No Country for Free Men

Rick Fisk wrote an article entitled No Country for Free Men for LewRockwell.com which rationally examines the debacle in Texas in which state authorities removed several hundred children from a Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints ranch where a few polygamist men lived with their many wives. The details of the story are explained as needed in the article, and if you’re really interested, I’m sure that Google News will yield further details.

Apparently, the FLDS skirts anti-polygamy laws by not actually getting marriage licenses for each wife. It’s a loophole that probably won’t and arguably shouldn’t be closed (my views on the relationship between marriage and the legal system are very different from most peoples, but are irrelevant to this discussion). However, the part of the system which the FLDS exploits, as Fisk points out, is the welfare system.

The state may not recognize unlicensed marriage, but they also have no legitimate legal authority to turn a religious institution into a “legal” institution. However, the FLDS goes a step further by having the “unwed” mothers apply for state welfare. They don’t just want to live their lifestyle in peace, they want to have the people of the State of Texas pay so that they can afford to maintain so many wives and children.

We “normal” folks may not agree with polygamy, even though our species—and most mammalian species—is polygynous. It’s a religious belief, as well as a socioeconomic belief. However, it’s practiced in other parts of the world without incident, so it’s not inherently a bad thing.

However, relying on welfare; relying on others to allow you to live your life your way is wrong.

When you step back and examine what is going on in this case, you can see that we are being conditioned into believing that the rights enumerated in our constitutions are not inviolate as is stated, but totally irrelevant if the state merely acts as if it has authority.

Government invading our lives, you say?

And finally, Texas’ taxpayers get to foot the bill for the hundreds of lawyers who will descend on the courtroom at their expense to “advocate” for the children – as it is called in CPS administrative court parlance. I don’t know if anyone has bothered to tally up what this may cost the taxpayers but it could easily reach 8 figures by the time everything is said and done. And not one of those state-paid lawyers will be arguing that the State’s action is constitutionally unjust. Quite the contrary. They’ll be counseling their “clients” to cooperate and make it easy on everyone.

Please read the full article, No Country for Free Men. I’ve been waiting for an enlightened view of the situation, such as that article, before chipping in my two cents.