You Know the Banks Have Fucked Up With the Government Bailout...

...when even a celebrity gossip site like TMZ.com is devoting a post to this. TMZ has exposed how Northern Trust spent $1.6 billion in government bailout money on all sorts of stuff like a fabulous cocktail party at the Lowes Santa Monica Beach Hotel and a special clients and employees-only concert performed by Chicago.

This went on despite the fact that Northern Trust laid off 450 workers (4 percent of its workforce) last December.

And people have been getting outraged over Nadya Suleman giving birth to octuplets even though she's unemployed, collecting disability payments, living with her parents, and is already the mother of six other children. While it's possible that Nadya Suleman may be gaming the system and getting access to California taxpayers' money that she has no right to get, the money she has earned is nothing compared with how Northern Trust has squandered a whopping $1.6 billion in taxpayers' money. And Northern Trust is not the only institution who have misused bailout money like that. Personally I think people should focus their anger on the banks and Wall Street firms who are spending taxpayers' money on expensive vacations, luxury goods, and buying out smaller banks instead of Nadya Suleman.

Preventing Future Nadya Sulemans

Ever since I last devoted an entire post to Nadya Suleman, the single woman who not only conceived and gave birth to octuplets with a little help from a fertility clinic but also was already had six other children--including a set of 2-year-old twins--who were also conceived with help from the same fertility clinic, her mother have given an extensive interview with RadarOnline.com (where she called her daughter's decision to have her octuplets "unconscenable") and her father have even given interviews as well. In addition, there are two blogs that have been created that are totally devoted to her--NadyaSuleman.com and Suleman Without Pity--and the entries and comments in both blogs are very hostile.

Some of the hostility is justified to some extent. Nadya Suleman hasn't held a job outside her home in 10 years, she's been collecting disability benefits based on an injury she received while working her former job, and she currently receive both food stamps and monthly SSI disability payments. She's currently going to college in pursuit of a Masters degree with the help of student loans and grants. Yet, at the same time, she has made repeat visits to the same fertility clinic where she had succeeded in getting a large brood of 14 children in eight years.

She has denied that she's getting welfare, although there's plenty of dispute as to whether the help she's gotten from the government is technically "welfare". There have also been calls for the removal of all of her children from her home and many statements on how she should have never gone through that last pregnancy in the first place.

Okay, I'm willing to admit that it's possible that Nadya Suleman have been gaming the system for years with being able to get disability and school loans while being able to afford expensive fertility treatments. Even if she has been ripping off the taxpayers in California, the amount of money is pretty small potatoes compared with what certain Wall Street executives did with the massive government bailout money (such as larger banks buying smaller banks, paying for expensive spa treatments at luxury resorts, and giving outrageous bonuses to the same executives who made disastrous business decisions that brought their companies to the brink of collapse). Personally I'd rather heap all of my scorn for those overpaid bloated Wall Street executives than Nadya Suleman.

I'm also willing to concede that Nadya Suleman is not exactly dealing with reality. In her interview with the Today show she said that she expected to be able to resume her studies this fall despite the fact that she'll be dealing with eight infants, one set of two-year-old twins, a three-year-old with autism, and three other children--with the oldest being seven years old. Even if she could afford to provide for all those children while paying for tuition, books, and other supplies, she'll still need to balance her time between her children and being able to devote some time away from her kids for attending classes, doing homework, and studying for exams. But the fact remains that if it weren't for the enablers in her life, she would've never been in the situation that she is currently in.

Recently it's been reported that Nadya Suleman has been getting death threats. The some of the comments on those two aforementioned blogs have claimed that it's just her being a drama queen but I'm not prepared to call her a liar on that one. Over the years I've witnessed all kinds of stalking and troll behavior that has affected other people I know. There are a lot of disturbed people out there on the Internet who don't have lives of their own so they find someone or something to get an unnatural obsession over. I wouldn't be surprised if she has been getting threatening messages from some deranged troll.

I personally think that Nadya Suleman has mental health issues that have caused her in doing the things that she has done. I'm not a psychiatrist or psychologist so I can't say for sure what she's suffering from. But I think it's wrong to throw so much hostility towards her because I don't think she's playing with a full deck of cards. She really needed professional help from a mental health expert--not a fertility clinic doctor.

