Off limits my butt.

[flamin lib]

Sorry but I can't contain myself anymore. We hold sports celebrities out a role models. A President was impeached because of his "moral failings" and the example he set for our children.

So here we have a Vice Presidential candidate whose teen aged daughter gets knocked up and we're supposed to believe its a blessing and leave it off limits for comment?

Bullshit! It's a scandal and it deserves to be out in the open and seen for what it is; a moral failing of the parents. What sort of example does this set for girls and young women? Go ahead, have unprotected sex, get married at 17 to the high school drop out dad and we'll call it a blessing. Yeah, everybody join it! No repercussions, no responsibility. Instead we reward the parent with the second highest office in the land.

There, I feel better now.

[JuniperLea]

1. Morning radio host Steph Miller sez Palin herself was preggers...

When she married "First Dude".


Edited to say, I don't give a flying rat's ass if someone is pregnant before they marry, or if they marry at all! But when you start fucking around with the lives of others under the guise of "family values" and your own "record" is something less than what you preach, this is hypocrisy at it's finest.

[grasswire]

2. and while we're at it.......where is that baby?

Who is taking care of that baby? Yes, it's true that a father can nurture a child, but I believe the father is also on the campaign trail. Who is bonding with that wee thing? I'm feeling very sad for that child.

[undeterred]

3. No butt threads.

[Brewman_Jax]

4. Theo-con hypocritcal SOP

the standard "do as I say, not as I do" line of lying bullshit. Add to that the screaming double standard if a minority teen were in the same situation, I'm sure they wouldn't call it "a blessing". :eyes: Theo-cons don't even live according to their own rules. Now they want to make those personal/private rules into public policy. I have a problem with that. :grr:

In a fair world, if the best the resluglicans can do is lame old maver-rick-roll McClone and theo-con Caribou Barbie (who should be home with the kids, anyway, 'cause that's what theo-con women are supposed to do), this election shouldn't be close, but...:(

[asdjrocky]

5. What I wonder is...

Don't any of the people in this family believe in education? For crying out loud, one goes right into the Army, another hasn't gone to school for how long? No one says a word about these two "young adults" who seem to have no interest what so ever in bettering themselves beyond their current station in life.

I'm not rich, poor actually by most standards, and I'm certainly not a Governor, but my daughter is now in her first year of college, and has never been pregnant. (We were smart, we talked to her about birth control.)

I'm so fucking sick of this whole white is black and black is white crowd.

[Cid_B]

6. "one goes right into the Army,"

Whats wrong with that?


"my daughter is now in her first year of college, and has never been pregnant." Whoop die doo award for you.

Sometimes the smug around here is so bad you can taste it.

[asdjrocky]

7. Well hello there angry person.

There is nothing wrong with going right into the Army. But, after just a couple of years of college, he could go in at a much better pay grade, and put himself into a better spot for advancement. But then, I guess that's what happens when you get the choice between joining the Army or going to jail.

And thank you for the award shithead, we are quite proud of her. Oh yeah, enjoy your stay.

[Midlodemocrat]

17. You should be.

Sounds like she made some good decisions and was guided by loving parents.

Don't listen to the trolls.

[asdjrocky]

21. Trust me, it's mostly her mom.

And thanks so much. I couldn't be more proud of my liberal daughter, who on her Payless Shoe Source salary, before she started school of course, managed to send Obama 20 bucks before she was even old enough to vote.

[JTFrog]

36. Maybe it's the fact that he went into the army to avoid JAIL.

He's a little vandal that cost the school system several thousand dollars to repair the buses he tampered with. He was given a choice, jail or enlist.... guess which one he chose.

[teehee]

9. Excuse you--since when did the family not believe in edumacation?

First of all, Trackie is only 19. I am so glad of your perfection, but I dropped out of college at 18 and didn't go back until my 30s! I finally have graduated in my early 40s! Am I scum to you? What about my partner, who works with his hands, only has a GED, yet reads Proust in his spare time?

You have no idea what your precious little daughter has done in her private life. Or what she's doing at that college of hers...LOL

[magellan]

19. It's the hypocrisy re Family Values

The Repubs are all about them, want everyone to live by them, and take every opportunity to find complaint with Dems no matter how well or poorly off they are...but when they themselves fail to live up to their own standards, scores of apologists pop up for them.

If the Repubs want to force everyone to live by their "values" then they shouldn't expect to be let off the hook when their own families turn out to be as normal as anyone else's. They're hypocrites, and there's nothing wrong with point that out.

