Father Knows Best

Geesh! The world has sure changed from when I was a kid watching the TV sitcom Father Knows Best. In the "good old days" parents were responsible and kids respected their elders. But in the brave new world of today, parents sell their kids to raise ready cash and those good old religious values seem more mercenary than they were in the past. Here's my proof. A report in the Telegraph of the UK...

Saudi court rejects plea to annul 8-year-old girl's marriage to 58-year-old man

A Saudi court has rejected a plea to divorce an eight-year-old girl married off by her father to a man who is 58, saying the case should wait until the girl reaches puberty.

...

The father had agreed to marry off his daughter for an advance dowry of 30,000 riyals ($8,000), as he was apparently facing financial problems, they said.

OK, some of you are going to argue that the media are biased. Where are the stories about 67 year old women in India marrying 6 year old boys? Where is the story about that Christian sect that allows plural marriages, you know, the sect where one woman gets to marry an entire football team so long as they take an appropriate purity promise. I want balance. I want a media that isn't under the heel of Liberal bias which insists on telling me news I don't want to hear. Where are the stories about little girls getting puppies for Christmas? Where are the stories about homeless people being hired for $10,000/hour gigs in the fashion industry because thin is in? When have you heard a good heart-rending story about a mayor announcing a change of heart for New Year and making a firm resolution tostart the New Year by stopping the old practice of taking bribes, you know, like that governor in Illinois?

In case you think "Oh, this is just the kind of crazy stuff that happens elsewhere." Here is an example of rather frightening behaviour a little closer to home. This is from Houston Press:

Police Get The Wrong House In Galveston, Allegedly Assault 12-Year-Old Girl

Wed Dec 17, 2008 at 12:37:01 PM

It was a little before 8 at night when the breaker went out at Emily Milburn's home in Galveston. She was busy preparing her children for school the next day, so she asked her 12-year-old daughter, Dymond, to pop outside and turn the switch back on.

As Dymond headed toward the breaker, a blue van drove up and three men jumped out rushing toward her. One of them grabbed her saying, "You're a prostitute. You're coming with me."

Dymond grabbed onto a tree and started screaming, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy." One of the men covered her mouth. Two of the men beat her about the face and throat.

As it turned out, the three men were plain-clothed Galveston police officers who had been called to the area regarding three white prostitutes soliciting a white man and a black drug dealer.

All this is according to a lawsuit filed in Galveston federal court by Milburn against the officers. The lawsuit alleges that the officers thought Dymond, an African-American, was a hooker due to the "tight shorts" she was wearing, despite not fitting the racial description of any of the female suspects. The police went to the wrong house, two blocks away from the area of the reported illegal activity, Milburn's attorney, Anthony Griffin, tells Hair Balls.

After the incident, Dymond was hospitalized and suffered black eyes as well as throat and ear drum injuries.

Three weeks later, according to the lawsuit, police went to Dymond's school, where she was an honor student, and arrested her for assaulting a public servant. Griffin says the allegations stem from when Dymond fought back against the three men who were trying to take her from her home. The case went to trial, but the judge declared it a mistrial on the first day, says Griffin. The new trial is set for February.

You can get more information from the complaint filed on behalf of the girl.