Free Republic

Remember back in the day when Anna and Kris Benson were, for lack of any other better candidates, baseball’s first couple? Kris had a couple of good years with the Pirates that he parlayed into a nice contract with the Mets. Anna was the dancer-turned baseball wife who posed in gentlemen’s magazines and said audacious things in public. Things like, if Kris ever cheated on her she’d sleep with the entire Mets roster. We all got laughs at that stuff. ... Former “Baseball Wives” star Anna Benson – the estranged wife of ex-pitcher Kris Benson – was arrested this morning...

Q: My sister wants an annulment so she can remarry in the Church. But when she began asking questions about how to go about it, she was immediately told that she can’t get an annulment unless she is divorced first. Can that possibly be true, or is her diocese doing something heretical? The Church is opposed to divorce, but then it pressures Catholics to get divorced… why is she being told she must get a divorce? –Denise

If an unmarried couple have sex, they are considered husband and wife—and would have to “divorce” if they split, an Indian court has ruled. When two people of legal age, 18 for a woman and 21 for a man, “indulge in sexual gratification”, this should be seen as a “an act of total commitment” and marriage by law, a judge at Madras High Court said. The court said that the registering of a marriage as well as a wedding ceremony were only formalities to gain society’s approval. It also said that once two people have sex, this “becomes a total...

Hong Kong gossip has it that the first time Wendi Deng met her future husband Rupert Murdoch, she accidentally-on-purpose spilled red wine on his trousers. Recounted by the Australian journalist Eric Ellis, the story is probably apocryphal, but it still captures something important: she is the sort of person other people like to tell stories about – and the more outrageous the better. Deng is evidently not one to be bound by normal rules. And that is why we may wonder whether even Rupert Murdoch, equipped as he is with a steel-trap mind (not to mention the best prenuptial advice...

Media titan Rupert Murdoch has filed for divorce from his wife of 14 years, Wendi Deng. The 82-year-old billionaire and CEO of News Corp. filed a one-page document in New York State Supreme Court indicating the start of the divorce Thursday morning. "The relationship between the husband and wife has broken down irretrievably," sealed court documents claim, according to a Murdoch spokesman. A source familiar with the case said the couple had a prenuptial agreement and that the split would have no effect on the management or ownership of the company.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his wife, Lyudmila, have announced that they have separated and their marriage is over. The 60-year-old and his 55-year-old wife broke the news of the end of the 29-year marriage in an obviously staged TV interview after a night at the ballet that made no mention of Putin's alleged mistress, former Olympic gymnast Alina Kabayeva, 30. Asked on Rossiya-24 television about longstanding rumours that the Putins no longer lived together, the 60-year-old Putin said: 'That is true.' But neither clarified whether they were legally divorced and Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said he did not know....

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his long-suffering wife, Lyudmila, are ending their nearly 30-year marriage, they announced on state television Thursday in a tone of mutual indifference. “We practically never saw each other,” Putin told a reporter from the Rossiya 24 network as he and his soon-to-be-ex-wife departed a Kremlin ballet performance. “To each his own life.” Russia’s first couple gave little explanation of why they chose to end the marriage now, other than the president’s assertion that “it was our joint decision.” … The couple’s infrequent public appearances have sparked wild media reports and speculation. One particularly steady rumor...

CARSON, NV - Thelma Kessler is 86, her husband Stanley, 87. They've been married for 36 years, but now in the sunset of their lives they are allowed to see each other for just one hour a week and a court order gives others the power to file for their divorce. Thelma no longer has control of her husband's life. That's responsibility now rests with Carson City Public Guardian Debi Marzoline. After a series of court hearings, Stanley was removed from their home and put in a nursing home. There was an allegation Thelma was starving him and she was...

I have often heard it said that our Lord did not care overmuch about sins of the flesh; for He was relentless in his attacks upon hypocrisy, pride, and avarice, but was so mild towards adulterers and fornicators that we might, extrapolating from that mildness, so far dispense Christians from the strictures of the sixth commandment as to ignore their sins, nay, even to make a virtue of them, so long as they commit them with sufficient sweetness and affection.That interpretation cannot be supported by any commonsense reading of His words.When the Pharisees, “tempting Him,” asked Him whether it was...

It was reported the other day on an inside page of the Pioneer Press, and without nearly enough fanfare, that more than six out of 10 women who give birth in their early 20s are unmarried. That is census data, from census demographers, from the very government that then becomes responsible for many, if not most, of those unmarried women and children. If that isn't an astonishing statistic, it should be. Why, to any logical person's way of thinking, it explains everything in terms of government at all levels bloating out of control. Supposing that even angels might fear to...

