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"MARRIAGE" In The News
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2011) |
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The news articles and features presented below are simply an indication of how topical, controversial, and all-encompassing the issues surrounding marriage are throughout our society—and the world—today. Some of the views and opinions expressed, and their respective web sites, do NOT reflect the views or opinions of The Real Proposal™ magazine. Many are highlighted largely to reiterate that the alarming statistical trends on the chaotic state of "Marriage" and "Family"—outlined in"A Mere Glimpse"—will continue unabated without a fundamental grasp and purposeful dissemination of TRUTH on the issues.
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- Gay marriage legal in New York State after Senate passes historic bill 33-29 New York Daily News, By Glenn Blain and Kenneth Lovett, June 24, 2011
New York made history last night as the State Senate voted "aye" on gay marriage. Senators passed the bill 33 to 29 as the normally somnolent chambers erupted in a raucous chant of "USA! USA!" "As I have said many times, this is a very difficult issue and it will be a vote of conscience for every member of the Senate," said GOP Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau). New York joined Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Iowa and Washington, D.C., in legally recognizing gay marriage. "I'm verklempt," said a nervously optimistic Assemblyman Matthew Titone (D-S.I), one of five openly gay state lawmakers prior to the vote. "I'm still in a state of disbelief." The Assembly passed the bill last week for the fourth time since 2007. It was only two years ago that gay marriage was easily defeated in the then Democrat-controlled Senate. Now, the rush to the altar could begin 30 days after Gov. Cuomo, who made gay marriage a priority, signs the bill. For gay couples, marriage means more than just swapping rings. For the first time they qualify for the same 1,324 state marriage benefits afforded to straight couples. Same-sex couples are not eligible for federal marriage benefits because of the Defense of Marriage Act. Advocates on both sides of the issue have for days lined the hallways around the Senate praying, chanting and singing. "This is one of the basic steps toward being considered first-class citizens," said Erik Ross, 30, a gay student from Albany. Opponents vowed political retribution for GOP senators who voted in favor of the bill. "If it passes, we feel it's going to ruin our state and our country," said Dawn Adams, a coordinator of the Norwich Tea Party Patriots. Going into last night's vote, 31 senators, including two Republicans, were supporting the gay marriage bill - one shy of the 32 needed for passage. All eyes were on a small group of undecided senators, particularly Stephen Saland (R-Poughkeepsie), whose wife - who is viewed as sympathetic to the cause - came to the Capitol, giving supporters hope. Republicans agonized over the vote for weeks. Some opposed it on religious or moral grounds while others feared promised Conservative Party backlash could cost the GOP its already razor-thin majority next year. Divided Republican senators discussed whether to bring the controversial bill to the floor for six hours behind closed doors yesterday, Sen. Kemp Hannon (R-Nassau) said. Sources said a small group of senators led by Syracuse Republican John DeFrancisco were arguing to bypass a floor vote in favor of a public referendum. In the end, many felt it better to clear the contentious issue off the table before next year's elections. The decision also came after Cuomo and legislative leaders agreed on language to ensure that religious groups cannot be sued if they refuse to cater to gay couples. It would also block the state from penalizing, discriminating against or denying benefits to religious groups. They would not be stripped of their tax-exempt status or their property tax breaks. Even with the protections, the state's Catholic bishops, led by Archbishop Timothy Dolan vehemently opposed passage of a gay marriage bill, calling it "bad for society.". . .
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RELATED ARTICLE: New York votes to allow same-sex marriage: It becomes the most diverse and populated state to pass legislation that gay advocates hope will galvanize a nationwide movement LA Times, By Geraldine Baum and Tina Susman, June 24, 2011
. . .[O]pponents cautioned against making too much of a bill that only squeaked through the legislature of one of the most progressive states in America. Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, vowed that in conjunction with the state's Conservative Party, his group would spend more than $1 million targeting lawmakers who supported the bill in the next election. "All [the vote] means is that Gov. Cuomo was able to strongarm and push through, because of the weakness of some Republicans, a gay marriage bill," Brown said. "It doesn't go away and we're going to make sure the people are held accountable. . .
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RELATED ARTICLE: New York marriage bill paves way for same-sex divorce Reuters, June 24, 2011
- As New York's same-sex couples head to the altar to celebrate their newly won right to marry, they can take comfort in the fact that, if it doesn't work out, their right to get divorced in the state just got a lot easier as well.
