The yin and yang of Texas justice

Yesterday I heard this story on the radio about the Texas policy of compensating the wrongly incarcerated $80,000 for every year they spent behind bars, in addition to annuity payments and free tuition at public colleges.

I think this is a wonderful policy. Considering the Texas reputation for death sentences and "decisive" justice, it's very interesting that when they make a correctable mistake (too bad if they wrongly kill you) they own up to it and try to make up for it in some way.

According to the Census of State and Federal Correctional Facilities, 2005 Texas has more correctional facilities than any other state. It's total prison population was exceeded only by California. And, oddly enough, it's number of inmates per 100k population was only exceeded by Delaware. Delaware?

Religious persecution verses child protection

I don't know that I can bring myself to say much about the FDLS issue in Texas. If fully grown adult women have such a low opinion of themselves that they are willing to commit themselves to second-class citizenhood in a polygamous marriage, so be it.

Why do we NEVER hear of polygamist situations that involve multiple men married to one woman? Simply put: Polygamy is mostly about power. Traditionally women have had less power then men (at least on the surface). Therefore, historically, polygamy is a situation where one man has multiple wives. Some women would say that having 'sisters in marriage' is a good thing, in that it gives them a rest from the lout they were all foolish enough to commit to.

What I can say something about the treatment of children in the FDLS. I typically stand by parents' rights to raise their children as they see fit, so long as they do not physically or mentally abuse their children. Some would say that taking the FDLS kids into Texas state custody interfered with parent rights. Let's think on that as we read on.

It was announced today that 31 out of 53 teenaged FDLS girls were either mothers already or pregnant at the time they were taken into custody. The definition of 'teenaged girls' here is 14 to 17 years old. Encouraging, or possibly forcing/coercing, 14 to 17 year old girls into 'marriage' and parenthood is right up there with physical and psychological abuse in my book. Even by Texas standards, this is intolerable.

WTF?!?

Would an ELF really visit Texas?

If you were an extraterrestrial life form, and decided to explore Earth, where would you go? Apparently, Texas is the hot destination for traveling aliens.

I wonder what the attraction could be. Do they think Texas is representative of the rest of the planet? Maybe they're joyriding redneck-like aliens that feel some sort of kinship with the small Texas town they've been frequenting. Or maybe, they knew it would be the perfect town to buzz since the rest of the world would never believe the stories coming out of a small town in a state that gave us our current genius of a world leader. Generally, the folks who claim to have seen a UFO or claim to have been abducted by aliens are not well-respected intellectuals or authority figures. The aliens seem to prefer the other end of the human demographic spectrum. Guess they found a high concentration in Stephenville, Texas.

Here is my favorite quote from the story:

teve Allen, a 50-year-old pilot, was at a campfire with friends and says the object was a mile long and half a mile wide. "I don't know if it was a biblical experience or somebody from a different universe or whatever but it was definitely not from around these parts," Allen said.

... not from around these parts. Undoubtedly.