Is It Trouble for Palin, or a Blessed Event?

Pregnancy happens. That is the natural part of life. Of course, in our society and many others it is good to be married before the little ones are conceived. But pregnancy happens and despite some best efforts to avoid an unwanted pregnancy, nature has its way to increase the population.

Governor Palin's daughter, 17 year old Bristol (named after the NASCAR track?), has been said to have the misfortune of expecting a baby with her fiance. They say they plan to marry and raise this child as anyone would. I only hope that their plan was to marry before the indicator turned blue, and not just to legitimize the birth.

But, you know what? Is this really our business; this intimate detail of the daughter of a VP candidate? Generally, it should be business of the family and no one else. Except....

Governor Palin is a staunch pro-life advocate and the recent revelation that her last son Trig, a Down Syndrome child, was not to be aborted despite knowing the outcome far in advance comports with that belief. Now it appears that she (and her daughter) pass the consistency test as well. Bristol could have aborted long ago, but it is enough to say she didn't. Now, as Senator Obama says, this business is off-limits in his campaign. We can't attack Palin's consistent views (the one area open to discussion) so they should all be left alone to prepare for the Blessed Event.

The media likes to call it "trouble for the McCain campaign" or "a dirty little secret of Governor Palin's life", but once the dust has settled and the decisions made, it is and should be just what it is - a Blessed Event, where two loving parents bring a child into the world with the full support of its grandparents. Many other children are not lucky enough to start out that way.

Finally, to be fair, those on the right who are accepting of this situation must also look inside themselves to see if they would have the same reaction if Joe Biden's daughter got pregnant before marriage.

Now with this story, and the alleged trooper firing influence, I don't know if Sarah will be able to survive the rigors of this nasty campaign. If her kids get any more flak, she may find this to be a good excuse to bow out.

Speaking of Pregnancy - Juno - a Review

In the previews of Juno, we decided that it looked like an entertaining enough premise to warranted our $13 tickets. So off we went to the multi-plex.

We agreed that the story was a good one, and one that could happen in real life. Yet we were slightly dismayed at the cavalier attitude of Juno toward having a baby and then decided that her true feelings were, at first, disguised in her bravado personality. She was scared, and was concerned about who might raise this child. She wanted to see something real in relationships, not just based on having children.

Some will be put off with the premise of an unmarried teen girl, but here it was less of a choice than many movie types make when they procreate. Juno certainly had sex, obviously without protection, but young people have less internal control than adults, and too often this leads to these consequences.

So after some thought, we decided that this was a good movie that did not proclaim that having babies, either so young or out-of-wedlock, was a great thing. I am just not sure that it was Academy Award material and doubt it will win in the end.