"MARRIAGE" In The News
 (September 2009)

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.

• Khloé Kardashian & Lamar Odom Are Married!   E! Online, By Natalie Finn, September 28, 2009
  First she took Miami. Now she has taken Lamar Odom to be her lawfully wedded husband. E! News has confirmed that Khloé Kardashian and the Los Angeles Lakers star swapped vows Sunday night in front of family, friends and team members (of both the NBA and E! variety) at a private estate in Beverly Hills. The glowing bride wore a tiered strapless Vera Wang gown, accented with a lavender sash. She carried white roses and was escorted down the aisle by stepdad Bruce Jenner, with sisters Kim and Kourtney at her side, while a 10-piece orchestra played in the background. Amid the hum of hovering helicopters, the couple exchanged vows in front of rose-covered arches. There was, of course, no trouble keeping up with the Kardashians this weekend—all of them were at the wedding, along with Ryan Seacrest, Chelsea Handler, Kelly Osbourne, Kobe and Vanessa Bryant, Alan Thicke, Joe Francis, Joel Silver, Lara Spencer, Brittny Gastineau, Sugar Ray, Adrian Bailon and Lala Vasquez. Kim and Kourtney served as maids of honor dressed in different shades of lavender, while littler ones Kendall and Kylie Jenner were bridesmaids along with Khadijah Haqq, Malika Haqq and Lauren London. Odom's close friend and business partner Jamie Sangouthai was his best man. Groomsmen included his new brother-in-law, Rob Kardashian, and Robert Davis, Alex Harris, Lester Knispel and Jeff Schwartz. Still gleaming on Khloé's left hand was the 9-carat diamond ring Lamar bought her after a whirlwind courtship that began just this summer when they met at a party. . . . .  Odom kept his cool throughout the various rituals until his best man's speech, which left him in tears for nearly 10 minutes. Mother of the bride Kris Jenner couldn't hold back the waterworks either when she addressed the crowd, but Kourtney and Kim kept the guests laughing. Towards the end of the evening, Khloé and the rest of the bridal party changed yet again—this time into purple sweats with "Mr. & Mrs. Odom" written across the back. . .
  
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  It's official! Lamar Odom has married Khloe Kardashian  Los Angeles Times, September 27, 2009
  Now the country can turn its attention to less-important matters, like national health care and the war in Iraq. . .
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  Odom seeks reason to smile  ESPN.com, By Sam Alipour, November 02, 2006
  He's bowed his head, eyes toward the artwork in my hand, speaking in a hushed tone. "Yeah," says Lamar Odom, a bead of sweat trickling down his chin after an October practice. "It's a little extreme." Yeah, just a tad. I wouldn't want to get in a street fight with the dude whose image is emblazed on Lamar Odom's soon to be unveiled T-shirt line. And that's partly because it's the image of The Dude, himself. Jesus, with "white like wool" hair, eyes of "blazing fire" and feet -- or, in this case, face -- of "burnished bronze." So, is it extreme? According to Odom's interpretation of Revelation, Chapter 1, Verses 14 and 15, it's accurate. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  Ted Green: Lamar Odom's marriage won't distract Lakers  Los Angeles Times blog, September 28, 2009
Now given the history of Hollywood marriages and whirlwind romances, Lamar having met Khloe at a Ron Artest party Aug. 27 -- in other words, just a month ago to the day of the wedding -- Lamar and Khloe are probably even money to be divorced by the All-Star break. I’m an optimist by nature, but would an annulment under their Christmas tree totally shock you?

RELATED RESOURCE:  Understanding the Challenges of Interracial and Intercultural Relationships  MonkeySee.com, By Gloria MacDonald- Perfect Partners.com 


RELATED ARTICLE:  Interracial couples must face society's challenges  Crimson White- Changing Tides, By Katie Borland, May 4, 2009
In the world today, many strive to be unbiased, politically correct citizens. Although the idea of “bigoted intolerance” associated with the South may still be alive and well, the southern region is not so prejudiced against widely received issues as the three other corners of America like to think. Or is it? Interracial dating is one topic that can still only be whispered upon some people’s lips. Mixed couples often attract stares in public. Is it a Southern phenomenon exclusively? How do these dynamics play out on the University campus?. . .


RELATED PHOTO ESSAY:  Famous Interracial Couples  Pixcetera.com- Black Voices


RELATED ARTICLE:  Hottest Interracial Celebrity Couples  Associated Content, By A. Wright, March 07, 2007
There are many hot Hollywood couples to report on, but you don't see a lot of information on interracial celebrity couples. Coming from diverse backgrounds can make for a much more interesting duo. The famous interracial marriage of Lucy and Desi Arnaz led the way, and these couples are hot on their trail. Hottest Interracial Celebrity Couple #1: Seal and Heidi Klum. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Short shelf life of celebrity marriage  BBC News, September 16, 2005
Actress Renee Zellweger's four-month marriage to US country singer Kenny Chesney is one of several short-lived celebrity nuptials.She is seeking an annulment after a whirlwind romance led to an equally short marriage. Britney Spears... Drew Barrymore ...Billy Bob Thornton ...Shannen Doherty... Nicolas Cage...Jennifer Lopez... Zsa Zsa Gabor...Danniella Westbroo...

• House hears ENDA testimony
  Frank, Baldwin push for trans-inclusive bill at hearing   Washington Blade, By Chris Johnson, September 25, 2009
  The Employment Non-Discrimination Act this week elicited predominantly favorable reactions during a congressional hearing from lawmakers who lauded the legislation as a means to protect more Americans from workplace discrimination. The House Education & Labor Committee heard testimony Wednesday regarding ENDA, which would bar job bias based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the committee’s chair, said the measure would “ensure that employment decisions are based on merit and performance and not prejudice.” “Fully qualified individuals are being denied employment or are being fired from their jobs for completely non-work-related reasons,” he said. “This is profoundly unfair and, indeed, un-American. And, it is bad for business.” Based on Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination by employers based on race, gender and religion, ENDA would extend similar protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Exempt from the bill are the armed services, veterans’ service groups, religious organizations and groups with fewer than 15 employees. While some states offer the kinds of protections that ENDA, also known as H.R. 3017, would afford, discrimination based on sexual orientation is not barred in 29 states and discrimination based on gender identity is not barred in 38 states, according to Miller’s testimony. A version of ENDA passed the House in 2007, but that bill offered protections based only on sexual orientation, omitting gender identity. After former President George W. Bush pledged to veto the legislation, the Senate never took up the bill. Gay Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), the sponsor of ENDA, testified before the committee in favor of his bill. “I find it hard to argue for legislation that bans discrimination,” Frank said. “It just seems to be so self-evident that an American who would like to work and support himself or herself ought to be allowed to be judged solely on his or her work ethic and talent that I don’t know what more to say.”. . .
  
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  NRB Leader Warns Congress of ENDA's 'Chilling' Effect on Christian Groups  The Christian Post, By Lawrence D. Jones, September 24, 2009
  An evangelical leader representing the nation’s largest association of Christian media professionals warned lawmakers Wednesday of the devastating blow that a highly contentious bill would deal to faith-based organizations and Christian ministries if passed. In a testimony before Congress, Craig Parshall, senior vice-president and general counsel for the National Religious Broadcasters, said the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2009 (ENDA) would “impose a crippling burden on religious organizations” as it prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of “actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.” Though the bill purports to contain an exemption for religious groups, Parshall testified before the House Committee on Education and Labor that the language, from a legal standpoint, is a “mirage,” and would subject faith groups to “endless, expensive, and harassing litigation” where the courts would be forced to use a previous legal formula in future law suits against religious organizations – a formula that has proven ineffectual in protecting religious liberty. . . .  . Following Parshall’s testimony, Dr. Frank Wright, NRB’s president and CEO, pointed out the political hypocrisy in the current debate, calling ENDA a classic “bait and switch” of Washington politics. “[I]t purports to address discrimination, all the while visiting a pernicious viewpoint discrimination against people of deep religious conviction,” Wright noted. “In the final analysis, ENDA is an attempt to subjugate First Amendment freedoms while advancing the political orthodoxy of the liberal left.” Though ENDA was first introduced in 1997, bills prior to the latest had made little progress in Congress. This time, supporters of the bill believe that they have enough votes in both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate to pass ENDA into law. President Obama has also indicated that he would be likely to sign ENDA into law. . .
  
  
  
  

• For The Working Poor, Marriage Is A Costly Luxury   
  Under tax code, it pays to live in sin.  Forbes.com, By Claude Renshaw and Ken Milani, September 24, 2009
  Forbes magazine's recent cover story "When Work Doesn't Pay For the Middle Class" illustrates many of the issues the middle class faces regarding the unintended interactions between work, marriage and taxes. We'd also like to point out that these unintended interactions pose serious problems for an often overlooked segment of our society--the working poor. . . .  . A single parent earning $21,000 with two children would receive an earned income credit and child tax credit of $5,460. Say that same parent is living with, but not married to, another single parent with two children who earns the same amount. Their combined income is $42,000. Unmarried and filing their taxes separately, they would receive a total of $10,920 in earned income credits and child tax credits. If they were to marry and file jointly (listing four dependent children), they would receive only $3,400 in earned income credits and child credits. So it would cost them $7,520 to be married. To make the situation worse, this "penalty" will occur every year, adding up over time to a huge amount. We applaud the recent efforts of Congress to eradicate or reduce the marriage penalty for those with higher levels of income, but these efforts have overlooked the most at-risk sector of our society: families headed by the working poor. Our current income tax laws create a hurdle to getting married or cause a devastating surprise when the newly married couple files their first tax return as husband and wife. In our opinion, this is unfair to the people involved and unhealthy for a society that already has many people cohabitating rather than living as husband and wife. Studies continue to indicate that one of the contributing causes of poverty, illegitimacy, crime, inadequate education and other socioeconomic problems is the absence of married, committed parents in a family. . . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  When Work Doesn't Pay For The Middle Class  Forbes magazine, By Janet Novack and Stephane Fitch, September 17, 2009 - October 05, 2009 Issue
Middle-class folks are finding that a raise or second paycheck doesn't always mean living better. Time to work less?. . . . Eighteen months after being laid off, Judith Lederman, a 50-year-old divorcee who lives in Scarsdale, N.Y., is ready to consider jobs paying half the $120,000 she earned as a publicity manager at Lord & Taylor. That's mostly because she's desperate, but it also makes sense when you consider how this country punishes work effort. While the first $60,000 of her income would be lightly taxed, the next $60,000 would be hit with what is in effect a 79% tax rate. Given a choice between a part-time or easy job paying $60,000 and a demanding, stress-ridden job paying $120,000, Lederman would be wise to take the former. In the tougher job she would be contributing twice as much to the economy. But she wouldn't be doing herself much good. It would make more sense to take it easy and spend more time with her high school senior daughter, Casey. How did a middle-class single mom wind up with a 79% marginal tax rate?. . .

• Campaign to overturn Prop. 8 and legalize gay marriage begins today with ballot filing  Los Angeles Times, September 24, 2009
  Despite concerns from some gay-rights activists that it's too early to revisit the issue, one group today pushed forward with plans for a 2010 ballot measure that would repeal Prop. 8 and allow gay marriage in California. The group Love Honor Cherish filed ballot language with the state today for a measure to overturn the ban on gay marriage in the state. That is the first step in getting the question on the ballot. According to the group, if the state approves the language, they will begin the process of collecting the estimated 1 million signatures needed to get on the November 2010 ballot. Last month, Leaders of Equality California, one of the state’s largest gay rights groups, announced  it will wait until 2012 to push for an amendment to the California Constitution to permit same-sex marriage. They have said they worry about raising the millions of dollars necessary in the current tough economic climate and also that it will take longer than two years to convince enough voters. But Love Honor Cherish said now is the time to move. . .
  
  
  
  RELATED PRESS RELEASE:  US District Court Hears Arguments For Additional Plaintiffs, Sets Trial For Proposition 8 Challenge  ProtectMarriage- Yes on 8.com, August 19, 2009
  SACRAMENTO – Andy Pugno, general counsel for ProtectMarriage.com, released the following statement today on behalf of the official proponents of Prop. 8, in response to today’s hearing of Perry v Schwarzenegger et al in United States District Court, Northern District of California: . .

RELATED SITE:  ProtectMarriage.com   

RELATED ARTICLE:  NRB Leader Warns Congress of ENDA's 'Chilling' Effect on Christian Groups  The Christian Post, By Lawrence D. Jones, September 24, 2009
An evangelical leader representing the nation’s largest association of Christian media professionals warned lawmakers Wednesday of the devastating blow that a highly contentious bill would deal to faith-based organizations and Christian ministries if passed. In a testimony before Congress, Craig Parshall, senior vice-president and general counsel for the National Religious Broadcasters, said the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2009 (ENDA) would “impose a crippling burden on religious organizations” as it prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of “actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.” Though the bill purports to contain an exemption for religious groups, Parshall testified before the House Committee on Education and Labor that the language, from a legal standpoint, is a “mirage,” and would subject faith groups to “endless, expensive, and harassing litigation” where the courts would be forced to use a previous legal formula in future law suits against religious organizations – a formula that has proven ineffectual in protecting religious liberty. . . .  . Following Parshall’s testimony, Dr. Frank Wright, NRB’s president and CEO, pointed out the political hypocrisy in the current debate, calling ENDA a classic “bait and switch” of Washington politics. “[I]t purports to address discrimination, all the while visiting a pernicious viewpoint discrimination against people of deep religious conviction,” Wright noted. “In the final analysis, ENDA is an attempt to subjugate First Amendment freedoms while advancing the political orthodoxy of the liberal left.” Though ENDA was first introduced in 1997, bills prior to the latest had made little progress in Congress. This time, supporters of the bill believe that they have enough votes in both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate to pass ENDA into law. President Obama has also indicated that he would be likely to sign ENDA into law. . .


RELATED EDITORIAL:  Yes! Yes! and Yes! on California, Arizona and Florida Propositions 8, 102, and 2!  Editorial- The Real Proposal magazine, Originally published October 22, 2008
Who knew that we would ever see the day when it became necessary to define what marriage is in America... or the world for that matter? That said, no one could follow, for any length of time, our continuing coverage on this very critical sociopolitical issue without realizing that, whether we like it or not, the on-going and increasingly aggressive battle to redefine marriage is the next civil rights frontier in America! Most people do not fully comprehend how we got to this place. Many have a distorted perspective on the issues based on what is being fed to us by the mainstream media, who are largely complicit with the homosexual agenda and follow their playbook and manifesto quite diligently in the effort to convert straight America into accepting homosexuality as anything but deviant behavior. Therefore, we urge you to spend some time going through our coverage on the issue. For, without a doubt, the blinders will fall away and it will become clear that there is a very careful, very deliberate, very well financed and orchestrated marketing strategy being executed by radical homosexual activists to normalize same-sex relationships in this country. And you will likely be outraged that somewhere along the way — while most of us who believe in traditional marriage were enjoying our precious freedoms, taking kids to soccer, ordering pizza and watching our favorite shows — we were being manipulated and vilified as society's new "haters," "bigots," and "homophobes.". . .

• Mackenzie Phillips: I Slept with My Own Father  People magazine, September 22, 2009
  "Don't hate my father," Mackenzie Phillips tells PEOPLE. But in a tell-all book out Wednesday, the former childhood actress reveals that her dad, musician John Phillips of the '60s band the Mamas and the Papas, engaged with her in a long-term incestuous relationship. Phillips, 49, who has survived drug addiction, arrests and divorce, writes in the book High on Arrival that she was already a star playing a boy-crazy teen on the TV sitcom One Day at a Time when her father had sex with her on the night before she was to marry Jeff Sessler, a member of the Rolling Stones entourage, in 1979. . ..
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  Mackenzie Phillips' Family Secret   Oprah.com, September 23, 2009
  Mackenzie Phillips was 10 years old when her father taught her how to roll a joint. She had her first taste of cocaine at age 11. At 14, she landed a role in the film American Graffiti, and one week after her 18th birthday, she was arrested for the first time. Now, at 49, the daughter of rock legend John Phillips—leader of the Mamas & the Papas—is revealing the most shocking part of her past for the first time. It's a secret Mackenzie says she's kept hidden for more than 30 years. "You often hear on television people say, 'It's shocking,'" Oprah says. "And, in this case, I would have to say it really is." In her memoir, High on Arrival, Mackenzie shares details of her dysfunctional childhood and drug addiction, all of which lead up to a stunning revelation on page 108. Frightened and vulnerable, Mackenzie reads the page aloud: "I woke up that night from a blackout to find myself having sex with my own father. I don't remember how it started or, thankfully, how it ended. … Was it the first time? Had this happened before? I didn't know and I still don't. All I can say is that it was the first time I was aware of it. For a moment I was in my body, in that horrible truth, and then I slid back into a blackout. Your father is supposed to protect you. Your father is supposed to protect you, not f*** you.". . .

READ AN EXCERPT: High On Arrival   By Mackenzie Phillips- Oprah.com


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

RELATED ARTICLE & COMMENTS:  Can Incest Be Consensual?  Mackenzie Phillips Highlights the Impact of Incest  AOL Health, September 25, 2009
Though some of Phillips' family members, including her stepmother Michelle Phillips, aren't convinced of the veracity of the former child star's revelation, the scandal has brought attention to an issue that is, more often than not, swept under the rug. Thomas Nagy, Ph.D., Adjunct Assistant Clinical Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine says he believes most incidents of incest never come to light and, as a result, countless individuals go without treatment. He also states that it's impossible to say that incest that continues into adulthood is necessarily conducted on a consensual level. "When the victim encounters that abuser again in adulthood, in that moment, they've dissociated into an adolescent mindset again," he points out. That's why it's so important for victims of abuse to seek and stick with therapy for the long haul. "These victims have to grow boundaries and learn how to find a sense of self again." "It's always traumatic in the long run," Nagy adds, whether the incest begins when a child is six or 17. "It's child abuse, and there is no such thing as consensual sex with a child." Debra Borys, Ph.D., a Los-Angeles-based therapist specializing in issues of abuse and incest, agrees and points out that many victims of abuse ultimately start making accommodations in their own belief systems. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Bijou Phillips 'Heartbroken' Her Family Left Her Alone With Incestuous Father    FOX News, September 25, 2009
Actress Bijou Phillips says she knew her half-sister Mackenzie Phillips had consensual sex with their father, Mamas and the Papas leader John Phillips. In a statement read by Oprah Winfrey on her talk show Friday, Bijou Phillips says she was 13 years old when Mackenzie Phillips told her about the sexual relationship. Bijou Phillips, now 29, says the news was confusing and scary, and that it was "heartbreaking" to think her family would leave her alone with her father knowing what he did. Appearing on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" Friday, Mackenzie Phillips said their father "had changed his ways as much as he was able to" and that she felt Bijou Phillips was safe. But Mackenzie says she did go get her sister when she "felt like she wasn't being watched properly." . . .

