Two words: mandatory sterilization.
At puberty. For everyone. I know it’s fascist and I don’t care, because I know it’ll never happen so why not fantasize with my fascist fantasies? In a world that I ruled over with combat boots and common sense, things like this would never happen.
A Massachusetts high school is facing a pregnancy boom with 17 girls entering summer vacation expecting babies in what some have called a pregnancy pact.
Officials at Gloucester High School in Gloucester, Mass., are investigating whether half of the teens made a pact to get pregnant during the school year, Time.com reported.
Officials said that beginning last fall a large group of girls started asking the school clinic for pregnancy tests, the site said.
“Some girls seemed more upset when they weren’t pregnant than when they were,” principal Joseph Sullivan told Time.com.
The pregnancy rate at the 1,200-student school is four times higher than the previous year, and officials were shocked to learn that men in their 20s had fathered some of the babies, Time.com said.
“We found out one of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless guy,” Sullivan told Time.com.
The Gloucester baby boom is forcing this city of 30,000 to grapple with the question of providing easier access to birth control, something this largely Catholic enclave is slow to embrace, the site said.
I bolded the money quotes, because that right there is all the explanation you need as to why this shit goes down. The adults have no clue.
It is obvious even to a disabled monkey that easier access to birth control would have no impact on a situation like this. These stupid children were trying to get pregnant. TRYING! Oh and by the way, other articles about this point out that most of these girls are 16 and younger.
I can’t possibly fathom why this situation is a mystery to anyone who is paying attention to popular culture. Frankly, I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more often and on a grander scale.
We’ve allowed the rampant sexualization of girls all the way down to toddlers. Britney Spears’ little sister, star of a Nickelodeon show, had a baby this week at the age of 17. Read the article I linked to for that and notice how they act like this is good news and she’ll be such a great mom! OMG, like, she’s so fun!
The stigma of being a slut is gone, thanks to Paris Hilton and the like. You can be publicly KNOWN to be a drunken, STD-carrying, wildly promiscuous shit-for-brains and what will happen? You’ll get acting jobs, endorsement work, a fashion line, and hundreds of magazine covers.
If you have kids and you ever let them watch MTV - I mean ever - or half the other entertainment channels out there, you’re making a serious mistake. Have you seen what’s on there? I can’t even begin to describe it. I flip by sometimes and stop to see what kind of garbage they’re broadcasting to children, and I’m telling you as someone who doesn’t even have kids, it freaks me OUT.
More:
The girls who made the pregnancy pact—some of whom, according to Sullivan, reacted to the news that they were expecting with high fives and plans for baby showers—declined to be interviewed. So did their parents. But Amanda Ireland, who graduated from Gloucester High on June 8, thinks she knows why these girls wanted to get pregnant. Ireland, 18, gave birth her freshman year and says some of her now pregnant schoolmates regularly approached her in the hall, remarking how lucky she was to have a baby…
The high school has done perhaps too good a job of embracing young mothers. Sex-ed classes end freshman year at Gloucester, where teen parents are encouraged to take their children to a free on-site day-care center. Strollers mingle seamlessly in school hallways among cheerleaders and junior ROTC. “We’re proud to help the mothers stay in school,” says Sue Todd, CEO of Pathways for Children, which runs the day-care center.
Jesus H. Christ. Strollers in a high school? Here’s an idea: if there are so many of them that they need their own on-site daycare, create a separate school for them. I think everyone has completely lost touch with some of the positive effects of ostracizing people who do stupid, dangerous things. It’s not always bad to impose some shameful consequences, and if that’s one way to make these little psychos stop what they’re doing, then good.
This is one of the results of the fact that we’ve decided as a society that being “judgmental” is a horrible thing. Seems to me that people need to start being MORE judgmental. I’m doing it right now and it feels pretty good.
If you’re a 16-year-old girl and you have sex with a homeless man with the express PURPOSE of becoming pregnant, I am judging your ass off. Judge, judge, judging. I think you should be ashamed of yourself and that you should be embarrassed. Maybe feeling that way will help you learn a lesson that you so obviously need to learn.
I’m judging the parents, too, though not so much. Even the most well-intentioned parents can’t control everything their kid does, particularly in this day and age, but still, it would have been nice of them to teach their daughters some damn sense. I’m judging the school officials for making it so damn easy and convenient for girls to have babies before they graduate.
I’m judging the hell out of all the morons in that city who think the answer is easier access to birth control. Are they not paying any attention AT ALL? Are they missing the part about how this was a pact and these girls set out deliberately to get preggers?
They don’t want birth control, you fools! They want to have babies because they think that makes them cool and “lucky”. They’re stupid, stupid, stupid little children who have no moral compass and have come of age watching Paris and Britney whoring all over the front pages of magazines and getting wealthier by the day.
They have no concept of shame or of negative consequences. Society has failed them and now they’re going to pay the price, but not alone. Their babies will pay a portion and so will the taxpayers. (Note that the town they all live in is an economic disaster with no jobs, so you know most of these kids and their babies will end up on welfare.)
But that’s just me, and I’m judgmental. I sit here on my high horse and judge these poor naive children for being marauding narcissistic sluts, but what do I know? I was never “lucky” enough to give birth at age 16. I guess I’m just bitter and jealous because I had those burdensome ideas about “decency” and “having a future” and “not whoring myself out in order to be loved.”
God, I hate teenagers. I hated them when I was a little kid, I hated myself when I was one, and I hate them all now, forever and ever amen.
Politicaly incorrect and entirely accurate. The academics, in step with Hollywood, have destroyed our culture. Anything Christian is vilified while the poorest and most base behavior is celebrated. Choosing Corvettes over kids has proven to be a very wise decision.
June 20th, 2008 at 12:55 pmI…I just don’t know what to say.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:01 pmPreach on, sista Lukis!
