MICHELLE BACHMANN NAMED TO MOST LOATHSOME LIST; CARRIES ON NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR ADOPTION TRADITION

Michelle Bachmann is back!

Recently, The Beast named its annual 50 Most Loathsome People in America. Ma Belle Michelle clocked in at #47 below Barack Obama and M. Night Shymalon but higher (that is, less loathsome than) OJ Simpson, John Updike, Ben Stein, Tila Tequila, John Fund, Blago, Bernie Madoff, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin (#1), and a host of other finger wagging political, sports and media whores, parasites, and hangers-on who preach, pick our pockets, and insult our intelligence daily for our own good.

Regular readers may remember that Minnesota Congresswoman Bachmann was a featured speaker at the 2008 National Council for Adoption conference in Washington where she gave us memorable accounts of "launching her biologicals" and fostering 23 kids, mostly girls, including one who ran away from her. (left: launchables and hubby.) You may want to go back there and refresh your memory before continuing.

While I was looking for links to place here, I ran across this little nugget from a Dump Bachmann blog dated September 3, 2006: Fight Pork which leads us to Bachmann and Associates, a full service "Christian counseling" business operated by Bachmann's therapist husband Marcus. Therapist Bachmann took his MA from Pat Robertson's Regent University and his Ph.D in Clinical Psychology from Union Graduate School. According to his bio, he specializes in (my emphasis) Marriage and Family, Depression/Anxiety, Anger Management, Family of Origin Issues and Conference/Seminar Speaking.

His Personal Mission Statement reads (his emphasis):

I believe my call is to minister to the needs of people in a practical effective, and sensitive way. Christ is the Almighty Counselor. My wife and I are the parents of 5

The extra large raft of therapists floating around Bachmann & Associates include other specialists in adoption issues, family of origin issues, attachment disorders, ADD, ADHD, and, of course, a full range of American neuroses including sex and porn addiction. Some therapists have taken advanced degrees at the evangelical Regent University, Azusa Pacific University, and California Baptist College (now University).

Would you go to these people with YOUR adoption issues?

All of this information, including personal information on Therapist Bachmann is here.

Here is the complete charge against Rep. Bachmann as published in The Beast:

15. Michelle Bachmann

Charges: Exemplifies the simmering, all-American fascism lurking behind the forced smiles of uptight church ladies throughout "real America." Echoing Sarah Palin's alarming hints about "helping" the media do its job, Bachmann's casual call for a "penetrating" press investigation into "anti-Americanism" in congress was so fucking dumb it made Chris Matthews seem smart. Once it occurred to the Oral Roberts University graduate that calling for witchhunts against Democrats might be a tad extreme for election season, she decided to just pretend she didn't say it, and then she blamed Chris Matthews. Then she just blamed words. Then she denied it again. Then she won. Way to go, Minnesota's 6th.

Exhibit A: BACHMANN: Actually, that's not what I said at all. COLMES: Well, I'm just -- I'm reading your exact quote. BACHMANN: Actually that's not I said. It's an urban legend that was created. That isn't what I said at all. COLMES: We have -- it's on tape.

Sentence: Assigned to conduct her own "expose" on anti-American views, in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

In case you're interested here's a list of other NCFAnoids who have appeared on The Beast's list of loathsomeness over the years:

2004: Tony Blankley (#43), former child actor, Heritage Foundation shill, and at the time, editorial director of the Moonie Times...oops, I mean Washington Times. Blankley has MC'd several NCFA ceremonies and fundraisers including this.

2005: Bruce Chapman (#46), founder of the wacky Discovery Institute, known mainly for its promotion of Intelligent Design in the curriculum but purveyors of lots of other nonsense. After retiring from the National Council for Adoption, Bill Pierce served as Senior Fellow at DI and ran its Washington office.

2006: Richard Mellon Scaife (#2), crazy far right bagman and major funder through the Sciafe Family Foundation of Bill Pierce's last hurrah, NCFA Factbook 3 (now off NCFA's webpage. The hard copy acknowledges book funding from SFF.) Last I looked, Scaife's former "companion" and future ex-wife, Margaret "Ritchie"Battle Scaife, was collecting $775,000/mo (that's $24,000/day) in "preliminary and temporary" support. Mr. Scaife's extra-curricular activities, before their separation, included shacking up with a 43-year old convicted prostitute at $28/night Doug's Motel in North Huntingdon, PA.

2007 : Minnesota Senator (what is it about Minnesota?) and NCFA Hall of Famer Larry Craig (#20) (for NCFAnoid picture, scroll down)

NOW WE KNOW! IOWA'S "SAFE HAVEN" PROGRAM DESIGNED TO SAVE PARENTS FROM RIDICULE

Radio Iowa reported today that the state has dragged its 12th "catch into its "safe haven" net.

Iowa DHS spokesman, Roger Munns, Bastardette's favorite-ever baybee dump apologist, explained to the media that in order to protect the "privacy" of the parents, the state will not release the location of the dump-and-run. According to the always amusing Mr. Munns:

Part of the spirit of the law is to protect the identity of the identity parents [sic] and not hold them up to ridicule when they make the decision to do the right thing, so because of that we don't identify where the child was delivered."

So they admit it! Baby dumping is a government protection program designed to varnish reputations and help people look squeaky clean to the neighbors!

Iowa officials know that baby dumpers would be targets of community ridicule if they were exposed as the irresponsible and cowardly child abandoners they are, even though they're doing the goverment approved " right thing." At this rate we should anonymize ministers who cheat on their wives, homophobic closet queers, and Ann Coulter.

And it gets better. Munns virtually thanks the Nebraska Fiasco for the free publicity it gave Iowa's dump program:

Munns says he suspects all the news about the Nebraska situation caused people to be aware of the Iowa law, and he says that's good because they don't have money to publicize the law.

So the (mostly) desperate parents and caregivers who abandoned dozens of their teens and pre-teens in Nebraska hospitals in a last ditch attempt to secure state-withheld psychiatric treatment (or couldn't afford to keep them) were nothing more than a funding stream to market newborn abandonment in Iowa.

Brilliant!

IOWA DHS SAFE HAVEN HOTLINE

NEW BOOK BY ELLEN HERMAN: KINSHIP BY DESIGN: A HISTORY OF ADOPTION IN THE MODERN UNITED STATES

Our friend Ellen Herman sent me the following notice today about her new book: Kinship by Design: a history of adoption in the modern United States.

