Associated Media
Tuesday December 22, 2009
Neville Crywolf
Today President Barack Obama and representatives of the CDC issued a press statement lamenting the nation's current swine flu vaccine crisis. As of last week, 107 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine are now available after lengthy supply delays in October and November. Canadian and European pharmaceutical companies are concerned that the general lack of interest in the expensive vaccine could cause them financial insolvency. More and more Americans are wondering if the vaccine might be more harmful than the disease itself.
Recently reported fatality rates from the H1N1 virus are far lower than originally estimated by U.S. politicians and the pharmaceutical companies who finance them. President Obama promised to address the crisis by offering to reimburse the struggling pharmaceutical companies with TARP or stimulus funds plundered from the American people. Obama added that the vaccine doses can be kept in the White House shed until next year and used on Americans after the passage of the hugely unpopular Health Reform Bill ushers in forced immunization of all U.S. residents. It is anticipated that, at that time, supply and demand estimates will be much more accurate. Scientists working in collaboration with the World Bank and the CDC are working to create a more virulent strain of the H1N1 virus so that world populations can be persuaded that next year's virus is different and more dangerous and that resisting immunization should be a criminal offense.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
More Observations
Today I stumbled upon a post from an FLDS-hater discussing her feelings about the final days of Allen Keate's trial. I'm not encouraging you to read it, but the link is here if you want to savor true feelings of hatred.
http://tripleap.blogspot.com/2009/12/angry-humbled-surprised-and-verclempt.html
The message here is pretty straightforward - Polygamy is an inherently evil concept, and therefore its practitioners are inherently evil. The blogger exults over the harshness of the sentence (33 years). She "blesses" the state of Texas for its spitefulness.
My guess is that Allen Keate was born into the Short Creek community and that his religion has been the same throughout his life - even as far back as the days when marriages to fifteen-year-olds were commonplace and honorable (just like today). My philosophical beliefs eschew marriages under eighteen, but I love living in a country that at least pretends to champion religious freedom for all creeds and communities.
The blogger and everyone else who is observing these court proceedings know damned well that these "young" marriages are a fundamental tenet of (what was) the mainstream Mormon religion. They all know that there is a pervasive campaign to spread hatred for Warren Jeffs and to demonize the members of the congregation of people over whom he presides - hence the crusade for long sentences. WHAT !!!!! ???? - you don't think a crusade is underway? Well, here are some observations:
1. Recently, Judge Lintbag denied an FLDS motion in the UEP trust case. Maybe that is to be expected but, to "twist the knife", she ACTUALLY announced that she was "striking" the motion from the court record. (I think Lintbag and Wart-thug must be lovers). She needs to learn to spell the word, "A-P-P-E-A-L".
2. Becky Musser has become the darling "STAR" witness for the prosecution in the FLDS trials. We conveniently overlook the fact that she (like Intestinal Flora and the other unmentionables) were intimately embroiled in the conspiracy to choreograph the YFZ Ranch raid. More odorous still is the fact that a Texas deputy A.G. flew to Boise (among other places) to accompany Musser for depositions, in order to run interference and protect her at all costs from exposure as a conspiratrice.
3. Texas's Attorney General, Greg Abbott, was permitted by Barbie to campaign to prospective jurors last week (during voir dire) regarding the importance of delivering a "stiff" sentence to the FLDS men. That smells to me like abuse of process, but who am I to have an opinion about justice in America? Oh yeah, that's right - it's not ABOUT JUSTICE - it's about politics and PAYCHECKS !!!!
4. Harvey Hilderbran (who has made no secret of his determination to drive the FLDS out of Texas) managed to craft an unbelievably unconstitutional sentencing enhancement into recent legislation. After the FLDS moved into Eldorado, the law was changed - NOT ONLY to provide stiff sentences for young, unlicensed marriages, but ALSO to add an extra 79-year sentencing enhancement if there is a "religious" component to the non-legal "marriage". Tell me this isn't a direct targeting of the FLDS community (and EX POST FACTO legislation). Hilderbran needs to read the Lukumi decision. http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=508&invol=520
Read this brief quote from the text of the decision (where the Court examines the language of the city councilmen and their conspicuous antipathy for the RELIGION):
Councilman Cardoso said that Santeria devotees at the Church "are in violation of everything this country stands for." Councilman Mejides indicated that he was "totally against the sacrificing of animals," and distinguished kosher slaughter because it had a "real purpose." The "Bible says we are allowed to sacrifice an animal for consumption," he continued, "but for any other purposes, I don't believe that the Bible allows that." The president of the city council, Councilman Echevarria, asked: "What can we do to prevent the Church from opening?"
This bears an eerie similarity to the West Texas mindset.
5. In the spirit of the crusade, before the sentencing deliberations, Barbie reminded the jurors of the importance of remembering that they could impose a 99-year sentence. After the sentence was read, she told the jurors "how PROUD" she was of them for what they had done. Elsewhere in America, a double-homicide might not earn you a 33-year sentence. In Utah, many people convicted of unlawful sex with a minor (age 14 or 15) (in a religious context or not) have received sentences of a few months to a few years. Tom Green got five years (Linda was 13). Rodney Holm got seven months (Ruth was 16).
6. Rozita Swinton's hoax phone-call trial keeps getting conveniently postponed. God forbid we should discover that the barbarous YFZ ranch raid was planned around a scripted, fraudulent allegation by an impostrix. Who colluded with her . . . . . . ???
-----------------------
Let's pretend for a second that I didn't esteem the FLDS people. Let's pretend that they are not God-fearing, devout, industrious families. Pretend that I had never even heard of them before today. Still, I would stand up and protest the hysterical, prejudicial, even BRUTAL witch-hunt that has driven ordinarily decent Americans to lust for the death or permanent incarceration of a fellow American (who is simply "different").
Even if, over the last 80 years, some FLDS person may have done a stupid, or cruel, or unethical thing (like I have) - even if you don't like their leaders or their doctrines - even if you HATE the "concept" of plural marriage, why is it okay to yearn for these decent men to go to prison, when they have already stopped doing the very thing you want them to "stop doing"? It all seems disingenuous to me. It seems like the never-ending, busy-body parade of new and old polygamy-haters is either driven by Satan himself or by the craving for publicity, pity, profit or vengeance (sorry, I couldn't keep up the alliteration).
You decide.
You can also listen to the passionate protest of FLDS member, Willie Jessop, on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORFEq2Tnf8s&feature=player_embedded
http://tripleap.blogspot.com/2009/12/angry-humbled-surprised-and-verclempt.html
The message here is pretty straightforward - Polygamy is an inherently evil concept, and therefore its practitioners are inherently evil. The blogger exults over the harshness of the sentence (33 years). She "blesses" the state of Texas for its spitefulness.
My guess is that Allen Keate was born into the Short Creek community and that his religion has been the same throughout his life - even as far back as the days when marriages to fifteen-year-olds were commonplace and honorable (just like today). My philosophical beliefs eschew marriages under eighteen, but I love living in a country that at least pretends to champion religious freedom for all creeds and communities.
The blogger and everyone else who is observing these court proceedings know damned well that these "young" marriages are a fundamental tenet of (what was) the mainstream Mormon religion. They all know that there is a pervasive campaign to spread hatred for Warren Jeffs and to demonize the members of the congregation of people over whom he presides - hence the crusade for long sentences. WHAT !!!!! ???? - you don't think a crusade is underway? Well, here are some observations:
1. Recently, Judge Lintbag denied an FLDS motion in the UEP trust case. Maybe that is to be expected but, to "twist the knife", she ACTUALLY announced that she was "striking" the motion from the court record. (I think Lintbag and Wart-thug must be lovers). She needs to learn to spell the word, "A-P-P-E-A-L".
2. Becky Musser has become the darling "STAR" witness for the prosecution in the FLDS trials. We conveniently overlook the fact that she (like Intestinal Flora and the other unmentionables) were intimately embroiled in the conspiracy to choreograph the YFZ Ranch raid. More odorous still is the fact that a Texas deputy A.G. flew to Boise (among other places) to accompany Musser for depositions, in order to run interference and protect her at all costs from exposure as a conspiratrice.
3. Texas's Attorney General, Greg Abbott, was permitted by Barbie to campaign to prospective jurors last week (during voir dire) regarding the importance of delivering a "stiff" sentence to the FLDS men. That smells to me like abuse of process, but who am I to have an opinion about justice in America? Oh yeah, that's right - it's not ABOUT JUSTICE - it's about politics and PAYCHECKS !!!!
4. Harvey Hilderbran (who has made no secret of his determination to drive the FLDS out of Texas) managed to craft an unbelievably unconstitutional sentencing enhancement into recent legislation. After the FLDS moved into Eldorado, the law was changed - NOT ONLY to provide stiff sentences for young, unlicensed marriages, but ALSO to add an extra 79-year sentencing enhancement if there is a "religious" component to the non-legal "marriage". Tell me this isn't a direct targeting of the FLDS community (and EX POST FACTO legislation). Hilderbran needs to read the Lukumi decision. http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=508&invol=520
Read this brief quote from the text of the decision (where the Court examines the language of the city councilmen and their conspicuous antipathy for the RELIGION):
Councilman Cardoso said that Santeria devotees at the Church "are in violation of everything this country stands for." Councilman Mejides indicated that he was "totally against the sacrificing of animals," and distinguished kosher slaughter because it had a "real purpose." The "Bible says we are allowed to sacrifice an animal for consumption," he continued, "but for any other purposes, I don't believe that the Bible allows that." The president of the city council, Councilman Echevarria, asked: "What can we do to prevent the Church from opening?"
This bears an eerie similarity to the West Texas mindset.
5. In the spirit of the crusade, before the sentencing deliberations, Barbie reminded the jurors of the importance of remembering that they could impose a 99-year sentence. After the sentence was read, she told the jurors "how PROUD" she was of them for what they had done. Elsewhere in America, a double-homicide might not earn you a 33-year sentence. In Utah, many people convicted of unlawful sex with a minor (age 14 or 15) (in a religious context or not) have received sentences of a few months to a few years. Tom Green got five years (Linda was 13). Rodney Holm got seven months (Ruth was 16).
6. Rozita Swinton's hoax phone-call trial keeps getting conveniently postponed. God forbid we should discover that the barbarous YFZ ranch raid was planned around a scripted, fraudulent allegation by an impostrix. Who colluded with her . . . . . . ???
