I haven't posted on the polygamist ranch case yet because the whole thing creeps me out. It's not so much the unusual marriage situation that included not just polygamy, but also wife-swaps. Rather, the way these poor folks seem genuinely happy about their isolated, throwback lives. The choices they make are disturbing because they are so alien, and so I've been sort of avoiding the story.

But this deserves a mention. Hundreds of lawyers have volunteered to represent the children pro bono, several of them from some of the most prestigious law firms in the country. The Texas bar has no pro bono work requirement. The initial hearing--a joint hearing--started today. It was a circus.

Texas District Judge Barbara Walther struggled to keep order as she faced 100 lawyers in her 80-year-old Tom Green County courtroom and several hundred more participating over a grainy video feed from an ornate City Hall auditorium two blocks away.

The hearing disintegrated quickly into a barrage of shouted objections and attempts to file motions, with lawyers for the children objecting to objections made by the parents' attorneys. When the judge sustained an objection to the prolonged questioning of the state trooper, the lawyers cheered.

Upon another objection about the proper admission of medical records of the children, the judge threw up her hands.

"I assume most of you want to make the same objection. Can I have a universal, `Yes, Judge'?" she said.

In both buildings, the hundreds of lawyers stood and responded in unison: "Yes, Judge."

It's hard to imagine that justice will be served in this fashion. The state is having trouble finding and admitting evidence about what went on at "the ranch"--partly because the children are tight-lipped around "hostile and immoral" outsiders--and they're having to house the 416 children while this goes on. The parents' attorneys' are having to contend with the state attorneys for ultimate custody, but also with the childrens' court-appointed attorneys.

I don't envy the judge at all. What if the evidence shows that the girls were forced into underage marriages to older men? It's possible that will be enough to declare that the other girls cannot be allowed to return, for fear of abuses in the future. But if that's all the state can show, does that mean it has to return the boys? Can the judge rule against a lifestyle? The consequences would be disturbing for everyone.

MORE: Thanks to Dawnsblood for posting the link to DRJ's coverage at Patterico's, which I hadn't seen. It gives a much better picture of what was going on at the ranch and in the courtroom.

Texas is not equipped to deal with this many custody cases simultaneously. The judge told lawyers today that she is adopting a "looser procedure" to deal with the case. I'm sure that has the parents' attorneys drawing up appeals strategy already.

This also gives me some pause:

12:34 [pm] - But the massive proceedings donÂ’t turn on a dime, and another attorney issues an objection regarding freedom of religion.

Walther takes a direct route, saying she isn’t dealing with freedom of religion objections at this point, “but I’ll take it under advisement.”

I don't know what Texas trial procedure is like, or if there is an abbreviated procedure for child custody hearings, but the fact that the judge appears unwilling to rule on objections is a problem.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:41 PM | Comments (74)
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Stop the ACLU has a round-up of blog-reactions. Pro-Hiilary blogs think it's an intentional flip-off, the Baltimore Sun blog agrees.

Dicey. Could be a bit of a trap. He keeps claiming that it's trivial to bring up nonsense like whether or not he buddies around with terrorists (let's not bicker and argue about 'oo killed 'oo). It's possible that he did this intentionally to stir up debate over a trivial issue so he can 1) change the subject and 2) cry out, "See? See the sorts of silliness they're using as distractions?

I'm kind of shocked this doesn't happen more in politics.

Bill Clinton, meanwhile, calls Obama a whining bitch.

Posted by: Ace at 07:37 PM | Comments (85)
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The actual actor, I mean, Stanley Kamel. He died last week of a heart attack.

Posted by: Ace at 05:05 PM | Comments (32)
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Performance art, the NYSun reports.

I actually believe them, but note this is really is, at heart, only her claim:

"Ms. Shvarts is engaged in performance art," a Yale spokeswoman, Helaine Klasky, said. "She stated to three senior Yale University officials today, including two deans, that she did not impregnate herself and that she did not induce any miscarriages. The entire project is an art piece, a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a womanÂ’s body."

If there's evidence it was faked, it's not being presented nor even described.

Correction: The ink and Vaseline was half-misread and half made up in my own head. The article doesn't say how she faked it. Presumably it was (supposedly now) just menstrual blood.