RELATED ARTICLE & VIDEO: Father, daughter incest pair 'lived under same roof'  Nine-MSN, April 7,2008
John and Jenny claimed in an interview broadcast on 60 Minutes that they began a sexual relationship after Jenny tracked down the father she had never known. John and Jenny Deaves were found guilty last month of a single charge of performing an act of incest with the other. Court documents show that the first child the pair conceived in 2001 died soon after being born from a congenital disease. They now have an apparently healthy nine-month-old baby girl. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Lawful incest may be on its way  The Boston Globe, By Jeff Jacoby, May 2, 2007
When the BBC invited me onto one of its talk shows recently to talk about the day's hot topic -- legalizing adult incest -- I thought of Rick Santorum. Back in 2003, as the Supreme Court was preparing to rule in Lawrence v. Texas, a case challenging the constitutionality of laws criminalizing homosexual sodomy, then-Senator Santorum caught holy hell for warning that if the law were struck down, there would be no avoiding the slippery slope. "If the Supreme Court says you have the right to consensual sex within your home," he told a reporter, "then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything." It was a common-sensical observation, though you wouldn't have known it from the nail-spitting it triggered in some quarters. . .


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


RELATED ARTICLE:  Incest: an age-old taboo  BBC News, March 12, 2007


RELATED ARTICLE:  Couple stand by forbidden love  BBC News- UK, By Tristana Moore, March 7, 2007


RELATED ARTICLE:  Hypocrisy on adult consent  The Boston Globe, By Jeff Jacoby- Globe Columnist, August 28, 2005


RELATED ARTICLE:  Of human bonding  Psychology Today, By Joan Ullman, May/June 1993
Discusses the child custody battle currently being waged in the courts by actor/director Woody Allen and actress Mia Farrow. Assertion that Mia Farrow looked like Murphy Brown incarnate; Other paternity cases involving famous people; Women who now depend on the law to compel the bonding that is no longer forthcoming in today's new family structures; Additional observations.


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


RELATED ARTICLE:  Oedipus Wrecked: Was Freud wrong about boys and their mothers?  Psychology Today, August 2004
. . . "The typical story line in poems, novels, and plays in which incest is a theme is one of separation in infancy with later incestuous reunion.". . .

• Losing weight, out of politeness or simply to cure a headache... The REAL reasons women have sex  The Daily Mail- UK, By Cindy Meston and David Buss, September 22, 2009
  To lose weight, out of politeness or simply to cure a headache, the real reasons women choose to have sex are much more bizarre and intriguing than you might imagine. In the first extract from a new book - Why Women Have Sex by CINDY MESTON and DAVID BUSS - we look at the fascinating science behind the most popular reasons women give for slipping between the sheets...BETTER THAN IBUPROFEN: Everyone has heard (or perhaps used) the timeworn dodge: 'Not tonight, dear. I've got a headache.' And it's true that sex can exacerbate, or even bring on, a headache. Head and neck muscles often tighten during sexual activity, and blood pressure can increase at orgasm, causing blood vessels in the brain to dilate, a condition technically named coital cephalgia. However, in our study we discovered that some women choose to have sex with the goal of getting rid of a headache. . . . BECAUSE HE'S A GOOD KISSER: Another popular reason many women cited for having sex turned out to be astonishingly simple: the man was a good kisser. Kissing between romantic or sexual partners occurs in more than 90 per cent of cultures. Human lips are densely packed with sensory neurons - more than in most regions of the body - but the tongue, nose and cheeks also come into play. One study found that kissing caused a drop in cortisol, a stress hormone, indicating a reduction in anxiety. Kissing also conveys information about health status, since bad breath can be a sign of disease or ill-health. . . . .  TO GET REVENGE: Some women said they had used sex to exact revenge on their unfaithful partners. . . . TO LOSE WEIGHT: Yes, sex can help you lose weight, and we came across women in our survey who said they increased sexual activity for this reason. Depending on which report you read, a sexual session can burn anything from 100 to 250 calories. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  One in 20 women has NEVER had sex sober as they lack body confidence  The Daily Mail - UK, September 22, 2009
Millions of women drink alcohol before having sex because they lack confidence in their bodies, a study has found. Almost half of those questioned said they preferred sex while under the influence of alcohol because it helped them to lose their inhibitions and be more adventurous. Researchers, who surveyed 3,000 women aged between 18 and 50, found the average woman has slept with eight men, but was drunk with at least five of them.On two of these occasions they couldn't even remember the man's name the next day. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  What REALLY makes a woman want to sleep with a man?  The Daily Mail- UK, By Cindy Meston and David Buss, September 23, 2009
What makes a woman want to sleep with a man? Is it true that a chap can laugh a woman into bed? Does he need to be tall, dark and handsome to stand any chance at all? Today, in the second extract from the new book Why Women Have Sex, by psychologists Cindy Meston and David Buss, we reveal the features that make a man appeal to a woman, and why, are far more fascinating and complex than you could imagine . . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Sex, Lies, and SIECUS  Townhall.com, By Dr. Miriam Grossman, M.D. , September 15, 2009
I was on the Michael Medved show this week, debating Martha Kempner, the VP of information and education at SIECUS, the Sexual Information and Education Council of the US. If you’re a parent, you need to know about SIECUS, a powerful organization that has set the standard for sex education in this country for nearly fifty years. Until now, the messages SIECUS provides our kids have not been scrutinized. I thank Mr Medved for giving me the opportunity to expose how this prominent group deceives the public and endangers the health and well-being of our children. . . . Contrary to their claims, the priority for SIECUS is not the health and well-being of young people. It is promoting their radical social agenda of sexual freedom. And when sexual freedom reigns, sexual health suffers. This is not an abstraction to me; I’m a doctor who is tired of seeing a steady stream of young people come through my office, casualties of the worldview that places sexual freedom before sexual health. . .

• Census: 76% marry just once; new count for same-sex couples  USA Today, By Sharon Jayson and Jack Gillum, September 21, 2009
  Most Americans marry for keeps or, if it doesn't last, don't want to repeat the same mistake, according to new Census data that show 76% of those who have ever been married have married just once. Almost 20% have been married twice and 5% have been married three or more times, finds data released Monday from the American Community Survey of 3 million households. The survey also found almost 200,000 fewer same-sex couples than the previous year, which Census officials say resulted from data-processing changes. The total number of same-sex couples in 2008 was about 565,000, vs. 754,000 in 2007. . . . . Carl Haub, senior demographer at the non-profit Population Reference Bureau, based in Washington, D.C., says the new marriage data reflects trends around the world, including rising numbers of those who have never married. The 2008 data show the percentage of women 15 and over who have never married was 28.1%, up from 27.6% in 2007 and 27.3% in 2006. Marriage duration is another new statistic, with the national average at about 18.2 years. "Many want to stay married until the children are independent or semi-independent," Haub says. "That certainly does make some sense. Some number people will stay together for the children. That timing might not be just a coincidence.". . .
  
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  Divorce in America: Ind., Fla. Counties Are Tops  Washington Post- AP, By Tamara Lush and Deanna Martin, September 24, 2009
  Divorce is as common in the Florida Keys as fresh grouper and cold beer. Census statistics released this week show that Monroe County - which includes the cluster of 1,700 islands floating off South Florida - has the second-highest proportion of divorced residents. A little more than 18 percent of the people living in Monroe County are divorced, second only to Indiana's Wayne County, which had 19 percent. Nationwide, 10.7 percent of people over 15 are divorced. Three of the top 10 counties the divorced call home are in Florida - rural Putnam County in Northeast Florida and urban Pinellas County on the Gulf Coast are the other two. Indiana had a total of three counties in the top 10 as well. Along with Wayne County, Floyd and Madison counties made the list. Newly released census figures show that while the number of unmarried people continued its 10-year climb, the ranks of married people in the United States rose by nearly 6 million last year, bucking a decade-long decline. The number of divorced people rose, but only slightly. . .
  
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  Census Bureau Releases 2008 American Community Survey Data  Census Bureau- Press Release, September 21, 2009
  The U.S. Census Bureau today released the latest American Community Survey (ACS) data, providing a statistical portrait of the characteristics of the nation’s population in 2008. . .
  
  
  

  Joke of the Day
Desperate times call for desperate measures...and who can deny how desperate some of our public schools have become across the globe. Listen, and have a good laugh to the voice mail greeting at a school where some parents have become, shall we say, less than exemplary. Some may be offended. But, surely, many will appreciate the unfortunate need for such a greeting ... and maybe even think of implementing some version thereof at their own schools. A reality check, for sure. . . Thanks to William.

• Levi Johnston's Story: Me and Mrs. Pailn  Vanity Fair, October 2009 Issue
  When his (pregnant) girlfriend’s mom ran for vice president and he was thrust into the national spotlight, Levi Johnston found his life spinning out of control. In an exclusive look back, the author tells editors at Vanity Fair about everyday life chez Palin—where the kids are in charge, Dad is threatening divorce, and Sarah the moose-hunting, stew-cooking hockey mom of legend is nowhere to be found. He also offers some eye-opening scenes from the campaign trail and the birth of his and Bristol’s baby. . . . Slightly more than one year ago—just before the utter collapse of the economy—John McCain stood on a podium at Wright State University, in Dayton, Ohio, to announce that his vice-presidential running mate would be Sarah Palin. Three days later, as many Americans were returning home from their Labor Day barbecues and picnics, McCain’s campaign announced that Palin’s unwed 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, was five months pregnant. In a statement released by the campaign, Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, said that Bristol was planning to marry the child’s father, her boyfriend of two and a half years, an 18-year-old former hockey star from her hometown of Wasilla. “Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child,” the statement read, “which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family.” That young man, Levi Johnston, made his one and only campaign appearance later that week at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. But Johnston would remain with the Palin family throughout the campaign and eventually live full-time in their house, from the end of November until late January, when he and Bristol ended their relationship. As both a frequent visitor to and temporary inhabitant of the Palin home, Johnston witnessed never-before-reported behavior from the woman who almost became vice president of the United States of America. In this account, as told to editors at Vanity Fair, Johnston paints a vivid portrait of his time with the Palins. He debunks commonly held notions about the closeness of their family; Sarah’s relationship with her husband, Todd; the “special love” she showed her special-needs infant, Trig; and even her self-professed prowess as a hunter and commitment as a hockey mom. This is Levi’s story. . .
  
  
  

• Lost in a World Without Courtship  Washington Post, By Michael Gerson, September 16, 2009
  There is a segment of society for whom traditional family values are increasingly irrelevant, and for whom spring-break sexual liberationism is increasingly costly: men and women in their 20s. This is the period of life in which society's most important social commitments take shape -- commitments that produce stability, happiness and children. But the facts of life for 20-somethings are challenging. Puberty -- mainly because of improved health -- comes steadily sooner. Sexual activity kicks off earlier. But the average age at which people marry has grown later; it is now about 26 for women, 28 for men. This opens a hormone-filled gap -- a decade and more of likely sexual activity before marriage. And for those in that gap, there is little helpful guidance from the broader culture. Brad Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, argues that the "courtship narrative" in the past was clear: dating, engagement, marriage, children. This narrative has been disrupted without being replaced, leaving many 20-somethings in a "relational wasteland." The casual sex promoted in advertising and entertainment often leads, in the real world of fragile hearts and STDs, to emotional and physical wreckage. But it doesn't seem realistic to expect most men and women to delay sex until marriage at 26 or 28. Such virtue is both admirable and possible -- but it can hardly be a general social expectation. So religious institutions, for example, often avoid this thorny topic, content to live with silence, hypocrisy and active singles groups. In the absence of a courtship narrative, young people have evolved a casual, ad hoc version of their own: cohabitation. From 1960 to 2007, the number of Americans cohabiting increased fourteenfold. For some, it is a test-drive for marriage. For others, it is an easier, low-commitment alternative to marriage. About 40 percent of children will now spend some of their childhood in a cohabiting union. How is this working out? Not very well. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  "The Case for Early Marriage."  Christianity Today, By Mark Regnerus, July 31, 2009
Amid our purity pledges and attempts to make chastity hip, we forgot to teach young Christians how to tie the knot.

RELATED ARTICLE:  Long Engagement vs. Short Engagement  Boundless, By Ted Slater on August 31, 2009
We received the following e-mail from a young woman wrestling with long engagements vs. short ones. I did a search on your website and all I came up with was an article called "Tips for Engagement," which briefly mentioned that short engagements can be good for a number of reasons, but didn't go into what those reasons are. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Banish the Honeymoon?  Boundless, By Tom Neven, August 28, 2009
It’s a familiar scene: the newlyweds driving off from the wedding reception, preparing to spend a romantic week or two in an exotic location such as Hawaii or Cancun — or maybe just a cabin on the lake. But what if the whole idea of going on a honeymoon is mistaken? Consider the underlying message this sends. After what is usually a public ceremony with friends and family, the newly minted husband and wife abruptly escape from the very community that helped them consecrate their vows. . .

• God's Design for Marriage
  Find the key to making your marriage flourish — just as God designed.  FOTF.org, By Carol Heffernan
  According to author Gary Thomas, we're not asking the right questions. What if your relationship isn't as much about you and your spouse as it is about you and God? Instead of asking why we have struggles in the first place, the more important issue is how we deal with them. In Sacred Marriage, Thomas has not written your typical "how to have a happier relationship" book. Rather, he asks: How can we use the challenges, joys, struggles and celebrations of marriage to draw closer to God? What if God designed marriage to make us both happy and holy? Viewing Marriage Realistically: "We have to stop asking of marriage what God never designed it to give — perfect happiness, conflict-free living, and idolatrous obsession," Thomas explains.Instead, he says, we can appreciate what God designed marriage to provide: partnership, spiritual intimacy and the ability to pursue God — together. So, what does Thomas think is the most common misconception Christians have about marriage? "Finding a 'soul mate' — someone who will complete us," he says. "The problem with looking to another human to complete us is that, spiritually speaking, it's idolatry. We are to find our fulfillment and purpose in God . . . and if we expect our spouse to be 'God' to us, he or she will fail every day. No person can live up to such expectations." Everyone has bad days, yells at his or her spouse, or is downright selfish. Despite these imperfections, God created the husband and wife to steer each other in His direction. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  Why Marriage Matters, Second Edition: Twenty-Six Conclusions from the Social Science  American Values.org
Sixteen of the top scholars on family life have re-issued a joint report on the importance of marriage. First released in 2002, the newly revised edition highlights five new themes in marriage-related research. Why Marriage Matters, Second Edition: 26 Conclusions from the Social Sciences was produced by a politically diverse and interdisciplinary group of leading family scholars, chaired by W. Bradford Wilcox of the University of Virginia and includes psychologist John Gottman, best selling author of books about marriage and relationships, Linda Waite, coauthor of The Case for Marriage, Norval Glenn and Steven Nock, two of the top family social scientists in the country, William Galston, a Clinton Administration domestic policy advisor, and Judith Wallerstein, author of the national bestseller The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce. . .


RELATED DOCUMENT (PDF):  21 Reasons Why Marriage Matters  FamilyFirst.org- New Zealand
Report released highlighting the benefits of marriage has been released in New Zealand. The report was commissioned by Family First NZ and FamilyLife NZ in conjunction with a number of family organisations in Australia including the Australian Family Association, Family Voice Australia and Dads4Kids and is an update of the report originally released in the US in 2002. . .

• DOJ defends 'incremental' shift on gay rights  Politico.com, By Ben Smith, September 18, 2009
  The Department of Justice today filed another very careful motion opposing a suit challenging the portion of the Defense of Marriage Act that bars married gays from getting federal benefits, eager not to reprise the uproar in the gay community at its first such brief in a California case. Justice's argument hinges on the argument that Constitutional interpretation permits Congress, in cases like these, "to address issues of social reform on a piecemeal, or incremental, basis" -- an echo, deliberate or not, of the arguments over "incremental" solutions in past civil rights battles. . . . . .The relatively narrow brief says that the court should rule that a "rational" Congress can choose to move slowly on marriage due to the "evolving nature of the issue":
  
  Under rational basis review, Congress is entitled to respond to new social mores one step at a time and to adjust national policy incrementally. DOMA reflects just such a response. It maintains the status quo on the national level and permits autonomy on the state level. . .
  
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  US asks court to dismiss challenge to marriage law  Associated Press, By Denise Lavoie, September 18, 2009
  The Justice Department on Friday asked a federal judge in Boston to dismiss a lawsuit that claims a federal law defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman is unconstitutional because it denies gay couples access to federal benefits given to other married couples. In court documents, the Justice Department makes it clear the Obama administration thinks the law is discriminatory and should be repealed. But the department said it was defending the statute because the law is "constitutionally permissible.". . . . .The Justice Department, however, argues that there is no fundamental right to marriage-based federal benefits and says Congress is entitled to address issues of social reform on an "incremental" basis. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  Defending DOMA   Townhall.com, By Harry R. Jackson, Jr., June 15, 2009
DOMA is a legitimate exercise of Congressional power under the Full Faith and Credit Clause and does not violate either the Equal Protection Clause or the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  An Open Letter to President Obama   Townhall.com, By Harry R. Jackson, July 13, 2009
The following is an excerpt from a letter that will be sent this week to President Obama from leaders in the African-American community. Two events have precipitated the writing of this letter.
1.    The President hosted a Stonewall Riot 40th anniversary celebration at the White House, when no such meeting has been afforded to African-American clergy to date.

2.    The legal attempt to overthrow the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that has come out of Massachusetts last week. . .

