"Close Encounters With a Home Barely Known: Children adopted abroad ask, Which land is my land? Both, the furnishings say," by Jill Brooke, New York Times, 22 July, p. D1.

"Bush Speech On Human Trafficking Target Castro: Remarks at Official Event Are Tailored for Cuban Exiles in Florida and Religious Conservatives," by Dana Milbank, Washington Post 17 July, p. A2.

The Times article is a charmer, suggesting a subtle but profound influence in America from all those kids adopted from overseas in recent years, the biggest number coming fromóof courseóChina. The article appears in the "House & Home" section, not one I usually blog, and details how home furnishings inside households featuring children adopted from abroad are naturally tilted in the direction of the culture from which that child emerged as parents seek to respect those cultural bonds, not sever them whole.

Already, I could walk you past a host of Asian or specifically Chinese items in our house that have appeared in the months since we started the adoption processóa lamp here, a painting there. I just hung some painted tiles last night in my daughter's room, where our Vonne Mei Ling will eventually sleep once she graduates out of mom and dad's room.

I have described our adoption of Vonne Mei Ling as part of my strategy of shrinking the Gap "one child at a time." Vonne Mei hails from one of China's poorer rural areas, which constitute China's internal Non-Integrating Gap, and thanks to the amazing system that is China's orphanages and international adoption agency, Vonne Mei will escape that Gap in a rule-structured process that respects her needs and interests.

Contrast this fate to those suffered by numerous kids throughout the Gap: that of virtual slavery to sex traffickers. Who are the biggest offenders in this regard according to the U.S. State Department? Cuba, North Korea, Burma, Sudan, Venezeulaóall Gap states with bad, "Big Man" leaders.

Add that crying need to the very long list of reasons of why the Core needs an A-to-Z rule set on how to process politically-bankrupt states.