Demon Clown Baby

Just read this story about putting life-size cardboard cutouts of children near the roads in areas with safety concerns.

So far it’s causing cars to slow down.

Wood said he is now getting calls from police departments and neighborhood associations across the country.

Presumably he’s getting calls to buy the cutouts, which he sells for $60 each.

Only problem is, it won’t take long for people to catch on that these are cardboard, and then when there’s a real child near the road, there may be a delay in slowing down while people try to decide whether the child is real or not.

Possible Result: dead children.

I thought The Boy Who Cried Wolf was required reading.

A man booby-trapped his house with 19 shotguns in an attempt to kill his relatives. He accidentally was shot and killed by his own trap.

This is the part that makes me crazy:

Here in the heart of conservative, Catholic Belgium, few were surprised that the churchgoing couple produced a total of 14 children – 10 girls and four boys – or that Dethy had hung a crucifix on the wall in each room, including the kitchen.

His strong religious beliefs did not prevent him, however, from committing adultery, and when his wife caught him in bed with another woman 20 years ago she walked out, taking the children with her. Dethy then retreated into a reclusive existence behind the net curtains of his home.

Relatives say he never forgave his wife for divorcing him, or his 14 children and 37 grandchildren for having little to do with him. His bitterness grew into a desire for revenge when even his mother became estranged from him.

He never forgave his wife? He’s the one who committed adultery on her. She had a right to divorce him, and the kids were right to side with her.

Usually people end up sticking by their parents or children no matter how worthless they are. In this case it seems people did the right thing. Too bad he couldn’t humble himself and seek forgiveness, instead of harboring resentment over the consequences of his own evil acts.

And now he is dead. What a waste of a life on this earth.

This article is about people using in vitro fertilization to make sure they have children that share their disabilities.

There are several issues here. One, is IVF okay to use at all? Two, is using IVF to not just have a baby, but have a particular kind of baby, okay? Three, is using IVF to purposefully have a baby with a disability okay?

For the first issue, my answer is this: IVF is not okay in any case, if you are against abortion. IVF always results in the destruction of embryos. Eggs are fertilized, becoming unique individuals with their own genetic code, and then destroyed.

I’m actually going to ignore the second issue for now.

The main thing I find fascinating is that people want to purposefully have babies with disabilities so they will be like them.

Of course, the people wanting to do this do not consider themselves disabled. Many deaf people resent being called disabled.

The way I was raised, being disabled is not a bad thing. It’s not a negative word, it’s not an epithet. It just means you can’t do something that the majority can naturally do. If you can’t see, but human beings as a group can see, then you are disabled. If you cannot hear, but humans generally can, then you are disabled.

It doesn’t mean you are any less of a person. It doesn’t mean you even miss the ability, since you never had it. You might be fine to not hear, have friends that are deaf, a whole community.

But you can’t hear, and the rest of us can, and you are disabled. That’s just a fact. If other people have made you think that fact is bad, then they are wrong for doing that.

So a disability is nothing bad. You might be fine to not hear. However, that doesn’t mean that deafness is superior to being able to hear. If your child can hear, they can still learn to sign, they can just also hear. How is that bad?

If deaf people have a child that is deaf, I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. But if deaf people purposely try to have a child that is deaf, I think that’s bad. They are depriving their children of a useful ability on purpose.

If people with dwarfism purposely try to have a child with dwarfism, I think that’s bad. Not because it’s bad to be short, but because it’s a fact that there are several medical problems associated with dwarfism, and why have your child have to deal with that?

Cara Reynolds of Collingswood, N.J., who considered embryo screening but now plans to adopt a dwarf baby, is outraged by the criticism.

“You cannot tell me that I cannot have a child who’s going to look like me,” Reynolds said. “It’s just unbelievably presumptuous and they’re playing God.”

The irony! Embryo screening is playing God. No one is saying you can’t procreate with your husband. But when you screen embryos (and kill the ones you don’t like) then it is you who is playing God.

Karen Krogstad, a 25-year-old partly deaf student in Bozeman, Mont., said she understands why parents “would go to great lengths to make sure their child will be deaf.”

She and her deaf friends “see ourselves as fully functional human beings who can’t hear. People who wear glasses, are they disabled? No, but if you have hearing aids, to assist with hearing, you are labeled as disabled.”

Ah, the irony! For years I have argued the opposite of this. I think people who have to wear glasses are disabled. I wear glasses, and I hate it. I have worn glasses since the 5th grade. I still hate it. All the time. Without them, I can barely see.

How is that different from someone who is missing a leg and has an artificial limb? There are people with artificial legs that can run faster than I can and do flips. I can’t do that. So I can see okay when I have my assistance devices, but not otherwise.

Because a very large percentage of people wear glasses, we act like it isn’t a disability. But it is.

I am having a child. It’s possible she may have bad eyesight. I hope not though. I don’t want her to have to wear glasses so she looks like me. I’m disabled. I’d rather she not be.

I certainly wouldn’t try to have a nearsighted child.

What about a paraplegic having in-utero surgery on her baby so it had no arms? So it would look like her?

Is the “I want the child to look like me” defense really sustainable? It’s really just selfish.

You do not have the right to do whatever you want so that you can have a child that looks like you. That is not your right. Wanting something does not make it okay.