• Democrats Push to Repeal Federal Marriage Law
  The Respect for Marriage Act, unveiled by Reps. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Jared Polis, D-Colo, has the support of more than 90 lawmakers   FOX News.com, By Megan Whittemore, September 15, 2009
  A group of House Democrats introduced legislation Tuesday that would overturn a federal marriage law that denies recognition of gay marriage and gives states the right to refuse recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. Same-sex marriages are now legal in six states. The Respect for Marriage Act, unveiled by Reps. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Jared Polis, D-Colo, has the support of more than 90 lawmakers. The legislation would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a 1996 law signed by President Bill Clinton. This is the "first step to overturning DOMA," Nadler said, who called the law "irrational and hateful." . . . .  Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., an influential and openly gay lawmaker, favors repeal but has not signed on as a co-sponsor of Nadler's bill. Frank believes the legislation would have little chance of passage. Nadler acknowledged Frank's absence of support for the bill, but said they would move forward without him. . . .  . On the other side of the isle, Republican Rep. Paul Broun of Georgia, responded to congressional calls for the repeal of DOMA and urged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to consider his Marriage Protection Amendment. “The Defense of Marriage Act was signed into law 13 years ago by a Democratic President because lawmakers began to see the assault on traditional marriage," Broun said in a statement. "Over a decade later, traditional marriage – a principle tenant in our Judeo-Christian values - is under assault more than ever before," he continued. "This is why I was extremely disappointed to see my liberal colleagues introduce legislation today to repeal the bipartisan Defense of Marriage Act." . . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  Uncertain Prospects for Repeal of DOMA  Newsweek, By Katie Connolly, Spetember 15, 2009
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) today introduced a bill seeking to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which was first passed in 1996. Nadler's bill has 91 cosponsors. Not among them is openly gay Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, who basically said the bill won't go anywhere. According to the New England gay newspaper Bay Windows, Frank says that Nadler's legislation "has zero chance of passage, even out of committee. It's a mistake." . . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  Stealing Liberty    Townhall.com, By Harry R. Jackson, Jr., September 14, 2009
The truth is that the gay community has “manipulated” the political process through extravagant campaign contributions and strategically infiltrating the city’s Democratic Party’s hierarchy over the last five years. DC council members have ironically participated in the suppression of the citizens’ right to vote in order to advance a privileged minority’s pet issue. This has been done in the name of “civil rights.” If anybody knows what civil rights are, it would have been my father, who was threatened at gunpoint by a state trooper for his participation in voting registration efforts in the South. . . . . In DC, gay activists enjoy better education, better jobs, better housing, greater access to the system, and now – legislative power. Something is wrong when the privileged feign that they are the persecuted, when the powerful posture themselves as victims. . .


RELATED ARTICLE: Love in the Mirror  Boundless magazine, By Michael Lawrence, September 17, 2009
There's a lot of discussion these days about the causes of same-sex attraction (SSA). Some claim it's genetic — you're born straight or gay. Others say you develop SSA in response to external factors and personal choices. I have no intention of settling that debate here. Personally, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it turns out to be a highly complex combination of nature and nurture, internal and external factors. After all, sexual desire and the behavior it engenders are some of the most profoundly powerful and mysterious characteristics of human beings. In this article, I want to do something more modest than try to explain the causes of same-sex attraction. I want to make a single observation about this complex issue, particularly as I've observed it in the lives of men. Over the years, I've noticed that at least some homosexual desires and behavior seem to share a common focus — the self. More than being about the love of someone of the same sex, homosexuality often seems to be the sexualized love of oneself, projected on to another. . . . .Bottom-line: If you want to put to death homosexual sin, you can't just focus on the sex. You've got to get at the root. . . .



RELATED ARTICLE:  Sexual Compassion  Boundless magazine, By Gary Thomas, September 16, 2009
"Mark" and I were in the same small group in college. Mark had freely shared his struggles regarding sexual orientation, and on one trip out of town, he pointed to a guy and said, "That was my first infatuation." I was floored, in part because Mark talked about his first infatuation in the same way I'd describe mine with a girl. It wasn't just physical desire; he really felt toward guys what I felt toward young women. As we shared our individual struggles, one reality became painfully clear. My desire for sexual purity would soon be aided by God's best remedy: I was about a year away from marrying my wife. Mark knew he might never be able to marry; his struggle for sexual purity could mean abstinence for his entire adult life. Mark didn't "choose" to become infatuated with other men. He told me several times, "If I could flip a switch and be sexually attracted to females, I'd do it in a second. You think I'd choose this struggle?" His family of origin was almost text-book for many struggling homosexuals, so I didn't have a difficult time believing him. Mark wasn't helped by supposed Christians who tried to convince him that there was a way he could be obedient to God and practice homosexuality. They may have thought they were being kind, but Mark is too intelligent to believe the more-than-dubious arguments that try to explain away Scripture's clear mandate that holy sexuality is limited to a man and a woman who are married for life. Mark understood that we have no right to "edit" Scripture. Part of being humble is accepting our Creator's clear teaching about how life should be lived and how it shouldn't be lived, including God's mandates for sexual expression. Sexual Frustration: It's not just gays who struggle with unfulfilled sexual desires. . .

• Patrick Swayze, Hollywood's Dirty Dancer, Dead at 57  E! Online, By Joal Ryan, September 14, 2009
  Johnny Castle. Sam Wheat. Fighter. Patrick Swayze, the movie star whose iconic roles in Dirty Dancing and Ghost transcended and the man whose perseverance in the face of advanced cancer inspired, died today in Los Angeles. He was 57. "One thing I'm not gonna do is chase staying alive," Swayze told Barbara Walters in January. "You spend so much time chasing staying alive, you won't live." At the time, Swayze guessed he had two more years to live. Swayze was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in early 2008. Despite the gloom and doom of initial tabloid reports, Swayze went on to star in the A&E cop drama The Beast. "I'm a miracle, dude. I don't know why," Swayze was quoted as saying shortly before he began work on the series. Still, not one to sugarcoat the toll the disease took on him, Swayze told Walters the show's summer 2008 shoot was hell. . .
  
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  Patrick Swayze was the ultimate romantic lead: In ‘Dirty Dancing’ and ‘Ghost,’ he projected vulnerability and strength   MSNBC.com, September 14, 2009
  Patrick Swayze did action movies and historical drama. He even hosted a well-regarded episode of “Saturday Night Live.” But he will be best remembered for being the leading man in two enormously popular romantic fantasies: one where he was the first-love fantasy, and one where he was the perfect-martyr fantasy. . .
  
  
  RELATED PHOTO ESSAY:  Patrick & Lisa: A Love Story  People magazine, September 15, 2009
  Soulmates and life partners, Swayze and his wife were each other's pillars of strength during 34 years of marriage.
  
  
  RELATED RESOURCE:  Patrick Swayze 1952- 2009  People magazine

RELATED VIDEO:  Patrick Swayze dies at 57  MSNBC.com, By Linda Holmes, September 14, 2009
A publicist for Patrick Swayze says the actor has died of pancreatic cancer. NBC's George Lewis reports.


RELATED VIDEO:  Swayze Speaks Out About His Cancer ABC.com, January 6, 2009


RELATED VIDEO:  Patrick Swayze Last Interview with Barbara Walters — Part 1   2,  3,  4,  5

RELATED ARTICLE:  "In Sickness and in Health..." It's for more than just the flu"  Editorial- The Real Proposal magazine, By Donna Kassin, June 24, 2009
On May 19, 2009, my husband died. He was 57. As foreign and inconceivable as these words still appear to my present consciousness, I have awakened each morning since to this stark reality with the deepest and near palpable sense of loss imaginable. I not only loved my husband. I was also still very much in love with him when he died, which is what, perhaps, has tipped the scales towards my ultimate acknowledgement that this profound experience of losing a spouse is nothing akin to a divorce. After the failure of my first marriage, I had come to the unfortunate conclusion that divorce was like a death, except the person from whom you were now divorced was still very much alive. Now, I realize the falsity of that conclusion as I am humbly and indelibly struck by the finality of “till death do us part..."  Over the past year or so, I have watched with careful interest the struggles with cancer of the late, former White House press secretary, Tony Snow, "Last Lecture" sensation Randy Pausch, and UK reality-TV celebrity Jade Goody, as well as actors Patrick Swayze and Farrah Fawcett, and certainly identified closely with different aspects of their much-publicized scenarios as only one who is “walking the walk” can. To be sure, I was not the one diagnosed with colorectal cancer that later metastasized to the liver and to both lungs; it was my husband. But I had become his fierce and unwavering advocate, determined to remain one step ahead of his current treatment options and beat this “mistress” that threatened to consume and snatch him away at will. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Taking Their Lives into Their Own Hands  Gainesville Sun, By Lauren Levy- Newsies Contributing Writer, April 17, 2009
When my father was diagnosed with colorectal cancer four years ago, I was not aware of the journey this would take my family on. . . . . . Throughout this process, it has become evident that patients, especially when dealing with multidisciplinary diseases like cancer, need to be thoroughly proactive when it comes to their health care treatments; simply relying on the diagnoses of their doctors without doing their own research can cost them their lives. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Coping when a partner has a terminal illness: Confronting a fatal illness in a partner can put intolerable strain on a couple. But society expects saint-like behaviour  Times Online- UK, August 28, 2008

• Facebook Gives Birth to the Retrosexual
  Facebook Reunites Long Lost Crushes  TIME magazine, By Peter Arkle, September 21, 2009 Issue
  Elise Garber married the first boy she ever kissed. She met him at an Outward Bound--style summer-camp program when she was 15, she "sort of dated" him for the summer, and then, like most teenage romances, it ended. Twenty-two years later, they met again on Facebook. "I don't know why I looked him up," says the 37-year-old former advertising-agency executive in Chicago. Garber was showing a co-worker how Facebook works, and to demonstrate the search function--a feature that allows users to search for the names of people they know--she entered Harlan Robins, the name of the first boy she kissed. At the prodding of her co-worker, Garber sent Robins a message. And then she waited. Would he respond? Would he accept her friend request? Was it weird to contact an old summer-camp boyfriend? As Facebook users have begun to skew older--the website is now as popular with 30-, 40- and 50-somethings as with the college students who pioneered it--they have found ways to reconnect with one another. And who better to get in touch with than an old flame? "Facebook makes it easier for you to take that first step of finding someone again," explains Rainer Romero-Canyas, a psychology research scientist at Columbia University. "It has finally provided a way for people to reach out to someone without fear of rejection." The Boston Phoenix even coined a term, retrosexuals, for people who are taking the plunge into recycled love. "It was like opening a time capsule,". . . . . .Most retrosexual experiences seem to spring from an intense, almost uncontrollable mixture of nostalgia and interest . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  The first cut IS the deepest: There's nothing quite like first love, just don't try to relive it ...  The Daily Mail- UK, By Lucy Cavendish, August 27, 2009
We had the best fun anyone could possibly have. Like most teenage couples, however, we decided we were too young to carry on. Were there not other people out there we might love? I think this is how we both felt, even if it was with a sense of regret. Yet, in truth, no one forgets their first love. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  Why you should snoop on your spouse online: Sex therapist Ian Kerner says it might be painful, but it’s better to know  
MSNBC.com- Today, By Ian Kerner, Ph.D., September 17, 2009
After writing a column last month on the subject of Facebook and why you should unfriend your spouse, I received no shortage of e-mails — many of which were from people who vehemently disagreed with me — and so I thought it would be worthwhile to address the subject of Internet infidelity in greater depth. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Facebook and Your Marriage: Is Facebook a Cyber Threat to Your Marriage?   Marriage Junkie.com, By K. Jason & Kelli Krafsky, January 22, 2009
Ever since the internet has become a regular part of the human experience, cyberspace has been implicated as an accomplice in online affairs, real life adultery, and the break-up marriages. With every new online fad have come the stories of spouses wandering away from their marriage to a new cyber love interest.  Media has spotlighted tales and trends of online affairs starting through chat rooms, MySpace, Second Life, websites and online forums. Is Facebook, the world’s fastest growing online social network, just another in a long list of cyber threats to your marriage?. . .  


RELATED ARTICLE:  Facebook and Your Marriage: How Facebook Can Improve Your Marriage  Marriage Junkie.com, By K. Jason & Kelli Krafsky, January 23, 2009
Facebook has become the new method of communication for people of all ages.  It is a convenient way to keep in touch with friends, family, old acquaintances, and childhood pals. So, whether you are an active Facebook user or have a tepid interest in joining one of the largest online social networks in the world, how can Facebook improve and enhance your marriage? As a married couple and regular users of Facebook, this communication vehicle has helped us connect with each other more when we’re both online and sparked meaningful conversations about our FB friends when we’re face-to-face. We have also found Facebook to be more fun and interactive then simply texting or emailing with one another.  It is much more dynamic. Here are five practical ways to improve your relationship through Facebook. . .


RELATED RESOURCE: MarriageJunkie
Ramblings of a Marriage Junkie is the regular fix for those committed to reviving marriage & reducing divorce!


RELATED RESOURCE:  Full Marriage experience 

• The Ten Commandments on 'Nightline'
  New Series Explores the Biblical Commandments From Modern Day Perspective  ABC News.com, September 14, 2009
  Can you list the Ten Commandments? Which of these biblical laws did you break or honor today? ABC News' "Nightline" takes an unprecedented in-depth look at the Ten Commandments in a new series to launch Thursday, Sept. 24 at 11:35 p.m. ET. The program's anchors and correspondents will tackle each of the commandments, looking at what they mean, and how they apply to life in the 21st century. The series launches with "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery." Co-anchor Cynthia McFadden moderates a "Nightline" "Face-Off" with one big question: Were we "born to cheat?" Participants include: Pastor Ed Young of the Fellowship Church in Dallas, Jonathan Daugherty of Be Broken Ministries, Jenny Block, author of "Open: Love, Sex, and Life in an Open Marriage," and Noel Biderman, CEO of ashleymadison.com, a Web site for people who want to cheat on their partners. For "Remember to Keep the Sabbath Holy,"correspondent Vicki Mabrey profiles Chick Fil-A, the successful fast food chain that is closed on Sundays. Mabrey sits down with Chick Fil-A CEO Dan Cathy near Dallas, who explains why being closed on Sunday makes great business sense. For "There is Only One God," "Nightline" correspondent John Donvan travels to Egypt and Israel in search of the real story of the commandments and their creation. For "Thou Shalt Not Kill," ABC News Correspondent Nick Watt interviews the Dr. Death of New Zealand. When is euthanasia justified? "Nightline's" series, "The Ten Commandments," begins airing Thursday, Sept. 24 at 11:35 p.m. ET. . .

RELATED VIDEO:  The Ten Commandments: Which Commandment are you breaking?  ABC News- Nightline, September 14, 2009

RELATED ARTICLE:  Grapevine church to host debate on whether adultery can lead to stronger marriage  The Dallas Morning News, By Jordan Hofeditz, September 17, 2009
 People have been questioning for some time what makes a healthy marriage. For Ed Young, pastor of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, one answer is to have sex with one's spouse. For Noel Biderman, founder of the Web site AshleyMadison.com, the answer is to have sex with someone else. The two will debate sex in a healthy marriage at 6:30 p.m. at Young's Fellowship Church, 450 N. Highway 121 in Grapevine. The meeting comes after both parties said they were invited by ABC News to participate in a broadcast that explores the Ten Commandments. The two men have attracted national media attention – Young for calling married couples to reconnect with a week of sex, and Biderman for claiming that his Web site, which offers married men and women anonymity to pursue affairs, has saved more marriages than it has destroyed. Biderman said that while several news programs have attempted to pit his business against a church group, this is the first time a face-to-face debate will actually happen. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  “Who Are You to Judge Others?” - In Defense of Making Moral Judgments  
It’s been said that the most frequently quoted Bible verse is no longer John 3:16 but Matthew 7:1: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”  We cannot glibly quote this, though, without understanding what Jesus meant.  When Jesus condemned judging, he wasn’t at all implying we should never make judgments about anyone.  After all, a few verses later, Jesus himself calls certain people “pigs” and “dogs” (Matt. 7:6) and “wolves in sheep’s clothing” (7:15)!  Any act of church discipline (1 Cor. 5:5) and rebuking false prophets (1 John 4:1) requires judgment.  What Jesus condemns is a critical and judgmental spirit, an unholy sense of moral superiority.  Jesus commanded us to examine ourselves first for the problems we so easily see in others.  Only then can we help remove the speck in another’s eye—which, incidentally, assumes that a problem exists and must be confronted.1  But let’s take a closer look at this charge that Christians are judgmental when we speak out on moral issues. . . . .Closely tied to the notion of “judgment” is “tolerance.”  Although many accuse absolutists of intolerance, these accusers most likely have an unclear and distorted notion of what tolerance really is.  They often are unaware that the concept of tolerance implies a close relationship to truth. Contrary to popular definitions, true tolerance means “putting up with error”—not “being accepting of all views.”. . .

• 9/11/09: How Has Your Perspective Changed?  Huffington Post, By Rick Smith, September 11, 2009
  All the world is a stage, and we are merely players. With the horrific and all-consuming events of the last few days, it has never been more undeniably evident that as players, we do all indeed share the same stage. I am not a professional writer or commentator. These words are merely the offering of a minor player on this grand stage. I was one of more than a million passengers in the air when tragedy struck, landing in Washington DC just as a plane attacked the Pentagon. . . . . Early in my career, I enjoyed many successes. But with greater responsibility and financial rewards came an increasing conflict between my career and family. My travel schedule had expanded to five, sometimes even six days a week. Then one day I had an epiphany, thanks to my two-year old daughter. I had returned late on a Friday night from yet another week of travel, too late to put my kids to bed. Saturday morning, my daughter woke up and ran to me in the kitchen, exclaiming "Daddy, Daddy, thanks for coming to visit!" My wife and I sat there dumbfounded, saying nothing. I called my employer that weekend and resigned. Reflecting on this incident, I often refer to it as "a two-by-four from GOD," a moment so startling it was as if the hand of God himself reached down and smacked me on the head. Life has a way of settling into the incremental. We are rarely faced with life altering choices, but rather minor decisions to move slightly to the left, to the right, or perhaps more often to simply just plow ahead. That Saturday morning with my daughter, I realized I had just been given a great gift. The opportunity to stand back from all the elements that made up my everyday life, and ask myself - is this what I really want? Now, with three beautiful children and a fulfilling marriage, I could not be more grateful for the choices that resulted from the powerful, innocent wisdom of a child. Today, America by many measures is the leading nation in the world, and yet we, too seem lost. . .
  