[teehee]

26. But that's not what happened

What I read in the original post was someone saying that it IS a scandal that this girl got pregnant. I say that it's not for teens of liberals, and likewise it's not in this case. Yes, there are many conservative pundits who seem accepting of this situation and yet wouldn't be if a Dem's kid got knocked up. But we still have to be fair, even if they won't.

[magellan]

32. Hm, I'm not so sure about that

I think any mother would be distressed to some degree on learning her 17-year old unwed daughter had gotten herself pregnant, no matter what her politics. Now, how she handled it with her daughter might be colored by her world view -- the options she might discuss and how open she was to them -- but in the end mothers are pretty much the same on wanting the best for their children, and pregnancy at such a young age does have real world ramifications on a young woman's future. (And the young man's, if he's cowed into a marriage he wasn't prepared for. That, by the way, I feel is wrong, forcing two young people to marry in a situation like this. The Repubs carry "personal responsibility" too far IMO...when it applies to others. Everyone must pay the ultimate price for their particular transgression...Wow.)

I agree with the points made by the OP and asdjrocky, the Repubs are too inconsistent when it comes to applying their precious values. The truth they won't acknowledge is that we all have them, and we all smash them once in a while.

[psychmommy]

29. these are kids of privilege. they didn't have to struggle to go.

not like normal everyday kids. the girl was pulled from hs for an alleged case of mono-is she back in school? i went to college and my brother went to trucker school. our parents cared enough about our future that they impressed us with college or trade school-your pick. i have been talking about college with my daughter since she was in kindergarten. the need for education is instilled in a child. my grandfather had an 8th grade education but, it was important to him that his kids have the opportunity for higher ed.

[teehee]

8. I wonder if you would be so hard on a Dem's kid, though

I don't see it as a scandal whatsoever! There are lots of girls who choose to have abortions and skate away from having to face the music, so of course they wouldn't shame the family. I have a lot more respect for those who accept the bed they have humped in, to be quite honest.

I don't have to condemn everything in Palin's background in order to pray that she doesn't get anywhere near the White House as part of the ticket. How is it a moral failing of the parents that she got knocked up anyhow? Even with Sex Ed, kids are very impulsive (hell, adults can be) and do things which they later regret. Teenage is more common than not and is far from abnormal (she was 16, not 13, after all).

[Wednesdays]

16. You see no hypocrisy?

Well, she needs all the cheerleaders she can get. :eyes:

[teehee]

18. Perhaps in the Repubes in general, but also in you!

Have you ever heard Palin rail against out-of-wedlock births? If not, then SHE isn't being hypocritical. Yes, others in the Republican party are surely changing their tune.

But you are changing yours as well. I doubt that you believe that it is such a scandal for an older teen girl to get pregnant. But because it is a Republican, you are up at arms. I am just calling out your hypocrisy is all. Proceed.

[noamnety]

23. If the OP had focused on the hypocrisy

I wouldn't have a problem with it.

Instead, the OP went with the "young women who get pregnant are immoral sluts" line. I'm having flashbacks to Dan Quayle during the Murphy Brown "scandal."

[guitar man]

10. I would say off limits except

except that they are out there holding her up as a shining example of "choose life" for the anti-choice segment of their voters. They can't expect to be able to use her in that way and say "hands off" at the same time.

If they can hold her up as an example of the choice a priveleged girl gets to make to keep the baby, we can hold her up as a failure in abstinence-only education. ;)

[RB TexLa]

11. Because they believe that is what a woman is supposed to do get out and birth her

man some babies. And by woman I mean anything that can carry a man's baby for him. If she complains about not getting an education and having a career they'll just tell her "your a mother nothing else you could do will ever be that important," and hopefully not leave her alone around guns.

[noamnety]

12. I wish I could vote this thread unrecommended.

Please take your judgmental load of "moral failure" crap elsewhere.

17 year old women often have sex. Get over it.

[RB TexLa]

14. But ones who want to educate themselves and start a life don't allow it to cause them

to become pregnant.

[noamnety]

20. Is this the new "pro-choice"?

It sounds an awful lot like anti-choice to me. Different words, same song, same moral condemnation and smug superiority.

[RB TexLa]

24. You think teenagers choose to become pregnant and destroy their lives?

I mean they can do that if they wish, but I doubt many of them jump for joy when the little pregnant stick says "yes."

[noamnety]

25. Some CHOOSE to give birth, others CHOOSE not to.

And frankly, it's not my business or yours to be condemning that choice.
Whether or not she's happy about it, also not my business or yours.

