Sunday, April 20, 2008

Quid Spucatum Tauri Est? (Second Update, April 22)

















This is the new "normal": A teenage skateboarder maneuvers through a pack of paramilitary thugs practicing urban warfare tactics.

In the Texas government's war against the women and children of the FLDS Church, Colorado Springs resident Rozita Swinton, a 33-year-old woman (a precinct delegate for the El Paso County Democratic Party who intends to vote for Barack Obama at the state convention in May), is "Curveball." That was the code-name of a veteran con artist whose patently false intelligence provided the pretext for a the Iraq invasion. In this case, "Curveball" was "Sarah," the purported 16-year-old FLDS polygamist wife who called a domestic abuse hotline and set in motion the invasion of the sect's YFZ Ranch commune in El Dorado.


And once the government that carried out the assault had what it needed -- first, access to the children, and then physical possession of the same -- it blithely disavowed any need to obey the law and demonstrated its disinclination to "re-litigate" the issue. Oh, yes, the initial raid was based on an affidavit containing third-party hearsay from a bogus source, but that is of little moment in post-Constitutional Amerika.


It doesn't really matter how or why the original raid took place, y'see. What really matters now is that the effort succeed. Now that the FLDS Children are in state custody, everybody simply has to support the government's efforts to see that they receive the care they need. After all, our protectors would have taken such a drastic step as the seizure of all 416 children unless it had been absolutely necessary. What else could be done when a 16-year-old "plural wife" is being beaten and abused...


Oh, yeah. That's right -- there was no 16-year-old "Sarah."


But-- who cares?. Taking the kids was the right thing to do anyway, under the principle of preemptive warfare. Since this kind of abuse may have happened, or may happen someday, we might as well yank the kids out today. Some might not approve of the way this was done, but everybody must agree that the FLDS kids are better off now than they were living in their insular little cult.

Such are the blessings of living under a quasi-totalitarian Regime presided over by benevolent and far-seeing rulers such as ours: Their intentions are invariably pure, and their prescriptions inevitably work out for the best. We simply must have faith that the humanitarian violence the Regime inflicted on the FLDS in El Dorado will be just as successful as the even larger exercise in applied compassion that we call the Iraq War.


From the available photographic evidence, the FLDS children are healthy, active, and untouched by the modern plague of childhood obesity. They were schooled at home and spent most of each day involved in vigorous physical labor and energetic recreation. Their diet was barren of processed foods and consisted of such fare as home-grown vegetables and bread made from freshly ground wheat.

"That's no way for a woman to dress here in Texas!" For appropriate couture, see the photo below.


Now, like the Branch Davidian children "rescued" before them (prior to the immolation of nearly that entire sect by the FBI), the FLDS children are free to enjoy the benefits of our homogenized corporatist society. They'll be wired in to the society of unlimited sensate distraction -- television, video games, My Space, and so on.


They'll be fed a proper diet of pre-packaged food products and sugar-suffused beverages. They'll not be required to work in gardens, build fences, or otherwise apply themselves in such exploitative labor that would have left them with well-developed muscles and an equally developed work ethic. Now they can be harmonized down to the norm of our sedentary, passive consumer collective. In short order they can be assimilated by the government school system, where they will be purged of retrograde ideas and refractory attitudes and prepared for proper service to the State.


Rather than being groomed to be predatory polygamists, the FLDS boys can now be preyed upon by military flesh-peddlers desperate to fill the ranks of the Empire's armies of conquest and occupation. Why, I'll bet that as arrangements are made to distribute the FLDS children around the country, recruiters are preparing to descend on them wherever they land.


Think of the opportunities those children would have missed, confined as they were to a remote faith community and insulated from the effects of our degenerate imperial culture! In a few years, instead of assuming the responsibilities of raising and providing for families of their own (within the admittedly aberrant teachings of their sect), the FLDS boys will be given the opportunity to exterminate Muslim families very much like their own in Iraq, Iran, and wherever else the almighty State choses to send them.


No longer will the prospect of polygamy becloud the future for the FLDS girls. Thanks to the benevolent coercion exercised by the State of Texas, those girls will be free to emulate the Lone Star State's racoon-eyed exemplars of modern Christian womanhood -- the Simpson sisters, Jessica and Ashlee.


Oh, sure: Jessica's determination to market herself to the one-handed reader set destroyed her marriage and has left her a kind of Ronin among pop culture courtesans. And Ashlee, an alleged singer whose talents run more toward pantomime, recently announced that she is enceinte without benefit of marriage vows.


What really matters here is that the Simpson sisters aren't polygamous "wives" in some rustic fundamentalist cult. They're the sterling offspring of a former Baptist minister. Oh, I grant that Joe Simpson has displayed a certain skeevy interest in his eldest daughter's mammalial allotment (or "suckers," as he so inelegantly referred to them) -- but he's just, ah, pumping up his most profitable assets.


Down Texas way, fine upstandin' Christian-folk know that it's nothing more than cynical flesh-peddling to raise a daughter to be the second, third, or seventh "wife" of a Mormon polygamist. That's no way to do it -- there's no money to be made. No, the right way to do it is to get them a record deal and a reality show and parade them -- for money -- in various stages of undress in front of concupiscent strangers, the way Joe Simpson did.


The FLDS children living at YFZ Ranch had been denied the blessings of our degenerate late-imperial culture. Blessed be the Regime, and all of its appendages, for rescuing those children from such cruel social isolation!


Update: Unfathomable Cruelty

The Texas Department of Child Abduction, sometimes wittily referred to as the Department of Protective and Family Services, has announced that as soon as it has extracted DNA samples from the FLDS child captives they will be placed in foster care. In many instances this will require tearing newborn or nursing infants out of the arms of their mothers:

"Some FLDS mothers with nursing babies and toddlers may be unaware that they will be forced to leave their children behind once Texas officials gather the DNA samples from them. `I don't know how many mothers have babies, but I would say there are dozens of mothers who are nursing little ones,' said Monica Jessop, whose five children between the ages of 3 and 11 are in state custody. `I'm sure they don't know they will be separated.'"


As with every other act of government coercion, this unspeakably cruel crime will be accompanied by the threat of lethal violence.


"Oh, but surely the kind people carrying out this directive would never threaten, injure, or kill an unarmed mother!" some would complain.


Such people are wrong, of course, since this has already happened.


The above-quoted Mrs. Jessop has described an attempt she made yesterday with a group of mothers to visit their children, who are being held prisoner at the San Angelo Coliseum. They were -- to use a phrase made offensive by its dishonest delicacy -- "turned away by law enforcement." Which is to say that they were threatened with lethal violence by the State's rented thugs: "They told us if we went on that property again we would be arrested."


To get a sense of the pure, unalloyed evil being wrought by "law enforcement" in this matter, we turn to the indispensable blog published by Brooke Adams of the Salt Lake Tribune. Scroll down to the April 15 entry "The Women Speak," and you'll get the context of the scene depicted in the photo found to the left.


"We watched as this woman was greeted by younger women, all hugging her, obviously going to her for comfort, crying," writes Adams. "From afar, we had no idea who they were or what they were doing or what the emotions playing out were."


The name of the woman being embraced is Janet.


"She has five children in state custody, three girls and two boys. The girls are ages 9, 13 and 16. The boys are 11 and 15. This is what she said about that moment: "I was in the shelter and had girls in the other one. They told me my two girls were running for me and I went across to hug them. Instantly I had eight police men around me. I was just hugging them."


These women and children have neither been accused of a crime, nor convicted of one. Yet they are being treated like inmates in one of the nouveau gulags called Supermax Prisons.


It occurs to me that this is the kind of situation in which a writ of habeas corpus would be appropriate... if, that is, the habeas corpus guarantee still existed in this once-free country.


Second Update: When Prayer Is Ruled Impermissible

There are ironic benefits to be enjoyed whenever the Regime displays its genuine nature. In the case of the abduction of the 437 FLDS children (not 416, as previously reported; the diligent child-nappers didn't originally provide an accurate count), we see the edifying spectacle of a judge ruling that unsupervised prayer is impermissible:

"Child protective services workers denied that they were eavesdropping on the FLDS women involved [in twice-daily prayer sessions with their captive children], but attorneys for Texas child protective services expressed concerns about improper communications between mothers and children that could occur in private prayer times, which could affect pending investigations."