  
  
  

• Jodie Foster devastated after being dumped by lesbian lover  The Daily Mail- UK, By Phil Boucher, September 11, 2009
  Jodie Foster has been reportedly dumped by her lesbian partner. Cindy Mort apparently left the double Oscar winner and walked out of the couple’s LA home following a series of heated rows - and reignited her romance with ex-girlfriend Amanda Demme. Ms Mort previously left her former lover to be with the actress. She is a writer/producer and met Foster on the set of the film, The Brave One, in 2006. The 46-year-old actress was, according to reports in U.S. magazine the National Enquirer, devastated after the 34-year-old left her. Sources close to Foster have revealed that she is miserable from her split. It could mean an uncomfortable return to the spotlight for the famously reclusive actress. . . . . . The actress - whose received two Best Actress Oscars for her role as a rape victim in the 1989 film The Accused and as a FBI trainee in the 1991 smash hit The Silence of the Lambs - was brought up in a lesbian family. Her mother, film producer Brandy Almond, and her father, retired air force colonel Lucius Foster, broke up before her birth and her mother later lived with another woman. The latest split comes just two years after the very private Miss Foster, 46, openly acknowledged her long-time partnership with film producer Miss Cydney Bernard. The couple had two children together - Kit, six, and Charlie, nine – who Miss Foster conceived through IVF. Miss Bernard, 54, was present throughout both labours later adopted the boys to complete the family unit. While they were not known to have officially formed a civil partnership, the couple openly sported matching Tiffany eternity rings on their wedding fingers. Their 15-year relationship became public knowledge when the actress accepted an award in December 2007 and referred to Miss Bernard as 'my beautiful Cydney, who sticks with me through the rotten and the bliss.' However the couple then split last year. . .
  
  
  

RELATED ARTICLE: So why HAS Jodie Foster left her lesbian lover of 15 years?  The Daily Mail- UK, By Alison Boshoff, May 27, 2008
It was revealed that Jodie Foster, the charismatic and discreet movie star, had dramatically ditched Cydney Bernard - her lesbian lover of more than 15 years - for a flavour-of-the-month writer who could not be more different from her former girlfriend. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Jodie Foster comes out with emotional tribute to her girlfriend of 14 years  The Daily Mail- UK, By David Gardner, December 12, 2007

RELATED VIDEO:  Report Finds Change in Orientation is Possible  FOTF, July 08, 2009
People who are highly motivated can change their sexual orientation, according to a review of a century's worth of research. In the Focus Action Update, Stuart Shepard talks with Melissa Fryrear, who knows from personal personal experience that change is possible. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  Pro-Homosexual Researchers Conceal Findings: Children Raised by Openly Homosexual Parents More Likely to Engage in Homosexuality  By Trayce Hansen, Ph.D.
Research by social scientists, although not definitive, suggests that children reared by openly homosexual parents are far more likely to engage in homosexual behavior than children raised by others. Studies thus far find between 8% and 21% of homosexually parented children ultimately identify as non-heterosexual. For comparison purposes, approximately 2% of the general population are non-heterosexual. Therefore, if these percentages continue to hold true, children of homosexuals have a 4 to 10 times greater likelihood of developing a non-heterosexual preference than other children. Some researchers who uncovered sexual preference differences between homosexually and heterosexually parented children, nonetheless declared in their research summaries that no differences were found. Many believe they concealed their findings so as not to harm their own pro-homosexual, sociopolitical agendas. All social scientists who conduct research in this emotionally-charged area have personal biases. That's a given. But if the authors of these studies want to be regarded as scientists, and not activists, they must set aside their biases and straightforwardly present their findings. Regardless, no one should be surprised that homosexual parents are more likely to raise homosexual children. . .


RELATED  ARTICLE (PDF):  Female Homosexual Development  NARTH.com
It is often claimed that sexual orientation is an innate and normal variation of sexuality and therefore immutable or unchangeable aspect of a person's core self or identity. But there is no conclusive evidence that female homosexuality is innate or solely genetic or biologically based. Most respected scientists agree that homosexuality is due to a combination of social, psychological, and biological factors. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Jewish Psychiatrist, Influenced by C.S. Lewis, Says Gays Can Change: An Interview with Dr. Jeffrey Satinover  NARTH.com, By David W. Virtue (www.virtueonline.org), April 30, 2009
His book explodes three myths: First, as a matter of biology, homosexuality is an innate genetically determined aspect of the human body. Secondly, as a matter of psychology, homosexuality is irreversible. Thirdly, as a matter of sociology, homosexuality is normal. His book also explores the tactics of intimidation by gay activists. . . . . . Currently, Satinover said a recent article in a psychiatric publication informed us that 30% of all 20-year-old homosexual men would be HIV- positive or dead by the age of thirty. You would think that the objective, ethical medical approach would be: let's use anything that works to try to take these people out of their posture of risk. If it means getting them to wear condoms, fine. If it means getting them to give up anal intercourse, fine. If it means getting them to give up homosexuality, fine. That last intervention is the one intervention that is absolutely taboo. In America, truth has become subject to terrible political pressure. The question isn't just homosexuality, but rather, freedom from all sexual constraint. This has been an issue for civilization for thousands of years. . .

• Princess Caroline 'to divorce third husband', reigniting fears of a Monaco royal curse  The Daily Mail- Uk, By Peter Allen, September 11, 2009
  Princess Caroline of Monaco appeared to be heading for the divorce courts today, prompting fears that a centuries-old curse on her family had struck again. The 52-year-old is effectively living a separate life from her husband of ten years, the colourful Prince Ernst of Hanover, 55, who once insulted the Queen by kissing her at a royal banquet. The unhappy split is in line with a superstitious belief that no member of the House of Grimaldi, which has ruled Monaco since the 13th century, can have a happy marriage. Caroline, who has already lost two husbands, has moved out of the family chateau in Fountainbleau, south of Paris, and gone back to the Mediterranean Principality. . . . . .The super-rich Monaco royal family was initially cursed in 1297 after the first Grimaldi, Francesco the Spiteful, tricked the principality's defenders by disguising himself as a monk seeking sanctuary, only to murder them. The curse decreed that the family will never have long and successful marriages. . . . . .Caroline's sister, Princess Stephanie, is another notorious hell raiser who appears to have suffered under the Grimaldi curse. Stephanie had two children with Daniel Ducruet, her bodyguard, before marrying and then divorcing him. Stephanie then had a third child, reputedly by another bodyguard, and then married a circus acrobat before divorcing him too. And Caroline's brother, the reigning Prince Albert of Monaco, still shows no sign of marrying or producing an heir, despite being 51 and having at least two illegitimate children around the world, including one whose mother was an air hostess from Togo. . . . . Other tragic events which have been attributed to the Grimaldi curse have included the death in a mysterious 1982 car crash of Caroline's mother, Princess Grace, the former Hollywood film star Grace Kelly. . .
  
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  When Royal Lust Was Reason to Brag   Los Angeles Times- CA, By Eleanor Herman, May 12, 2005
  There was no comment from the palace last week when the French magazine Paris Match broke the story that Prince Albert of Monaco had fathered a son, now 21 months old, with an African woman named Nicole Coste. . . Nor is this the only paternity claim looming over the 47-year-old bachelor prince. A week after Albert became ruler of Monaco on April 6, an American woman announced that he is the father of her 13-year-old daughter, but she has refused to allow a paternity test. . .
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  Royal News Prince Albert Of Monaco Angry At Tell All Revelations   FemaleFirst.co.uk- UK,  May 10, 2005
  . . . Royal biographer Frederic Laurent, who is also a close friend of the prince, described the former air hostess's interview as "treachery" against the ruling monarch. He said: "Albert had promised to do the right thing and acknowledge the baby, but only after the mourning was over. .

RELATED ARTICLE:  New mum Nicole Kidman warned she could turn barren after breaking taboo of playing didgeridoo  The Daily Mail- UK, By Richard Shears, December 16, 2008
Nicole Kidman has been warned by Aborigines who say she will not be able to have more children because she broke a sacred taboo by playing a didgeridoo on German television. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  Dealing With Curses, Hexes And Spells  Asian Internet Bible Institute
Curses are an unusual topic, but they are real, you can even buy numerous books on how to curse people in most bookstores especially New Age bookstores. They are now part of "teenage witch" type TV programs. However curses are not playthings and are profoundly emotionally disturbing for those who experience them. They are not just angry words or swear words; they are acts of power in the spiritual realm. Curses are mentioned over 200 times in Scripture, and were foundational to the Old Covenant (see Deuteronomy 28-30). God Himself was the first one to pronounce curses – on the earth, on Eve’s fertility and upon the serpent. Curses are not just a primitive superstition; they are spiritual pronouncements recorded in Scripture, that profoundly affect the very structure of reality in some way. . . . The good news is that breaking curses can be surprisingly easy for Christians because we dwell under the protection of the blood of Jesus Christ. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Spiritual Warfare and Breaking Curses  Christian-Faith.com, Posted by Michael, February 5, 2007
Neglecting this vital area will cost you more than you can possibly calculate, especially you or your immediate forefathers have been involved in any kind of idolatry or occultism.


RELATED ARTICLE:  How to Break Curses  Christian-Faith.com
Primary reason for curses:. . . . Indications of Curses:. . . Reasons for Curses: . . .. Sources of curses. . . How to be released from the curse. . .

• Want the dream marriage? Then sleep in separate beds  The Daily Mail- UK, By Fiona Macrae, September 10, 2009
  The secret to a long and happy marriage could be having separate beds, an expert on sleep claims. Not only will a couple escape arguments over duvet-hogging and fidgeting, but they will have a proper night's rest. This will have a huge impact on both their health and the relationship as poor sleep increases the risk of stroke, heart disease and divorce, said Dr Neil Stanley. The consultant, who set up sleep laboratories at Surrey University, said: 'Poor sleep is bad for your physical, mental and emotional health. There is no good thing about poor sleep. 'If you sleep perfectly well together, then don't change. But don't be afraid to relocate.' If a husband or wife snores, twin beds might not be an option either, and they should sleep in separate bedrooms, he told the British Science Festival. Dr Stanley, who follows his own advice and sleeps in a different room to his wife, said that double beds are just not conducive to a good night's sleep. He said the tradition of the marital bed began with the industrial revolution, when people moved into cities and found themselves short of living space. Before the Victorian era it was not uncommon for married couples to sleep apart. He said that now the British way is to have a 4ft 6in double bed. 'A standard single bed is 2ft 6in or 3ft, that means you have nine inches less sleeping space in bed than your child does in theirs. . . . . . Dr Stanley said the argument that it is comforting to sleep beside someone else holds little water. He said: 'Sleep is the most selfish thing we can do. People say that they like the feeling of having their partner next to them when they are asleep. But you have to be awake to feel that. 'We all know what it is like to sleep in a bed with somebody and have a cuddle. 'But at one point you say, "I'm going to go to sleep now". . .
  
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  After ten years of snore wars and duvet snaffling, separate beds saved our marriage!  The Daily Mail- UK, September 10, 2009
  Separate beds may be the secret to a happy marriage, according to a sleep expert. Dr Neil Stanley of Surrey University says couples who sleep apart get a proper night's rest, reducing the risk of stroke, heart disease and divorce. But can it transform a relationship? FLIC EVERETT, 39, and her husband SIMON BUCKLEY, 43, from Manchester, had marital problems until they retreated to separate beds. . .
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  The Price of Advice:  Before you act on unsolicited marital pointers, consider the source.  Christianity Today- Marriage Partnership, By Alicia Howe
  If there were a 100-percent-reliable manual for marital success, I'm sure it would have a lengthy chapter on advice. As far as I'm concerned, that chapter should be indexed like this: Advice (see "minefield"). Taking advice from others and applying it indiscriminately to your marriage is like walking into a minefield: one wrong step and it can blow up in your face. I have the emotional shrapnel to prove it. . . . .What works in one marriage isn't necessarily the best formula for another. That's why I'm suspicious of anyone who offers unsolicited advice about another's marriage. Who could possibly know enough about the complex dynamics of a marriage relationship to offer unasked-for advice and expect it to be useful? Over the years I've grown a lot more discriminating about taking advice. For one thing, I seek it only from people whose judgment I trust. . . . . My marriage is too precious to be undermined by other people's agendas. Humans are fallible, and even the best-intentioned advice can still be bad advice. . .
  
  
  
  

• Parents honor dead son's wish, wed at end of his funeral
  7-year-old Asa Hill had asked his parents over and over to get married   CNN.com, September 08, 2009
  Story Highlights:  
  * The boy died last week after being injured in traffic accident
  * As parents dealt with his death, they decided to marry at the end of his funeral
  * Wedding came as a joyous surprise to mourners who filled the church
  
  Asa Hill was 7 years old when he died. Although the boy was pulled out of a burning car alive in a horrific accident on the Niagara Thruway on Thursday, his injuries proved critical, and he passed away the following night. The Buffalo, New York, community, shaken, turned out in large numbers at his funeral Monday to support his parents, Amilcar Hill and Rahwa Ghirmatzion, and were pleasantly surprised when the couple ended the service with a wedding ceremony, a fulfillment of their son's wish. The Rev. Joel Miller of The Unitarian Universalist Church of Elmwood, where the service was held, was unsure at first when the idea of a wedding was proposed by the couple and their family. "I asked twice, 'We're doing a wedding?' This was new for me. I never did a funeral service and a wedding ceremony at the same time, and normally wouldn't, but they have known each other since they were teens," Miller said. "And they had been providing for Asa, and they made a home together for all of Asa's life. ... It was clear they were following through on something they had been talking about for some time." . . .
  
  
  RELATED VIDEO:  Funeral turns to wedding  CNN.com-WKBW, Ginger Geoffery reports.
  A little boy's wish comes true as his parents get married during his funeral.
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  Child's death doesn't have to kill a marriage  Detroit Free Press, By Leanne Italie, September 13, 2009
  One left turn was the difference between normal and the new normal for Patricia Loder. She was almost home in Milford on the first day of spring 1991, turning left on a road like any other, when a speeding motorcyclist sideswiped her car and killed her two children, Stephanie, 8, and Stephen, 5. . .
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE: Is There Hope for the American Marriage?  TIME magazine, By Caitlin Flanagan, July 02, 2009
  An increasingly fragile construct depending less and less on notions of sacrifice and obligation than on the ephemera of romance and happiness as defined by and for its adult principals, the intact, two-parent family remains our cultural ideal, but it exists under constant assault. It is buffeted by affairs and ennui, subject to the eternal American hope for greater happiness, for changing the hand you dealt yourself. Getting married for life, having children and raising them with your partner — this is still the way most Americans are conducting adult life, but the numbers who are moving in a different direction continue to rise. Most notably, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in May that births to unmarried women have reached an astonishing 39.7%. How much does this matter? More than words can say. There is no other single force causing as much measurable hardship and human misery in this country as the collapse of marriage. . . . . .Few things hamper a child as much as not having a father at home. "As a feminist, I didn't want to believe it," says Maria Kefalas, a sociologist who studies marriage and family issues and co-authored a seminal book on low-income mothers called Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage. "Women always tell me, 'I can be a mother and a father to a child,' but it's not true." Growing up without a father has a deep psychological effect on a child. "The mom may not need that man," Kefalas says, "but her children still do.". . .
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Finding Out He Cheated, After He Died  AOL Health, By Karen Asp
  Becoming a widow at 43 was enough to rock Julie Metz's world. But the worst was yet to come, as she details in her book "Perfection."
  Being widowed is a tough enough burden to bear, especially with a six-year-old child to care for. But for Julie Metz, the sudden death of her husband Henry was only the tip of the iceberg. Six months after his passing, she learned shocking news: For years, Henry had betrayed their marriage, having several affairs, including a relationship with one of their friends. The news sent Metz reeling, and to cope, she began to keep a journal. That journal became the impetus for her candid memoir, Perfection (Voice, 2009). AOL Health recently had the opportunity to chat with Metz about her book.
  
  AOL Health: Why did you write "Perfection"?
  
  Julie Metz: I think women are struggling with this idea of perfection: Perfect bodies, relationships, kids, jobs, and houses. The pressure to be perfect creates misery and shame and ultimately leads women to make poor choices as they try to hide parts of themselves or their lives they feel are less than perfect. I had to confront that aspect of my life, and I wanted to find a way to redefine the word "perfection."
  
  AOL Health: When friends first told you of Henry's affairs six months after his death, what was your first reaction? . . .

READ AN EXCERPT: Perfection, A Memoir of Betrayal and Renewal  ABC News

RELATED ARTICLE:  At Home With Julie Metz: One Dead Husband and 5 Other Women   New York Times, By Joyce Walder, June 24, 2009
Seated on a small couch in her Park Slope apartment, drinking tea and wearing a muted dress of lavender and brown, Julie Metz appears to be a tranquil and composed slip of a thing. This is impressive, since she is recalling the time after her husband’s death, when, learning of the five women with whom he’d had affairs, she tracked them down, called and confronted them, and tore their little hearts out. It is possible Ms. Metz has expatiated some rage in her book, “Perfection: A Memoir of Betrayal and Renewal” (Voice, 2009), which makes its debut on the New York Times best-seller list this week. But one still expects a raised voice, a tear, perhaps even a dramatic hand gesture that would send the scones and strawberries she has so graciously put out on a tray flying clear across the room. Especially when the conversation turns to the former friend Ms. Metz identifies in her book as Cathy, who, in an act of extraordinary cheating chutzpah, arranged for Ms. Metz and her husband to seek marriage counseling with her very own therapist. The women’s 6-year-old daughters were also best friends. The morning Ms. Metz learned of the affair, her daughter was staying over at Cathy’s house. Ms. Metz vividly describes the confrontation in her book, in language one cannot use, or even allude to, in a family newspaper. “How can you feel love for a woman in friendship and” — (oops, we’ll just have to delete that section), Ms. Metz writes. “What kind of woman does that and thinks she is being a friend? A psycho case, that’s who. You disgust me. You’re like poison.” No exclamation marks, you’ll note. . .

