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"MARRIAGE" In The News (March 2008) |
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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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- ABC Follows 'Born Gay' Script to a T Townhall.com, By Robert Knight, March 28, 2008
ABC’s Good Morning America hit a grand slam today for the homosexual activist movement by airing a profoundly misleading segment that asks, “Can a Baby Be Gay?” A longer segment is slated for tonight’s 20/20. Convincing the public that some people are “born gay” is a central strategy of homosexual activists, who are being aided by a compliant media that routinely fails to examine such claims. If sexual behavior is hard-wired like race, then moral considerations can be swept aside, homosexuality declared a “civil right” and governments can move against people who believe homosexuality is wrong. The Good Morning America story follows the script proposed in the gay strategic manual After the Ball, by Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen. The two Harvard-trained PR experts set out to “overhaul straight America,” which was the title of an article out of which After the Ball was born as a full-length book in 1989. The authors tell activists to use the media to portray homosexuality as in-born, and homosexuals as victims. The heavies in the drama are proponents of traditional morality –especially Christians—who are to be depicted as ignorant at best, and haters and bigots at worst. The authors further advise that under no circumstances should the public be informed of actual homosexual behavior. Over the years, the media rarely have veered from the script, and Good Morning America is no exception. Host Diane Sawyer begins the Good Morning America segment by proclaiming the advent of a “truly landmark study” (whose results won’t come out until later this year) about “biology and being gay. . . . And of course, what about the people who still believe that homosexuality is a choice?” Wink, wink. These are the same folks who still believe in a flat earth. . . |
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RELATED ARTICLE: The "Gay Gene" Controlling The Media The Real Proposal magazine, April 1, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Is There a 'Gay Gene'? Scientists Hope to Demonstrate Genetic Link to Sexuality ABC News, By Lynn Sherr and Jeff Diamond, March 26, 2008 It's a medical mystery, one of the biggest debates of our time: Is there a gene that determines whether you're gay or straight? Some scientists think so, saying sexual identity is mostly biological. Others say it's a learned behavior.
RELATED ARTICLE: "Gay" Activists Risk Your Life. Tolerate It! Townhall.com, By Matt Barber, March 28, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Responding to Homosexuality & Gay Marriage: “Love the Sinner. Hate the Sin" The Real Proposal magazine, March 21, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: The Best Research Yet: Two psychologists show that homosexuals should not be discouraged from seeking change Christianity Today, By Tim Stafford, September 13, 2007
RELATED ARTICLE: "Homosexuality Is Not Hardwired," Concludes Head of The Human Genome Project By A. Dean Byrd, Ph.D, MBA, MPH, LifeSiteNews.com, March 20, 2007
RELATED ARTICLE: Born or Bred? Science Does Not Support the Claim That Homosexuality Is Genetic. Homosexual activists love to insist that. CWA, By Robert H. Knight, December 21, 2005
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- How America Went Gay Leadership U, by Charles W. Socarides, M.D.
. . . Gays said they could "reinvent human nature, reinvent themselves." To do this, these reinventors had to clear away one major obstacle. No, they didn't go after the nation's clergy. They targeted the members of a worldly priesthood, the psychiatric community, and neutralized them with a radical redefinition of homosexuality itself. In 1972 and 1973 they co-opted the leadership of the American Psychiatric Association and, through a series of political maneuvers, lies and outright flim-flams, they "cured" homosexuality overnight-by fiat. They got the A.P.A. to say that same-sex sex was "not a disorder." It was merely "a condition"-as neutral as lefthandedness. This amounted to a full approval of homosexuality. Those of us who did not go along with the political redefinition were soon silenced at our own professional meetings. Our lectures were canceled inside academe and our research papers turned down in the learned journals. Worse things followed in the culture at large. Television and movie producers began to do stories promoting homosexuality as a legitimate lifestyle. A gay review board told Hollywood how it should deal or not deal with homosexuality. Mainstream publishers turned down books that objected to the gay revolution. Gays and lesbians influenced sex education in our nation's schools, and gay and lesbian libbers seized wide control of faculty committees in our nations' colleges. State legislatures nullified laws against sodomy. If the print media paid any attention at all, they tended to hail the gay revolution, possibly because many of the reporters on gay issues were themselves gay and open advocates for the movement. And those reporters who were not gay seemed too intimidated by groupthink to expose what was going on in their own newsrooms. . . .
RELATED ARTICLE: An Older, Wiser Ex-Gay Movement: The 30-year-old ministry now offers realistic hope for homosexuals. Christianity Today, By Tim Stafford, September 13, 2007
RELATED ARTICLE: Redeemed! 10 Ways to Get Out of the Gay Life, If You Want Out Venus Magazine, By Charlene E. Cothran- Venus Magazine Publisher, March 5, 2007
RELATED ARTICLE: Publisher of African American Magazine for Homosexuals Announces Conversion to Christ: She Publicly Rejected Her Old Lifestyle Associated Content, By Mike White, March 3, 2007
RELATED INTERVIEW: Michael Glatze: A former gay activist explains how he left homosexuality (pdf.doc.) NARTH.com, Interviewed by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi
RELATED ARTICLE: 'Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study Of Religiously Mediated Change In Sexual Orientation' NARTH.com, By George A. Rekers, Ph.D.