Given that none of these captives has been charged with a crime, the state has no right or authority to hold them, much less to regulate or ration their communications in any way. But as noted above, spontaneous expressions of maternal love immediate attract the malign attention of, and provoke threats of violence from, "law enforcement" operatives. It's not difficult to imagine how the official eavesdroppers would react to imprecatory prayers.

Judge Walther, seeking to devise a compromise, asked if local LDS officials could be deputized as prayer monitors. This prompted from Charles L. Webb, president of the local LDS stake (an administrative unit akin to a diocese), a rendition of the LDS leadership's refrain: We have nothing to do with those people: "They think we're the same ones because we use the Book of Mormon. I'm dumbfounded they would suggest that."

Oh, for the love of Nephi, Charles, man up and do some version of the right thing. Stop acting like a corporate shill. If you don't have the requisite anatomy to condemn what has been done to the FLDS mothers and children, then at least do something to mitigate the circumstances of those innocent people, instead of dutifully waiting for permission from PR-obsessed people in Salt Lake City.

Yesterday I suggested that somebody file a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of the abductees and detained mothers. Apparently, Judge Walther has received received thirty-five habeas corpus filings. If attorneys for the victims press this issue, I expect that child "protection" officials will eventually argue that the Great Writ is officially a dead letter in this country as of October 2006. Child-snatchers have never been impeded by any due process considerations, of course, but it would be somewhat useful to have Texas state officials admit, on the record, that the fundamental Anglo-Saxon due process guarantee has been abolished.



On sale now!












Dum spiro, pugno!

70 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm quite illiterate. What does the opening latin question mean?

Jerri Lynn Ward said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Britney Spears, as did her unmarried pregnant sister who is a teen, grew up in a "Christian" home, in fact her mom's book on Christian child-rearing has been delayed from appearing on bookstore shelves due to the teen sister's pregnancy out of wedlock.

What the SYSTEM hates is any deviation from the good little cogs in the socialist machine type of citizen. CONSUME, OBEY. John Carpenter made a film about it, THEY LIVE.

What,exactly, are conservatives CONSERVING?

The SYSTEM is totally rotten and it bears poisonous fruit.

kopylopi said...

When I think of George W. Bush the following comes to mind. Perhaps it is extreme, but I cannot doubt that he derives some pleasure from his evil:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4859534056985449343&q=titus+andronicus+and+aaron&ei=u6MLSJLlDY32iQLTs9GjBA&hl=en

William N. Grigg said...

Anonymous @ 10:07 AM -- You're hardly illiterate, and my knowledge of Latin is spotty and derivative.

"Tauri" refers to a male bovine. "Spucatum" refers to the, ah, digestive residue of the same....

A Christian Prophet said...

The question is: what is really, really important?

I viewed the video exposing the drug-riddled Texas Foster Care system at:
http://dayofpraise.blogspot.com/

I have also read over 1,000 thought-provoking comments by outraged citizens at:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/free-the-innocent-flds

It seems this is huge historically.

reign of the skeevy said...

Love the snarky tone somewhere Mike Royko is flashing a big grin.
Some people might even wake up with a tone like that and we can't have that o well i'll crack open another tub of msg and have some poison tap water and see what's up with the paris/lindsey/britney underpants report (important stuff)

dixiedog said...

Good coverage, Will, of this State-sponsored kidnapping of the FLDS children, all 400+ of them.

I've come to see extremes in this culture (sigh, no surprise I reckon) as I tend to in other arenas as well. That is, one seems to have to be a "power-monger" personality type or a "doormat" personality type at the other extreme. The folk in the middle simply get beat down by both extremes.

The power-monger is successful in this culture (as it defines it, of course) because they're arrogant, self-centered control-freaks who are most thrilled in their uncanny (to me it's simply mind-boggling) ability to control other people (doormats) by whatever, often trivial, means to obtain, possess, and keep at any cost what they desire in life.

On the other extreme are the ubiquitous doormats, who are also successful in this culture (again, in the way it so defines "success"). Those kind of folk (probably the majority of the populace) are not meek as I understand it. Instead, they're rather obedient slaves to those power-monger personality types in virtually a literal sense to also obtain, possess, and keep at any cost what they, in turn, desire in life.

BTW, this is not meekness in a biblical sense as I take it. Also, the irony of ironies in my mind is that the doormats are also self-centered and arrogant!

One might ask at this point, "How could that be? I can imagine the former being as you describe in my mind, but the latter?? Come on! That just doesn't wash."

Sure it does; it makes perfect sense when you think on it a bit. I see blacks and whites (all races, ethnicities, and creeds in fact) who don't OWN any real assets whatsoever and who've never traveled much outside their crib zone, nevermind outside Amerika, and talk a lot of jive, yet they "meekly" cower in fear whenever the State comes calling. Many also work for that same State, not as a power-monger, but as a doormat who simply follows dictates w/o question of the power-mongers.

Then, there are the rest in the middle as I consider myself to be. I'm not either of those extremes; I'm in the middle on that spectrum. I loathe doormats and power-mongers. They're BOTH arrogant, self-centered and get what they want generally by dubious means; it's just by entirely different methodologies. The power-monger walks, stomps, and tramples figuratively or literally over others to gain while the doormat simply obeys the dictates of the former to likewise gain.

It's very difficult to be successful, either in a real sense or by the faux depraved cultural standard, in this culture when you hover around in the middle of that spectrum. The doormats hate you because they're fearful and the power-mongers, of course, certainly despise you because you won't willingly be their stomping rug of convenience.

I think this FLDS sect, as well as the Branch Davidians, and other non-culturally conforming communities tried earnestly to live in the middle of that spectrum. The problem is when you have wives, children (especially young children with their moldable minds) you become an irresistable target of the power-mongers and the doormats, of course, will be the ready and willing informers and assistants to help 'em string ya up.

The only reason I'm not a target, yet anyway, I believe is because I possess no children - future large sum tax-suppliers who would, without any intervention, well become independent thinkers with a great work-ethic and be industrious - rather than either future power-monger bureaucrats, ombuds(wo)men or, OTOH, simply gladly join the majority herd of doormats who simply follow any and all State-santioned scripts obediently and contentedly.

Nothing is gonna to change until the majority of citizens become non-dependents of the State AND are ready to genuinely sacrifice material possessions, jobs, even their own lives. That would've been extremely difficult even a few generations ago long before the mass culture became so vulgar and depraved, but today, judging by the cultural landscape, it's all but futile to expect it to reverse course at this very late stage.

dixiedog said...

BTW, Will, have you considered Haloscan commenting yet? You said some time ago when I initially inquired about before that you were, in essence, mulling over it.

You probably wouldn't have to moderate them to the level you are here. In any event, of course, you can also effortlessly delete unscrupulous and/or inappropriate comments from Haloscan as well.

William N. Grigg said...

D.D., the Haloscan issue is one of several things that got shoved to the back of the queue. I'll have to continue mulling, for now at least....

I really appreciate your detailed and insightful comments and earnestly hope that someday relatively soon you'll have the opportunity to share your wisdom with children of your own. I think you'd make a terrific dad.

Bob said...

Brilliant piece as usual, Will.

Anonymous said...

As I speculated last week, now genetic testing of the 416 children is underway. From BBC:

------------

A Texas judge has ordered that 416 children, removed from a polygamous breakaway Mormon sect by police, remain in state custody for genetic testing.

Welfare officers had told the judge they had been unable to determine which parents the children were related to. Child protection officials said group members were evasive when questioned, making it hard to determine exact parenthood, and that DNA testing was necessary.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7355779.stm

------------

This is a huge can of worms, in several ways:

1. Who gave consent to these DNA tests? Or are they being forcibly administered, the same week the fedgov announced they will forcibly take DNA samples from all arrestees? Is this mere coincidence?

2. Studies have shown that about 20% of children are not fathered by their nominal father. But most people would be horrified by the forcible intrusion of taking DNA tests to reveal cases of bastardy and cuckoldry.

