Posted on 02/28/2002 7:36:19 AM PST by Dallas
MOORE HAVEN, Fla. (Reuters) - Acting on a tip that a Florida family was keeping a child's casket in their living room, police discovered a 53-year-old man living on an isolated farm with his sister as a couple and their 13 children and grandchildren, authorities said on Wednesday.
No charges were filed against the pair for digging up the remains because the statute of limitations had run out but police filed a single charge of incest against the man. He was being held Wednesday at the Glades County Jail on $150,000 bond.
Holley said the sister had not yet been charged in the ongoing investigation into one of the most bizarre incidents in memory in rural Glades County, a citrus-growing area bordering Florida's Lake Okeechobee.
"Some of our norms are defined by law. Some people don't agree with the norms and they live outside the law," Holley said. "Our main concern was for the welfare of the children."
Investigators believe the 13 children were delivered and schooled at home. They described the house as orderly and the children as disciplined.
"You have to wonder. Didn't they know this wouldn't work out?" Holley said.
Try asking him the natural follow-on: what makes that particular one absolute?
Libertarianism describes a system of political philosophy.
As such, it deals with things political.
All of libertarian philosophy is predicated on a single moral absolute.
It is immoral to initiate force or fraud against any inidividual or to delegate it's initiation.
This does not mean that libertarians discard all other moral judgements, nor does it suggest that libertarians are moral relativists. It means that libertarians recognize political mores (the just actions of state) as a separate and discrete entity from the moral questions of individuals.
Many libertarians are Christians. They apply a Christian morality to their personal lives, but would not dream of employing government guns to initiate force against their neighbors to apply those mores in the political sphere.
OWK: Huh? How the hell did you get THAT from what I said?
Obviously you don't think it's a matter of inflicting harm, as that would justify the use of force to prevent it from occurring. (Your words: As such, I would submit that every act of persuasion short of initiated force should be undertaken to prevent such adults from engaging in sexual activity. )
So if it's not harm, it must be undesirable for some other reason. Specifically, if the possibility of genetically-deformed offspring is reason enough to strongly dissuade incestual relations, it means that genetically-deformed offspring are obviously less valuable than children with normal genes.
Can you elaborate?
My Mom is my Aunt......geez
do they call her Aunt Mom or Mommy Aunt.....
I'm not so sure it's all that "obvious" to me.
As I said in my first post... It's a tough call.
A good case could be made for either position.
I don't know, but I'm hearing banjos playing in the distance.
Cut em some slack...
Still cruising FR?
There are many issues that cannot be decided simply by stating that one is a libertarian. One is abortion, which requires a judgement as to when a fetus legally acquires human rights.
Laws against incest have long been justified as necessary to prevent harm to children. You could argue that this is technically unjustified, but that has been the argument.
A more interesting question would be to ask, on a case by case basis, is at what age brother/sister incest began. I spent more than six years in a child abuse agency and never saw or heard of an incest case where it was initiated by a child. I would go somewhat further a say that it is rare to the point of non-existance, for children to be sexually attracted to anyone they grew up with. So incest, when it occurs, is most likely to be between people related by marriage rather than blood, and far more likely to be initiated by an older person. This calls up the question of abuse.
Maybe we could just take the middle road and start a non-profit charity that runs Public Service Ads and booths at various state fairs with the motto:
"Don't boink your sister."
It would need a catchy jingle of course.
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