June 14, 2008 was, evidently, a protest day across the world for Anonymous against Scientology. (We have pics of an Orlando protest ~ of Epic Fail Guy, of course!) This video - apparently of London’s Scientology presence getting rick rolled - is one of the best things I have ever seen here on the internets. Enjoy.
Best video ever!
Lots of protesters wearing Guy Fawkes masks (from V For Vendetta). Here’s Minneapolis:
Michelle Duggar, 41, is due on New Year’s Day, and the latest addition will join seven sisters and 10 brothers.
The fast-growing family lives in Tontitown in northwest Arkansas in a 7,000-square-foot home. All the children — whose names start with the letter J — are home-schooled. Duggar has been been pregnant for more than 11 years of her life.
The family is in the process of filming another series for Discovery Health. The new show looks at life inside the Duggar home, where chores — or “jurisdictions” — are assigned to each child. One episode of the new show involves a “jurisdiction swap,” where the boys do chores traditionally assigned to the girls, and vice versa, Duggar said.
Duggar said she and her husband, Jim Bob Duggar, will keep having children as long as God wills it.
Three weeks after Texas authorities removed more than 400 children from a polygamist compound, the facts remain distressingly murky.
1. Did Texas have any option short of taking the children from their families for weeks?
2. Did the state infringe on the group’s right to practice its religion?
3. Did anyone inside the compound violate statutory rape, child molestation or other laws?
4. What is in the best interest of each child?
facts:
* this is the largest child custody case in Texas and U.S. history - 437 children seized
* FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) mothers have appeared on TV wearing prairie dresses and old-fashioned hairdos.
* FLDS practices polygamy
* child welfare officials, tipped off by a phone call, said they saw several teenage girls who were pregnant or with young children. That prompted them to remove all the children.
Fox News Interview:
Those ladies are as close to Stepford Wives as we’ve ever seen. Listen to the one on the right when she says “I feel like the most free woman in the whole world!” The one on the left says “We are free!”. Somebody please check to make sure they aren’t robots. Also check under their dresses to make sure there isn’t some puppeteer’s hand under there.
Many of the children have seen little or no television. They have been essentially home-schooled all their lives. Most were raised on garden-grown vegetables and twice-daily prayers with family. They frolic in long dresses and buttoned-up shirts from another century. They are unfailingly polite. The 437 children taken from the polygamist compound in West Texas are being scattered to group homes and boys’ and girls’ ranches across the state, plunged into a culture radically different from the community where they and their families shunned the outside world as a hostile, contaminating influence on their godly way of life.
Children raised on the FLDS compound wear pioneer-style dress and keep their hair pinned up in braids, reflecting their standards of modesty. For the same reason, they have little knowledge of pop culture. They pray twice a day. They tend vegetable gardens and raise dairy cows, and eat fresh food. And they are exceedingly polite, always saying “please” and “thank you.”
“Please” and “Thank you”. How quaint!
In contrast, many other children in foster care have a certain worldly swagger, and are there because they have used drugs or committed other crimes. Experts and lawyers say foster care will change the sect children. “These children who have lived in a very insular culture and are suddenly thrust into mainstream culture. There’s going to be problems,” said Susan Hays, who represents a toddler in the custody case. “They are a throwback to the 19th century in how they dress and how they behave.”
Ken Driggs, an Atlanta, Georgia, lawyer who has long studied and written about the FLDS, said if kept away from their parents’ culture long enough, the children may begin to emulate those around them. Pulliam said the temporary foster care facilities have been briefed on the children’s needs. “We’re not going to have them in tank tops and shorts,” she said. Authorities will try to obtain the youngsters’ traditional clothing from their parents, and also arrange for visits from some of the adults, state attorney Gary Banks said. In addition, CPS has sent instructions to the foster homes to feed the youngsters fresh fruits and vegetables, chicken, rice and other foods that may have been grown on the 1,700-acre ranch. “They don’t eat a lot of processed food and we’re not going to encourage that,” Pulliam said, but noted that if the children want to eat processed or junk food, no one is going to stop them.
The children have been educated in a schoolhouse on the compound using a home-school curriculum and may be ahead of public-school students their ages, lawyers said. Hays and Pulliam said the children will continue to be home-schooled by the temporary foster-care providers instead of being thrown into big schools, where they could be bullied because of their differences.
The way this article reads, it almost seems like they were better off in the compound. Good food, good education, tolerance. It would be awesome if it wasn’t for the forced marriage part.
“We recognize it’s critical that these children not be exposed to mainstream culture too quickly or other things that would hinder their success,” agency spokeswoman Shari Pulliam said. “We just want to protect them from abuse and neglect. We’re not trying to change them.”
What’s this “we” stuff? The world will change them. Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Oprah, Fox News, crime, government bureaucrats, cheese doodles and Pepsi, hours and hours of mindless television, shitty public schools, and finally, the presidential election coverage. These kids are going to get changed, good and hard.
Florida drivers can order more than 100 specialty license plates celebrating everything from manatees to the Miami Heat, but one now under consideration would be the first in the nation to explicitly promote a specific religion. The Florida Legislature is considering a specialty plate with a design that includes a Christian cross, a stained-glass window and the words “I Believe.”
The problem with the state manufacturing the plate is that it “sends a message that Florida is essentially a Christian state” and, second, gives the “appearance that the state is endorsing a particular religious preference,” said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.
This isn’t the first time a Florida license plate design has created religious controversy. In 1999, lawmakers approved a bright yellow “Choose Life” license plate with a picture of a boy and girl. It raises money for agencies that encourage women to not have abortions. That generated a court battle, with abortion rights groups saying the plate had religious overtones. But it was ruled legal, and about a dozen states now have similar plates.
Simon, of the ACLU, said approval of the plate could prompt many other groups to seek their own designs, and they could claim discrimination if their plans were rejected. That could even allow the Ku Klux Klan to get a plate, Simon said.
Rep. Edward Bullard, the plate’s sponsor, isn’t sure all groups should be able to express their preference. If atheists came up with an “I Don’t Believe” plate, for example, he would probably oppose it.
OddCulture approves use of the license plate if the state of Florida can guarantee availability of a license plate featuring the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The only true religion is that which exists under his noodly appendage!
The Cumberland County Courthouse lawn in Crossville, Tennessee now features an enormous statue of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
The statue is the work of Ariel Safdie and her brother David.
Statement at FSM Installation Ceremony
We are lucky enough to live in a country that allows us, its citizens, the freedom of speech. I have chosen to put up a statue of the Flying Spaghetti Monster to represent the discourse between people of all different beliefs. The many faiths, ethnicities and backgrounds of Cumberland County’s residents make our community a stronger richer place. I respect and am proud that on the people’s lawn, the county courthouse, all of these diverse beliefs can come together in a positive dialogue. Here, we are all able to share the issues close to our hearts whether it is through a memorial to the soldiers killed fighting for our country, the Statue of Liberty honoring our nations welcoming promise to all, a group’s fight to stop homelessness, or powerful symbols of faith. I greatly treasure this open forum between everyone in the community.
The Flying Spaghetti Monster is a pile of noodles and meatballs, but it is meant to open up discussion and provoke thought. Being able to put up a statue is a celebration of our freedom as Americans; a freedom to be different, to express those differences, and to do it amongst neighbors -— even if it is in a noodley way.
