The State of Texas awaits the jury's decision on his sentence, but even the NYT cared enough about the outcome of the Eldorado, Texas, trial to report the verdict. The jury found him guilty in fewer than four hours.

Seen in an AP photo, below, as he was escorted away from the courthouse, Jessop could be sent to a Texas prison for up to 20 years. San Angelo Standard-Times' coverage indicates evidence confirming his paternity of a 4-year-old girl caused fireworks in the courtroom.

And if you want to know why it is my hope that Mr. Jessop meets, up close and in person, the tender mercies of the TDCJ inmates regarding child rapists, read this excerpt regarding what happened to the girl he raped.

The ranch first came to national attention a year and a half ago when the Texas authorities descended on it, seeking a girl who had complained in a telephone call to a San Angelo women’s shelter that she was being sexually abused. The girl was never found, and the Texas Rangers acknowledge that the tip was a hoax.

But in the course of executing search warrants, social workers and the Rangers uncovered evidence that at least a dozen girls had been coerced by church elders to serve as wives to older men. Seven had borne children.

The prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Eric Nichols, put several Rangers on the stand along with a former member of the church to introduce several church documents seized from a vault on the ranch.

Since the woman said to be the victim, who is now 21, did not testify, Mr. Nichols used the documents, along with her photo album, to prove she lived with Mr. Jessop as one of his wives and was impregnated by him when she was 16.

The state’s case also rested heavily on genetic evidence that showed there was a 99.9 percent chance Mr. Jessop was the father of the child, who is now 4.

In his closing argument, Mr. Nichols attacked the theory that the teenager had consented to be Mr. Jessop’s wife. “Any act of sexual assault is a horrendous crime,” he said, “but an act of sexual assault on a child is of such an extreme nature we don’t even consider whether the victim was able, much less did, consent.”

One of the most damning pieces of evidence presented in court was a written record of Mr. Jeffs’s instructions in August 2005 not to take the girl to a hospital even though she had been struggling in labor for three days at a clinic on the ranch.

“I knew the girl, being 16 years old, if she went to the hospital, they could put Raymond Jessop in jeopardy of prosecution as the government is looking for any reason to come against us there,” Mr. Jeffs was quoted as saying.

Some of the most revealing testimony came from another witness for the prosecution, Rebecca Musser, a former member of the church who had been married to Rulon T. Jeffs, the sect’s founder and the father of Warren Jeffs. She left the church in 2002 after the elder Mr. Jeffs died.

Ms. Musser testified that Mr. Jeffs had controlled every aspect of the women’s lives, including how they dressed and what they ate. He also controlled whom they married and when.

“Age was not a factor,” she said. “It was when the prophet deemed she was worthy.”

If there's a hell, maybe God will see fit to send Warren Jeffs to burn in it forever.
He's the instigator, the 'spiritual leader', the head of this 'church' -- he's the FLDS version of Rush Limbaugh, with his portrait everywhere, including where women in childbirth must see it.

There are 11 more indictments in Schleicher County. May FSM, Ceiling Cat and all the gods protect and bless District Judge Barbara Walther, the prosecutors, the investigators, and the victims whose lives these "religious leaders" destroyed.

There's a post at Whenceforth Progress on a related matter -- the other news out of Texas yesterday that made national headlines. We know that 13 people were slain and 30 wounded when a US Army Major opened fire inside the Soldier Readiness Center at Fort Hood. What we don't know yet is why.

But if, as rumor has it, religion played a part --

Courage comes in many shapes and sizes.

Rebecca Musser, an attractive, poised blond in her early 30s who left the sect, testified Jeffs pressured her to marry again soon after the death of her spiritual husband, who was a church leader and Jeffs’ father.

“Within one month of his father’s death, he started marrying his father’s young wives,” Musser said during a hearing out of earshot of the jury.

Then in her mid-20s, she butted heads with Jeffs because she didn’t want to remarry, she testified in the trial of Raymond Merril Jessop, 38, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

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Somehow or another, I've been added to the mailing list of The American Family Association. Can't seem to get off the damned thing, either. So ... I got this "invitation" today for a "webinar". It's all Free!! FREE!!! FREE!!! Supposed to be good training, too.
Here are some of the 24 workshops that you can view:

* How conservatives can win in 2010
* How to deal with vote fraud, the Census, and ACORN
* How to lobby federal legislation & policy
* How to bring youth into the conservative movement
* How to defend traditional marriage and DOMA
* How to understand Islam
* How the media can help us take back America
* How to stop feminist and gay attacks on the military
* How to counter the homosexual movement
* How to stop the entry of illegal aliens and drugs
* How to deal with global warming, cap and trade
* How to stop the killings: pro-life solutions

Y'know, somehow, I'm sure I'm not their target demographic. I don't want conservatives to win in 2010. I think they're a plague on the country.