Woo woo! I know what I'm ordering! I don't read a lot of adoption books, but this is one I will.

Ellen is the creator of the Adoption History Project at the University of Oregon, a wonderful source of of information on our favorite love-to-hate topic. I am especially interested in her work on adoption in therapeutic culture.

HINT: the book is on sale at Amazon right now!


Ellen Herman
Kinship by Design
A History of Adoption in the Modern United States
368 pages, 15 halftones 6 x 9 © 2008
Cloth $70.00
ISBN: 9780226327594 Published December 2008
Paper $25.00
ISBN: 9780226327600 Published December 2008

* Synopsis
* Table of Contents
* Bio

What constitutes a family? Tracing the dramatic evolution of Americans’ answer to this question over the past century, Kinship by Design provides the fullest account to date of modern adoption’s history.


Beginning in the early 1900s, when children were still transferred between households by a variety of unregulated private
arrangements, Ellen Herman details efforts by the U.S. Children’s Bureau and the Child Welfare League of America to establish adoption standards in law and practice. She goes on to trace Americans’ shifting ideas about matching children with physically or intellectually similar parents, revealing how research in developmental science and technology shaped adoption as it navigated the nature-nurture debate.


Concluding with an insightful analysis of the revolution that ushered in special needs, transracial, and international adoptions, Kinship by Design ultimately situates the practice as both a different way to make a family and a universal story about love, loss, identity, and belonging. In doing so, this volume provides a new vantage point from which to view twentieth-century America, revealing as much about social welfare, statecraft, and science as it does about childhood, family, and private life.

Subjects

* Culture Studies
* History: American History
* History of Science
* Psychology: Social Psychology
* Social Work
* Sociology: Sociology--Marriage and Family


You may purchase this title at these fine bookstores. Outside the USA, consult our international information page.

Questions about this title? email sales@press.uchicago.edu.

Ellen Herman

Kinship by Design

A History of Adoption in the Modern United States

368 pages, 15 halftones 6 x 9 © 2008

Cloth $70.00

ISBN: 9780226327594 Published December 2008

Paper $25.00

ISBN: 9780226327600 Published December 2008

• Synopsis
• Table of Contents
• Bio

What constitutes a family? Tracing the dramatic evolution of Americans’ answer to this question over the past century, Kinship by Design provides the fullest account to date of modern adoption’s history.
Beginning in the early 1900s, when children were still transferred between households by a variety of unregulated private arrangements, Ellen Herman details efforts by the U.S. Children’s Bureau and the Child Welfare League of America to establish adoption standards in law and practice. She goes on to trace Americans’ shifting ideas about matching children with physically or intellectually similar parents, revealing how research in developmental science and technology shaped adoption as it navigated the nature-nurture debate.
Concluding with an insightful analysis of the revolution that ushered in special needs, transracial, and international adoptions, Kinship by Design ultimately situates the practice as both a different way to make a family and a universal story about love, loss, identity, and belonging. In doing so, this volume provides a new vantage point from which to view twentieth-century America, revealing as much about social welfare, statecraft, and science as it does about childhood, family, and private life.

Subjects

• Culture Studies
• History: American History
• History of Science
• Psychology: Social Psychology
• Social Work
• Sociology: Sociology--Marriage and Family

---

You may purchase this title at these fine bookstores. Outside the USA, consult our international information page.

Questions about this title? email sales@press.uchicago.edu.

ILLINOIS BASTARD WENCHES STIR IT UP: LEARN TO LIVE WITH YOUR "HANDICAP"

Boy, some people need an anger management class. Or maybe they're just sarcastic. ( I doubt it.) It's always difficult to tell on the Internet. Read this:

Wake up, JOELG1980. The selfish desires of today's ADULT children is of no consequence. The mother demanded the records be sealed, what these kids want NOW is unimportant.

You lose the privilege of having a passport because mommie executed her privilege of privacy. Tough! Learn to live with your handicap. Continue to use a 3rd party to contact your mommie, but, if she rejects your request, you're done! Move on!

Then there's the adoptive mom:

What about the adoptive parents right? I have 2 adopted daughters and theres nothing wrong with their certificates, no need for an OBC. As far as birth mothers, they gave up their rights at adoption. Im sure they do want to be found. What a deal then, they get all the benefits without the responsibility. Which civil right has been taken away from adoptees? The lady in the article should be going after the legal firm that handled her adoption for them not doing their job properly regarding her birth certificate.

What brought on all this vitupertude? Why none other other than Bastard Grannie Annie--Bastard Nation's own Anita Field. (troublemaker on the right)

Saturday's Alton (Illinois) Telegraph featured a story about Anita's difficulty in getting a passport due to her hinky bastard status. Blogger 73adoptee, Triona Guidry, Midwest Coordniator of the Green Ribbon campaign, commented on the adoptee-hating Illinois Confidential Intermediary System. Mary Fuller was interviewed by didn't make the cut unfortunately.

Anita:

"I didn't have a proper birth certificate that showed where I was born," she said. "It was a Catch-22, because the documents that I needed were sealed by the state of Illinois." Adoptees are given amended birth certificates with the names of their adoptive - rather than biological - parents. These amended slips should fulfill all the requirements of a regular birth certificate, but sometimes - as in Field's case - they don't. Field's story points to a fact that few know: Adult adoptees from Illinois are not allowed access to their birth records or to information about their biological parents.

Lucky for us that Anita hasn't learned to live with her "handicap."

I posted a comment a little while ago. Registration is required, but it's not very involved, unlike some newspapers that DO practically demand your birth certificate.

MAINE: UPDATED STATS AND PICTURES

Bobbi Beavers from OBC for ME tells us that the state's Vital Stats office has been overwhelmed with requests for original birth certificates. As of January 9, 274 requests have been handled and a lot more are waiting.

Dan Companion, who received his obc on January 2 and met his first family the following day has sent me a couple links I didn't have before and am posting here:

WCSH-TV, Portland
Restrictions lifted on original birth certificates featuring TV interviews with Dan who came up from Florida and other out-of-state-Day1ers.

Here is Dan's' slideshow of Opening Day events, pictures of the Statehouse in Augusta, and his reunion.

Congratulations Dan and all Maine adoptees!

