Talk about guilt... what happens if the girl decides not to use her mother's eggs?

Good point! I still feel guilty for not using my mother's wedding dress, and she never even said a word about it!

...one of the most distressing backslides of the last couple of decades - the re-fetishization of motherhood

I agree, but I think it will end when all the babyboomers' kids pass eighteen and the boomers find to their astonishment that they still have to pay property (school) taxes.

"God already knows my name, Mommy"

That phrase always makes me think, "yeah, God knows it's Neveah Madisyn Kaylea, that's why he's keeping you in that test tube."

Ugh, you shouldn't start off by praising the Azkaban movie if you want any credibility. Cuarón tried to make a great kids' book into an artsy romance drama. He seemed to feel inconvenienced by the few bits of magic the plot forced him to throw in. Critics were the only ones who loved that wretched movie. It was infuriating to read glowing reviews of a movie that flaunted its disdain for the book and the book's fans. I'm glad that someone was wise enough to send Cuarón back to directing art house films, where he belongs and where I can avoid his dreck.

Newell did a great job with the fourth film. I hope Yates has done a good job with the current film, because he's scheduled to do the sixth one as well.

Well then you've found your calling, Cola: you're a film critic at heart :-) Don't feel too bad, my mother says I have the soul of an accountant and I've managed to come to terms with that.

It's not unenforceable, they just have to mandate quarterly gynecological exams for all women between 10 and 60.

This is so simple. If she wants to talk to you, she can call you. If she's too sick for that, then, as someone posted, a family member could dial the number and put the phone to her ear. If it's really about her wanting to talk to you rather than a power struggle, that's what your grandmother/family would do.

Hey, maybe on the other end of this, the family is pressuring the grandmother to call the LW?

The article says, "The meager salary they get goes to the caretakers." So why don't the caretakers put them on nonstop birth control pills as soon as they show any signs of puberty? They're really disappointing my cynicism here.

It would be better for the girls too. Then they can be goddesses for life and never have to worry about a transition. The transition is the cruel part, isn't it? Imagine if Prince Charles were stripped of all his titles and money and told to go out into the real world after having been raised to be useless?

A local Methodist minister and his wife officiated the ceremony

Yeah, even way back then, that sounds like the Clintons. Two steps forward: having a woman officiate at their wedding. One step back: her husband really officated, she only assisted in an et ux capacity.

He actually killed the dogs, that may be part of it. Perhaps if he hadn't we'd be hearing about how vicious the dogs were and how he was just "training" them.

It's like rape cases where the defendant says she consented. A disturbing number of people will dismiss it as a he said/she said thing (ignoring any medical evidence of vaginal tears etc.). Unless he kills her, in which case most people will agree that it was rape (not everyone and not in all cases, of course. Anyone else remember Jennifer Levin? No? Ok, nm).

some opt out of health insurance to make financing their surgery easier

I'm so glad I'm not a feminist anymore. It's very pleasant to be able to sit back and say, "yup, that's her choice," while chuckling quietly to myself. This sort of thing used to make me furiously angry, until I realized that dumbasses (male or female) are never going to be dissuaded from their stupid choices. If they don't spend the money on new tits, they'll just waste it on booze/lottery (lower-class) or Madisyn's ballet lessons (middle-class). Whatever they do, it's not my problem.

I'm absolutely against the oversexualizing of young girls, but it's just not a widespread problem in our society when it comes to one-year-olds

Ever seen that diaper commercial for the less bulky diapers? The one where they talk about eliminating the unsightly look of diapers so the toddler will look nicer in her clothes? It's really weird. Wish I could remember the brand because I bet it's on YouTube.

What a clever way to reduce the birthrate. How brilliant of the zero-population growth folks!

If Blockbuster wants to entice users from Netflix it can make such a program itself.

I have a subscription to Netflix and I've tried Blockbuster three times. I've only received a few flawed discs from Netflix in three years. During my three trial subscriptions to Blockbuster (12 weeks total), I received a broken, badly scratched, or just plain incorrect disc at least once a week. At one point, I got a bad disc, reported it as damaged, sent it back, and got the exact same disc back again! When I called customer service, the Blockbuster rep. suggested that I report it damaged and then keep it until they sent a good copy! Which they did... a good copy of the next disc in the series mislabeled as the disc I wanted.

As for the videos at the Blockbuster store, make sure you check them for scratches before bringing them home. Some of those discs are scratched to all heck and the store staff just buff them up and put them back on the shelves.

Someone who cheats on their spouse is also someone who won't hesitate to lie to their credit card company. The chargebacks must be horrendous.