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Friday, 16 May 2008 |
The Austin American Statesman filed a TPIA request related to the costs of the raid in Eldorado.
The massive child welfare
operation that began in early April with a state raid of a West Texas
ranch owned by a polygamous sect cost nearly $7.5 million in the first
19 days, according to records from Gov. Rick Perry’s office.
A spokeswoman for Perry cautioned that the numbers — obtained
through the Texas Public Information Act — are preliminary and
unaudited, and Perry’s office has yet to release official costs.
But the numbers do reveal clues about the financial impact of what
Texas officials have said is the largest removal of children in U.S.
history.
$7.5 million is going to be but the tip of the iceberg in this one. Who should pay for it?
Technically, many of the court costs are the responsibility of the counties, but state leaders say they plan to use state money.
“We can’t wash our hands from it — we’re the ones who did it,” said
state Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, a member of the Finance Committee.
“I hope it turns out it was the right thing to do.”
Hope and a prayer, Sen. Deuell. What about the legal costs, which are not yet outlined?
A draft document from the
governor’s office showed that the Office of Court Administration
projected in late April that court costs for the civil and any criminal
cases could be about $1.8 million, including everything from expert
witnesses to jury pay.
Glenna Bowman, chief financial officer for the office, said Thursday
that the next draft of her estimate will be closer to $2.2 million.
“We’re trying to look into our crystal ball,” she said.
You
need a new crystal ball, Ms. Bowman. That’s less than $5,000 per case,
for both sides. It costs more than that for a contested a traffic
ticket. In this case, people’s lives are at stake. $5,000 is a drop in
the bucket.
That giant sucking sound you hear all around the state comes from
tort lawyers lighting cigars as they wait to get their hands on the
state’s $10 billion dollar surplus.
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Wednesday, 14 May 2008 |
In the big picture, it was a small victory.
But for a man that didn’t see his children for 36 days and then only
briefly, this ruling probably felt like winning the lottery.
A couple from a polygamist sect can have daily visits
with their three children and in 10 days will have a hearing to decide
their custody, a San Antonio judge said, breaking them out of the terms
of temporary state custody imposed after last month’s raid at a
polygamist compound.
The man, Joseph Jessop, has been fighting for his wife and children
since the state took them away during the raid on the FLDS’s Yearning
for Zion ranch April 3rd. His victory, small as it may be in the
battles to be fought with the state, prevented the state, at least
temporarily, from taking his young son away from his mother on
Thursday, which will be his first birthday.
Lawyers for a Fundamentalist LDS couple went to court
Tuesday to get an emergency restraining order blocking Texas
authorities from separating a mother from her child.
Joseph Steed Jessop Jr. turns 1 on Thursday and it is expected he will be separated from his mother, Lori.
“A CPS worker has told her that after the infant, Joseph Steed
Jessop Jr., turns one year old, which will be on May 15, 2008, he, too,
will be taken away from her,” Corpus Christi attorney Rene Haas wrote
in a motion filed Tuesday in a San Antonio.
I know, many of you will maintain that it is in the best interest of
the child, because the mother and father are polygamists that are under
some sort of mind control. Problem is, you would be wrong.
Although they did live at the YFZ ranch and are members of the FLDS
church, Mr. Jessop is 27, Mrs. Jessop is 25, their other two children
are 4 and 2 1/2, they are in a monogamous marriage and lived by
themselves in a single family residence at the ranch.
Further, they presented proof of this to state officials at the time
of the raid, as well as documenting the ages of their children. But the
state took them away anyway. How do we know this?
Turns out that the Jessops hit the lottery twice. They were fortunate enough to have Rene Haas
represent them. Who, you ask? Aren’t all the attorneys there ambulance
chasers? Far from it. Rene Haas is a former prosecutor and State
District Judge. A graduate of both Wellesley and UT law, she is one the
top lawyers in the country. Listen to what former Judge Haas had to say about this case.