-----------------------
Let's pretend for a second that I didn't esteem the FLDS people. Let's pretend that they are not God-fearing, devout, industrious families. Pretend that I had never even heard of them before today. Still, I would stand up and protest the hysterical, prejudicial, even BRUTAL witch-hunt that has driven ordinarily decent Americans to lust for the death or permanent incarceration of a fellow American (who is simply "different").
Even if, over the last 80 years, some FLDS person may have done a stupid, or cruel, or unethical thing (like I have) - even if you don't like their leaders or their doctrines - even if you HATE the "concept" of plural marriage, why is it okay to yearn for these decent men to go to prison, when they have already stopped doing the very thing you want them to "stop doing"? It all seems disingenuous to me. It seems like the never-ending, busy-body parade of new and old polygamy-haters is either driven by Satan himself or by the craving for publicity, pity, profit or vengeance (sorry, I couldn't keep up the alliteration).
You decide.
You can also listen to the passionate protest of FLDS member, Willie Jessop, on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORFEq2Tnf8s&feature=player_embedded
Monday, December 14, 2009
A Brief Political Observation
Obama said today that he didn't run for the presidency to help out a "bunch of fat-cat bankers".
LIAR !
Maybe he didn't realize he was doing it (???????), but think this through - the government is rolling in (borrowed) money. The banks are wallowing in money. Meanwhile, the people are suffering horrible economic downturns.
It was reported last week that now more than 50% of union workers in this country WORK FOR GOVERNMENT. So, if all union members were to vote on something, would private business win - or would government interests win? Hannity reported tonight that, in this last year, the number of federal employees making over $100,000 has SKYROCKETED.
In Soviet Russia, there was no king, and there was no democracy, so WHO WAS IN CHARGE?
ANSWER: An oligarchy. What is an oligarchy?
ANSWER: A bunch of rich "fat-cat" private bankers.
So what is Obama (along with David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett) trying to turn this country into?
ANSWER: An oligarchy where a bunch of private, Marxist revolutionaries have confiscated all the money (paper and precious metals) and enslave the peasant population (you and me) into totalitarian subjection.
These people need to remember that the 13 colonies (/tribes of Israel) dedicated this land as a "footstool" for Jesus Christ, and He will not allow these impostors permanently to steal it. He ONLY is America's King.
Watch the following video for some more observations:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw
LIAR !
Maybe he didn't realize he was doing it (???????), but think this through - the government is rolling in (borrowed) money. The banks are wallowing in money. Meanwhile, the people are suffering horrible economic downturns.
It was reported last week that now more than 50% of union workers in this country WORK FOR GOVERNMENT. So, if all union members were to vote on something, would private business win - or would government interests win? Hannity reported tonight that, in this last year, the number of federal employees making over $100,000 has SKYROCKETED.
In Soviet Russia, there was no king, and there was no democracy, so WHO WAS IN CHARGE?
ANSWER: An oligarchy. What is an oligarchy?
ANSWER: A bunch of rich "fat-cat" private bankers.
So what is Obama (along with David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett) trying to turn this country into?
ANSWER: An oligarchy where a bunch of private, Marxist revolutionaries have confiscated all the money (paper and precious metals) and enslave the peasant population (you and me) into totalitarian subjection.
These people need to remember that the 13 colonies (/tribes of Israel) dedicated this land as a "footstool" for Jesus Christ, and He will not allow these impostors permanently to steal it. He ONLY is America's King.
Watch the following video for some more observations:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Barbie Freaks Out
I was delighted last night to read the following article:
http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2009/dec/04/judge-challenged-in-trial-of-flds-members-motion/?print=1
It reported the "Barbie in Wonderland" proceedings in the courtroom. I never cease to be amazed at the skewed exercise of justice in Barbarous Wart-hog's court. Let's face it folks - she HATES the FLDS. She wants them imprisoned. She would do anything she could reasonably get away with to aid the prosecutors who are trying these cases. It is no different from the arbitrary, improvised system of justice inflicted on the Mormons in Missouri and Illinois in the 1840s.
If I were an FLDS member, I would be very heartened by yesterday's developments. Barbie's shameless distortion of proper procedures HAS to get her into hot water eventually. It is fascinating to watch a person so drunken with pride and hubris continue to believe that she is immune from accountability and comeuppance. Now that she has been challenged to recuse herself, maybe we have a chance to get these pleadings before a judge who understands the concept of judicial impartiality.
It has been ably noted elsewhere, but Rozita Swinton's misdemeanor trial (for making hoax phone calls) has been postponed to the point of absurdity and is now the oldest outstanding misdemeanor case in Texas. Clearly, Texas doesn't want to admit that THE RAID was a terrible mistake and that the evidence seizure was at least a stretch of Constitutional guidelines.
Why cannot these politicians prefer truth and honor over power and security? How can they sleep at night, knowing that they are exploiting a minority people for gain? No, the FLDS are not perfect, but their imperfections do not justify gross persecution. There is a joke that goes:
How can you tell when a politician is lying? - - - - When his lips are moving.
Obama exulted yesterday that he has achieved a major success, in that the nation's unemployment figures went from 10.2% last month to 10%. "Great news in time for the 'Season of Hope' " !!!!!!
Our buddy, Bill, revealed that, unlike Laura Bush, who had one personal assistant, Michelle Obama has 22 (at a cost of $1.5M per year). These people are crooks and embezzlers - Marxist oligarchs who arrogate titles of nobility to themselves. They should read the Bible to learn what happens to those who are "puffed up".
I actually feel like praying for Barbie - that she will come to a bright recognition of the cruelty of her ways, and experience an epiphany on the "road to Damascus". The freight train is coming down the tracks, Barbie, and I pray that you will have the sense to get out of the way (if only for the sake of all those blond-haired, blue-eyed little children).
http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2009/dec/04/judge-challenged-in-trial-of-flds-members-motion/?print=1
It reported the "Barbie in Wonderland" proceedings in the courtroom. I never cease to be amazed at the skewed exercise of justice in Barbarous Wart-hog's court. Let's face it folks - she HATES the FLDS. She wants them imprisoned. She would do anything she could reasonably get away with to aid the prosecutors who are trying these cases. It is no different from the arbitrary, improvised system of justice inflicted on the Mormons in Missouri and Illinois in the 1840s.
If I were an FLDS member, I would be very heartened by yesterday's developments. Barbie's shameless distortion of proper procedures HAS to get her into hot water eventually. It is fascinating to watch a person so drunken with pride and hubris continue to believe that she is immune from accountability and comeuppance. Now that she has been challenged to recuse herself, maybe we have a chance to get these pleadings before a judge who understands the concept of judicial impartiality.
It has been ably noted elsewhere, but Rozita Swinton's misdemeanor trial (for making hoax phone calls) has been postponed to the point of absurdity and is now the oldest outstanding misdemeanor case in Texas. Clearly, Texas doesn't want to admit that THE RAID was a terrible mistake and that the evidence seizure was at least a stretch of Constitutional guidelines.
Why cannot these politicians prefer truth and honor over power and security? How can they sleep at night, knowing that they are exploiting a minority people for gain? No, the FLDS are not perfect, but their imperfections do not justify gross persecution. There is a joke that goes:
How can you tell when a politician is lying? - - - - When his lips are moving.
Obama exulted yesterday that he has achieved a major success, in that the nation's unemployment figures went from 10.2% last month to 10%. "Great news in time for the 'Season of Hope' " !!!!!!
Our buddy, Bill, revealed that, unlike Laura Bush, who had one personal assistant, Michelle Obama has 22 (at a cost of $1.5M per year). These people are crooks and embezzlers - Marxist oligarchs who arrogate titles of nobility to themselves. They should read the Bible to learn what happens to those who are "puffed up".
I actually feel like praying for Barbie - that she will come to a bright recognition of the cruelty of her ways, and experience an epiphany on the "road to Damascus". The freight train is coming down the tracks, Barbie, and I pray that you will have the sense to get out of the way (if only for the sake of all those blond-haired, blue-eyed little children).
Florida - First State to Decriminalize Polygamy
FLORIDA DECRIMINALIZES POLYGAMY A.G. Cites Tiger Woods Case
Everglades Free Press ©
Story by Reuben J. Clark - posted 05:30 a.m., Dec. 5, 2009
Florida Attorney General, Bill McCollum, announced late Friday that his office will no longer prosecute consenting adult polygamists. He also intends to ask the Florida legislature to pardon all incarcerated polygamists and support a bill formally decriminalizing polygamy in the State. McCollum cited last week's investigation into golfer Tiger Woods' bizarre automobile collision near his house. "Woods is a paragon of personal achievement and an asset to the State of Florida," McCollum said. "Florida has no business prosecuting famous people, even if they have four wives."
This announcement drew some swift criticism from several sides. Kim Leslie, spokesperson for the Florida Gay Lobby wondered aloud why it took McCollum six years to read the Supreme Court's explicit language in Lawrence v. Texas, which decriminalized not only homosexual sex acts, but also heterosexual sex between athletes and their girl-friends. "Perhaps now," Leslie said, "we can move quickly towards legalizing gay and polygamous marriages in our state."
On Wednesday, the Florida Highway Patrol announced in a brief press conference that it had issued a traffic citation to Woods for "reckless driving", but had declined to prosecute him under Florida's reckless copulation statute, since, as the department noted, "Everyone is doing it, and we lack the resources to prosecute and incarcerate half the population of Florida!"
Criticism came in from as far away as Utah. Rozita Jessop, of the Family Eradication Society complained that, while Woods clearly has four long-time partners, including wife, Elin Nordegren-Woods, Jaimee Grubb, Rachel Uchitel and new partner, Kalika Moquin, his polygamy is more acceptable to society than those relationships in Utah where the men feed and clothe the women and children and stay with them for life. "I don't care about the sex," Jessop insisted, "it's the religion in their heads. At least Tiger doesn't believe in Joseph Smith and Mormonism. After all," Jessop explained, "I have slept with many men. Deceit is no problem for me. What I can't stand is the commitment to religion and devotion to family."
