The custody hearing for all those kids removed from the polygamist compound in Texas sounds like it was a pretty good time:
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.
Probably a nightmare for the judge, but sure makes for entertaining copy when you can write things like “the lawyers cheered.”
Have you seen any of HBO’s Big Love?
Nope.
It gets the utter sincerity and creepiness of fundamentalist-polygamous cults exactly right–it’s an engrossing and at times terrifying drama. Worth a watch. (My evangelical upbringing gets expressed nowadays in passionate apologetics for that and The Wire.)
LOL…that was funny. I do have sympathy for this judge – she’s got a 3-ring circus on her hands.
I have “Big Love” on my netflix queue. I hadn’t added it until this whole debacle started and someone reminded me of the HBO series. I haven’t seen any of it yet and am looking forward to watching it.