Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Texas release El Dorado report

What a day to dump the news: Texas Child Protect Services officials release a report justifying the raid on the El Dorado FLDS compound -- which resulted in the forcible seizure of more than 400 children -- because 12 girls in the cult had been "spiritually married" before age 16:
As a result of this investigation, CPS found that 12 girls who ranged in age from 12 to 15 were victims of sexual abuse at the YFZ Ranch with the knowledge of their parents. Sexual abuse occurred in the case of the 12 girls, who now range in age from 14 to 18, because they were "spiritually" married under age. The earliest marriage was in 2004 and the most recent known marriage took place in July 2006. Two girls were 12 when married; three were 13; two were 14; and five girls were 15 when married. Seven of these girls have had one or more children after marriage.
Now, as I said months ago, if Texas officials are going to launch a paramilitary raid every time a 15-year-old girl gets pregnant, they're going to need to hire some more SWAT police. In point of fact, Texas leads the nation in teenage pregnancy. The crime that justified this raid in the minds of CPS officials obviously wasn't that teenage girls were having sex or having babies -- that happens every day in Texas -- but that they were "married."

The cost to taxpayers of the raid and investigation was more than $12 million -- a million per underage marriage. Twenty-six mothers originally suspected of being underage were eventually determined to be adults. Note well that, although the officials have apparently done DNA testing to determine the paternity of every child in the cult compound, they are still "investigating" the hoax call that led to the raid:
All the children from the ranch were placed in foster care in April after authorities raided it in response to calls to a domestic abuse hot line. Those calls are being investigated as a hoax, though a dozen FLDS men now face charges including sexual abuse and bigamy based on documents and evidence seized at the ranch.
The children were returned to their parents in June after the Texas Supreme Court ruled the state had overstepped in removing all the children when it only had evidence of abuse or neglect involving about a half-dozen girls. Many of the children were boys or younger than 5.
As weird as this FLDS cult is, and as serious as the actual charges are, a $12-million SWAT raid that put more than 400 children into foster care was not the right solution.

UPDATE: In case you are one of the Mahablog readers who has been misdirected here by a link intended to send you to Dennis Prager, I apologize. As to my own argument -- that Texas child-welfare officials overreacted by seizing all 432 children at the El Dorado compound -- this gets twisted by Mahablog into "an apology for sexual exploitation and forced marriage of girls as young as 12." Of course, there is no such apology intended, and only a willful misreading could lead to such a conclusion.

Mahablog then goes on to argue that "movement conservatism is, at base, a kind of psychological-sexual dysfunction" -- the old Adorno/Marcuse/Frankfurt School theory. It is as wrong today as when it was first promulgated in 1950. To disagree with liberals about the proper scope of government power is not evidence of a mental disorder, and repetition of the libel does not make it so.

6 comments:

  1. It's called Right Wing Little Dick Syndrome. It's real. It exists.

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  2. so your not ok with the patriot act, wiretapping pretty much everyone and gitto? or are you only upset about abuse of power if the person doing is not a republican.
    BTW, it sure seems like a lot of you conservatives go on and on about immorality and then wind up dead in a wet suit with a dildo up your ass. I am just sayin thats all.

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  3. Your accusations of "willful misreading" of your blog ring rather hollow. You wrote:

    The crime that justified this raid in the minds of CPS officials obviously wasn't that teenage girls were having sex or having babies -- that happens every day in Texas -- but that they were "married."

    I think the accusation that grown me were having sex with under-age girls as young as 12 was the motivation, don't you? The problem wasn't that "girls were having sex" it was that men were raping them.

    If you think that your piece reads as if the main point was

    that Texas child-welfare officials overreacted by seizing all 432 children at the El Dorado compound

    I'm afraid you're sadly mistaken.

    It's hard to read a comment like

    if Texas officials are going to launch a paramilitary raid every time a 15-year-old girl gets pregnant

    without seeing it as an apologetic. You seem to be implying that cult-members having sex with 12-year-olds is exactly the same as your average 15-year-old Texan girl getting herself knocked up. But maybe you could explain how that's not what you meant at all.

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  4. So, in your opinion, what percentage of the children would have to be rape victims for the raid to be justified?

    This is rape apologism for sure. You are a douchebag.

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  5. "As to my own argument -- that Texas child-welfare officials overreacted by seizing all 432 children at the El Dorado compound -- this gets twisted by Mahablog into "an apology for sexual exploitation and forced marriage of girls as young as 12.""

    Actually, it was your own statement equating 15 year old girls getting pregnant with forced marriage and rape ("if Texas officials are going to launch a paramilitary raid every time a 15-year-old girl gets pregnant, they're going to need to hire some more SWAT police.") that made me think that you're a forced marriage and rape apologist.

    One involves voluntary sex, the other involves force. One is sex, the other is rape.

    See the difference?

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  6. Mr. McCain:

    I'm a regular Mahablog reader who has come here from the link in question - I feel you have been misrepresented and mistreated here. Here is the comment I have left at the Mahablog:

    ---
    *blinks* Something’s not right here… I can’t match what you’ve written here with what’s written on the links. I declare shenanigans!

    The first post you link to discusses how Texas doesn’t care about underage pregnancy, only underage marriage - which doesn’t seem a wildly unfair assertion in the context in which it’s raised.

    The second post is clearly dripping with indignant sarcasm. This is someone who doesn’t believe in sex before marriage, horrified at the idea of emergency contraception which he believes encourages disrespectful relationships towards women.

    I can’t say I have many political views in common with R.S. McCain, but my quick glance here suggests you have wildly misrepresented him. Personally, I think you owe him an apology, but I doubt that’s on the cards here.

    I very much enjoy your blog, but some days you seem to fly off the handle just as badly as the “wingnuts” do…
    ---

    I'm quite certain you and I have wildly different political views, but it seems to me that you have been treated unfairly here.

    I don't see your post as defending rape at all and while I can see why someone would take that reading away, I feel confident they have not properly understood your position here.

    I have very conflicted feelings about the El Dorado FLDS compound raid - this is not as clear cut an incident as anyone wants to represent, although in US politics I'm afraid both the conservatives and the liberals are so entrenched in their positions that communication has become effectively impossible. There are serious issues to be addressed here, and they won't be solved by witch hunts and scapegoating, which seems to be fast becoming the substitute for justice in the States.

    I would advise you to be careful how you present your viewpoint on issues such as this, however, as the risk of being misunderstood is exceptionally high.

    Best wishes,

    Chris.

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