Duty Calls

The Real "Rules": When Life Gets Tough, Wives Get Laid, And The Husband's Life Gets Destroyed

"Even though on my wedding day I had meant every word of my vows - and I'd said that I would be with him in sickness and in health - for me, after his illness, there was no longer a future for us.

I can understand some people thinking that sounds very cold. I am sure there are some people who will never understand how I could leave my husband.

Believe me, I have asked myself the same question - and still do: how could I leave Kevin when he needed me most?"

- Housewife Karen Mears, 37, lives with her ex-husband's best man, Andrew Manning, 34, an electrician.

"I will never forget the day Karen said she no longer loved me.

"You've changed so much," she said, and I felt tears pricking my eyes.

I was devastated. I knew that I wasn't 100 per cent well yet - days would pass in a sleepy blur and often I felt incredibly angry - but at least I had my family.

I just wanted to get well and for us all to be happy again.

So when I found out Karen was with Andrew, I did feel angry. I loved Karen, and when we married I thought we would be together for ever."

- Kevin Ware 35 and divorced.

"To this day I cannot put my arm around Karen in front of Kevin. Even though they are divorced and we have two children together, it still feels that I am with Kevin's wife - and that we are both participating in a huge betrayal.

It's always felt wrong in that regard. Admitting to myself that I fancied her, going out with her while Kevin was at home recovering, and eventually sleeping with her, all felt so strange."

- Andrew Manning

"Frankly, we were beyond shocked when we heard that Karen was seeing Andrew.

As Kevin's best friend, he was the last person we expected Karen would go off with.

There is a line you don't cross - and in all honesty I felt Andrew and Karen had crossed it.

There are certain things you don't do - and going off with your husband's closest friend must be one of them."

Jill Master, is 54 and lives with her husband David, Karen's stepfather.

"When Karen first left Kevin, she seemed to think he had taken it all very well. But I knew the reality was different.

I used to go out for drinks with Kevin and he was a broken man. He was distraught, in pieces over losing Karen - and to his best friend, of all people.

Here he was, still living in the family home, trying to come to terms with a serious illness, knowing his wife was seeing another man.

And not just any other man - which would have been bad enough - but Andrew.

He was angry and very confused. I'm sure it must have crossed his mind that something might have been going on between the pair of them before he got ill.

He used to say: "Why the hell did she marry me if she wasn't doing to stay with me?"

I felt very uncomfortable with what Karen and Andrew were doing, so it was an impossible question to answer.

Karen had also done something I just couldn't comprehend.

Whatever happens to Jill, I know I would never consider leaving her. It wouldn't even cross my mind, however awful the situation, because I wouldn't just see it as a betrayal to my wife, but to the whole family."

David Malster, 51, a maintenance engineer, lives with Karen's mother Jill.

"When Kevin and Karen separated, my parents and I were so shocked. We were so wrapped up in Kevin just living, and so relieved he was going to be all right, that we just didn't see their marriage breakup coming.

It was an absolute bombshell. I was furious when Karen found someone new - and then to learn it was Andrew was just unbelievable.

Andrew had grown up with myself and Kev - he was like a second son to my mum.

I know you can't help who you fall in love with, but to think that while Kevin was in hospital fighting for his life, Andrew and Karen were seeing one another was hard to take.

Karen and the children were Kevin's life. He loved her so much.

So to me it was as if she had just deserted Kevin. It was the ultimate betrayal and deception, and not just to Kev but to our whole family.

She should have stuck by him. After all, she had promised to be with him in sickness and in health."

Kerry Ware, 30, is single and works in a bank.

"After Kevin's brain haemorrhage, Karen really struggled to hold life together.

Kev would get very frustrated and although his recovery was brilliant, he was still not 100 per cent better.

Once Kev had been the life and soul of the party, always clowning around. Now, he had somehow lost the wacky sense of humour that had made us all laugh.

Kevin,...has made a great recovery and is virtually his old self."

- Charlene Cessford is 29 and lives with her husband.

