Olbermann gets so inflamed during his rants, someone should hit him with a Preparation H pie.
Shakepeare knew him: "a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage ...a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
how many years difference between Pistol (h/t Meade) and your eldest child?
Almost 3.
If this had been said about my daughter, my advice to her would be to ignore it (otherwise You'll only encourage him). I wouldn't expect a blogswarm defense of her victimization by a mean old man.
If BP is a good choice for abstinence spokesperson, can we expect Michael Vick slugging for the ASPCA soon?
I remember back in high school we were given a talk on the dangers of drunk driving by a guy who killed 3 people while driving drunk. I think the message he was trying to get across was 'don't do something stupid like I did'.
She's been studying for her SATs? Points for "canard" and "credulity"!
The Palins benefit so much from attention from the asshats of the media, Sullivan and Olbermann in particular. Any media attention that might be reasonable and called for becomes suspect just by association.
I watched Michael Vick addressing a high school gym full of young people telling them how he did something wrong and that he was ashamed of himself for doing what he did to those dogs. He was on the road to earn his classiness and manliness awards. He appeared to understand that he had to earn it.
My mother in law got all in a huff about Palin. For some reason she hates Palin and parrots all of the brain deal liberal lies about the Palins.
Her beef.....how could Palin let her daughter get pregnant!!! She went on and on about how this made her an evil person who should never run for any office.
Until.......my husband, her son, said.."And just how old were you when I was born Mom?"
The answer is 16. It shut her up for a moment. But only for a moment.
That settles it. I'm never voting for dbq's grandmother-in-law for President. If she could not keep her teenage daughter from getting pregnant, she's simply not qualified for higher office.
MM's right, she's not a kid. I've never particularly liked it when the press infantilizes our fighting men and women (who are often about Bristol's age). But she's still young enough that the sight of a mature man old enough to be her grandfather attacking her is rather offensive.
From what I can tell, Bristol Palin is a nice young woman, who is using her unsought celebrity in a way she considers helpful to others. Even if one disagrees with the form of her help, calling her "the Worst Person in the World" (even in an admittedly hyperbolic way) is just inappropriate. If she's the "worst person in the world", what does that make Olbermann, who is evidently even worse than her? Pond scum?
Any media attention that might be reasonable and called for becomes suspect just by association.
Beth don't you think its bizzare that Palin is the only former VP candidate, a failed one at that, that ever aroused as much vitriol from the left? Why? I mean forgot the post-campaign celebrity circuit but the minute she came on stage the left became completely unglued over the possibility that she might be the first female vice president.
It is hard to believe that Palin just fired that posting off. It's also hard to believe that anyone takes abstinence seriously in an age of birth control.
Olbermann strikes me as one of those guys in school who was terribly sore about not having one of the topnotch minds in his class. One of those bright but bitter because not brilliant sorts.
Hell, the Dems elected a hybrid of Steve Urkel and Bill Ayers to be President.
Well in fairness he did choose the most brilliant member of the august US Senate to be his running mate. He's a very smart guy. Just ask him and he'll tell you he's probably a lot smarter than you are.
FLS -- A doctor friend of mine tells me that the pill is 100 percent effective and cannot fail. The reason it is not advertised as such is sort of cultural-political: women miss a day of taking the pill on accident or on purpose (or perhaps it could be vomited up).
I have no idea if this is true of not. Take it for what it's worth.
The tweet reads like it was written by a 20 year old, but she did nail him with the last line, "...if you ever have a daughter, you may change your mind about me".
Considering Bathtub Boy's record with women, and his obvious hatred of them, it's a very big "If", Miss Bristol.
PS In the age of AIDS, abstinence makes a lot of sense.
Surely you jest - I am positive that Bristol Palin has killed more people on DWTS than died in the killing fields under Pol Pot.
I am pretty sure that DBQ's grandmother-in-law is eligible to vote in Chicago, but I don't know if the dead can run for office unless their name is "Carnahan".
Triangle Man said: ""Accusing me of hypocrisy is by now, an old canard. What Mr. Olbermann lacks in originality he makes up for with insincere incredulity."
This prose seems somewhat overwrought for someone of her age."
I assume that she was being snarky here -- mimicking Olbermann's thesaurus-aided pretentiousness.
I mean, I'm not even sure if "insincere incredulity" even makes sense. What does that mean? That he feigns disbelief of something?
It doesn't quite have the same lustre, but being on Olbermann's Worst Person list is to the right what being on Nixon's enemy list is to the left. Special kudos to Bristol for making it at such an early age.
"First, "doing it" is still sinful. Obtaining birth control means you are planning to sin, eliminating any "swept away by passion" defense.
Second, all methods of birth control have a failure rate..."
Right on both counts. Once again, the underlying reason for the irrationality and venom shown to Bristol Palin, as well as Sarah, is that they didn't abort when they could have.
I thought that the post was well written, esp. for a young woman who hasn't gone to college yet (not that colleges do all that well at teaching such). Maybe some day we will find out whether she is using a ghost writer, or getting help from her mother.
And, so, in the end, Bristol is the one who comes out looking good, and Keith ends up, again, looking like a tool.
Finally, I thought that she was pushing a combination of abstinence and birth control, not just the former. The goal is to keep from getting preggers, and it is unrealistic to expect young women as they leave their teen years to stay celibate until they marry, when that may not be until their mid to late 20s.
" It's also hard to believe that anyone takes abstinence seriously in an age of birth control."
Sex has other aspects other than reproductive. No? Is it not generally accepted that less sexual partners is more healthy than more? And for many Americans, a spiritual aspect to sexuality is recognized and appreciated.
Finally, how well has the whole condom approach worked out? 1,000,000 abortions a year in America.
TMink -- Thought experiment: suppose that (1) abstinence was the only legal method of birth control or merely (2) that condoms were outlawed, yet (3) abortion remained legal.
What do you predict would occur in terms of the number of abortions?
Also, how did multiple sexual partners enter into things?
I laughed like a loon where Bristol goes, "So you can just take that agricultural degree of yours, Mr Olberman, and stick it up your cow's arse." Hahahaha, that killed me. Or possibly I thought that part.
After the introduction of the pill, IUD's and easy access to condoms the number of abortions goes up.
Well, that's a book, but here are a few reasons:
1. The pill was introduced at around the same time that abortion became widespread and legal in states and then the nation. It's a coincidence.
2. The introduction of the pill and of abortion on demand along with much else created a society where more sex was to be had, with more people.
3. People don't get married when they are 14 any more, so they are going to have sex before marriage, which is more likely to lead to abortion especially since they are young, horny, and stupid. If you've never been in a situation where you were in the throes of passion but faced the possibility of unprotected sex and had to choose what to do, well, I guess I feel sorry for you.
4. People know that abortion is a backstop so they are more apt to have unprotected sex.
I could go on. Note that I oppose abortion, though not to the extent that most anti-abortion people do. I would choose not to allow it where I live but if you want to have it where you live, that's fine.
After the introduction of the pill, IUD's and easy access to condoms the number of abortions goes up. Why's that?
Because morals and character declined. When there are no longer consequences to your actions (fucking) there is a tendency to become lax.
When sex became a free for all, morality and the moral condemnation of unwed pregnancy or screwing around went out the window.
The stigma of aborting, murdering your unborn child was lessened and the act was even encouraged by entities like Planned Parenthood and others. It became easy and routine to kill your child and the consequences of unprotected sex became nothing more than a small inconvenience....to the Mother. To the child...well, that's another story.
People were more careful about how they had sex and more selective about who they had sex with, when the consequences of both actions were not tolerated or tacitly approved and when the ability to kill your unborn child was a serious serious issue.
"I could go on. Note that I oppose abortion, though not to the extent that most anti-abortion people do. I would choose not to allow it where I live but if you want to have it where you live, that's fine."
Me too.
The irony is that the very thing that these contraceptive devices was supposed to diminish, increases.
The Law of Unintended Consequences always seems to undermine the best intentions of our smartest social engineers.
DBQ -- I would argue that a little differently. Abortion is a terribly, awful, disgusting, sinful thing. But, even today, an overwhelming majority of people view abortion as either wrong or something they want very much to avoid.
I suggest that the pill changed everything, and that morality did not corrode but instead dissolved. There is no pressing, fundamental, primordial need to be chaste and practice abstinence now.
Many moral imperatives have been dissolved in this way over the centuries. It's progress. It's a good thing. It means we've overcome something.
MadisonMan, she cannot legally drink alcohol. She just turned 20 in October.
Is there a reason she should be drinking? :)
I'm all for lowering the drinking age, or getting rid of it all together. It was a bummer that Wisconsin succumbed to Federal extortion and raised the age to 21.
"...Many moral imperatives have been dissolved in this way over the centuries. It's progress. It's a good thing. It means we've overcome something."
One of the other things that has dissolved is the traditional family. And with that more crime-prone, directionless, unskilled, unemployed, uneducated, amoral youth heading to.....
One of the other things that has dissolved is the traditional family.
What? You can't have a traditional family in this country? I got one. Come over sometime. We'll have Hamburger Helper.
More importantly, this traditional family was not around forever, Before that, the thing that dissolved was the large extended family. Before that, the clan. Before that, the tribe.
If you'd like, you can still find many glorious places on earth where tribes and clans are the predominant feature of social organization. Weirdly, I note that you don't spend much time in those places. Why is that?
Or do you argue that social organization reached its zenith in the United States in around 1950?
"..More importantly, this traditional family was not around forever, Before that, the thing that dissolved was the large extended family. Before that, the clan. Before that, the tribe..."
My point exactly. This is not progress it's regress.
I really don't want a beach-front condo in Somalia. Mainly because of what the tribe-clan thing breeds.
Mainly because of what the tribe-clan thing breeds
Lars -- We are disagreeing here about something vital. Clearly, what's happening is people are developing more autonomy. It goes tribe, clan, extended family, nuclear family, lonely individual. There's an order there. It's impossible for a society of autonomous individuals to be a clan, which is a complex order of people intertwined together hierarchically.
The traditional family that you speak of is a step in the process toward autonomy. You can argue that there is too much autonomy, or that autonomy is bad.
However, too much autonomy cannot lead to clannish behavior. That makes no cultural or logical sense. It's quite the opposite, in fact.
"What do you predict would occur in terms of the number of abortions?"
I think they would go up substantially. But I do not get where you are going with that. Is there a push to outlaw condoms?
"Also, how did multiple sexual partners enter into things?"
I brought this up because there are other aspects of sexuality and abstinence than disease and pregnancy. I think sexual partners exchange a bit of their souls. That can be a most wonderful experience, and helps explain to me why older, happy married couples finish each other's sentences and begin to look like each other.
But is can also be a horrible thing as people who we had sex with stick around in our hearts, minds, and souls even when we wish they did not.
Abstinence outside of marriage reduces or eliminates that problem. Sorry I was not more clear. I try to make my posts pithy, sometimes they are just pit.
"In the end we will all belong to the Almighty Me.
Well, that's the criticism, and it's valid. But a place where the Almighty Me can flourish looks like nothing like a Somali clan."
Autonomy: I against my brother My brother and I against my family My family against my clan. My clan against my tribe. My tribe against my nation. My nation against the world.
Where is the sympathy for Bristol who was raised by the Worst person in the universe. She still seems to be an attractive young lady with a hard set of choices to be made. She made the first one with an A+ grade, and has a beautiful child for it, in not blaming the unborn person for the mistake made by the grown woman. That makes Bristol one of the best people in today's world.
Another unintended consequence of the sexual revoloution is the horrible weakening of the two parent family. This is important because coming from a single parent family is the best predictor of poverty for a child. It is also the best predictor that a boy will be incarcerated and a girl will have a child without a husband before she is 18. Thus, more poverty.
