Nov 2023 Mod notice:
There may be other, more specific, threads about some aspects of US politics, but this one tends to act as a hub for all sorts of related news and information, so it's usually one of the busiest OTC threads.
If you're new to OTC, it's worth reading the Introduction to On-Topic Conversations and the On-Topic Conversations debate guidelines before posting here.
Rumor-based, fear-mongering and/or inflammatory statements that damage the quality of the thread will be thumped. Off-topic posts will also be thumped. Repeat offenders may be suspended.
If time spent moderating this thread remains a distraction from moderation of the wiki itself, the thread will need to be locked. We want to avoid that, so please follow the forum rules when posting here.
In line with the general forum rules, 'gravedancing' is prohibited here. If you're celebrating someone's death or hoping that they die, your post will get thumped. This rule applies regardless of what the person you're discussing has said or done.
Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
One major problem with shutting down abortion clinics is that this shuts down the whole thing; this includes all over pre-natal and childcare services such places offer to expectant mothers who have no place else to go for their healthcare needs. What the Texas legislature is doing is near literally throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
So yeah, anything that shuts down an incredibly onerous law (and it was made because it was hard for such clinics to comply with these new regulations) even for a short time helps people.
Not to mention the fact that, depending on the stage of the pregnancy (and advancements in medical tech), surgical conditions might not be needed to go through with the procedure.
Comparable example - in the next couple months, I'll be getting a hemorrhoidectomy or 4. 20 years ago, this would have needed to be conducted under surgical conditions - whereas now, it can be done in a manner similar to having wisdom teeth removed.
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"Or, from a more pragmatic, less squicky perspective, it would hugely impact the poor, while the wealthy wanting to be rid of "disappointments" could still easily send their daughter out of State to "visit an aunt" and get the procedure done. A woman living in the inner-city? Not so much.
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"About polygamy, I haven't taken enough time to form an opinion about it.
It definitely shouldn't be where men force their daughters to marry other men like in those compounds.
But a consensual joining of multiple spouses of legal age would be...interesting. You'd have to allot the property and the children in case one of the spouses leaves the arrangement, and it'd be weird how you share a bedroom, but...
Guess I'm not THAT against it right now.
Somehow I doubt that any court would be very willing to totally cut off a biological parent in the event of a divorce from such a polyamorous situation, though. Even if the adults hash it out beforehand in a contract. Contracts can be disputed, and if courts don't like separating children from parents now, even in cases where one spouse is abusing the other, they're not going to like doing it if polygamy becomes legal just because.
What are the biggest arguments against polygamy now?
It's definitely not new...it might confuse the kids, but just three parents shouldn't be hard to remember...
It's probably a hassle legally, but you know...
And then you have those people who would say "See? We were right! Gay marriage DID lead to polygamy!" And then they'd say it'd lead even lower down the slippery slope with like incest or pedophilia or bestiality...
But personally I think incest comes next.
One problem is that polygamy as a practice has been tainted rather badly by those personality cults that combined it with incest and/or child rape, not to mention the harems and other one-man, many-woman arrangements that have been a historical norm in many cultures. I'm not sure how many true group marriages between consenting adults exist in fact if not in law, but it can't be all that common.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"As far as I know it's typically polygyny. One father for a lot of mothers and thus even bigger families.
Which...is a little questionable. Sounds kind of cheaty.
How likely are guys willing to get into polyandry? I have the sense that men are a lot more territorial about their spouses than women...
About the whole gay marriage leads to incest marriage thing.....is there a whole swath of guys who are just waiting to bone their sister that I'm not aware of? Coz I am just not seeing a substantial demographic there clamoring for this social change...
And Canada has had SSM for a decade now and so has many European countries. I'm not seeing the descent to incest and polygamy that was promised.
edited 29th Jun '15 3:42:54 PM by nightwyrm_zero
Well apparently a sizable number of them want to be hypnotized by their siblings so...I dunno.
