Abstinence at its best!

Trigmund Freud turned into Sherlock Holmes! Our good doctor found this:

Please click to enlarge or click on the link

Well, it's official. When was that wedding again? It's nice to see that the happy couple is keeping the family tradition of conceiving the first born before getting married. That's how abstinence works!

There Bristol, work this lovely story into your next Candies speech...

I'm happy for Britta and Track, but the hypocrisy of the Palin family spoils it a bit, don't you think?

Bristol Palin's had her "come-to-Jesus-moment," all the way to the bank

Bristol Palin's was interviewed by Christianity Today and a few points jumped out of the page:

Q. In your book, you described premarital sex as a sin. Do you worry that by calling it a sin, it might distract non-Christians?

A. You know, it might, but for me I do think of it as a sin. And, if that distracts other readers then I'm sorry, but that's what I believe.

Q. A few years ago you said abstinence for teens isn't realistic. Do you still believe that?

A. You know, that quote was taken out of context. What I was trying to say is it's not realistic for everyone. I know that it's not realistic for every single person. But for me, my sisters, and my family, I believe that that's the right way.

Here's the context:



Abstinence was the right way for her family, starting with her grandmother.

Lorenzo Benet wrote about the Heaths in Trailblazer:

...in the summer of 1961, Chuck and Sally applied for a marriage license and wed at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Sandpoint. Sally gave birth to a quick succession of children -- Chuck Jr. arrived on February 7, 1962.

Summer: June, July and August. Do the math - from the earliest summer month to the next February there are only eight months. There are no records of Chuck Jr. being premature.

Then it worked for her own mother:

Sarah Heath eloped with Todd Palin and they were married on August 29, 1988. Track was born on April 20, 1989, eight months later. Track was not premature.

(From the Wild Ride transcript: "But none of my babies had been early and being my fifth child I know what labor feels like.")

According to Bristol Palin, she was born into a family of sinners. Sally, Sarah and herself, they're all sinners!

Bristol also spoke about the Candies Foundation:

Q. I've heard some complaints that Christians try to make abstinence "cool," when maybe it should not be cool, maybe it should be hard to practice. What messages should Christians be sending?

A. I just think that they need a different approach to it, a younger approach. If you look at the Candie's Foundation, their approach to teen pregnancy prevention in general is funny. It's fit for regular teens.

Candies is very funny, Bristol is right. Pathetic would be a better word, though.

Q. Your messages seem focused mostly on abstinence or a safe-sex message, but you write about the decisions women make to abort a baby who has Down syndrome or a baby born out of wedlock.

A. I am completely pro-life and believe that every human life is so valuable. I think that all women should have their babies. If they don't want them, they can give them up for adoption and there are other options. I would much rather attend a pro-life event than an abstinence type of event just because I'm much more passionate about pro-life things.

The pro-life bandwagon is more profitable than the abstinence gig and she wouldn't have to deny herself the pleasures of sex. She could have loads of babies, each time reinforcing her pro-life credentials. Go for it, Bristol. You can give your purity to all and sundry, as long as you have all your babies. I'm confused about the other options, she didn't say what they are.

Q. I wanted to touch on the parts of your book where you talk about your faith. You wrote that you had never had the same sort of conversion experience as your mother. Was there a point when you had a conversion experience for yourself?

A. I had always grown up knowing that God existed, that God was there, but I wasn't really close with God until that moment when I hit rock bottom [after having Tripp] and said, "Lord, I'm broken, please fix me." I grew up in a Christian household where I knew that he was there and I knew that I wanted him to guide my life, but I really had my come-to-Jesus-moment that night.

Bristol Palin has jumped on the God bandwagon as well, just like her mother and some other opportunists. To these people, God is simply a marketing tool.

God has this thing about his name being taken in vain:

"You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name."

I'm sure God knows how to deal with sinners. Bristol and her family should pay more attention to their precious bible and sin a bit less.

You're more broken than ever, Bristol Palin.

