Video games and marriage?

I got to thinking about the “sanctity” of marriage (interesting that the definition of sanctity in addition to the word holy, uses the word inviolability).

The thought process started as I was watching a video Cataclysm Cinematic Intro(World of Warcraft)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq4Y7ztznKc&feature=youtube_gdata while waiting for some files to upload to our large file format method of transfer.

I don’t know how I got from the video to marriage, but some of the steps were these:
Why in games and their movies are the societies quaint, often medieval-looking, when they have technology (and magic) to create warriors and weapons that fit the WMD category? Do we credit/blame Tolkien and other story/myth creators (and Joseph Campbell)?

Is it a comment on our tribal-mindset past as our world moves ahead in its ability to create technological methods to destroy while the distrust of ‘the other’ remains in us?

Somehow I got from there to the idea of using another’s idea to build on and from there to the idea of someone objecting to their ideas being used (perhaps because on my way to work I was looking at a blurb for a book on intellectual property while remembering the Harry Potter/Willy the Wizard lawsuit).

From there I jumped to the Supreme Court case (not a difficult jump, yesterday I was reading an item from the New Yorker that commented on the activism by the current SCOTUS’s conservative justices) about Fred Phelp’s and his Westboro Baptist crew protesting at military funerals. (For the record, I totally disagree with Phelps and his crew’s position and have some problem with their right to protest, but not based on my disagreement with their views. My issue is why they have the right to protest without restriction when people going to voice their opinions in political convention cities are restricted to ‘free speech zones?’ This is because of my firm belief that the First relates to Evelyn Beatrice Hall’s “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” which is based on Voltaire’s statement "Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too.")

I recently read about the LGBT issue with the current administration’s talk of support but arguing for laws that are anti-equality. Part of me can see a law professor’s reason for dealing with the law in legal fashion, but do not consider it activism when a judge applies Constitutional principles to overturn wrongful laws.

Combine that and the right to free speech and disagreement, and the religion-based statements about marriage between one man and one woman, allowing marriage equality undermines the concept of marriage, etc.

Having been in 3 serial relationships in my life, I don’t define sanctity for other people, nor do I demand that they define/base their relationships on my terms/beliefs. While not Christian, I do like the Golden Rule concept and therefore I expect the same courtesy for freedom of thought be returned.

Finally (and luckily the 13 large memory files were now uploaded) this led to my thoughts on sanctity and how one-man-one-woman has certainly had some problems in upholding that concept (on another somewhat personal note, in an extended family with 13 grandchildren for one of my grandmothers, only 2 are in their original marriages).

So, in our celebrity-obsessed culture where movie stars testify before congress on the plight of the farmer and sell us everything from political opinion to aspirations to a similar lifestyle, here are some famous people with their examples of the holy estate:
• 8 months - Jennifer Lopez and Cris Judd wed October 2001, split July 2002. (Another Jennifer Lopez marriage to Ojani Noa – wed February 1997, split March 1998 – lasted13 months.)
• 8 months - Elizabeth Taylor and Nicky Hilton May 1950, split January 1951.
Famed bride Elizabeth Taylor got a jump on her string of weddings with her first marriage to hotelier (and grandfather to sisters Nicky and Paris Hilton) Nicky Hilton. 19 year-old Elizabeth reportedly said about the wedding, "I have a woman's body and a child's emotions."
• 7 months - Courtney Thorne-Smith and Andrew Conrad wed June 2000, split January 2001. They couldn't even make it to when their wedding pictures were infamously published by Instyle Magazine in February/March 2001.
• 5 months - Shannen Doherty and Ashley Hamilton wed September 1993, split February 1994. [Shannen Doherty also married Rick Salomon (of Paris Hilton sex tape fame) wed February 2002, split November 2002 for a total of 9 months.]
• 5 months -Carmen Electra and Dennis Rodman wed November 1998, split March 1999. Like Britney and Jason, these two were wed in a quickie Vegas wedding. Rodman initially tried to get an annullment after nine days of wedded bliss, but the two managed to stick it out another four and a half months.
• 4 months, 24 days - Charlie Sheen and Donna Peele wed September 1995, split February 1996.
• 3 months, 15 days - Lisa Marie Presley and Nicolas Cage wed August 2002, split November 2002. (Lisa Marie Presley was also married to Michael Jackson wed May 1994, split December 1995 for a tally of 20 months.)
• 32 days - Ernest Borgnine and Ethel Merman wed June 1964, split July 1964. 32 days (and I am not sure which I sympathize with more as to why it didn’t work out)
• 30 days - Drew Barrymore and Jeremy Thomas wed March 1994, split April 1994. (Drew Barrymore also married Tom Green wed July 2001, split December 2001, a length of five months.)
• 9 days - Cher and Gregg Allman wed July 1975, split July 1975. Kids, another example of why you've got to watch out for those Vegas weddings. Just three days after divorcing Sonny Bono, Cher and musician Gregg Allman spontaneously flew to Vegas in his Lear Jet to wed. However, she reportedly soon discovered that his drug and alcohol problems were too much for her, and filed for divorce after only nine days.
• 8 days - Dennis Hopper and Michelle Phillips wed October 1970, split November 1970.
• 55 hours - Britney Spears' and Jason Allen Alexander wed January 3, 2004, split 2 days and 7 hours later.
• 6 hours - Rudolph Valentino & Jean Acker wed and split November 1919. (The jury's still out on whether Britney's marriage was shorter than famed lover Rudolph Valentino's. After just six hours, the bride locked Valentino out of the honeymoon suite! He soon gave up and headed home. However, they didn't finalize a divorce until 1922.)
• And, least we forget, a 1-m-1-w marriage is holy for both
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQTe47cR-Ws&feature=related