Race is not the best predictor of incarceration, family of origin status (single parent family) is.
So when someone talks about wanting to study poverty, you know that they are lying, hustling, or clueless. The scientific data is robust and has been replicated. Single parent families cause poverty and incarceration.
That isn't the issue MadMan. What about basic decency towards a young woman not even 20? Or is it "all gloves off" when it comes to the Palin brood, even Trig?
Another reason for the disappearance of the extended family as we know it from earlier times has nothing to do with sex, but rather economics.
As people become wealthier, they didn't need the bulwark or support of an extended family to economically survive.
Whereas in previous times, and specifically pre WWII, it was common to have several generations of family living in the same home and was common to have Aunts, Cousins and the occasional unattached bachelor or old maid living in also.
Economics was the reason. That and the lack of industrialized equipment that makes our lives easy today. It took many hands to get the work done and it took pooling resources to create a good life for all.
This is a cyclical thing and with the current extended downturn in the economy, we are seeing more and more people moving back "home" and recreating extended families with their own family or....making a small clan out of unrelated (genetically) relations.
Welfare and the government subsidy of single parents also removed the need for an extended family and even encouraged the dissolution of the nuclear/two parent family. If we were to severely restrict the access to welfare and limit the time that it could be collected, we would see a resurgence of family again.
"Olbermann is an idiot (Worst person indeed) but B. Palin is not a kid."
OMG.
Weren't we just talking about how this "worst person" thing was from something that Bristol did over TWO YEARS AGO and how Olbermann had entered some sort of time warp? Was that here or at Ace of Spades? I don't recall.
But I just figured it out!
Two years ago... Bristol Palin was a KID.
Can't you just see Olbermann obsessing about this for TWO YEARS just waiting for her to turn 20 so she's not a "teenager" any more?
Death by Slander Panels have been around since Jefferson ran against Adams in 1800. American political cartoons are mild these days compared to the first 125 years of them. Bristol and Momma Grizzlie are the first slander victims to use the internet to counterattack before daylight.
Olberman is giving off a creepy-stalker-schizoid vibe, the crazy old guy in the family ranting to anyone unlucky enough to sit next to him about his Theory of the Grand Conspiracy, involving aliens, Masons, impanted chips, anal probes, and Sarah Palin.
a) Bristol Palin's message as a spokesperson against teen pregnancy is that her life would more likely be better right now if her son Tripp didn't exist.
b) "a" is false, and therefore as a spokesperson against teen pregnancy, Bristol Palin is a fraud because in actuality she believes her life would more likely be worse right now if her son Tripp didn't exist.
Reasoning? Sure, you betcha. You see, Tripp is a unique individual who could not have been born earlier or later; thus, Bristol Palin's message that she should have waited to get pregnant would have resulted in Tripp's never existing. It would be some other kid, but not Tripp.
Mikio...Your last comment is a perfect example of a sophist's argument. Everybody understands what Bristol is saying, but you. And sophists were generally thought of to be the worse persons in the world.
Why don't you try substantiating your claim by identifying the alleged flaw(s)in my argument instead of being a predictable conservative and only spewing forth ad hominems? Because if that's all you've got, it's nothing.
Mikio...Bristol needed to marry a good man with a job before she started into 20 years of mother duties with no father in the house adding income, child care and love. Your argument only focused on Bristol advising other 18 year olds to use contraception as being an admission on her part that she hates her child...or if she does in fact love her child, that her advice is then faked advice. Any fool can plainly see that she got herself knocked up by believing in a young man professing his eternal love and marriage in the near future. That is what she is warning other girls not to do to themselves. That has nothing at all to do with her love or hate for her baby boy. What were you thinking?
Why don't you try substantiating your claim by identifying the alleged flaw(s)in my argument
Your first flaw is making assumptions that you cannot prove or substantiate and assuming them to be facts.
You have no idea what Bristol thinks about the birth of her son or what she speculates her life would be like with or without him. You are imagining what she thinks and feels and trying to use your imaginings as facts in a logical argument. Can't be done.
Your second flaw is that you have mistated, distored, falsified what Bristol's message is about what her life would be like (better/worse) based on your first faulty assumption of what she thinks which is based upon your OWN biases.
Bringing your own personal biases into the argument flaws it fatally, since you cannot reason dispastionatly.
@Mikio: I think Bristol's argument can go like this (I'm only slightly paraphrasing what I think Bristol would say):
Yes, I had a child when I was a teenager, too young, but he turned out wonderful. My family is supportive of me, so I'm lucky on both counts.
But before you decide to do this, be forewarned: It ain't easy. I'm lucky because my Mom's rich and famous now. The baby daddy's a dick, though. Don't look at me and think having a baby as a teenager is your ticket to fame, or DWTS.
Think about how you're going to support your baby, how your family is going to react. Think about where you'd like to be in 10 years. Having a baby now changes all that. Especially if that significant other in your life decides to split on you.
Will there be a father figure in the house? Do you mind getting up twice a night for the first year or two changing diapers? And work a job, while trying to go to school? Think you can do it alone?
Seven Machos, A doctor friend of mine tells me that the pill is 100 percent effective and cannot fail. The reason it is not advertised as such is sort of cultural-political: women miss a day of taking the pill on accident or on purpose (or perhaps it could be vomited up).
The OB/GYN I dated about 20 years ago told me the same thing.
She said that when one of her patients got pregnant and claimed not to have missed any pills, she'd reply, "Bullshit. How many did you REALLY miss?"
Admitting that would mean admitting that women are responsible for their condition, and that can't happen. It's always MEN who are to blame, dammit!
@Seven Machos -- Your doctor friend is either exaggerating or needs to retake pharm. Guttmacher gives a .3% (perfect use) to 9% (typical use) failure rating to the pill.
My understanding is that the early versions of the pill were more reliable because they had higher doses of hormones. However, those higher doses also made the pill more dangerous; you had healthy young women dropping dead of errant blood clots.
The modern pills are safer because they have lower doses of hormones (though clots are still a potential side effect, especially for women who smoke.) But that means they also have a higher failure rate.
Good for her. As somebody once said, when you get hit you need to punch back twice as hard.
In this case she made Olbermann look even smaller than he has made himself look.
hahaha, who reads Bristol's Facebook page anyways? Keith Olbermann has the mega-support of the MSM and colleges behind him. What dose Palin have? Nothing!
traditionalguy… Your argument only focused on Bristol advising other 18 year olds to use contraception as being an admission on her part that she hates her child...or if she does in fact love her child, that her advice is then faked advice.
Not even close. Dammit, I can’t stand how tedious this.
Nowhere did I suggest she hates her child or does anything less than love her child more than anything in the world because, believe it or not, even given that, it’s possible to love one’s childless independence MORE! Hopefully this is the road block in your conservative mind I’ve identified. Grok this and we’ll have cleared the first hurdle in your thinking toward understanding my argument.
Dust Bunny Queen… You have no idea what Bristol thinks about the birth of her son or what she speculates her life would be like with or without him. You are imagining what she thinks and feels and trying to use your imaginings as facts in a logical argument. Can't be done.
You’re right that I can’t read her mind, but you’re wrong that one can’t lay out the options and even correctly reduce them to two options: more likely than and less likely than.
Your job is to show those aren’t the only two options or that those options are somehow inherently flawed in their description.
Incidentally, I’m aware there’s a third option of equally likely which is fine in most cases, but not for advocates or activists for a particular cause. Such neutrality undermines their advocacy and renders them frauds as well -- not as strongly of course, but it’s still strong enough that the label applies.
Trooper York… Plus Mikio, Pearl Harbor Day is coming up so it might be best to lay low for a while… How's that for an ad hominem?… If Admiral Yamamoto was awake he would say that is racist.
Why? What might happen? I was born in SoCal, served six years active duty in the U.S. army, got an honorable discharge and have lived here in Louisville, KY for seventeen years. Why should I lay low, Trooper Dick York?
Brian… I think Bristol's argument can go like this…
That’s nice, but if you think you’re teaching me or informing me of anything, you’re not. Point out precisely in my argument how anything you said debunks or undermines it. You can’t because it doesn’t.
I am confused, now that I give this thought. I recall the post on the other Palin girl calling some guy a fag, and this blog lecturing a writer for commenting on that by calling into question why older people are reading some young girl's Facebook anyway.
So, I'm trying to keep track of the rules. If a Palin child behaves badly to the homos on Facebook, we shouldn't even know about it because it's poor form to read her Facebook, and probably creepy as well. But if a Palin child manages to respond to her critics with aplomb, we should be reading it and offering praise.
It's not just missing a pill that can lower that effectiveness rate; it's important to take them within the same time frame every day (I've been told there's about a three-hour window for variation). So it can get tricky. Say a woman takes it with her morning juice, getting ready for work at 7 am daily, but on the weekends, she goes out, maybe sleeps late and doesn't get to it till 11. And she's possibly more likely to have had sex over the weekend - right when she's lowered that defense a bit. So that's something doctors should explain clearly when prescribing birth control pills.
@Beth, the rules changed on November 2nd. The old rule was that if you were conservative, then whatever you did was wrong.
Now the new rule is that if you're a liberal then anything and everything you do is wrong. Better get used to it; I think this new paradigm has staying power.
Now on the other hand, the rule that if you're a husband whatever you do is wrong, that rule seems to be holding. [sigh]
Trooper York... Very impressive dude. Thank you for your service. When you served did you reach the rank of Captain Literal?
What's the matter? "Dick York" is just a name too, you know, of a likeable American pop culture trivia icon. Two can play the ambiguity game, but you missed the volley.
Of course, the Palins' decision to throw Levi Johnston under the bus after the election has nothing to do with her seeming hypocritical for preaching premarital abstinence.
This is interesting, watching conservatives attempting to engage reason.
Another faulty assumption: That increased autonomy requires less intimately connected networks. I guess the possibility of deciding to simply respect the differing, individual decisions of someone you nevertheless remain closely connected to, just can't seem to penetrate the Althousian-paleoconservative mind.
But it is fascinating to watch your limited worldviews at work. These tidbits make me feel like an anthropologist studying another primate species. And it's fun watching Seven Effeminates (I mean, Seven Machos) engage his liberal side with y'all once he feels safely out of the view of the non-Milquetoast lefties.
Oh I got it Mikio-san. But it was just a little dribbler. Much like Dick York himself.
I don't know what it is with Liberal guys trying to diss conservatives by comparing them to gay guys like it is such a bad thing. Just like Bouton in the last Palin thread comparing me to the kid crying about Britney Spears on the internet. Comparing someone to a gay dude is not really an insult. Pick up your game dude.
Well except for comparing someone to Andrew Sullivan. But that is just because he is a git not that he is a poofter.
I don't have problems with a failed practitioner of abstinence such as Bristol Palin preaching abstinence. I just think it would be more credible if, instead of living off her mommie's millions and close political and media connections, she was living in a trailer with curlers in her hair while ironing shirts and bitching and moaning about the kid that she doesn't have the resources to take care of.
For her to preach abstinence as if childbirth had, at least in her case, any drawbracks, is the dumbest and most disingenuous (and if I may, celebrity-seeking) act that someone with as little talent as she has could hope to come up with. But keep milking it. This is America and you have (or at least your mom has) true believers, after all. Facts and a true sense of purpose be damned.
Funny the word "canard" has become an issue. Despite coming from a quite educated family, I never new the word, as used by Bristol, myself until getting involved in blogging a few years ago. I only knew the aeronautical definition.
Trooper York... Oh I got it Mikio-san... I don't know what it is with Liberal guys trying to diss conservatives by comparing them to gay guys like it is such a bad thing.
