Fear this!

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
As I write this, I listen to a piece on National Public Radio about a polygamous marriage which also appears on some cable TV channel.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/npr.php?id=137772853

Lemme slap this one on you. The Supreme Court ruled in 2003 consenting sex between consenting adults cannot be prosecuted as an illegal activity. So there's a good chance if authorities attempt to prosecute these folks in multi-partner marriages the prosecution will lose. While the ruling was over gay sex, it has been applied to such things as adultery in other courts.

Those who point to the SCOTUS decision and say it's not that clear all invoke the legal argument "morals."

As I have said before, putting your morals into the law of the land means other people have the opportunity to do the same thing. Do you really want to go there? Think hard.

Think too beyond your community. There's probably enough Muslims in parts of Michigan to codify Sharia, muslim law, into the laws of the land there.

A bit more than a technical difficulty here.

Still want your morals to have the force of law?

As for polygamous marriage and polyandry relationships, it's none of my business. None of yours either, unless you live that way and like it. If you live that way and don't like it, quit living that way.

End of story on that part.

I do have a problem, a major problem, with polygamous marriage.

To give you my problem, let me direct you first to rural China.


http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,501020603-250060,00.html

Another hint.

Here's the relevant bit from the story: Chinese demographers estimate that in some rural areas, 80% of children between ages five and 10 are boys. "You think the problem seems terrible now," says a U.N. official based in Beijing. "But wait until all the kids from the one-child policy years have grown up. That's when the epidemic will really hit."

Follow me yet?

Then lemme point out in the extreme Mormon sects, like the one in Texas that was in the news a while back, boys are far far more likely to be expelled from the community than girls.

Ya get me now?

Ok, then, one more example, this a bit of fiction and from the other direction. Paint Your Wagon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paint_Your_Wagon_%28film%29.

Hitting on all cylinders yet?

I explain. In most societies where polygamy is current practice, men are allowed multiple wives and the wives are stuck with one husband to share.

I got into a debate about this a few years ago with a devout Mormon. He insisted the arrangement was ordained by God to raise up a godly people unto Himself. I asked why a woman could not have more than one husband. He wouldn't answer that.

I have yet to run across a religious polygamous who will answer that question. Most of 'em get offended in fact.

Why?

All I can figure is they - and my "they" includes women - see women as second class citizens, inferior to men and not as worthy as man.

At the same time, polygamous marriages and communities which allow this also determine that most men are third class, inferior to everybody and not worthy of the most intimate form of communication.

and be proud of it!

Polygamous communities which don't allow a woman multiple husbands have many, many bachelor men. Often against the private wishes of the bachelor men you can bet.

Lemme point you to a telling quote in the above NPR story - "This isn't a lifestyle choice,"says Marci Hamilton in the NPR story. "This is a culture in which men must rule and women are not equal. Three women are equal to one man, nine women are equal to one man — and the children are second-class citizens."

That statement is a solid fact. Women become property, not humans, in such societies.

Some folks, who will yell about equality, will agree with me here, but will get irate at the next sentence.

Myself, I do not believe in equality because I believe in reality. All people are not equal.You are not equal to me nor am I equal to you. Example: My daughter, going into the 7th grade, is far better at math than I am.

What I do believe in is treating people on the basis of how they use what abilities they have. This is not equality in the purest form, but it is equality in a realistic form.

Knowledge - A threat only to deliberate ignorance.

I am not advocating for polygamous marriages. Neither am I arguing against them.

I only say if it is acceptable for a man to have multiple wives, then it is equally acceptable for a woman to have multiple husbands. Those who disagree are nothing more than deliberately ignorant inferior idiotic bigots interested only in proving themselves to be superior by using force of law and custom to hold down people they are afraid of.