June 20th, 2008 at 1:01 pmIt’s OK Thomas, I’m speechless too.
Maybe part of the problem is the lack of actual involvement from the parents. Parents are so wrapped up with their career, their social life, their friends that they just don’t give a crap what the kids do as long as it doesn’t get in the way of their next vacation to Aspen.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:03 pmWow, you just basically wrote what I was saying to my mother last night while we were watching this story on the news.
“ZOMG BABIES! They’re so cool! Let’s all have one. We’ll be mommies! That’s so hawt!”
Teenagers are stupid
June 20th, 2008 at 1:03 pmAmen, Rachel. Our society is suffering from a severe deficiency of shame and scorn.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:03 pmSpeaking of Jesus H. Christ, isn’t it really his mom’s fault for starting all of this? After all, she was 13 or 14 when she popped out our Lord and Savior.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:03 pmiowavette — *old knight from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade* You have chosen… ..wisely
June 20th, 2008 at 1:05 pmHa! A-fucking-men!
I agree with just about everything you’ve said Rachel. I can’t pretend to know what is going through the mind of today’s teenagers, but I can’t help but think that they would want to get pregnant precisely because their Catholic families can’t do anything about it (i.e. forcing them to get abortions or some such).
June 20th, 2008 at 1:07 pmI was hoping to hear your take, even if I didn’t think it would be so soon - I’ve just read the article on the newspaper.
Excellent point about the effects of the lack of judgements.
I shudder every time I remember these idiots are only 4-5 years younger than me.
Maya, the girl quoted there has also reported they said things like “my parents would be ok, my parents would help me” - yep, especially if they’re struggling financially.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:07 pmThey might not force them into abortions, but I do hope they do force them to grow up.
As I’ve said before, my mother gave birth to my youngest sister when I was 14. So, as a young teenager, I was living with the routine day-to-day care of an infant. You bet your bottom dollar that put me off EVER getting pregnant before I was darn good and ready (and married). This school has made it too easy to have a baby and still remain in school, with no stigma attached. Heads up, girls! Your free ride ends when you graduate, and that baby you had at 16 isn’t going to be the sweet little “someone to love me” that you always dreamed of when they turn 2. They call it the “terrible twos” for a reason.
During my sophomore year in high school, I was shuttling between local high schools to attend a class not offered at my high school. During these rides on the short bus (ha ha), I met students who were going to the “alternative” high school in the district - kids who had dropped out and returned, kids with other problems (mental, drug, etc.), and teenage mothers. One girl that I met was trying to finish her senior year at the alternative school, and she had an 18-month-old son (who was strapped into a car seat with her on the bus). Since I had a baby in the house at the time, we struck up a friendly acquaintanceship. Once, when we were discussing relationships and sex, I told her that I was determined not to date and to get through college before having children. She smiled sadly. “I wish I had done that” was her only comment. Which pretty much sums it up.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:10 pmFor the most part I agree, if we were talking about some other part of the country, like LA or NYC. But Gloucester is a pretty blue collar place. Of all the places in this country, I would hope a town like that still believes in keeping tabs on their children (if only for the sake of potential embarrassment from their actions).
June 20th, 2008 at 1:12 pmGreat, now hobos are reproducing.
Ace is gonna be furious.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:16 pmStuff like this really makes me feel validated in my beliefs. Mostly because while we’re not all perfect, most of us have a sense of decency and the ability to look at something and know that no matter what the rest of the world says, it is wrong.
In this day and age there is no excuse at all for approving of or enabling teenagers being pregnant. At least the teens of the old days were responsible. Nowadays there is a whole new age group of non-grown ups reaching well into the 20s and it’s considered normal. What the hell happened?
June 20th, 2008 at 1:17 pmGeek humor alert.
I have a friend who says she has no moral compass, but she does have a moral protractor.
And, as a father of a 21 year old girl and an almost 18 year old girl, I will back you up with a loud “AMEN, SISTER!” We made it a point of emphasis every time one of their classmates turned up pregnant to talk about how bright and full of possibilities their futures were and how limited their classmate’s choices would be from now on. Seemed to work.
Plus the fact that I try to reinforce the “boys are icky” concept every chance I get by modeling stereotypical behaviors (belching, scratching, farting, etc).
June 20th, 2008 at 1:17 pmOkay, time to do a study. How many of these kids will survive the 3a.m. squallering screeching barfing crapping phase of their lives? How many will be shaken syndrome? How many will be raised by grandparents? How many of these brats will want kids after these first ones?
How many of the school honchos will be there to help or to accept culpability?
June 20th, 2008 at 1:17 pmI think I’m going to be a harsher judge of the parents than you are Rachel:
and from the report here:
I get that parents can’t control everything their kids do, but this sounds like their parents haven’t given their daughters any kind of direction, or guidance, or discipline.
I’m going to sound like an old curmudgeon, but it seems like so many parents today give kids way too much freedom in the name of “not wanting to stifle their creativity” or other BS. It’s just little things, like cooking seperate dinners for their kids, and not making them eat what they don’t want to eat (with five kids, my mom never bothered to try and cater to our likes/dislikes. she made dinner, we all had to eat some of everything or go hungry), to not requiring them to behave in public-even during our occasional trips to McDonald’s, we were all required to sit at the table until we finished our food, no running around or crawling under the table was allowed.
And the fear of having to tell my parents I was pregnant was enough for me to keep my legs closed during high school. Of course it probably helped that I’m the oldest of 5, and my youngest sister was born when I was 12. I changed way too many diapers, starting when I was probably 8 or 9 to ever find it appealing.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:21 pmOr to put it another way, a stunning excess of tolerance.
But we must be tolerant, mustn’t we?
