"I could have done more"

Irena Sendler was a polish woman who saved more than 2500 children during the holocaust. Knowing that she was doing the right thing, she smuggled children out of a city where jewish families were taken to death camps. She could not take the rest of the family, so she kept a record of the names of the children so that after the war they might be reunited with their families.

When she was eventually caught and tortured, she refused to give up the names the children. Her body was broken, leaving her with scares she would bare for the rest of her life. Finally, after friends bribed a guard she was released. She went right back to her work of saving children.

In 2005 Sendler reflected: "We who were rescuing children are not some kind of heroes. … The opposite is true - I continue to have qualms of conscience that I did so little. I could have done more."

Sendler died on Monday. She was 98.

Reason number 666: why i don't have children

I have long known that studies supported the idea that marriage makes people happier. I did not know that marriage withOUT children made them happier still.

According to a professor of psychology at Harvard University married couples have more happiness than those who are single, divorced, or co-habituating. However, the happiness of the couple decreases upon having children.

Once the children have left the home, the happiness of the couple returns to pre-children rates.

"Parents tell me all the time that: `My child is my greatest source of joy'," Professor Daniel Gilbert said. My reply is that: `Yes, when you have one source of joy, it's bound to be your greatest'."

AT LAST!! I finally have a scientific answer for why i am still childless!

Take it like a man

When the Pope recognised that there was a problem with so much pedophilia in his church earlier in the week, he cleverly blamed the rest of the world for the problem. He acknowledged that there was a problem in his dioceses, but said that pedophilia "is found not only in your dioceses but in every sector of society".

If the Pope can see pedophilia is *every* sector of society, he is either only looking in certain places or is looking through a tinted lens.

Is there an epidemic of kindergarten teachers who are secretly molesting children? Perhaps it is new mothers or the tourist industry that is rampant in child pornography.

The fact that catholic priests are often associated with molesting young boys is not some kind of protestant conspiracy to discredit them. It has come out of hundred if not thousands of complaints of child abuse.

If that wasn't enough the catholic church has notoriously covered up, or protected those accused.

For the Pope to turn around and claim society is at the core of the abuse of the Catholic Priests' victims, is infuriating. The Church needs to "take it like a man". Accept responsibility for their own actions in full, not blaming society or anyone else, and then lay out plans of how to eradicate those who abuse children and those who protect those who abuse children. But most importantly, carry out those plans. Only then will i believe they are being serious about protecting the children.

Bringing more death to Louisiana

To any one who has read a story in the paper, or known a child who was molested or raped, you know how gut wrenching it is to hear the offender get a light sentence. The child may be scared both emotionally and physically for life and the offender gets away with a mere 7 year sentence. What if that changed?

Louisiana is proposing to add child rape to the charges in which perpetrators can face the death penalty.

Now before you jump on-board and start waving flag to push the bill through, lets think about this for a minute.

Most child rapes are committed by family members or family friends of the victim. If the victim or victim's friends know that the offender could be killed for his/her actions, are they more or less likely to turn them in? I would suggest less. Child Advocacy groups agree.

Furthermore, those who trespass on the law, do not often think of the consequences, and if they do, they may decide that the lesser sentence of murder will keep them off death row. So while the harsher sentence would not be a likely factor to deter perpetrators, those who do think about these things are likely to take the next step and kill their victim.

If the death penalty is enacted for child rape, does statutory rape carry the same sentence? There are more than once case of a partner going to jail because his/her lover was 1 or 2 years younger and under the adult age bracket.

All these factors make this is a scary policy and one i don't think i could support.

protect your children!

Before i really get into my rant here, let me just remind everyone i have no children. This should allow you to see my wisdom in this matter immediately.

An article came out today about the Disney channel accidently showing pornography instead of children's programming. The man who was interviewed about it was quite agahst that his five year old child should see something so "disgusting".

It never ceases to amuse me the lengths parents go to, to keep their children from knowing or seeing sex. The child may be able to watch violent movies, watch some guy get hit in the groin, but aposolutely NO sex is allowed in any context.

Now i'm not suggesting that parents allow their kids to watch X rated videos...but maybe a little more thought should be put into what sort of viewing is acceptable.

With any luck, a child will grow into an adult and have sex. With even more luck, they will never kill someone or be forced to watch a (real life) violent crime. By encouraging children to watch voilence on games or on screen, we inadvertantly condone crimes and condemn sex.

Is this the message we really want children to get?

Freeze frame

A child born with static encephalopathy has been frozen in childhood to prevent her from developing to full grown adult. The parents are saying it's to allow her more mobility (if she is small they can take her places. if she is an adult, she would be very difficult to move around). She will never be more mentally developed than that of an infant. Now her body has been stopped from developing further. Her ovaries and breast buds have been removed and she has been given a massive dose of estrogen to prevent her from growing any taller.

The parents must have balls of steel to do this. The international community are having a war of words. Everyone has an opinion on how this ethically affects the rest of the disabled community.

And since everyone seems to get to comment on this case, I'll put my 2 cents in as well. The parents have done the best thing for this child that they could. I'm not saying it would be right for every disabled child, but from the information they have put out there, i think this is the best decision they could make.