State senators on Friday voted 33-29 to approve marriage equality legislation introduced by Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat in his first year of office. New York will become the sixth and most populous U.S. state to allow gay marriage. "One of the so-called benefits to marriage is actually divorce," said Ruthann Robson, professor of law at the City University of New York. "If same-sex marriage is recognized, same-sex divorce would be recognized too." In fact, same-sex divorce was first recognized in New York in 2008, when an appeals court found that a same-sex marriage performed in Canada could be legally recognized in New York for the purposes of dissolving the union. But without a formal law on the books, same-sex divorce in the state has proceeded on a case-by-case basis, creating some degree of uncertainty for same-sex couples looking to undo their unions, said Bettina Hindin, an attorney at Raoul Felder and Partners, who has represented same-sex couples in New York divorce proceedings. Since same-sex marriages are now legally equivalent to heterosexual unions, same-sex couples' right to divorce will be rooted in New York's Domestic Relations Law, rather than cobbled together out of court rulings and individual judges' decisions, according to Hindin. "A lot of things are going to be easier" with legalized same-sex marriage, Hindin said. "It's still somewhat out of the ordinary; this will make things far more ordinary." KIDS STILL AN ISSUE. . .
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RELATED ARTICLE: A Vote Against Gay Marriage is a Vote FOR Tolerance Townhall.com, By Frank Turek, October 26, 2008
Twenty
years ago, a group of prominent homosexuals got together in Warrentown,
Virginia to map out their plan to get homosexuality accepted by the
general public. In the book [After the Ball] that resulted from their meeting, they revealed a strategy that achieves its effect "without reference to
facts, logic or proof . . . the person's beliefs can be altered whether
he is conscious of the attack or not." In other words, their strategy
was pure propaganda. That propaganda campaign has many people today
believing that denying same-sex marriage involves denying rights to a
victimized minority. That belief could not be further from the truth.
In fact, let me suggest what the same-sex marriage debate is not about.
It is not about equality or equal rights.
It is not about discrimination against a class of people.
It is not about denying homosexuals the ability to commit to one another.
It is not about love or private relationships.
It is not about bigotry or homophobia.
It is not about sexual orientation or being born a certain way.
It is not about race or the civil rights struggle.
It is not about interracial marriage.
It is not about heterosexuals and divorce.
It is not about the separation of church and state.
It is not even about religion.
“But
that’s all I hear about,” you say. Of course, that’s because the
propaganda campaign continues to be successful. Those topics are all
smokescreens designed to divert you. . . . Greg Koukl puts this very
well: “Same-sex marriage is not about civil rights. It is about
validation and social respect. It is a radical attempt at civil
engineering using government muscle to strong-arm the people into
accommodating a lifestyle many find deeply offensive, contrary to
nature, socially destructive, and morally repugnant.”. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Same-Sex Marriage — Challenges & Responses Townhall.com, By Gregory Koukl, February 11, 2007
Unfortunately,
addressing this issue requires refined distinctions and careful
thinking that are easily overwhelmed by sound-byte rhetoric and broad,
indiscriminate appeals to “rights.” What follows is a point-by-point
reply to those who are demanding this revision of civilization.
Same-Sex Marriage and Civil Rights:
1. “We’re being denied the same rights as heterosexuals. This is unconstitutional discrimination.”
There
are two complaints here. First, homosexuals don’t have the same legal
liberties heterosexuals have. Second, homosexual couples don’t have the
same legal benefits as married couples. The first charge is simply
false. Any homosexual can marry in any state of the Union and receive
every one of the privileges and benefits of state-sanctioned matrimony.
He just cannot marry someone of the same sex. These are rights and
restrictions all citizens share equally. I realize that for homosexuals
this is a profoundly unsatisfying response, but it is a legitimate one,
nonetheless. Let me illustrate. . .
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- How To Save A Marriage
If only every couple knew how to fight fair. The right words can make the "for worse" part better. WebMD Commentary from "Good Housekeeping" Magazine, By Amy Finley,
My husband was born and spent his childhood in France, and you could say that from the moment we met, living in Paris, and fell in love, he wooed me with words. He'd speak French — really, he could have been describing the laundry — and my knees would positively buckle. Amour...chérie...fromage...
