By Hilary Shenfeld and Ivory Jeff Clinton, August 9, 2008
Bernie Mac’s wife and daughter were with him until the very end, says the late comic's sister-in-law in a personal and touching interview with PEOPLE that took place Saturday. . . . . Of her widowed sibling (like Mac, Rhonda is 50), Grossett says, "She’s devastated. . . . Recalling the couple's early years, when they were still in their teens, Grossett says, "When they started dating, he said, 'Girl, you better come on board this train, because I'm going to be rich.' And her response was, 'Okay,' and they were married. That's how he charmed her, with his sense of humor." She adds, "When they got married they were kids. He was 20 and she was 19. They both grew up together, and they both matured in this marriage. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Friends and Costars Remember Bernie Mac People magazine, By Ivory Jeff Clinton, August 09, 2008
|
 |
- Health & Parenting Issues: Hefty can still be healthy Life & Style- Sydney Morning Herald, August 13, 2008
You can look great in a swimsuit and still be a heart attack waiting to happen. And you can also be overweight and otherwise healthy. A new US study suggests that a surprising number of overweight people - about half - have normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels, while an equally startling number of trim people suffer from some of the ills associated with obesity. The first national estimate of its kind bolsters the argument that you can be hefty but still healthy, or at least healthier than has been believed. . . . In the study, about 51 per cent of overweight adults, or roughly 36 million people nationwide, had mostly normal levels of blood pressure, cholesterol, blood fats called triglycerides and blood sugar. Almost one-third of obese adults, or nearly 20 million people, also were in this healthy range, meaning that none or only one of those measures was abnormal. Yet about a fourth of adults in the recommended-weight range had unhealthy levels of at least two of these measures. That means some 16 million of them are at risk for heart problems. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Extra pounds mean insurance fees for Ala. workers Townhall.com, By Phillip Rawls, August 21, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE & COMMENTS: For Health, Body Size Can Be Misleading New York Times Blog, By Tara Parker-Pope, August 13, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Obese and Healthy? Some Obese People Don't Risk Heart Disease, Diabetes; Some Normal-Weight People Do WebMD.com, By Daniel J. DeNoon, August 11, 2008
RELATED STUDY REPORT: The Obese Without Cardiometabolic Risk Factor Clustering and the Normal Weight With Cardiometabolic Risk Factor Clustering Archives of Internal Medicine- Vol. 168 No. 15, August 11-25, 2008
|
 |
- I'm a super-fit mum at 46, says former gymnast Nadia who stunned the world with her Olympic perfect 10 The Daily Mail- UK, By Deborah Arthurs, August 13, 2008
Running around after her energetic two-year-old son Dylan, it's impossible to believe that former Olympic gymnast Nadia Comaneci is 46 years old. Glamorous, lean and statuesque, her body, she says, incredibly sprang back to its former size almost immediately after the Caesarean birth of her baby boy in June 2006. She still slips effortlessly into the poses she struck 30 years ago when she won the hearts of the world with her perfect 10 at the Montreal Olympics, and shows off a body more toned and flexible than most women even a quarter of her age. Married to another former Olympic gymnast, American gold medallist Bart Conner, she appears as fit as she ever was. Her husband - alongside whom she competed more than thirty years ago - runs a gymnasium empire - and it's clear that Nadia spends plenty of time there too. Giving an interview to Hello magazine, she scoffs at the idea she may have struggled to conceive having left childbirth too late, saying she was never worried she had jeopardised her chance of conceiving. 'Why would I worry?' She laughs. 'I'm super fit!' To onlookers, her life these days, settled in Oklahoma with her husband and baby, may seem conventional, but in reality, the 46-year old's life has been anything but. . . . . 'Everyone marvelled at Nadia. Not only did she do gymnastics superbly, but she made it look effortless'. Years spent in a strict eight hours per day training schedule paid off when, aged 14 in 1976, she competed in the Montreal Olympic games, scoring the first ever perfect ten awarded to any gymnast for her performance on the parallel bars. So rare was the score that the board could not cope with the extra digit, showing as 1.00. When the broadcaster corrected the score over the loudspeaker and the packed stadium rang out with cheers, Comaneci's life was changed forever. . .
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Staying beautiful after 40 Life & Style- Sydney Morning Herald, August 13, 2008
Sure, it's great that Samantha turns 50 in the Sex and the City movie, with nary a hint of her sex appeal diminishing. And yes, Madonna can hold her own (and then some) with Justin Timberlake on their single, 4 Minutes. But Christopher Hopkins is more interested in reality. Un-air-brushed, un-surgically enhanced, un-personal trainered reality. Which is why he wrote Staging Your Comeback: A Complete Beauty Revival for Women Over 45.
RELATED ARTICLE: The risks - and rewards - when motherhood begins at 40 The Sydney Morning Herald- Life & Style, By Kate Benson Medical Reporter, January 9, 2008
Maturity can bring a satisfying career, a healthy bank balance and a well-rounded sense of self, but women who become pregnant later in life also have a much greater risk of miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies and stillbirths. Older women are also more likely to have induced labour, epidural anaesthesia, forceps or vacuum deliveries, and caesarean sections. They have a one in 100 chance of having a child with chromosomal abnormalities such as Down syndrome. . . . pregnant women in their 30s and 40s had a greater risk of hypertension and gestational diabetes, which often required intervention during labour. One study showed that first-time mothers older than 40 were 14 times more likely to have a caesarean than those under 30.
|
 |
- 17,000 Choose an Anniversary to Remember New York Times, By Andrew Jacobs, August 8, 2008
— Chen Bing woke up on Friday morning and felt an all-consuming surge of emotion. “I’ve been waiting for this moment a long time,” he said. He was not talking about the Olympics. Mr. Chen, a 32-year-old industrial designer, turned to his girlfriend of eight years and made a proposal. After she gave her unflinching assent, the couple put on matching red T-shirts, walked over to their local marriage bureau and became one of 17,000 couples in Beijing who chose Friday to convert their romance into a state-sanctioned commitment. . . . Some 2,500 couples lined up at the Chaoyang District Marriage Bureau — some as early as 11 p.m. the previous night. Officials said that on a normal day they process about 100 unions. Couples said they were moved by national pride, but also by the Chinese enthusiasm for numerology. The Games began Aug. 8, 2008, and the series of eights — eight sounding like the word for “fortune” — is irresistibly propitious. “It’s good luck for our country, and good luck for our relationship,” said Wang Liming, 27, who emerged from the office with the glint of a diamond on her finger. At Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, there was a 20 percent surge in deliveries, and hospital officials said they had to turn away a handful of mothers who, in an effort to capitalize on the auspiciousness of the day, were seeking Caesarean sections. . .
RELATED VIDEO: Lucky Number 8 New York Times, August 9, 2008
The Olympics aren't the only occasion being celebrated by the Chinese - over 11,000 couples got married in the city of Beijing alone recently.
|
- Clay Aiken Welcomes a Son People magazine, By Jessica Gold Haralson, August 8, 2008
The former American Idol contestant and music producer Jaymes Foster welcomed a baby boy Friday morning, the singer said in a statement on his Web site. "HE'S HERE!" Aiken, 29, writes. "My dear friend, Jaymes, and I are so excited to announce the birth of Parker Foster Aiken (No hyphens. One first name. One middle name. One last name.)" Parker, whose name is his grandmother Faye's middle name, weighed 6 lbs., 2 oz. and was 19 inches long. He was born at 8:08 a.m. "Wow ... 8:08 ... 08/08/08," added Aiken. . . In May, it was confirmed that Foster, 50, became pregnant via in vitro fertilization. Though they are not romantically linked, Clay and Jaymes plan to raise the child together. The two met when Aiken competed on Idol, and Foster – who is the sister of legendary music producer David Foster – has produced several of his albums. . .
|
 |
RELATED ARTICLE: Ricky Martin Welcomes Twin Boys People magazine, By Marisa Laudadio, August 20, 2008
Ricky Martin is a father to twin boys born via a surrogate, his rep confirms to PEOPLE.