RELATED ARTICLE: How Ohio State University is marketing evil World Net Daily, By David Kupelian, April 28, 2006
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- Marriage: it's a class act
We have become psychically insecure, which explains our reluctance to commit Times Online- UK, By Melanie McDonagh, March 28, 2008 The Office for National Statistics, in its deadpan way, dropped a bombshell this week with its revelation that the marriage rate is the lowest ever, or at any rate, in the past 144 years. It was one of those times when it dawns on you that we've parted company, in quite fundamental ways, from the habits of the past. A couple of generations ago, it would simply not have occurred to anyone that marriage could go out of fashion. Marriage was synonymous with being grown-up and heterosexual, and though obviously people engaged in extramarital sex and had extramarital children, this was a matter for censure or compassion or a rebellion against convention. People married and gave in marriage by way of being normal. Back then, even progressives got married after living together, people like John Lennon who fancied themselves as subversive; now even the Queen's granddaughter cohabits and doesn't care who knows it. . . . Those who marry today tend to be older and wealthier. It seems that society is separating along socioeconomic lines and the common experience of marriage no longer exists in the way it used to.” Ms Tyler was not, I think, trying to frighten the horses but she scared me. Because the truth is that marriage is coming perilously close to being a matter of class, along with church attendance, home cooking and male employment. . . .The Emperor Augustus took a dim view of the flight from marriage. His solution was a tax on bachelors. I think he was on to something. |
RELATED ARTICLE: Marriage rates hit lowest rate since records began almost 150 years ago The Daily Mail- UK, By Nicola Boden, March 26, 2008 The number of marriages for the whole year was just 236,980, a fall of four per cent on the previous year and lowest proportion of marriages since they were first recorded in 1862. It is also the lowest number of marriages since 1895, when 228,204 tied the knot. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Marriage and Caste: America's chief source of inequality? The Marriage Gap City Journal, By Kay S. Hymowitz, January 17, 2006
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Parenting Issues: Is political correctness stopping police ending the misery of the teenage sex slaves? The Daily Mail- UK, March 27, 2008Their faces remain shadowy, but Jane clearly remembers the sheer, terrifying numbers of men who would be brought to her bed at night. "It happened every night. There were loads of men involved." Her voice cracks. "You couldn't keep count." It was like a conveyor belt, she recalls. A conveyor belt of men all expecting sex. She was only 14. The very idea seems medieval, a horrific nightmare. But this was 21st-century Yorkshire, and Jane's experiences as a child prostitute were all too real.In fact, it's believed as many as 5,000 under-age British girls have been groomed for prostitution by ruthless criminal gangs. . . . Tonight, an eight-month investigation by the BBC's flagship current affairs programme Panorama reveals evidence of a growing number of young girls being sexually abused and brutalised, pimped by gangs of criminals and recruited to a life of degradation and shame while barely into their teens. All are left irrevocably damaged by what they endure, while in certain quarters the police stand accused of failing to protect them from the sexual predators who stalk Britain's regional centres. . . . Little wonder her pimps "worked" her hard: for them, Jane meant big money: according to the Metropolitan Police, a pimp can make £300,000 to £400,000 a year selling a 16-year-old girl - and, as David Barratt, a professor of applied sciences at the University of Bedfordshire and author of several books on child prostitution, points out, the younger the girl, the more money they make. "The criminal network can receive very significant money," he says. Jane, or course, did not receive a penny, instead accruing "debt" by the day, a trap heightened by the fact that she was by now addicted to drugs. . . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Police: Teen pimp lures girls into illegal sex WFAA TV, Reported by Rebecca Lopez, March 24, 2008
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- Bruni's pert pillbox hat was perfect. Poor Camilla looked like a pheasant crash-landed on her head... The Daily Mail- UK, By Amanda Platell, March 27, 2008
Not since Anne Boleyn has a woman curtseyed so deeply, so demurely or so calculatedly before a British monarch. When Carla Bruni-Sarkozy swept in to London to meet the Queen yesterday on her very new husband's presidential jet, she was part Grace Kelly, part Jackie Kennedy, part Princess Diana. But let's not fool ourselves. France's First Lady was only ever playing a part. Carla arrived in a long, demure, soft-grey Christian Dior coat, flat black suede pumps, matching Dior handbag and leather gloves. Some were surprised that a former supermodel - famous for bedding rock stars and a voracious sexual appetite - was so, well, covered up. But if you had appeared naked, as she had, in almost every television bulletin and newspaper in Britain that morning, you'd want to cover up, too. It might have been a 15-year-old modelling picture being opportunistically auctioned at Christie's, but it did rather remind one that this was a girl with a past. One hell of a past. . . . . While all this was a triumph of understatement for Carla, spare a thought for poor Camilla. Imagine waking up yesterday and knowing this was the day your picture would be splashed across the world's media alongside a former supermodel. In the end it looked as though she had given up hope, dressed in what appeared to be an aged cleaning lady's old brown coat, and topped with a hat that looked like a beret upon which a dead pheasant had crash-landed. With wild feathers sticking out in every direction, that wasn't a hat, it was roadkill. Yet despite this, Carla has more in common with Camilla than she ever will with Princess Diana. . |
