I agree with the author. We should keep pushing birth control in sex education. Why? It’s working oh so wonderfully in the Black community.
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Why stop?

Havng been a landlord for 35 years, I have watched the changes in society from intact families to what we have now, unwed women with children, poor skills to obtain jobs to afford a lifestyle on their own. We had condemnation of unwed lifestyles in the past to the Hollywood version of unwed as glorified. Unwed was condemned for a good reason, marriage and family is needed as a good structure for a good life. So, many sorrowful cases knock on the door after it is too late and contrary to belief the number rising to great heights to overcome it is small.

Who in Hollywood has glorified unwed mothers?

The author states, “If she weren’t the progeny of abstinence-only education supporters, she might have been on the pill or using a diaphragm, or might even have been able to use Plan B, the so-called morning after pill.”

It is a huge assumption that Bristol had no access to any form of birth control or that her parents’ views held any sway over her actions at all. Does the author mean to imply that teen pregnancies in those whose parents do not advocate abstinence is hunky dory, or at the very least, better than teen pregnancies of those whose parents advocated abstinence? The stances taken by the author of the Palin hit piece are wholly unsupported and illogical, IMO.

Sarah Palin seems like a good governor of Alaska and as a Republican I would love to see her run for the senate in 2014.

Other than that, I would rather not hear about her anymore.

Sarah Palin is known outside of Alaska only because she was facing charges that were used to blackmail her into becoming cannon fodder for the Dem/GOP election facade. Those charges were dropped on the eve of the elections – as promised.

If there’s money in it, business usually grows until the market changes. What would happen if we changed the market in new birth single parenting?
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1)Legislate a fine or jail for the parent of a single, minor biological parent who’s guilty of abuse or neglect of their child. 2)Give a year’s notice, then remove funding for these births and swing to improving the child safety net: abuse and neglect monitoring, foster or institutional care, and adoption. 3)Cap biological reunification attempts at 18 months before surrendering parental rights.
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I imagine you’ll see more abortions, at first. You’ll also see improvements in abuse, neglect, obeisity, graduation, incarceration, poverty, drug usage, and finally – parenting.
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When there’s no “market” in being a single parent with a check, then we go back to typically having a couple of people (at least) raise a kid. Maybe married, maybe not. Maybe the two parents are one gender- maybe not. Maybe it’s a group- extended family endeavor to raise the child, but somehow the child’s taken care of. Raising children that the family brought into the world becomes a normal, honorable, successful thing to do again.
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Kind of like most of the rest of the civilized world does it.

As a fatherless conservative woman born to an unwed factory working republican single mom, this “news” article doesn’t change my opinion of Sarah Palin in the least. I still think she’s awesome!

Dawg…this is how you slow the breeding in certain sexually promisicious urban communities. You pay $100 to anyone who wants a vasectomy or their tubes tied. It would cost the taxpayers and society a whole lot less in the long run.

Mike, the better question is who in Hollywood hasn’t glorified unwed mothers? Start off with Murphy Brown to and finish with the “octomom.” Wake up and realize what you are watching on t.v. and the movies.

As for the topic. The only form of birth control that IS 100% effective is abstinence. Granted, in today’s society it is improbable that most teens/unwed sexually active individuals practice this, but maybe, just maybe that is part of the bigger problem with society. The fact that the values (and good judgement) of long ago have been lost to the single parent families. No, I am not that naive to believe in generations past unwed couples were not having sex, but it was more taboo then to have a child without being…or getting married.

Then again, it was also shameful to be on welfare if you were able bodied. Look where we’ve come.

Abdul that was certainly a well reasoned summation of Bristol Palin’s situation. It was based on fact and logic.
Being as such, I must remind you that this is in direct contravention of the Republican Code of Uniform Political Conformity. Try not to let this happen again.

Is Think Again taking a nap or something?

Wow! It is great that the author knows all about the relationship between these two people and is an expert mind reader to know what they think and what there motivations are. Why are you stuck in Indianapolis?

Hey Mike,

I’m still here because my future wife likes it here. Trust me, had it not been for her I would be doing what I do best in either Seattle or Chicago.

I don’t think Seattle would end up being your cup of coffee…
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;)

You have as much regard for innocent life as your hero does, Abdul. You belong in Chicago.

Rico,

That is the nicest compliment you could ever give me.

No access to birth control? What, the gas stations in Alaska don’t have restrooms?

Which sentence did you actually think was a compliment?

Both.