And then, as so often happens, life intervened. Back home in the States, the stresses just accumulated like cascading dominoes over five years of marriage: two small children + mounting bills + skyrocketing house prices + financial insecurity + a home in a tiny rented bungalow. (Au revoir, Paris...) And the kicker: We were impossibly deadlocked over my desire to go back to cooking professionally, and his (more traditional) hope that our children would have a stay-at-home parent — a.k.a. me, by virtue of a cook's low wages — until they were old enough to start school. Then, in 2007, I accepted a coveted spot in a national competition, The Next Food Network Star, something I hoped would be a career catapult and a way out of the impasse in which our marriage had gotten mired. Who could argue against such success? However, Greg made it clear I would participate in the show "over [his] dead body." I plowed ahead, but what viewers at home didn't see — thankfully — was how I'd lie on the floor in between takes, rocking in a fetal position, clutching a phone, listening in tears as Greg threatened to leave me. He had no desire to be married to the next Rachael Ray, nor any intention of committing himself and our family to all that such a life implied. I can hardly think of four words more direct or lethal to any marriage than "I want a divorce." (Except for, possibly, "The hooker isn't lying.") That I'm writing this, still married — and much more happily so now — confirms a statement John Gottman, Ph.D., and Julie Schwartz Gottman, Ph.D., made in their book 10 Lessons to Transform Your Marriage: "As any weatherman can tell you, the ability to predict trouble is not the same as the ability to prevent it. It's one thing to detect a storm brewing on radar; it's quite another to make the storm clouds disappear." Lying there on the cold studio floor, I focused on the clouds' silver lining, and it was this: In my heart, I knew Greg didn't mean what he had said. He wasn't a monster or a chauvinist. I had faith in the depths of our devotion to each other, regardless of our words, and truly believed that what was happening was that we'd finally exhausted our caustic vocabulary. I was certain that what Greg meant was that with me absent for the first time ever, he was scared, furious, worried, confused, overwhelmed, probably tired (and hungry), and likely even a little lonely for the same woman he was now threatening to abandon. But still, we were in desperate straits (see: storm clouds gathering) if the shorthand for all those complicated feelings had become "I want a divorce." If we didn't relearn the language of love, respect, and caring, then regardless of what we really wanted — which was to be together, and mutually fulfilled and happy — we were going to end up divorced anyway. So how to vanquish the storm?. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: 7 Ways to Put Your Marriage First WEbMD, By Ellen Seidman
The child-centered life is hard on a couple and not so great for the kids. Learn how focusing on your relationship can not only yield a healthier marriage but also happier children. . . . .It's 8 a.m., and I'm caught up in the get-the-kids-to-school shuffle: shoes, breakfast, knapsacks, and no, you can't bring the vacuum cleaner for show-and-tell. Suddenly, I catch my husband giving me a funny look. "What?" I say, wondering if I have toothpaste on my cheek. "Do you know what today is?" Dave says with a wistful smile. Um. Wait. Oops. Today is our ninth wedding anniversary. I knew it was coming up, but kid stuff had taken over my brain — signing up for swimming lessons, planning my daughter's 5th birthday party (must get blue-frosted cupcakes!), finding a speech therapist for my 7-year-old son. I'd been so consumed with them, I'd forgotten about us. Like other couples we know, we've fallen into a pattern: Our kids have become our life. Dave and I go out to dinner and spend a good chunk of it talking about them. We center our weekends around their activities. And — dare I admit it? — they often sleep in our bed. My husband and I are still very much in love. He's the greatest guy I know. Yet I miss him. I really miss him. So I set out to find ways of reconnecting — short of asking Octomom to adopt the kids. I wasn't surprised to learn that this kid-focused life isn't healthy for our marriage — and it turns out that it's not so good for the kids, either. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: How to Have Just-Met Sex WebMD, By Jennifer Benjamin
Miss that erotic charge you had when your love was brand-new? Reboot in the bedroom with these tips for turning up the heat on your old flame. Long-term love brings all sorts of advantages: a shared history with the guy you love most, a partner who you know will always have your back, and a warm, satisfying sexual connection that can only come from years of intimacy. Still, as great as it is to know each other so well in bed, how could you not miss that crackle and spark you had when you and he first started having sex? Thing is, it doesn't take a lot of work to recapture that "just-met" excitement. Step back, reminisce, enjoy security and butterflies — and congratulate yourselves on really, truly having it all. . .
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- Abedin/Weiner: A Marriage Made by Hillary Clinton and the Muslim Brotherhood? FrontPage magazine, By Jamie Glazov, June 21, 2011
FP: Robert Spencer, welcome to Frontpage Interview. I would like to talk to you today about Anthony Weiner’s marriage to his Muslim Brotherhood wife, Huma Abedin. How is it exactly that a Muslim woman who is connected to the Muslim Brotherhood is married to a Jewish man? Something is not fitting here is it?
Spencer: Jamie, Islamic law prohibits a Muslim woman from marrying a non-Muslim man. A Muslim man may marry a non-Muslim woman, but not the other way around. This is yet another manifestation of Islamic supremacism: the idea is that a wife will become a member of her husband’s household, and the children will follow the religion of the father. Thus, Muslim men marrying non-Muslim women ultimately enriches the Islamic community, while the non-Muslim community must forever be made to diminish. Consequently, when a non-Muslim man begins a relationship with an observant Muslim woman, he is usually pressured to convert to Islam, and such conversion is made a condition of the marriage. Of course, laws are often honored in the breach, and this is not always true. So while we know that Huma Abedin’s parents were devout and observant Muslims — indeed, her father was an imam — we don’t know what exactly is going on with her marriage to Anthony Weiner. Certainly the most likely scenario is that Weiner did convert to Islam, as Abedin’s mother, a professor in Saudi Arabia, would almost certainly have insisted that he do so. Weiner has made no public statement of this conversion, but since it would almost certainly have cost him politically if he had announced it, this silence is not any indication that he didn’t actually convert. However, it is also possible, given the recent scandal involving Weiner’s apparently frequent and sexually charged contact with other women, that the rumors that the Abedin/Weiner union is a political marriage of convenience are true. After all, in 2008, Hillary Clinton was running for president. There were widespread insinuations that she was involved in a romantic and/or sexual relationship with Abedin, her ever-present personal assistant. Those whisperings persisted into Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State. Abedin’s 2010 marriage to Weiner, at which Bill Clinton presided, put those rumors to rest. . .