Vote fraud? Easy fix: elect more and better Democrats. The Census I know from the inside out -- I've worked for three decennial surveys. So any lies they'd want me to swallow would be wasted on moi. ACORN? They helped some friends of mine find affordable housing in '07.

How to lobby? Grab your Congresscritter by the ear, if you can't loom over it like LBJ, and make 'em listen. How to be effective: FUND their OPPONENTS if they don't WORK FOR YOU.

How to bring youth into the conservative movement? For what? Do I want to encourage child abuse?

How to defend traditional marriage and DOMA? Make marriage applicable to loving people, period. Screw DOMA, it's bad law.

How to understand Islam? As what, a bunch of brown-skinned terrorists? No, thanks. It's as much a religion -- and therefore as legit or not -- as your "Christianity," and what I understand about both is people use them as an excuse to bully one another, start wars, steal natural resources, and otherwise misbehave.

How the media can help us take back America? Dude, seriously? With Chuck Norris telling me my US Flag shouldn't fly unless I stain it with tea? Come on, now. That's *help*? Gah.

On the other hand, the media right now lllllllluuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrvvves them some Bill-O, Dobson, Dobbs, Limbaugh & Company. So, you know, take them; love them; go somewhere

No, it's not about abolishing corporate personhood unfortunately. It's about using state laws and state constitutions to define fetuses as persons -- persons with full rights from the moment of conception.

Yep, it's all about stopping women from murdering their babies.

And they don't plan to stop at ridding the country of abortions, they want to outlaw emergency contraception and birth control pills too.

That's the cool thing about conformity. It really brings people together!

The head football coach at Breckinridge County High School took about 20 players on a school bus late last month to his church, where nearly half of them were baptized, school officials say.

The mother of one player said her 16-year-old son was baptized without her knowledge and consent, and she is upset that a public school bus was used to take players to a church service — and that the school district's superintendent was there and did not object.

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The Supreme Court ruling that a woman has a right to privacy in medical decisions remains under attack. In addition some of the opponents of women's rights (the right not to be forced to carry a pregnancy to term is a uniquely feminine issue) are also attacking new Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court Sonia Sotomayor, the Court itself, and President Obama (PDFs at Link).

Prolifealliance has a
petition online in support of the "Life at Conception Act,"

distributed by Steve King,

a Republican (what else?) representing Iowa's 5th District. Upon his first campaign for the seat, King had this to say:

"This seat will be used to move the political center of gravity in Congress to the right," King told cheering delegates, after narrowly defeating House Speaker Brent Siegrist of Council Bluffs, 272 to 253, on the third ballot. Iowa Sen. John Redwine of Sioux City and Council Bluffs businessman Jeff Ballenger were the first and second to fall in balloting.

Paul Shomshor is the Democratic nominee and welcomed King to the race.

"What the vote (Saturday) demonstrates is that it is clearly a divided party that has chosen a candidate," Shomshor said. "I think that I will represent mainstream Iowa. They may have selected a candidate from the geographic center of the district but I am from the political center."

King, however, is the favorite in the race because the 32-county district has 55,000 more Republicans than Democrats.

King vowed to go after every county and visit every one of the 286 cities in the district.

"Western Iowa is the key to statewide victories," he said. "The future of Iowa is in our hands."

Bill Salier, the Nora Springs farmer who ran against Ganske in the primary, introduced King.

"The culture war continues," Salier said. "It means every single day, every single one of us must pursue the agenda of the Republican Party."

King said he will not compromise his values.

"It's not about compromise if you want to get something done for Republicans," he said. "It's about negotiating from a position of strength."

The online version of the petition is accompanied by snail-mail copies being sent to folks in Kansas like Kos commenter forever blue.

Two Wisconsin parents have been convicted of denying their 11-year-old daughter medical care, leading to her death.

"If I go to the doctor, I am putting the doctor before God," Neumann testified. "I am not believing what he said he would do."

The Neumanns live in a society where almost no one is willing to admit that religious doctrine is fiction, that "holy" men and women have absolutely no idea whether there is a supernatural and, if so, what it is.

In such a place, it's hard to blame the Neumanns for failing to understand the essential facts about life, death, and medicine.

Georgia candidate for governor says sex with mules, watermelon behind him:

Trials in the sexual assault and child abuse cases will start soon. The 15-year-old girl who was the last of the YFZ Ranch children taken in last year's raid today stopped being a ward of the State of Texas.

Cult founder Tony Alamo has been found guilty of interstate transportation of underage girls for sex.

Texarkana - A federal jury has convicted evangelist Tony Alamo on charges he took underage girls across state lines for sex.

The jury issued its judgment Friday in federal court in Texarkana. The jury found the 74-year-old Alamo guilty of all counts he faced.

