Don’t be ridiculous, obviously you’ve done dozens of witchy things.
-Saving a lock of hair from baby’s first haircut. Extremely witchy.
-Picking up a penny for luck. Witchy.
-Knocking on wood. Witch vibes. -Kissed a scraped knee and magically made a 3 year old feel better. You are a witch.
-Brought a tree into your house for Christmas. Classic witch thing.
-Wrote a poem. Poems are just witch spells.
-Made chicken soup when someone was sick. Fully witchy.

For those of you following the story of my nephew and his wife, finally some good news: They just won their hearing! Our whole family is breathing a huge sigh of relief. I'll share a few more details about the outcome of the hearing in the next tweet.

https://twitter.com/designmom/status/1551651991511769090

Though they've been awarded custody, in the short term (3 to 6 months), the parents will still be required to have visits from DCF to observe their parenting. I’m told that full unconditional custody is simply not ever offered in these hearings.

Many of you have been following the updates about my nephew and his wife. The Department of Children and Families (DCF) in Boston took their babies (3 mos old and 3 yrs old) in the middle of the night, with no warrant or paperwork. You can catch up here:

https://twitter.com/designmom/status/1551651991511769090?s=20&t=cwvL6Xal8Qac7eGjUJK4NQ

I have an update for you: The 72-hour hearing is happening this week. They are told it will begin on Monday or Tuesday. It’s called a 72-hour hearing because it’s supposed to happen within 72 hours of DCF filing the paperwork after separating a family.

Two Saturdays ago I wrote about a nightmare my nephew and his wife are experiencing. Boston DCF (Dept of Children & Families) took their babies (age 3 months and 3.5 years) in the middle of the night. With no warrant. Here's the whole story written up by the mother.
/1 Their children have severe allergies.
/2

My extended family has been thrown into a hellish nightmare. My nephew and his wife, who live in Boston, just had their two sons taken from them in the middle of the night by CPS. Their sons are 6 months old, and 3 1/2. A baby and a toddler, the baby still nursing. Very late on Wednesday night, they took the baby into the emergency room because he had a high fever. In a scan, the hospital staff saw signs of a possible injury from 6 weeks ago, the parents weren’t aware of the injury, so the hospital suspected child abuse. CPS was called.

This guy is rightly getting ratioed because he doesn’t know his “secret” is having a wife. Makes me think about how often companies hire men with stay-at-home wives. Based on what he describes, we can see his wife is doing ~70% of the work it takes to keep him thriving. So... Common sense says that his company should split his paycheck 30/70 and pay 70% directly to the wife. She should get 70% of the retirement benefits directly in her name, and 70% of any other perks or benefits. They should both be on the payroll.

I'm full of anger and rage. But I know there is so much we can do. Here are 10 smart regulations that would prevent gun violence, and that the vast majority of the country would support:

1. A true national background check for all gun sales with a fully funded complete database. 2. Create a legal definition of what responsible gun ownership requires. Are there mandates there?

3. Take a harder look at who has the ‘right’ to own a gun.

4. Make gun owners legally responsible for whatever happens with their gun.

5. Make high-capacity weapons illegal.

Super quick and easy quiz for Men, just 5 questions:

1. If a woman asks you to drive drunk, even begs you to, should you do it? Yes or No? If you say yes, and then drive and there’s an accident, did you cause the accident or did she? 2. If you have a serious, very contagious disease transmitted by being near someone, and a friend asks you to visit him, even begs you to, should you do it? Yes or No? If you say yes, and you infect him, would the doctor say you caused his dangerous sickness or that he did?

ME: Hmmm. Women have been saddled with the all work of pregnancy prevention, and then entirely blamed for unwanted pregnancies, for all of known history. That doesn’t seem very fair.

MEN: I guess that’s just how it goes. Gosh, it’s really tough luck having a uterus. ME: Now that I think of it, it actually makes way more sense for men to be tasked with pregnancy prevention. Men are fertile every single day (that’s way more often than women are fertile!).

Remember: They DON'T ACTUALLY CARE about stopping abortion. They are lying. Kavanaugh doesn't care. Barrett doesn't care. Alito. Thomas. Gorsuch. Roberts. NONE of them care. No judge or politician who claims to be anti-abortion actually cares about stopping abortion. We have well established research showing HOW to reduce abortions. It's not magic. What works? Free and easily accessible birth control. It's a very effective tool! Want to reduce abortions even more? Focus on comprehensive sex ed. It's also a very effective tool!

