Archives for February 2009

Good grief:

A 13-year old boy and 15-year old girl who both still live at home with their parents in East Sussex, England plan to co-parent their baby girl who was born four days ago. Alfie Patten, who’s 4-feet tall and hasn’t hit puberty yet, was 12 when his girlfriend Chantelle Steadman, 15, conceived after one night of unprotected sex. The couple discovered Steadman was pregnant at 12 weeks but kept it secret for another six weeks until she was confronted by her mother. Alfie’s father, Denny, who has nine children, says he plans to sit down with his son for “the birds and the bees talk”: “Some may say it’s too late but he needs to understand so there is not another baby.” Alfie, who says he doesn’t know what diapers cost, says he¹s thrilled to be a dad: “We wanted to have the baby but were worried about how people would react,” he told The Sun newspaper.

A rambling rant on this question–what if Margaret Thatcher had stayed home with her kids?

Given the choice, what kiddy wouldn’t opt for an ambitious, go-ahead mother rather than a slattern who sat at home all day watching Jeremy Kyle, drinking cans of lager and plotting to have one of her progeny kidnapped?

There you have it: Ambitious career mom OR drink beer all day.

Model strips naked for magazine. Yawn. Except this part:

What does her husband Seal (45) think of the naked pictures of his wife? Heidi said: “My husband has seen the photos. I think it’s good to be sexy for your partner.”

No, see, once the pictures make it into a widely-circulated magazine, you’re also “sexy” for the whole world, not just your husband. Which sort of goes against marital vows as I understand them (and yes, I’m desperately old-fashioned that way).

I also like this bit:

She may be one of the world’s most beautiful women, but Heidi often shows off her fun side – she loves to dress up with Seal for their annual Halloween party, and she took part in a gag onstage at the 2008 Emmy awards when her outfit was ripped off in front of a shocked audience!

Wow, that must have been, like, so much FUN!

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Andrea wonders: More or less fun than the Zoorotica program? Hmmmm. Thought-provoking question, I know.

A really bad example:

GRENOBLE, France, February 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-life demonstrators outside a hospital in Grenoble France were violently attacked Sunday by abortion supporters.  NOVOpress, a French-language news agency, reports that 70 pro-life picketers outside the ‘Couple-Child’ Hospital were violently attacked by a pro-abortion mob of some 260 individuals.

A pro-life demonstration was scheduled for the early afternoon, but prior to the arrival of the pro-life demonstrators, a rowdy crowd of abortion supporters took up the designated area.  NOVOpress reports that when the pro-lifers arrived they were verbally and physically accosted.

Police intervened and remained on the scene until the pro-life demonstrators left an hour later.  Two pro-abortion activists were arrested for throwing stones.

Later, 15 of the pro-lifers were confronted in a parking lot by 90 of the pro-abortion mob.  NOVOpress reports that the pro-lifers were barraged with stones and even threatened with knives.  They took shelter in a supermarket, but that did not stop the attack, which resulted in the smashing of the window of the supermarket.

Police in riot gear arrived on the scene and the abortion supporters fled.  Police arrested but later released over a dozen of the abortion supporters, charging two with causing damages.

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Rebecca adds: I’m just stunned that progressive France has a place called a “Couple-Child” hospital. Isn’t that kind of judgmental, implying that having a child should have anything to do with being part of a couple? How very un-European.

Not that making your mark is a bad idea. But moms should not feel like they’re idle when raising their kids.

A reader sent this link to a passionate and eloquent 12-year-old in what seems to be a speech about abortion to her class. Reminds me of grade five, when as part of learning about the political system, we had to organize an election. I ran for Prime Minister. I won by a substantial margin, after getting help from a lawyer-family friend who suggested I campaign on a ticket of extended recess/lunch hour and no uniforms. I might add, I was the Conservative candidate, making me not unlike our Conservative Prime Minister today–completely without principle or small-c conservative ideology, but really keen on winning. I digress–the other winning element was a friend (today a corporate lawyer) who made up a cheer to the tune of the Mickey Mouse song: “A-N-D, R-E-A, M-R-O-Z-E, K! Andrea Mrozek, (Andrea Mrozek), Andrea Mrozek (Andrea Mrozek!)”  This marks the first and last time I campaigned for office and the last time that anyone has been able to pronounce–and spell–my name properly. Good times.

Anyhoo, here’s the speech now:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOR1wUqvJS4]

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Tanya adds: I gave a similar speech in 7th grade (and I highly doubt I was nearly as well spoken… especially since it was for my French class). I do remember my teacher looking at me with a smile during the speech. Thinking back on it now, I wonder if it was an encouraging smile, or a condescending (we’ll see how you feel when you’re older) smile. Enh! Either way, I still feel the same now as I did then.

I have a letter to the editor in today’s Post. The original looked like this:

Though Stephanie Gray’s manner of fighting abortion is drastically different from my own, I fully support her. Gray is not saying abortion is exactly like the Holocaust or slavery. She is saying that where we fail to see people as people, atrocities easily occur—today, as in history.
At risk of sitting on the fence, I just don’t see much of a debate here. Killing our children is at the heart of abortion. And that is what is so unpopular, not the manner in which we draw attention it. Offering truly compassionate options so that women don’t have to kill their babies is one solution. Gray helps us to be compassionate insofar as she reminds us about the facts on what abortion is—facts so many today readily choose to ignore.

And stories like this one don’t help me feel better. There’s a zoo in Michigan that charges visitors to watch animals, er, mate. And it’s sold out, of course.

Hey, what if it turns out animals are heteronormative right-wing bigots?

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Andrea adds: Far be it from me to give dating advice, but this would most certainly qualify as the worst Valentine’s Day date activity, ever.

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Tanya says: To add to Andrea’s point, I wouldn’t bring a child there, either. You don’t want to know the questions I faced from my 3-year-old when we had an embarrassing run-in with some giant turtles on display at the local pet store.

One thing is certain; the birth of these infamous octuplets sure has spurred on some debate. Today’s Yahoo! poll asks, “Do fertility clinics need stricter guidelines?” The majority seem to think so (89% in fact).

Had the mother of these eight babies had a ‘reduction,’ this story would never have made the news. Having said that, I think that reproductive freedom is intended to convey the message that a woman may have as many or as few children as she wishes. It seems to me, however, that she may have ‘as few’, but her right to have many is in question.