A lawyer who donated sperm to pay his way through college has learned that he has fathered an astonishing 70 children.
More than 15 of those have already attempted to contact 33-year-old Ben Seisler.
The donor confessed to his fiancée as part of a new reality show, Sperm Donor, that aired on the Style Network on Tuesday.
I came across this via Instapundit, who links to Ann Althouse, one of whose commenters was amused by a quote from the story:
“On the one hand, these kids are biologically my kids. On the other hand they are not my kids.”
Does it really matter which hand he used?
Another quote, from the man’s fiancée: “Did you think of the consequences that would come of it?” Ba-da-BOOM-crash!
Here is a scene from the show:
That scene is the climax of the first episode. Ba-da-BOOM-crash!
More seriously, we learn that there is a “Donor Sibling Registry” that connects the offspring of sperm donors to their half-siblings and their biological fathers. The Boston Globe reported:
The situation highlights the complicated issues that are starting to emerge now that a sizable cohort of donor-conceived children are growing up and wanting information about their biological fathers. Issues such as: What if the kids want to meet the fathers? What if children from the same sperm donor meet each other, and unwittingly get married? When’s the right time to tell your girlfriend that you were a sperm donor?
These are issues a lot of men may not have considered back at the sperm bank, a lucrative source of quick cash. Seisler averaged $150 per donation . . .
This is another one of those unintended consequences of “progress” that no one seems to have foreseen when technology made possible the long-term storage of semen as a marketable commodity. Being the father of six children myself — did it the old-fashioned way, IYKWIMAITYD — I’m happy with the result. Thinking back to my youth, however, I might bemoan the missed opportunities for profit.
Hell, I could have been a millionaire by the time I was 17 . . .
Perhaps you’ll want to hit the tip jar as a gesture of gratitude that there aren’t hundreds of my offspring in the world, and to help provide for the (relatively) few there are.
I’m no fan of Awlaki and I will certainly not mourn his passing, (really – he seems like a total jerk) but this raises serious questions about the targeted killing program, who is being targeted and why. Presumably, in the case of targeted killing, its important there is evidence BEFORE the killing, rather than a scrabble now to piece together a case, after the fact. I hope there is evidence that he actually materially supported terrorism.
“I hope there is evidence”? Under what rock have you been hiding, lady? But what stuns me is Professor Carvin’s evident need to stipulate that she is “no fan of Awlaki” — which is, I’m sure, a welcome reassurance to Scotland Yard and the Home Secretary — before she proceeds to “serious questions about the targeted killing program.” It’s one of those noticeable tics of liberalism, the telltale flinch of a confused and guilt-ridden mind, and as such almost impossible to parody:
I’m no fan of Martin Bormann and I will certainly not mourn his passing . . .
I’m no fan of James Earl Ray and I will certainly not mourn his passing . . .
I’m no fan of the Green River Killer and I will certainly not mourn his passing . . .
Where do they find these people? Are the parents of students at the University of London aware that their children are under the tutelage of this bewildered idiot?
UPDATE II: The passing of one of Al-Awlaki’s comrades tempts John Hitchcock to satire:
Editor Of Popular Internet Magazine Dead At 25
Samir Kahn, 25, was born in Saudi Arabia but grew up in New York. He later returned to the Middle East and began publishing the popular e-zine “Inspire” in an effort to educate English-speaking youth in world politics by speaking in their own vernacular. . . .
NYPD resisted the temptation to kill this Commie douchenozzle
Permit me to praise you, courageous officers of the New York Police Department, for your admirable restraint in dealing with the smelly Marxist scum currently infesting your city.
While I haven’t previously bothered to grant any underserved publicity to the vermin involved in the “Occupy Wall Street” protests, I did notice some accusations of “police brutality.” For a few minutes Sunday, I wrestled with a sudden and nearly overwhelming urge to write an article recommending Medals of Meritorious Service for any NYPD officer who billy-clubbed or pepper-sprayed one of those protest pests.
“The protesters are what you’d expect, a kind of hippie dippie group of students, anti-globalization activists, and antiwar movement actors. . . . They believe themselves to represent all Americans who are frustrated by politics and finance. Whether or not this is true, what is happening is that there is a belief that their actions matter, that they themselves are moral beings who have dignity and power simply by the very act of self-expression.”