I definitely don't need polygamy. I'd be fine with just one person and I don't want to have to share.
edited 29th Jun '15 3:45:08 PM by Keybreak
I'm sure there are a bunch of homophobes in Alabama hoping the same sex marriage opens up the possibility of marrying with their sisters or cousins.
edited 29th Jun '15 3:45:17 PM by AngelusNox
Inter arma enim silent legesThis is going to put Trump in an odd position. The Apprentice is why America really cares about him. With that gone from him, he'll pretty much have to take this election seriously if he wants to stay in the limelight, but there's still the tricky matter of revealing his real net worth through FEC financial disclosures.
But his poll numbers show that he could do some real damage. Mostly because he's not part of the political class and can say stuff that none of the others can, stuff that the base really likes to hear, but is toxic to anyone else.
Run Trump, Run!
Well, in the West there aren't any real traditions of polyandry. Happens plenty often in some places with indigenous groups. I'm not sure men are any less likely to be interested in group marriage than women, but Heinlein/Barker-esque marriages are pretty much sci-fi.
I note that Fighteer is correct - I am absolutely not in favor of Islamic or fundamentalist LDS polygyny (though I don't want to ban people from participating in them if they choose to do so as consenting adults, I don't want to give legal support to them either), because these are inherently patriarchal structures that give greater rights to the male head of household (and of course, forcing children into marriage should be punished by castration). I'm far more okay with an equal marriage of all partners as a valid choice that people can make, but such group marriages are primarily sci-fi at this point. (In the modern West, I believe there has been one, and that's a cohabitation contract in the Netherlands that happened to include one man and two women.)
So long as they can afford birth control, I'm all for it.
edited 29th Jun '15 4:22:49 PM by Ramidel
Are there traditions of polyandry elsewhere? One would think the biology doesn't suit it. With five wives, the husband's got a constant stream of progeny-making. With five husbands... less so.
Share the wife, split the bill. I can't see the downside of that
edited 29th Jun '15 4:39:05 PM by AngelusNox
Inter arma enim silent legesCousin marriage is already legal everywhere. It's just biological sibling marriage that's out, and marrying your children.
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. DickThere are. Certain groups in Tibet, Nepal and India, plus aboriginal societies 'round the world. Usually, the idea is combined with a concept where a child can have more than one father.
edited 29th Jun '15 4:45:03 PM by Ramidel
I know 2 groups of people living happily in a 1 wife, 2 husbands arrangement.
While I wish they had full representation in the law, I hate the idea of giving any cover, even a stretched legal one, to cults where a leader has a dozen child brides.
| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |Of course, the irony with same-sex marriage and polyamorous marriages is that the latter does have a Biblical history to it. Oddly enough, when I asked an Evangelical about this, he countered that "Nope, that's against God's will. Adam and Eve - one man, one woman". I think I tried bringing up Lilith, but can't recall his response if I did.
Also, polygamy/polyandry was the only marriage type that I couldn't think up a good counter for, in a legal sense. Incestuous would obviously run the risk of resulting in a Tangled Family Tree and/or Royally Screwed Up (Charles "The Bewitched" being the poster-boy for how that can go south). And the stars of Big Love are already fighting to decriminalize polygamy.
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"I thought the go to for that was Solomon and his seven hundred wives.
"Yup. That tasted purple."Or Abraham and his multiple attempts to father children, with Ismael as a result.
Solomon is the most ridiculous example (700 wives and 300 concubines, I mean, what's the point of that many? He probably never even met a bunch of them), but yeah, there is Biblical precedent for polygamy. If you bring it up to the "one man one woman" people, it can be very entertaining to watch them squirm and try to explain it away.
Not Three Laws compliant.Was Solomon a case of Screw the Rules, I Make Them! ?
Inter arma enim silent legesAt least with other rulers,it was a way to make a lot of political alliances, European monarchs had only the one marriage and could often blow it on a son in law who turned out to be a political liability.
I Bring Doom,and a bit of gloom, but mostly gloom.
I agree with that law, but if I put aside my (very strong) pro-life biases for a moment, I can see why the Supreme Court would want to delay it, to give the Abortion providers time to get their stuff together before they get inspected and closed down.
"Any campaign world where an orc samurai can leap off a landcruiser to fight a herd of Bulbasaurs will always have my vote of confidence"