NEWS: Diving Into the Shallow End of the Gene Pool

CULTURE: Diving Into the Shallow End of the Gene Pool

If you're ever inclined to marry your first cousin, there is an organization to help you out.

I don't know what's worse—their take on the Biblical perspective on "cousin-lovin" or the creepy sameness of the photos on the front page.

Wow. Just... wow.

While I find the idea of inbreedind disturbing, it does make for amusing photo opportunities. Like the picture of the cousin-couple at the gates of Graceland in that site's photo slideshow. And the photo of the guy with the balding mullet. Priceless.

From one of my journal entries:

Fun fact: Over the past 64 generations (since Roman times), the number of people whose genetic couplings were required to bring about the birth of you is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000. This number, though thousands of times bigger than the number of people who have ever lived, is accurate. How? incest, of course. Seriously, albeit possibly on a more removed level (ie: distant cousins, etc.) If you're dating someone from the same country and race, it is very likely that you two are related on some level.
This brought to you by A Short History of Nearly Everything

I'm not saying you should seek out relatives for mating purposes, but chances are you're already double dipping in the gene pool.

there were couples that looked too much alike. thats effin weird. cuz they're cousins!

[Edited on Apr 05, 2005 9:15PM]

Well, it IS a great way to save on wedding invitations

And family reunion invitations, too.

What about Uncle/Niece relations? I lost my best friend that way

[Edited on Apr 05, 2005 by yumchen]

A couple of cousins in my family tree got it on, and lived together until they died.
No kids, thank god.

The fourth picture, the bald gentleman with the lady in pink on his lap... They look like borther and sister... That's just weird.

Well, mathematically, the above makes sense. But come on, man- first cousins?

Seems like such a low number, but I guess it's not if a generation is about 22 years. Seems like I should have had many, many more generations of grandfolks stretching back to Rome...

i think the point they're missing is that while two first cousins having children is low risk, if that trend keeps up for a generation or two (or more), the risk gets worse.

whatever makes people happy, but still, yuck.

Yeah, I know. I just love that book, and like to drop tidbits from it when they're applicable.

That's basically what I was trying to say when I submitted the article.

*shudder*

This is what happens when cousins marry:



*shudders*

Better than NAMBLA, I suppose.

-TM

Where did you think C.H.U.D. came from

i was recently told by a professor whom i trust that the consequences of incest are much much much less severe than they are commonly percieved to be. I don't know if this was just amongst cousins or if that's true about siblings and such too, but that would mean that the majority of the taboo is socially constructed, which wouldn't suprise me much.

I'm my own grandpa.

It reminds me of something out of Preacher by Garth Ennis.

OMFG no...Arseface!!!

*just exposed his latent comic book geek*

Worst...thread...EVER.

-TM

aliens.

completely free of our genes. truly the next generation!

p-skank

They don't eat or sleep or mow the lawn they just fuck their cousins all day long

This is a public health issue. It may make people happy not to wear their seatbelts or to take antibiotics needlessly. But it's my business when my insurance costs shoot through the roof and emergency rooms are packed because dipshits don't wear seatbelts. It's my business when overuse of antibiotics breeds strains of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. Just like cousin fucking is my business when the gene pool is filled to the brim with inbred people prone to genetic defects.

Well, be it genetics or simply society, it's still taboo.

It's both. It's a social taboo that is driven by a biological/genetic issue. The incest taboo is one of the very few social norms that exists across virtually every culture. If you want evidence for the harm inbreeding does, you need look no further than the royal families of Europe which intermarried over many generations and eventually wound up with all kinds of fucked up hereditary / genetic illnesses as a result.

[Edited on Apr 06, 2005 by HenryTMensch]