TPE, started by two brothers who were exiled from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, takes place in the non-magic kingdom of "The Creek," the FLDS community on the Utah-Arizona border. One of the brothers, Richard Holm, has said the tours will be "respectful" and will answer FAQs like "Why the prairie dresses and long braids? No makeup? More than one wife?" As the literature states, "A passenger bus seating 29 people will ferry tourists into Arizona, where guides will discuss the origins of fundamentalist Mormonism and will give travellers the opportunity to take in the town's famous sites, and even includes a picnic." The FLDS, according to UPI, is predictably not into being made into attractions - these are folks who prefer to preserve their isolation under normal circumstances, after all, particularly after their head, Warren Jeffs, was charged with about a thousand counts of child-marrying. Said one community leader, "They want to come into the community like it's a spectacle, when for us, it's like the circus is coming to town. We hope people have more of a life than to be suckered into that sort of scam."

One blogger describes former members' leading the tour as "like a former Nazi concentration camp's warden leading a tour in Auschwitz." Which I think is totally unfair: has he not heard of "the lost boys" phenomenon? After all, the tour's founder, Richard Holm, whom Warren Jeffs kicked out, has been a prominent critic of the FLDS since long before it captured the popular imagination. And on the one hand, it's a brilliant idea. Why not take advantage of overweening public interest and morbid curiosity, prompted by lurid news reports of child brides, tell-alls like Carolyn Jessup's Escape or dramatizations like Big Love or the new film version of Jessup's memoir, in which she'll be played by a pompadoured Katherine Heigl? And for those expelled from the community (Holm's two wives and children were "reassigned" to new men; Holm is now anti-polygamy) this is the ultimate revenge. What could be more painful than to expose the secrets of a community that prizes secrecy? To encourgae contact with a world that prefers to stay isolated? And in the process make money - which, if you believe Jessup's memoir, is made hard for anyone who's not in a position of power?

But, at the end of the day, why would we be there? Why do we even know about it? Because of child abuse and sexual abuse charges. Because of crimes against women, children and young men. And there's no getting away from that. And if we're going to condemn human zoos in the rest of the world, how can we encourage something so dehumanizing here? At the end of the the subject is unwilling - therefore, by definition, it's exploitative. Now, you can argue that this is another matter to the Amish, who've done nothing more than tried to live their lives and have to deal with throngs of apple butter-scarfing tourists in bonnets. In the current FLDS, if we're to believe the accounts of Jessup and others, situations like those in Texas, or involving Jeffsm aren't uncommon, but standard - with children being taken to wife against their will and young men literally thrown out on their own for the sin of being under 30, and community-centric law enforcement who are a part of the problem.

But the fact remains: what would we gain by exploiting people further? Yes, knowledge is important. Making things public is crucial. But disseminating half-information in a sense trivializes the real legal issues and serves to dehumanize its victims. Never mind the fact that those who aren't doing anything illegal, and merely pursuing a fundamentalist doctrine, shouldn't be held up as curiosities merely for doing so. In a sense, I don't think the fact that someone has proposed this business is inherently bad: it means people are aware of the FLDS, which means, hopefully, that actual agencies and the government are more aware of potential issues - and that those who wish to leave the life are given options and sanctuary. But at the same time, this shouldn't be reduced to either a harmless tourist attraction or a chamber of horrors: it's people, living their lives. If you want to see it, watch Escape. Chances are you'll see a lot more, anyway - I'm guessing these tour buses won't catch a lot of the lurid polygamist action Big Love fans might be hoping for, at most maybe a woman with a braid getting into a minivan. And frankly, these guys would probably be happier not dwelling in the past. If they want to help the community, there are organizations for Lost Boys and escapees. And given their entrepreneurial spirit, well, there are a lot of opportunities out there. It's a big world - and about one thing that FLDS guy is right; we should have better things to do.

'Polygamist Colony' Is Focus Of New Tour [UPI]

Scarier than "Ghost Town Tours"- "The Polygamy Experience". [Adventures -WA]
FLDS Exile To Offer Tour Of Polygamist Communities [SL Tribune]

From Polygamist Royalty To FLDS Lost Boy [NPR]
Ousted FLDS Dads Stuck With Aching Stigma [ReligionNews]

Last April 439 children were seized from the ranch. Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Anne Heiligenstein testified in a House Human Services Committee hearing that the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints group now realizes forcing teenage girls into marriage is sexual abuse. However, committee members said she may be too optimistic, since the group has been known to coach the children to give misleading information. They suggested that there is no way to be sure if church members are being honest about underage marriages now. [UPI]

Good Morning America ran a preview of tonight's episode and the folks at ABC News were clearly excited that this week's ridiculous stunt involved the actors wearing elaborate prairie costumes. Though it's pointed out that the polygamists in Colorado City, AZ don't like outsiders, apparently they'd be willing to eat out at a local restaurant and talk loudly about the teenager's impending marriage. Luckily, several women step in to help the girl and unlike last week, anchor John Quinones doesn't attribute it to "one thing that's foolproof: A woman's tears." Clip at left.