McCollum's decision also drew praise from several renowned polygamists. Jesse Jackson invoked the memory of Martin Luther King, who had several women in a day when polygamists faced imprisonment if discovered. Former President, Bill Clinton, pointed out that his White House predecessor, John F. Kennedy, had faced extraordinary challenges keeping Marilyn Monroe secret from Jackie - "JFK was probably assassinated due to his polygamy. Tiger should watch his back. Monica Lewinsky was almost the death of me!"
Noted California polygamist, Hugh Hefner, chimed it with praise for McCollum and for Tiger Woods."I applaud Tiger." Hefner stated. "There was a day (pre-Loving v. Virginia) when he couldn't have married that Scandinavian girl. Now he can have Caucasian ladies like me, and he can afford to rotate them from time-to-time if they start hankering for too much money or attention."
Woods was unavailable for comment, but a source close to the family revealed that Woods has no intention of relocating his family to a remote community in West Texas or Northern Arizona. He wants some quiet time with his ladies to work out their differences and re-examine the family's budget. He thanks the Attorney General for his good sense and hopes that the A.G.s of other states like Texas, Utah and Arizona will also recognize that singling out families for prosecutions based solely on their lifestyle or religion constitutes impermissible targeting.
When contacted earlier today, South Carolina's Governor Mark Sanford praised McCollum's forthright actions and hopes that polygamy will soon be legalized in his state, where noted public officials often have plural partners (not unlike Montana's Democratic Senator, Max Baucus). Sanford admitted that, if he is impeached and removed from the governorship, he and his Argentine partner will move to South Africa and seek to unseat current President, Jacob Zuma, whose three wives are a "national treasure."
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Obama-Care for Kids
I watched the congressional antics last Saturday on C-SPAN. At stake was the proposed passage of the Obama/Reid/Pelosi Health Care Reform bill. Congressman John Boehner did a good job of highlighting the pernicious provisions of the latest version of the bill. The bill passed by two votes.
Today I stumbled across an August 2009 blogpost which discussed a provision in the health care bill that calls for "mandated reporters". These are people who would come to your home under government auspices and regularly check up on your young children. For more details, read -
http://cpscorruption.blogspot.com/2009/08/obamacare-send-in-social-workers.html
The blogger is obviously passionate about this topic - but SO AM I !!!
Here's the thing - our nation is utterly ruined. If a 22-year-old single woman with no kids can waltz into my home and pretty much decide (based on my attitude, or my religion, or my home-schooling, or my home-birthing, or my use of natural healing) that my kids are "at-risk" and probably need to be removed, then this Republic is cooked, and everything the Framers lived and died for is gone. IT IS JUST SIMPLY TOO MUCH UNFETTERED POWER!
Try having ONE of your kids taken (let alone 10!). You don't sleep. You can hardly work. Your stress level goes sky-high. You would honestly gladly agree to spend five years in prison rather than have the government permanently remove any of your kids. So therein lies the power. If Obama can hold the specter of the threat of removal of one of your kids over your head, then you are powerless. Your sense of powerlessness and frustration is 100%. No wonder they are also talking about doing away with the Second Amendment.
A good friend sent me a link to a video about the stunning extent of the corruption in our current government/banking machine. It tells the story infinitely more eloquently than I ever could.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VebOTc-7shU
Methinks they want even more than just our kids. I am reminded of the promise/threat given to Lehi 2600 years ago -
Today I stumbled across an August 2009 blogpost which discussed a provision in the health care bill that calls for "mandated reporters". These are people who would come to your home under government auspices and regularly check up on your young children. For more details, read -
http://cpscorruption.blogspot.com/2009/08/obamacare-send-in-social-workers.html
The blogger is obviously passionate about this topic - but SO AM I !!!
Here's the thing - our nation is utterly ruined. If a 22-year-old single woman with no kids can waltz into my home and pretty much decide (based on my attitude, or my religion, or my home-schooling, or my home-birthing, or my use of natural healing) that my kids are "at-risk" and probably need to be removed, then this Republic is cooked, and everything the Framers lived and died for is gone. IT IS JUST SIMPLY TOO MUCH UNFETTERED POWER!
Try having ONE of your kids taken (let alone 10!). You don't sleep. You can hardly work. Your stress level goes sky-high. You would honestly gladly agree to spend five years in prison rather than have the government permanently remove any of your kids. So therein lies the power. If Obama can hold the specter of the threat of removal of one of your kids over your head, then you are powerless. Your sense of powerlessness and frustration is 100%. No wonder they are also talking about doing away with the Second Amendment.
A good friend sent me a link to a video about the stunning extent of the corruption in our current government/banking machine. It tells the story infinitely more eloquently than I ever could.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VebOTc-7shU
Methinks they want even more than just our kids. I am reminded of the promise/threat given to Lehi 2600 years ago -
7 Wherefore, this land is consecrated unto him whom he shall bring. And if it so be that they shall serve him according to the commandments which he hath given, it shall be a land of liberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity; if so, it shall be because of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound cursed shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it shall be blessed forever.
9 Wherefore, I, Lehi, have obtained a promise, that inasmuch as those whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem shall keep his commandments, they shall prosper upon the face of this land; and they shall be kept from all other nations, that they may possess this land unto themselves. And if it so be that they shall keep his commandments they shall be blessed upon the face of this land, and there shall be none to molest them, nor to take away the land of their inheritance; and they shall dwell safely forever.
10 But behold, when the time cometh that they shall dwindle in unbelief, after they have received so great blessings from the hand of the Lord—having a knowledge of the creation of the earth, and all men, knowing the great and marvelous works of the Lord from the creation of the world; having power given them to do all things by faith; having all the commandments from the beginning, and having been brought by his infinite goodness into this precious land of promise—behold, I say, if the day shall come that they will reject the Holy One of Israel, the true Messiah, their Redeemer and their God, behold, the judgments of him that is just shall rest upon them.
11 Yea, he will bring other nations unto them, and he will give unto them power, and he will take away from them the lands of their possessions, and he will cause them to be scattered and smitten. (Book of Mormon - II Nephi 9)
THIS ALSO REMINDS ME OF GOD'S PROMISE/THREAT in Deuteronomy 28 - (take particular note of verse 41)
THIS ALSO REMINDS ME OF GOD'S PROMISE/THREAT in Deuteronomy 28 - (take particular note of verse 41)
1And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
2And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.
3Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.
4Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.
5Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.
6Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
7The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.
8The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
9The LORD shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways.
10And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee.
11And the LORD shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
12The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.
13And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:
14And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
15But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:
16Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.
17Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store.
18Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.
19Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
20The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.
21The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it.
22The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.
23And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.
24The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
25The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.
26And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.
27The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.
28The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:
29And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.
30Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.
31Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof: thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them.
32Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long; and there shall be no might in thine hand.
33The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway:
34So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
35The LORD shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.
36The LORD shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone.
37And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the LORD shall lead thee.
38Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it.
39Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them.
40Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit.
41Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity.
42All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume.
43The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low.
44He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.
45Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:
46And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.
47Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things;
48Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.
49The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;
50A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young:
51And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.
52And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.
53And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:
54So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave:
55So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.
56The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,
57And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.
58If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD;
59Then the LORD will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.
60Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee.
61Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the LORD bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
62And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the LORD thy God.
63And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.
64And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.
65And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:
66And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life:
67In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
68And the LORD shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.
I think verses 43 and 44 are referring to Bernanke . . . .
Monday, November 9, 2009
More Egg on its Face
Texas just got a whole lot more egg on its face!
I followed the pleadings today in the sentencing phase of Raymond Jessop's trial. Today, to the irritation of the prosecution and Barbarous Wartthug, a handful of defense witnesses came forward voluntarily to speak of their esteem for Raymond as a citizen and as a dad.
Texas has wasted some 20 to 30 million dollars on pursuing the residents of the YFZ ranch already. Today, we learned that Texas wasted (at least) an additional $44,000 dollars on this charlatan named Larceny Billall. Larry Billall testified during the trial that he was an EXPERT on the FLDS people. All this because, out of his some 5,500 clients, 20 were either FLDS or ex-FLDS. Of these twenty, fifteen were (Lost, now found) boys. That leaves five clients, of whom two or three are disaffected, angry, apostate ex-members with a grudge. How can this make him an expert? Larry Baal admitted his mistake of asserting that no in-depth psychological studies had been conducted in Fundamentalist Mormon families. He was admittedly oblivious to the monumental work done by Professor Irwin Altman. He conceded that he had actually gone out of his way to avoid examining any other authorities' work on the topic, expressly to enable him to keep his (highly anecdotal) opinions virgin and pure (peer review be damned!!).
Folks, does this smell funny to you? What the hell is Texas doing giving this hate-mongering goon over $44,000 (TO DATE !!!) to sashay onto the witness stand and spew a pack of worthless lies about people about whom he knows ABSOLUTELY NOTHING? I shall make a (partial) list of the names of the people I believe have a deep, unrestrained, insatiable thirst to "bring down" the FLDS religion and/or some or all of its members.
Flora Jessop,
Carolyn Jessop,
Bruce Wisan,
Laura DuPaix,
Brooks Long,
Angie Voss,
Marleigh Meisner,
Larry Beall,
Barbara Walther,
Denise Lindberg,
Sam Brower,
Dan Fischer,
Laura Chapman,
K. Dee Ignatin,
Nancy Mereska,
Natalie Malonis,
Brent Jeffs,
Elissa Wall,
Harvey Hilderbran,
Roger Hoole,
Andrea Moore Emmett,
Deborah Brown,
Doris Hansen,
Shirley Davis,
Becky Musser,
Sarah Hammon,
Randy & Kathy Mankin,
Lucifer
Why, you ask, would I mention these names? Well, it's because I think that all of these people have caught the same spirit. What spirit? The spirit of malice towards a largely nameless, faceless community of believers. It would seem that each one has almost made it his or her life's mission to exact a pound of flesh. I bet if you sat some of these activists down and inquired, "What is your beef against the FLDS; and why are you so driven to get back at them?", you would get a variety of answers - including some of the following:
"I don't really know, but I can't stop myself"
"I like to go on the Larry King Show"
"I needed to demonize someone publicly so that I could sell my book (- /story - /testimony - /soul)"
"It restores meaning to my otherwise empty life"
"They are all child-molesters and perverts"
"They worship Warren Jeffs"
"They are uneducated"
"The women are Zombies"
"Their religion doesn't belong in a socialist country like America"
"I hate their hair and fashion styles"
"They have no business pooling their resources for the good of the whole community"
"They are too powerful"
"They have too many children"
"They don't like black people - like Rozita Swinton"
"They took away my free agency"
"They expect their teens to be too well-behaved"
"They won't embrace our decadent modern society"
"They believe in polygamy like people in Bible times"
"Willie is a thug"
"Willie looked at me with a dangerous face"
"I need some of their land for my family"
I shall finish this post with the text of the prayer I shall offer tonight on the eve of Raymond Jessop's sentencing:
Dear Heavenly Father,
Please forgive me for my weaknesses and impatience (and dry wit). Please bless me to be as faithful to my religion as the FLDS are to theirs. Please bless our country at this time when the Constitution hangs by a thread (and Barack Hussein Obama is fixin' to snip it). Please bless all the FLDS defendants who are being accused of pedophilia and sexual molestation for simply marrying as did 99% of our pioneer ancestors. Bless the government to have a teensy-weensy little bit of forgiveness, since all the Fundamentalist Mormon communities have now pledged to refrain from all marriage age violations (even though the statutes keep changing for political reasons).
