2008 Woodie Awards
Moral outrage. Sometimes.
Issue date: 4/24/08
As Eliot Spitzer inexorably fades from the headlines and probably back into a little bit cheaper clientele of scarlet women, our moral outrage specialists are once again ravenously licking their chops and searching for the next meteoric celebrity flare-out (maybe something on the level of a prominent middle-aged black male kidnapping a pretty, white teenaged girl while at an illegal dogfight) or any other sort of race/gender controversy.
Despite the constant need to express moral outrage, several stories slipped through the grasp of moralists (and apparently everyone) such as the White House's Friday night by-the-way admission that high-level officials (such as the president and attorney general) drafted and signed off on torture as a way to get information from suspects, or the failure of anyone to call out the housing industry's complete lack of due diligence for a few million "homeowners," perhaps based on the fear of reminding people that the economy currently resembles a beached whale.
Good thing there are polygamists to push around.
Responding to one complaint of sexual abuse from a 16-year-old girl calling from a polygamist ranch, the great state of Texas took the unusual if not unprecedented step of taking over 400 children into protective custody and thus inviting a media bonanza to the Yearning for Zion ranch in Eldorado. This move, which even involved infants, creates an undesirable situation that will likely result in 400 children being placed into foster care in a town of 90,000 people, which might employ as many as four social workers. That, of course, is far less important than keeping those kids away from their big, bad, polygamist dads.
Don't worry; I'm not about to stand up for polygamists. During a recent CNN interview, three polygamist fathers seemed about as concerned about getting their kids back as they are about - well, they couldn't have seemed less concerned about getting their kids back.
Though I disagree with the asinine shortsightedness of taking 400 kids into custody and despite the fact that the tiny town of Eldorado temporarily tripled in population last week, I think it's great that fundamentalism is getting all of this negative press.
Despite the constant need to express moral outrage, several stories slipped through the grasp of moralists (and apparently everyone) such as the White House's Friday night by-the-way admission that high-level officials (such as the president and attorney general) drafted and signed off on torture as a way to get information from suspects, or the failure of anyone to call out the housing industry's complete lack of due diligence for a few million "homeowners," perhaps based on the fear of reminding people that the economy currently resembles a beached whale.
Good thing there are polygamists to push around.
Responding to one complaint of sexual abuse from a 16-year-old girl calling from a polygamist ranch, the great state of Texas took the unusual if not unprecedented step of taking over 400 children into protective custody and thus inviting a media bonanza to the Yearning for Zion ranch in Eldorado. This move, which even involved infants, creates an undesirable situation that will likely result in 400 children being placed into foster care in a town of 90,000 people, which might employ as many as four social workers. That, of course, is far less important than keeping those kids away from their big, bad, polygamist dads.
Don't worry; I'm not about to stand up for polygamists. During a recent CNN interview, three polygamist fathers seemed about as concerned about getting their kids back as they are about - well, they couldn't have seemed less concerned about getting their kids back.
Though I disagree with the asinine shortsightedness of taking 400 kids into custody and despite the fact that the tiny town of Eldorado temporarily tripled in population last week, I think it's great that fundamentalism is getting all of this negative press.
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