'MARRIAGE' In The NEWS- July 2008: The REAL Proposal For Marriage magazine

Family: "The Bedrock of Society" Townhall.com, By Rebecca Hagelin, July 31, 2008
It used to be called “shacking up.” Now it’s just another lifestyle choice. Or so it appears from federal data released on July 28. It shows a big jump in the number of unmarried opposite-sex couples living together -- from less than 1 million 30 years ago to 6.4 million in 2007, or almost 10 percent of all opposite-sex U.S. couples. Does it matter? Not to the 47 percent of people in a USA Today/Gallup poll who said that cohabitation made “no difference” to the children of cohabiting couples. At a time when same-sex “marriage” has become a wedge issue in California and other states, this trend is troubling, to say the least. Cohabiting couples may dismiss marriage as old-fashioned -- a “piece of paper” that pacifies parents but has no practical value. In fact, a growing body of social science research shows that the intact family -- defined by countless generations and myriad cultures to mean a man and a woman who marry, conceive and raise their children together -- best ensures the welfare of society in general and children in particular. It says a lot about the decline of our culture today that such an observation even needs to be made. . . . . . Again and again, the data bears this out. Adolescents in intact families, for example, perform better on a number of measures when compared with their counterparts in non-intact families. As family expert Jennifer Marshall of The Heritage Foundation notes, children in intact families “have better health, are less likely to be depressed, are less likely to repeat a grade in school, and have fewer developmental problems.” Their peers in non-traditional households, meanwhile, “are more likely to experience poverty, abuse, behavioral and emotional problems, lower academic achievement, and drug use.”. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: Marriage: What Social Science Says and Doesn't Say The Heritage Foundation, By Jennifer A Marshall, May 17, 2004
Social science data indicate that the intact family—defined as a man and a woman who marry, conceive, and raise their children together—best ensures the current and future welfare of children and society when compared with other common forms of households. As alternative family forms have become more prevalent since the 1960s, social science research and government surveys have indicated an accompanying rise in a number of serious social problems.

RELATED RESOURCE: Family Facts.org
The Heritage Foundation's familyfacts.org catalogs social science findings on the family, society and religion gleaned from peer-reviewed journals, books and government surveys. Serving policymakers, journalists, scholars and the general public, familyfacts.org makes social science research easily accessible to the non-specialist.

RELATED ARTICLE: Longing for Belonging and the Lure of the State The Heritage Foundation, By Ryan Messmore, August 17, 2007
English poet and essayist Samuel Johnson once said, "To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition." In referring to happiness at home, Johnson was identifying a goal that one does not pur sue privately, but rather together with members of an intimate body. The wisdom of Johnson's claim lies in its recognition of a fundamental human longing for a sense of membership or belonging. People draw iden tity from their participation in communities of pur pose, whatever form they might take.

Massachusetts House passes repeal of 1913 law that prevents out-of-state same-sex couples from marrying in Massachusetts

House passes repeal of 1913 marriage law Boston Globe, By Eric Moskowitz and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff, July 29, 2008
The House today voted 118 to 35 to repeal a 1913 state law that prevents gay and lesbian couples from most other states from marrying in Massachusetts. The measure, which the Senate passed earlier this month, will head to the desk of Governor Deval Patrick, who is expected to sign it into law. The move will clear the way for out-of-state couples to marry in Massachusetts, making it the second state to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry regardless of their place of residence. . . . Unlike the Senate, which quickly voted to repeal the law on a unanimous voice vote, the House debated the bill for about 45 minutes. Supporters of the repeal called the law archaic and rooted in racism, urging fellow lawmakers to strip it from the books in the interest of equality. Repeal opponents argued for keeping the law in deference to other states, to prevent legal tangles involving couples who would marry in Massachusetts and want rights in states where gay marriage is outlawed. "Any marriage has three willing partners: the two willing [spouses] and an approving state," said Representative John A. Lepper, an Attleboro Republican who spoke against the repeal. Lepper said striking the law from the books could create a legal limbo for same-sex couples from out of state. He pointed to a Rhode Island couple as an example, saying they could not now seek a divorce because their home state did not recognize their marriage. "It seems if the 1913 law is repealed we would be leading ourselves into a legal nightmare," Lepper said. . . .

Opponents of gay marriage say they'll sue over changed wording in Proposition 8 Los Angeles Times, By Jessica Garrison, July 29 2008
After a tweak by the state attorney general's office, the initiative now seeks to 'eliminate the right' of same-sex couples to marry, wording that the measure's proponents say could prejudice voters. . . . .Supporters of Proposition 8, the proposed state constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage, said they would file suit today to block a change made by California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown to the language of the measure's ballot title and summary. Petitions circulated to qualify the initiative for the ballot said the measure would amend the state Constitution "to provide that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." In a move made public last week and applauded by same-sex marriage proponents, the attorney general's office changed the language to say that Proposition 8 seeks to "eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry." Jennifer Kerns, spokeswoman for the Protect Marriage coalition, called the new language "inherently argumentative" and said it could "prejudice voters against the initiative.". . . . . The dust-up reflects the fierce battle being waged over the question of same-sex marriage in California, the most closely-watched social issue that will appear on the November ballot. And it has raised suspicion in some circles that Brown, a possible candidate for governor in 2010, was influenced by politics. . . .

Out-of-state money floods to Prop. 8 San Francisco Chronicle, By John Wildermuth, Chronicle Staff Writer, July 28, 2008
-- When Bruce Bastian of Utah stood up Saturday night at a San Francisco dinner and wrote a $1 million check for the campaign against Proposition 8, he made it clearer than ever that November's ballot fight over a ban on same-sex marriage won't be a California-only affair. Supporters of the effort to ban same-sex marriage already have taken in more than $1.2 million from out-of-state contributors for the fall campaign. And even before Bastian, a co-founder of the WordPerfect software company, opened his checkbook, gay and lesbian rights groups and their supporters from around the country had put more than $1.3 million into the fight against the ballot initiative. . . . . . With more than three months to go before election day, the outside money on both sides of the ballot battle will just keep coming. Concerns about that money is what persuaded Bastian to get involved. Bastian grew up in a conservative, Mormon family in Twin Falls, Idaho. He went on a mission for the church and received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Mormon-sponsored Brigham Young University. But he has been at odds with the church's view on homosexuality since coming out as a gay man. . .

Honey, I cheated with your checkbook CNN.com-LIfeWire, By Diane Mapes, July 28, 2008
-- When Cory Watson, a 23-year-old pharmacy technician from Paradise, California, noticed that a tax refund had been deposited into the joint checking account he maintains with his wife, he did two things. First, he headed to the mall where he quickly spent the $100 on new DVDs. Second, he kept his mouth shut. "I wasn't trying to be super sneaky about it, but it was kind of like, 'I think I'll head down and buy a couple of things'," he says. "Of course, my wife had no idea that the [money] had even come. She didn't find out until about a month later." Call it secret spending, checkbook cheating or financial infidelity -- plenty of Americans are guilty of it. Twenty nine percent of people in a committed relationship admitted to lying to their partner about their spending habits, according to a Harris Interactive survey of 1,796 people ages 25-55. Women were slightly more likely than men to be dishonest; according to the 2005 survey, 33 percent of women had something to hide, as opposed to 26 percent of men. . . . Putting a stop to secret spending doesn't necessarily mean giving up all financial independence, says Tessina. People still need to be able to breathe, to buy a little fun here and there," she says. But if one person spends money and isn't able to talk about it with the other, that may be indicative of a larger marital frustration. . .

RELATED QUIZ: Assess Your Partner: Money-Management Quiz Oprah.com, By Suze Orman

Investigation continues into fatal crash of Chris Laurie in Corona Los Angeles Times, By Molly Hennessy-Fiske Times Staff Writer, July 26, 2008
Investigators were still trying to determine this afternoon how fast Christopher Laurie, son of mega-church pastor Greg Laurie, was driving when he hit a Caltrans truck and was killed Thursday in Riverside County. . . . . Laurie, 33, of Huntington Beach, was driving alone "at a high rate of speed" in the carpool lane of the eastbound Riverside Freeway in Corona when his station wagon collided with a California Department of Transportation tractor, the California Highway Patrol said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. No other vehicles were involved and no one else was injured, authorities said. . . . Collins was with Greg Laurie on Thursday after the pastor received news of his son's death. "He's taking comfort in the fact that his son was walking with God and serving God and using his gifts for God," Collins said. "But that doesn't diminish the sense of loss and grief that you feel." . . .

RELATED ARTICLE: Greg Laurie's son dies in traffic accident: Thousands offer sympathy, prayers for loss World Net Daily, July 25, 2008

RELATED SITE: The Christopher Laurie Memorial Fund
Christopher Laurie, son of Pastor Greg Laurie and Cathe Laurie, was called home to be with the Lord on Thursday, July 24. In addition to his parents, he is survived by his wife, Brittany, and daughter, Stella, as well as his brother Jonathan. Christopher and his wife are expecting another daughter in November.

Evangelist Greg Laurie's son, Christopher, dies in traffic accident leaving behind pregnant wife, Brittany, and 2 year-old daughter, Stella

RELATED VIDEO: I Still Believe Harvest.org, Speaker: Greg Laurie Sunday, July 27, 2008

RELATED VIDEO: Lost Boy: The Documentary Trailer YouTube.com-Harvest TV

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. . . . . .The death of a child is a terrible loss that destroys many families. Often the fate of a family or some of its members hangs by a thread. By loving and understanding, by the pure knowledge of God, without hypocrisy and without guile, families can be supported in their pain and aided on the path to healing. It is my hope that this essay will help those who have lost children and those who are close to them.

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.

'Last Lecture' professor Randy Pausch, pictured here previously with wife Jai and their 3 children, dies at 47 (Click for Related Video)

Man Behind 'Last Lecture' Sensation Dies AOL News, July 25, 2008
-- Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose "last lecture" about facing terminal cancer became an Internet sensation and a best-selling book, has died. He was 47.Pausch died early Friday at his home in Virginia, university spokeswoman Anne Watzman said. Pausch and his family moved there last fall to be closer to his wife's relatives. Pausch was diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer in September 2006. His popular last lecture at Carnegie Mellon in September 2007 garnered international attention and was viewed by millions on the Internet. In it, Pausch celebrated living the life he had always dreamed of instead of concentrating on impending death. "The lecture was for my kids, but if others are finding value in it, that is wonderful," Pausch wrote on his Web site. "But rest assured; I'm hardly unique." The book "The Last Lecture," written with Jeffrey Zaslow, leaped to the top of the nonfiction best-seller lists after its publication in April and remains there this week. Pausch said he dictated the book to Zaslow, a Wall Street Journal writer, by cell phone. The book deal was reported to be worth more than $6 million. . . . . . Pausch blogged regularly about his medical treatment. On Feb. 15, exactly six months after he was told he had three to six months of healthy living left, Pausch posted a photo of himself to show he was "still alive & healthy." I rode my bike today; the cumulative effects of the chemotherapy are hurting my stamina some, but I bet I can still run a quarter mile faster than most Americans," he wrote. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: A Beloved Professor Delivers The Lecture of a Lifetime Wall Street Journal- Moving On, By Jeff Zaslow, September 20, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE & VIDEO: Dying Professor's Lecture of a Lifetime ABC NEWS- Good Morning America, September 21, 2007
Randy Pausch Has Months to Live, but Inspires Others With Lecture on Living Life to the Fullest.

RELATED VIDEO: Randy Pausch The Last Lecture YouTube.com

RELATED ARTICLE: My life was saved by the same knife-wielding robot that treated Patrick Swayze The Daily Mail- UK, By Isla Whitcroft, August 5, 2008
Just over a year ago Alan Bowley was a dying man. Diagnosed with an inoperable tumour on his pancreas, Alan's only option was palliative radiotherapy to buy him a few more months of life. But after Alan's wife stumbled across a treatment on the internet - just a few weeks after this fateful diagnosis - he was soon in a hospital in Washington DC having Cyberknife therapy.

RELATED ARTICLE: Accidental fungus leads to promising cancer drug Yahoo! News- Reuters, By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor, June 29, 2008
- A drug developed using nanotechnology and a fungus that contaminated a lab experiment may be broadly effective against a range of cancers, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday. The drug, called lodamin, was improved in one of the last experiments overseen by Dr. Judah Folkman, a cancer researcher who died in January. Folkman pioneered the idea of angiogenesis therapy -- starving tumors by preventing them from growing blood supplies. Lodamin is an angiogenesis inhibitor that Folkman's team has been working to perfect for 20 years. Writing in the journal Nature Biotechnology, his colleagues say they developed a formulation that works as a pill, without side-effects. They have licensed it to SynDevRx, Inc, a privately held Cambridge, Massachusetts biotechnology company that has recruited several prominent cancer experts to its board.

Jilted bride calls $150,000 jury award ‘justice’
RoseMary Shell gave up her job for fiancé: ‘He made a promise to me’ MSNBC.com- Today, By Bob Considine, July 25, 2008
Men (or women) who decide to get on bended knee: Be warned. You could find yourself on both knees, facing a judge instead of a justice of the peace. That’s what happened in Florida this week, when a woman was awarded $150,000 after suing her former fiancé for calling off their wedding. For RoseMary Shell, the jilted bride-to-be who left a high-paying job in Pensacola to live with her prospective partner in Gainesville, there was a “wow” in lieu of a vow. . . . . “Mr. Gibbs feels that the verdict did not accurately reflect the evidence and will appeal,” Hammond Law, Gibbs’ attorney, told TODAY in a statement. “In addition, there are significant legal questions to address, including, but not limited to, whether or not breach of promise to marry is a viable action under Georgia law in 2008.”. . . 'It was 2001 when Shell and Gibbs, who were each divorced with grown children, met through mutual friends and began dating. According to Shell, the couple had intended to get married when her youngest son went off to college in 2005. When that didn’t happen, she broke up with Gibbs and moved to Pensacola, where she landed a human resources job that paid $81,000 with benefits. Trying to carry on with her life, she started to date someone new. But in October 2006, Gibbs asked her to move back to Gainesville — and he proposed with a 2-carat diamond ring. Shell said yes. A wedding date of Dec. 2 was set. About a month after Shell moved back in with Gibbs, however, Gibbs expressed second thoughts in a note he left in their bathroom: He wanted to postpone the wedding. . .

