I wasn’t sure if I wanted to blog about this, mostly because I think this crazy bitch has been talked about to death, but, hell, isn’t the whole point of blogging that you get to talk about things you find interesting, to the exclusion of what anyone else thinks? (unless you’re working for Arianna Huffington, of course)
So, I’ve been following this ethical debate, not because I’m a mom myself, but rather as it reflects a belief inherent in our society. More on that later, as I just want to get this out of the way:
She’s nuts. Really. Did you see the interview? She wants to have her own child army because she felt out of control of her surroundings as a child? And she admits that this is the reason she now wants to control the lives of as many children as possible? So, it’s revenge for having to have been a child once herself? Jesus Christ, could she be any more cuckoo en la cabeza???
Attention whores aside, this raises the questions of what is important to us as Americans. Make no mistake, this woman’s situation is uniquely American. There is absolutely no way that, in any other country, a licensed physician would have consented to do this for an unemployed woman living at home 
with her parents (and, might I add, without said parents’ approval). And by “this” I mean implant sooooo many fetuses in her. And not just the exorbitant amount done at the same time, I’m talking the whole shebang. 14 kids. No job, no prospects (that’s right, lady, in spite of your adorable view that people out there are clamoring to pay social workers a ton of money, it just ain’t the case), no father, and a great big case of crazy. And why? Because the rest of the world tends to look at cases in context.
While my furren friends really seem to be impressed (to the point of near obsession) with our system of government, I tend to get shocked stares when I mention what “individual freedom” actually implies, when taken as far as we do. Talking with my Brazilian friends about the seriously tough question of how best to institute their own form of affirmative action (given that over 90% of the population boasts some African blood, it’s a really interesting question of what defines race), we started talking about freedom in general and its implications. When I brought up the question of female circumcision and whether it should be allowed, or of whether or not it’s Constitutional to force a Christian Scientist to seek medical help for their dying child, they seemed so certain about the answer. They were universally wrong, in the eyes of the Supreme Court, though.
If you’d rather, and who wouldn’t, let’s make fun of the French for a while. When they recently banned the wearing of any religious wear in schools, I was appalled. Debating this over lunch a while back with one of my French friends (who, incidentally, even I consider a bed-wetting liberal hippie type), I began to sympathize with the plight of that government. Dealing with multiple reports of the gang-raping of women who were walking into Muslim neighborhoods with skirts above their knees or their arms bared (meaning, of course, that they are whores), among other forms of race rioting, the government felt it had to act in the interest of the majority of its people and try to forcibly assimilate a culture that didn’t want to be assimilated. When I shot back that this ban on headscarves and the like would only mean more home-schooling for the children in question, which would alienate them further, he asked what we would do (at which point I shut up, partially because I was upset that he’d responded at all to what I had perceived to be a pretty damned good argument, but mostly because I was stymied and hungry). Anyway, the point is that, when looked at as an individual case, the good of the whole was deemed more imperiled than the rights of the few. (Whew!)
I have to say, though, that what makes me angrier at this dumb broad than anything is her timing. Right when our country deperately needs to pull together and get our economy moving, along comes this chick and her admission that she and her poor kids are taking disability and food stamps from the government. Well, that’s just great. Never mind that the most efficient way to stimulate the economy (according to real economists, even!) is food stamps. Now all the GOP has to do in order to divide our nation once again on the wisdom of said economists is trot out this Willie-Horton-with-a-litter-o-chilluns and point. The conspiracy theorist in me would like to think she’s a right-wing plant (what better poster child to use against welfare and food stamps?), but I think the truth is, like Joe the Plumber, she’s just an ignorant tool. Which is why we should revamp education, right?
Rant over. Back to fart jokes.
The Jabberin' Wookie 