3. Presumably, the state wants the DNA tests to demonstrate that the children are the product of polygamous and/or underage marriages. However, the results are unlikely to be so straightforward. A number of cross-couplings may have occurred, which could be shocking to all involved. Does the state have any right to pry into the genetic structure of families this way -- even unconventional, extended families?

Decades ago, when the U.S. constitution was in effect and defense lawyers (rather than plea bargainers) still existed, the Eldorado case might have provoked a judicial swatdown. Today, it is more likely to usher in a society resembling the 1997 movie, Gattaca. Imagine that within 72 hours after birth, each child's DNA must be submitted to the fedgov to obtain an SSN. Call it the "Eldorado rule" if you like.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gattaca

teacher.paris said...

Thank you for your coverage on this travesty.

Anonymous said...

I wasn't surprised to see that the sheriff's department used an A.P.C.
when rounding up the children. At least it wasn't an Bradley or M1 Abrams battle tank, preferred tools for violently intervening in the completely peaceful affairs of reclusive independent citizenry. No doubt, it was probaly paid for with a Homeland Security grant. Since the deputies appeared to be attired in only half-black uniforms, however, they lacked the full Waffen SS look currently considered quite stylish among law enforcement types.

DJ Jive's disco break beats said...

"You can't enslave a free man, the best you can do is kill him" R.A.Heinlein

Thinking Mama said...

I also read about the DNA testing. Supposedly, it was not only to confirm paternity, but to determine "if any sexual abuse took place." How dumb are people, really? Can sexual abuse be determined by DNA testing? And if the children aren't to be reunited with their parents, why test?

Could it have anything to do with the ominous "Newborn Screening Saves Lives" act, recently passed by both the House and Senate and sent to King Jorge's desk for his rubber stamp? This federally-funded program requires DNA from every newborn, with no opting out by parents.

Hmmmm. These two methods of DNA collection may just lead in the same Orwellian direction.

Anonymous said...

Regarding the DNA testing I have my own theory (and it is no more than that based on what I personally know of these agencies).

The DNA testing is a pre-requisite to establishing support orders. With over 400 kids in custody this should be good for somewhere between $250,000 - $500,000 per month directly from the parents and matching amounts from the feds.

A pretty good haul for a day's work huh? As always follow the money . . .

shabby resistance said...

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State." –Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda, 1933-1945

MOT said...

The wretched "Sheriff" of Midland County is no other than Gary Painter. A man that I'm ashamed to admit I voted for decades ago because at the time he was the "new man" prattling on about he was going to make things better. Oh yeah! He has been ensconced with his over sized glutamous maximus in the drivers seat ever since. The sad fact is that he had to have been asked or begging to send the military goods down there for whatever reason. I mean, for the love of God why would some dust driven flatlands of a town have any need for an APC? Or the armored goons riding it to boot? It's insane and yet again more good reasons for me and the family to have left that god forsaken town. I did leave a comment on the Sherrifs web site stating how ashamed I was of him, not that it would probably raise an overfed eyebrow from him, but it made me feel better.

https://www.co.midland.tx.us/sheriff/contact/

MOT said...

And another thing! (I sound like some cranky old man).... Just what in the world are they doing with DNA samples? If they can forcibly take such without parental consent then you can clearly see that they could forcibly grab such samples from anyone at any time should they be in the clutches of any governmental stooge.. i.e. school, military... whatever. We've heard people bitch and moan about "profiling" and here is a clear cut case of such. It's obviously being used to bolster their excuses for the raid to begin with but the implications and intentions go far deeper than that.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 5:32 AM says the DNA testing probably will lead to support orders. Yep, sounds right. But what if some of the DNA turns out not to belong to the targeted polygamist men? If the mothers refuse to reveal the identity of the "unknown fathers," then what will the state do?

Moreover ... can a biological father be forced to pay child support for a kid in foster care, with whom he has no visiting rights? Sounds like pure slavery.

Suspiciously, the MSM are all over the subject of DNA this week. For instance, today's WaPo article about DNA turning family members into unwitting snitches:

------------

Now, states are moving to conduct familial searches of criminal databases, looking for close-to-perfect matches with DNA from crime scenes. A partial match with a convicted criminal could implicate a brother or daughter or father of the convict. Such searches, advocates say, constitute a powerful law enforcement tool that, experts say, could increase by 40 percent the number of suspects identified through DNA.

The technique is arousing fierce objections from privacy advocates, who maintain that it turns family members into genetic informants without their knowledge or consent. They complain that it takes material collected for one purpose and uses it for another. And with the nation's DNA database disproportionately comprised of minority offenders, they say, it amounts to placing a class of Americans under greater scrutiny merely because their relatives have committed crimes.

http://tinyurl.com/443sg9

------------

Thanks, Thinking Mama, for the heads-up about the Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act. Practically all the Google search results are praise for the act, from the usual statist suspects. Here's one of the few comments outing the fact that they want to build a big, online DNA database:

http://tinyurl.com/3n777h

Put it all together, it seems the foundations for a universal DNA database are being laid. Highly-publicized cases such as the Eldorado FLDS are ideal for advancing the testing frontiers, since anti-Mormon and anti-polygamist sentiment makes it easier for the public to swallow the "iron fist" aspects of forced DNA testing on kidnapped children. UGH!

Anonymous said...

Anon 8:36 a.m.

My guess is that both mother and father are subject to a support order in this instance as the kids were removed from both parents.

And remember an order once in place creates debt which cannot be forgiven by the courts (indentured servitude) and subject to jailing for contempt for failure/inability to pay (debtor's prison). Further more, once an order is in place and a delenquiency occurs then the welfare folks have all sorts of administrative tricks they can use without ever going before a judge (property liens, property seziure, revocation of personal/professional licenses). Follow the money . . .

It is a horrible system - 'in the childs best interests' my backside.

John Polomny said...

As I have no children I am not sure how I would react if the local goon squad showed up to "protect my children". I am an ardent advocate of shooting trespassers like Cops and CPS workers who enter my home without a warrant. However I would know deep down that any resistance would probably mean a Waco type outcome and the death of my entire family. So not sure what I would or could do. What bothers me is the lack of outrage by people in Texas and not only that but the outright support of the states trampling of these peoples rights. For heavens sake pulling nursing babies away from their mothers in order to protect them from prank callers. This is just another reason I will be stepping up my plans to emigrate out of this nut house asap.

Thomas J Kaminski said...

Better go warn the Amish...they'll be next...

divided we stand said...

I visited the peoples republik of texas 12 yrs ago on a road trip and it was scary. I thought i had timewarped back to the 1860s or was stuck in a loop of Deliverance. You can have that place and if they want to secede from the union please feel free matter of fact all of the south can.

smartypants said...

Reinhard Heydrich Chertoff says your DNA is not considered personal info look it up in your favorite search engine of choice. Now if you get arrested for even a minor infraction say jaywalking your dna will be taken. Welcome to freedumb how ya likin' it so far?

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, there you have it:

American "Christianity", so well represented by the non-animated, fleshy (lots of flesh) version of the Simpsons, but just as equally cartoonish as the FAUX channel's popular tv show.

Anonymous said...

Finally, Someone gets it! I have a question; Does the state of Texas recognize these "polygmast" marriages? Legally, wouldn't it be considered "girlfriend", since these marriages were performed in the FLDS temple without a State Marriage License? So, the point is, under state law there is no "multiple" marriages, just one marriage and five girlfriends. This is a also a good indicator of things to come. It's just a matter of time before they come for "homeschoolers", then "religionists" their reasons will become broader and broader. One last thing, when I hear the government say "it's for the children", first thought that pops into my mind is "bullbutter". The only thing I remember the government giving kids was a high-explosive shape-charge at Waco. God bless us all, we need it.

Michael said...

Will,

Thanks for your excellent coverage regarding the state-sponsored kidnapping of the children of the members of the FLDS church.

I am horrified by what I am reading, seeing and hearing - I worry about which non-politically correct group is next...

Keep up the great work!

you take part in creating the state said...