RELATED VIDEO: Jilted bride sues ex-fiancé MSNBC.com- Today, July 25, 2008

Carlene Balderrama, a 53 year-old mother, commits suicide over house foreclosure

Mother, 53, Kills Self Before Foreclosure WalletPop- AP, July 23, 2008
- A 53-year-old wife and mother fatally shot herself soon after faxing a letter to her mortgage company saying that by the time they foreclosed on her house that day, she would be dead. Police in Taunton said Carlene Balderrama used her husband's high-powered rifle to kill herself Tuesday afternoon, after faxing the letter at 2:30 p.m. The mortgage company called police, who found Balderrama's body at 3:30 p.m. in her brown-shingled raised ranch house. The auction was scheduled to start at 5 p.m. and interested buyers arrived at the property in Taunton, about 35 miles south of Boston, while Balderrama's body was still inside, according to police chief Raymond O'Berg. Police did not immediately release the name of the mortgage company. O'Berg said Balderrama's fax read, in part, "By the time you foreclose on my house I'll be dead." O'Berg also said a suicide note found next to Balderrama told her husband, John, and 24-year-old son to "take the (life) insurance money and pay for the house." . . .

RELATED ARTICLE: Foreclosure-Related Suicide: Sign of the Times? Massachusetts Woman's Suicide Followed Foreclosure ABC News, By Dan Childs— ABC News Medical Unit, July 25, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Will Hollywood end up homeless? Another celebrity foreclosure WalletPop, By Beth Pinsker, July 24, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Women Are Now Equal as Victims of Poor Economy New York Times, By Louis Uchitelle, July 22, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: A family's struggle against great debt: Ill health, credit cards, a house-load of woes Philly.com, By Harold Brubaker, February 18, 2008
Anthony and Lisa Grande's house stands out in their Levittown neighborhood. "It's the big house," Lisa said when giving directions. The Grandes borrowed more than $100,000 - much of it on credit cards - to double its size four years ago because they wanted enough room for their five children and did not want to move. But now, the Grandes are fighting to stay there, having repeatedly fallen behind on their mortgage payments, which climbed from $1,841 to $2,487. They offer a powerful example of how lax mortgage underwriting, excess credit-card debt, and catastrophic health problems can add up to financial disaster for an American family.

RELATED ARTICLE: Top 5ive Tips For Buying a Foreclosure Smart Money.com, By Stacey L. Bradford

RELATED RESOURCE: Tips for Avoiding Foreclosure US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

Black and single: Is marriage really for white people? CNN.com, By Dionne Hill- CNN Producer, July 22, 2008
-- Mrs. Allen had it all. A career she enjoyed, a nice home, two adorable children and a husband. She shared her tools for success with me at an early age. She went to college, got married and waited until she was 26 to have her first child. The perfect life. The perfect plan. It was one I decided to model. My aspirations for both a career and family were set at the age of 12. I knew I could accomplish what Mrs. Allen, my fifth- and seventh-grade teacher, had. But as I approach 30 and measure the goals I had at 12 against the reality of life, the only thing I can check off that list is a college education. I am a statistic. And there are millions more like me. Forty-five percent of black women in America have never been married, compared with 23 percent of white women, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey in 2006. Articles like the one published in the Washington Post two years ago could lead me to believe that it's because "Marriage is for White People." The difference between Mrs. Allen and me: She was white. . . .

Black and Single: Is Marriage really for white people?

RELATED VIDEO: Black Men Respond About Love and Family CNN.com, July 23, 2008

'View' Host Sherri Shepherd: 'I Had More Abortions Than I Would Like to Count'

'View' Host Sherri Shepherd: 'I Had More Abortions Than I Would Like to Count' Us magazine, July 22, 2008
In the new issue of black Christian women's magazine Precious Times, The View's Sherri Shepherd reveals that her life was once so rough she didn't care if she died. "My sister was heavy into drugs, and we would have to go and get her from crack houses," Shepherd, 41, says. At the time, the stand-up comic — then a Jehovah's Witness – was "in a very physically abusive relationship," she said. "I was sleeping with a lot of guys and had more abortions than I would like to count." She said her self-esteem became so low, "I felt if someone killed me, it wouldn't even make a difference." But after converting to Christianity, she said, "God showed me that it would make a difference." (Shepherd has also said she relied on her faith to get through her split with husband Jeff Tarpley, father of their 3-year-old son. During their seven-year marriage, Tarpley cheated on her and got another woman pregnant.) Still, Shepherd admitted it is tough talking religion on the popular ABC chat-fest. (She received criticism after she once remarked that ancient Greeks persecuted Christians, even though Christ hadn't been born yet.) "Oh, sometimes I say, 'Lord, Juanita Bynum or Joyce Meyer would be so good at this table. They could lay hands on Barbara Walters and get her saved,'" she said. . . .

RELATED VIDEO: Sherri Shepherd Addresses Abortion Comments Red Lasso.com

RELATED SITE: Precious Times magazine

RELATED ARTICLE: I had one of Britain's first legal abortions ... 40 years on, I'm still torn apart by guilt The Daily Mail- UK, By Natasha Courtenay-Smith, March 5, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: The 'afterwards' of abortion The Jamaica Gleaner, By Esther Tyson, March 2, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE & COMMENTS: The Suicide of Emma Beck and Silence No More Townhall.com, By Michelle Malkin, February 27, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Artist hanged herself after aborting her twins The Telegraph, February 26, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: 2 Christians 9 abortions Jamaica Observer- Jamaica, February 23, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Abortion: An "inconvenient truth" within Marriage The Real Proposal Magazine, January 26, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: The SLED Test – Four Top Arguments Heartlink.org, By Steve Wagner
We all agree that toddlers are valuable human beings with rights. Yet the unborn differ from toddlers in only four ways, and the first letters of each of these differences spell an easy-to-remember acronym, SLED (Size, Level of Development, Environment, Degree of Dependency).

RELATED SITE: THE CASE FOR LIFE: Like You Have Never Heard It Before
Only One Issue: The abortion controversy is not a debate between those who are pro-choice and those who are anti-choice. It’s not about privacy or trusting women. To the contrary, the debate turns on one key question. What is the Unborn?

RELATED ARTICLE: Pro-Choice Mistakes: Exposing Irrational Abortion Arguments The Case for Life
If we care about truth, we will courageously follow the facts wherever they lead. Here are five common pro-choice mistakes when arguing for abortion. . . . Mistake #1: They confuse objective claims with subjective ones. . . Mistake #2: They attack the person rather than refute the argument. . . Mistake #3: They assume what they are trying to prove. . . . Mistake #4: They confuse human value with human function. . . . Mistake #5: They disguise their true position by appealing to the hard cases. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: What Do You Know About Roe v. Wade? Family.org, By Shana Schutte
Like many Americans, you know Roe v. Wade legalized abortion, but you may know little else.

RELATED SITE: Abort73.com: The Case Against Abortion

RELATED VIDEO: This is Abortion RATED: MA (Mature Audiences Only)
WARNING: Contains graphic post-abortion pictures. Be Warned! The Visual Evidence is Disturbing.

IVF: The birth that started a revolution
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 The Telegraph- UK, By Judith Woods, July 21, 2008
Thirty years ago this week Louise Brown, the first test tube baby, was born, and the world of fertility changed forever. Her mother, Lesley, 33, had blocked fallopian tubes, so Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards took an egg from one of her ovaries, under anaesthetic, and fertilised it with sperm from her husband, John, in a laboratory, before placing it in her uterus. Nine months later, on July 25, 1978, Louise was delivered by Caesarean section at Oldham and District General Hospital. Since that day, a series of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) breakthroughs has enabled tens of thousands of British couples to have the children they longed for. Other leaps have included treatments for male infertility, the use of donor eggs, surrogates and the genetic screening of embryos. In Britain alone, 111,633 children have been born through fertility treatment; worldwide, the figure is estimated to be 3.5 million. The latest figures from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the regulatory body set up in 1991, show that 32,626 couples in Britain had IVF in 2005, leading to a total - including twins and triplets - of 11,262 children. About 25 per cent of IVF treatments are funded by the NHS; the rest are paid for privately, costing up to £8,000 a cycle. But while IVF has answered the prayers of many couples, it is not a cure-all. . . . And fertility treatments are also transforming the British family, raising ethical questions about concepts such as "saviour siblings", babies genetically matched and created to provide tissue - often umbilical cord stem cells - to treat disease in an older child. Similarly, treatment for post-menopausal women, same-sex couples and the spectres of sex selection for social reasons (illegal in the UK) and "designer babies", where embryos are chosen or discarded for reasons other than health and viability, have also led to disquiet. . . .

Mindy Vernon, 44, and triplets William, Thomas, and Katherine

ISO Broad-Minded Groom
Two Indian parents go husband-hunting for their willing daughter Washington Post, By Anita Jain, July 20, 2008
IN 2005, a few months after I'd moved to Delhi, my traditional-minded parents called to announce a long visit. They were coming from California for my cousin Aarti's wedding. They planned to stay with me for six weeks. During that time, they also expected to marry me off. "Six weeks? Don't you think that's a bit long?" I hedged. It wasn't that I questioned their purpose. My parents, who wed in an arranged marriage more than four decades ago, are still among the happiest couples I've ever known. They rarely fight and do everything together, teasing and laughing -- about my father's television addiction, my mother's nagging -- all day long. I'd spent my 20s remarkably independently, working as a financial journalist in far-flung cities around the world and choosing whom to date in free-for-all, Western style. But now I was 33. I wanted what they had, and my own search wasn't quite working out. . . . The first thing my father did upon arrival weeks later was to take out a large ad in the Times of India matrimonial pages: "U.S.-educated Jain girl, 33 years old, Harvard graduate and working for international newspaper looking for broad-minded groom." Then he sat back, waiting for a deluge of e-mails demanding to wed his beautiful, brilliant daughter, no matter that she was a decade beyond prime marriageable age. Nothing arrived on Monday. Nor Tuesday. On Wednesday, he got one or two e-mails. It was the same the next week, and the next. Desperate to get started, my father finally invited one fellow over to my flat. . . .

RELATED ARTICLE: Anubhav shows the surprising truth about Indian marriage: Modern Bollywood films can get flippant when it comes to love and sex. But a classic from 1971 cuts straight to the heart of the matter The Guardian- UK, By Nirpal Dhaliwal, July 29, 2008
I spend a lot of time here talking to Indians about marriage. Marriage is the epicentre of Indian life. This country's attitude towards marriage marks its difference from the rest of the world more than any other issue. They may be prudish about discussing sex and divorce, but Indians often talk about marriage with great honesty. Prizing it as the basis of their culture, they have developed their own language to help them cultivate and protect it.

RELATED ARTICLE: Arrange Me A Marriage - new BBC TWO series My Park magazine, November 22, 2007
Matchmaker Aneela Rahman gets to grips with Britain's legions of unmarried 30-somethings and aims to find them a partner using the principles of a modern Asian arranged marriage, in this new, five-part series. Aneela – a bold, no-nonsense, Glasgow-born Asian woman in her thirties – is living proof that arranged marriages work.

RELATED ARTICLE: Indians shun traditional matchmakers and try to click with someone online The Times Online-UK, By Jeremy Page, September 1, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE: Is Arranged Marriage Really Any Worse Than Craigslist? A Modern Indian Woman's Struggle with Arranged Marriage New York Magazine, By Anita Jain, September 5, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE: Marriage: Is love necessary? How does the institution of arranged marriage, the culturally preferred way of Indians to establish the couple, square with the powerful dream of love? Little India, By Sudhir Kakar, June 15, 2007
For in India the consensus in favor of arranged marriage through the centuries has been truly astonishing; in fact the only ancient Hindu text that considers love marriage as the highest form of marriage is the revolutionary Kamasutra. Arranged marriages are not only a pan Indian norm, cutting across the divides in education, social class, religion and regions but, more important, they are rarely seen as an imposition by the young people concerned who overwhelmingly prefer them to the love marriage typical of contemporary Western societies.

Kevin Costner says: I Finally Listened To My Heart

Kevin Costner says: I Finally Listened To My Heart Parade magazine, By Dotson Rader, July 20, 2008
. . .“Falling in love is a really tricky thing,” he says. “If you pretend you’re in love when you’re really not, it ends up bloody. When I met Christine, I wasn’t prepared to be in love again. It took me a long time before I said ‘I love you’ to her, a long time.” Kevin and Christine have been married for four years. It is her first marriage, his second. His romantic caution, I suggest, is a surprising trait for one of the world’s sexiest movie stars to claim. Think of him in No Way Out or The Bodyguard. His sex appeal is undeniable. . . . Amazingly, Costner had little experience with romance. His only girlfriend was Cindy Silva, a fellow student at Cal State, Fullerton. “Cindy was the only girl I had ever dated,” he says. “I thought she was beautiful. I was honestly surprised that she liked me. I was shocked, actually.” They wed in 1978. . . .In 1996, he had a brief, post-divorce relationship with Pittsburgh socialite Bridget Rooney. It produced a son, Liam, now 11. Kevin is close to Liam, as he is to the children of his first marriage—Anne, now 23, Lily, 21, and Joe, 20. "I have never wanted to be afraid in my life, but after my divorce, I was,” he confesses. “The pain of that experience had been so strong that I never wanted to go through it ever again. “We’re afraid of a lot of things in life,” he continues. “It’s part of the human condition. What do we fear? Love? Failure? Telling the truth about ourselves? I think we don’t show people all we truly are because we’re afraid that if they actually know everything about us, they won’t love us. I’m as guilty of that as anyone. . . .

How emotional pain can really hurt BBC News- Health-- Radio 4's The Pain Of Emotion, By Vivienne Parry, July 19, 2008
Love really does hurt, just as poets and song lyric writers claim. New brain scanning technologies are revealing that the part of the brain that processes physical pain also deals with emotional pain. And in the same way that in some people injury can cause long-lasting chronic pain, science now reveals why some will never get over such heartbreak. Emotional pain can take many forms; a relationship break-up or social exclusion, for example. But it does not get any more extreme than losing a loved one, as Scottish broadcaster Mark Stephen did. In July 1995 he was driving a tractor while hay-making and accidentally hit his young daughter. She died shortly afterwards. Mark's grief was overwhelming, he says. . . . But can we die from a broken heart? Martin Cowie is professor of cardiology at the Brompton Hospital. He is very sure of the answer: "Yes, we can. "There is an increased risk of dying in the six months after bereavement and it's particularly marked amongst men." The bereaved are much more likely to be involved in accidents, which is perhaps understandable, but also to die from heart attacks and stroke. The hormones involved in the stress of bereavement make these events more likely. This knowledge makes it essential to identify and treat those whose emotional pain is likely to become chronic, causing debilitating depression or even death. . .

