When parents say their children are the true source of happiness and fulfillment in their lives, they may be enacting a psychological defence to justify all the time, money and energy they put into the job, finds a new Canadian study.

The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, suggests parents are idealizing their role to cope with the downsides of being mom and dad — namely, how expensive it is to raise a family.

Not to mention the fact that parents idealize and overemphasize the joys of parenting sometimes to prevent themselves from strangling the apple of their eyes when they’ve stuffed something nasty down the toilet or scribbled all over the walls or peed on their car seat after swearing they didn’t have to go, or when they won’t stop asking one dumb question after another, or [supply your own list of examples here].

Parenting is WORK! It’s hard! And yes, it can get expensive. Nothing that’s worth doing is easy. People do what they can to get themselves through it. That’s because they’re human.

Why people are then surprised by a ruling like this one is beyond me. Just think of it as a very late-term abortion.

SANTA MARIA, California, March 2, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A “pillar of strength” – these were the words Etta Waterfield used to describe her mother-in-law, Jane Russell, who will be remembered by millions as a timeless beauty and talented actress of the silver screen.

But according to Waterfield, Jane’s true legacy lies in her deep devotion to the Bible as a born-again Christian, and her tenacity living out that faith as a pro-life advocate following a tragic botched abortion at the age of eighteen.

“Mom was to the world a movie star, but her passion was for the children. Her passion was for pro-life,” Waterfield told LifeSiteNews.com in a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon, two days after Russell passed away of respiratory failure in her Santa Maria home at the age of 89.

Russell’s story began in the San Fernando Valley of Southern California where she grew up as the eldest and only girl in a deeply Christian family of five children. The loss of a child – Jane’s older brother, who died at 18 months old – was what inspired her own mother’s zeal for reading the Bible, a hunger she passed on to her daughter.

The death of a child would also later exert a powerful effect on Jane’s life: when the eighteen-year-old star was already well on her way to a successful career in film, an illegal abortion took the life of her unborn child, and left her unable to bear children ever again.

According to Waterfield, the young Jane already “felt horrible” about the moral evil committed in the abortion, which was so badly botched she nearly died. “She knew it was wrong,” she said. “But she as a young teenager, she felt she was trapped and her career starting to take off, and it was an inconvenience, and she thought that was the best solution, knowing all along that it wasn’t.”

But it was because of the open arms of her own mother, Geraldine, that Jane was encouraged to “let the Lord figure out” how to turn the experience to good.

“Grandma Russell was by her side after she had the abortion and she said, ‘Daughter, the Lord will turn this around for good if you allow him to work in your life. There is no condemnation from Him, nor will there be any condemnation from our lips either,’” said Waterfield.

Jane carried on, she said, bearing courageously the responsibility of an abortion that wound up giving her “a heart for children,” particularly those who were difficult to place in adoptions, such as older and disabled children. Russell was to found the World Adoption International Fund (WAIF) in 1955. According to Waterfield, through Russell’s efforts at adoption advocacy, she helped find a place for over 40,000 children in permanent homes who may otherwise never have found them.

And despite losing her fertility, she became “mom” and “grandma” to many: having adopted three children, she left behind six grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren at her passing. In particular, Waterfield said, Russell was passionate about using her fame as a well-loved actress to open the word of God to others.

“She made a mistake, but she is the perfect example of what the Bible says: what Satan has meant for bad, God will turn around for good if you allow him to work in your life,” said Waterfield. “That’s Mom right there: those thousands of children – that abortion turned into a blessing.”

[...]

As Russell lay on her deathbed, Waterfield said that she rejoiced to think of the meeting that lay in store for her.

“I whispered in her ear and said, ‘Mom, now you can hold your baby for the first time. You’ll be able to see your baby,” she said, tearing up. “And you know, I just wish I could see that reunion. Because of that baby, she was able to do so much for children.

“That’s her legacy: it’s not Hollywood, it’s the children. That’s how I want the world to know her.”

CHICAGO — Half of men in the general population may be infected with human papillomavirus or HPV, the human wart virus that causes cervical and other cancers, strengthening the case for vaccinating boys against HPV, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

U.S. vaccine advisers have been weighing whether boys and young men should be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus, as they already recommend for girls and young women, but some worry the vaccine is too costly to justify its use.