RELATED ARTICLE: IVF: The birth that started a revolution The Telegraph- UK, By Judith Woods, July 21, 2008
As the world's first test-tube baby reaches 30, Judith Woods - in the first of our two-part special - investigates how family life has been changed by science.
RELATED ARTICLE: 30 years of IVF The Telegraph- UK, By Judith Woods, July 21, 2008
In our anniversary coverage yesterday, we looked at the issues surrounding multiple births, surrogacy and male infertility. Today, we examine how egg donation has made it possible for post-menopausal women to have children, see how early diagnosis of embryo abnormalities is increasing IVF success rates and look at the situation for same-sex couples.
RELATED ARTICLE: IVF same-sex couples: 'Was it fair the child wouldn't have a father?' The Telegraph- UK, By Judith Woods, July 22, 2008
As part of the updating of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, MPs voted to scrap the requirement that fertility clinics consider "the need for a father" before allowing a woman to have IVF. The change should make it easier for lesbian couples and single women to have children. At present, some clinics will only treat women in established heterosexual relationships.
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
|
 |
- Rise and Shine: A Day with Kathie Lee Gifford Ladies Home Journal, By Gerri Hirshey, August 2008
. . . More than a decade after her own crisis she still fields questions from women wondering whether they should continue their marriages after a serious breach. "I can't tell you the amount of letters I get from people saying, 'I saw what you went through and I thought if Kathie could stay for her kids' sake, for her husband's sake, I can do it, too.' There's no pill you can take for infidelity to make it go away. You have to decide whether the relationship is worth saving or it isn't." She is not for staying when there is a continued pattern of bad behavior or abuse. But she points to a certain pragmatism required in modern marriage, telling Today viewers that "if you stay in a relationship long enough, you're going to be disappointed." And with any sort of letdown, she adds, you'd do well to remember what you pledged on that blissful first day: "You have to forgive. You promised to when you got married. Let's go back to those vows. We promised thick, thin, we promised through problems. Problems can make you better if you stick around long enough." I ask her how she was able to make her own peace when the man she was so sure of hurt her so deeply -- and on tape. "It doesn't seem possible that you can come through it at the time," she says. "But the truth is, if you love something more than you love yourself, you will get through it. I'm talking about the children. If it's all about you, you're guaranteed not to get through it." Still, she says she needed a sharp-eyed guide on the bumpy road to forgiveness. "When Frank and I went through it all, my dear friend the counselor said, 'If you can't forgive your husband, forgive your children's father.' It changed everything. . . .
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Caught cheating -- what's next for couple? CNN.com- LifeWire, By Sarah Jio, August 13, 2008
Story Highlights:
* Woman learns cheating husband told his mistress his wife had died in childbirth
* Expert: People cheat for many reasons, including boredom, sense of entitlement
* Psychologist: Infidelity is brutal, but doesn't have to end marriage
* Says most adulterers never cheat again because of guilt and fear of getting caught
RELATED ARTICLE: Keeping Marriage Together with the Glue of Faith BlackAmericaWeb.com, By Joseph C. Phillips, August 4, 2008
Lust is an intoxicating asset, but it will never be enough to carry a couple through the tough times. The couples I know who have long lasting marriages are committed to the idea that marriage represents an institution greater than the sum of its parts. For these couples, to marry is to dedicate their lives to a higher calling. Similar viewpoints are far more likely to be held by people with strong religious faith.
RELATED ARTICLE: 'Can an affair really SAVE a marriage'? A controversial new book reveals infidelity doesn't have to end in disaster The Daily Mail, By Mira Kirshenbaum, June 10, 2008
Mira Kirshenbaum has worked in psychotherapy for 30 years and counselled hundreds of couples. In her controversial and provocative new book When Good People Have Affairs - with which many will disagree - she argues that while infidelity is wrong, affairs don't have to be disastrous: it's how we handle them that matters. And one of the worst things we can do is feel guilty. Mira argues her case...
RELATED ARTICLE: The Infidelity files The Telegraph, By Angela Levin, January 21, 2008
In the digital age, having an affair has never been easier. Author Angela Levin spent five months interviewing middle-class professionals for an extensive study that charts the rise of the no-strings-attached* relationship. In Part 1 of a three-part investigation, she reveals why the UK is in the grip of an infidelity epidemic. In Part 2, Ms. Levin talks to professional women who have affairs to bolster their marriages - and revitalise flagging sex lives, and in Part 3, she reveals how wronged partners deal with being cheated on - and how the crisis can improve their relationship.
RELATED RESOURCE: HOPE & HEALING: Helping Couples Recover from Adultery
|
 |
- The Archbishop of Canterbury has claimed that active homosexual relationships are "comparable to marriage" in the eyes of God The Telegraph- UK, By Jonathan Wynne-Jones and Martin Beckford, August 7, 2008
In private correspondence, seen by the Daily Telegraph, Dr Rowan Williams, refutes the Anglican Communion's traditional teaching that homosexuality is sinful. Furthermore, he expresses his hope that the Church will change its position to be more accepting of gay partnerships. His comments – made in a letter written shortly before he became Archbishop of Canterbury – will infuriate the conservatives who boycotted the recent Lambeth Conference in protest at the presence of liberals who elected Anglicanism's first openly gay bishop. Leading evangelicals have claimed that he is in an "untenable position". "The Bible does not address the matter of appropriate behaviour for those who are, for whatever reason, homosexual by instinct or nature," Dr Williams writes. "By the end of the 80s I had definitely come to the conclusion that scripture was not dealing with the predicament of persons whom we should recognise as homosexual by nature. "I concluded that an active sexual relationship between two people of the same sex might therefore reflect the love of God in a way comparable to marriage, if and only if it had the about it the same character of absolute covenanted faithfulness." . . . . . "The Church has shifted its stance on several matters – notably the rightness of lending money at interest and the moral admissibility of contraception so I am bound to ask if this is another such issue," he says. "If I am really seriously wrong on this, I can only pray to be shown the truth." . . .
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Anglican Church offshoot founded by traditionalists in Jerusalem The Telegraph- UK, By Martin Beckford, June 29, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Are the Anglicans About to Split? Time magazine, By David Van Biema, June 20, 2008
The schism long forecast for the Anglican Communion over the church's liberal stand on homosexuality may be getting closer. . . . Just days before the group's conference is set to begin in Jerusalem, GAFcon's leader, Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, declared in a 94-page theological statement: "There is no longer any hope, therefore, for a unified Communion ... Now we confront a moment of decision ... We want unity, but not at the cost of relegating Christ to the position of another wise teacher, who can be obeyed or disobeyed. We earnestly desire the healing of our beloved Communion, but not at the cost of rewriting the Bible to accommodate the latest cultural trend. We have arrived at a crossroads; it is, for us, the moment of truth.". . .
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Anger at Anglican gay 'wedding' BBC News, June 15, 2008
Traditionalists in the Anglican Church have been angered after two gay clergymen exchanged vows in a version of a marriage ceremony. . . . 'Erosion of respect': Anglicans worldwide are split over homosexuality and conservatives have condemned the service - which had no legal status - as blasphemous. . .
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Responding to Pro-Gay Theology Leadership U, By Joe Dallas
This three-part series will address the pro-gay theology by dividing its arguments--or tenets--into three categories: social justice arguments, general religious arguments, and scriptural arguments. A brief description of these arguments will be provided, followed by a response/rebuttal to each.