I also think it's wrong to throw hostility towards any of her children because they didn't ask to be born into this situation. I've read calls for the California government to cut off all benefits to her children, which is misplaced because they are the innocent victims in all of this. I think those kids need as much help from the government as possible until they reach adulthood so they'll become independent functioning adults who'll pay their share of taxes.

And, yes, all of those children will need some kind of help from outside the family, especially the octuplets. According to this recent article, a U.S. study of nearly 250 mothers found that for each additional multiple birth child — from twins to triplets, for example, or triplets to quadruplets — the odds of having trouble meeting basic material needs more than tripled. The odds of lower quality of life and increased social stigma more than doubled with each added child. And the risk of depression in the mothers also rose with each additional child.

The bottom line is that it's too late to undo the existence of all 14 of Nadya Suleman's children. They are already here and one can't go back in time to do everything possible to prevent their births. And you can't go into the hospital nursery and kill all of the octuplets or blow up the home where the six older children live--that would be murder. The general public is just going to have to suck up and and accept the fact that they are here and they will need help from people outside the family.

I think much of the scorn should be hurled at Nadya Suleman's enablers because, without their help, Suleman would've never gotten into her current situation in the first place. First there are her parents. I've read the mother's interview and the father's interview. Both have spoken about their disapproval for what Nadya has done in her numerous visits to the fertility clinic, how she's irreponsible for what she has done, how they have told her fertility doctor not to help Nadya and he broke his promise to them.

But not once in those interviews did either one of them say whether they had ever spoken to Nadya directly about this. Since it wasn't mentioned, I'm going to assume that they haven't done so. You'd think that after Nadya had her second, third, or even fourth child, they would come to her and say "This is about as many children that we can handle under our roof. If you want to make any more visits to the fertility clinic, you're going to have to get a job and get your own place to live. As long as you're living under our roof, that baby you're currently holding in your arms will be your last child."

Had they said something like this to Nadya then followed through by kicking her out when she returned to the fertility clinic, Nadya would've been forced to grow up and face reality very quickly. Because there's nothing that forces maturity on a biological adult faster than being completely on your own with little or no help from the parents. Nadya would've been forced to face the reality of raising children on her own--the same reality that thousands of other single parents in the U.S. face on a daily basis. It's possible that Nadya would've seen the light, stop being a babymaker, focus her efforts on supporting the children she already has, and the whole octuplet incident could've been avoided.

Basically Nadya's parents just didn't have the backbone to confront their daughter about her choices. I don't know whether they were always doormats when it came to raising and disciplining their daughter but I wouldn't be surprised if they were the kind of parents who catered to their only child's every whim when she was growing up and that girl rarely heard the word "no" from either parent.

Then there is David Solomon, the friend who is reportedly the biological father of all of Suleman's children. He hasn't made any public statements so not much is known about him other than what others have said about him in the media. It seems like that every time Nadya wanted to become a mother again and again, she would come to him, he would say okay, and he would just donate his sperm. Not once did he express his concerns about her having too many kids at once. You'd think he would do so since they are all his biological children.

Had he been simply an anonymous sperm donor, this wouldn't be an issue since such donors usually donate for the money then walk out the door without every thinking about whether their specimens have created children or not. But this guy is a family friend who knew Nadya Suleman who didn't say anything about her frequent need for more children and just went along with whatever she wanted.

Okay, you can't do much about either Nadya's parents or the sperm donor. None of them have broken any laws so they can't be thrown in prison. You can't pass laws requiring any of them to grow backbones and learn to assert themselves by saying "no" once in a while. Sure, you could publicly shun and shame them for what they did but it'll ultimately become an exercise in futility because one can't change the past.

But something can--and should--be done about Nadya's other enabler: her fertility doctor and the fertility clinic he works for. While it's too late to undo Nadya Suleman's current situation, something can be done to prevent any future Nadya Suleman-like situations from ever happening again.

While there are guidelines for how many embryos can be implanted into a woman's uterus at one time that were adopted by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, unlike some other countries, the United States has no laws to enforce those guidelines. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a surveillance system that collects data on fertility clinics but reporting is voluntary and there are no sanctions for not reporting.