• The Evolution of Divorce   National Affairs, By W. Bradford Wilcox, Fall 2009
  In 1969, Governor Ronald Reagan of California made what he later admitted was one of the biggest mistakes of his political life. Seeking to eliminate the strife and deception often associated with the legal regime of fault-based divorce, Reagan signed the nation's first no-fault divorce bill. The new law eliminated the need for couples to fabricate spousal wrongdoing in pursuit of a divorce; indeed, one likely reason for Reagan's decision to sign the bill was that his first wife, Jane Wyman, had unfairly accused him of "mental cruelty" to obtain a divorce in 1948. But no- fault divorce also gutted marriage of its legal power to bind husband and wife, allowing one spouse to dissolve a marriage for any reason -- or for no reason at all. In the decade and a half that followed, virtually every state in the Union followed California's lead and enacted a no-fault divorce law of its own. This legal transformation was only one of the more visible signs of the divorce revolution then sweeping the United States: From 1960 to 1980, the divorce rate more than doubled -- from 9.2 divorces per 1,000 married women to 22.6 divorces per 1,000 married women. This meant that while less than 20% of couples who married in 1950 ended up divorced, about 50% of couples who married in 1970 did. And approximately half of the children born to married parents in the 1970s saw their parents part, compared to only about 11% of those born in the 1950s. In the years since 1980, however, these trends have not continued on straight upward paths, and the story of divorce has grown increasingly complicated. In the case of divorce, as in so many others, the worst consequences of the social revolution of the 1960s and '70s are now felt disproportionately by the poor and less educated, while the wealthy elites who set off these transformations in the first place have managed to reclaim somewhat healthier and more stable habits of married life. This imbalance leaves our cultural and political elites less well attuned to the magnitude of social dysfunction in much of American society, and leaves the most vulnerable Americans -- especially children living in poor and working-class communities -- even worse off than they would otherwise be. . . .
  
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  An Affair to Forget  Townhall.com, By Kathryn Lopez, September 11, 2009
   Reality-show star Jon Gosselin did it. Country singer Shania Twain, whose "One" has become a wedding standard, wound up a victim of it. An endless parade of politicians has done it, and those are the ones we wind up knowing about. Adultery does happen. It always has and it always will. But I think we may have crossed a threshold. While watching the president of the United States declare that we can legislate away hardship, during his joint-session of Congress health-care address, I was lured away from my hyper-blogging, Tweeting, Facebooking analysis by a commercial for ashleymadison.com. . . .
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  Americans Marry Too Much: Americans Have the Highest Divorce, Remarriage Rate  Newsweek, By Pat Wingert, August 15, 2009
  OK, we still have the highest divorce rate in the world. But that's the problem—"We divorce, repartner, and remarry faster than people in any other country," says Andrew Cherlin, a Johns Hopkins sociologist and author of the new book The Marriage-Go-Round. Because many of the people racking up multiple marriages are also parents, American kids are more likely than those in other developed countries to live in a household with a revolving cast of parents, step-parents, and live-in partners moving in and out of their lives—a pattern that is definitely not good for children. Cherlin says he was particularly stunned to discover that American kids born to married couples experienced 6 percent more household disruption by age 15 than Swedish kids born to unmarried parents. Experts predicted that the study would find exactly the opposite, since research has long shown that cohabiting relationships are more fragile than married ones. "Remember, we're talking about the 'avant-garde' Swedes compared to the 'conservative' Americans," Cherlin says. . .
  
  
  
  

• Jon Gosselin: 'I Can't Sit on Sofa' With Kate  
  ABC News Exclusive Interview: Gosselin Casts Surprising New Light on Marriage  ABC News- GMA, By Chris Cuomo, Michael Pressman, and Alexa Miranda, September 8, 2009
  When Jon and Kate Gosselin -- the overachieving parents of twins and sextuplets whose family life spawned the hit reality show "Jon & Kate Plus Eight" -- announced that their marriage was on the rocks, Jon soon came in for some harsh public treatment. Kate began spilling her heart out about the couple's problems, while Jon chose to explore the party scene. He was photographed on yachts, living it up as his marriage fell apart. In a recent People magazine article, Kate jokingly blamed an alien abduction for Jon's transformation from a computer technician into a rock 'n' roll jet-setter. Now, Jon has told ABC News in an exclusive interview that the headlines have been unfair. Magazine cover stories bashing him and praising Kate, he said, were both off-base and beside the point. "I would say, let's finish what we got to finish and move on with our lives," Gosselin said. "And stop feeding into the frenzy." . . . .While they're still trying to iron out their routine, that hasn't stopped Jon from voicing some surprising feelings about Kate. Their relationship has gotten to the point, he said, that the two have to shoot the show separately. "We film it separately," Gosselin said. "She has her film crew. And I have my film crew. But I can't sit on the sofa with that woman. I can't sit on someone right now that I despise." Despise?. . .
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  Jon Gosselin Exclusive: Marriage to Kate 'Will Never Be Fixed'  Father of Eight Speaks Out: 'I Don't Trust Her Anymore,' 'She's Not Speaking From the Heart'  ABC News-PrimeTime, By Michael Pressman, Janice Johnston and Ia Robinson, September 7, 2009
  Long before the tabloids and media frenzy, Jon Gosselin -- one half of the parenting duo "Jon & Kate Plus Eight" -- says the chaotic stress of raising eight children took its toll on the young couple. The father of eight recalls what attracted him to Kate and why he proposed. "I got married at 22. I had twins at 23. I had sextuplets at 27. Bye-bye, twenties," Gosselin, now 32, told ABC News' Chris Cuomo in an exclusive interview. "And then raising all those kids until you're 30 and, you know, you don't even think about what's going on around you. You just do what you got to do to survive." But it wasn't the demands of parenting, but what Gosselin calls Kate Gosselin's constant verbal "abuse," that sent their 10-year-marriage into a tailspin. Now, he says, the relationship is irreconcilable. "Our relationship will never be fixed," he said. " ... I don't trust her anymore. I was abused ... I was beaten down ... I'm not going back to that life style." . .

RELATED ARTICLE & VIDEO:  Jon Loves Girlfriend 'More Than I Do Kate': ABC News Exclusive Interview: Gosselin Casts Surprising New Light on Marriage  ABC News, By Chris Cuomo, Michael Pressman, and Alexa Miranda, September 08, 2009
Gosselin says Glassman is the "polar opposite of Kate." "I feel like I love ... love her more than I did Kate," he told Cuomo. "I get encouragement from her, I get respect from her. Two things that a man needs," he said of his new relationship with Glassman. . .



RELATED PHOTO ESSAY:  The Curse of Reality TV  NY Daily News
They've entertained us for hours on end, but these reality show stars have been cursed by reality television and it's no laughing matter. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  Old Fashioned Marriage: Men at the Head  Joseph C. Phillips.com, March 9, 2008
The argument truly came as a surprise. I was speaking before an audience at Kansas State University and confessed that I am what is known as old school. I believe that men should be the head of the household and that God should be at the head of the house. I explained that I wasn't referring to a division of power - of men being the boss of the house. I have been married far too long to talk crazy. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Should Jon & Kate Plus 8 Be Taken Off the Air?   Associated Content, Posted by Tmmy G, January 2, 2008
Kate and Jon Gosselin are the proud parents of a set of 6 year old twins and 3 year old sextuplets and are featured on the TLC/Discovery Health show Jon & Kate Plus 8. This show is supposed to focus on the difficulties and pleasures of raising eight children yet lately the producers have been focussing more on Kate's aggressiveness towards her husband than the kids themselves. They are cashing in on the circus that is Kate's OCD and tendencies towards verbal abuse towards her husband and many viewers find this unacceptable. While I respect Kate for managing eight children and the commotion that comes along with it, my respect instantly vanishes when I see her howling at her husband and embarrassing him time and time again. . .


RELATED RESOURCE: The Crazy Cycle: The Foundational Principle of Love and Respect  By Emerson E. Eggerichs, Ph.D
OVERVIEW: The powerful truth about Love and Respect is that the conflicts couples experience are not the root problem. Successful couples know that harmony and happiness in marriage are not primarily achieved by solving daily problems. Though these problems are real, they are not the root issue. Find out what the root issue is. This is part of the secret! Dr. Emerson Eggerichs calls it... The Crazy Cycle. . .

• Gay Marriage Rage  Townhall.com, By Maggie Gallagher, September 08, 2009
  I was in Maine on the day that marriage qualified for the ballot this November. I went to Maine as president and founder of the National Organization for Marriage, which helped local groups organize the signature drive in Maine, as we did in California for Proposition 8. Most of the people in Maine were enthusiastic, but one clergyman asked me, "Shouldn't we live with our neighbors in peace?" His question haunts me for its debased presumptions: Is using democracy to fight for shared values somehow an act of war against our neighbors? "Agree with me or you're a hater" is not the authentic voice of peace and tolerance. But the question underscored an increasingly obvious truth: Gay marriage advocates now rage against Americans who disagree with them, no matter how civilly we conduct the debate. They believe only one side has the moral right to be heard. Witness what happened to poor Monica Hesse, a Washington Post reporter who wrote a profile on NOM's executive director, Brian Brown. The profile was (in my view) clearly written by someone who supports gay marriage. She began by assuming gay marriage opponents were ugly, mean and stupid, and then presented Brian Brown as the surprising exception. That's why Monica expected outrage from social conservatives for her "snideness." Instead, she was shocked by the tidal wave of rage directed at her for publishing anything even remotely expressing human sympathy for a guy who effectively fights to promote marriage as the union of husband and wife. I'm not the person calling this "rage." That's what The Washington Post called it in a piece by their own ombudsman on Monica, "'Sanity & a Smile' and an Outpouring of Rage." . . .
  
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  'Sanity & a Smile' and an Outpouring of Rage  Washington Post, By Andrew Alexander- Ombudsman, September 06, 2009
  The Post recently featured a story by reporter Monica Hesse that ran on the front of the Style section while she was on vacation. The day before returning, she logged on to check e-mails -- and wept. She was buried by an avalanche of messages angrily attacking her lengthy Aug. 28 profile of Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the group leading the fight against legalization of same-sex marriage. Hesse was stunned. She had expected to hear from anti-gay-marriage conservatives who might view the story as "snide." Instead, she heard from liberals who support gay marriage, accusing her of writing a puff piece about someone they believe fosters prejudice and intolerance. The story was shallow and one-sided, they complained. Scores also contacted the ombudsman. It's "one of the biggest pieces of crap The Post has published in recent memory," wrote District resident William Grant II. "What's next, a piece on how a KKK leader is just 'someone next door' and 'really a nice person'?" Hesse has been blistered in the blogosphere, even cast as a bigoted conservative who endorses a homophobic agenda. . . . Rather, this is a case where three things -- a storytelling concept, a writing technique and a bad headline -- combined to ignite reader reaction as vitriolic as any I've experienced in my seven months as ombudsman. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  Profile: Brian Brown, Executive Director of the National Organization for Marriage: Opposing Gay Unions With Sanity & a Smile. NOM Head Moves His Cause to D.C.   Washington Post, By Monica Hesse, August 28, 2009
The nightmares of gay marriage supporters are the Pat Robertsons of the world. The James Dobsons, the John Hagees -- the people who specialize in whipping crowds into frothy frenzies, who say things like Katrina was caused by the gays. The gay marriage supporters have not met Brian Brown. They should. He might be more worth knowing about. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Yes! Yes! and Yes! on California, Arizona and Florida Propositions 8, 102, and 2!  The Real Proposal magazine, October 22, 2008
Who knew that we would ever see the day when it became necessary to define what marriage is in America... or the world for that matter? That said, no one could follow, for any length of time, our continuing coverage on this very critical sociopolitical issue without realizing that, whether we like it or not, the on-going and increasingly aggressive battle to redefine marriage is the next civil rights frontier in America! Most people do not fully comprehend how we got to this place. Many have a distorted perspective on the issues based on what is being fed to us by the mainstream media, who are largely complicit with the homosexual agenda and follow their playbook and manifesto quite diligently in the effort to convert straight America into accepting homosexuality as anything but deviant behavior. Therefore, we urge you to spend some time going through our coverage on the issue. For, without a doubt, the blinders will fall away and it will become clear that there is a very careful, very deliberate, very well financed and orchestrated marketing strategy being executed by radical homosexual activists to normalize same-sex relationships in this country. And you will likely be outraged that somewhere along the way — while most of us who believe in traditional marriage were enjoying our precious freedoms, taking kids to soccer, ordering pizza and watching our favorite shows — we were being manipulated and vilified as society's new "haters," "bigots," and "homophobes.". . .


RELATED ARTICLE:   Political bullying works  Jewish World Review, By Cal Thomas, April 5, 2001
Gay rights groups are experienced intimidators. Add to that the effective infiltration of the media, academia, religion and psychiatry by gay rights activists and their sympathizers and you see how this issue has been turned around in a single generation. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  What Research Shows: NARTH's Response to the APA Claims on Homosexuality   National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality  (NARTH), June 09, 2009
The American Psychological Association (APA) and other mental health organizations have objected to providing psychological care to those who are distressed by unwanted homosexual attractions2 on a number of grounds. These objections include scientifically unsupportable claims that:

1.  There is no conclusive or convincing evidence that sexual orientation may be changed through reorientation therapy.
2.  Efforts to change sexual orientation are shown to be harmful and can lead to greater self-hatred, depression, and other self-destructive behaviors.
3.  There is no greater pathology in the homosexual population than in the general population.

In What Research Shows, we offer a landscape review of more than one hundred years of experiential evidence, clinical studies, and research studies that demonstrate that it is possible for men and women to diminish their unwanted homosexual attractions and develop their heterosexual potential; that efforts to change unwanted homosexual attractions are not generally harmful; and that homosexual men and women do indeed have substantially greater experiences of and risk factors for medical, psychological and relational pathology than do the general population. Based on our review of 600 reports of clinicians, researchers, and former clients—primarily from professional and peer-reviewed scientific journals, we conclude that reorientation treatment has been helpful to many and should continue to be available to those who seek it. Further, mental health professionals competent to provide such care ethically may do so. . .

• The Marriage Divide
  Was I too young to get married or too old? Depends on whom you ask  Washington Post, By Monica Hesse, September 6, 2009
  The two responses I received last year when, at 26, I announced I had gotten engaged:
  a) Oh, God, finally! b) Oh, God, already? Followed by:
  a) Have you chosen your canape platter yet? b) Is this because of a tax break or something? And then possibly by:
  a) Where are you registered? b) Wait, are you sure you haven't been drinking?
  Whether my friends answered a's or b's depended entirely on which time zone -- which side of the International Wedding Date Line -- they lived in. The IWDL is a complex concept that can be explained only by me (because I just made it up), but it comes down to this: On the East Coast where I live now, at least among most of my friends, getting married is something you do after college, after grad school, after your 30th birthday, after your second solo climb of Mount Everest, after you successfully balance your checkbook for 16 months straight, after, after, after. In other words, getting married at 26 is pretty much like getting married as a fetus. In the Midwest, at least in the rural Illinois town where I grew up, getting married is something that you do before you begin to think of buying property, before your single-person routines make you stubborn and inflexible, before your metabolism slows enough that a white wedding dress would make you look like a rhinoceros. Optimal marriage age: 20 to 23. Getting married at 26 is like filing your tax returns on April 16. . .
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  More on Early Marriage  Boundless, By Steve Watters, August 25, 2009
  I posted recently about the Christianity Today cover story, "The Case for Early Marriage." That article was written by Dr. Mark Regnerus, a professor at the University of Texas. Some of Mark's insights on the age of first marriage have been influenced by his colleague, Dr. Norval Glenn. I posted a blog earlier about Dr. Glenn's findings on later marriage in a research study he wrote called "With this Ring..." At the time of that study, he reported being surprised to discover some downsides to later marriage, but that he believed the issue would benefit from more study. I'm glad to see that he took on that study and has now compiled it in a paper he recently presented called "Later First Marriage and Marital Success." The paper begins by explaining why such research is important:. . .
  
  

RELATED ARTICLE & COMMENTS: Say Yes. What Are You Waiting For?   Washington Post, By Mark Regnerus, April 26, 2009
Marriage actually works best as a formative institution, not an institution you enter once you think you're fully formed. We learn marriage, just as we learn language, and to the teachable, some lessons just come easier earlier in life. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  The Half-Hearted Marriage: Commitment means making a choice to give up other choices  FOTF.com, By Scott Stanley
Why Do Couples Fear Commitment? Commitment means making a choice to give up other choices. This simple truth explains why marriage can be so difficult. We don't like to give up options in life, and our culture screams at us to hang on to them all. But great marriages are based on a deep commitment that casts aside all options but one. More and more couples fear committing in marriage because they have seen so many marriages fail. Since marriage seems so much like gambling, many hedge their bets. For example, many couples live together to test their relationship, even though studies show that living together before marriage increases the risk of divorce. Likewise, 94 percent of singles believe that finding one's soul mate is crucial for marital success. Too often this belief compels singles to search for the perfect mate – someone who does not exist. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  A Marriage where Both Spouses Pursue their Career   IndoLink, By Jasmeen Dugal
Women are undertaking significant positions in the workplace and are increasingly entering fields previously dominated by men – such as the hotel industry, as executives in multinational companies, in the police and even flying aircrafts – and they continue to work after marriage. Nowadays women are looking for a scope to express themselves in the workplace and want to utilize their formal education to explore their capacity beyond the traditional role of a wife and mother. And this is a venture that husbands and wives must face together because the couple where both spouses pursue their career is here to stay. . .

• Soap Actress Says She Was Fired Because of Religious Beliefs  FOX News, September 04, 2009
  If you tuned in to the soap "One Life to Live" this week, you may have noticed there's been a change of character. One character in particular. Actress Patricia Mauceri says she was fired and abruptly replaced for objecting to a gay storyline because of her religious beliefs. Mauceri played the recurring role of Carlotta Vega on "OLTL" for the last 14 years. But when she objected to how the writers wanted her deeply religious character, a Latina mother, to handle a storyline involving homosexuality, she objected. And for that she claims she was fired. Mauceri, 59, a devout Christian, told FOX News that character Vega's gay-friendly dialogue was not in line with the character she helped create by drawing on her own faith. "I did not object to being in a gay storyline. I objected to speaking the truth of what that person, how that person would live and breathe and act in that storyline," she said. "And this goes against everything I am, my belief system, and what I know the character's belief system is aligned to." Mauceri said she was replaced despite offering changes to the script and hoping for a compromise. An ABC spokesperson said they were not aware of any such claims by Mauceri, adding such claims "would be frivolous.". . .
  
