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

Monday, September 21, 2009

They came to their senses !!! Or did they?

Well, I don't know who was responsible for bringing the court or its clerks to their senses but, lo and behold, the Utah Supreme Court has re-scheduled the Warren Jeffs appeal hearing, and now it won't be at the Happy Valley Law School. Now all we have to do is make sure that Justices Durrant, Nehring, Wilkins and Parrish don't come within a mile of the pending decision. After all, they are the ones who said that Rodney Holm should be found guilty of felony bigamy because his third wife wore a white dress to their informal marriage ceremony, thus inflicting great harm on the venerable institution of Holy Legal Matrimony. Durrant confessed that he didn't dare go against the current tide of public opinion. Perhaps the legal system in Utah should be conducted like American Idol, and guilt or innocence can be established through a popularity contest and a tally of viewer phone calls. I think that's what nailed Jesus in the end.

Today I am feeling sympathy for atheists. Just think - they will never have the satisfaction of finally knowing that they were right. I think a lot about atheism and Darwinian evolution theories. I watched that Ben Stein movie about evolution, and I confess that I experienced some wicked pleasure watching Ben Stein make Richard Dawkins look silly. Richard Dawkins is the Oxford University professor who serves as the academic poster-child of the atheist/Darwinian movement. He delights in mocking Christians and religious believers. Like other evolutionists, he wishes that governments would step in and prevent parents from teaching religion to their children. He reminds me of Korihor and Nehor (of Book of Mormon fame). In the movie he muses about the possibility that "space aliens" seeded the earth with living creatures and then left. He is comfortable with the concept of space aliens, just not with the concept of a benevolent God.

I recently read a book called Darwin's Black Box by Michael Behe, professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. The message of the book is that, in living organisms, there are biochemical processes and mechanisms which are extraordinarily complex; including sight, immunity and blood-clotting, to name a few. Without ever satisfactorily explaining how life showed up on this planet, Charles Darwin proposed that evolutionary changes in living species occurred very gradually over billions of years. Behe's challenge to Darwin's claims is that some of the mechanisms of life are "irreducibly complex". Some functions of life rely on the complex collaboration of many sophisticated protein molecules and cellular components, the absence of any of which would cause the system to fail and the organism to die. If these complex mechanisms came about only gradually, then the creature could not have lived and thrived while waiting around for eons until all of the indispensable elements were in place.

Darwin had no answer for this problem because, in his day, the complexities of the cell were not known. Behe uses the clever example of the common mousetrap. If you were walking about in the rain forest and stumbled across an intact mousetrap, you would automatically assume that someone designed and assembled it. Moreover, no one would accuse you of being a religious fanatic for concluding that some intelligent design process had been involved. Behe explains that the mousetrap cannot work if even one of the components is missing. Take away the spring, and the mouse is safe. It couldn't just emerge through a gradual chain of microscopic improvements.

Thus, the mousetrap is an example of an irreducibly complex machine. Likewise, the mechanism of blood clotting depends on over twenty critical factors and events. If one is missing, like vitamin K or the Christmas factor, then the system fails, and the creature bleeds to death or solidifies and becomes a solid blood clot. The amazing checks and balances of the blood clotting process rely on many critical interactions and perpetual feedback. In my opinion, Behe proves masterfully that no gradual, microscopic, evolutionary steps could have arrived at this brilliant biochemical system, and that we would all have died long ago while waiting for all the pieces to finally be in place. 

It is generally a waste of time arguing with atheists and evolutionists. They embrace Darwinian evolution with blind, (almost religiously) unshakeable faith, even though there is so incredibly little scientific evidence to support it. They take as true, incontrovertible fact the assertions of other modern scientists that all living creatures have a common ancestor, and that life was generated spontaneously from inanimate substances. Truth is - they don't just believe in evolution - they desperately need it to be true. They don't want there to be a God. They prefer Hammurabi's Law - which says that there are no absolutes in the universe, and all that matters is what makes one feel good.

There is a trend in today's world towards greater polarization. Obama wants to take over the private sector and everything else you hold dear. People are lining up on opposing sides of important issues. I don't think it is merely godless liberal secular materialism versus godly conservatism. I think there are just two kinds of people - those who would starve rather than kill their neighbor for food, and those who would rather kill their neighbor than starve or share food. Soon we'll get to see which group each of us falls into. You watch!