June 20th, 2008 at 1:23 pmShit, I’m moving to Massachusetts!! Hey, I’m a little old, but I can still compete with Homeless Hobos!!
On a more serious note, am I the only one not surprised that this happened in Kerry/Kennedy/Franks neck of the woods??
Later
June 20th, 2008 at 1:26 pmNo, we don’t have to be tolerant. Tolerant doesn’t mean that if I don’t like another person’s idea or agenda that I have to put up with it. Can I or should I beat the snot out of somebody for it? In the case of Fred Phelps, yes. But, my disagreement should probably take some other form. Since when did disagreement become “intolerance?”
And, Rachel, you aren’t judging the parents nearly enough. I have two children, 8 and 10, and find that I am a bit older than most of the other parents at their school. These girls dress like sluts because that’s how mommy dresses. They don’t have a clue!
June 20th, 2008 at 1:33 pmI’m more worried about neglect and poverty for these babies than outright abuse– in a fully-supported environment such as these girls have, abuse is somewhat less likely because (I’m guessing) most of them haven’t grown up with it, and because there’s always a “go-to” person for counseling, etc. But some degrees of neglect and poverty are likely, and transmission of bad judgement is too.
Oh, and not to hijack the thread, but “shaken baby syndrome” is a myth. A large body of scientific and engineering research says it’s just not possible. Check Google.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:47 pmHmmm…..You know, you’re all a lot of right. We are far too tolerant these days.
On one hand, I feel exceedingly sorry for these girls. How clueless/unworthy/unloved are you when you think that having a child is the way to go?
And on the other hand, I say if they made a pact to raise their children together, put them together to make it work. And when it doesn’t, take their children. Don’t give them to the girls’ parents, but rather, stick them in foster care on a fast track to adoption.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:48 pmWhile we are being religiously repulsive why not say that: Actually it’s Mohammad’s fault. He wanted his 7 year old wife to get pregnant.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:48 pmBeing raised in Northern California during and after all the Cal Berzerkley idiocy, I had front-row seats observing women getting married and pregnant or vice versa right out of high school. None of those marriages lasted and most of the women ended up living their lives channeling Charles Dickens. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize decisions have consequences. It also takes parents with spine to confront their kids with those consequences. My parents are tough, depression era Americans with morals and standards. Boomer parents were very weak. I suspect it will only get worse with the “X” and “Y” versions. How do we turn this boat around?
June 20th, 2008 at 1:48 pmTeenagers are terminally stupid. It’s amazing that they survive to adulthood - I include myself, as I did some really stupid things during those years.
But I never, ever wanted to become pregnant, even before my sister was born. I was 16 and having a baby around just confirmed to me that I was not ready for a kid. It didn’t help much that everywhere we went everyone thought that she was mine instead of Mom’s. That’s still the family joke.
There was only one teen pregnancy in my graduating class of 486 people - and the girl went to another school. She dropped out of school and married the father, who was a classmate of mine. I was shocked at the number of pregnant/young mothers at my daughter’s high school. And my younger daughter had a couple of pregnant classmates at her middle school.
*shudder*
You can’t always blame the parents. One girl I knew was ruled over with an iron hand by her parents - in college she had sex on the college grounds before going home after class. And more recently a friend of mine discovered that her 14 y/o had been sneaking out of the house at night to go see her 18 y/o boyfriend.
Both had unplanned pregnancies.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:49 pmI want to thank the feministas of the late 70’s for these results 30 years later. Why? Because, in the 70’s, they took what happened to poor black women in the ghetto and generalized it for all women. And, what is that? You don’t need a man and marriage to have a baby. All you need is sperm! Hence . . . a 24 year old homeless guy is the father of one of these Gloucester girls’ babies. And, what seems like a pact is nothing more than what feminism has been pushing for 30 years as a way of disassembling the power of the patriarchy and putting that “power” in the hands of women. No marriage, no man. Just a baby. And, Vermont has aided them by putting down “second parent” on birth certificates to replace “father.”
No wonder the Muslims hate us.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:56 pmWheeeee! Love it when you get all indignant!
June 20th, 2008 at 1:58 pmWhat, no colorful expletive? How disappointing. : (
Yeah, it’s pretty clear that teen pregnancy has gotten out of control when you have to add a day-care center to your local high school.
June 20th, 2008 at 2:09 pmMy local public high school, though not where I teach, has two nurseries, one for toddlers and one for infants. I understand the attempt is to keep girls in school through graduation, but the program has backfired. When a popular girl gets pregnant, it only serves to encourage her peers to emulate her. The underclass pops out a new generation every 15 years and the cycle repeats. One of my co-workers became a grandmother at 32.
Curiously, the same is true for lesbianism. When the popular girls begin to experiment, it becomes the cool thing to do. Where I teach we get periodic outbreaks of lesbianism on campus, though it’s usually a passing phase. Most of these girls bounce back and forth between male and female partners until nature runs its course and they settle for a male partner. So much for “I was born this way.” Sexuality is learned behavior. A society that is tolerant of homosexuality will see more of it.
Personally, I would like to have an anti-pregnancy week once each year. All female students will be required to lug around a fifteen pound sack of potatoes. But what to do to the boys? It’s time for legislation that makes a boy’s parents responsible for child support until he comes of age. If your dog bites someone, you get sued. But if your son knocks up a girl, or commits a crime, he goes to juvenile court for a slap on the wrist. Bullshit.
June 20th, 2008 at 2:11 pmHey, hey, hey. At least she was married.
June 20th, 2008 at 2:12 pmI worked in London for eight months when I was a younger man. As one of the few Yanks running around the office, I was given a great deal of grief for being a ‘colonial’. My usual response was, “Okay, okay. You guys can have Massachusetts back. Happy?”