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  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. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  The "Gay Gene" Controlling The Media  Editorial-The Real Proposal magazine, April 1, 2008
As human beings, aren’t we generally understood to be holistic beings with mind, body and spirit components? Indeed, if homosexuality has little or nothing to do with our DNA and our genes (a “body” issue), which is why the science is still not convincing, but is, indeed, a mind issue, would anyone really have been served by the politically motivated maneuverings on the part of activists within the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from their list of treatable mental disorders? To be sure, a great many kids manifest — and are fully aware from very early ages that they are affected by — a variety of mental disorders, including Bipolar and Obsessive Compulsive Disorders. Yet, many either find a cure or grow up learning how to successfully manage their treatment regimen. Which is why ABC's bringing of kids to the fore attesting that they knew they had homosexual tendencies from a very early age is hypocritical and, essentially, proof of nothing. Except, of course, that there are many in the media with their own "gay gene" bias who are losing their objectivity, and who are becoming the instruments of gay colleagues and peers, as well as family members and friends wanting to further the LGBT agenda. This is already the case in our legislature and judiciary. Furthermore, what if homosexuality really is a spiritual issue? Wouldn't this mean that the solution can only be found in that dimension. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  Don't be manipulated by the master marketers  Townhall.com, By Rebecca Hagelin, October 4, 2005
As David [Kupelian] notes in his new book, The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom: “The plain truth is, within the space of our lifetimes, much of what Americans once almost universally abhorred has been packaged, perfumed, gift-wrapped and sold to us as though it had great value. By skillfully playing on our deeply felt national values of fairness, generosity and tolerance, these marketers have persuaded us to embrace as enlightened and noble that which all previous generations since America’s founding regarded as grossly self-destructive -- in a word, evil.” . . .

• Parenting Issues: Why parents don't trust the Educator-in-Chief and his comrades  Townhall.com, By Michelle Malkin, September 04, 2009
  They think we're crazy. "They" are the sneering defenders of Barack Obama who can't fathom the backlash against the president's nationwide speech to schoolchildren next Tuesday. "We" are parents with eyes wide open to the potential for politicized abuse in America's classrooms. Ask moms and dads in Farmington, Utah, who discovered this week that their children sat through a Hollywood propaganda video promoting the cult of Obama. In the clip, a parade of entertainers vow to flush their toilets less, buy hybrid vehicles, end poverty and world hunger, and commit to "service" for "change." Actress Demi Moore leads the glitterati in a collective promise "to be a servant to our president." Musician Anthony Kiedis pledges "to be of service to Barack Obama." The campaign commercial crescendos with the stars and starlets asking their audience: "What's your pledge?" This same "Do Something" ethos infected the U.S. Department of Education teachers guides accompanying the announcement of Obama's speech -- until late Wednesday, that is, when the White House removed some of the activist language exhorting students to come up with ways to "help the president." Education Secretary Arne Duncan had disseminated the material directly to principals across the country -- circumventing elected school board members and superintendents now facing neighborhood revolts. O's bureaucrats can whitewash offending language from the Sept. 8 speech-related documents, but they can't remove the taint of left-wing radicalism that informs Obama and his education mentors. A spokesman maintained that the speech is "about the value of education and the importance of staying in school as part of his effort to dramatically cut the dropout rate." But the historical subtext is far less innocent. . .
  
  
  RELATED SPEECH & VIDEO:  A Message of Hope and Responsibility for America’s Students   WhiteHouse.gov, Posted by Jesse Lee, September 08, 2009
  The President’s message to America's students today rested on two twin pillars of his vision: there is great hope and great potential in America; but the fulfillment of that hope is dependent on hard work and taking personal responsibility. . .

RELATED VIDEO:  Obama school speech uproar  AP, September 03, 2009
Some conservatives say President Barack Obama is overstepping the bounds of federal involvement in schools and trying to advance a political Agenda with a September 8 address to the nation's students.

RELATED ARTICLE:  America's Uber-Parent? I Think Not   Townhall.com, By Marybeth Hicks , September 09, 2009
Since the President’s message was so similar to the advice we give our own children every year, why am I so bugged by the fact that he took to the airwaves and the Internet to deliver this speech to America’s public school students? Why does it seem so creepy to me?. . . . The President of the United States is not the “First Father.” His role is not to be an uber-parent, offering sage advice on personal behavior for school kids via televised lectures. If we accept this display of “non-partisan parenting,” we’re tacitly acknowledging that the government of the United States of America has an appropriate role to play in raising our children. I don’t think it does. Even if the message is a positive one, the very fact that it has been delivered is intrusive and assumptive and just plain creepy. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Training Kids to Be Obama's Servants  Townhall.com, By Phyllis Schlafly, September 09, 2009
The hero worship and brainwashing built into these lesson plans are, to say the least, inappropriate. Parents should rise up and stop the public schools from using classroom or assembly time to teach schoolchildren to be cheerleaders for Obama and his policies. Now comes the iron fist in the velvet glove. President Obama's nearly trillion-dollar stimulus law designates $128 billion for education, so it's no surprise that tight strings are attached. Buried in the fine print is an ominous requirement to build a national electronic database of all children. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Obama's school speech - social indoctrination?   OneNewsNow, By Pete Chagnon, September 03, 2009
Is the president using his bully pulpit to push social change in America's schools? Neal McClusky with the Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom believes the Obama administration is engaging in outright indoctrination of school children. He says that on September 8, Obama will address schools nationwide -- and in conjunction with that speech, school teachers have been sent study packets and a letter from the Department of Education, complete with assignments and questions to ask their students. "The letter says that 'no other task is more critical to our economic future and our social progress than what these schools do.' Now that alone is a little disturbing because it suggests that the schools are supposed to be pushing social change," McClusky notes. . . .McClusky calls the event "unprecedented." He adds that the Constitution lays out explicit powers for the federal government and education is not among them. "So the federal government has been really unconstitutionally involved in education for the last 40-some years," McClusky says. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Elementary School Children to be Indoctrinated with New Gay Curriculum
Alameda Unified School District Adopts Lesbian, Gay, Transgender Education for Students as Young as Five Years Old   ProtectMarriage.com, May 27, 2009
– Providing yet another example of the threat that gay marriage and the gay agenda provides to school children and parental authority, the Alameda Unified School District last evening adopted a new curriculum, over the objections of hundreds of parents who testified at the board hearings. The newly adopted curriculum specifically elevates respect for gay, lesbian and bisexual students and their families over respect for diverse racial and religious backgrounds. . .


RELATED ARTICLE: Yes, we did. But we're not ready to throw confetti  Editorial- The Real Proposal magazine, Originally Published November 08, 2008
Many of us find ourselves in a grieving process of sorts, not because of Mr. Obama's victory but because his advent represents a potential threat to what many in this country revere as core foundational principles that have been the cornerstones upon which our great nation has been built, and upon which we have thrived to become, certainly, one of the wealthiest and most powerful nations on this planet. To be sure, the institution of marriage as it has been defined for millennia as the union of one man and one woman is no longer secure with Mr. Obama at the helm. Neither is the sanctity of human life, if his voting record in favor of abortion on demand at any stage within a woman's nine-month pregnancy is to be viewed as a precursor of his intent for our laws that govern abortion and the rights of the unborn. . .

• Think men are the unfaithful sex? A study shows WOMEN are the biggest cheats - they're just better at lying about it   The Daily Mail- UK, By Maureen Rice, September 04, 2009
  Are men or women more likely to cheat? While men have always had a worse reputation for being unfaithful, recent studies show that women are catching up fast - but we are a lot more likely to lie about it, and a lot less likely to get caught. Simply put, it seems that women are better at having affairs than men. The news that Farrah Fawcett had a secret affair for 11 years without telling a soul is a classic example of the way a woman cheats: discreetly, in secret, and while carrying on with the rest of her life as normal. It has been met with hot denials by Ryan O'Neal, but - and I'm sorry to break it to you this way, Ryan - you'd be the last to know. According to Dr David Holmes, a psychologist at Manchester Metropolitan University, women are having more affairs than ever - recent studies say the figure is around 20 per cent for men and a bit over 15 per cent for women - but they behave very differently from men when they cheat.'The biggest difference is that women are much better at keeping their affairs secret,' he says. 'If you look at the studies into paternity, even conservative figures show that between eight and 15 per cent of children haven't been fathered by the man who thinks he's the biological parent.'   . . . . Why do women lie? Because we must, and because we can. In spite of apparent equality and a more sexually open society, we are still more harshly judged for our sex lives than men. . . .  So we lie to protect ourselves from the judgments of others, and because sexual 'reputation' still matters more to women, whether we like it or not. But we also lie naturally and instinctively, as a way to manage and control our relationships, to protect our partners and our families, and to keep our options open. In fact, we lie so much and for so many reasons that often we don't even think of it as lying at all, but as 'relationship management'. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:   Why so many educated, middle class women are now proud members of the One-Night Stand Generation   The Daily Mail- UK, By Diana Appleyard and Alison Smith Squire, Deceber 10, 2008
University lecturer's daughter Jo Day is not quite so uncouth as to have carved notches in her bedpost, but when she talks about sex it's fair to say she has a wealth of personal experience to draw on. 'It's a myth that women can't enjoy a brief encounter as much as a man,' declares the well-spoken 24-year-old, a trainee accountant who lives in Leeds. 'People like to think that women, in particular, are terribly regretful over a one-night stand. But I don't believe that's the case. I think women are as capable of separating love and sex as men are supposed to be.' . . . . Her behaviour is, sadly, all too typical. For a generation of young, university-educated women brought up on a diet of Madonna and Sex And The City (Samantha, the voraciously promiscuous character played by Kim Cattrall, seems to be a favourite role model), the sexual freedom she espouses is clearly something of which to be proud, not ashamed. It has become such a badge of honour that few of her age group will be surprised to learn Britain now has the dubious honour of being the 'easiest' country on the planet with regards to sex. . . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Adultery Is Killing the American Family   Canada Free Press, By Nathan Tabor, September 23, 2005
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? That's hard to say because not everybody will answer honestly. But sex therapist Peggy Vaughan, author of “The Monogamy Myth,” conservatively estimates that about 60 percent of married men and 40 percent of married women will have an affair at some time during their marriage. . .

• Chris Brown's Mom: Rihanna Was 'Family'  People magazine, By Elizabeth Leonard, September 03, 2009
  Immediately after his late-night fight with Rihanna over Grammy weekend, Chris Brown knew what he had to do: Tell his mother. "I went to my mom and I was upset," says Brown, who was raised by his mother, Joyce Hawkins, in the small town of Tappahannock, Va., where they both still live a few doors down from each other. "I told my mom what happened and just broke down. I was disappointed in myself and I felt like I had let my mom down." For Hawkins, herself a victim of domestic abuse, Brown's confessional still haunts her. "It was the most painful moment in my life to hear him tell me that," she tells PEOPLE. "I just sighed and was like, 'What in the world happened?' And you know he started talking, but I could see the pain in his face and how hurt he was while he was trying to tell me. It wasn't easy for him to do." Hawkins, who avoided watching TV in the wake of the incident, had strong words for her son. "I explained to him that in no way [was] what he did right or acceptable," she says of Brown's assault of Rihanna in his rented Lamborghini on Feb. 8. "And I just explained to him that if something of this magnitude ever happened again, what he should do – walk away from any situation and never involve yourself like that ever again." Even so, Brown's behavior was a shock. . .
  
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  Chris Brown: Of Course, I Remember What Happened  People magazine, By Elizabeth Leonard, August 31, 2009
  He's ashamed and sorry and wished it never happened. But there's one thing Chris Brown says he most certainly is not: forgetful. In a detailed statement to PEOPLE, the singer clarifies what he calls incorrect reports – based on a clip of an interview with Larry King airing Wednesday night – about the events with Rihanna that led to his arrest:. . .
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  Chris Brown and Rihanna Had a History of Violence  People magazine, By Ken Lee, August 25, 2009
  Rihanna and Chris Brown had two previous violent episodes before the Feb. 8 fight, which ultimately led to Brown's arrest and felony conviction, court documents reveal. . .

RELATED VIDEO:  Chris Brown On Larry King Live Full Interview- Part 1  2,  3, 4,   5

RELATED RESOURCE & PUBLICATIONS:  National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence


RELATED ARTICLE (PDF doc): When Domestic Violence Starts Young: A Classroom Campaign and New Hot Line are Part of a Nationwide Push to Prevent Abuse   Chicago Tribune, By Bonnie Miller Rubin, February 8, 2007
– Scrapping his usual lesson for the day, a South Shore high school teacher asked his students a question: Is it ever OK to be abusive with a boyfriend or girlfriend? A 16-year-old boy spoke up. “If she does something to provoke you, then you have to put her in her place,” he said nonchalantly. “I’m not going to hit her in the face ... but I’m not going to run, either.” With that, a candid discussion got under way that gave teacher Scott Steward an earful. “A guy may need to get a little physical ... to know where his girlfriend is at all times,” one boy argued. “It’s a way to show how he cares about you,” another said. Until recently, most interventions for domestic abuse were geared to older perpetrators and victims. But increased awareness of violence among teens is sparking a flurry of initiatives for teens, including the lesson plan taught by Steward. In a related program, the country’s first national abuse hot line for teens will open Thursday. When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveyed 14,000 high school students as part of a 2005 study, 9.2 percent said they had been “hit, slapped or physically hurt” by their dating partners in the previous 12 months. Perhaps surprisingly, the incidence was about the same among girls and boys. . .


RELATED SURVEY:  Technology & Teen Dating Abuse Survey 2007  Love Is Not Abuse.com
A survey on teens and dating abuse reveals that an alarming number of teens in dating relationships are being controlled, threatened and humiliated through cell phones and the Internet with unimaginable frequency. The research also reveals disturbing data that a significant majority of parents are completely unaware of this type of dating abuse and the dangers facing their teens. The survey was conducted by Teenage Research Unlimited (TRU) for Liz Claiborne Inc. Teens surveyed range in age from 13-18. . .


RELATED ARTICLE (PDF doc) Abuse Common among Dating Teens, Study Finds: 1 in 4 girls have been pressured into sex  National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence- Reuters, June 9, 2005
WASHINGTON – When Erika Eckstrom began dating her boyfriend at the start of her College freshman year at 18 things were great, but her situation deteriorated and she soon was friendless, isolated and the victim of domestic violence. “Everything was great and when it started really getting bad I don’t know if it was denial, but I knew something was wrong, because I was without a support system,” said Eckstrom, now 20 and still in college in Washington but dating someone else. Her story is apparently common among teenagers. According to a study released Thursday, more than half of America’s teens know friends who have experienced physical, sexual or verbal abuse in their dating relationships. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  The abusive date. Why are we surprised?   Townhall.com, By Cal Thomas,  August 9, 2001
The latest signpost on our road to cultural (and possibly literal) hell comes from a survey which found that one in five high school girls has been physically or sexually abused by a dating partner. The survey, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggests a link between dating abuse and self-destructive behavior by girls. Some abused girls were found to engage in binge drinking, promiscuity and drugs, and use laxatives and vomiting to lose weight. Perhaps we truly are the Great Satan. This is not a problem that will soon be solved by legislation or more "prevention programs," as the lead author of the study suggests. Such programs and legislation treat only results, not causes. Something has clearly gone wrong in culture. . .

• Should Ben and Jerry's have come out for gay marriage?
  Are food companies trying to take a leaf out of pop stars' books by taking publicity-generating stands on political issues?  The Guardian- Word of Mouth Blog, September 03, 2009
  It seems you can't fill a shopping basket these days without also buying into some sort of ideology. Yesterday, chocolatiers Gü announced plans to donate 10p from each sale of their soufflé boxes to a cancer charity (güd on 'em. If that brings the hot ramekins an extra warm, charitable glow). On Tuesday Ben and Jerry's renamed their 'Chubby Hubby' flavour ice cream 'Hubby Hubby' in celebration of Vermont's legalisation of gay marriage. Isn't it odd, incidentally, that only the boys' unions should be so lauded? Girls, strangely, seem to have been frozen out. These kind of gestures don't always end well. . . . .That gay people should be able to get married seems to me a basic human right, and I admit that in a completely partisan way I was tempted to justify B&J's action as part of the ongoing struggle against ignorance and fear. But what would I be thinking if a contrary point of view was being aired? I'd be first in line to denounce them as squalid influence peddlers, shamelessly meddlesome, shiveringly undemocratic tricksters. Ice cream should be a relief from side-taking. It soothes and softens, comforts and consoles. B&J's sentiment is noble, but the side of a half-gallon tub is no place to daub political slogans – it's a distraction from the guzzling pleasure. . .
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  Ben & Jerry's Changes 'Chubby Hubby' to 'Hubby Hubby' in Support of Gay Marriage  FOX News, September 02, 2009

RELATED VIDEO:  Same-sex Ice Cream  CBS News (Raw Video), September 01, 2009

RELATED ARTICLE:  How America Went Gay    Leadership U, By Charles W. Socarides, M.D.
Gays said they could "reinvent human nature, reinvent themselves." To do this, these reinventors had to clear away one major obstacle. No, they didn't go after the nation's clergy. They targeted the members of a worldly priesthood, the psychiatric community, and neutralized them with a radical redefinition of homosexuality itself. In 1972 and 1973 they co-opted the leadership of the American Psychiatric Association and, through a series of political maneuvers, lies and outright flim-flams, they "cured" homosexuality overnight-by fiat. They got the A.P.A. to say that same-sex sex was "not a disorder." It was merely "a condition"-as neutral as lefthandedness. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Selling Homosexuality to America   Regent University Law Review, By Paul E. Rondeau
This article explores how gay rights activists use rhetoric, psychology, social psychology, and the media--all the elements of modern marketing--to position homosexuality in order to frame what is discussed in the public arena and how it is discussed. . . . The economics and education of homosexuals makes them prime players in a capitalistic society. Money means power, and education means the knowledge to use that power to gain more. Homosexuals have demonstrated they have access to the leadership in media, government, education, business and other centers of influence as well as access to capital. These are hardly traits of an oppressed minority. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  America's pro-homosexual giants: 2009: 259 U.S. businesses recognized for benefiting 'lesbian, gays, bisexual, transgender' employees  World Net Daily, By Bob Unruh, September 13, 2008
Below is the list, in alphabetical order, of companies scoring a perfect 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign's 2009 Corporate Equality Index, with policies beneficial toward homosexuals: . . .