Women's brians are different from men's-- and here's the scientific proof

Women's brains are different from men's – and here's scientific proof The Independent- UK, By Michael McCarthy, July 18, 2008
Men and women show differences in behaviour because their brains are physically distinct organs, new research suggests. Male and female brains appear to be constructed from markedly different genetic blueprints. The differences in the circuitry that wires them up and the chemicals that transmit messages inside them are so great as to point to the conclusion that there is not just one kind of human brain, but two, according to recent neurological studies. Men may be from Mars and women may be from Venus, and since the American psychotherapist John Gray wrote his famous book, in 1992, on the idea, it has been a commonplace to think of men and women as being from different planets in terms of their emotional responses. But until recently, these differences were often explained by the action of adult sex hormones, or by social pressures that encouraged males and females to behave in a certain way. Increasingly, however, these assumptions are being challenged, according to a review of recent neurological research appearing in this week's New Scientist magazine, and it is becoming clear that the brains of men and women show numerous anatomical differences. . . . Although it has long been known that there were some male-female differences, it was thought they were confined to the hypothalamus, the brain region involved in regulating food intake, fighting and the sex drive, among other things. But it is becoming clear that the relative sizes of many of the structures inside female brains are different from those of males. . . . A guide to the male and female control panels. . . . What the experts think about the research . . .

RELATED ARTICLE: What would the world be like without men? The Daily Mail- UK, By A.N. Wilson, May 24, 2008
Fifty years in the future, will there still be a human race, or simply a laboratory-bred race of disease-free hybrids? Will there even be different sexes, since fathers have become redundant? Will there be sex, as evidently it is perfectly possible to continue the species (or mixed species) in the much more hygienic conditions of the test-tube and the laboratory? These are strange questions, but the faster science advances, and the more arrogant scientists become, the more necessary it is to examine this so-called progress.

RELATED ARTICLE: Do families need fathers? The Guardian- UK, By Aida Edemariam, May 20, 2008
The first civil partnerships in 2005 were met with such enthusiasm that it seemed Britain had become a new, more tolerant place, accepting of non-traditional families.

RELATED ARTICLE: Mars & Venus: What the perfect husband needs to understand about women The Independent- UK, By Katy Guest, March 9, 2008
In an exhaustive survey conducted by the IoS and reported here for the first time, it has become apparent that women's requirements for a perfect husband have also shifted. Gone are the days when a man had to come home from a hard day's clerking only to be expected to change a light bulb and cough up the housekeeping. Once she has cottoned on to the Reader's Digest DIY Manual a woman doesn't need a man to change her fuses. But there are some things even a modern girl struggles with.

RELATED ARTICLE: Homo erectus extinctus The Times Online, By Lois Rogers, December 16, 2007
Is nature determined to make men extinct? Senior scientists believe that women may evolve as humanity’s sole representatives — and social and political trends are lending weight to their theories.

RELATED ARTICLE: The prospect of all-female conception The Independent- UK, By Steve Connor, April 13, 2007
Women might soon be able to produce sperm in a development that could allow lesbian couples to have their own biological daughters, according to a pioneering study published today.

Challenge tossed, gay marriage ban on ballot San Francisco Chronicle, By Bob Egelko, July 17, 2008
In a unanimous order, without comment, the court dismissed a lawsuit by gay rights advocates seeking to remove an initiative sponsored by conservative religious groups from the Nov. 4 ballot. The measure, Proposition 8, would overturn the court's 4-3 ruling May 15 that allowed gay and lesbian couples to marry in California. The suit, on behalf of couples who had challenged the state's previous ban on same-sex marriage, argued that Prop. 8 would destroy fundamental rights that cannot be changed by a voter initiative. The court rarely takes up legal challenges to a ballot measure before an election, and could consider the same issue in another lawsuit if the measure passes. The suit was "a desperate effort to keep the amendment away from the democratic process," said attorney Glen Lavy of the Alliance Defense Fund, which represents sponsors of Prop. 8. Their opponents - Equality California, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union - said they were disappointed but undaunted in their efforts to defeat the ballot measure. Like one of the laws the court struck down in May, Prop. 8 declares that "only a marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.". . .

RELATED VIDEO & COMMENTS: Conservative Christians Debate Same-Sex Marriage Ruling CNS News, July 15, 2008

Challenge tossed, same-sex marriage ban on November ballot in California

San Francisco Court Debates Religions’ Right to Oppose ‘Gay’ Adoption CNS News.com, By Randy Hall, Staff Writer/Editor, July 16, 2008
- Was a resolution by the city of San Francisco condemning the Catholic Church’s teachings on homosexuality a violation of the U.S. Constitution or an expression of free speech? Oral arguments on this issue will be heard Wednesday by a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The debate is a result of Resolution 168-06, which was passed unanimously on March 21, 2006, by the board of supervisors of the city and county of San Francisco and which urged the archbishop of San Francisco and Catholic Charities of San Francisco to defy church directives. The document called on Cardinal William Levada, in his capacity as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican, to withdraw his “discriminatory and defamatory directive” that Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco stop placing children in need of adoption with homosexual households. According to Catholic teaching, children should not be adopted by homosexual couples, because it does violence to them in the sense that the same-sex environment is not conducive to the children’s full human development. A child has a right to a mother and a father, and non-natural promotion of other “family” orders is not proper. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: McCain Assailed for Opposing Gay Adoption CNS News, By David Crary- AP, July 15, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Banned in Boston: The Coming Conflict Between Same Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty Cover Story- The Weekly Standard, By Maggie Gallagher, May 15, 2006 Issue

Mass. Senate votes to let out-of-state gays marry

Mass. Senate votes to let out-of-state gays marry Boston Globe.com- AP, By Steve LeBlanc, July 15, 2008
—Gay couples from across the country are one step closer to a Massachusetts wedding. The Massachusetts Senate voted Tuesday to repeal a 1913 law used to bar out-of-state gay couples from marrying here. The law prohibits couples from obtaining marriage licenses if they couldn't legally wed in their home states. After Massachusetts became the first state to allow gay marriages in 2004, then-Gov. Mitt Romney ordered town clerks to enforce the little-known law and deny licenses to out of state couples. Critics, including Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick, the state's first black governor, said the 95-year-old statute carries a racist taint and needs to be repealed. The law dates to a time when the majority of states still outlawed interracial marriages. Opponents said the law was designed to smooth relations with those states. Massachusetts has allowed interracial marriages since 1843. . . .The bill passed on a voice vote. Opponents of the gay marriage said there's no evidence the 1913 law has a racist heritage. They said keeping the law in place is key to preventing gay marriage from spreading to other states, many of which have passed laws or amended their constitution to bar same-sex marriage. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: False Equation: Opposing Same-Sex Marriage and Opposing Interracial Marriage Townhall.com, By Dennis Prager, July 15, 2008
The most effective of all morality-based arguments for same-sex marriage, the one that persuades more people than any other argument, is the one that equates opposition to same-sex marriage with the old opposition to interracial marriage. . . . Those who advocate redefining marriage are saying that every religious and secular tradition is immoral. They have no problem doing this because they believe they are wiser and finer people than all the greatest Jewish, Christian and humanist thinkers who ever lived. But as objectionable as hubris is, false comparisons are worse. And there is no comparison between different races and the different genders. There are no inherent racial differences; there are significant differences between the sexes.

RELATED ARTICLE: Gay Marriage Tramples Religious Liberty Virtue Online- The Voice for Global Orthodox Anglicanism, By Mike McManus, July 13, 2008
It was a brazen example of raw judicial activism. Of course, the media focused on the happy "newlyweds" such as a lesbian couple in their 80s who have "been together" for 50 years. However, there is an ominous undertone in this, only the second state to legalize same-sex "marriage."

RELATED ARTICLE: California gay marriage decision: The battle is on for our freedoms! The Real Proposal magazine, May 22, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Gay "Marriage" Townhall.com, By Thomas Sowell, August 15, 2006
Now that a number of state courts have refused to redefine marriage to include same-sex unions, cries of "discrimination" are being heard. 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. . . . Analogies with bans against interracial marriage are bogus. Race is not part of the definition of marriage. A ban on interracial marriage is a ban on the same actions otherwise permitted because of the race of the particular people involved. It is a discrimination against people, not actions. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: Same-Sex marriage: Hijacking the Civil Rights Legacy The Weekly Standard- By Eugene F. Rivers & Kenneth D. Johnson, June 1, 2006

I had sex with my brother but I don't feel guilty
A woman slept with her sibling for years and has good memories. Not many people understand their relationship, she says Times Online, Names have been changed. As told to Joan McFadden, July 15, 2008
. . . I think the only reason that I'm talking about it now is to emphasise that I truly believe that she was right - it doesn't happen to everyone but it happens to some, and I don't want to be made to feel guilty about it. Incest is so often spoken about in the same breath as abuse, but if you're close in age and equal in relationship terms then it's entirely different. Of course abuse happens, but it can happen in any sexual relationship and there's an expectation that a family member would never hurt you in the way that someone else could. There's no comparison between siblings close in age having sexual feelings and contact and an adult forcing a younger member of the family to do something they neither understand nor want to be involved in. . . . . I have wondered if there will ever come a time when I'll look back on my relationship with Daniel in disgust, but I don't think so. Everyone has relationships where the sexual element has ended but a great friendship remains, and that's as good a way as any of summing up what's happened with us. Daniel has a unique place in my affections, as I do with him, and that will never change. As an academic I have a tendency to draw logical conclusions. I like to see a pattern and resolution, so it does pain me that what appears so lovely and natural to me would be regarded as abhorrent by most people. It's not my subject, but I would be really interested to see a study on incest done on these terms, moving it away entirely from the concept of abuse. However, I simply cannot imagine that many people are happy to talk about it and I certainly wouldn't put my family through hell by being the first to go public. . .

'I had sex with my brother and don't feel guilty,' says a woman who slept with her sibling for years and has 'good memories'

RELATED ARTICLE: Should Incest Be Legal? Time magazine, By Michael Lindenberger, April 5, 2007
When the Supreme Court struck down Texas's law against sodomy in the summer of 2003, in the landmark gay rights case of Lawrence v. Texas, critics warned that its sweeping support of a powerful doctrine of privacy could lead to challenges of state laws that forbade such things as gay marriage and bigamy. "State laws against bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, bestiality, and obscenity are ... called into question by today's decision," wrote Justice Antonin Scalia, in a withering dissent he read aloud page by page from the bench. It turns out the critics were right. Plaintiffs have made the decision the centerpiece of attempts to defeat state bans on the sale of sex toys in Alabama, polygamy in Utah and adoptions by gay couples in Florida. So far the challenges have been unsuccessful. But plaintiffs are still trying, even using Lawrence to challenge laws against incest. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: Incest: an age-old taboo BBC News, March 12, 2007
In 2007, a German brother and sister took their fight for the right to a sexual relationship to the country's highest court, the BBC News website's Clare Murphy looks at the history of the incest taboo and how it is changing.

RELATED ARTICLE: Hypocrisy on adult consent The Boston Globe, By Jeff Jacoby- Globe Columnist, August 28, 2005
The taboo against incest may be ancient, and most Americans may sincerely regard it as immoral or repugnant. But Lawrence was clear: ''The issue is whether the majority may use the power of the State to enforce these views on the whole society through operation of the criminal law." If the Supreme Court meant what it said, Muth argued, his and his sister's convictions for incest were every bit as unconstitutional as the Texas men's convictions for sodomy.

RELATED ARTICLE: Oedipus Wrecked: Was Freud wrong about boys and their mothers? Psychology Today, August 2004
In his Old Testament-style psychology, Freud saw incest held in check by fear of retribution in the form of castration. Erickson, by contrast, sees incest avoidance as a natural outgrowth of "a nurturant childhood." Indeed, says Erickson, "the lives of both the perpetrators and victims of incest are marked by rejection and emotional deprivation during childhood." When attachment is impaired early in life--through separation or parental neglect--people grow up confusing familial attraction with sexual attraction. Even the Oedipus myth supports this view, Erickson observes in the American Journal of Psychiatry (Vol. 150, No. 3). "The typical story line in poems, novels, and plays in which incest is a theme is one of separation in infancy with later incestuous reunion.". . .

RELATED ARTICLE: "Incest / Sexual Abuse of Children" Clinical Social Work.com, By Patricia D. McClendon, MSSW candidate, November 23, 1991

RELATED RESOURCES: Incest or Sexual Abuse Office For Victims Of Crime- US Department of Justice

RELATED ARTICLE: Source: Balthazar Getty's Affair 'Devastating' to Family People magazine, By Alexis Chiu, July 23, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Balthazar Getty: Yes, My Wife and I Have Separated People magazine, July 21, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Sienna Miller Demonstrates Least Inconspicuous Way To Have Affair With Married Man Radar Online, July 14, 2008
This isn't the first time that Miller has been rumored to be getting her pert little boobies between a woman and her man. She and Jude Law were celebrating Valentine's Day together by February 2004, just a few months after Law's nasty divorce from Sadie Frost. Law went on to cheat on Sienna with a nanny, which might explain her current home-wrecker tendencies.

RELATED ARTICLE: Pictured: Sienna Miller cavorts in Prague with married 'new man' The Daily Mail-UK, By Graham Smith, July 2, 2008
Just one day after Sienna Miller was romantically linked to a married American actor, photographs purporting to show the pair openly cavorting in public have emerged.