RELATED ARTICLE: Sarkozy defends Carla Bruni in furious exchange during Anglo-French summit Times Online— UK, By David Byers and Francis Elliott, Deputy Political Editor of The Times, March 28, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Think THIS image of Carla is racy? You should see the ones I didn't publish, says photographer The Daily Mail— UK, March 27, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Lindsay Lohan: Perhaps, Momma doesn't always know best! The Real Proposal magazine Blog Spot, February 26, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Why marriage is more than just a piece of paper The Independent— Ireland, By Mary Kenny, February 4, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: A Very French Affair: While their president happily flaunts his love life, discretion remains the watchword in France when it comes to ‘the other woman’ The Sunday Herald, By Julie Davidson, January 27, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: There are STILL three people in this marriage The Daily Mail— UK, By Amanda Platell, August 31, 2007
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- Thomas Beatie, a married man who used to be a woman, is pregnant with a baby girl Times Online- UK, By James Bone, March 26, 2008
A married man who used to be a woman says that he is pregnant and will give birth to a baby girl in July. “How does it feel to be a pregnant man? Incredible,” wrote Thomas Beatie, 34, from the Pacific North West of the United States, in the latest issue of the gay magazine The Advocate. “Despite the fact that my belly is growing with a new life inside me, I am stable and confident being the man that I am.” Mr Beatie was born female, named Tracy Lagondino, but had gender reassignment surgery and is now legally male and married to a woman. He decided to carry a baby for his wife, Nancy, because she had a hysterectomy years ago. He was able to get pregnant because he kept his female organs when he switched genders. “Sterilisation is not a requirement for sex reassignment, so I decided to have chest reconstruction and testosterone therapy but kept my reproductive rights,” he writes. “Wanting to have a biological child is neither a male nor female desire but a human desire.” The couple, who have been together for ten years, run a custom screenprinting business in Bend, Oregon, where neighbours do not know that Mr Beatie was once a woman. . . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Labor of Love The Advocate- The Award-winning LGBT News Site, By Thomas Beatie, March 26, 2008 Labor of Love: Thomas Beatie gives The Advocate a first-person account of how it feels to be pregnant and carrying a child for his wife and himself. . . . |
RELATED ARTICLE: The "Gay Gene" Controlling The Media The Real Proposal magazine, April 1, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Reproduction and Public Discourse First Things, By Ryan T. Anderson, February 28, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Wanted: Someone to Play God Time magazine, By Nancy Gibbs, February 21, 2008
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
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 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
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- A clump of cells? Or a living being with a soul? The Independent- UK, By Jeremy Laurance, March 26, 2008
Embryo research has pitted scientists against bishops, caused a cabinet split and divided the country. Religion, politics, medicine and ethics all collide in a debate that boils down to the question above: Is a bunch of cells just that: a bunch of cells, as scientists would have it, or is it, as the Catholic Church insists, a human being with a soul? It is the dispute that lies at the heart of the controversy over the Embryo Bill and it is as fundamental a difference of opinion as it is possible to imagine. Gordon Brown performed a political climbdown yesterday and promised Labour MPs a free vote on the most emotive measures in the Bill, in effect throwing open the debate to the entire country. It is a piece of legislation that challenges our deepest notion of what it is to be human and what it is right to sanction in the interests of scientific progress. . . . At its heart lie three issues on which Mr Brown has now granted MPs a free vote, although Labour MPs will be required to back the Bill as a whole when it is voted on in principle at the third and final reading. The specific issues are: allowing research into possibilities such as making sperm from bone marrow that might mean women could become "fathers"; allowing the creation of "saviour siblings" (babies created with the correct tissue match to treat a sick brother or sister); and the creation of so-called hybrid animal/human embryos to aid stem cell research. . . . |
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RELATED ARTICLE: Peer and Church clash on embryos BBC News- UK, March 24, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Embryology Bill: Bishop's ‘Frankenstein’ attack smacks of ignorance, say scientists Times Online- UK, By Mark Henderson, Ruth Gledhill and Francis Elliott, March 24, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: In quotes: The ethics of embryos BBC News- UK, March 24, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Solution sought over embryo vote BBC News- UK, March 23, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: UK: Ministers consider 'ultimate incest' allowing babies to be conceived with sperm and eggs made from one person's tissue The Daily Mail- UK, By Jane Merrick, March 9, 2008