BASTARDETTE'S WEEKEND HEADACHE ADVISORY: NEWS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

AdoptionLaLaLand and its absurdities never ceases to amuse or aggravate. Here's some stories I considered writing about this week, that are so disturbing that I couldn't come up with any rational comments. (Go the the bottom of this entry for good news) These stories are not directly related to adoption, but touch on our own issues of identity, child and mother welfare, and government craziness.

MICHIGAN: SHOTGUN WEDDING SANCTIFY MARRIAGE
MI dad told to pay for child's birth or wed mom

The Washington Post (and the wire) reports that Gary Johnson has been ordered to either pay $3800 for the birth of his daughter JaeLyn, or marry the mother Rebecca Witt. No, Mr. Johnson has not deserted Ms Witt, denied parentage, run out on child support payments, or committed some other dastardly deed. He's just not married to the mother of his daughter. Under the state's paternity act, amended 5 years ago, birth costs can be waived if the father is married to the mother. At the time of JayLyn's birth, Miss Witt was on Medicaid and the state paid all costs. Now the state wants its money back.

Johnson seems to have no qualms about the pay off, but neither he nor Witt are happy abaout the Draconian measures the state is taking against them. Johnson makes $8.00/hr at a Grand Blanc-area nursery and has been ordered to pay $500 a month in hospital costs. He and Miss Witt are together but most decidedly do not want to get married under order of the state. Witt says, "I don't think anybody should tell me when to get married. I would like to have a nice wedding, and I can wait for it."

Genesee County Friend of the Court Jack Battles crows that the law is an incentive to maintain the "sanctity of marriage." He doesn't explain how forcing people to marry in order to avoid a paying a bill to the government will do that.

UTAH TO AXE STATE HEALTH DEPARTMENT?
Health Department on chopping block

The January 21 edition of The Salt Lake City Tribune ran a disturbing article on the attempt of Utah Republicans to abolish the state's Health Department--to save $1.7 million in administrative costs. But that's just the beginning. They plan to move some of the functions of the department over to Human Services while simultaneously cutting 7.5% out of this year's Health and Human Services budget and another 15% the following year.

Here's from the article:

One of the most troubling proposed cuts, according to health department officials, is reducing inspections of licensed child care facilities. Some 700 facilities, considered "highly compliant" because they have had less than three citations a year, would be inspected once a year instead of an average of three.

Marc Babitz, who oversees the division that includes licensing, said he'd have to cut the usual unannounced visit.

The change might allow serious violations to slip through, he said, noting an infant died this fall at a center that would have been considered highly compliant. But after the baby died, from strangling in a car seat while sleeping unsupervised, the health department found an unlicensed woman was left in charge of too many infants without enough cribs.

"We wouldn't catch her [under the new budget]. It just frightens me," Babitz said.

Other cuts would also impact children's health. A pregnancy risk line, which counsels 20,000 women a year about exposures that can cause birth defects, would be shut down -- and birth defects would no longer be tracked. An autism registry, which tracks prevalence and risk factors for the developmental disorder, would end.

The cuts also mean a slower response time to disease outbreaks and reductions in tobacco cessation, obesity and health promotion programs.

No doubt LDS Social Services would love to jump in and rescue lost services from the chopping block. Next step: outsourcing health services to India?

ALL IN THE FAMILY
Mother's fury at dead daughter's fiance's plan to have baby with sister using frozen IVV embryos

This is from the London Daily Mail, not the best source, but it's not the News of the World either. According to the Mail, Brett Vogel, fiance of former children's entertainer Kay Stanley who died in a car crash last year in Brisbane, Austrailia, plans to implant three of Stanley's frozen embryos into his sister to create "a miracle baby." Stanley was 10 weeks pregnant from IVF treatment when she died. (l: Vogel and Bates)

Stanley's mother, Gwen Bates of Rotherham, UK has been in Australia since her daughter's death fighting to bring her body back to the UK for burial, claiming that Stanley was buried there against her wishes. And she is not happy about impending grandmotherhood under the circumstances, and according to the story, fiance Bates is stonewalling, and even ran away from her when she spotted him in a cafe.

YOU PAY, SHE PAYS
Surrogates told to pay support

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian government is demanding a New Zealand surrogate mother pay child support for a baby she bred for two gay Queensland, Australia men. According to the Herald, the now 1-year old girl is being reared by her biological father and his partner, but they are only her legal guardians, since it is illegal for gay couples to adopt in Queensland. The stay-at-home father has been granted child support payments from the state, but now the state wants the surrogate to divvy up. Family law professor Mark Henaghand, Dean of Law at Otago University, says that if surrogacy babies are not adopted and intended parents claim benefits, surrogates should pay. In this case the surrogate's name appears on the birth certificate and guardianship is insufficient to remove her name.

The surrogacy business on both sides of the Tasman aren't happy. Gee could this put a few kinks in the moneygrubbers' pipeline?

BUT FOR FAST FAST FAST RELIEF...
Anita Field and Mary Fuller have teamed up on a new Illinois Open Blog. Anita posts the first entry--her heroic battle with Illinois courts to pull her obc from the grasp of the state.

NCFANOID PERFORMS AT BUSH HOMECOMING RALLY

Bastardette could almost forgive country star Rodney Atkins for being the celebrity spokesperson National Council for Adoption. I spent 15 years working with theatre celebs and wannabes, and I'm well aware that "celebrities" don't know what they are talking about most of the time. Besides, Atkins was a sickly child and was "adopted" three times before somebody agreed to take him full-time. That's a real drag.

Whatever sins Atkins has committed in the name of NCFA, however, pale in comparison to this: Atkins headlined a Welcome Home rally in Midland, Texas for the town's village idiot, George W. Bush, recently returned from a prolonged stay in Washington DC.

Atkins performed for Bush at the White House in November 2007. Since the singer's invitation to perform at the Obama inauguration must have gotten lost in the mail, he couldn't’t resist the opportunity to become a first responder for His Incompetency:

They’re (George and Laura) just so personable and down to earth," Rodney told The Midland Reporter-Telegram. "With the events he has had to deal with, it is amazing that he carried himself so well. He’s dealt with the weight of the world."

Between 20,000-30,000 attended the homecoming celebration. Lee Greenwood and The Gatlin Brothers also entertained. Bush told the crowd that "the presidency has been a joyous experience" for him. I'm glad it was joyous for someone.

