Abstinence

Palin

I told myself, "You are not going to talk about her. She's just a VP candidate. She's over her skis and doesn't know what she's gotten herself into. She's just a small state governor, an outsider who was put on the ticket to help McCain pick up some disenchanted Clinton supporters. She seems nice enough and her family certainly doesn't deserve the scrutiny it has received."

I might have kept that opinion but then Sarah Palin took on the role of Darth Vader last night in her convention speech and and threw out every right-wing, conservative generalization in the book in order to please the crowd and the "base". Mission accomplished, but in the process, she may have went a long way towards alienating any middle-of-the-road appeal the ticket may have had. The role of a VP is usually to help the presidential candidate appeal to some constituency that he/she may not have had. McCain's candidacy had already moved to the right of Bush/Cheney. All bringing up "God and guns" did was to preach to the converted. And any free pass she may have been given by some Democrats is out the window with her patent lies and attacks and willingness to play the heavy.

Sarah Palin says that Obama will raise taxes on everyone ... a lie. She says Obama wants to forfeit in Iraq ... a lie. She says Obama wants to meet with terrorist states without preconditions ... a lie.

She criticizes community organizers (which Obama was), a conduit for those disenfranchised by a corrupt political system. She does not bring up how McCain will help people with healthcare, their homes, or jobs. She says she was against the "bridge to Nowhere", the brainchild of Ted Stevens, from the get-go while she advocated the project as governor.


Her views on sex education and abortions will lose her allies even within her own party. She proudly talks about her own special-needs child and parades out her teenage pregnant daughter (out-of-wedlock) as a model of evangelical and wholesome living while cutting programs for special-needs children and teenage mothers while governor.

I could go on and on, bring up her views on creationism, her hypocrisy on lobbying and pork-barrel spending, etc.

She could have played it cool, been window-dressing on McCain's ticket, possibly helping him to pick up some moderates who admired her ability to raise a family and run a state. But with last night's speech, she showed her ass and her true colors. I do not feel sorry for any scrutiny she will get from now on. Sarah Palin, welcome to the world of politics. It's on.

Some more thoughts on Palin from some of my blog buddies:

An Angry Celebration of Ignorance and Tyranny at Journal Wunelle

For My Conservative Blog Friends Still Defending Palin at Jewish Atheist

Palin Once Member of Alaska Secessionist Party at Genius of Insanity

Kmart Promotes Abstinence Pants

This is almost too funny for words (from ThinkProgress):

Jessica Valenti points out that retail chain Kmart has begun selling abstinence-gear for juniors ...

The description for the products reads, “Whether she is lounging around the house, going to practice, or doing her chores. These soft athletic style crop pants will keep her comfy.” One Feministing commenter adds, “Because nothing says ‘I plan not to have sex until marriage’ like plastering text across your ass.”

True love waits ... for what? True love waits inside these pants? Even discounting the obvious fact that preaching abstinence does not work and has more to do with pushing religion than preventing pregnancy, these pants are probably not the best tool for pushing that agenda. Kinda like putting a Sierra Club sticker on a Hummer.

Whose Morality Are We Talking About?

"Morality is of the highest importance - but for us, not for God." -- Albert Einstein

A long-awaited national study has concluded that abstinence-only sex education, a cornerstone of the Bush administration's social agenda, does not keep teenagers from having sex. Neither does it increase or decrease the likelihood that if they do have sex, they will use a condom.

... eight states that used to receive funding for abstinence programs have decided to stop doing so ...

... The federal government spends $176 million a year on abstinence-only education, and millions more are spent every year in state and local matching grants. Harry Wilson, a top official in the Department of Health and Human Services, said yesterday that the administration has no intention of changing funding priorities in light of the results.

"This study isn't rigorous enough to show whether or not [abstinence-only] education works," Wilson said.

Courtesy of Campus Progress

That last quote is a common and unfortunate response from the Right. There have been many studies on the efficacy of prayer on patients in hospitals. When they seems to indicate a positive effect, religious leaders are quick to say, "I told you so!". When there is no correlation shown, they are quick to say that God must have know there was a study going on or that there were flaws in the methodology.

For the case of abstinence-only, the responses are similar. I have even heard some suggest that the fact that the study shows that abstinence-only doesn't work is all the more reason to increase funding. They say that the reason it is not working is because it's not extensive enough. Sound familiar? Maybe the war will go better if we just send some more troops.

Abstinence-only is yet another case (along with the marriage amendment) that has nothing to do with helping people and everything to do with pushing some perversion of religious "morality". If they were truly concerned with our young people's health, they would encourage abstinence as part of a comprehensive sex education program that also included discussions of birth control and safe sex.

Pushing one's own morality to the exclusion of personal rights and practicality is also at the forefront of a controversy right in my back yard. The famous and nauseating publicity whore, our county sheriff Joe Arpaio, was recently rebuked by the State Appeals Court for his department's policy of not transporting prisoners for abortions:

An Arizona court of appeals recently struck down as unconstitutional a policy denying women in Maricopa County jails access to abortion care. The ACLU filed the lawsuit to defend the rights of women prisoners to obtain timely, safe, and legal abortions.

"... Sheriff Joe Arpaio cannot ignore the medical needs of prisoners simply because he does not agree with the decision to end a pregnancy," said Alessandra Soler Meetze, Executive Director of the ACLU of Arizona. "A woman in jail has a right to make her own decision about whether to have a child."

At issue was an unwritten Maricopa County policy prohibiting jail officials from transporting a prisoner to obtain an abortion unless she first received a court order. The ACLU argued that the policy served no legitimate purpose because the jail regularly transports prisoners without a court order for all other necessary medical care, including prenatal care and childbirth. The jail also regularly transports prisoners for various non-medical reasons, including to visit terminally ill family members or attend relatives' funerals.

... Sheriff Arpaio has maintained this policy throughout his tenure, consistent with his well-publicized stance against abortion and his 'America's toughest sheriff' persona. In fact, Arpaio himself has admitted that under this policy, "The gal may have the baby by the time [the case] gets through the court system."

Are you telling me that it is better to force a baby to be born to an incarcerated mother, who is unable logistically or financially to care for it? The way in which so-called "moral" politicians and lawmen neuter the law of the land to fit with their own needs is reprehensible. You cannot arbitrarily decide for others which laws you feel should be upheld and which should not. You are making a decision for that woman and her child that will affect them for the rest of their lives. Are you going to take that child into your home and care for it, Joe? Do you really care about anything but getting your mug on national TV?

"Morality is the best of all devices for leading mankind by the nose." -- Friedrich Nietzsche