Lost Boys

I have been trying to get my head around a tired old controversy. I don't like to comment about something if I cannot make some sense out of the matter in my own brain. In the tireless crusade against Mormon fundamentalism, one popular rallying cry deals with the allegedly "lost" boys of the Arizona Strip.

I believe that Utah's public officials and the supposedly "lost" boys themselves already genuinely resent the "Lost Boy" term. I actually resent the whole concept. I do think I have figured out why the whole controversy is cheap and over-inflated.

First, however, I cannot resist mentioning that Silsby lady from Boise. I mean the one who enlisted a bunch of her fellow church-members to race down to earthquake-stricken Haiti to scoop up a bus-load of cute little black kids (it didn't go well . . . . ). Some people lust after kids. Some are imprisoned. Some are just busybody do-gooders. Either way, one trait in human nature drives some people to want to "rescue" children from family situations they see as unworthy. They think it is right to confiscate the children and place them by force in a new environment. That Silsby lady reminds me of some Utah and Texas folk.

When the pilgrims showed up on our eastern shores, they formed closed, faith-based communities. I mean they blended religion with geography. All the folk in the village were of largely like mind and went to the same Sunday services. Dissension was looked upon with disapproval.

So lets look at the hue and cry over the "Lost Boys" of Colorado City and Hildale. I don't know any of them, but I am sure about one thing. There are two ways to become a "Lost Boy [or girl]":

1. Conduct yourself in a manner which is utterly unacceptable to your family - perhaps to the extent that it is no longer appropriate or safe (considering other siblings) for you to remain in your home. In this case you will probably end up being asked to find alternative accommodations.

2. Decide that you are not ideologically in tune with the secular or religious guidelines set forth for your faith-based community. In this case, you will probably end up wanting to seek alternative accommodations.

So now back to the ideological poachers - there seems to be no shortage of crusaders who want to swoop in and rescue you. My point is that ungovernability and disaffection among youth are an aspect of human life in all parts of the globe. It's just infinitely easier to criticize a faith-based community for challenges among its youth when that community is concentrated in one geographic location. It's also convenient and tantalizing when you hate that community's religion. However, when you look at the two scenarios mentioned above, each has complete legitimacy, and for both parties. Should a religious congregation not have the right to maintain homogeneity and order in its society? Should people not have the right to leave a church and choose a new one (or none)?

This may seem foreign to the average cosmopolitan, but the united states of America were not established to build Cosmopolis, they were established to ensure Constitutional and religious freedoms to Christian townships and their residents.

Our modern, maritime society has played Robin Hood, confiscating from the have's to cater to the have-not's. Welfare entitlements purchase votes at elections. Society cannot quite decide whether to besiege the FLDS for encouraging their young people to stay or for coaxing them to leave, yet it anxiously awaits the opportunity to gather them up and re-program them (with promises of soda pop and candy). Let me venture to say that the whole "Lost Boy" charade has been mostly about political fodder and self-aggrandizing kid-poachers.

I want also to add the post-script that this argument about "not enough girls to go around" is absurd. How many 21st century men are clamoring to get married (or are honorable and worthy enough to be married)? One of the biggest problems the LDS Church faces is the extraordinarily large number of spinsters and divorcees.

With all due respect to those young men and women who have become displaced and needy, I say that exploiting the disaffected for political or personal gain is reprehensible (and Ruth Stubbs would agree).

Bill Medvecky makes some good points

I was reading the FREE THE FLDS CHILDREN website today and found the following post from Bill Medvecky. There are also several intelligent comments below his post.

http://www.flds.ws/2010/02/17/when-is-a-co-operative-not-a-co-operative/

I have noticed that the Utah Supreme Court has a handful of FLDS cases in its lap, and much of Christendom waits with bated breath (or is it baited hook ???) for the decisions.

I know it's cheap, but I am tickled to watch what this august panel will do. I read with great gusto the language of the majority in the Rodney Holm (State v. Holm) case. One of the justices (I can't remember if it was Wilkins or Nehring) launched into a bizarre diatribe about how he would never want to be seen to be worrying about public backlash, but he didn't dare be the first judge to legitimize fundamentalist Mormon polygamy when so many people cringe and shudder at the practice.

In my experience (and I don't know which ones of the Justices are card-carrying LDS) the anti-polygamy sentiment in the mother Church is institutional and hard-coded in the DNA. The message to Latter-day Saints, whether overt or subliminal, is - "We hate polygamy/ists so deeply, that, if you get a chance to do some harm to one of them - get him or her fired, get them out of the neighborhood, avoid associating with them, etc., - then do it, and all will be well with you at the last day."

So, back to the Utah supremes - how should they rule? In the Warren Jeffs "rape-as-an-accomplice" appeal, Wally Bugden made enough brilliant arguments (about the absurdity of the conviction), that any self-respecting Constitutionalist would acquit Warren. However, there is the sticky part. If you vote for Jeffs, you are voting against Monson, irrespective of the Constitution and good legal principles.