We knew that the minute that Bill took his fourth wife Anna, that things just wouldn't work out. (Because they'd definitely have to change the intro to the show.) As each one of Bill's wives bonded with Anna, jealousy over which woman was better friends with her began to set in, and elementary-school-type antics began to emerge. In this clip above, Nicki uses classic "mean girl" mind games to get Margie on her side.

• With today being the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the anti-choicers are out in full frontal crazy mode. One particularly dick protester smashed his SUV into a Planned Parenthood in St. Paul this morning. The damage was minor. • Two sixteen-year-old British girls were banned from school for being "too blonde." The school's dress code states that there should be no "unnatural" hair color on students. • The man charged with spraying Afghan school girls with acid says that he was paid by a major in the Afghan intelligence unit for the attacks. The girls continue to attend school undeterred. • Adolf Hitler Campbell's mother has told newspapers that "we would never abuse our children," and "I want my children back." • Mariana Bridi da Costa, a finalist in the Miss World competition, had her hands and feet amputated after being diagnosed with a urinary disease. • A new survey has found that professional women are more likely to drink alone at home than men or women in "routine or manual" occupations. • Two women whose sexual harassment accusations led to the resignation of an Ohio attorney general have reached a settlement and will receive over $200,000. • A man from Nevada shackled his 15-year-old daughter to her bed and beat her with a stick because he thought she was overweight. • In other awful parenting news: A 52-year-old Denver woman has been accused of binding her 10-year-old daughter's hands and feet each night because she suspected she was sneaking food. • Two teens from Minnesota have been arrested for abusing the elderly residents of a nursing home where they were employed part-time. • A town in Brazil where one in five pregnancies result in twins may have been the site of Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele's post-war experiments. Mengele was obsessed with twins, and some speculate that he "found the secret of twins." • Men's Health has named the worst food in America. This year it is the 2,600-calorie Baskin Robbin's large chocolate Oreo shake. • The Cat House in Parlier, California, is now home to 700 stray cats and even a few dogs. The owner of the 12-acre shelter says: "There was no place else for all of these cats, and I had all of this land." • Josef Fritzl's trial is set to begin March 16. He faces chargers of murder, rape, false imprisonment, and enslavement. • Polygamous communities in Canada are using the recent legalization of gay marriage as evidence to help overturn laws against polygamy. • Want to know what life looks like for your pet? For $50 you can buy a little camera to attach to their collars. Or you could just crouch down and see for yourself, but whatever. • Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Islamic leaders have condemned comments made by an Australian Muslim cleric who said it was OK to beat and rape your wife. • A British woman living in Dubai lost her appeal to have a sentence for adultery reduced from six months in prison to three. She also faces deportation. • A new study suggests that women suffer from worse nightmares than men because they are more likely to carry emotions from daily life into their sleep. • An 83-year-old man missed his bus back to Indiana because he was busy dancing with a young lady at the inauguration party. He has since found his way home and will be alright. • Head honchos at the San Fransisco Sentinel are trying to sell ad space by advertising their (attractive) female account executive. • A former manager of Hawaiian Tropic says that her boss bribed her to lie about her 2006 rape by a supervisor. • The Swedish National Library apparently has a large collection of child pornography dating from the 1970s, when it had not yet been made illegal. • 

• The "celebrity stock indices" for famous females like Gisele Bundchen and Angelina Jolie outperform the Dow. • According to one Russian woman's English-language wholly unscientific Google search, post-Communist women from Russia and Ukraine all want foreign husbands. • The science behind common food-related aphrodisiacs reveals there is some truth behind the myths. • A baby whale who lost its mother off the coast of Sydney, Australia faces judgment today to asses if it should be put down by the National Parks authorities. • Don't read this account of tortures inflicted on Tennessee walking horses if you have a weak stomach. • The alleged 14-year-old wife of FLDS leader Warren Jeffs has been sent to foster care after a Judge order on Tuesday. • Today in history: Soviet pups made a safe landing after going on a journey in Space in 1960! • No, Olympic gold medalist Nastia Liukin did not get to meet Michael Phelps. But she will get a parade!

While Kinkade's egalitarian, Marxist, hippied-out community, Twin Oaks, was "as far from fundamentalist Mormonism as it could be without being lunar," she still felt a kinship with the FLDS children because "I grew up in a place where my 'normal' was far enough from the average American childhood to make Dick and Jane books read like cultural anthropology."