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- Mayor charged: Scandal grows to historic magnitude Detroit Free Press, By Jim Schaeffer and M.L. Elrick, March 25, 2008
Kwame Malik Kilpatrick, once heralded as the bright future of the city that reared him, instead became the first sitting Detroit mayor to face criminal charges -- eight felony counts, the fallout from a text message scandal. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, in a 23-minute speech Monday that was more stern civics lesson than announcement, likened the 37-year-old mayor's actions to an unrepentant child's. She then read a 12-count complaint charging perjury, conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office against Kilpatrick and Christine Beatty, his former chief of staff who announced her resignation in January. "Even children understand that lying is wrong," Worthy said in a news conference covered live on national television. "Honesty and integrity in the justice system is everything. That is what this case is about." Kilpatrick, in his own news conference in his office shortly after Worthy's, reaffirmed he would not resign -- his stance since the Free Press broke the scandal in January. He said he expected "full and complete vindication" of the charges. . . |
RELATED VIDEO: Worthy announces charges against Mayor Kilpatrick Detroit Free Press, By Alexandra Bahou Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced Monday that Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and former chief of staff Christine Beatty will face charges of perjury, obstruction of justice, misconduct in office and conspiracy. |
RELATED ARTICLE: You Made Your Bed, Kwame – Now Lie in It Without Likening Yourself to Men Like Ossian Sweet BlackAmericaWeb.com, By Gregory Kane, March 27, 2008 Oh, no, this Negro didn’t. Somebody please tell me that Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick did not play the race card in his recent state of the city address. Please tell me that he did not compare himself to Dr. Ossian Sweet, the famous Detroiter who, in 1925, held off, by force of arms, a riotous white mob threatening to drive him and his family from their home. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Time to learn lessons and leave Detroit Free Press, By Stephen Henderson, March 25, 2008 In her harshest moments Monday, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy conjured Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick as an unruly man-child who never learned the lessons that are imbedded in most people by kindergarten age and form the basis of our legal system.
RELATED ARTICLE: Worthy: Resignation alone not enough to spare mayor The Detroit Free Press, By M.L. Elrick and Jim Schaefer, March 25, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Eliot Spitzer Sex Scandal: A Public And A Private Betrayal The Real Proposal magazine Blog Spot, March 11, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: In tough times Carlita Kilpatrick stands by her husband The Detroit Free Press, By Suzette Hackney, January 30, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Kilpatrick’s Misdeeds Ultimately Hurt the People Who Elected Him – Poor Blacks in Detroit BlackAmericaWeb.com, By Tonyaa Weathersbee, January 30, 2008
RELATED VIDEO: Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick addresses text-message scandal The Detroit Free Press Addressing the text-message scandal for the first time, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick apologized repeatedly to residents, supporters, opponents, his wife and sons for what he called “the embarrassment and disappointment” of the past few days.
FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE: Kwame Kilpatrick: A mayor in crisis The Detroit Free Press
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- Sarkozy's mocked by French press as ex-wife marries man she left him for The Daily Mail— UK, By Annette Witheridg, March 24, 2008
French President Nicolas Sarkozy was mocked as a figure of fun again yesterday as his ex-wife's marriage to her PR executive lover drew sneering headlines. Former first lady Cecilia wed in New York's touristy Rainbow Room after guests took in a performance of Abba-themed musical Mamma Mia! The hurried nuptials – seen as an act of "revenge" against Sarkozy for his whirlwind ceremony to model Carla Bruni seven weeks ago – were derided in the French media. . . Cecilia, who has reverted to using her maiden name Ciganer-Albeniz, and her Moroccan-born lover Richard Attias, were whisked in a black limousine into an underground car park at the Rockefeller late on Sunday afternoon in preparation for the dusk ceremony. The 150 guests – who had been treated to a weekend of events included a visit to see Mamma Mia on Broadway – were sworn to secrecy and ordered to hand over mobile phones and cameras. Socialite Cecilia, 50, had intended to marry Attias, 48, in the summer but moved the ceremony forward after her ex wed Miss Bruni in February – less than four months after their divorce. Celilia, who has an 11-year-old son Louis by the French president, has admitted she felt humiliated by Sarkozy's high-profile romance, branded him a "stingy womaniser" and claimed the affair was merely a "rebound" after she had left him. "Carla Bruni won't make him forget me in a hurry," she said, taking a pot shot at the brunette 10 years her junior. . . . |
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RELATED ARTICLE: The REAL story of how Sarkozy seduced Carla Bruni The Daily Mail- UK, February 15, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: 'My whirlwind romance with President Sarkozy' - by France's new First Lady The Daily Mail- UK, February 13, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni - a hasty marriage is not necessarily a bad thing The Telegraph- UK, By Annabel Heseltine, February 5, 2008 Just like the Sarkozys, Annabel Heseltine had a whirlwind wedding... and has never looked back.
