The Texas Supreme Court has affirmed the appellate court’s ruling that District Judge Barbara Walther was wrong to allow the FLDS children to be taken into state custody and placed in foster-care. It said, child welfare officials overstepped their authority, failed to show an immediate danger to the children, and removal of the children was not warranted. In other words Walther screwed up royally. Yet she is still in charge of resolving the case.

Why is a judge who made such an egregious mistake, one that has traumatized over a thousand people, still on the job? Because they are insulated from their mistakes. They aren’t penalized for incompetence. In some states it is theoretically possible for the citizens to vote a judge off the bench, but it rarely happens.

The child welfare officials in Texas are now talking about imposing restrictions on the sect when their children are returned. One possibility is requiring all the male adults to leave the ranch. Another is implementing safeguards to prevent the families from fleeing the state. All this even though there is still no clear evidence of illegal behavior. But they probably feel that Walther will back them up.

Why should I expect reason from crusaders? That is exactly what this is, a crusade. One set of bible-thumpers trying to impose its will on a different set of bible-thumpers. The set with the most power will eventually prevail. Reason is not likely to be a strong factor in determining the outcome.

In discussing Barack Obama’s stated intent to meet face-to-face with Iran’s President Ahmightneedajob without pre-conditions, Ann Coulter sarcastically asks:

Because, really, who better to face down a Holocaust denier with a messianic complex than the guy who is afraid of a debate moderated by Brit Hume?

If you don’t know, Brit Hume is a commentator on the Fox News Channel. Obama has refused to participate in any debate sponsored by Fox News.

Another of Obama’s campaign promises is that he will unite the country. Looks like he plans to start by refusing to sit down with conservatives for a little debate. But he will talk to a tyrant who openly admits that he wants to destroy Israel. Good start on that uniting thing Barack.

Iran is a third-world country. How do you think Ahmadinejad is going to view the head of the most powerful country in the world agreeing to meet with him one-on-one? He is clearly going to think that he has the upper hand. And he will be right. Ahmadinejad doesn’t want anything from the USA, unless it’s for us to buy more oil. Obama wants a lot from Ahmadinejad. Obama is not going to get anything because he has no bargaining chips, except the threat of bombing them into the dark ages. If he uses that, how different is his approach from John McCain’s?

It absolutely frightens me to think of Obama looking after the security of our nation.

Some are complaining that our wildlife refuges are being taken over by drug producers, hookers, homosexuals and illegal immigrants. Sounds like life there is pretty wild. Their solution? More money!

Well, it appears there are some level heads in Texas. But what took them so long? The AP reports:

An appellate court decision upended the custody case that sent more than 440 children from a polygamist sect’s ranch into foster care, but it’s not clear whether the children might soon return home.

The Third Court of Appeals in Austin said the state failed to show the youngsters were in any immediate danger, the only grounds under Texas law for taking children from their parents without court action.

Texas District Judge Barbara Walther now has 10 days to release the youngsters from custody, but the state could appeal to the Texas Supreme Court and keep the children from immediately going back to their parents.

The decision Thursday in one of the biggest child-custody cases in U.S. history was a humiliating defeat for the state Child Protective Services agency. It was hailed as vindication by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, who claim they are being persecuted for their religious beliefs.

…

“Even if one views the FLDS belief system as creating a danger of sexual abuse by grooming boys to be perpetrators of sexual abuse and raising girls to be victims of sexual abuse … there is no evidence that this danger is ‘immediate’ or ‘urgent,’” the court said.

“Evidence that children raised in this particular environment may someday have their physical health and safety threatened is not evidence that the danger is imminent enough to warrant invoking the extreme measure of immediate removal,” the court said.

The court said the state failed to show that any more than five of the teenage girls were being sexually abused, and offered no evidence of sexual or physical abuse against the other children. Half the youngsters taken from the ranch were 5 or younger. Only a few dozen are teenage girls.

The court also said the state was wrong to consider the entire ranch as a single household and to seize all the children because some parents in the home might be abusers.

Were these justices reading from my blog? No, it’s just that, like me, they weren’t among those hyperventilating over the strange behavior of the sect’s members.

Now the Texas authorities should decide not to appeal the decision, get those children back to their parents and get on with investigations of individual instances of abuse — if they can find any. Here’s a guideline: motherhood at the age of 27 is not evidence of abuse.

Am I the only one who questions the bottom-line of plastic recycling? Each week a very large, carbon-spewing truck lumbers down my street, stopping in front of each house and picking up maybe a half-dozen bottles and bags. They do this only because I’m forced to pay them to do it, not because they profit from the plastic. I suspect it goes into the landfill with the rest of the garbage.

Based on a comment on a previous post by a regular and respected reader I decided that I need to clarify my position on the whole Texas FLDS thing.

I believe that Mormonism as practiced by the FLDS is all about male domination, power and sex, just like I believe that Islam as practiced by its radical elements is all about male domination, power and sex. I believe that clear instances of abuse should be punished, but when we ditch the constitution in order to right what some in government feel is wrong we are stepping out on a very dangerous slippery slope. I fear the unbound power of government more than I fear fringe religious elements.

If there is one family caught in the wide net cast by the Texas officials that can show they were in no way involved in illegal practices and that there was no probable cause for search and seizure, I hope they sue to the full extent of the law. If there are a hundred such families I hope they all sue.