She also identified with the FLDS's unconventional kinship structure. While Kinkade didn't live with her biological mother, there was a woman who she considers her mother emotionally; a woman who was her "purveyor of mac and cheese, warmth, and safety." And though she thinks that marrying off 13-year-olds to gross old men is "indefensible," she does fear that the media is painting the FLDS with the freak brush a little too often for her liking. "I wonder what degree of empathy is possible in a social structure that persists in defining the lives of the children it is trying to help as bizarre," she muses.

Look, I'm no fan of the FLDS. I don't have evidence that every family within the church is sexually abusive or cruel to children — though clearly the structure of the religion makes it easy for abuse to happen. But Kinkade's plea for tolerance and compassion is something we should all consider. Though really, Warren Jeffs — what a sick fuck, right????

We Are (All) Family [Slate]
Judge's Orders Aimed To Protect Jeffs' Daughter From Sect Member [Dallas Morning News via Newser]

Earlier: Please Do Not Cry For Those Poor Polygamist Wives, Fox News

Three of the Texas Supreme court members wrote in a dissenting opinion that while the Department of Family and Protective Services was wrong to take all the children, there was proper evidence given in order to remove adolescent girls from "a pattern or practice of sexual abuse."

While the Department of Family and Protective Services clearly abused power, some of the evidence presented by the Department was incredibly damning. According to the Texas Supreme Court decision, "the Department presented 'Bishop’s Records'— documents seized from the Ranch — indicating the presence of several extremely young mothers or pregnant 'wives' on the Ranch: a sixteen-year-old 'wife' with a child, a sixteen-year-old pregnant 'wife,' two pregnant fifteen-year-old “wives,” and a thirteen-year-old who had conceived a child." The expert witness from the FLDS themselves "confirmed that the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints accepts the age of 'physical development' (that is, first menstruation) as the age of eligibility for 'marriage.'"

Texas Court Upholds Polygamist Removals Ruling [Reuters]
FLDS Ruling Upheld By Texas Supreme Court [Los Angeles Times]
FLDS Ruling [Texas Supreme Court]

The state is appealing the court's ruling, claiming that since DNA testing has not been completed, returning children to their parents could be exposing them to sexual predators within the community. Willie Jessop, who is the FLDS point man in dealings with Texas officials, says that what's happening to his brethren is "un-American," and that the idea that his religion condones sexual relationships between grown men and underage girls is "the biggest bunch of bull crap that's ever been sold to this nation." But what about the "bull crap" that's been sold to the young girls of the FLDS, trapped in their long-skirted, fertile prisons, too scared to speak out? It's pretty clear at this point that the state of Texas made major missteps in the YFZ raid, but the idea of subjecting women and girls to this continued treatment is untenable.

The YFZ Ranch [CBS News]
The Kiss Of Jeffs [The Smoking Gun]
Texas Officials Fear Polygamist Sect Might Flee [AP]

Louisa Bradshaw Jessop gave birth to a son — her third child — in Austin, Texas. Jessop says that she is 22, though state authorities believe her to be 17. Jessop's husband, Rulan Danial Jessop, 24, "filed a habeas corpus petition in Austin last Wednesday that argues his wife is being improperly detained by the state," according to the Salt Lake Tribune. For now, a Texas judge has allowed a temporary restraining order against the Department of Family and Protective services to prevent them from moving Louisa and her baby to San Antonio.

We don't know how big Louisa's baby is, but if it is a super wee one, the boy has a greater chance of growing into an angry young man. According to research from the University of Helsinki, low birth rate and slow growth in childhood lead to "increased levels of hostility in adults," and this hostility is a harbinger of health troubles like heart issues and type 2 diabetes. Maybe that woman who's still breastfeeding her eight-year-old is just doing it to prevent her child's ire!

28 Million Women At Risk Of Unwanted Pregnancy [Reuters]
Second FLDS Mother Gives Birth While In Texas Custody [Salt Lake Tribune]
Smaller Babies Become Hostile Adults: Study [Newser]

Earlier: At What Age Is A Kid Too Old To Breastfeed?

FDLS brass of course, deny that any sexual abuse has occurred. Church spokesman Rod Parker thinks that the Texas Child Protective Services is underestimating the ages of the pregnant girls. Parker told the AP, "I do have serious questions about how they are determining age in there."

Each of the 463 minors taken from the YFZ ranch by the state of Texas is supposed to have an individual hearing by June 5 in order to determine if they should be put into foster care. Civil Liberties groups are arguing alongside that FDLS that the initial accusations of abuse only focused on teen girls, yet the state of Texas took every child, no matter age or gender. But couldn't it be argued that a culture that condones — however tacitly — the abuse of teenage girls is no culture for any child to be raised in?

Most Teen Girls From Ranch Have Been Pregnant [AP via MSNBC]
CPS: Half of Sect's Teen Girls Have Been Pregnant [AP via CNN]

Earlier: Authorities Take 400 More Kids From Polygamist Sect In Texas
Texas Officials Keep Teen Moms From Polygamist Sect In State Custody