Just a quick update–The Central California Coast talk radio station, KVEC 920 AM will discuss the events unfolding in West Texas and FLDS community. KVEC has a website, where live streaming is available. You can even call in and join the discussion on this number 1-800-549-5832. It will air on the Dave Congalton Show (Hometown talk radio).
The segment will begin at 5:05 p.m. California PDT. (Disclaimer–I will be a guest on the show). So, if you have a thought or two on Texas’ raid on the FLDS community, call in and speak your piece.
Boy, that’s for sure (HT Bethie)
April 22, 2008 at 1:18 pm
You might want to mention on the show Texas’
latest tourism/travel advertising slogan….
“Texas, It’s Like A Whole Other Country!”
I’m not kidding!!!
I have a copy of the actual logo on my blog.
April 22, 2008 at 3:42 pm
I sent Dave a copy of the press release I sent out recently. I’ll try to listen in and see if it’s brought up at all.
April 22, 2008 at 3:42 pm
How ’bout “Texas, It’s Like A Whole Other Constitution”?
April 22, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Try Louisiana!
April 22, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Cats? Pulling nursing children away from their mothers is like taking kittens away from CATS? …only in California.
It was a pleasure listening to you on KVEC radio this evening.
April 22, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Once again, thank you so much for what you are contributing to public awareness and debate on this topic. The events in Texas have been keeping me up at night, and I am grateful for anyone who is willing to take action to try and help.
April 22, 2008 at 6:33 pm
I listened in as well, and cracked up at the cat lady’s remarks. They have spirits, too! Good times…
Great job, Guy.
April 23, 2008 at 2:16 am
For more information on the FLDS raid, may I suggest going to the “Town Square” or “Latter-Day Saint” section of:
TheReligionForum.com
April 23, 2008 at 5:39 am
Hey all, thanks for the comments, and for those who called in to participate, and for any who listened. It was one of the most called in segments in local central coast talk radio ever. The topic is timely, and people all of the central coast–and I think all over The United States are interested and concerned about what is going on in West Texas.
April 23, 2008 at 12:54 pm
I’m not religious and I’m an African immigrant living in the D.C. area. I am, however, outraged at seeing on CNN those heart-broken women crying their eyes out over the empty beds of their kidnaped children. There’s a sick family sect in Kentucky (I think) that pickets the funerals of fallen soldiers with obscene signs that read “Fags’Funerals” and they’re deemed to be in the mainstream and left to their own crazed devices. There are armed racist and violent-bent compounds right there in Texas that operate freely. You could disagree with the FLDS precepts but you can’t deny they’ve set up a sustainable, loving, caring, and peaceful environment for their children. And for the state of Texas to walk into that community and take away children from their parents on the basis of a prank phone call by a deranged woman, is just despicable and revolting!
April 27, 2008 at 3:52 pm
It is official.
There are just three girls under the age of 18 that the state thinks may be pregnant from FLDS.
One will be 18 years old in a month, one refused to take a pregnancy test and one whose age is yet to be determined.
Among many references to this account: The Salt Lake Tribune 04/26/2008 05:14:10 PM MDT
Bingo, no abuse, no arrests, no adults detained, no underage pregnancies. (By Texas law, underage is “under 16″).
But the State is still refusing to release the kids. Two children under two years of age are now missing by the State of Texas’s own admission! (Though I am sure some logical explanation will come up) Three or more little children are hospitalized as of Friday; one is in critical condition because he is an infant that could not adjust without his mother’s milk. CPS admits that many have contracted chicken pox, measles, diarrhea, flu, viruses and other diseases they were not inoculated for now that they are exposed to the “mainstream” and are blaming it on the parents. And of course, as we all now know, (providing you have some education on the subject), the State of Texas has now concluded that the original call was a hoax.
Those of you who judged and threw your own accusations should hope someone other than a person like yourself is around to defend you if you have the misfortune of having your life torn apart and have your children taken away.
