Let's Get Honest! Absolutely Uncommon Analysis of Family & Conciliation Courts' Operations, Practices, & History

Just in case I wasn’t clear in that long-winded “Christianty and Its Sects in the Statehouse,” Let’s bring it a little more current. An atheist feminist friend who validated my right to get angry (few others actually did, or exhibited any anger) when my kids were stolen overnight, sent me the first article, which is from “Religion Dispatches.”

The article is self-explanatory enough. But remember to scan the 97 comments, which (surprisingly) are from plenty of men as well. One of them says there are “Judy” Mormons and “Jim” MOrmons, really there are all kind of Mormons. Well, draw your own conclusions — having run my mouth elsewhere today, I’m out of time on the topic!

IN THIS POST, MY QUOTATIONS ARE SIGNIFIED BY TINTED BACKGROUNDS, NOT INDENTS & THE LARGE, WORDPRESS QUOTATION MARK.  SEVERAL ARTICLES ARE QUOTED, AND SOME OF THOSE ARTICLES CONTAIN INDENTED QUOTES FROM OTHERS.

Jim Reed • 2 months ago • parent 

Not exactly. I was saying if Romney is elected then the church will switch even more that way, and be 99% Romney Mormons. At that point it will become very difficult, or even impossible, for a Mormon to oppose him, especially a woman. Now is their chance to make a big difference, and help the post election shift go the other way toward a more balanced church.

ANYHOW here we are.

…Be sure, if you click on that link to also read Johanna Brooks 2012 article on some LDS clinical psychologists, one of who was later recommended to be a bishop (verify article, that’s by memory) who were teaching others interrogation techniques.  And how did Romney feel about this.

However, I looked up the account of the “have the abortion, even if it threatens your life” article, which is below.  On that link also is a link to a woman who, while she also had been raped and not gotten pregnant, had (apparently in other circumstances) been highly pressured to give up her daughter who — despite being in what looked like a good, stable, family (adopted by). . . later committed suicide.  This mother writes, she hasn’t gotten over giving up her daughter, 46 yrs later.

I know people are going to vote.  Just think, before you do, OK?  Think about some of these women.  I’m not an ex-Mormon, but,  . . . . just think, OK?  As they say, it’s something to be a woman “without a country”…. speaking, social networks. 

THREE MORE ARTICLES: BLUE- or other-color-BACKGROUND=QUOTATION UNLESS {{BRACKETED}}

• SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2012

Romney’s convenient stand on abortion: Flip. Flop. Loop holes.

Hard-hearted Romney then, no friend to women in trouble

More troubling information about the man who would be president, Mitt Romney, and his relationship to women is emerging. We wrote earlier about his encouraging a single mother to relinquish her child for adoption–threatening her with excommunication if she did not–but another story has come to light. It happened in 1983, the same summer that Romney infamously drove to his house at his gated lakefront community on Lake Huron with his Irish setter, Seamus, in a dog carrier lashed to the roof of the car. This became political fodder–cartoons, gags on late-night comedy, even a satirical song–but another incident that summer has been largely ignored until now.

A pregnant woman and a practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (LDS or Mormon) had a life-threatening blood clot lodged in her pelvic region. Carrel Hilton Sheldon was in her late thirties, had four teenage children, and had lost fifth in childbirth. This was her sixth pregnancy. To treat the clot, Sheldon was administered an overdose of the blood thinner Heparin in the eighth week of her pregnancy, {{@WHERE??}} which led to massive internal bleeding and extensive damage to her kidneys. She might even need a kidney transplant. Given the fatal repercussions to her, she and her husband faced the great likelihood that the fetus was also severely damaged.

(=author, “Lorraine”)

STAKE PRESIDENT URGES SHE SAVE HER LIFE
The LDS stake president in Massachusetts was a Harvard-trained physician, Dr. Gordon Williams. He counseled Sheldon to follow her doctor’s advice and terminate the pregnancy to save her life. “Of course, you should have this abortion and then recover from the blood clot and take care of the healthy children you already have,” she recalls him saying. A stake president is a male volunteer in the church who is in charge of several Mormon congregations, called wards or branches; bishops in the church, also volunteers, are the spiritual leaders of the wards, and as such, are below the stake presidents in the hierarchy. At the time Romney was 36 and a rising star in the church, and Sheldon’s bishop.

{{Rock, Scissors, Paper, Stone.  Stake President trumps bishop}}

According to an account that Sheldon wrote anonymously for the LDS women’s journal, Exponent II, and an interview with a friend of Sheldon’s, Romney paid her an uninvited visit late that summer (after returning from Canada) in her hospital room and urged her to have the child, all medical advice to the contrary. He talked about his sister who has a a retarded child, and what a blessing the child was. “He told me that ‘as your bishop, my concern is with the child.'” Not only was there no empathy forthcoming from Romney, he said he doubted the stake president’s approval, and said he would call him. “At a time when I would have appreciated nurturing and support from spiritual leader and friends,” Sheldon wrote, “I got judgment, criticism, prejudicial advice and rejection.”