Please bless Raymond's family-members (and all his children, too). Bless the jury to not be infected by the bitter acrimony of the anti-polygamy crusaders. Bless them to see Raymond for the honorable father he is, and to see that his religion was his reason for structuring his family in the way he did, and that his loyalty to his imprisoned prophet is a sound assurance that he will not fall afoul of the law again. Prompt the hearts and minds of the sincere jurors to sentence him to probation, so that no more children will have to be wrenched from their father. Bless all those who war against the FLDS; soften their hearts so that there can be peace and no more hostility.
Last of all, please inspire the Texas Appeals Courts to be as wise and courageous as they were last year, and overturn the epic travesty which was the unlawful search of the YFZ Ranch.
In the name of Jesus Christ,
Amen
I followed the pleadings today in the sentencing phase of Raymond Jessop's trial. Today, to the irritation of the prosecution and Barbarous Wartthug, a handful of defense witnesses came forward voluntarily to speak of their esteem for Raymond as a citizen and as a dad.
Texas has wasted some 20 to 30 million dollars on pursuing the residents of the YFZ ranch already. Today, we learned that Texas wasted (at least) an additional $44,000 dollars on this charlatan named Larceny Billall. Larry Billall testified during the trial that he was an EXPERT on the FLDS people. All this because, out of his some 5,500 clients, 20 were either FLDS or ex-FLDS. Of these twenty, fifteen were (Lost, now found) boys. That leaves five clients, of whom two or three are disaffected, angry, apostate ex-members with a grudge. How can this make him an expert? Larry Baal admitted his mistake of asserting that no in-depth psychological studies had been conducted in Fundamentalist Mormon families. He was admittedly oblivious to the monumental work done by Professor Irwin Altman. He conceded that he had actually gone out of his way to avoid examining any other authorities' work on the topic, expressly to enable him to keep his (highly anecdotal) opinions virgin and pure (peer review be damned!!).
Folks, does this smell funny to you? What the hell is Texas doing giving this hate-mongering goon over $44,000 (TO DATE !!!) to sashay onto the witness stand and spew a pack of worthless lies about people about whom he knows ABSOLUTELY NOTHING? I shall make a (partial) list of the names of the people I believe have a deep, unrestrained, insatiable thirst to "bring down" the FLDS religion and/or some or all of its members.
Flora Jessop,
Carolyn Jessop,
Bruce Wisan,
Laura DuPaix,
Brooks Long,
Angie Voss,
Marleigh Meisner,
Larry Beall,
Barbara Walther,
Denise Lindberg,
Sam Brower,
Dan Fischer,
Laura Chapman,
K. Dee Ignatin,
Nancy Mereska,
Natalie Malonis,
Brent Jeffs,
Elissa Wall,
Harvey Hilderbran,
Roger Hoole,
Andrea Moore Emmett,
Deborah Brown,
Doris Hansen,
Shirley Davis,
Becky Musser,
Sarah Hammon,
Randy & Kathy Mankin,
Lucifer
Why, you ask, would I mention these names? Well, it's because I think that all of these people have caught the same spirit. What spirit? The spirit of malice towards a largely nameless, faceless community of believers. It would seem that each one has almost made it his or her life's mission to exact a pound of flesh. I bet if you sat some of these activists down and inquired, "What is your beef against the FLDS; and why are you so driven to get back at them?", you would get a variety of answers - including some of the following:
"I don't really know, but I can't stop myself"
"I like to go on the Larry King Show"
"I needed to demonize someone publicly so that I could sell my book (- /story - /testimony - /soul)"
"It restores meaning to my otherwise empty life"
"They are all child-molesters and perverts"
"They worship Warren Jeffs"
"They are uneducated"
"The women are Zombies"
"Their religion doesn't belong in a socialist country like America"
"I hate their hair and fashion styles"
"They have no business pooling their resources for the good of the whole community"
"They are too powerful"
"They have too many children"
"They don't like black people - like Rozita Swinton"
"They took away my free agency"
"They expect their teens to be too well-behaved"
"They won't embrace our decadent modern society"
"They believe in polygamy like people in Bible times"
"Willie is a thug"
"Willie looked at me with a dangerous face"
"I need some of their land for my family"
I shall finish this post with the text of the prayer I shall offer tonight on the eve of Raymond Jessop's sentencing:
Dear Heavenly Father,
Please forgive me for my weaknesses and impatience (and dry wit). Please bless me to be as faithful to my religion as the FLDS are to theirs. Please bless our country at this time when the Constitution hangs by a thread (and Barack Hussein Obama is fixin' to snip it). Please bless all the FLDS defendants who are being accused of pedophilia and sexual molestation for simply marrying as did 99% of our pioneer ancestors. Bless the government to have a teensy-weensy little bit of forgiveness, since all the Fundamentalist Mormon communities have now pledged to refrain from all marriage age violations (even though the statutes keep changing for political reasons).
Please bless Raymond's family-members (and all his children, too). Bless the jury to not be infected by the bitter acrimony of the anti-polygamy crusaders. Bless them to see Raymond for the honorable father he is, and to see that his religion was his reason for structuring his family in the way he did, and that his loyalty to his imprisoned prophet is a sound assurance that he will not fall afoul of the law again. Prompt the hearts and minds of the sincere jurors to sentence him to probation, so that no more children will have to be wrenched from their father. Bless all those who war against the FLDS; soften their hearts so that there can be peace and no more hostility.
Last of all, please inspire the Texas Appeals Courts to be as wise and courageous as they were last year, and overturn the epic travesty which was the unlawful search of the YFZ Ranch.
In the name of Jesus Christ,
Amen
Friday, November 6, 2009
Frontier Justice - Mob Jubilation
I know some people who went to the Raymond Jessop trial this week. I really would have given a small limb or at least a tooth to have been there. Barbarous Wartthug must be salivating over the opportunity to get some revenge on those filthy polygs who embarrassed her. I know she must be equally steamed over the fact that, now that there has been a conviction, the illegally-obtained evidence can be impeached or challenged or suppressed (or whatever the legal term is).
I understand that, when the jury (guilty) verdict was read, one of the honorable Texas Rangers inside the courtroom radioed his Ranger buddies standing outside. Their celebratory hootin' and hollerin' was so loud that it could be heard by those inside the courtroom. Now that's decorum!
Apparently, a conviction was the inevitable conclusion of this trial/lynching. Barbie coached the prosecutors and denied the defense's legitimate objections. Rather than beat this topic to death, I shall just make two more points - one dealing with human compassion - the other dealing with the law.
-----------------------
1. I have observed these polygamy witch hunts over the last several years, and I have observed the following:
Tom Green married a 13.5 year old and did five years. The girl faithfully waited for Tom.
Rodney Holm married a 16 year old and did seven months with work release.
The guy who raped Heidi Mattingly's 13-year-old daughter while she was in forced foster care did a few months of prison time.
The Colorado City "Eight", who faced trials in Kingman before Judge Steven Conn, did a few weeks or months of prison time for marrying 16- and 17-year-olds.
Raymond Jessop's sentencing phase is underway and continues next week. The prosecution is rounding up disaffected apostates to plead against leniency. "String him up!", "Throw away the key!" This filthy, disgusting, warped, perverted, lecherous, polygamist pedophile had the nerve to MARRY A 16-YEAR-OLD !!!!!!!!!!!!! My heavens - why don't we just slit his throat? His wives and children don't need him. The least we can do is put him in prison for 20 years! Barbie can smell blood in the water. Let's put this guy away for the rest of his life so that we can set a precedent and send a message, and let's do this again and again until we put the other eleven guys away for 20 years, too. This is not Eldorado, Texas - this is Carthage, Illinois! Cut off his head! Kill the beast!
The other key point to remember is that Jessop's and the other defendants' marriages were sanctioned by their prophet. Now that the church's leader has long-since forbidden any future underage marriages, I am supremely confident that NONE will occur. So what message does the jury need to send? - "Don't marry any more minors"?! Any prison time at this point is would be malicious and spiteful and (as another esteemed blogger has pointed out) a hypocritical denunciation of the great Bible patriarchs whom God loved and endorsed as paragons of virtue and integrity.
2. The crime with which Raymond was charged was alleged to have occurred in November of 2004. If Texas truly had jurisdiction, and the crime could be shown to have occurred in Eldorado, then Texas's laws regarding age of consent (in 2004) would govern. In 2004, the age of consent was 14. The law was changed to reflect a higher age of consent (17) in September of 2005. So here's your homework assignment, kiddies - help me to figure out how Raymond Jessop can have been found to have been guilty of unlawful sexual assault, by an ex post facto law enacted after the date of the alleged crime.
-------------------------
I'm no lawyer, so don't let me get carried away here, but it seems to me that something is rotten in Denmark.
The Texas Court of Appeals and the Texas Supreme Court are likely to have fun with this one. I'm sure that Barbie and her SturmTruppen are as proud as peacocks to have the taste of revenge. So, if they ever read this blog, my message to them comes from Proverbs 16:18 -
"Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."
Renn
I understand that, when the jury (guilty) verdict was read, one of the honorable Texas Rangers inside the courtroom radioed his Ranger buddies standing outside. Their celebratory hootin' and hollerin' was so loud that it could be heard by those inside the courtroom. Now that's decorum!