Major denominations ordaining homosexuals, priests and clergy presiding over same-sex weddings, sanctuaries invaded by boisterous gay activists, debates over homosexuality ripping congregations apart-who would have guessed we would ever reach such a point in church history? . . . . When God is reputed to sanction what He has already clearly forbidden, then a religious travesty is being played out, and boldly. Confronting it is necessary because it (the pro-gay theology) asks us to confirm professing Christians in their sin, when we are Biblically commanded to do just the opposite.
Editor's Note: Joe Dallas—a former homosexual— is the Founder of Genesis Counseling — A nationally recognized ministry dealing with sexual addiction recovery and homosexuality. He is the author of several books on homosexuality:
* A Strong Delusion: Confronting the "Gay Christian" Movement
* Desires in Conflict
* Unforgiven Sins
* The Game Plan: The Men's 30-Day Strategy for Attaining Sexual Integrity
* When Homosexuality Hits Home: What to Do When a Loved One Says They're Gay
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Homosexual Theology Probe.org, by Kerby Anderson
Scientists may indeed discover a clear biological predisposition to sexual orientation. But a predisposition is not the same as a determination. Some people may inherit a predisposition for anger, depression, or alcoholism, yet we do not condone these behaviors. And even if violence, depression, or alcoholism were proven to be inborn (determined by genetic material), would we accept them as normal and refuse to treat them? Of course not. The Bible has clear statements about such things as anger and alcoholism. Likewise, the Bible has clear statements about homosexuality.
RELATED BLOG: Historical Christianity Can Not be Reconciled with Gay Christian(*a) Theology Scripture Refiner's Fire- Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth in Love, January 26, 2008
(*a) The terms "Gay Christian" and "Gay Christianity" are used in this report to describe same-sex practicing unrepentant gays that call themselves Christians and refuse to acknowledge that gay sex is sin. . . . We believe God can forgive any sin including gay-sex, and we believe gays should be accepted in the church body like any other sinners. However, we do not accept their brazen attempt to legitimize immoral conduct that the Bible never commanded us to accept. It is not required for a sinner to repent first before they attend church, and they are welcome to attend, but it is required that they must abstain from injuring the church body by trying to legitimize immorality. In our opinion the gay Christian Movement is a Trojan horse to launch the gay-political agenda into the church. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: The Dangers of Same-sex "Marriage" BreakPoint.org- By Regis Nicoll, May 26, 2006
. . .Before we examine the societal effects of gay “marriage,” we need to set the record straight about the moral teachings of Jesus. While it’s true that Jesus said nothing explicitly about homosexuality, it’s also true he never mentioned the evils of bestiality, incest, pedophilia, rape, slavery, wife-beating, or substance abuse, to name a few. In fact, the New Testament records very few things that Jesus specifically condemned. It would be reckless, therefore, to assume that anything not specifically prohibited is permitted. What the scriptures do record, however, is Jesus’s shift from old-covenant particulars to core moral principles. . .
|
 |
- Witness Says Preacher's Wife Got Physical AOL News, August 7, 2008
- The wife of evangelical pastor Joel Osteen got physical when her demands that a small spill on her seat be cleaned up were not immediately met, a flight attendant testified Thursday at a civil trial over the incident.
Continental Airlines flight attendant Maria Johnson testified that Victoria Osteen grew increasingly agitated and pushed her co-worker Sharon Brown, though the flight attendants had remained professional and reassured her a crew had been called to clean the spill, which was about the size of a 50-cent piece. "She was demanding that attention be given to her immediately," Johnson said. She added that Victoria Osteen kept saying: "This is ridiculous. I'm a first-class passenger." Brown is suing Victoria Osteen, alleging that she threw her against a bathroom door and elbowed her in the breast before the start of a 2005 flight to Vail, Colo. . . . . Brown's attorney, Reginald McKamie, told jurors during his opening statement that his client was simply doing her job. "Sharon was attacked by someone in the community who supposedly represents a higher degree of human decency," he said. . . . . The Osteens were both expected to testify during the trial. Brown wants an apology and punitive damages amounting to 10 percent of Victoria Osteen's net worth as part of her suit. "They will say this is about money. But that is the only remedy a jury can offer," McKamie said. . . . The Federal Aviation Administration fined Victoria Osteen $3,000 for interfering with a crew member. . .
RELATED SITE: Lakewood Church
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Jury Clears Pastor's Wife of Assault, AOL News, August 14, 2008
The jury's foreman, Gilles Labbe, said he and other jurors believed what happened on the plane was only a minor dispute between a passenger and one or more of the flight attendants. "My personal point of view (the lawsuit) was a complete waste of time because the incident didn't rise to any kind of level.
RELATED ARTICLE: Air-Rage Accusation Lands Megachurch Pastor in Court New York Times, By Kate Murphy, August 7, 2008
“Joel had a good solution.” Witnesses testified that he got between his wife and Ms. Brown and offered to clean up the spill himself.
RELATED ARTICLE: Reclaiming Your Spiritual Power: 10 Ways to Lift Yourself Up When a Spiritual Leader Lets You Down Beliefnet.com, By Valerie Reiss, November 9, 2006
|
|
- Saving Lives, One Rent Check at a Time WalletPop- Forbes.com, By Matthew Craft, August 7, 2008
Keith Taylor turned his check-writing hobby into an online charity targeting the working poor and watched his donor rolls snowball. Keith Taylor used to be a $350-a-month philanthropist. As an English teacher at Middle Tennessee State University, Taylor put up a little Web site offering to help people out with small portions of his $33,000 salary. He'd wade through his e-mail inbox and send small checks to people with one-time needs. There was the woman who asked him to help pay for her son's glasses and the man who needed $65 to cover his monthly auto insurance. It was direct and personal, charity scaled down to the basics. Television interviews and profiles of the check-writing professor followed. "I was the crazy guy giving his money away," he says. "I just wanted to tell people, if you need help let me know. That's all it was supposed to be." Taylor opened up his hobby in 2002 to anyone wanting to help strangers with short-term money problems--as fast-growing a demographic as any in this current economic swoon. The average Modest Needs grant of late is $560 and goes to those who need help with a month's rent or a doctor bill or money to fix a car to get to a new job. The check goes not to the recipient but to the bank, business or landlord that needs to be paid. Modest Needs funded 1,582 people last year and gave away $884,990, up from $250,000 in 2005. So far this year it has given away $688,434, on pace to top last year's mark. . .
|
 |
RELATED SITE: Modest needs.org Small Change. A World of Difference
Founded in 2002, Modest Needs is an award-winning public charity with a simple but critical mission: we work to stop the cycle of poverty BEFORE it starts for the low-income workers whom conventional philanthropy has forgotten.
|
 |
- About-Face: Out with the gaunt and tight, in with the plump and juicy.
