Open Thread

NYC is ^&^%$ up. Went through an appeal last year for our real estate taxes and got tax credits thru 2015. Since assessments happen every year I need to go thru process again because they assessed us 30% higher than the appeal.

Lawyers make money and I waste more time. Austin and Denver are looking good!

One can buy live poultry on Columbia Street.

Cockfight anyone?
(nh)

I gotta say, I have a problem with what Lech’s friends want to do. I think it’s messed up to bring a life into the world that seems to be an designer accessory. Rob and others brought up good points. Why someone in South America to be a surrogate? Because it’s cheaper. Which means they aren’t thinking about the child, or even the surrogate, they are thinking about the cost. What if this designer child’s incubator needs sophisticated medical care? Can it be had in South America? I call the surrogate an incubator because it doesn’t seem as if they are regarding her as a person, just the carrier of the package. I have big problems with that? If something goes wrong, and the surrogate loses the baby, do you just go, “oh well”, and try again? Who has a long distance surrogate baby?

It’s one thing if you can’t have kids and you go this route, it’s another if you just can’t be bothered to be pregnant. Why not adopt? There are millions of kids needing adoption. I’m adopted, I can’t imagine who I’d be if my parents hadn’t picked me. You want an instant baby, give love and care to a child already here, already in need. What if they don’t like how the kid looks, are they going to give her back?

Say what you want about people like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who’ve adopted kids from all over. They love their kids, are always involved in their lives, and take them everywhere. They could afford a planeload of nannies, and probably have at least two or three, but they aren’t allowing the staff to raise the kids. If you take on the huge responsibility of being a parent, you can’t treat the process, or the child, like ordering a pedigreed pet.

“Michael Clayton is a really good movie.”

Tilda Swinton is great. And I love the end.