Brigham Young’s wives in the late 1800s. Charming.

According to R.B. Scott, author of Mitt Romney: an Inside Look at the Man and His Politics, Romney’s only concern was for the unborn fetus, not the health of the woman, not her other children.

Author Scott, also a Mormon, interviewed Sheldon’s 90-year-old father, Phil Hilton, about the incident: “I have never been so upset in my life,” he told Scott. “[Romney] is an authoritative type fellow who thinks he is in charge of the world.” Hilton was so offended by Romney’s lack of sensitivity to her daughter’s life that he ordered him out of his home. He told Scott he was fully prepared to throw Romney off his porch if he did not leave immediately. Romney left.

When confronted about the incident by reporters from the Boston Globe in 1994—little more than a decade afterward—Romney claimed no memory of the incident. You can bet that Sheldon has not forgotten.

Now living on the West Coast, she is no longer a member of LDS. “Here I—a baptized, endowed, dedicated worker, and tithe-payer in the church—lay helpless, hurt, and frightened, trying to maintain my psychological equilibrium,” she wrote, “and his concern was for the eight-week possibility in my uterus—not for me!“

FLIP-FLOPPIN‘ ON ABORTION: HE WAS TOLD HE COULD 
Romney’s flip-flopping on just about all issues has been covered extensively, but his stand on women’s rights and abortion, and even contraception, is what concerns us here. According to a former friend of his and a LDS member today, Judy Dushku, his position on abortion has changed with the expediencies of politics. Dushku is no light-weight throwing pot shots. She has been a professor of government for 40 years and she now teaches at Suffolk University in Massachusetts where she is the Fulbright Senior Specialist. Dushku was an editor of Exponent II, and knew Sheldon well, when she asked her to write a piece describing what had happened to her. The magazine agreed to publish the story anonymously.

{{HERE’S THE ACCOUNT OF MITT TELLING A WOMAN TO GIVE UP HER BABY, OR BE EXCOMMUNICATED (SEE OTHER BLOG FOR WHAT THIS REPRESENTS FOR MORMONS, APPARENTLY). . . . AND NOTICE THIS WOMAN WAS ALREADY A MOTHER….  FROM ‘firstbornmother.com’ a forum, author “Lorraine”}}

 

• THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2012

Romney urges single woman to give up her baby–or be outcast from LDS

Mitt Romney, as a leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, pressured an unmarried woman to give up her unborn child to be adopted. That revelation comes from The Real Romney, a new book excerpted in the February issue of Vanity Fair.  In the book, co-authors Michael Kranish and Scott Helman tell the story of one Peggie Hayes, who had a long-time connection with the Romney family.

Hayes had joined the church with her mother , and knew the Romneys so well that as a teenager, Hayes baby-sat for the Romney boys in Boston. In her last year of high school, however, her mother abruptly moved with her daughter to Salt Lake City.

{{That must have been a little traumatic…}}

Peggie married, moved to Los Angeles, had a daughter, divorced, and eventually moved back to the Boston area, where she made contact again with the Romneys. She stayed a member of the Mormon church.

{{I wonder if the marriage had anything to do with Mormons pushing marriage, or to get out of the neighborhood.  Sounds like she did this while just out of high school — see ff.}}

In 1983, Hayes was 23, a nurses’ aid struggling with her finances, and Romney was not only her church leader as her bishop, but she also thought of him as a friend. He helped find her odd jobs with other members of the church. Then Hayes became pregnant, and though marriage was not part of the equation, she looked forward to having another child. “I kind of felt like I could do it,” she is quoted as saying in the book. “And I wanted to.”

{{comment:  jobs with other church members; keeping it in-house.}}

GIVE UP THAT BABY, YOU SINNER! 
But Romney, hoeing to Mormon policy of discouraging out-of-wedlock mothers, sat down with her and “said something about the church’s adoption agency.” From the excerpt in Vanity Fair:

Hayes initially thought she must have misunderstood. But Romney’s intent became apparent: he was urging her to give up her soon-to-be-born son for adoption, saying that was what the church wanted. Indeed, the church encourages adoption in cases where a successful marriage is unlikely.

LGH TEACHING POINT
{{So do too many people with their talons in welfare diversionary, and/or faith-based funding.  They encourage women to marry their way out of poverty, or give it up, and are open about this.  This is why, regardless of the next President, voters should address this issue in the reauthorization of welfare in 2013.  MOREOVER, my lookups are showing there a huge development in federal funding to encourage adoption (Promoting Safe & Stable Families, etc.) — millions of $$.   Also the development of child welfare as a field of law, $600K to the “National Association of Counsel for Children,” (NACC) which overlaps with the AFCC I keep yakkin’ about, was labeled “ADOPTION ASSISTANCE.”  MEANWHILE, at the law school level, and again coordinated by AFCC members, centers (with private funding help) are being set up called “CFCC”s (Center for Families & Children in the Courts) where experts can convene and decide policy without a lot of single mothers, or uninfluential single fathers around.