As reported in The Daily Mail

70% of divorces today are initiated by women after - for whatever reason - they become "dissatisfied" with their lives. Thus, "No-Fault Divorce" means men are expected to lose their dreams to women's whims. (If she wants to sleep with the football team, there's "no fault", right?) Those are the real rules.

Men must stop marrying until the divorce laws are changed.

Be smart.

We Have Been Attacked

“The Embassy is sovereign U.S. territory. The government of Serbia has the responsibility under international law to protect diplomatic facilities, particularly embassies.”

- Zalmay Khalilzad, the United States ambassador, who is said to be "outraged".

The Only Clean Candidate

"John McCain has a 24-year record of serving our country with honor and integrity. He has never violated the public trust, never done favors for special interests or lobbyists, and,...there is nothing,...to suggest that John McCain has ever violated the principles that have guided his career."

- Jill Hazelbaker, communications director for the McCain campaign, commenting on an NYT article which speculates about an affiar with a lobbyist

“My children and I not only trust my husband but know that he would never do anything to not only disappoint our family, but disappoint the people of America. He’s a man of great character.”

- Cindy McCain

I'm Positive None Of This Sounds Positive

"He’s a brilliant speaker and an inspiring figure, but his political programme is shallow and unsubstantiated. When one is able to discern a definite ‘Obama policy’, it tends to be illiberal and small-minded: for example, his camp, despite its criticisms of Bush’s fearmongering, ratchets up fear about terrorism in its own way, promises more Clinton-style ‘liberal interventionism’ around the world, and plans to reorganise American politics and the economy around the penny-pinching, horizon-lowering politics of global warming. However, it is important to distinguish between Obama the man and Obama the phenomenon.

Much of his support represents a healthy and positive reaction against the deep cynicism and fatalism of mainstream Western politics over the past decade and more. Obama supporters are not cultish slaves: they are people who have had enough of negative, fear-driven, small-minded politics, of both the Republican and Democratic variety, and now – as they keep telling us – they Want Change."

- Brendan O'Neill, of Spiked!, trying to spin the Obama cult talk

"Even blowing his nose, Obama gets applause"

- John McCormick, of The Swamp, proving why such spin is worthless

Proof: Scientology Is Phat!

"Actress Kirstie Alley is no longer the face of weight loss company Jenny Craig, she announced today.

The former Cheers star, 57, lost five stone in three years as the poster girl for the international diet business.

She is moving on at a time when her weight has ballooned again, prompting speculation that the company was not comfortable with her as its spokesman.

She told People magazine: "After lengthy negotiations, regretfully the Jenny Craig Company and I did not come to an agreement to continue as their spokesperson."

Alley, who starred on Showtime's reality-comedy series "Fat Actress," became a spokeswoman for the Jenny Craig diet program in 2005.

About a year later, Alley donned a bikini to show off her new shape on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

At the time, Alley had lost 5st and 4lbs, after hitting a high of 15st 7lbs.

But although she is no longer the spokeswoman for diet program Jenny Craig, the one-time "Fat Actress" isn't giving up on the weight-loss industry.

Alley told People that while her experience with Jenny Craig was "extraordinary," she wants "to create something new that will help millions of people end the seemingly never ending fatty-roller coaster ride."

She intends to develop her own weight-loss brand with plans to launch in 2009.

Scott Parker, vice president of marketing for Jenny Craig, said: "We are sorry that she did not accept our offer" to continue appearing in the company's ad campaign.

"We wish her all the best in her future endeavours."

- As reported in The Daily Mail

Swallow It

"Don't, as Gerald Ford did, eat the tamale without first removing it from its shuck."

- The Dallas Morning News' advice to candidates stumping in Texas

Sorry but I couldn't resist:

This is exactly what my French ex's brother did, before declaring American food was terrible. Idiot.

The Doctor Is Out (There)

"[Mehmet Öz] was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Turkish Muslim parents. His father is Prof. Dr. Mustafa Öz. He is married to author and Reiki master Lisa Öz and they have four children."

