THE WRAP-UP: DIVORCE EDITION

Reason #275,391 why people don't like lawyers

• While I cringe at the above pro-divorce billboard from Fetman, Garland & Associates, an all-female law firm specializing in divorce cases, I admire the genius of the ad. After all, most ads for legal services have to be insufferably cheesy ("Larry Parker got me two million!") to be memorable. Plus, the notoriety of this ad -- spurred on by the fact that a Chicago alderman ordered it removed for allegedly content-neutral reasons -- has managed to garner the kind of free publicity that is usually reserved for Michael Moore.

• On the other end of the spectrum, a conservative advocacy group called Campaign for Our Children, which mysteriously does not use the acrynoym COC, is funding pro-marriage billboards that say, "Kids of married parents do better in school," "Married people live longer," "Marriage works," and the billboard above. Campaign for Our Children also advocates abstinence, which seems ironic since abstinence eliminates future children, which is the very group of people for whom the organization claims to be campaigning. You got served!
  

• Despite billboards promoting the dissolution of marriage, the divorce rate in the United States is now at its lowest level in nearly four decades. Latest stats show a steady decline since the 1980s with the rate now a low 3.6 divorces per 1,000 people. Apparently, gay couples are not ruining the institution of marriage, after all. As for why divorce rates are declining, this is a mystery greater than why anybody wants to free Paris Hilton. For now, I give credit to COC.

--Junichi