THEIR thing has been to promote Unified Family Courts as a model.  While this may sound efficient, the real purpose is to gain SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION over both custody (which may not involve abuse, at least by both parents) and dependency courts, and to order more therapeutically jurisprudent services (to cronies).   I am networked with mothers and have been reporting this — you can smell the patronizing tone when you walk in a courtroom.  This is where it comes from.  Not reported at the centers — repercussions.  For example, the “Unified Family Court” set up in Lackawanna County, PA (which definitely got help from the Baltimore-based CFCC on the pilot unified court) has already been raided by the FBI on allegations — which seem pretty likely in my opinion — of financial misdeeds, overbilling, double-billing, etc. — by an NACC member.. etc.

To Summarize:  Mormons are not the only ones with this attitude.  However, (see Christianity and its Sects article) it does appear that having adopted children when they can’t have real children might help a couple in the afterlife…  It appears to be taken further in these circles, perhaps.

In THAT regard, I notice that one of the significant marriage grants from HHS was aimed at stepparents, and was moved from one state, grantee, and category AND to Utah…And again, as I a few posts ago blogged, UTAH was apparently (per “smartmarriages.com link on “Legislation”) one of the first states to have a Governor-level State-wide Marriage Initiative or declaration. Here’s that information, available from “Smartmarriages(r) site, left bar, under “Legislation”…. (actually that site’s pretty messy too, considering how much money the conferences, etc. must pull in..))

GOVERNOR’S INITIATIVES and Proclamations:

In 1998 and 1999, for the first time, governors in three states, Utah,
Oklahoma, and Arkansas publicly made reducing the divorce rate a goal
of their administration.

– Utah Governor’s Commission on Marriage – In 1998, Governor Michael Leavitt
organized the nation’s first Governor’s Commission on Marriage and charged the Commission
with the task of identifying programs and tools to strengthen
marriage in the state. He and First Lady Jacalyn Leavitt gave the opening
address at the 1999 Smart Marriages conference laying out the blueprints
for Utah’s statewide conferences that teach marriage skills to couples.

• SING TANF/WELFARE MONEY TO STRENGTHEN MARRIAGE
• Oklahoma: Using Welfare Money to Promote Marriage –Wade Horn, April 4, 2000
  
• West Virginia $100 monthly welfare bonus to married couples – 8/01

– States with TANF set-asides as of 12/07

TX, OH, AZ, CO, UT, NM, NY, AL, GA, OK
– TANF – The 1% Solution – step-by-step how to recording by Chris Gersten of FAMLI

• Texas Passes 1% Solution TANF set-aside legislation! – 6/07 

Marriage Handbooks – developed by STATES as part of their marriage legislation, governor’s initiatives, etc. Click to read.

THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 2011

That’s a shame, because Christianity — or, should I say, “the gospel,” as represented in the New Testament, shows a pattern of forgiveness.  God forgave Paul, and he was one bad guy….There’s also an account in John 8 of forgiving a women caught in adultery, the theme is of forgiveness and atonement.  From what I’m hearing of Mormonism, it’s pretty much the opposite.  I’m hard put to figure out where a Jesus Christ figure, and the entire message around the crucifixion, Lamb of God (etc.) comes into the mix, coming out of the temple practices, animal sacrifices, and such. This religion sounds terribly legalistic, and no mercy even after death, either, for the unmarried….

ANYHOW, regarding Legislation (Probably a done deal by now) might as well look at this:

Attorneys & Legislators in touch with SMARTMARRIAGES’ “Diane Sollee,” and one of them reporting a recent triumph. I wonder if the person is or was also an AFCC member as an attorney… These are things to pay attention to– BEFORE the bills are passed! This datesto 2007; note another round of marriage funding was reauthorized in 2006, I believe (and basically Welfare was re-appropriated, nationally, in 2005 as DRA (Deficit Recovery Act). Time to stay on top of these matters as citizens!

March, 2007

Dear Diane:
I am an attorney and Utah state legislator, and attended your conference last year in Atlanta. I just passed the nation’s first divorce orientation legislation, HB 128 and it has been funded! This bill is in addition to the already required 2 hour divorce education class for parents. The divorce orientation class is to help them understand the impacts of divorce, provide resources for strengthening their marriage, and resources to go through the divorce and deal with post-divorce issues with less pain, if they proceed.

