Thanks a lot feminists. Thanks a whole lot.

Just saw a piece on Fox News about women chances of getting married after age 30 -- seems that they are plummeting dramatically. By age 35, women have a 5% chance of getting married.

Fabulous.

The reasons for this were a huge mystery to those on the stage and in the audience apparently as the cry went out for information on the steps to getting married. Why, why, oh why in the world was this happening they all wanted to know.

One of the hosts offered that given that women are financially more independent, there is no NEED to get married. The other host stated that since we are living longer, there is no need to get married younger. (The latter was male and apparently has never heard of menopause.)

The guest who put her theories forth seemed perfectly content with these findings and even pleased as punch that this was happening since clearly it showed the independence and strength of women. As if women lost that the moment they say "I do."

Doesn't anyone realize exactly what kind of strength and independence it takes to be married and a mother? Is that not even recognized as a value anymore?

The answer to the mystery of why women are not getting married anymore is quite simple. Men do not have to get married anymore.

Women are moving in and washing their socks and underwear, bearing children and all without a ring on their finger....wondering why they don't have a ring on their finger and thinking all the while not how free they are but how free their husband is......to leave.

The only group that benefitted from the sexual revolution is promiscuous men afraid of commitment. Great result, eh?

What is the reason why marriage takes place in the first place? To form a bond, blessed by God and to have children. By taking away the shame of having children out of wedlock, mocking abstinence until marriage and encouraging young women to run hog wild with their boy-chasing, men have got it made. There is no reason for men to get married whatsoever anymore unless they happen to fall in love with a woman who values herself enough to set boundaries and not set up house until there is a marriage ceremony.

The result of this madness is going to be children brought up also not knowing boundaries, probably fatherless and with no instruction on how to act in a relationship except for that old 60's mantra, "feels good, so do it..." All that has done is broken hearts, passed on disease, devalued women and made the family a vanishing commodity. What a sterling legacy!

To the woman in the Fox audience who wanted to know how to get married -- simple, my friend. Find a man who values you outside of the bedroom as well as inside the bedroom. have some respect for yourself and not look merely for someone who will fufill your every whim, but someone that you love first and foremost. If both of you love each other totally, putting each others needs first, there will be few problems.

Truth of the matter? No one is perfect. And if you look for perfection, you will be sadly disappointed. Only one man was perfect and he was crucified for it. Make a list of those things that you cannot stand about the person you are involved with -- if you can stand those things for the rest of your life (and believe me, they do not disappear with time), then chances are good they will not break you apart.

Find someone who has the same belief system as you do. It is those large questions of life -- spiritual, religious, financial, philosophical, even political -- that come into play particularly when children enter the picture. Beware of letting those practical things fly out of the window "cause he's soooooo cute..."

Figure out what is truly important to you and what your intended adds to that and what you add to your intended's life. Do you constantly complain about what he/she is NOT doing or are you praising what he/she IS doing? Is he/she someone who makes you laugh at the darkest moments of your life? Is he/she someone who loves you when the chips are really down -- would you do the same for them or would you heap more problems on the situation?

And for the ladies once you are married -- are you someone he would want to come home to? Is your house a haven from the rest of the world that beats on the two of you daily or do you bring that hell into your house with you?

Sure, it may seem old-fashioned. I remember my mother every day going in and brushing her hair and putting on a tiny bit of makeup and changing to a clean shirt or something along those lines when Dad was coming home. My mother wrapped her world around him and there were times I wondered why -- he was, as many former intelligence/military types could be -- a bit on the cold side. But when she was diagnosed with Alzheimers, you couldn't pry him away from her with a crowbar. She had the best of care at home from him for years and when his health finally started to fail, he went every day without fail to spend the entire day with her at the nursing home.

In every way, they were completely devoted to each other. Oh, they had their disagreements, but let there be no doubt that they truly had the unconditional love thing down pat.

It is sad to me that there are women out there today who truly have never known love -- real love. Or what it takes to find love. You don't lose yourself when you get married -- you just find your other half. In many ways, you can become more of a person than ever before.

If you do the whole thing backwards, though, you do lose yourself in the process. And more often than not, are left packing up the responsibilities you took on as a non-married yet married person and shouldering that burden alone until you stumble into the next non-married yet married relationship. And so the cycle continues, each time picking up more baggage, each time leaving with more responsibilities, more debt and more bitter. Until you are a mere shadow of the lovely person you once were.

That is equality?

No thank you.