Smell this marriage and tell me if it’s gone bad

Thank heaven for maverick politicians in office! Those rabble-rousers who challenge staid ideas and majority opinion based upon moldy, antiquated values.

Enter sexy Gabriele Pauli (pictured here), Germany’s latex clad politician who is petitioning that marriages should not necessarily last "til death do couples part"-- but that the union should be issued an expiration date. According to Pauli “The basic approach [to marriage] is wrong…many marriages last just because people believe they are safe…My suggestion is that marriages expire after seven years." After said amount of time (when the so-called "7 Year itch" might begin to creep under the couple's skin) Pauli suggests that the husband and wife can choose to either terminate the union or petition for an extension.

Of course, the idea has elicited outrage from Germany’s right wing Christian Social Union (CSU) who say that Pauli (herself a Christian) is “diametrically contradicting our Christian, ethical values."

Pauli stands behind her suggestion and claims that it is “about bringing ideas into the CSU and starting a discussion." God forbid that any new ideas be brought into a tried and true forum presided over by dogmatic tradition!

More power to you Pauli! But of course if it were up to me, the government nor the public would have any place within the romantic union of two people—and neither laws nor society should favor a “government-blessed” union over one that hasn’t been made legal and filed away in Uncle Sam’s dusty cabinet.