I don’t know specifically which classes she’s referring to (a 2-hour class isn’t that long, but do the math, and who is the contractor, who wrote up the class?  The AFCC crowd is pushing classes about Conflict, and the KidsTurn (etc.) stuff, but they want I believe 8 weeks of someone’s time, and a good bit of money.  In Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, last I heard, the KidsFirst class (also being marketed right from the Kentucky State courts site under about 11 or so “Divorce Education” options) was costing $60 and was administratively mandated by a certain AFCC Judge (Chet Harhut) writing it into action via a Rule of Court.  He simply said it was so, and it was so — kinda like “God.”  A crony got the business..See herein (look up “Libassi”).

California tried to pass a law overtly stipulating KidsTurn be studied, then backtracked not mentioning their pet project by name (too obvious), but the Governor (then Gray Davis) veto’ed it on the basis that the legislature was probably not qualified to measure mental health qualities of divorcing parents in this manner, etc. (SB-577 or similar name, see “Kehoe” and I blogged that, too).  They never give up…

It also allows couples to file for a temporary separation, WITHOUT filing for divorce, for up to one year. During the separation, they must take the course.

Cannot couples already do this by other means without taking a course?  One means is when the marriage has already been marked by DV — and that will precipitate a custody arrangement.  Another way is to amicably (without the courts) figure out how to separate, in a nonabusive marriage; I do not know if there is another way in this state to file for custody matters other than starting a divorce or DV action (the DV action will often precipitate a divorce action). Another one — not advised for women, given the current climate — my opinion — is to file for child support, if it’s needed, for a couple that is already separated.   Point being — why do couples need to allow these folks to get their sales marketing in also, during those difficult transition times?

If they proceed with the divorce, the relatively small filing fee for the temporary separation is applied to the divorce filing fee. It passed the HOUSE unanimously and the Senate with only one dissenting vote. The court administrator’s office is ready to begin implementation through the office that now administers the divorce education class for parents.

I would like people to know about this legislation so that they can introduce something similar in their state. I appreciate all that you do for marriage and families in this country.

Copy and paste this URL into your browser and you will have several options
to retrieve the text or even listen to committee and floor debates.

http://le.utah.gov/~2007/htmdoc/hbillhtm/HB0128S01.htm

Lorie D. Fowlke
Representative
District 59
Orem, Utah

I think you should look at the minutes in the amended (substitute) bill, which say if after shelter hearing the child doesn’t go with a parent or relative, it has to go to a married couple, in the context of also another amendment about expunging criminal records.  Interesting.. The legislator who wrote this was Vice Chair of the Judiciary Committee, which i’m sure helped.

After finding her website (below) it turns out she’s also selling (no doubt) what looks like possibly this seminar — and I’m sure, along with it, her book by the same name, ‘Thinking About Divorce”? (more below)….

http://thinkingdivorce.com/seminar.htm

What do you know about how a divorce will affect your life? What can you realistic anticipate from the divorce process? Can your marriage be salvaged? Lorie Fowlke is a divorce attorney and wants to help you make an informed decision. Scheduling the ”Thinking Divorce? Think Again!” seminar for your group or organization may salvage a marriage or help reduce the damage of divorce litigation.

Looking up Rep Lori D. Fowlke, she sponsored and got passed a bill naming a week in February “Celebration of Marriage Week” in 2005.  These people are smart — one step at a time, right?  Here it is!

RESOLUTION HONORING CELEBRATION OF

MARRIAGE WEEK

2005 GENERAL SESSION STATE OF UTAH

Chief Sponsor: Lorie D. Fowlke

Senate Sponsor: Curtis S. Bramble

This joint resolution of the Legislature designates February 7-14, 2005 as Marriage Week in the state of Utah

This resolution: < designates February 7-14, 2005 as Marriage Week in the state of Utah; and < encourages all Utahns to reflect on the importance of strengthening the institution of marriage.

Be it resolved by the Legislature of the state of Utah:

WHEREAS, the legal marriage between a man and a woman is the cornerstone of healthy family life;

WHEREAS, this cornerstone brings security, commitment, meaning, joy, and spiritual maturity to the man and the woman who enter this lifelong covenant with unselfish commitment;

WHEREAS, this cornerstone provides children with a safe haven in which to grow, learn, and experience life from the hands of caring parents;

WHEREAS, this cornerstone buoys and unburdens society from the costly impacts of dysfunction and helps to mitigate continued cycles of dysfunction;

WHEREAS, this cornerstone creates interconnected communities of family, generations, neighborhoods, faiths, and the nation;

WHEREAS, this cornerstone engenders family autonomy and pluralism that are the frontline defenses in preserving the nation’s political freedoms;

WHEREAS, this cornerstone advances economic prosperity and hedges families against difficult economic times; and

WHEREAS, this cornerstone, marriage, is ordained of God to perpetuate the human race and to prosper both men and women:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of the state of Utah, in recognition of this vital and essential institution, designates the week of February 7-14, 2005 as Marriage Week in the state of Utah and encourages all Utahns to reflect on the importance of marriage generally, and their own marriages specifically, for the purpose of strengthening its influence, appeal, and affect.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be sent to the Governor’s Commission on Marriage.

