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Archive for the ‘International Adoption’ Category

With all the predictability of a lemming, Mirah Riben tries to spin her fifteen minutes of some people with brains looking in her direction into some sort of respectability.

Yes, her appearance at the Ethica/Institute Conference has her feeling so cocky that trying to insult me is a matter of first importance. I am SO flattered. She’s put me right in there in the mentions on her Pickled Family Plffftt … or whatever … blog with people like Brenda Romanchik and Adam Pertman. Cool.

Apparently, I was quite the topic of conversation in nincompoop circles, and from the Riben’s writings (shudder) one would gather that those anti-adoption nut cases are as geographically challenged as they are misled about the circumstances of the world’s children.

Sadly for the poor and limited Riben, with all that a weekend such as this should have brought in the way of enlightenment, I was one of the few things she could focus on.

Oh, yes…and the piece de resistance for me: I was told that Sandra Hanks Benoiton, who slandered me on a.com, requested to attend the conference as a blogger and was refused because commercial bloggers were not allowed!!!

I’m a piece de resistance. It matters not that she’s wrong, as she always is, I like the designation and plan to forever … or for a week or so, at least … introduce myself in certain company as “Mirah Riben’s piece de resistance”.

Still deluded into thinking that my pointing out the fact that her writing sucks is “slander”, she continues to prove the truth of my words (the opposite of slander, for anyone not quite sure) over and over with multiple exclamation points and incorrectly spaced elipses and even more bad writing, as is obvious by the following exchange from her blog:

I just want to clarify that your comment about Ms. Benoiton is inaccurate. The conference was open the the public and she was not excluded to attend. Rather, one our criteria to participate in the bloggers introduction (not panel since there was no discussion or presentations), was that they not primarily blog professionally or for commercial sites. Thanks!

Linh Song, MSW
Executive Director
Ethica, Inc.

To which the Riben responds:

Thanks for that clarification, Linh. I guess I was unclear. I did not mean to imply that she was barred from attending, I guess it was her choice not to be a paid attendee to attend and learn about adoption ethics.

About as well-spoken as usual, that one.

If I thought there was any chance of educating this woman, I’d send her a map of the world with a little circle around Seychelles.

Since I don’t, I’ll just try this heads up: Yo, Riben and Riben-thinkers (And that’s a real ox of an oxymoron … or is it simply more moron?) — the Indian Ocean isn’t in Indiana.

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For those touched by adoption from Cambodia, or simply interested in happenings in the country this week, the news update is posted at the following links:

http://international.adoptionblogs.com/index.php/weblogs/history-vietnam-oil-and-rambo

http://international.adoptionblogs.com/index.php/weblogs/sri-lankan-concerns-the-un-elephants-and

http://international.adoptionblogs.com/index.php/weblogs/fish-ovaries-artists-and-monks

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This week’s posts summing up Cambodian news are at the following links:

http://international.adoptionblogs.com/index.php/weblogs/jungle-woman-stolen-artifacts-drugs-and-

http://international.adoptionblogs.com/index.php/weblogs/brother-number-two

http://international.adoptionblogs.com/index.php/weblogs/cambodian-computers-and-bloggers

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Families with Cambodian connections can check out the week’s wrap of news from the country here and here.

Some of the topics of the week are the shutting down of NCLO, new traffic laws and development plans for Kep City.

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In the Land of Blog, deep in the forest where the growth is so thick that many a visitor has been known to recount the trip in with a rousing rendition of “Forest? What forest? All I saw was a bunch of trees!”, sits a house. To passersby of reasonable proportions, the house appears tiny, but to the occupants it is palatial and commodious.

This difference in perception is due to the fact that the house belongs to Seven Mental Midgets whose perspectives are so circumscribed and miniscule that every mole hill is to them K2, and their collective Borg-like agreement reinforces the K-2-ishness to the exclusion of conflicting POVs.

A person of close to normal stance, one Snow Write, has been trapped in the cottage, imprisoned by her seven dwarfish jailers in the only room in the place that can accommodate her expansive self. To keep her quiet, and possibly dupe her into revealing innermost secrets and dreams that could subsequently be used in torture against her, she’s been provided with a computer and wireless internet access. Through the wonders of the technology she participates in the doings of Blog despite her imprisonment.

With much time to think and ponder, Snow has developed some strong opinions on issues of importance in Blog, and because of uninterrupted online time, she has researched long and hard and amassed a great deal of knowledge.

Since she has little contact with her captors, and none at all that she enjoys, she fills her days with discussions on the diverse and vital topics that surround life in the land of Blog, and the wider world. Over time, her judgment has been deemed by many to be clear and fair, and her observations unclouded and on the money, despite … or possibly because of … her captive status.

However, her captors have more on their minds than simply restricting her freedom.

All seven — Pissy, Bitchy, Simpy, Judgy, Haughty, Snotty and Aggrieved — are determined to keep even Snow Write’s thoughts confined, and her opinions unheard, or at least unappreciated.

Each post Snow publishes and every comment she adds is methodically dissected by the collective mind that allows the seven to function, each being far too weak-brained to do as much as formulate even one original thought on its own; then assigned to the little mind with the highest likelihood of influencing the views of others in Blog.