Dick York was gay? I've never heard that before. And no, you obviously did not get it because the diss half of the ambiguous meaning (in conjunction with the non-diss half referring to actor Dick York as likeable by which I meant no irony) simply involved the name "Dick" -- you know, as in "You're a dick"? How can you not get that? Maybe you did get it and were just desperately reaching for this gay angle.
I agree with you, by the way, that it's idiotic calling someone gay as a serious putdown and additionally hypocritical coming from a liberal. However, I didn't do that for the reason I just explained and you're attacking a straw man.
Fen… Wow. Nice strawman… Wow. False dilemma too… Whoever pegged you as a sophist nailed it.
And you, too, as a typical right-winger think merely saying something makes it true. You’re familiar with a few names of logical fallacies, but you have no idea what they mean or even if you do you can’t show how they pertain to my argument.
I explained the rationale of my argument at the outset and subsequently as well to flesh it out. You conservatives should try this sometime. Of course, it would have to be in another thread since obviously my argument here is so devastating there is no defense for it -- none that any of you has been able to show, anyway.
Libtard: it would have to be in another thread since obviously my argument here is so devastating there is no defense for it
This should be fun:
Show how Bristol Palin's message... is that her life would more likely be better right now if her son Tripp didn't exist. is not a strawman.
Show how Which is it? a) Bristol Palin's message as a spokesperson against teen pregnancy is that her life would more likely be better right now if her son Tripp didn't exist.
b) "a" is false, and therefore as a spokesperson against teen pregnancy, Bristol Palin is a fraud because in actuality she believes her life would more likely be worse right now if her son Tripp didn't exist.
is not a false dilemma.
You're SO smart, it shouldn't even ruffle your feathers.
Libtard: my argument here is so devastating there is no defense for it -- none that any of you has been able to show, anyway.
You've made 1 argument.: "Tripp is a unique individual who could not have been born earlier or later; thus, Bristol Palin's message that she should have waited to get pregnant would have resulted in Tripp's never existing. It would be some other kid, but not Tripp."
I don't know why you think such an obvious conclusion is devastating. You claim water is wet and expect us to be impressed?
And your other claim: Bristol Palin's message... is that her life would more likely be better right now if her son Tripp didn't exist is not an argument, its a lie. Else, support it.
Libtard: And you, too, as a typical right-winger think merely saying something makes it true
Uhm, you are the one who started with Bristol Palin's message is that her life would more likely be better right now if her son Tripp didn't exist without anything to even support such an idiotic position.
So it looks as if "you think merely saying something makes it true" is simple projetion.
But my bad. We're still waiting for you to look up Strawman and False Dilemma....
madison: It actually varies on whether or not the pol quits office prematurely.
What a weasel you are. Palin was forced out of office by frivolous lawsuits, and so you use that as a qualifier.
Just admit that your standards are situational. And don't ever come in here whining when a Democrats kids are attacked. You've hemmed and hawed your way into ZERO credibility on the subject.
As somebody once said, when you get hit you need to punch back twice as hard.
Not necessarily. It depends, doesn't it? (See 9:20 a.m., which contains another good point.)
Determining which is what and if the why matters and when is the right now [to punch back, for instance] and all that jazz is an art form all its own;--one of the most difficult, I think.
It's much easier, and goodness knows more fun, for most, to kibitz than actually play the high-stakes game.
As always, I could be wrong in these observations. But I don't think I am, in this case.
That said, my gut instinct, this time, w/r/t to Bristol, is that she made the right choice at the right time. I think her mom can be too thin-skinned, especially given her aspirations, and often enough makes the wrong determination. Bristol is a separate person and a separate case, and I think she likely made the best choice here, in this instance. This is not to say that I think if Olbermann strikes back, she shouldn't sit it out and just let him stew in his own frustrated juices. I suspect she ought do just that.
That said, what do I know? I live in an entirely different world than either of their respective worlds, or even their shared one.
fls: Alaska's had governors for fifty years, yet Palin's the only one to face "frivolous lawsuits"?
In that quantity, yes.
Imagine what I could do to your life if there was a loophole that allowed me to sue you without consequence. I could easily bankrupt you within a year, and have you spinning your wheels in court 24/7. You wouldn't be able to run a business, much less a state.
But its all good. We're going to use the same tactic on your people. Don't whine when your guys are hounded out of office.
Excuse me for thinking more likely there's something wrong with Palin.
You can't be excused for being selfish little prick, Libtard. Palin resigned because the constant lawsuits by democrats were hampering her ability to govern Alaska. What you call "quiting" we call "sacrifice".
Fen… Show how “Bristol Palin's message... is that her life would more likely be better right now if her son Tripp didn't exist.” is not a strawman.
It’s not a straw man, because it's optional. I’m not asserting it’s necessarily true. I said it’s either that one or “b”. You omitted “b” either out of an honest lack of understanding or you did it intentionally and deceptively to act dumber than you are for the purpose of annoying me because that’s the only tool you think you have at your disposal.
Show how [“a” vs. “b”] is not a false dilemma.
It’s not a false dilemma because as I already explained to Dust Bunny Queen, the two options are quite logical and simple: more likely than vs. less likely than. If you think that logical dichotomy is a false dilemma, the onus is on you to show how. It's so basic to me as to be axiomatic. Furthermore, if you want to see why a third option of equally likely was left out, scroll up and read my response to her.
You've made 1 argument.: "Tripp is a unique individual…”
Wrong. That “obvious” sentence of mine as you found it -- thank you very much -- was not the argument, it was the supportive reasoning for my argument -- namely, the either/or assertion of “a” and “b” above it. I could’ve included more supportive reasoning, but it seemed unnecessary because the rest should’ve been obvious as well.
It simply involves the proverbial fork in the road of one’s life. In Bristol Palin’s case, this particular fork has only two prongs: the road where she became a pregnant teen with Tripp and the other road where she didn’t. Very, very simple. And it’s simply a matter of speculating on her part which was the better of the two roads she should’ve taken. That’s all. You’re all objecting to it because as conservatives, you don’t like the way I framed it which I’m fully aware of and it was intended to fuck you all up. I knew the wording would trap you in your conservative beliefs and that you’d find it difficult if not impossible to spot the spin, if there was any. Frankly, I don’t think there was any spin and that’s what makes it so devastating in its uncomfortably truthful impact for you all.
The previous paragraph was kind of to everyone. As for you, Fen, that’s all I’m going to bother with you. You’re clearly such an idiot, which isn’t necessarily your fault, or are playing an idiot purely to be annoying that it’s not worth the tedium in either case of explaining this simple stuff. Here's your cue to lie and claim I'm running off not having made any points.
Mikio -- maybe Bristol Palin doesn't think about either scenario.
What's the latest mantra now? "It is what it is?"
Only I bet Bristol has a more positive take on it than that. (I get to guess what she thinks too, like others commenting who think they know what this person thinks. <--- This person who in reality represents an alien species to many of the blue commenters.)
She made some bad choices. She's had a boatload of experiences other young girls her age haven't had. She's famous because her mom is famous ... And some big mouth big name guy says a really crazy horrible thing about her on national TV and you think that's okay?
I often tell people that what other people say about you and how they treat you says more about them than it does about you.
Mikio: It’s not a straw man, because it's optional.
Optional has nothing to do with whether something is a Strawman.
It’s not a false dilemma because two options are quite logical and simple
Again, an argument can be both logical and simple and still be false dilemma.
You simply don't understand the terms. Look them up. Seriously.
that’s what makes it so devastating in its uncomfortably truthful impact for you all.
You'll have to explain what it is thats so devastating...
it’s simply a matter of speculating on her part which was the better of the two roads she should’ve taken. That’s all.
No, you assumed to know her belief. And you present no evidence to back it up: Bristol Palin is a fraud because in actuality she believes her life would more likely be worse right now if her son Tripp didn't exist.
MadisonMan: My special scorn is reserved for politicians who quit in the middle of a term for no good reason other than things are difficult
So, because you [wrongly] believe Palin quit, her kids are fair game. And of course, you have to add another qualifier ["no good reason other than things are difficult"] to justify giving a pass to Biden, Obama, et al.
You're such a hypocrite on this Madison. You raised a stink when Chelsea was "pimped out" and when Obama's kids were spotlighted. But find all kinds of excuses to stare down at your shoelaces when Palin's kids are attacked.
I just want to apologize to Fen. It was arrogant and dickish of me to call him an idiot when what I meant was he was being obnoxious. Sorry, Fen. Anyway, in between here and online chatting for I don't know how many hours now, this computer screen is driving me nuts.
May be back here tomorrow. May not. I'm fairly sick of this topic by now, aren't you all?
Wow. The MSM is really out to get her -- they concoct a story of her leaving office -- that is, quitting -- and report this false story. I am so ashamed! I bought the story hook, line and sinker.
The only thing I don't understand is why Gov. Palin didn't set the record straight. It should have been so easy to tell people she was still Governor, and that she hadn't quit! What a stumble for a politician to make!
Big Mike, what makes you think I'm making fun of her? She knew she shouldn't say that TV guy was so gay, so she pulled out her best college comp vocabulary; good for her.
Mikio: I'm fairly sick of this topic by now, aren't you all?
Wait, aren't you the Great Libtard Hope? Rushing to a friday night thread on Bristol Palin, to set your diabolical rhetorical trap on the stoopid althouse hillbillies?
Mikio: I'm smart! Not like everybody says... like dumb... I'm smart and I want respect!
Because all the bright ones are drawn to a 150+ comment thread on Bristol Friday night...
Next time you light up, trying taping yourself and review it when you sober up. You'll find that all your sharp insights (like "Tripp is a unique individual who could not have been born earlier or later") are "devastatingly" pathetic.
Really, why do you have your head up Bristol's uterus? What is it with people like you and Oblermann and Sulivan?
Madison: Palin served out her term of Governor? Wow. The MSM is really out to get her -- they concoct a story of her leaving office -- that is, quitting --
quiting != forced from office
But I know you're being intentionally obtuse, to dodge your hypocrisy on attacking Palin's kids.
I've been fair with you, given you many chances to explain your ethics on this, to demonstrate that they are not situational. You've dodged each attempt.
Thats fine. Just don't pretend to be outraged when Dem kids are attacked.
Well, Fen. I've never met anyone who was quite so barbaric as to insult another person for the "offensive" act of apologizing to him, but I guess you're just a small enough person to invent such an abnormal and warped behavioral trait.
If I were you, I suppose I might resent someone acting respectfully to me as well. Thanks for broadcasting your preference for being treated in a nasty way. Since it's not something that normal people would expect, we appreciate you for informing us of your strange ways.
My special scorn is reserved for politicians who quit in the middle of a term for no good reason other than things are difficult.
MadMan - it wasn't just difficult but impossible. Should Palin have bankrupted herself defending from dozens of scurrilous ethics charges that are all too easy to file in Alaska? We all know those filing came from the DNC, but your mendaciousness didn't cover that little tidbit, now did it?
You guys are incredibly lame. No Palin wrote that. It was ghostwritten. When is the last time this kid strung together an entire sentence let alone:
"Accusing me of hypocrisy is by now, an old canard. What Mr. Olbermann lacks in originality he makes up for with insincere incredulity."
When will you fruitcakes get it that she was a plant for publicitymom and neither of these nitwits has anything to offer. they are takers and users and vainglorious.
craig said... "... venom shown to Bristol Palin, as well as Sarah, is that they didn't abort when they could have."
well that is a simple explanation but as usual, full of crap. there is no venom towards those two other than they are users and are appealing to the lowest and shallowest for support.
This comment thread has fallen short of the 200+ Palin Standard. Bristol still has a way to go to match her Momma's celebrity level. But if Momma was still Alaska's governor the Dems filed ethics complaints about Bristol alone would have exceeded 200 by now. Momma Sarah was already declared the worst person in the ethics world for daring to be a possible candidate for anything. Dem hate is a many splendored thing.
