While we're on the subject of things to do before getting married, here's a list for your consideration. "Experts" say these are "key" and "critical" questions, but some of them seem unbelievably petty: Will there be a television in the bedroom?
Taken at face value, this is almost a meta-question; if a minor disagreement on this point is going to stress the marriage, then clearly the verdict should be to not get married. At the end of last week, former Republican Congressman Bob Barr roiled the political waters with the announcement that he had left the Republican Party and become a life member of the Libertarian Party. "Putting some over the hill" is what they say around the Project Operations Control Center when they want to indicate that they are pumping Aqueduct water from the floor of the San Joaquin Valley up and over the Tehachapi Mountains. "Pulling it down" is what they say when they want to indicate that they are lowering a water level somewhere in the system. From the prophets I've been hearin'
I would say the end is hearin'
For I see familiar landmarks all along
By the dreams that I've been dreamin'
There will come a great redeemin'
And over the next hill, we'll be home
Back to marriage: We're emotional illiterates. We've been taught about anatomy and farming methods in Africa. We've learned mathematical formulas by heart. But we haven't been taught a thing about our souls. We're tremendously ignorant about what makes people tick.
Having said all that, there may be something to this: Television In The Bedroom May Hurt Child's School Performance A study of elementary school students found that children who had television sets in their bedrooms scored (*) significantly lower on school achievement tests than children without TVs (**) in their bedrooms. Having a computer in the home was associated with higher test scores.
So it's less about a large flat panel display and more about the content. Tell that to Andrew Odlyzko! Television Viewing and Television in Bedroom Associated With Overweight Risk Among Low-Income Preschool Children This study extends the association between TV viewing and risk of being overweight to younger, preschool-aged children. A TV in the child’s bedroom is an even stronger marker of increased risk of being overweight. Because most children watch TV by age 2, educational efforts about limiting child TV/video viewing and keeping the TV out of the child’s bedroom need to begin before then.
More commentary here. Asking these tough questions in a rat-a-tat fashion [2] — about a potential life partner’s sexual orientation, or medical history, including sexual or mental illness — is unlikely to nurture the relationship. Instead, the US military relied on alliances with friendly warlords to exert control and help in the hunt for al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives. But as the US moved its military and intelligence assets out of Afghanistan in preparation for the invasion of Iraq, the same warlords were already undermining the democracy that George Bush wanted to nurture. Crumpton was a career covert CIA officer with a secret identity who stepped out of the shadows in August 2005 to take the State Department job. He gained almost mythical fame after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks when he headed the CIA's campaign in Afghanistan, crafting a strategy that partnered elite intelligence and military officers in teams that worked with Afghan opposition to oust the Taliban. The staggering detail in these pages -- operational, geopolitical, even gastrointestinal -- makes First In unlike any other CIA memoir.
(*) Teams where dogs slept in their handlers bedrooms scored better than Teams where the dogs slept outside of the bedroom. Maybe some of us are just born with a desire to sleep with animals. If four strangers sat around a table playing a card game, couples asked to play footsie with each other under the table were more likely to find each other attractive when the other couple did not know what was going on, compared with when they did. I actually think the security is pretty darn good. Asked for his personal assessment, Bush said, "I am enthusiastic about the job. I really love what I am doing." "I appear ready to get something done," Bush said. In the course of the next 100 days and beyond, Bush will no doubt be faced with more challenging problems to solve. "I am a living example of someone who took on an issue and benefited from it," he said. "The idea is not to leave them in the provinces anymore, but to bring them on board in official positions in order to better control them." Scientists tell us that within the lifetime of today's children, the wild will disappear from the face of the earth. Francis says he wants to leave this twilight existence and wade into the mainstream. He is quick to list the projects he says he has in the works: a feature-length film, a series of ocean cruises, an apparel line and a chain of "Wild" restaurants.
(**) Plainly stated, Millie is our hero, our wide-eyed fool who has lived with all the aspects of her life neatly arranged and organized. ... Into that ordered and sheltered void comes Pinky, a temptress, a disrupting force of naughty nature looking for a victim for her mental vampirism. Its overall employee base is 62% female with 10 of its 15 top executives being women.
Questions Couples Should Ask (Or Wish They Had) Before Marrying | 