There’s a new face in town—and it’s a baby’s New York magazine, By Jonathan Van Meter, August 11, 2008 Issue
. . . Women have been availing themselves of new faces since the dawn of plastic surgery, but suddenly it seemed that there was a better new face to be had. There is a New New Face, very different from the old one, and both my friend and Madonna now have it. Once I starting thinking of it in these terms—the face as the new handbag, say—I started seeing New New Faces everywhere: Demi Moore, Michelle Pfeiffer, Liz Hurley, Naomi Campbell, Stephanie Seymour. They all have it! Even the Olsen twins seem to have a starter version of the New New Face, with their big crazy doll eyes and plush lips. Just to be clear, I don’t presume to know exactly what any of these women have done to their faces, if anything at all. It’s possible (though in some cases before-and-after pictures would seem to suggest otherwise) that this face is occurring entirely naturally—after all, these are women who are famous for being beautiful. The point is that there is a noticeable aesthetic shift happening in the face, and that it’s dovetailing with quantum leaps in plastic surgery and dermatology. Through some unholy marriage of extreme fitness and calorie restriction (and maybe a little lipo), women have figured out how to tame their aging bodies for longer than ever. You see them everywhere in New York City: forty- and fiftysomethings who look better than a 25-year-old in a fitted little dress or a tight pair of jeans. But this level of fitness has created a new problem to which the New New Face is the solution—gauntness. . . . . As a friend of mine recently pointed out, there is now a whole new class of women walking around with wiry little bodies and “big ol’ baby faces.” And they look, well, if not exactly young, then attractive in a different way. A yoga body plus the New New Face may not be a fountain of youth, but it’s a fountain of indeterminate age. . . . . In the end, the science of beauty seems to point to a few general parameters: We tend to like large eyes, high cheekbones, a small nose, a large smile, and a small chin. What the scientific literature doesn’t mention is that we like it all to be as young as possible. This wasn’t always the case. . . . But in the last ten years, perhaps with the coming of Britney Spears, the age of the ideal has dropped precipitously. Now both fashion and celebrity magazines are filled with images of teenagers—whether they’re Eastern European models or tanned California reality stars. Their faces are plump and dewy and flushed with youth. As thin as their bodies are, they still haven’t entirely shed the baby fat in their faces. This, it seems, is what women in their forties and fifties are now after: baby fat. . .
|
Above: A Composite Face
Michelle Pfeiffer’s unfurrowed brow. Madonna’s plumped-up cheeks and wide eyes. Angelina Jolie’s super-straight nose and lush lips. Demi Moore’s angular jawline.
|
 |
RELATED ARTICLE: Yes, she looks tired and ill, but give Madonna a break. That's what happens when we women hit 50 The Daily Mail- UK, By Liz Jones, August 7, 2008
No, Madonna is not ill, she is just 50. This is what women of our age look like. When I get up in the morning, I generally look tired, stressed, just a little bit miserable and, yes, just like a man.
RELATED ARTICLE: They're weird, vulgar and men don't even like them. So why do 26,000 British women a year disfigure themselves with breast enlargements? The Daily Mail- UK, By Bethan Cole, August 2, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Obsessed With Beauty: The Rush To Cosmetic Surgery Aphrodite Women's Health, By Angie Rankman, October 7, 2005
If the multitude of television shows touting the benefits of extreme makeovers is anything to go by, then it seems that cosmetic surgery has secured a firm foothold in the collective consciousness of those seeking eternal youth and beauty. Is it possible that the increased focus on cosmetic surgery has finally revealed how self-obsessed many of us really are? Incredibly, in just 10 years, cosmetic surgery in the United States has increased by more than 700 percent. And it’s not just Americans who are choosing to go under the knife. According to the British Medical Journal, Britons spend over 400 million dollars a year on cosmetic surgery, and it’s one of the most common reasons women give for non-property loans. Just what has caused cosmetic surgery’s rapidly increasing popularity?
RELATED ARTICLE: Is Feminine Beauty Dangerous? A Brief Look at Our Theological Legacy Leadership U, By Karen Lee Thorp
Beauty is trivial, even though it is intertwined with money, sex, power, pride, fear, love, respect, race, and class. I believe theologians have treated beauty as trivial precisely because it affects them and those around them so powerfully that it makes them uncomfortable. They don't know what to do with it, so they pretend it doesn't matter and urge anyone who asks to do the same. Like money, like sex, like alcohol, beauty is potent enough to be dangerous. I would like to trace the doctrine that beauty is dangerous along two lines. I'll look first at theology written by men, then at the experience of women. After examining the sources of this doctrine, I'll assess how well it serves us. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Proverbs 31: Portrait of a Godly Woman WCG.org
"Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." Here is the key to this woman’s effectiveness. Her priorities are determined by God’s will, not her own. She is concerned about what God thinks, rather than with what other people think. Physical beauty and clever conversation are admirable qualities. But if a woman’s beauty and charm are the extent of her virtues, what happens when time and the trials of life take their toll? This woman does not depend on beauty and charm for her success. She recognizes her need for God.
RELATED PHOTO BLOG: Beauty is Fleeting The Scripturist, September 20, 2005
Marry a girl for her godliness not her looks because if you marry a woman with only outer beauty and not inner beauty soon you will be bound to a woman with neither.
|
- Kate Hudson: Chris Robinson to Remain in My Life People magazine, August 07, 2008
Kate Hudson may be reluctant to chat about recent romances, but there is one man about whom the star is not shy about gushing – ex-husband Chris Robinson."We can talk about Chris till the dogs come home. I married Chris, I had a baby with Chris, Chris will be in my life for the rest of my life," Hudson, 29, says in the September's W magazine. "It's so hard for me, because I'm so open, to hold back. I could really just go on forever about this stuff," she says. "But everything else – I've learned that things are better left private until you're actually planning the wedding."
RELATED ARTICLE: Kate Hudson: Wedding mania and Oprah—can this really be Kate Hudson? W magazine, By Danielle Stein, September 2008 Issue
|
 |
RELATED ARTICLE: Kate Hudson Smooching With Ex! OK Magazine, August 1, 2008
"They were really affectionate with each other and gave each other a kiss which lasted much longer then a platonic kiss should last — 20 seconds, maybe a little longer. Without going into all the details the kiss was more than just friends. . . " . . . A pal of Kate's tells OK!, "She and Chris have always been close and she turns to her exes after most of her breakups."
|
 |
- Morgan Freeman, wife divorcing after 24 years USA Today, August 6, 2008
Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman and his wife of 24 years, Myrna Colley-Lee, a costume designer for theater, have filed for divorce, Freeman's business partner says. The news comes after Freeman, 71, and a female passenger, Demaris Meyer, 48, of Memphis were in a car accident Sunday night near Freeman's home in Tallahatchie County, Miss. The actor suffered a broken arm, broken elbow and minor shoulder injuries. Bill Luckett, who co-owns a restaurant and blues club in Clarksdale, Miss., with Freeman, says he and Freeman have been friends for some time with Meyer, a top executive assistant at FedEx in Memphis. Luckett says the divorce was in the works before the accident. Freeman had surgery Monday on his left arm and hand, but his recovery is expected to take months. Luckett says Freeman will have to wear a neck brace for six to eight months, and his arm will take several months to heal. . .
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Morgan Freeman 'Doing Well' After Surgery People magazine, By Stephen M. Silverman and Michelle Diament, August 05, 2008
Morgan Freeman is on the mend after a Sunday night car crash that resulted in his being airlifted to a hospital in Memphis. "Morgan is doing well after his surgery last night to reconnect nerves and repair damage in his left arm and hand," his spokesperson, Donna Lee, said in a statement Tuesday.
|
 |
- Revealed: Italy is the home of wife swapping
Silvio Berlusconi was joking when he offered his wife to the Danish PM. But a new poll suggests that a quarter of Italian couples are at it for real The Independent- UK, August 5, 2008
Married couples flocking to the Tuscan countryside or the Eternal City this summer might want to think twice before accepting that generous dinner party invitation from the welcoming Italian couple. They might get more than they bargained for. If a new report is to be believed, it seems a quarter of all Italian couples regularly take part in wife swapping. The revelation comes not from the seedier quarters of the country that gave the world Casanova, but from the usually po-faced pages of national broadsheet La Stampa. According to yesterday's front page article, entitled "The Lunch Time Swingers", an estimated 500,000 Italian couples are officially swapping partners at private sex clubs, with thousands more doing it in a more ad-hoc fashion in car parks, specially designated beaches or even cemeteries. The report will have Italy's Catholic clergy shaking with anger at the congregation from their pulpit but when you consider the country's lothario leader, Silvio Berlusconi, it is perhaps not entirely surprising. This is the man, after all, who – in front of the international press corps gathered in the opulent quarters of Palazzo Chigi (the Italian version of Downing Street) – once tried to pimp his wife Veronica to the Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. . .
