Free Republic

HILLSBORO, N.D. - It's the thought that counts when it comes to a marriage proposal. ADVERTISEMENT Chris Mueller, 25, was nearly finished etching the big question into a harvested soybean field when he realized the 'm' in 'marry' took up too much room. Since he couldn't erase a plowed field, he had a decision to make. "I figured it would look better to spell it wrong and get a laugh out of it, rather than botch it all," Mueller told the Grand Forks Herald. "I could have fit all the letters in, but it would have looked tacky." Instead, it...

Girls of 16 are married off for safety NAGARANI never dreamt that she would be married at 16. That was before the Boxing Day tsunami washed away her family’s home and left her, her widowed mother and younger sisters with nowhere to live but a relief camp packed with other homeless villagers. First came the looks from the older men, then the visits to propose marriage. Then a neighbour threatened to kidnap her and tried to snatch her on her way to market. Her mother had had enough. “You must marry,” she told Nagarani. “How long can I look after...

Hundreds of gays, lesbians to marry today By ALLAN TURNER Houston Chronicle Feb. 12, 2005, 1:06AM Wedding bells will ring this afternoon for Mike and Vince, Michelle and Kelly, Dennis and Bruce and hundreds of other Houston gays and lesbians who will tie the knot in what may be Texas' largest same-sex wedding — a wedding that, although the state rejects its validity, participants insist will strengthen their relationships and provide a beacon to future generations. Between 100 and 200 couples are expected for the mass wedding ceremony at Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church, 2025 W. 11th St., which ministers to...

Until the 18th century, there was basically only one kind of Judaism, that which is now called Orthodox. It meant living by the religion's 613 laws, and doing so suffused Jews' lives with their faith. Then, starting with the thinker Baruch Spinoza (1632-77) and moving briskly during the Haskala, or "enlightenment," from the late 18th century, Jews developed a wide variety of alternate interpretations of their religion, most of which diminished the role of faith in their lives and led to a concomitant reduction in Jewish affiliation.These alternatives and other developments, in particular the Holocaust, caused the ranks of the...

Unwed parents are being seduced into wedlock by a New York writer fighting to reverse an anti-marriage trend. Author Maryann Reid is tempting couples with kids to take the plunge in a high-profile, all-expenses paid event - called Marry Your Baby Daddy Day. She is looking for 10 couples who will tie the knot in an effort to halt a trend that, she claims, has 70% of black parents living outside wedlock. "Everybody in the African-American community knows a baby mama or a baby daddy," she said, using slang terms to refer to single parents. "It's almost become trendy in...

Hey Kids! Want Good Sex? Try Abstinence.Warren ThrockmortonAs a mental health counselor, I am really troubled by the numbers of adolescents that I have counseled who cried for days and hurt for years because they engaged in "safer sex" within dead end, unfulfilling relationships. Sadly, they learned that “safer sex” can be hazardous to their emotional health. I think the current political debate concerning abstinence vs. contraceptive based sexual education has failed to include an important variable in the discussion of what to teach in school: sexual well being. In many contemporary sexual education curricula, young boys and girls who...

A WEST AUSTRALIAN couple who are brother and sister by adoption but unrelated by blood are battling a federal law preventing them from marrying. Kevin and Deborah Jefferies have been in love for at least 10 years and wish to get married, but under the Federal Marriage Act 1961 ? which prevents brothers and sisters from marrying ? their relationship is taboo. The couple became siblings on paper when their parents married and Kevin's father adopted Deborah and her sisters. "There's so many people who can get divorced so easily ? we can't even get married to start with," Kevin...

I was listening to Rush and the Human Rights Campain, (a homosexual lobby group) had a Radio ad quoting conservatives and misquoting some I believe. These leftist groups were portraying themselves as "conservative" advocates to not amend the constitution. They were saying that protecting marrige trivializes the constitution. (like making 18 the age of majority was trivial?) They ignore that Marriage is now a federal issue. They ignore that the FMA returns the issue to the states. It is ironic that the Homosexuals feel so threatened by the FMA that they would advertise during the Rush Limbaugh show with a...