Thanks to See-Dub for asking about that.

Just a Prank? Via See-Dub (now aboard on Michelle Malkin's blog), it looks like this was just a pure pranking. Punking as art. Her "art" apparently consisted of hoax press releases only, or at least that's what this statement by Yale suggest.

Caught in Punking: Now the deranged "artist" is claiming Yale is lying and covering up, and that her "art" is in fact real, and she did everything she claimed to.

She says only she does not know if she was ever pregnant, but she took all the steps to make herself so.

I don't know. Now this back-and-forth dueling press release thing can be part of the "art" too and I grow bored and just want them all to die in a fire.

Posted by: Ace at 03:39 PM | Comments (65)
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Her latest work is a mixed media of canvas, oils, and placenta.

American Digest rounds up a lot on her. She's an, um, imbecile. And very upset by the "patriarchal heteronormativity" or something.

Posted by: Ace at 02:14 PM | Comments (43)
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These guys are waaaaaay to comfortable with terrorists.

I told him that the words were spoken by Ahmed Yousef, and offered to read him the quote, which I I proceeded to do from my Blackberry: "we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will (win) the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principleÂ…"

Axelrod focused on the Kennedy portion of the quote, and was "flattered" by the comparison.

"I like John Kennedy too," Axelrod said. "That's about the only thing we have in common with this gentleman from Hamas. We all agree that John Kennedy was a great president, and it's flattering when anybody says that Barack Obama would follow in his footsteps."

Ahmed Yousef isn't just 'anybody', he's a 'political adviser' to the Hamas thug who runs Gaza.

No word yet on if this endorsement will be appearing in Obama's church newsletter.

Posted by: DrewM at 01:51 PM | Comments (21)
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Why would they block investigation into a corrupt Republican?

Only if they feared such investigations themselves in the future.

Just got shot this press release. They're requiring a supermajority vote on it. more...

Posted by: Ace at 12:43 PM | Comments (25)
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Chatting with See-Dub about the underrated Force 10 From Navarrone, he called it a "Flypaper Movie," a movie you can't not watch when you see it's on. He got that term from Dave at Garfield Ridge.

Which ones are yours? I know a recent one for me was The Prestige, which I watched in part six thousand times when it went through its recent rash-on-cable phase.

All I can remember now are the ones I watched eight billion times as a kid. Most of them were G- or PG-rated, so HBO could show them all damn day and night if it wanted. Which it did.

Rocky III

Nighthawks

Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles

Mr. Mom

Looker

SlapShot

The Man With Two Brains

Bad News Bears and Bad News Bears in Breaking Training (Let. Them. Play!)

Road Warrior

Conan the Barbarian

Excalibur (Ana-nothra-uthvas-bethod-dotheille-diende)

Superman and especially Superman II

The Three Musketeers, but that was never on, it would always be the down-note and not as good The Four Musketeers that was on, and I would get sucked in until I realized it wasn't the one I never got to see

Body Double and Blow Out

Oh... The odd thing about these movies is that one tends to stumble upon them already in progress.

How many times have you actually seen the beginning of Kelly's Heroes? I've only seen the beginning once. I've seen the rest of it twenty times. I usually come in at either Don Rickles, the minefield, the artillery-cover break out, or Oddball.

Another movie like that is the kinda-cool 70's mystery The Last of Sheila. It being a mystery, the initial set-up is especially important, but I saw it about 20 times before ever actually seeing the beginning.

Posted by: Ace at 11:59 AM | Comments (308)
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This may not look that bad until you realize what that water-filled trough is.

It's a long communal urinal at Wrigley Field. more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:42 AM | Comments (46)
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Yesterday we were informed by learned Professor Fuzzy McBrushwhiskers that the word "elitist," as applied to Barack Obama (and no one else, apparently) was in fact a racial codeword for "uppity n*gger."

We chuckled at how the left attempts to shut down any criticism of Barack Obama by playing the race card, but it turns out we were wrong. Myself included.

Indeed the term "elitist" has been used in the past as just such a racial codeword. A Hollywood friend of mine just passed me the original script for True Romance, written before they decided they could actually get away with flagrant and repeated use of the n-word.

Here is how Tarrantino's script read, originally. more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:12 AM | Comments (51)
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