AND SINCE IT IS A SLOW NEWS DAY we come to this. If whatever happens in one's life is because "God wills it" well that fairly absolves one of any responsibility now doesn't it? Courtesy of News of the Weird.

Officials in Saudi Arabia recently began to campaign against the culture of intrafamily marriage, which is practiced by almost half the country, according to a May New York Times dispatch.

"Saudi Arabia is a living genetics laboratory," said an American researcher stationed there. Several genetic disorders have festered, but in many tribes, such disorders (attributed to God's will) have not in any way diminished the ideal of first-cousin marriages. [New York Times, 5-1-03]