Apparently, a conviction was the inevitable conclusion of this trial/lynching. Barbie coached the prosecutors and denied the defense's legitimate objections. Rather than beat this topic to death, I shall just make two more points - one dealing with human compassion - the other dealing with the law.
-----------------------
1. I have observed these polygamy witch hunts over the last several years, and I have observed the following:
Tom Green married a 13.5 year old and did five years. The girl faithfully waited for Tom.
Rodney Holm married a 16 year old and did seven months with work release.
The guy who raped Heidi Mattingly's 13-year-old daughter while she was in forced foster care did a few months of prison time.
The Colorado City "Eight", who faced trials in Kingman before Judge Steven Conn, did a few weeks or months of prison time for marrying 16- and 17-year-olds.
Raymond Jessop's sentencing phase is underway and continues next week. The prosecution is rounding up disaffected apostates to plead against leniency. "String him up!", "Throw away the key!" This filthy, disgusting, warped, perverted, lecherous, polygamist pedophile had the nerve to MARRY A 16-YEAR-OLD !!!!!!!!!!!!! My heavens - why don't we just slit his throat? His wives and children don't need him. The least we can do is put him in prison for 20 years! Barbie can smell blood in the water. Let's put this guy away for the rest of his life so that we can set a precedent and send a message, and let's do this again and again until we put the other eleven guys away for 20 years, too. This is not Eldorado, Texas - this is Carthage, Illinois! Cut off his head! Kill the beast!
The other key point to remember is that Jessop's and the other defendants' marriages were sanctioned by their prophet. Now that the church's leader has long-since forbidden any future underage marriages, I am supremely confident that NONE will occur. So what message does the jury need to send? - "Don't marry any more minors"?! Any prison time at this point is would be malicious and spiteful and (as another esteemed blogger has pointed out) a hypocritical denunciation of the great Bible patriarchs whom God loved and endorsed as paragons of virtue and integrity.
2. The crime with which Raymond was charged was alleged to have occurred in November of 2004. If Texas truly had jurisdiction, and the crime could be shown to have occurred in Eldorado, then Texas's laws regarding age of consent (in 2004) would govern. In 2004, the age of consent was 14. The law was changed to reflect a higher age of consent (17) in September of 2005. So here's your homework assignment, kiddies - help me to figure out how Raymond Jessop can have been found to have been guilty of unlawful sexual assault, by an ex post facto law enacted after the date of the alleged crime.
-------------------------
I'm no lawyer, so don't let me get carried away here, but it seems to me that something is rotten in Denmark.
The Texas Court of Appeals and the Texas Supreme Court are likely to have fun with this one. I'm sure that Barbie and her SturmTruppen are as proud as peacocks to have the taste of revenge. So, if they ever read this blog, my message to them comes from Proverbs 16:18 -
"Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."
Renn
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Supreme Questions
A friend of mine attended the Utah Supreme Court appeal hearing yesterday regarding Warren Jeffs' rape-as-an-accomplice conviction. Apparently, Wally Bugden made some compelling arguments against the legitimacy of the charges and convictions. Before I elucidate, I want to make a comment about our sense of justice in America.
I don't really like Shaquille O'Neal. I don't know him at all, although I saw him in a bad movie once. Truth is - I dislike him because he never played for my favorite team. I think that a lot of Americans can build up a similar, simmering hatred for people on the opposing team, or for people who are different. I think that we Americans like to be polarized, and to see things as black-or-white. There is no gray. It is this social phenomenon that makes it easier for us to throw our consciences out of the window and let the end justify the means. We violate our own principles due to our desperate need for victory. It is the necessary drawback of the Jeffersonian polemic model.
Tom Green's unlawful-sex-with-a-minor trial was a media circus. His "wife", Linda (of 17 years), had borne him seven children, and is presumably happily still with him to this day. The complexity of Tom's case was that Linda was "married" to him and impregnated with her first child when she was 13 1/2 years old. Now, back then (circa 1986), marriage in several states was perfectly tolerated at 13, so the question of propriety depends on how you view things and on local history and traditions.
The prosecutors (David Leavitt and Monte Stewart) faced the challenge that so many years had passed since the time of the alleged offense that the statute of limitations had already run. In 1986, the statute was 'eight years from the date of the offense'. At the time of the trial the statute had already been changed to 'four years from the date the offense was reported to law enforcement'. Neither provision could catch Tom, but, since the prosecution was hell-bent on a conviction, it brought in a string of witnesses to testify that they "didn't report the crime" (so that Tom couldn't claim that the statute of limitations clock had already started to run in 1986). The judge cooperated, and, through an amazingly creative contortion of the statutes, Tom was convicted and incarcerated. Today, he his back with his family, even perhaps continuing to do some of the things that got him arrested in the first place. So why won't the prosecutors arrest him again? You already know the answer - POLITICS.
So Wally Bugden argued yesterday that Warren Jeffs was charged with the wrong crime. Instead of arresting him for solemnizing the (void) marriage of a minor to a young man, they arrested him for aiding and abetting a rapist and for abusing his special position of trust as a minister. Bugden made the interesting point that the prosecution had completely omitted at trial to introduce any evidence that Jeffs had coaxed Allen Steed to have non-consensual sex with Elissa Wall. He only encouraged the alleged "victim" to follow through consensually with her marital duties. Based on this, Jeffs cannot be charged either as the rape's actor or as the aider and abettor. Further, Bugden argued that, since no rape conviction was achieved for Steed, the presumed 'rapist', it is absurd to convict Jeffs for having been an accomplice to a rape that has not legally been shown to have occurred.
Now, if it is true that Elissa was coerced against her will at the tender age of fourteen into a monogamous (and non-legal) "marriage" with a young man she did not love, then that is sad. Whoever did the coercing should acknowledge his or her error and make amends. This is one of the many accusations leveled at Warren Jeffs. Bugden apparently also asked if Elissa's family was not eminently more implicated in choreographing the wedding - and why are they not in prison instead?
My point is this - Utah politicians have made great publicity out of demonizing Warren Jeffs and painting him as a perverse, megalomaniacal despot. This was enough to get him on the FBI's 10-most-wanted list. Mormon politicians = good; Polygamists = evil. I wonder if it is that simple. Even if Warren Jeffs is different or eccentric, or even an iron-fisted leader, why does that excuse society in locking him in the stocks and throwing rotten vegetables at him for days? Why is it okay to charge him with a laundry-list of crimes that do not fit his actions? Is he so vile that we must throw truth and justice to the wind and punish him by any means available to us?
I believe that the State's attorneys don't care. I believe that they hate the FLDS and Warren Jeffs so much, that they don't care about following the spirit of the Constitution and good laws. They just want to "get them" at all costs. Why else would they try to get Texas to change its laws just so that it could ensnare the residents of the YFZ Ranch? Why else would they side with the angry enemies of the FLDS and condone Wisan and Lindberg's shameless plundering of the UEP? Maybe we all sleep easily because a reportedly evil man was crucified or tarred and feathered. That is not justice - it is brutality.
Addam Swapp blew up an LDS chapel in 1987. 22 years later, he still sits in a prison with no hope of a parole date. Ironic, wouldn't you say, when the average murderer serves nine years? This all stems from Utah's intense animus against Fundamentalist Mormons and polygamists. Why does the legal system tolerate such barbarism? You already know the answer - POLITICS. I am reminded of the state-sponsored raids and massacres of the early Mormons.
In yesterday's hearing, Chief Justice Christine Durham asked deputy A.G. Laura DuPaix if a Baptist minister should be incarcerated for counseling a member of his congregation to stay with her husband after complaining that she doesn't love or desire him anymore. Bugden wondered if parents who take their 15-year-old daughter in for contraceptives should not also be prosecuted for aiding and abetting non-consensual sex for a minor who legally cannot consent to it.
I pray that the Utah Supremes will see the State's naked malice and bad faith inherent in the Jeffs prosecutions and overturn them. If he really did commit a crime, then charge him with the crimes he truly committed - not some craftily twisted contortion of a wildly inapplicable statute because you hate him. This nation is fixing to undergo a dramatic metamorphosis (see Isaiah's "marvelous work and a wonder"), and such heavy-handed abuses of power might just bite some of the rest of us if we don't look out.
I am sickened when I think back to the remarks of Justice Nehring when he concurred in the Rodney Holm decision. In one of the most pathetic, milque-toast utterances I have ever read, he wrote:
I also suspect that I have not been alone in speculating what the consequences might be, were the highest court in the State of Utah the first in the nation to proclaim that polygamy enjoys constitutional protection. . . . . .
It would be a violation of my oath of office to permit my apprehensions about the public reaction to any ruling of this court to participate in my decision-making effort or to influence in any way my vote on a case. Moreover, I do not intend to suggest that the majority opinion is in any way shaped by fears of a public backlash against sanctioning polygamy.
If this kind of waffling is indicative of how Nehring will rule in Jeffs' case, I fear the worst. I fear also that, if Warren is forced to take his case to the next higher Court, it won't be around by the time he gets there.
I don't really like Shaquille O'Neal. I don't know him at all, although I saw him in a bad movie once. Truth is - I dislike him because he never played for my favorite team. I think that a lot of Americans can build up a similar, simmering hatred for people on the opposing team, or for people who are different. I think that we Americans like to be polarized, and to see things as black-or-white. There is no gray. It is this social phenomenon that makes it easier for us to throw our consciences out of the window and let the end justify the means. We violate our own principles due to our desperate need for victory. It is the necessary drawback of the Jeffersonian polemic model.
Tom Green's unlawful-sex-with-a-minor trial was a media circus. His "wife", Linda (of 17 years), had borne him seven children, and is presumably happily still with him to this day. The complexity of Tom's case was that Linda was "married" to him and impregnated with her first child when she was 13 1/2 years old. Now, back then (circa 1986), marriage in several states was perfectly tolerated at 13, so the question of propriety depends on how you view things and on local history and traditions.
The prosecutors (David Leavitt and Monte Stewart) faced the challenge that so many years had passed since the time of the alleged offense that the statute of limitations had already run. In 1986, the statute was 'eight years from the date of the offense'. At the time of the trial the statute had already been changed to 'four years from the date the offense was reported to law enforcement'. Neither provision could catch Tom, but, since the prosecution was hell-bent on a conviction, it brought in a string of witnesses to testify that they "didn't report the crime" (so that Tom couldn't claim that the statute of limitations clock had already started to run in 1986). The judge cooperated, and, through an amazingly creative contortion of the statutes, Tom was convicted and incarcerated. Today, he his back with his family, even perhaps continuing to do some of the things that got him arrested in the first place. So why won't the prosecutors arrest him again? You already know the answer - POLITICS.
