…trouble, my friend, right here in Outrage City. Something’s got the wingnut-o-sphere just torqued, and that starts with “T” and that rhymes with “P” and that stands for “Polygamy”.
Everyone’s heard about the polygamy bust this week in Bountiful BC. Like many small, isolated BC towns, Bountiful is a weird place and its inhabitants do weird things. In my neighbourhood, we swig chianti from the bottle while riding motorcycles in our pajamas. In Bountiful, they practice polygamy.
But there are also stories of abuse and exploitation of women and minors in Bountiful, which is why the BC government finally decided to clamp down. Conveniently, there just happens to be a law against polygamy and incontravertible evidence that it’s being broken, so that’s the approach the government is taking in its investigation.
The side issue is that if the charge is successfully challenged, the polygamy law (which isn’t stopping anybody who’s interested anyway), could be struck down. Predictably, it’s this little factoid that has social conservatives pissing themselves with outrage. “WE TOLD YOU SO,” they shriek. What? yes, seriously: It’s All Because The Gays Are Getting Married.
Never mind that Bountiful was practicing polygamy decades before marriage was even a gleam in the Gay Agenda’s eye. Forget about the fact that these polygamous sects are all made up of extremely conservative religious nuts. And by all means, disregard all that “consenting adults” crap. Make no mistake: Canada is about to be overrun with polygamy, and it’s because of gay marriage, feminists, liberals and the war on Christmas. But don’t take my word for it, check out this explosive and outragegasmic verbal diahhrea quoted at SUZANNE’s:
SHRIEEEK! SHRIEEEK! SHRIEEK! SHRIEEEK! SHRIEEEEEEEEEEK! SHRIEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!
If a socon’s level of distress can be gauged by their use of “Quotation Marks”, this one’s clearly having a nervous breakdown. Let’s hope the polygamy law holds up, because if it doesn’t, they’re likely to use up all the quotation marks in the world, and there’ll be none left for us when we really need them. You know, like when we write “pro-life”. Or for that matter, “conservative”.
I’ve been wondering how many of those folk are privately hoping Blackmore will win his case just so they can use it to discredit gay marriage. The ultimate “I told you so”, it’ll never happen.
Good ole SUZANNE… completely over-looking that this will be struck down because of the freedom of religion clause in the Charter. Something most of us pointed out when her and the other wingnuts tried to say gay marriage was a war on religion.
Screw her and screw them. What two or more people do via voluntary, consensual agreement, is none of the state’s, or her, fucking business.
If they want to go after this guy for having sex with underaged girls, there are all manner of criminal laws regarding sexual exploitation and invitation to sexual touching.
SUZANNE can take a flying leap.
Ah, so that’s Blob Blogging Wingnut’s current obsession.
Give HER a day or two and SHE’ll have her knickers in knots again about abortion, blaming and attacking feminism for whatever.
It’s an ugly job, keeping track of Blob Blogging Wingnut’s incoherent shrieeekkking; we’re so very lucky that jj and LuLu persevere, reading her odious screeds so that we don’t have to do it.
“If they want to go after this guy for having sex with underaged girls, there are all manner of criminal laws regarding sexual exploitation and invitation to sexual touching.”
Actually, Mike, I don’t think they can. None of the wives have ever been under the legal age of consent — all of them were consenting adults in the eyes of the law. And it appears that none of them is willing to become a prosecution witness against their husbands.
I’ve been paying attention to the legal speculations about this case, and everyone I’ve heard seems to think Wally Oppal’s goal is to have the polygamy law struck down. For one thing, he’s had an awful time finding a prosecutor who would take the case in the first place. That signals that it’s a loser from the get-go. And then there’s the charges — nothing about financial malfeasance, which would actually be the very best charge that would stand a chance of conviction.
No, this law is going down. In about eight to ten years. Five to seven years to even get into the courtroom and another two or three years on top of that.
Bruce – As soon as I heard about this bust, I wondered how long it would take some nitwit to try to relate this to SSM. The slippery slope and all that, even though polygamy existed long before SSM.
If the polygamy law is struck down, it won’t be precedents set by SSM that help do it — the polygamy law was weak to start with, and would have been struck down 20 years ago if challenged. It’s just that nobody challenged it. Since gay marriage is a union of 2 consenting adults, it’s unlikely to be helpful to polygamy, which has all kinds of other issues like abuse and coercion involved.
But that’s that old reality bias again, which we know doesn’t stop the fundies.
Mike – Yeah, I think that’s the defense in this one, freedom of religion.
The government is taking the easy way to investigate Bountiful by using the polygamy law since it’s easy to prove it’s being broken. It gives them a window of opportunity to investigate the reports of abuse. Whatever they come up with out of that investigation can be prosecuted under the appropriate laws.
Nobody really gives a shit about polygamy except the fundies — most know it’s happening to some extremely small extent, but just ignore it. While it’s not my bag, to me it definitely falls under the “none of my business” category.
deBeauxOs – To be fair, the shriek I cited in my post wasn’t SUZANNE’s own, but something she was quoting from some other incoherent fruitbag.