Tragic.
http://origin.sltrib.com/news/ci_9056589
April 28, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Well said Joe, being from Texas, I can say that I wish they did this raid in some other state, it looks horrible on us, especially this CPS debacle, and the fact that all those children are not going back to their family for at least 12 months (my guesstimate) But I do wonder, why should they give their children vaccinations? They grow up where they don’t need them, is that not healthier? And my assumption since the second day of the raid, when they first said they haven’t found the girl is correct, I wish the police were able to recognize it, especially now that the sheriff called Dave Barlow in Arizona before the raid and verified he was there!
April 29, 2008 at 12:27 pm
You guys are nit picking and not looking at the bigger picture! The FLDS church is a spiritually abusive church bordering on cult like practices.Have people EVER read any of the stories of people who have managed to escape the FLDS church? These people need to be more regulated.It’s about the time the state did something!These women are being used as child-brides for older men. When a girl/women does not have a choice in who she marries or IF she marries and who she is going to have children with,or even any children at all she has no control over her life.This is I violation of human rights and freedoms.These girls probably don’t even know they DO have a choice or fear going to hell if they make the wrong one <—- spiritual abuse.
April 29, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Spiritual abuse? Is that case law? But I digress, I assume you’ve read the accounts of the people that escaped, have you read the accounts of the people that just left?
Reading a book by someone who left anything under bad circumstances is a bad way of judging a group/corporation/religion/anything.
Also a cult is just a name for a religion someone doesn’t like, so saying something is a cult is just a matter of opinion, I could say atheism is a cult, it is just another form of religion, the worshiping of no god is the same as the worshiping of a god. But that’s besides the point.
Yes we should not nit-pick! I mean, who needs the constitution right? It’s just some dumb piece of paper there for the people that we agree with, but *alleged* sex offenders don’t get that, they should get all their kids taken from the whole town, not arrested, not charged, by a bad warrant which most of them were not even shown, whose only basis is that called in by a 33 year old black democrat super delegate in colorado. And the fact that the sheriff called the *alleged* abuser and verified that he was in colorado, and has an alibi, we should just ignore all that and go in and arrest everyone!
April 29, 2008 at 4:53 pm
With respect to critic Carolyn Jessop. If it is a slave cult why:
1. Did she not marry until 19?
2. Did she go to college to get a teaching certificate?
3. Does she have a beautiful large family.
Please ask Mrs. Jessop if she would like to trade her beautiful family for a LBT (low back tattoo), a bankrupt 401K and a boyfriend who will dump her for a younger, hotter babe when she turns forty?
April 30, 2008 at 5:59 am
William
Spiritual abuse,implies emotional/mental abuse The emotional and mental abuse of a child is against Texas Law.Coerced *FORCED* marriage is a violation of human rights.How hypocritical to hide behind the *Freedom of Religion* to abuse the human rights of other people.Freedom
of Religion also implies Freedom FROM religion .The children and women of the FLDS church are not even given this right by it’s authoritative members.To hear the mothers cry and whine about having their children taken away is pathetic when this happens within the church itself through the replacing of wives with different husbands.Bottom line,Religious Freedom is NOT the freedom to emotionally,mentally,sexually,and physically abuse.All of which has been well documented.
“The Texas Family Code provides that DFPS can remove a child when it can show there is an immediate danger to the health or safety of a child or a child has been a victim of neglect or abuse and the continuation in the home would be contrary to a child’s welfare.”
“All children in a household may be removed if any child in that household has been a victim of neglect or abuse by a person in the household.”
“A unit composed of persons living together in the same dwelling without regard to whether they are related to each other.”
“The Texas Family Code does not define the term “dwelling?”
Abuse as defined above also includes emotional/mental abuse.Coerced Marriage through the threat of eternal damnation,and indoctrination of fear is child abuse!
http://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/statutes/define.cfm
Emotional Abuse
Citation: Fam. Code § 261.001
Abuse includes the following acts or omissions by a person:
* Mental or emotional injury to a child that results in an observable and material impairment in the child’s growth, development, or psychological functioning
* Causing or permitting the child to be in a situation in which the child sustains a mental or emotional injury that results in an observable and material impairment in the child’s growth, development, or psychological functioning
“What is child marriage?