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 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 ARTICLE: THE NEW INFIDELITY: Overworked and Underappreciated, More American Wives Are Seeking Comfort In The Arms Of Other Men Newsweek, By Lorraine Ali and Lisa Miller, August 9, 2004 Issue

RELATED RESOURCE: HOPE & HEALING: Helping Couples Recover from Adultery

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: Sunday on their minds as duo turn down deals Sydney Morning Herald, By Christine Sams and Louise Hall, July 13, 2008
Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have rejected deals worth millions of dollars for first pictures of their newborn daughter Sunday. The star couple have yet to decide whether to release a photograph officially but, if they do, it will be free, a source close to them said. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: I'm no picture pimp — Usher New York Post- Page Six, May 2, 2008
Finally, there's one celebrity who refuses to cash in on parenthood by selling baby pictures to a magazine. "In no way would I ever pimp out my child for money," Usher told Page Six. The pop singer - upset by rumors he was trying to sell photos of his infant son, Usher Raymond V, and eager to defend his wife, Tameka, and his upcoming album, "Here I Stand" - wants to set the record straight. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: The Star Economy: The Most Expensive Celebrity Baby Photos Forbes.com, By Lacey Rose, April 10, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Jolie Baby Pix 'Worth $10M' New York Post, March 27, 2008

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: How Much for That Baby on the Cover? How About $6 Million? People Latest Mag Set to Shell Out Big for First Snaps of Celeb Spawn Advertising Age, By Nat Ives, February 18, 2008
People magazine is poised to pay Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony between $4 million and $6 million for exclusive U.S. rights to the first photos of their expected twins, people familiar with the negotiations said last week. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: Reproduction of the rich and famous: Forget golden statuettes. In the new, family-friendly Hollywood, the real status symbols are sonograms and diamond solitaires Salon.com, By Daniel Harris, November 20, 2006

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: People who need People- Sucking up to celebs builds mag as TW money machine Variety magazine, By Jill Goldsmith, July 9, 2006

RELATED ARTICLE: Brad and Angelina: Hollywood Idolology Part 1 & 2- The glamorization of out-of-wedlock pregnancy Woman Talk, By Katharine DeBrecht

The most beautiful wedding of the year as scarred soldier marries his sweetheart The Daily Mail- UK, By Angela Levin, July 14, 2008
Forget spoilt footballers and minor Royals. Yesterday, Miss Michelle Clifford married Lance-Corporal Martyn Compton. And the terrible injuries he suffered in Afghanistan could not diminish the towering, inspirational love they share. . . . . .The walk down the aisle yesterday was only a matter of yards. Yet for Martyn Compton it meant everything. Indeed, his determination to make the distance was matched only by that of the beautiful young woman he was about to marry. And when he falteringly held out his hand for her to slip the gold ring on his finger, they both finally fulfilled the dream they had fought desperately against all the odds to make a reality. It was so nearly destroyed when, two years ago, Martyn, a Lance-Corporal in the Household Cavalry, was badly burned in an ambush in Afghanistan. Suffering from 70 per cent burns, he was in a coma for three months. When he regained consciousness, his once handsome face and honed body were ravaged. His eyelids had been fused inside out and he had lost his ears, nose and hair. He was told he might never walk, nor use his arms, again. His catastrophic injuries came to represent the tragic cost of British troops being sent to the Middle East, and his heroism in overcoming them made headlines around the world. Among those ‘humbled’ by Martyn’s bravery was his friend and colleague Prince William, who paid tribute to his bravery in a special City Salute pageant in London in May. ‘Compo, you’re more famous than me,’ the Prince joked recently. ‘You’re in the papers every day.’ Then, last month, his ordeal made the news again when it emerged the Ministry of Defence had offered him only £163,000 compensation, far less than the maximum of £285,000. But to his bride Michelle he is not merely a symbol of courage, nor yet another serviceman who has been bitterly betrayed by the MoD, he is her husband, her soul mate and the man she loves just as much now as the day they first met. . .

The most beautiful wedding of the year as scarred soldier, Lance-Corporal Martyn Compton marries his sweetheart, Michelle Clifford

Madonna and Guy - the singer's brother reveals intimate details of her life The Daily Mail- UK, BY Christopher Ciccone, July 13, 2008
Few know Madonna better than her 47-year-old brother Christopher Ciccone. They grew up together in Michigan in America and learned to dance together. Then Christopher followed Madonna to New York, where she began her long journey to wealth and superstardom. From early childhood, through the years of determined struggle to the iconic figure she has become today, Christopher has been Madonna’s constant confidant and shoulder to cry on. He has been her personal assistant and dresser, her interior decorator and artistic director of her show-stopping world tours. While much has been written about the most famous pop star in the world, only he knows the riveting untold story behind Madonna’s carefully constructed mythology. Here, in unparalleled and intimate detail, Christopher tells their compelling story. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: Madonna’s deepest liaison ... with a lesbian named Ingrid The Daily Mail- UK, By Christopher Ciccone, July 13, 2008
At Madonna’s 1991 New Year’s Eve party, the lesbian comedian Sandra Bernhard brings her then girlfriend, Ingrid Casares, with her. A butch version of Audrey Hepburn, Ingrid is boyish and fawnlike, with big slanting doe eyes. She’s tall, thin and extremely cool. For the past year, ever since Ingrid met Sandra after one of her shows, they have been an item. But the moment Ingrid meets Madonna – as far as Ingrid is concerned – Sandra is history. And Madonna embarks on the deepest, most enduring liaison of her life. . . . It wouldn’t surprise me if my sister and Ingrid are having intimate relations. But Madonna never confirms or denies it. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: Madonna and Guy will only talk about Kabbalah, says her brother in his revealing book The Daily Mail- UK, By Christopher Ciccone, July 13, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Madonna's Ex Opens Up About Raising Lourdes People magazine, By Rennie Dyball and Michelle Tan, July 24, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: H-bloo On A-rod The New Yorker magazine, By Ben McGrath, July 21, 2008
(“She’s my f*****g soul mate, dude,” A-Rod was reported to have told a friend in February, referring to Madonna, who is seventeen years his senior.). . . .“One of the dominant features of Kabbalah was teaching self-denial and asceticism,” he said. Nadler is an out-spoken critic of the Kabbalah Centre, in Los Angeles, where Madonna, Britney Spears, and Demi Moore, among others, have supposedly found inspiration. “It teaches self-fulfillment to the point of becoming God,” he said. “So these are gods-in-training.”

RELATED ARTICLE: Madonna and Guy's five-point plan to rescue their marriage... and they've given themselves a year The Daily Mail- UK, By Laura Roberts, July 15, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Lawyer: A-Rod and Madonna Had 'An Affair of the Heart' People magazine, By Siobhan Morrissey, July 07, 2008
Alex Rodriguez's relationship with Madonna was "an affair of the heart" – not "sexual infidelity" – according to Cynthia Rodriguez's lawyer. Still, the baseball star's relationship with the singer "was the last straw" before the Yankee slugger's wife filed for divorce Monday, her Houston attorney, Earle Lilly, tells PEOPLE.

RELATED ARTICLE: Madonna: 'Not Planning on Getting a Divorce' People magazine, By K.C. Baker, July 06, 2008

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
Picture the scene: you are in a room with more than a hundred adults. Sitting at one end, with a microphone in his hand, is a man with long white hair who is encouraging everybody to introduce themselves to each other. “Go up to somebody,” he says, “and say one honest, true thing about them that strikes you immediately. Then have them do the same back to you. But before you do that,” he goes on, “please take off all your clothes.” Welcome to the “most radical self-help workshop in the world”, as this hip new 10-day residential retreat is dubbed. Led by the Birmingham-born life coach guru Paul Lowe, it is not a place for the shy and retiring. As well as being encouraged to voice compliments to each other, such as “you make my vagina tingle”, discuss innermost feelings in intense, nude “sharing” circles and take part in sensual massage sessions, participants will also be invited, during the course of the workshop, to explore their sexuality with multiple partners (yes, actually in the workshop). In Lowe’s eyes, you see, monogamy is one of those “ludicrous, unnatural social conventions that stand between you and spiritual enlightenment”. . .

Sex therapy: The return of free love. Jamie (top), Laurel and Ryan have differing views on the joys of antimonogamy

Described as 'a man of character,' former White House spokesman Tony Snow succumbs to cancer at age 53

Why Manhood is Vanishing Townhall.com , by Kevin McCullough, July 13, 2008
Two political icons that cast considerable shadows led the headlines this week. One for his desire to return to the lynchings of the slavery era - through literal castration, the other for his enormous generosity, sense of fair play, and kindness. On Father's Day 2008, when Barack Obama claimed that any "fool" could have child he could have easily addressed those comments directly to the Rev. Jesse Jackson. When Obama also claimed it took a "man" to raise a child, he would have been hard pressed to find a more brilliant example than former press secretary Tony Snow. One had to be summarily dismissed this week as a buffoon, the other will be genuinely missed from ideological friend and foe alike. One views himself as a permanent fixture on the political stage, the other shunned it and only stayed on it because he was asked to by the most powerful man on the planet, and even then said, "so-long" only a little more than a year later. One loves himself more than his family - both legitimate and illegitimate. The other exuded love for his family at every opportunity. Jackson believes in greivance, negativity, and victimhood. Snow was a shining example of optimism, decency, and charity. And while it is easy to see these differences merely from their media personas, a series of events in 2004 permanently seared them in my mind forever. . . . . Tony Snow easily qualified as exactly the kind of man that valued clarity, decency, integrity, and longed to provide, and protect those he cherished most. So why we are we losing the Tim Russerts and Tony Snows these days while the Rev. Jacksons flourish?

RELATED ARTICLE: Jesse Jackson Apologizes for Crude Obama Remarks FOX News.com, July 9, 2008

RELATED VIDEO: Jesse Jackson criticizes Obama FOX News, July 9, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Tony Snow   Townhall.com, By David Limbaugh, July 15, 2008
Many have already spoken of Tony's consuming love for his wife and children and his passion for God. I am but another firsthand witness to his "walking the walk" and, like so many others, greatly admired him for it. People tend to say very nice things about people who pass away -- and that is as it should be; it's the right thing to do. But be assured in Tony's case, all the eulogies you are hearing about and reading are heartfelt and utterly without reservation. Tony was the real article -- he and the life he led were examples to which we should all aspire.

RELATED ARTICLE: Two Men of Character Townhall.com, By Cal Thomas, July 15, 2008
Tony had great perspective and sound priorities. You can tell a lot about the character of a man who brags on his wife without being prompted. He loved Jill and their three children and expressed that love to me with the enthusiasm of a newlywed. "When I was sitting in my hospital room," he said that January evening, "I didn't think about what was going on in politics, or even what was going on at Fox (where he once worked). I thought about when I could see my kids and didn't want them to experience what I did when I watched my mother slowly die."

RELATED ARTICLE: Former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow Dies at 53 People magazine, By Kristin Boehm, July 12, 2008
Former White House press secretary Tony Snow died Saturday after a second battle with cancer. He was 53. "The Snow family has lost a beloved husband and father. And America has lost a devoted public servant and a man of character," President Bush said Saturday in a statement. "It was a joy to watch Tony at the podium each day." Snow, who had been undergoing chemotherapy treatments for a recurrence of the disease, which he spoke to PEOPLE in May 2007 about, served as press secretary from May 2006 to September 14, 2007. He then joined CNN as a conservative commentator. "To find yourself the object of love of people you don't know, that hits you. It's incredibly moving," Snow told PEOPLE of the outpouring of well-wishes he received. . . . Snow was first treated for colon cancer in 2005, at which time his colon was removed. The recurrence of cancer found in March 2007 was attached to his liver, not inside it. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: A diagnosis of cancer is trying for any marriage   Boston Globe, By Judy Foreman, August 22, 2005

RELATED RESOURCE:   FAQ Radiofrequency Ablation of Liver Tumors Radiology Info.org
Radiofrequency ablation, sometimes referred to as RFA, is a minimally invasive treatment for cancer. It is an image-guided technique that heats and destroys cancer cells.  In radiofrequency ablation, imaging techniques such as ultrasound and computed tomography (CT) are used to help guide a needle electrode into a cancerous tumor. High-frequency electrical currents are then passed through the electrode, creating heat that destroys the abnormal cells.

RELATED RESOURCE: Liver Cancer and Radiofrequency Ablation AnnieAppleSeed Project
The hottest new weapon in the surgeon's arsenal against liver cancer uses heat instead of cold, a shift that could put the freeze on what until now has been the standard therapy for inoperable tumors. What's more, it's easy, cheap and considerably less risky to perform than surgery or using cold to zap malignancies. Now University of Florida researchers have found that the technique, known as radiofrequency ablation, does not initiate a cascade of harmful hormones that often causes patients who undergo the alternative -- cryotherapy -- to go into shock.

RELATED ARTICLE: Accidental fungus leads to promising cancer drug   Yahoo! News- Reuters, By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor, June 29, 2008
- A drug developed using nanotechnology and a fungus that contaminated a lab experiment may be broadly effective against a range of cancers, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday. The drug, called lodamin, was improved in one of the last experiments overseen by Dr. Judah Folkman, a cancer researcher who died in January. Folkman pioneered the idea of angiogenesis therapy -- starving tumors by preventing them from growing blood supplies. Lodamin is an angiogenesis inhibitor that Folkman's team has been working to perfect for 20 years. Writing in the journal Nature Biotechnology, his colleagues say they developed a formulation that works as a pill, without side-effects. They have licensed it to SynDevRx, Inc, a privately held Cambridge, Massachusetts biotechnology company that has recruited several prominent cancer experts to its board.

RELATED ARTICLE: Health Issues: Once-fatal cancers now treated as a chronic disease International Herald Tribune, By Jane E. Brody, June 17, 2008
Fisch calls the new therapy for advanced cancer "the hitchhiker model." Time is bought by going from point A, the first-line therapy, to point B, the second-line therapy, to point C, the third line of therapy, and so on. The approach can continue indefinitely, as long as new therapies become available and patients remain well enough to withstand the rigors of treatment. But Fisch noted that adding meaningful years to the lives of patients with advanced cancer depends in part on avoiding the attitude, prevalent among some physicians, that cancer is hopeless after it has metastasized.

Gay bishop defies his Lambeth Conference ban
Gene Robinson wasn't invited – but he's coming anyway. The Independent- UK, By Ian Griggs and Cole Moreton, July 13, 2008
The man whose love life has brought the worldwide Anglican Communion to the brink of self-destruction has not been invited to this week's crucial British gathering of bishops. But he's coming anyway. Gene Robinson has sex with his male partner and is proud of it. That he is also the Bishop of New Hampshire in the US outrages Anglican traditionalists who believe homosexuality is a sin. They are threatening to leave Anglicanism in their tens of millions – and their bishops will begin the move away by boycotting the historic Lambeth Conference, which begins on Wednesday. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, in whose name the conference is called every 10 years, hoped it would provide the space for the warring bishops to find common ground and save the biggest Protestant church grouping in the world from disintegration. He even sought to offer the traditionalists an olive branch by barring the American from the event. . . . Tomorrow he will appear at the Southbank Centre in London for the premiere of the controversial documentary For the Bible Tells Me So, where the acclaimed actor and gay rights campaigner Sir Ian McKellen – who says "the church has to grow up" – will be at his side. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: Gay US bishop heckled in UK BBC News, July 13, 2008
Gay US bishop Gene Robinson has been forced to halt his sermon to a London church after being heckled.

