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"Bring the boys back home!"--Pink Floyd

NFA JJG 42-95

Free People/Free Markets

Following the Path of the Beam

On an episode of The West Wing a man, I can't remember if he was a politician or a lobbyist, suggested that marriage just be done away with. That was his solution. That even the opposite sex couples had taken it so far away from what it was supposed to be no one should have the distinction, it should just be abolished. I think the more and more of these threads that come up, the more and more it sounds like a viable option.

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Diplomacy is the art of letting someone else get your way.

"There is no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation" - Pierre Trudeau

“No one is more enslaved than a slave who doesn't think they're enslaved.” - Kate Beckinsale

Of course the laws descriminate against polygamy. Your second question needs a qualifier: What do you think a marriage license is for? Are you licensing someone to have sex or start a family? Or are you establishing inheritance, property, and other such laws?

If the purposes of a license are to clarify property laws etc..., then there's no reason not to discriminate against multi-party marriages. However, if the purpose of a license is social engineering, it should be abolished altogether and remanded to the private sector.

I've argued that there is a "slippery slope", as some would call it (and in spite of the logical fallacy). I believe there is - IF both sides of the debate insist on defining a marriage license as a tool for social engineering.

IMO

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...the government...is caving in...with their specious arguments couched in the...language of civil rights law, and that the churches ... likewise crumbling to...rhetoric which is nothing but heretical sophistry -- ~F Phelps
Platitudes like the one you offer are no different - and no less incorrect - than the jackass part-time Christian who says, "I'm going to heaven because I'm nice to people." It so misses the point.~Impugn

Me and my wife are not 'married' although where i live we have the exact same benefits as a married couple. Both of us are a little creeped out by where the activist marriage crowd and their obsession with homosexuals or the homosexual activists obsession with getting married, have taken the idea of marriage. Thinking about getting married now almost feels like im joining some weird cult..... Hence we have personally 'done away' with marriage in the official sense. Nobody needed to 'do away' with it for us.

Andrew

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Ethanol is a fabulous solution to our energy dilemma because it will provide more fuel for us to drive around and look for food.

-- Unknown

I wouldn't worry too much. We were just as "creeped out" that our relation was going to be called and veiwed exactly the same as yours even though it is so OBVIOUSLY different.

Like I said, don't worry. We wouldn't call a donut a pancake either. Or a boat a car or a fly an airplane or a printer a typewriter.

In what way is it different. Perhaps you could flesh out how obvious it is?

A car and a boat are both personal transportation devices. They both serve the same fundamental purpose of getting people from point A to point B.

What my wife and I have and what you and your wife have also serve the exact same purpose. They are fundamentally the same thing. (the only difference is that we did not require the superficial sanctioning of our relationship by a religious or secular ceremony).

Andrew

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Ethanol is a fabulous solution to our energy dilemma because it will provide more fuel for us to drive around and look for food.

-- Unknown

Maybe I'm just confused. That happens a lot when I'm arguing with people that don't know or can't decide what sex THEY are. They're confused, I get confused ... what do you expect ?

Like I said, maybe I got confused. You and your "wife" are of opposite sex yes ? If so, then nevermind. If you don't have kids together then the benefits of marriage generally aren't worth it. I think married people STILL get screwed by the IRS, so our Govt. is discouraging it ANYWAYS. Don't know how Canada handles it.

We do have kids. And we have the exact same benefits given to officially 'married' couples.

Marriage laws in Canada are the domain of provinces. The province where i live actually does not recognize same-sex marriages. What they did instead was extend the same benefits to all couples, same-sex or opposite sex common law, or married heterosexual couples. Its all the same.... They just chose to not force the church to marry homosexual couples....

Andrew

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Ethanol is a fabulous solution to our energy dilemma because it will provide more fuel for us to drive around and look for food.

-- Unknown

The way I see it, it's simple. We should allow people to have civil unions with any number and assortment of adults who aren't closely related that will have them. My only concern is that, should we do this, we do away with common law unions. I don't want the government to just decide I'm married to my roomate.

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During the journey we commonly forget its goal. Almost every profession is chosen as a means to an end but continued as an end in itself. Forgetting our objectives is the most frequent act of stupidity.
-Friedrich Nietzsche, The Wanderer and his Shadow

All good socialists have villas in Southern France. That's not the point.
-Eurosocialist

I know ages ago, Wyoming recognized common law after 7 years. Do you know if they still do? I was just discussing this two days ago.

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...the government...is caving in...with their specious arguments couched in the...language of civil rights law, and that the churches ... likewise crumbling to...rhetoric which is nothing but heretical sophistry -- ~F Phelps
Platitudes like the one you offer are no different - and no less incorrect - than the jackass part-time Christian who says, "I'm going to heaven because I'm nice to people." It so misses the point.~Impugn

'Scuse me! Being bi dosen't mean you somehow need to be with one of each, or alternate weekly or something. It just means that gender isn't a huge part of why you might be attracted to another person. Maybe you like both blondes and brunettes- does that mean you couln't be faithful to a blonde woman? That you'd have to have a brown haired one, too? I was married to a guy for four (dated him for three- so a total of seven years), and it didn't work out (funny thing, but he's quite straight, and he's the one who wanted to date other poeple). It so happens that the next person I fell in love with was female. Now we're celebrating our 8th anneversary. Do I sometimes notice nice looking guys- sure, and so does she. Does it mean either of us is going home with anyone else? nope.

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please click and help the eggs hatch!

"The only abnormality is the incapacity to love"
-Anias Nin

I'm for limited government. I'm not big on the whole socialist idea of telling consenting adults how to live their lives. Here in America we value freedom and limited government.

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"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

No. Wyoming doesn't currently recognize common law marriage. I don't think the wording prohibits changing it back though.

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During the journey we commonly forget its goal. Almost every profession is chosen as a means to an end but continued as an end in itself. Forgetting our objectives is the most frequent act of stupidity.
-Friedrich Nietzsche, The Wanderer and his Shadow

All good socialists have villas in Southern France. That's not the point.
-Eurosocialist

Excellent point. Telling people who they can and cannot marry is such a socialist concept.

It's called an affair.

quite true, although the fact that their bisexual doesn't mean that they aren't interested in monogamous relationships.