Strollerderby : Louisiana

Woman Trades Two Kids For Bird

Brett Singer — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Be ready to get annoyed. Or at least shake your head.

OK. Ready? Heeere we go.

Two people, Paul and Brandy Romero, wanted to sell their cockatoo for $1500. So they placed an ad in the local paper.

Donna Greenwell called and said, hi. I'd like to buy the bird. But wait -- there's more! Greenwell told the Romeros that she was taking care of three children that weren't hers, and she offered to sell the couple two of them for $2000.

I'll just quote the next part:

"The parties allegedly negotiated a trade involving the two kids, the bird and $175."

Some tipped off the appropriate authorities, the kids were placed in foster care, and the adults involved were arrested. The charge is "aggravated kidnapping," according to CNN.

So what the hell, right? Here's a twist I didn't see coming. "The children were well taken care of when they were with the Romeros, who badly wanted children."

I know this is going to sound insane. But if someone can find a couple to take care of children whose parents are unable to care for them, as it sounds like these kids were, is there a way to make that happen? Should there be? I know, adoption, foster care. But I don't think I can choose the parents in a situation like that.

Lots of questions, of course. How did the three kids come to be living with Donna Greenwell, a truck driver who is not related to them? In case you were curious, the third child was "placed" with another Louisana family, although no one seems to know if there was "bartering" involved with that one. No word on any birds either.

I know it's morbid, but I have to admit that I would love to hear that phone call. "Hi, I'm calling about your bird for sale? Mm-hm, mm-hm. Well, while I've got you on the line, would you be interested in these two kids I'm taking care of?"

All kidding aside, it's a terrible situation and I hope everyone ends up OK. Sometimes you have to laugh to stay sane.

Source: CNN

Image: sxc.hu

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Babysitter Puts Baby in a Running Dryer so She Could Watch TV

Cole Gamble — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:30:00 GMT

Arielle Smith, 19, has been charged with murder in Louisiana for placing a 5-month-old child in a dryer and turning it on.

This is one of the stories that make it hard to breathe.

Alleged, the teen placed the baby Andre Jenkins in the dryer and locked up Andre’s 18-month-old brother and one-year-old sister in order to watch television without interruption. Smith had removed the clothing from the dryer before placing Andre in and after removing the unresponsive baby she placed the clothes back inside. Then Smith called her boyfriend and the child’s mother, suggesting the death was not intentional.

That is about all of the story I can stomach writing.

After a long time without any kind of babysitter, my wife and I lucked out and were able to get a woman that worked at our kids’ pre-school. We completely trust her competence and motives. I don’t think even a good interview and references can ensure parents don’t end up with an Arielle Smith. All I can say is you can only do your best to perhaps go through an accredited nanny/babysitter service.

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Morning News: Congresswoman Slams Down the Phone on Obama ... Twice!

Madeline Holler — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Florida GOP Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen refused to continue a phone call with the president-elect yesterday. Was it anger? Politics? Lack of interest in talking to the Democrat who was elected fair and square?

Actually, it was a miscalculation on Ros-Lehtinen's part. Perhaps learning from her party's VP candidate's mistakes ... she just assumed it was a prank call from a Florida radio station morning show. A third try was the charm. We kind of like this lawmaker's suspicious mind.

The Times Online has a video and story about Obama's grandfather, who was apparently tortured by the British during the Mau Mau uprising, Kenya's struggle for independence. Obama's grandmother says his grandfather was a cook for a British Army officer and acted as an informant during the rebellion.

A new Harris Interactive survey shows a majority of Americans are fine with same-sex couples getting married. Some 75 percent thing gays and lesbians should be allowed some kind of legal partnerships. Only 22 percent think there should be no legal recognition of committed same-sex couples.

Your worst fear as parents confirmed: you can't afford college!

Oh boy, here we go with shaming the fatties again. The annual list of healthiest/least healthy states -- determined in large part on obesity rates -- has been released. Vermont is the healthiest (oh, aren't they always). Life in Louisiana, however, is a veritable early death sentence.

A watchdog group has found that fewer toys tested positive for lead this year. That's the good news. The bad news is they found a third contained worrisome levels of toxic chemicals. Not to worry, since nobody's buying anything this year anyway.

Finally, every child of divorce worries he or she somehow contributed to the demise of the parents' marriage. Britney's ex, Kevin Federline, confirms as much. He tells people magazine that Britney filed for divorce after he was paying too much attention the kids.

