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A 25-year-old woman has escaped from the polygamist community where Warren Jeffs's other wives still live. Her flight shows that even though Jeffs is in jail, the nightmare may not be over for some of his followers. More »
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Though Warren Jeffs was sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting children earlier this week, his followers in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints remain loyal to him — so loyal that they're planning to erect a 38-foot statue of him at the FLDS compound on the Utah/Arizona border. Thanks to a no-media policy in the compound, Jeffs followers don't know about the evidence presented against him. Sources say that for those building the statue, this is a "way of showing them that they can't take him away from us." More »
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Former FLDS church member Jerusha Jeffs says she is "feels a lot stronger now" that her testimony about the abuse she suffered by her uncle's hand helped to send Warren Jeffs to prison. More »
]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5829470&view=rss&microfeed=true The trial of Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints leader Warren Jeffs starts today in San Angelo, TX. Jeffs is charged with sexual assault of a child and aggravated sexual assault of a child stemming from his "celestial marriages" to two underage girls. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 119 years in prison. More »
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With the publication of her bestselling memoir Escape, ex-FLDS member Carolyn Jessop became a visible face of the horrors of polygamy. Now, she's become much more. More »
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Yesterday, a group of women born into polygamy told a Canadian court, in a series of emotional statements, how the practice had ruined their lives. More »
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Never-before-seen 1944 photos of Utah's polygamous FLDS community show how much things have changed in the era of Sister Wives — and how much they haven't. More »
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Far too rarely does fashion ask the question, 'What would happen if a bunch of FLDS children hung out with a bunch of goths in an old AOL chat room?' Luckily, for that we have a little magazine called Dis. More »
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Ironically, it took the finale for Big Love to moderate the wild, over-extended pace of this season. On deck: Results of the still-implausible election, the truth about J.J.'s "fertility miracles," and all three wives seriously questioning their marriage(s). More »
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In this week's compilation of pop culture crap, the snow affects couch potatoes, Bobby Brown returns to reality television, and polygamist moms exhibit their weird senses of humor. More »
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On last night's episode, Alby continued to play it straight, except when behind closed doors, while Nicki attempted to shed Cara Lynn of her fundamentalist ways through a new wardrobe. But faking it isn't easy or fun for anyone. More »
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As last night's season premiere illustrated, polygamist Bill Henrickson's got 99 problems and a bitch ain't one—more like three or four of them. Also filling his plate were crab legs, a casino, Kenny Rogers, and his father-in-law's corpse. More »
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Raymond Jessop, the first FLDS member to go on trial, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his marriage to an underage girl. "This is a case about the flesh and blood of a victim," argued prosecutors. [UPI] More »
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On Tuesday, polygamist leader Warren Jeffs' lawyers asked the Utah Supreme Court to overturn his accomplice to rape conviction, arguing that he didn't know the 14-year-old girl he married to her 19-year-old cousin would be forced to have sex. [UPI] More »
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Yes, this is a real tour. And besides being perhaps the worst - or best? - honeymoon idea in history, here are just a few reasons it's problematic: More »
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On today's episode, Oprah personally visited the Yearning for Zion ranch in Eldorado, TX. When asked, Willie Jessop denied that church members are taught that nonwhite people are evil. We have proof to the contrary. More »
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On last night's season finale of Big Love, Nicki was reunited with her 14-year-old daughter, Cara Lynn, from her first marriage. Their conversation helped explain a lot of Nicki's questionable motives. More »
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On last night's episode, Barb returned to the LDS to receive her Endowment, a super-sacred ceremony that's intended to be "secret from the world," which is why HBO's reenactment of it was so controversial. More »
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As surreal as it seems, Big Love relies heavily on research of polygamist sects and borrows from real-life events. Were the "Joy Books" in last night's episode an accurate depiction of FLDS' underage girls catalog? More »
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Well 2008 is finally ending and what better (read: horrible) way to wind down the year than with an update about our friends from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints? More »
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Skin-lightening creams — already popular in East and South Asia — are finding a market in the Arab world, where the commercials claim that darker skin is a hindrance any every aspect of a woman's life. • A new study from UC Davis claims that biracial Asian-Americans are twice as likely to be diagnosed with psychological disorders as "monoracial individuals." • A new police plan in Scotland may require men who are accused of abusing their wives to be banned from alcohol consumption and undergo regular alcohol testing. • Golshifteh Farahani, a top Iranian actress who recently appeared in Body of Lies was banned from leaving Iran for Hollywood. • More »
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In the aftermath of FLDS fiasco, the Senate held a committee meeting yesterday on "crimes associated with polygamy." According to the NY Times, majority leader Harry Reid "introduced legislation Wednesday calling for a national task force on polygamy and a $4 million fund to bolster law enforcement and social service efforts to fight it and associated crimes." (As you'll recall, FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs was arrested in Reid's home state of Nevada.) Today, FLDS members will speak at a Senate hearing, though the Times quotes a social worker with relatives in the church as saying that the FLDS would never abandon its multiply-marrying ways. “It’s essential to their faith,” she said. “You can’t enter the celestial kingdom unless you’ve been entered into a polygamous or plural marriage.” [NY Times] More »
