2007
One mixture per child
It looks like the Iraq government is looking to eugenics to solve the issue of civil war (or what we, in polite U.S. society, term “sectarian violence”).
There’s now a cash bonus offered by the Iraqi government to couples that marry across religious divisions. In the U.S. perspective, this would be a bit like interracial marriage was in the 1960s. I certainly can’t imagine the Johnson or Nixon administrations issuing rebates for what was then commonly termed “miscegenation” in some parts of the country. And, sadly, neither can I imagine the current presidency supporting a fund for diverse marriage, even though it would have been a better policy than similar laws from the recent past. Coincidence that exactly the voters that come from the “pure, unmolested” line leading from anti-abolitionism to the present also correlate strongly to those that support the war in Iraq? Contradictions don’t signify: up is down. (h/t Think Progress)
Anyone interested in the dynamics of government, perceived “race,” and economics should check out Troy Duster.