A wonderful opportunity for freeway bloggers

[Nobody]

A round of particularly obnoxious billboards have been sprouting up in my area. Have you seen them? They come in two flavors.

1) Picture of a six month old baby and the caption reads "GUESS WHAT????? Embryos are BABIES!!!!" Yes, they do have the multi-punctuation.

I want to see a companion billboard that shows a picture of a frying pan with an egg frying and the caption to read "Fried chicken. It's what's for dinner."

2) Picture of a six month old normal healthy looking baby and the caption reads "Every baby is a blessing" in huge print and "I have down's syndrome" in smaller print.

I want to see a similar billboard with the same large print "Every Baby Is A Blessing and the small print saying instead things like: "My mother died giving birth to me." and "I was conceived by an act of violence" and "My father is my maternal grandfather." and "My family does not have health care coverage and I was born via caesarean."

[la la]

1. A bit off the subject, but.................

driving on the 405 in Orange Cty, CA--I saw 5 Impeach signs in about a 5 mile distance!

Made me happy! IN ORANGE COUNTY! ;>)))

[Nobody]

2. Excellent news!

And I wouldn't call it off topic entirely. You were talking about signs.

Signs, signs, everywhere the signs....

Pro Life America is saturating our area right now.

[WildClarySage]

3. I've seen the every baby is a blessing one here in WV

Isn't it a shocker *heh* that they don't show a severely disabled baby in that billboard? One with deformities like my friend Ann's baby was (died at 6 months after extensive congenital deformities of the organs, limbs, etc. resulted in corrective surgical attempts and much pain and distress for baby and family) or a low-functioning downs syndrome baby who is hooked up to machines that breathe, pee and eat for him/her?

How about one that reads "My abusive dad beat my pregnant mom every day" since women are most likely to be abused when they're pregnant than at any other time in their lives?

How about the severely affected crack baby who screams all day, every day?

[Nobody]

4. Another slogan could be...

My dad left my mom as soon as she told him she was pregnant.

My mom's pharmacist wouldn't fill her prescription.

[lips]

5. Anybody...

have any idea where one could find a layout, or mapping of advertizing campaigns of this sort? Obviously, certain areas around Salt Lake City and certain regions in California and Texas might be saturated, but wouldn't it be useful to see where and to whom these ads are targeting?

Consumer advocacy groups aside...anyone agreeable to an old fashioned, yet literal smear campaign?

[Nobody]

8. That would be so refreshing

We need a bit of logic inserted into the world where none exists.

[Iris]

6. Or how about a hugely pregnant woman surround by 4 small children

and "have one every two years!"

[Nobody]

7. But a pregnancy is only 9 months long

You're being generous. It only takes 9 months to complete a pregnancy, less if mom smokes, so light up and start popping out a kid every 9 to 11 months. We haven't overpopulated this world enough, there are still single family homes out there being lived in by fewer than 8 people and two-bedroom apartments with only two people in them.

/heavy dose of sarcasm

[Iris]

9. well, yeah, but I was thinking the breast-feeding thing

coming from a Catholic background, most stair-step families I saw had about 2 years between kids. My brother and I are 18 months apart, but my mom didn't breastfeed - not "in vogue" at the time.

[Nobody]

10. Nephew and Niece are 11 months apart and their mom did breastfeed

But Nephew was more than six months old, he was sleeping through the night, and he was eating solid food in addition.

I went on a tour of the Internet and found this page

http://www.loveyourbaby.com/fertility-while-breast-feeding.html

full of interesting things. I also found a site I don't have access to that spells it out in a scientific journal. I did see the first page, which listed some of the info cited on the page we all have access to.

In case you have a way to get in, here's the scientific paper:

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0032-4728(199103)45%3A1%3C91%3ABAFACA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-3

Interestingly enough, breastfeeding is very effective in preventng a second pregnancy too close on the heels of Kid #1, but there are ways to reduce the effectiveness. Like all birth control, you have to use it properly.

As a side note, I've got a friend who is trying for Kid #2 and Kid #1 is already 2 years old. Still breastfeeding, but no attempt to wean has been made, she gets mom's milk any time she wants it, and mom doesn't dare go out and have a night out with her friends that doesn't include the child. Can you say screaming fit until mommy appears? I knew you could.

On edit: the link to the scientific paper messed up and my browser isn't cooperating to let me fix it. If you want to check it out, you can paste it in your browser address window. Sigh.