Not that kind of redemption. It's the amount I received for my recyclables yesterday. I'm no Ed Begley, Jr., but I try. Most of the lighting in my house except for some odd-sized lamps uses compact fluorescent light bulbs. Many of the appliances have now been replaced with Energy Star...

The signs of late summer sliding into autumn proliferate: So Cal valley afternoon temperatures hover in the 100s; firestorms rage around us; and www.aqmd.gov states my air quality today as "unhealthy for sensitive persons." Through the smoky haze, I see people building pumpkin patch stands along the freeway that...

According to the 2008 National Center for Health statistics, August is overtaking June as the most popular month for weddings. Even though approximately half of U.S. marriages end in divorce -- and, let's face it, adultery, scandal, and heartache make for more titillating copy -- here's a champagne toast to...

At the beginning of this month, President Barack Obama proclaimed June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month in the United States, and there are many things to celebrate. There is also more work to be done.

The President's proclamation () states: "The LGBT rights movement has...

Evan Wolfson, the civil rights attorney and advocate, has said, "The right wing would love nothing more than for us to spend all of our airtime discussing distractions such as polygamy, bestiality and other - from their point of view - doomsday scenarios rather than engage the public about committed...

"Memories are hunting horns whose sound dies on the wind." -- Guillaume Apollinaire

Perhaps one way to liberate the image of chronological age from the body is through memory. For example, this would be not just my memories of my life or my childhood but also the living chain of...

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I went to the CVS pharmacy down the road around 10:00 a.m. for vitamins, cosmetics, and cleaning supplies. (Hey, it's a recession and CVS is cheap. Cheap = good.) At the checkout in front of me was a frail, elderly lady in a gray sweat suit. She had thin,...

"If we change traditional marriage, it's a slippery slope," said the man at the table next to me at the Cheesecake Factory. "Soon we'll have people marrying animals." Ah, the straw-man or what I dub the straw-horse argument. That is, if we change traditional marriage between one man and one...

Floating amid videos of talking cats that say "mama" and easy bar tricks where you freeze a bottle of beer in two seconds are thousands of Lancelots and Guineveres. And I don't just mean namesakes like Lancelot Link, secret chimp, and the Evolution Revolution. I mean fanvids of various King...

They were doing it in the spring sunshine yesterday afternoon. A young boy and girl were doing it on a chaise down by the pool area that we share with about 30 other homes -- in full view of 10 homes and another teen-aged boy. The only vestige of modesty...

The New York Times reported this past February that Iraqi women who have lost husbands, children, parents, and friends have great difficulty finding help. Timothy Williams writes that "among Iraqi women aged 15 to 80, 1 in 11 are estimated to be widows, though officials admit that figure is hardly...

There are prostitutes on the Internet? I'm shocked. Not really. It's an old profession and an old story, even though this month brought news of Cook County, Illinois, Sheriff Tom Dart suing Craigslist for posting its "erotic services" section. That particular section evidently generates a generous portion of Craigslist's annual...

Okay. So last week in Bulgaria, gypsy teenage girls, dressed in their finest, gathered for the yearly bride sale. This is something they do on the first Saturday after the start of the Orthodox Easter fast. The girls hope that youth and beauty wins them a large sum. While this...

If you look up "marriage" in Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, the first definition recognizes marriage as a union between a man and a woman as well as same-sex couples:

1 a (1): the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual...

When I Google "marriage-in-the-news" up come numerous links to articles on how the states are either adding a "defense of marriage" amendment to their constitution or battling to revise it. Hawaii, the first state to have such an amendment, is now in the cross-fire to legalize same-sex civil unions. Also...