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Why does the world of dating seem so complicated? Lauren Chen, host of Pseudo-Intellectual on Blaze TV, offers some useful navigational tools. It starts with this basic question: what is the purpose of dating? The answer may shock you.

Ed Sheeran has been wearing a ring on THAT finger, but it’s not what you think it is. It’s simply a “man-gagement” ring. People noticed the wedding band-style accessory about two weeks ago, and he has since addressed it. “I never saw why men didn’t wear engagement rings,” Sheeran, 27, told British talk show Lorraine. “Cherry made it for me herself out of silver clay,” he said of his new ring, which was handcrafted by his fiancée, Cherry Seaborn. “I really like it.” Nothing’s changed since he proposed: “We didn’t get secretly married, no,” he clarified on Australia’s The Kyle...

Prince Harry is ready to move his girlfriend into Kensington Palace — and The ENQUIRER had the scoop on how Meghan Markle has already taken over the redecorating! Insiders told The ENQUIRER that Harry had already planned for the palace as a new home for him and his very serious girlfriend. Officially, Harry and Meghan would be moving into an apartment in the castle — right next to Prince William and Princess Kate, who are making a move back to London as Queen Elizabeth grows more ill. But sources added that Meghan has already made her mark on the whole...

Police in Florida say an argument over pizza ended with a man throwing a hot slice at his roommate. According to the Tampa Tribune, the man's roommate called police after she says Daniel Allen Plunkett, 50, tossed a hot slice of pizza at her. She says it struck her left hand. The arrest report also states the woman had sauce on her shoulder. She was not injured. Plunkett denied throwing the pizza, telling officers it was actually his roommate who was throwing pizza. Officers did note that Plunkett was shirtless and had sauce on his chest. After further investigation, officers...

We’ve talked a good deal about the decline of marriage on this blog over the years. And our discussion must continue as the Synod on the family is planned in Rome.In my short 25 years as a priest I have experienced a major drop off in marriages. In my early years, I had about thirty weddings a year; now, about five or six. In this urban parish in which I have ministered for the larger part of 20 years, a beautiful and picturesque setting for a matrimonial sacrament, we used to have to turn couples away who were not members....

In true Marxist form, the ludicrously named "Affordable Care Act" mounts an all-out attack on marriage. In 2010 the Heritage Foundation pointed out under the bill couples would face massive financial penalties if they marry or remain married. Conversely, couples who cohabit without marriage are given highly preferential financial treatment. If the Senate bill becomes law, saying 'I do' would cost some couples over $10,000 per year.

A new trend has some couples turning to lawyers to help save their relationships. “I promise you that I am going to be making sure that you’re having more fun, more dates, and more time of mine,” Gregg Sullivan told his wife, Toni Mantus. But unlike many of the promises made during a relationship, this one is part of a written contract. The couple told CBS 2′s Dick Brennan that, with the help of an attorney, they have put everything in writing, including how often they have sex.

... In a nationwide survey conducted in 2001 by the National Marriage Project, then at Rutgers and now at the University of Virginia, nearly half of 20-somethings agreed with the statement, “You would only marry someone if he or she agreed to live together with you first, so that you could find out whether you really get along.” About two-thirds said they believed that moving in together before marriage was a good way to avoid divorce. But that belief is contradicted by experience. Couples who cohabit before marriage (and especially before an engagement or an otherwise clear commitment) tend to...

Many of New Mexico's Catholics were reminded during Mass last weekend that unmarried couples who cohabitate are living in "a state of mortal sin and may not receive Holy Communion." Archbishop Michael Sheehan told priests to read the letter he wrote stating that only two lifestyles are acceptable: "a single life of chastity, or the union of a man and woman in the Sacrament of Matrimony." The message stops short of directing priests to deny communion to unmarried people who are living together. Instead, Sheehan urges those "living in cohabitation" to abstain from taking the consecrated bread and wine during...

Google is set to begin covering a cost that gay and lesbian employees must pay when their partners receive domestic partner health benefits, according to a report in the New York Times. The cost is largely to compensate these workers for an extra tax that heterosexual married couples do not pay. The increase will be retroactive to the beginning of the year, the newspaper said. Google is not the first large company to make up for the extra tax, the Times reported, adding that Google’s move could inspire its Silicon Valley competitors to follow suit, as they compete for the...

Earlier this week, I got a frantic call from a friend whose daughter has been away for her first semester at college. “She’s not bringing her boyfriend home,” my friend wailed. “In fact, she says he’s not really her boyfriend at all!” The “he” in question was a male my friend’s daughter had repeatedly mentioned she spent time with socially: going to the movies and out to dinner, seeing concerts, once spending an entire weekend camping at a state park. Oh, there were always other people around, but the regularity of their contact led my friend to believe her daughter...

