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Host of eponymous “Melissa Harris-Perry Show” is under fire for making the race of Romney’s adopted grandson a punchline. MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry concluded the “What’s So Funny About 2013?” segment of her Sunday show with a chorus of laughter at the black grandson pictured in former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s family Christmas photo. The chuckles were directed at baby Kieran – who was adopted by Romney’s son Ben and his wife Andelynne in September. Also read: The Year in Cable News: Bashir, Baldwin Exits Cap Year of Turmoil for MSNBC “One of these things is not like the others,...

So just how gay-friendly is Pope Francis? Consider this. In his Christmas sermon, Bishop Charles Scicluna of Malta condemned adoption by same-sex couples. He insisted that God's own son was raised by a man and a woman, and not by two men or two women. How divisive! said the media. But now it turns out that Bishop Scicluna met Pope Francis on December 12. The bishop later told the Times of Malta: “We discussed many aspects… and when I raised the issue that’s worrying me as a bishop [the right for gay couples to adopt] he encouraged me to speak...

http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20131210/LOCAL06/131219972

Call it Adoption Equality. Or the logical endpoint of liberal advocacy on behalf of the oppressed. The man will now be able to adopt, after a review by the municipality’s social affairs committee (socialnämnd) found that his risk of relapse was considered low, with all but one of ten members of the committee voting yes to the man’s application to adopt. Maybe he was just guilty of possessing child pornography. But at least he didn’t actually molest any kids. Surely no society on the planet is so far gone that it would actually allow an active pedophile to adopt...

An Ohio couple committed a crime when they recently gave child welfare officials a 9-year-old boy they raised from infancy, according to a prosecutor, after they said he was displaying aggressive behavior and threatened the family with a knife. Forty-nine-year-old Cleveland Cox and 52-year-old Lisa Cox pleaded not guilty Wednesday in a Butler County court to charges of nonsupport of dependents. **SNIP** Adolfo Olivas, an attorney appointed by the court to protect the boy's interests, has said the emotionally hurt and confused child is now receiving help that the parents should have gotten for him.

Been reading Charles Krauthammer's new book, and right out of the gate he says something so simple yet so profound, that it really is the key to understanding our world past, present and future. Basically, for a society to thrive, whereby it's people live healthy fruitful lives, and where true prosperity exists in all the arts and sciences, you must first get the politics right. Think about that for a minute. How remarkably true this is, and it applies to all levels of gov't, and where there are rules and controls over our private lives at work and at home....

Andrea Grimes, writing at RH reality check, a pro-abortion blog, has issued a clarion call to forestall a Texas proposal that would require three hours of adoption counseling prior to any abortion. Her plan? Undermine pro-lifers’ “hold” on the issue by “exposing” adoption as a corrupt, woman-coercing, money-making cartel! But to come up with such a counter-factual, counter-intuitive slur, Grimes must set up several egregiously false claims: that adoption “is not an alternative to abortion, but rather an alternative to parenting”; and that adoption victimizes both the mother and child. The first premise is artificial—that “pregnant people” [her absurd term]...

During recent comments to members of the Boston Bar Association, officials from the Department of Children and Families indicated that Massachusetts will no longer allow individuals with conservative social values to raise foster children. In a video of the address, recruitment officer Michelle Gordon described “new expectations” of foster parents, explaining that the DCF is in the process of “weeding out some of this passiveness and sort of destructive behaviors that are occurring.” Gay rights activist Erika Rickard, who serves on the Commission on LGBT Youth, claimed that two in every 10 foster children are gay. As a result, she...

MItt Romney’s son Ben Romney and his wife Andelynne have joyously adopted a new baby boy. His name is Kieran James. There’s only one problem in the eyes of liberals: Kieran is black. The attack is on. Here’s an example: Romney Family Joins Hollywood Craze of Adopting Black Babies, Meet Kieran James Romney. It appears that the good folks at hinterlandgazette.com aren’t overjoyed: “[H]is family caught the Hollywood fever — adopting a black baby. I won’t hate. I believe it’s a great thing that this child is getting a shot at having a decent life. You have to admit, Kieran...

Steven and Roger Ham couldn’t have predicted they’d one day foot a $1,500 monthly grocery bill, drive a 15-passenger van, and do four loads of laundry a day — but that’s what life now looks like for the couple, as they raise more than one dozen kids from the foster care system. “It was never our intent to adopt 14 children,” Steven Ham told TODAY.com, of the parenting journey that started a decade ago. When the Hams first set out to adopt, they excitedly formed a mental picture of their future child: the one baby they'd bring into their home....