Apparently Alex is unfamiliar with the most well-publicized Supreme Court finding regarding presidential immunity from lawsuits, despite the fact that it occurred a mere 13 years ago:
Clinton and his defense team challenged Jones's right to bring a civil lawsuit against a sitting president for an incident that occurred prior to the defendant's becoming president. The Clinton defense team took the position that the trial should be delayed until the president was no longer in office, because the job of the president is unique and does not allow him to take time away from it to deal with a private civil lawsuit. The case wound its way through the courts, eventually reaching the Supreme Court on January 13, 1997. On May 27, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled against Clinton, and allowed the lawsuit to proceed.
You know Alex, for a libertarian, you sure like to give public officials a lot of special power and privilege. Well, for a pretend libertarian, anyway.
The other possibility is that you really are so young and naive as to have allowed the Bush years to warp your understanding of what leadership in a democracy really is all about. And what it isn't.
Mikio Chimpoko-san said..... Dick York was gay? I've never heard that before. And no, you obviously did not get it because the diss half of the ambiguous meaning (in conjunction with the non-diss half referring to actor Dick York as likeable by which I meant no irony) simply involved the name "Dick" -- you know, as in "You're a dick"? How can you not get that? Maybe you did get it and were just desperately reaching for this gay angle.
I agree with you, by the way, that it's idiotic calling someone gay as a serious putdown and additionally hypocritical coming from a liberal. However, I didn't do that for the reason I just explained and you're attacking a straw man."
Well buddy, when you delve into the area of pop-culture references, you should at least know what that person is most famous for.....doncha think?
I mean if you make a Charlie Sheen joke hookers and cocaine should be in there somewhere.
The fact of the matter is that insinuating that conservatives are gay is the stock response of most of the loony left. Jeremy for one is famous for it because the worse insult he can think of is implying that you are gay. Liberal loons like Anderson Cooper and Keith Olbermann love to use the term "Tea Baggers" as do several of the leftists on these threads. It is really quite silly. And since you seem like a silly leftist I just assumed that was what you were doing.
I sorry that I assumed that you have more than one layer to your onion.
Mikio Chimpoko-san said..... Dick York was gay? I've never heard that before. And no, you obviously did not get it because the diss half of the ambiguous meaning (in conjunction with the non-diss half referring to actor Dick York as likeable by which I meant no irony) simply involved the name "Dick" -- you know, as in "You're a dick"? How can you not get that? Maybe you did get it and were just desperately reaching for this gay angle.
I agree with you, by the way, that it's idiotic calling someone gay as a serious putdown and additionally hypocritical coming from a liberal. However, I didn't do that for the reason I just explained and you're attacking a straw man."
Well buddy, when you delve into the area of pop-culture references, you should at least know what that person is most famous for.....doncha think?
I mean if you make a Charlie Sheen joke hookers and cocaine should be in there somewhere.
The fact of the matter is that insinuating that conservatives are gay is the stock response of most of the loony left. Jeremy for one is famous for it because the worse insult he can think of is implying that you are gay. Liberal loons like Anderson Cooper and Keith Olbermann love to use the term "Tea Baggers" as do several of the leftists on these threads. It is really quite silly. And since you seem like a silly leftist I just assumed that was what you were doing.
I sorry that I assumed that you have more than one layer to your onion.
If I had to pick two people that get more undeserved attention and concern about what they do and say its hard to think that anyone outranks.... Keith Olbermann and..... Bristol Palin
Palin: “I resigned because of frivolous ethics complaints filed through a loophole in Alaska’s laws that enabled opponents of my Administration to pin down over 80% of the time of government workers, forced me to spend my own money to defend myself while governor, and cost the state over two million dollars."
"It's that our administration is so stymied and paralyzed because of a political game that has been chosen to be played by critics who have discovered loopholes in the ethics reform that I championed that allows them to continually, continually bombard the state with frivolous ethics-violation charges, with lawsuits, with these fishing expeditions. We win the lawsuits, we win the ethics charges, we win all that — but it comes at such great cost. The distraction, the waste of time and money, the public's time and money — it's insane to continue down this road. And Alaskans who have paid attention to what's going on, they understand that."
If I had to pick two people that get more undeserved attention and concern about what they do and say its hard to think that anyone outranks.... Keith Olbermann and..... Bristol Palin
"You guys are incredibly lame. No Palin wrote that. It was ghostwritten. When is the last time this kid strung together an entire sentence let alone:"
Ghost written? Really? You've got other examples of Bristol's writing to compare to? The somewhat overblown vocabulary is actually a good reason to think that Bristol is the one who wrote it. As Beth said... she's been studying for her SATs. A ghost writer would try to make it sound like a teenager and would almost certainly have used simpler vocabulary.
So Mikio, how and why did you wash out of the Army? Quit or was canned? Any prison involved? DADT come too late for you maybe? Million-dollar injury? Are you so stupid it took you two tours to figure out you didn't want to go career? Or what?
Clinton set up a PAC to collect money from supporters to pay his legal bills. Palin was precluded from that ability by the Alaska legal system so she had to pay the bills on her own and also take time from her job to deal with the lawsuits which were nonsense charges and dismissed. She still had to defend against them though. Bubba used his PAC to pay the bills and his assistants to deal with the lawyers.
What you people are missing is that Palin can make the money back that it takes to defend lawsuits in a few speeches, and the lawyers she hires will wait for the money.
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191 comments:
Those Palins. They sure know how to kick someone in the nuts, don't they?
Any psych 101 student can see Keith is merely projecting when he does that, "Worst person.." horseshit.
What kind of an adult picks on a kid?
Trey
"What kind of an adult picks on a kid?"
Liberals.
What kind of an adult picks on a kid?
Why this need to infantilize an adult?
Olbermann is an idiot (Worst person indeed) but B. Palin is not a kid.
I agree that Bristol Palin has put herself out there, Madison, but don't you still find picking on her a little less than classy?
With all due respect to Mr. Olbermann, he's a douchebag.
Less than classy? How about less than manly.
Keith Olbermann hasn't gotten over Bristol Palin knocking out Margaret Cho on DWTS.
Atta way to wear it as a badge of honor, Pistol.
lol Allen.
MadMan, how many years difference between Pistol (h/t Meade) and your eldest child?
An interesting=looking link, but it doesn't appear to resolve.
wv: oushievi - some kind of prison knife
NVM, looks like the link got fixed.
Yes, he is less than classy. That goes hand in hand with idiocy in his case.
I've seen better fights between geese in the park.
Bristol Palin's Facebook account has more viewers than Keith Olbermann.
Olbermann gets so inflamed during his rants, someone should hit him with a Preparation H pie.
Shakepeare knew him: "a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage ...a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
If Bristol Palin is "The Worst Person in the World", well, we can all relax. Things aren't nearly as bad as some of us thought.
I'd pay $50 to watch the pie thrown.
What has this family done to these people to earn this crap. Obsession is running wild in the leftosphere.
And Olbermann is a sissy.
If BP is a good choice for abstinence spokesperson, can we expect Michael Vick slugging for the ASPCA soon?
how many years difference between Pistol (h/t Meade) and your eldest child?
Almost 3.
If this had been said about my daughter, my advice to her would be to ignore it (otherwise You'll only encourage him). I wouldn't expect a blogswarm defense of her victimization by a mean old man.
Madison, but don't you still find picking on her a little less than classy?
Well it is Keith Olberman. That's like expecting a turd not to stink.
I thought Keith Olbermann was suspended and off the air. Damn.
If BP is a good choice for abstinence spokesperson, can we expect Michael Vick slugging for the ASPCA soon?
I remember back in high school we were given a talk on the dangers of drunk driving by a guy who killed 3 people while driving drunk. I think the message he was trying to get across was 'don't do something stupid like I did'.
Nice! The freakin' media hero of Obama-bots everywhere gets owned by Bristol Palin!
Sometimes life is so sweet.
(I've got to get over to Olby's Twitter feed and see how he's taking it.)
She's been studying for her SATs? Points for "canard" and "credulity"!
The Palins benefit so much from attention from the asshats of the media, Sullivan and Olbermann in particular. Any media attention that might be reasonable and called for becomes suspect just by association.
I watched Michael Vick addressing a high school gym full of young people telling them how he did something wrong and that he was ashamed of himself for doing what he did to those dogs. He was on the road to earn his classiness and manliness awards. He appeared to understand that he had to earn it.
Hitler
Stalin
Pol Pot
Bristol Palin
My mother in law got all in a huff about Palin. For some reason she hates Palin and parrots all of the brain deal liberal lies about the Palins.
Her beef.....how could Palin let her daughter get pregnant!!! She went on and on about how this made her an evil person who should never run for any office.
Until.......my husband, her son, said.."And just how old were you when I was born Mom?"
The answer is 16. It shut her up for a moment. But only for a moment.
Liberals are irrepressible hypocrites.
Dust Bunny Queen wrote:
Until.......my husband, her son, said.."And just how old were you when I was born Mom?"
The answer is 16. It shut her up for a moment. But only for a moment.
Your mother in law was a whore. I'm just saying... She should have been forced to wear a scarlet letter on her jacket! Worst person in the world!
That settles it. I'm never voting for dbq's grandmother-in-law for President. If she could not keep her teenage daughter from getting pregnant, she's simply not qualified for higher office.
MM's right, she's not a kid. I've never particularly liked it when the press infantilizes our fighting men and women (who are often about Bristol's age). But she's still young enough that the sight of a mature man old enough to be her grandfather attacking her is rather offensive.
From what I can tell, Bristol Palin is a nice young woman, who is using her unsought celebrity in a way she considers helpful to others. Even if one disagrees with the form of her help, calling her "the Worst Person in the World" (even in an admittedly hyperbolic way) is just inappropriate. If she's the "worst person in the world", what does that make Olbermann, who is evidently even worse than her? Pond scum?
what does that make Olbermann, who is evidently even worse than her? Pond scum?
Worst in the Solar System?
The argument that Bristol Palin is a hypocrite for promoting abstinence education is one of particularly poor reasoning.
"Accusing me of hypocrisy is by now, an old canard. What Mr. Olbermann lacks in originality he makes up for with insincere incredulity."
This prose seems somewhat overwrought for someone of her age.
Pogo,
I'd pay $50 to watch the pie thrown.
Hell, I'd pay $100 to throw it.
Any media attention that might be reasonable and called for becomes suspect just by association.
Beth don't you think its bizzare that Palin is the only former VP candidate, a failed one at that, that ever aroused as much vitriol from the left? Why? I mean forgot the post-campaign celebrity circuit but the minute she came on stage the left became completely unglued over the possibility that she might be the first female vice president.
Worst in the Solar System?
His DNA uses arsenic instead of phosphorous!
It is hard to believe that Palin just fired that posting off. It's also hard to believe that anyone takes abstinence seriously in an age of birth control.
All of that said, Olbermann is a true ass hat.
This prose seems somewhat overwrought for someone of her age.
Obviously ghostwritten.
Olbermann strikes me as one of those guys in school who was terribly sore about not having one of the topnotch minds in his class. One of those bright but bitter because not brilliant sorts.
Palin is the only former VP candidate, a failed one at that, that ever aroused as much vitriol from the left? Why?
The Right never nominated a hybrid of Gidget and Phyllis Schlafly for VP before.
It's also hard to believe that anyone takes abstinence seriously in an age of birth control.
Its equally hard to believe in an age of easily available (emphasis mine) birth control accidental births occur at all.
These kids today, Hoosier. Why can't they be like we were?
She's been studying for her SATs? Points for "canard" and "credulity"!
The same thought crossed my mind, though the general message is on target.
