Attack On Traditional Marriage!

Dr. Dobson and the Family Research Council, take note: America's marriage tradition, while certainly in the cross-hairs of the gay activists, stands proud and strong compared to what's going on elsewhere.

I'm not talking about Europe, where people find marriage boring. That's a social trend that may soon turn around. I'm talking about marriage foundations gone wild, as in what happens in societies where marriage means an arranged hitching of a child bride:

PATNA, India (Reuters) - Villagers at a wedding in eastern India decided the groom had arrived too drunk to get married, and so the bride married the groom's more sober brother instead, police said Monday.

"The groom was drunk and had reportedly misbehaved with guests when the bride's family and local villagers chased him away," Madho Singh, a senior police officer told Reuters after Sunday's marriage in a village in Bihar state's Arwal district.

The younger brother readily agreed to take the groom's place beside the teenage bride at her family's invitation, witnesses said.

"The groom apologized for his behavior, but has been crying that word will spread and he will never get a bride again," Singh said by phone.

Who this poor child married was unimportant; all that mattered is that she got taken in by the other family.

And is the groom upset that he wasn't able to marry the love of his life? No, of course not, although he's deeply concerned about himself and his future chances of marriage. The girl? Don't bother to ask; no one seems to asked her what she thought of the whole mess.

Not that it matters; she's just a girl. Come to think of it NOW should be more interested in this story than the conservative Christians.

But I was wrong. The feminists' issues page does deal with international affairs -- peace in Iraq (natch!) -- but not a peep about the crushing exploitation of women in societies where women have much more to worry about than the liberal shriekbabies of NOW.