The Stuff of Movies

This is the stuff of a good John Grisham novel.  A few months ago, Sim Gill, the Salt Lake County district attorney decided to file formal charges against former Utah Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff, and disgraced (former) Attorney General, John Swallow.  The charges, both felony and misdemeanor, were for various crimes:- accepting bribes, interfering with criminal investigations, and various other acts of corruption.  For a list of the charges go to this article.

I met Bishop Swallow once.  He seemed like a nice guy.  He said he came from polygamous stock and would never intentionally harm polygamists.  I guess it doesn't matter any more.  He's likely to go to prison.

Shurtleff is another proposition.  He has always seemed to me to be a bit imperious and self-serving.  You always want to assume the best of your political representatives (unless they are Harry Reid [a relative of mine] or Nancy Pelosi).  I guess when you are an ambitious Mormon attorney and politician, it is easy to get tempted into corruption.  Shurtleff has had his share of adversity - months in an Ilizarov frame, colon cancer, heart attacks, a troubled daughter, and more.  I wouldn't wish that on anyone, but I am wondering what the mystical meaning is in this grand story.

Shurtleff was the one who, in 2005, executed the takeover of the (FLDS's) UEP trust, handing over day-to-day control of the trust to his corrupt crony, Bruce Wisan.  Wisan has recently quit his law firm job and his role as UEP Trust fiduciary in the wake of his public shaming for getting caught with a prostitute and lying about it. 

This is the stuff of movies.  I would cast Russell Crowe and Alec Baldwin.

I think the irony of it is the hypocrisy - the fact that Shurtleff championed his holy war on the Fundamentalist Mormons (for their alleged criminality), shopping Utah's stupid anti-bigamy statute to Texas, feigning good will towards us, all the while thinking only of his own personal advancement and political career.  Now, as I predicted, Shurtleff's is the fate of Governor Pyle, only worse.  He is likely to go to prison, hopefully among the felons he put away.

One of Shurtleff's errands for the blue suits at 50 E. North Temple was to keep the polygamists under control.  Thankfully the Church has no use for him any more.

Shurtleff's and Swallow's successor, AG Sean Reyes, has a few more days left to announce whether he intends to appeal Judge Waddoups' recent final ruling in favor of the Kody Brown family and the voiding of Utah's bigamy statute's unenforceable anti-cohabitation clause.  Let's hope that Reyes has some political corruption skeletons in his closet so that he too can be shamed for making war on the saints.

The drama continues.

Hypocrite

BRUCE WISAN

So, last year Brute Wisass got caught by Taylorsville police in a motel with a prostitute.  He at first said they did not have sex.  She said they did.  He said he was just giving her financial help until she "got on her feet" - (read: "till she got up from the bed"). He admitted that he had been showering with her.

This is a former Mormon Stake President - a paragon of religious virtue and integrity.  The one hand-picked by Shurtleff to bring salvation to the FLDS.

VOMIT !!!       Here is a chunk of the police report:
 

See also this article from the Salt Lake Tribune:
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home3/58242242-200/wisan-woman-officer-court.html.csp

Off With Their Heads

I am still scratching my head over the FLDS implosion.  In 2005, the State of Utah seized the FLDS UEP trust and ran up millions in inflated fiduciary fees.  The Hooles assisted with the rewording of the UEP trust statement, hoping to plunder the trust for their own gain.  Warren told his followers to "Answer them nothing."  Young men were illegally detained and imprisoned in an Arizona prison, simply because they had no idea of Warren's whereabouts and could not disclose something they didn't know.

Warren was captured in 2007, but his conviction in a Utah court was overturned.

In 2008, 439 children were confiscated from the FLDS ranch in west Texas.  The feds knew at the time that Warren was molesting little girls.  The little kids were returned thanks to Julie Balovich, but Warren was later convicted by a Texas court, and should remain in his Texas prison until the next millennium.

Probably dozens of the young teen girls (now adults) still remain under FLDS house arrest.  Only God knows how they can regain a normal life in the wake of the destruction of their perverse, fairy-tale culture.