Yeaa that skateboarder kid has the spirit he pays the big bad ruff n' tuff creampuff bully boys with double digit IQ's no mind when the agenda is done they will be expendable as well. Isn't it odd how the "mighty state" is in such fear of the little ol' truth or some god fearing christians

Anonymous said...

The word is getting out. This past sunday I noticed the editorial in the Bennington Banner ( a very solid MSM snoozepiece). The editorial loudly denounced the raid on these poor souls as nothing short of facism. It was very refreshing to see a solidly neo -liberal paper call evil for what it really is.
Vermont had its own version of this in the early 80s with the raid by the VSP on the Island Pond Community ( A quasi christian cult.) Like the most recent raid this was also instigated due to unfounded child abuse charges. Fortunately the state had their asses handed to them by the courts and the children were given back to their parents. Sadly it doesn't appear this will happen in TX.

dixiedog said...

And another thing! (I sound like some cranky old man).... Just what in the world are they doing with DNA samples?

Indeed, mot, why does it seem to me that no one of any media exposure ever seem to, at least, be a bit, say, curious about just that?? Yet, I never hear this simpleton question asked anywhere: "What happens to the DNA sample(s) collected if the sample(s) don't match the wanted individual(s) in question?"

Remember that story about Daytona Beach police swabbing folks' mouths during traffic stops? Of course, the sheeple meekly do as the shepherd boys in blue (or is it green down there?) ask 'em to w/o question. Vox Day posted about it on his blog. I made this comment about the DNA collection scheme.

The sad fact is that most folk blindly trust in government officials and have true faith in whatever current action they're involved in at the moment. They never see the words "criminal," "bureaucrat," or "policeman" as synonyms. Ever.

mudshark said...

from comments in the Salt Lake City Tribune:

4/20/2008 7:34:00 AM

Where are the FLDS kids headed?

The Dallas Morning News reports that Texas comptroller, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who had conducted an investigation of the foster care system, concluded that up to $4 million a year might be wasted on drugs given to foster children for mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression.

Her investigation shows that 60% of children in the Texas foster care system are being drugged with powerful psychotropic drugs that have not been approved for children. Yet, "Children as young as 3 are receiving powerful, mind-altering drugs."

She suspects foster children are being given psychiatric drugs "so they're more docile, or so doctors and drug companies can make a buck."

A mother reported her son's experience with the antipsychotic drug, Zyprexa: "He put on a tremendous amount of weight, 85 pounds to be exact," she said, adding that as doctors continued to increase his medications starting at age 5, he experienced troubles in school and with the law and was hospitalized repeatedly."

The Houston Chronicle reports that Risperdal and Zyprexa - made up half of the drugs prescribed to foster children in Texas. These drugs are among the most dangerous of psychotropic drugs. They carry new FDA-required warnings about diabetes, blood clots and strokes.

Dr. Tony Appel, a neuropsychologist from Florida who examined the Texas records agrees: "We're taking away their future. We're taking away their ability to relate to people; trust, love caring, ability to put yourself in the other person's shoes and see how they see you. We take all that away from these children. We blunt their emotion."

Ever protective of the drug industry, the Texas Medical Association expressed skepticism about Comptroller Strayhorn's concerns. It is appalling that the Texas Medical Association sees nothing wrong in violating medicine's first principle, "do no harm" - if doing harm increases profits for psychotropic drug manufacturers.

Dean May said...

Fortunately these children will now learn normal societal mating/sexual practices by their attendance at the government schools and universities.

MOT said...

"Indeed, mot, why does it seem to me that no one of any media exposure ever seem to, at least, be a bit, say, curious about just that?...DD"

Yes. Here they, the Texas goons, have a mess on their hands with trying to identify 400+ kids (not that it isn't a deliberate excuse to bolster their phony arguments) when all they had to do was simply ASK! Notice that at no time did they just go to the mothers and kids and ASK... they point guns and grab. That would be called theft or worse if you or I did it but under color of "law" they write the rules as they go.

Just as in Waco where they could have called Koresh in to ask some questions they decide it's better to put the proles in their place, wave their weapons at you and play the bully boy. Truly shameful.

I have no respect for any costume wearing gun-toting clown who goes through with these actions. And this incident is only one in a long series of offenses that many years ago broke the mental stranglehold of public indoctrination. I don't even believe that if they claim to be Christians that they truly are. It's simply not possible. You have to have to have such a disconnect with reality, and for that matter the truth, to engage in or even work within the belly of the beast called "public service". Tares among the wheat.

Imagine if you will a potato peeling cafeteria worker, supply truck driver or whomever at Auschwitz, Birkenau etc. giving a straight faced reportage' that all they were doing was following orders and that they were family men/women, go to church regularly, and are "good" people. I'm certain as the day is long that such stories were given time and again but nobody could reasonably claim to be ignorant of what was truly going on.

Just as Americans, especially Texans, have no real excuse to sit on their posterior and do nothing it is very telling how ineffective, complicit or even enabling mainstream American Christianity has become in its own destruction.

"Ever protective of the drug industry, the Texas Medical Association expressed skepticism about Comptroller Strayhorn's concerns"

Well of course they are. Governor Perry was all too happy to force girls to get STD shots, at the cost of millions... (but who's counting), to line Big Pharmas pockets and at the same time put the public in its place by telling them that your children are not your own. Where was the outrage? Where was the call for dismissal or even impeachment and jail for this power grab and utter contempt shown for the people of Texas?

(...crickets chirping)

I Thought so.

Anonymous said...

After reading the original story and all the updates on this, I have to ask: where are the fathers? The whole story centered on the mothers and children -- are the fathers completely unconcerned that their children were kidnapped?

Anonymous said...

"Apparently, Judge Walther has received received thirty-five habeas corpus filings. If attorneys for the victims press this issue, I expect that child "protection" officials will eventually argue that the Great Writ is officially a dead letter in this country as of October 2006."

Good thinking, Will. And your expectation is probably correct. As the authorities learned in Waco in 1993, once their targets have been identified as a sinister cult, the authorities can get away with almost anything. Most of the public won't get aroused on the victims' behalf. But of course, the event establishes the precedent for them to come after US later.

Just look how much they've grabbed since 1993 -- several amendments of the Bill of Rights have been suspended. Undeclared martial law (the Patriot Act) prevails. Let the grim harvest proceed.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 8:22 AM asked, "Where are the fathers?"

Presumably, every one of them faces arrest on multiple charges of bigamy, statutory rape, child abuse, etc. etc.

Showing up would mean being disappeared and silenced, possibly for life.

Anonymous said...

HaloScan! Why not just use Big Brother Post system. I can understand cooperation but HS is ready and able to always give Big Brother your information. They save it just for that purpose.

I wouldn't doubt people opposed to liberty, agents provocateurs, would attempt to post actionable material but HS is not the way to go.

So far FLDS women are luckier than Vicki Weaver.

Anonymous said...

"Reinhard Heydrich Chertoff"

Curious the only comparisons are always to Nazis. Anybody remember the BOLSHEVIKS? I think Chertoff looks more like Lenin than Heydrich.

Anonymous said...

Anon 11:45,
I agree. Besides 'Skeletor Man', he should be as known as 'Vladimir Ilyich Chertoff'. It's especially more fitting since he possesses a Slavic surname to go along with his totalitarian personality. What a putz! The shill would sell his own Jewish mother if it meant career advancement.

MOT said...

Or a cross between Dzerzhinsky and Trotsky. I lean towards the former but both were inner organs to the same bloody machine.

Anonymous said...

RE: Judge Walther, seeking to devise a compromise, asked if local LDS officials could be deputized as prayer monitors. This prompted from Charles L. Webb, president of the local LDS stake (an administrative unit akin to a diocese), a rendition of the LDS leadership's refrain: We have nothing to do with those people: "They think we're the same ones because we use the Book of Mormon. I'm dumbfounded they would suggest that."

Oh, for the love of Nephi, Charles, man up and do some version of the right thing. Stop acting like a corporate shill. If you don't have the requisite anatomy to condemn what has been done to the FLDS mothers and children, then at least do something to mitigate the circumstances of those innocent people, instead of dutifully waiting for permission from PR-obsessed people in Salt Lake City.