Episcopal Gay bishop V Gene Robinson defies his Lambeth Conference ban

RELATED VIDEO: Gay US bishop on UK visit BBC News, July 13, 2008

RELATED VIDEO: Protest at gay bishop's sermon BBC News, July 13, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Anglican Church offshoot founded by traditionalists in Jerusalem The Telegraph- UK, By Martin Beckford, June 29, 2008
Their final statement stated: "We cherish our Anglican heritage and the Anglican Communion and have no intention of departing from it." But they said that some parts of the Communion were using "false Gospel" to rewrite the Bible along liberal lines, forcing some dioceses to break with their leaders in America and Canada and join churches in Africa and South America. And they claimed that the "colonial structure" of Anglicanism had failed to discipline those churches which had broken the rules by consecrating gay clergy and blessing same-sex unions.

RELATED ARTICLE: The gay priests 'wedding' album: A seven-tier cake, pink bouquets and a waltz The Daily Mail- UK, By Tom Kelly, June 23, 2008

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
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: 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. . . 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.

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. . .

Bi-Curious Summer includes Katy Perry's 'I Kissed a Girl' (Click for Related Music Video)

Parenting Issues: "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." The concept has become so mainstream that she performed her song on Fox’s summer series “So You Think You Can Dance.” She’s also made a cameo appearance on the CBS soap opera “The Young and the Restless.” This summer she’s one of the few female performers featured on the Warped Tour, an appropriate word for her act. . . . . Here's the sad rub: 23-year-old Perry began her career at age 16 with a collection of Christian gospel songs under her real name, Kate Hudson. Her parents are both Protestant pastors in California. . . . Exploiting the "bi-curious" trend is also MTV's formula for the ongoing embarrassment of a reality show called "Tila Tequila's Shot at Love," another noxious offering for youngsters offered by that disgusting network. . .

RELATED MUSIC VIDEO: Katy Perry: I Kissed a Girl YouTube.com

RELATED ARTICLE: Does every generation think their kid's music has gone too far? Family.org

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. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: Tequila Serves Up Sick Sex Act TownHall.com, By Robert Knight, October 10, 2007
One of the guys starring in MTV’s new sexploitation “reality” show, A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila, gazes at the mansion where it all takes place. “Like, holy crap!” Well, he’s half right. There’s nothing holy about MTV’s latest attempt to seduce kids into orgiastic partying and homosexuality. The show, which debuted Tuesday night, is, in a word, what the other guy said. The premise is 16 young men and 16 “lesbians” competing for the right to “love” Tila Tequila, a no-talent media creation known mainly for having 2 million “friends” listed on MySpace.com. . . . . After the guys are done making fools of themselves, the “lesbians” prance in, most of them looking like they just came from a photo shoot for Maxim or some other skin magazine. It isn’t your average lesbian bar crowd. One long-haired beauty earnestly emotes, “Just to be part of something so groundbreaking is, like, an honor.” The ground you hear breaking is America’s moral foundation. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: Tila Tequila Time magazine, BY Lev Grossman, December 16, 2006

Registrar wins same-sex tribunal BBC News, BBC News, July 10, 2008
A marriage registrar was harassed for refusing to conduct same-sex ceremonies, a tribunal has ruled. Lillian Ladele, who said the civil partnership ceremonies went against her Christian faith, hailed the decision as a "victory for religious liberty". The tribunal ruled that Miss Ladele was discriminated against on grounds of religious beliefs and was harassed. Islington council said it was "disappointed" and was considering an appeal against the ruling. 'Wider implications': Until December 2007 registrars in Islington effectively worked on a freelance basis and could swap with each other to avoid same-sex ceremonies14 But since then they have been under direct control of the local authority which, it is claimed, has led to far less flexibility about the registrars' responsibilities. Miss Ladele said she was being effectively forced to choose between her religion and her £31,000-a-year job as a result. She said she was picked on, shunned and accused of being homophobic for refusing to carry out civil partnerships. Miss Ladele said: "I am delighted at this decision. "It is a victory for religious liberty, not just for myself but for others in a similar position to mine. "Gay rights should not be used as an excuse to bully and harass people over their religious beliefs," she said. . . . . .Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said the ruling was a "dangerous subversion" and a "violation of human rights". "Lillian Ladele claims she has won a victory for religious liberty. No, she has not. She has won a victory for the right to discriminate," he said. "Public servants like registrars have a duty to serve all members of the public without fear or favour. Once society lets some people opt out of upholding the law, where will it end?" . . .

UK: Registrar Lillian Ladele wins same-sex tribunal

RELATED ARTICLE: Civil rights must trump faith The Guardian- Editorial, July 13, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Christian registrar who refused to marry gay couples reveals bullying ordeal at hands of politically correct colleagues The Daily Mail- UK, By Polly Dunbar and Martin Delgado, July 13, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Religious beliefs can be tolerated at best The Telegraph- Uk, By Sam Leith, July 11, 2008
If I decide that I won't have black people in my house because I think they smell, that is no more or less admirable - and deserves no more or less protection in civil law - than refusing to register a homosexual union because I think God disapproves. This nonsense lies behind the cant notion that religious belief should be "respected". It should not. It should be tolerated. You're entitled to believe whatever you damn well like about the disposition of the universe. But you should not expect a pat on the head because the conclusion you reach is religious in character.

RELATED ARTICLE: MAIL COMMENT: A victory for Britain's quiet majority The Daily Mail- By Daily Mail Comment, July 10, 2008
Britain's acceptance of those from different racial, social or religious backgrounds has long been an attractive aspect of our national character. But this culture of tolerance has come under pressure from politicians and the courts, who have put the often stridently expressed demands of minorities ahead of the rights of the majority.
RELATED ARTICLE: UK: Religious Rights Trump Gay Rights 365Gay.com, By Newscenter Staff, July 11, 2008

Massachusetts Gay-marriage advocates hope to repeal old law. Nonresidents now barred.

Massachusetts: Gay-marriage advocates hope to repeal old law
Nonresidents now barred Boston Globe, By Matt Viser, July 10, 2008
State lawmakers are expected to vote next week on repealing a 1913 law that prevents out-of-state gay and lesbian couples from getting married in Massachusetts, reigniting a divisive debate on an issue that has stirred passions and put the state in the national spotlight. The Senate is expected to take up the legislation Tuesday, and the House will follow shortly afterward, according to several lawmakers. House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi and Senate President Therese Murray favor the repeal, but their support on such a hot-button social issue does not guarantee that rank-and-file lawmakers will follow. Advocates of same-sex marriage rights said they are hopeful the repeal will pass, given the support from the legislative leadership and from Governor Deval Patrick, whose position is much more sympathetic than that of Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican who was a staunch opponent of gay marriage. . . . . Several lawmakers, though, have long opposed same-sex marriage and plan to fight the repeal. "I have a problem with it; I've always had a problem with it," said Representative James R. Miceli, a Democrat from Wilmington who has consistently voted against gay marriage. "I just feel that it would be hypocritical if I turned around and said, 'Fine, you can come here and get married, and we'll recognize it.' " Proponents expect their effort to repeal the law to be divisive, but not as much as a constitutional amendment last year that would have defined marriage as being between a man and a woman. That measure, which needed a two-thirds majority, was rejected, 151 to 45. . . .

RELATED ARTICLE: Mass. Senate votes to let out-of-state gays marry Associated Press, By Steve LeBlanc, July 15, 2008
— The Massachusetts Senate has voted to repeal a 1913 law used to bar out-of-state gay couples from marrying in the state. The law prohibits couples from obtaining marriage licenses if they couldn't legally wed in their home states.

RELATED ARTICLE: Governor's daughter, 18, says she is a lesbian Boston Globe, By Matt Viser, Globe Staff, June 12, 2008
Governor Deval Patrick's 18-year-old daughter announced this morning that she is a lesbian, calling it a source of pride that she is ready to share with Massachusetts. . . .

RELATED ARTICLE: How to Get Married in Massachusetts Gay & Lesbians Advocates & Defenders (GLAD)
Massachusetts does not have a residency requirement for marriage, but an old law from 1913 was revived to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples from other states unless they intend to reside in Massachusetts. GLAD filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of this law and the final decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court was that same-sex couples from other states could marry in Massachusetts provided there was no statute, constitutional provision or controlling appellate decision in their state that prohibited same-sex couples from marrying. Since most states have one of these prohibitions, at this time the only same-sex couples who can marry in Massachusetts are residents of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Mexico, or residents of any state who intend to reside in Massachusetts. . .

Separation of church, state - and marriage? Boston Herald, By Jennifer Garza / McClatchy Newspapers, July 10, 2008
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Some clergy think churches should divorce themselves from the wedding business. The controversy about same-sex marriage - along with a growing sense that many couples who marry in churches never return - has prompted Golden State faith leaders to say it’s time to reconsider how couples tie the knot. After the California Supreme Court ruled gay marriage legal in May, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California began encouraging all couples to marry outside the church. . . . . . The Very Rev. Brian Baker, dean of Trinity Cathedral in Sacramento, supports the bishop’s proposal. Being a part of couple’s special day is an honor, Baker said. But like other clergy, he believes weddings have become too trying in recent years. “There are a lot of benefits in getting out of the legal marriage business,” he said. “This way the clergy and the couple can focus on the spiritual blessings the church has to offer and not the political stuff.”. . . . George Raya is a member of Integrity, the Episcopal Church’s support group for gays and lesbians. “To me, it’s (the church’s) way of getting around treating us equally,” said Raya. “As soon as we can get married, they want us to get blessed? A lot of us would like to get married in church.” The Episcopal Church does not allow same-sex marriages. . .

Back From War, Into Tabloid Territory
Foreign Affairs Correspondent Lara Logan's Public Private Life Washington Post, By Howard Kurtz, July 8, 2008
After four years of living in Baghdad, war was taking its toll on Lara Logan. As CBS's chief foreign affairs correspondent, she regularly risked her life by accompanying American forces in combat. But there were more personal strains as well: Her mother had died after a lengthy coma, she and her husband had long ago agreed to a separation, and, last November, she broke off an intense relationship with another journalist in Baghdad. Soon afterward, Logan started dating Joseph Burkett, a federal contractor stationed in Iraq who was separated from his wife back in Texas. Now, having just moved to Washington with an expanded portfolio for the network, Logan finds her romantic life reduced to tabloid fodder. And there is a new complication: She recently discovered that she is pregnant. . . . Much of the media interest is fueled by the South African native's rapid rise to stardom, which has brought her both celebrity status and a string of journalistic prizes, including an Emmy Award, Overseas Press Club Award and, last week, an Edward R. Murrow Award. While some may accuse her of tawdry conduct, what happened to Logan is an all-too-familiar tale of someone consumed by a career and needing a partner who understands the peculiar pressures involved. . . . . The pregnancy was unplanned. Logan says she lost one of her fallopian tubes during an ectopic pregnancy years ago and believed at her age it was highly unlikely that she could get pregnant. . .

Back From War, Into Tabloid Territory: Foreign Affairs Correspondent Lara Logan's Public Private Life

Surrender! Townhall.com, By Cal Thomas, July 8, 2008
So this is how it ends: not with a bang, but a whimper. The most senior judge in England has declared that Islamic legal principles in Sharia law may be used within Muslim communities in Britain to settle marital arguments and regulate finance. Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips said, "Those entering into a contractual agreement can agree that the agreement shall be governed by a law other than English law." In his speech at an East London mosque, Lord Phillips said Muslims in Britain could use Islamic legal principles as long as punishments - and divorce rulings - comply with English law. Sharia law does not comply with English law. It is a law unto itself. And so the English who gave us the Magna Carta in 1215, William Blackstone and the foundation of American law are slowly succumbing to the dictates of intolerant Islam and sowing seeds of their own destruction. . . . Here are just some of the "benefits" British Muslim women can look forward to if Sharia law replaces English law: The Muslim woman cannot marry without parental approval, worsening the problem of forced marriage; marriages can be conducted without the presence of a bride, as long as the guardian consents, creating a climate for underage and early marriage; Muslim women may only marry Muslim men. It gets worse. . . .

An unidentified woman being punished by stoning according to Sharia law

RELATED ARTICLE: Indian man found guilty of masterminding killing of black daughter-in-law International Herald Tribune — AP, June 26, 2008
An Indian-born businessman was convicted Thursday of plotting to have his daughter-in-law killed weeks after she wed his son because, prosecutors said, he believed she would bring down the family stock because she was black. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Chiman Rai, 68, on charges that he masterminded the murder of Sparkle Michelle Rai. The 22-year-old was found strangled with a vacuum cord and stabbed more than a dozen times weeks after her March 2000 wedding to Rai's son, Ricky Rai. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: 'Honor Killing' Motive for Slain Sisters? Authorities Say Father Suspected in Teens' New Year's Murders 'Could Be Anywhere' ABC News, By David Schoetz, January 8, 2008
Still, the case has generated significant speculation — including by some friends of the girls — that the father's motive may have been some sort of an "honor killing" in the Muslim tradition. Specifically, the reported Westernized behavior of the teens, including the boys they dated, may have brought shame to a father said to be strict and religious, prompting the killings.

RELATED ARTICLE: Western society's war within The Austrailian, By Brett Mason, July 8, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Is cosying up to Muslim extremists the best way to defeat terrorism? The Telegraph-- UK, By Charles Moore, July 5, 2008
The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, was nice about sharia this week. It is not "only about mandating sanctions such as stoning, flogging, the cutting off of hands and death to those who do not comply with the law", he said. And the provisions of sharia "do not include the repression of women". Lord Phillips admitted that he did not claim "special expertise" in the field, but he had been to see some sharia chaps in Oman and they had seemed very civilised. Anyway, his main point was that sharia might be useful here in mediating disputes about things such as marriage. . .

'Bachelorette' Deanna Pappas picks Jesse Cisncsak (right) over Jason Mesnick and accepts his proposal of marriage

'Bachelorette' DeAnna Pappas picks Jesse Cisncsak, accepts proposal RealityTVWorld.com, By Christopher Rocchio, July 8, 2008
Jesse Cisncsak proposed marriage to DeAnna Pappas and she accepted during last night's The Bachelorette fourth-season finale broadcast on ABC. Pappas subsequently presented her final rose to the 25-year-old professional snowboarder from Breckenridge, CO after rejecting the marriage proposal of Jason Mesnick, a 31-year-old account executive and single father from Kirkland, WA. "I know she's the one," said Jesse just prior to his proposal. "I'm so in love with DeAnna -- I don't even know how to put it into words, how badly I want to be engaged to [DeAnna]. She's just that one person that I can't see myself without. I just want to start my life with her. I've never felt this way about anyone. I really think she's my soul mate." . . . . During the After the Final Rose special that followed The Bachelorette's finale, DeAnna and Jesse revealed they've already set a wedding date: May 9, 2009. "It's going to be a big wedding," Jesse told The Bachelorette host Chris Harrison. "I think we're planning the Bahamas -- it's where we fell in love, it's where we got engaged," DeAnna explained.