Fiduciary Bruce Wisan eventually had to get his filthy lucrative fees from the Utah legislature.  Mark Shurtleff, then the A.G. who targeted the FLDS, found himself at cross purposes with Judge Denise Lindberg, who would make a ruling in favor of the FLDS if her life depended on it.

Federal Judge Dee Benson demanded that the State return the UEP trust to its trustee (Warren Jeffs), but that got thwarted, too.

A wise man once told me that one can liken the UEP trust to an egg.  The egg was once fresh and whole and desirable.  Then somebody scrambled it and cooked it.  Then someone else came along and burned it.  Try as you might, you cannot return that egg to its shell, and put things back to how they were before.

Willie Jessop sued the FLDS church to recoup the money he loaned Warren to pay for all the lawyers who defended him.  Answering "them nothing", Warren watched Willie win the suit by default and earn a $20 million award.  Since then, Willie has gained control of the spectacular mansions built for Warren by his followers since his incarceration.  The porn theaters have been removed. 

After a period of time under the leadership of John Wayman, the control of the FLDS people has been handed back to Warren's brother, Lyle.  Warren and Lyle have bled virtually every penny out of the remaining faithful.  The number of faithful is dwindling steadily as they are systematically ejected from the fold because of any number of petty violations or heresies.  Families and children are abandoned, then jumbled up at Warren's whim.  Warren is now certifiably insane, so one has to wonder why Lyle complies with every directive.  Perhaps it is because he likes not working and living for free off other people's labors.  No one has been allowed to marry since 2006, and rumors abound now that a select group of men has been selected to play the role of community impregnators.  One thing is for sure - hundreds of families have been ripped to shreds, and some exiles are still trying to gain back the infant children they handed over to the church police while they were still sucked in by Warren.

This is turning out to be one of the worst humanitarian disasters since the days of Stalin.  It is a true tar baby for the State.  The State may have had a vision of some sort to rehabilitate the twin towns, but it didn't come about.  My sense is that the degree of indoctrination in the FLDS was so extreme, that many of the excommuniqués barely understand what has happened to them.  Would you feel guilty if you had been born into an oppressive cult, and had surrendered your free agency to a lunatic, just because your church's theology so dictated?  Would it be your fault, or just the fault of the lunatic and his cronies?

I wrote a blogpost in 2011 - Critical Mass - in which I pondered the eventual dissolution of the community.  I guess we are there now.  If we accept the premise of a pre-existence, we allow that all of the participants in this adventure consented to come to earth at this time and be tested by it.  For us outsiders, our duty is to provide whatever kindness and support is desired by those who have become victims of the nightmare.  I hope that we remember that it was NOT POLYGAMY that caused all this.  It was stupid humans doing cruel, selfish stuff.  That's the lesson.

Irony of Ironies

Simpson

Lintbag

General Authority

Stake President

An article today in Utah's Salt Lake Tribune reported that Judge Diseased Lintbag just ordered Shark Murtleff to pay Brutal Wisass's trumped up ($5 million) in fiduciary (ripoff racket) fees.  There are too many ironies in all of this for me to capture all at once.

Perhaps the biggest irony is that these three characters are all establishment Mormons - I mean - the kind of Mormons for whom Church membership is a badge, a trophy, a lubricant, a passport, a club membership card, an indulgence, a free pass, a mask,  - - - you know what I mean.  One thing it is not is a guarantee of purity.

They are locked in a bitter struggle despite their unstinting allegiance to the mother Church.  Clearly, Lintbag is in Wisass's corner.  She has NEVER NOT ruled in his favor.  She is his advocate.  She must almost be hoping for a cut of the ill-gotten gains. She desperately wanted to sell UEP property chunks to raise money for Wisass's commissions. Now that it looks like there is little chance of getting blood out of the UEP stone, Lintbag has decided to mine slightly deeper pockets - the Utah A.G.'s.  She now finds herself in Dee Benson's corner.  Perhaps Lintbag's campaign against the FLDS and the federal judge must take a back seat to the need to secure cash for Wisass.

