Swirly, if it's OK with you, I'll close this thread so you don't get any more insults. I think you should go with your heart. From what I've read, there are actually lots of cases where first cousins and less close cousins get involved and have relationships. It's more common than you think, and I'm not just talking about in Arkansas or Appalachia, either. When those relationships result in marriage, it's true that it's not a good idea for cousins to have children because the likelihood of inbreeding-related genetic problems can result. But if I remember correctly from the article I once read about this subject, about half of the states in the U.S. say it's legal to marry first cousins. More distant, so-called non-parallel cousins aren't usually an issue, but genetic counselors would still caution most of those couples, unless they're distant cousins, against having babies. Not sure if you know this or not, but most of the royal families of Europe are all distantly related in some way through their descent from Queen Victoria. Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Phillip are distant cousins themselves.

OK, now for a little geneology-relationship info for those of you who were curious. "First cousins" describes the relationship between children of two direct siblings. So my first cousins are the children of my mom's brother or sister. (Or my dad's. If any of my parents' siblings have kids, those kids are my first cousins.)

"Second cousins" describes the relationship between the children of first cousins. My first cousin Elaine, who is my mom's brother's daughter (my uncle's daughter), and I both have sons. So our sons are second cousins to each other. When they both have children, those kids will be third cousins to each other. The numbering proceeds as the cousin descent passes down parallel generations.

"Removed" happens when there's a difference between generations. For instance, my first cousin Elaine's son is my first cousin once-removed since we're of different generations. If her son had a child, that child would be my first cousin twice-removed (two generations removed). You can read more about cousin-related info here:
http://www.genealogy.com/16_cousn.html