In France, mask mandates for schools, grocery stores, theaters, were recently lifted, but in my town, I’m still seeing a very high percentage of mask wearing. I asked people what Covid management is like where they live, and here’s what I heard from people all over the world:

"Nobody's come up with it" because no one's ever tried. I love a mental exercise like this! Three basketball rule changes off the top of my head that would enable all genders to compete together on an equal level:

1/7

https://twitter.com/Thelonious08/status/1506629284949078019

1) Any team (high school, college, pro) has to reflect the population of the city where it's based as closely as reasonably possible. So for example, if the town is 10% Vietnamese expats and 50% women, the team would also be 50% women and 10% Vietnamese expats.

2/7

I suppose my brain works differently than yours. When I saw that tweet, I immediately started thinking about how sports (which have made up and arbitrary rules) could have developed differently if all genders had competed together from the beginning.

https://twitter.com/Shelducks8/status/1506322749551439872

Would the sports we cherish incorporate more flexibility and endurance? Would the major emphasis be on collaboration, with a minor focus on competition? We have no idea! We have never lived in a world that wasn't totally patriarchal.

Oh come on. "Law-abiding gun owner" is pretty meaningless. Guns legally purchased and legally owned by law-abiding citizens are used to kill people every single day. Shall we make a thread of news stories demonstrating this?

I'll start. Feel free to add more.

https://twitter.com/James_E_White/status/1504750856729772033

A 3-year-old boy shot and killed his mother in a supermarket parking lot, using his father's unsecured gun.

cbsnews.com/news/boy-accid…

I want to show you something I found in this house. It was built in the 1400s. It's in Normandy, France, and my family calls it the Small House. It's basically a ruin. No electricity. No plumbing. But we are slowly bringing it back to life. Here's what I found... We were clearing out the attic loft, and a dusty pile of burlap and canvas caught my eye.

When I think about the military (obscene budgets, drones killing civilians, not caring for vets, etc.), I get super pissed off. So I tried to reframe. We’ve already paid for their budget, we're not getting that money back. What’s something good we could ask them to do. Like this: Americans: We urgently need to get the WHOLE WORLD vaccinated before the next variant. Until the world is vaxxed, we won’t be safe.

US Military: Pick us! We're crappy at lots of stuff, but would be great in this case. We’re designed and organized for huge campaigns like this.

I've been learning a ton from #adopteetwitter #adopteevoices. Something I keep thinking about:

1) In some adoption cases (not sure how many), a mother relinquishes her baby for adoption because of economics; she can't afford to raise the baby.

time.com/6051811/privat… 2) In the U.S., adoption via private agencies costs $60,000-$70,000.

Source:
americanadoptions.com/adopt/average-…

A few years ago my husband @benblair and my brother @floodstreet set out to create the most affordable, accredited, U.S.-based online university, and make it available to students all over the world. And they've succeeded. It's called Newlane University.

newlaneuniversity.com Each @NewlaneU degree is $1500, paid at $40/month. If you want to earn an Associates Degree & Bachelors Degree, that’s $3000 total. If you already have an Associates Degree, and want to earn a Bachelors Degree, it would be $1500. (The cheapest degree I've seen elsewhere is $5k.)

Finally read the kidney donation story. I know you've been waiting breathlessly for my thoughts. Here they are:
- If you didn't read till the end, you don't know the story. The writer of the article saved major facts for the end, and they very much affected the story. - There was straight up plagiarism. The author knew she was doing it, openly acknowledged it to others, was (a little) worried about it, and did it anyway. She later altered the plagiarism, hoping to avoid trouble. But alas, trouble was not avoided.

Hey fellow #LDS #Mormons, I know this stresses some of you out, but the Church stance is pro-legal abortion. If we want abortions available for incest, rape, or health of the mother, that requires legal abortion. If you agree with the Church, you are also pro-legal abortion. This may stress you out further, but we could also accurately say the Church is pro-choice — we want those who we think "qualify" for an abortion to be able to choose one if they want. That's pro-choice.

I was in the U.S. for a few days and got a Covid vaccine shot. I mentioned this on Instagram and readers from around the world reported on the vaccine status where they live. I don’t think most Americans have a sense of what is happening elsewhere. Here are some of the comments. 2/x