A liberal marriage

Girl, 7, weds dog to protect family from 'evil eye'
Chicago Sun-Times, Feb 23, 2006
NEW DELHI -- A 7-year-old girl wed a stray dog as part of a ritual to ward off the "evil eye" on her and her family in eastern India, a news agency reported Wednesday.
Shivam Munda's upper teeth appeared before her lower teeth -- considered a bad omen by members of the Santhal ethnic group to which she belongs, the Press Trust of India said in a report from Dhanbad, a coal mining town in the eastern state of Bihar.
Kundan Munda, a coal mine worker, said his daughter married the dog only to "remove the evil eye," a superstitious belief that some misfortune could befall her and the family, and that she would be free to marry a man later.
Friends and family participated in three days of traditional ceremonies and festivities that are part of a Santhal tribal marriage, Munda said, according to the report.

We are doing some dog sitting, and as I watched my 9 year old daughter playing with the dog I was reminded of this story. I saw it months ago and remember getting quite the chuckle. I’m not sure of the veracity of the story, as the google search showed the story in a number of sites, but the age of the girl and the datelines were different across the board. I still think it’s funny because my main thought was how would liberals react to this type of situation?

If they disapproved of this marriage, would they consider themselves to be hate-filled, bigoted beastiaphobes for not accepting this natural union of carbon-based life forms? Would they support a referendum to vote on whether marriage should be allowed only between human beings? Is it just the age of the girl that would bother them, and if the girl was over 16 would they then approve of the marriage?

My guess is that the liberal mind would find this totally acceptable. I’m sure they’d be able to come up with a rationalization on the normality of such unions, and then of course the research would begin to show that people who want to marry dogs have a special gene that makes them who they are. Of course dogs wouldn’t be the only animal; they’re bound to find the gene that makes people want to marry and have sex with horses, sheep, etc. Why is it only domesticated animals that these people go for? I just caught a short bit of some documentary on a guy who labeled himself the Grizzly Man; I bet he would have married a bear, given the opportunity. Of course the guy ended up being eaten by his lovable grizzlies; but hey, relationships can be difficult.

I imagine liberals would support welfare benefits to couples in this type of situation; after all, the major breadwinner may be unable to find meaningful employment. (tough, I say make him work---there’s always drug sniffing or guide dog positions available)
There would be other tough questions to consider on this type of arrangement. If the human spouse worked for a major corporation, would that company be forced to pay veterinary benefits as part of its compensation package? What about travel---you couldn’t force someone’s spouse to sit in a cage in the cargo compartment while their partner flew in the main cabin. There are just so many things that would need to be changed.

If this story is true, it’s just another prime example of third world countries getting what they deserve for holding to worldviews that are totally insane and antithetical to the Judeo-Christian worldview that all the prosperous western nations of the world have, at least in the past, held to. Of course liberals eat this stuff up, it takes a village to raise a dog marrying 7 year old.