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RELATED ARTICLE: Stop calling Huma Abedin a victim CNN.com, By Katia Hetter, June 20, 2011
Americans snicker over the sordid details of former Rep. Anthony
Weiner's Internet escapades. But they pity his wife, Huma Abedin. They
see an accomplished and beautiful woman betrayed by her husband's
Twitter posts. And she's pregnant? The details just get worse and worse.
Abedin and other political wives before her have been forced to face
the public flogging of their husbands, heightened in this case by the
technological evidence that Weiner left behind and by the helpful
testimony of his correspondents. Americans love to debate the role of
the wronged political wife. What will Hillary Clinton, Jenny Sanford, or
Newt Gingrich's wives (pick one) do? What should they do? Actress
Julianna Margulies was nominated for an Emmy for her portrayal of "The
Good Wife" on CBS. Will she ever leave her fictional cheating husband?
To which author Laura Munson says, "Stop." Stop calling these women
victims. Unless there are threats to her physical safety or financial
security, only Abedin decides if she is a victim. (And she's not talking
publicly.). . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Why Is Weiner’s Muslim Brotherhood Wife Not Resigning? FrontPage magazine, By Arnold Ahlert on June 17, 2011
Anthony Weiner resigned yesterday, unable to withstand the relentless pressure put on him for his sexting extravaganzas. Yet if an article written by former PLO terrorist-turned-Christian and Israel supporter Walid Shoebat (along with KTEM radio host Ben Barrack) is any indication, it may very well be that the wrong member of the family resigned. According to Arabic sources translated by Mr. Shoebat, Huma Abedin’s mother and brother are both associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Ms. Abedin’s mother, Saleha Mahmoud Abdeen, is reportedly part of a special woman’s unit known as the Muslim Sisterhood or the International Women’s Organization (IWO) which, according to a counter-terrorism report obtained by the Terrorism Committee of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, operates within the Brotherhood in Egypt and possibly other Arab nations as well. The Egyptian newspaper Al-Dostor confirms that the Sisterhood includes 63 international members in 16 different countries.The group is being portrayed by Western media in a benign fashion, as noted in Der Spiegel and on its Facebook page. But a report by the Egyptian opposition newspaper Al-Liwa Al-Arabi paints a far more ominous picture. . .
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- For Rep. Anthony Weiner, a dramatic fall via social media USA TODAY, This story was reported by Mimi Hall, Sharon Jayson, Jackie Kucinich, Fredreka Schouten and Susan Page, and written by Page, June 06, 2011.
First he said his Twitter feed had been hacked to send a photo of a man's crotch to a Seattle woman. Then he denounced as "outrageous" questions about whether he had inappropriate online relationships with young women. Finally, New York Rep. Anthony Weiner acknowledged Monday he had engaged in sexually charged exchanges on the Internet with a half-dozen women during the past three years. The New York Democrat apologized to his wife and his constituents but said he had no intention of resigning. He argued that he had shown bad judgment but never violated his oath of office — thus setting up a test of voters' willingness to separate personal behavior from professional performance. Weiner's news conference in a New York hotel reflected a dramatic collision between the anonymity of social media and the relentless scrutiny of public officials by partisans also enabled by the Internet. "This was me doing a dumb thing, doing it repeatedly, and lying about it," Weiner said. It also was the latest in a string of incidents in which men in high office have been accused of behaving badly. On Monday, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, forced to resign as head of the International Monetary Fund, was in a New York courtroom to deny charges of sexually assaulting a hotel maid. Last week, former North Carolina senator John Edwards was indicted on charges that he violated campaign finance laws by directing hush money to his mistress and their child. In recent weeks, former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to fathering a child with a former member of his household staff. Nevada senator John Ensign resigned rather than testify before the Senate Ethics Committee in a case involving an extramarital affair with a staffer. The bipartisan list goes on, from some who chose to resign to others, including former president Bill Clinton, who didn't. He chose to stay and fight after allegations, later confirmed, that he had a sexual relationship with an intern. Politicians are among those who sometimes believe the rules don't apply to them, according to psychologists and sociologists who study behavior. They say the self-confidence politicians must exude to succeed can lead them to believe they are invincible, and ego can lead them astray. . .