P.S. Just for more giggles - I am reproducing a graphic here from the cover of Behe's book. This little diagram shows a mechanism which is part of a SINGLE CELL (a bacterium). The mechanism is called a "flagellum" (Latin = 'whip'). Actually, it is like a propeller and rudder all-in-one. This whip or tail protrudes through the cell's outer membrane and rotates and paddles to provide propulsion so that the cell can travel. It would be tempting to think that this flipper thingy has muscles, but this is all part of just one cell. The energy consumption is achieved through the transfer of acids. The movement is accomplished by chemical reactions between PROTEINS !!! When one side of the whip needs to contract, the molecules become more "sticky".  The big question is - how do the molecules "know" how to do that?  Don't try to convince me that this all developed through some random Darwinian ACCIDENT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A salmonella bacterium with an immobile whip cannot self-propel.  It cannot reproduce or even survive.  The only explanation for its current, viable existence on earth is that someone (or some thing) designed it here, or someone designed it elsewhere and then brought it here.  When you look at an automobile, you have no doubt that someone designed and then created (assembled) it.  When you look at a human being (or a cat, for that matter) how do you think it came about?
------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

CHURCH-STATE CONFUSION

The travesties and absurdities just keep on coming. Some of you may have seen the news the other day that reported that a 12-year-old girl in New Hampshire has been ordered by a judge to stop home-schooling and attend public school. The judge complained that the girl's religious beliefs are too "sincere" and too "rigid" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/04/home-schooled-christian-girl-ordered-to-join-publi//print/


As is my tendency, I tried to think about the legal principles implicated in this decision. I feel strongly that words have meaning and power, and that designing men can use clever words to wrest power from the unsuspecting. This judge (Sadler) should enlighten us on the intended meaning of the word "rigid". The girl's non-custodial father appears to resent the fact that the mother is teaching the girl from the Bible. Are we to conclude that parents who teach their children from the Bible are indoctrinating them into "rigidity" because the Bible teaches that adulterers should be stoned to death, along with ungovernable teenagers? Is the Bible too "rigid" because it teaches us to honor our parents and that the meek will "inherit the earth"?

I pray that the girl will be blessed with a crack team of indignant attorneys who will get this judge overruled and demonstrate what an IDIOT he is. Was John Singer's martyrdom for nothing?




















(Photo from "Death of an American" by David Fleisher and David M. Friedman)

On another note, I just learned that the Utah Supreme Court has agreed to hear Warren Jeffs' appeal of his "rape-as-an-accomplice" convictions. They probably realize that you can't just sweep this case under the rug. I still wonder how Jeffs can be doing time for being an accomplice to a rape that wasn't committed. I mean - if the state of Utah really genuinely has evidence to convict Steed for rape, then I can see how it could be argued that a rape occurred and that there were accomplices. I think the state decided to charge Steed because so many people wondered at the disingenuousness of charging the putative accomplice but not the alleged perpetrator himself. However, if the case against Steed falters (and I bet it will), then no rape will have been proved, and Jeffs can have been an accomplice to nothing, and ought to go home to his wives and children.

I am thrilled that the Utah Supremes will review the case. I am utterly mortified that the Supreme Court hearing will be held on the campus of Brigham Young University. That is about as lopsided as having a SuperBowl game played between the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers on the Packers' home (Lambeau) field. Where's the neutrality? It is a farce! How can these goons think that such blatant and shameless partisanship will go unnoticed? Talk about "home-field advantage"!!! I seem to remember that they did the same thing when they removed judge Walter Steed from his judgeship (not to mention Tom Green's BYU jury). Last I heard, the LDS Church has not been shy about publicizing its intense revulsion at polygamy and polygamists.

Work with me here just a little. Let's assume that the FLDS elect not to file a motion to have the hearing venue changed. Let's assume that no crusading reporter writes an article denouncing the flagrant unfairness of holding this hearing at the law school owned by the Church Corporation that masterminded the 1953 Short Creek raid.

So - BYU campus it is. I can see it now. Early on the morning of November 4th, a caravan of hundreds of Suburbans and 15-passenger vans will make its way from Colorado City/Hildale to Provo. Three thousand warmly-clad men, women (and women) and children will shiver quietly around the J. Reuben Clark law school, showing their solidarity (as they did just weeks ago at Salt Lake's Matheson Courthouse).

Next step, the LDS Church writhes uncontrollably in distaste over having so many mangy polygamists traipsing all over its pristine campus, and overreacts (like never before). Soon, a hundred BYU police and many more of their Provo City counterparts appear on the scene and begin ordering the peaceful visitors to get off the Church's private property. After all - this is not public, neutral property. This is the seat of modern, ecclesiastical disinformation, where dissenting or even mildly neutral views are not tolerated and must incur appropriate disciplinary action.

Am I the only one who smells something rotten in Denmark?

"Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin',
More dead in Ohio."

Neil Young


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