"ORPHAN," ESTHER, AND US: ADOPTION MUCKETY-MUCKS LOOK STUPID AGAIN

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Bastardette has really been remiss this month. The truth is, sometimes AdoptionLand is just too tiresome to write about. But along came Esther! I’ve written about Esther and the film Orphan before. From early reactions I knew the PC adopta muckety-mucks would pull on their jackboots and hup 2-3-4 us around their mulberry bush to the tune of Adoption Uber Alles. Orphan’s tagline alone is shocking, I tell you shocking: It must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own. Why, what adoptee would ever come up with that insidious thought on their own? If adoptees aren’t happy and don’t feel uber loved, then it must be Hollywood’s fault! We’re waiting for an Esther video game to measure the full extent of the damage. Kerry and Neils over on Pound Pup Legacy have a good discussion on what this squawking and flapping is really about, and I recommend you hit it.FOR THE CHILLUN’As much as the adoption PC muckety-mucks would like to, they can’t exactly stop the film’s release on July 24. They can turn up the heat though, and demand that Warner Brothers wholesome it up. For the chillun.’ If it saves just one… According Continue Reading →

MORE ON TONY AND EMMA MAY VILARDI AND ISRR

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The Las Vegas Sun yesterday published a really nice article on Tony Vilardi and ISRR written by Tony and Emma May’s niece, Stefani Evans. Registry helps adoptees find biological familiesEmma May’s mother, my grandmother, was an adoptee who did not have her original birth certificate until Emma May persuaded an Indiana judge to unseal her mother’s birth and adoption records. Emma May succeeded on behalf of my grandmother, but most adult adoptees do not have the ability to retrieve their original birth certificates. The adoptees-rights movement began lobbying state legislatures in the early 1970s to enable adult adoptees to obtain the original documents of their births that name their biological parents, state their correct places and dates of birth, and provide leads to their genetic backgrounds. A mutual-consent registry such as ISRR does not violate privacy rights of birth parents, because individuals register only when they wish to be found by their lost family members. In more than 34 years, the independent, not-for-profit, mutual-consent ISRR has reunited thousands of adoptees with their biological parents free of charge.

JON AND KATE AND RECORDS ACCESS

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I know all of you have put your lives aside for the moment to follow the Jon & Kate saga. Bastardette certainly has. There is nothing more satisfying than watching vapid 15-minute-of-famers implode on national television. I ran across this AP story a few minutes ago. Seems our favorite couple has filed for divorce in Montgomery County (PA) due to its local sealed divorce records law, rather than in Berks County, their home jurisdiction. See, there’s a “special” law in Montgomery County that seals divorce records from snoopy neighbors. What a relief! We certainly wouldn’t want these well-known privacy hounds to miss one minute’s sleep worrying that their deepest darkest escapades might be viewed by the prying eyes of the public. This isn’t setting well with “open records advocates” who argue that the special law is wrong. Using words similar to the Doe v Sundquist ruling that opined “A birth is simultaneously an intimate occasion and a public event-the government has long kept records of when, where; and by whom babies are born….” they argue: “A divorce is a public act,” said Robert Richards, founding co-director of the Pennsylvania Center for the First Amendment at Penn State University. “They are Continue Reading →

Oops!

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Bastardette accidently posted a rough draft of a blog and only learned about it this morning when a comment was posted it. The blog–about Orphan and Esther–will probably be up later today. I am pretty sure the comment can then go up with it. If not, please post it again.

ANOTHER PHONY "SAVE"

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From the San Gabriel Valley News: The baby was surrendered after her mother’s water broke and she called a West Covina hospital inquiring about a county program that accepts unwanted babies. The baby, a girl, was born Tuesday at the same hospital, said Deanne Tilton Durfee, executive director of the Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect. She had 9 months, and this is all she could come up with?

ANOTHER PIONEER PASSES: TONY VILARDI

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We are sad to learn of the passing yesterday of Tony Vilardi, co-founder with his late wife Emma May of ISRR, the International Soundex Reunion Registry. Tony is a pioneer and real adoptee rights hero who touched countless adoptees and their families with his work. Tony retired from the day-to-day oversight of ISSR in October 2001, but remained an Executive trustee until 2007. He is survived by his wife Mary Braun Vilardi. This is from the ISSR memorial page: The number of adoptees, birth parents, siblings and other family members who have been touched by Tony’s generosity and commitment is in the tens of thousands. Most will never know it was he who paid for the telephone bills or stamps that resulted in their reunion. Most will never understand how their lives are different because he quietly and consistently made sure that ISRR stayed strong and open. You can share your thoughts about Tony here ISRR is a volunteer organization. Tony paid many of the expenses himself. There is no mention on the ISRR page, but I think it would be nice to send ISRR a donation in Tony’s memory here or through planned giving/wish list or by mail: ISRRP.O. Continue Reading →