This was said in jest, but the idea seems better and better as I get older. Don’t forget, this is the same state that gave us Teddy Kennedy. (Rachel - I’m sorry for using those last two words on your website. Such vulgar words should not be spoken in polite society. Apologies.)
June 20th, 2008 at 2:16 pmApotheosis wrote:
If you are referring to our disagreement in the Fred Phelps thread, I think you are deliberately misrepresenting my position.
In that thread, I used the term “tolerate” to mean “refrain from physically attacking”. At no point did I say that you must not disagree with Fred Phelps and his minions, or that you should not be allowed to express scorn and contempt for them. In fact, I made it clear that I have nothing but scorn and contempt for them.
It is misleading for you to equate disapproval with assault. And it is dishonest for you to imply that I did so.
June 20th, 2008 at 2:19 pmMS, Mary also lived in a time when all women got married when they were 13-14 years old. Times change. The problem is that biology hasn’t and men and women both reach sexual maturity before (sometimes way before) emotional maturity. Without shame and ostracism, it’s hard to see how events like this one can be prevented.
June 20th, 2008 at 2:21 pmNot work friendly, but the EOT reference and this thread made me think of this language:
June 20th, 2008 at 2:23 pmI wouldn’t be blaming the school all that much for making it too “easy” for previous teen mothers. We certainly need to bring back the concept of shame, but we shouldn’t let that cause us to unnecessarily condemn those who make a mistake to remain uneducated and ignorant for the rest of their lives. That benefits nobody and helps perpetuate the cycle of ignorance and poverty.
Now, blame the idiotic, moronic parents of these girls all you want. They’ve clearly never bothered to set real limits for their kids. The role of parents is to get the kid safely through the teenage years: alive, mostly un-marked, and childless. Sounds like these parents were the “I want to be my daughter’s best friend” sort, or at least the type that believed that “my daughter is perfect, so I’m never going to check up on her or ask her tough questions about where she’s going and with whom.”
Note that I’m not blaming ALL parents of teens who get pregnant. Some teens get pregnant the old-fashioned way, on accident because the condom broke or the hormones overtook common sense. You can’t lock your kid away or watch him or her every second. But here, these girls WANTED to get pregnant, and reveled in it. That’s a sign of bad, bad upbringing somewhere.
Oh, and while we’re busy condemning the stupid girls, let’s not forget the stupid, irresponsible guys (especially that 24-year-old homeless bum!) having unprotected sex with these girls. Let’s make sure they’re all on the hook for child support and an appropriate, supportive role in the child’s life for the next 18 years or so.
June 20th, 2008 at 2:25 pmYou’re nowhere near harsh enough on the parents, Rachel. No where near.
A good example set by parents will yield good kids more likely to make smart decisions regardless of age. 2 girls in my graduating class got married the summer after school; still married 21 years later. My mom got married at 17. Stayed married 42 years until my Dad died in 2001. Being young doesn’t neccesarily mean being a moron. IF you had a good upbringing.
On a side note: Anyone here ever see the movie Idiocracy? Everytime I get around a group of people who just think they are sooooo intelleigent and patting themselves on the backs for how smart they are that they don’t have any kids, I think of that movie. You should check it out. Just the first 10 minutes will do.
June 20th, 2008 at 2:25 pmGotta counter this one
My parents are (were, they grew out of it) Grade-A genuine hippies from SF, my dad especially since he grew up there. He has a sister whose a few years older than him. Their parents were pretty tough (I knew grandpa was a biggot, and the story is he drug my aunt down the hall by her hair when he found out she was dating a black guy)
Aaanyway, it may have been because they were tough that my dad and aunt didn’t get into serious trouble when they were teens. The most they did was sex and drugs, but babies never came of it. So, now in his twenties, dad marries my mom, they hang out doing hippie stuff for a while, he goes to trade school and apprentices for a plumber. He now owns his own business, is ready to retire at 60, and made a lot of money from all his hard work. My aunt is still hippie burnout, so my point is the Baby Boomer generation wasn’t all bad. But, even for being a hippie-burnout, she had three kids at a normal time (not teens) and they all turned out pretty well.
June 20th, 2008 at 2:35 pmHey Rachael, watch the movie Idiocracy. I just got it in my netflix and watched it last night. Its a great illustration of where this leads.
It may make you want babies though to help us save the world.
June 20th, 2008 at 2:35 pmMy children are not my friends.
My children are my children.
As such, they will do as they are told until they pay their own bills and develop some semblance of common sense.
I am the totalitarian dictator of my little corner of the universe.
Stalin Karat.
Knowing this, they are so terrified at the prospect that I will ship them off to military school and raise the child as my own that their sex organs have ceased to function in a manner conducive to reproduction. They are sterroralized.
I mean it, and they know it. They don’t want to subject their own children to my influence.
And if the economy tanks and I can’t afford military school, I have an empty grain bin.
June 20th, 2008 at 2:42 pmThe reason why we’re seeing this problem is that the people smart enough to raise responsible children aren’t reproducing. [/snark]
I’m frustrated right now. I just graduated from high school a week ago, and there were more sophomores getting pregnant than seniors. Because the senior boys knew that the senior girls weren’t stupid, so they’d take advantage of the insecurities of girls that are into their first year of high school. “It’s hotter to do it without protection,” was actually discoursed to me in the middle of a PE class. This moronic, stupid, senior boy thought that sex without protection was HOTTER. I nearly bashed him over the head with my racquet. You know what else is hot? Three AM feedings and wailing crying all. the. flipping. time.
What about the fathers of these babies? Where do they step in? And, if in fact they are so much older than these girls, shouldn’t they have known better?
Oh, I can hear my cynical journalism adviser in my ear now, the boys aren’t going to care. They aren’t going to do anything. The girls should just know better.