So Wally Bugden argued yesterday that Warren Jeffs was charged with the wrong crime. Instead of arresting him for solemnizing the (void) marriage of a minor to a young man, they arrested him for aiding and abetting a rapist and for abusing his special position of trust as a minister. Bugden made the interesting point that the prosecution had completely omitted at trial to introduce any evidence that Jeffs had coaxed Allen Steed to have non-consensual sex with Elissa Wall. He only encouraged the alleged "victim" to follow through consensually with her marital duties. Based on this, Jeffs cannot be charged either as the rape's actor or as the aider and abettor. Further, Bugden argued that, since no rape conviction was achieved for Steed, the presumed 'rapist', it is absurd to convict Jeffs for having been an accomplice to a rape that has not legally been shown to have occurred.
Now, if it is true that Elissa was coerced against her will at the tender age of fourteen into a monogamous (and non-legal) "marriage" with a young man she did not love, then that is sad. Whoever did the coercing should acknowledge his or her error and make amends. This is one of the many accusations leveled at Warren Jeffs. Bugden apparently also asked if Elissa's family was not eminently more implicated in choreographing the wedding - and why are they not in prison instead?
My point is this - Utah politicians have made great publicity out of demonizing Warren Jeffs and painting him as a perverse, megalomaniacal despot. This was enough to get him on the FBI's 10-most-wanted list. Mormon politicians = good; Polygamists = evil. I wonder if it is that simple. Even if Warren Jeffs is different or eccentric, or even an iron-fisted leader, why does that excuse society in locking him in the stocks and throwing rotten vegetables at him for days? Why is it okay to charge him with a laundry-list of crimes that do not fit his actions? Is he so vile that we must throw truth and justice to the wind and punish him by any means available to us?
I believe that the State's attorneys don't care. I believe that they hate the FLDS and Warren Jeffs so much, that they don't care about following the spirit of the Constitution and good laws. They just want to "get them" at all costs. Why else would they try to get Texas to change its laws just so that it could ensnare the residents of the YFZ Ranch? Why else would they side with the angry enemies of the FLDS and condone Wisan and Lindberg's shameless plundering of the UEP? Maybe we all sleep easily because a reportedly evil man was crucified or tarred and feathered. That is not justice - it is brutality.Addam Swapp blew up an LDS chapel in 1987. 22 years later, he still sits in a prison with no hope of a parole date. Ironic, wouldn't you say, when the average murderer serves nine years? This all stems from Utah's intense animus against Fundamentalist Mormons and polygamists. Why does the legal system tolerate such barbarism? You already know the answer - POLITICS. I am reminded of the state-sponsored raids and massacres of the early Mormons.
In yesterday's hearing, Chief Justice Christine Durham asked deputy A.G. Laura DuPaix if a Baptist minister should be incarcerated for counseling a member of his congregation to stay with her husband after complaining that she doesn't love or desire him anymore. Bugden wondered if parents who take their 15-year-old daughter in for contraceptives should not also be prosecuted for aiding and abetting non-consensual sex for a minor who legally cannot consent to it.
I pray that the Utah Supremes will see the State's naked malice and bad faith inherent in the Jeffs prosecutions and overturn them. If he really did commit a crime, then charge him with the crimes he truly committed - not some craftily twisted contortion of a wildly inapplicable statute because you hate him. This nation is fixing to undergo a dramatic metamorphosis (see Isaiah's "marvelous work and a wonder"), and such heavy-handed abuses of power might just bite some of the rest of us if we don't look out.
I am sickened when I think back to the remarks of Justice Nehring when he concurred in the Rodney Holm decision. In one of the most pathetic, milque-toast utterances I have ever read, he wrote:
I also suspect that I have not been alone in speculating what the consequences might be, were the highest court in the State of Utah the first in the nation to proclaim that polygamy enjoys constitutional protection. . . . . .
It would be a violation of my oath of office to permit my apprehensions about the public reaction to any ruling of this court to participate in my decision-making effort or to influence in any way my vote on a case. Moreover, I do not intend to suggest that the majority opinion is in any way shaped by fears of a public backlash against sanctioning polygamy.
If this kind of waffling is indicative of how Nehring will rule in Jeffs' case, I fear the worst. I fear also that, if Warren is forced to take his case to the next higher Court, it won't be around by the time he gets there.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Barbie Gets Her Way (Part Three)
Okay, I know I'm belaboring this topic, but it keeps growing wings.
I talked to an attorney today who is very familiar with the FLDS legal cases. The attorney told me that the reason that the Texas appellate court has not yet reviewed the FLDS's motion to suppress the (obviously illegally-obtained) evidence from the April 2008 raid is that someone has to be convicted first before the issue can be reviewed. What will they think of next ??? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Am I the only one who finds this constitutionally questionable? If Raymond Jessop gets convicted (which, at the rate things are going, might take 18 months), then the appeals court can finally review the evidence suppression motion. If Jessop is acquitted (for lack of jurisdiction, evidence, witnesses, etc.), then the FLDS must wait again for an opportunity for vindication, and must almost pray for a conviction if they ever hope to obtain justice and a reversal (!?!?!?!?!?!?!). Why should so many people be subjected to trials before a flagrant error can be corrected?
One can almost envision a string of nine or ten belabored trials with hate-mongers like K.D. Ignatin and Sam Brower slinking around the courthouse grounds with irrelevant placards trumpeting "Polygamy Equals Abuse", and reporters from all over the globe craning for a spicy story. What is driving this crusade? - a lust to confiscate highly-adoptable, cute white kids? Barbarous Warthug craving revenge for the shaming? Bigotry against a poorly understood minority, Demonic possession? Carolyn Jessop? Intestinal Flora? Beats me.
Doesn't Schleicher County have something better to do with the few dollars it has left?
I talked to an attorney today who is very familiar with the FLDS legal cases. The attorney told me that the reason that the Texas appellate court has not yet reviewed the FLDS's motion to suppress the (obviously illegally-obtained) evidence from the April 2008 raid is that someone has to be convicted first before the issue can be reviewed. What will they think of next ??? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Am I the only one who finds this constitutionally questionable? If Raymond Jessop gets convicted (which, at the rate things are going, might take 18 months), then the appeals court can finally review the evidence suppression motion. If Jessop is acquitted (for lack of jurisdiction, evidence, witnesses, etc.), then the FLDS must wait again for an opportunity for vindication, and must almost pray for a conviction if they ever hope to obtain justice and a reversal (!?!?!?!?!?!?!). Why should so many people be subjected to trials before a flagrant error can be corrected?
One can almost envision a string of nine or ten belabored trials with hate-mongers like K.D. Ignatin and Sam Brower slinking around the courthouse grounds with irrelevant placards trumpeting "Polygamy Equals Abuse", and reporters from all over the globe craning for a spicy story. What is driving this crusade? - a lust to confiscate highly-adoptable, cute white kids? Barbarous Warthug craving revenge for the shaming? Bigotry against a poorly understood minority, Demonic possession? Carolyn Jessop? Intestinal Flora? Beats me.
Doesn't Schleicher County have something better to do with the few dollars it has left?
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Barbie Gets Her Way (Part Two)
This is just a follow up to my last post, because I thought of one more thing to point out.
I find it fascinating that prosecutors in Raymond Jessop's case decided to separate the sexual-assault-of-a-16-year-old charge and trial from the bigamy charge and trial. Obviously, it would be rather difficult, in the same trial, to argue both that Jessop and the girl were absolutely NOT married, and also that they absolutely WERE married. It's easier not to sound like a fool when you tell conflicting stories several weeks apart.
What I find even more compelling is the fact that, as a result of this decision on the part of the prosecutor, Jessop will be tried distinctly for the crime of polyga-bigamy, a crime which I have insisted (ad nauseam) is no longer prosecutable in a post-Lawrence era. Schleicher County and Her Noble Holy-Highness, Barbarous Walthug, should expect a vigorous challenge, especially now that the poor guy has been effectually "harmed".
What I also don't get is why the Texas appeals court isn't already racing to review the protested, ostensibly illegal search and seizure of evidence on which all of these scheduled trials are disingenuously based. What will Barbie do if, after three or four trials (and maybe a conviction or two) the appeals court comes back and once again reminds her that she egregiously overstepped her judicial province and trampled on huge sections of the Constitution? It will all have to be unwound, and Texas will have yet more egg on its Yellow Rosy face.
Maybe today's abrupt adjournment was less about a juror's child with swine flu (can you say "Alternate"?) than it was a tactical maneuver in light of a woefully weak case.
They say some criminals are boneheads and do boneheaded things. What conduct of Texas in this affair has not been boneheaded?
Maybe the Pat Robertsons of the world were not wrong when they said that our nation's escalating misdeeds are sufficient to incur the wrath of a just God. The private central banks have looted 24 trillion dollars out of the America's treasury in the last twelve months. Saudi Arabia, Japan and China are each holding at least a trillion of our Federal Reserve Note "dollars", and the recent 25% decline in the dollar's value will inevitably induce them to "dump" their dollars - most likely all on the same day. If that happens, our economy will take a cataclysmic nose-dive. Folks, there's only about three days worth of food in the grocery stores. When you get REALLY hungry, on whose side will you be?
Go Tito !
I find it fascinating that prosecutors in Raymond Jessop's case decided to separate the sexual-assault-of-a-16-year-old charge and trial from the bigamy charge and trial. Obviously, it would be rather difficult, in the same trial, to argue both that Jessop and the girl were absolutely NOT married, and also that they absolutely WERE married. It's easier not to sound like a fool when you tell conflicting stories several weeks apart.
What I find even more compelling is the fact that, as a result of this decision on the part of the prosecutor, Jessop will be tried distinctly for the crime of polyga-bigamy, a crime which I have insisted (ad nauseam) is no longer prosecutable in a post-Lawrence era. Schleicher County and Her Noble Holy-Highness, Barbarous Walthug, should expect a vigorous challenge, especially now that the poor guy has been effectually "harmed".