BASTARDETTE'S INAUGURATION REPAST

Take that, Judie Brown!



I believe I have discovered a second secret message subliminally broadcast by Krispy Kreme in its insidious attempt to undermine American values through abortion doughnuts. 0 grams. Clearly a code word for orgasms. As an American, I object!

ANTI-ADOPTEE JUDIE BROWN FLIPS OUT AGAIN: OBAMA, KRISPY KREME, AND PRO-ABORTION DOUGHNUTS

Thursday, Judie Brown, founder of the American Life League, launched herself boldly where no woman has gone before.

Krispy Kreme Celebrates Obama With Pro-Abortion Doughnuts.

While we pause for a moment to scratch our heads and ruminate over that headline, I'll remind readers that in the 1990s, the American Life League attempted to block the implementation of Tennessee's semi records access law by signing on as an amicus in Doe v Sunquist. Adoptees scare her. Every time an adoptee gets her obc, a woman has an abortion.

Most recently ALL made an appearance in the Daily Bastardette when Mrs. Brown evinced disgust disguised as moral confusion over Pope Benedict's Dignitas personae in which her leader called for a halt to the creation of human embryos and hence embryo adoption.

Earlier, Bastardette reported on Mrs. Brown's angst over a study that indicated that birth control pills encourage women to have sex with men they are compatible with, rather than with men they don't particularly find attractive or interesting, but whose love juice would strengthen the gene pool.

Now. Back to the present and Mrs. Brown's Krispy Kreme conundrum.

According to Mrs. Brown:

The next time you stare down a conveyor belt of slow-moving, hot, sugary glazed donuts at your local Krispy Kreme you just might be supporting President-elect Barack Obama's radical support for abortion on demand -- including his sweeping promise to sign the Freedom of Choice Act as soon as he steps in the Oval Office, Jan. 20.

I was expecting to read that Krispy Kreme had injected some mysterious abortificant into its doughnuts or written Abort Now across the glazed face of its lemon filled ooey-gooeys. Nothing that sinister, though. According to the doughnut maker's press release, Krispy Kreme has decided to offer customers a free doughnut of their own choice on inauguration day.

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. (NYSE: KKD) is honoring American's sense of pride and freedom of choice on Inauguration Day, by offering "a free doughnut of choice to every customer on this historic day, Jan. 20. By doing so, participating Krispy Kreme stores nationwide are making an oath to tasty goodies -- just another reminder of how oh-so-sweet 'free' can be.

To which Mrs. Brown replies bizarrely:

Just an unfortunate choice of words? For the sake of our Wednesday morning doughnut runs, we hope so. The unfortunate reality of a post Roe v. Wade America is that 'choice' is synonymous with abortion access and celebration of 'freedom of choice' is a tacit endorsement of abortion rights on demand.

President-elect Barack Obama promises to be the most virulently pro-abortion president in history. Millions more children will be endangered by his radical abortion agenda.

Celebrating his inauguration with 'Freedom of Choice' doughnuts -- only two days before the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision to decriminalize abortion -- is not only extremely tacky, it's disrespectful and insensitive and makes a mockery of a national tragedy.

Well, who knew that free doughnuts promote abortion!

Bastardette could never make this stuff up. Nor would she want to.

I've been highly critical of consumerist "choice" language in abortion, adoption and "safe havens." I won't discuss that here since I'd be writing for another three days. That doesn't mean, however, that the word "choice" is a bad word--or concept--that should be abolished from the dictionary. After all, capitalism, the Constitution and democracy are based on "choice." Since Mrs. Brown suffers a severe Puritan nature however, that should mean little to her.

Google" Krispy Kreme" and "abortion" and see the drubbing that Mrs. Brown is taking over her doughnut meltdown. While checking the links for this entry I discovered that the crazy press release has disappeared from the PR Wire website. It's buried on the ALL webpage (top-of page link), though, and available on innumerable other sites. Interestingly, ALL's front page offers us the bizarre "Anti-Abort and Belligerent Beguiling" essay, dated the same day as the Krispy Kreme missive, in which Mrs. Brown tells us:

Since I am a great believer in helping people understand pro-aborts’ misuse of the English language, I wanted to use the congresswoman's letter as a good example of why we have to be so careful about the words we use.

and then goes on to linguistically deconstruct a form letter one of her members received from a member of Congress. To read Mrs. Brown's monomaniac translation, you'd think "choice" actually means "abortion," not what we do at the store when we pick Tylenol over Bufferin or when we vote for Obama over McCain.

Judie Brown is part of the crackpot brigade that claims adopted people are too irresponsible, too immature, too scary... too, too...whatever....to have our birth certificates. Well, I think she's too crazy to be left near a computer. Judie Brown and her ilk need to be exposed for the whackjobs they are. For some reason, somebody gives these nuts credibility. That credibility stops with each of us.

Expose them!



I just sent the following email to Krispy Kreme:

Congratulations on your "free doughnut of choice" campaign on Inauguration Day. Don't let wingnut Judie Brown intimidate your campaign or language. Do not apologize for a "poor choice of words." You made no poor choice of words. Judie Brown is nuts. She latches on to any obscurity to push her agenda. She's now made herself the laughing stock of the country.

I don't live near a Krispy Kreme store, but your doughnuts are sold at a nearby convenience store. I'm won't get a free doughnut there, but on January 20, I'll be sure to buy a couple "of my choice." Keep up the good work and don't let the crackpots get you down.


ADDENDA: 1/16/98, 1:34 PM The Miami New Times published a piece on Mrs Brown's free doughnut phobia. The posted comments are pretty funny.

BOOKS: LOST AND FOUND REISSUED

Yay! The University of Michigan Press has just released the 3rd ed. of Betty Jean Lifton's classic Lost and Found: the Adoption Experience, the book that launched the contemporary adoptee rights movement.

From the UMP webpage:

The first edition of Betty Jean Lifton's Lost and Found advanced the adoption rights movement in this country in 1979, challenging many states' policies of maintaining closed birth records...

This expanded and updated edition, with new material on the controversies concerning adoption, artificial insemination, and newer reproductive technologies, continues to add to the discussion on this important topic. A new preface and afterword by the author have been added, as well as a greatly expanded resources section that in addition to relevant organizations now lists useful Web sites.

The UMP site also includes a long list of online adoption resources--including Bastard Nation.

