I'm deep in thought this morning, and rambling more than a bit, but would like to put some of the news leading the week on the table and invite everyone to pull up a chair.

Lanette's writing today on the Foster Care Blog strikes a chord as I compose posts, since much of the recent news ties into her thoughts and makes the questions she poses very timely.

I had written last week about a report into abuse by partners of mothers that results in terrible consequences... more

From my not favorite British paper, the Telegraph, a story about Stay At Home Dads (SAHDs) that has me reacting in a couple of different ways.

Quoting a government study of 6,000 British families, researchers at Bristol University are saying that boys raised by fathers while mothers are at work are "less prepared for education" when they start school.

Girls, are okay with it ... but boys?

"We find robust evidence that boys [but not girls]... more

An AP article on open birth records starts out with a statement I have to disagree with:

It's among the most divisive questions in the realm of adoption: Should adult adoptees have access to their birth records, and thus be able to learn the identity of their birth parents?

You see, in my experience there is no question at all about open records, but there are plenty of other issues that are most certainly divisive as all get out. I have yet to come across even one person from any angle of the triad who thinks entitling everyone involved to all the... more

Readers of yesterday's International Adoption post on Indian food and tap dancing chimps are welcome to note my clairvoyant powers and wonder in amazement about the size and clarity of my crystal ball, but predicting that the media would be sleazy and lazy enough to appropriate the Zoe's Ark mess, truss up a few bits, pre-masticate the blob, then present the results on a plate for mass consumption was a practice in little more than reading that oh-so-obvious writing on the wall.

I didn't have to look too far into the future, either, as only 24 hours later the Voice... more

Here's an idea for Halloween! Put your white kids in blackface, then send them out to collect for UNICEF! If that sounds horrid, tasteless, offensive and probably criminal, read on ...

With Halloween coming up and Rebecca doing such a great job of bringing the UNICEF connection to the page, it seems a good day to give yet another reason not to support the organization by stuffing their begging boxes with anything other than little... more

Since it's Friday and I'm writing on Cambodia on the International Blog, as usual, it seems a good time to mention here that a global conference on genocide took place in Montreal this week.

Survivors of a couple of our generation's very own genocides, those in Rwanda and Cambodia, joined big wigs and 'important people' in what was dubbed as an effort to explore ways of preventing genocidal violence.

It seems I'm not the only one rolling my eyes at the impotent arrogance... more

Continued from the previous post.

It's funny how some topics can get people all up-in-arms excited, indignant, and ready to buy just about anything that's chopped up finely enough for immediate digestion upon swallowing.

What's not funny is what this costs.

This report in the Washington Post does a great job of illustrating just how political maneuvering, posturing, media spin and the like that present a Kilimanjaro... more

Lisa's latest blog on the situation in Guatemala concerning the kids snatched from Casa Quivira started me thinking this morning about political maneuvering, posturing, media spin, and all that rotten business that so often passes as steps in a direction that many are massaged into assuming is a right one.

On the Casa Quivira case, we know that the grab happened just before elections, and that alone should be enough to put questions of timing in everyones' mind, but with a combination of coordinated... more

I am not feeling well this weekend ... all achy with a thumping head and a dodgy stomach ... and perhaps that is why all the news I'm coming across is annoying the dooky out of me, or maybe it's just that we're in a dooky news phase. Either way, consider yourself warned before taking the time to read: you will come to the end of today's blog either annoyed with me, or annoyed with me ... if you get my meaning.

Few global circumstances are as guaranteed to raise my hackles as frustratingly repeatedly than news out of Darfur. It doesn't change. Not even the numbers change, as it seems those counting refugees and dead got tired of the practice a couple of years ago so just keep regurgitating... more

In yesterday's news blog I wrote about the many cases in the US where children and families are let down by the agencies set up to serve them. Comments on the post talked about making noise and doing something to change the present mess many conclude is the only accurate assessment possible.

With great timing, I found this opinion piece just published in a Kentucky paper and couldn't be happier to be able to pass on not only a bit of news of progress, but... more