Holy Crap!

[Distracted]

As a conservative Christian mother who has spoken quite frankly to my daughter on hundreds of occasions regarding which of her behaviors are acceptable and which are not and been deliberately ignored more often than not, I can say with certainly that children WILL do what they will do, and mothers often just have to lump it. And coercion isn't necessary to keep something like a teenage birth from being widely known. All it takes is colllusion and planning by those around and within the family. I have a close relative by marriage who had a baby at 16. This was 20 years ago. Her parents sent her off to live at a Christian home for unwed mothers in another state before she started showing and didn't let her come back home for 10 months. Coincidentally, her 50 year old parents just decided to "adopt" a little girl about that time. Then my relative went back to her old high school, graduated, got a college degree and moved away to live her life. She lives in another state and is married now with three kids. Her parents raised their grandchild as their own child, and legally she is theirs. Her mother gave her up and they went through legal adoption prodedures.

That's their story and they're sticking to it. Only the family "knows". I'm sure everyone else in town does too, but no one speaks of it. Fortunately, the child is beautiful and intelligent. She was told at about 15 that her sister is also her mother, and seems completely okay with it. She still calls the grandmother "Mom", though, as well she should.

If the rumor is true, I have only admiration for Palin. There are prenatal tests that can detect Down Syndrome, but that baby is still alive and loved. JustTrip'n is right. Whether she bore the child or her daughter did, she put her money where her mouth is. Personally, I'm inclined to believe that she bore the child. Down Syndrome births are tremendously more common in 40 year old mothers than they are in teenage mothers.

[blacknblue]

A valid point. The first thing that hit my mind when I heard that the baby had Down syndrome was that it seemed likely enough, since the Mom was 44.

I have two kids. My daughter will be 25 this month. My son just turned 12. believe me, we have discussed everything with them from sex to drugs. My parents also discussed everything with me. And my parents were as conservative as it gets. But let me clue you, As soon as I was old enough to get loose from direct control, control of any kind became a thing of the past. Not because I wasn't taught any better. But because I was a TEENAGER.

[Elessar]

I'm a little surprised Hillary hasn't spoken out against her yet (saying that she by no means is her successor as champion of women's rights in a Democratic capacity). I have a feeling the Dems are trying to go easy on her because they're afraid of galvanizing and uniting conservative republican women this is aimed at any more than Palin already will. Which is unfortunate, because I think a woman can do it (Hillary) without it hurting the Dems. I don't think a man could. People say that when Ferraro debated, the other man, I forget who it was, was condescending to her, and it made him look like a jerk.

[Alelou]

At this point if Hillary attacked Palin it would be based on the same sketchy information everybody else has, and what really is the point of that? It would just look bitchy. People are still reeling over the choice, but that's something that rightly belongs in McCain's lap. Let Palin get some stuff on the record -- her stands are so utterly right-wing, there will be plenty to go after soon enough.

At any rate, the real enemy of the day is Gustav. And I find it very amusing watching CNN desperately trying to make news out of some tipped-over potted plants...oh the HUMANITY!

[Elessar]

At this point if Hillary attacked Palin it would be based on the same sketchy information everybody else has, and what really is the point of that? It would just look bitchy. People are still reeling over the choice, but that's something that rightly belongs in McCain's lap. Let Palin get some stuff on the record -- her stands are so utterly right-wing, there will be plenty to go after soon enough.

At any rate, the real enemy of the day is Gustav. And I find it very amusing watching CNN desperately trying to make news out of some tipped-over potted plants...oh the HUMANITY!

Other than the debunked BabyGate, I learned quite a bit about her inside of 24 hours with just wikipedia and news stories. The initial, "She's not my successor" stuff ought to be a dead obvious thing she should say.

But, I know, she'll probably give them ammunition.

[blacknblue]

"The one on the right was,
on the left,
and the one in the middle was,
on the right,
and the one on the left was,
in the middle,
and the guy in the reeeeaaaar......
was a Methodist."


-- Johnny Cash

[Elessar]

"The one on the right was,
on the left,
and the one in the middle was,
on the right,
and the one on the left was,
in the middle,
and the guy in the reeeeaaaar......
was a Methodist."