Your belief that pregnant teens have categorically "destroyed" their lives is both odd and ignorant. It changes their lives.

If you were pregnant as a teen and felt it "destroyed" your life, I'm sorry for your experiences, but those are not the experiences of everyone. Life doesn't just end at giving birth.

[RB TexLa]

30. No children here. The government and many, many organizations

fight against teenage pregnancy. You honestly think people should want that for themselves or their children?

[noamnety]

31. I don't think it makes them shameless immoral hussies.

Hence my disgust with the tone of the OP.

[Wednesdays]

13. Why do you hate 'Murika?

Come on, get with the program. It's different in her case, 'cuz she's a real Christian.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

15. I hate it when these self-righteous people don't allow you to choose.

no doubt she'll torture us too

[Parrcrow]

22. It really is about conservative hypocrisy

and the media kow-towing to their rationalizations.

We know what the story line would be if Joe Biden had a pregnant 17 year old daughter.


Imagine its 10 years ago and Chelsea Clinton were pregnant; What would their take be on that?

[SCBeeland]

27. Some articles in my local paper the last 3 weeks:

8-26-08: Discussed the "dangers" and "shame" associated with teenage sex and sex before marriage.

9-2-08: Cliched "Obama is a socialist" rant, usually does atleast one of these a month.

9-9-08: "Teens are having sex and teen pregnancy happens. America needs to realize this and get over the moralizing. Can't blame Palin for her daughter's pregnancy."

All three written by the same guy, the editor, in his special weekly article that is usually spent stroking his own ego and telling people how they need Jesus in their lives. I pointed out to him, after the 9-9 article, that just two weeks prior he had said the complete opposite. Got no reply. On the paper's website, where I left the comment, I was called a charlatan.

This is the way some people actually think in some places. When John Edwards was caught cheating, he's scum, but Palin's daughter becomes pregnant and suddenly its none of our business. Not to mention that she's a busy woman and can't be expected to babysit her daughter. That's the reaction I got out of most folks. It is insanity. What I don't understand is why are the religious NOT pouncing on Palin for the outright hypocrisy???

[noamnety]

28. Are you listening to yourself here?

"Palin's daughter becomes pregnant and suddenly its none of our business"

Did you really want to say that? Did you really mean to write that parents are supposed to "babysit" 17 year olds?

[misanthrope]

33. I took it as...

...a critique on the inequity of the admonishment.

[noamnety]

34. I don't think so

I don't see how believing that 17 year old women need babysitters fits into that explanation.

What it IS consistent with is the trend among dems to act like grown women are children who need babysitting, and their parents are responsible for their actions even after they are adults. (Bush twins, now Palin's daughter - soon to be a married mother, but apparently still in need of a babysitter, according to some DUers.)

[MadHound]

35. Oh please, stop sounding like every RW fundie I've ever met, we're supposed to be less judgmental

A teen age pregnancy isn't a scandal, it isn't a moral failing, it isn't any of the shit you're going off about. It is a mistake, one that happens hundreds of thousands of times a year. Stop your hyperventilating OK. Oh, and leave the kid out of it. Yes, she fucked up, but she doesn't deserve to be dragged through the muck just because of her mom. Let it be, take the high road, and stop trying to pretend that this is some sort of big deal. There is plenty of shit to nail Palin on, all on her own, without dragging the kid into it.

[Vinca]

37. The scandal is she got pregnant despite her mother's insane,

rabid belief that abstinence education works and birth control information does not.

[pecwae]

38. What about poor teens who get pregnant?

"a moral failing of the parents. What sort of example does this set for girls and young women? Go ahead, have unprotected sex, get married at 17 to the high school drop out dad and we'll call it a blessing. Yeah, everybody join it! No repercussions, no responsibility. Instead we reward the parent with the second highest office in the land."

Is it your view that when poor teens, middle income teens, teens from single parent homes, teens of Democratic Party parents, become pregnant it is also a "moral failing of the parent"? What should be the repercussions and responsibility for them? Since you don't want a "failed" parent to be rewarded what is your suggestion for punishment? Maybe some jail time would improve their parenting skills.

Glad you feel so much better. I just wonder if you know what that post actually sounds like.

[polichick]

39. I'm still wondering when we're gonna get the scoop on Bristol's real pregnancy...

...the one that ended with the birth of "her brother."

[MiniMe]

40. Your butt is off limits??

[GeorgeGist]

41. Role models are folks ...

who ain't themselves.