What Texas should have done when they received the telephone complaint from the young woman was to get a warrant from a judge and go out to the compound and conduct an investigation. If the sect leaders refused to cooperate the authorities should have taken the steps provided by law to force them to cooperate or go to jail. If this process produced clear evidence of abuse, those instances of abuse should have been prosecuted. All other parents and children should have been left to continue their lives as they see fit, as long as it is within the law.

Some have said that if one child was saved from abuse the actions of the Texas officials are justified. This is an absurd argument. Absolutes in a complex social system are unattainable. The FLDS children are being placed in foster-care. Texas cannot guarantee that none of them will be abused. We sacrifice children in accidents because we won’t give up our freedom to travel. We may have to sacrifice children to retain our constitutional rights.

The reader says to ask those who have escaped or been cast out of the FLDS. That is a very good suggestion. Why has their testimony not been used to investigate and prosecute the offenders in the sect? Perhaps it has in some cases. I seem to remember that this might have been a factor in the Warren Jeffs case. But why have we not heard of a lot more of these cases. Could it be that no clear evidence of abuse is found in many of the cases?  Or that the escapees or cast-offs won’t cooperate?

This affair smells to me like a bunch of self-righteous do-gooders getting a bit overwrought over some beliefs and practices that are not like theirs. Neither do I have any clear evidence of that, but I’m not going to go out with armored vehicles and force them into my custody.

I believe that any religion that seeks to force its will on people is despicable. I also believe that a government that unlawfully seeks to force its will on people is despicable and more dangerous (at this time).

Having said all this, I’m willing to admit that I’m wrong about this particular case if Texas proves, beyond a reasonable doubt, that all the affected parents are guilty of placing their children in imminent danger of physical abuse.

Someone asked: Why is it that your opinion on something is worth two cents, yet you are only offered a penny for your thoughts? Where does the other penny go? I’m not sure but I suspect the government gets it.

It’s a puzzling world we live in. The State of Texas believes that all members of the Eldorado FLDS sect are guilty by their association with some of the Sect’s leaders, who are suspected of sex crimes. But we are lectured constantly by the media that Barack Obama should not be considered guilty of race-baiting through his association with his long-term pastor Jeremiah Wright.

Why weren’t all Catholic children rounded up and put in state custody in Texas when many of the priests were found to be pedophiles? Is there not a Baptist church in Texas whose pastor was charged with having sex with a minor member? It’s in the news somewhere quite frequently.

CBS and AP report on hearings in Texas on the FLDS mess. Some of the parents’ attorneys complained that the Book of Mormon was confiscated from some of the children at a foster facility. If this is true we have Texas taking the Book of Mormon from citizens while the federal government is providing the Koran to foreign terrorists.

State Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said officials have not been able to confirm whether the sect members’ holy text was taken from them, but they have removed photos, sermons and books of FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs, a convicted sex offender.

Texas now decides what is fit for children to read? I don’t know what the materials say but it looks like censorship to me. Does this mean that if your child is found to be reading black-listed materials the state can take him or her away from you?

Church members insist there was no abuse. They say the one-size-fits-all action plan devised by CPS doesn’t take into account specific marriage arrangements or living circumstances.

CPS spokeswoman Shari Pulliam said the plans look similar now but will be customized as officials get more information.

“It’s logical they all look the same. All the children were removed from the same address at the same time for the same reason,” she said. But “it’s an evolving plan.”

“It’s an evolving plan” is code for “we acted hastily, we didn’t have much concrete information at the time and we used a broad-brush approach, but we are now compiling information that will cover our asses when all this is scrutinized.”

The plans call for parenting classes and vocational testing for the parents. They also require the parents to prove they can support their children and call for safe living environments, though they offer no specifics.

Before they get their children back all the parents will have to be indoctrinated and reprogrammed.

At the risk of appearing to be a shill for Sowell I’m recommending that you read another series of his columns:

• Too “Complex”?: Part I
• Too “Complex”?: Part II
• Too “Complex”?: Part III

Sowell makes it easy for people other than devious politicians with inflated egos to understand the effects of supply and demand versus the politicians’ actions on the “affordability” of those products that we need or want.

All three presidential contenders want to enact one or another price control on fuel but none of them wants to tap our greatest reserves of oil.

Barack Obama wants to levy an additional tax on the oil companies, which will increase the price of fuel. Apparently he sees it as punishment for their supposed greed. But guess who eventually gets punished. Clue: It’s not Obama or the oil companies.

Most of the liberal politicians today want to increase the income taxes of the “wealthy” taxpayers. Think about it. How do you actually tax the wealthy? The vast majority of them are in controlling positions relative to their income. Tax their businesses’ profits and they will pass it on to consumers of their products. Tax their salaries and they will raise them — and pass the cost on to consumers.

Consumers of products and services pay all the taxes regardless of their income. Since the non-wealthy consume vastly more products and services than the wealthy, the non-wealthy pay vastly more of the taxes. It doesn’t matter who files the return and sends a check to the IRS, we all pay too much in taxes in the end.

Have you heard someone boast that they don’t have to pay income taxes? Next time give them a lesson in trickle-down taxes and economics.

A Texas woman has been arrested for trying to flush her stillborn baby’s body down a toilet before placing it in a trash can. In Texas it’s alright to kill a live baby but illegal to abuse the body of a dead one.