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