Isn't that incest?

After the last post, in which a young girl married her brother, I received a question asking: "Don't you think it's evil for females of any age, even adults, to marry their brothers? It's a violation of our historical traditions and our culture, to say the least!"

The picture shows a brother and sister who became known as a "married couple" to their friends.

I'd like to use a quote, in my reply. It goes "There is nothing sacrosanct about culture. Culture is constantly evolving in any living society, responding to both internal and external stimuli, and there is much in every culture that societies quite naturally outgrow and reject. We are thus not obliged to defend, in the name of culture, practices that treat an adult as incapable of making meaningful decisions, and instead empower the parents of an adult man or woman to determine their off-spring's partner in marriage.

One setback with culture is that it subsumes all members of a society under a framework they may prefer to disavow/renounce. If dissenters within each culture are free to opt out and assert their individual rights - for example a person's right not to marry under customary law - an adult of sound mind can legitimately opt out of cultural traditions." (End of quote.)

Basically, the quote is pointing out that the law against incest tells everyone, even intelligent, moral, adult citizens, that they can't marry certain people who they love. The law therefore is treating them as though they're incapable of making a decision for themselves as to who they should or should not marry. It violates our freedom to marry the person we love.

It puts us all in the same restriction, no matter how deep our love is, and no matter what our individual preferences are. It's autocratic. Just as we have the right to choose to follow our cultural traditions, we should also have the right to choose not to.

Source: http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/459/520634
Note: The quoted discussion was originally used in support of marriage within the same clan, but it equally applies to marriage within the same family.)

Young Girl Marries Her Brother

The so-called age of consent varies widely from place to place. The basic idea of having a legal age of consent was to protect girls who are too young and immature from becoming sexually involved before they are ready. But the problem with having just one set age, in each state, is that different girls mature at different rates. Some girls may be too immature for sex at 18, and some girls may be ready much younger.

The picture shows a girl who was fully ready in knowledge and maturity, to marry her brother at a very early age.

Real Meat in Pies?

Someone's trying to get pie manufacturers to start using real meat in their meat pies. Not much chance of that! They've been using "any body part" of "any animal" for too long now - they're not going to let someone pressure them to start using meat in their meat pies. They have a special arrangement with the RSPCA and similar groups overseas, regarding the disposal of the bodies of the thousands of cats and dogs they kill every week.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200610/s1755889.htm