-- Wikipedia, from the entry for Oprah Winfrey's "Doctor Oz".

Blaming A Hole For The Bucket Around It

""The young people now see that not that much happened with an awful lot of those people. We should have a bunch of enlightened teachers, and we don't. Young people look at that and say, 'Huh, I don't think this is what I want to spend my life doing.'"

- Reginald Ray, trying to explain why "most members of the 230 or so American Buddhist centers are over 48 years old". As reported in Salon.com

I Thought She Had "Friends",...

Just one question:

Where are they now?

Even worse:

O.K., one more question:

Were women always like this and I just didn't notice until I divorced?

Houston, We Have A Problem,...

"I don't want to sound like a page out of the National Enquirer, but I have some psychic powers,...a modest sixth sense if you will. I think a lot of women have it. We weren't burnt at the stake for nothing."

- Angelica Houston, talking totally batshit crazy, and probably revealing why Jack Nicholson dumped her - an event, if I remember correctly, her "sixth sense" didn't pick up.

Just The Facts, M'am

"According to the U.S. Department of Justice, in a given year there are about 88,000 documented cases of sexual abuse among juveniles. In the roughly 17,500 cases involving children between ages 6 and 11, strangers are the perpetrators just 5 percent of the time — and just 3 percent of the time when the victim is under age 6. (Further, more than a third of such molesters are themselves juveniles, who may not be true “predators” so much as confused or unruly teens.) Overall, the odds that one of America’s 48 million children under age 12 will encounter an adult pedophile at the local park are startlingly remote. The Child Molestation Research & Prevention Institute puts it like so: “Right now, 90 percent of our efforts go toward protecting our children from strangers, when what we need to do is to focus 90 percent of our efforts toward protecting children from the abusers who are not strangers.” That’s a diplomatic way of phrasing the uncomfortable but factually supported truth: that if your child is not molested in your own home — by you, your significant other, or someone else you invited in — chances are your child will never be molested anywhere. Media coverage has precisely inverted both the reality and the risk of child sexual assault. Along the way, it has also inverted the gender of the most tragic victims: Despite the unending parade of young female faces on TV, boys are more likely than girls to be killed in the course of such abuse.

* The current employment rate is 95.3 percent.
* Out of 300 million Americans, roughly 299.999954 million were not murdered today.
* Day after day, some 35,000 commercial flights traverse our skies without incident.
* The vast majority of college students who got drunk last weekend did not rape anyone, or kill themselves or anyone else in a DUI or hazing incident. On Monday, they got up and went to class, bleary-eyed but otherwise okay."

- The great Steve Salerno, author of SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless, showing how far real life differs from the disastrous view delivered in the media

Gavin Newsom Is A Serious Nuisance (Because, Boy, It Sure Is Getting Hot Around Here,...)

"In his quest to make San Francisco the greenest city in the nation, Mayor Gavin Newsom recently created a $160,000-a-year job for a senior aide and gave him the ambitious-sounding title of director of climate protection initiatives.

One might expect someone with such an exalted handle to solve global warming and save the rain forest all in a day's work.

But the new climate protection initiatives director is just the latest person to join the city payroll in the name of tackling global climate woes, raising questions about whether environmentalism is becoming the latest excuse for a bloating government payroll.

San Francisco has two dozen other city employees already working directly on climate issues at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

'Although it sounds very well intentioned, and perhaps even necessary, I'm concerned this is a case where eco-chic has gone out of control,' said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, the only Green Party member on the Board of Supervisors."

- From the San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer Cecilia M. Vega

"The global surface temperature anomaly data from the UK Hadley Climate Research Unit has just been released, and it shows a significant drop in the global temperature anomaly in January 2008, to just 0.034°C, just slightly above zero.

This caps a full year of temperature drop,..."

- From Anthony Watts, blogging for Watts Up With That?


"If it gets any warmer around here, we’ll all freeze to death….."

- MattN, commenting on Watts Up With That?