I have a friend who won't date any woman from his hometown whose father's name was "Joe" because there is a high probability she will be his half-sister.

This gets me to my musing...in these neighborhoods where a woman's babies all have different fathers, and males have babies with many women, what's going to be the impact on the gene pool in another 30 years (two generations, ugh)? The effects of first-cousin marriage on societies that practice it are pretty well documented...what's going to happen when a woman who has no idea that her baby's daddy is her biological brother has a kid who impregnates her brother's granddaughter by another woman?

At least we already know who is going to be stuck paying for it. :\

Of course this classic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlqbt1PQ1ek&feature=PlayList&p=B0C329D9029A3BF3&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=58

Have a nice day all you mothers!

I don't know that, Heather Radish. I have seen a lot of studies which say in most cases close marriages do not have great negative genetic consequences, except in cases where already a major birth defect exists in the family.

It's like everyone knows pot turns people into raging killers.

I know we are all busy, but if you do run into a good science link which shows cousin marriages are generally genetically bad, please let us know.

There was little fear of any sort of cousin activity in my family. Generally, the women look much like the men, and the men are seldom accused of being handsome.

I did have one cousin. If not for her mother's flawless reputation, one would have assumed foul play. All the girls in that large family looked much like every other girl in the family.

But one. She looked, from head to foot, very much like Raquel Welch, and I guarantee you, all her cousins wanted her. I can personally vouch for that. My brother told me not long ago she was still gorgeous well into her 50's.

Hey, Eric, good video. I thought it was funny, but my wife did not.

I remember some years ago (when you get old, it's hard to put dates on past events) it was on the news that a couple met, and fell in love, and married. Someone found out, and disclosed they were brother and sister who had been given up for adoption. They were totally distraught, as you may imagine.

In a totally different vein, another tale some years ago, of a woman who gave up her son for adoption, and when he grew up, she pursued him and in full knowledge it was her son, ended up married to him, though of course he had no clue. I think she did time for that one, or if not, at least extended probation.

Then, there was the song, I'm My Own Grandpa, must have been popular in the 50's as a guess. Well, Wikipedia says it was first performed in 1947, how time marches on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYlJH81dSiw&feature=fvst

With diagrams.

Here in my state in Mexico, under the law one can marry any of your spouse's family except direct ancestry ( for men of course, change titles for women: mother; grandmother; great-grandmother; etc.) or direct descendants (daughter; grand-daughter; great-grand-daughter).

However, the culture is based on Catholic Canonical law, and your spouse's kinfolk are considered your own as well, which prohibits marriage to the second or third cousin.

In cases of doubtful parentage in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Illinois the question is "Hoosier daddy?"

There was a version of "I'm My Own Grandpa" that Dr. Demento frequently played on his radio show circa 1980. At one point he had a contest to see who could spot the error in the song -- I don't think anyone ever came up with it.

"This gets me to my musing...in these neighborhoods where a woman's babies all have different fathers, and males have babies with many women, what's going to be the impact on the gene pool in another 30 years (two generations, ugh)?"

Well, all 6+ billion of us come from just a tiny number of humans not too long ago in our evolutionary past, so I don't know if it's as serious as it's made out to be.

"The effects of first-cousin marriage on societies that practice it are pretty well documented."

Actually, I saw recent studies which showed that offspring of first-cousin marriages do not really have a statistically significantly higher amount of birth defects ... these effects are over-exaggerated by society, and tend to only become serious when compounded over numerous generations and where no 'new blood' comes into the gene line for a long time (i.e. isolated populations). "Lots of people think and repeat it" is not equal to "is pretty well documented".

Maybe I am missing something, but it looks like Maurder1949's comment got deleted from the CNN article. I searched for it, and all I found was a post that accused Maurder1949 or trolling.

Typical. When someone makes a comment you don't like but is obviously so true you can't argue with it, they just chaulk them up to a racist, sexist bigot, homophobe, or in this case, a troll.

Too bad, because the comment was true.