(H/T to VN)

Bristol Palin's road to stardom

We had a lot of fun discussing Bristol Palin's performance in Dancing With The Stars. Bristol didn't disgrace herself, thanks to a good dance partner, but the general opinion was that she's not a very gifted dancer. So, what are Bristol gifts?

Our regular commenter maelewis wrote a very sobering post about it:

When we get down to what's important about any of Bristol's money making ventures, we have a young lady whose mother is in the public eye, one way or another. All that Bristol is famous for is having her pregnancy announced on the world stage as Sarah ran for VP. Then, Bristol and Levi were going to get married and learn that having a child while they were teens was a big responsibility. Sarah said that they would have to grow up fast.

Something changed along the way and Levi was kicked to the curb. Bristol became an advocate for abstinence, a little bit late as the proof of her "abstinence" was proudly shown off in an interview with Greta. It is really a difficult message to tell kids, "Do as I say, not as I did."

That would be fine if Bristol worked hard trying to raise her son in a normal way. But, a child of Sarah Palin does not know what a normal life is supposed to be. Tripp was exploited in some kind of vendetta against Levi. He became a prop in handsomely paid magazine articles. (Don't spit up on Bristol's pretty party gown, please. It has to go back to the designer). Bristol glamorized her single motherhood, being photographed in a modern condo wearing swell clothes and baking cookies (well, taking them out of the oven, anyway).

When Bristol appeared on Dancing with the Stars, it was further validation of the single teen mother lifestyle. If you have a kid out of wedlock, choose to keep the baby but not the father, you, too, can wear pretty clothes, high heels and strut your stuff on national tv, even if you have no talent for acting or dancing. Let's be clear; Bristol is being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to generate publicity and viewers for DWTS. Once, the color red and the letter A stood for Adultery; now it stands for Abstinence. Only, Bristol's version is that not being abstinent has paid off big time, which is really not a very good message.

Christine O'Donnell falsely claims that condoms do not prevent the spread of aids. They do. They also prevent the birth of children when the sexually active couple are little more than children themselves, and hardly ready to take on the responsibility of a child and a serious relationship. For Sarah to have set Bristol up as a spokesperson for abstinence is a joke. Bristol has become the unwitting spokesperson for having a child, pretty clothes, a condo and a shiny new big truck, and that having unprotected sex turned out very well for her. But, here is the warning, kids, it was OK for Bristol but not for you.

I don't care whether Bristol gets voted off the island or stays to win the grand prize. Booking Bristol on DWTS sends the wrong message, and she can dance her pretty feet off, the message remains the same, "Bristol is famous for being an unwed teen mother, and DWTS glamorizes it."

Many commenters hoped that Bristol's little adventure away from Wasilla would open her eyes to an exciting new world and that she would finally be able to break away from her mother's grifting ways, embracing a less hypocritical lifestyle.

I have my fingers crossed, but I'm not holding my breath...

Sex and Sarah Palin- Updated

Sarah Palin has the strange habit of drawing attention to her daughters. Scott Brown advertised his own daughters as being available, which was in very bad taste.

Sarah goes in the other direction, trying to portray her daughters as demure, innocent paragons of virtue. The effect is quite the opposite.

When all eyes were on her, Sarah Palin announced to the world that her 17-year-old daughter Bristol was 5 months pregnant to dispel rumours about her own faked pregnancy. Since then, all references to Bristol have involved something that makes everybody remember that she was having unprotected sex at a young age with an attractive chap who's now a "porn" star. The latest PR stunt focuses on Bristol's chastity, how her lost virginity is being restored because she's not going to have SEX until she gets married.

Bristol is also associated with Candies, a sexual abstinence organization that uses SEX to promote the abstinence message to gullible teenagers. All with her mother's blessing and encouragement.

Candies is not shy about using SEX to promote their products. It doesn't help teenagers remain abstinent, to say the least.




(Click on each picture to enlarge)


Last summer, Sarah and Todd Palin thought it was a good idea to link their 14-year-old daughter Willow to statutory rape. Statutory rape implies consent, albeit uninformed, so Willow became a willing sexual being, thanks to her parents lust for retaliation.