More lookups:

This link from the “Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona & Johnstown, Pennsylvania” is advertising a book by Lori D. Fowlke (who is probably a Mormon, not a Catholic) who apparently is BOTH divorce attorney AND a legislator (I found out, below) (the logo is the link):  The link has references to pornography, Natural Family Planning, etc. but nothing on domestic violence or child abuse (naturally)…

If you are tempted to divorce, read:
Thinking of Divorce? Think Again: Seven realities you need to know
by Lorie D. Fowlke, JD. Written by a divorce attorney who describes the monetary, legal, and emotional nightmare of a divorce. “A must-read book for anyone who is seriously considering divorce.” – Stephen R. Covey

This attorney was actually born in China Lake, CA — some indicators of AFCC affiliation — and she attended law school in UTAH after having her family.    She’s listed under adoption attorneys, and is a court-certified mediator.  I.e., she’s “drunk the Kool-Aid:” and is selling her book on the website, too..

I hear the sound of a large “whoosh!” as things that sustain life are sucked out of the ethical unwealthy and siphoned into the shareholders by smart, and opportunistic private equity investors.

The poor used to be warehoused in HUD tenements (projects, right?), Ms. Fitts relates, but once the equity is sucked out of them, taxpayers can’t fork it over any more, and so here comes Privatized Prisons (CCA, etc.).  You KNOW at some level, right, this is the truth?  When I started seeing this?  I simply looked up the wealthiest Congresspeople in 2008 and where that wealth came from.  I saw Corrections Corporation of America (out of Nashville).   The Obama’s wealth was also listed and if you look closely, this involves real estate, including some projects, in Chicago.  HOW do we really think people get into politics and office?

THE HUD DEVELOPMENT GAME IS BEING REPLACED IN PART BY A PRISON PRIVATISATION AND DEVELOPMENT GAME THAT WAREHOUSES THE SAME FOLKS IN PRISONS…

We need to understand just how, and why, the “Rule of Law” is a Myth, and the Real Rules in Operation are simply How to Do a Financial Coup d’etat.

Now I see the signs of financial holocaust through the eyes of people who are being destroyed. Their currency is debased. Their children are targets of both “legal” and “illegal” drug trafficking and are condemned to learn in dumbed- down schools. Their small business equity is being extracted from under them. It is they who are carrying the burden of taxes without the benefits that government investment is supposed to provide. The cruel twist is that citizens are funding the financial ruin that is killing them and their children.

Now I understand the process by which the rich get rich and the poor get exhausted

My three years on this blog plus just observation of life pretty much led me to the same conclusion.  Not knowing this resource (yet), I posted (herein) that the for profit/nonprofit system was PER SE creating a caste system.  That was simply the truth.  I also had ample experience with nonprofits, i.e., seeking assistance from several of them.  Now I have better language to describe it, and some more “case histories” to demonstrate the matter.

FYI I still have not solved this problem.  I still have major economic struggles, no assets, a destroyed job history and a destroyed social support system (particularly since I quit using on-line groups for an emotional crutch, and/or trying to argue some sense into them.

How money works is not only essential to know — it’s interesting.  And it’s the current landscape – it’s here.  You might as well learn about it.  FAST!

Please take time to work through at least some of this material by Ms. Fitts and then keep your eyes opened.  The quote above is from “The Myth of the Rule of Law” — an elegant, and well-formatted 27page read.  Here’s the intro:

Note from CAF: This post was originally published here in February of 2009. In light of recent events,  I am republishing.]

By Catherine Austin Fitts

In the fall of 2001 I attended a private investment conference in London to give a paper, The Myth of the Rule of Law or How the Money Works: The Destruction of Hamilton Securities Group.

The presentation documented my experience with a Washington-Wall Street partnership that had:

• Engineered a fraudulent housing and debt bubble;
• Illegally shifted vast amounts of capital out of the U.S.;
• Used “privitization” as a form of piracy – a pretext to move government assets to private investors at below-market prices and then shift private liabilities back to government at no cost to the private liability holder.

Other presenters at the conference included distinguished reporters covering privatization in Eastern Europe and Russia. As the portraits of British ancestors stared down upon us, we listened to story after story of global privatization throughout the 1990s in the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

Slowly, as the pieces fit together, we shared a horrifying epiphany: the banks, corporations and investors acting in each global region were the exact same players. They were a relatively small group that reappeared again and again in Russia, Eastern Europe, and Asia accompanied by the same well-known accounting firms and law firms.