Congratulations BJ!

Here is BJ's webpage.

YUK! "EMBRACING THE BIRTHMOTHER"

Does this creep you out as much as it does me: Embracing the Birthmother: a day run by birthmothers for birthmothers to talk with each other, share stories, healing and empowerment.

It's being thrown by A Full Circle Adoptions in Mt. Holyoake, Massachusetts. I don't know anything about this doo or the agency other than what's found on the linked page.

But the language...Mama Mia!

Let's see how many ways we can depersonalize, dehumanize, patronize, paternalize, infantilize and deminunize women in the name of empowerment and do-goodism. How long for the days when the adoption industry just said don't let the door hit your ass on the way out instead self-serving "post-adoption services."

I have this squicky image of "birth mother" attachment therapy. Grown women entangled in the arms of social workers; wrapped up in a flannel blanket and sat on by overweight female therapists imported from Colorado.

Colorado Attachment Disorder sitters Connell Watkins and Julie Ponder

THE POSTMAN DOESN'T RING TWICE: MORMON "BIRTHMOTHER" SONG LYRICS

Here are the lyrics to two songs reportedly played to teenage girls in L-d-S youth groups. Obviously the church expects girls to go bad and is pre-empting the expected fruit of the womb crisis.

The first song, From God's Arms to My Arms... is just plain traditionally bad. You know, like the bad adoption poetry on adoption.com (Actually, it appears there.) The song makes Butterfly Kisses sound like Mozart's Requiem.

From God's Arms To My Arms To Yours
Words and music by Michael McLean

With so many wrong decisions in my past, I'm not quite sure
If I can ever hope to trust my judgment anymore.
But lately I've been thinking, 'cause it's all I've had to do.
And in my heart I feel that I should give this child to you.

(Chorus:)
And maybe you can tell your baby,
When you love him so, that he's been loved before;
By someone who delivered your son
From God's arms, to my arms, to yours.

If you choose to tell him, and if he wants to know,
How the one who gave him life could bear to let him go;
Just tell him there were sleepless nights; I prayed and paced the floors
And knew the only peace I'd find is if this child was yours.

(Chorus)

Now I know that you don't have to do this,
But could you kiss him once for me
The first time that he ties his shoes, or falls and skins his knee?
And could you hold him twice as long when he makes his mistakes,
And tell him that he's not alone, sometimes that's all it takes.
I know how much he'll ache.

This may not be the answer for another girl like me;
But I'm not on a soapbox saying how we all should be.
I'm just trusting in my feelings and I'm trusting God above,
And I'm trusting you can give this baby
Both his mothers' love.

(Chorus)

BONUS 1:
Here is a video of Marie Osmond, holding a Marie Osmond doll holding a baby doll of her own, singing From God's Arms... The audience weeps and hugs.



EARTHLY ANGELS
The second song Delivery is a true piece of Mormon kitsch. I particularly appreciate the imagery of "birth mothers" as "earthly angels" acting as postmen delivering babies from heaven. Gee, all Bastardette gets in the mail are bills and fliers from KFC.

Though bastards traditionally have been rumored to have unearthly fathers from above (Helen, Hercules, Thor, Jesus), this is the closest I've seen the adoption industry actually compare generic bastards to Jesus. Metaphorically, of course

Delivery" by Cherie Call

She was only seventeen and she knew she couldn't keep him
But at that very moment she wished that she could try
He was sleeping in her arms with his hand around her finger
When a woman came and told her it was time to say goodbye
So she wrapped him in a blanket as her tears fell on his head
And she sent him with a letter, and this is what it said;

"I delivered you from Heaven, from God's gentle loving care
And I've entrusted you to mortals who have wished and prayed you there
They will be your earthly parents
Listen well to what they say
So they can deliver you back to Heaven
And I'll meet you there someday"

One day a few weeks later someone gave her a letter
And as she read the words she had to wipe the tears away
It said, "We don't know how to thank you
There are things that words can't say
He's the sunshine and the happiness that brightens all our days
And we couldn't live without him, and we love him as our own
He has filled the empty spaces in our family and our home

You delivered him from Heaven, something only you could do
And you have trusted us to love him and to teach him what is true
You have been our earthly angel
And I hope you know we pray
That we can deliver him back to Heaven
And that we'll meet you there someday

And even though you may not get to hold him for a while
A piece of you will be with him
Every time he smiles
And when he looks at his reflection, he'll see traces of the face
Of the one who made the sacrifice to send him to this place

Last night we read a story of a man who had a son
Who was from a different father, but he loved him as his own
And as he laid Him in a manger there were angels that were singing
And he knew that as a father he would never be alone
There are times we feel like Joseph
We need help from up above
And when you gave your son, you showed that father's kind of love

When you delivered him from Heaven
From God's gentle loving care
And you entrusted him to mortals who had wished and prayed him there
And when this life's laid out before us
I hope we all can say
That we delivered this child together
When we meet again someday
We'll deliver him back to heaven
And we'll meet you there someday

BONUS 2:
Here is an L-d-S adoption video called Online featuring two teenage girls picking out a Forever Family on the Internet. It's "very cute" that the couple loves children. What did the girls expect the breathlessly waiting couple to say? We want your newborn for a blood sacrifice to the Great Goat God?

BONUS 3 IF YOU ACT NOW:
An entire page of L-d-S video and audio adoption PSAs from the L-d-S It's About Love page to help you make the loving choice. I had trouble getting the video, but the audio for all of them works fine. WARNING: after listening to a few of these helpful messages you might want to stick a screwdriver in your ear.

No mention anywhere, though, that L-d-S Social Services is a major practitioner of adoption secrecy and promoter of sealed records in the US or that they'll soon have more lawsuits against them than the asbestos industry. What difference does it make anyway? Once we're all dead we can make an obligatory visit to thank mom for her special delivery before we run along with our sealed parents to that heavenly ward in the sky.

Meantime, the earthly angel and her godlet must never know the other exists. For Mormon bosses and their bishops, the postman--or should I say postwoman--doesn't ring twice.