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RELATED PHOTO ESSAY: Congressional Sex Scandals FOX News, July 07, 2011
Political sex scandals have become so common that it's almost cliché
to point out that fact every time another one breaks. But for those who
would like their memories jogged, FoxNews.com has compiled a brief
retrospective on members of Congress who have gotten caught in recent
years fooling around with aides, acquaintances and others who are not
their spouses. Rep. Anthony Weiner, who admitted Monday to conducting
inappropriate relations with women online, is just the latest. . . |
RELATED ARTICLE: Weinergate: 5 Ways To Avoid Being A "Weiner" In Your Relationship: Weinergate gives men five lessons to learn from when it comes to sexting, dating and infidelity. YourTango, By By K Jason and Kelli Krafsky, June 07, 2011
What do you get when a high profile Congressman named Weiner gets caught sending a picture of his junk via Twitter? The funniest story of the year, filled with endless one-liners, countless double entendres and hilarious unintended puns that naturally come up in the news reports. And everyone is getting in on the action. It’s as if the inner 10-year old boy is being awakened in people, girls included. But the real lessons to be learned from Weinergate are for the men, any and every man who uses social media. Whether you’re married or single, here are five lessons to learn from Rep. Anthony Weiner about online relationships. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Marriage headed for a crotch-photo finish The NY Daily News, By Andrea Peyser, June 07, 2011
She is so out of here. On the day Anthony Weiner needed his wife the most, she vanished -- poof! -- like his harem of feisty Twitter chippies during a power outage. The gorgeous and furious Internet cuckold Huma Abedin refused yesterday to stand by her man. She did not show up to walk the plank of public humiliation, the way doormat Silda did for her whoremonger husband, Eliot Spitzer. And she did not stand like a potted plant, cowering beneath her hair, the way wife and beard Dina did when her hub, Jim McGreevey, announced he was a "gay American." Yesterday, the anniversary of D-Day, Weiner, 46, threw a little sneak invasion of his own. He stood behind a podium -- sobbing, blubbering and begging for forgiveness for his fetishistic fixation with phone sex, e-mail sex and sexting gross photos to a half-dozen chicks, many young enough to be his children. And Huma was gone. "Mr. Weiner," I asked him. "Are you splitting up?" His reply was most curious, even for a liar and cheat. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Classmates said ‘Weinergate’ woman was headed for ‘tabloid scandal’ Seattle Post Intelligencer, June 06, 2011
For once, high school “most likely” lists might have got something right. MyNorthwest.com is reporting Gennette Cordova, the Seattle woman who received a Twitter photo of Rep. Anthony Weiner’s crotch, was voted by high school classmates “most likely to be involved in a tabloid scandal.” Cordova attended Shorecrest High School in Shoreline and graduated in 2007. Weiner admitted Monday during a tearful press conference that he publicly sent the young woman a lewd photo, but said it was supposed to be a direct message. He also admitted to having inappropriate online interactions with several other women. Cordova posted to her own Twitter account Monday that she didn’t encourage Weiner to send the photo. “I never lied. I never solicited a picture. I never engaged in inappropriate exchanges. I’m sorry you cant accept that,” she wrote in response to one critic. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Why It's Perfectly Natural for Men to Want to Show Their Manhood, Even If It's a Bad Idea: Congressman Weiner behaves like any other male primate. Psychology Today, By Ogi Ogas, Ph.D. in A Billion Wicked Thoughts, June 5, 2011
Women everywhere are asking, What are men like Congressman Weiner, Brett Favre, Greg Oden, and Kanye West thinking when they send us photos of their manhood? The answer is that men aren't thinking at all, they're compelled by an unconscious, evolutionary urge inherited from our primate ancestors: male monkeys and apes routinely display their penis to females to indicate sexual interest. In other words, it's a very natural urge; of course, so is burping, but most men are able to restrain their sonorous belches around the ladies. . . Though civilization and decorum (not to mention women's understandable resistance) have rendered it bad taste or even criminal for a man to display his member, men still retain the neural circuitry of our ancestors, imbuing them with the primate instinct to display their own penis, and to attentively monitor the displays of other men. So, gentlemen, if you feel the urge to send a photo of your junk, you shouldn't feel guilty. It's perfectly natural. Just know this: the evidence overwhelming demonstrates that most women don't share your enthusiasm. In fact, there aren't many places where the gap between male and female sexual interests are wider. Instead, consider sending flowers. . .