Child/Early marriage refers to any marriage of a child younger than 18 years old, in accordance to Article 1 of the Convention on the Right of the Child. While child marriage affects both sexes, girls are disproportionately affected as they are the majority of the victims. Their overall development is compromised, leaving them socially isolated with little education, skills and opportunities for employment and self-realisation. This leaves child brides more vulnerable to poverty, a consequence of child marriage as well as a cause.
Child marriage is now widely recognised as a violation of children’s rights, a direct form of discrimination against the girl child who as a result of the practice is often deprived of her basic rights to health, education, development and equality. Tradition, religion and poverty continue to fuel the practice of child marriage, despite its strong association with adverse reproductive health outcomes and the lack of education of girls.
Child and forced marriage
A forced marriage is defined as a marriage “conducted without the valid consent of one or both parties and is a marriage in which duress – whether physical or emotional – is a factor” [1]. FORWARD believes that any child marriage constitutes a forced marriage, in recognition that even if a child appears to give their consent, anyone under the age of 18 is not able to make a fully informed choice whether or not to marry. Child marriages must be viewed within a context of force and coercion, involving pressure and emotional blackmail and children that lack the choice or capacity to give their full consent.”
This is was is needed in the US
http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?LegType=All+Primary&PageNumber=1&NavFrom=2&parentActiveTextDocId=3391054&activetextdocid=3391063
April 30, 2008 at 6:36 am
Freedom of religion also implies freedom with religion, atheism is not the only religion protected under the first amendment. In Texas a child marriage is considered under 16 with parental consent. Under your logic a girl is retarded and knows nothing at 17 but one day later magically knows the consequences of their actions, me thinks probably not.
Also under your logic, if abuse happens in one apaartment, then they can remove all the children from the complex under force with APC’s and nothing is wrong.
How do you know the church is more authoratative than an other establishment, religious or not? Are you going on hearsay? Or have you yourself been in the yfz ranch? Don’t forget each community is very different what is true in one is not always true in another.
Plus you still haven’t commented on the legality or ethics of this raid, should the government punish you for something they have yet to say happened?
April 30, 2008 at 7:42 am
William
What does atheism have to do with Coerced Marriage in minors? A child marriage may be considered with consent at age 16 obviously with the consent of the minor as well,thats not the case here and you know it.
“Also under your logic, if abuse happens in one apaartment, then they can remove all the children from the complex under force with APC’s and nothing is wrong.”
An apartment complex and a religious compound where everybody follows the same leaders and teachers is not the same thing! If that were the case and you are going to use that analogy the then outsiders would be able to move in and out of that compound freely,seeing as with the case of an apartment complex that can get sued for denying residence based on religious prefference.
“How do you know the church is more authoratative than an other establishment, religious or not? Are you going on hearsay? Or have you yourself been in the yfz ranch? Don’t forget each community is very different what is true in one is not always true in another.”
Example: My children do not have to worry about being evicted from their home or community because their religious beliefs are different from mine,my church *Unitarian Universalist *don’t demand my assets or my undying devotion to ridiculous doctrines and prophets.And no,not hearsay but on plenty of first hand testimony from people who have *actually* lived it.
“Plus you still haven’t commented on the legality or ethics of this raid, should the government punish you for something they have yet to say happened?” Who is being punished? Nobody has been punished “yet”.An allegation was made they had to act and in the process of acting they obviously found other evidence.Texas guidelines demand that if child abuse is suspected they have to remove the children pending further investigation.Thats what happens when you cut yourself off from society in a religious sect that is known for it’s coerced child marriages and sexual abuse.Obviously you believe coerced child marriage is legal and ethical? Or being raised in a sect that threatens you with hell fire if you don’t comply is legal, ethical or even healthy!!??
April 30, 2008 at 4:52 pm
smells like carl rovian disinformation. Let’s parse the verbiage:
“they’re investigating the possible sexual abuse of some young boys taken from a polygamist sect’s ranch, as well as broken bones among other children.”