The FLDS and Shurtleff made repeated good-faith efforts to arrive at a settlement agreement, but Lintbag refused at every turn, effectively causing Wisass's fraud meter to keep on running.  The only conclusion I can make is that Lintbag spent so much time at Happy Valley U, that her brain went permanently soft.

As I have said before, just because the leader of the FLDS community has long been devolving in a pathetic public disintegration, is that justification to persecute an entire community???  Lintbag and Barbie must have taken Hubris 101 together.  Governor Pyle could have taught them a thing or two about tar babies.

Good Luck

Today, I learned that the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked Judge Dee Benson's order to return control of the UEP Trust to FLDS leader(s).

I have never hidden my passionate desire for the Trust to go back to the people who built it.  Maybe, right now, that isn't possible.  A wise man once opined that, if the Short Creek folks got themselves straightened out, it would be easier and more likely for the Trust to be returned.  We shall see.

I am a little surprised at the 10th Circuit's decision.  If it was, in any way, an emotionally-driven move, it might surely have been the result of much sensational, silly and not-so-silly media coverage about fantasy book-burnings and child molestations.

In the Court's temporary stay, Wisass is forbidden from making any significant changes (read - selling Berry Knoll) until the appeal is fully heard.  His complaint about being in an impossible place is once again true.  He has to run the Trust, but he cannot be paid to do so.  He can just run his meter vainly. The Court has made further extensive litigation inevitable, which litigation will likely go unfunded on both sides.  The money - any money - must ultimately come from the already depleted pockets of the FLDS people.  This is a monumental mess, and the enemies of the FLDS are jubilant.  God constructs and Satan destructs.

So, to Wisass, I say, "Good luck.  Have at it!  See how much more damage you can do.  Pour the coals on your own head."  To the 10th Circuit I say, "Be careful what you do. Yes, the FLDS are not perfect; perhaps they are even naive.  Nevertheless, remember that Judge Benson was right. Despite the failings of a tiny few, the blatant violation of the Constitutional rights of the many was wrong."

The exquisite truth about this chaotic situation is that it compels each observer individually to weigh and assess the facts and the principles involved. It is complex enough that one must drill down and judge very carefully. 

For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. (Matthew 7:1)

Good Luck!

Head Scratch

He's cuter than she is !!!

I'm still scratching my head.  I heard a news reporter last night pose the question of whether, in the history of our nation, two different sovereign courts have ever gotten into such a tussle as the one currently escalating between the Utah district court (Pousse Lintbag) and federal district court (Dee Benson).

Today, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay on Judge Benson's order to return FLDS documents (at least until it can be briefed on the controversy).  I told you - polygamy gets people all lathered up. If this thing gets any more crazy, I think the world could split in two.  Actually, worse than that, the FLDS might not get their trust back.

The court wants more hearings and who knows if the attorneys are getting paid? Brutal Wisass is about to be disqualified as an evil trespasser, and, worse still, the internal squabble over FLDS leadership threatens to derail the return of the trust to its rightful owners - the FLDS people.

Looking at the big picture, I seriously doubt that Shortlaff and crew want to keep their fingers in the UEP Trust pie for very long. It has brought them nothing but expense, frustration and humiliation.  Maybe some people just want to see it destroyed - wiped off the map.

I think it's time for the parties involved who are stupid, wrong, selfish or evil to back off and realize that the community was created by decent, honorable people, so it should only be controlled by decent, honorable people, and not by liars, plunderers or outsiders who care more for themselves than for the welfare of the people.

However, as I scratch my head, I think of the feud that lasted years in Northern Ireland between virtual kinfolk - the Irish Protestants and Catholics.  They bombed and murdered each other until the children could no longer remember what the original argument was about, or who hit whom first.  I wonder - does it need to get that bad?  Do these kinds of battles help the participants to show their true colors and their true nature?  Did we come to earth (or to the Rocky Mountains) to show God whose side we are on (as evidenced by the way we treat our fellow man [or woman])?

I believe this war has been about religion and authority - whether Monson or Jeffs or Wisan or someone else is the true holder of the keys of leadership in the restored church.  Do we truly want to come to blows over a theological nuance (or has it been about money and control all along)?