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- Former Presidential Candidate John Edwards Indicted by Federal Grand Jury FOX News, June 03, 2011
A federal grand jury indicted two-time presidential candidate John Edwards Friday over allegations that he spent $925,000 in campaign donations to cover up his extramarital affair as he was running for the White House in 2008. The case of USA v. Johnny Reid Edwards contains six counts, including conspiracy, four counts of illegal campaign contributions and one count of false statements. Edwards will be arraigned later Friday. The indictment said the payments were a scheme to protect Edwards' White House ambitions. "A centerpiece of Edwards' candidacy was his public image as a devoted family man," the indictment said. "Edwards knew that public revelation of the affair and the pregnancy would destroy his candidacy by, among other things, undermining Edwards' presentation of himself as a family man and by forcing his campaign to divert personnel and resources away from other campaign activities to respond to criticism and media scrutiny regarding the affair and pregnancy," the indictment added. The indictment and an arrest warrant were filed in Greensboro, North Carolina, which is in the district where his campaign was headquartered. Negotiations between Edwards' attorneys and federal prosecutors to settle on a charge to which Edwards was willing to plead guilty continued through Thursday, but proved fruitless, according to people with knowledge of the negotiations. Prosecutors had insisted on a plea to a felony, which would endanger his ability to keep his license to practice law. An Edwards spokeswoman said she wasn't aware of the filing and declined immediate comment. The criminal charges filed Friday came after a two-year federal investigation into money used to cover up an extramarital affair during the 2008 presidential election. Edwards, a former U.S. senator from North Carolina, said in a statement through his attorney in 2009 that he was confident no funds from his campaign were used improperly. But federal officials have said the hundreds of thousands of dollars two Edwards donors gave to help keep his mistress in hiding were contributions that should have been reported publicly by his campaign fund because they aided his bid for the Democratic White House nomination. . .
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RELATED ARTICLE: Hello, America, My Name Is Rielle Hunter GQ magazine, By Lisa DePaulo - Photographs by Mark Seliger, April 2010 Issue
We've heard from former senator John Edwards, we've heard from his
soon-to-be-ex-wife, Saint Elizabeth, and we've heard (bleh) from Andrew
Young, the former Edwards aide and faux father. But through it all—the
affair and the cancer-stricken spouse, the doomed campaign and the love
child, the sex tape, all of it—we've never heard from the woman at the
heart of the story. Now, after years of silence, the other woman speaks.
. . . . I met rielle hunter for the first time the day of our first
interview, at her home in Charlotte, North Carolina, though we'd already
spoken for some months on the phone. And would continue to, as more
developments were reported. (Are she and John Edwards engaged? "I am
not engaged.") There were no conditions, no ground rules, no topics or
questions that were off-limits. Just a request that her words be her
words, unfiltered and unspun. While everyone else in the Edwards drama
has said their piece, in books and/or television interviews, the
mistress and campaign videographer and mother of his child has, in her
own words, "kept my mouth shut." Until now (as they say in the
tabloids). My first impression of Hunter, when she opened the back door
of the screened porch filled with toys and strollers in the
three-bedroom house she is renting (for $1,500 a month), her hair pulled
up in a scrunchy, was that she was much prettier, and a whole lot
softer, than all those National Enquirer spy photos suggest. She was
wearing size 2 jeans, a Ralph Lauren turtleneck, and Uggs. No makeup.
And she was laughing. Because Quinn, her 2-year-old daughter, had just
done something particularly adorable. The child is gorgeous and, yes,
looks exactly like John Edwards, but she also has her mother's spirit.
Which is to say, a combination of serenity and spunk. Hunter had fluffed
up the tiny guest room upstairs—carefully placing a Zen-sayings
paperback beside the twin bed—and invited me to stay overnight, with a
warning that the three of us (she, Quinn, and I) would have to share the
one bathroom, where the tub is filled with her daughter's rubber
duckies. I accepted. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Adultery Is Killing the American Family Catholic Culture, By Nathan Tabor
We
hear a lot of talk these days about the need to protect and strengthen
the traditional American family. Certainly, it is true that the
institution of marriage is under attack from every side. But the real
threat comes from the multitudes of couples that fail to honor their
marriage vows. Adultery is one of the most terrible "facts of life" in
contemporary America. If you watch the daily soap operas on TV many of
which are just soft-core pornography you might get the impression
that there are more people cheating on their spouses than remaining
faithful. And you might be right. How many people have affairs? That¹s
hard to say because not everybody will answer honestly. . .
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- How Married Are You? TIME magazine, June 02, 2011
If the 20th century ushered in the age of romantic marriage, one based on expectations of love and intimacy as opposed to obligation, the 21st century is all about the postromantic marriage — one based on obligation, partnership and, yes, convenience. So argues Pamela Haag in her new book Marriage Confidential, which defines five new kinds of marriage. . . . .All marriages have their ups and downs, but the semihappy marriage is chronically ambivalent. It's a marriage that's neither miserable nor all that successful. Semihappy spouses genuinely can't decide if they should stick it out and live with the faults in the marriage, or if those faults are too much to handle. Many semihappy marriages are high-functioning — almost like business partnerships or friendships — but they lack important elements. In other cases, spouses wonder if their expectations are too high and worry that they're being selfish, but they also can't shake the feeling that they might be in the wrong marriage. Researchers estimate that anywhere from 55% to 65% of divorces hail from this group of low-conflict yet listless marriages.