ADOPTABLOGS TO RING IN THE NEW YEAR

I'm working on a couple things, but in the meantime, here's some new blog entries from our partners in crime you might find interesting:

Musings of the Lame. Claud is back Yes, that's right! Our beloved Claud has returned to the keyboard after a way too-long hiatus. Bonus: we can now watch at our leisure Montel's how can-I-get-me-a-baybee meltdown moment with Claud. It's right up there with the adoptaTV classics, The Dr. Laura Love Fest with Ron Morgan, Troy Dunn and Bill Pierce and the Brian Willilams Show with Joe Soll driving Bill Pierce off the set of a live broadcast. "Tell the truth, Bill! Tell the truth!" Unfortunately, the latter two are no longer on line, though I have hard copy transcript of the Bill's humiliation.

Mia's Saving Grace. Christopher Durang wrote a neat little one act, The Actor's Nightmare. Mia has posted her own special adoptee nightmare, simply called, Nightmare." It starts:

The ancient office chair I am sitting on is hard and uncomfortable. I keep switching positions uncomfortably. The woman sitting behind the desk has a stoic and drawn look to her face. She is frowning intently and her eyes seem to be boring holes so deep into my chest that I can actually feel it stinging my soul. She disapproves. I feel like a robber holding up my own bank.

The Rights of Adoptees. Mary Fuller posts several entries on the trials and travails of Illinois Elves delivering All I Want for Christmas is my OBC letters to the post office through wind and rain and sleet and snow. And they also got some important and needed media coverage.

Fumbling Towards Divinity. Craig Hickman defines style...and a lot more..in AdoptionLand. Craig's blog is the place where politics, literature, art, and fine food, wine...and adoption... meet. Craig always makes me feel the world really is a good place. I don't visit it enough.

Almost Home. From Rhonda's Ruminations.' Rhonda comes a wonderful new blog about the coolest, cutest rescue dogs and cat's you'll ever see And each one has a story. My kitties are jealous.

MAINE UPDATE: A COLLECTION OF RECENT NEWS STORIES ON THE RESTORATION OF ADOPTEE RIGHTS IN MAINE

Here is a collection of recent news articles in chronological order on the restoration of adoptee rights on Maine. I'm not making many comments on them, just putting them up here as a source of information. I'll add more if they show up later.

Once again! Congratulations Maine!

Kennebec Journal, December 28, 2008
Adoptees await more information
About three-quarters of the House supported the bill, and two-thirds of the Senate, according to Bobbi Beavers of South Berwick. A co-founder of Original Birth Certificates for Maine, Beavers called the legislation "a human rights bill."

"No one should ever be denied their original identity," said Beavers.

Cathy Robishaw of Falmouth, another group co-founder and an adoptee herself, said a friend helped her find her birth mother's name in the mid-1990s. But getting her original birth certificate Friday will be a "huge deal," and not just because she pushed for the law for four years.

"I will just feel like everyone else at that point," she explained. "It will just mean I'm not discriminated against, I'm treated like an adult."

Belfast Village Soup, December 29, 2008
Adoptees may obtain their original birth certificates
The first two adoptees receiving their original birth certificates will be Catherine Robishaw, co-founder of OBCforME, and former Sen. Paula Benoit, co sponsor of LD 1084, the bill that passed into PL 409. There will also be brief statements on the impact of this new law. Opening day ceremonies start at 7:45 a.m. at Maine’s Office of Vital Records, 244 Water The first two adoptees receiving their original birth certificates will be Catherine Robishaw, co-founder of OBCforME, and former Sen. Paula Benoit, co sponsor of LD 1084, the bill that passed into PL 409. There will also be brief statements on the impact of this new law.

Boston Globe/Associated Press, December 30, 2008
Maine posts new laws
Original Birth Certificates for Maine, which pushed through Maine's new access law, says it restores basic human and civil rights. Maine is the second state in New England and the sixth state nationally to grant unrestricted access to original birth certificates, said Roberta Beavers, the grass roots support group's co-founder.

"Every Maine-born person, adopted or not, deserves the right to request their original birth certificate and know their identity," Beavers said in an e-mail. She added that Maine's new law does not provide for the release of the certificate unless requested by the adoptee.

Laws like Maine's can be especially helpful as more emphasis is put on national security, Beavers said. She said that a New Hampshire-born adoptee living in Sanford, Maine, told her he had difficulty getting a passport recently because he did not have proof that he was born in the United States.

Beavers said she referred the man to the New Hampshire Office of Vital Records so he could get access to his birth certificate.

Portland Press Herald, December 30, 2008
Adoption records should be accessed with caution
It will be up to the children, many of whom are now older than their birth parents were when they signed the papers, to decide if they are going to access the records and what they will do with the information if they get it.

For people who have fought so long to learn their birth parents' identities, the names alone may not be enough. The need to know more about them will be hard to resist.

But in their zeal to learn more about their birth families, they should respect the privacy of those who do not want to be found.

NOTE: See my January 1, 2009 blog entry for comments on this editorial.

Seacoast Online, December 31, 2008
New Law gives Maine-born adoptees access to original birth certificates
According to South Berwick resident Bobbi Beavers, who has been at the forefront of the effort to pass LD 1084, more than 130 Maine-born adoptees from around Maine, plus New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Florida, California and other states, have already submitted their info to the Maine Office of Vital Statistics.

OBC for ME

WCSH-TV, Portland, January 1, 2009
Adoption records open up
Video interview with adoptee Sean O'Neil, 12-year member of Orchard Beach Town Council

WCSH-TV, Portland, January 2, 2009
Restrictions lifted on original birth certificates
It was a day of discovery as more than a dozen adoptees braved cold temperatures to be the first to get their original birth certificates under a new state law. They stood in line waiting for the doors to open at the Maine Office of Vital Statistics in Augusta. Once inside they secured the document, that up until now, could only be obtained under special circumstances through a court order. Includes video interview with Cathy Robishaw (right, red coat) and Maine adoptees from Florida (man next to Cathy) and California.

Portland Press-Herald, January 2, 2008
Path to their roots opens for adoptees
Some choked back tears as they learned the names of their birth mothers, the places where they were born and, in some cases, the fact that they have siblings they've never met

"This is a pretty special day," said Paula Benoit of Phippsburg, an adoptee who proudly held her birth certificate for the first time. A former state senator, Benoit helped pass a new state law making birth records accessible to those adopted in Maine. The law took effect today, and 141 people had pre-registered to get their birth certificates.

Also includes comments warning of dire consequences for traumatized first parents.