Key words: investigating/possible
the are not saying that such things exist, just that they are investigating the possibility.
well hell pardner, i’m investigating the possiblity that the local baptists were having sex orgies over at the first baptist church of el dorado. sounds bad, but it is all b.-.
if there was compelling proof i suspect it would be waived in front of the public to protect the reputation of that fine TEXAS CPS system.
instead we get ambiguity and future plausible deniability.
yup, sounds like rovian dog meat for the dumb masses.
May 1, 2008 at 2:47 am
Plain Truth
Seems to me you really aren’t interested in the welfare of these children.If no sexual wrong has been done to them great!The welfare of the child always comes first.The state does have a responsibility to protect children.Maybe if the FLDS sect wasn’t so secretive and enmeshed in sexual scandal such drastic measures would have not been taken.They might seen like they live in a different world on their compound,but they still live in the United States and are still answerable to it for what they do with their children just like everybody else.
May 1, 2008 at 7:55 am
Is child abuse in the constitution? The constitution is the law of the land, it affects 300 million people this sect is affecting what 6-700 people? I would rather leave them alone than infringe on the constitution. By doing this theyre making these people more secretive and harder to recognize abuse.
May 1, 2008 at 7:58 am
William I don’t see where anyones constitutional right was infringed upon.
May 1, 2008 at 12:55 pm
I still don’t understand why anyone would think it is OK to arrest imprison and torture innocent women and children to get revenge upon the HATED villain “Warren Jeffs”
Yes for the information of those that don’t know arresting people who are not charged with any crime and imprisoning them without trial and striping them naked and probing their body cavities without their consent and injecting them with who knows what IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
I’m especially concerned about the forced injections knowing that it is possible to sterilize people with them. Nazis liked to do forced sterilization too this way is just less obvious
May 22, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Sweet justice. As I told you in my earlier entry, the entire case against the FLDS was and is a scam. And those of you who watched CNN tonight now know I was telling you the truth.
I made only one mistake. There were not three girls under 18 which were pregnant. There were just two and none below 18 have given birth at all. So, the FLDS were correct all along. They do not marry off minors.
One girl is seventeen; one girl is sixteen, though the 16 year old says she is 18. None the less, it is not against Texas law to be 16 and married or 16 and pregnant.
The State swore under oath that 31 minors were pregnant. Now if you notice, my entry was dated April 27th. Do you honestly think I was the only one to know this information?
In fact, there is mounting reason to believe that Texas officials also knew this information all along. Three appellate judges today ordered the return of the children to their parents.
468 children were kidnapped right in front of your eyes by the State of Texas and NOT ONE case of child abuse was found, nor were any charges brought. In fact, several comments were made concerning how unusually healthy these children appeared which was accredited to their healthy eating habits. So the whole case was a lie.
There is however, now documented abuse to some children by some officials after while the children were in their custody.
Attorneys by the families, the ACLU, and some members of the judiciary are considering bringing criminal charges and civil rights violations carrying jail time against state officials including the head of Texas CPS, Attorneys for the state, the prosecutor’s office, Investigators and some members of law enforcement. So don’t be surprised if you see them appeal today’s decision. These creeps are now running for cover.
It was also made public today that Carol Jessop, a regular FLDS critic and author on the Nancy Grace show who says she “escaped” years ago as a child bride from FLDS, was actually married at 19, not 13. There are definitely a lot of sick twisted people in the world. Just not always the ones you might think.
May 23, 2008 at 11:50 am
468 children were kidnapped right in front of your eyes by the State of Texas and NOT ONE case of child abuse was found
Oh, there’s lots of child abuse going on here. The main problem is that it has all been at the hands of the state of Texas.
June 4, 2008 at 10:31 pm
FLDS Members, you need to unite as quickly as possible, vote in your own mayor, town council, sheriff, police force, and take over the entire town.
Raise taxes on the people who slandered you to rates which are absolutely sky high and then claim eminent domain, which is totaly legal and then seize all the town peoples property.
Once you have done that, you can force your way into the State house with your own representative. Beat them at their own game. File for matching federal funds and sue the hell out of the State.
Declare your own highways, parks, reserves, airspace, mineral rights and rename the entire town and county. Screw them royal.
You have the power of the vote and have the majority of the population in the County.
God Bless you.