RELATED ARTICLE: Sarkozy and Bruni marry in Paris BBC News, February 2, 2008 French President Nicolas Sarkozy has married his girlfriend, former model-turned-singer Carla Bruni, in Paris, an official statement said.
RELATED ARTICLE: A Very French Affair: While their president happily flaunts his love life, discretion remains the watchword in France when it comes to ‘the other woman’ The Sunday Herald, By Julie Davidson, January , 2008
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- No need to have and to hold the most lavish wedding and reception ever seen i c Wales, By Carolyn Hitt, Western Mail, March 24, 2008
My diary is in nuptial gridlock. I’ve got three weddings on three consecutive weekends. One in Caernarfon, one in Pentyrch and one in Holland. No sign of a funeral, Hugh Grant or Simon Callow in a kilt, thankfully, but three weddings is still something of a marital marathon. So here comes the bride… in triplicate. Two old school friends and a former work mate. I always sniffle a bit when school chums get married. There’s something strangely poignant about seeing them looking stunning in ivory silk and lace to the strains of Handel and remembering them in white socks and whiffing of Clearasil to the sound of Kajagoogoo. There’s another reason people cry at weddings. The cost. . . . Outfit shopping also lures you into sartorial realms best avoided. People wear things to weddings they wouldn’t dream of donning anywhere else. Men start resembling emperor penguins in brocade waistcoats, while small boys are humiliated in Little Lord Fauntleroy’s satin breeches. Women put stupid things on their heads. Not just hats that need a pew to themselves but netting moulded into abstract shapes or those funny little feather hair bands. They’re called “fascinators”, apparently. I’ve just bought one. I thought it was the height of occasion-wear chic until I gave it a trial run in front of my friend Pricey. She fell off the settee in hysterics, squealing about Penscynor Bird Park. But that is nothing compared to the screaming fit the average pricey wedding bill must now induce. According to figures released last week, the cost of getting hitched has soared to £18,500 – a rise of more than five times the rate of inflation. The huge expense of the Big Day is forcing thousands of couples to postpone their wedding or even abandon it. . . |
RELATED ARTICLE: One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding AlterNet, By Emily Wilson, June 15, 2007 Pre-World War II, many couples got married in clothes they already owned. Today, they spend thousands. In her new book, One Perfect Day, Rebecca Mead shows how the wedding industry became so powerful and who it has exploited in the process.
RELATED ARTICLE: Ka-ching! Wedding price tag nears $30K CNN, By Grace Wong, May 20, 2005
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- Marriage Does Not Lower Blood Pressure -- Reading Matrimaniacal Media Accounts Raises It Huffington Post, By Bella Depaulo, March 24, 2008
Feeling stressed? Worried that your blood pressure may be soaring? The media have a solution for you -- get married! You've seen the headlines: "Marriage may lower blood pressure." "Walk down the aisle for lower blood pressure, but be happy!" What you haven't seen, if you have relied on summaries of the relevant study by ABC, CNN, MSNBC, the Associated Press, or just about any other media source, are the actual results of the study. HERE'S WHAT THE BLOOD PRESSURE STUDY REALLY DID SHOW. . . . If getting married really did make people healthier, and did so in a way that no other close relationship or set of relationships or meaningful life experiences could approximate, that would be a story worth reporting and reading. But to make marriage-hyping claims that are exaggerated, misrepresented, or just plain wrong -- well, that's just acting like a matrimaniac. Obviously, it would be good for singles if there were less singlism (singles-bashing) and matrimania. What may be less obvious is that if reports were more accurate and less caricatured, that would also be good for anyone who is, or wants to be, coupled. When singles are stigmatized, there is a risk that some people will be tempted to couple and marry for the wrong reasons - to escape the cultural muck that comes with being single. When singles are no longer marginalized or demeaned, then people who want to couple can do so from a position of strength. Rather than running away from singlehood to escape the stigma, they can move toward marriage or coupling as something they want to embrace. . . |
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- Parenting Issues: Teenagers copying surgically enhanced celebrities DOUBLE the number of breast enlargements in one year The Dail Mail- UK, By Daniel Martin, March 24, 2008
Teenagers are rushing to have breast enlargement surgery in an attempt to copy their celebrity idols. The number of girls having the procedure has more than doubled in one year. But experts warn that young people are putting themselves at mental and physical risk, because in many cases their bodies have not finished developing. Figures from the country's largest three cosmetic surgery chains show that almost 600 teenagers had their breasts enlarged last year. One company has reported a fivefold increase on the year before. Transform has a chain of 22 clinics and offers surgery on interest-free credit. Last year it performed 169 breast enlargements on girls aged 18 and 19, up from only 31 the year before. Spokesman Shami Choudhry said credit deals made the procedure, which costs up to £5,000, more attractive to teenagers. . . . Kafeh Mokbel, a consultant breast surgeon at St George's and the Princess Grace hospitals, both in London, carried out a breast augmentation on a 19-year- old last week. He said: "This young woman wanted the procedure to enhance her confidence about her body image when going on beach holidays. Her parents funded the procedure." Most British cosmetic surgery clinics do not operate on women under the age of 18. . . |
RELATED ARTICLE: 'All I want for my birthday is a boob job like Mummy', says Alicia Douvall's 12-year-old daughter The Daily Mail- UK, By Donna McConnell, April 15, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Outrage at Miss Bimbo website Times Online- UK, By Steve Bird, March 25, 2008 The internet game, aimed at girls aged 9 to 16, gives users 'bimbo dollars' to buy lingerie, diet pills and nightclub outfits. It has attracted 200,000 members in Britain . . .