And the comments on the media obsession with the Palins - that is a two-way street. The two sides need each other, desperately.
It's also hard to believe that anyone takes abstinence seriously in an age of birth control.
File under shit happens.
These kids today, Hoosier. Why can't they be like we were?
If the Senate would grant me dicatorial powers for a year like back in the good old days of Cincinnatus, I could remedy that.
The Right never nominated a hybrid of Gidget and Phyllis Schlafly for VP before.
But the left nominated a hybrid of Gidget and Katrina vanden Heuvel in 2004. So what's the big deal?
Hell, the Dems elected a hybrid of Steve Urkel and Bill Ayers to be President.
Hell, the Dems elected a hybrid of Steve Urkel and Bill Ayers to be President.
Well in fairness he did choose the most brilliant member of the august US Senate to be his running mate. He's a very smart guy. Just ask him and he'll tell you he's probably a lot smarter than you are.
Its equally hard to believe in an age of easily available (emphasis mine) birth control accidental births occur at all.
Two reasons:
First, "doing it" is still sinful. Obtaining birth control means you are planning to sin, eliminating any "swept away by passion" defense.
Second, all methods of birth control have a failure rate, partly the fault of the method, and partly because people are human:
See FIRST YEAR CONTRACEPTIVE FAILURE RATES on this Guttmacher Institute fact sheet:
http://www.guttmacher.org
/pubs/fb_contr_use.html
FLS -- A doctor friend of mine tells me that the pill is 100 percent effective and cannot fail. The reason it is not advertised as such is sort of cultural-political: women miss a day of taking the pill on accident or on purpose (or perhaps it could be vomited up).
I have no idea if this is true of not. Take it for what it's worth.
First, "doing it" is still sinful. Obtaining birth control means you are planning to sin, eliminating any "swept away by passion" defense.
Actually I stopped reading after this. You're going to have to do better.
The tweet reads like it was written by a 20 year old, but she did nail him with the last line, "...if you ever have a daughter, you may change your mind about me".
Considering Bathtub Boy's record with women, and his obvious hatred of them, it's a very big "If", Miss Bristol.
PS In the age of AIDS, abstinence makes a lot of sense.
FLS:
Surely you jest - I am positive that Bristol Palin has killed more people on DWTS than died in the killing fields under Pol Pot.
I am pretty sure that DBQ's grandmother-in-law is eligible to vote in Chicago, but I don't know if the dead can run for office unless their name is "Carnahan".
In the age of AIDS, abstinence makes a lot of sense.
The likelihood of a straight person who does not engage in anal sex getting AIDS is very low. The clap are herpes are a different story.
though the general message is on target.
The 'voice of experience' she talks about is what I agree with - the abstinence-only part, not so much.
My Dad always said that "abstinence makes the heart grow harder". Or something, anyway.
FLS: "The Right never nominated a hybrid of Gidget and Phyllis Schlafly for VP before."
I can certainly see why the left would hate Gidget, but why Phyllis?
Triangle Man said: ""Accusing me of hypocrisy is by now, an old canard. What Mr. Olbermann lacks in originality he makes up for with insincere incredulity."
This prose seems somewhat overwrought for someone of her age."
I assume that she was being snarky here -- mimicking Olbermann's thesaurus-aided pretentiousness.
I mean, I'm not even sure if "insincere incredulity" even makes sense. What does that mean? That he feigns disbelief of something?
Olberman, once again, proves himself to be the lowest of slime. As we say, "Lower than a snake's belly in a wagon rut."
What a shit.
It doesn't quite have the same lustre, but being on Olbermann's Worst Person list is to the right what being on Nixon's enemy list is to the left. Special kudos to Bristol for making it at such an early age.
If BP is a good choice for abstinence spokesperson, can we expect Michael Vick slugging for the ASPCA soon?
Close enough?
Now if she had gotten pregnant by Roman Polanski then maybe it would be ok, 'cause I mean that man is a genius and he speaks truth to power.
That he feigns disbelief of something?
That's a pretty standard technique of Olbermann's; I'd go so far as to say it's one of his longest-standing ones.
former law student said...
"First, "doing it" is still sinful. Obtaining birth control means you are planning to sin, eliminating any "swept away by passion" defense.
Second, all methods of birth control have a failure rate..."
Right on both counts. Once again, the underlying reason for the irrationality and venom shown to Bristol Palin, as well as Sarah, is that they didn't abort when they could have.
I thought that the post was well written, esp. for a young woman who hasn't gone to college yet (not that colleges do all that well at teaching such). Maybe some day we will find out whether she is using a ghost writer, or getting help from her mother.
And, so, in the end, Bristol is the one who comes out looking good, and Keith ends up, again, looking like a tool.
Finally, I thought that she was pushing a combination of abstinence and birth control, not just the former. The goal is to keep from getting preggers, and it is unrealistic to expect young women as they leave their teen years to stay celibate until they marry, when that may not be until their mid to late 20s.
Mr. Olbermann is a marvel of consistency in his execrableness.
I guess Olbermann never met Jill Zarin.
MadisonMan, she cannot legally drink alcohol. She just turned 20 in October.
Trey
" It's also hard to believe that anyone takes abstinence seriously in an age of birth control."
Sex has other aspects other than reproductive. No? Is it not generally accepted that less sexual partners is more healthy than more? And for many Americans, a spiritual aspect to sexuality is recognized and appreciated.
Finally, how well has the whole condom approach worked out? 1,000,000 abortions a year in America.
Trey
TMink -- Thought experiment: suppose that (1) abstinence was the only legal method of birth control or merely (2) that condoms were outlawed, yet (3) abortion remained legal.
What do you predict would occur in terms of the number of abortions?
Also, how did multiple sexual partners enter into things?
I laughed like a loon where Bristol goes, "So you can just take that agricultural degree of yours, Mr Olberman, and stick it up your cow's arse." Hahahaha, that killed me. Or possibly I thought that part.
Seven:
After the introduction of the pill, IUD's and easy access to condoms the number of abortions goes up. Why's that?
After the introduction of the pill, IUD's and easy access to condoms the number of abortions goes up.
Well, that's a book, but here are a few reasons:
1. The pill was introduced at around the same time that abortion became widespread and legal in states and then the nation. It's a coincidence.
2. The introduction of the pill and of abortion on demand along with much else created a society where more sex was to be had, with more people.
3. People don't get married when they are 14 any more, so they are going to have sex before marriage, which is more likely to lead to abortion especially since they are young, horny, and stupid. If you've never been in a situation where you were in the throes of passion but faced the possibility of unprotected sex and had to choose what to do, well, I guess I feel sorry for you.
4. People know that abortion is a backstop so they are more apt to have unprotected sex.
I could go on. Note that I oppose abortion, though not to the extent that most anti-abortion people do. I would choose not to allow it where I live but if you want to have it where you live, that's fine.
After the introduction of the pill, IUD's and easy access to condoms the number of abortions goes up. Why's that?
Because morals and character declined. When there are no longer consequences to your actions (fucking) there is a tendency to become lax.
When sex became a free for all, morality and the moral condemnation of unwed pregnancy or screwing around went out the window.
The stigma of aborting, murdering your unborn child was lessened and the act was even encouraged by entities like Planned Parenthood and others. It became easy and routine to kill your child and the consequences of unprotected sex became nothing more than a small inconvenience....to the Mother. To the child...well, that's another story.
People were more careful about how they had sex and more selective about who they had sex with, when the consequences of both actions were not tolerated or tacitly approved and when the ability to kill your unborn child was a serious serious issue.
"I could go on. Note that I oppose abortion, though not to the extent that most anti-abortion people do. I would choose not to allow it where I live but if you want to have it where you live, that's fine."
Me too.
The irony is that the very thing that these contraceptive devices was supposed to diminish, increases.
The Law of Unintended Consequences always seems to undermine the best intentions of our smartest social engineers.
DBQ -- I would argue that a little differently. Abortion is a terribly, awful, disgusting, sinful thing. But, even today, an overwhelming majority of people view abortion as either wrong or something they want very much to avoid.
I suggest that the pill changed everything, and that morality did not corrode but instead dissolved. There is no pressing, fundamental, primordial need to be chaste and practice abstinence now.
Many moral imperatives have been dissolved in this way over the centuries. It's progress. It's a good thing. It means we've overcome something.
It's obvious that Will Rogers never met Keith Olbermann.
MadisonMan, she cannot legally drink alcohol. She just turned 20 in October.
Is there a reason she should be drinking? :)
I'm all for lowering the drinking age, or getting rid of it all together. It was a bummer that Wisconsin succumbed to Federal extortion and raised the age to 21.
"...Many moral imperatives have been dissolved in this way over the centuries. It's progress. It's a good thing. It means we've overcome something."
One of the other things that has dissolved is the traditional family.
And with that more crime-prone, directionless, unskilled, unemployed, uneducated, amoral youth heading to.....
It looks like distopia not progress.
No one drinks alcohol until they are legally allowed to do so.
One of the other things that has dissolved is the traditional family.
What? You can't have a traditional family in this country? I got one. Come over sometime. We'll have Hamburger Helper.
More importantly, this traditional family was not around forever, Before that, the thing that dissolved was the large extended family. Before that, the clan. Before that, the tribe.
If you'd like, you can still find many glorious places on earth where tribes and clans are the predominant feature of social organization. Weirdly, I note that you don't spend much time in those places. Why is that?
Or do you argue that social organization reached its zenith in the United States in around 1950?
"..More importantly, this traditional family was not around forever, Before that, the thing that dissolved was the large extended family. Before that, the clan. Before that, the tribe..."
My point exactly. This is not progress it's regress.
I really don't want a beach-front condo in Somalia. Mainly because of what the tribe-clan thing breeds.
Mainly because of what the tribe-clan thing breeds
Lars -- We are disagreeing here about something vital. Clearly, what's happening is people are developing more autonomy. It goes tribe, clan, extended family, nuclear family, lonely individual. There's an order there. It's impossible for a society of autonomous individuals to be a clan, which is a complex order of people intertwined together hierarchically.
The traditional family that you speak of is a step in the process toward autonomy. You can argue that there is too much autonomy, or that autonomy is bad.
However, too much autonomy cannot lead to clannish behavior. That makes no cultural or logical sense. It's quite the opposite, in fact.
"...Clearly, what's happening is people are developing more autonomy..."
In the end we will all belong to the Almighty Me.
In the end we will all belong to the Almighty Me.
Well, that's the criticism, and it's valid. But a place where the Almighty Me can flourish looks like nothing like a Somali clan.
"What do you predict would occur in terms of the number of abortions?"
I think they would go up substantially. But I do not get where you are going with that. Is there a push to outlaw condoms?
"Also, how did multiple sexual partners enter into things?"
I brought this up because there are other aspects of sexuality and abstinence than disease and pregnancy. I think sexual partners exchange a bit of their souls. That can be a most wonderful experience, and helps explain to me why older, happy married couples finish each other's sentences and begin to look like each other.
But is can also be a horrible thing as people who we had sex with stick around in our hearts, minds, and souls even when we wish they did not.
Abstinence outside of marriage reduces or eliminates that problem. Sorry I was not more clear. I try to make my posts pithy, sometimes they are just pit.
Trey
"In the end we will all belong to the Almighty Me.
Well, that's the criticism, and it's valid. But a place where the Almighty Me can flourish looks like nothing like a Somali clan."
Autonomy:
I against my brother
My brother and I against my family
My family against my clan.
My clan against my tribe.
My tribe against my nation.
My nation against the world.
Where is the sympathy for Bristol who was raised by the Worst person in the universe. She still seems to be an attractive young lady with a hard set of choices to be made. She made the first one with an A+ grade, and has a beautiful child for it, in not blaming the unborn person for the mistake made by the grown woman. That makes Bristol one of the best people in today's world.