As a result, any doctor who wishes to disregard those guidelines can legally do so with impunity. In the case of Nadya Suleman's doctor, Dr. Michael Kamrava, he had one of the nation's highest rates of embryo transfer in younger women--3.5 versus a national average of 2.3. Ironically he had the lowest number of resulting pregnancies in the nation. Of the 56 procedures he performed in 2006, only two resulted in live births. One of them was the twins born to Nadya Suleman.

Over the past year not only had Dr. Kamrava's procedures resulted in Suleman's octuplets but another woman he treated is currently pregnant with quadruplets.

The main reason why some doctors will implant more than two embryos is because many health insurance companies in the U.S. will not fund fertility treatments. This says something about the lack of health care reform and standardized health insurance coverage in the U.S., which could easily be written about as a separate topic.

Other countries take a stricter approach when it comes to fertility clinics. In Europe, laws limit the number of embryos that can be used in a single procedure. National healthcare typically covers a certain number of IVF treatments, taking the pressure off doctors to achieve success on their first try. Birth rates are generally lower, but so are rates of multiple births. In the U.S. there are no laws regulating the maximum number of embryos that can be implanted at once. On top of that, fertility clinics don't routinely counsel prospective parents about the emotional and financial strains of multiple births so parents who end up expecting a large litter have no idea what they're in for.

I think this needs to be changed. The reality is that there are women with fertility problems using these clinics and they are literally playing Russian roulette with their uterus and their potential children. If the Federal Government can pass a law outlawing third trimester partial birth abortion, surely it can pass a law limiting the number of embryos that can be implanted in a woman at a time.

There also need to be enforcement as well. If a doctor is caught violating the law he should be subjected to paying a very stiff fine, be responsible for paying the health care expenses of the multiple births, and possibly be stripped of his medical license.

Had such a Federal law been in place at the time of Nadya Suleman's last visit to the fertility clinic, I'm willing to bet that Dr. Kamrava would've thought twice before implanting those six embryos inside Suleman. (Two of the embryos later split, which resulted in the octuplets.)

There should also be Federal guidelines as to who should get fertility treatments to begin with. If a prospective mother fails one or more of the guidelines, the doctor would be required to reject her for treatment. What kind of guidelines should be implemented? Well here are a few ideas.

Pre-screening of the prospective parents. I have a friend who adopted a child as a single mother. When she made the decision to adopt, she had to go through psychological tests, interviews, and even home visits before she could even be placed on a waiting list. Had she chosen fertility treatments instead, she may or may not go through similar screening depending on the individual fertility clinic. If she went through one doctor or clinic that had pre-screening and got rejected, she could've easily found a doctor/clinic with more lax standards.

This is not right. By many accounts, Nadya Suleman had suffered from depression prior to her first fertility treatment and she thought that having a baby would solve that problem and she did mentioned that having the first child "helped my spirits". When that effect wore off, she thought that having another child would do the trick. She kept on having child after child and it still didn't resolve her mental health issues. Had she received pre-screening similar to what my friend went through, there's a chance that she would have been referred to a mental health professional to help her deal with her depression instead of a fertility clinic. A child generally thrives better when a parent doesn't have mental health issues.

Pre-screening would also consider the prospective parent's income and current living situation. An adoption agency would've rejected Suleman on the grounds that she has been on disability, hasn't held a job in many years, was currently attending school full-time while living with her parents in their home. Had any laws regulating fertility clinics been in effect, Suleman woudl've been rejected on similar grounds.

Spacing between pregnancies. If you look at the list of the 14 children whom Suleman have given birth to, you'd notice that over the past eight years, she has given birth six times (one delivery involved twins and the other involved the octuplets). Of those children, she currently collects SSI disability payments for three of them--one child has autism, another child has ADHD, while a third child has speech development delay problems with a potential for also having autism.

It's possible that the lack of spacing between her pregnancies may have been responsible for the health problems of her three younger children. Researchers in one study have found that infants born to women who conceived less than six months after giving birth had a 40% increased risk for being born prematurely and a 61% increased risk of low birth weight, compared with infants born to mothers who waited 18 months to two years between pregnancies.