• E-mails Show Bad Blood Between Carrie Prejean, Pageant Officials Before Controversy  FOX News, By Hollie McKay, September 02, 2009
  Carrie Prejean filed a lawsuit on Monday against the Miss California pageant directors claiming they discriminated against her religious beliefs, caused her emotional distress and engaged in slander after she came under fire for her answer to a question about gay marriage at the 2009 Miss USA pageant. Now FOXNews.com has obtained a series of heated e-mail exchanges between the two parties that show bad blood was brewing long before Prejean and the directors butted heads over her stance on same-sex unions. The problems between Prejean and Miss California escalated to such a level that the 22-year-old severed all ties with her state team several weeks prior to the April 19 national pageant, according a March 9 e-mail exchange in which Prejean wrote (in all caps) to Miss California co-director Keith Lewis:
  
  I WILL NOT BE VERBALLY AND EMOTIONALLY ABUSED ANYMORE BY ANY OF YOU. I HAVE A COMPETITION TO PREPARE FOR. I WILL NO LONGER BE DEALING WITH ANYONE WHO IS GOING TO BRING ME DOWN AT THIS POINT. I WILL ONLY SURROUND MYSELF WITH PEOPLE WHO MAKE ME HAPPY. AND RIGHT NOW, THAT IS NONE OF YOU. I WILL SEE YOU ALL IN APRIL. PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT ME AT ALL FROM THIS POINT FORWARD. . .
  
  “Before the pageant she was also told not to talk about God and that made her uncomfortable since she is quite religious," said Limandri. "Carrie was also uncomfortable with Shanna Moakler's foul mouth, using the 'f-word' and the 'c-word' around her all the time. However, these were not major problems, and they were all getting along quite well going into the Miss USA Pageant." Lewis said Prejean never expressed her disapproval of Moakler’s use of words. He also said he found it incredibly “ignorant” that people would think Prejean was stripped of her sash due to her religious beliefs, as claimed in Prejean’s lawsuit. . .

RELATED VIDEO:  Carrie PreJean to 'Values Voters Summit  NY Daily News, September 19, 2009


RELATED ARTICLE:  Carrie Prejean Files Discrimination Suit Against Miss California Organization  FOX News, August 31, 2009
The 22-year-old beauty queen filed a complaint Monday morning in Los Angeles Superior Court against K2 Productions (the franchise that operates the Miss California Organization) as well as co-executive directors Keith Lewis and Shanna Moakler and publicist Roger Neal. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  Carrie Prejean Wows Values Voters  Wall Street Journal Blog, By Susan Davis, September 18, 2009
Conservative leaders are gathering this weekend in Washington, D.C., for the annual Values Voter Summit, but so far none has excited the crowd as much as former beauty queen turned marriage activist Carrie Prejean. “Wow this is so exciting. I’m so excited to be here in Washington, D.C.” Prejean said to a standing ovation and raucous applause. “This has been a whirlwind of events, this has been absolutely crazy.” Prejean rocketed into the national spotlight during the 2009 Miss USA Pageant when she was asked by judge and celebrity blogger Perez Hilton if she believed states should legalize same-sex marriage, to which she responded she did not. “You know what, in my country, in my family, I think I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, no offense to anybody out there,” she said.The moment made national headlines and Prejean was both vilified and celebrated for her views. She has become an unofficial spokeswoman of sorts for traditional marriage. So at this social conservative confab, she was a rock star. . . . . .Comments:  *  12:11 am September 20, 2009 * EB wrote: Carrie did NOT say, “I know that God has an even bigger crown up there for me.” She said, “I know that the Lord has so much of a bigger crown in Heaven for me.” If you’re going to use quotations, then quote accurately! That said, if you think the point of Carrie Prejean is about the right obtaining “an unofficial spokeswoman of sorts for traditional marriage,” then you would have missed the boat entirely. Carrie Prejean represents the loss of our freedom to speak freely in this country without fear of retribution from those seeking the kind of “political correctness” and Orwellian state that totally obliterates truth. . .



RELATED ARTICLE: The Carrie Effect: Notes from the Frontlines of the Marriage War National Review- Cover Story, By Maggie Gallagher, August 10, 2009  Alternate PDF Link
The headline on the story about a new CBS News/New York Times survey was interesting: "Poll: Support for Gay Marriage Dips." How fast and how far had support for gay marriage had to drop before a mainstream-media headline acknowledged it, even as a "dip"? Here's the answer: 9 percentage points. That's right: In just a few short months, support for gay marriage in this poll plunged 9 percentage points, from its all-time high of 42 percent to 33 percent. A reporter for New York magazine recently called me to ask about the cause of a similar abrupt drop in support for gay marriage in a poll of voters in New York State. "Did the National Organization for Marriage" -- of which I am president -- "cause that decline?" he asked. I suspect he wanted me to claim credit, to give him a more dramatic narrative. After all, if you run a large activist organization directly involved in politics, your professional obligation is to be a blowhard. (And indeed, the 2 million robocalls and the ad campaign NOM had launched must have helped.) But I turned in my professional-blowhard card by saying, "No, I really think that it was Carrie Prejean." The Carrie Effect? How can one beauty queen cause a swing of almost ten points in national polls on a hotly debated issue?. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:   Why We’re Losing Our Right to Speak Out  Townhall.com, By Chuck Colson, May 1, 2008
David Woodward is a political science professor at Clemson University—one who has first-hand experience on how dangerous it can be to speak out in favor of traditional values: He almost lost his job over it. In 1993, Woodward was asked to testify about the political power of homosexual groups in American life. He agreed to serve as an expert witness for the state of Colorado, which was fighting to defend the recently passed Amendment Two, which made it illegal to give protected status based on sexual orientation. In his new book, Why We Whisper: Restoring Our Right to Say It’s Wrong, co-authored by my friend, the able South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, Woodward writes, “In that one decision, I unexpectedly jeopardized my academic career and entered . . . into the fiercest battle of the emergent culture wars.” To publicly oppose the campaign for same-sex “marriage” and gay rights was, he writes, “the equivalent to being sent to the university Gulag.” He was denied an administrative position on the grounds that he was “ideologically incompatible” with the values of the university. He often found the word homophobe scribbled on his office door. The press viciously attacked him for his views. But in private, Woodward was hearing a different message. People would call to whisper encouragement. So did parents and university staffers. Some students came into his office, carefully closed the door, and whispered their support. “The one thing they all had in common is that they were all scared, and they all spoke in whispers,” Woodward writes. Homosexuality is not the only issue Americans can no longer speak freely about. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Same-Sex “Marriage,” “Hate Crimes,” and the New Totalitarianism  LifeSite Special Report, By Michael D. O’Brien, February 28, 2005
Is it so far-fetched to consider the possibility that we are in a downward slide toward totalitarianism? Few people would go so far as to maintain that we are living in the early phase of an Orwellian 1984 or alternatively a softer form of totalitarian government such as Huxley’s Brave New World, yet the elements of State-enforced social reconstruction are now in operation. We should also consider the fact that in just over one generation we have been shifted from a society in which homosexual acts were a crime under the then existing law, to a society in which homosexual acts have become a government-protected and fostered activity, while voicing criticism of it “publicly” has become the crime. Call it by any name you like, but this is Thought Crime. As Orwell predicted, we have arrived at a situation in which “some of us are more equal than others.” . . .


RELATED ARTICLE:   Political bullying works  Jewish World Review, By Cal Thomas, April 5, 2001
Gay rights groups are experienced intimidators. Add to that the effective infiltration of the media, academia, religion and psychiatry by gay rights activists and their sympathizers and you see how this issue has been turned around in a single generation. . .

• Same-Sex Marriage Referendum Will Be On November Ballot
  Maine Voters Will Consider Overturning Law Nov. 3   WMTV- ABC-8, September 02, 2009
  Maine voters will consider whether to reject a same-sex marriage law on the November referendum ballot. The governor and state Legislature passed the law earlier in the year. Petition collections for a possible people's veto followed the passage of the bill. "More than 100,000 Mainers signed petitions to do what the legislature and Governor did not: allow the people of Maine to participate in the decision of legalizing homosexual marriage," Marc Mutty, Stand for Marriage Maine campaign chairman said in a release. "Preserving the definition of marriage as between a man and woman is far too important an issue to be left solely in the hands of elected officials." The Maine Secretary of State's Office said the question will ask, “Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?” Gov. John Baldacci signed a proclamation Wednesday placing the people's veto question on the November ballot. "I fully support this legislation, and believe it guarantees that all Maine citizens are treated equally under our State's civil marriage laws," he said in a release. Baldacci noted that he had a constitutional obligation to set a date for a referendum once enough signatures have been certified. He also said that he was confident Maine voters will make the right decision when they vote in the fall. . .
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  Marriage advocates collect enough signatures for Washington state ballot measure  Catholic News Agency, September 02, 2009
  Preliminary, unofficial figures from the Washington state Elections Division shows that a sufficient number of signatures have been gathered to place on the ballot Referendum 71, a measure that would preserve the unique place of marriage by rescinding the state legislature’s expansion of homosexual domestic partnership benefits. Protect Marriage Washington, which is sponsoring the proposal, submitted nearly 138,000 signatures on July 25. State checkers of the signatures accepted 121,617 signatures. According to David Ammons, writing on the blog of the Washington Secretary of State’s Office, 120,557 were required to secure a ballot spot. The ballot proposal, known as Referendum 71, would overturn Senate Bill 5688, which passed the Washington legislature in April. The bill gave homosexual couples all the state-provided benefits that married couples receive. The law was supposed to take effect July 26 but was delayed until the signature count was completed, the Associated Press says. The law will not take effect unless it is approved in the November 3 election. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  Defending Marriage in Troubled Times  Townhall.com, By Harry R. Jackson, Jr., September 02, 2009
Against the backdrop of record unemployment rates, recessionary trends in an out-of-control economy, and a raging healthcare debate; it’s hard to understand why DOMA is on the president’s radar screen. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  Ballot Initiative Requested on Same-Sex Marriage  Washington Post- DC Wire, By Tim Craig, September 01, 2009
Eight opponents of same-sex marriage formally filed a request today with the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics to hold a ballot initiative to stop efforts to allow couples in the District to marry. The one-sentence initiative reads, "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid and recognized in the District of Columbia." After they dropped off their paperwork, the leader of the group, Bishop Harry Jackson, and the other members of the Stand4MarriageDC coalition stood at Judiciary Square chanting, "let the people vote." "Citizens are determined to go to the ballot box on this issue one way or another," said Robert King, an ANC commissioner in Ward 5. "Why must the citizens of the District of Columbia be held hostage and treated like unintelligent...citizens." The group, hoping to stall efforts in the D.C. Council to legalize same-sex marriage, is pushing to hold a referendum sometime next year. But the elections board must first rule whether the referendum request is valid. In the District, a referendum cannot be held on a matter that violates the city's Human Rights Act. In addition to other minority groups, the act protects gays and lesbians from discrimination. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Gay Marriages Begin in Vermont  Voice of America, September 01, 2009‎
Same-sex couples in the northeastern U.S. state of Vermont are now allowed to wed. Claire Williams, right, and Cori Giroux are married at the stroke of midnight in Vermont, 01 Sep 2009. some couples across the state began exchanging vows at midnight, September,  when the law took effect. Vermont authorized gay marriage earlier this year after state lawmakers overrode the governor's veto. It was the first state to approve gay marriage through legislation and not a court ruling. The other U.S. states that have approved gay marriage laws are Iowa, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. New Hampshire's law will take effect January 1. The District of Columbia has approved a law recognizing gay marriage performed in states where it is legal. The renowned Vermont-based ice cream company Ben & Jerry's has temporarily renamed their popular flavor "Chubby Hubby" to "Hubby Hubby" (nickname for husband) to show support for the state's new marriage law. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Statement of Ron Prentice, Executive Director, ProtectMarriage.com on Equality California Decision to Pursue a 2012 Election Repeal of Proposition 8    ProtecMarriage.com- Press Release, August 12, 2009
--“While Equality California announced today that they intend to pursue a 2012 election year repeal of Proposition 8 and legalization of homosexual marriage in California, it is clear that they do not speak for a unified movement on their side of this debate.  The group known as the Courage Campaign said today they will still pursue a 2010 constitutional amendment, forcing Equality California to state that they will also support the 2010 measure if it qualifies for the ballot. “Notwithstanding the decision by EQCA to shift focus to a 2012 election, which they readily admit is a crass political decision, they will lose then just as surely as they would in 2010 or any other year.  The people have spoken twice on this issue, both times reaffirming traditional marriage.  If asked to do so, they will indeed vote again to protect traditional marriage.”. . . . . “ProtectMarriage.com is nonetheless not resting on our victory from 2008, but working aggressively to educate the public and to help the public continue to understand the very vital role that marriage plays in our civil society.  While the other side issues many press releases about their activity, we are quietly but effectively building on our majority in California. “Based on ongoing conflict among the pro-homosexual marriage groups, it is still unclear if or when this issue may appear before voters in California.  But whether in 2010, 2012, or beyond, ProtectMarriage.com will be ready to defend marriage and emerge victorious again.”. . .

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. . .



RELATED ARTICLE:  Same-Sex Marriage — Challenges & Responses   Townhall.com, By Gregory Koukl, February 11, 2007
A few years ago, the L.A. Times quoted a homosexual mayor in New York State dismissing the cultural significance of same-sex marriage. “I’ve never heard of anyone’s life being destroyed because someone got married,” he sniffed. Reading this assertion charitably (he couldn’t have meant no one’s life was ever destroyed by marriage), I take it this government official was mystified by the idea that anything bad could come of men marrying men or women marrying women. I immediately knew I was listening to a man who didn’t understand a simple truth: Ideas have consequences. In the case of same-sex marriage, the consequences will be massive. . . . . 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. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  The Intolerance of Tolerance   Townhall.com, By Gregory Koukl, December 14, 2006
Probably no concept has more currency in our politically-correct culture than the notion of tolerance. Unfortunately, one of America's noblest virtues has been so distorted it's become a vice. There's one word that can stop you in your tracks. That word is "intolerant." . . . . The tolerant person allegedly occupies neutral ground, a place of complete impartiality where each person is permitted to decide for himself. No judgments allowed. No "forcing" personal views. That all views are equally valid is one of the most entrenched assumptions of a society committed to relativism. And it's a myth. . .

RELATED SITE:  Whitney Houston Central Park Concert for Good Morning America  ABC News- GMA, September 02, 2009

RELATED VIDEO:  Whitney Houston's Central Park Comeback  ABC News-GMA, September 02, 2009

• Whitney Houston loses voice, cracks through Central Park 'GMA' concert - then blames Oprah  New York Daily News, By Kerry Wills and Carrie Melago, September 01, 2009
  Whitney Houston struggled with her voice during her much-hyped comeback performance on "Good Morning America" Tuesday. The Grammy-winning diva apologized to the 5,000-person crowd for overusing her famous pipes before taking the stage in Central Park to promote her new album "I Look to You." "I'm so sorry. I did 'Oprah.' I've been talking for so long. ... I talked so much, my voice," she said, trailing off. "I shouldn't be talking. I should be singing," she said before breaking into her final, crowd-pleasing number, "I'm Every Woman." Fans, who came from as far away as Australia and arrived in line as early as 10 p.m. Monday, boisterously sang along with her. While "Good Morning America" only planned to have Houston sing three songs, some fans were hoping to hear more from the songstress. "I expected it to be longer. She couldn't sing. She was really damaged," said Joao Andrade, 28, of North Bergen, N.J. "I'm a little disappointed. I think she was brave to come out with no voice." The crowd, though, was firmly behind Houston, whose alleged drug addiction and troubled marriage to Bobby Brown have overshadowed her musical career for nearly a decade. . . . . Concert-goers applauded Houston for trying to recover from her fall from grace - from selling 170 million albums and recording iconic hits like "I Will Always Love You," to landing on the cover of "National Enquirer" surrounded by drug paraphernalia. "Everyone falls down and everyone stumbles. It's how we pick it up and keep going," said Ky Davis, 32, of Plainfield, N.J., who showed up with pink roses. . .
  
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  Whitney Houston Tells All- Part 1  Oprah.com, September 14, 2009
  With more than 140 million albums sold worldwide, icon Whitney Houston is the most awarded woman in music history. Her powerful presence filled the screen in The Bodyguard, which made more than $400 million worldwide. The film's soundtrack remains the best-selling of all time. But behind her megastar success, Whitney hid the intense personal pain of her tumultuous 14-year marriage to R&B star Bobby Brown and a battle with drug abuse. Whitney retreated from the spotlight after a controversial 2002 interview with Diane Sawyer. In 2003, she faced more media attention after calling 911 to report that her husband hit her. The police report said Whitney had a bruised cheek and a cut inside her upper lip. Still, she refused to press charges. He was not convicted and has publicly denied ever hitting her. The couple went public once again in 2005 on Bravo's reality show Being Bobby Brown. Whitney has stayed silent about it all—until now. Back with her first album in seven years, I Look to You, she's sitting down with Oprah and opening up like never before about her past, present and bright future. . .
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  Whitney Houston's Come-Through Moment - Part 2  Oprah.com, September 15, 2009
  It's been seven years since the world heard music icon Whitney Houston's voice. Now, she's back—and talking only to Oprah about the private struggles she tried to hide from public view. In Part 1 of their interview, Whitney opened up about her marriage to R&B star Bobby Brown, her drug abuse and why she retreated from the spotlight. Here, in the conclusion of their interview, Whitney opens up about the day she left Bobby Brown, the death of Michael Jackson and her new album. . .
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  'I wore pyjamas for seven months during my drug hell,' admits Whitney Houston  The Daily Mail, September 10, 2009
  Whitney Houston says she spent seven months wearing just pyjamas in the depths of her drug hell with husband Bobby Brown. In an exclusive two-part interview with Oprah Winfrey, Houston reveals how her life first began to spiral out of control after her hit film the Bodyguard in 1992. 'It will leave you gasping,' teased Winfrey. The episode is set to air in the US on Monday. The chat show host added: 'She does not blame Bobby Brown and she takes full responsibility for her engagement in drugs. 'At one point she says, "I didn't get out of my pyjamas for seven months".' Winfrey said she asked the singer before the interview what she wanted to achieve 'She said, 'I want to tell my story, I want to tell the truth".'. .