KDAF-TV, Dallas, Fort Worth, January January 5, 2009
New law gives Maine adoptees right to birth certificates
The day of discovery came as a new state law went into effect; the law gives adoptees access to their original birth certificates. Dozens pre-applied for their birth certificates and were waiting as doors opened at the Maine Office of Data, Research and Statistics. Inside, they were able to get copies of the documents which previously could only be obtained under special

Check out video with Cathy Robishaw Paula Benoit, Paul Schibblehute, and New Hampshire Senator Lou D'Allensandro, sponsor of NH's law.

Dover (NH) Foster's Daily Democrat, January 6, 2009
Maine adoptees allowed access to birth records
Some church organizations oppose such laws, saying it violates birth mothers' privacy. A spokesperson for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, which reportedly opposes the law, did not return a phone message last week seeking comment.

Wilfert, the adoptee from Cornish, said he won't necessarily try to contact his birth mother. Just knowing her name might be enough.

"People should have a right to know where they're from," he said. "You're finding something out about yourself that you haven't known ... it's that idea you're opening up something you've never seen."

Paula Benoit, an adoptee and former state senator who helped push the law through the Legislature, said she petitioned a county probate judge for her certificate in 2007, but was denied. She finally picked hers up on Friday.

"I really felt it was mine to have," she said.

Left to right and down:
House Sponsor: David Farrington

Senator Sponsor: Paula Benoit

Maine State Senator Bruce Bryant, Paula Benoit, Maine State Representative Mark Bryant. The Bryants are Sen. Benoit's nephews; their father is Benoit's oldest biological brother. Sen. Benoit onhy learned of the connection during the records access legislative campaign when she searched her own roots.

CONGRATULATIONS MAINE: ANOTHER FREE STATE!

Bastard Nation: the Adoptee Rights Organization congratulates Maine adoptees on the restoration of their right to records and identity.

Maine joins, New Hampshire, Alabama, and Oregon in showing the adoption reformist community that compromise isn't needed for a successful rights restoration campaign, that includes every adoptee, not just some. Anything less that full access is antithetical to our rights and defeats us.

Welcome to the expanding list of free states that recognize the gross injustice and illegality of the sealed records system.

A collection of recent media coverage on Maine can be found directly above this announcement.

FAMILY UNFRIENDLY NEBRASKA: NO SHAME, BUT PLENTY OF BLAME AND NAMES

NO! CHILDREN OF THE CORN ISN'T GOING AWAY!

From the same folks who last fall brought us at least 50 abandoned and traumatized teens and pre-teens via their "unique safe haven law" comes the news that the majority of Nebraska senators responding to a pre-session poll by the Associated Press, would support a measure to ban abortion in the state. Most support an exception for rape, incest, or the health of the woman, but four reject all exceptions.

According to an article in the December 31 Beatrice Daily Sun:

23 Nebraska state senators [out of the 40 who responded] said they would back such a ban. That's despite the precedence of Roe vs. Wade, the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established a woman's right to have an abortion.

The full AP survey has not been released. According to a commenter named "Eric" on Kyle Michaelis' New Nebraska Network blog The Coat Hanger Caucus: Almost 1/2 of senators support abortion ban (December 30) Senators Adams, Carlson, Coash, Cornett, Flood, Fulton, Gay, Gloor, Hadley, Hansen, Harms, Heidemann, Janssen, Karpisek, Langemeier, McCoy, Nelson, Pankonin, Pirsch, Schilz, Stuthman, Utter, and Wightman indicated they would support a ban on abortion. "Eric" speculates from past record that Senators Ashford, Christensen, Dierks, Dubas, Fischer, Friend, Giese, Lathrop, Lautenbaugh, Louden, Mello, Nordquist, Pahls, Price, Sullivan, and Wallman would also most likely support some type of ban.

Here's where it gets interesting. In another AP poll of senators published in the December 24, 2008 Lincoln Journal Star, In the wake of the recent changes to Nebraska’s safe-haven law, do you feel the state needs to increase services for older children with behavioral problems?, anti-abortion Senators Janssen and McCoy said "No" and anti-abortion Senators Flood, Gloor, Langemeier, Pankonin, Pirsch, Schilz, Stuthman, and Utter declared themselves "Unsure." Speculative abortion-ban Senators Ashford, Friend, Louden, and Schilz also declared themselves "Unsure." Stuthman, who fought to the bitter end the November Special Session of the Unicam to revisit the "unique"kid dump law he sponsored that made Nebraska the laughing stock of the country, said he was unsure if additional services were needed because, "We need to make sure that the services that we have are being utilized."

And for sheer audacity: Stuthman and "Unsure" Senator Pankonin at the time the "safe haven" poll was published, were members of the Children in Crisis Task Force. The task force formed by Governor Dave Heineman, after Stuthman's "unique" law was replaced with one that limited dumpees to the age of 30 days, was charged with finding a solution--in three meetings--to problems exposed by the old "safe haven" law which Stuthman held so dear to his heart. Senator McGill, who chaired the task force skipped the question.

Apparently these senators dozed through the Nebraska Fiasco and the testimonies of dozens of Nebraskans who made their lock-out of putative in-place state and private social services up close and personal during the Unicam Special Session. I hope those parents and guardians who bussed in and knocked on the statehouse door didn't expect the task force to actually do something other than bloviate out their nose. A task force, after all, is where politicians safe haven their political asses. If it saves just one.

I wrote the following about"unsure" and family unfriendly Senator Pete Pirsch back in September when Big Kids began to clog up ERs. Pete proudly opposes abortion, thinks teen dumps are inconvenient but OK if they save a baby someplace else, and can't figure out if Nebraska's child welfare system is broken enough yet to warrant a second look--at least from him:

According to Sen. Pete Persch in an August 15, 2008 article in stateline.org, the only way Nebraska "safe haven" pimps could get their bill passed was to expand the already crazy template of newborn abandonment to an even crazier law to legalize all child abandonment:

State Sen. Pete Pirsch, whose compromise amendment eventually became the law, said using the broad language was intentional, because several senators felt strongly that the safe haven protection needed to be extended to all children. Unaware that language has consequences.

Pirsch continued to bray on:

In my opinion, the need to pass a safe haven bill outweighed the need for perfect language,” “The risk to babies’ lives far outweighed the possibility of a few inconvenient circumstances with older children.”