“This was a victory not only for this couple, but for
all Americans who hold dear the right to protect themselves against
unreasonable actions by the government,” said attorney Rene Haas, who
represents the couple. “Our children are our most precious possession.
Wrenching innocent young children who are happy and healthy from loving
parents, which inflicts terrible psychological trauma on the children,
makes no sense whatsoever. We should work with families not destroy
them.”
That is not some publicist for the FLDS church. That is a former
State District Judge saying that. Hopefully, it will give you pause.
Let’s hope that former Judge Haas is successful in her attempts to reunite this beautiful family.
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Wednesday, 14 May 2008 |
Pregnant adult women held in
captivity until childbirth so that the state can take possession of the
baby. Think this can’t happen in the US? In Texas? Think again.
Texas Child Protective Services said today at a custody
hearing for a child born to one of the YFZ Ranch children that the
agency no longer believes the mother is a minor.
Today’s custody hearing was continued to Friday to allow
attorneys to prepare. The mother will need a new attorney because the
attorneys representing her also are representing other minors and were
concerned about conflicts of interest.
Knowing full well that this mother is an adult, what will the state attempt to do when the hearing resumes?
When the hearing resumes, state officials said, they will continue to seek custody of the infant.
Think this is an isolated case? Think again. It happened again yesterday. A 22 year old woman with two children was held in captivity until she gave birth.
A mother taken from a polygamist sect and being held as
a minor in state custody gave birth Monday to a baby boy who was
immediately taken into child-protective custody.
The new mother has claimed she is 22 and has filed a writ of habeas corpus to be freed from state custody.
Her 24 year old husband received an emergency court order to stop the state from whisking the child off to a foster home.
State District Judge Orlinda Naranjo issued an injunction that
temporarily halted CPS’ plan to move the mother, the newborn and the
couple’s two other children, ages 2 and 3, to San Antonio within hours
of the delivery at an Austin birthing center.
The judge said the mother and the three youngsters will remain in
Travis County until after a hearing Thursday on Mr. Jessop’s request
that another district judge in Austin, Darlene Byrne, order his wife
and children released from state care.
So where did CPS put the woman and her newborn for the night, hours after the birth?
Because CPS had no foster care placement in Travis County that was
suitable for the newborn, the mother and child were poised to spend the
night in a CPS office, a lawyer for the husband said.
“This woman has been removed from the birthing center
with a brand new baby boy and is now sitting in the offices of CPS
because they don’t have anywhere else to put her,” Ms. Matassarin said.
Why would the state not release a 22 year old woman?
Rod Parker, an attorney and spokesman for the
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, accused
state officials of deliberately holding a pregnant mother they to knew
to be of legal age so they could take her baby into custody upon birth.
“They just wanted to keep the mother in custody until they could get the baby,” Parker said.
In a million
years, you could not have convinced me that this would be allowed to
take place in the United States of America, much less the State of
Texas. Until I witnessed it happening before my very eyes.
Think it can’t happen to you? Think again.
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Sunday, 11 May 2008 |
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about Mother's Day. More on that in a bit.
Had a fantastic trip up to SU's sister and BIL's place. It's near Centerville and we had the best time! Only stayed Friday night because of our commitment at church but it surely was fun. They bought a nice place, 40 acres, a well stocked pond, way off the road, no noise at all. Very nice, very large cabin with a couple of barns and a guest cabin.
Best part was that it was just plain relaxing and fun to be with them. We haven't spent a lot of time together the past few years, work, kids, etc. Gosh, the fun we missed by not getting together more often. Sat around a big bonfire for a couple hours, then went in and played goofy games. Lots of laughter. Very nice.
Class today was, in a word, awesome. Subject was reconciliation, with Joseph's reconciliation to his brothers as the base text. But it went far beyond that, the guys are at a level now that they are shedding their inhibitions freely. DB talked about reconciling with his mother after many years due to the birth of his first child, then receiving a call a month later that she had been killed in a car wreck. Hard to hold back tears at that point but to be honest, they weren't tears of sadness. They were tears of joy at seeing men being able to talk about these things with other men, without a single trace of touchy, feely pop psych. Just bein' real, as they say. Quite incredible.
