I had a reoccurring dream when I was 8 that the lobster was chasing me down my driveway.

On The Bulwark Podcast,JVL said and I think he's absolutely right that Trump is counting on Democrats to blink because we have people in the files (and he doesn't mean Bill Clinton by this, but much more broadly)and that we see our elites being in there as a plus, we want them gone. And that's right

*generally FALSE idea. Dammit brain.

I fully agree that it's a myth that most birth parents don't want their children. I struggle, because I'm in that minority who was genuinely abandoned by their birth mother (though adopted in my birth family). It's hard to talk about without seeming to people that I'm confirming this generally idea.

Yeah, I think the worst part of having to get a court order to get the OBC is that there's someone who gets to say no to it. There shouldn't be a gatekeeper for this. The potential for it to cost more is just an added burden, but glad it was reasonable for your friend.

(Sorry to sound aggro. I don't mean it toward you. I'm just so frustrated by the idea that getting one's birth certificate is contingent on paying a good chunk of money to hope a judge agrees with you.)

... can order, no questions asked, for about $50 or less. And the judge can refuse! You have to convince them you have a "good" reason to have your birth certificate. Judges have been known to chastise the adoptee for disloyalty to their APs or cruelty to the birth mother who has "moved on."

While I'm glad that there was at least some mechanism for getting her original birth certificate, it's absolutely bonkers that a grown adult would have to pay court costs (and possibly attorney's fees) to beg a judge to give them a document that any non-adoptee ...