Sept. 5, 2006
Read an interesting mystery, Desert Wives by Betty Webb, set in a polygamist community near the Arizona/Utah border. This is significant because it is a way the sect ties the law up in jurisdictional sleight-of-hand.
The mystery itself was good, but the details of the sect were fascinating. Did you know that when a man takes a new wife he divorces the current wife, and some men have lots and lots of wives. The fascinating part comes in when you learn that the reason for this is because as a divorced woman with no income and probably kids (more about this in a moment) the woman is eligible for welfare payments, even though she still lives with the exhusband and the new wife. And, worse, the men in the community know when the women are most fertile and make sure to sleep with them during that time; the more kids, the more money coming in. Our tax dollars at work. Yes sirree.
Betty Webb is a former award winning journalist, so the research is reliable.
She also has a sense of humor. At one point when a disgruntled polygamist husband who is helping the detective and needs to speak with her alone, he tells the wife that "God just spoke to me and He wants you to do the dishes while I take Mable here (not the real name) into town to buy groceries." Reminds me of the Taliban, and Christian fundamentalists in general. All of whom purport to know what God wants.
Check out Betty Webb's books. I went on to read all of them (4, so far) and wasn't disappointed in one of them. And I'm not easy to please when it comes to books.
On Terrorism: Am I the only person in America sick of hearing Beltway blowhards blather on about protecting us? Surely we are all adult enough to know they can't protect us and all they're doing is wasting money in order to be seen as doing something, which has more to do with photo ops and coming elections than it has to do with protecting us. They can't protect us. Let's all say that together. They can't protect us.
We'll get hit, or we won't. Anyone in America can be part of a terrorist cell, or even one lone nut with a grudge and a weapon can wreak havoc. We'd better get smart and learn that it's the reasons people do these things that we can eradicate, not the people already disaffected. Think, people, think.
Read an interesting mystery, Desert Wives by Betty Webb, set in a polygamist community near the Arizona/Utah border. This is significant because it is a way the sect ties the law up in jurisdictional sleight-of-hand.
The mystery itself was good, but the details of the sect were fascinating. Did you know that when a man takes a new wife he divorces the current wife, and some men have lots and lots of wives. The fascinating part comes in when you learn that the reason for this is because as a divorced woman with no income and probably kids (more about this in a moment) the woman is eligible for welfare payments, even though she still lives with the exhusband and the new wife. And, worse, the men in the community know when the women are most fertile and make sure to sleep with them during that time; the more kids, the more money coming in. Our tax dollars at work. Yes sirree.
Betty Webb is a former award winning journalist, so the research is reliable.
She also has a sense of humor. At one point when a disgruntled polygamist husband who is helping the detective and needs to speak with her alone, he tells the wife that "God just spoke to me and He wants you to do the dishes while I take Mable here (not the real name) into town to buy groceries." Reminds me of the Taliban, and Christian fundamentalists in general. All of whom purport to know what God wants.
Check out Betty Webb's books. I went on to read all of them (4, so far) and wasn't disappointed in one of them. And I'm not easy to please when it comes to books.
On Terrorism: Am I the only person in America sick of hearing Beltway blowhards blather on about protecting us? Surely we are all adult enough to know they can't protect us and all they're doing is wasting money in order to be seen as doing something, which has more to do with photo ops and coming elections than it has to do with protecting us. They can't protect us. Let's all say that together. They can't protect us.
We'll get hit, or we won't. Anyone in America can be part of a terrorist cell, or even one lone nut with a grudge and a weapon can wreak havoc. We'd better get smart and learn that it's the reasons people do these things that we can eradicate, not the people already disaffected. Think, people, think.
posted by Potshotz at 10:44 PM
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