In the question of whether District Court Judge Disease Lintbag did the right thing when she corrupted the 1998 UEP trust intents and installed Bruise (LDS) Weaselin to plunder the trust and besiege the beneficiaries, - again, it is sticky. Some would say that the beneficiaries are foreclosed from protesting because they did not do it soon enough. That is kind of like a passport for Shurtless and Weasan to trample on the FLDS ad libitum/ad infinitum. When the A.G. alleges abuse on the part of the UEP trustee, he can do whatever and whenever. When the FLDS people point out the hubris and barbarism of the "S.O.B." Fiduciary, they are told they are out of time and out of luck.

The third of these cases to be adjudicated involves whether an attorney for the earlier incarnation of the UEP trust may maintain his attorney/client confidentiality privilege in the face of Weaselin's demand to invade it after it has been reworked beyond recognition.

How the majority will rule and write may hinge on their fealty to the Mother-Ship or on their allegiance to to the God-given principles of the Constitution, but the beautiful thing is that they have to SAY SOMETHING. They have to come up with some kind of rationale (however contorted) to explain why they are ruling against the FLDS (if they do). They cannot simply parrot the words of Justice Morrison Waite, who wrote that "Polygamy has always been odious among the northern and western nations of Europe . . " http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/reynoldsvus.html

Sincerely, I wish that these decisions were not so fraught with political and ecclesiastical implications, but I do pray that common sense will prevail (as it clearly did in Justice Durham's stinging rebuke of the majority in Holm) - - GO CHRISTINE !!!!!, (and GO Mike Z. !!!). Plus, I pray that, despite the individual failings and imperfections of FLDS members, the people and courts of the state of Utah will realize that bullying defenseless citizens will not accelerate their journey towards glory in this life or the next.

Don't Be FLDS !!!!!!

I have been wracking my brains for a good while now to understand what is wrong with being an FLDS member. I mean, the way the media presents it, it must not be fun to be FLDS; it must not be financially rewarding or intellectually liberating. However, today it finally hit me, and everything fell into place. Now I understand what the problem is and I can honestly say to any enquirer -"DON'T BE FLDS!" Here is why:

If you are FLDS, you will not be entitled to:

Freedom of Speech
Freedom of Assembly
Freedom of Religion
Freedom of Association
Freedom from unlawful searches and seizures

You will not be entitled to:

Believe what you want
Follow the guidance of a Prophet (like LDS people can)
Own a business
Relocate to a different state
Raise your children according to your religion
Love several partners
Wear your favorite clothes without getting laughed at
Enjoy attorney-client privilege
Get your stuff back after the government steals it
Use a cell-phone
Have your day in court
Own a trust
Hold public office
Be a judge or a police officer
Adopt children
Build a temple and protect it
Have "all things in common"
Home-school your children
Keep to yourself

It's a good thing there were no FLDS at the time the Constitution was framed - or else there would have been a phrase in it such as, "This Constitution affords limitations on government powers and assures God-given protections to all except FLDS members."

Now you know why you wouldn't want to be FLDS. Just be glad you are an American and you live in a country that promises "Liberty and Justice for most".

The Wall Is Cracking

GRITS FOR BREAKFAST has an intelligent discussion brewing over Mohave County Judge Steven Conn's decision to accept the stipulation of both the defense and the prosecution in Warren Jeffs' Arizona case.

http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2010/02/az-judge-suppresses-evidence-from.html

Bottom line: the mountain of evidence submitted by Michael Piccarreta alleging that the YFZ Ranch raid court orders and evidence seizures were illegal has gotten the attention of at least one judge. One would think that many humans in public service have an instinctive animus towards the practitioners of plural marriage. Look at the Rozita Swinton prosecution. In a multitude of states, the prosecution and law enforcement community is collaborating to build a wall of silence and obfuscation. A vast array of polygamy-haters is doing its best to keep the wall from cracking.

"The FLDS are grooming young boys to become sex abusers"

"The babies (male and female) are at risk of imminent physical harm"

"FLDS leaders systematically fracture the bones of all the children"

"At least 25 girls under the age of 15 were pregnant"

"All YFZ Ranch residents were residents of a single family dwelling"

"The FLDS religion (Mormonism) constitutes a culture of abuse"

"Pubic hairs were discovered in FLDS beds"

"The FLDS plan to take over the political machinery in Texas"

"FLDS marriage ceremonies are inherently criminal"

"Dale Evans Barlow can be in Arizona and Texas at the same time"

Come on, people! If you embrace this hysteria, you are like the Judeans of 33 A.D. who lusted for the crucifixion of the Nazarene for performing too many miracles and for catching the Pharisees in their false doctrines. As one blogger put it, Warren Jeffs was probably the real culprit in the Kennedy assassination.

I admit, there are a few people I passionately dislike. However, it is entirely beneath me to stoop to using legal machinations unjustly to make their lives miserable and confiscate their children.