I really think that fertility clinics need to enforce a minimum of two years after the birth of a child before a woman can become pregnant again. Had that rule been in effect, Nadya Suleman would've been required to wait a couple of years between children and she might've had better outcomes regarding the births of her younger children.

The number of other children of certain ages that the prospective parent already have. Obviously if a woman have never had children before she should be allowed to proceed with fertility treatments. But if the woman have previous children, then the fertility clinic must take their ages into consideration because it's a known fact that a--let's say--14-year-old and a 3-year-old have different needs and require different kinds of supervision.

I think that a fertility clinic should turn down a prospective client if a person already have more than two children under the age of five. The State of Maryland (where I live) places a strict number on how many preschoolers a licensed home day care provider can have in his/her home at any time and has an even stricter number on how many infants a person can care for at a time. There's a reason for that--younger children require more supervision and the more young children there are, the harder it is to supervise them all, and the greater likelihood that a tragedy can strike.

Had such a standard been in place, Nadya Suleman would've been turned down on the basis that she already had a five-year-old, a three-year-old, and a set of two-year-old twins. All she had to do was wait until her twins were a few years older before making a repeat visit to the fertility clinic.

The health of the other children. If a prospective parent already has a child with severe health problems that will take up much of the parent's time and money, then that parent has no business trying to bring more children into the world. The health of other children must be taken into account on whether a fertility clinic can accept a patient or not. Had that standard been in place, Nadya Suleman would've been rejected on the basis on having a three-year-old with autism, a condition that can challenge even the most dedicated parent.

Make selective reduction a requirement. Fertility clinics should do everything possible to prevent large litters of fetuses from being created. But if something goes awry, then the doctor should be required to make a selective reduction.

I know this requirement is controversial to those who are anti-abortion but think about this. Without selective reduction, a high order multiple pregnancy is generally likely to result in premature births. Some of those births result in death while others result in health complications that can last a lifetime (such as brain damage and cerebral palsy). Let's face it, unlike dogs and cats, a human woman's uterus is not designed for large litters.

A prospective parent's opinions about selective reduction should be taken into consideration whether a fertility clinic should help that person or not. If that person is strongly opposed to selective reduction, then that person should be rejected as a patient. Nadya Suleman's objection to selective reduction would've been enough to reject her as a patient.

For those who say that selective reduction is against God's will, I say this. Perhaps it was God's will that a prospective parent had fertility problems in the first place and getting pregnant through a fertility clinic is against God's will. That's the reason that the Roman Catholic Church uses when it expresses its opposition to fertility clinics as being "unnatural".

In short, we need to make quadruplets and higher a thing of the past.

The age of the prospective parents. Okay, this doesn't really apply to 33-year-old Nadya Suleman since she is in her prime childbearing years and one can assume that she has several years of her life ahead of her. But over the past 10 years or so I've read so many stories about women in their sixties and seventies getting pregnant and I think it's very unfair to the children born under these circumstances. The older the mother is when the child is born, the less likely she will live long enough to see that child grow into adulthood. It's one thing if a 70-year-old mother of a newborn is lucky enough to live to 90 and beyond but how often are people that lucky?

Personally I think fertility clinics should make age 55 the cut-off age. Anyone who's older than that should be encouraged to do something else--like volunteering as a tutor at an elementary school or becoming a Big Brother or Big Sister to a child who needs another adult in his/her life.

I know that some people will call me sexist since post-menopausal women can only get pregnant through fertility clinics while older men can father children until well into their 80's. But I personally think that once a man achieves a certain age, he should think seriously about not fathering any more children since having a child at an advanced age is just as unfair to the child as a post-menopausal woman having a child.

In short, something must be done about fertility clinics in the United States or else we'll be seeing more stories similar to Nadya Suleman's in the future with the children bearing the brunt of all this. With standards and guidelines in place, it would be easier for the authorities to yank the license of and impose a very stiff fine on any doctor or fertility clinic who created any multiple birth larger than triplets.

