A Fresno, California man was arrested this weekend for allegedly murdering nine people. Mass-killings are stunning no matter the circumstances. The tales of incest and polygamy that surround this case make it especially astonishing.

Taking a look at Marcus Wesson, I'm mildly shocked that any woman would have agreed to partake in the marital act with him without the promise of payment or some form of coercion. Yet, the accused allegedly engaged in a polygamous relationship with five women. Additionally, he spawned numerous progeny. Perhaps Wesson possessed a psychological hold over these women similar to that maintained by another disheveled Golden State mass-murderer 35 years ago.

Several if not all of Wesson's victims appear to be his children. "The most disturbing news," Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer remarked, "was the fact that perhaps two of the children that were found deceased were both his children and his grandchildren."

Thankfully, tolerance for murder is not a widely held position. Tolerance for harmful alternative lifestyles, unfortunately, enjoys widespread popularity. We've all heard the tired mantras: "Relationships between consenting adults are all equally valid." "Love makes a family." "Who's to say what's right and what's wrong?"

Who's to say? Anyone possessing common sense, that's who. Polygamy is wrong. Incest is wrong. When the participants willingly participate in these practices, they are still wrong. The inadvisability of incest and polygamy stem not just from moral taboos, but from concrete reasons--like the fact that you can't be a good husband and a good father to the same woman, or that women deserve a full husband, rather than splitting one five ways. Why wasn't Marcus Wesson locked up earlier?

It is a sign of the degraded state of Western culture that one even needs to explain why some sexual practices--even ones between consenting adults--are anathema to a moral life. One hopes we never get to the point where we are so desensitized as a culture that mass-murder fails to shock and outrage.