RELATED SITE: The Bachelorette ABC.com

WATCH FULL EPISODES: The Bachelorette ABC.com

RELATED ARTICLE: Bachelor Matt Grant & Fiancée Shayne Lamas Split People magazine, By Bryan Alexander, July 24, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: The Bachelorette: He Can Kayak, But Can DeAnna's Future Husband Do What Really Matters? The Huffington Post, By Elaine Liner, July 7, 2008
If DeAnna Pappas, this summer's Bachelorette on ABC, indeed finds a husband on the show, is she in for a big surprise. Smart women, with the possible exception of Cameron Diaz, don't judge potential life partners by their Jet Ski skills or how they kiss on horseback in the surf off Grand Bahama Island. Those things make pretty pictures on TV but they don't begin to make the measure of a mate.

RELATED ARTICLE: An Ideal Husband The New York Times, By Maureen Dowd, July 6, 2008
So how do you avoid a relationship where you end up saying, “The man who I was living with, I just didn’t know who he was” — as Brinkley did in court when talking about her husband’s $3,000-a-month Internet porn and swinger site habit? (Not to mention the 18-year-old mistress/assistant.)

RELATED ARTICLE: Bachelor Andrew Firestone Marries Ivana Us magazine, July 5, 2008
It's official: Bachelor Andrew Firestone wed Ivana Bozilovic at St. Mark's in the Valley Episcopal Church in Los Olivos, California, Saturday afternoon. . . . And even though he's found love again, Firestone admits he was "crushed" after his engagement to Jen Schefft unraveled in 2003. "I was going above and beyond to make it work," he told Us. "Everybody assumed it was my fault – that wasn't the case at all.

RELATED ARTICLES: All about Usher Essence.com

RELATED ARTICLE: Fathering in America: What’s a Dad Supposed to Do? Psych Central, By Marie Hartwell-Walker, Ed.D., June 25, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Why Our Black Families Are Failing   Washington Post- US, By William Raspberry, July 25, 2005
What is happening to the black family in America is the sociological equivalent of global warming: easier to document than to reverse, inconsistent in its near-term effect -- and disastrous in the long run. Father absence is the bane of the black community, predisposing its children (boys especially, but increasingly girls as well) to school failure, criminal behavior and economic hardship, and to an intergenerational repetition of the grim cycle. The culprit, the ministers (led by the Rev. Eugene Rivers III of Boston, president of the Seymour Institute) agreed, is the decline of marriage. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: Father Is the Best  Townhall.com, By Rich Lowry, June 17, 2005
Dad is countercultural. If he is responsible, loving, and married, he might seem boring and a constant provocation to his eye-rolling teenage children, but he stands at the ramparts of a movement to save the country from the most destructive trend of the past 30 years: father absence. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: Dad, we need you   Townhall.com, By Rebecca Hagelin, June 17, 2005
It's a simple message, but one rarely heard in today’s culture. The sad reality is that we live in a society where the message to fathers is, 'You’re irrelevant. You’re useless. You are a loser.' Just flip on the television: commercials and sitcoms portray fathers as wimpy and ignorant. Men are depicted as lazy, uninvolved, unwanted, and/or impotent. Dads, I’ve got news. Your family needs you. Society needs you. Your sons and daughters need you. Good dads have been the backbone of strong families, the secret behind happy children, and the zing in the step of satisfied wives throughout history. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: Turning Fool’s Gold Into the Real Thing   Townhall.com, By Robert Knight, February 12, 2008
"Try to pin him down about where his relationship with his latest love is headed, and he gives esoteric answers about not following a “Westernized” path. “We are not into any Westernized program of how relationships are supposed to go,” McConaughey says. “I am older; I have my own life. I have built things. A woman gets to be 38, and her clock is ticking. For me, the challenge is that as I get older, I get set in my ways.” The kid’s not set, though. The child is going to be a bastard. Dad says so. He does not want “Westernized” programs like marriage to get in the way of his “own life.”

RELATED ARTICLE: Hollywood's "Sexiest Man Alive": "I have great dreams for the future"
Matthew McConaughey talks about his impending fatherhood, true love and whether he's finally ready to settle down.   USA Weekend.com, February 10, 2008 Issue

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: The Marrying Kind: Which Men Marry and Why The National Marriage Project- The State of Our Unions 2004, By Barbara Dafoe Whitehead and David Popenoe

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.

No Gay Rights At NYC Rite Aid Queerty.com, July 7, 2008
Rite Aid simply ain’t right. A reader sent in this image from one of the pharmacy’s New York City locations (on Sixth Avenue at West 13th Street) and, as you can see, it’s not the most welcoming message. This isn’t the first time Rite-Aid has found itself in a queer controversy. A DC-based manager came under fire last year after booting an “overly affectionate” gay couple. The best part of this sign, we think, is mention of “anything that would make our customers uncomfortable is prohibited in the store.” We suppose manager Tom Marquez didn’t consider the gay customers in that one, huh? Someone else must have, because the sign, which appeared around 7am on Sunday, was soon removed… And, just for your reference, here are Rite Aid’s corporate numbers and the number for Mr. Marquez’s location: 212-727-3720. Do with that what you will…

RELATED ARTICLE & VIDEO: Animus in the Aisles: Gay couple claims to have been kicked out of U Street Rite Aid for ''hugging'' Metro Weekly- Washington, DC's GLBT News Magazine, by Yusef Najafi, October 25, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE: Lesbian Kiss Too Much for Seattle Fans: Same-Sex Couple Sues After Faced With Ultimatum at Mariners Baseball Game ABC News, By Jon Wienedr, May 30, 2008

RELATED VIDEO: Public Reaction to a Couple's... An ABC News social experiment tested how gay PDA was interpreted by passersby. ABC News, April 28, 2008

RELATED VIDEO: Gay Couples Kissing: Bystander Reactions: A social experiment evaluates how passersby react to an affectionate couple ABC News, April 24, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: That's No Man, That's My Wife Townhall.com, By Burt Prelutsky , June 30, 2008
It’s strange from our vantage point to realize there was a time before same-sex marriages and gay pride parades when homosexuality was the love that dared not speak its name. These days, it’s the love that never shuts up.

RELATED ARTICLE: Is Main Street USA Ready for Gay PDA? An ABC News Social Experiments Gauges Bystander Reactions to Two Affectionate Gay Couples ABC News-- 20/20, By Elizabeth S. Joseph, April 25, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Why I wish we'd kiss goodbye to this plague of PDAs (Public Displays of Affection, that is) The Daily Mail- Uk, By Carol Sander, April 23, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: California gay marriage decision: The battle is on for our freedoms! The Real Proposal magazine, May 22, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Responding to Homosexuality & Gay Marriage: “Love the Sinner. Hate the Sin” The Real Proposal magazine, March 21, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: The road to gay marriage Jewish World Review, By Marianne M. Jennings, August 8, 2003
Media bombardment has lulled the masses. Homosexuality is oh, so avant garde! Only dweebs and nerds spout nature and religion. The straights now battle each other over gay marriage rights with who's-more-hip attitude. How did it come to this? Homosexuals moved public policy with well-chosen tactics. . . . Infiltration of corporations. Human resource executives are social workers who found social work salaries disgraceful. So, they and their liberal leanings entered corporate life where they developed diversity, multiculturalism, and tolerance. Those lofty goals got benefits for partners, regardless of gender, gay employee clubs, and discipline for straight employees who asked why.

RELATED ARTICLE: Political bullying works Jewish World Review, By Cal Thomas, 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.

Plans to clear undergrowth from gay sex spot branded discriminatory
A council has been accused of discriminating against homosexuals over plans to clear undergrowth from a notorious gay cruising spot The Telegraph- UK, By Richard Alleyne, July 7, 2008
Bristol City Council wants to prune bushes and remove cover from an area known as the Downs to improve the landscape and encourage rare wildlife. But its own gay rights group has opposed the move, claiming that cutting back the bushes was "discriminating" to homosexual men who used the area for late night outdoor sex known as dogging. Work on the beauty spot has been temporarily delayed while talks with gay rights groups take place to try and break the deadlock. The area of the Downs sits at the top of the Avon Gorge, in the upmarket Clifton suburb of Bristol and is home to various species of rare plants and wildlife. But councillors said it had become overgrown over the past 20 years. Thick bushes cover the secluded area next to a street known Circular Road which has become a mecca for gay men and couples cruising for sex. The area hit the headlines last year when four firemen who disturbed an outdoor gay sex session were reprimanded and fined after they shone torches into the undergrowth. The Downs Committee commissioned a report as part of ongoing improvements to the shrubland and have proposed cutting back a lot of the undergrowth. The move was strongly backed by local residents who complained about "inappropriate sexual activity" and safety concerns in the area. . . . .

UK: Plans to clear undergrowth from gay sex spot branded discriminatory

RELATED VIDEO: Florida governor talks about pending marriage, gay rumors TampaBay10.com, July 07, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Florida governor talks about pending marriage, gay rumors TampaBay10.com, July 7, 2008

Florida Gov. Crist says he's getting married St. Petersburg Times, By Adam Smith, July 4, 2008
— Florida's most powerful bachelor is getting hitched. Gov. Charlie Crist, single for nearly three decades, on Thursday morning became engaged to his girlfriend of nine months, Carole Rome. "She's special in every way. She's brilliant, beautiful and sweet. I'm very, very lucky," Crist told the St. Petersburg Times in an exclusive interview. Crist said he picked out the sapphire and diamond ring on Wednesday at the Gold and Diamond Center in St. Petersburg's Northeast Shopping Center. No date has been set for the wedding, but Crist, 51, said it would be in St. Petersburg, where he is a member of First United Methodist Church. There probably also will be a reception in Tallahassee. . . . Crist's famously frugal lifestyle could be coming to an end. While he has never bought a home and earns $140,000 a year as governor, his net worth of about $450,000 was by far the smallest of any other statewide officeholder. Meanwhile, Todd Rome estimated in court records that his ex-wife's income has been as high as $1.48-million a year, and the Romes' numerous properties included a 10,000-square-foot vacation home in Southampton, N.Y. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: John McCain's would-be VP Charlie Crist to marry after being dogged by gay rumours   The Telegraph- UK, By Tom Leonard in New York, July 5, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE & COMMENTS: Charlie Crist Isn't Gay, Okay?   Huffington Post, By Chris Kelly, July 4, 2008
Florida's bachelor Governor Charlie Crist is getting married, and to a woman, too. That's how badly he wants to be vice president. I hope John McCain is happy now. I hope Crist isn't making a mistake by trying too hard. Men don't want anything they can get too easy. On the other hand, men lose interest quickly. Of course, the human heart is curved like a road through the mountains, so what do I know? Maybe it's love. And maybe it's just a joyous coincidence that Crist has found it at exactly the same time that McCain is looking for a running mate. Sometimes things just work out. .

RELATED ARTICLE: The Talk of the Green Iguana: Will American voters elect the first gay vice president in November?  New Times, By Bob Norman, February 28, 2008
The rumors about Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and the Green Iguana just wouldn't go away. The story goes that the Florida governor frequented the Green Iguana, a bar in Tampa, back in the early 1990s when he was just starting his political career. He was less careful back then, people say, and during his partying at the Green Iguana, he was openly gay. When I got Rick Calderoni, the bar's well-known owner, on the phone, I expected him to stonewall me about it. He didn't. . .

'Gay' McDonald's prompts boycott by the American Family Association

'Gay' McDonald's prompts boycott
AFA urges millions to shun fast-food giant over its promotion of same-sex marriage World Net Daily, July 3, 2008
The American Family Association, whose earlier boycott of Ford Motor Co. over its promotion of homosexuality was dropped after company sales fell 8 percent per month for two years, now is asking consumers to stop buying Big Macs and Happy Meals at McDonald's. In a brief announcement today, AFA, whose constituents number in the millions, said it is "asking its supporters to boycott the restaurant chain." "This boycott is not about hiring homosexuals, or homosexuals eating at McDonald's or how homosexual employees are treated. It is about McDonald's, as a corporation, choosing to put the full weight of their organization behind promoting the homosexual agenda, including homosexual marriage," said AFA chairman Donald E. Wildmon. AFA pointed out McDonald's donated $20,000 to the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce in exchange for membership in the NGLCC and a seat on the group's board of directors. The NGLCC lobbies Congress on a wide range of issues, including the promotion of same-sex marriage. AFA had asked the corporation to remove its name and logo from the NGLCC website, where it is listed as a "corporate partner and organization ally." AFA also requested that McDonald's remove the endorsement of NGLCC by Richard Ellis, vice president of communications for McDonald's USA, from the website. "McDonald's refused both requests," the AFA announcement said. In fact, Pat Harris, global chief diversity officer and vice president of "inclusions & diversity," told AFA the burger-and-fries conglomerate would "reaffirm our position on diversity." "Ellis, who is openly homosexual, was given a seat on the NGLCC board of directors. … He was quoted as saying, 'I'm thrilled to join the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and ready to go to work. I share the NGLCC's passion for business growth and development within the LGBT community, and I look forward to playing a role [in] moving these important initiatives forward,'" AFA said. . . .

RELATED ARTICLE: McDonald’s Accused of Equating Defense of Marriage with ‘Hatred’ CNS News, By Pete Winn, Senior Writer/Editor, July 18, 2008
“Morality is not hate. Judeo-Christian beliefs are not bigotry,” LaBarbera told Cybercast News Service. “This is a canard that the homosexual activists have been pushing for years – that if you oppose homosexual activism you are somehow a ‘bigot,’ or a ‘hater’ or a ‘homophobe.’ It’s a scandal to see a spokesman for a seemingly pro-family organization like McDonald’s echoing the gay line like this.” “It’s a shame that McDonald’s, which purports to serve anyone, would essentially abandon the business of selling hamburgers, and essentially join sides with radical homosexual activists in a culture war on a very polarizing subject. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: 'McDonald's disingenuous about homosexuality': American Family Association criticizes restaurants' defense of activism World Net Daily, April 9, 2008
McDonald's restaurants, famed for the Golden Arches, Ronald McDonald and kids meals, launched an e-mail response defending its advocacy for homosexual influences in business after the American Family Association alerted its constituency about the company's activities. But the AFA now is calling on the giant fast-food corporation to be honest in its discussion. . .

RELATED SITE & COMMENTS: Boycott McDonald's American Family Association

RELATED SITE: American Family Association

RELATED SITE: National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) America's LGBT Chamber of Commerce— Corporate Sponsors
Through the commitment of our corporate partners, the NGLCC has been able to advance the ideas and causes of the LGBT business community. . .

