Yup, my boy is under strict instructions to not die. Otherwise, no piece of cheese as reward.

I think most dogs think they can talk people, it’s only right that we help them along with a bit of translating.

Good dog, Charlie Bear.

Works with dogs, helps dogs, makes the world a better place.

I will read anything to do with dogs. Hurrah for dogness!

Our minimum age to legally marry is not far off (16 with parent’s consent, 18 without) so I can see how easily a 15 year old could get railroaded into it by pushy parents (my mother’s generation saw many of her friends marched up the aisle too young for having got knocked up).

The cultural aspect is quite grim, but then again institutionalised abuse and religious fundamentalism seem to go together hand in hand, so I shouldn’t really be surprised there. I should also probably have a word with myself about trying too hard to not tar all with one brush, it probably should have clicked with me…

From what a couple of the other commenters have said, the culture of Mormons is the problem here, not the poly aspect.

That’s seriously depressing when you think of it as the assault charge would come second in importance to the lifestyle charge.

Yuk. Would they still put forward a child to be a patriarch’s bride if she was to be his only “legal” wife on paper, say if wife number one died?

Ah, I didn’t know about the lack of birth records thing - I’d kind of assumed that that would be a criminal offence (I’m British, where not registering is a huge no-no). It seems like something easier to police by enforcing birth (and marriage) registration laws in the first place - if these lot prove anything, it’s…

If so it’s very clutching at straws.

It sounds a bit like the against side are flinging hot button subjects out to create enough hysteria to not have to work hard at their case. I guess we should be surprised that they didn’t throw in that all children born from a poly marriage would be drug addicts or something.

Precisely. I’d definitely go potty in a poly relationship, but no one is forcing a poly marriage on anyone, let alone me, so it’s none of my damned business.

Maybe I’m missing something here, but what the fuck does keeping polygamy illegal do to prevent under age marriage and sexual assault? If marriage is illegal under a certain age, and sexual assault is always going to be illegal (well, on paper anyway, we all know how sexual assault is treated currently, during our…

So, they hate communists but their lord and master is terribly pally with Putin, who’s awfully keen to reinstate the ol’ USSR and its very commy traditions.

I’ve been somewhat bewildered by how health was such a focus of Trump’s campaign. It seems like serious clutching at straws.

“reveal his own personal health regimen” and release “very specific” medical records.

Well, I’m sort of still expecting her response to be “that wasn’t done to you because you were a woman, it was done because you were there”, thus nullifying the gendered aspect. My judgement is being reserved until I see how the information is handled once she has it.

Thank you! Now I’m off to Google cancer promoters and try to figure out what’s going on there!