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Swingtown: Opening the American Marriage AlterNet, By Lauren Cahn— Huffington Post, July 28, 2008
It's nice to live in an era where sexual freedom means I don't have to feel that a night out with friends is incomplete without an orgy.
RELATED ARTICLE: Sex therapy: the return of free love: A hip new self-help workshop claims that getting naked and sharing the love will allow you to find the ultimate truth. So is it a Pandora’s box or the secret of a purer existence? Times Online- UK, July 13, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Casual sex left me feeling worthless: How a one-night stand left one woman emotionally destroyed: New research says women bitterly regret one-night stands. But the emotional damage can go deeper than you think... The Daily Mail— UK, By Helen Weathers, July 3, 2008
In today's heavy-drinking ladette, anything-he-can-do-I-can-do-better culture, the prevailing belief appears to be that what's good for the gander is good for the goose, too, so to speak. But is it? According to new research published last week by Anne Campbell, Professor of Psychology at Durham University, the answer appears to be a surprising no. Indeed, her findings suggest that the majority of women aren't suited to one-night stands at all, no matter how much they try to persuade themselves otherwise.
RELATED ARTICLE: Is Open Marriage the Modern Couple's Answer to Infidelity? AlterNet, By Joslyn Matthews, Sirens Magazine, June 14, 2007
So back to that "Ice Storm" key party. When I watch the film, there is one woman I identify with. At the end of the party, when it is her turn to choose her fate, she bravely dips her hand into the bowl, glances at the keys in her fist and says with feigned surprise, "Oh. My husband's keys." He looks at her from across the room. "Choose again!" clamor the remaining key-party couples. But they are already out the door.
RELATED ARTICLE: Q & A: Will a threesome hurt my marriage? MSNBC—The Today Show, By Dr. Gail Saltz, November 3, 2005
Q. I recently married my second husband and am the happiest I have ever been. I am much more sexual with this man than I have ever been with anyone. My question is a bit embarrassing but I just need to know. I am fantasizing more than ever and am contemplating fulfilling a fantasy with my husband. This is not a joke. Is it destructive to a marriage to engage in a threesome?
|
- Pelosi on same-sex 'marriage' OneNewsNow, By Jeff Johnson, August 5, 2008
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she would support efforts by would-be president Barack Obama to legalize homosexual so-called "marriages" nationwide. Pelosi made the admission when questioned by a reporter for CNSNews.com, the Cybercast News Service.
REPORTER: Senator Obama has called for the full repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). And I'm wondering, if Senator Obama is elected president, if you'll support him in repealing that in the next congress?
PELOSI: Yes.
Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth, is stunned by the admission. "This is the only thing standing in the way of states being forced to recognize these out-of-state counterfeit, homosexual, so-called 'marriages.' And for her to just quickly say, 'Yes,' that she wants to repeal that is just shockingly inappropriate," LaBarbera contends. He says the hypocrisy of pro-homosexual politicians is fascinating. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Pelosi Backs Obama on Repeal of Defense of Marriage Act CNS News.com, By Josiah Ryan, August 1, 2008
– If Barack Obama is elected president, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will support him in fulfilling his vow to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which currently protects states from having to recognize same-sex marriages contracted in other states as they ordinarily would be required to do by the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the Constitution.
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Obama rejects proposed California gay marriage ban Sacramento Bee, By Aurelio Rojas, July 01, 2008
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who previously said the issue of gay marriage should be left up to each state, has announced his opposition to a California ballot measure that would ban same-sex marriages. In a letter to the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club read Sunday at the group's annual Pride Breakfast in San Francisco, the Illinois senator said he supports extending "fully equal rights and benefits to same-sex couples under both state and federal law."
RELATED ARTICLE & COMMENTS: Why I Support John McCain Townhall.com, By Dennis Prager, July 01, 2008
My bottom line is this: The gulf between John McCain and conservatives is miniscule compared to the gulf between John McCain and Barack Obama. This is true regarding virtually every issue of significance to America. . . . Conservatives who will not vote for McCain are well-intentioned utopians. They are comparing McCain to a consistently conservative candidate. The reality, however, is that McCain is not running against a consistently conservative candidate. He is running against a consistently left-wing candidate. And America cannot afford to have its first leftist president ever. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Obama's Irreconcilable Marriage Vows Townhall.com, By Janet M. LaRue, May 30 2008
“Marriage, it doesn’t mean anything.” That’s what Barack Obama told wife Michelle while they were dating, according to her recent interview in The New Yorker. But he’s telling voters that marriage is “something sanctified between a man and a woman,” and that he opposes same-sex “marriage.” Sanctified or meaningless, which is it? On the one hand, Obama says marriage should be between a man and a woman. . . . On the other hand, Obama wants to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which protects one man-one woman marriage. . .
|
 |
- Prop. 8 not retroactive, Jerry Brown says San Francisco Chronicle, By Bob Egelko, August 5, 2008
-- If voters approve a November ballot measure banning same-sex marriages in California, thousands of gay and lesbian weddings conducted since the state Supreme Court legalized the unions on May 15 will probably remain valid, Attorney General Jerry Brown said Monday. The potential effect of Proposition 8 on existing same-sex marriages is already being debated among legal scholars and opposing sides in the Nov. 4 ballot measure campaign. Brown's position is significant because his office will represent the state in lawsuits over Prop. 8's validity and meaning if it passes. The measure would amend the state Constitution to declare that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." It would overturn the court's ruling that the previous ban on same-sex marriage - established by statutes rather than a constitutional amendment - discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation and violated the right to marry one's chosen partner. The measure does not state explicitly that it would nullify same-sex marriages performed before Nov. 4. But in their ballot arguments, supporters of Prop. 8 declare it would invalidate all such marriages "regardless of when or where performed" - an interpretation that would apply to existing as well as future marriages. Courts that interpret ballot measures sometimes refer to such statements as evidence of what the voters knew and intended. Brown's office said in a court filing Monday that he believes the ballot measure would not invalidate existing marriages. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Proposition 8 to Protect Marriage Receives $1 Million Donation from the Knights of Columbus Catholic Organization Christian News Wire, August 19, 2008
-- Proposition 8, the ballot initiative to Protect Marriage, announced today it has received a $1 million contribution from the Knights of Columbus, the world's largest Catholic family fraternal service organization. Throughout its history, the Knights of Columbus has been an effective advocate and defender of civil and religious rights for all. The organization has also contributed billions of dollars and millions of hours of volunteer service to charity. Knights of Columbus spokesman Patrick Korten said that the million dollar donation from the Knights "is both an indication of how important we believe this referendum to be, and an encouragement to other groups and individuals of all faiths to lend their support as well.
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Judge refuses to order change in Prop. 8 title San Francisco Chronicle, By Bob Egelko, August 9, 2008
-- Backers of a November ballot measure banning gay and lesbian marriages in California rushed to an appellate court Friday after a Sacramento judge rejected their challenge to the state's formal description of their initiative - that it "eliminates (the) right of same-sex couples to marry." That's the language that will accompany Proposition 8 on every ballot and in every voter pamphlet, unless the court intervenes before the close of business Monday, the deadline for sending election material to the state printer.