Update on That New York Post Cartoon

It looks like The New York Post is doing some backtracking regarding that cartoon after it initially refused to apologize and people started to protest outside its offices over it. It issued an apology to anyone who were offended by the cartoon. Here are a few clips from last night's Countdown With Keith Olbermann show regarding the whole saga.

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A Protest Over a Racist Cartoon

I'm sure you've heard plenty about this cartoon that The New York Post published yesterday.

This is yet another one of those old "African Americans are monkeys" stereotypes that should've died with Jim Crow. But, like the infamous Barak Obama Monkey Doll that someone actually made and sold on the Internet, there are some people out there who still think that equating African Americans with monkeys are totally hysterical.

Here's an online petition that's currently going around the Internet that you can sign if you're totally pissed off at the cartoon and the fact that no one involved with The New York Post has even bothered to apologize yet.

The Mayor of Lansing, Michigan Rips Fox News a New Asshole

This clip is awesome. It features Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero go off on a clueless Fox News reporter. Mayor Bernero has made a lot of great points regarding the plight of the American workers these days and the double standard that much of the conservative media and Republican politicians regarding how it's important to bail out Wall Street and let those executives spend taxpayer dollars as they see fit and why the automakers don't deserve even a similar bailout that would be more regulated than what Wall Street got.

Blago May Be Out of Office But the Drama Lives On!

Oh, brother!

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blagojevich/1431222,CST-NWS-blago15.article#

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's brother solicited U.S. Sen. Roland Burris for up to $10,000 in campaign cash before Blagojevich named Burris to the coveted post -- something Burris initially failed to disclose under oath before an Illinois House impeachment panel, records and interviews show.

This brings back recent memories of an appearance that former Governor Rod Blagojevich made on The David Letterman Show just days after he was removed from office and Letterman pretty much ridicules him.

First Octuplets, Now Quadruplets

Un-fucking-believable!!!

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=6871395&page=1

The fertility doctor who helped Nadya Suleman conceive her octuplets also treated a 49-year-old woman who is carrying quadruplets, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Dr. Michael Kamrava transferred at least seven embryos to the unnamed woman, who is hospitalized at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, the Times reported today.

Like Suleman, the woman has been placed on bedrest because of discomfort and to protect the unborn children.

The woman, who is reportedly 20 weeks pregnant, has three other children but was hoping to have one more, according to the Times.

Meanwhile, the California Medical Board is reportedly investigating Kamrava for violating guidelines by implanting too many embryos in women and using unconventional in-vitro fertilization techniques.

This guy needs to be stopped. To implant so many embryos at once in a woman is very risky and dangerous to both the mother and babies. He is way too reckless with his treatments to continue practicing medicine. Women are not dogs and cats!!! The human uterus is NOT designed to handle large litters like that!!!

Move Over, Joe the Plumber!

Meet Julio the Fast Food Worker. This man made his mark during one of President Obama's visits to Ft. Myers. His real name is Julio Osegueda and he's been working in McDonald's for four years while he has been majoring in communications in college.

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Joe the Plumber got gigs as an economist, war correspondent, and Republican political consultant as a result of his showing up at an Obama rally last fall and getting noticed by John McCain even though he isn't a licensed plumber and he isn't trained in the other fields that he's worked in. At least Julio Osegueda is actually studying communications and he has gotten internship offers in his major as a result of his question to President Obama. Hopefully he'll turn out better than Joe the Plumber has.

This Blog Post is Dedicated to Marvin Gaye

Today is Friday the 13th but nothing unlucky has happened to me so far. (Knock Wood!) Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and this month is still Black History Month so I'd thought I'd dedicate this blog post to the late Marvin Gaye. Here he is crooning his sexy romantic hit "Let's Get It On" at the 1980 Montreux Jazz Festival.

Happy 200th Birthday!!!

Today is what would've been the 200th birthday of both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin. Neither men have ever met each other during their lives but their words and deeds live on all over the world. They both also pissed off the southern states in different ways. The South hated the fact that Lincoln freed the slaves with his Emancipation Proclamation. And the same area hated Darwin's Theory of Evolution, which not only resulted in the notorious Scopes "Monkey Trial" in Tennessee but it still persists to this day. ("Intelligent Design" is nothing more than Creationism that's been dressed up in scientific terminology.)