What I also don't get is why the Texas appeals court isn't already racing to review the protested, ostensibly illegal search and seizure of evidence on which all of these scheduled trials are disingenuously based. What will Barbie do if, after three or four trials (and maybe a conviction or two) the appeals court comes back and once again reminds her that she egregiously overstepped her judicial province and trampled on huge sections of the Constitution? It will all have to be unwound, and Texas will have yet more egg on its Yellow Rosy face.
Maybe today's abrupt adjournment was less about a juror's child with swine flu (can you say "Alternate"?) than it was a tactical maneuver in light of a woefully weak case.
They say some criminals are boneheads and do boneheaded things. What conduct of Texas in this affair has not been boneheaded?
Maybe the Pat Robertsons of the world were not wrong when they said that our nation's escalating misdeeds are sufficient to incur the wrath of a just God. The private central banks have looted 24 trillion dollars out of the America's treasury in the last twelve months. Saudi Arabia, Japan and China are each holding at least a trillion of our Federal Reserve Note "dollars", and the recent 25% decline in the dollar's value will inevitably induce them to "dump" their dollars - most likely all on the same day. If that happens, our economy will take a cataclysmic nose-dive. Folks, there's only about three days worth of food in the grocery stores. When you get REALLY hungry, on whose side will you be?
Go Tito !
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Barbie Gets Her Way
Today the trial began for Raymond Jessop. He is charged with bigamy and sexual assault of a 16-year old (his wife of now five years). I want to go out on a philosophical limb, so I'll understand if some of you more vehement detractors want to excoriate me, but hear me out, and see if I make any sense.
I personally have not married any minors, and I think that most American girls are poorly equipped for the rigors of marriage - let alone plural marriage - at the tender age of 18. I shall invite my teenage daughters to choose carefully and seek inspiration when it comes to choosing a spouse. I have a friend who lives in the Czech Republic - a western European country of mostly Caucasian Christians. He laughs at American hypocrisy. In the Czech Republic, if a man has sex with a girl under 15, he will go to prison. After 15, there are no constraints.
I Googled the U.S. state ages of consent and found the following:
In 2005, Texas' legal marriage consent age was 14. Mark Shurtleff went to Texas and, with Harvey Hilderbran's help, he persuaded the Texas legislature to raise the age of consent (for sex) to 17. What else could Shurtleff have been doing other than trying to ensnare the FLDS people, since he knew that they had a tradition of sometimes marrying earlier than the rest of society?
Could someone help me to understand why today's promiscuous society feels that it has somehow sanitized itself by viewing young marriages as rape, sexual assault and pedophilia, and raising the age of a licensed marriage? The U.S. has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world, and Texas has the highest teen birthrate in the nation (with 24% of those births being a second pregnancy).
My point is this - a significant number of U.S. states are happy to allow not only marriages for 16-year-olds, but also unmarried sex at 16. Since Raymond Jessop is not legally married to the girl in question, his alleged crime is sexual assault. But what if the marriage (and conception) occurred in a venue other than Texas? And what if it occurred when Texas' age of consent was 14?
Again, I am no fan of "arranged" marriages, and I don't encourage marriages with minors, but most Bible scholars will assert that Jesus was born to Mary when she was 15 or younger. Would that make our Heavenly Father a child-molester? Most of this marriage-age stuff is based on time-honored, cultural and religious traditions, and state interference in marriage age patterns is a relatively modern innovation, fraught with political implications and posturing.
I think that this series of scheduled bigamy/sexual assault trials is a naked and inexcusable attack on the people of the FLDS Church. I would not be surprised if it were driven by a need for retaliation for the horrible embarrassment suffered by Texas CPS as a result of the shameless raid and kidnappings of April, 2008.
It was not long ago that attorney Rodney Parker argued in behalf of Rodney Holm that his informal marriage to (16-year-old) Ruth Stubbs should have been considered just as legally permissible and binding as if it had been legally licensed. The court disagreed. Later, however, in the Utah Supreme court hearing of Holm's appeal, deputy attorney general Laura DuPaix argued passionately to Chief Justice Durham that the union between Holm and Stubbs absolutely WAS A MARRIAGE !!! (in order to preserve the "bigamy" conviction).
Here's the paradoxical hypocrisy of this situation - the State adamantly argues that the relationship is not a bona fide marriage, so that it can advance the assertion that the crime of "unlawful sex with a minor" was committed. Then, a few minutes or days later, the State fervently argues that the relationship absolutely IS A MARRIAGE, so that it can charge the defendant with having committed the crime of bigamy (getting two or more marriages). Try using that kind of twisted, contradictory logic in an argument with a teenager and see how far you get !!! The State (Utah AND Texas) wants to have its cake and eat it, too.
If you are not convinced that this is a usurpation of the justice system, then you are as wicked and inebriated with your own hubris as is Barbie.
My sincerest prayers go with Raymond and his family(ies).
Renn
I personally have not married any minors, and I think that most American girls are poorly equipped for the rigors of marriage - let alone plural marriage - at the tender age of 18. I shall invite my teenage daughters to choose carefully and seek inspiration when it comes to choosing a spouse. I have a friend who lives in the Czech Republic - a western European country of mostly Caucasian Christians. He laughs at American hypocrisy. In the Czech Republic, if a man has sex with a girl under 15, he will go to prison. After 15, there are no constraints.
I Googled the U.S. state ages of consent and found the following:
| | | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| | Alabama | 16 | |
| | Alaska | 16 | |
| | Arizona | 18 | |
| | Arkansas | 16 | |
| | California | 18 | |
| | Colorado | 17 | |
| | Connecticut | 16 | |
| | D.C. | 16 | |
| | Delaware | 18 | |
| | Florida | 18 | |
| | Georgia | 16 | |
| | Hawaii | 16 | |
| | Idaho | 18 | |
| | Illinois | 17 | |
| | Indiana | 16 | |
| | Iowa | 16 | |
| | Kansas | 16 | |
| | Kentucky | 16 | |
| | Louisiana | 17 | |
| | Maine | 16 | |
| | Maryland | 16 | |
| | Massachusetts | 16 | |
| | Michigan | 16 | |
| | Minnesota | 16 | |
| | Mississippi | 16 | |
| | Missouri | 17 | |
| | Montana | 16 | |
| | Nebraska | 17 | |
| | Nevada | 16 | |
| | New Hampshire | 16 | |
| | New Jersey | 16 | |
| | New Mexico | 17 | |
| | New York | 17 | |
| | North Carolina | 16 | |
| | North Dakota | 18 | |
| | Ohio | 16 | |
| | Oklahoma | 16 | |
| | Oregon | 18 | |
| | Pennsylvania | 16 | |
| | Rhode Island | 16 | |
| | South Carolina | 16 | |
| | South Dakota | 16 | |
| | Tennessee | 18 | |
| | Texas | 17 | |
| | Utah | 18 | |
| | Vermont | 16 | |
| | Virginia | 18 | |
| | Washington | 16 | |
| | West Virginia | 16 | |
| | Wisconsin | 18 | |
| | Wyoming | 18 |
In 2005, Texas' legal marriage consent age was 14. Mark Shurtleff went to Texas and, with Harvey Hilderbran's help, he persuaded the Texas legislature to raise the age of consent (for sex) to 17. What else could Shurtleff have been doing other than trying to ensnare the FLDS people, since he knew that they had a tradition of sometimes marrying earlier than the rest of society?
Could someone help me to understand why today's promiscuous society feels that it has somehow sanitized itself by viewing young marriages as rape, sexual assault and pedophilia, and raising the age of a licensed marriage? The U.S. has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world, and Texas has the highest teen birthrate in the nation (with 24% of those births being a second pregnancy).
My point is this - a significant number of U.S. states are happy to allow not only marriages for 16-year-olds, but also unmarried sex at 16. Since Raymond Jessop is not legally married to the girl in question, his alleged crime is sexual assault. But what if the marriage (and conception) occurred in a venue other than Texas? And what if it occurred when Texas' age of consent was 14?
Again, I am no fan of "arranged" marriages, and I don't encourage marriages with minors, but most Bible scholars will assert that Jesus was born to Mary when she was 15 or younger. Would that make our Heavenly Father a child-molester? Most of this marriage-age stuff is based on time-honored, cultural and religious traditions, and state interference in marriage age patterns is a relatively modern innovation, fraught with political implications and posturing.
I think that this series of scheduled bigamy/sexual assault trials is a naked and inexcusable attack on the people of the FLDS Church. I would not be surprised if it were driven by a need for retaliation for the horrible embarrassment suffered by Texas CPS as a result of the shameless raid and kidnappings of April, 2008.
It was not long ago that attorney Rodney Parker argued in behalf of Rodney Holm that his informal marriage to (16-year-old) Ruth Stubbs should have been considered just as legally permissible and binding as if it had been legally licensed. The court disagreed. Later, however, in the Utah Supreme court hearing of Holm's appeal, deputy attorney general Laura DuPaix argued passionately to Chief Justice Durham that the union between Holm and Stubbs absolutely WAS A MARRIAGE !!! (in order to preserve the "bigamy" conviction).
Here's the paradoxical hypocrisy of this situation - the State adamantly argues that the relationship is not a bona fide marriage, so that it can advance the assertion that the crime of "unlawful sex with a minor" was committed. Then, a few minutes or days later, the State fervently argues that the relationship absolutely IS A MARRIAGE, so that it can charge the defendant with having committed the crime of bigamy (getting two or more marriages). Try using that kind of twisted, contradictory logic in an argument with a teenager and see how far you get !!! The State (Utah AND Texas) wants to have its cake and eat it, too.
If you are not convinced that this is a usurpation of the justice system, then you are as wicked and inebriated with your own hubris as is Barbie.
My sincerest prayers go with Raymond and his family(ies).
Renn
Friday, October 23, 2009
Canada is at it again !!!
If last month's shaming of British Columbia's former Attorney General, Wally Oppal, wasn't enough, his successor, Mike de Jong, wants to revisit the illegality of polygamy in Canada. I am confident that, over the decades since polygamists have occupied the Creston/Bountiful area of B.C., there have been several disaffected people who have left the communities and have something to complain about (my sister-wife spanked my kid; my husband didn't spend enough time with me; I had to eat oatmeal; I don't like long dresses; etc., etc. ad nauseam).
I think also that a lot of young women may have been married in their mid teens back in the day when marrying in the mid teens was fashionable and widely acceptable.