UPDATE

Midnightcajun reminded us about the gang rape threats against Willow and Bristol when the Palins lived in Juneau. Sarah wrote about it in "Going Rogue". Yes, the threats that went unreported to anybody in a position to take any action. It wasn't a simple reference to Sarah Palin's daughters and SEX. It was about extremely violent sex. There's no evidence that these threats actually took place. Maybe her story is true (highly unlikely), maybe she invented it to add a bit of drama to a very dull book, who knows? Either way, she's comes across as an incredibly irresponsible parent.

Piper has been filmed and photographed wearing high heels and make-up. The poor girl is still too young to become part of Sarah Palin's skewed sex agenda, but we're sure that in due course Piper will take her place alongside her sisters as a reluctant sex object.


Oprah said no one wants to hear about Bristol's sex life or the decisions she made regarding her sex life. As a matter of fact, no one was in the least bit interested in the sex lives of any of Sarah Palin's daughters until she put them out there to dispel "salacious rumours" or to get her revenge on a late night comedian for a joke that was blown out of all proportion. I suspect she was more upset about Letterman calling her a "slutty flight attendant" than the joke about Alex Rodriguez knocking up the other daughter.

Scott Brown's daughters are available, Sarah Palin's are not. But still... it's all about sex.

Sarah Palin uses SEX to sell herself and she uses it in connection to her daughters.

Either Sarah Palin has serious issues regarding sex, or she has decided that sex sells. Is there a better way to stay in the headlines and make a lot of money from gossip magazines?
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Bristol Palin and her family - A tale of sex, no more sex and a lot of money / PLUS: Levi Johnston responds on ET Online

History repeats itself, within the same family.

Lorenzo Benet wrote about the Heaths in Trailblazer:

...in the summer of 1961, Chuck and Sally applied for a marriage license and wed at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Sandpoint. Sally gave birth to a quick succession of children -- Chuck Jr. arrived on February 7, 1962.

Summer: June, July and August. Do the math - from the earliest summer month to the next February there are only eight months. There are no records of Chuck Jr. being premature.

Sarah Heath eloped with Todd Palin and they were married on August 29, 1988. Track was born on April 20, 1989, eight months later. Track was not premature.

Bristol Palin went rogue and had her baby without getting married at all. Now that her virginity has been restored, Bristol will not have sex again until she finds a husband. No hanky-panky before the nuptials, that's guaranteed. Unless Bristol decides to revive the family tradition and have her next baby only eight months after the wedding...

It's quite obvious that abstinence didn't work very well for at least three women in this family. So why do they keep banging on the same note?

Sarah Palin and her daughter could spread a much more positive message if they told teenagers to think carefully before having sex and urged them to take the necessary precautions to avoid unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

But $arah and Bri$tol are not honest people and their hypocrisy is not going to help any young people at all.

Levi Johnston can see the whole thing is an act, but still manages to say something nice about Bristol in this new clip on ET Online, where he talks about the Oprah interview:



So why are they doing it?

Bristol is making a lot of money posing for gossip magazines with Tripp, telling the world how very hard her life is in her mother's million dollar house and how she has to work all hours to buy formula and diapers. She feels lonely when the baby won't stop crying. Boo hoo. Is she so desperate that she felt it necessary to alienate Levi even further by filing a motion for interim child support on top of asking for sole legal custody of Tripp? Bristol wants to keep Tripp's father out of any decisions about their son's life, but she doesn't mind having his money.

$1,750 a month would buy a lot of formula and a huge pile of diapers. Bristol needs to keep her own money to pay for the tanning salon, the gym and gas for her Cadillac Escalade...



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Palin wisdom

More tidbits from Bristol Palin's interview to People magazine:

"Girls need to imagine and picture their life with a screaming newborn baby and then think before they have sex. If girls realized the consequences of sex, nobody would be having sex. Trust me. Nobody."

The babies of older mothers scream too. If that's the horrible consequence of sex, to be avoided at all costs, nobody would have babies. Trust me. Nobody.