RELATED ARTICLE & REVIEWS:  Whitney Houston is back! Or is she? Critics weigh in on the pop diva's new album -- and her sordid past   Salon.com, By Vincent Rossmeier, August 31, 2009
Whitney Houston is back ... or at least that's what she and her record label want you to believe. The pop diva who dominated the record charts in the '80s and '90s descended into drug- and Bobby Brown-fueled infamy during the last decade. And her last comeback, 2002's "Just Whitney," tanked commercially. After she gave an interview to Diane Sawyer the same year -- in which she denied using crack, saying she made too much money to use the drug -- the once-mighty Houston seemed relegated to being little more than the butt of late-night jokes. But her much-hyped new album, "I Look to You," drops today, and she plans to appear on Oprah in early September. As for the record itself, the reviews are already in. Can Houston return as a pop force? Has her voice been ravaged by excess? Here's a look at what critics are saying about the album -- and Houston's troubled history. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Whitney Houston’s “I Look to You” Disappoints: Album Review   Wall Street Journal, By Jim Fusilli, August 31, 2009
The most noticeable feature of Whitney Houston’s new album “I Look to You” is its meekness.  It’s a middling album by an artist who was once the greatest R&B singer of her generation.  Where once she would have elated us with power and grace, she delivers the lyrics with a faint trace of her former authority.  Houston’s fans no doubt are delighted to have her back–it’s been more than a decade since her last memorable album, “My Love is Your Love”. But “I Look to You” will remind fans who appreciate great pop and R&B of what Houston may have lost to her acknowledged drug use, legal battles and other misadventures–including the reality TV show “Being Bobby Brown,” in which the curtain was pulled back on her sophisticated image as it depicted the decline of her marriage to Brown. . .

RELATED MEDIA:  Stream the ENTIRE ALBUM Live Now: Whitney Houston's I Look to You  Oprah.com

• Parenting Issues: Daughters Under Seige   Townhall.com, By Rebecca Hegelin, September 01, 2009
  Recently I wrote about the trend in public schools to push an "if it feels good, do it" brand of sex education on our kids. Those who write the "health education" curriculum, oversee the lesson plans and have the greatest authority in education believe that there are no taboos, and no boundaries on a teenager's sex life. That they actually believe teens should engage in sex at all should be enough to cause outrage - but it goes much further than that. Dr. Miriam Grossman's new book, "You're Teaching My Child What?" documents how they seek to shape an entire generation's world view to support and advance a free sex mentality that would shock even a "free love" child of the radical 60's. . . . .Through deliberate parenting every day you can affirm her value as a whole person. Find other families who share your personal values and surround her with friends and unconditional love. Encourage and help her to find strong female mentors who are marked by their goodness, wisdom, and sincere committment to family. Teach her to discern and dissect the messages of those who seek to advance a radical agenda. Help your daughter discover the joy and peace of mind that comes with teen years that are free from the threat of sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, and the low self- esteem sexually active girls report having deep in their hearts. . .
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  Where Have All the Ladies Gone?  Townhall.com, By Eva Lorraine Molina, August 28, 2009
  As our society abandons the conservative values that make women into ladies, women with grace and dignity have become an endangered species—especially on today’s college campuses. The kind of woman who inspired Tom Jones’ song “She’s a Lady” has become an antiquated figure from America’s past. Most popular songs about women today are more like “Youse a Ho” by Ludacris. . . . . The feminist movement’s war on conservatism in America has killed chivalry and trained too many women to think and act like men. As a result, many young conservative women do not know what it means to be a lady. Here is a good definition: . . .

RELATED VIDEO:
Miley Cyrus Party In The U.S.A--Teen Choice Awards 2009  

RELATED ARTICLE:  Miley Cyrus and Trampy Teen Idols  Townhall.com, By Rebecca Hagelin, August 18, 2009
Moms everywhere are aghast at teen idol Miley Cyrus' recent pole dancing and exaltation of Britney Spears as her hero. The "Hannah Montana" superstar morphed overnight from a bubbly starlet into just another trashy singer, leaving moms feeling betrayed. Many thought they had finally found a " Hollywood type" their daughters could look up to. . . . Then came the photo of Miley sprawled across a boy, her bright green bra in clear view. Next, the 15-year-old posed in nothing but a sheet for the cover of Vanity Fair. After a public outcry, the teen and her superstar dad Billy Ray apologized saying they had been tricked by the photographer. Right. The sorrow only came when parents protested en masse. Given that moms are desperate for role models for their daughters, we quickly forgave, only to be let down again this week when Miley pole danced her way as the heir apparent of the cute-girl-gone-trashy super star phenomenon.  Left in her wake? Millions of pre-teen girls who are left thinking they have to be sex objects to "make it" in life. Face the facts: There is a pattern here and it will not change as long as we don't recognize that our little girls are being used. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Puplis told: Sex every day keeps the GP away  Times Online-UK, By Jack Grimston, July 12, 2009
A National Health Service leaflet is advising school pupils that they have a “right” to an enjoyable sex life and that regular intercourse can be good for their cardiovascular health. The advice appears in guidance circulated to parents, teachers and youth workers, and is intended to update sex education by telling pupils about the benefits of sexual pleasure. For too long, say its authors, experts have concentrated on the need for “safe sex” and loving relationships while ignoring the main reason that many people have sex, that is, for enjoyment. The document, called Pleasure, has been drawn up by NHS Sheffield, although it is also being circulated outside the city. Alongside the slogan “an orgasm a day keeps the doctor away”, it says: “Health promotion experts advocate five portions of fruit and veg a day and 30 minutes’ physical activity three times a week. What about sex or masturbation twice a week?” Steve Slack, director of the Centre for HIV and Sexual Health at NHS Sheffield, who is one of the authors, argues that, far from promoting teenage sex, it could encourage young people to delay losing their virginity until they are sure they will enjoy the experience. Slack believes that as long as teenagers are fully informed about sex and are making their decisions free of peer pressure and as part of a caring relationship, they have as much right as an adult to a good sex life. Anthony Seldon, master of Wellington College, Berkshire, who introduced classes in emotional wellbeing, said the approach was “deplorable”. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Equipping Your Teen with Character: Even teens and tweens learn more by example than by teaching. Modeling proper virtues for your children is important.  FOTF.org, By Tiffany Stuart
Why do today's teens answer the question, "What is character?" with good looking? Since when did physical appearance become a character trait? Society and pop culture send unchristian messages like:
•It's all about me.
•Sex outside of marriage is the norm.
•Girls must dress sexy to be attractive.
What's at stake with this kind of thinking? Our culture's moral compass — and our sons and daughters' future. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  A parent's guiding influence   OneNewsNow, By Mark Gregston, August 12, 2009
A parent's desire to hold on to a child's innocence in his early years is normal and necessary. Early childhood is obviously not the right time for them to know certain things. But kids today are exposed to negative influences at earlier and earlier ages, and it is often out of a parent's control. Age 16 used to be the benchmark for teens. It was the age most could begin to drive, and when given a set of car keys, the influence a parent has on how much of the world their teen experiences changes dramatically. But today, a younger teen has the keys to "drive" on over to some of the seediest places on earth, with the click of a mouse button. The Internet has changed everything. While I applaud parents who protect their teen by having safeguards on their Internet use at home, the reality is that kids can and do access the Internet elsewhere -- at their friend's house, at school, or at the library. And even if they don't, their friends do, and share what they've learned. After all, kids want to appear more "grown up" by talking about adult things. Some parents don't see the backlash from this coming, don't properly prepare their teen, and therefore have some catching up to do. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  What Our Daughters Must Know  Townhall.com, By Miriam Grossman, M.D., September 4, 2008
As millions of American parents send their daughters off to college this week, many have a silent prayer on their lips. For good reason: sexual behavior is a serious matter, and a single encounter can have life-long consequences, especially for a woman. Listen up, Planned Parenthood, SIECUS, and Columbia University: That’s not sexist—it’s biology. And ignorance or denial of this fact only increases a girl’s vulnerability. We need to remind girls that the characters on Grey’s Anatomy are not real. In real life, Meredith would have herpes or warts. In real life, she’d be paying a price for her choices. Young women must know that now more than ever, it’s wise to follow the lesson of hard science: be very, very careful about who you allow close to you. . .

• Arkansas family prepares for baby No. 19
  Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar’s next child is due after their first grandchild   Today, By Mike Celizic, September 01, 2009
  After 18 children, Michelle Duggar thought she knew what it feels like to be pregnant. But even she was caught by surprise to learn that just eight months after she gave birth to Jordyn-Grace, Duggar baby No. 19 is on the way. “We are thrilled to announce that we found out we’re expecting our 19th child,” a glowing Michelle Duggar told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira Tuesday from the family’s home in Springdale, Ark. Michelle and family patriarch Jim Bob Duggar sat on the staircase of their home, surrounded by their 18 other children. Behind them and in the center were eldest son Josh and his wife, Anna, who is expecting the first Duggar grandchild — a girl — on Oct. 18. . . . Michelle has now been pregnant 147 months of her life, with five more to go. That’s 12-plus years and counting. Michelle has now been pregnant 147 months of her life, with five more to go. That’s 12-plus years and counting. Jim Bob Duggar has one sibling and Michelle is the youngest of seven. When they got married, they thought they’d have two or three children. Not wanting to have a child immediately, Michelle went on the birth control pill as they waited three years to have their first child, Josh, who is now married and expecting his first child. After Josh was born, Michelle went back on the pill. She got pregnant anyway and suffered a miscarriage, which her physician told them was probably caused by the pill. As conservative Christians, they decided after that to let God decide how many children they would have. They adhere to a Christian movement called Quiverfull, whose members take seriously the biblical exhortation to be fruitful and multiply and believe that every child is a gift from Providence. . .
  
  
  RELATED ARTICLE:  Jim Bob Duggar Shares Tips for a Happy Marriage  People magazine, By Alicia Dennis, September 02, 2009
  Jon and Kate Gosselin's marriage cracked under the stress of raising eight kids and differing priorities, but fellow reality TV star – and father of 18 – Jim Bob Duggar wants people to understand there can still be happiness in a marriage no matter how many kids are around. "One of our goals is to encourage other families and parents that their marriage can be strong even if they have kids," says Jim Bob, 44, whose wife, Michelle, 42, is pregnant with their 19th child. The couple, who live in Tontitown, Ark., credit a few key relationship rules with keeping love in their marriage. First priority: Making time for each other. . .

RELATED VIDEO: Duggars to welcome 19th child  Today-MSNBC.com, September 01, 2009


RELATED VIDEO:  First Duggar grandchild will be a girl  Today-MSNBC.com, September 01, 2009


RELATED SITE:  18 Kids and Counting : TLC
The official site of the Duggar family and the TLC show 18 Kids and Counting. Watch Duggar videos and see photos of Jim Bob, Michelle, and their 18 kids. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  Deconstructing the Quiver: A review of Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement.  Christianity Today, Review by Elrena Evans, February 20, 2009
Outsider interest in how many children a woman has is nothing new, yet among considerations of failing Social Security and environmental concerns, this interest seems to be intensifying toward apprehension, even alarm. Women of childbearing age are used to fielding questions from family, friends, and complete strangers about their fertility: How many children do you have? How many children do you want? But these questions pale in light of the larger, more philosophical question at their base: How many children should you have? That simple question implicates wide-ranging issues, including contraception, fertility treatments, human sexuality, gender roles, the purpose of marriage and procreation — issues that, in short, touch at the very core of our identities. Perhaps that's one of the reasons we are so fascinated by larger families: we're not just interested in what life is like for them, we're also questioning the implications for our own lives. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  Straight Talk: The criminal act of having too many kids  Jerusalem Post, By  Shumley Boteach, February 16, 2009
The New York Times Magazine ran a cover story last summer about the shrinking populations of many countries in Europe - Italy, Germany - where the birthrates have fallen well below the death rates. Amid the worst economic crisis in 70 years, all brought about by greed and misguided materialistic values, one would have thought that Americans would begin to get it, that we'd return to things that are truly valuable like family, spirituality, and community. . . . . . Often women ask me whether a particular man is husband-material. I tell them to look first and foremost at whether he likes children. If he does, it means he loves playfulness, imagination, and little cute critters who bring out his own innocence. If he sees children as a burden then he might be just a little too much into himself. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  And Baby Makes How Many?  In an Era of Shrinking Broods, Larger Families Can Feel Attacked   New York Times, By Kate Zernike, February 6, 2009
THE comment from the photographer at Sears was typical. “Are these all yours?” she asked, surveying Kim Gunnip’s 12 children. “No,” Mrs. Gunnip replied, “I picked some up at the food court.” But it was harder to find a retort for the man in line at the supermarket, who said within earshot of her youngest children, “You must have a great sex life.” Now her family, like other larger families, as they call themselves, is facing endless news coverage of the octuplets born in California and a new round of scorn, slack jaws and stupid jokes. Back when the average woman had more than three children, big families were the Kennedys of Hickory Hill and Hyannis Port, “Cheaper by the Dozen,” the Cosbys or “Eight is Enough” — lovable tumbles of offspring as all-American in their scrapes as in their smiles. But as families have shrunk, and parents helicopter over broods tinier yet more precious, a vanload of children has taken on more of a freak show factor. . .


RELATED ARTICLE:  The Fertility Gap: More Christians on the Way  TownHall.com, By Chuck Colson, September 12, 2007
Every time you turn around, a presidential candidate whips out his Bible—or a position paper—to let us know how faithful he or she is. Senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) says God "would be happy with the fact that" he's focused on people without health care. Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) says we should "discuss religion . . . in the positive sense of what it tells us about our obligations towards one another." Republicans, also, are quick to point out how faith informs their policies. Clearly, the candidates are appealing to America's religious voters—and they are smart to do so. As one social scientist recently noted, they are going to need religious voters for the long term—because Christians are having far more children than their secular neighbors. . . . This is significant, because kids tend to grow up to worship the way their parents do. In a generation or two, we are going to have a bumper crop of conservative citizens. Candidates who appeal to Christians will win more elections simply because of demographics. This is not the first time in history we have seen the demographic power of the Church. Take, for example, ancient Rome. . .

RELATED ARTICLE:  Married With Children: Could anything be crazier?   Salvo magazine, By Kate Bluett
Are You a "Breeder”?  You may not be aware of it, but if you have children—or are just heterosexual, for that matter—then there are probably people calling you "breeder” behind your back. Apparently, a person who marries someone of the opposite sex with the intention of raising a family is so-o-o last millennium, and the term "breeder” is intended to hammer this point home. There are a couple of ways that you can achieve "breeder” status. Used primarily by homosexuals, the word can simply mean "heterosexual,” referring to the fact that heterosexual sex can result in conception. But you are even more of a "breeder” if you actually have children, and it is in this sense that hip young singles—gay or not—apply the name to parents who abandoned their previous friends and lifestyles upon starting a family. (Incidentally, a female "breeder” is commonly called a "moo” and a male a "duh.”) Regardless of how it's used, however, the designation is uniformly derogatory, which is probably why no one has said it to your face yet. . .

• Health Issues: Drive-Thru Medical: Retail Health Clinics' Good Marks  Time magazine, By Jeffrey Kluger, September 01, 2009
  Doctors are having a hard go of things. Squeezed by falling reimbursements, soaring malpractice insurance and punishing patient loads, they shouldn't have much to fear from the likes of Wal-Mart. But the fact is, the greeter in the red vest is increasingly going toe-to-toe with the doctor in the white coat — and winning — thanks to the growing phenomenon of retail health clinics. Retail clinics — free-standing, walk-in medical providers located in drug stores, shopping malls and stores like Wal-Mart, Target and Walgreens — are rapidly becoming to the health-care industry what Fotomat was to the camera world. There are roughly 1,000 clinics now operating in the U.S., offering acute care for such routine problems as throat infections and earaches as well as providing diabetes and cholesterol screenings, routine checkups and vaccinations. The fees are low — and conspicuously posted; nearly all of the clinics treat both the insured and uninsured, and there is little or no waiting time. With 50 million Americans lacking health insurance and family budgets collapsing under the weight of medical costs, what's not to like about the clinics?. . . . . . But perhaps the more relevant question is, How good is the care at these stop-and-shop operations? To answer that, the Rand investigators focused on just one state, Minnesota, because clinics are well-established there and because one large health plan has been providing clinic coverage for its members for five years, meaning that there was a rich vein of data to mine. The investigators focused on data on 2,100 patients who had gone to a clinic for one of three common complaints: sore throat, urinary tract infection and earache. These were compared to patients who had visited doctors' offices, urgent-care facilities and emergency rooms for the same ailments. The investigators judged quality of care by 14  different measures, including what kinds of tests were ordered, what drugs were prescribed and whether follow-up visits were scheduled. If the results are any indication, the next time you have a routine medical need, you should probably make haste to a clinic. . .

RELATED VIDEO:  Using retail health clinics  MSNBC-Today,September 01, 2009

RELATED ARTICLE:  Listening to a Liar  Townhall.com, By Thomas Sowell, September 08, 2009
The most important thing about what anyone says are not the words themselves but the credibility of the person who says them. The words of convicted swindler Bernie Madoff were apparently quite convincing to many people who were regarded as knowledgeable and sophisticated. If you go by words, you can be led into anything. No doubt millions of people will be listening to the words of President Barack Obama Wednesday night when he makes a televised address to a joint session of Congress on his medical care plans. But, if they think that the words he says are what matters, they can be led into something much worse than being swindled out of their money. . .

More "Marriage" News: August 2009

Get 2 Free Preview Issues!

Home  I  Subscribe  I  About Us  I  Editorial  I  'MARRIAGE' In The News  I  Enter Our Blog Spot  I  'Something New' 


2010 'MARRIAGE' News Archives:  February 2010  |  January 2010 

2009:  December 2009  |  November 2009  |  October 2009  |  September 2009  |  August 2009  |  July 2009  |  June 2009  |  May 2009  |  April 2009  |  March 2009  | February 2009  |  January 2009

2008:  December 2008  |  November 2008  |  October 2008  |  September 2008  |  August 2008  |  July 2008  |  June 2008  |  May 2008  |  April 2008  |  March 2008  |  February 2008  I  January 2008

2007:  December 2007  I  November 2007  I  October 2007  I  September 2007  I  August 2007  I  July 2007  I  June 2007  I  May 2007  I  April 2007  I  March 2007  I  February 2007  I  January 2007

2006:  December 2006  I  November 2006  I  October 2006  I  September 2006  I  August 2006  I  July 2006  I  June 2006  I  May 2006  I  April 2006  I  March 2006  I  February 2006  I  January 2006

2005:  December 2005  I  November 2005  I  October 2005  I  September 2005  I  August 2005  I  July 2005  I  June 2005  I  May 2005