None of this has anything to do with the question of whether a man may marry a first wife legally and then add other women to his "family" through an informal religious ceremony and then proceed to conjugate with them.
Mike de Jong wants the Supreme Court to settle the confusion which has been created between Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms (which guarantees freedom of religious conduct) and Canada's century-old anti-polygamy law which reads -
Polygamy
293. (1) Every one who
(a) practises or enters into or in any manner agrees or consents to practise or enter into
(i) any form of polygamy, or
(ii) any kind of conjugal union with more than one person at the same time,
whether or not it is by law recognized as a binding form of marriage, or
(b) celebrates, assists or is a party to a rite, ceremony, contract or consent that purports to sanction a relationship mentioned in subparagraph (a)(i) or (ii),
is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years.
Evidence in case of polygamy
(2) Where an accused is charged with an offence under this section, no averment or proof of the method by which the alleged relationship was entered into, agreed to or consented to is necessary in the indictment or on the trial of the accused, nor is it necessary on the trial to prove that the persons who are alleged to have entered into the relationship had or intended to have sexual intercourse.
R.S., c. C-34, s. 257.
------------------------------
I admit that I do not know Mike de Jong's motives, but it seems that any layperson can see that the language of the law is reprehensible, and the Court ought to strike it. Paragraph (2) basically says that no WITNESSES ("averment") or PROOF is needed of the commission of the alleged crime, AND it need also not be shown that the accused had or wanted to have sex. In other words - YOU ARE GUILTY BECAUSE I SAID SO !!!
I would rejoice that we do not have so dumb a law here in the U.S., but Utah's anti-bigamy statute runs a close second.
So, what will the Canadian Court do? Canada has tens of thousands of respectable Muslim polygamous families. If the B.C. fundamentalist Mormons are molesting teen girls, then charge them with the pertinent offences under existing rape/molestation/sex-with-a-minor laws. Methinks that B.C. would have done that long ago, had the RCMP found a shred of evidence during its multi-year inquisition.
Bottom line - YOU CANNOT write an anti-polygamy law without impermissibly targeting a specific religious minority. You also CANNOT write one without colliding with existing fornication and adultery statutes which no "right-thinking" western nation has enforced since Wilford Woodruff made his covenant with death and agreement with hell.
So have at it, Supreme Court, twist your brains, bend the phrasing, enlist the brightest legal minds north of Idaho and Montana, and show me how to prosecute a guy for having sex with two adult women (in the same month) to whom he is not legally married, and I will personally move to Canada and test the law.
I feel like these anti-polygamy activists and their suck-up politicians are unwittingly bringing about precisely the opposite outcome from what they really want. Before the U.S. Supreme Court declared homosexual sex a basic Constitutional liberty in 2003, gays in Oklahoma and Texas were legally required to go to the county courthouse and register themselves as SEX-OFFENDERS !!!!!!!!
Perhaps the world needs to come to an end before foolish people will realize their folly.
Today on Fox News I actually heard a financial correspondent say that the Federal Reserve is "an independent part of the U.S. government" !!!
Vote Bernanke !!!
I think also that a lot of young women may have been married in their mid teens back in the day when marrying in the mid teens was fashionable and widely acceptable.
None of this has anything to do with the question of whether a man may marry a first wife legally and then add other women to his "family" through an informal religious ceremony and then proceed to conjugate with them.
Mike de Jong wants the Supreme Court to settle the confusion which has been created between Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms (which guarantees freedom of religious conduct) and Canada's century-old anti-polygamy law which reads -
Polygamy
293. (1) Every one who
(a) practises or enters into or in any manner agrees or consents to practise or enter into
(i) any form of polygamy, or
(ii) any kind of conjugal union with more than one person at the same time,
whether or not it is by law recognized as a binding form of marriage, or
(b) celebrates, assists or is a party to a rite, ceremony, contract or consent that purports to sanction a relationship mentioned in subparagraph (a)(i) or (ii),
is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years.
Evidence in case of polygamy
(2) Where an accused is charged with an offence under this section, no averment or proof of the method by which the alleged relationship was entered into, agreed to or consented to is necessary in the indictment or on the trial of the accused, nor is it necessary on the trial to prove that the persons who are alleged to have entered into the relationship had or intended to have sexual intercourse.
R.S., c. C-34, s. 257.
------------------------------
I admit that I do not know Mike de Jong's motives, but it seems that any layperson can see that the language of the law is reprehensible, and the Court ought to strike it. Paragraph (2) basically says that no WITNESSES ("averment") or PROOF is needed of the commission of the alleged crime, AND it need also not be shown that the accused had or wanted to have sex. In other words - YOU ARE GUILTY BECAUSE I SAID SO !!!
I would rejoice that we do not have so dumb a law here in the U.S., but Utah's anti-bigamy statute runs a close second.
So, what will the Canadian Court do? Canada has tens of thousands of respectable Muslim polygamous families. If the B.C. fundamentalist Mormons are molesting teen girls, then charge them with the pertinent offences under existing rape/molestation/sex-with-a-minor laws. Methinks that B.C. would have done that long ago, had the RCMP found a shred of evidence during its multi-year inquisition.
Bottom line - YOU CANNOT write an anti-polygamy law without impermissibly targeting a specific religious minority. You also CANNOT write one without colliding with existing fornication and adultery statutes which no "right-thinking" western nation has enforced since Wilford Woodruff made his covenant with death and agreement with hell.
So have at it, Supreme Court, twist your brains, bend the phrasing, enlist the brightest legal minds north of Idaho and Montana, and show me how to prosecute a guy for having sex with two adult women (in the same month) to whom he is not legally married, and I will personally move to Canada and test the law.
I feel like these anti-polygamy activists and their suck-up politicians are unwittingly bringing about precisely the opposite outcome from what they really want. Before the U.S. Supreme Court declared homosexual sex a basic Constitutional liberty in 2003, gays in Oklahoma and Texas were legally required to go to the county courthouse and register themselves as SEX-OFFENDERS !!!!!!!!
Perhaps the world needs to come to an end before foolish people will realize their folly.
Today on Fox News I actually heard a financial correspondent say that the Federal Reserve is "an independent part of the U.S. government" !!!
Vote Bernanke !!!
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Celebrating Skin Color
This week we are celebrating skin color. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to freshman president Obama. The distinguished Norwegian gentleman who made the announcement to the press was questioned afterwards. He was asked if the award of the prize to Obama was based on future expectations of his performance as U.S. president or if it was based on his achievements to date. The official insisted that the votes in favor of Obama were driven by his many accomplishments as president. I find it interesting that the votes were cast back in February of this year when Obama had been president for several days.
Perhaps the Nobel society representative meant to say that Obama was nominated because many Europeans had been so twitterpated by Obama's skin color - one of the principal reasons for his successful presidential campaign.
I'm hoping that I will win the Nobel peace prize next year on the basis of my skin color - which, by the way, is very lovely.
Perhaps the Nobel society representative meant to say that Obama was nominated because many Europeans had been so twitterpated by Obama's skin color - one of the principal reasons for his successful presidential campaign.
I'm hoping that I will win the Nobel peace prize next year on the basis of my skin color - which, by the way, is very lovely.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Is Wally Oppal a Jerk or an Idiot?
Okay folks - quiz time . . . . .
1. Is Wally Oppal -
a. A Jerk?
b. An Idiot?
c. Both?
Wally Oppal was the Attorney General for British Columbia (until May, 2009). While Oppal was the A.G., he made no secret of his deep resentment for the polygamists in Bountiful and Creston, B.C. He even echoed the vitriol of Canada's most strident polygamy-haters (Nancy Mereska, Daphne Bramham and Jancis Andrews). He was on a mission to stamp out those filthy polygamy-mongers! Several senior prosecutors (national and provincial) published their opinions that efforts to criminalize the practice of plural marriage in B.C. would fail in light of Canada's decades-old religious freedom Acts.
Oppal was not satisfied with these opinions. He could not sleep at night while polygamists were still breathing. He decided to flout constitutional principles and so he then sought a different prosecutor who would agree to pursue charges against two religious leaders, Winston Blackmore and Jimmy Oler.
Today, Judge Sunni Stromberg-Stein issued a scathing ruling denouncing Oppal's conduct and reversing his decision to pursue the prosecution of these two men. I quote a paragraph from her ruling -
"[105] I conclude the Attorney General [Wally Oppal] had no jurisdiction to direct the ADAG to appoint Mr. Robertson as a prosecutor, and the ADAG had no jurisdiction to appoint Mr. Robertson as a special prosecutor, to conduct a charge assessment in relation to the same mandate where Mr. Peck had decided not to approve charges but recommended a reference to the Court of Appeal. The appointment of Mr. Robertson as a special prosecutor was contrary to s. 7 of the Act and his decision was therefore unlawful."
This is a landmark decision because it effectively forecloses ANY future efforts to target religious polygamists in Canada. Forgive my cynicism, but earlier this year (February, 2009) a Toronto Arab man was acquitted of the charge of bigamy for being married to two women.
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1275028
The man had a wife in Canada and then went to Ohio and married another woman. The judge admitted that it was clear that the man had two "legal" marriages (one Canadian and one U.S.) but he could not be convicted because it could not be proved that he went to Ohio with - - - - -
Brace yourself - - - -
THE INTENTION OF MARRYING THE SECOND WOMAN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, if this guy couldn't be convicted, how the heck did Wally Oppal think he could convict Jimmy and Winston for having extra (non-legal) partners?
Congratulations to Blackmore and Oler. I pray that the Crown or the Province will have the decency to reimburse the men for the tens of thousands of Canadian dollars they had to waste defending themselves from mean-spirited, "unlawful" and frivolous charges.
I know there's a lot of animus against polygamists for alleged "underage" marriages, but, if my memory serves me correctly, all of the major and minor fundamentalist communities have publicly foresworn any future polygamous unions with minors.
I suspect the hate-mongers will be angry because, deep down inside, they wanted blood.
(For the complete text of the decision - go to - - )
http://sz0164.ev.mail.comcast.net/service/home/~/2009-09-23%20Judge%20Stromberg-Stein%2C%20re%20BLACKMORE%20v.%20AG%20B.C.%2C%2009-23%5B1%5D.pdf?auth=co&loc=en_US&id=51871&part=2
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