January 12, 2016::End of the day round-up

Been watching how this incident develops for personal reasons.  My visit to the ER after my stroke ended after 2 hours of not much of any "treatment"; sent home still in extreme distress.

Police dash cam video details the last moments of woman who died after being thrown out of hospital

Dawson died from health complications from the clot and her weight and there is no evidence of police brutality. However, the very act of forcibly removing a seriously overweight person who was obviously under health duress should itself be under scrutiny. Why do we continue to lean on calling the police for every single inconvenience? Was Dawson’s condition stabilized?

A police report indicates that it took almost twenty minutes for Dawson to receive assistance. Twenty minutes for a woman who collapsed just outside of hospital doors. The officers only took appropriate medical action after her prolonged collapse dispelled the notion that she was just making herself dead weight to resist arrest.

The Journey Out: Women Who Escaped a Polygamist Mormon Cult Share Their Story

The twin towns of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah—a border community formerly known as Short Creek, which is home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS)—are a place of immense beauty and unspeakable pain.

Founded in 1913 by Mormon Fundamentalists who broke away from the traditional Latter-Day Saints church in order to practice the principal of plural marriage, this community, geographically isolated by the Vermillion Cliffs of the Colorado Plateau, is a step back in time for anyone who drives through it. Here, women dress modestly in ankle-length, arm-covering prairie dresses and wear no makeup. Because it is believed that in heaven they will wash their husbands' feet with their hair, they keep it long and braided in elaborate ropes down their backs. Men increase their chances of becoming gods themselves in heaven, if they take a plurality of wives; the more, the better. In this community, present-day polygamy is alive, but not so well.

Though the Mormon Church has officially disowned the fundamentalists, the FLDS trace their lineage all the way back to founding Prophet Joseph Smith. John Y. Barlow (whose last name is claimed still today by many of his descendants) was the first leader of the FLDS, until his death in 1949. He was succeeded by a series of men; more recent was "Uncle Rulon" Jeffs, who died in 2002 and was famously succeeded as Prophet by his son Warren.
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Leaving the FLDS is not a simple process. Most women flee without much more than the clothes on their backs and whatever belongings they are able to throw quickly into a plastic garbage bag. Once you're out, you are considered an apostate. The same goes for any children you bring with you. Those who leave the cult are shunned by all family and friends who remain in the FLDS.

Texas Gov. Proposes New Amendments To US Constitution Which Could Gravely Affect LGBT Civil Rights

Abbott's proposed amendments, which he announced at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, read like an anti-government, states' rights fan's dream:

• Prohibit congress from regulating activity that occurs wholly within one state.
• Require Congress to balance its budget.
• Prohibit administrative agencies from creating federal law.
• Prohibit administrative agencies from pre-empting state law.
• Allow a two-thirds majority of the states to override a U.S. Supreme Court decision.
• Require a seven-justice super-majority vote for U.S. Supreme Court decisions that invalidate a democratically enacted law
• Restore the balance of power between the federal and state governments by limiting the former to the powers expressly delegated to it in the Constitution.
• Give state officials the power to sue in federal court when federal officials overstep their bounds.
• Allow a two-thirds majority of the states to override a federal law or regulation.