What Does S.D. Do About Sovereignty?

A total ban on abortions in South Dakota? Not if the Oglala Sioux President has any say:

“To me, it is now a question of sovereignty,” she said to me last week. “I will personally establish a Planned Parenthood clinic on my own land which is within the boundaries of the Pine Ridge Reservation where the State of South Dakota has absolutely no jurisdiction.”

I wonder why someone this passionate about providing abortions to South Dakota residents has not yet acted. Even before the ban, it isn't like the State was full of abortuaries:

• In 2000, there were 2 abortion providers in South Dakota. This represents a 100% increase from 1996, when there was 1 abortion provider.

• In 2000, 98% of South Dakota counties had no abortion provider. 78% of South Dakota women lived in these counties. In the Midwest census region, where South Dakota is located, 28% of women having abortions traveled at least 50 miles, and 10% traveled more than 100 miles.

• In South Dakota, 1 metropolitan area lacks an abortion provider: Rapid City

Wanted: A Few Good Sperm

Here is an article from the New York Times Magazine attempting to normalize the practice of single women choosing to have children by artificial insemination. Even those who support this brave new world must find this article a little disturbing. Here is one woman's story:

"I pulled up the Web site of the only sperm bank that I know of that has adult photos. There happened to be one Jewish person. I pulled up the photo, and I looked at my friend, and I looked at his picture, and I said, 'Oh, my God.' I can't say love at first sight, because, you know. But he was the one."

The next morning, Karyn called the bank and spoke with a woman who worked there. "She said: 'I have to be honest. He's very popular, and I only have eight units in store right now. I'm not sure how much longer he might be in the program,"' Karyn told me. "Most women in New York impulse-buy Manolo Blahniks, and I said, 'I'll take the eight units.' It was $3,100." The price included six months of storage.

Now, this purchase may have been impulsive, but you must consider the "strong sense of connection she felt to the donor" -- this special bond formed by seeing a picture on the internet. Obviously invested in her new "family," this woman made sure to keep the spark in the relationship alive:

She also printed the donor's picture and kept it on the coffee table of her Manhattan studio apartment, where she sleeps in a Murphy bed. "I kind of glance at it as I pass," she said of the picture. "It's almost like when you date someone, and you keep looking at them, and you're, like, Are they cute? But every time I pass, I'm, like, Oh, he's really cute. It's a comforting feeling."

Karyn carried a wallet-size copy of the donor's photo between her MetroCard and her work ID

Maybe I'm paranoid, but I would be worried about the fact that a donor was very popular. Who knows how many half brothers and sisters the kid will have running around? Actually, the kid will know - this guy was an "identity-release donor (also called an "open donor" or a "yes donor") — a growing and extremely popular category of sperm donors who are willing to be contacted by any offspring who reach the age of 18." It is going to be an awkward dating scene in a couple of generations when all these children need a DNA test to avoid incest, but this cross-pollination does not seem important:

At times, the relationships can become even more enmeshed: one mother I spoke with, whose twin sons were conceived using both donor eggs and donor sperm, gave her leftover frozen embryos to a friend who was having fertility problems. The friend is now pregnant with a child who will be this mother's own sons' full sibling.

The women in this article also explain the important strategy in selecting a doner. Here are some samples:

"I would probably choose somebody with a darker skin color so I don't have to slather sunblock on my kid all the time. I want it to be a healthy mix. You know how mixed dogs are always the nicest and the friendliest and the healthiest? If you get a clear race, they have all the problems. Mutts are always the friendly ones, the intelligent ones, the ones who don't bark and have a good character. I want a mutt."

"He's got black straight hair," she told me, "brown eyes, he's six feet but he only weighs 150. Which is good. If I have a girl, she wants to be skinny, and if she can eat what she wants, that's perfect. You don't have to get in fights about food."

"Thick hair, which is also nice," she said, "because if I happen to get a son, I don't like bald guys.