Everytime the Palins speak about anything, it's always with such alarming superficiality that it makes me want to scream! Since she became the anti-sex ambassador, she hasn't said a single useful, remotely relevant thing.

All we see is a glossy Bristol with a semi-comatose cute baby in her arms.

Todd Palin offers a glimpse into the dynamics of the family:

The magazine also quoted Todd Palin saying he had never spoken to his daughter about sex or contraception.

"She had enough information out there and enough examples out there. If she had questions, they would be answered," Palin said.

What does he mean, "enough information out there"? What kind of parenting is this? I suppose her questions would have been answered by someone "out there" as well.

Bristol lies as expertly as her mother:

Money is a concern for Bristol Palin, who said she paid for the baby's diapers and formula by working part time at a cafe and baby-sitting for other families while one of her relatives looked after Tripp.

We're expected to believe that she has a screaming baby, two jobs, worked on her high school projects and...

Bristol said she does go regularly to the gym and tanning salon.

"My dad lets me go tanning quite a bit. That's the one thing I can do. And I try to exercise," she said.

Oh well, tanning is safer than sex...

Article on Newsminer
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Super Bristol Palin

Super-Bristol: Trig's main caregiver, Tripp's main caregiver, ace student, breast-pumping, two job super-duper teen mom!

Esquire magazine:

She's got her baby brother with her, eight-month-old Trig, and he's a case in point: showed up almost a month premature. He's dressed just like his big sister: jeans and a sweatshirt. Most days, she and Todd are his main caregivers.

People magazine:

Her mom may be governor, but there is no nanny in the Palin house. Bristol gets up – usually twice during the night – to feed Tripp, who sleeps in a hand-me-down crib in her bedroom, and she says she has tapped out at least one school paper with her son crying in the background. She breastfed her baby for a month, pumping milk before class and rushing straight home to feed him. And she worked two part-time jobs to help pay for the diapers and formula her parents otherwise supply.

"If girls realized the consequences of sex, nobody would be having sex. Trust me. Nobody."

Bristol changed her tune since the Greta Van Susteren interview. Around 2:22, she tells Great what it feels like to be a mom:



Abstinence is good, abstinence is not realistic, I love being a mom, it's so rewarding, if they knew... nobody would be having sex.

Make up your mind, Super-Bristol.
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Sex, marketing and children

I'm not a prude and don't wish to preach morals to anybody, but I would like to explore this trend of sexualizing young girls to sell products.

The marketing of certain brands puts a lot of pressure on young impressionable girls who are still forming their views of the world around them. The pressure starts by targeting them when they're younger. Bratz, Barbie, make-over kits and numerous toys associated with TV stars find their way into the toy chests of girls aged six, seven and younger.

Children love to copy older siblings, cousins and adults around them. They play house, wear mom's clothes and shoes, love lipstick, nail varnish and a lot of glitter. That's normal.

But the aggressive marketing of unsuitable toys and other paraphernalia must put a lot of pressure on parents who don't wish to see their little girls grow up too fast.

Younger girls are not immune to Candie's marketing strategies. Having been primed by the bratz and the barbies, they are all too receptive to the glitter surrounding the pretty celebrities used in sexy ads aimed at the slightly older age group.

Candie's Foundation states that there's nothing wrong with being sexy, but you don't have to have sex. Young girls can look like they're ready and willing to have sex, but shouldn't actually do it.



Let's have a look at nature and the sexual behaviour of species less evolved than ours. There are mechanisms to indicate sexual maturity and readiness in the lower species. Outside certain times and in the absence of certain signs, sex simply doesn't happen.

Humans lack these clear indicators. They do exist, but are more subtle and not talked about outside science. So we have conventions, rules and taboos. They probably evolved through observation. Perhaps early humans didn't have certain taboos that exist today, but noticed that engaging in certain behaviours was not a good idea. It was noticed that the offspring of closely related people were weaker, prone to disease, etc. So incest became a no-no. Menstruation was a good guide to sexual maturity, so any girls too young to menstruate were left alone.