RELATED ARTICLE: UPDATE: Ballot Initiative to Protect Marriage Receives Endorsement of California Catholic Conference FOX Business, August 4, 2008
In their statement, the Bishops offer counsel to people of Catholic faith in California in their "response to this radical change in California's public policy regarding marriage." Declaring that same-sex unions are not the same as opposite-sex unions, the leadership states that the ideal well-being of children is to be raised by both a mother and a father in a traditional marriage.
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Gay couples use weddings to wage ballot fight AP, By Laura E. Davis, August 4, 2008
— When Pamela Brown got married, the two bride figurines atop her wedding cake celebrated her newfound right in California to marry another woman. But one of the figurines had a tiny sign over its head with something more to say: "Vote No on 8." Brown and her wife are one of many same-sex couples whose nuptials are made possible by the state Supreme Court's May 15 ruling that legalized gay marriage.
RELATED ARTICLE: California gay marriage decision: The battle is on for our freedoms! The Real Proposal magazine, May 22, 2008
Anyone who thinks that the watershed issue of same-sex marriage is ultimately about what consenting adults do in the privacy of their bedrooms or a fundamental constitutional right to marry whomever we fall in love or want to form a family with, regardless of their gender, is being either naive, misinformed, misled...or, simply, disingenuous.
|
- Convicted Killer Gets Custody of Kids AOL News- AP, August 4, 2008
— Mary Winkler, the woman convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the 2006 shooting death of her minister husband, has taken custody of her three daughters, one of her lawyers said Monday.
Rachael Putnam, a custody attorney, said the former minister's wife picked the girls up Friday from the slain man's parents, Dan and Diane Winkler. She is absolutely overjoyed," Putnam said. The lawyer said the children will live with Winkler at her home near McMinnville, about 60 miles southeast of Nashville. Winkler, 34, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter last year for shooting her husband, 31-year-old Church of Christ minister Matthew Winkler, at their Selmer home in March 2006. Sentenced to three years in prison, she received probation for most of it, spending only 12 days in jail after her sentencing and two months in a mental health facility before being released.The children -- ages 11, 9 and 3 -- had previously been living with their grandparents and had court-ordered visits with their mother. "It should be seen as a sign that the family is healing," Putnam said of the custody arrangement. "It's a good thing for everyone.". . .
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Preacher killed wife, stuffed body in freezer, police say CNN.com, July 31, 2008
Story Highlights
* NEW: Anthony Hopkins denied bail at initial court appearance
* Preacher is charged with murder, rape, sodomy, sexual abuse and incest
* He was arrested after delivering sermon at his Alabama church
* Case began when daughter told police she'd been sexually abused
|
 |
- Lohan’s dad not ready for a gay wedding MSNBC.com, By Courtney Hazlett- The Scoop, August 4, 2008
Gay marriage may be legal in California now, but wedding bells don’t seem to be in Lindsay Lohan and Sam Ronson’s immediate future. And if the couple were to wed, Lohan’s dad Michael probably wouldn’t play the proud father giving away the bride. “I haven’t heard anything (about an upcoming wedding) from Lindsay, but if she was marrying Sam, I don’t think she’d ask me to walk her down the aisle,” says Michael. “She knows about my (Christian) faith … she just wouldn’t ask.” That’s not to say that he doesn’t support Lindsay and a possible relationship with Ronson, he just supports her in more indirect ways. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: My secret lesbian lust with Lindsay Lohan: Actress Courtenay Semel tells how star hid affair News of the World, By Georgina Dickinson, August 17, 2008
Movie wild woman Lindsay Lohan’s first lesbian lover has finally revealed the sexual turmoil of their secret affair. Lindsay now does little to disguise the tenderness of her relationship with British DJ Samantha Ronson—but this is only after months of covert gay experiments with stunning brunette Courtenay Semel. Everyone thinks Samantha is Lindsay’s first lesbian love, but we were very passionate until her fear of being found out drove us apart,” Courtenay told a pal. “At the time she was terrified her career would be over if she revealed her sexual tendencies. “But then Samantha came on to the scene and I was dropped.”. . .
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Lindsay & Samantha Hang with Ronson Clan in Miami People magazine, August 5, 2008
After their affectionate weekend in Chicago for a music festival, Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson racked up more frequent-flyer miles and touched down in Miami Monday afternoon. The two – who "aren't hiding their affection at all," according to an onlooker – checked into the Delano hotel and are in town to see Ronson's family.
RELATED ARTICLE: Teenagers have mixed views on gays -- and they're OK with that Los Angeles Times, By Sandy Banks, June 17, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Easy Out: Ok, maybe not easy: But today's gay high schoolers are discovering that declaring their homosexuality- and doing it at younger and younger ages - brings little of the stigma and complications that earlier generations faced The Boston Globe, By Alison Lobron, November 11, 2007
RELATED ARTICLE: Toll of Divorce on Children, Lindsay Lohan The Christian Post, By Nathan Black, October 26 2007
Can children recover from their parents' divorce? For 21-year-old actress Lindsay Lohan, star of "Mean Girls" and "Freaky Friday" among other films, the recent divorce of her parents has caused her to act out, she said. Lohan had been charged with drunken driving and cocaine possession and recently checked out of a rehab clinic in Utah earlier this month. It was her third trip to rehab since January. Her father, Michael Lohan, blames himself for Lindsay's troubles.
RELATED ARTICLE: Lohan’s father takes blame for her troubles: Born-again ex-con wants family to get right with God MSNBC.com, October 25, 2007
|
RELATED ARTICLE: 'Homosexuality Cannot Be Changed': Is homosexuality really fixed and immutable as some argue? Family.org, By Joe Dallas
Social justice arguments are effective because they sound so good. They demand an end to homophobia and insensitivity; who wants to say they are against such goals? But just as the question “When did you stop beating your wife, Mr. Jones?” assumes (without proof) that Mr. Jones has been beating his wife, so the pro-gay social justice arguments assume (without proof) that gays are victims, and that the conservative church is largely responsible for their victimhood.
RELATED ARTICLE: 'How Could So Many People be Wrong?' Ten percent of the population is gay: fact or fiction? Family.org, By Joe Dallas
This argument has been so overwhelmingly disproved, in secular, clinical and theological sources worldwide, that it may be unnecessary to mention it. But on the chance that the reader may need to confront this claim in future discussions, we will briefly review what is commonly called the “10 percent myth” and how to respond to it.
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Homosexuality: Is It Just Another Lifestyle? Exodus International, By Alan Medinger
The fact that homosexuality brings with it great suffering cannot be denied. Normally, confronting a condition or behavior that can bring such human suffering, all efforts are made at prevention and correction. With homosexuality, though, the public pressure to deny the harm, or to shift the blame to society, has all but ruled out society taking any step at prevention or change. And so the suffering goes on.
RELATED RESOURCE: LIBRARY: Exodus International The Largest information and referral ministry in the world addressing homosexual issues
The Online Exodus Library brings together hundreds of articles on every facet of homosexuality, from science to theology, from facing pro-gay activism to facing your own struggle with homosexuality.
RELATED RESOURCE: National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH)
|
 |
- First pictures of Angelina's newborn twins - the most expensive baby snaps ever The Daily Mail- UK, August 4, 2008
These are the pictures the world has been waiting to see - the newest additions to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's growing brood. The Hollywood couple sold the rights to the first pictures of their newborn twins - Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline - and they are released today for the very first time. Hello! magazine paid a staggering £7.5million for the photos and they will be the most expensive baby pictures ever. . . . But the babies have certainly been worth the wait - born to arguably Hollywood's most attractive couple, the twins were always going to be gorgeous. Blessed with their mother's infamous large lips, just like their little sister Shiloh before them, these two are bound to be heartbreakers. And nestling together with their parents - the photos couldn't paint a more perfect family picture. . .
|
 |
RELATED ARTICLES: Angelina and Brad's Twins are born-- Complete Coverage People magazine
RELATED ARTICLE: EXCLUSIVE: Actress Angelina Jolie's Twins Conceived Through In Vitro! Us magazine, July 24, 2008
Forget Mother Nature – Us Weekly reports in its new issue, on newsstands now, that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt turned to fertility treatments to quickly conceive twins Knox and Vivienne.
