Monday, May 19, 2008

Links for today

NPR has a nice little article on "The Merry Wives
Polygamy Cafe Feeds the Hungry and Curious
In trying to find info on it, I noticed that it has already been covered by Brooke Adams and the Deseret News. If you would like to visit, eat there, or ask a question, their phone number is (435) 874-1425, and here is a map.

The FLDS have started a website with news and opinions, Truth will Prevail, as has been noted by many others. This recent article makes a strong legal point:
YFZ Children Lived in Separate Homes
Anyone visiting the YFZ community and examining the conditions under which the children lived knows that this perception is false and is either the result of ignorance or of a purposeful distortion of the facts. Those attorneys for the women and children who actually made such a visit were surprised, after hearing the news reports, to find that the families lived in separate homes where each family was an individual entity. It might also be remarked that they found the homes all to be well built, neat, and orderly---a far cry from the facilities in which the children have been living for the last six weeks and hardly the type of environment one would associate with child abuse.
Finally, the CPS has admitted in court that, essentially, Sarah does not exist, by admitting that her child does not exist. It is about time!
Live from the Courthouse (Note that this link may only be temporary)
Revisiting a case that the court quickly reviewed at the start of the morning, Judge Ben Woodward signed paperwork to put a case on hold involving a child called "Baby Girl Jessop." Child Protective Services reported this morning that its workers do not believe the child exists.
I think the press should report this with the same vigor they reported the original phone call, as well as the many instances of CPS insisting that Sarah was real.

Taking Liberties by Akka Gordon
Talks about problems from her time with ACS in New York. It clearly shows that parents need a Bill of Rights to protect us from unchecked and arbitrary acts of governmental agencies that serve as both prosecutor and judge.
But it did not take long for me to see that there was no adventure here. Many of these families were harassed, their rights systematically violated by ACS. Their children were being swallowed up by an agency that too often operated on virtually unchecked authority, wielded arbitrarily. And I represented that agency.

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