-- Johnny Cash

Totally don't follow . I'm not a Methodist, I'm a Hedonist!

[Distracted]

This is interesting. Makes sense, too, since there have been reports of Bristol being pregnant but it's highly unlikely that she would have a child with Down Syndrome.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080901/pl_nm/usa_politics_palin_dc

[blacknblue]

Yup. And with typical liberal logic, the bloggers got confused. Oh well.

How are y'all holding up down there Dis? Plenty of water and food laid in? Generator fueled up? Emergency blankets, batteries, ammo? Need us to ship you anything overnite UPS?

[Distracted]

We still have power (obviously) and are holed up behind storm shutters watching the rain and the trees blow around, but this is a lot milder storm so far than everyone predicted. We'll get the brunt of it here in Lafayette in a couple of hours, so we'll just have to see. An overreaction which results in minimal casualties is better than an underreaction, I guess.

[Elessar]

D - super-glad that you guys are doing well.

See, I wasn't terribly wrong after all:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/01/palin.daughter/

I don't wanna keep arguing about whether this matters, I just want to say I was WRONG, but give me a little credit - some of the evidence I dug up and provided was accurate, just in effect to the wrong conclusion. I was right about the photographic evidence that she looked preggers in March, that her friends saw her pregnant, and that maybe she missed school for a pregnancy-related reason.

Fine, not politically relevant. But GD, I was right.

[blacknblue]

Yup. That's the same story Dis just posted. Like I said, typical liberal logic led them unerringly to the wrong conclusion. However, there is another site that claims deliberate misrepresentation. I don't know myself, but this site:

http://townhall.com/blog/g/9b3375c7-6a2 ... e#comments

...claims that the photo which claims to show the daighter looking pregnant just before the Trig was born was actually taken two years prior to his birth. Implying of course that the liberal blog which broke the story deliberately made it up and accuses the blogger of using the "Desperate Housewives" episode that uses an identical plotline as an inspiration.

I don't know. Just wanted to keep the record as complete as possible.

I think it is good that they are standing by their kid though, whatever the full story might be. Teenagers start producing children without the formality of marriage quite frequently these days, has anyone else noticed this? No matter how often you try to warn them not to.

[Distracted]

Actually, if she's only 5 months pregnant she couldn't have looked pregnant in March and her 5 month school absence (last spring, I think?) was very likely not due to pregnancy, but it does clear up the mystery of where the rumor originated.

And I don't know whether out of wedlock pregnancies are more common now or just more publicly acknowledged because the stigma has lessened. Probably a little of both. Single mothers are more accepted by society now, and so there is less need for these girls to hide the fact that they're pregnant. Unfortunately, it seems to me that societal disapproval used to be a deterrent to premarital sexual activity. This is much less the case now. In fact, girls who choose to keep their babies rather than kill them are often supported by their family, friends, and church communities as making the best decision under the circumstances. That's a good thing, I suppose, given the fact that the girls have already made the decision to have sex outside of marriage and they're already pregnant. My preference, of course, would be that they don't get pregnant to begin with, and it's non-PC now to emphasize that no method of birth control except abstinence is 100% effective.

[Escriba]

We still have power (obviously) and are holed up behind storm shutters watching the rain and the trees blow around, but this is a lot milder storm so far than everyone predicted. We'll get the brunt of it here in Lafayette in a couple of hours, so we'll just have to see. An overreaction which results in minimal casualties is better than an underreaction, I guess.

You are right, prevention is better than cure (well, you should know, doctor ) I'm glad everything is alright (seeing the circumstances). I have to say that when my mail's news used a headline like "After its devastating visit to Cuba, Gustav threatens New Orleans" I thought "Who is this Gustav guy?". It looked like a new about a psycho or something

[blacknblue]

Actually, if she's only 5 months pregnant she couldn't have looked pregnant in March and her 5 month school absence (last spring, I think?) was very likely not due to pregnancy, but it does clear up the mystery of where the rumor originated.

The official report was that she had a bad case of mono.