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• Political Nanny: Just Like Jesus, Huckabee Saves!

  A little update on Political Nanny secret fave (from long ago), Mike Huckabee. The funny guy, longshot for president that wasn't, Chuck Norris-endorsed candidate hugged a man back to life the other day.   Read More... Posted Jun 08 2008, 03:14 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Arkansas, mike huckabee, heimlich maneuver, north carolina lt. gov. candidate, robert pittenger, election 2008 alumni, jesus saves

• Toddlers Can’t Marry In Arkansas No More

  Arkansas didn’t need this. It could’a happened someplace else. To one of them northern states like, real uppity-like, such as New York and that place with the Cheese steaks.  Arkansas shouldn’t have to suffer this indignity. But it’s fact, toddlers are no longer legally allowed to get hitched in the Great State of Arkansas.   But why? Why can’t these lovin’ toddlers be married? Read More... Posted Apr 08 2008, 06:30 AM by Cole Gamble with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Arkansas, toddlers, stereotypes, Snot, Chuck E. Cheese, accident, wedding, bride, groom, the south, marriage laws

• Babies Can Marry in Arkansas

  Scene: two parents sitting in their kitchen, having an important discussion about their child's future. "Waaall, Mother, I 'spect that littlun over thar of the neighbors'd like to marry our gal. What do ya say 'bout it?" "But Daddy, she ain't even one year old yet!" "That's okay, 'cause I hear that babies can git hitched nowadays right here in Arkansaw. There's no age limit no more."   Read More... Posted Aug 19 2007, 02:25 PM by Karen Murphy with | with no comments Filed under: babies, marriage, Arkansas, kids marrying kids

• What is Everybody's Problem with Gay Foster Parents?

  According to The Morning News: The Christian conservative group that successfully led the drive for Arkansas’ constitutional amendment banning gay marriage will push for a ballot initiative to limit who can adopt or foster children in the state. Are you frigging kidding me? I guess these people didn't read this post. I don't get it. Kids that live in orphanages need foster parents. Who cares who they are sleeping with. Being gay does not make a person a pedophile. It doesn't make them morally corrupt. It does make it more difficult to have a child biologically. So what the hell? Same sex couples and adoption or foster care are a match made in heaven. These kids need parents and these parents need kids. You don't have to be in total agreement with a person's belief structure to know that they could provide a good home for a child who needs one. I think that putting plugs in your ears to make really big ear holes is crazy, but I don't have a problem with somebody who has those adopting a child. What I am trying to say is take it easy Arkansas. If you vote against GLBT parents being able to take in foster children or adopting you had better take in some yourself. Somebody needs to.  Posted Jun 13 2007, 04:03 PM by Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: adoption, Arkansas, foster care, GLBT parenting, gay parents

• Duggar Family Prepares to Welcome 17th Child

  Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar have essentially made a career out of having kids (if you have somehow missed their Discovery Channel shows, try and catch one). Having said in the past that they'll continue having children as long as God continues to bless them with the ability to do so, they're now on the verge of adding their seventeenth child, a daughter who will be named Jennifer Danielle. That's right, seventeen kids, all with J-names, and they're JUST NOW getting around to "Jennifer". That may be the most amazing thing about this story, because the rest of it is pretty much just a family doing what's best for them. Read More... Posted May 11 2007, 08:01 AM by Patti with | with 13 comment(s) Filed under: babies, Arkansas, celebrity babies, jim bob duggar, jennifer danielle duggar, michelle duggar, duggar family

• Arkansas to Attempt to Bar Gays, Unmarried from Guardianship of Children

  If you live in Arkansas, you might have to rethink your will. A state legislator is introducing a bill which, if passed, would prevent gay or unmarried straight couples from adopting, fostering, or otherwise taking guardianship of minor children. Gay parents comprise only about 6.5% of the total number of adoptions in the state, and it had been state policy since 1999 to exclude homosexuals from becoming foster parents until that policy was overturned last year. State legislator Steve Womack (R) introduced the bill and at the last minute tried to amend it so that opposite-sex couples were excluded from the ban, and the amendment was rejected. And rightly so, actually. If you're going to set a standard of what it means to be a family, you damn well better at least pretend to be consistent about it. Still, it's another sad example of how the chances of forming a "forever family" are diminished in the name of "family values". And not only does it limit the options for the children in Arkansas' foster care system, it limits the choices available to Arkansas parents and birth mothers when they seek to place their child or choose a guardian. Nobody's going to win with this one. Posted Apr 05 2007, 02:05 PM by Patti with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: glbt, adoption, Arkansas, gay adoption, gay parenting

