Two things came across my desk this morning almost simultaneously. One is about international adoption. The other is not.

First, the not.

Thirty-three pinheaded Idaho bible thumpers attempting to illegally, unethically and immorally grab Haitian kids and bus them out of the country is NOT about international adoption, no matter how many times the term is slotted into the story.

It is about arrogance and ignorance, and I hope all of them, except perhaps the child who looks to be about 12 in the photo, see what life is like inside a Haitian jail.

What is about adoption came from my dear friend and hero, Adam Pertman.

A Webinar featuring Dr. Bruce Perry Monday, February 1st, 2010 from 7:00 to 8:00 PM Central Time (a recorded version will be available subsequently) This free webinar features Bruce D. Perry M.D., Ph.D., the Senior Fellow at The ChildTrauma Academy. He will discuss the likely impact of the many traumas children coming home from the orphanages in Haiti have experienced. The webinar will help prepare families who are now awaiting or have already received placement under the United States' expedited program. Dr. Perry will cover the impact of the multiple traumas on this group of kids, explain what parents can expect, and give advice on how they can ease the transition for their child. The webinar will have practical advice for adoptive parents, adoption professionals, and interim caregivers. Please forward this invitation to any family awaiting a placement from Haiti as well as staff and/or interim caregivers for these children. In order to give priority to families who will benefit the most from this live webinar, we ask that you refrain from inviting those who are just starting to explore the option of adopting from Haiti. Dr. Perry will address specific trauma-related questions from the audience as time allows. We ask that you submit questions in advance through the registration form. PLEASE NOTE: this session is intended for those families who were in process of adopting from Haiti prior to the earthquake and are therefore receiving an expedited placement of their child. The Haitian adoption process itself as well as advice for those looking to start the process of adopting from Haiti will not be covered. This webinar is brought to you by Adoption Learning Partners, the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, the Joint Council on International Children's Services and Heart of the Matter Seminars.

Okay. Before I go any farther, I will freely admit that I am in a foul mood. I could very happily rip someone's head off about now, stick it on a pike, then beat the crap out of it with a hair brush ... almost anyone would do ... so perhaps, just perhaps, I am not reacting quite the way I should to today's news.

Whatevahh ...

It's this story that has me spitting spikes for this post.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the move would allow children eligible for adoption in the US "to receive the care they need."

Other nations said they were speeding up the process to allow Haitian children to join adoptive families.

First bit of vitriol that rises is directly attached to this, from Sacramento, my old town ... a story about family waiting to bring their child home from Haiti closing in on the end run of what had to have been a very long process.

The current time frame is 6 to 12 months for a referral, once your dossier arrives in Haiti. Two trips are required for families adopting from Haiti. The first trip occurs shortly after referral, and travel to pick up your child typically occurs between 12 and 18 months after you receive a referral (for childless couples) or 18-24 months (for families with other children).

Yep ... kids and parents waiting from one and a half to three years.

Was Haiti a garden spot before the quake? A safe haven for small children? Uh ... nope.It was a dirt poor, drastic place where bad things routinely happened to innocent people, where starvation and disease took thousands of lives and children were victims of horrible events on a daily basis.

Fully expecting the international adoption situation to continue to disintegrate over this year as it has over the past few, starting 2010 off with some common sense thoughts on the topic seems a good idea. Easy enough today, with this in the news:

Police in Nigeria have arrested a doctor suspected of impregnating girls and selling their babies. The police said they found five pregnant girls aged between 12 and 17 at the doctor's clinic in the south-eastern town of Enugu. The police said the man had confessed to getting the girls pregnant and selling their children. He is to face charges in court. Trafficking is common in Nigeria, with children sold for labour and sex work. In 2008, police raided a private hospital in Enugu which they said was a "baby farm". Seven pregnant young women were found.

One of the poop nuggets often dragged out by those opposed to international adoption is that western families hoping to bring a child into their fold prompt abductions from birth families in poor countries.

That this sometimes substantiated, but often not, allegation misses the point is clear to anyone who spends time in poverty stricken places, as child abandonment and lots of other nasty stuff are facts of life when disease, starvation, war and other realities abound.

As this from the BBC illustrates, there is a side to this coin, as well, one that is never mentioned while adoption-bashing: bad people stealing children for profit is not an adoption issue, nor is it adoption-driven, but a crime that carried out all the time without international adoption having a thing to do with it.

In China, a country that has made international adoption more and more difficult as it touts its ability to keep its house in order, thousands of children are being kidnapped and sold to Chinese families in need of boys to fill their ancestral obligations.

I would love to address the content of this article, a new offering from anti-adoption banger Mirah Riben, but I first must pull out the blue pencil and do so many corrections of the grammar and punctuation that it will take more effort than the piece is worth.

The fact that Mirah continues to be published even with such poor writing skills speaks to the vociferousness of the anti league, and to a lack of observational and comprehension skills. This makes it so easy to cherry pick random quotes, arrange them in a barely readable mishmash and pass the whole thing off as information, and when preaching to the choir that is all that is necessary.

Trotting out unsubstantiated numbers helps, too:

"These fears, myths and misconceptions, coupled with the glamorization of rescuing orphans, are perpetrated by an adoption industry that generates an estimated 6.3 billion annually worldwide and 23 billion domestically."