RELATED ARTICLE: Is Angelina Driven to Be a Compulsive Mother? Need for Babies Can Signal Depression or Even Manipulation, Experts Say ABC News, By Susan Donaldson James, February 27, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: AMERICA’S IDOLS Why the Obsession With the Rich and Famous? The Real Truth magazine, By Justin T. Palm, Nov-Dec 2006 Issue
RELATED ARTICLE: Brad and Angelina: Hollywood Idolology Part 1 & 2- The glamorization of out-of-wedlock pregnancy Woman Talk, By Katharine DeBrecht
|
 |
- Billionaire lover dumps tearful Sienna as his wife agrees to take him back The Daily Mail- UK, By Laura Roberts, August 4, 2008
Less than three weeks after she was seen publicly frolicking on an Italian beach with her billionaire married lover, Sienna Miller is a single girl again. The 26-year-old British actress is said to be tearful and heartbroken after being dumped by actor Balthazar Getty. Miss Miller was left alone in New York when 33-year-old Getty, heir to a £2.5billion oil fortune, flew to Los Angeles for a reconciliation with his wife Rosetta. According to sources close to the couple, Getty told Miss Miller that he needed to return for work and to see his four children. But it is understood that Rosetta, his wife of eight years, has agreed to take him back. Miss Miller is said to have been constantly sending texts and making phone calls pleading with him to change his mind. . . . Getty, a former drug addict and alcoholic, who receives counselling, returned to Los Angeles last Monday. According to reports his 38-year-old wife had been persuaded to allow him back into their home after several days of pleading. Friends said that his infatuation with Miss Miller began after he started drinking again and stopped attending counselling sessions. . .
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Balthazar Getty admits marriage is over... but it's Sienna's reputation that's really left in tatters The Daily Mail- Uk, By Natalie Trombetta, July 22, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Source: Balthazar Getty's Affair 'Devastating' to Family People magazine, By Alexis Chiu, July 23, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: The hardest job in the world: It may look like the ultimate cushy number, but the life of the celebrity wife is not for the faint hearted TimesOnline-UK, By Wendy Holden, June 24, 2007
RELATED ARTICLE: Save your energy and sanity: just stay faithful The Observer-UK, By Cristina Odone, August 20, 2006
Monogamy is, most appealingly, an energy-saving device which prevents you wasting time and effort on hunting new prey, deceiving a partner or curing a broken heart or bruised ego. Preserve trust in this essential area of your life and you can reap tremendous rewards: the 100 per cent devotion of another human being fuels your ambition, supports you in your mission and helps you to overcome obstacles. Monogamy has much to offer.
RELATED ARTICLE: Adultery Is Killing the American Family The Conservative Voice, By Nathan Tabor, September 22, 2005
The pain and suffering caused by adultery is immense, especially for children. They are more likely never to marry, or to later divorce, if they had divorced or cheating parents. After a divorce, many children are unable ever to develop strong, trusting relationships. There is a direct correlation between the steady decline of morals and values in America and this more accepting contemporary attitude toward adultery. Part of the reason is because most people have forgotten what a marriage really is.
RELATED RESOURCE: HOPE & HEALING: Helping Couples Recover from Adultery
|
 |
- Who Wants To Know? Townhall.com, By Kathleen Parker, August 1, 2008
The tabloid story that everybody's talking about -- but almost no one is writing about -- has created an interesting debate on the Internet about the dueling roles of old/new media and what constitutes legitimate news. The item prompting this debate concerns allegations of a former presidential candidate's alleged affair, an alleged "love child" and a recent secret rendezvous in a Hollywood hotel. Scandalous, no? Well, yes and no. The "news" is being breathlessly discussed that way on the internet, but not much in the mainstream media. When does a story in the blogosphere become hot enough to make the jump to the MSM? The short answer is: When there are facts to report. Until then, a rumor is a rumor is a rumor. And tabloids, though sometimes right, are generally considered prurient entertainment, not reliable journalism. There is a difference in standards, even if mainstream journalism sometimes falls short of perfection. . . . . Whether this particular story gets reported more broadly depends on multiple factors too numerous to list here, but my guess after 30 years in newspapers is that most editors simply don't want to go there. We've traveled this road too many times, seen too much roadkill, and the scenery only gets worse. . .
RELATED VIDEO: Rielle Hunter's Sister Apologizes to Elizabeth Edwards
Edwards claims his affair with Rielle was a brief encounter, but Roxanne Druck Marshall tells a different story to Entertainment Tonight Entertainment Tonight, August 13, 2008
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Edwards Admits to Cheating on Sick Wife AOL News- AP, By Pete Yost, August 8, 2008
-- Former presidential candidate John Edwards, who won nationwide praise and sympathy as he campaigned side by side with his cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth, admitted in shame Friday he had had an affair with a woman who produced videos as he prepared to launch his campaign. He denied fathering a daughter, born to the woman with whom he had the affair, and offered to be tested to prove it. A former Edwards campaign staff member professes to be the father.
RELATED ATICLE: The Real Victims of John Edwards' Adultery Townhall.com, By Floyd and Mary Beth Brown, July 31, 2008
Edwards' exposure by journalists doesn't make him a victim as some pundits have argued; the real victims are his wife Elizabeth and their children. Adultery hurts families. They feel betrayed. Trust is destroyed. Family stability and lives are shaken, not to mention the baby conceived as a result of the Edwards affair. A common belief today is that infidelity is strictly an individual's own business. But in reality, the damage spreads and severely harms the innocent.
RELATED ARTICLE: A Baby Daddy for Both Americas Townhall.com, By Ann Coulter, July 30, 2008
For those few Americans without an Internet connection and to whom I have not faxed the National Enquirer stories: Evidence is accumulating that John Edwards is right -- there really are "two Americas." There's one where men cheat on their cancer-stricken wives and one where men do not cheat on their cancer-stricken wives. To put it another way, it would appear that ambulances aren't the only things John Edwards has been chasing lately. Last year, the National Enquirer broke the story about New-Age divorcee Rielle Hunter, formerly Lisa Druck, telling friends she was having an affair with Edwards and that she was pregnant with his "love child."
