Babies for Sale

Strange stories like this one about nefarious plots by Europeans and Americans to adopt African children seem to surface from time to time even when Madonna's not involved. It's hard to know what to make of them. Obviously--and for good reason--everybody seems to be concerned about the possibility that this "charity" is actually involved in supplying vulnerable children to pedophiles or others involved in the trafficking of sex-slaves. But honestly I'm not sure which possibility is worse, that a shady ring of bandits got caught in a modern day slave raid, or that a bunch of well intentioned people hoping to rescue orphans from the Darfur genocide inadvertently kidnapped 91 children from their parents.

One detail I liked about this article is that it's not too often you see the president of a country on television engaging in this kind of exchange:

One of the Spanish pilots, still in his gold-brocaded uniform, can be seen in television footage telling the president of Chad, Idriss Deby, that he and his crew are innocent. "We are Spaniards!" he says.

But the president responds: "You are part of a pedophile ring!"

I'm no great admirer of George Bush, but I'd love to see him on TV chastising, say, Rudy Giuliani, who actually does keep a known child molester on his campaign staff.