Another unintended consequence of the sexual revoloution is the horrible weakening of the two parent family. This is important because coming from a single parent family is the best predictor of poverty for a child. It is also the best predictor that a boy will be incarcerated and a girl will have a child without a husband before she is 18. Thus, more poverty.
Race is not the best predictor of incarceration, family of origin status (single parent family) is.
So when someone talks about wanting to study poverty, you know that they are lying, hustling, or clueless. The scientific data is robust and has been replicated. Single parent families cause poverty and incarceration.
Trey
Why this need to infantilize an adult?
That isn't the issue MadMan. What about basic decency towards a young woman not even 20? Or is it "all gloves off" when it comes to the Palin brood, even Trig?
Repeat after me:
It just doesn't matter.
It just doesn't matter.
It just doesn't matter.
It just doesn't matter.
Another reason for the disappearance of the extended family as we know it from earlier times has nothing to do with sex, but rather economics.
As people become wealthier, they didn't need the bulwark or support of an extended family to economically survive.
Whereas in previous times, and specifically pre WWII, it was common to have several generations of family living in the same home and was common to have Aunts, Cousins and the occasional unattached bachelor or old maid living in also.
Economics was the reason. That and the lack of industrialized equipment that makes our lives easy today. It took many hands to get the work done and it took pooling resources to create a good life for all.
This is a cyclical thing and with the current extended downturn in the economy, we are seeing more and more people moving back "home" and recreating extended families with their own family or....making a small clan out of unrelated (genetically) relations.
Welfare and the government subsidy of single parents also removed the need for an extended family and even encouraged the dissolution of the nuclear/two parent family. If we were to severely restrict the access to welfare and limit the time that it could be collected, we would see a resurgence of family again.
"Olbermann is an idiot (Worst person indeed) but B. Palin is not a kid."
OMG.
Weren't we just talking about how this "worst person" thing was from something that Bristol did over TWO YEARS AGO and how Olbermann had entered some sort of time warp? Was that here or at Ace of Spades? I don't recall.
But I just figured it out!
Two years ago... Bristol Palin was a KID.
Can't you just see Olbermann obsessing about this for TWO YEARS just waiting for her to turn 20 so she's not a "teenager" any more?
Death by Slander Panels have been around since Jefferson ran against Adams in 1800. American political cartoons are mild these days compared to the first 125 years of them. Bristol and Momma Grizzlie are the first slander victims to use the internet to counterattack before daylight.
Is there a reason she should be drinking? :)
is there any reason YOU should be drinking?
Home is where you go and they have to take you in.
Olberman is giving off a creepy-stalker-schizoid vibe, the crazy old guy in the family ranting to anyone unlucky enough to sit next to him about his Theory of the Grand Conspiracy, involving aliens, Masons, impanted chips, anal probes, and Sarah Palin.
A little Vitamin H seems appropriate.
Olberman is giving off a creepy-stalker-schizoid vibe,
should we now call him Humbert Olbermann
Which is it?
a) Bristol Palin's message as a spokesperson against teen pregnancy is that her life would more likely be better right now if her son Tripp didn't exist.
b) "a" is false, and therefore as a spokesperson against teen pregnancy, Bristol Palin is a fraud because in actuality she believes her life would more likely be worse right now if her son Tripp didn't exist.
Reasoning? Sure, you betcha. You see, Tripp is a unique individual who could not have been born earlier or later; thus, Bristol Palin's message that she should have waited to get pregnant would have resulted in Tripp's never existing. It would be some other kid, but not Tripp.
Mikio...Your last comment is a perfect example of a sophist's argument. Everybody understands what Bristol is saying, but you. And sophists were generally thought of to be the worse persons in the world.
traditionalguy,
Why don't you try substantiating your claim by identifying the alleged flaw(s)in my argument instead of being a predictable conservative and only spewing forth ad hominems? Because if that's all you've got, it's nothing.
Mikio...Bristol needed to marry a good man with a job before she started into 20 years of mother duties with no father in the house adding income, child care and love. Your argument only focused on Bristol advising other 18 year olds to use contraception as being an admission on her part that she hates her child...or if she does in fact love her child, that her advice is then faked advice. Any fool can plainly see that she got herself knocked up by believing in a young man professing his eternal love and marriage in the near future. That is what she is warning other girls not to do to themselves. That has nothing at all to do with her love or hate for her baby boy. What were you thinking?
Why don't you try substantiating your claim by identifying the alleged flaw(s)in my argument
Your first flaw is making assumptions that you cannot prove or substantiate and assuming them to be facts.
You have no idea what Bristol thinks about the birth of her son or what she speculates her life would be like with or without him. You are imagining what she thinks and feels and trying to use your imaginings as facts in a logical argument. Can't be done.
Your second flaw is that you have mistated, distored, falsified what Bristol's message is about what her life would be like (better/worse) based on your first faulty assumption of what she thinks which is based upon your OWN biases.
Bringing your own personal biases into the argument flaws it fatally, since you cannot reason dispastionatly.
Plus Mikio, Pearl Harbor Day is coming up so it might be best to lay low for a while.
A word to the wise.
How's that for an ad hominem?
If Admiral Yamamoto was awake he would say that is racist.
Trooper...That line about Pear harbor day caught me me off guard and I am still laughing. We are all being too darn serious about our opinions.
@Mikio:
I think Bristol's argument can go like this (I'm only slightly paraphrasing what I think Bristol would say):
Yes, I had a child when I was a teenager, too young, but he turned out wonderful. My family is supportive of me, so I'm lucky on both counts.
But before you decide to do this, be forewarned: It ain't easy. I'm lucky because my Mom's rich and famous now. The baby daddy's a dick, though. Don't look at me and think having a baby as a teenager is your ticket to fame, or DWTS.
Think about how you're going to support your baby, how your family is going to react. Think about where you'd like to be in 10 years. Having a baby now changes all that. Especially if that significant other in your life decides to split on you.
Will there be a father figure in the house? Do you mind getting up twice a night for the first year or two changing diapers? And work a job, while trying to go to school? Think you can do it alone?
It really ain't glamorous.
Seven Machos,
A doctor friend of mine tells me that the pill is 100 percent effective and cannot fail. The reason it is not advertised as such is sort of cultural-political: women miss a day of taking the pill on accident or on purpose (or perhaps it could be vomited up).
The OB/GYN I dated about 20 years ago told me the same thing.
She said that when one of her patients got pregnant and claimed not to have missed any pills, she'd reply, "Bullshit. How many did you REALLY miss?"
Admitting that would mean admitting that women are responsible for their condition, and that can't happen. It's always MEN who are to blame, dammit!
@DBQ
Liberals are irrepressible hypocrites.
LOL!
@ BJM
OMG that video made my head hurt. It was just like talking to some of my liberal family members and some of my in-laws. Except without the alcohol.
@Seven Machos -- Your doctor friend is either exaggerating or needs to retake pharm. Guttmacher gives a .3% (perfect use) to 9% (typical use) failure rating to the pill.
My understanding is that the early versions of the pill were more reliable because they had higher doses of hormones. However, those higher doses also made the pill more dangerous; you had healthy young women dropping dead of errant blood clots.
The modern pills are safer because they have lower doses of hormones (though clots are still a potential side effect, especially for women who smoke.) But that means they also have a higher failure rate.
Guttmacher: http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_contr_use.html
@jimspice
If BP is a good choice for abstinence spokesperson, can we expect Michael Vick slugging for the ASPCA soon?
Oh yeah now there's an apt comparison.
Beating dogs to death and/or shooting them because they weren't vicious enough and pitting them against each other in brutal fight matches.
vs
A teenager having sex with her teenage boyfriend, becoming pregnant and having a child out of wedlock.
That's some moral equivalency meter you got there, Jimbo.
Good for her. As somebody once said, when you get hit you need to punch back twice as hard.
In this case she made Olbermann look even smaller than he has made himself look.
@Beth, were you assuming that this family of backwoods Alaska types wouldn't know how to use words like "canard" without outside help?
Good for her. As somebody once said, when you get hit you need to punch back twice as hard.
In this case she made Olbermann look even smaller than he has made himself look.
hahaha, who reads Bristol's Facebook page anyways? Keith Olbermann has the mega-support of the MSM and colleges behind him. What dose Palin have? Nothing!
traditionalguy…
Your argument only focused on Bristol advising other 18 year olds to use contraception as being an admission on her part that she hates her child...or if she does in fact love her child, that her advice is then faked advice.
Not even close. Dammit, I can’t stand how tedious this.
Nowhere did I suggest she hates her child or does anything less than love her child more than anything in the world because, believe it or not, even given that, it’s possible to love one’s childless independence MORE! Hopefully this is the road block in your conservative mind I’ve identified. Grok this and we’ll have cleared the first hurdle in your thinking toward understanding my argument.
Dust Bunny Queen…
You have no idea what Bristol thinks about the birth of her son or what she speculates her life would be like with or without him. You are imagining what she thinks and feels and trying to use your imaginings as facts in a logical argument. Can't be done.
You’re right that I can’t read her mind, but you’re wrong that one can’t lay out the options and even correctly reduce them to two options: more likely than and less likely than.
Your job is to show those aren’t the only two options or that those options are somehow inherently flawed in their description.
Incidentally, I’m aware there’s a third option of equally likely which is fine in most cases, but not for advocates or activists for a particular cause. Such neutrality undermines their advocacy and renders them frauds as well -- not as strongly of course, but it’s still strong enough that the label applies.
Trooper York…
Plus Mikio, Pearl Harbor Day is coming up so it might be best to lay low for a while… How's that for an ad hominem?… If Admiral Yamamoto was awake he would say that is racist.
Why? What might happen? I was born in SoCal, served six years active duty in the U.S. army, got an honorable discharge and have lived here in Louisville, KY for seventeen years. Why should I lay low, Trooper Dick York?
Brian…
I think Bristol's argument can go like this…
That’s nice, but if you think you’re teaching me or informing me of anything, you’re not. Point out precisely in my argument how anything you said debunks or undermines it. You can’t because it doesn’t.
I am confused, now that I give this thought. I recall the post on the other Palin girl calling some guy a fag, and this blog lecturing a writer for commenting on that by calling into question why older people are reading some young girl's Facebook anyway.
So, I'm trying to keep track of the rules. If a Palin child behaves badly to the homos on Facebook, we shouldn't even know about it because it's poor form to read her Facebook, and probably creepy as well. But if a Palin child manages to respond to her critics with aplomb, we should be reading it and offering praise.
Seven Machos,
It's not just missing a pill that can lower that effectiveness rate; it's important to take them within the same time frame every day (I've been told there's about a three-hour window for variation). So it can get tricky. Say a woman takes it with her morning juice, getting ready for work at 7 am daily, but on the weekends, she goes out, maybe sleeps late and doesn't get to it till 11. And she's possibly more likely to have had sex over the weekend - right when she's lowered that defense a bit. So that's something doctors should explain clearly when prescribing birth control pills.
Very impressive dude. Thank you for your service. When you served did you reach the rank of Captain Literal?
Hey where's Bouton. We need help if we are going to get this Palin post to 200.
@Beth, the rules changed on November 2nd. The old rule was that if you were conservative, then whatever you did was wrong.
Now the new rule is that if you're a liberal then anything and everything you do is wrong. Better get used to it; I think this new paradigm has staying power.
Now on the other hand, the rule that if you're a husband whatever you do is wrong, that rule seems to be holding. [sigh]
I never liked Olbermann, he is a nasty little man, but I am getting kind of tired of all the Palin drama all the time.
Trooper York...
Very impressive dude. Thank you for your service. When you served did you reach the rank of Captain Literal?