I don’t know what they’re complaining about, the defendant in this polygamy case has something like 120 kids. I thought that was what they wanted. It wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of them were secretly supportive of the ends if not the means, and are only bitching about it because they hate anything that compromises their self-imposed ownership of the marriage brand.
“we’re so very lucky that jj and LuLu persevere, reading her odious screeds so that we don’t have to do it.”
You “have” no “idea” how “hard” it is to “read sentences” that “look” like “this” all the “time”.
Chimera – I’m not that familiar with the legal aspects of this case, but anyone who’s lived in BC for any length of time knows Bountiful has been the way it is since it was founded 60-odd years ago. Polygamy and weird religious wingnuttery, and mostly it’s just ignored.
I think the source of a lot of this aggravation is a Hatfield-McCoy situation within Bountiful itself, where 2 warring factions have got everyone divided and ratting out on everyone else. There could be something to the reports of abuse — that Warren Jeffs dude (currently serving time for accessory to rape) was their prophet/head honcho/whatever for awhile, and a regular visitor. Blackmore was his competition.
The polygamy charge is just a way to remove Blackmore from the equation, get in and do a real investigation of the place, IMO. As long as Blackmore is around and exerting whatever influence he has there, people are unlikely to come forward and confirm all the reports of abuse.
If the polygamy law is struck down, so what? Nobody who isn’t already interested in being polygamous is suddenly going to decide it sounds like a good idea. It seems people will never learn that laws against personal choice don’t stop anyone from doing what they’re determined to do.
Personally, I don’t give a shit what those whackos in Bountiful do (obviously as long as they’re not raping kids). However. I don’t think the province should be on the hook to pay for their breeding farm. If the polygamy law is struck down, then all those celestial wives should have to become legal wives, and claim Mr. Blackmore’s (or whoever the baby daddy is) salary as their support. No more welfare. If you can’t afford 150 kids, don’t have them.
They should also pay some higher tax of some kind to make up for the cost to society when they boot their young men onto the street because there aren’t enough uterus’ to go around.
Ok, I looked, and Blackmore insists that no welfare goes to any members of his breeding farm. My mistake. It’s the States where they’re big on “bleeding the beast”.
Dr. Prole – Considering that the town is under 500 people, and over 100 of them are Blackmore & his wives & kids, it makes me wonder how they survive. They run a lumber mill or something like that, so I guess that’s where everyone’s working. Still, I find it hard to believe this little mill could generate enough for so many people to live on — I know people around here that run small mills, and they’re barely getting by.
More power to them if they’re not on the public tit, but it’s hard to figure out how they’re making it.
JJ, well they have pretty rudimentary education and all they do is have babies and sew their own clothes. I suppose they could be living an agrarian life, mostly providing for themselves that way if that’s even possible. I dunno. On the other hand, in the States they actively try to drain the government of as much money as possible – they actually see it as their duty. Yanno, to screw us evil types who live off the compound. I can’t see as to how they’d have a different philosophy in Bountiful.
IANAL, but I think Oppal is making a big mistake with the polygamy charges. Why not go after them for, say, trafficking in illegal immigrants? It’s widely known that they illegally bring girls up from the US to get married. Or child abuse charges? Something like that. The polygamy thing is just going to open a big ugly can of worms.
Funny thing. There’s an election in May.
Well whatever Winston is doing, Canadians paid for it! Many of his original 26 wives were American, yet Canada absorbed them and paid for their private school education and more! With the crack down on the FLDS in Texas with 9 indictments and 3 more trials for Warren Jeffs, Canada is the logical replacement for Texas. Enjoy them, we didn’t!
A new arguement is polygamy for gay unions 7 guys and 4 women, 3 of which have multiple partners, but which ones? Winston has 108 children and as long as Canadians don’t find supporting them, why wouldn’t the FLDS migrate to Canada?
“Actually, Mike, I don’t think they can. None of the wives have ever been under the legal age of consent — all of them were consenting adults in the eyes of the law”
Well, I’m merely going on the allegations that have surfaced in programs such as W5 and The Fifth Estate, which did involve underage girls being married off.
If the case at hand does not involve underage girls and is, in fact legal, consenting adults, then I really don’t see the problem.
As for SUZANNE, I left a snarky comment over at her place bemusing the irony of this getting struck down by the freedom of religion clause and she, in her infinite legal wisdom, seems to think that it won’t get struck down because of that… I’m not sure what she thinks will happen, because she is, of course, slack-jawed insane.
In case my comments get disappeared like ‘alpha male’s did…
“”That’s not the basis on which the SCOC will strike down the law.”
Actually, that is precisely the basis because that is the basis of the case that is being argued by the very religious, Christian sect leader that is being charged. That the polygamy law violates his freedom to exercise his religion is EXACTLY his defense.
You are simply wrong, Suzanne. As usual.”