Among various unwanted truths that grown-ups of the Western world have to contend with these days, here’s one that doesn’t get nearly the traction it deserves: The days of the modern welfare state look to be numbered. Yet it’s true. Even the most redistributive president in history can’t change the laws of arithmetic. As can be seen most recently in Jonathan V. Last’s book What to Expect When No One’s Expecting, the song of demographic unsustainability remains the same on both sides of the Atlantic. From Nicosia to Athens, London to Washington, D.C., the benefits promised to seniors and others...

A transgender former Honolulu man whose divorce request was rejected after his marriage was declared invalid plans to keep trying to get his 9-year union dissolved, saying Tuesday that he wants the three children to whom he gave birth to know their parents' marriage was legitimate. Thomas Beatie, wearing a dress shirt and tie, said a judge's decision last week to reject his divorce request was a swipe against his identity and could cause problems for him down the road if he decides to remarry. He also said the ruling underscores his belief that Arizona is unaccepting of transgender people,...

There is nothing in our current legal system or national moral climate that will stop polygamy from becoming the next liberal cause: “Redefining marriage to include same-sex couples would jettison the rationale and logic behind prohibitions on polygamous marriages, according to several friend-of-the court briefs urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the traditional definition of marriage. “‘Ultimately, there is no principled basis for recognizing a legality of same-sex marriage without simultaneously providing a basis for the legality of consensual polygamy or certain adult incestuous relationships,’ reads one of the briefs, filed by the Christian legal group Liberty Counsel. ‘In...

Seven Republicans in the Iowa House are pushing a bill to prohibit parents of minor children from getting a “no fault” divorce and the proposal could be debated in a House committee this week. A three-member subcommittee debated the bill today. Representative Tedd Gassman, a Republican from Scarville, said he’s concerned about the negative impact divorce has on children. “In my opinion, it’s time to look out for the children instead of constantly worrying about the adults,” Gassman said. Daren Clark of Forest City — one of Gassman’s constituents — spoke about his recent divorce and the ongoing conflict with...

Christians throughout the West are dismayed at plummeting church attendance figures. They blame video games, or left-wing teachers, or Richard Dawkins. But perhaps the real answer is closer to home -- their own families. Divorce, single motherhood and cohabitation have been destabilising family life in America and other developed countries for decades. About one million children in the US each year experience the divorce of their parents, and more than half the children born to women under 30 are now born outside marriage. Reproductive technologies are also adding ambiguity -- and potential fault lines -- to family relationships. Christians as...

Actress Ashley Judd and Indy Car driver Dario Franchitti are ending their marriage after 11 years, and, yes, the news impacts Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Judd is weighing whether to jump into politics and challenge McConnell in Kentucky in 2014. She was in Washington for the inauguration and attended an event at EMILY's List, the group that backs pro-choice Democratic women running for governor or Congress. Judd even carpooled with Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who demonstrated she knows how to win in a red state after defeating the self-injurious Todd Akin.

ROME (Reuters) - Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has agreed to pay his estranged wife Veronica Lario 100,000 euros ($132,200) a day as part of a divorce settlement, the daily Corriere della Sera said on Friday. **SNIP** Lario, a former actor who was married to Berlusconi for more than 22 years, asked for a divorce from the 76-year-old billionaire in 2009, accusing him of having an affair with a 17-year-old girl. She had already delivered a public rebuke to her husband over his relations with other women, sending an open letter to the daily La Repubblica in 2007 in...

Many have spent long hours wondering if a marriage is going to last, considering things like love, children, taxes, and the opinion of friends and professionals. But the best and easiest answer may be this formula: frequency of lovemaking minus frequency of quarrels A positive difference predicts marital happiness, a negative one unhappiness. The formula was derived from a series of studies in the 1970s. One study of married students at University of Missouri-Kansas City found that 28 out of 30 self-described happy couples had sex more than they argued, while all 12 self-described unhappy couples argued more. These results...

Young Black men are killing each other every day and the problem is particularly acute in urban cities like Chicago from which President Barack Obama hails. Yet, I haven’t seen Obama or the mainstream media shed a tear over the fact more than 50% of America’s murder victims are black and nearly all (85%) of those blacks killed are young men. Nor do we see media or presidential outrage or calls for more rigid gun control laws when young black kids are heinously murdered like we do when the victims are mostly white. Neither words nor God can explain the...

Amid all of the ridiculous politicization of the gun angle in the wake of Sandy Hook, and even a few calls for a national discussion on mental illness (one more back door for tyrannies, many), why is there so little discussion—or even mention—of what acquaintances of Adam Lanza are calling the turning point in his life: his parents’ divorce?