I'm a believing Latter-day Saint who has to admit you are right on in the last paragraph.

Anonymous said...

Quid est stercus tauri?

I think that's better Latin for what you want to say.

From what I've heard, there's lots of unpleasant stuff going on at "the compound." The part that incensed me isn't that the FLDS was practicing polygamy, which I find crazy on a good day, but when the women involved were purported to be signing up for welfare benefits. What? You mean the good folks in Texas had to subsidise this? Admittedly, this whole set up is crazy and there's plenty of wrong to go around for all, but the state, long before any raid or phony phone call, helped bring this about.

William N. Grigg said...

I eagerly defer to your superior grasp of Latin!

You're absolutely right in bemoaning the fact that the FLDS Church was a government-subsidized entity; that's something I pointed out in the first piece I wrote about this subject way back in August 2005, and reiterated in the more recent installment "Your Children Are Ours."

And it wasn't just Texans who subsidized this outfit, but taxpayers across the country (particularly in Utah and Arizona).

dixiedog said...

HaloScan! Why not just use Big Brother Post system. I can understand cooperation but HS is ready and able to always give Big Brother your information. They save it just for that purpose.

Oh please, all public companies are required by SOX and other regs to retain personal info for a period of time and it all can be subpoenaed during investigations.

You think the corporatist Google is your good buddy and will protect your info from Big Daddy when/if he ever comes calling requesting it? You're deluded if you honestly think so.

Look at its actions in China, whose government it and other corporations naturally eagerly assist in helping to keep the Chinese in the dark, in Google's case, by blocking search requests.

"Anonymous," get it through your head that if Big Daddy so desires you can be tracked online easily. You can also be located easily by IP address. The ISPs gladly assist LE in that endeavor. So stop worrying about whether "Big Bro" watching you because he probably IS. If you're fearful about that, you'd be better just to get off the freakin' grid entirely.

dixiedog said...

I haven't been following this as closely with microscopic precision as Will and others have, but if the FLDS mothers have been receiving welfare then they shouldn't be shocked by Big Daddy coming forth to claim his own.

Ergo, with that in mind, it's harder to empathize with them in this case as they're no different from the barrio/ghetto/project mamas. If you can't afford 'em, STOP HAVING THEM!

Robin said...

The picture of the Elk Grove Police paramilitaries looks very familiar. I'm assuming this is Elk Grove, CA (a suburb of Sacramento). I lived there in the early 90's when they began their little war games with helmets, body armor, full auto weapons, etc. The Elk Grove Citizen ran a front page photo of them charging heroically through somebody's front yard. I also remember them swaggering around the local Lyons restaurant. To me they looked more like hardened criminals than police officers.

Even back then it was apparent that the FedGov was turning local police forces into an instrument of intimidation and oppression.

William N. Grigg said...

Anonymous @3:00 PM -- Please forgive the delay in posting your note, and thanks so much for your candid comments.

I've said and written this before, but it bears repeating:

If there is anyone in this country (apart from the American Indians) who should be reflexively suspicious of government, and speak out against abuses of power at the expense of the innocent, it should be the Mormons.

The differences that separate the FLDS from the mainstream LDS Church are far less consequential than the shared heritage of persecution that they have in common. Whatever one thinks of the teachings and practices of the FLDS, and the actions of its leaders, the mothers and children are innocent, just as those killed at Haun's Mill were innocent.

And I'm furious over the complicit silence of most Christian leaders over this atrocity. Michael Reagan suggested that Christian congregations and families should step up to offer foster care for FLDS children and their mothers. One notices a conspicuous lack of response to that invitation....

Anonymous said...

Well, since that sect of the FLDS declared war on the hymens of children, I think it is only fair to declare war on them. Those sick bastards are paedophiles, plain and simple, no amount of religious explanation can overcome that fact. The members of that sect should be jailed as paedophiles. Religious freedom does not come into this. Otherwise I will form a religion where god requires me to burn down churches.

William N. Grigg said...

How nice of Janet Reno to pay a visit to my blog!

In all seriousness, I should point out that those of us not gifted with omniscience -- or burdened, as you are, with the delusion of the same -- have a quaint little custom called "due process," which includes a fairly interesting notion known as "presumption of innocence."

What that means, oh self-enraptured one, is that we have to prove that people are guilty of crimes, especially heinous ones like child molestation, before we punish them.

Anonymous said...

Will, I know that you're kidding; however, that really was Janet Reno, but, I was told, she had to have her domestic partner type out the message for her as Janet's Parkinson's Disease is in full force. You see, I met Mrs. and Mrs. Reno four nights ago at one of Miami's most popular and prestigious night clubs and had the displeasure of striking up a conversation with the two lovebirds. To my surprise, Janet admitted to having read your recent blog articles, and she was not at all happy with your work. One thing I distinctly remember about the unpleasant conversation was Janet's unsolicited remark concerning your "repugnant soft Christian values" and how these "weak values" and "ridiculous concerns over habeas corpus bull s***" have tainted your blog essays with "sickening references of love for your fellow human beings", especially when you defend those "worthless FLDS whores and their little b*****d whelps!". I was mortified and taken aback by such calloused sentiments, but I should not have been surprised. The only other time I have witnessed such unbridled evil was the time I got to see Dick Cheney up close at a Washington D.C. luncheon. Well thankfully, sweet justice came later that evening as Mrs. and Mrs. Reno were both "86ed" from the establishment for indecent sexual behavior.

-Sal DeSario
Hialeah, FL

Anonymous said...

It is called "nipping it in the bud". These freaks are having babies! They start as young as they can, and have as many as they can. This cannot be tolerated. We Amerikans don't like babies. We abort them. They are a burden and ruin lives. They are not good. We must lobby our Congressmen to pass a "one child" law like Communist China has.

Anonymous said...

'Sarah' seems to be a complete hoax, a phony...

The man accused of abuse by ‘Sarah’ was interviewed by police and let go

But all of the children were taken from their mothers.

So far, the state has found not one girl under age and pregnant.

Before the state starts ripping children from their parents, shouldn’t there actually be some evidence that children have been abused?
Have all of these children been abused by all of these adults?
Must all these families be destroyed because one girl has been abused?
That is, if in fact one has been abused which so far the state has no evidence in that regard.

No arrests. No revealed evidence of abuse so far. No girls underage shown to be pregnant so far. So far nothing.

And yet all of these children have been torn from their families and left to the loving, tender mercies of state that has a terrible track record of children being abused while in the state's care.

Why is this so difficult to understand for some?

Present evidence and make arrests or return the children to their families immediately.

-Conan the Cimmerian

Anonymous said...

Thats all well and good, but what are WE going to do about it, how long are WE going to put up with these type of tactics by the state - in EVERY state? They NEED to be shut down and there needs to be a coordinated effort to make it happen. WE are the government.

Anonymous said...

What can WE do about it? The problem is that the Government ignores the COnstitution. Both parties. When a man finally comes along with a proven track record of respect for the COnstitution, (Ron Paul) you call him a kook and continue voting for the Constitution haters. And then you whine to me about "What can we do." YOU made this bed, that I have to sleep in.

Lemuel Gulliver said...

Dear Will,

You are the only one so far to wonder:

WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE AMERICAN CHRISTIAN CHURCHES' VOICES OF PROTEST IN ALL THIS?

Every denomination you can name: the Methodists, Lutherans, Baptists, Episcopalians, etc. etc. has an organization dedicated to social justice and peace and non-violence. They weep and wail vociferously about Darfur, and Palestine, and Iraq, but when a fellow Christian church (yes, Christian - the LDS and FLDS acknowledge Christ as their Savior - this is not Muslims or Buddhists or Sikhs we are talking about) is attacked viciously and mercilessly by the Baal State, their silence is absolutely deafening.

What in the name of a just God are they thinking? Do they not remember the powerful words of Christian cleric, Pastor Martin Neimoller, who famously said:

"In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew; And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up."

If the "mainstream" churches choose to be silent on this matter, because they in their small and withered hearts rejoice to see these "heretics" persecuted so cruelly, then be assured, God will turn his face away from them in due course, and abandon them to the justice of the Baal State. When their turn comes, and it will, I for one will rejoice from afar. (I will no longer be living in this country.)

