You think I’m kidding, but I’m not.

In a polygamous marriage, one man has multiple wives; that reduces the number of available women in the area, and that means that a lot of young men won’t be able to marry (unless they move away). The men who have the most wealth will be able to marry (and support) lots of women, and those men are likely to be comparatively old (because they’ve been around long enough to sock away a lot of money). It seems to me that if there are a number of polygamous marriages in the area, young men who aren’t wealthy won’t have much of a chance at marriage.

Concerning illegitimate children: Some years ago, I read an article by one of the former editors of the old Rampart magazine, a leftie-hippie magazine of the ’60s. Having grown up, he admitted that “free love” ends up being very hard on children — once society removes the stigma from bastardy, society ends up with a lot more bastard children, who suffer from not having parents who are married to each other. Being called a bastard certainly hurts, but as he pointed out, the stigma benefitted society as a whole. Today, some 20 years after I read that article, we now have about one in three (maybe more?) American children born illegitimate (the root of the word is “lex, legit” — law). When I was a teenager in the 60s, I knew of only one girl my age who had an illegitimate child. Just one. Now look around.

Gallup didn’t ask about incest, pedophilia/pederasty, murder, or theft. Apparently (and thankfully), those are such universally-accepted taboos that Gallup didn’t feel the need to ask.

Give it time. Weighing in on the other side of these debates, respectively, are NAMBLA (with Justice Ginsburg concurring), jihadis (along with their attorneys at DOJ), and the Democratic Party (see, e.g., the Generational Theft Act of 2009, Government Motors & Chrysler, and well, pretty much the entire platform of the party).

Either relativism will run its course to the most logical conclusion, or we’ll double back and restore some sense of decency in this world. I’m not placing any bets….

Married men and women having affairs: 92%
Polygamy: 91%

So 1% would go for a polygamous arrangement as long as their spouses didn’t cheat with someone outside the group?

Sex between unmarried adults only gets 40% support as a taboo…. Bearing children outside of marriage is narrowly considered morally acceptable, 51%-45%.

Ah, yes, the pesky & idiotic 5% of persons polled who believe premarital sex is only taboo if you actually give birth to the baby you create.

iamse7en on July 8, 2009 at 4:05 AM

Your position demonstrates an appalling ignorance of history and human nature.

That alone disqualifies your opinion.

By that standard, every act of spousal abuse is an argument against marriage. Perhaps even dating.

The problems that you list come from Islam and it’s rules, it has nothing to do with polygamy itself.

MarkTheGreat on July 8, 2009 at 9:07 AM

Wrong.

You need to understand the difference between policy and abuse of policy.

As Chruchill noted – “There is no such thing ‘public opinion’ – there is only published opinion.”

Is creating a child that just happens to be genetically identical to someone else really considered immoral by itself?

Count to 10 on July 8, 2009 at 11:01 AM

If children are considered to be the legitimate fruit of a particular kind of relationship then yes, cloning would be immoral.

However the bigger argument, I think, is not so much that something is or is not immoral when it happens as a one-off, but the implications of shifting boundaries which really don’t need to be shifted. These social and biological experiments always create new conundrums that our society is ill-equipped to handle.

The social changes already made (more divorces, more children out of wedlock, more casual sex) are already having seriously bad effects on large sections of society … why add to that mess just to satisfy a very small number of people.

“Everything is permissible, but not everything is constructive.”

Is creating a child that just happens to be genetically identical to someone else really considered immoral by itself?

What got left off the list entirely is also interesting. Gallup didn’t ask about incest, pedophilia/pederasty, murder, or theft. Apparently (and thankfully), those are such universally-accepted taboos that Gallup didn’t feel the need to ask. Let’s hope that continues.

Can we be sure? Without a poll, what do we know? Some of the things which came out as a plurality would be universally-accepted taboos as well just a few years ago.

Why would you want to blame the kids for something the parents did to them.

The blame rests completely on the father and mother, not the child.

MarkTheGreat on July 8, 2009 at 9:09 AM

I often called my kids that and my wife and I were married before they were born.

I think we should bring back calling them what they are…B*****DS.

Jeff from WI on July 8, 2009 at 8:54 AM

Why would you want to blame the kids for something the parents did to them.

The blame rests completely on the father and mother, not the child.

Ed, you forgot the ultimate taboo.
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on July 7, 2009 at 8:59 PM

Alright, DoktH! You RickRolled me on DAT one! But I had in mind ANOTHER taboo, one more insidious than even Mister Astley!

You cite polygamy in Muslim countries while denying that women and offspring are treated as property. For shame, to deny the abuses heaped upon girls and women in Islam.

maverick muse on July 8, 2009 at 5:54 AM

By that standard, every act of spousal abuse is an argument against marriage. Perhaps even dating.

The problems that you list come from Islam and it’s rules, it has nothing to do with polygamy itself.

The ancient Romans, however, practiced monogamy in marriage (though adultery was rampant), and after the Roman Empire fell, the Roman Catholic Church’s influence throughout the Holy Roman Empire propagated that tradition which was refined to what is normative in modern Western civilization.

atheling on July 8, 2009 at 2:44 AM

In one of Paul’s letters, he lists the characteristics desireable in a church leader. One of these characteristics was that he be married to one woman.

Trust me, if you see sex between consenting, unrelated adults as being analogous to sex between human beings and animals, it says more about you than it does about gay people.

Siobhan on July 7, 2009 at 9:10 PM

The fact that you believe he said they were analogous, when he quite clearly didn’t says a lot about you and the lengths you are willing to go to defend your position.

It’s really sad that support for having children out of wedlock is still growing.

With all of the research in recent decades which shows how damaging it is to the children, I would have thought we would be making headway on that issue.

MarkTheGreat on July 8, 2009 at 8:52 AM

I think we should bring back calling them what they are…B*****DS.

I didn’t think I would ever say this, but I’m getting sick of Hot Air and the people on here and what they think is important.

suzyk on July 7, 2009 at 9:09 PM

Don’t let the door hit you in the butt on your way out.

They also didn’t ask about Swingers?

Swingers are a Republican-leaning constituency; mostly successful small businessmen, and young urban professionals.

It’s a constituency that has been ignored by the GOP for far too long.

ericdondero on July 8, 2009 at 6:04 AM

What about Stormy for Senate?

With all of the research in recent decades which shows how damaging it is to the children, I would have thought we would be making headway on that issue.