WASHINGTON, September 20 (By RIA Novosti) – A US Senator and leading voice on the tangled and thorny topic of international child adoption said this week Russia is doing “a great disservice to itself” by raising parentless children in institutions, but expressed little hope that Moscow’s ban on adoptions of Russian children by American parents would be lifted anytime soon. "Every doctor knows how harmful institutional care is to children. It affects their emotional, mental, and physical development," said Sen. Mary Landrieu, herself the mother of two adopted children. "What I really want to say to the people of Russia...

When Shen feared her daughter Cheng Cheng was becoming 'spoilt and arrogant' she tried a controversial parenting techniqueA Chinese mother lied to her daughter for 13 years saying that she was adopted to give her 'more independence'. The mum, known only as Shen, married into a wealthy family and had a child called Cheng Cheng. But Shen struggled while bringing her daughter up and thought she was becoming spoilt and arrogant, Chinese media claim. So instead of disciplining her, Shen thought it would be a good idea to try a new parenting technique. She told Cheng Cheng when she was...

KIEL (WISCONSIN) : Todd and Melissa Puchalla struggled more than two years to raise Quita, the troubled teenager they'd adopted from Liberia. When they decided to give up the 16-year-old, they found new parents to take her in less than two days - by posting an ad on the internet. Nicole and Calvin Eason, an Illinois couple in their 30s, responded quickly. In emails, Nicole Eason assured Melissa Puchalla that she could handle the girl. "People that are around me think I am awesome with kids," Eason wrote. A few weeks later, on Oct. 4, 2008, the Puchallas drove from...

When a Liberian girl proves too much for her parents, they advertise her online and give her to a couple they’ve never met. Days later, she goes missing. KIEL, Wisconsin – Todd and Melissa Puchalla struggled for more than two years to raise Quita, the troubled teenager they'd adopted from Liberia. When they decided to give her up, they found new parents to take her in less than two days – by posting an ad on the Internet. Nicole and Calvin Eason, an Illinois couple in their 30s, saw the ad and a picture of the smiling 16-year-old. They were...

A Tennessee woman says that when her adoptive parents gave her away to new parents at age 14, she and 17 other adoptive kids in her “nightmarish” new home were sometimes forced to dig their own “graves” in the backyard and scrub the floor with toothbrushes. “’Get out and go dig your own grave,” Nora Gateley, now 26, says her new mother told her. “’I don’t care if you die. Nobody will find you. You were not even here in the first place.” Advertise | AdChoices Americans have adopted nearly a quarter million children from overseas since the late 1990s,...

. Mark Newton (right) and Peter Truong with their adopted son in Cairns, Australia. (photo source: Brisbanetimes.com.au) During the same month that U. S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy was issuing his opinion that the Defense of Marriage Act “humiliated tens of thousands of children now being raised by same-sex couples,” Russia’s House of Parliament voted unanimously to ban the adoption of Russian children by same-sex couples from abroad. The House also voted to forbid single people who are citizens or permanent residents of countries that allow same sex marriage to become adoptive parents or legal guardians of Russian children....

FULL TITLE: Mystery of girl, 15, who was only reported missing by her brother - and not her parents - TWO YEARS after she was last seen Police in North Carolina say the adoptive parents of a 15-year-old girl missing since 2011 did not report her disappearance for two years - and now they are refusing to cooperate with the investigation. Erica Lynn Parsons was reported missing by her 19-year-old brother last week after she was last seen leaving the Salisbury home of her parents in November 2011. An attorney hired by Erica's adoptive parents, Casey and Sandy Parsons, claimed...

Sen. Eddie Lucio, the only Democrat in the Texas state senate to support the new law banning abortions after 20 weeks of gestation, says he’ll continue to push for a requirement for women to complete an adoption course before having an abortion. Lucio first proposed the measure in July. The Texas legislature is in a special third session due to failure to pass a transportation bill. If Lucio’s proposal isn’t added to the agenda, which it isn’t likely to be, he said he will refile his bill early in the 2015 session. In 2007, there were only 1,302 infant adoptions...

A married couple from Los Angeles have been jailed in the Middle East on a charge of murder with intent and are being accused of starving their 8-year-old daughter to death, according to a coalition of groups that are working on the case from the U.S. and trying to draw publicity to what they say are unjust arrests.

<p>AUSTIN, Texas -- When he filed an abortion-related bill with only one day remaining in the recently completed second special session, Texas state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. was hoping to make a statement, not change the law - at least not right away.</p>