by Damozel | The poor kid told Greta Van Susteren at Fox: ""Everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it's not realistic at all.""
Rebecca Traister discusses what intelligent people can learn from her interview:
According to [Greta] Van Susteren's slightly implausible setup, Bristol had agreed to do this interview on her own, without the consent of her mother, who had learned of it only the day before. The young woman was talking to Van Susteren, Bristol said, in her plaintive adolescent patois, because, "I hope people learn from my story and just, like, prevent teen pregnancy, I guess."...
Bristol told Van Susteren that telling her parents she was pregnant "was, like, harder than labor," and described sitting on the couch with Johnston and a best friend there for support, so petrified about making her announcement that she was "just sick to my stomach," so much so that finally, her best friend had to blurt it out for her. Bristol continued, "I don't even remember it, because it was just like something I don't want to remember."
This young woman, too scared to even enunciate the fact of her pregnancy to her parents, is now a parent herself. (Salon)
Sarah Palin then appeared and translated everything Bristol had said into Palinese. Hey, kids! Don't have sex! Also: Hey, dogs! Don't drink out of the toilet!
What? As Bristol seemed inadvertently to acknowledge, one's as likely to get a result as the other.
Traister notes, "Bristol's self-professed desire to prevent teen pregnancy is not just about whether this little baby is going to be just fine, it is about whether his momma is." Bristol's sad little summation of life as a teen mom was interrupted by "Mama Palin purportedly "surprised" the pair by entering the room holding Tripp, offering him to her daughter and asking, "You want this joy?"" (Salon)
Hey, kids! Have sex! Don't you want this joy?
Noting that, because of her large and helpful family, Bristol "has it perhaps easier, if you will, than other young mothers," Palin pointed out that "many, many, many young parents have been successful in raising their children, and have raised healthy, happy, contributing members of our society. And Bristol and Levi will be parents like that."
Van Susteren needed to ask the elder Palin about how she would interpret her daughter's larger message, and in doing so, she mentioned the word "abstinence." "It sounds naive!" said the Alaska governor, a proponent of abstinence (though not abstinence-only) legislation. "So you get beyond that ideal of abstinence. You get beyond that and then you deal with it. Life happens and you deal with it."
Apparently so. Particularly those less fortunate teen moms in Alaska. Cf. "Compassionate" Conservative: Gov. Palin Slashed Teenage Moms' Funding. Palin apparently thinks that if you slip up in your teens, choose life and get all that joy in return, you shouldn't feel entitled to a roof to shelter your and your baby's joyful heads.
"Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee who revealed Monday that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, earlier this year used her line-item veto to slash funding for a state program benefiting teen mothers in need of a place to live....Palin reduced funding for Covenant House Alaska by more than 20 percent, cutting funds from $5 million to $3.9 million. Covenant House is a mix of programs and shelters for troubled youths, including Passage House, which is a transitional home for teenage mothers." (Washington Post)
Anyway, good luck to all those Alaskan and other teen moms who aren't Bristol and Tripp. They're going to need it.
RECENT BUCK NAKED POLITICS
Greenspan and Other Free Marketeers Favor Nationalization of Banks (or "Some Banks")
Michele Bachmann for the Stark Raving Looney Party: "We're Running Out of Rich People"
Mini-Madoff: SEC Charges Stanford International Bank in $8 Billion Fraud Scheme
A Different Angle on the Tax-Cuts-Equal-Economic-Growth Myth
More Alleged Contractor Fraud re: Iraq and Afghanistan: Shipping Company to Pay $26.3 Million to Settle Cases
Another "Suspected" U.S. Missile Strike in Pakistan Kills 26
Business as Usual: Doctors Charged with $10 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme
AT&T to Pay $8.2 Million to Settle False Claims Act Case
America's Very Own Monster Raving Looney Party? or Is It Possible to be Sane and Also a Republican?
Think Gov. Palin Slashed Teenage Moms' Funding, DZ? Sorry. You're either uninformed or lying. Palin increased Covenant House Alaska's funding by “only” 354 percent instead of the originally-budgeted 454 percent. (http://wthrockmorton.com/2008/09/04/our-operating-budget-was-not-reduced-director-of-teen-center/)
Demmy-Libby media math, eh? Slightly-smaller increase is slashed funding. Pelosi's Porkulus bill writers would be proud.
Posted by: flowerplough | February 21, 2009 at 10:17 PM