RELATED ARTICLE: Should a Candidate's Private Indiscretions Matter as He Seeks the Public Trust? Absolutely. BlackAmericaWeb.com, By Joseph C. Phillips, October 16, 2007
RELATED ARTICLE: Edwards, wife split on gay marriage USA Today, June 26, 2007
— There's a split in John Edwards' household over gay marriage, but he says his difference of opinion with wife Elizabeth hasn't created any awkward moments. "It's not the only thing we disagree about," the Democratic presidential candidate quipped Monday on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. "She actually says what she thinks," Edwards said. Elizabeth Edwards kicked off San Francisco's annual gay pride parade Sunday by declaring her support for legalizing gay marriage. "I don't know why someone else's marriage has anything to do with me," she said. The former North Carolina senator, with his wife at his side on Leno's couch, said he was unaware of her position on gay marriage and was surprised to learn about it while reading the newspaper. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: The ultimate betrayal: I cheated on my wife as she battled cancer The Daily Mail- UK, By Natalie Clarke, April 18, 2007
Ray Kluun did the unthinkable — betraying his wife with a string of affairs as she lay dying of cancer. Now he's written a controversial bestseller about it. Brutal callous monster? You decide.
|
- Gay Animals Prove Legislators Should Spend More Time At Zoo CBS.com, By Joe Antel— Daily Texan, August 1, 2008
It is always interesting to see what we can learn from lower animals. This month's issue of Scientific American Mind contains a particularly interesting article about the phenomenon of animal homosexuality. Animal homosexuality has been documented in as many as 1,500 species, including insects. While I have long been peripherally aware of the evidence documenting homosexual behavior between other species, I was not aware that it existed to this extent. The article details two male chinstrap penguins, Silo and Roy, who met in Manhattan's Central Park Zoo, coupled and proceeded to mate. When they found they were unable to bear offspring, they nudged a rock into their nests and treated it as if it were an egg. One of the zookeepers observed this and took an egg from another pair of penguins who were unable to care for it and placed it in Silo and Roy's nest, who hatched and raised the baby penguin. This week, Massachusetts voted to allow out-of-state couples marriage rights. Earlier this summer, California legalized gay marriage for state residents and out-of-state partners alike. Examples from biology, like the penguins, and studies in pre-natal conditions should confirm what anyone who has ever thought about the issue already knows: Human homosexuality is not a simple life choice. . .
|
 |
RELATED ARTICLE: Gospel Music Responds to Same-Sex Marriage The Real Proposal magazine, June 7, 2008
Lewis & Lewis: "Come on down to the farm. . . When God said, 'Love your brother,' I don't think he meant like that!"
RELATED ARTICLE: The Dangers of Same-sex "Marriage" BreakPoint.org- By Regis Nicoll, May 26, 2006
Above all things, Christ-love means valuing others as his image-bearers. In contrast with the cultural “accommodators” who take the low view of man as a powerless victim of base instincts, the Christian view of man is of a moral being blessed with a conscience and free exercise to act against his carnal pull. Consider Jesus’s conversation with adulterous woman. Jesus didn’t treat her as a poor creature helplessly controlled by her earthly desires. He treated her as a free moral agent capable of choosing a different way to live. Consequently, He didn’t give her the false compassion of tolerance toward her lifestyle. Out of true compassion, He showed her the way out of her broken condition by challenging her to “go now and leave your life of sin.” This is a helpful pattern for us.
|
 |
- Parenting Issues: High school board supports gay marriage ban San Diego Union Tribune, August 1, 2008
The Grossmont Union High School District went on record yesterday supporting a November initiative that would ban same-sex marriage in California. The board voted 4-0 to pass a resolution endorsing Proposition 8, which would amend the state Constitution to recognize marriage only between a man and a woman. Trustee Richard Hoy abstained. Several board members urged the board not to vote for the resolution, saying Proposition 8 had nothing to do with education. Grossmont is believed to be the first public school board in the state to endorse the initiative. Supporters of Proposition 8 argue that the state Supreme Court's action clearing the way for same-sex marriage means students as early as kindergarten will be taught that same-sex marriage is the same as a traditional marriage. Proposition 8 opponents disagree. . .
|
RELATED ARTICLE: The prince married a man, and lived happily ever after: Religious groups attack circulation of books raising gay issues among primary school pupils The Guardian Unlimited- UK, By Anushka Asthana, March 11, 2007
RELATED ARTICLE: Teacher reads 2nd-graders story about 'gay wedding': Since same-sex marriage is legal in state, administrator says no parent ok needed WorldNetDaily, April 19, 2006
RELATED ARTICLE: District lifts ban on parent over pro-'gay' book- Father allowed on campus, but notification policy unchanged WorldNetDaily, Nov 23, 2005
RELATED ARTICLES: David Parker -- his arrest, court appearances, abuse by school officials, harrassment by pro-gay activists in town, and federal civil rights lawsuit! Mass Resistance.org
Lexington, Mass., father of 6-year-old arrested, spends night in jail over objections to homosexual curriculum in son's kindergarten class. What you are about to read and see below is shocking and frightening, something that no one would have believed possible in America.
RELATED ARTICLE: The road to gay marriage Jewish World Review, By Marianne M. Jennings, August 8, 2003
Infiltration of policy-maker ranks. . . . Infiltration of corporations. . . . Alignment with minority groups. . . . The gay gene myth. . . . Use of AIDS. . . . Demonizing opponents. . . . Economic pressure. . . . Suppressing free speech. . . . Infiltration of schools. . . . The anti-anti-gay movement. . . . Incremental legal inroads. . . . Silence. . . .This piece will bring condemnation, hate mail, and the usual threats to my employer. But years from now, as we assess the degradation same-sex marriage will bring to society, I shall be able to say, "I tried.". .
|
- Paris Match Vanity Fair Cover Story, By Maureen Orth, September 2008 Issue
Just months after his May 2007 election, French president Nicolas Sarkozy faced growing criticism over his stalled reforms, flashy style, and stormy divorce. The last straw should have been his whirlwind remarriage, to an Italian heiress, ex-model, and singer who had past liaisons with Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton, among others, and nude photos all over the Internet. But the lady in question, Carla Bruni, is proving an unexpected asset. At the Élysée Palace, Maureen Orth encounters a pair of romantic predators who appear to have met their matches. . . . . The president emerges again about five minutes later, followed by his willowy bride, who in flats is several inches taller than he is, along with Mrs. Brown and two male aides. The women have been discussing maternal mortality, and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, 40, the spirited Italian heiress whose nude pictures from her modeling days are all over the Internet, is easily in command. While her husband’s ratings are in the cellar, she is getting raves for her beauty, class, and elegance. When the couple visited the Queen of England in March, for example, the British gushed over her perfect curtsy and her demure, Jackie Kennedy outfits. “She’s imaginative, clever, educated. She knows how to behave,” says designer Karl Lagerfeld, who often used Bruni as a model. “She speaks many languages. It must be an embarrassment for the wives of other heads of state to see this beautiful creature who can wear anything and speak like that.” On his visit to France in June, George W. Bush was certainly won over, telling Sarkozy in the middle of a press conference, “It was a great pleasure to have been able to meet your wife. She’s a really smart, capable woman, and I can see why you married her. And I can see why she married you, too.”. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: La Dolce Carla VanityFair.com, By Bob Colacello, November 1992
It’s no wonder 24-year-old Carla Bruni has been linked, fairly or not, to several famous older men with names like Jagger, Clapton, and Trump. When the author caught up with the Italian model on the Riviera, he found her as smart and beautiful as she is charming and, well, beautiful.
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLE: Carlita's Way: How man-eating model Carla Bruni went from rock 'n' roll ingenue to the fierce First Lady of France Radar Online, By Sarah Horne, July/August 2008 Issue
To most of the French public, "Carlita," as Sarkozy has taken to calling her, is France's answer to Jackie Kennedy, a glamorous ambassador for an increasingly insecure country. She's been likened to Norah Jones (due to the breathy vocal style she's showcased on two solo albums) and to Grace Kelly (for the obvious reasons). But there is also a sizable group of Carla critics who deride her as a ruthless and predatory striver, more aptly compared to the husband-stealing glamour-puss Angelina Jolie.
RELATED ARTICLE: Think THIS image of Carla is racy? You should see the ones I didn't publish, says photographer The Daily Mail— UK, March 27, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Bruni's pert pillbox hat was perfect. Poor Camilla looked like a pheasant crash-landed on her head... The Daily Mail- UK, By Amanda Platell, March 27, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: The REAL story of how Sarkozy seduced Carla Bruni The Daily Mail- UK, February 15, 2008
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