So if the boys know better and don’t care, can’t we castrate them too?
If only.
June 20th, 2008 at 2:44 pmSounds like this Idiocracy movie is loosely based on an old science fiction short story: The Marching Morons by Cyril Kornbluth. Good story.
June 20th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
“They want to have babies because they think that makes them cool and “lucky”. ”
I disagree - they want to have babies because they want someone to love them. I watch this phenomenon a lot, since my mother had me at 14. Babies love unconditionally, and they can’t see past anything but that.
You know… this stuff was pretty common a few decades ago. Even after the hight of birth control. It isn’t all that new, and it isn’t because of the internet or Brit’nay. It is only unusual because its a cluster of girls.
This will always happen - despite social norms.
June 20th, 2008 at 2:47 pmDearRachel,
1. Sounds like someone has a serious case of preggers-envy to me.
2. And these morons will be able to vote in a couple of short years.
3. I saw an ad last night for a new “reality” TV show in which teenage couples “borrow” real live babies and have to “parent” them for some amount of time. Finally a TV show that should have some positive effects on culture! When the next group of addle-pated girls is thinking about making a pregnancy pact, maybe they will watch this show and realize that having an infant is not easy (for those who can not afford au pairs).
v/r
June 20th, 2008 at 2:52 pmmike
And to make matters worse, that’s 16 babies who will, in all likelihood, have to grow up without fathers. No nasty societal implications there, right?
Meanwhile, in the UK, there’s been an explosion in abortions among the u14 crowd.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1316596.ece
Their solution? Faster and easier abortions! Money quote:
But others welcomed the fact that abortions were being performed earlier.
Health Minister Dawn Primarolo said: “Our priority is to reduce the time women wait at a difficult time.”
Ann Furedi, of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, said: “Much more needs to be done to improve earlier access to abortion.”
June 20th, 2008 at 3:04 pmRaving Lunatic & Jeff,
I saw Idiocracy too, and man it’s not that hard to see us heading that way. Society would have fallen apart by the time the stage in the movie came to pass IMHO, but you can see 3 generations starting at the boomers, that we’re on track for stupidity.
June 20th, 2008 at 3:08 pmThe Boston/Mass area has been a hotbed of progressive thought/actions for a very long time.
June 20th, 2008 at 3:16 pmThe state that voted for McGovern, 72.
These preggers are just helping to develop “raised by the village” policies.
Plus the fact that I try to reinforce the “boys are icky” concept every chance I get by modeling stereotypical behaviors (belching, scratching, farting, etc).
Just be careful about unintended consequences. Years ago, I heard a female comedian talk about how when she was growing up, she was constantly told, “Stay away from boys. Boys are bad. Boys only want one thing.”
She said that’s why she became a lesbian.
June 20th, 2008 at 3:16 pmIt was still a “shotgun wedding.”
June 20th, 2008 at 3:17 pmExcept I think girls like this have parents that refuse to let them fail or experience any difficulty with anything. It’s the curse of the new generation: parents who baby their kids through everything, giving them a sense of entitlement and absolutely no concept of consequences for their actions.
June 20th, 2008 at 3:20 pmThey should have to wear a scarlett R, for retard.
June 20th, 2008 at 3:26 pmGotta agree with you, Rachel…
And I’m with you big time on this whole Judgemental = Bad thing. I am so sick and tired of hearing words like “Judgemental” or “Arrogant” or “Racist” bandied about as if they were garlic and holy water pressed into service against a vampire.
Our oh-so “progressive” and “tolerant” brethren have rendered these favorite brickbat words nearly meaningless. They wouldn’t know real racism if it swam up and bit them in the ass, let alone recognize their very own not so well-camoflaged versions of it. They equate any pride of place percieved to be held by those they disagree with to a nearly Ozymandias-like arrogance. Yet they fail to recognize just how high they’ve piled their own monuments of smug, righteous, self-satisfaction. And they conflate having even the barest essentials of good judgement and morals with the natterings of crook-fingered busybodies and religious fundamentalists. This, all the while they seek to interfere with just about every aspect of our daily lives and embrace their new eco-religion with a zealotry usually associated with inquisitions and intifadas.
Or to put it another way, they love to scream “Stay out of our wombs and out of our bedrooms, you dirty-minded, puritanical, theo-cons!” But they are the first ones in line to tell us what to think, who/what we should worship/not worship, what we can say, what we should drive, where we should live, how big our houses are allowed to be and in what manner we may heat or cool them, how many children we should have and by what birthing method, what we can eat, whether we can have pets and what medical procedures they must undergo, what coffee is moral, what lightbulbs must be bought, what holidays we may celebrate and how, what ways we can and cannot defend ourselves, what sports we may enjoy and what mascots are acceptable, how many sheets of toilet paper we should use per bathroom visit, which stores we shop at are venal and which are pure, and which marriages are beautiful and should be encouraged as opposed to which marriages are divorce-destined shams or patriarchal prisons.
This is the same mentality that thinks abortion is “pro-woman”, even as it is being used to selectively eliminate generations of females in countries like India and China. This is the same mentality that berates Hugh Hefner for oppressing women through “porn”, yet sits idly by while the “entertainment” and “fashion” industries have taken to sexualizing our children at younger and younger ages. This is the same mentality that creates a school policy that requires a parent’s express permission to have an aspirin dispensed to a child with a headache, but will pass out condoms and even help a pregnant minor get an abortion without parental consent. This is the same mentality that thinks that welfare is a decent substitute for family, education, and gainful employment. And this is the same mentality that just can’t wait to get its hands on the reins of power, the better to throw out all those fascist bastards and start implementing some new laws to force people to do what’s “right”!
