If you had the option of staying in a four-star hotel with round-the-clock care for you and your kid, would you stay home? Me neither. But as a New York Times story reports, the number of home births is on the rise, despite official condemnation by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Medical Association. And seriously, why does this generation of parents have such distrust of the medical profession? An entire cadre of parents refuse to vaccinate their children, thereby endangering everybody else’s, and now an increasing number refuse to view birth as a medical event. But in both situations, if the shit hits the fan — and during delivery, it literally does! — who do you turn to but a medical professional?
I feel like this is one of those Sarah Palin things — either you get it or you don’t. And I just can’t understand why you wouldn’t want your doctor, someone else’s sheets to soil and a big fat epidural. Legal drugs are so grand, are they not?

Like Kate Winslet for Vanity Fair, I too am inspired by “Belle de Jour”-era Catherine Deneuve — with all that YSL, who isn’t? — and, many a morning, I find myself similarly seated and scantily clad. No wonder Mr. MILF is chronically late to the office.

OMG! I want to be a Chinese earthquake victim too! These lucky little kids got to hang out with Donatella and her lips because she is funding the rebuilding of their school. So sweet! [The Cut]

Misery loves company! Turns out the European luxury brands are fucked too. [WWD]

Here’s yet another reason to boycott American Apparel, the t-shirt company run by the sexual predator Dov Charney — a former accountant is suing the brothel brand because he was fired for refusing to cook the books. [WSJ]

Do you ever feel like this is Karl Lagerfeld’s world. and we’re all just publicizing it? Here’s the picture of Lagerfeld as a Hitler youth that everybody is predictably swooning over. [On the Runway]

Liberals are funny! On Wednesday, an impressively elaborate fake New York Times imagined a right-wing nightmare. [Gawker] And today, The Times exposed McCain advisor Martin Einsenstadt as a hoax by a couple comedians. [NYT]

Farewell, Miriam Makeba. The brilliant South African chanteuse died this week. Here is an amazing video of a  performance of her signature protest song, Pata Pata. I can’t stop listening to it. [The Moment]