Those of us born to less than ideal circumstance, go on to do all sorts of things… like become President. Off hand, I can think of three friends, adopted by good families, who are loving parents & spouses, & lead productive lives. I’m proud to know them & glad they’re here; failures of their biological parents and / or hypocrisy, aside.

Oh, Melyssa,. honey, I had higher hopes for you.

Sarah Palin is a complete naitonal joke. A walking talking conflicting miserbale hot mess.

That said…her children deserved to be off limits, IF Sarah had kept them anyplace but front-and-center. Sarah invited this attention. The poor girl and her boyfriend did not deserve this.

And that poor baby.

Daw-g: it’s happening in all racial groups.

*miserable*

T.A. It’s happening in grossly disproportionate numbers in the Black community. So are abortions for that matter. But at least obama and his crew will have more carcasses to harvest for stem cell research, et wot?
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Melyssa: Your solution has merit but you know the purveyors of the status quo will scream eugenics and the such.

It isn’t an availability of contraception or an emphasis on sex education that is the problem. Those would be part of the solution if only that was the case. It is the TV/ Movie society’s glamorization of sex, their objectification of girls and the constantly reinforced machismo among boys that drives teens into thinking that self worth and satisfaction lie in having sex and making babies. Just as constant images of Coca Cola results in more people drinking the product, incessant sex and violence on TV can only result in a highly sexualized and an increasingly violent society. It is why companies pay so much for advertisement. It works.

What happened to Palins daughter is a nightmare to any family, but is one they have to live with.
This happened to my sister too!
The only difference between Palin and the daughters of most of the readers in here is the timing of the act and the ovulation cycle.
Men need a place
Women need a reason!

Daw-g: Co-signing on both of your responses 100%. Yes, there are unwed white chicks, but there are far too many “baby mommas” in the black community. I am not an Obama fan by any means, but I am truly hoping that by modeling an intact, married black family, he can inspire an increase in marraige within the community.

Obama’s living b example for his ethnic community. It sure can’t hurt.

Sheep Watcher: I haven’t read a more blatantly sexist and baseless resposne on here in a long time. The biggest difference between Palin’s daughters and other young girls to whom this happens:

The rest of the country doesn’t have a publicity-starved mom who shoves the controversy front-and-center for some sort of political gain. And who, in the process, becomes a walking, talking hypocrite to many of her principles.

Bristol and her baby will be all right, because at the end of the day, I have no doubt Sarah and her First Dude will love mom and baby and support them.

I’m just hoping they can do it quietly. That would be in everyone’s best interests, especially the child.

T.A. – you are like Rico. You hate Sarah Palin and he hates Obama – so much that you are both blinded to any view that may even slightly sympathetic to them. Geez. As I said, I don’t like Barack Obama, but I don’t attack the man personally, I don’t assume he has evil, selfish intent in everything he does.

Abstinence is the single most effective birth control method, costs nothing, and does not require parental permission. Failing that, artificial birth control often works. When it doesn’t, adoption is a wonderful option, especially since the majority of adoptable American babies are slaughtered in abortion clinics, leaving infertile couples with very few living babies to adopt. It is regrettable that Bristol Palin chose to engage in sex outside of marriage and/or her birth control failed, and it is regrettable that she did not choose to have her child raised by a married adult couple. She is now facing the consequences of her decision, and she seems to be doing it without much whining about it all being somebody else’s fault. I wish her the best.
Don’t get me going on spineless, low-life absent fathers, and the price their children often pay for being fatherless.

I’d just like to endorse what “Sheesh” said.

Why is it that when it comes to sex, everyone seems to be OK with humans being able to revert back to Neanderthal IQ? I am sick of bailing out these Neanderthal types. There is no reason for anyone to have a kid out-of-wedlock (can’t use “bastard child” anymore, not PC). Oh wait, this is the land of no personal responsibility, just do whatever pleases you and things get that bad, the government is always there to bail you out.

These teenagers have kids out-of-wedlock is not more than a sign of unsafe sex. Eventually, HIV or some new future STD will end up killing all those too stupid to wrap it. Then just think of the deaths of thousands as evolution in action. Last time I checked, you can’t abort AIDS.

Think Again: You’re a self-loathing, catty, miserable person. Sarah Palin was more qualified than any of the other candidates, especially your race-baiting, scumbag boy Obama.
It was the media who attempted to turn the Palin family’s life upside down. They paid more attention to what Sarah was wearing than they did Obama hanging around with flag-burning, America-hating radicals. If Obama had been scrutinized one tenth of what she was, he’s still be just another corrupt, do-nothing Senator.