Clearly, there was a global financial coup d’etat underway. The magnitude of what was happening was overwhelming. In the 1990′s,

millions of people in Russia had woken up to find their bank accounts and pension funds simply gone – eradicated by a falling currency or stolen by mobsters who laundered money back into big New York Fed member banks for reinvestment to fuel the debt bubble.

Reports of politicians, government officials, academics, and intelligence agencies facilitating the racketeering and theft were compelling.

Ms. Fitts’ firm Hamilton Securities was targeted — she was targeted and almost destroyed.  A simple software program (I don’t know HOW simple) that connected the dots of HUD Frauds (or defaults) to PLACE — which then also revealed where the crime was happening — was called Community Wizard.  Her ideas for turning around drug-riddled neighborhood and keeping capital LOCAL seems to me were good ones.  They were also rejected.

On page 18 of the (above-linked “myth” document) — I got my validation from a top financial expert — and again, pretty close to the first time I had CAFRs explained to me (meaning, I read a blog or two and looked at some samples), it made sense.  I also realized that these were maps // diagrams — better than my narratives.  I then began reporting & publicizing it and next thing you know, I’m put off a forum of a city in Lackawanna County PA (where the FBI had raided the courthouse, and which city was going bankrupt), and told by the moderator to keep my nose out of the NON-family court thread, but not before I’d started a topic on CAFRs and literally dug up Scranton’s (which had been named kind of strangely on their business admin site).  Eventually I was bounced off the forum, which was fine by me — more free time for people who give a damn.

I POINTED OUT THE DANGED CAFRss.  Look at this, from p. 18:

That was one of the reasons I turned down the opportunity to serve at the Federal Reserve and instead started Hamilton upon leaving the Bush Administration. It was the reason why we at Hamilton built Community Wizard. The Community Wizard made it possible for anyone to put together a sources and uses statement for government activities (taxes, time use, spend- ing, credit, regulation, operations, and more) in their community. An easy step was just linking to the Consolidated Financial Reports (CAFRS). The shock of finding so much in the way of hidden assets and where the money was really going was always a pleasure to watch. Why should the finance committee chairmen of the political campaigns be the only ones to see the information on how the money works by place?

Luis Mendez, one of my partners at Dillon Read, visited me in Washington in 1996. He said that Wizard was a stupid idea, that would not work. Things were hopeless, he said. I showed Luis a printout of the CAFR for his community of Bronxville, New York. When he saw the figures, he exploded in rage. The first item was $4 million of flood insurance. This was the worst form of corruption, Luis said. Apparently, Bronxville was on a hill. The next day Luis spent two hours on the phone with the Deputy Mayor of Bronxville going through each item and informing him this was all going to stop. Apparently, things were far from hopeless, once one had the information. It just took one good map to see how to fix thousands of little things, one at a time

What Human Behavior can the UnWealthy Change to Quit enabling this Consolidation

Our Human Behavior — How Can We Change it to Counter this Consolidation of Wealth?

Instead of complaining about how corporations think and act, how about thinking and acting more, as individuals, about the “corpus” of our money?

When we give it up to others (including through wages) to pool, invest, and sell– is it out of sight, out of mind?  Where, really and to what purposes, are we putting it?

We essentially are saying, too many of us– I am not smart enough to invest and manage my own income.  In exchange for HOPE, including HOPE of some job security now, I will let you manage it, for which privilege, you will get from me the primary hours and energy of my days, and the prime years of my life, to help make widgets, or highly technical improvements to make society whirr and hum better (depending on what type of job we work), and I myself will gain a resume and some job skills.

Read the rest of this entry »

THIS POST MAY BE A SLIGHT DUPLICATE OF AN EARLIER ONE.  IT CONTAINS MISCELLANEOUS SORTS ON GRANTEES, BUT BELOW THAT, SOME DETAILS ON A FEW OF THEM MAY INTEREST YOU — IN PARTICULAR RE:  “PAIRS” “IDEALS” “ASSOCIATION FOR COUPLES AND MARRIAGE ENHANCEMENT” & NIRE(r)”GOODSHEPINC.” (a grantee which turns out to be a couple marketing quite a few items, including a specialized product code-named by one guy, “TheoPhoskos” or something like it.

Individuals mentioned:

• David & Vera Mace (apparently one of the earlier ones  bringing in the “marriage education” field, along with a Catholic Father from Spain…
• Bernard and Louise Guerney
• Mary Ortwein
• etc.

I have just finished some intense days reading about the history of a Christian group (sect) from the 1200s who suffered severe persecution (and massacres) for their lay-preaching, for CENTURIES and eventually, having probably helped influence the reformation, blended in with it — and helped with early Bible translations.  Their primary sin was lay preaching — AND allowing women to preach also.  This challenged the entire ecclesiastic privilege at a time when Popes were warring with each other (and various emperors) for dominance.