By the way, the BBC's website has an interesting quiz about both men on its website today. I scored 7 out of 10, which makes me "created equal" according to that quiz.

A Total Disgrace!!!

I was doing some random web surfing when I stumbled upon this charmer of a story about the preparations for Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's 85th birthday party.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2224049.ece?OTC-RSS&ATTR=News

TYRANT Robert Mugabe sparked outrage last night after lavishing himself with a champagne-fuelled lobster celebration for his 85th birthday.

The evil dictator has ordered 2,000 bottles of vintage bubbly, 8,000 lobsters, 4,000 portion of caviar as millions of his own people starve.

He has indulged himself with 8,000 boxes of Ferrero Rocher chocolates, 500 bottles of Johnny Walker whisky, 100 kilos of prawns and 3,000 ducks.

And he has demanded international supporters send him cash gifts of around £25,000 to celebrate.

Last night there was fury at the Zimbabwean leader's party arrangements.

Seven million of his own citizens rely on food aid to survive.

Robert Mugabe was once hailed as a hero for freeing his nation from British colonial rule but he has since been proven to be an incredibly nasty tyrant who's willing to hold power at all costs--no matter how much it affects his nation or his people. Unlike, let's say, Josef Stalin (who was organized enough to make the trains in the Soviet Union run on time despite sending numerous people to the gulags), Mugabe has mismanaged everything to the point where there is hyperinflation so bad that prices of various goods can double and triple within a few hours after going on sale and people are dying of preventable diseases like cholera.

The people of Zimbabwe can be forgiven for executing this guy once they've succeeded in overthrowing him.

David Vitter's Opponent in 2010

Remember David Vitter, Republican Senator from Louisiana who was caught up in the infamous D.C. Madam Scandal a few years back? Well fans of porn star Stomy Daniels are trying to draft her to run against Vitter in 2010. I hope it happens because it would be appropriate if he lost to her.

The Octuplets' Crazy Mother Speaks

Nadya Suleman introduces her octuplets to the world via the Today show and this video just creeped me out. As she goes around introducing her babies, it's so obvious that she's enjoying the camera that's focused on her. Yet at the same time her babies look so underfed (probably as a result of low birth rate). During the interview, she totally comes across as not playing with a full deck of cards. (At one point she said that she kept on returning to the fertility clinic because she thought that her children would want a bigger family with more siblings.)

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If that's not crazy enough, here is what Suleman has to say about the father of all of her children.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I hope that, for the sake of all of her children, that the State of California is keeping an eye on the family. Because if something really major goes wrong, the children will most definitely suffer.

A Video Dedication For Black History Month

February is Black History Month, a time when the achievements of African-Americans are promoted and highlighted in the media. For this occasion, I'm going to dedicate this entry to a man who was not an American yet he spent time in the U.S. and he was definitely of African descent. His full name was the Hon. Robert Nesta Marley, O.M. (the last initials stood for Order of Merit, a title that the nation of Jamaica bestowed upon him shortly before his death in 1981 at the age of 36) but he was better known as Bob Marley, reggae superstar from Jamaica who used his songs to promote racial unity, peace, and justice all over the world. If he were still alive, yesterday would've been his 64th birthday.

To make this entry even more relevant to Black History Month, here's a video for "Buffalo Soldier," a song that Marley wrote about the African-American soldiers who were recruited to fight in the U.S. Army against the Native Americans during the Indian Wars after 1866.

Single Unemployed Mother + Fertility Clinic = Four Children + Twins + Octuplets = AN INSANE TRIP TO THE POORHOUSE!!!

There were two stories that dominated the mainstream media this week: President Obama's proposed economic stimulus package and a mother who gave birth to octuplets. At first I ignored the latter story other than mentioning to my husband about the time when I was a teenager that my family adopted someone who was an octuplet. We named him Napoleon and I loved and treated him like a brother. There was no media attention to Napoleon--no television interviews, no newspaper stories, no Internet stories and sites about him. The main reason why the news media never pursued a story about the circumstances surrounding the births of Napoleon and his biological siblings: Napoleon was a dog.

