Ah, yes, the movement to save marriage ...

One does not want to see any marriage fail, and of course there is a well-funded and vocal religio-political movement afoot to "protect" marriage in America. Funny that the folks who want to protect marriage are often people who themselves have been divorced and re-married (perhaps several times) , and that they don't put much effort into the things that actually threaten marriage -- things like the divorce rate (highest among the most conservative religious groups and, interestingly, lowest in a place like Massachusetts with its legal marriage for same sex couples) or for the high profile diminishment of marriage by the sort of reality programming that television spews forth on a daily basis. Their only concern is to prevent people like, well like Tom and me, from getting married.

And then comes the news of Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries, whose 72-day-old marriage is apparently colapsing under the weight of -- well, the weight of actually being married and not playing a lucrative role on television for the big bucks. This is an excerpt from a recent article--pre-divorce announcement -- about the wedding itself.

The television event of the year is finally airing! Kim Kardashian’s wedding to professional baller Kris Humphries last August will be airing on E! as a special four-hour, two-night extravaganza entitled “Kim’s Fairytale Wedding: A Kardashian Event” on October 9th and 10th. Meanwhile, leading diamond retailer Brilliance.com has released a cute and fun infographic detailing the costs of the reality TV darling’s wedding, pitting it against the costs of an average US wedding.

From the infographic, you can learn exactly just how over-the-top Miss Kardashian’s wedding was, from the cost of her wedding cake – a cool $10,000 big ones as compared to the $543 an average couple spends on theirs – to the total cost of the ceremony and reception: a whopping 20 million dollars, as opposed to the $26,000 or so that a normal couple would shell out for their own wedding.

Most interesting is the fact that second to the total costs of her wedding, the most expensive item on the list is her $2 million diamond engagement ring from Lorraine Schwarz featuring a 20.5 carat emerald cut loose diamond. Talk about excessive – most guys would just set aside 2 months’ worth of their wages for a ring, about $5,000.

I am waiting with bated breath for the National Organization for Marriage to respond.