I am not a big Oprah fan either and I do agree it's annoying that she is on the cover of her magazine EVERY single month...BUT...Nobody's perfect. Every single human has good and bad qualities. Same goes with Oprah, although I would say her good qualities probably far outweigh her bad qualities. I think she genuinely cares about making the world a better place and has done ALOT of good with her time and money, probably more than most people, so I admire her for that. I think she tries to inspire others to give back and that is main reason she talks about how she gives, she has certainly received enough kudos to last a lifetime. Even though we all know you should give just for the sake of giving, everyone likes a pat on the back and a "job well done" sometimes, even Oprah. Yes, she can be full of herself, but it would probably be a little hard not to be a little full of yourself with her life. All in all, I truly believe Oprah is a good person who tries her best to better the world the best way she knows how and I respect anyone who does that. I also think it is wonderful that people try to improve their lives or themselves in any way that works for them, including this class. I say whatever works for you...go for it!

Noocha, you wrote: 'All the articles (or nearly all) were written by Rick Ross! Who is this guy?' .......... No, 'all the articles' about the FLDS were NOT written by Rick Ross. It clearly states at the top of the linked section: 'This page contains information The Rick A. Ross Institute has GATHERED about Polygamist Groups.' When looking at the list of collected articles regarding the FLDS, the source document and its author are clearly provided in large print from the oldest: 'Deliverance Day for One Group of Polygamists, Salt Lake Tribune/November 29, 1998, By Tom Zoellner and Greg Burton' to the most recent: 'Sect Children Will Undergo Genetic Tests Next Week Houston Chronicle/April 20, 2008, By Lindsay Wise' A quick check of the section on FLDS by anyone not having a reading comprehension problem will reveal that each document provides the source whether it be The Gazette newspaper, Canada; CBS 8 TV in Las Vegas; the Associated Press; the New York Times; the Deseret Morning News and the Salt Lake Tribune in Utah, etc., etc., etc. Noocha, you asked 'Who is this guy?' Well, if you had bothered to click on the 'home' page as I suggested you would have read the following: 'Welcome to the Rick A. Ross Institute of New Jersey An Internet archive of information about cults, destructive cults, controversial groups and movements. The Rick A. Ross Institute of New Jersey (RI) is a nonprofit public resource with a vast archive that contains thousands of individual documents. RI on-line files include news stories, research papers, reports, court documents, book excerpts, personal testimonies and hundreds of links to additional relevant resources. This Internet archive is well-organized for easy access and reference.' As I earlier stated some of us have no little or no prior knowledge of the FLDS prior to the current happenings in El Dorado, Texas. In wanting to read more about the FLDS I came across the referenced Institute via Google and decided to share it as a source of information with other interested persons reading here. So, Noocha, if you want to dismiss over 400 articles about the FLDS spanning almost 10 years as all being 'yellow journalism' feel free to do so. ............ Children Health Issues / Severe Birth Defect in FLDS: As for the referenced document by RONM80, here is a partial quote from Part II of the lengthy article... "More than half the worlds cases of a severe birth defect called fumarase deficiency have been found in the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colo­rado City, Arizona, controlled by the polygamous Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints Church. The towns have a total population of under 10,000, yet Dr. Theodore Tarby has seen twenty children with fumarase deficiency in these towns since 1990. By comparison, only thirteen cases have been reported elsewhere in the entire world. The actual total in the FLDS may be much higher than twenty since babies may have died before they were diagnosed with the condition by a medical doctor. None of the FLDS children with fumarase defi­ciency has an IQ above 25. Many cannot sit up. Some can barely even move their head and eyes. Frequent and powerful seizures are common. Por­tions of brain matter are replaced by water. An MRI of the brain of one fumarase-deficient child showed that more than half the brain was missing."

Oops, wasn't sure if this posted or not.

Why would the family do all that horrible stuff to the little girl just to "cover up for Burke"? OK say the kid hit her in the head, wouldn't it be a lot more logical to make up some sort of an accident like she fell down some stairs instead of coming up with a kidnapping and a sexual assault and tying her all up into some contraption that the rope was embedded into the child's neck. I mean, they'd have to be crazy to do all that. And if they were crazy people, wouldn't someone have ever come forward and said that those people were crazy nuts? I don't recall anyone saying the family was a bunch of bat sh*t crazy loonies! Another thing, if Burke did kill her, he was NINE YEARS OLD, it's not like he would have gone to prison!