I'm just speculating, but I don't think I'm too far from the truth. In earlier civilized societies, it was the norm for girls to be married and bear children soon after their first period. We don't have to go too far back in time to observe this. People's life expectancy was lower, mother and infant mortality much higher than today, so the window of opportunity for reproduction was narrower.

As societies became more sophisticated and complex, so did the rules. Until not very long ago, women in Western societies were not educated. Depending on their social class, they were instructed in the gentle art of social intercourse and a few hobbies, and that was that. When they were ready for breeding, they were married into a suitable family, all in keeping with the social trends of the time. Women from the lower classes just worked and reproduced without higher aspirations.

Now, thanks to science, we live longer. Women of all classes fought long and hard to receive an education. In the second half of the last century, things started moving very fast in every respect. Technology moves forward faster than we can comprehend, there's a lot more social mobility, travel to far flung places became possible, the world changed.

We're still adapting and will have to continue to adapt to this changing world at a much accelerated pace.

Capitalism is a relatively new thing. It only came about during the Industrial Revolution. What a revolution it was! Things could be mass produced, a larger number of people had access to more and more goodies.

Of course, as technology advanced and competition escalated, marketing the goods became more aggressive. Social changes, such as the sexual revolution of the 60's, destroyed some barriers and today we have a marketing free-for-all.

Which brings us back to Candie's. We're not about to revert to marrying our daughters at the age of thirteen, but the manufacturers of teen products see nothing wrong in presenting this age group as sexual beings, with all the trappings of sexual readiness and availability. So they establish a foundation that states that it's OK to send out all the wrong signals, as long as the young sexily clad girls say "no".

Young men are not immune to these marketing campaigns either. But are they supposed to be stimulated by this barrage of images and then not act on any of their impulses?

Adolescence is confusing enough without all these mixed messages.

Throw religion into the mix, saying that sex is wrong, thererefore contraception is wrong, and we have a recipe for disaster.

Candie's chose to promote abstinence to redeem themselves for their marketing strategies. They couldn't promote proper sex education because they would have to admit that they see young girls as nothing more than sex objects.

As long as they say "Look but don't touch" they're in the clear. If they really had any interest in helping to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies, they would be fighting for comprehensive, honest sex education, in which case they would have to stop using sex to sell their products.

The many toys, clothes and make-up manufacturers that target our children by using sexy images in their relentless pursuit of higher profits are robbing our children of the best years of their lives. They blur the lines of what is age appropriate to swell their coffers.

What they do is not cute, not harmless and not honest. Our children and young people deserve some respect. They're not a "market", they are our future.



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Sex, lies and the Palins

Gail Collins wrote an excellent op-ed on the New York Times about Bristol Palin as a teen ambassador for the Candie's Foundation.

Neil Cole is the head of Candie's and sees no problem in promoting their sexy products through ads showing highly sexualized young people while promoting sexual abstinence at the same time, via the Candie's Foundation.

“Just because you’re wearing high-heeled sexy shoes doesn’t mean you should have a baby,” said Neil Cole.

A couple of years ago, under fire from critics who accused him of dressing high schoolers like tarts, he established the Candie’s Foundation, which fights teen pregnancy. And there he was on Wednesday introducing the foundation’s new teen ambassador, Bristol Palin.

...when it comes to combating teen pregnancy, the Palin family has done enough damage already. What worse message could you send to teenage girls than the one they delivered at the Republican convention: if your handsome but somewhat thuglike boyfriend gets you with child, he will clean up nicely, propose marriage, and show up at an important family event wearing a suit and holding your hand. At which point you will get a standing ovation.

Sarah Palin has said in the past that she opposes “explicit” sex education, which kind of sounds like ... sex education. And while encouraging kids to wait is obviously fine, the evidence is pretty clear that abstinence education is worse than useless.

The full article is worth reading, don't miss it.

The Candie's Foundation have a very mixed agenda, to say the least. In October 2008 they advertised one of their public service annoucements using a poster with images of Bristol and Levi next to Jamie Lynn Spears. Today Bristol is their ambassador for abstinence while Jamie's sister Britney takes care of the sexy clothes and shoes.