>he’s still be just another corrupt, do-nothing Senator.
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It sure looks like that’s becoming a reality. I had at least hoped he would do as he said and change the way things are done in washington but he hasn’t. The 450 billion pork bill is the latest evidence of that. He ran on “change.” The only change I’ve seen so far is he’s running the country into the ground and doing it faster than bush.

Anji–I was and am a fan of John McCain, on most issues except the economy. He picked Sarah Palin because he was convinced by someone it would peel off Hillary voters.

Who convinced him is beyond me. And most sane politicos.

Sarah Palin on a national ticket was a disgrace. She’s woefully under-qualified, and mentally unchallenged. She accomplilshed the impossible: she made W look smart.

My party has ‘em too. Plenty of ‘em. It’s been a long time since we put someone like that on a national ticket, tho.

She was a champion of the far right before they vetted her thoroughly.

Try painting with a narrower brush. It usually works.

Since I believe you are older than me based on what I’ve read from your previous posts, I will show a degree of respect and refrain. I’ll just say that you (and a couple of others)take away from your posts with mean-spirted personal attacks on people you don’t like or even know. You can say what you need to say without being hateful.

I don’t think single parenting is inherently bad. There are a zillion success stories. However, it is a statistical, fiscal and (I contend) moral failure for many, many children who grow-up with it. A single parent and a check is not a substitute for two parents, married or otherwise, or extended family.
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I’m closer to Libertarian than any other party. I despise government intervention in this issue. But, the alternative is our continued involvement in taxpayer subsidation of childbirth when it’s a failure on the many fronts listed previously. OR, maybe we go hard Libertarian and let parents and children fend for themselves completely? When it hits abuse and neglect, I’m not ready to do that to kids. But, I am ready to pay only for taking care of the kids- until they can find a family that will raise them. A mom and a taxpayer check is not my definition of “family” any more illegal immigrants are my definition of citizens. If America was still geoeconomically omnipotent, we could still get by with a lot of this- regardless of how immoral and corrupt I believe it to be. Those days are gone.
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TA- As I tirade myself, I want to believe you might qualify calling Palin a “disgrace”. How is President Obama’s spending anything other than a disgrace? Do you think we’d see spending of the same magnitude under McCain/Palin? As a senator who routinely turned down earmarks for Arizona (see Citizens Against Government Waste)? We can try to rationalize it by saying our President is still a step up from George Bush (ok- maybe still), or be in equal ideological blinders and say “at least he’s a Democrat”. But, like Bush, he’s spending us and our children into fiscal hell (earmarking all the way). Look at the recent Wall Street Journal polling of 50+ economists & see if they fundamentally disagree.
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While I appreciate President Obama’s scaling back on Iraq and pursuit of re-regulating the financial sector, I’d rather experience the “disgrace” of the co-pilot than the pilot on this flight.

John McCain would have lost by 20 points if Sarah Palin had been on the ticket. By the way, George W. Bush had higher grades than both John Kerry and Al Gore. Of course, we don’t know Obama’s grades because he, thus far, has refused to release his transcripts.
Even a brilliant mind like yours, Think Again, can be devalued in the public’s eye with some creative editing. That was the media’s goal with Palin, and with you, apparently, it worked. What a shocker!

If Sarah had not been on the ticket.

Sex education accomplishes what it was designed to do. However, what that was isn’t what any of you want. Folks in Indiana education that can’t or won’t teach kids to read can’t be trusted to “educate” on anything.

The level of discourse on this thread isn’t up to past standards. Anyone with serious interest in learning about the problems needs to consult Wendy Shalit, Charles Murray, Barb Whitehead, Maggie Gallagher, Mary Eberstadt, Mary Ann Glendon, David Blankenhorn, or,for liberals, David Popenoe. Education is generally thought of as either practical or moral, e.g. in the former case, learn a trade by being able to read, write and calculate (government schools fail this task)in the latter, education is viewed as humanistic, classical, moral. Government schools fail this task and avoid it. As Juan Williams says, choice in education is the civil rights issue of our times.

Or, pick up a used copy of Humana Vitae circa 1965 and then read Hooked:New Science on How Casual Sex is Affecting Our Children, Hooking Up: Sex, Dating, and Relationships on Campus and Sex and the Soul:Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance, and Religion on America’s College Campuses. Anyone with sons or daughters will profit. Anyone with a brain who hasn’t read Humana Vitae critically ought to turn the brain back in.