Back to the subject of the day, Mother's Day. I read an article about the commercialism of Mother's Day and how the driving force behind the proclamation had been depressed by this just a few years after President Wilson had proclaimed it a holiday. This quote made me think:
"I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit," Jarvis complained, dismissing greeting cards as "a poor excuse for the letter you are too lazy to write."
Rather than a card or a letter, I chose to thank SU verbally for the time, methods and dedication in raising my girls that she has done. Not sure if I'll do that again, seemed to fall flat. Or maybe I will do it again and work on the presentation.
But I do think that commercialism is a bane to Mother's Day, as it is to any other day that we try to set aside to honor someone or something. SU's Mom came up to Centerville yesterday before we left and SU had picked out a perfect gift. It was something that required knowledge of her Mom and was just perfect.
But I've been thinking about Mother's Day today for another reason. Pop has decided to get married again, apparently this week. I've seen his bride in passing and even said Hi once. What a strange day to tell us.
Mom died so young. With each passing year, that thought rings louder in my mind. I mentioned a couple of years ago that her death to me is one of lost opportunities and that still rings true. It's hard not to think, what if?
But in the end, I have to trust that Jesus is in control and that my faith is true. And that her work on earth was done. That it was up to Pop's second wife to guide my girls, to be there in summer camps, to teach them life lessons of humility, love of others and God. To teach my wife how to deal with a husband that had strayed far from God. To show me that love can be expressed freely and openly.
So, on this Mother's Day, I celebrate with three women that have meant more to me than they could possibly know. To my Mom, I'll be forever in debt for showing me the way to the Lord. To my second Mom, I'll be forever in debt for showing me how to love. And to my wife, I'll be forever in debt for raising children in a way that pleased the Lord.
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Thursday, 08 May 2008 |
During the Republican primary, the
term Evangelical continued to be abused by the press as nothing more
than a conservative faction of the Party. Robert Novak even went so far
as to say that Evangelicals were an inherent danger to the Party. Many of us tried to defend and define the term in proper context. Others, as in this link provided by LST member Shannon,
explored the changes through the years. In the end, the pack mentality
of the press ruled the day and Evangelicals continue to be portrayed as
anti-intellectual stooges easily duped by the Republican Party.
Recently, a group of Evangelicals put forth the Evangelical Manifesto,
an attempt to define what an Evangelical is and is not. Perhaps more
importantly, what the mission of Evangelicals should be and how this
mission should be accomplished. Indicative of the times we live in,
they’ve even included an Executive Summary and a Study Guide.
Setting the theology portion aside for the time being, I enjoyed several of the thoughts on freedom of religion.
Let it be known unequivocally that we are committed to
religious liberty for people of all faiths, including the right to
convert to or from the Christian faith. We are firmly opposed to the
imposition of theocracy on our pluralistic society.
That is diametrically opposite from the way the press portrayed what
they called Evangelicals. Does that sound inherently dangerous to
society? I think not.
The manifesto discusses both sides of religion in public life,
terming those that would force religion upon us as favoring a sacred
public square and those that would strip any and all references to
religion as favoring a naked public square, to which their response is:
Our commitment is to a civil public square — a vision of
public life in which citizens of all faiths are free to enter and
engage the public square on the basis of their faith, but within a
framework of what is agreed to be just and free for other faiths too.
Thus every right we assert for ourselves is at once a right we defend
for others. A right for a Christian is a right for a Jew, and a right
for a secularist, and a right for a Mormon, and right for a Muslim, and
a right for a Scientologist, and right for all the believers in all the
faiths across this wide land.
One of the key insights that I found was in the area of globalization as related to the public square.
the emergence of a global public square finds no
matching vision of how we are to live freely, justly, and peacefully
with our deepest differences on the global stage.
As this global public square emerges, we see two equal
and opposite errors to avoid: coercive secularism on one side, once
typified by communism and now by the softer but strict French-style
secularism; and religious extremism on the other side, typified by
Islamist violence.