Now you know why I have ceased attending any and all "Christian" churches. They are just political organizations. They have about as much to do with Jesus Christ as the Shriners or the Freemasons or the Loyal Order of Moose. May I quote their own "Savior" to those "Christian" churches: (Matthew Ch.25)

Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not."

Sincerely,
Lemuel Gulliver

bill anderson said...

Bill,

I have not been able to write on this subject, as my day job keeps getting in the way. Your posts have been terrific, and we agree on the larger and most important points here.

I'm having to deal with people who say, "Well, what about polygamy?" Yet, this case began with a fraud, and that Texas continues it says more about the "law" in that state than what goes on at the ranch.

Anonymous said...

I'm not religious and I'm an immigrant from Africa. But I'm mad at seeing those poor children taken from their parents by the state of Texas on the basis of a prank phone call. I saw these women on CNN Larry King Live crying over the empty beds of their children and it made me sick. These women, their children, and their husbands live in nice and peaceful environment. I don't understand why the government doesn't go after the church in Kentucky that pickets the funerals of fallen soldiers with their obscene signs that read "Fags'Funeral" instead of going out against innocent people. I fail to see why they don't go out against violent white supremacist compounds in Texas instead of destroying a beautiful community... You are right, this is the doctrine of preemptiveness of the US government, misappropriated by the state of Texas, and run amok! Your blog is terrific; keep the fires up!

Anonymous said...

To those that believe that the FLDS adult folks are "sick", "twisted", and/or "evil" for marrying off girls at the ages they do, do keep in mind that you, personally, have been raised by society to think that way.

Marrying at such a young age has been the norm during huge swaths of human history, often due to short life spans. External technological advancements do not render a person's mind MORE vulnerable to a standard procedure, regardless as to whether or not "the majority" consider something to be best or not.

So much for diversity, eh?

A Christian Prophet said...

Why is the state deciding who can get married and who cannot get married? Maybe the children are herioc and Texas is the villain. See:
http://christianprophecy.blogspot.com/

Lemuel Gulliver said...

Mr. Grigg,

I offer for your edification and that of your readers the following two videos. First, the children at home in their community:

http://www.captivefldschildren.org/ViewVideo.php?VID=1

Second, the new societal norms to which the Baal Imperium wants these children to conform - this is the new reality for these children's lives henceforth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hPlkWMnWkY&NR=1

This horror is so painful to watch, the only thing I can liken it to in my experience was watching the video three years ago of the living Nick Berg having his head brutally sawed off from his neck by five masked Arab men.

How much anguish, how much emotional pain, how much terror, how much loss, how much darkness and horror - how can God permit such consummate evil to go unpunished?

This is a video of the kidnapping, complete with armored military vehicle, machine guns, and sniper rifles. Against women and children, who offered no resistance of any kind:

http://www.captivefldschildren.org/ViewVideo.php?VID=5

This reminds me of the Jews walking meekly into the gas chambers under the machine guns of the SS.

I am afraid that a terrible calamity is going to descend on this nation. To do these things to such beautiful and innocent souls is beyond evil - Satan himself must shudder with revulsion at such an abomination.

Sincerely,
Lemuel Gulliver

William N. Grigg said...

Lemuel, although I've rarely had time to reply to your immensely informative and consistently provocative posts, I appreciate them tremendously.

The song playing in the first FLDS video is the instrumental version of "I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus," which is sung by Mormon children in Primary (roughly ages 4-12). Yes, the FLDS Church, like its mother church, teaches an entirely heterodox view of who Jesus is and was. (The FLDS hold fast to the pre-1917 Mormon view that Jesus was, among other things, a polygamist.) But the point is that this was a community organized around piety, however misdirected (and exploited by the likes of Warren Jeffs), not prurience.

I hope that the Salt Lake City Mormon leaders watch that video, and that it lacerates their conscience: The people in El Dorado are their people. And I hope the same is true of the Christian leaders who are implicating themselves in this crime through their guilty silence.

I drove by the local Mennonite Church today and saw a group of girls playing at recess. They were dressed in exactly the same way as the FLDS girls in that video, for the same reason: They want to set themselves apart from the world. I can't help but suspect that separatists of all kinds are just as vulnerable as the FLDS.

Anonymous said...

I often wonder what would have happened If the Jews had not acted so meekly... Maybe they would not have been so dehumanized. What if every Jewish family had fought to the death rather than compromise. That would have certainly done with that "they are being relocated to live in the east" lie.

dixiedog said...

Hey Will, your FLDS coverage is not going unnoticed by other well-known commentators. My favorite woman commentator, whose commentary I read every week, Ilana Mercer, mentioned your Quid Spucatum Tauri Est? post in her Friday WND column this week.

Apropos plug! ;)

If there is anyone in this country (apart from the American Indians) who should be reflexively suspicious of government, and speak out against abuses of power at the expense of the innocent, it should be the Mormons.

I realize you obviously have a particularly keen interest in this State-sanctioned kidnapping of FLDS children outrage, but our history is replete with harsh persecution upon others besides the Indians and the Mormons.

The Baptists, the Southern sect of which many in my family, including myself, have been historically nominal members, in my own home state of Virginia were heavily persecuted in colonial times when the Virginia colony had a state church patterned after the Church of England.

So why all the anger aimed specifically towards the evangelical brethren?

Just to be perfectly clear, however, I do agree that the silence of too many folk, leaders and laymen alike, who hail from ALL of the Christian denominations is certainly deafening and I, therefore, sympathize somewhat with your dismay, but keeping a proper perspective in these matters is always more profitable in the long run ;). Just sayin'.

Anonymous said...

How could they have been receiving welfare benefits? If they had no birth certificates and no social security numbers, then they would not be able to get qualified. Where is the proof that they were receiving welfare? Thank you.

made in china lapel pin said...

FLDS Raid - A Dangerous Legal Precedent

Source: World Affairs Brief - Joel Skousen

I waited a week to comment on the Texas case, separating 437 children from their FLDS parents, to see if any substantive evidence of abuse would emerge. It hasn't. Even if it had, those could have been handled individually. But no, Texas plans instead to make every member of the group pay the supreme price: to strip away their beloved children. This case is about group punishment. In spite of a search warrant tainted by a false witness (the "Sarah" who doesn't exist), no actual specific evidence of abuse, or any unwilling participants in this polygamous compound, a self-righteous Texas judge had decreed that all 400 + children will not be returned to the custody of their parents. Texas has gone too far to rid itself of this awkward religious sect that built the "Yearning for Zion" (YFZ) ranch in order to evade persecution in Utah and Arizona.
As this tyrannical order clearly meant separating even nursing children from their mothers, a wave of outrage began to sweep the nation. The media-savvy judge immediately changed her order (allowing children under 1 year if age to be nursed) in order to keep the tide of public relations on the side of the authorities. But this should not deter the nation from realizing the danger of the tenuous legal proposition that mere membership in a group (that may have isolated examples of marrying underage girls) makes all unworthy of possessing any children at all--ever. That is wrong, especially when legal remedies exist to prosecute specific wrongdoers.

The local sheriff admitted on television that he had an "informant" on the inside for over 4 years. That was probably a disgruntled member of the group who decided to stay on to build up a case against his fellow church members. If a case can't be built after four years of informing, and authorities have to rely on a false abuse phone call to justify this invasion, what does that say about the State's case?
The key testimony the judge relied upon was that of Texas Child Protective Services' Angie Voss who said that at least "five girls younger than 18 are pregnant or have children." CPS argued under cross-examination that none of the 400+ children should be allowed to return to the YFZ ranch because 10 or 12 years down the road they may be subject to abuse. Incredible! Defense lawyers correctly noted that the state cannot make such sweeping generalizations about all of these families. Fairness requires a case by case assessment. In the meantime, Children should be free to return home with their parents, who have not been accused of any crime. Criminals get easier release terms and bail than these families.