So, here's what I think: the wall is cracking. Barbarous Wart-hog can't go on forever punishing the FLDS at the expense of justice. Judge Steven Conn has seen the light. The Texas Appeals courts can see the light. The raid was a shameless cabal. The conspirators/(-trices) muddied the evidence and lied about their collusion. You simply cannot cover up this much dirtyness forever. This is the stuff of a good Eastwood movie. How many movies have you seen where the corrupt government official commits evil and fraud, and the poor protagonist(s) struggles for 95 minutes to expose the dastardly deceit? It's formulaic. The tide is turning (just like the support for Obaminacare). Pretty soon, the perpetrators will be running for deeper cover and pointing fingers at each other.

I'm not calling for my gracious readers to revere me or Warren Jeffs (or any mortal man, for that matter), I'm simply saying that we should esteem justice, not lies. The Constitution was set aside in the 1860's, but that is no excuse for us to trample on its precepts.

Payback's a Bishop

I want to offer an opinion of a somewhat Karmic nature. The sub-heading caption of my blog suggests that there is a force in the Cosmos that deeply resents plural marriage and its practitioners. That force is so adamant - it would seem that it ought ultimately to prove victorious. Nevertheless, the universe has a way of exacting balance out of all the entropy.

Wally Offal caught the disease - I mean the "polygamy-hater's" disease. He couldn't sleep at night until he got a kilo of flesh from those filthy plyg' pedophiles in Bountiful. He prosecutor shopped. Judge Stromberg-Stein caught him red-handed. She openly and publicly ruled that Offal abused his office. Little mention was made of the months and years of financial loss, stress, torment, anguish, fear, frustration, harassment and wasted time inflicted on Winston Blackmore and his family (and on Jimmy Oler and his family, too) because Weasly Offal had to do the dirty work of Bramham and Mereska. So, today, we learned the following:

Polygamist leader suing B.C. government

Winston Blackmore says rights were violated

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/polygamist-leader-suing-bc-government/article1430320/

I applaud Winston for his courage and indignation. The Canadian legal machinery made a huge gaffe and has been found guilty (not unlike Texas). I pray that Winston will be able to recoup every penny that this orchestrated assault on him has cost.

You see, folks, mercy cannot rob justice. Many would say that it is Winston who should be disciplined - not the B.C. government. However, I expect that few of them can unequivocally state what specific harm Winston has done to them - so let him who is without spot cast the "first stone". I don't believe in abortion, but would it be right for me to form a crusading pro-life organization to stamp out or punish those individuals who commit abortions?

If the B.C. government targets and victimizes a religious minority for political or purely sanctimonious purposes, it will inevitably face retribution (remember Governor Howard Pyle of Arizona). Thank you, Winston, for standing up to their abuse.

Perhaps Jimmy will add his voice to the complaint. Stay tuned, America - those divine balancing forces are inexorable.

Rozita Swinton - More Sleaze

I have to give praise to Modern Pharisee for his impassioned indignation over the recent Rozita Swinetown shenanigans. Follow this link -

http://hughmcbryde.blogspot.com/2010/01/rozita-swinton-pleads-guilty.html

Not unlike the PR machinery of the Mother Church, the sleazy West Texas legal machinery is in heightened panic management mode, trying to head off the enemy at every turn. The enemy in this case is the highly questionable conduct of Rozita Swinebag and the potentially embarrassing fallout from a revelation that she was, in fact, a co-conspiratrice. Maybe they just don't want her to start "singing". Just think of the tales she could tell. Dirty, dirty, dirty!

This is sticky for Texas. You would think that Texas would view the equation like this -

Rozita master-minded this vicious anti-FLDS allegation and and single-handedly triggered the uncontrolled wasting of twenty million dollars of Tex-payer money. So let's throw the book at her !!! Put her away for twenty (or 99) years !!! It seems, however, that Texas and Colorado are doing everything they can do to help Rozita to ride off into her blissful, twisted sunset.

Here's the problem as I see it -

If Rozita is just a poor, innocent, mentally unbalanced retard, then WHO REALLY DID THE MASTER-MINDING of the YFZ invasion? You can't have it both ways, Texas.

If Rozita was just an unwitting pawn, then was it Intestinal Flora who set things in motion? or Brooks Long?, Sheriff Doran?, Barbara Walther?, Hildy Harferbrain?, Marleigh Meisner?, Carey Cockroach?, Diversity Foundation?, or all of the above?

I quote from an article in today's Salt Lake Tribune -

Lawyer: No Colorado crime in Texas polygamy calls:
--
* * * * * "Kemp [Texas Ranger Philip -] also said that a review of Swinton's phone records showed she made numerous calls to the NewBridge crisis center in late March [2008]. That review also showed Swinton placed several calls to anti-polygamy activist Flora Jessop and a Washington state shelter around the same time. "

What creature runs for cover when the sun is starting to shine?

Swine Flu Crisis Alert

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.

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

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