More Insanity

Last week, our nation was perched on the brink of destruction . . . . . NOT !!!!   We fell off that cliff already in 1865 (or earlier).

The debate raged on for weeks, splitting angry hairs over several partisan issues.  The argument hinged on approximately $38.5 billion in deficit cutting measures.  The current (2011) deficit will be larger than last year's regardless, so what did we gain?  In fact, the 2011 deficit is really seventeen hundred billion dollars ($1.7 trillion).  The New York Times blasted the Republicans for jeopardizing the health and welfare of the old and the poor.  The liberals are so hell-bent on running up America's indebtedness, that there can be no doubt that they are determined to crash the economy and bring about a fundamental (new world order) regime change (the inevitable outcome of national insolvency).  Not long ago, the International Monetary Fund announced that in the "new order", capital will need to be driven more by the state than by the market.

I heard politicians from both sides of the aisle today saying that if we do not let the federal debt ceiling be raised next month, the nation will default on its debts and face "cataclysmic" repercussions.  This one hurt my brain, so I pondered on it and realized that what they mean is that we must agree to secure a higher "credit limit" because we need to be able to borrow more money -------- IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO PAY OUR DEBTS BACK !!!!   Go figure !!

Here in Arizona, we waited with bated breath today for a state judge to FINALLY find Brutal Wisass guilty of felony criminal trespass but, lo and behold (and despite promises to the contrary), the ruling did not come today - - - - and what happened instead was that Diseased Lintbag issued a smug ruling and thumbed her nose at the federal district court, forbidding Wisass to turn over the previously ordered documents to the FLDS UEP trust representatives.  One has to wonder if Lintbag and the Arizona judge are colluding somehow, or if quiet money is changing hands.

A wise man pointed something out to me last week - something I was embarrassed not to have realized on my own.  Over the years, a string of abuse allegations have been leveled at the FLDS community.  Every community has its black sheep - a percentage of bad seeds, abusers, cheats and charlatans.  Look at any large or small city or even at the Mormon Church!  It would actually be a bizarre aberration if the FLDS people (the vast majority of whom are humans) DID NOT have a statistically predictable fraction of perpetrators in their midst.  Why, then, must detractors, politicians and reporters focus SO MUCH of their attention on that remarkably small percentage of troubled adherents in a single fundamentalist Mormon congregation and extrapolate from their failings that the ENTIRE community is crooked, perverted and evil - and that it must be eradicated?

This is just more insanity to me.

  7.   Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you, and ye shall be hated of all nations, for my name's sake;
  8.   And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another;
  9.   And many false prophets shall arise, and shall deceive many;
  10.  And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold;
  11.  But he that remaineth steadfast and is not overcome, the same shall be saved. (Matthew 1, [JST])

Not Messing Around

He's not messing around!  Yesterday, Judge Dee Benson followed through on his promise to give the UEP trust back to the FLDS.  He accepted the settlement compromises negotiated by the Utah Attorney General's office, and removed Brutal Wisass as manager of the trust, requiring him to turn over all pertinent documentation.  Read the AP article.

The FLDS have agreed to comply with the stipulations (not to kick out the ex-members who were given leases, not to sell off UEP trust property, etc.).

Wisass is claiming to be owed (along with Shields) some $1.5 million for his activities in recent years.  "Pay me for the abuse I inflicted on you!" he says.  So, here's what I think - - the fiduciary was hired by the Utah AG's office, and he did the bidding of the AG's office (one would assume).  The UEP trust is a land-holding entity.  It does not have "liquid" cash.  It even allegedly still owes back property taxes.  For Wisass to be paid, there would be three options.  Get ready to select an option - -


1.  Take more money from the FLDS people (GOOD LUCK WITH THAT !!!)
2.  Sell more of the UEP trust property (Benson forbade that, didn't he  . . . . ?)  - - or
3.  Have the Utah AG's office pay him for the spectacular work he did for it.

I vote for number 3.  Is there a fourth option?

Oh Happy Day!