At the bottom of the “Where’s Waldo” post (re: the Waldensians) — I randomly pulled up some mainline church doctrine, showed its format (sloppy), and at the bottom, the megachurch Saddleback/Rick Warren.

Marketers use Churches for their distribution network, obviously, so I went to USPTO.gov and looked up things trademarked to Pastor Rick (Warren) – -and even I was surprised.

There also was a single article on a woman who –attempted — at least — to report domestic violence against her by a church member; she’d been paired with him originally by his mother, in a Saddleback choir.  It turns out the man was a serial abuser (his first wife had suffered even more severe abuse, facially disfiguring).  Saddleback, instead, gradually excommunicated the woman reporting (after squelching her reporting of it) and after the man was (properly) dismissed from leadership at his prior church, because of DV, he was instated gladly at Saddleback.

We should be #1 aware that what’s often called “Church” is simply using people for business, and that #2, too many of them simply hate women — which any God, assuming such a God is real and worth worshipping — simply would not do.

There are many lessons to be learned by reading up on these matters.  However this post is less weighty than some others — but I do wish to point out that some of the main players (PREP, IDEALS, etc.) are to be found all over the neighborhood — and HOW they spread their wares. . . . .

Also know that both Romney and Obama have supported the federal funding of these programs on the basis it helps people.  It does — it helps enrich those selling the product, and helps strengthen churches which discriminate against women, specifically, and which, moreover, apparently can’t and don’t read their own scriptures straight, or enough to actually be convinced by the contents.  As such, I say, strip the nonprofit tax status which is a church/state partnership that should not exist, and weakens the function of both church and state.

Read the rest of this entry »

What they did, and endured, should not be forgotten — or dismissed.

As it turns out, the Inquisition was essentially developed, in part, to attack this one group, who began with (it seems) one wealthy merchant in Lyons — having heard some of the Bible addressed to a rich man (which he was) — decided to actually do it.  At this time, perhaps only 10% of the population was literate, and the language of science and religion was Latin.  The man, how undoubtedly read his own language (being a merchant) got some translators — and the rest is history.

This group was Ahead of their Times as we are over 800 yrs later, Behind Theirs.

From 1179 AD, Who practiced what they preached – men AND women

From what I can tell, neither armies (whether of Kings or of Popes) exterminated them in their scattered and clandestine state — but apparently an ecumenical appeal to join the Reformation — quit wandering around preaching and stay put, build your own churches (which took place in 1532, by which time this group must have been exhausted, terrorized, and barely holding on, though holding on they certainly were) — and shortly AFTER that some of the worst massacres took place.

This just goes to show what can happen when a group of people makes a determine to practice what is preached, and gets its own access to the information (in this case, it happened to be primarily the Bible), and starts thinking independently about propaganda.  And, in this case, from the start it appears that women were allowed to speak, and even preach.   I am sure the literacy level improved in the process — but they took on the litterati of the era.

So what are we, in the USA doing now?  We are contributing to the church that is called the Federal Government (at least of late) and asking it for protection, social services, and our money’s worth.  We are not organizing to get the Executive Order rescinded of 2001 which helps deactivate just over HALF the population of the land (the female half) within religious orders, but allowing certain chosen figureheads (male and female) to rise to the top, in an effort to make sure more don’t have a true voice in raising their own kids, or an equal shot at survival economically — should they have children and not get or stay married.

I excerpted this from the post about “Christian Sects in the Statehouse.” I really believe as a whole, we do not accept how much of religious dogma — the negative and the positive — has saturated our culture, particularly the justice and legal systems.

Read the rest of this entry »

OK, that’s enough — and this is the REAL post…..That was just the reader alert that this was a long, and messy, post….on volatile topics that are going to offend some people more than the appearance here….

At the bottom of this post is 2001 testimony in front of a U.S. Senate Subcommittee, on the subject of  Welfare and Marriage.  If you read nothing else, please read this, and the section introduced by Rep. Mark Anderson (a Unification church members)….

Romney is sure to promote and approve of this continued funding of marriage promotion, yet Obama has, every bit as much as George W. Bush did, all of this having been specifically enabled to start with by 1996 welfare reform, which tied federal aid to the states NOT to families receiving the aid — but as block grants, tempting certain individual with specific, evangelistic and religious agenda, to grab it for specialized programming.

My Background, not Uncommon, belies common Welfare and Religionspeak.

I was not raised religious, but became interested as a young woman in college, and continued this interest to this day.  While never a traditional church attender (at least for religious reasons), I’ve had exposure to many traditions over time, after which an abusive marriage with religion at the forefront of said excusitis.  I then got out of that and realized just how religious our overall culture had become in the meantime (the 1990s, 2000s in particular) — and how much of that resurgence of religion was in direct response to the challenge of feminism, and the challenge presented by women like me getting out of marriages like that.  When I say “women like me” — many women in abusive marriages are targeted because of their education or professional ability — and not because of (as welfare funding presumes, patronizingly) because of a LACK of it.  The abuse happens across the spectrum.