RELATED ARTICLE: Sarah Jessica Parker Revisited: When Maxim Attacks Washington Post, By Liz Kelly, March 25, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Boca teen dies from complications after corrective plastic surgery wp TV- NBC, March 24, 2008 A West Boca Raton High School Senior died from complications after undergoing corrective breast surgery at a doctor's office. 18 year-old Stephanie Kuleba underwent a corrective procedure Friday with board certified plastic surgeon, Dr. Stephen Shuster along with an anesthesiologist. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: The Girls as young as SIX who already hate their bodies The Daily Mail- UK, By Alison Smith-Squire, December 7, 2007
RELATED ARTICLE: Celebs Cheer Jennifer Love Hewitt's Views on Weight People magazine, By Jeffrey Slonim and Alexis Chiu, December 6, 2007
RELATED ARTICLE: Jennifer Love Hewitt: 'A Size 2 Is Not Fat!' People magazine, By Nicholas White, December 2, 2007
RELATED ARTICLE & VIDEO: The Gift of Breast Implants? Rise in Parents Paying for Their Teenage Daughters' Plastic Surgery ABC News- 20/20, By John Stossel, June 16, 2007
RELATED ARTICLE: Fighting for our children isn't easy Townhall.com, By Rebecca Hagelin, August 9, 2005
RELATED ARTICLE: Co-ed Settings Skew Body Image: Why women have poor body image when men are around. Psychology Today, By Kimberly Shearer Palmer
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- Why gorgeous girls are happier with plain guys The Daily Mail- UK, By Liz Hull, March 23, 2008
He's had many an unkind comment about his looks when set against the radiant beauty of girlfriend Sienna Miller. But Rhys Ifans seems likely to have the last laugh because psychologists reckon that happier marriages result from attractive women who wed uglier men. And women who marry handsome men had better watch out. Men who saw themselves as better looking than their wives were more likely to be disgruntled and have negative feelings about their marriage, experts found. The University of Tennessee study leaves 40-year-old Ifans set fair if, as expected, he marries 26-year-old Sienna this year, and it might also explain a few other couples such as Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas and Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller. The Tennessee team tested 82 newly-wed couples for facial attractiveness and the quality of their marriage. Their results, in the Journal of Family Psychology, suggested most men who married attractive women were happy to bask in the glory of their partner's beauty. But Professor Jim McNulty reported: "Men who were more attractive than their partner demonstrated a tendency to offer less emotional and practical support to their wives." . . . |
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- Parenting Issues: School arranges morning-after pills for girls of 14 after end-of-term party descends into drunken orgy The Daily Mail- UK, By James Tozer, March 22, 2008
Teachers had to arrange morning-after pills for girls as young as 14 after a class party degenerated into an orgy of binge-drinking, drugtaking and underage sex. The school said yesterday that "a disturbingly high" number of pupils had unprotected sex while drunk as up to 200 teenagers ran riot at a village hall. In stark terms, it warned parents of the risk of pregnancy and sexually-transmitted disease, telling them: "Assume the worst." During the unsupervised party the hall was badly damaged and nearby residents were horrified when the revellers spilled out into the street, among them a boy stripped to his boxer shorts and scantily-clad girls. The local pub landlord said he was threatened when he refused to sell them alcohol and cigarettes. It went so far out of control that the school has taken the dramatic step of writing to all parents graphically describing what went on. . . Parents and hall officials are believed to have been told there would be adult supervision, but the teenagers had apparently forged signatures. . . The deputy head said many parents wrongly assumed that because the party was being held at a village hall, there would be a responsible adult involved, and urged them to be more careful in future. . . . |
RELATED ARTICLE: Shocked Townhall.com, By Dr. Miriam Grossman, M.D., March 17, 2008 That so many American girls have a sexually transmitted infection should come as no shock. Rather, the shock should be at the madness in our country that we call sexuality education.