Haughty, Snotty and Aggrieved are the bulldozers of the bunch and full frontal assaults are what they do best. Between looking down their noses, grabbing all they can find of self-righteous superiority and assuming the position of “only credible POV”, they seek to drown out poor Snow’s voice and bully others out of even thinking of taking up for her.

Judgy takes the end-around and cuts Snow’s legs off by reminding everyone that the girl is a prisoner of their making, so cannot possibly be taken seriously, and insists that she’s not really supposed to be having anything to say, anyway, strongly suggesting that listening to Snow indicates a weak mind, a lack of sense or a well-hewn system of denial.

Pissy and Bitchy are shin-kickers in a hit-and-run sort of way … a slap here, a spit in the eye there … and being experts at this they don’t even need to bother leaving anything of substance behind. Most people don’t know what hit ’em.

Simpy is sneakier than the others. An expert in ‘set-up’, what comes first almost sounds reasonable and in agreement with someone somewhere, often posing as a caring individual startled by a comment, shocked by a post, but always working toward a flourish of the negative and nasty. Never without a proviso, there’s an attempt at escaping the hook by pulling up the end of the train with a “just a thought” or “respectfully” which is shorthand for, “Don’t hold me accountable”.

Swimming against The Seven takes strength and fortitude, and a whole heck of a lot of time, but Snow is strong and brave … and stuck in that damned room with little but her thoughts and her computer.

Lately, she’s been hoping to post evidence of her predicament, but being without a digital camera she’s had to send out film of a few shots of The Seven holding and tormenting her, planning to scan the photos into her posts, but so far they haven’t returned from the lab.

No worries, though, as she’s been heard singing hopefully, “Someday my prints will come”.

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The posts on the week’s news from Cambodia for adoptive parents of Cambodian-born kids, or anyone interested in some of the happenings there, are up on the International Adoption Blog here, here, and here.

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The wrap of Cambodian news for the week has been posted:

Swindles, investment, judges, Cisco & an actress

US military aid, tortoise trafficking, art, brides & questions

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If you’re stopping by for this week’s news out of Cambodia, the posts … four of them, since there was so much happening … are up on the International Adoption Blog.

Here are the links:

Land boom, lakes, and “baby fish”

Dengue fever and mosquito control

The Khmer Rouge Trials

Domestic violence, terrorists, giving, and eating

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For parents of Cambodian-born kids, or anyone interested in what’s up in Cam, this week’s wrap of the news from Cambodia has been posted on the International Adoption Blog.

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Amazing as it may seem, Mirah Riben … rabid anti-adoption nut and casual acquaintance of the written word … continues to shoot herself in the foot in forums as public as she can manage to corner for flaunting her ignorance and narrow agenda that consists of sour grapes and disregard for the fate of children in the world.

Why? You might well ask, but heck if I can figure it out, although I do speculate a bit on that in an article on BNN and in a comment here on Adoption.com.

I’m guessing the heavy investment in misery I mention in the comment to Lisa’s post linked above … specific instructions, you see, in case any of the oh-so-easily-confused cohorts of The Riben happen to drop by and again can’t figure out the whole click-to-link thing … has a lot to do with it. There would appear to be no little support, and in fact a great deal of it, for assuming a victim posture and sticking with it no matter how silly it looks.

I have a mental image of the meetings these folks must participate in … huge wallows, complete with enthusiastic bouts of flagellation meant to bring out impressive welts easily and eagerly shown off and compared, possible even with “my pain is bigger than your pain” contests taking up a portion of the schedule. Any healing would have to be frowned upon as a negation, and claims of adjustment to circumstances a repudiation, a denial.

The Riben’s writings might be garnering her pain points in whatever game she plays, and we do know she’s flogging a book or two … which I’m hoping she sends for review, as I’d be happy to do that, but do doubt she’d want a real critique of her ‘work’ from someone not married to her agenda … and it appears she may be trying to start a movement.

Her latest spewage calls for a boycott of Adoption.com, and though it looks like she finally found someone to proof her since some punctuation is appropriately used … thank goodness, as her writing is usually so poor that a headache is the only result of a reading — attempted reading, I should say … the information continues to be consistently, and most likely intentionally, incorrect and the references continue to lead back only to her own words on her own web sites.

Parents and Professionals for Family Preservation and Protection is opposed to the purpose of this site, its advertisers, and its practices and urges all who are truly interested in preserving families to boycott Adoption.com and its affiliates.

Sound impressive? Not really, and even less so when you know that “Parents and Professionals for Family Preservation and Protection” is Mirah Riben … probably on her lonesome, too. (Family Preservation is code for abolish adoption. Pretty tricky in a sad, pathetic sort of way, heh?)

People are asking why I continue to provide links to her, but how could I not? If I summarized, you’d think I was making her up. She’s her own worst enemy, poor thing, in all her embarrassing, convoluted and desperate glory, and far be it from me to deny anyone the experience of the full Mirah.

I’d link to her blog where she accuses me of being just like Paris Hilton, but I don’t want to divert attention from serious issues with comedy relief. Email me if you’d like the link, though — the whole post is hilarious.

Good for a laugh as she is, however, a pattern of tedium is forming. No matter how monotonous, she does keep drawing hits to my sites, though, so there’s milage in the sad old girl yet.

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