So, is it any wonder that these same fooles would think they were doing a greater service to these stupid teenaged girls by offering more birth control (Hello! Barn door wide open, horse gone!), and better in-school daycare (Why, yes! As a member of the public, I would LOVE to subsidize these kids’ asinine decisions some more!), than teaching them that it isn’t cute, fun, or remotely desireable to be popping out the babies at 15?
Ya know, I don’t know which is a better idea at this point… trying to buy up a franchise of handbasket concession stands or simply set up a lawn chair with a little umbrella to sell sightseeing maps to hell? Either way, if this shit keeps up, it might be the last way to get rich.
June 20th, 2008 at 3:30 pmWhile I agree that our culture has degenerated at the hands of britney/paris worship, I don’t know how much of that is to blame for this. If you think about it, as humans we’re hardwired to have sex/spit out babies at those girls’ age. In fact, up until recent history, girls were routinely having children at that age or younger. Perhaps they were just giving into their biological urges for motherhood. Granted, I’m sure peer pressure played a significant part. Also they went about doing so in the dumbest way possible.
June 20th, 2008 at 3:33 pmI thought Apotheosis was being sarcastic. ??
I have two nieces who had kids out of wedlock. One is still living with her parents at age 20-something, having lost the baby-daddy somewhere along the way (he was a putz anyway — I met him once, think Butterbean without the charm). The other has her own apartment, with the daughter, and is now expecting the second child by the same guy who she declares she is never going to marry but apparently he’s good enough to bang and lives with them so maybe he’s helping out with the rent, also.
Sheez.
The niece who’s living on her own, sort of, when she announced she was expecting, her parents greeted the whole thing as if it were an early Christmas present. I didn’t get it then, and I don’t get it now. She’s never going to be any further up on the socio-economic scale than she is right now. If I thought I’d reached the pinnacle of my life at 20-something with a child and a baby on the way and an obnoxious jerk live-in boyfriend who couldn’t keep a job (and he can’t), I’d have opened a vein.
June 20th, 2008 at 3:36 pmThis is the second time that my end all solution is coming to light… drum roll…
NEUTER THE FUCKING KIDS!!!!!!
If they want kids for fucking bad, let them go thru the pain and financial burden of reversing the proceedure and I guarenfuckingtee that these little shitheads will think twice about having kids. lets see how “Cool” getting pregnant is then. FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, I am better now.
June 20th, 2008 at 3:47 pmI knew we were in trouble when they (I don’t know exactly who “they” refers to, but probably some persons) started decorating baby girls by gluing pink headbands and bows on their bald heads.
http://thebowlady.com/infant-baby-headbands-with-small-size-bows.html
I said to myself, “That doesn’t make them look the least bit sexy. Okay, maybe just a little.” [That was the funny part, right there.]
After that you had little girl beauty pageants with those kids wearing so much make up they looked like Tammy Faye Baker during a hurricane. [I liked Ol’ Tammy Faye. Didn’t take herself too seriously.]
http://www.kevo.com/thumbs/m/2j/Tammy_Faye_Bakker_closeup_2005-750_750.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeGBFgNxewc
And the final outcome? Nancy Pelosi and Michelle Obama.
http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/nancy_pelosi.jpg
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/00667/michelle-obama-404_667764c.jpg
It always happens…
You start with bald, bow-headed babies and you end up with an infestation of harpies.
http://monsters.monstrous.com/harpies.htm
June 20th, 2008 at 3:52 pmI had to sit here and read all the comments before I could breathe properly — my brain was filled with a wordless scream!
Not when, BECAUSE! If these little twats had parents who had taught them that not only the teen mother but her infant was at a disadvantage, and that if they ever got pregnant, adoption would be the only recourse, do you think they’d go through with it? If their parent(s) (it does make one wonder about the presence or absence of the fathers of these selfish little idiots) weren’t stupid enough to take ultimate responsibility for their grandchildren — were not, on some level, gratified by the prospect of grandchildren — would they be so eager to conceive?
A “24-year-old homeless guy?” Dear God in Heaven — we’re doomed!
June 20th, 2008 at 3:56 pmI wonder if The Learning Channel has backed a truckload of money and diapers up to each of the 17 front doors, yet, to lay the groundwork for the special in a few years: ‘Join us as The Gloucester 17 prepare for their first day at kindergarten!’ and treat the mommies like they’re freakin’ heros.
June 20th, 2008 at 4:19 pmYes, “We need to give the poor dears more sex education!!!” is always the answer, isn’t it?
Never mind that the average 12 year-old in either the US or the UK probably already knows more about sex than I do. Give them sex education by all means, but teach them about consequences and self-respect, too - the fact that 15 year-old Chantelle from 5C has had more sexual partners than you isn’t necessarily something for her to boast about. She almost certainly has more sexually transmitted diseases, too.
TheBlackSpot, I have experience of that kind of thing myself. I once had to go to my stepdaughter’s school (I’m separated from her mother now and awaiting divorce, but I’ll still always see her as my stepdaughter) to deliver a couple of painkillers because she was suffering from period pains and the school wasn’t allowed to give them to her. If she’d had sex and wanted the morning-after pill though, there would have been no questions asked and even her mother wouldn’t have been informed.
June 20th, 2008 at 4:25 pmI, too, hate teenagers. (Simon Cowell voice): Sorry! but I do.
If only the girls had harnessed all that angst-y energy toward — oh I don’t know — a pact to get on Honor Roll and stay there and then apply for and receive full academic scholarships to Tier 1 colleges.
Way to dream big, girls. Way to dream big.
June 20th, 2008 at 4:29 pmWhat the shit?
Now, some facts about Gloucester:
… and some demographics …
…socioeconomics …
The national averages for 2007 were $46,326 and 12.6%.