Unfortunately, even Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate Majority leader (and a Mormon who probably has polygamous ancestors) has joined in the witch hunt and called for Department of Justice assistance to states in prosecuting polygamists nationwide wherever they may be hiding. I call this a witch hunt because these people are being judged as a group, mostly because they can be easily targeted as a group. There is far more abuse that occurs among the general populace as a whole, but because they are not part of an organized group, they have to be prosecuted individually--as it should be. There is no excuse for engaging in group punishment for the polygamists when their general record of raising fine, well behaved children is superior to the average public educated family. Individual prosecution for underage marriage or cohabitation is not that much more difficult than the typical secretive bigamist--who makes no attempt to take responsibility for any children.

Even the suspected perpetrator of the phony abuse calls (representing herself as "Sarah Barlow") was treated more leniently by authorities than these Texas families. Rozita Swinton, a 33 year old black woman, with a history of false reports was allowed out on bail ($20,000 put up by someone yet unknown) and promptly disappeared. An arrest warrant was issued for her charging her with false reporting to authorities for an incident in February. Some justice. This makes at least the third time Swinton has been implicated in these kinds of false reports and she has never served jail time. She was not arrested for this incident even though the false call from "Sarah" originated from a phone Swinton has used in the past to falsify abuse reports. Rod Parker, an attorney and spokesman for the FLDS Church said Tuesday that "Sarah Barlow doesn't exist and Dale Barlow lives in Arizona." He correctly noted that the phone call tainted the search warrant used at the YFZ Ranch, which will certainly be part of a future legal challenge to the blanket separation of mothers from children.

Authorities in Colorado are keeping everything concerning Swinton sealed in order to avoid embarrassment of Texas authorities who based their search and seizure warrant on this illegal call for help. Their reluctance to prosecute Swinton is suspicious. A tape recording of the call exists. How hard is it to match her distinctive voice to that call?

There is other evidence as well. Texas Rangers admitted privately to Child Protection Project founder Linda Walker who took the call that "she [Swinton] was obsessed with the FLDS." Rangers confiscated tons of material on the FLDS in the search of Swinton's home. She had real addresses and real names of FLDS people which is not easy to get a hold of for someone with limited intellect. Swinton also knew that the FLDS had doctrinal beliefs that denied their Priesthood to Blacks and devised racist statements in her call to the Texas abuse hot line so as to further implicate the FLDS as racists. Because of Swinton's intellectual limitations (friends describe her as a sort of soft spoken simpleton), I would not rule out that Swinton may be under the influence of an agent provocateur working to justify the seizure of children from the YFZ ranch.

The longer this blanket forced separation of family members continues, based solely upon the tenuous doctrine of "potential abuse" for group beliefs, the more dangerous it will become to the rights of all who are or will become potential dissidents to government tyranny--unless it backfires and they go too far. That's what happened with the state of Utah when they shot a polygamist home schooler named John Singer for refusing to hand over his children to the state who was going to force them into public schools. The nationwide bad press on the killing forced Utah to stop prosecuting homeschoolers and finally allow parents the right to educate their own.

If you think this is only about the evils of polygamy, consider that Texas authorities prepared a "Cultural Competencies" tip sheet for Texas social workers engaged in "de-programming" FLDS children warning them that these cult members would be "fearful and distrustful of government." Why shouldn't they be, given what has happened? We should all be deeply concerned.

The Texas ACLU also weighed in on the case: "While we acknowledge that Judge Walther's task may be unprecedented in Texas judicial history [and totally without legal precedent], we question whether the current proceedings adequately protect the fundamental rights of the mothers and children,' Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas, said in a written statement. "As this situation continues to unfold, we are concerned that the constitutional rights that all Americans rely upon and cherish -- that we are secure in our homes, that we may worship as we please and hold our places of worship sacred, and that we may be with our children absent evidence of imminent danger [the current legal standard] -- have been threatened," Burke said.

I'm hoping that good people everywhere will realize how this expansion of child "protective" law threatens every family whose parents subscribe to any belief system "society" considers "abusive" and who are members of an identifiable group of similar believers. "Society" doesn't exist legally, except in the minds of those who claim (wrongly) that they speak for the majority. This targeting of dissident groups, if allowed to continue, will eventually encircle almost all fundamentalist Christians who believe in any form of strict discipline and spanking, who are home schoolers or who hold to any theory that our government is in some way an enemy of liberty. Indeed, belief in mere physical discipline, or patriarchal authority, is one of the "evils" social workers regularly list as one of the criteria that make for abusive parents, and thus unworthy to keep their children.

That said, I do think there is a problem endemic to polygamous groups relative to the treatment of girls. I've had some experience with members of these groups. Almost all are constitutional conservatives and some individual members have attended speeches I have given in the West. We have to be careful not to stereotype all polygamous groups as the press tends to do. They have some common beliefs, but vary greatly in how they are organized and how they function as a group. The ones I have met have actually been very fine conservative people. They all readily admit that some polygamous groups are much more authoritarian than others, and that is why there have been so many splinter groups among them, each trying to find some form of leadership they are comfortable with. Most often the problem with the old line groups like the FLDS is with older leaders who tend to run things with a patriarchal authoritarian mindset. In Biblical terms, the Lord does endorse patriarchal authority, but it must never be exercised with unrighteous dominion.

Notwithstanding problem people or leaders (which isn't limited to fundamentalists), the FLDS have many admirable qualities. The children follow an excellent health code, eat natural foods, are well behaved, clean and well groomed. They are homeschooled and thus shielded from so many of the evil influences that infect other good Christians who lose many of their children to the world. There parents are clearly not monsters the state of Texas seeks to portray in their aggressive attempt to justify the separation and destruction of these families.

Arranged marriages occur in only a few of these groups. Most of the splinter groups run things by normal persuasion. But, the core problem with any of the groups is that it is a relatively closed circle relative to available future wives. Despite having large families, polygamists tend to intermarry within the group because it's very difficult to convert outside woman to join the group, and they have significant doctrinal and authoritarian issues with other splinter groups that discourage intermingling. Those that are raised within the group are the ones most willing to continue on in this tradition of multiple wives--though a significant number within the non-authoritarian groups decide not to be polygamous.

But, even these have trouble breaking with the group because of strong family and religious ties. Business ties are also hard to break. Certain polygamist groups are extremely effective at banding together and forming successful businesses that make a lot of money. This makes it difficult to break away because they still have a share in the business ventures, which isn't easily separable from the group.

What I suspect is happening in this larger FLDS compound is that there are not many available future wives except these teenage girls, who are yet unspoken for. Thus, a competition develops as certain men try to get commitments of marriage out of either the parents or the girl before someone else does. This leads to very unhealthy competition and some incentive to intermarry among relatives or enter into underage marriages. But the solution to this major source of abuse is clear:

Regardless of these people's commitment to polygamy, they need to follow the law relative to marriage age.

Various FLDS men have said they are more than willing to do that, which could swiftly solve this crisis. However, the government is probably going to use the results of the mandated DNA tests to prosecute those who have married an underage mother, or close relative, rather than simply establish paternity as they claim. The authorities wrongfully induced their "voluntary" participation in the DNA tests by promising this could lead to the restoration of their children. Instead, I believe this will only lead to criminal charges, and the state will already have proof of the illegal relationship. The prosecutions are appropriate where excessive pressure was involved in the marriage. But if authorities are going down this route, they should not simply be targeting polygamists. To be fair, they should be arresting every under-aged pregnant girl in the state and subject all known male contacts to DNA testing. Of course they won't do that, proving that they are targeting an unpopular religious group, rather than seeking to protect all underage girls equally. Sadly any prosecutions they do will be used to justify condemning the whole group and painting them all with the same broad brush.

William Norman Grigg, an immensely talented but often caustic patriotic writer who used to write for the New American, weighed in on this subject with exceptional force. Here are a few excerpts from his blog first addressing the danger of government's unfettered claim to gathering personal DNA:

"The Homeland Security Apparatus is now prepared to act on the claim that our very genetic material is the collective property of society, requiring us to surrender DNA samples whenever a pretext can be found. (This opens up all kinds of possible mischief, beginning with the claim, recently upheld in New York, that genetic evidence is sufficient grounds for a criminal indictment.) The same is true of other individual biometric signifiers, such as fingerprints. Commissar for Homeland Security "Mikhail" Chertoff -- who received his post at Homeland Security after helping to build the Regime's torture apparatus [see story below] -- insists that fingerprints are not 'personal data,' and thus can be collected by the Regime and shared with other national security systems as our rulers see fit."