Yesterday we learned that Federal Judge Dee Benson issued his ruling in the FLDS UEP trust case.  May I say that this was the most significant event (in the polygamy world) since the victims of the 1953 raid were returned to their homes, or since the 439 YFZ ranch children were allowed to return home.

I can't help but smile, because Judge Benson was strident in his criticism of the state's attorneys and their pathetic inability to provide a decent legal argument as to why the state should have invaded a church and confiscated its property.  I think my greatest satisfaction comes from thinking about Brute Wisass and how he told the FLDS people he was their S.O.B. (State Ordained Bishop).  He acted like he was God's gift to the people - a great savior, yet he was smug, arrogant and stubborn.  He appeared to care only for himself and a few cronies.  Payback's a bishop !!!!

It is almost mind-boggling to think of the defeat of Wisass and the Fooles. I hear rumors that Wisass wants to appeal, but one bright observer asked, "With whose money?"

I note that there are new allegations of child-trafficking across the Canadian border. I guess we have to wait for evidence of you-know-what (penetration, conception, pregnancy etc.) to corroborate or dismiss the rumors. I sense that many ambitious folks will try to leverage this matter into more political capital.  My fear is that it is always about selfish and ulterior motives, not the welfare of the people. Sadly, many will quickly forget the rapid rise and fall of Wisass and how he impaled himself on the deceptively sharp stake of the anti-polygamy movement.  Many will follow in his tragic footsteps because they have long forgotten the liberty aspirations of their pilgrim ancestors.

I'm not saying that polygamists are perfect, but targeting them to impose patronizing intervention or busybody interference is never right.  There are some who would say that the Amish are abusing their children because they do not let them play video games.  The only way to rid America of the peculiar and mystifying traditions of the Amish is to wipe them all out.  They are allowed to survive because they bring in tourist dollars.  Modern LDS demagogues secretly love our region's polygamists because they make them appear and feel clean and righteous (by contrast).

It is ironic that Benson's ruling appeared at the same time as a fairly disturbing revelation from the twin border towns (that several prominent leaders are being expelled).  I don't know the details of the situation, but anything that can help people not to put their "trust in the arm of flesh" is a good thing.  Like it or not, the banks and their armies seem not to want to ignore this quiet remnant in the Rockies, so perhaps our dramas will only escalate.  One day we may want to link arms and collaborate for survival's sake.  Priesthood lineages and leadership are supremely important, but their ostensible significance may wane in a time of global war and hunger.

I think now is a time for much prayer in behalf of the FLDS people that they can have (not just their UEP Trust but also) their peace of mind and stability restored (but always in keeping with true principles of liberty and compassion).

Gaddafi's dictatorial example appears to be a painfully and ironically bad one.  He was recently heard calling his people "rats" and promising to "kill" them.

BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES !!!!

He Gets It, He Really Gets It!

The UEP trust controversy surfaced again a couple of times this week - first in the Utah Supreme Court (some FLDS bishops want to be intervenors in trust issues) and secondly in the local federal District Court with Judge Dee Benson (the FLDS want to reverse Judge Lintbag's decision to rewrite/reform the UEP trust).

I'm going to distill this topic down to the simplest possible element. WHY? because I understand that that is what Judge Benson did (in Federal Court) yesterday. Apparently the government (defense in the case = Shields, Jensen, and Richards) tried (for hours) to defend the wisdom of Judge Diseased Lintbag's actions:

"She had no choice"
"She did what she thought was best"
"No FLDS person protested the reformation"
"It's not healthy for the FLDS to honor their leaders' inspiration"
"We couldn't let Warren Jeffs control the trust; he's bad!"
"We couldn't let those poor, poor people lose their homes"
"We had to protect the disaffected ex-members"
"Poor Bruce Wisan needs a paycheck"

Arguing for the Plaintiffs (FLDS people), Judge Benson reiterated 100 times that, despite the fact that the State had a duty to go in and protect this (charitable) trust from doom and destruction (threatened by the Hischers and the Fooles), it did not have a Constitutional right to barge in and start controlling everything else about the trust, even to the point of changing the very founding language of the trust, removing its religious intents, and selling off big chunks of it to put ill-gotten lucre in Wisass's pocket. Judge Benson argued that Judge Lintbag should not have gotten her dirty fingers into this pie in the first place. He argued that, if all of Lintbag's overreaching interference constituted a breach of the people's Constitutional, First-Amendment "Free Exercise" rights, then the whole thing has to be re-wound - Laches or no Laches.