I also enjoyed this statement:

She began stocking up on the donor's sperm (most banks keep a reserve supply of each donor's sperm for women who want second children) when Christopher was still an infant. "I want my son to have a full sibling," she said. "I want to feel like he has one person in the world who is a complete blood relative after I'm gone. I did not want my son to feel deprived, that the other sibling had a father and he didn't."

But he doesn't really have a father. That was the whole point!

Finally, the obligatory pro-life absurdity in an article of this nature:

She seemed reconciled to the fact that it might take a while to become pregnant, but she was no less determined. Her fellow would-be single mother is 36, Daniela told me, but her situation is complicated by a boyfriend who has children.

"Why don't you tell him you've got some kids, too?" Daniela recalled suggesting to her friend. "They're just not born yet."

The Anachronistic Amish

Reading this article, it is clear that the Amish do not know how the world works in 2006:

. . . the tornado destroyed two other buildings and an outhouse, and all that was left of the home was the foundation.

. . .

The Grabers walked a quarter-mile to a neighbors' home, where planning immediately began for a new house. The next morning, more than 100 men and boys from surrounding Amish homesteads got to work. Wraber's brother, Ernest, said the workers "looked like a bunch of ants."

"Everybody helps out," he said.

Less than 15 hours after the tornado hit, Chris Graber stood in a new 36-by-64 foot house and workshop, with sturdy aluminum siding covering the walls and roof.

Obviously, the people of this community forgot several key steps in recovery after a natural disaster. In America, the immediate response is a cry to the federal government for assistance. Following the request for aid, these people should have begun to blame Bush for the slow response--maybe even for the tornado itself (for good measure, they probably should have claimed that this was based on an anti-Amish bias). By refusing to follow our National emergency procedure, this poor family quickly got a new house and will probably be expected to take care of themselves again. Fools.

Just One More on the Culture of Corruption

Hillary too?

A Liberating Article from the WSJ

Three Cheers for the Traditional Family.

Keep Your Rosaries Off My . . . ?

It was bound to happen - Roe v. Wade played out to absurdity:

The gist of the argument: If a pregnant woman can choose among abortion, adoption or raising a child, a man involved in an unintended pregnancy should have the choice of declining the financial responsibilities of fatherhood.

Ironically, the National Organization for Women is standing up for the rights of the child:

The president of the National Organization for Women, Kim Gandy, acknowledged that disputes over unintended pregnancies can be complex and bitter.

"None of these are easy questions," said Gandy, a former prosecutor. "But most courts say it's not about what he did or didn't do or what she did or didn't do. It's about the rights of the child."

It's about the rights of the child? Except when it becomes a burden on the mother, of course.

This shall be a fun case to watch.

Descent Into Hell

I just finished Descent Into Hell by Charles Williams. Quite a fascinating book. One of the main themes (and apparently a theme in every one of his seven novels) is substitution and exchange--my life for yours. This doctrine of substituted love allows every character in some small way to take part in Christ's sacrafice, though we are told that "there's no need to introduce Christ, unless you wish." In Descent, one person may choose to take on another's fear or pain and fully alleviate the other person of this burden ("If you give a weight to me, you can't be carrying it yourself"). Each character must choose a life for Self (and Hell) or a life for Others (and Heaven).

I don't know much about Charles Williams, but I bet it would be a great biography. Williams was self-educated. He dropped out of school at an early age to help support his family. Yet, he was a core member of the Inklings along with Tolkien and Lewis. As Thomas Howard wrote:

He may have been self-educated, but he was self-educated. The great tribute to this is the fact that Lewis and Tolkien managed to secure a lectureship at Oxford for Williams, in some semi-official way.

His peers seemed to mark him as a strange person:

Tolkien claimed he never knew what Williams was talking about. Eliot said that when Williams lectured, he hopped all over the place, crossing and uncrossing his legs as he perched on the desk, jingling coins in his pocket, and so forth.

So Charles Williams was an odd man who wrote bizarre books, but I'm sure this was never a real concern--genius always seems to come in that package.