This is all leading to the Orwellian "Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act of 2007" a proposed piece of dangerous legislation where government plans to mandate newborn testing for DNA anomalies and then consider the collected DNA as government property, free to share with whomever it chooses.

Grigg then turns to the "Texas Child Snatchers" directly. "The Texas Department of Child Abduction, sometimes wittily referred to as the Department of Protective and Family Services, has announced that as soon as it has extracted DNA samples from the FLDS child captives they will be placed in foster care. In many instances this will require tearing newborn or nursing infants out of the arms of their mothers:

"'Some FLDS mothers with nursing babies and toddlers may be unaware that they will be forced to leave their children behind once Texas officials gather the DNA samples from them..' As with every other act of government coercion, this unspeakably cruel crime will be accompanied by the threat of lethal violence.... The above-quoted Mrs. Jessop has described an attempt she made yesterday with a group of mothers to visit their children, who are being held prisoner at the San Angelo Coliseum. They were -- to use a phrase made offensive by its dishonest delicacy -- 'turned away by law enforcement.' Which is to say that they were threatened with lethal violence by the State's rented thugs: 'They told us if we went on that property again we would be arrested.'

"To get a sense of the pure, unalloyed evil being wrought by 'law enforcement' in this matter, we turn to the indispensable blog published by Brooke Adams of the Salt Lake Tribune. 'We watched as this woman was greeted by younger women, all hugging her, obviously going to her for comfort, crying,' writes Adams. 'From afar, we had no idea who they were or what they were doing or what the emotions playing out were.' The name of the woman being embraced is Janet.

"'She has five children in state custody, three girls and two boys. The girls are ages 9, 13 and 16. The boys are 11 and 15. This is what she said about that moment: 'I was in the shelter and had girls in the other one. They told me my two girls were running for me and I went across to hug them. Instantly I had eight police men around me. I was just hugging them.' These women and children have neither been accused of a crime, nor convicted of one. Yet they are being treated like inmates in one of the nouveau gulags called Supermax Prisons. It occurs to me that this is the kind of situation in which a writ of habeas corpus would be appropriate... if, that is, the habeas corpus guarantee still existed in this once-free country.

"The 437 kidnapped children, and more than 100 detained mothers, are being compelled to undergo DNA testing -- despite the fact that not a single one of them has been accused of a crime. Barbara Walther, the same judge who authorized that outrage [and thus has every incentive to see it justified], ruled yesterday that FLDS mothers of nursing children would not be permitted to breastfeed their infants. After all, sniffed the judge with the refined disdain persons so often display when dealing with mere people, 'every day in this country, we have mothers who go back to work after six weeks of maternity leave.' [She has since modified this ruling, but her limit of nursing children to less than one year old shows a decided ignorance or disdain for the overall health and birth control benefits of longer periods of nursing.]"

Commenting with acid tongue accuracy Grigg continues: "Lavishing such individualized attention on a youngster is unhealthy, after all. If he's fed, raised, educated, and cared for by his own parents, he won't be properly socialized; that is to say, he won't be taught to think of himself as part of the people. Why, a child in such circumstances tends to think of himself as a person without being given permission to do so.

"Yesterday, in a scene of unfathomable cruelty, about 100 FLDS children were loaded on to buses with tinted windows and taken from their temporary prison... In fact, the kidnappers of those children were beginning the process of redistributing the captives to foster homes scattered across Texas. Imagine, for a second, the clinical indifference to the suffering of children that one must display in order to do such a thing to innocent children kept ignorant of their fate.

"And then ask yourself how, in the name of anything anybody considers holy, can any rational human being -- any intelligent person -- look upon the government ruling us as anything other than our implacably evil enemy. Bear in mind that we're talking about a government that -- without a legally defensible rationale -- had dispatched a heavily-armed party of raiders to surround their property and abduct their children. Why on earth would anybody be 'distrustful' toward people who would seize his children at gunpoint? Oh, but I see I've got the categories wrong: It was the officially recognized persons who committed those acts, so the people belonging to the FLDS church had no right to complain, and were obligated to display child-like trust and canine submissiveness."

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Here is the headline story from the front page of the Austin American Statesman newspaper today.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/region/legislature/stories/05/01/0501foster.html

I am at a loss as to what to do. We were considering demonstrating with signs in front of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services here in Austin, but street demonstrations do not appear to accomplish much.

I did an open records request to the State Comptroller to find out why the former comptrollers investigation of the Texas foster care program was scuttled. There is nothing in writing from Gov. Rick Perry specifically ordering the investigation to stop. The "governor" simply ignored the recommendations in the initial official report of that investigation (can order and receive free report called "Forgotten Children" from Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts)

The Texas governor has a horrible record and appears to be firmly in the pocket of the neocons and BigPharma and the Trans Texas Corridor pushers within our secret government. Rick Perry even was invited to and did attend the most recent Bilderberger meeting. He plans to run for another term as governor as his plans to be Guiliani's VP running mate did not pan out.

Texas is totally ruined by the fascists who are known as neocons and establishment Republican party folk.

Here is a quote from the Forgotten Children report (2004)and gives an idea of what those dear FLDS children have to look forward to.

"If you compare the number of deaths of children in our state's population to the number of deaths in our state's foster care system, a child is four times more likely to die in our state's foster care system."

BlArthurHu said...

I published this in Asian Week
http://www.asianweek.com/2008/04/24/little-polygamist-compound-on-the-prairie/

Convicted sex criminal Warren Jeffs builds a walled concentration camp to house his brainwashed welfare abusing harems with 30 to 50 kids per dad. A teen calls former victim Flora Jessop’s who helps runaway brides like they used to rescue slave girls from Chinatown. Most likely, it was a crank caller painting the sect as racists, but Jessup salutes her for feeding state authorities stories of beatings, continuous abuse, and underage marriage so the cops could bust them and whisk an elementary school full of kids to safety.

But if it’s the parents who committed the crime, why not lock them up too? Just turn the ranch into a Manzanar for polygamists. It can’t be as bad when the Australians “stolen generation” removed 100,000 aborigine children for child protection. The Canadians would love to raid their own Bountiful, but the legal age there is 14 and their polygamy ban might not even be constitutional.

Oliver Twist never changed the sign at his orphanage from “welcome guest” to “prisoners”. The Japanese intern kids brought clothes and parents. Do the kids think they needed to be rescued from their monster moms? 1 out of every 11 foster children in Florida faces abuse. Nationally it is the African-Americans who suffer most as two thirds of the foster care population, Asians are a mere one percent. The abuse starts as early as 6 months as they are deprived of toys, Bratz, McDonalds, SpongeBob, and Grand Theft Auto. They do housework by 5, and if they marry kids at 13, every mom who looked the other way was a dangerous child abuser.

Seattle’s tiny Lauria Grace in 1995 was returned to and murdered by her drug addicted mother because her caseworker judged exposure to middle class values was culturally inappropriate. CPS regularly gets blamed when parents beat their infants to death trying to get them to stop crying. In America you can have girls gone wild, moms and girls dressed as ho’s, free love, prostitution, abortion, two dads, orgies, two moms, two teens, acts with horses, arranged marriage, and NAMBLA, but not one dad and three moms. Justice William Brennan stated that privacy disallowed “governmental intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision to bear a child.”. Right.

Tidy bunks, organic bread, and fulltime mothers certainly looks better than CMT’s redneck trailer home makeover where the boys slept on the couch after a Chef Boyardee supper. Their parents don’t work too many hours at the dry cleaners while their boys grew up into the Virginia Tech killer or copycat. They probably get excellent test scores without “Crazy Asian Mothers who see B+”.

Barack Obama senior didn’t divorce before he married the senator’s mother. Asians used to do polygamy, and the Hmong are still hounded by authorities for marrying off teens. Most Asians don’t care what happens to a few hundred crazy white folks, but this Asian American feels very sick.