Women in my situation, while we are willing to speak out about, and if necessary boycott, religious groups on the basis of their overt abuse and treatment of women and children,  are not usually ready to become so-called radical feminists and embrace the whole spectrum of, for example, N.O.W. or issues which would require us to utterly reject the foundations of a personal spirituality or understanding of life having spiritual components, however they are expressed in language and culture.

It has not helped induce even the moderately religious to speak out against misogyny, or minimizing/coverup up crimes committed against women (mothers, specifically) and constantly demeaning/minizing  women, to have practically the only others who are doing this, insisted on the full spectrum of polarizing matters which some are divided on, for example, abortion “whenever,” or endorsing and promoting LGBT no matter what.

Moreover, most of recent history and a good deal of the records of human history (and civilization) have a religious underpinning — and superstructures — so to fail to LOOK at this from inside and outside, to me, makes no sense.

If I’d relied only on help from nice(?), religious people to survive and/or leave, and/or thrive after that marriage — I truly believe one nuclear family — or the majority of it — would be dead right now.  When I then do the life-promoting thing, which is to separate, I truly do not appreciate living in a country run by forces which endorse the death-promoting thing, which is worshipping marriage as an idol, and sacrificing human life to it.   Or being silent while others do this.

However, it is not going to take me much more to become a very radical feminist if we have much more of this stuff shoved down the collective, national throat as “good” for someone, when it’s basically good for those who have an extremely odd and convoluted view of the universe.   Some of which I look at in this post.  Specifically three Christian groups:  Protestant Evangelical, Mormon & a bit of Catholic.  I also gave a brief review (but have blogged elsewhere) of Unification church.

ALL of these have promoted the “teach marriage using welfare funds” theory and exploited the situation.

Then, of course we had the election of 2000 and an Executive Order on faith-based programming.  A friend of mine sent me an “About.com” summarizing the situation — even as far back as 2005.  Here is the link, plus some:

Federal Funding of Faith-Based Services

Why Not Give Federal Funds to Churches?

By Deborah White,

“The government gave more than $1 billion in 2003 to organizations it considers ‘faith-based,’ with some going to programs where prayer and spiritual guidance are central…” recently reported Laura Meckler, AP writer. . . .

In January 2001, President Bush created, via Executive Order, the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Since then, Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives were established at five federal agencies, assistance and guidebooks were provided to religious groups to help them to apply for federal funds, and websites were created for speedy access to applications.

And in February 2004, the President issued an Executive Order earmarking an astonishing $3.7 billion to be doled out to faith-based and other organizations.

Apparently, Bush’s faith-based initiative was never intended to give religious-related groups equal footing in the federal grants process. Bush’s faith-based initiative was conceived to be the centerpiece of his administration’s domestic agenda, spearheading the final attack on the New Deal and the War on Poverty by replacing, not augmenting, federal social services.

Federal regulations now allow federal agencies to directly fund churches and other religious groups. Bush acted alone to rewrite these regulations after failing to persuade Congress to change the law.

That’s not enough, said Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. An additional $40 billion in federal money is given out by state governments, he said, and many states do not realize that federal rules now allow them to fund these organizations. ”

With neither Congressional approval nor oversight, and without Judicial review, President Bush has successfully implemented his vision of doling out multi-billions of federal taxpayer funds annually to faith-based groups to supplement or support their social services programs.

. . .(In H.R. 1261) . . . George Bush has effectively inoculated faith-based social service providers from complying with federal employment requirements as a backdoor method of implementing a new American social order that permits discrimination on any basis in the workplace.

And that was in 2005.  We are now in 2012.  I recently was reviewing a list of “megachurches” in a certain state, most of which got to be “mega” by their innate desire for evangelism, skillful use of the internet, and at least one was running PREP, Inc. and had just begun more associated nonprofits (social service) which were already delinquent in filing.   Here’s a by-state searchable database from 2011 from

Hartford Institute for Religious Research (thanks to them for this research!)

So, I look at some distant AND recent history of some of these Christian groups, in addition to their self-portraits on the internet and as, again, presented before the Pope   Congress, or Congressional subcommittee hearings re: what to do with the pooled wealth (which WELFARE and the right to collect funds and appropriate children here or there, regardless of parentage or existing law) of this enterprise we call our country.

This is addressed to atheists, skeptics, agnostics, and any “a-religious” innocents as to what they’re facing, here… and why the family (unified, conciliation, etc.) courts are producing a helluva a lot of “ex-“converts of these religions, and refusing to support them…  

And such (women/mothers) can document what our various institutions covered up, excused, and how we were degraded in those institutions the moment we rejected domination by a resident male; unless we accepted a replacement dominator (of either gender).

Read the rest of this entry »