Sarah Palin, Republican Vice Presidential Candidate

[Beckwin]

basically swampy is subscribing to bourgeois sexual repression: you can't fuck unless you're rich.

funny how condoms and pills can pretty much fix the economic problem associated with sex.

[Tyche]

Kids grow an identity well before 18. I don't know a 16 year old who follows their parents ideology to the T and haven't developed some sense of independence. Her child isn't a mindless drone who's only influenced by her parents. As a parent, to even expect this is absurd. Seriously, do you think she was completely oblivious to condoms and percentages? She got knocked up because she made a poor decision. Nothing more.

[Beckwin]

so you're gonna assume that she was well-informed and inclined but still made a bad decision? I'm not sure it works that way.

[Maxxthepenguin]

Kids grow an identity well before 18. I don't know a 16 year old who follows their parents ideology to the T and haven't developed some sense of independence. Her child isn't a mindless drone who's only influenced by her parents. As a parent, to even expect this is absurd. Seriously, do you think she was completely oblivious to condoms and percentages? She got knocked up because she made a poor decision. Nothing more.

What kids are being taught in school and at home does matter. It doesn't always take hold, but in many cases it does.

I don't get why you're disagreeing with that tbh

[Deejay]

Her child isn't a mindless drone who's only influenced by her parents. As a parent, to even expect this is absurd.

And to expect Absitinence-only education to work is absurd. No one is saying Palin is a shitty parent, we're saying her stances don't work because they don't even work with her own god damn children.

And if she bought her daughter a condom or two we might not even be having this conversation.

Edit: Or better yet, she could have put her daughters ass on the pill and let her fuck like a jackrabbit!

[Beckwin]

I'll need to dig around, but I'm pretty sure Alaska rates very high for teen pregnancies. The state is largely conservative and elects fundie politicians. Go figure.

[Sera]

To be fair, I'm saying she was irresponsible in not teaching her child how to avoid the health risks that revolve around sex, and how to confront those risks in other ways (that could actually be expected of a teen, whereas abstinence just.. can't be, as Tyche has argued.)
What I'm also saying is that she shouldn't have a right to demand that the rest of us be so irresponsible, whether we be parents OR educators, and she shouldn't have a right to place kids who aren't hers at risk, she's bad enough by doing so to her own. So yeah, I did say she was. But that isn't my issue, my issue is that she's potentially asking ALL of us to be the same.

[SwampdonkeyPLD]

she's a fundie creationist, swampy. of course the biblical reason was (one of) hers as well.

you going on about Obama's brother in kenya is silly as hell. which way do you want it swampy? individuals being responsible for themselves or leeching off someone? Can't have it both ways. The two were separated for many years and the younger is his own man with his own life in kenya. I'm pretty sure if he asked his brother for help he wouldn't be denied, but it doesn't seem that's happened yet.

Oh wait, you mean Obama isn't an example of a contradiction because there is an explanation for it? And I have no problem with people leeching off of someone when that person is giving them their money voluntarily.

[Maxxthepenguin]

Have you never heard the "you are your brother's keeper" philosophy before? It's not literal...

[Beckwin]

swampy doesn't take the figurative very well...

[Delekii]

Far too much theocratic theme to this debate, American government is meant to be Secular right? Why the hell does the government have influence over whether you teach children methods of getting pregnant underage or instituting creational fiction as fact in the first place?

I can't wait for the day where people from different religions stop thinking "they're wrong so we must be right, right?" and start thinking "holy shit, do we sound as stupid as they do?"

[Seraph]

I'll need to dig around, but I'm pretty sure Alaska rates very high for teen pregnancies. The state is largely conservative and elects fundie politicians. Go figure.

Not much else to do in Alaska, with those long cold nights and all.

[Elvis]

Not much else to do in Alaska, with those long cold nights and all.

sounds like the plot for a porno!

[Elvis]

The only relevant one I've read is the firing of the state trooper.

So not instilling the values you purport to have (and "believe in"), in your own children isn't relevant?

[Sera]

So not instilling the values you purport to have (and "believe in"), in your own children isn't relevant?

no its relevant
unless the person we're talking about is conservative
then no, she's just a normal woman with normal family problems, give her a break amirite

[Olo401]

Obama did coke and read Marx as a young man, and no one really gives a shit about that. I'm pretty sure e-love and getting fired from a minimum wage job wouldn't illicit much backlash either.

Hey.. Bush did coke AND was an alcoholic for years, Clinton smoked doobies and Kennedy was a international player. If you want a baseline qualification for the presidency, it's gotta either be drugs or sex (or sometimes both).

[Elvis]

James Dobson, the antiabortion leader of Focus on the Family who exulted over the Palin pick, said in a statement yesterday that the Palins should be commended "for not just talking about their prolife and profamily values, but living them out even in the midst of trying circumstances.

(http://www.boston.com/news/nation/ar...egnant/?page=2)

Yes, "trying" times. Good job on being able to reproduce! Oh and thanks for not aborting the baby, because we all know you were actually considering it!

[Rhinox]

Kids grow an identity well before 18. I don't know a 16 year old who follows their parents ideology to the T and haven't developed some sense of independence. Her child isn't a mindless drone who's only influenced by her parents. As a parent, to even expect this is absurd. Seriously, do you think she was completely oblivious to condoms and percentages? She got knocked up because she made a poor decision. Nothing more.

lets lower the drinking age and the age to consent then.

[Tyche]

no its relevant
unless the person we're talking about is conservative
then no, she's just a normal woman with normal family problems, give her a break amirite

No, if it's ANYONE, its a normal family with a mature child making bad decisions. If someone's child who preaches proper condom use and pills get's pregnant, it's a bad child, if they teach abstinance, it's statistical relevance and terrible parenting. If this mom wasn't in the public eye and had the same views, she'd be viewed by society as a whole as a child who made a mistake. because her mom is publicly prominant, it's a parenting issue.

[SwampdonkeyPLD]

So not instilling the values you purport to have (and "believe in"), in your own children isn't relevant?

Maybe they started having sex when they knew they wanted to marry?