Bill takes aim at polygamists

AUSTIN – If the polygamists who fled Utah to escape mounting political pressures thought they would find solace in Texas, they might need to think again.

Texas lawmakers are hot on their heels with new legislation in the works to make it tough for the breakaway Mormon fundamentalist sect to settle comfortably in its new home outside the tiny West Texas town of Eldorado.

Rep. Harvey Hilderbran filed a bill last week aimed at curtailing the activities of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints – or at least the activities that some fear they'll engage in, such as marrying young girls, draining welfare coffers and taking over political offices.

The legislation would outlaw stepparents marrying stepchildren, raise the age of consent for marriage from 14 to 16 and stiffen the requirements to run for office.

-more-
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/legislature/stories/031905dntexpoly.6c7a9.html

Heh heh cool heh heh she said stiffen heh heh

Okay folks, we've got Al Edwards worried about cheerleaders' routines being too naughty... Dawnna Dukes worried that one of the figures on the proposed Juneteenth Monument looks like Al Edwards... and now this. Could someone call 911? I think there's a gas leak at the Capitol.

It's about time some good ol' Texas weirdness starts creeping out!

Newsflash: Sen. Wentworth Still Afraid of ASS

The DMN gives us this tidbit:

Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, has filed a bill that would change the title of the assistant secretary of state to the deputy secretary of state. It sounds like a technicality, but there's a strong moral-values, family-friendly, protect-the-children angle to it. The change is necessary, he says, because the current title's acronym can't be used without offending people. Please don't make us spell it out for you.

http://www.pinkdome.com/archives/2005/03/newsflash_sen_w.html

is, IIRC, the *only* pro-choice Republican in Texas. So I give him some props for that.

Of course, Sen. Sibley (R-Asshat), torpedoed it, so setting the stage for re-redistricting.

Wentworth is far from the worst Republican, he's not a TOTAL loser.

I actually voted in the 2002 Rethug primary because Jeff was being challenged by a firebreathing wingnut. Since then though he has repaid my support by sponsoring the Texas equivalent of the Defense of Marriage act, supported redistricting, and passed legislation ensuring that Lowe's could build a giant store on environmentally sensitive land that completely ignores Austin's S.O.S. ordinance. So I've pretty much run out of slack to cut him, even for the comic relief he occasionally provides.
:puke: on Wentworth! Take back SD 25!

No, that is obviously vaporized grey matter. There can be no other plausible explanation for what these people are doing.

You have NO idea what the Polygamous Mormons are like. When I was in high school, I helped several girls my own age (13-16 years old) escape from horrific conditions, forced marriages to men old enough to be their grandfathers, marriages to their own stepfathers, and so on. Young men are forced out of the community because they are too much competition for the old men who want child brides.

Not to mention the murders and blood feuds that the "fundamentalist mormons" tend to devolve into when the patriarch of the sect feels disrespected.

Not people you want as neighbors.