We also warn of the danger of a two-tier global public
square, one in which the top tier is for cosmopolitan secular liberals
and the second tier is for local religious believers. Such an
arrangement would be patronizing as well as a severe restriction of
religious liberty and justice, and unworthy of genuine liberalism.
But globalization isn’t the greatest threat to our society and freedom. No, that comes from within.
Third, we are concerned that a generation of culture
warring, reinforced by understandable reactions to religious extremism
around the world, has created a powerful backlash against all religion
in public life among many educated people. If this hardens into
something like the European animosity toward religion in public life,
the result would be disastrous for the American republic and would
severely constrict liberty for people of all faiths. The striking
intolerance shown by the new atheists is a warning sign.
We call on all citizens of goodwill and believers of all faiths and
none to join us in working for a civil public square and the
restoration of a tough-minded civility that is in the interests of all.
Can we achieve a civil public square? Sure. Will we? That remains to be seen.
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Wednesday, 07 May 2008 |
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In today's society, that's a real good question. If you do study it, people are quick to jump on your every word if you mention that you do, especially if you try to apply what you read. And especially if they hold themselves out to be some sort of spiritual guide. They mock you, laugh at you, call you self-righteous, try to get others to join them - all because you try to better yourself.
So, why bother? Because none of those people matter in the long run. Because studying the Bible opens you up to an entirely new way of living. A better way of living. A happy, joyous way!
I found a sermon by a Presbyterian minister that is one of the best "apologies" for reading the Bible that I've ever come across. Dr. John A. Huffman, Jr., of St. Andrews in Newport Beach, CA titled his sermon, WHY SHOULD I TAKE THE TIME TO STUDY THE BIBLE?
I am existentially reminded of what it takes to be a pilot. At
what point does a person become a good pilot? Is that person a
good pilot at the point when one makes the decision to become a
pilot? Of course not! One has to learn how to be a pilot. It
makes no difference how emotionally excited one is about becoming
a pilot. One may have a commitment to aeronautics that is
steadfast. But beyond that, one needs training. That pilot takes
flight instruction. He studies a manual. Finally, he solos and
then builds up the experience of in-flight hours and further
study. At last, the day comes when he is employed by an airline.
He is not immediately given the full responsibility to sit in the
left seat of his aircraft. He continues to learn in a subordinate
role. The day eventually comes when he becomes a captain. Has he
arrived now? No! He continues to learn, to be taught. He has to
keep up on the manuals, on flight regulations, on changes in
equipment. He has to know the rules and the regulations. He has
to understand the equipment. It is absolutely essential that he
learns the doctrine, the teachings of his profession.
Exactly! The decision is just the first step. Learning the faith requires reading the manual, studying the manual, applying the manual to your life. And if people make fun of you for that, so what?
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Monday, 05 May 2008 |
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There are some death penalty cases that cause one to pause and reflect upon its usefulness in today's society. This is not one of them .
A Houston man who was convicted of capital murder for the gang rape
and slaying of two teenage girls received a death date today after the
U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for his and other killers'
executions.
Jose Medellin, 33, is set to die by injection on Aug. 5 for the 1993 murders of Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Peña, 16.
Finally, after 15 years surviving at taxpayer expense, this piece of human debris will die. Good riddance.
What these beasts did to these two young women is something that no human being should have to suffer through. You cannot read through the horror that they suffered and have compassion for their killers.
When the rapes finally ended, the horror was not over. The gang members took Jenny and Elizabeth from the clearing into a wooded area, leaving the juvenile behind, saying he was "too little to watch". Jenny was strangled with the belt of Sean O'Brien, with two murderers pulling, one on each side, until the belt broke. Part of the belt was left at the murder scene, the rest was found in O'Brien's home. After the belt broke, the killers used her own shoelaces to finish their job. Medellin later complained that "the bitch wouldn't die" and that it would have been "easier with a gun". Elizabeth was also strangled with her shoelaces, after crying and begging the gang members not to kill them; bargaining, offering to give them her phone number so they could get together again.