• Just Don't Wait Until Your Kids are Four to Deny Paternity: Colorado and Arkansas Duke it Out

  Unlike Arkansas, which recently required a non-father to pay child support, legislators in Colorado are drawing the line with a proposed bill that exempts non-fathers from paying child support for other guys' kids.  The intricacies of child support awards are hard to master these days, and no one can avoid the craziness, including sperm donors.  Dylan Davis, the a 33-year old at the center of the Colorado legislative effort, didn't get a paternity test for his twins until after he and his wife divorced.  Even though the test revealed someone else was the children's father, he was still required to pay, since the test occurred after the specified time limit. The proposed bill would remove that time limit, allowing paternity testing results to inform child support awards at any time. Read More... Posted Jan 31 2007, 11:19 AM by Rachael Brownell (Redsy) with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: colorado, Arkansas, child support legislation, deadbeat dads, Dylan Davis, sperm donor pays support

• Arkansas Court Rules That Non-Father Must Pay Child Support

  Anthony Parker is not a father. According to his lawyer, Anthony Parker has never claimed to be a father. Yet an Arkansas judge has decided that Anthony Parker must pay child support. I'll be honest with you, dear readers. It's about 9:00 and my wife and I just got back from a nice dinner, during which many glasses of wine were consumed. Yeah, I'm a little drunk. This article, it confuses me. Maybe it's the vino. So I gotta ask you - is that article fer reals? It's not an Onion piece? I didn't fall through some temporal rift and end up in the future, on April 1st? There wasn't some bizarre computer glitch that caused the Arkansas court system to reunite O.J.'s jury for another trial? (On the other hand - $24 bucks a week for child support? What the hell does this kid eat? Tic Tacs?) Apparently, Parker had ignored the state's Office of Child Support Enforcement's paternity complaint, filed in 2002; the state went after him after he failed to pay the initial judgment, and he further buggered himself by failing to appear in court. The state garnished his wages, and even though Parker ultimately proved, via a paternity test, that he was not the father the state's Supreme Court ruled that he still owes in excess of $4,000 in back child support. For a child that's not his. If that seems a little bass-ackwards, well, it's Arkansas. One of course wonders where the actual father is during all of this. Maybe it's my West Coast liberal mentality, but shouldn't he be the one to pay for child support? Parker's lawyer's have released a photo of the man, and though as an objective journalist I really shouldn't get involved, my conscience won't allow me to turn my back. Please notify Arkansas authorities immediately if you encounter this man. Posted Jan 12 2007, 10:00 AM by JasonAvant with | with 8 comment(s) Filed under: father, father's rights, child support, are you insane?, Arkansas, courts

• More Bans on Same Sex Foster Parents?

  It looks like the Arkansas state legislature is going to try to take some steps to make sure that nobody accidentally confuses them with a progressive state. You see, last June the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that a state ban on homosexual couples being foster partents was unconstitutional. Sadly, The Family Council and some of the Arkansas legislators are out to get the old ban written into law. According to this slightly confusing article by Doug Thompson, The Family Council feels that they won't have any trouble finding a sponsor to get a bill passed banning couples from being foster parents based on sexual orientation. You may have read a post here a week and a half ago by CityMama talking about the new restrictions that Texas is using to stop people from becoming foster parents. I guess Arkansas could join Texas in a system that wouldn't allow same sex couples to participate in an overburdened foster system. Feel free to disagree with me, but I don't see how placing a child with two people (unmarried, gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered) who are genuinely going out of their way to take in a juvenile that needs a good home could not be in that child's best interest. These children need a place to live. The state needs people to help. Do these states assume that all homosexuals are also pedophiles? It doesn't make sense. What sort of 40 year old stereotype porpoganda are these people working off of? I have friends with gay parents. I have gay friends that are parents. I have not noticed that the children turn out any different from those of us with parents of opposite genders, with the possible exception that most of these people end up slightly more open minded. That doesn't seem like such a bad thing to me.      Posted Jan 08 2007, 01:46 PM by Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah with | with no comments Filed under: glbt, foster parents, The Family Council, Arkansas