No AP abortion questionnaire comment by Pirsch was published , but dump pusher Tony Fulton's response is quoted in the Beatrice Sun :

Direct abortion is the purposeful taking of innocent human life, and unintended consequences are psychological, emotional and spiritual harm to the mother.

There are also far-reaching physical consequences suffered by the unsuspecting mother. If the courts overturn Roe, Nebraska should follow suit and redouble our efforts to help desperate mothers who may be in situations contemplating abortion.

No help for "desperate mothers who may be contemplating "safe havening" their babies, though. (What is an "unsuspecting mother," anyway?) I guess to these jokers dumping off Big Kids or even small ones you're not quite attached to yet, does no "psychological, emotional" and spiritual harm" to mother or child as long as it's done with the legislature's friendly facilitation as we had this last fall.

Here's what Lavennia Coover (below) wrote in the October 4, 2008 Omaha World-Hearld after she was virtually thrown out of Immanuel Hospital when she "safe havened" her mentally ill son Skyler in a last ditch attempt to get help for him:

While I was at the hospital I had to request to speak with the social worker on duty at the hospital . I also spoke to the police and the intake nurse for child and adolescents. During the time I was at the hospital trying to give all the information that I felt was needed to ensure my child got the help he desperately needed, and told the staff that if they needed anything else to please call me, because I was trying to do was get the help my child needed,and and staff continually telling me I could leave now! I gave my name and phone numbers and told the staff that if they needed anything else to please call me, because all I was trying to do was get the help my child needed and was unavailable to us in the area of Nebraska where we lived. Todd Reckling (administrator of Nebraska's Office of Protection and Safety) also stated to me that I would be contacted within 48 hours of the whereabouts of my child and the next steps. It has been four days and I have not heard anything and when I try to find out I am not able to get any information. ...

...the help my family received from the state was as follows: the state took custody of my child. I was told I was a worthless parent and the judge didn't know if I deserved my other two children...

Coover, a law abiding school teacher who thought the "safe haven law" actually meant what it said, was later charged with neglect. Her case is pending.

There is no talk of an abortion ban being introduced in the Unicam this coming session, but it doesn't take a Cornhusker English Department POMO to deconstruct that baby dump 2.0 could be one of those "efforts" to help desperate mothers" contemplating abortion, even though abortion is perfectly legal and is not an issue for women who dump who often don't even acknowledge they're pregnant.

As for the task force, not much has been written. The Kearney Hub reported that a December 1 meeting was "productive" according to people who attended. Task Force chair Senator Amanda McGill said, "the group spent the day talking about and suggesting possible solutions to the problems facing children with behavioral, mental and emotional problems." Most ideas, she said centered around four themes: access to services, resources, early intervention, and crisis management. No word on the second meeting, but the third was canceled due to "bad weather."A "legislative proposal" is pending.

The December 28, 2008, Omaha World Hearld published an extremely long and enlightening article, Nebraska system leaves many frustrated in search for mental health treatment which lays much of the blame for the run-up (and presumed continuation) to the Nebraska Fiasco on the lack of intensive mental health services for Nebraska's wards at the door of Magellan Behavioral Health, the state's private HMO that determines who gets what treatment in the state's foster care system. As the gatekeeper, it pinches the state's pennies and remains a mystery, even to juvenile court judges. Undoubtedly your own state has similar blockages to quality intensive care for the mentally ill caught in the child welfare system.

The January 2 Gothenburg Times reports that any attempt to fund much of anything new will get the cold shoulder when the Unicam meets next week. The problem: The state's projected $377 million gap between anticipated tax revenue and spending.

Now that the Nebraska Fiasco is but a sordid memory it's business as usual.

******

There is no good way to work the into the above blog, but I wanted to include it here as a extended addenda that brings some of the Nebraska Fiasco into context.

Kyle Michaelis also wrote a blog highly critical of Governor Dave Heineman, which I didn't see until today, holding the governor personally responsible for the Nebraska Fiasco: Does Dave Heineman Deserve Blame for the Safe Haven Debacle? Here is a portion:

The dilemmas raised by this whole situation have been numerous and ugly. The one thing they all have in common is that they've made Nebraska look very bad. Unfortunately, most of the mockery and scorn has been directed at our state legislature. That's extremely unfair, especially since it was Heineman who signed the bill into law and who later delayed in calling a special session while the situation grew into a genuine crisis.

Of course, it's unfair to point a finger at any one person for a bill that passed the legislature with only one dissenting vote. But, Heineman gave the final go-ahead and hasn't been held to account in the sligthest - even though he admitted to its flaws upon the bill's signing on February 13th, 2008.

Gov. Dave Heineman signed the state's safe haven bill late Wednesday morning, though he said he has some misgivings about the broad nature of the Nebraska measure....

"Yes, I am going to sign it. Yes, I have some concern," Heineman said during a Wednesday morning news conference. "We have decided to expand beyond infants."

But senators can make adjustments to the law in future years if problems develop, he said.

This wasn't some unforeseen consequence. Heineman recognized the possibility that we'd see precisely what came to pass, and he signed the legislation anyways. Every time one of those children has been dropped off, it's been Heineman's safe haven in action...

...Recognizing that so many parents and guardians could be brought to such a desperate act as abandoning their children, Heineman might have embraced this incredible responsibility he'd helped thrust upon the state. Instead, his only focus has been personally avoiding the political consequences without any apparent compassion for the suffering and frustration that have become increasingly evident in so many Nebraska families.

Michaelis closes with these observations which are relevant to the Nebraska Fiasco

...Anyone that has been working directly with this issue could have told Landry and Heineman, but they didn't want to listen. I remember about 3 years ago, Heineman wanted to reduce the number of children in foster care because Nebraska had the highest per-capita rate. Result? All of his hacks set out to reduce those numbers NOT by finding ways to be proactive. Nope. They actually CUT OUT voluntary cases, and then required us Case Managers to start writing up fewer case plan goals. Say, for example, if a child was removed because a dirty house (we're talking cockroaches everywhere, animal feces on the floor, no food in the house, etc). We find out after the removal the parent is doing drugs, and that's why they can't take care of themselves let alone their home and their kid. Sorry, but we could no longer address drug use. If we could get them to clean up the home to an acceptable level, we'd put the kid back right away, and maybe not even persue a case beyond the initial hearing. Did it correct the real problem? Nope. But it sure got those numbers down for Dave Heineman.

Who knew Nebraska was so family unfriendly?