The A.G. attorneys kept trying to say that Judge Lintbag had no choice but to do what she did, and Judge Benson kept saying that it doesn't really matter one teensy weensy little bit what she thought was in the best interests of those poor, beleaguered, criminal polygamists, if what she did was JUST PLAIN DOWNRIGHT VIOLATIVE OF THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS.

I think he gets it - he really really gets it. Maybe Lintbag can now reimburse all those poor, poor people who have suffered loss.

SHURTLEFF'S WAR

If I hyper-reacted every time somebody on the Internet was wrong about something, - - well, you know. . . .

I can't resist this one, though. Today I read a preview of a new book on the following website. The author is Debra Weyermann. I haven't seen the book yet, so I don't know whether to be glad that somebody finally exposed Shurtleff's blatant, self-serving agenda, or to laugh at the hysterical assertions purportedly made in the book. My two-bit comments are inserted in ALL CAPS and [ . . . . ] brackets.

"The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has been notorious for more than a century. [NOT SURE HOW, SINCE IT WAS ONLY FOUNDED IN THE LATE 1980's.] Though its core tenant [IT'S "TENET", MY DEAR] of embracing multiple wives is illegal in every state [NO, IT'S NOT, YOU DIMWIT!], the sect flourished undeterred throughout the American west, Canada and Mexico [WHERE IN MEXICO?!], amassing enormous wealth even as its membership subsisted on tens of millions of welfare dollars [WHAT PROOF DOES SHE HAVE OF THIS?]. The public saw FLDS victims only sporadically when they escaped the sect with terrible stories of incest, rape, young girls battered bloody [NAME TWO BLOODY, BATTERED FLDS GIRLS, YOU IDIOT!!] for refusing to marry old men and even murder. Yet authorities intimidated by FLDS's substantial block[SIC] vote and fearful of becoming the target of religious bigotry accusations refused to act. It seemed FLDS was invincible, until Mark Shurtleff was elected Utah's attorney general in 2000. A Mormon himself, Shurtleff engaged in no hand wringing over the religious rights [NO, HE'S NOT A FAN OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT] of a sect he considered a criminal cult. Using dazzling [I'M NOT DAZZLED] legal maneuvers, audacious persuasion and plain brute force [NO KIDDING !!!], Shurtleff faced down FLDS "blood oath" death threats and the powers of the status quo as he took the group apart piece by piece [I MUST HAVE MISSED THE TAKING APART STUFF]. His victories convinced the authorities in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico [NEW MEXICO !!!???], Colorado, Nevada and even Canada that tackling FLDS did not have to be a pipe dream as they joined Shurtleff's innovative and mostly [YEAH, NOT-COMPLETELY-]legal crusade. Today FLDS's $120 million trust has been seized and liquidated [WHEN WAS IT LIQUIDATED?], its businesses auctioned off, its school districts and police forces dismantled, its property dispersed and its leaders jailed. In SHURTLEFF'S WAR, award-winning journalist and author Debra Weyermann reveals the powerful, unknown [YEP, I KNEW NOTHING BEFORE THIS BOOK!] story of a man who risked everything [EXCEPT HIS POLITICAL CAREER] to do what was right [HOW WAS IT RIGHT ???]. A legal thriller, a detective story and an action-laced gambit, SHURTLEFF'S WAR is also the portrait of a complicated [NOW, THAT'S A EUPHEMISM !!!] man who defied [DEFIED !!!! - YOU MEAN "OBEYED"] his own church and state government to put an end to a sect (WHERE DID IT END ???] that has dotted American history with murder [WHO MURDERED WHOM IN SHORT CREEK?] and scandal for 100 years."