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.
For more than 20 years, I and a few of my colleagues in the field of psychoanalysis have felt like an embattled minority, because we have continued to insist, against today's conventional wisdom, that gays aren't born that way. . . . . Now, in the opinion of those who make up the so-called cultural elite, our view is "out of date." The elite say we hurt people more than we help them, and that we belong in one of the century's dustbins. They have managed to sell this idea to a great many Americans, thereby making homosexuality fashionable and raising formerly aberrant behavior to the status of an "alternate lifestyle.". . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  Corporate America gets 'gay'-friendlier: Biggest names in U.S. business applauded for promoting alternative sexual lifestyles World Net Daily, Spetember 20, 2006

RELATED ARTICLE: America’s pro-homosexual giants: 2006 World Net Daily, September 20, 2006
List of companies scoring perfect 100 percent from 'gay'-rights group. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: Wachovia's Troubles Reflect Financial And Moral Failures   Concerned Women for America (CWFA.org), By Guest Columnist Warren Cole Smith, June 11, 2008
. . . One of the major differences between these banks is that Allison has kept BB&T relentlessly focused on its core financial businesses. Wachovia, on the other hand, got into the financial engineering business, completing complicated mergers it couldn't digest, creating complex financial instruments whose risks it couldn't assess, and -- worse yet -- getting involved in liberal social causes that alienated employees and customers, creating morale problems and "corporate culture" conflicts. Wachovia, for example, has been an outspoken proponent of homosexual rights. Its "vendor diversity" program encouraged employees to do business with "gay-owned" businesses. Wachovia is one of the nation's largest corporate contributors to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest gay-advocacy group in the nation. Ken Thompson and the bank's senior leaders have often meddled in local, state, and national politics, and not just as a part of the normal lobbying for the interests of the bank, but as major donors to liberal and Democratic candidates and causes. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: Responding to Homosexuality & Gay Marriage: “Love the Sinner. Hate the Sin”   The Real Proposal magazine, March 21, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Queer Inc.: How Corporate America fell in love with gays and lesbians. It's a movement. CNN Money (Fortune magazine), By Marc Gunther- Fortune senior writer, November 30 2006
. . . Last June the gay rights movement quietly achieved a milestone: For the first time, more than half of Fortune 500 companies - 263, to be precise - offered health benefits for domestic partners, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Ten years ago only 28 did. Along with health benefits for their families, many workers also get bereavement leave when their same-sex partner dies, adoption assistance or paid leave if they have children and relocation assistance for their partners if they are transferred. Put another way, gay marriage - an idea that has been banned by all but one of 27 states that have voted on it - has become a fact of life inside many big companies. . .

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
When seen in the cold light of the morning after the night before, what had seemed like a rather thrilling idea at the time suddenly felt anything but for 28-year-old PR executive Aisling. At the party where they'd met, the prospect of a no-strings, one-night stand with a handsome young man had felt sexy, slightly dangerous, liberating and a salve to the ego following the end of a four-year relationship. After all, in this day and age, if men can do it, why can't women? Only when Aisling woke up, she didn't feel liberated. As her conquest departed with barely a backward glance, she felt used and cheated, even though she'd been under no illusion that it might lead to anything more. She worried about what the man really thought of her as a person, what friends would say if they found out, why her one-night stand had been so eager to depart without asking for a phone number. She felt rotten. In short, she regretted every second of it. . . . . 'For a while, I loved being single and went crazy, sleeping with lots of different men, but I quickly realised it was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. . . . 'I actually think that sleeping with lots of Mr Wrongs puts up a barrier to finding Mr Right. One night stands left me feeling utterly deflated and worthless and when I found myself single again in June last year, I decided to wait for Mr Right before I had sex again.' Aisling could be forgiven for wondering what is wrong with her. 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. . .

New research says women bitterly regret one-night stands. But the emotional damage can go deeper than you think... (Click for Related Video)

RELATED VIDEO: One night stands: The Two Perspectives CBS4.com

RELATED ARTICLE: The Morning after the Night Before: Affective Reactions to One-Night Stands among Mated and Unmated Women and Men   Human Nature- Volume 19, Number 2 / June, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Unprotected   Townhall.com, By Mona Charen, January 5, 2007
Meet the liberated college woman. You may pity her. "Unprotected" is a hard slap at the sexual free-for-all that prevails on American campuses and throughout American life. . .

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

RELATED ARTICLE: Why so many singles can't find love    MSNBC.com- Today show, February 8, 2006
Jillian Straus, a successful TV producer, dated many men, but she couldn’t find Mr. Right. She wasn’t alone. Her single girlfriends had the same problem. So Straus, who now lives in New York City, decided to research a book on why it was so hard for singles to settle down. She interviewed 100 men and women in their 20s and 30s around the country about their dating habits—and disappointments. In “Unhooked Generation: The Truth About Why We're Still Single,” Straus, who was invited to appear on the “Today” show, reveals why singles remain single. Here’s an excerpt. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: Get Chaste: The Dawn and the Eden of a countercultural revolution National Review Online, By Kathryn Jean Lopez, December 5, 2006
Dawn Eden, an editor at the New York Daily News and blogger with an eclectic background, is author of a new book published by Thomas Nelson called The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On. Eden’s tried it both ways, and in the book describes the life-changing experience that came with her decision to stop having lots of sex in the city. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: Chastity as God intends Breakpoint.org, By Kate Harris, July 6, 2005
In the 1990’s three separate surveys of single Christians showed only one-third of unmarried Christians are virgins. Likewise, of the students and young adults who signed abstinence pledges as part of religious sex-ed programs, 61 percent of students broke their pledge and of the 39 percent who kept it, 55 percent admitted to having oral sex, which they didn’t consider to be sex.

RELATED ARTICLE: Sexual healing   World magazine, By Gene Edward Veith, May 7, 2005 Issue
Writer Lauren Winner once counted herself among the many young evangelicals who approve of premarital sex. Now repentant, she's offering a roadmap for returning to a biblical sexual ethic. . .

Brinkley forgives husband Peter Cook's ex-mistress (Click for Related Video)

Brinkley Forgives Husband's Ex-Mistress
In Court, Sobbing Supermodel Reprises Confrontation with Cheating Husband but Forgives His Former Teen Mistress ABC News, By Marcus Baram, July 3, 2008
In a stunning climax to a dramatic day of testimony in her high-stakes bitter divorce trial, Christie Brinkley forgave her husband's teenage girlfriend. "I can't help but think of Diana Bianchi," Brinkley told reporters as she left the courtroom. "I want her and her family to know that I feel for her. I forgive her -- she was manipulated." Brinkley's words of forgiveness capped a day full of emotional testimony from the supermodel as she described how devastating it was to find out that her architect husband, Peter Cook, had carried on an affair with an 18-year-old girl and spent thousands of dollars a month on Internet porn. Both sides finished calling witnesses and finished the divorce phase of the trial, with Cook's lawyers agreeing to divorce on the grounds of adultery and cruel and inhuman punishment without admitting to all the claims made by Brinkley. On Monday, the two sides begin the next phases -- custody and assets -- of the trial. In dramatic court testimony this morning, Christie Brinkley took the stand in her divorce trial and reprised the confrontation with her cheating husband the day she found out about his affair with an 18-year-old girl. . . . . . Reading her husband's e-mails to girlfriend Diana Bianchi, and to see his naked photos, was crushing, Brinkley told the court. "To come across that was beyond devastating. It was beyond humiliating. It was beyond your wildest nightmare one could ever imagine," she said. " He's cheating on me with a teenager. He's trolling the Internet." Brinkley described her shattered reaction, while sobbing uncontrollably. "I felt like the man who I was living with, I just didn't know who he was ... anymore. Who is he? Who is this man who comes down and sits at the dining room table and acts like he's been at work?". . .

RELATED VIDEO: Brinkley's Divorce Starts Ugly CBS News, July 3, 2008

RELATED PHOTO ESSAY: Hollywood's Nastiest Divorces ABC News, July 3, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Pornography Family.org, By Gene McConnell and Keith Campbell
Not everyone who sees porn will become addicted to it. Some will just come away with toxic ideas about women, sex, marriage and children. That kind of damage is bad enough. And porn isn't the only ingredient in addiction. Usually, those who become addicted have some kind of emotional opening that allows the addiction to really take root. Some of you reading this will become addicted, like I was. The porn companies don't mind at all if you become completely addicted to their product. It's great for business. An addicted customer keeps coming back for more. And so they fill their porn with images that will excite you, arouse you and get the hormones flowing. You don't have to shoot up any drug with a needle to get addicted to porn — your body will make its own drugs just by looking at the pictures. Dr. Victor Cline says that sex and pornography can be a more difficult addiction to break than cocaine. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: Help for the Sexually Desperate: More and more, Christian men are admitting they've been caught in a vicious cycle Christianity Today, By John W. Kennedy, March 7, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: The Girls Next Door are anything but reality! Crosswalk.com, By David Burchett, May 21, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE: Honey, you're no victim Los Angeles Times, By Anne Taylor Fleming, July 25, 2006
Just once, it would be great to hear a young woman stand up and say, “I take total responsibility for my part in this,” instead of ducking and dodging. That would be a great service. That’s the path of true women’s liberation, instead of this victim pose that is just a male-bashing perversion of what it means to be liberated.

RELATED ARTICLE: Bottling Up Smut-- Cleaning Up the Public Square Breakpoint.org- By Chuck Colson, June 27, 2005
According to a new book, we have failed our children because we haven't fulfilled "our function as guardians of their cultural environment." The "American media's obsession with sex," says the author, "has gotten so out of hand" that "even the provocateurs are being provoked." Whose words are these? Chuck Colson? Jim Dobson? No. They're the conclusions of a "provocateur" himself, a "staunch believer in the First Amendment" and a "member of the American Civil Liberties Union" -- someone who opposes "any element of government control of human expression." That's how Gil Reavill describes himself in his new book, Smut: A Sex-Industry Insider (and Concerned Father) Says Enough is Enough. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: The Porn Factor TIME magazine, By Pamela Paul, January 11, 2004
Experts say men who frequently view porn may develop unrealistic expectations of women's appearance and behavior, have difficulty forming and sustaining relationships and feeling sexually satisfied. Fueled by a combination of access, anonymity and affordability, online porn has catapulted overall pornography consumption — bringing in new viewers, encouraging more use from existing fans and escalating consumers from soft-core to harder-core material. . . . . men's use of porn for undemanding relief often distracts them from the task of trying to please their real-life partners. . .

Alex Rodriguez, wife separated The New York Daily News, By Bill Hutchinson and Larry McShane, July 3, 2008
Rocker Lenny Kravitz says it's not his fault A-Rod is out at home. The "Let Love Rule" singer, in a statement released Thursday morning, said he's letting the Yankee slugger's estranged wife stay at his place in Paris - but simply as a friend. "There is absolutely no affair between Cynthia Rodriguez and myself," Kravitz said. "This is unequivocally 100 percent not true." Kravitz said references to him as an adulterer were "extremely hurtful," adding that Cynthia came to stay at his home "to escape from everything happening in New York City." Cynthia brought along her daughter's godfather and his family for moral support as her 5-year marriage to Alex Rodriguez crumbled. The Daily News reported today that Cynthia dumped the future Hall of Famer after three months of problems in their marriage. Word of the breakup comes one day after widespread reports that the Bombers' $275 million cleanup hitter has been rounding the bases with pop icon Madonna - and team owner Hank Steinbrenner blamed recent poor play on "outside distractions." Word of the couple's marital strife comes less than three months after they expressed how "thrilled" they were with the April 21 birth of daughter Ella Alexander. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: Lawyer: A-Rod and Madonna Had 'An Affair of the Heart' People magazine, By Siobhan Morrissey, July 07, 2008
Alex Rodriguez's relationship with Madonna was "an affair of the heart" – not "sexual infidelity" – according to Cynthia Rodriguez's lawyer. Still, the baseball star's relationship with the singer "was the last straw" before the Yankee slugger's wife filed for divorce Monday, her Houston attorney, Earle Lilly, tells PEOPLE.

RELATED ARTICLE: A-Rod's Wife Alleges Infidelity in Divorce Papers People magazine, By Siobhan Morrissey and Caris Davis, July 07, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Madonna: 'Not Planning on Getting a Divorce' People magazine, By K.C. Baker, July 06, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: EXCLUSIVE: Source: A-Rod's Wife "Doesn't Believe" Madonna Is Just Friends With Him Us magazine, July 3, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: EXCLUSIVE: NY Yankee Making Late-Night Visits to Madonna's Apartment Us magazine, July 1, 2008
Us Weekly reports in its new issue, on newsstands tomorrow, that Madonna's seven-year marriage to Guy Ritchie has stalled out – and the singer has been hosting late-night visits from New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez at her Central Park West apartment in New York City. A ringless and grim-faced Ritchie, 39, arrived in New York City from London yesterday after several weeks apart from his family. A source tells Us that the $28-million-a-year Rodriguez, 32, has made numerous solo nighttime visits to Madonna, 49, at her spacious home and would sneak out "as late as midnight." Says the source, "All the doormen are talking.". . .

RELATED ARTICLE: As wife packs up, is A-Rod out at home? Rodriguez says his off-field antics won't 'be a distraction' to team New York Daliy News, By Adam Lisberg (TORONTO), Kathie Klarreich (MIA), and Dave Goldiner (NY), May 31, 2007

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

RELATED ARTICLE: Is This Man Cheating on His Wife? Wall Street Journal, By Alexandra Alter, August 10, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE: Emotional infidelity - fact or fiction? Health24, 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.". . . . So when does the line get crossed between normal friendship and emotional infidelity?

Q & A: Divorce, Foreclosure, and Bankruptcy US News & World Report, Posted by Kimberly Palmer, July 3, 2008
Q: Dear Alpha Consumer, My husband and I were planning on filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy because our house is going into foreclosure. Now, he has left and says that he is going to file for a divorce. I have custody of two grandchildren and am a full-time student. I have a job interview tomorrow, but I don't know what to do about saving my home. What are my options since we are now separated? Should I still file the Chapter 13 with him or file something separate? Please help—I am running out of time.

A: That is definitely a pickle you have found yourself in. And while it's not exactly cheerful Fourth of July holiday fare, I have been receiving an increasing number of E-mails from people hitting rock bottom (financially speaking), so let's talk about your options. When I ran your situation by Jennifer Matthews, president of Creating Financial Literacy and author of 12 Ways to Put Money in Your Pocket Without A Part-Time Job, her first suggestion was that you should get legal advice from three kinds of attorneys—divorce, estate planning, and real estate—before taking any steps toward bankruptcy. Many lawyers, she says, offer free consultations. Matthews also suggests looking into groups that specialize in helping people save their homes, such as the Hope Now Alliance. . .

