[MARIS61]

Whatever floats their boat in our free society.

Frankly, and quite literally, I've got bigger fish to fry.

[MARIS61]

Originally Posted by maxiep

However, it's clear you think only young girls need protection, not young boys.

Well, most young boys have their Pastor or Priest to look out for them...

[maxiep]

Originally Posted by MARIS61

Well, most young boys have their Pastor or Priest to look out for them...

Don't even get me started on that issue. If there's a better argument for priests being allowed to marry, I haven't heard it. Right now, the Catholic Church is attracting some seriously disturbed individuals looking for some refuge from their own inner demons.

[angrypuppy]

Bigamy means having one too many spouses. Monogamy means the same.

[Hector]

Far more people are motivated to oppose the institution of marriage than the institution of polygamy. But the media hides the issue (of marriage), so there is no debate. In fact, the media hides the issue (of polygamy), so there is no debate. All the media can think of is to pound conservatism into our heads (e.g. Dr. Phil's whining criticism of a nightly victim).

[maxiep]

Originally Posted by Hector

Far more people are motivated to oppose the institution of marriage than the institution of polygamy. But the media hides the issue (of marriage), so there is no debate. In fact, the media hides the issue (of polygamy), so there is no debate. All the media can think of is to pound conservatism into our heads (e.g. Dr. Phil's whining criticism of a nightly victim).

Hmm, I can't say that I agree with several of your contentions. First, I doubt that more people are motivated to oppose marriage than polygamy, simply because more people are open to the idea of marriage than polygamy.

Second, the media does the opposite of hiding the issue, They constantly bring it up, under the guise of gay marriage and civil unions. In fact, the bread and butter of non-political coverage on the news channels for the past few months has been this polygamist sect in Texas.

Third, the media generally has a left-of-center bias. There are certainly those on the other end of the spectrum, but the vast majority of "mainstream" media come from the perspective of the left, not the right. I need to track down the study, but I think the split is something like 70%/30% left/right.

Personally, I don't think that government should be in the marriage business. I'm in favor of civil unions, but marriage should be religious in nature. My only caveat is that all parties have to be of the age of concent. If your religion embraces marriage of more than one man and one woman or of the same sex, I have zero problem with it.

[hasoos]

I have actually considered trying to get legislation passed in Oregon to completely deregulate marriage so it is not part of the government. The only law I would leave in place is that anybody married be a legal adult. Over the last decade, we have had many heated debates and election fights over marriage. The question I have is why? Why are we even considering passing laws on marraige, creating controversy and strife, when it is something that is non criminal and non rights violating?

The thing is I do not know all the laws that would have to be changed in order to make the legislation work. The only laws I know of that would have to be changed would be tax laws (which would probably freak a lot of folks out.), insurance laws (which you can be sure the insurance companies would fight), and of course the elimination of the laws themselves.

The problem is that the tax laws would take a total revamp, going to a dependant based system rather than a "married" based system, and you would have to make it work, or folks would vote against it as they would be worried their taxes would increase.

For insurance purposes, you know the insurance companies would fight anything that would make them give more coverage. So you know you are fighting big bucks there.

[Hector]

Maxiep: 1) I would guess that of Americans strongly opposed to either marriage or polygamy, 10s of millions are sick of marriage, but only a few million have strong feelings against polygamy. 2) I would love to see the media cover marriage as an issue. For example, during all those thousands of hours the TV news channels repeated themselves during the Clinton years, I longed for even a hint of discussion about the merits of marriage itself. 3) Conservatives have always said the media is liberal, and liberals say it's too conservative. 4) The only problem with legalizing polygamy is when all those women and kids are on welfare. The government wants to match them up to men to support them.

[Hector]

Hasoos: I assume the changes in tax and insurance laws you speak of, concern who is covered in the redefined family. What are the effects you are thinking of, caused by the new composition of "family" ?