I think Debra Weyermann's middle name must be Krakauer.

Finally, I am including this LINK to a video made by Mark Shurtleff, where he makes an impassioned plea for the release of Warren Jeffs, arguing that Warren is just as much a man, just as worthy of full citizenship as he, Shurtleff is. He urges the disadvantaged to come together and use "the system" to fight for justice. Maybe you'll see the irony, too.

I wish that when I get to the pearly gates I could bring with me a book detailing my war on the Saints and on the everlasting doctrines restored by Joseph Smith . . . . .

Funding Terrorism

In the titanic and cosmic war between those who wish to live by " . . . every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God" (including plural marriage commandments) and those who hate them, we occasionally see money change hands. Noteworthily, some years ago, by way of its representative, Elder Alexander Morrison, the LDS Church donated tens of thousands of dollars to Tapestry Of/Against Polygamy, ostensibly to help stamp out apostate polygamists. My guess is that the money went into the pockets of the organization's leaders. I read yesterday of another instance of fiscal aggression. The Presbyterian Church USA just donated $40,000 to an anti-polygamy group to provide help to women and children "transitioning out of the polygamist culture."

http://www.fox13now.com/news/kstu-church-donation-for-ex-polygamist-help,0,4286785.story

Maybe I'm all wet, but I am more inclined to believe that the mission of the anti-polygamy hate groups is to make war on Fundamentalist Mormons and to do everything possible to lure people out of the culture. It isn't politically correct to "lure" people out of the black or Latino cultures, so why is it okay to attempt to do so with plural families?

It is very easy to say, "Oh, we just want to help these poor, poor people," but isn't that what Texas wanted to do with the YFZ Ranch residents? I'm with the government and I'm here to help you (with tanks and sharpshooters).

From what I've heard, there are organizations already in place whose goal is to provide private and public resources to people from and within the fundamentalist culture - organizations which do not want to turn challenged individuals into anti-polygamy poster children to use as pawns in an anti-polygamy campaign. Why cannot the Presbyterian Church give $40,000 to the Family Support Center to enable more needy families to get the help they need, without requiring them to renounce their religion?

It always seems ironic to me that liberal Feminazis clamor for the right of women to choose for themselves, while requiring them to choose only what the Feminazis want for them, so, if a woman chooses an honorable husband who already has seven loving wives, then that woman is brainwashed and misguided and needs to be re-brainwashed.

When the State of Utah and the Mormon Church crafted the 1953 Short Creek raid, they also choreographed the transplanting of dozens of formerly healthy, happy women and children into LDS homes in Mesa, Arizona - presumably in a effort to re-program (= brainwash) them. Recently, another polygamy help group ushered several disaffected fundamentalist women and children into "mainstream" society, but not without vigorously working to convert them to a "mainstream" church.

This kind of crap is reminiscent of the Spanish Inquisition, where the ones with money and power preached mandatory "conversion" and demonized those who would not cooperate. In the Unanimous Declaration, we find the word, "UNALIENABLE". It talks about how certain of our God-given rights cannot be "a-lien-ed", or liened away (it has NOTHING to do with aliens !!!). Since our nation changed hands in 1868, we have become corporate socialists who have forgotten what a republic is. A democracy is like three wolves and a pig arguing over what to eat for lunch. We no longer know the meaning of free agency and liberty. Some people take pleasure in applying duress to get others to do what they want them to do. That is self-serving and devilish.

Look at Bruce Wisan, the Mormon Stake President. He knows what's best for the residents of Short Creek. He charges them millions for giving them the "help" they don't need.

I have no trouble figuring out why many women dread the prospect of plural marriage - they know that they would not do well sharing a husband, regardless of how wonderful he is. What I do find puzzling is the surprising number of men (like Bruce Wisan, Monte Stewart, Ron Barton, David Leavitt, George Smith, etc.) who deeply despise polygamy. Is it because, deep down inside, they know they have already failed the morality exam, and can never qualify to live the exalting Principle? I'm telling you - anti-polygamy animus is supernatural and devilish.

Prove me wrong.