What's the matter? "Dick York" is just a name too, you know, of a likeable American pop culture trivia icon. Two can play the ambiguity game, but you missed the volley.
Of course, the Palins' decision to throw Levi Johnston under the bus after the election has nothing to do with her seeming hypocritical for preaching premarital abstinence.
This is interesting, watching conservatives attempting to engage reason.
Another faulty assumption: That increased autonomy requires less intimately connected networks. I guess the possibility of deciding to simply respect the differing, individual decisions of someone you nevertheless remain closely connected to, just can't seem to penetrate the Althousian-paleoconservative mind.
But it is fascinating to watch your limited worldviews at work. These tidbits make me feel like an anthropologist studying another primate species. And it's fun watching Seven Effeminates (I mean, Seven Machos) engage his liberal side with y'all once he feels safely out of the view of the non-Milquetoast lefties.
Oh I got it Mikio-san. But it was just a little dribbler. Much like Dick York himself.
I don't know what it is with Liberal guys trying to diss conservatives by comparing them to gay guys like it is such a bad thing. Just like Bouton in the last Palin thread comparing me to the kid crying about Britney Spears on the internet. Comparing someone to a gay dude is not really an insult. Pick up your game dude.
Well except for comparing someone to Andrew Sullivan. But that is just because he is a git not that he is a poofter.
Thanks for playing though.
Mikio: ) Bristol Palin's message... is that her life would more likely be better right now if her son Tripp didn't exist.
Wow. Nice strawman.
Why are libtards this stupid?
Is it something in the water?
I don't have problems with a failed practitioner of abstinence such as Bristol Palin preaching abstinence. I just think it would be more credible if, instead of living off her mommie's millions and close political and media connections, she was living in a trailer with curlers in her hair while ironing shirts and bitching and moaning about the kid that she doesn't have the resources to take care of.
For her to preach abstinence as if childbirth had, at least in her case, any drawbracks, is the dumbest and most disingenuous (and if I may, celebrity-seeking) act that someone with as little talent as she has could hope to come up with. But keep milking it. This is America and you have (or at least your mom has) true believers, after all. Facts and a true sense of purpose be damned.
Mikio: Which is it?
a) [...]
b) [...]
Wow. False dilemma too.
Whoever pegged you as a sophist nailed it.
Funny the word "canard" has become an issue. Despite coming from a quite educated family, I never new the word, as used by Bristol, myself until getting involved in blogging a few years ago. I only knew the aeronautical definition.
MadisonMan: Olbermann is an idiot (Worst person indeed) but B. Palin is not a kid.
For the record, MM, at what age is a politician's kid off-limits?
Because your standards seems to slip depending on whether the pol is democrat or republican.
Trooper York...
Oh I got it Mikio-san... I don't know what it is with Liberal guys trying to diss conservatives by comparing them to gay guys like it is such a bad thing.
Dick York was gay? I've never heard that before. And no, you obviously did not get it because the diss half of the ambiguous meaning (in conjunction with the non-diss half referring to actor Dick York as likeable by which I meant no irony) simply involved the name "Dick" -- you know, as in "You're a dick"? How can you not get that? Maybe you did get it and were just desperately reaching for this gay angle.
I agree with you, by the way, that it's idiotic calling someone gay as a serious putdown and additionally hypocritical coming from a liberal. However, I didn't do that for the reason I just explained and you're attacking a straw man.
Fen…
Wow. Nice strawman… Wow. False dilemma too… Whoever pegged you as a sophist nailed it.
And you, too, as a typical right-winger think merely saying something makes it true. You’re familiar with a few names of logical fallacies, but you have no idea what they mean or even if you do you can’t show how they pertain to my argument.
I explained the rationale of my argument at the outset and subsequently as well to flesh it out. You conservatives should try this sometime. Of course, it would have to be in another thread since obviously my argument here is so devastating there is no defense for it -- none that any of you has been able to show, anyway.
Libtard: it would have to be in another thread since obviously my argument here is so devastating there is no defense for it
This should be fun:
Show how Bristol Palin's message... is that her life would more likely be better right now if her son Tripp didn't exist. is not a strawman.
Show how Which is it? a) Bristol Palin's message as a spokesperson against teen pregnancy is that her life would more likely be better right now if her son Tripp didn't exist.
b) "a" is false, and therefore as a spokesperson against teen pregnancy, Bristol Palin is a fraud because in actuality she believes her life would more likely be worse right now if her son Tripp didn't exist.
is not a false dilemma.
You're SO smart, it shouldn't even ruffle your feathers.
Libtard: my argument here is so devastating there is no defense for it -- none that any of you has been able to show, anyway.
You've made 1 argument.: "Tripp is a unique individual who could not have been born earlier or later; thus, Bristol Palin's message that she should have waited to get pregnant would have resulted in Tripp's never existing. It would be some other kid, but not Tripp."
I don't know why you think such an obvious conclusion is devastating. You claim water is wet and expect us to be impressed?
And your other claim:
Bristol Palin's message... is that her life would more likely be better right now if her son Tripp didn't exist is not an argument, its a lie. Else, support it.
Because your standards seems to slip depending on whether the pol is democrat or republican.
It actually varies on whether or not the pol quits office prematurely.
Libtard: And you, too, as a typical right-winger think merely saying something makes it true
Uhm, you are the one who started with Bristol Palin's message is that her life would more likely be better right now if her son Tripp didn't exist without anything to even support such an idiotic position.
So it looks as if "you think merely saying something makes it true" is simple projetion.
But my bad. We're still waiting for you to look up Strawman and False Dilemma....
madison: It actually varies on whether or not the pol quits office prematurely.
What a weasel you are. Palin was forced out of office by frivolous lawsuits, and so you use that as a qualifier.
Just admit that your standards are situational. And don't ever come in here whining when a Democrats kids are attacked. You've hemmed and hawed your way into ZERO credibility on the subject.
Shorter MadisonMan: attacking the kids are off-limits IF they are liberals
Proving once again that The Left doesn't really believe in the things they lecture the rest of us about
As somebody once said, when you get hit you need to punch back twice as hard.
Not necessarily. It depends, doesn't it? (See 9:20 a.m., which contains another good point.)
Determining which is what and if the why matters and when is the right now [to punch back, for instance] and all that jazz is an art form all its own;--one of the most difficult, I think.
It's much easier, and goodness knows more fun, for most, to kibitz than actually play the high-stakes game.
As always, I could be wrong in these observations. But I don't think I am, in this case.
Palin was forced out of office by frivolous lawsuits
Alaska's had governors for fifty years, yet Palin's the only one to face "frivolous lawsuits"?
Excuse me for thinking more likely there's something wrong with Palin.
That said, my gut instinct, this time, w/r/t to Bristol, is that she made the right choice at the right time. I think her mom can be too thin-skinned, especially given her aspirations, and often enough makes the wrong determination. Bristol is a separate person and a separate case, and I think she likely made the best choice here, in this instance. This is not to say that I think if Olbermann strikes back, she shouldn't sit it out and just let him stew in his own frustrated juices. I suspect she ought do just that.
That said, what do I know? I live in an entirely different world than either of their respective worlds, or even their shared one.
I'm feeling left out. How about you attack me personally, too, Fen?
fls: Alaska's had governors for fifty years, yet Palin's the only one to face "frivolous lawsuits"?
In that quantity, yes.
Imagine what I could do to your life if there was a loophole that allowed me to sue you without consequence. I could easily bankrupt you within a year, and have you spinning your wheels in court 24/7. You wouldn't be able to run a business, much less a state.
But its all good. We're going to use the same tactic on your people. Don't whine when your guys are hounded out of office.
Excuse me for thinking more likely there's something wrong with Palin.
You can't be excused for being selfish little prick, Libtard. Palin resigned because the constant lawsuits by democrats were hampering her ability to govern Alaska. What you call "quiting" we call "sacrifice".
reader: I'm feeling left out. How about you attack me personally, too, Fen?
Act like a Libtard and I will.
But I don't see anything in your 10:11 thats unreasonable.
Fen…
Show how “Bristol Palin's message... is that her life would more likely be better right now if her son Tripp didn't exist.” is not a strawman.
It’s not a straw man, because it's optional. I’m not asserting it’s necessarily true. I said it’s either that one or “b”. You omitted “b” either out of an honest lack of understanding or you did it intentionally and deceptively to act dumber than you are for the purpose of annoying me because that’s the only tool you think you have at your disposal.
Show how [“a” vs. “b”] is not a false dilemma.
It’s not a false dilemma because as I already explained to Dust Bunny Queen, the two options are quite logical and simple: more likely than vs. less likely than. If you think that logical dichotomy is a false dilemma, the onus is on you to show how. It's so basic to me as to be axiomatic. Furthermore, if you want to see why a third option of equally likely was left out, scroll up and read my response to her.
You've made 1 argument.: "Tripp is a unique individual…”
Wrong. That “obvious” sentence of mine as you found it -- thank you very much -- was not the argument, it was the supportive reasoning for my argument -- namely, the either/or assertion of “a” and “b” above it. I could’ve included more supportive reasoning, but it seemed unnecessary because the rest should’ve been obvious as well.
It simply involves the proverbial fork in the road of one’s life. In Bristol Palin’s case, this particular fork has only two prongs: the road where she became a pregnant teen with Tripp and the other road where she didn’t. Very, very simple. And it’s simply a matter of speculating on her part which was the better of the two roads she should’ve taken. That’s all. You’re all objecting to it because as conservatives, you don’t like the way I framed it which I’m fully aware of and it was intended to fuck you all up. I knew the wording would trap you in your conservative beliefs and that you’d find it difficult if not impossible to spot the spin, if there was any. Frankly, I don’t think there was any spin and that’s what makes it so devastating in its uncomfortably truthful impact for you all.
The previous paragraph was kind of to everyone. As for you, Fen, that’s all I’m going to bother with you. You’re clearly such an idiot, which isn’t necessarily your fault, or are playing an idiot purely to be annoying that it’s not worth the tedium in either case of explaining this simple stuff. Here's your cue to lie and claim I'm running off not having made any points.
It actually varies on whether or not the pol quits office prematurely.
Well Obama quit prematurely,. {Very prematurely.}
And he *promised* he wouldn't quit.
Until he ran.
And quit.
Mikio -- maybe Bristol Palin doesn't think about either scenario.
What's the latest mantra now? "It is what it is?"
Only I bet Bristol has a more positive take on it than that. (I get to guess what she thinks too, like others commenting who think they know what this person thinks. <--- This person who in reality represents an alien species to many of the blue commenters.)
She made some bad choices. She's had a boatload of experiences other young girls her age haven't had. She's famous because her mom is famous ... And some big mouth big name guy says a really crazy horrible thing about her on national TV and you think that's okay?
I often tell people that what other people say about you and how they treat you says more about them than it does about you.
This is it in spades.
Mikio: It’s not a straw man, because it's optional.
Optional has nothing to do with whether something is a Strawman.
It’s not a false dilemma because two options are quite logical and simple
Again, an argument can be both logical and simple and still be false dilemma.
You simply don't understand the terms. Look them up. Seriously.
that’s what makes it so devastating in its uncomfortably truthful impact for you all.
You'll have to explain what it is thats so devastating...
it’s simply a matter of speculating on her part which was the better of the two roads she should’ve taken. That’s all.
No, you assumed to know her belief. And you present no evidence to back it up: Bristol Palin is a fraud because in actuality she believes her life would more likely be worse right now if her son Tripp didn't exist.
Funny how you're walking that back now. Sophist.
Well Obama quit prematurely
Yes he did. So did Biden. So would have McCain and Palin.
The choices in 2008 weren't stellar. Nothing new to that statement.
My special scorn is reserved for politicians who quit in the middle of a term for no good reason other than things are difficult.