The media initially covered the octuplet story as a wonderful heartwarming tale of survival against all odds and there was even some admiration expressed for the mother's determination to go through with the pregnancy of all eight babies despite the doctor's advice that she undergo selective abortion.

But then the shit hit the fan when the news media learned more about the octuplets' mother. Her name is Nadya Suleman, she is 33 years old, she has no job, she currently lives with her parents in their home, and she was separated from her husband in 2000 (with the divorce being finalized in 2008). In addition, she is already the mother of six other children, including a set of two-year-old twins and a three-year-old with autism. All of her children, including the octuplets were the result of fertility treatments with the same fertility clinic. Suleman's ex-husband is not the father of any of her children. The biological father of all of her children is named David Soloman and he's been described as "one of her admirers".

If all that wasn't enough, Suleman's parents had filed for bankruptcy and abandoned a previous home a little over a year-and-a-half ago and Suleman's father, a former Iraqi military man, is in the process of heading back to his native Iraq to earn money to help support his grandchildren.

Despite the criticism regarding Suleman's choices, there are media outlets who are swarming Suleman with book and TV offers for her story. There are even reports that Suleman has already put a price tag on this: $2 million.

So far Suleman has spoken to NBC's Ann Curry. A video excerpt of that interview has surfaced and the rest of the story will be aired next week on both the Today Show and Dateline. In the video, Suleman defends her actions. She said that people are paying attention to her because she took risks and she made a decision to live an unconventional lifestyle. She also said that she intends to resume her college studies in order to get her master's degree and she will be able to provide for her children. She emphasizes that she is full of determination to succeed.

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Okay, it's obvious from the video that Suleman is idealistic and naive at best and totally delusional at worst. While the whole interview hasn't surfaced yet, I only hope Ann Curry asked something like this to Suleman: "You say that you want to finish your education and get a master's degree. You are also 33 years old and already the mother of six children. You are still in your prime childbearing years. Hasn't it occurred to you to wait until after you get your degree before you decided to have more children?"

The fact that Suleman is expecting to go back to college and resume her studies while being unemployed, single, and dealing with 14 children reveals her to be living in a totally fantasy dream world. Granted, Suleman has received $168,000 for state disability payments for an on-the-job back injury nearly 10 years ago but that's not enough to pay for everything. Unless she has somehow wrangled a full scholarship, she's going to have to deal with tuition, books, school supplies, and other related expenses.

Even if she has a full scholarship, she is going to have to deal with arranging child care for all those children while she's in class and while she has to take time out to do homework and studying.

And then there is the one autistic child to deal with. For years I've heard plenty of how having one autistic child can tax the patience and resources of the most dedicated parents. I've known teachers who've had students with Asperger's (which is a more mild form of autism) who said that they were a challenge to deal with because they have a tendency to disrupt an entire class. How on earth can Suleman deal with an autistic child and a set of octuplets is beyond me.

Okay, so it seems like Suleman has problems with facing reality. But, if it weren't for enablers, her fantasy of obtaining a large family through a fertility clinic would've remained just a fantasy.

David Solomon: The biological father of all of Suleman's children hasn't spoken publicly about this yet. He could've refused to take part in all of this in the first place. Heck, even after Suleman had her first few children, he could've said "That's enough! I'm not donating any more sperm!" But, no, he kept on jerking off without even realizing the consequences of his actions.

The fertility clinic: Suleman had used the same clinic for all of her children. You'd think that after a while the doctors at that clinic would've advised her to consider not having any more children after a while. You'd think they would warn her about the consequences of continuing to get pregnant over and over again. But they didn't seem to do anything like that. In addition, they implanted a whopping six embryos inside of her (two of them split soon afterwards, which brought up the fetus total to eight) while most national fertility clinic guidelines advocate implanting no more than two at a time. I've recently heard that the authorities in California is investigating that fertility clinic and I hope everyone involved in this incident is made to pay for this because there is really no excuse for this.

Suleman's parents: Suleman has been living with her parents while she was busy giving birth to baby after baby. Despite their past financial problems, it's apparent they didn't put their foot down and tell her after she had the third or fourth child that this is as many children that they can handle under their roof. They could've told her that if she wanted to have any more children she should get a job and move out into her own place. If she complained, they could've told her that it's their home and she needed to abide by their rules if she wished to live with them. But it seemed like they didn't do that. They basically stepped aside and let their daughter have her way.