… pray tell, what is this town itself like …
So now that we have ruled out the bullshit, …
Looking for someone to love them? This is so laughable it borders on the asinine. That is not the issue. The issue is that their frigging parents need to have taken some classes before the children were in strollers so they could have learned to be decent parents!
I am officially naming this “Gen ELB” for entitled little bastards!
ggrrr
June 20th, 2008 at 4:51 pmI can’t say that I’m shocked, this sorta thing is going on closer than you think. While being a cop in a Texas town of 30k people, I answered a call where two 14 year old girls were fighting. They were fighting because one of the girls had gotten pregnant first. The other girl had gotten jealous and they ended up squabbing it out.
I have to agree that its the sexualization of teenage girls our culture with the lack of consequences it forces on people for bad behavior that led us here. Seriously, how old was Britney when she did the “Baby, baby” (or whatever that song was called) video where she was prancing around in the naughty schoolgirl outfit? I don’t think she was even 18 yet.
Anyway, don’t worry about the non-pregnant girl in my story. She caught up and got pregnant too, I think before she even made it to 15.
June 20th, 2008 at 5:03 pmCan anyone explain to me how is this any of our business? Other then if they get on the public dole. Live and let live.
June 20th, 2008 at 5:13 pmAm I wrong for thinking that the homeless guy must’ve thought he’d hit the friggin’ lottery. She probably went back a couple of times just to make sure the sperm “made it.”
Oh, by the way, Mr. Homeless guy? That’s statutory rape in a civilized society. Except that in a society without morals, which is the type Sue Todd want to foment, his spermination is most likely considered “pubic service.”
All I need to know about Pathways for Children is found in it’s footer: United Way and the Providers Council–whose site has a bunch of picketers on it asking for higher pay. Welfare Nannyism. No accountability. No families. The government will take care of all your problems and do away with the stigma all in one fell swoop.
Thanks!
June 20th, 2008 at 5:18 pmThank you, Freedomlover, for demonstrating exactly the attitude that allows situations like this to happen in the first place.
Social ostracism isn’t just something all us social conservative prudes made up to keep everyone else from having fun. It helps preserve an orderly society.
It IS our business that 17 girls were conspiring together to get pregnant on purpose just so they would have someone in their lives that loves them unconditionally. If the parents or teachers of these girls had decided it was THEIR business, this might not ever have happened at all.
June 20th, 2008 at 5:27 pmmightysamurai: Nicely put. I wholeheartedly agree.
June 20th, 2008 at 5:28 pmThe situation is bad enough, but when the discussion goes off on a tangent concerning the availability of birth control in this high school, I just shake my head.
Those little morons not only had no interest in preventing pregnancy, they were actively trying to get pregnant. A school nurse could have crammed a diaphram up each of their hoohaws and the result would have been the same because it would have been removed in a New York minute.
These girls and their parents should be publicly shamed for being the idiots they are.
June 20th, 2008 at 5:41 pmI knew someone would try this stunt. Who’s to blame for this moral failing? Why the Bush economy!!
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2008/06/20/evening-news-blames-economic-depression-gloucester-pregnancy-pact
June 20th, 2008 at 5:56 pm“This is so laughable it borders on the asinine. That is not the issue.”
Not to be defensive - but how do you know?
I’m always highly amused when the middle class get their panties in a bunch and act like they know why this is happening. You don’t.
It is much more complicated than one blog spot can map out. Their children aren’t doomed to welfare. Often, the women turn out to be tax pay’in productive citizens. And believe me - just because you want to blame it on TV - it just isn’t so.
I doubt statistics would even back you up. Teenage birthrates ticked down more than 30% in 30 years. Now because it’s up a couple percent all of a sudden people have their panties in a bunch?
Is it the most favorable situation. Nope. It’s really really hard. But the world isn’t coming to an end because of it.
June 20th, 2008 at 5:59 pmStereotype busted.
Let’s see …
Parents never married. Check.
EDIT: Center portion removed by author
Child now attending pre-med. Check.
Oh, I know, sugar buns.
The last thing I wanted to do was bring a child into my shithole of a life so it could suffer as it “loved me unconditionally”. That’s what pet tarantulas are for. However, I chose to have her, and in spite of the stigma and hard work I have never regretted it.
Yes, I do believe I have a pretty good feel for why this is happening, I work with this age group every day. Some are entitled little snot nose shits who have never worked or suffered a day in their lives, and are thus clueless to the fact that they are a complete waste of oxygen.
Strollers in the hallways? Diaper bags instead of bookbags? Fuck that. Restigmatize pre-teen pregnancy, ship their asses off to a special boarding school and let them play mommy there. I don’t want those bitches around my daughters — and especially nowhere near my son.
I didn’t blame TV, and I didn’t say the world was coming to an end. Please direct your comments at those who did. I simply pointed out facts about the town where this is taking place, because I assumed people would extrapolate those facts into a logical conclustion that this isn’t a bunch of poverty stricken, abused and neglected minority inner-city teenage ghetto hos looking to score a quick welfare buck.
June 20th, 2008 at 6:21 pmI vividly remember some years back, caring for an 18 year old for a diagnostic laparoscopy. The reason on the paperwork (so the insurance would pay) was pelvic pain. However the patient told us that the real reason was that she had been unable to get pregnant and was starting an infertility work up. No, of course she wasn’t married.
The other thing that has been touched on in a couple of comments is the whole lack of daddy in the picture. It really irritates me that daddies are seen as unnecessary. I think there are lots of reasons for that, and it’s a whole other topic. But, I’m going to make a real leap here and make an educated guess that these babies will not have a lot of fatherly influcnce. And that’s a shame. The children are much poorer for not having two loving parents.
June 20th, 2008 at 6:21 pmThe basic problem is already identified. when being “judgmental” became bad, we had already lost the battle - the root of the word judgmental is judgment, when it becomes bad for adults to exercise judgment it doesn’t leave much room to correct stupidity.
