Senator Santorum

[Colin Percival]

At 12:29 06/05/2003 -0700, Doug Barton wrote:
>On Tue, 6 May 2003, Colin Percival wrote:
> >    Not quite.  Bigamy and polygamy aren't questions of sex; they're
> > questions of marriage.
>
>They are also crimes in the US, which is the point he's making. Actually,
>you're supporting my argument, even if you don't realize it. :) If we
>decide that removing the laws against sodomy is ok because you have the
>right to do whatever you want behind closed doors, then the laws against
>the other things he mentioned should be removed too, for the same reason
>(see below for one important qualification).

   Bigamy isn't something which goes on behind closed doors.  Marriage is a 
matter of public record; someone who is only a bigamist behind closed doors 
is no more than an adulterer.

 >> personally I don't see where the problem
> > lies with incest, providing that no (genetically impaired) children are
> > born of it,
>
>... and providing that all parties involved are "adults" in the sense that
>they are capable of giving informed consent to the acts in question. That
>of course is an entirely different topic of discussion.

   Of course.  Most cases of incest are also cases of rape -- and they 
should be prosecuted as that, not as incest.

> > and I can't think of any civilized state where adultery is illegal.
>
>The limitations of your knowledge are not my responsibility. :) To take a
>trivial example, the Uniform Code of Military Justice in the US has
>penalties for adultery, although I'm not enough of an expert to make the
>distinction of whether it proclaims it "illegal," which is an oft-misused
>term.

   We evidently have different definitions of "civilized". ;)

Colin Percival