If Suleman had been pressured into getting a job and moving into her own place, she would've had to confront the reality of raising children on her own. Perhaps she would've seen the light and decide against revisiting the fertility clinic over and over again.

The mainstream news media: For years the media has hyped multiple births, especially the television networks. I can remember when they tracked the first few years of the Dilley sextuplets (who were the first surviving sextuplets born in the United States) two or three times a year (usually during a ratings sweeps period). Then when the McCaughey septuplets were born, the media promptly forgot the Dilley children and focused on the newer babies since they were the first surviving septuplets.

All of the stories revolved around how it was a miracle that all of these children survived and they focused on the cute and humorous side of raising so many children at one time. Sure the news media may occasionally mention the health risks facing children who are part of a multiple birth but they tend to emphasize the positive and funny side of all those children.

In the last few years the media has moved beyond the occasional feature news stories highlighting the growing up years of a multiple and have now produced a weekly cable television series about multiples. Jon & Kate Plus Eight is a reality TV show about a couple who wanted a family but had fertility problems. They went to a fertility clinic where they succeeded in having a set of twins. A few years later, the couple decided that they wanted to have a third child so they went back to the fertility clinic. In an illustration of the old saying "Be careful of what you wish for..." they were even more successful than the first time around: They had a set of sextuplets.

The show is the biggest hit for TLC and the entire family have become celebrities. They have received money, clothes, expensive vacations, furniture, food, toys, and even a larger house. The show has also created controversy, which is well documented in the unofficial blogs Gosselins Without Pity and Truth Breeds Hatred (the latter was started by an associate of Jon and Kate's sister-in-law who was a regular guest on the series during its early days until she began to express her concerns about the children's well-being to their parents and the show's producers--she was subsequently thrown off the series and is no longer allowed to visit the children).

With all of this focus on the good side of large multiple births and the material rewards and freebies that the parents received it's no wonder that a less-than-mentally stable person like Nadya Suleman gets the idea that having a multiple birth could the key to public attention and prosperity. If she gets what she wants, then she could provide an unfortunate example to another mentally unstable woman who gets the idea of having a large group of multiples is a totally cool idea. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if some disturbed woman is thinking about trying for octuplets of her own. Or maybe going further by trying for producing nonuplets, decaplets, undecaplets, or even duodecaplets.

It's too late to do anything about the Suleman octuplets since they are already here. But the news media and the federal government can do something to prevent any more such births from happening. The federal government can pass a law requiring fertility clinics to limit all embryonic implants to no more than two at a time. Any clinic caught violating the law will be required to completely provide financial support for any large multiples they created.

We also need to call on the news media to stop glorifying such large multiple births. As long as they continue to profit from this, they will continue to produce stories on the heartwarming side of having multiples. We the public need to start boycotting any and all such stories. We need to stop watching series like Jon and Kate Plus Eight and start sending e-mails and letters to the editor emphasizing the downside of large multiples and express scorn to the media for glorifying such stories.

We need to keep in mind that when it comes to multiples and the frequent health problems they produce, the children are the ones who tend to suffer the most.

Joe the Plumber is Back (Yet Again!)

Maybe we should all just drop "the Plumber" from his name and just refer him as plan old "Joe" (especially since he has never actually gotten his plumbing license in the first place). After his recent jaw-dropping foray as a war correspondent in Israel (while making public statements on how there shouldn't be correspondents covering wars), now he's serving as both an an economist and a consultant to the Republican Party. So I guess you can him "Joe the Plumber Turned War Correspondent Turned Economist Turned Republican Party Consultant".

This quote on whether he thinks he has a career in politics is especially good: "I don't know if the American public deserve me, but my son definitely deserves my time now."

You know, I totally agree one hundred percent with Joe on that statement. The American public doesn't deserve him. The American public deserves someone better than him--especially someone who isn't a media whore like good old Joe. I also agree that his son deserves to spend time with him right now. In fact, he could do everyone a favor and just get out of the public eye and spend all of his time with his son.