MadisonMan: My special scorn is reserved for politicians who quit in the middle of a term for no good reason other than things are difficult
So, because you [wrongly] believe Palin quit, her kids are fair game. And of course, you have to add another qualifier ["no good reason other than things are difficult"] to justify giving a pass to Biden, Obama, et al.
You're such a hypocrite on this Madison. You raised a stink when Chelsea was "pimped out" and when Obama's kids were spotlighted. But find all kinds of excuses to stare down at your shoelaces when Palin's kids are attacked.
The old rule was that if you were conservative, then whatever you did was wrong.
Now the new rule is that if you're a liberal then anything and everything you do is wrong.
Pardon my doddering, but how are these not both *old rules*?
I just want to apologize to Fen. It was arrogant and dickish of me to call him an idiot when what I meant was he was being obnoxious. Sorry, Fen. Anyway, in between here and online chatting for I don't know how many hours now, this computer screen is driving me nuts.
May be back here tomorrow. May not. I'm fairly sick of this topic by now, aren't you all?
because you [wrongly] believe Palin quit
Palin served out her term of Governor?
Wow. The MSM is really out to get her -- they concoct a story of her leaving office -- that is, quitting -- and report this false story. I am so ashamed! I bought the story hook, line and sinker.
The only thing I don't understand is why Gov. Palin didn't set the record straight. It should have been so easy to tell people she was still Governor, and that she hadn't quit! What a stumble for a politician to make!
Woo Hoo! First snow of the year starting!
Time to go out and play in it!
Big Mike, what makes you think I'm making fun of her? She knew she shouldn't say that TV guy was so gay, so she pulled out her best college comp vocabulary; good for her.
Mikio: I'm fairly sick of this topic by now, aren't you all?
Wait, aren't you the Great Libtard Hope? Rushing to a friday night thread on Bristol Palin, to set your diabolical rhetorical trap on the stoopid althouse hillbillies?
Mikio: I'm smart! Not like everybody says... like dumb... I'm smart and I want respect!
Because all the bright ones are drawn to a 150+ comment thread on Bristol Friday night...
Next time you light up, trying taping yourself and review it when you sober up. You'll find that all your sharp insights (like "Tripp is a unique individual who could not have been born earlier or later") are "devastatingly" pathetic.
Really, why do you have your head up Bristol's uterus? What is it with people like you and Oblermann and Sulivan?
7 most revealing written words: curlers in her hair while ironing shirts (OK, 2 most)
Big Mike, re: 6:24 comment:
You're wrong.
(heh.)
Madison: Palin served out her term of Governor? Wow. The MSM is really out to get her -- they concoct a story of her leaving office -- that is, quitting --
quiting != forced from office
But I know you're being intentionally obtuse, to dodge your hypocrisy on attacking Palin's kids.
I've been fair with you, given you many chances to explain your ethics on this, to demonstrate that they are not situational. You've dodged each attempt.
Thats fine. Just don't pretend to be outraged when Dem kids are attacked.
Well, Fen. I've never met anyone who was quite so barbaric as to insult another person for the "offensive" act of apologizing to him, but I guess you're just a small enough person to invent such an abnormal and warped behavioral trait.
If I were you, I suppose I might resent someone acting respectfully to me as well. Thanks for broadcasting your preference for being treated in a nasty way. Since it's not something that normal people would expect, we appreciate you for informing us of your strange ways.
My special scorn is reserved for politicians who quit in the middle of a term for no good reason other than things are difficult.
MadMan - it wasn't just difficult but impossible. Should Palin have bankrupted herself defending from dozens of scurrilous ethics charges that are all too easy to file in Alaska? We all know those filing came from the DNC, but your mendaciousness didn't cover that little tidbit, now did it?
Should Palin have bankrupted herself defending from dozens of scurrilous ethics charges that are all too easy to file
Should Bill Clinton?
Because he did.
The Republicans don't have an ounce of principle left in them.
Should Bill Clinton?
Because he did.
Did Bill Clinton have to bankrupt himself defending from charges? Presidents are immune from civil litigation.
You guys are incredibly lame. No Palin wrote that. It was ghostwritten. When is the last time this kid strung together an entire sentence let alone:
"Accusing me of hypocrisy is by now, an old canard. What Mr. Olbermann lacks in originality he makes up for with insincere incredulity."
When will you fruitcakes get it that she was a plant for publicitymom and neither of these nitwits has anything to offer. they are takers and users and vainglorious.
Alex said...
"We all know those filing came from the DNC"
Tell ya' what alex. if i can list just one that wasn't from the DNC, will you eat that bucket of shit you write from?
craig said...
"... venom shown to Bristol Palin, as well as Sarah, is that they didn't abort when they could have."
well that is a simple explanation but as usual, full of crap. there is no venom towards those two other than they are users and are appealing to the lowest and shallowest for support.
et tu?
Who Mr. House, are you appealing to?
This comment thread has fallen short of the 200+ Palin Standard. Bristol still has a way to go to match her Momma's celebrity level. But if Momma was still Alaska's governor the Dems filed ethics complaints about Bristol alone would have exceeded 200 by now. Momma Sarah was already declared the worst person in the ethics world for daring to be a possible candidate for anything. Dem hate is a many splendored thing.
Bristol still has a way to go to match her Momma's celebrity level.
Easily fixed. Don't you think Tripp needs a little sister?
@allens...
no one in particular. i've never enjoyed a family more since the beverly hillbillies.
Apparently Alex is unfamiliar with the most well-publicized Supreme Court finding regarding presidential immunity from lawsuits, despite the fact that it occurred a mere 13 years ago:
Clinton and his defense team challenged Jones's right to bring a civil lawsuit against a sitting president for an incident that occurred prior to the defendant's becoming president. The Clinton defense team took the position that the trial should be delayed until the president was no longer in office, because the job of the president is unique and does not allow him to take time away from it to deal with a private civil lawsuit. The case wound its way through the courts, eventually reaching the Supreme Court on January 13, 1997. On May 27, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled against Clinton, and allowed the lawsuit to proceed.
You know Alex, for a libertarian, you sure like to give public officials a lot of special power and privilege. Well, for a pretend libertarian, anyway.
The other possibility is that you really are so young and naive as to have allowed the Bush years to warp your understanding of what leadership in a democracy really is all about. And what it isn't.
Mikio Chimpoko-san said.....
Dick York was gay? I've never heard that before. And no, you obviously did not get it because the diss half of the ambiguous meaning (in conjunction with the non-diss half referring to actor Dick York as likeable by which I meant no irony) simply involved the name "Dick" -- you know, as in "You're a dick"? How can you not get that? Maybe you did get it and were just desperately reaching for this gay angle.
I agree with you, by the way, that it's idiotic calling someone gay as a serious putdown and additionally hypocritical coming from a liberal. However, I didn't do that for the reason I just explained and you're attacking a straw man."
Well buddy, when you delve into the area of pop-culture references, you should at least know what that person is most famous for.....doncha think?
I mean if you make a Charlie Sheen joke hookers and cocaine should be in there somewhere.
The fact of the matter is that insinuating that conservatives are gay is the stock response of most of the loony left. Jeremy for one is famous for it because the worse insult he can think of is implying that you are gay. Liberal loons like Anderson Cooper and Keith Olbermann love to use the term "Tea Baggers" as do several of the leftists on these threads. It is really quite silly. And since you seem like a silly leftist I just assumed that was what you were doing.
I sorry that I assumed that you have more than one layer to your onion.
I get it. You prefer to be considered a turnip.
Sorry for overestimating you buddy.
All the best
your pal
Trooper York
Mikio Chimpoko-san said.....
Dick York was gay? I've never heard that before. And no, you obviously did not get it because the diss half of the ambiguous meaning (in conjunction with the non-diss half referring to actor Dick York as likeable by which I meant no irony) simply involved the name "Dick" -- you know, as in "You're a dick"? How can you not get that? Maybe you did get it and were just desperately reaching for this gay angle.
I agree with you, by the way, that it's idiotic calling someone gay as a serious putdown and additionally hypocritical coming from a liberal. However, I didn't do that for the reason I just explained and you're attacking a straw man."
Well buddy, when you delve into the area of pop-culture references, you should at least know what that person is most famous for.....doncha think?
I mean if you make a Charlie Sheen joke hookers and cocaine should be in there somewhere.
The fact of the matter is that insinuating that conservatives are gay is the stock response of most of the loony left. Jeremy for one is famous for it because the worse insult he can think of is implying that you are gay. Liberal loons like Anderson Cooper and Keith Olbermann love to use the term "Tea Baggers" as do several of the leftists on these threads. It is really quite silly. And since you seem like a silly leftist I just assumed that was what you were doing.
I sorry that I assumed that you have more than one layer to your onion.
I get it. You prefer to be considered a turnip.
Sorry for overestimating you buddy.
All the best
your pal
Trooper York
Whoever Mikio is:
Trooper's a good guy. Save your ammo for the lesser mortals.
Jeez. I had the same post deleted twice. Or it was lost in blogger land. Strange.
If I had to pick two people that get more undeserved attention and concern about what they do and say its hard to think that anyone outranks.... Keith Olbermann and..... Bristol Palin
BigGov: Well, Fen. I've never met anyone who was quite so barbaric as to insult another person for the "offensive" act of apologizing to him
I'm sorry you're too much of an idiot to understand to my intent.
No wait, I should apologize for calling you an idiot. What I meant to say is that you are obnoxious.
See?
Palin: “I resigned because of frivolous ethics complaints filed through a loophole in Alaska’s laws that enabled opponents of my Administration to pin down over 80% of the time of government workers, forced me to spend my own money to defend myself while governor, and cost the state over two million dollars."
"It's that our administration is so stymied and paralyzed because of a political game that has been chosen to be played by critics who have discovered loopholes in the ethics reform that I championed that allows them to continually, continually bombard the state with frivolous ethics-violation charges, with lawsuits, with these fishing expeditions. We win the lawsuits, we win the ethics charges, we win all that — but it comes at such great cost. The distraction, the waste of time and money, the public's time and money — it's insane to continue down this road. And Alaskans who have paid attention to what's going on, they understand that."
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1908983-1,00.html#ixzz17Ah2tjHR
If I had to pick two people that get more undeserved attention and concern about what they do and say its hard to think that anyone outranks.... Keith Olbermann and..... Bristol Palin
True. But I blame Olbermann for attacking up.
"You guys are incredibly lame. No Palin wrote that. It was ghostwritten. When is the last time this kid strung together an entire sentence let alone:"
Ghost written? Really? You've got other examples of Bristol's writing to compare to? The somewhat overblown vocabulary is actually a good reason to think that Bristol is the one who wrote it. As Beth said... she's been studying for her SATs. A ghost writer would try to make it sound like a teenager and would almost certainly have used simpler vocabulary.
"...i've never enjoyed a family more since the beverly hillbillies."
I think that someone managed to miss the whole point of the show Beverly Hillbillies.
So Mikio, how and why did you wash out of the Army? Quit or was canned? Any prison involved? DADT come too late for you maybe? Million-dollar injury? Are you so stupid it took you two tours to figure out you didn't want to go career? Or what?
Bonus question: is the above an ad hom?
Thanks, Synova. You got my point.
Big Gov,
Clinton set up a PAC to collect money from supporters to pay his legal bills. Palin was precluded from that ability by the Alaska legal system so she had to pay the bills on her own and also take time from her job to deal with the lawsuits which were nonsense charges and dismissed. She still had to defend against them though. Bubba used his PAC to pay the bills and his assistants to deal with the lawyers.
What you people are missing is that Palin can make the money back that it takes to defend lawsuits in a few speeches, and the lawyers she hires will wait for the money.
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