* The Parenting Marriage: On the one hand, children are less central to marriage than they were before. Single parenthood by choice is on the rise, as are deliberately child-free marriages. On the other hand, for many people, children are perhaps the one remaining imperative to get, and stay, married: parenting is one thing they don't think they can do just as easily on their own. So, when couples do opt to have children, they can become almost entirely defined and consumed by the tasks of parenthood. This is something new for marriage because in the past the roles of husband and wife involved more than just child rearing.
* Workhorse Wives:
The workhorse wife is the exhausted breadwinner to her dream-chasing husband. It's one version of a semihappy marriage, in the modern style. It goes like this: husband Joe wants to become a poet, sculptor, pro golfer or other financially stressed professional, while wife Jane is the frazzled, high-achieving breadwinner for both in a career that she doesn't find especially fulfilling. Jane's similar to a 1950s husband — except she often does the chores as well. This kind of marriage does not refer to stay-at-home dads, who pull their load by raising the kids. In the workhorse-wife marriage, the "dreariness equation" is way off, and the wife ends up shouldering much more than her share. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Are you semihappy or a workhorse wife? Five different kinds of modern marriage: From 'Avatar Affairs' to 'Ed McMahon Syndrome', author Pamela Haag reveals the unromantic reality behind so-called wedded bliss... The Daily Mail-UK, By Tamara Abraham, June 06, 2011
Romantic comedies and chick lit lead women to believe that marriage is life's holy grail. But according to one woman, the happily-ever-after ideal is now harder to realise than ever before. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Are You Turning Into His First Wife? You feel like a wife. Like a first wife Psychology Today, By Gina Barreca, Ph.D., June 02, 2011
The phone rings and when you answer, the person on the other end hangs up. He has a locked drawer in his desk. He has a code to his email that you don't know. He has a bank account without your name on it. Maybe he has a post-office box--just for work, he tells you--but he can get mail there that you can't get hold of. He spends part of each day away, even on the weekends when you've told him over and over he needs to be there for the kids. There are parts of his life you know very little about. He stays up later than you, or goes to bed much earlier. One way or another, you don't fall asleep holding hands and talking over the future the way you once did. He's too tired now, and so are you, and there is mostly silence. He's pretty much the same age as you but you feel much, much older. . .
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- Does an alpha woman need the love of a beta husband? The Daily Mail- UK, By Diana Appleyard, June 01, 2011
The old adage was that behind every successful man stood a supportive wife. But with more women taking on increased responsibility in business, does the saying hold true in reverse? Here, DIANA APPLEYARD speaks to three high-achieving alpha women who say they could never have achieved their success without the support of their beta men.
HE’S MORE DOMESTICATED THAN I AM:
Jenny McLaughlan, 35, is a senior sales manager who has set up her own business, gumigem. She is married to Stuart, an administrative assistant. They live with their children, Maisie, three, and Miller, 15 months, in Dundee.
JENNY SAYS: Every day I leave home by 6.30am to work on my online business selling pendant teething necklaces for babies. I get home at 6pm, then work late, answering emails. I need to travel a lot to conferences and meetings, while Stuart works a normal nine-to five-day. There are times when I am on my knees with exhaustion. I could not cope without him. He takes the children to nursery and picks them up, as well as doing most of the cooking, washing and cleaning, which means that I’m free to pursue a demanding, high-powered career. Stuart has no desire to advance at work or do more than he is already doing. He loves being at home with the children, and he’s far more domesticated than me. It doesn’t annoy me that he’s unambitious. We couldn’t both be like me; it would split us up, especially when I struggle with the stress and emotion of being the breadwinner. In our case, opposites attract. Diligent, methodical and organised, Stuart counteracts the buzz of my pressurised working life. Our relationship has lasted because he balances my alpha tendencies. The only tension between us is caused by me worrying about being a good enough mum while achieving as much as I can in my career. But we cope by sitting down and talking everything through every evening. If we couldn’t talk openly, there’s no question we’d argue. There are increasing numbers of alpha women and they certainly need beta men to support them.
STUART SAYS: I grew up in a traditional Scottish family in which my dad was the breadwinner and my mum brought up the three of us single-handedly. Now, in the evenings and at weekends, I am the prime carer and it’s a very different way of life. You would think my mates would tease me, but lots of men I know have wives who earn more than they do — it’s becoming common. I don’t mind earning less. My biggest concern is that I know Jenny would love to spend more time with the children and it breaks her heart when she has to go away at weekends. But she’s so driven and ambitious, and is determined to make her business a success. We have a joint account, so there are no rows about our finances, but there might be if we had his and hers accounts because I would hate to have to ask her for money. . .