— Matt Stoller, “former Senior Policy Advisor to Rep. Alan Grayson and a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute”
What super-human willpower your officers have hitherto exerted is now so apparent that I am compelled to send you this note of praise.
Also, speaking on behalf of decent Americans everywhere, I wish to offer in advance my sympathies for whichever member of your riot squad is the first to break under the unbearable strain. We hope the NYCPBA has provided counseling to officers struggling against the temptation to engage in the “very act of self-expression” by whipping out their 9mm Glocks, emptying the magazine into these advocates of “civil disobedience,” re-loading with a fresh clip, and continuing to fire for effect so long as there is ammunition available and fresh targets in sight.
However, there is only so much that can be accomplished by psychological counseling, and not even the iron discipline of the NYPD can forever suppress the basic instinct that will, I know, finally unleash the pent-up fury the hard-working men and women of your force must feel toward the “Occupy Wall Street” protesters. Whether the result is merely a few hippie skulls busted by baton-wielding officers or, as I greatly fear, something more like the Ohio National Guard’s historic 1970 victory over Viet Cong sympathizers at Kent State, I just want to say to the officers involved in the unfortunate incident: We understand. We care. We’re here for you.
Sure that I speak on behalf of a grateful nation, I remain
Despite nagging evidence to the contrary, Ralph Nader is basically a smart guy. Certainly he’s aware of the damage he wrought in 2000 by taking enough votes from Al Gore to hand the presidency to George W. Bush. So, you would assume he would never again gamble with the nation’s highest office.
But Nader is back, telling anyone with a microphone that he’d like a clutch of Democrats, perhaps a half-dozen, to challenge President Obama for the 2012 nomination. Nader doesn’t plan to run himself; in fact, he claims he doesn’t want any of his Trojan candidates to actually win the nomination. All he wants is a good brawl in the form of pre-convention debates.
Oh, that vastly over-rated democracy! If only the philosopher-kings could silence the opposition and simple set about fixing the evils of ReaganBush [your conservative demon goes here].
The most shocking piece of all this remains the deafening Lefty silence about the fascism underscoring this line of thought.
Last night on Fox News, Rick Santorum alluded to the fact that Rick Perry supporter Dean Cannon is one of the Florida GOP leaders pushing to move up their primary. Santorum did not, however, refer to the growing suspicion among many Americans that the so-called “Florida Republican Party” is actually a terrorist cell organized by clandestine agents of Kim Jong Il and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Here’s my American Spectator column today:
America is threatened by many crises, ranging from economic recession to international terrorism, but none of these threats are quite so immediate or so fundamentally hostile to our democratic form of government as the existential menace of Florida.
Perhaps this is a slight exaggeration, but not by too much, when you consider the multiple ramifications of Florida’s announced plan to hold its 2012 presidential primary on Jan. 31. This would completely wreck the primary schedule as other states move up their dates, and would also result in the Republican National Committee stripping Florida of half its delegates to next year’s convention, which will be held in Tampa. So Republicans in the host state of the GOP convention would be punished for a decision made by their own elected Republican leaders, who seem indifferent to the consequences.
“We know the risk we’re taking, but we’re talking about satisfying maybe 100 people versus 19 million people who could have a say in who the nominee is,” Florida state Senate president Mike Haridopolos told the Wall Street Journal, as if a Florida primary in March — where it should be, according to RNC rules — would be utterly irrelevant to the nomination process. This kind of pretzel-logic is inexplicable to sane people, but we’re talking about Florida Republicans . . .
Read the whole thing. Let’s just hope Reince Priebus can stop these crazy Florida bastards from ruining Christmas.
The U.S.-born terror mastermind Anwar al-Awlaki has been killed, Fox News confirms.
Awlaki was killed with several other suspected al Qaeda operatives, the Yemeni defense ministry said. The statement did not elaborate on the circumstances of Awlaki’s death.
However, tribal sources told AFP that Awlaki was killed in an air strike which hit two vehicles in Marib province, an al Qaeda stronghold in eastern Yemen early Friday.