I hope that their families will finally get some peace. As for Medellin, he should be happy that I am not in charge of his soul.
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Monday, 05 May 2008 |
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for the weekend. One of SU's friends at
work invited us to her daughter's wedding, which was held at the
Driskill, which is one of my favorite hotels ever. Old world charm
at the mouth of 6th Street's club row, an awesome place to stay.
But, there was no room at the inn by the time we got around to
making our reservations, thus we stayed offsite and walked 5 blocks
after finding a space in a parking lot.
The setting and decor were beautiful but not for me. I much prefer
church weddings to weddings held in secular buildings or outdoors.
I think that a certain amount of reverence and awe are lost if not
held in a church. Certainly, the Unitarian style priest that
officiated this one needs to find a sense of awe. He laughed and
made light of the proceedings throughout. Guess I'm just old
fashioned.
After the wedding, there was a full course meal and a dance band.
But honestly, who wants to listen to a dance band when you can walk
out the door to some of the finest live music in the world?
So, SU and I made a graceful exit as soon as we could. Walked over
to the parking lot and changed clothes, right there in the middle
of the lot. Keep Austin weird, right?
The sights and sounds of 6th Street are awesome. Not sure if it is
due to the mix of college students, homeless bums and tourists or
if it is the blend of a hundred different styles of music, but I
love to walk down it at night. Daytime is not the same and is
reminiscent of walking down Bourbon St. in the day - nasty and
filthy. But when the sun goes down, it's hard to beat it.
Sat in on several bands but spent about 45 minutes listening to a
blues trio fronted by J.T. Cole. Never heard of him but he was very
good. Nice tight rhythm, excellent phrasing and nice technique. He
was really into speed, normally not one of my favorites but he was
decent enough that you could get into it. Nice.
Met up with 2 for brunch on Sunday. She looked great and is really
growing into her own. I think her time in Italy was well spent.
Enjoyed the brunch and then headed home.
Made the trek down 290 in hopes of seeing bluebonnets. None. Nada.
Went south on 36 to Bellville, then east to Hempstead, none. Nada.
Bunch of yellow wildflowers but no bluebonnets! What happened?
Forgot to mention that we watched a very good movie last week
titled "The Diving Bell and The Butterfly". What a good movie. Hard
to describe but basically a look at a very rare condition called
"locked-in syndrome" from the patient's perspective. Really will
make you think. Excellent cinematography as well.
We were exhausted when we got home last night and watched a movie
on the life of the prophet Jeremiah. Very well done and brought to
life some of the things that we are doing as a country that has
turned away from God. Jeremiah 7:3-7:
The Lord God of Israel who rules over all says: Change the way you have been living and do what is right. If you do, I will allow you to continue to live in this land. Stop putting your confidence in the false belief that says, We are safe! The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here! You must change the way you have been living and do what is right. You must treat one another fairly. Stop oppressing foreigners who live in your land, children who have lost their fathers, and women who have lost their husbands. Stop killing innocent people in this land. Stop paying allegiance to other gods. That will only bring about your ruin. If you stop doing these things, I will allow you to continue to live in this land which I gave to your ancestors as a lasting possession.
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Yikes! Glad you made it. Thought I'd wander over here and look around. Too
strange OY. :>)
Too funny...I know it would be worth a call!!
Whoa now! so YOU get to change the oil, but you won't teach me how to do it?!
Not cool.
Ready for "later"...and the rest of the story
what a wonderful world we could have if ALL of us who say we are Christians
became Christlik...
Thank you so much for the listning and the kind words. I am very blessed to have
this outlet...
Sure. I tried to tell him that he needs a way to contact him from his Reverb
Nation site but...
Will you tell Bil I think he sounds great, and I'm glad we are still gifted with
his presenc...
I thought you must be taking a break. It sounds like it was a busy break. It's
great reading...
Welcome back..