<p>PILOT MOUNTAIN, N.C. (AP) - As soon as a group of fellow bikers pulled the handlebars out of his abdomen after his motorcycle crash, Brian Shipwash wanted to do one more thing in case he died.</p> <p>So he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box, broken and blood-spattered, with a ring inside and asked Shandra Miller to marry him.</p>

The Anti-Father Police State December 23, 2003 by Stephen Baskerville, Ph.D. Columnist Cathy Young is known for her even-handed attempts to cut through the pretensions of both the left and right. She has also shown considerable courage by delving into what for many journalists is a no-go zone: divorce and fathers' rights. So it is a little awkward to find myself cast as one of her combatants, with my own views and others' whom I typify characterized as "extreme." In the December issue of Reason magazine, Young sorts out, with her customary balance, a debate between proponents of Clinton-Bush family...

Pakistani women to marry freely By Zaffar Abbas BBC correspondent in Islamabad The ruling will give women in Pakistan more choice Pakistan's supreme court has declared that adult Muslim women can marry anyone of their own free will. The ruling overturns an earlier verdict by a high court that described such a marriage without the permission of a father or brother as invalid. Pakistan's human rights campaigners have fought against the verdict for about six years. They described it as contrary to Islamic injunctions and discriminatory towards women. Legal wrangling The controversy over the right of a woman to marry...

Muslims in the country have been urged to marry more than one wife so as to reduce the number of unmarried women (spinsters) roaming the streets of the cities without husbands.

<p>If it's true that a woman has to kiss many frogs before she finds her prince, then Kimberly Devlin's lips must be turning green. Recent first dates -- they usually end there -- have asked her to pay the check, have lied about owning a car, or have fibbed about their line of work. The last man who asked her out, though nice enough, was a walking billboard for his tattoo parlor and wore more earrings than the 22-year-old Devlin could count.</p>

Michael Tanner, director of health and welfare studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, took conservatives to task for offering legislation to promote marriage, in his July 29, 2003 New York Times op-ed, "Wedded to Poverty." Tanner may well be correct in claiming that conservative do-gooders are going astray in promoting marriage through the "welfare reauthorization bill passed by the House and awaiting action by the Senate: a proposal to spend nearly $2 billion over the next six years to encourage people to marry." Countless governmental and nongovernmental undertakings have foundered on the fallacy bearing the Latin name post hoc, ergo...

Transexuals will be allowed to marry in their adoptive sex and apply for birth certificates showing their new genders under new Government proposals. But in a concession to the Anglican Church, priests will for the first time be able to refuse to carry out a marriage ceremony if the bride or groom is a transexual. Minister at the Department for Constitutional Affairs, Lord Filkin, said the concession was a result of "disquiet" from some in the Church over the new rights. Transexuals who want to register under their new genders will be able to apply to a new authorising body,...

Gay Marriage! What, Are You NUTS? Posted by Doc Farmer Saturday, June 21, 2003 Our neighbours to the North--the Canadians (or, as Robin Williams described them, ''a loft apartment above a really great party'')--have come up with a new touchy-feely (Ick!) concept to make the world a better, if more bizarre place. State-recognised same-sex marriages. Now, I want to talk to all of the homosexuals out there reading this article. As a male lesbian, I can sympathize with you. Well, somewhat. And I want to ask you all a very important question. HAVE YOU LOST YOUR TINY LITTLE MINDS? I’m...

You Guys are going to flame me for this but here goes: I have a couple who are dear freinds. They are retired conservative parents of a disabled adult/child. They have a wonderful son who is part of the Portland Coast Guard. He is an active Libertarian who has a home here on the coast down the street from the Parents so as to care for his disabled sister on the week ends. Great young man at 38 never been married looking for a very conservative woman (keeps dating not by choice Liberal woman). Looking for marraige and does not...

Study: Marrying cousins not so risky / CNN Health PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- The risk of birth defects in children born to couples who are first or second cousins isn't as high as many experts had believed, according to a study that sheds new light on a practice that is stigmatized in many Western cultures. The study released Wednesday says married cousins are still more likely than unrelated couples to have children with a birth defect, significant mental retardation or serious genetic disease. An unrelated couple has about a 3 percent to 4 percent risk of having a child with...