RELATED ARTICLE: Sex Infections Found in Quarter of Teenage Girls New York Times, By Lawrence K. Altman, March 12, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: The world of real party animals: The internet gatecrashers who drug dogs, have group sex and trash homes The Daily Mail- UK, By Paul Bracchi, March 7, 2008
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- Meet the families where no one's worked for THREE generations - and they don't care The Daily Mail- UK, By Sadie Nicholas and Diana Appleyard, March 21, 2008
Known as the "Shameless" family among horrified neighbours, the McFaddens "boast" three generations of adults who are not working. All ten members of the clan share a council house and live off benefits amounting to around £32,000 a year. And very happy they are, too. Matriarch is grandmother Sue McFadden, 54. "Our neighbours are so snobby - they call us the "Shameless" family and say that we ought to go out to work. But how can we work when we have all these children to look after? "The only problem is," she says without a hint of irony, "that we're living in a three-bedroom council house, which is ridiculous. "I'm asking the council for a ten-bedroom home for all of us. We need more space. It's awful sometimes when all the children are squabbling. Still, we do have a big TV with Sky, but we need some relaxation." Of course they do, poor lambs. What a damning verdict on our claim-it-all society, a grotesque mirror of the dark television drama Shameless. . . . But the really disturbing aspect of the McFaddens' lifestyle is that they are far from alone. Six million Britons are living in homes where no one has a job and "benefits are a way of life", according to a report by MPs. Shock figures also revealed that 20,000 households in Britain are pocketing more than £30,000 a year in state benefits. With thousands of children growing up in families where their parents and grandparents have never worked, a senior government adviser warned this week of a "terrible legacy" of youngsters who had no expectation of ever getting a job. . . .Steven left school 23 years ago and has worked for only five years in that time. It's 12 years since he last had a job. Steven lives in Swansea with partner Donna, 24, who's never worked, and their daughter Celsea, three. His eldest daughter from a previous partner, 17-year-old Jessica, is also on benefits. Steven says: "Mum never really made us think about work. I did do a plumbing YTS scheme after school. They paid £27 a week, but it was so boring looking at pipes and sinks all day. When I told my dad I was bored, he said I should never stick with a job I didn't like. . . But is it inevitable that generation upon generation of unemployed families just follow their parents into lives of idle nihilism? Is it the fault of a system which offers benefits too easily - or the fault of parents who fail to encourage their children to aspire or succeed? . . . |
RELATED ARTICLE: Life is not a defined benefit Townhall.com, By Star Parker, November 5, 2007
RELATED ARTICLE: Liberals love the sin and hate the sinner Townhall.com, By Star Parker, September 10, 2007 In an article in the latest issue of Commentary Magazine, Lawrence Mead, a professor of politics at New York University and author of seven books on poverty and welfare reform, surveys thinking over the last 50 years about the causes of poverty and concludes: "Although impediments to working may still affect some people, poverty is overwhelmingly a result of dysfunctional patterns of life. Families are poor in America in 2007 typically because unmarried parents have children and then do not work regularly to support them. ... It has become difficult to avoid the conclusion that serious poverty in America is rooted in the culture of the poor."
RELATED ARTICLE: The Collapse of Marriage and the Rise of Welfare Dependence The Heritage Foundation, By Jennifer A. Marshall, Robert Lerman, Ph.D., Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, Ph.D., Hon. Wade Horn, Ph.D., Robert Rector- Heritage Lecture #959, August 15, 2006 (Delivered May 22, 2006)
RELATED ARTICLE: Mothers' and Children's Poverty and Material Hardship in the Years Following a Non-Marital Birth FRAGILE FAMILIES RESEARCH BRIEF- Bendheim-Thoman Center for Research on Child Wellbeing- Princeton University, Social Indicators Survey Center, Columbia University, January 2008
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- Obama pastor backs gay rights
Rev. Wright supported gay ministry, but failed to adopt ‘affirming’ status for church The Washington Blade, By Lou Chibbaro Jr., March 20, 2008 Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s controversial ex-pastor in Chicago has largely supported gay rights and has welcomed gays into his 8,000-member congregation at Trinity United Church of Christ, according to activists who know him. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who recently retired as the Trinity Church pastor, has been hit with a firestorm of criticism after news media outlets began airing video recordings of some of his fiery and racially charged sermons, including one in which he blamed U.S. foreign policy for the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. In a speech in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Obama distanced himself from Wright’s strident political positions but refused to “disown” his pastor of nearly 20 years, reiterating his praise for Wright as his spiritual mentor. . . . . But the Rev. Ruth Garwood, executive director of the United Church of Christ Coalition for GLBT Concerns, said that while Trinity Church has the reputation of being gay-supportive, Wright and other church officials never accepted an invitation from her office to become an official UCC “open and affirming” congregation for the GLBT community. . . . About 80 percent of the church’s General Synod voted to approve a same-sex marriage resolution giving all United Church of Christ congregations authority to perform same-sex marriages. The resolution explicitly allows each church to decide on its own whether or not to endorse or perform such unions. Monroe said Wright spoke out against the Synod’s position, which she said prompted “LGBTQ parishioners to leave” the church. . . . |
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RELATED ARTICLE: Responding to Homosexuality & Gay Marriage: “Love the Sinner. Hate the Sin” The Real Proposal magazine, March 21, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE (PDF doc): A Message From Our Pastor: Maybe I Missed Something By Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., Senior Pastor
RELATED ARTICLE: The Jeremiah Wright affair: The trouble with uncles The Economist, March 19, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: If Obama can throw his pastor under the bus, what will he do to us? The Bilerico Project, Filed by Rev Irene Monroe, March 19, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Congregation Defends Obama's Ex-Pastor: Criticism Seen as Attempt to Silence Voice of Black Church The Washington Post, By Eli Saslow, March 18, 2008
RELATED ARTICLE: Obama’s Speech on Race New York Times, March 18, 2008 Interactive video and transcript of Senator Barack Obama’s speech in Philadelphia on March 18.
