Article in National Geographic

National Geographic has an article on the FLDS. It seems to me to be very well done, with the excellent photography typical of NG (as you can see above). I think it goes a long way toward quashing the stereotypes that led to the Great Eldorado Roundup. However, I do wish they had covered some of the other polygamist groups as well.

Analysis of Housekeeping and Parent Rights

I just finished Housekeeping, an intriguing novel that seems to read more like poetry than prose. It is the story of two orphaned girls, first raised by their grandma, then their great aunts, then their aunt.

The problem is their aunt is a transient who rides freight trains. Eventually, the younger sister goes off to live with a teacher, and live a "normal" life. The older sister, the narrator, is threatened by the locals to be forcibly removed from her aunt. Instead, they burn their house, and escape to the hobo life. The town assumes them dead.

In the book, the author talks of family togetherness. It is ultimately the government that force a terrible choice: break up the family, or become a drifter. It seems that too often this is the case with various government organizations. In trying to force people, they end up creating the very situation they were trying to avoid. In trying to help, they end up hurting.

I highly recommend the book for both it's artistry, and it's depth. However, it is a book that requires you take your time.

Analysis by Criminal Defense Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

This rather extensive analysis Floyd and Sinclair really hits the nail on the head. Thanks to Hugh for pointing it out.

we do believe that polygamy is a fundamental tenet of certain religions and we have no problem with that practice, just as we have no problem with same-sex marriage, civil unions, common law marriage, or state-sanctioned ceremonial marriage. Laws should not be based on religious tenets. Laws should be secular.

Who is Christopher Clark, and how is he related to Rozita?

This is a very interesting question of who Christopher Clark is, and how exactly he relates to Rozita Swinton. Perhaps I will have more to post in the near future.

UPDATE -- Hugh McBride at Modern Pharisee came up with the answer.

He's a bartender in Albion ID, and has made statements regarding Rozita that would make it appear she is his foster child. He had a MySpace page plastered with her pictures from Thanksgiving of 2008, some of which were from the "Ace Hardware" store in Burley ID. Rozita in turn commented on that MySpace page several times. I have copies of all of them. I am unable to publish them here because someone gripes that I am infringing on copyright, and again I don't have the wherewithal to dispute that.

According to alleged or claimed foster "mom" Mary Catharine Nelson, Ms. Nelson has been in the pacific northwest as well. There are a lot of confusing stories about Rozita's youth out there, and no one with the time and money has been willing to investigate them.

Thanks for the answer, Hugh. Christopher Clark is possibly the one complaining about copyright infringement. There was a "Christopher Clark" signature on the takedown notice I received. "Chilling Effects" is slow posting takedown notices but after asking google I received a scan of the letter with personal information removed. Since it will be posted on Chilling Effects anyway, I do not feel bad about breaking out his role.

Now, it is entirely possible that someone else wrote and signed the letters. That is the reason I wanted to contact him directly. It would be nice to know if someone else was writing up the letters and signing them in his name.

I publicly invite Christopher Clark to comment on this matter.

Scoreboard: FLDS 439, Texas 0

Last child was released today. Combine that with the earlier veto, the actions of the Texas Supreme Court, and time on the Oprah Winfrey show. It seems that many crucial parts of the battle are not going the way the anti-FLDS planned. There is still a ways to go, but it is wonderful to see such amazing progress.

New Blog focusing on political concerns

I have started a new blog to better address some of the more political problems I see that are not as closely related to parental and family rights. You might find it interesting.

Innovation and Politics

Video from Iran

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Video from the street in Tehran. Unbelievable. Of course, given the Eldorado roundup, maybe it will happen here as well. I could well imagine a mob calling themselves "kindred spirits" with helmets and batons, swinging away.

I hope you wear green in support of Iranian youth.

Green Ribbon on my antenna to support the youth of Iran

This morning I purchased green electrical tape and put it on the antenna of my car. This evening, I added a green ribbon. When I go out tommorrow, I will be wearing a green ribbon on my wrist.

For one of the first times in my life I feel there is hope for peace in the middle east. That hope rests, in part, on the youth of Iran, and their courage in the streets of Tehran. I am reminded of a song I love - "Chimes of Freedom Flashing" as sang by the Byrds, but in this video by their lead singer Roger McGuinn.

$2 Million Parking Ticket?

What if your child or grandchild got hit with a $2 Million parking ticket? Would you think that is excessive? So would I. Yet it is the punishment the jury decided on in a recent court case for something that I believe is fair use. Here is the letter I wrote to my senators and representative.

Can you imaging paying $2 million for a parking ticket? In my mind this is what has happened today in a trial in Minnesota. A Woman has been fined $2 million for non-commercial sharing of music. If this same penalty were applied to all shared music, it would result in a fine of $400 Trillion. Let me repeat that number: $400 Trillion. How is there any sanity in this kind of award? However, even though the damages were excessively high, the industry felt an award almost twice as high was appropriate.

You represent Virginia. It is your duty to stop this nonsense. Non-commercial sharing is far different than commercial piracy, and should be treated as such. Sharing songs should not carry a penalty similar to a parking ticket, not a penalty similar to murder, especially when the music industry has yet to prove they are damaged.

Please hold hearings on non-commercial file sharing, and call the music industry to task for this gross abuse of justice. Also, please support and/or sponsor legislation that gives a sane penalty for non-commercial sharing, commensurate with the 79 cent price of the file.

"Race to the Pole" and anti-Mormonism

I recently finished a very interesting book - Race to the Pole: Tragedy, Heroism, and Scott's Antarctic Quest, by Sir Ranulph Fiennes. When I picked it up I thought it would be an interesting book about how early explorers lived and died in their quest for the antarctic. I only later found out I was stepping into a historical controversy.

Sir Fiennes is a modern explorer of note. He has apparantly crossed Antartica on foot, and performed a number of other extrordinary feats. In the mid-1970s a biography came out that was highly critical of explorer Robert Scott. From this book, the contemporary view of Scott has become one of a bumbling idiot, according to Fiennes. According to Fiennes, the book even went so far as to accuse Scott's wife of an affair, and the head of the Royal Geographical Society of being a homosexual, all with no substantive evidence. Further, Fiennes pointed out that the other author had never been to Antartica.

I have yet to read the other book, so I can not comment on it directly. However, much of what Fiennes said about the way Scott kept his diary and the nature of scientific expeditions resonates with my own experiences. Thus, it gives merit to his book in my mind.

Now, I have not researched the history of Scott enough to resolve this historical question to my satisfaction. However, I see Sir Fiennes engaged in a very similar struggle to that of polygamists. They are contending against sensationalist writings that have become considered "common knowledge." Just as such things as the weather conditions in March 1912 have come to light with further research, items such as the "FLDS on welfare" fallacy have been debunked by adversarial witnesses such as Texas officials. It is clear that "common knowledge" has been wrong, it is more a matter of seeing how far it has drifted.