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RELATED ARTICLE: Girly Men: The Media's Attack on Masculinity Salvo Magazine 4, By S. T. Karnick
The
tendency of the nation’s schools to suppress boys’ natural way of
seeing and doing things, brilliantly documented by Christina
Hoff-Sommers in her 2001 book The War Against Boys: How Misguided
Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men, is becoming increasingly evident in
the culture. According to Hoff-Sommers, programs in America’s public
schools are set up to obliterate all that is masculine and establish
femininity as the human norm:. . . .The central characters of the new
ABC show Big Shots exemplify this elevation of emotions over
achievements. These men are the heads of four big corporations, and the
hook is that although their businesses are doing well, their personal
lives are a mess. One is enormously henpecked, another is divorced and
has a young-adult daughter who openly hates him (or seems to), another
is distressed by the close friendship between his wife and his mistress,
and the other’s wife has been cheating on him with his boss. Get the
irony? At work they’re Masters of the Universe, but in the social realm
they’re ineffectual schlubs. . . . . Thus, the war against boys seems to
have created three main character patterns for the adult male of our
time: sensitive guys who want to please women; weenies and dorks who
want only to be left alone to drink beer and play video games with their
dork buddies; and thugs who, in rebellion against their unnatural
education, are perpetually concerned with proving their toughness
through increasingly loutish behavior. There are, of course, examples of
decent, positively masculine males in the culture, but they are
becoming increasingly overwhelmed by the products of educational and
cultural feminization. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: The War on Fathers: How the 'feminization of America' destroys boys, men – and women WorldNetDaily- Whistleblowers magazine, June 2006 Edition
The
June edition of WND's popular Whistleblower magazine is a
mega-eye-opener exploring one of the most crucial but little-reported
phenomena of modern America – what WND calls "THE WAR ON FATHERS." The
evidence of this almost unthinkable scenario is everywhere:. . .
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RELATED ARTICLE: Words make the man TampaBay.com, By Rodney Thrash, August 22, 2006
Don’t
forget your man purse on the way to your man date at the man spa.
Modern men are embracing activities formerly the purview of women, and
they have their own man slang. . . .Frankie Mazon can’t stand the
n-word. The other n-word. The one that evokes Jo Frost and naughty
chairs, Mary Poppins and strollers. “If someone calls me a nanny,” said
Mazon, 24, “I correct them. I tell them the new word: manny.” Straight
men like Mazon, a San Diego male nanny, are openly embracing
traditionally feminine things, and as they do, the men — and the media —
are changing the way we talk. A whole dialect has emerged to protect
men from jokes, suspicious stares and questions about their manhood.
There’s murse, instead of nurse. Mandals, not sandals. Guyliner, not
eyeliner (see the glossary for further explanation). And ever since
Britney Spears hired a male nanny, tabloids, TV shows, and even the
Washington Post have been abuzz about mannies. “The man part of these
words is designed to reassure men that they won’t lose their largely
extraneous bits when they do things that women have traditionally done
in the past,” said Mark Simpson , the British journalist who coined the
term metrosexual. “Castration anxiety is at the root of much of this.”
Socially, this is a confusing time. More than four decades after Betty
Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, the ground-breaking book about
seemingly happy housewives feeling trapped and yearning for more, our
assumptions of what men and women can and cannot do have changed. As a
recent series in the New York Times suggests, women are catching up
with, and in some cases outpacing, men on college campuses and in
corporate boardrooms. Gender roles, once clearly defined, are more
blurred than ever. No longer perceived as the clearly dominant sex, men
have to assert their masculinity in other ways. Language is one way. . .
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RELATED ARTICLE: Men “The New Women” Alert: Guyliner & Man Blouses? By Debbie Schlussel, August 29, 2006
Yet another sign that our society is pushing men to be the new women. Welcome to the “man glossary.”
The St. Petersburg Times has a distressing piece that details the “new” feminine male vocabulary.
New
words, detailed in the article, include these from the Urban Dictionary
(proof that in many cases country and middle American settings are far
superior to urban ones):
* “guyliner“–eyeliner worn by “men.” FYI, if you wear eyeliner (or “guyliner”), you aren’t a guy.
*
“man blouse,” defined as “shirt with a pattern or style that gives it a
feminine quality. Again, if you wear it, you ain’t a guy. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Raising boys that feminists will hate: Part 6 Townhall.com, By Doug Giles, April 8, 2006
RELATED ARTICLE: Raising boys that feminists will hate: Part 5 Townhall.com, By Doug Giles, April 1, 2006
RELATED ARTICLE: Raising boys that feminists will hate: Part 4 Townhall.com, By Doug Giles, March 25, 2006
RELATED ARTICLE: Raising boys that feminists will hate: Part 3 Townhall.com, By Doug Giles, March 18, 2006
RELATED ARTICLE: Raising boys that feminists will hate: Part 2 Townhall.com, By Doug Giles, March 11, 2006
RELATED ARTICLE: Raising Boys That Feminists Will Hate Townhall.com, By Doug Giles, March 4, 2006
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