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Prophet Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints are back in the news again, this time with another indictment relating to statutory rape. In El Dorado, the town outside the Yearning For Zion ranch, Jeffs and four other FLDS members have been charged with felony sexual abuse, and a fifth was indicted for failing to report child abuse, the AP reports. One of the followers is also facing a charge of bigamy but surprisingly, the bigamist is not Jeffs, though grand juries have been shown pictures of Jeffs fondling and kissing three of his alleged underage "spiritual" wives. (Although he has not been hit with bigamy charges yet, Jeffs isn't off the hook for those disturbing photos. CNN reports that DNA tests have been run to determine whether Jeffs is the father of the children born to the very young girls Jeffs is smooching in those pictures.) More »
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Even though they shun mainstream American culture, the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints definitely embrace the American way: they're taking national notoriety and turning it into cold, hard cash. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the FLDSers have started a website, fldsdress.com the demure prairie dresses seen on the sect's female members are for sale. Maggie Jessop, a resident of the YFZ ranch and a seamstress, tells the Tribune, "Our motive is not to flaunt ourselves or our religion before the world. We have to make a living the same as everyone does." The dresses pictured at left are called the "Teen Vest Dress" and retail for $54.95. [Salt Lake Tribune via Reason] More »
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Teresa Jeffs (not pictured here), the 16-year-old daughter of deposed Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints prophet and convicted sex offender Warren Jeffs, is denying that she was sexually abused, and she is speaking out against her court-appointed lawyer, Natalie Malonis. Malonis filed an emergency restraining order against church elder Willie Jessop on Friday, insisting that Jessop was influencing her client. Friday's motion alleged that Jessop has a history of tampering with FLDS witnesses as he "attempted to intimidate witness Elissa Wall during Jeffs' trial last year." Wall testified against Warren Jeffs in the case that sent him to federal prison on two counts of being an accomplice to rape for forcing a then-14-year-old Elissa into a spiritual marriage with her 19-year-old cousin. Teresa has also been barred from speaking to her father, though this is common practice with parents who are convicted sex offenders. On Sunday, Teresa sent an email correspondence she had with Malonis to the Salt Lake Tribune. More »
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While the majority of the FLDS minors have been returned to their parents, the daughter of Warren Jeffs, the former FLDS head honcho who is currently serving time for being an accomplice to rape, returned her mother, but with special restrictions, reports the Dallas Morning News. Apparently the girl's lawyer "complained she'd been sexually abused by a man in the group and might be in danger," so while the teen has been reunited with her mother Annette, Annette has been ordered to stay in the San Antonio area and barred from returning to the Yearning For Zion ranch. But, as the Dallas Morning News points out, the majority of children were thrilled to be reunited with their parents, which goes to show that at least some measure of the public hand-wringing over the fate of these kids (of which I am also guilty) is potentially overblown. Lee Ann Kinkade, who grew up on a commune in Virginia, sympathizes with the FLDS kids in today's Slate because she knows what it's like to grow up outside of mainstream society. More »
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The reunions have begun between FLDS parents and the children that the state of Texas temporarily detained. Church spokesman Willie Jessop said the church will no longer sanction unions of underage girls and will "counsel members against such unions." The state of Texas did manage to prove that as many as five of the FLDS teenage girls were sexually abused, but there do not seem to be any immediate repercussions to this conclusion. Many of the FLDS parents have moved off the Yearning For Zion ranch and have rented temporary homes in Amarillo and San Antonio, the AP reports. However, the court order does not require parents to renounce polygamy, nor does it place restrictions on the children's fathers. [AP via MSNBC] More »
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• Hillary suffered a coughing fit in South Dakota today and might give up altogether tomorrow. I have been suffering coughing fits all weekend and I haven't even managed to give up smoking, so I'm not placing any bets, but apparently there's a deal in the works for the Obama campaign to Bernanke her Bear Stearns. [Huff Po]
• Speaking! Krugman defends Bernanke on the grounds that there are no unions in America sending inflation spiraling of control with their wage demands like there were in the seventies. But hello Paul, you know what the Chinese were making in the seventies? [NYT]
• Also, I bet Americans had slightly less than a trillion dollars in credit card debt in the seventies. [WSJ]
• Stuff we did have in the seventies besides unions: regulations and trade barriers. Without those things to eradicate economic growth may be so hard to achieve that Barack Obama can call himself the "growth candidate" with his proposals to focus on preschool. [Wash Post]

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A Texas judge has set the minors from the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints free, reports CNN. Judge Barbara Walther said that the FLDS parents can start picking up their children immediately, though the Department of Family and Protective Services will be checking in on the polygamist sect, and, according to CNN, "These unannounced visits could entail medical, psychological and psychiatric examinations, and the parents must not intervene." FLDS parents must also complete parenting classes and are not allowed to leave the state of Texas without notifying authorities in advance. [CNN] More »