UPDATE: Notice the legalistic mumbo-jumbo (“terror suspect,” “believed,” “reportedly”) in the CBS News story, as if they are afraid Al-Awlaki might sue for libel:
Yemen: Terror suspect Anwar al-Awlaki killed Yemen’s Defense Ministry claimed Friday that Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Islamic preacher believed to be a high-ranking member of al Qaeda’s franchise in the region, has been killed.
Al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen born in New Mexico, has been linked to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) attempted bombing of a U.S. passenger jet over Detroit on Christmas day, 2009, and is thought to be a leader of the group.
U.S. officials consider him a most-wanted terror suspect, and added his name last year to the kill or capture list – making him a rare American addition to what is effectively a U.S. government hit-list. . . .
Al-Awlaki is believed to be a prominent member in the group, taking a role in the planning of actual terror plots, in addition to his role as a religious adviser and counselor to other members.
He reportedly met directly with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 19-year-old Nigerian who attempted to blow up the flight to Detroit in 2009, when the young man traveled for training to Yemen.
Al-Awlaki’s voluminous online preaching, in both video and print form, is also thought to have inspired Ft. Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, who made email contact with the preacher before carrying out his attack
Look, I understand that a news organization isn’t supposed to be uncritically publishing government press releases, but there is such a thing as being “notorious,” and Al-Awlaki’s role in al-Qaeda was notorious.
Anwar al-Awlaki is the leader of al-Qaeda 2.0. The New Mexico–born cleric is a digital jihadist who uses our technology against us to spread his message of hate. He is the Facebook friend from hell.
Most Americans don’t realize that al-Awlaki, the first American on the CIA’s kill-or-capture list, was held in federal custody in October 2002 until an FBI agent ordered his release even though there was an active warrant for his arrest.
Awlaki developed an online e-mail relationship with the accused shooter at Fort Hood, Maj. Nidal Hasan, and many others. Think how history would be different for the Fort Hood families if Awlaki had been prosecuted in 2002?
Despite calls from Capitol Hill, the FBI has refused to explain how the cleric slipped through the bureau’s grasp. I believe it could be the biggest law-enforcement failure since 9/11.
When he was imam of a San Diego mosque in the 1990s, his sermons were attended by two future 9/11 hijackers, Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi.
He also lived in the UK from 2002-04, where he spent several months giving lectures to Muslim youth.
In a video posted in November last year he called for the killing of Americans, saying they were from the “party of devils”.
And this guy was born in New Mexico, a U.S. citizen.
SANA, Yemen — In a significant and dramatic strike in the campaign against Al Qaeda, the Defense Ministry here said American-born preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, a leading figure in the group’s outpost in Yemen, was killed on Friday morning. In Washington a senior official said Mr. Awlaki had been killed in an American attack by an unpiloted drone firing a Hellfire missile.
Mr. Awlaki’s Internet lectures and sermons have been linked to more than a dozen terrorist investigations in the United States, Britain and Canada. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan had exchanged e-mails with Mr. Awlaki before the deadly shooting rampage on Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. Faisal Shahzad, who tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square in May, 2010, cited Mr. Awlaki as an inspiration.
Notice that Awlaki is described as a “preacher,” not an “imam” or “cleric.” As of 8 a.m., the online version of this NYT story is 1,265 words and it is not until the 24th paragraph that we discover what religion Awlaki preached:
Mr. Awlaki has been linked to numerous plots against the United States, including the botched underwear bombing. He has taken to the Internet with stirring battle cries directed at young American Muslims. “Many of your scholars,” Mr. Awlaki warned last year, are “standing between you and your duty of jihad.”
As an amusing side-note, the Internet now enables the Times to get stories wrong in real-time:
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: Correction: September 30, 2011 An earlier version of this article said that Yemeni forces had carried out the attack. The circumstances of the operation remain unclear.
Steven is on about nutrition, diet, and healthy lifestyle.
Fortunately for Stacy McCain, his copy of Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72 is a special combination book/mojo that both wards off the effects of Stacy’s otherwise deleterious lifestyle, and blesses him with Special Gonzo Phrasing, to invigorate his writing.