The marriage between an opportunistic business and a blatantly ambitious politician result in many confused children...


NYT op-ed
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Levi, sex and reality (updated)

Watch CBS Videos Online

UPDATE: I have Bristol's interview now.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Levi appears to be more in touch with reality than Bristol, but then he has his own script and is not pushing somebody else's agenda.

I can't stand Todd's squeaky voice!

Providing proper sex education for young people would achieve a lot more in reducing teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases than simply saying "Don't do it". Here's an interesting article about how ignorance can be dangerous.

Bristol on Good Morning America.
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Bristol Palin, sex and hypocrisy

In September 2008, Sarah Palin said she was proud of her 17 year old pregnant daughter Bristol.



In February 2009, Bristol told Greta Van Susteren that abstinence is not realistic at all.



In May 2009, Bristol Palin was announced as a Teen Ambassador for the Candie's Foundation. They run ads like these, promoting sexual abstinence until marriage.





Their website sells sexy t-shirts, saying you can be sexy without having sex.



The Candie's Foundation is the charitable arm of a clothes, shoes and fragrances company, aimed at teenagers and young people. This is how they sell their stuff.





I don't know how much exposure Bristol Palin had to any of these ads or if they had any influence in her decisions regarding her sexual behaviour. The fact is, she's now an ambassador for a foundation that preaches sexual abstinence, which is associated with a commercial venture that uses highly sexualized context in ads to sell their products to young people.

The Candie's Foundation would have much more credibility if they promoted sex education, safe sex and contraceptive methods alongside the message that young people should consider whether they're ready to be sexually active.

By having a narrow view of the subject and sending out contradictory messages, Candie's is shortchanging a lot of young people. Bristol Palin's story erodes the abstinence message even further.

But why bother to be consistent? Why do they have to worry about integrity and credibility? They're making a lot of money because sex sells, one way or the other, and their charity provides them with tax breaks...

Bristol Palin is a poster girl for hypocrisy.
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Bristol Palin and abstinence

Bristol Palin has been appointed as a Teen Ambassador for The Candie's Foundation.

I visited their website to see what it's all about. Yes, you guessed, it's all about abstinence. They have loads of links to other abstinence preaching websites.

I also did some searching to find out how effective abstinence is in preventing teenage pregnancies and what their model for sex education contains.

The misinformation out there is truly frightening. Some examples:


Many abstinence-only curricula contain false, misleading or distorted information:

• A 43-day-old fetus is a "thinking person.”
• HIV can be spread via sweat and tears.
• Half of gay male teenagers in the United States have tested positive for HIV.
• Pregnancy can result from touching another person’s genitals.
• Condoms fail to prevent HIV transmission as often as 31 percent of the time in heterosexual intercourse.
• Women who have an abortion "are more prone to suicide."
• As many as 10 percent of women who have an abortion become sterile.

A study conducted for the Department of Health and Human Services during the last Bush administration showed that teenagers who took abstinence-only classes were just as likely to have sex as those who didn't.

Other studies have shown that adolescents in abstinence-only programs were less likely to use contraception, perhaps because those programs emphasize only the failure rates of even the best methods.

I don't wish to discuss Bristol Palin's sexual behaviour, but I don't think she became a teenage mother by having sex only once and bingo, an accidental conception occurred. She's not the only teenager to be sexually active and by feeling guilty about engaging in sex, she was less likely to use protection, therefore more likely to get pregnant.

The combination of ignorance and guilt is the best way to ensure teenagers will become pregnant or contract sexually transmitted diseases.

Let's be realistic. Teenagers have sex. Abstinence only programs funded by the Bush administration didn't stop teenagers having sex, but left them woefully misinformed about their sexual health and wellbeing.

I believe Bristol is pushing her mother's agenda by becoming the poster girl for an abstinence only organisation. Bristol is living proof that these ideas don't work.

I would have a lot more respect for Bristol if she had joined Advocates for Youth, which have a much more honest and realistic approach to teenage sexual behaviour.

Story about sex education in Alaska
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