Photo: CNN.com

La. Legislator Says: Let's Pay the Poor to Stop Making Babies

JeanneSager — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:34:00 GMT

Think you're done having kids? How about moving down to the Big Easy - where they're considering a plan to make it a little easier to really put a stop to childbearing.

A Republican (natch) State Legislator in Louisiana is mullling a move to offer $1,000 to every woman who will tie her tubes or to men who will undergo a vasectomy. His reason? The economy. "We're on a train headed to the future and there's a bridge out, " Rep. John LaBruzzo told the Times Picayune. Excuse this liberal mama her line crossing moment, but some of his ideas for a "bridge to somewhere" (sorry, I just had to) have merit.

No really. We constantly kvetch about poor people popping out babies that then live off the system (us), but has anyone offered up a means for them to STOP? Tubal ligations, vasectomies . . .they don't come cheap. Even those of us who have health insurance often end up paying a few hundred dollars between the co-pay for ambulatory surgery, the pain pills, the co-pays for the before and after visits with the doctor.

It's also one of the few measures that puts the onus on both sides of the zygote. It's all well and good to tie a woman's tubes, but if he's still got swimmers, that means babies can still be made - just not with her. It makes it harder to say that the government is being sexist when they're willing to pony up the same cash to snip him as they would to tie up her childbearing days.

And coming from a politician who is pro-life, it's a reminder that there wouldn't be nearly as many abortions if women weren't having unwanted pregnancies to begin with. An ardent supporter of a woman's right to choose, I can still acknowledge that for all the women who seek an abortion because it's the right choice for them, there are abortions done because a woman either chose not to use birth control and had an "oops" or her form of birth control failed. A tubal ligation has a pretty high success rate - one in 200 women may become pregnant after the procedure - while the vasectomy has even better numbers - 1 or 2 in 1,000 women get pregnant after having sex with a man who's gone under the scalpel. Sounds better than a thin layer of very breakable latex to me . . .

Yes, this is what they call sterilization, folks. But instead of lining people up and putting the proverbial gun to their heads, this would be for volunteers only. Which makes it hard for me to understand how this could be termed "racist," "Nazi" or any of the other epithets hurled LaBruzzo's way since he threw out the idea.

It's offering people a choice - for once.

Image: Feminist Women's Health Center

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Is it fair to take pictures of Britney's kids?

Brett Singer — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:53:00 GMT

You may have heard about the photographs of Britney Spears smoking while 2-year-old Sean Preston was playing with her cigarette lighter. Well, the actual photo doesn't quite show that. Here it is:

Now, far be it from me to disagree with the celebrity media machine, but this doesn't look as bad as it sounds. In this pic she looks to be taking the cigarettes away from her child. That would be the right thing to do. The better thing to do would be to not smoke at all, and especially not in front of your kids. Second-hand smoke is very dangerous, especially to little lungs. It also makes me wonder if she was smoking while pregnant, which would be much worse. My guess – and I have nothing to back this up – is that she probably was. As a former smoker, I know how hard it is to quit, and it looks to me like the Britster is quite the nicotine addict.

Here's the part that gets me: the photos were taken at her house. Why? Presumably a photog with a mega-ultra-zoom lens – a "Pavarotti", as El Federline famously referred to them on his ill-fated rap album – was suspended from a helicopter or something and took the shot through her window or on her balcony.

She's a celebrity, and over 18 (although emotionally she might be, like, 12, but let's not go there). But her kids aren't. Not to sound like a celebrity defending dipstick ("LEAVE...BRITNEY...ALONE!"), but maybe there should be a law that prevents the kids from being photographed, at least when they're at home. As someone points out over at MomLogic, they didn't ask to be in this bizarre situation.

There are celebrities whose children you almost never see candid pictures of – Madonna, Howard Stern, Christie Brinkley, and I'm sure there are dozens more that I can't think of at the moment. Of course, those people aren't the unbelievable mess that Brit appears to be. At best, this photo shows poor judgment on her part, not only the smoking but also hanging out with her kid in front of an open window where a sleazoid photographer can get a clear shot. Um, curtains? A really high hedge? Move someplace else?

Of course, if nobody wanted to see the pictures, they wouldn't be worth anything, and photographers wouldn't take them. But that's a different topic.

Here are the rest of the photos. Hey, at least she looks pretty good in her bikini.

images: popsugar.com

Strollerderby : Louisiana

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