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What is going on here? Is Al Qaeda really internally imploding while this guy is still in office? What did the Mormon mind control pedophiles do to warrant getting their kids back? What the fuck is Condi Rice doing with KISS? What does Peggy Noonan make of Scott McClellan? Is Scott McClellan crushing on Obama? What's a cluster bomb and why don't we ban them? What really happened with Bear Stearns? Megan and I try to answer these questions in spite of the fact we can BARELY FORM THOUGHTS amidst all this restless Carriemania, after the jump. More »
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The Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints minors who were seized from the cult's Texas compound will be Yearning For Zion no longer — the Texas Supreme court has upheld a lower court's decision, and declared that the removal of children from the FLDS stronghold was unwarranted. Church spokesman Rod Parker says, "at this point there is no legal basis to hold anyone," and he wants the children to be reunited with their parents as soon as possible. What happens next is not entirely clear, according to the Los Angeles Times, because while the removal of the children was ruled unwarranted, the state is still allowed to "take other measures to protect [the children] while [the trial court] deliberated." Those measures, legal experts believe, could include requiring parents to stay in the area and/or move out of the Yearning For Zion ranch in addition to further DNA testing, the L.A. Times reports. More »
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Whether the state of Texas violated the rights of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints when it removed 400 some-odd children from the Yearning For Zion ranch is up for debate. What's not is the creepiness of these photos of former FLDS honcho Warren Jeffs sucking face with his child-brides. The Smoking Gun got a hold of images of Jeffs with two of his spiritual wives, Loretta and Merrianne. Merrianne, pictured here with Jeffs, was 12 when this photo was taken. These photos were used as evidence in the ongoing FLDS custody trials. Jeffs is currently in jail for coercing a 14-year-old girl to marry a 19-year-old. [The Smoking Gun] More »
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A Texas Appellate Court has ruled that the state had no right to remove the 400+ Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints children from the Yearning For Zion ranch. According to the New York Times, the grounds for removing the FLDS minors was "legally and factually insufficient." The court did not, however, order the return of the children to their parents. More to come. [NYT] More »
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Elisa Wall's testimony — about how she was forced, at 14 years old, to marry her first cousin, and have nonconsensual sex with him — is what helped send Warren Jeffs, leader of the Mormon fundamentalist polygamist sect, to jail. Today she was on Oprah to talk about her experience. She described her upbringing and the lack of education she received, particularly about her own anatomy. Even though she begged to not marry her cousin at a young age, she was forced to go ahead with it, and was given no information about what would happen on her wedding night, explaining that she had thought beds were only used for sleeping, and that the entire experience of consummating her marriage was incredibly traumatic. Clip above. More »
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If you're not interested in getting pregnant, this new study might inspire you to be more vigilant with condom use. Nonprofit sexual research organization the Guttmacher Institute claims that half of all pregnancies are unplanned and one in four American women will get preggers because of inconsistent contraceptive use. There are several reasons for erratic contraceptive use, reports Guttmacher, including lack of access to health care, being unable to afford birth control pills, and major life changes like the end of a relationship, a move, job change or personal crisis. Often when women are lax about birth control, researchers reason, they are ambivalent about preventing pregnancy. Many women surveyed "confessed that they would be very pleased if they found out they were pregnant," Reuters notes. Speaking of women who are pleased to be pregnant, yesterday, a second baby was born among the young women plucked from the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints compound in Texas. More »
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Sure, there are the sex beds and the surveillance towers and the hairdos and the unprecedented rate of birth defects, but at the end of the day, I am a nerd and the biggest source of curiosity regarding the members of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints is where they get their money and how they are using it. So thank you, Portfolio for your May story about the accountant appointed by the state of Utah to manage the $110 million Pederasty Economy. Bruce Wisan was appointed to privatize the property once controlled by Warren Jeffs, who was a destructive lunatic who played a sort of Stalin to his dad's Lenin. Jeffs would order grain elevators dismantled in the middle of the night; if he decided to purge a man from the community — which happened often when that man coveted one of the others' wives or houses — he trained teams to "move a house in less than an hour." More »
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This Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints situation is turning into a fucking fiasco. The latest out of Texas is that state officials have taken custody of a baby boy just born to one of the teenagers currently under their purview. This is the girl's second child, and officials believe her to be 15 or 16, even though she claims to be 18. The father of the child, Jackson Jessop, is 22, and his whereabouts are unknown. [CBS] More »
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• Barack Obama rejected/denounced his old friend Jeremiah Wright on television today on the advice of certain wise commenters and also prominent columnists and locking in a critical majority of my family members. Watching it was less fun than watching him shake the dirt off his shoulder but as Jigga would say "so necessary." [Wonkette]

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More polygamist news! About 100 of the of the 437 children taken from the Yearning for Zion FLDS compound in Texas earlier this month have been put into foster care. Members of the FLDS are criticizing the transfer, saying it was done without prior notice to the families. Currently, the children are being tested to see who their biological parents are. Church members have also set up a website (uh, is that allowed?) with photos of damages (a few broken doorknobs and an unopened plastic bin) and are asking for donations. Don't save Darfur, save oppressive religious fundamentalists! [CNN & Captive FLDS Children] More »
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