Alamo faced a 10-count indictment accusing him of taking girls as young as 9 across state lines as early as 1994.

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While appeals and efforts to suppress evidence by attorneys for the odious cult calling itself a church, the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints continue in San Angelo, the Canadian authorities have stepped in to stop the cult's leaders in British Columbia.

Cult lawyers make this claim:

Texas Ranger Brooks Long and other officers failed to make a single call to corroborate or verify the caller's information and left out critical information about the caller in his affidavit seeking a search warrant, the brief states.
In that affidavit, Long also stated Dale Evans Barlow was at the ranch, though he had not confirmed the man's whereabouts and knew, as a condition of probation for a previous offense, was not allowed to leave Arizona.

Those lawyers are apparently following a long tradition of favoring prophets' authority and demands over facts in place, while ignoring the very nature of law enforcement response to reports of a crime in progress:

Promotional flier for his upcoming 12-location anti-Sotomayor tour.

This is a few days old, but in case you missed it, Jonathan Schwartz caught CBS News fixing the news because it's more important to show Billy Graham in a good light than inform the public accurately. Take it away Mr. Schwartz (internal links omitted):

Yesterday CBS ran a story about the latest batch of Nixon tapes made public. And they included a section of a February 21, 1973 conversation with Billy Graham that showed Nixon at his psycho best:

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In lieu of the long and vitriolic post I had prepared about the coward who hit my truck yesterday (taking out headlight assembly and front bumper) and ran away, ladies and gentlemen, I give you IDENTIFIABLE cowards: GOP women masquerading as caring human beings.

Cynthia Davis, Missouri:
Davis, who serves as the chairwoman of the Missouri House Special Standing Committee on Children and Families, questioned whether the program is “warranted,” and extolled the hidden benefits of child hunger:

Who’s buying dinner? Who is getting paid to serve the meal? Churches and other non-profits can do this at no cost to the taxpayer if it is warranted. [...] Bigger governmental programs take away our connectedness to the human family, our brotherhood and our need for one another. [...] Anyone under 18 can be eligible? Can’t they get a job during the summer by the time they are 16? Hunger can be a positive motivator. What is wrong with the idea of getting a job so you can get better meals? Tip: If you work for McDonald’s, they will feed you for free during your break. [...] It really is all about increasing government spending, which means an increase in taxes for us to buy more free lunches and breakfasts.

A report by Feeding America found that one in five Missouri children currently lives with hunger. Taking apart Davis’ other arguments, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial noted that most of the summer feeding program sites are actually hosted by churches and that the program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, fed 3.7 million meals at a total cost of less than $9.5 million last summer — “a pretty good use of federal money.”
See that thing 'round her neck? I've no idea what it stands for, since no true Christian would advocate leaving hungry children without food. Jesus warned of such behavior's consequences firsthand (See the Gospel of Matthew, 18:6).

Debbie Riddle, Texas:
src="http://www.house.state.tx.us/fx/grafx/photos/members/riddle.thumb.jpg">

In a March 6, 2003 interview with the El Paso Times, Riddle was quoted as saying:

"Where did this idea come from that everybody deserves free education, free medical care, free whatever? It comes from Moscow, from Russia. It comes straight out of the pit of hell. And it's cleverly disguised as having a tender heart. It's not a tender heart. It's ripping the heart out of this country." [1]

The quote came after a Border and International Affairs Committee meeting during

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A young man joined the Army and completed basic military training.

His family loved him. Nothing unusual in that; these are tough times, jobs are hard to come by, and the Ozarks are not a bustling industrial center. A family tradition of military service was part of William Long's life and experience -- his father is a retired Marine.

What was unusual was what happened when he came home for a brief leave between the end of basic training and his first deployment. An angry religious zealot drove past the recruiter's office where he was working, and murdered him. The same man also shot another recruit at the office. On the day Pvt. Long was supposed to deploy to South Korea, he was buried in Arkansas. The funeral drew a crowd.
A moment's remembrance, please, for 23-year-old William Long, United States Army, and a moment's consideration for the other soldier wounded in the attack: Pvt. Quinton I. Ezeagwula, 18.
.
There is another similarity

This is just ... unfathomable. Liberty Counsel's still selling this stuff online? I mean, I know the GOP and the righwing cannot deal with the truth of the Bush-ordered DHS assessment of threats from right-wing terrorists here in the US, but ... damn.

Let us by all means not stop talking about misogyny. Let us by all means not ignore and so enable further success to encourage more assassins to attempt domestic terrorism. Let us by all means stand up for the rule of law even when the accused are US nationals who are also white, "Christian," and male.

