My understanding is that people who marry after the age of 30 have lower divorce rates than those who marry young.

But whatever the numbers actually say -- and remember that it is incredibly easy to cook the books when calculating and reporting statistics -- this is part of another lame attempt by the Religious Right to scare women into marrying young, foregoing careers, going back to the kitchen, and staying barefoot and pregnant. Reminds me of that study in the 1980s that said that getting married after 40 (or was it 30?) was as likely as getting killed by a terrorist. Those conclusions were later retracted by the authors of the study, but no one ever hears about that.

Ignore this headline, ladies. Statistics do not predict the happiness or success of any relationship unless you let them become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

First, we were told that a single woman over 35 has a better chance of being killed by terrorists than she does of landing a husband. Now, we're told that in the unlikely event that she does manage to find Mr. Right, their marriage is probably going to be crappy.

You ladies of a certain age may as well burn your copies of The Rules and cancel your online dating service subscriptions right now. The powers-that-be have declared that you're screwed in the romance department.

Don't forget, though, that there are a certain number of people who, for whatever emotional or psychological reasons, just can't hold a marraige together, although they try several times. I got married at 26. I'm hoping my wife and I will be toasting our 50-year anniversary one day. That means I show up in the under-27 group as a 1-0. But say I'm a complete asshole. I cheat on my wife constantly, I come home drunk, etc. She kicks me to the curb. I repeat the process with wives 2-6. Now I show up in the under-27 group as 0-1, but also in the over-27 group as 0-5. That heavily weights the over-27 group negatively.

LOL!