RELATED Q & A: Starting Over, Financially US News & World Report, By Kimberly Palmer, June 27, 2008
Dear Alpha Consumer, I lost a very good job with benefits and everything. I lost it. Then I got into an accident requiring $40,000 surgery, and I started a business that failed. Not a good trifecta. I went from a 700 credit score and money to spare to having $100,000 debt, little to no income, and Chapter 7 bankruptcy. I am very upset. I feel like I threw my life away. I basically lost everything—my home, my fiancé—and now I'm in school and living at my parents'. (I'm over age 30.) I don't want to sound like a baby. I know it's not the end of the world, but I would love if you could tell me why it isn't. . .

RELATED RESOURCE: Hope Now Alliance
Mission Statement: Maximize the preservation of homeownership while minimizing foreclosures. Assist borrowers who have the willingness and wherewithal to remain in their homes, but need some help to do it. Our goal is to keep people in their homes and when that is not possible, prevent foreclosure. Get Help Call 1-888-995-HOPE (4673)

RELATED RESOURCE: Tips for Avoiding Foreclosure US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

The Pregnant Man Gives Birth People magazine, July 03, 2008
Thomas Beatie, also known as The Pregnant Man, has given birth to a girl, he confirms to PEOPLE exclusively. Beatie, 34, who began life as a woman and legally switched to a male identity, while preserving his female reproductive organs, and his wife Nancy, 46, welcomed a daughter at an Oregon hospital on June 29. Both Beatie and his daughter are healthy and doing well, he tells PEOPLE. Beatie, who took twice-weekly doses of testosterone and had his breasts surgically removed during his female-to-male transition, made headlines around the globe last April when he announced in an exclusive interview in PEOPLE and on The Oprah Winfrey Show that he was expecting a child – while legally living as a man. . . . The couple became pregnant using donor sperm and Thomas's eggs, through artificial insemination, after relocating in 2005 to Bend, Ore., where they operate a T-shirting printing business. Their baby girl is Thomas's first child. "The only thing different about me is that I can't breastfeed my baby. But a lot of mothers don't," he told PEOPLE. Despite published reports, Beatie says the baby was not delivered via C-section. He intends to publish a book about his experience this fall. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: Photo Exclusive: The Former 'Pregnant Man' Debuts His Baby People magazine, By Champ Clark, July 23, 2008

Thomas Beatie, with daughter Susan Juliette (Courtesy People magazine)

RELATED ARTICLE: Girl, 17, set to become Britain's youngest sex-change patient The Daily Mail- UK, By Natasha Courtenay-Smith and Hannah Barr, June 28, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE:   How will the pregnant man's daughter thank him for this breathtakingly cynical - and profitable - foray into gay rights? The Daily Mail- UK, By Natalie Clarke, May 24, 2008
With an eight-month bump and a beard, he claims to be the world's first pregnant man. This week, the Mail paid Thomas Beatie a visit and discovered a tale of greed, gay rights zealotry and breathtaking cynicism. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:   More than a 'gay gene' controlling the media: It's New Age heresy The Real Proposal magazine, April 12, 2008
Check out the video link that was brought to our attention by one of our readers in response to our previous posting, "The 'Gay Gene' Controlling the Media." Without a doubt, it lends credence to our skepticism and justifies not just our own bewilderment but also that of several readers who posted comments about the media's blatantly false editorial positioning in the illusory farce concerning Thomas Beatie, a seriously confused "transgendered" woman, who is being heralded—and, thereby, validated—not only by Oprah but also by such publications as People magazine as the world's first "pregnant man". Now the fundamental issues raised by this unseemly event weren't particularly difficult to grasp. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: The "Gay Gene" Controlling The Media The Real Proposal magazine, April 1, 2008
Either way, the mere fact that we are even contemplating this as a possible scenario is a sure-fire indication that, if ever as a society, we were waiting for that defining moment in which we ought to reconsider the primrose path along which gay rights activists are leading us, it would be now. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: A “Gay Man” Trapped in a Woman’s Body and Other Nonsense Townhall.com, By Matt Barber, December 26, 2007

RELATED ARTICLE: Homo erectus extinctus The Times Online, By Lois Rogers, December 16, 2007
Is nature determined to make men extinct? Senior scientists believe that women may evolve as humanity’s sole representatives — and social and political trends are lending weight to their theories. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: The prospect of all-female conception The Independent- UK, By Steve Connor, April 13, 2007

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

RELATED ARTICLE: The Hetero-flexible Gene Townhall.com, By Jennifer Roback Morse, February 20, 2006
There is actually plenty of data that supports the position that sexual orientation is not a fixed trait. I know, I know, I can hear the howls already. Everybody knows that homosexuality is genetically determined. Actually, everybody who knows anything about the subject knows exactly the opposite. . .

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

RELATED ARTICLE: Surgical Sex   First Things.com, By Paul McHugh, November 2004
Mental health professionals like Paul McHugh at Johns Hopkins University believe that all the social, medical and psychiatric resources employed in turning men into women are “a misdirection of psychiatry.” and partly at the his urging, Johns Hopkins no longer performs sex reassignment surgery. He became convinced that to provide a surgical alteration to the body of these unfortunate people was to collaborate with a mental disorder rather than to treat it.

RELATED ARTICLE: Psychiatric Misadventures By Paul R. McHugh— Henry Phipps Professor and Director of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

RELATED ARTICLE: Paul McHugh on transsexualism Transsexual Road Map

RELATED ARTICLE: Liberals Reveal 'Hidden Politics': The hidden politics of mental health associations are revealed in what some call "the most important book of the decade."  Family.org, By Aaron Atwood
In 1973, another major mental health group, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of clinical disorders. Robert L. Spitzer of Columbia University, then a member of the Nomenclature Committee, argued for homosexuality's removal from the "Diagnostics and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)." In "Destructive Trends in Mental Health: The well-intentioned path to harm," William T. O'Donohue and Christine E. Caselles explain that there is more to this removal than meets the eye. . . .

Same-sex marriage foes argue to keep amendment on Nov. 4 ballot San Francisco Chronicle, By Bob Egelko, July 1, 2008
-- Sponsors of an initiative to restore the state's ban on same-sex marriage have told the state Supreme Court that a suit by gay-rights groups seeking to remove the measure from the Nov. 4 ballot would violate Californians' right to change their Constitution. The pre-election challenge "unnecessarily deprives the people of their initiative power" and would, if successful, "prevent Californians from defining marriage for themselves," lawyers for Proposition 8 backers argued in papers filed Monday. The proposed state constitutional amendment would overturn the court's May 15 ruling that granted gay and lesbian couples the right to marry. Prop. 8 declares that "only a marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." The court has not announced whether it will review the case directly or refer it to a lower court. Secretary of State Debra Bowen has asked the court for a quick decision, noting that her office is scheduled to deliver the ballot pamphlet to the state printer Aug. 11. She took no position on Prop. 8's validity. The suit was filed June 20 by organizations representing couples who had successfully challenged the ban on same-sex marriage. They argued that Prop. 8, although drafted as a constitutional amendment, was itself unconstitutional because it would destroy basic rights that cannot be altered by voter initiative. . .

Same-sex marriage foes argue to keep amendment on Nov. 4 ballot

RELATED ARTICLE: Same-sex marriage advocates seek to bounce initiative from ballot San Francisco Chronicle, By Bob Egelko, June 20, 2008
-- Gay-rights advocates asked the California Supreme Court on Friday to remove a proposed state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage from the November ballot, saying it would destroy fundamental rights that cannot be legally altered by a voter initiative.

RELATED ARTICLE: Pardon me if I don't throw rice EURweb.com, By Joseph C. Phillips, June 26, 2008
The fact is that very few Americans are really concerned with who is living with whom and what they do in the privacy of their bedrooms. Honestly, we cringe when thinking about our parents dalliances; we are not spending time conjuring up visions of our neighbors. What people are concerned with is what behavior government sanctions in their name. The opposition to homosexual marriage is not an opposition to the idea of the universality of love, but a rejection of the idea that the state, and by extension, society must validate every loving relationship as equal.

RELATED ARTICLE: Why homosexuals despise marriage World Net Daily, By Kevin McCullough, October 27, 2006
What's the real goal of the activists, the judges and the radicals who seek to subvert a moral worldview? The answer is simple: No longer satisfied with practicing the unspeakable perverse sexual pleasures that their hearts seek in private bedrooms, they wish to be able to do so in public. They are also suffering from such immense guilt over their sexual behaviors, because they know inherently that the actions they perform are in fact unhealthy, that they will go to any means necessary to try and shut down the voices in their heads that tell them it is wrong. . . .

Obama rejects proposed California gay marriage ban

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." "And that is why I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution, and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution or those of other states," Obama wrote. A spokesman for Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who last week endorsed Proposition 8 on the Nov. 4 California ballot, accused Obama of continuing a pattern of changing his position on issues. . . . Randy Thomasson of the Campaign for Children and Families – which backs the California ballot measure – called Obama a hypocrite. "He says he believes marriage is for a man and woman, yet he's promising he would undo federal marriage protection and oppose California marriage," Thomasson said. Thomasson predicted Obama "will lose votes in California due to his pandering to San Francisco extremists.". . .

RELATED ARTICLE & LETTER: Barack Obama Opposes Prop 8, the anti-marriage amendment Calitics, By Brian Leubitz, June 29, 2008
In a letter to the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, Sen. Barack Obama stated his opposition to the California constitutional amendment. As far as I know, this is the first official mention of such a position. . .

RELATED VIDEO BROADCAST: Leadership Crisis in America Love Worth Finding, By Adrian Rogers, June 22, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: How to Pick a President: Why virtue trumps policy. Christianity Today, By Daniel Taylor & Mark McCloskey, June 6, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Michelle Obama says Barack would fight for gay rights   Dallas Voice, By Samantha Gross - Associated Press, July 3, 2008
Wife of presumptive Democratic nominee draws comparison between gay rights battle, African-American civil rights movement.

RELATED BLOG: Obama's Simultaneous Opposition to Gay Marriage and Gay Marriage Bans, Both State and National    National Review Online-- the campaign spot, July 1, 2008
In their coverage of Obama's opposition to California's proposed Constitutional Amendment banning gay marriage, it is reported that Obama believes gay marriage should be left to the states. I'm having trouble finding a time when he said it that precisely, however.* I am finding a 2004 statement where he said he believed marriage was between a man and a woman because of his religious beliefs. Ironically, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago supports gay marriage. CNN is left summarizing his position as "Opposes same-sex marriage, but also opposes a constitutional ban." All of this seems a bit contradictory. . .

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. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: School’s in (especially for John McCain): A “conservative” defense of Marriage   The Real Proposal magazine, May 28, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Married to Redefining Marriage: Obama is a soft-toned cultural warrior, wrapped in the blandishments of change and bipartisanship National Review, May 23, 2008
In a carefully hedged statement, Obama said he “respects the decision of the California Supreme Court.” He respects a decision that disregarded the will of the people in California, as expressed by a 2000 referendum that defined marriage as between a man and a woman; he respects a decision that excoriated his own position of support for civil unions and (theoretical) opposition to same-sex marriage; he respects a decision that rejects the sort of political compromise he extols. It’s like a professed abolitionist in 1857 saying he “respects” the Dred Scott ruling. . .

RELATED ARTICLE: California gay marriage decision: The battle is on for our freedoms! The Real Proposal magazine, May 22, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Obama lobbies 'gays' for edge over Hillary. Letter to 'LGBT community' affirms he'd dump Defense of Marriage Act World Net Daily, March 7, 2008
It's not easy to find on his campaign website, but Sen. Barack Obama has issued an open letter to the "LGBT community" assuring them he believes in "full equality" for homosexuals and stating that, unlike Sen. Hillary Clinton, he advocates the complete repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. In the letter, published on a campaign blog, Obama says he's "running for president to build an America that lives up to our founding promise of equality for all – a promise that extends to our gay brothers and sisters.". . .

RELATED BLOG: OBAMA '08 Community Blogs: Equality is a Moral Imperative  Posted By Alex Okrent, February 28, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Obama’s on Fire for Jesus (the Jesus of His Own Imagination) Townhall.com, By Doug Giles, January 19, 2008

RELATED ARTICLE: Why it will be 'President Obama' in 2009 Townhall.com, By Kevin McCullough, December 3, 2006
It will be a cold January morning, his beautiful wife and daughters will be by his side and they will shiver as he places his hand on the Bible and swears to uphold the Constitution of the United States. His presidency that will follow, if reflective of anything at all of his legislative record, will then seek to dismantle that same Constitution. I have a long track record of predictions on Obama, and all of them have come true. I have no reason to believe that this one will conclude any differently.

Days of Heaven Vogue Feature Story, By John Powers, July 2008 Issue
Returning home to star in Baz Luhrmann's long-awaited epic Austrailia, Nicole Kidman gives an on-set interview to John Powers, who talks with the radiant actress about herbiggest role yet-- having a baby. . . . "Would you like to touch it?" asks Nicole Kidman. I lower my hand onto the rounded curve of her stomach. It's as firm to the touch as a melon. "I just felt some kicking," she says, giving me the look of unbridled delight you might expect from a 40-year-old woman who's soon to bear her first child. "The whole experience is so primal," she says. . . . . These days she's most at ease talking about her children. Kidman already is a mother, of course, and she takes care to sing the praises of her adopted daughter, Isabella, fifteen, and son, Connor, thirteen. But carrying a child is clearly something new and overwhelming. "When I first saw the baby on the ultrasound, I started crying. I didn't think I'd get to experience that in my lifetime," she says. "I like the unpredictable nature of it. To feel life growing with you is something very, very special, and I'm going to embrace that completely. I don't believe in flittering around the edges of things. You're either going to walk through life and experience it fully or you're going to be a voyeur. And I'm not a voyeur.". . . . If her previous marriage to Tom Cruise was the meeting of two type-A actors, both driven to succeed, things are looser and easier with Urban. . . . . "We were just two lonely people who went, 'Ah, there you are.' " . . . These days, she and Urban are never apart for more than five days at a time. "I'm so committed to this relationship, and so is he," she says. "I don't have addiction problems, but love is a very powerful force in my life. It's my fatal flaw and my virtue." And now there's the baby. . .

A pregnant Nicole Kidman poses for the July 2008 Vogue cover

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