Wed Sep 12, 8:52 AM By Les Perreaux ADVERTISEMENT MONTREAL (CP) - Quebecers have long led Canada in the modern move away from wedding vows toward common-law coupling, but now the province has roared past Sweden and Finland to lead the world. New data from the 2006 census released Wednesday shows no couples on the planet are known to shack up more than those in la belle province. The dramatic move away from marriage is accelerating wildly in Quebec, with 35 per cent of couples choosing common-law arrangements compared to 30 per cent in 2001, the last time the data...

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (AP) -- A [St. Louis] Metro East man was ordered to spend two years in prison after admitting in court that he tore the head off a kitten in the wake of a fight with his live-in girlfriend. When it comes to animal abuse cases, "we don't get prison sentences all the time, so it's always good when we do," Stephanee Smith, a spokeswoman for the Madison County State's Attorney's Office, said Tuesday of the case against Jacob Thornton. Thornton, 21, of Bethalto[, Illinois], was to have had a preliminary hearing last Thursday on the felony animal torture...

They told the world that their relationship was like any other and that's why they should be allowed to marry. Now, friends say, they are showing once again that they are just like any other couple: Two years after getting married, Julie and Hillary Goodridge, lead plaintiffs in the state's landmark gay marriage case, are splitting. Mary Breslauer, a spokeswoman for the couple, confirmed the separation last night. She said the couple are focused now on trying to do what is best for their daughter, Annie, 10. ``Julie and Hillary Goodridge are amicably living apart," Breslauer said in a telephone...

BOSTON — The lesbian couple whose lawsuit led to legal same-sex marriage in Massachusetts have announced they have separated. "Julie and Hillary Goodridge are amicably living apart," Mary Breslauer, a local political consultant, said Thursday night on their behalf. Breslauer declined to comment on how long they had been separated or whether the couple planned to divorce.

Raleigh, N.C. -- A state judge has ruled that North Carolina's 201-year-old law barring unmarried couples from living together is unconstitutional. The American Civil Liberties Union sued last year to overturn the rarely enforced law on behalf of a former sheriff's dispatcher who says she had to quit her job because she wouldn't marry her live-in boyfriend. Deborah Hobbs, 40, says her boss, Sheriff Carson Smith of Pender County, near Wilmington, told her to get married, move out or find another job after he found out she and her boyfriend had been living together for three years. The couple did...

AN Australian woman's boyfriend dismembered her and kept her remains at home with their children for two days before dumping them into a frozen lake in Sweden. The mutilated remains of former Canberra resident and mother of two Nina Peltonen were found near the crime-ridden industrial town of Sodertalje last Tuesday. Ms Peltonen's 31-year-old partner was charged with murder after he was spotted cutting a hole through the ice of Yngern Lake, south of Stockholm. Last night, Ms Peltonen's family pastor, Jakka Tuovinen, told The Sun-Herald: "It is very hard to know what to say right now. This is a...

CORAOPOLIS, Pa. - A mother has been charged with trying to poison her adult daughter and her daughter's family after allegedly pouring bleach into their macaroni and cheese on Saturday night. Nancy O'Donnell, 56, was charged with four counts each of aggravated assault and recklessly endangering another person, police said. O'Donnell's daughter, Victoria Lynn O'Donnell, 24, was preparing dinner around 6:30 p.m. for her live-in boyfriend, Jamal Scott, 30, and their 6-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter. The four share a home with Nancy O'Donnell. Victoria O'Donnell went upstairs while the food was cooking, and police said that when she came...

NASHVILLE: Nashville star Chris Cagle revealed on his Web site he has learned he is not the biological father of his girlfriend's new baby. The singer of "Anywhere But Here" and "Chicks Dig It" told the Nashville Tennessean in August that impending fatherhood had inspired him to quit drinking. Cagle posted a statement Tuesday acknowledging the baby born during the weekend to Tammy Wheeler was not his. "As many of you are aware, I had been anxiously awaiting the addition of a new baby to my life," the statement says. "The baby has been born and both mother and child...

So I have been trying to rent an apartment in my home...and all I have answering the ads are boyfriends and girlfriends. No matter what social status, no matter what income level, I am seeing unmarried twenty, thirty and forty year old couples who want to live together. If I question them, they don't even understand why I am asking. These are Christians and Jews. I was so surprised to find that it would be so difficult to find a young married couple. Tell me Dear Freeper...am I totally out of the ballgame to expect to find a young married...