GOD'S COUNTRY – Guys: Remember the first time you undressed a Barbie™ doll to see what its tits and pussy looked like? Big disappointment, right? But the Barbie™ doll points up the ultimate hypocrisy in U.S. society's attitudes towards sex: A "shapely" figure in sexy clothes, but underneath, no areolae, no nipples, just a couple of chest lumps with no sexual organs whatsoever – and that's exactly how Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Caribou Barbie, er, Sarah Palin likes it.
Palin, the beauty contest runner-up who became governor of Alaska, who's birthed five kids is, to say the least, ambivalent about sex and women's sexual rights – and her attitudes toward all things sexual could create an incredibly large problem for sexually-normal citizens if, for some reason (see below), John McCain is unable to perform his duties as President, and the job falls to Palin. "Will you support funding for abstinence-until-marriage education instead of for explicit sex-education programs, school-based clinics, and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?" Palin was asked by Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum Alaska during her 2006 run for governor. "Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support," was Palin's reply.
But while Palin issued a statement on Sept. 1 that she was "proud" of 17-year-old daughter Bristol's "decision to have her baby," the girl could only make such a "decision" if the anti-choice policies Palin supports don't become law. Moreover, since it's obvious that the "abstinence-only education" didn't work on Bristol (not to mention Palin herself; she eloped at 24 with then-boyfriend Todd, so it's nearly inconceivable that they didn't have premarital sex), nor apparently did Palin see fit to help Bristol obtain a diaphragm or birth control pills, it's open to question just how free Bristol was to make her "decision," and risk being physically and spiritually rejected by the rest of her fundamentally-religious family. Moreover, since no information exists on the Web regarding Palin's oldest son Track's birthdate, it's possible that Palin's own wedding may share something with the forthcoming nuptials of Bristol and boyfriend Levi Johnston: Shotgun. (That's if in fact Bristol and Levi get married; the odds are against it.)
And while Palin allegedly supports the use of birth control, she apparently doesn't use it herself, as evidenced by her having given birth, at age 44, to a Down syndrome baby. "The risk of giving birth to a child with a birth defect does increase as the mother's age increases," according to the website WebMD. "The traditional age at which a woman is considered to be at high risk for chromosomal abnormalities is 35. Approximately 1 in 1,400 babies born from women in their 20's have Down syndrome; it increases to about 1 in 100 babies born with Down syndrome from women in their 40s."
The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development puts the figure at 1 in 35 for a woman Palin's age. Of course, since Palin doesn't believe in abortion for any reason except to save the life of the pregnant woman – and of course, that's a big "Fuck you" to all pregnant rape victims and incest survivors – it doesn't matter that she knew early on that the child would suffer this birth defect; she "chose" to give birth anyway. "Most individuals with Down syndrome have mental retardation in the mild (IQ 50–70) to moderate (IQ 35–50) range," according to Wikipedia. "It is not uncommon for children with Down syndrome to have a speech delay, although it is common for them to need speech therapy to help with expressive language. Fine motor skills are delayed and often lag behind gross motor skills and can interfere with cognitive development."
Palin also showed spectacularly poor judgment just in the birth of her baby. "Why would a 43 year old woman, on her fifth pregnancy, with a Down Syndrome child, after her amniotic fluid has started to leak, not go to the nearest hospital immediately, even if she was in Texas for a speech?" asks Republican political commentator Andrew Sullivan. "Why would she not only not go to the hospital in Texas, but take an eight-hour [3000-mile] plane flight to Seattle and then Anchorage? Why would she choose to deliver the baby not in the nearest major facility in Anchorage but at a much smaller hospital near her home-town [an hour's drive north of Anchorage]?"
Good questions all, and ones that call Palin's judgment firmly into question. Of course, the sex-related aspects of Palin's philosophy are only one facet of her lack of judgment. Aside from being opposed to abortion and contraception and in favor of abstinence-only education , she's a creationist, a believer in Armageddon end-times Dominionism (forced conversion to Christianity), a global-warming denier, a book banner (including A Clockwork Orange and Catch-22) and an early supporter of Sen. Ted Stevens' "Bridge to Nowhere" and other federal earmarks for Alaska. And her husband belongs to a political party that wants Alaska to secede from the United States!
At 72, if four-time cancer survivor John McCain is elected president, the odds are good that he won't complete his term, and there's currently a petition on the Internet to force McCain to get tested for Alzheimer's dementia, of which he appears to have some symptoms. If verified, he could be removed as President under the XXV Amendment. In either case, that would leave Sarah Palin as President of the United States.
Vote Democratic on November 4.