RELATED ARTICLE: A Candidate, His Minister and the Search for Faith New York Times, By Jodi Kantor, April 30, 2007
RELATED BLOG: Historical Christianity Can Not be Reconciled with Gay Christian(*a) Theology Scripture Refiner's Fire- Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth in Love, January 26, 2008 (*a) The terms "Gay Christian" and "Gay Christianity" are used in this report to describe same-sex practicing unrepentant gays that call themselves Christians and refuse to acknowledge that gay sex is sin. . . . We believe God can forgive any sin including gay-sex, and we believe gays should be accepted in the church body like any other sinners. However, we do not accept their brazen attempt to legitimize immoral conduct that the Bible never commanded us to accept. It is not required for a sinner to repent first before they attend church, and they are welcome to attend, but it is required that they must abstain from injuring the church body by trying to legitimize immorality. In our opinion the gay Christian Movement is a Trojan horse to launch the gay-political agenda into the church. . .
RELATED ARTICLE: 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. Joe Dallas, Founder of Genesis Counseling, is the author of three books on homosexuality: Desires in Conflict, Unforgiven Sins, and A Strong Delusion: Confronting the "Gay Christian" Movement. A former gay rights activist and staff member of a Metropolitan Community Church, he has worked with hundreds of men and women struggling with homosexuality and related problems.
RELATED BROADCAST: How Should We Respond to Homosexuality? Part 1 Focus on the Family.org, Speaker: Joe Dallas, March 18, 2008 The Bible tells how the prophet Jonah had great disdain for the people of Nineveh - he resisted God's command to preach a message of judgment to the Ninevites, and he became angry when God compassionately held back His wrath after the people of Nineveh repented. Author and counselor Joe Dallas says many Christians are afflicted with the "Jonah Syndrome," meaning they hold homosexuals in contempt and resist demonstrating to them the love of Christ. Dallas - a former homosexual - calls on the church to repent of its sin and to reach out to the gay community with a message of grace that is compassionate, consistent and clear. "I believe as we address the issue of homosexuality that God would call us to repent of whatever hostility exists within the church .. and recommit ourselves to bold love." - Joe Dallas
RELATED BROADCAST: How Should We Respond to Homosexuality? Part 2 Focus on the Family.org, Speaker: Joe Dallas, March 18, 2008 Most Christians have heard the phrase, "hate the sin but love the sinner." Unfortunately, many homosexuals feel like evangelicals hate them as people because of their behavior. How has the church gone wrong in responding to the gay community? Author and counselor Joe Dallas cites examples as he admonishes believers to repent of their hostility towards homosexuals. Dallas also describes how Christians can achieve a proper, balanced approach of showing Christ's love to gays and lesbians while still declaring the biblical truth that homosexuality is a sin. "The gay and lesbian community is looking to the church for some verifiable evidence that we love them as we say that we do ... [that we] value them as people, not just as objects to be converted." - Joe Dallas
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- Cheryl Burke, Drew Lachey deny 'Dancing with the Stars' affair report Reality TV World, By Christopher Rocchio, March 19, 2008
While Drew Lachey and Cheryl Burke's chemistry in the ballroom can't be questioned, it apparently ended there -- as the Dancing with the Stars' second-season champs are denying a tabloid report that they had an affair during the show's recently concluded North American tour. "The story that Cheryl is involved with Drew Lachey started two years ago when they were partners on Dancing with the Stars. It wasn't true then and it isn't true now," Burke's representative told People in a Wednesday report. According to Star Magazine's March 31 issue, a Dancing with the Stars - The Tour "insider" claims Lachey -- who is married with a 2-year-old daughter -- and Burke had an affair while on the road this past winter. "They didn't go very far to cover it up," "one tour insider" told Star. "Cheryl was constantly draped all over Drew. They held hands, had their legs intertwined and were always touching inappropriately." In early February, Burke's publicist said the Dancing professional and Matthew Lawrence -- her boyfriend of more than a year -- had "quietly ended their relationship a few weeks ago," however no reason for the split was given. . . . |
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