Personally, I have no problem with any typical or atypical forms of marriage, as long as the government isn't involved, churches aren't being forced to violate their own moral dictates, and everyone is of legal age.  If you want to marry a man and you're a man, that's cool.  If you want to be 1950's traditional with one man and one woman, even if one partner is gayer than a kite, that's cool too.  Want to have twenty wives? If you can afford them and you treat them well, awesome.  Want to make your crazy bisexual polyamorous lovefest into happy knotted yarn ball of committed bliss and wedding cake, more power to you.  Want to get married in a church like a good Catholic folks and get drunk afterwards?  Sure!  Marriage is a social contract, a private matter, and an excuse for someone to throw a party or dressing up like a snow-covered mountain top.

I have mixed feelings about that whole FLDS mess.  The raid seems to be another massive constitutional rights fiasco.  On the bright side, Janet Reno wasn't involved.  Additionally, there is a good chance that the raped child-bride-in-peril was actually a schizophrenic woman with a history of calling wolf.  This stupid oversight increases the chance that many legitimate criminal issues in the case will be thrown out of court or overturned.  Although the child custody cases are likely to succeed, I cannot help but think that a big ugly lawsuit is in the horizon.

Even in this dark mess, I cannot ignore a good sense of humor.  Read the following portion of a transcript from a recent CNN interview.  (Notes added.  Thanks mom for the tip.)

TUCHMAN: There's a lot of sex on that show (Big Love,) isn't there?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Too much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Which is why a lot of our people stopped watching after the first couple of episodes.

TUCHMAN: So, that's unrealistic?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I don't know.

TUCHMAN: Which brings up this question: how is it decided which wife the husband sleeps with on a given night?

JOYCE: We draw straws, and the one with the short straw has to.

[Edited to include FYI: The women in this portion of the interview by CNN were not minors, and they all stated that they did not approve of underaged marriage.  Also upon re-reading the interview, I realized that the women were not of the Texas FLDS compound, but rather the town of Centennial Park.]