HPV infection is best known as the primary cause of cervical cancer, the second most common cancer in women worldwide. But various strains of HPV also cause anal, penile, head and neck cancers. Vaccinating men and boys would prevent some of these cancers.

Breast milk ice cream is London’s latest food double dare: the breast-milk-infused flavour “Baby Gaga,” is now available at the Icecreamists restaurant in London’s Covent Garden.

Icecreamists founder Matt O’Connor is confident that his take on the “miracle of motherhood” will catch on, even at at £14 pounds, or $22 a serving. “The Baby Gaga tastes creamy and rich,” he told the Daily Mail. “No-one’s done anything interesting with ice cream in the last hundred years. We’ve came up with a method of infusing ice-cream with breast milk. We wanted to completely reinvent it. And by using breast milk we’ve definitely given it a one hundred percent makeover. It’s just one of a dozen radical new flavours we’ve invented. We want to change the way people think about ice cream’.

“A costumed Baby Gaga waitress serves the ice cream in a martini glass filled with the breast milk ice cream mix. Liquid nitrogen is then poured into the glass through a syringe,” reports the Daily Mail. And the restaurant will serve the  the concoction with whisky and other cocktails as well, making it a bit more of an adult-oriented treat.

[...]

The breast milk was provided by mothers who answered an advertisement on online mothers’ forum Mumsnet. Victoria Hiley, 35, was one of 15 women who sold milk to the restaurant.

“It wasn’t intrusive at all to donate – just a simple blood test. What could be more natural than fresh, free-range mothers milk in an ice cream?” she said.

When Ms. Hiley first saw the advertisement she thought it might be a joke, but when she found out it wasn’t, she provided the first 30 fluid ounces of milk, enough to make the first 50 servings. Women get paid £15 for every ten ounces of milk.

“Some people will hear about it and go, ‘yuck’ but actually it’s pure, organic, free-range and totally natural,” said Mr. O’Connor. “I had a Baby Gaga just this morning and I feel great.”

Why is trolling for apparently healthy depressed people and urging them to kill themselves a crime, but when Kevorkian did this to sick depressed people, he was a folk hero? I guess sick people aren’t as valuable as healthy ones, so they’re not entitled to treatment for their depression.

The story that prompted her question is here.

Arizona is one step closer to making it illegal to perform abortions based on the gender or race of the fetus – a move that critics say is a solution in search of a problem.

But a majority of the Arizona House of Representatives on Monday agreed that there should be safeguards against such a procedure and passed House Bill 2443 a 41-18 vote.

The measure now moves to the Senate for consideration.

Here’s my question: If most people agree that it’s wrong to abort a baby just because it’s a girl or because its father is black, then why isn’t also wrong to abort a baby because it’s not convenient for the mother to have a child right at the moment?

Exactly. That’s why such measures will be fought very hard. And the fight will expose just how extremist the “pro-choice” position has become. Here again, I don’t particularly care whether this specific measure becomes law or not. I’m just delighted there’s a debate about it.

______________________

Andrea adds: Which is why “reasonable” pro-choicers will be voted down by their own colleagues. It takes an unreasonable dedication to abortion at any time for any reason to keep abortion around at all.

Pro-life politicians have often gone after the abortion provider, while pro-choice politicians like President Obama have rushed to its defense. In our exclusive interview, the President deflected the impact of the video sting.

“I think sometimes these issues get manufactured,” he said “they get a lot of attention in the blogosphere.”

[...]

Meanwhile the President believes the group’s work speaks for itself.

“You know my bottom line is I think that Planned Parenthood in the past has done good work. If there was a specific problem at this center, it should be addressed, but we shouldn’t get so distracted with some of these issues.”

First of all, congratulations Miss Rose! If Barack Obama personally took exception to something I’d done, I would be mighty pleased indeed. And second of all, those issues that we shouldn’t get distracted with include covering up an underage sex ring. That’s why it doesn’t matter too much what happens to the recent House amendment to defund Planned Parenthood. What matters is that these issues are now out in the open. This can only be good for those of us opposed to abortion.