UN COMMITTEE ON RIGHTS OF THE CHILD CALLS FOR FRANCE TO RESTORE IDENTITY RIGHTS TO THE X’S

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Thanks to Mirah Riben for this heads-up! Committee on Rights of the Child concludes fifty-first session Source: United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Date: 12 Jun 2009 Committee on the Rights of the ChildROUNDUP Issues Conclusions on Reports of France, Sweden, Mauritania, Slovenia, Bangladesh, Niger, Romania and Oman Excerpt from report on France regarding accouchement sous X/Born Under X/legalized baby dumping: The Committee also remained concerned that a mother giving her child up for adoption, if she wished, could conceal her identity and oppose the right of the child to know his or her origins, depriving the child of a part of his or her rights. The Committee thus reiterated its previous recommendation that France take all appropriate measures to fully enforce the child’s right to know his or her biological parents and siblings, as enshrined in article 7 of the Convention.

UPDATE: BASTARDETTE’S STREET GOES UP FLAMES

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I’ve been MIA for the last couple weeks tied up with a couple non-adoption projects (imagine!) and some serious laziness. I’ve got a lot to write about and maybe some of it will actually get written. In the meantime, here are some pictures of the demolition of Grandma Liz’s house, destroyed by fire on May 2o. The demo happened Monday and Tuesday of this week. It was sad to watch, but there’s nothing left to mourn but memories. Repairs on the two other houses (#2 and #4) hasn’t started yet outside of clearing away indoor debris. Perhaps the owners are insured by AIG. I haven’t heard anything official on the cause of the fire, but when I wasn’t home, somebody came door-to-door from the fire department telling my neighbors that the investigation indicates the fire was caused by a smoldering cigarette in the living room,. Since nobody was staying in the house at the time, how that cigarette got there is a question. It could have come from a worker in the house earlier that day…or it could have been smoldering for some time and finally reached a flash point and basically exploded the house when the heat reached a Continue Reading →

MADONNA CAN COME DOWN FROM HER CROSS NOW

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As predicted, the fix was in, and Madonna has acquired another human accoutrement. Citing Ms. Ciccone’s “investment” in the welfare of Malawian children, the Malawi Supreme Court overrode their country’s strict adoption laws and sent Chifuno “Mercy” James on her merry way to Madonna’s lovin’ lap of luxury. Chief Justice Lovemore Munio, reading the three-judge panel decision said that Madonna’s commitment to helping Malawi’s disadvantaged children should have been taken into account in her initial petition to adopt Mercy. This is from the AP story: The appeals court said that was a narrow interpretation based on old laws “In this global village a man can have more than one place at which he resides,” Munlo said in the ruling, which took more than an hour to read in court Friday. “The matter of residence should be determined at the time of application of the adoption. In this case, Madonna was in Malawi not by chance but by intention. She is looking after several orphans whose welfare depends on her. She can therefore not be described as a sojourner. Talk about legal contortions! Madonna may not be a “sojourner” but neither is she a resident of Malawi. The court simply ignored Continue Reading →

NEW JERSEY: THIS IS NOT A SAFE HAVEN….

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…so why is it being treated as one? The June 11, 2009 online edition of The Packet/CentralJersey.com reports that on May 6, an unidentified woman driving on the New Jersey Turnpike took the Cranbury exit, and dropped off a 6-month old boy at the local police station. He was accompanied by a blanket, diaper bag, baby carrier, bottle, and stroller. Now, anybody who has watched COPS knows that police are a curious bunch. Not so in Cranbury, population 2,008 (2000 census). Police asked the woman no questions, and called DYFS. The abandoner stuck around long enough to “speak to their representative” when the agency picked up the infant. What she had to say is, of course, a state secret. Cranbury police chief Ed Kahler is ecstatic: “The bottom line is at least she had enough forethought to take advantage of Safe Haven and knows that the baby will be taken care of.” Hey, Chief! This is NOT a “safe haven” catch. This is a drive-by abandonment. If Mom (if she is indeed the mom) had enough forethought to dump the kid on the cops, she had enough forethought to drop by a public or private social service or adoption agency Continue Reading →