From a reproductive justice advocate at RH Reality Check, who's mostly right but who is also wrong because YES, THERE ARE people who want to see these 'precious angels' born, despite the damage it would do to the existing life of the mother

We all know that religious people are the best people.

But former Southern Baptist Convention officer Wiley Drake is in a league of his own.

Of course he said it all nice and Biblical-like, so you gotta respect that:

Terry: The point that must be emphasized over, and over, and over again: pro-life leaders and the pro-life movement are not responsible for George Tiller's death. George Tiller was a mass-murder and, horrifically, he reaped what he sowed.

Q: So who is responsible ... Terry: The man who shot him is responsible ...

Q: "... because that makes it sound like you were saying that he [Tiller] is responsible.

Terry: The man who shot him is responsible.

Q: What did you mean by "he reaped what he sowed"?

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I won't link to Free Republic or their sister sites, but I can report that FoxNews is carrying comments lauding the shooter who murdered Dr. George Tiller, a Kansas women's health practitioner who did not stop offering abortion despite repeated incidents of vandalism and burglary at his clinic, and a prior attempt to kill him that resulted in gunshot wounds in both his arms.

He worked with women in the direst of circumstances, and provided them a medical treatment they desperately needed. RIP Dr. Tiller.

No, not Abu Ghraib. Residential schools run by the Catholic Church in Ireland:

“Punching, flogging, assault and bodily attacks, hitting with the hand, kicking, ear pulling, hair pulling, head shaving, beating on the soles of the feet, burning, scalding, stabbing, severe beatings with or without clothes, being made to kneel and stand in fixed positions for lengthy periods, made to sleep outside overnight, being forced into cold or excessively hot baths and showers, hosed down with cold water before being beaten, beaten while hanging from hooks on the wall, being set upon by dogs, being restrained in order to be beaten, physical assaults by more than one person, and having objects thrown at them.”

Oh, there's plenty more. The report is 2,600 pages long.

You do have the The Global Sociology Blog in your RSS reader, don't you?

I beg to differ with Paul Reiser: nuance helps us know where we stand.

[a]s I have mentioned before, one should be skeptical of (usually anti-globalization) arguments that promote a return to the local as democratic ideal. Local communities can be major sites of oppression for minorities (see all my posts on the fate of albinos in Tanzania for instance) and women. The lack of oversight from national authorities can turn isolated communities into closed-off hells for those targeted for violence.

I've kept quiet on this for a good long while. The runup to today's special election started last freaking year, and I have to say, I'm so glad Lubbock is finally moving into the 20th century ...

Opponents say quality of life will suffer in neighborhoods near the stores, underage drinking will increase and the city over time will become seedy. Brant O'Hair, co-chairman of the group Truth About Alcohol Sales that opposes the measure, said he believes most liquor "package stores" will go in poorer neighborhoods.

"The people who are most vulnerable in our society will be affected the most," he said. "Follow the money. It's the liquor lobby."

According to the most recent fundraising reports, Wal-Mart gave the largest single contribution, $25,000, to Lubbock County Wins. Last fall, the retailer contributed $50,000 to fund a drive to collect petition signatures to put the issue on the ballot. Most of the more than 60,000 signatures garnered were gotten in front of its stores.

Small contributors are funding the opposition group, Truth About Alcohol Sales, which raised more than $23,600 since January and spent more than $2,000 over the same period.

Lubbock repealed its "Blue law" while I was in college. What this meant was, a store like Albertson's could open both its locations on both Saturday and Sunday, instead of one on each day, and 7-Eleven didn't have to tape off aisles with shoestrings, ink pens, antifreeze and can openers (where most also kept toilet tissue, paper towels and dish soap along with bike tire patch kits) on Sundays.

Given that 25 years have gone by and we haven't fallen into a sinkhole, it's about time we got over our "by the drink ok" and "take it home not ok" local alcohol regulations. You'd think the city fathers wanted people to try to drive home impaired, or something, the way they've handled this wet vs. dry thing over the years. (You can buy anything by the helping, but you must either drink it or leave it in the glass at the bar or eatery).

Now, we can actually go into a regular grocery store and buy beer or wine, instead of having to drive to Highway 87's "Strip", where a narrow number of specialty stores has operated in a not-so-virtual monopoly

Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, April 29, 2009:

More than half of people who attend services at least once a week -- 54 percent -- said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is "often" or "sometimes" justified.

So, yeah, I stand by my earlier remarks.

Am I the only one reminded of the run-up to Iraq by the finance crisis? There was another epic FAIL the hippies got right -- unless you redefine insiders heading for the exits dragging big sacks of cash as success. The totally transparent bullshit, our famously free press eating it up, the whack-a-mole rationalizations, and especially the lying and looting -- it's all there. Anyhow, the always interesting Interfluidity has a terrific post up, but I only have time to quote this zinger:

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