What the ----? Fox News

Actually this one isn't so much infuriating as it is hysterical. 

Apparently to supplement their story on traditional marriage and traditional gender roles Fox News also ran this photo

Of Lela McArthur and Stephanie Figarelle 

Two women having their dream wedding on the day same sex marriage became legal in New York

All I can say is BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

STUCK the Documentary

So I suspect this is going to be the new "big" thing for adoptive and prospective adoptive parents.  This is a documentary about children being raised in institutions and how horrible that is.  I totally agree with that.  No child should ever have to be raised in an orphanage.  

The focus of this whole documentary is on getting kids out of institutions and into families because every child deserves a family.

But here is another example of privilege, power, greed, selfishness the issue.

It's not about wanting kids to be raised in THEIR families.

It's about wanting kids to raise in OUR families.  

I agree that every child deserves a family.  

What I don't agree with is that every family deserves a child-

 especially not someone else's child.

I guarantee you that the VAST majority of those children in the videos have at least one living birth parent and near 100% of them have living birth relatives.  

Family that in most cases can not take care of them due to reasons directly related to POVERTY 

(not abuse or neglect or indifference) 

Families that can be restored with some help or support.

No mention is made of corruption, coercion and trafficking

No mention is made of illness, lack of education, POVERTY

No mention is made of food or resource scarcity 

No mention is made of birth family searches

No mention is made of family preservation at all

The movie uses the "best interest of the child" argument to  ignore the sociological and economic issues that result in abandonment or relinquishment and instead justifies the removal of children from the families, communities and culture because that is what is best for us for them.  There will always be a need for adoption but it is not, and should not ever, be our first response, let alone, as this movie seems to suggest, our only response.

If what you actually care about is the children, you lobby the government for foreign aid, you support NGOs in other countries, you sponsor children and families through programs like Heiffer, Habitat International, and Doctors without Borders.  If you actually care about the children what you do not do is lobby the government to allow more adoption.  Wanting to see more kids adopted (especially in huge numbers) is about what WE want- not what children need. 

One quote from the trailer sums it up best (and yes she means something totally different)

"The most frustrating part is that all of these kids have families."

That's the most frustrating part for us too.

STUCK TRAILER from Both Ends Burning Campaign on Vimeo.
 

ETA- there is a response to Nick's comment here

Shouldn't You Be Outside?

I Suspect This is Lost on Many People...

What the ----?, VW

Really???

How can a company that came up with this total brilliance

Also come up with this (at best) stupid and (at worst) racist ad?

Yeah- I am sure some of your best friends are black and they thought it was funny....

(and while I understand that there are Jamaican people who are of European descent and Asian decent, the majority of the people there are Black, so I have to wonder 2 things
Why not feature a Black actor as the Jamaican?
   Why are there no Black actors playing the office workers?  
 There is not one black face in the ad at all which I think is somewhat telling.)

This Shouldn't Happen More Than Once, But Here We Are...

A child who shall remain nameless was carrying a plate with a cheese-filled breadstick and a small bowl of pizza sauce.  They tripped and everything went flying.

Literally.

Flying.  

And sadly I am also somewhat embarrassed to admit this is NOT the first time we have had to clean pizza sauce off the ceiling.....

What I Spent the Weekend Doing....

Scrapbooking with a couple of wonderful friends, including one of my BFFs who flies in from the other side of the country to spend the weekend hanging with her "peeps"

A sample of the work....  (I am finally going mostly digital but it's been a learning curve on my software)