[Flo Nightengale]

2-year-old article, but pertinent now. I keep reading on the numerous FLDS-related threads that "polygamy is okay, as long as it's between consenting adults." But a big part of what has led to the abusive situations now being uncovered IS the practice of polygamy itself. FTA: "no polygamous society has ever been a true liberal democracy, in anything like the modern sense. As societies move away from hierarchy and toward equal opportunity, they leave polygamy behind. They monogamize as they modernize."

[MCCRon58]

Gee, I would think that in a society which advocates same sex marriage, that polygamy would be OK also. After its just a “lifestyle choice”

Seem to me that the polygamists need to hire the ACLU and American Psychological association, and other pressure groups to ascertain that there is a “Polygamy Gene” and the polygamists are just “born that way”.

[rawcatslyentist]

polygamy = how to pee in your own gene pool!

[JRandomFreeper]

In the late '90s... I was married, had 2 daughters, a step daughter, and a friend living in the house.

I spent a lot of time in the garage. Really, really.

Just thinking back on it makes me glad to be a bitter old man, living alone, that can't accidentally end the world by leaving a seat up, supposing I could find an open stall.

/johnny

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

“Scarcity of women leads to a situation in which men with advantages — money, skills, education — will marry, but men without such advantages — poor, unskilled, illiterate — will not ....”

This is a critical point, and it bears repeating often.

Women’s organizations tend to see women as the victim in polygamy (no surprise). A lot of men might also fantasize about multiple wives (without multiple M.I.L.s). The harsh reality is that polygamy would hurt most men. It would also destabilize society — which the article also does a good job of explaining.

Good post.

[Tennessee Nana]

PING

[goldstategop]

If liberals have no problem with gay marriage, who are they say to say having multiple marriage partners is wrong? On what grounds can they object? After all one social arrangement is no more wrong than any other kind of social arrangement.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Saundra Duffy]

Polygamy is illegal.

[Peter Libra]

One problem is that the taxpayer will often end up subsidizing multiple wives. Yes, no doubt it will be argued about one working out as a nurse, another working as a bank teller etc.

Facts are likely that most extra wives have to be kept- one way or another. The children provide the monies from the taxpayer. The man skims some of it off the top for himself.

[broncobilly]

One thing I find interesting about this article is that, in the past, I usually find polygamy criticized as an abuse of women. This writer presents polygamy as offering more options to women and as an abuse of men, denying many of them the opportunity to marry.

[Petruchio]

One wife with PMS was bad enough . . .

[WarEagle]

Frankly, I have always thought of these polygamist sects as a legalized way for horny old men to have all the sweet young things they can handle, and screw the consequences to their own children and to society.

What the authorities found in the FLDS compound, that something around 50% of the girls between 12 and 16 had either had babies already or were pregnant, gives real credence to my opinion. Those girls are getting no childhoods, no education, no preparation for anything other than making more sweet young things for the horny old men.

Does anybody hear about all the 40 year old women who are pregnant? Hell, no. It's just the youngest, most beautiful, most malleable and vulnerable. The whole thing makes my stomach churn and my skin crawl.

The fate of the male children is even more sad and pathetic. They will be competition for the available young girls, so will be chased away, just as they were when FLDS was in Arizona.

I'm undecided about jail time for these old men, but I am in favor of castration. Let's see these guys be horny old men after that!

[x]

"And now, polygamy," sighs Charles Krauthammer, in a recent Washington Post column. It's true. As if they didn't already have enough on their minds, Americans are going to have to debate polygamy. And not a moment too soon.

I doubt were "debating" polygamy now any more than we were "debating" Anna Nicole Smith a year ago.

It's just the media trying to get an audience.