I watch and read way too much news but I mostly watch the shows that I know and that reflect what I think, maybe, just possibly, might be as close to the truth of any on-going story that I’m following. That’s code for, almost never Fox. Fox is about as “balanced” as Ron Figuly and as “fair” as I am being to him right now.
What is truly surprising is the lack of outrage over the Texas decision to swoop in and pick up 450-odd kids because of what appears to be a phony phone call claiming that the underage caller was at risk. There was far more of a hue and cry when the Branch Davidians got bush whacked down in Waco almost fifteen years ago. But in the normal media all you get is a casual update on the status of these kids and their moms. Dads are back on the ranch doing whatever it is they do without the young’ns around, and we don’t even want to go there.
It does seem like the state of Texas messed this one up pretty bad. Can you think of any other community where it would be alright to bus a bunch of kids away from their parents and homes for eight weeks now, because of a perceived misdeed that has yet to yield anything like the much touted “shred” of evidence?
I wonder what would happen if our own Sheriff’s Department perpetrated a similar stunt on the Tin Mine Conservation summer camp. Just came in with guns drawn, a few borrowed tanks, extra deputies hauled in from their road details, several buses borrowed from the Community School in Tamworth and maybe the Gibson Center; charge them with not wearing flag lapels or something and then haul ‘em off to the hoosegow where the DOC would have to figure out how to make sure no siblings got to stay together and then find foster homes for them all over the county. Maybe have to ship some to other counties if homes couldn’t be found.
I know some folks who are parents and strong believers in the second amendment who would have a thing to say to whoever tried to take their kids away from them with or without a just cause. It is unthinkable that this indefensible action could stand without a ruckus resulting in bloodshed. Of courseI know that you know that our own Sheriff would never countenance such perversions of the law in this county but the goofball scenario only needs a few changes to simulate just what in tarnation is going on down in the Lone Star State.
The kids have done nothing wrong. No parent has been charged because as far as the public knows, no laws have been broken. And yet the children have been wrenched, as it were, from their Mom’s Mormony clad bosom to some strangely non-cultist environment for two freakin’ months! It is nothing less than outrageous and the mainstream media treats it like an ongoing story of a young family missing for a day after getting lost on the way to Dianna’s Bath.
Whaddup with that? I think it’s because “those people” are different and people in general, us “hard working white Americans”, and even some “elitists”, really only look out for our own. If those crazily coifed moms in their prairie couture and secret underwear weren’t so obviously autre, wouldn’t there be a stronger story here? One in which we all stood against the illegal nuttiness whether we’re from Texas or Tamworth? Whether they’re Mormon or Mainers shouldn’t matter. People all over the world are sticking up for the Burmese and Chinese, sending them money, and sticking up for our government spending all it can to get aid to the disaster struck. But these poor people, right on our own soil are getting it stuck to them in a way that seems dreadfully unfair at the very least.
And it doesn’t take much imagination to calculate the cost to the average Texan like Danny Del Rossi who probably didn’t even have anything to do with it. This will not be over when it’s over. Oh no! Their little patch of polygamy is going to have the finest lawyers in the land descending on them from all angles with promises of wealth beyond what is stored in the hidden bowels of the Salt Lake Tabernacle. Law suits will abound like plagues of locusts and the average Texan taxpayer will get the tab. The poor shlub who couldn’t tell a Mormon from a Doorman is going to have his wallet handed to him because somebody, and we don’t yet know who, supposedly received a call from some one, who we also don’t yet know, that may have said something could have happened to someone who may not exist, but if it did it could likely be illegal and now 500 lawyers are all over it.
Where is the outrage? It’s aimed at Hillary for staying in. At Barack for having a pastor that’s a quack. At tornadoes and earthquakes and high unemployment and higher gas prices. Meanwhile, the height of stupidity gets a pass.
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One of my employees has a brother who recently went on a blind date with the woman who made the phone accusation. He liked her until he saw her face on the news that night as being wanted for making phony accusations against the polygamists. We're way too close to Texas here in Las Cruces.
ReplyDeleteThose kids have probably gained 15 pounds each after indulging in fast food, soda,technological laziness and Jerry Springer...Sure beats being chased by their fathers, uncles and brothers...there's three sides to every story......BTW no one under the age of 40 knows what the hell a sidecar is....
ReplyDeleteAlright, so I live 35 miles from the LDS ranch, and I've been following this story as well. I agree with monsieur Case that to take a child away from it's parents is the most horrendous and terrifying thing imagineable. And we are or should be, protected from actions like this at all costs. However,it's diificult to expect rational behaviour from self righteous bureaucrats and lawmen at the best of times. Waco and Ruby Ridge showed us that a mob mentality is just as likely to descend upon a group of heavily armed cops and guardsmen, as a ragtag group of mellowed out anti war protesters. After all, they have guns and they're itching to use them.
ReplyDeleteAdd to this the fact that it took place in Texas and we should all thank our lucky stars that nobody was killed. Why? Because Texas is different. They don't call it the Lone Star state for nothing. The town I work in has 24 churches and 17 bars. Besides me, I would guess there about 11 other democrats. Texans just think they're special, and if you're talking about having the largest number of right wing, tunnel vision, whack jobs, then I suppose they win hands down.
Of course, the 300 lb. elephant in this conversation is what to do about, and I'm going to use the 'C' word here, 'cults'. Because, lets face it folks, your average religion sorta frowns on grown men marrying 12 year olds. And the average religious leader doesn't suggest that your wife is also his property because he got a message from the 'Giant Talking Head' upstairs telling him so.
So where do you draw the line between an individuals right to belong to an outfit like say: The First Church of the Gooey Death & Discount House of Worship' in Del Rio, Texas, and protecting the children of these brainwashed losers? I don't know either, but I think that sending in unarmed counsellors from Childrens Protective Services, just might have been a more judicious and certainly less traumatic way to handle this, because really folks, it's all about the children.
Read "Under The Banner of Heaven" and you may rethink your position.
ReplyDeletePeter,
ReplyDeleteI suggest that you stop watching the news and start reading about the FLDS. "Under the Banner of Heaven" by Jon Krakauer and "Escape" by Carolyn Jessop are good places to start. Google up some info on the "lost boys" of the FLDS. Get the back story on who these people are, as opposed to the Republitarian male media take on it.
These aren't just people wearing funny clothes. The men have a sophisticated financial empire. They own companies that have Dept. of Defense contracts. They have enough clout to have gotten $2.8 million in pork to build an airport in Colorado City, AZ - an airport used only by the cult. They suck of the govt. teat by getting food stamps and other forms of welfare. Your concern for the taxpayers didn't seem to extend to the social programs the FLDS is ripping off. They do it deliberately, by the way. It's called "bleeding the beast."
Those women, on the other hand, are bred for the purpose of becoming docile incubators - beginning as soon as they menstruate, when they're married off to men older than their fathers, to become one of the multiple wives. The women are not allowed to leave, and if they run away, they are hunted down and brought back. Google up Ruby Jessop. You'll find her sister Flora who is unable to locate her. Oh, and while you're googling, google up fumarase deficiency, just for fun.
I don't know why it surprises me that men who will piss and moan about the way women are treated by the Taliban don't hesitate to defend the right of a cult of white men to breed and brainwash a constant supply of teen girls to molest in the name of God.
Do some research, Peter.