June 20th, 2008 at 6:40 pmWell well. It seems you disapprove of my gambit.
Tell me, how much weight do you think your disapproval carries? How much do you think it’ll change me, in the long run? Especially when your approval is neither particularly valued nor sought.
I can be an irresponsible slanderous asshole all day, and the only consequence is a complete stranger will waggle his finger at me? Tell me that’s not a pretty sweet deal.
Just so: Phelps doesn’t care whether you or me or anyone else in society disapproves, and neither do these girls. They thrive on it, they get to be rebellious and outrageous without risk. They never will give two shits as long as there’s no concrete consequence, because they know there’s enough “tolerant” people out there that they’ll come out ahead of the game.
No, I don’t have an answer. I wish I did. But disapproving looks and rueful head-shaking isn’t going to fix the problem anymore.
June 20th, 2008 at 6:43 pmThose babies are just one more possession to have, like the newest cell phone or a designer purse. Except there’s no upfront cost to get a baby. And hey, since it’s actually the baby itself who will end up paying in the long run, what a great deal—free babies!
June 20th, 2008 at 6:50 pm“Stereotype busted.”
Honestly - I think you are more proving my point than disproving it. Even though you were under-age, you and your child became productive members of society.
Although, becoming pregnant through rape (as terrible as that is) is not in the same mind-set of a teenager who sets out specifically to get pregnant. It’s a completely different psychology.
Still hard make no mistake about it.
June 20th, 2008 at 6:53 pmWhen did these go out of style?
Maybe we could sew in a hidden gusset for comfort and convenience.
June 20th, 2008 at 6:53 pmAnd you think of all the couples who spend *thousands* trying to get pregnant…..
June 20th, 2008 at 6:56 pmI was responding to this, not proving your “point”.
Don’t even put people like me in the same sentence as these entiled little whores.
June 20th, 2008 at 6:57 pmI don’t think you can entirely rule out the influence of TV, Hollywood, etc. I’ve known my share of people overtaken by hormones, but it’s disgusting just how much the entertainment industry glamorizes bed hopping and the child-as-a-fashion-accessory.
I mean, what do you see when you turn on the TV or pop in a DVD nowadays? Lots of people joking about having casual sex and how it’s no big deal. Call me a prude, but I don’t think sex should be a casual thing. But when you see that day in and day out it’s bound to alter your thinking. Same thing with children. What was the last movie you saw with a normal, energetic, misbehaving child? The only ones I can think of off the top of my head involve the kids driving babysitters insane but being perfect little angels for their parents.
I love my niece to death, but I know full well what she’s capable of when she’s pissed about something and I flat out can’t handle temper tantrums. If these girls think it’ll be as easy as it is in a movie to calm the kids down, they’ve got another thing coming. Whatever they were thinking when they decided they wanted to get pregnant, they’re going to learn really soon it’s not as simple as they thought it was (unless their parents do the recent typical thing and drop everything to make sure their precious daughters experience no hardship.
Please note I’m not saying it’s all the entertainment industry’s fault, I’m just saying you can’t completely rule it out as a factor here.
June 20th, 2008 at 7:11 pm“Don’t even put people like me in the same sentence as these entiled little whores.”
Wow….
That is a ton of misdirected anger. You realize - I didn’t do anything of he sort. Right You were the one who seemed to want to group yourself with them. Even though honestly, I didn’t think your situation was comparable. Even then, I thought I was pretty respectful to you.
I do however find it amazingly fascinating that you completely censored your first reply to me. And I have to tell you, I’ll leave it at that. I’m in a generous mood. Don’t push me.
June 20th, 2008 at 7:35 pmMisdirected anger? Whatever do you mean? This is simply a request that you not put me in a sentence with entitled whores.
Beg to differ. That is indeed a sentence.
I removed a portion of my post because I have recently been the target of some unpleasantness. Not that my actions require explanation.
You asked me how I knew, and out of respect for your inquiry I responded. After you replied, I removed what I found to be overly personal.
Group myself with them … riggght. That’s exactly what I was doing when I made the oh so godawful mistake of revealing that I didn’t originate from the middle class and my ability to empathize with others who don’t.
Push you? I don’t even know you, so why would I remotely care whether you got mad enough for your cerebellum to explode in a horrific spray of grey matter particles from your facial crevasses?
June 20th, 2008 at 7:48 pmYes we are. Although I may have ‘grown up’ a little. Blame it on making one’s own money. Booze, cigarettes, girlfriends, junk food, and “contraband” is expensive. A wife and/or baby is somewhere along the lines of “cost a fooking fortune”. The money could be better spent on books, CDs, guns, real food, and that ’saddest bee’ mug I’ve been eyeing for the longest time.
That is the most metal life lesson I’ve ever heard….
June 20th, 2008 at 8:09 pmWell, it’s time.com. So you have to take it with a grain of salt. Or maybe a whole salt mine.
June 20th, 2008 at 8:21 pmI nominate you for Secretary of Rational Moral Outrage in the upcoming Republic of Texas elections.
Vote ~Paules — “Potato sacks for girls, nut-vises for boys”
June 20th, 2008 at 8:53 pm…negative consequences…
I’m all about negative consequences…but I’m mean and unenlightened like that.
June 20th, 2008 at 9:05 pmTo 14 Karat,
I read your original post, and don’t want to be intrusive (you un-posted for a reason), but I do want you to know that it mattered to me—you took something that was broken through no fault of your own, and you made it whole through sheer force of will. Good on you and then some.
June 20th, 2008 at 10:04 pmWelcome to our stupid, self obsessed world, young lady.
June 20th, 2008 at 10:04 pmRachel,
The current entertainment industry is following the original descent, not leading it.
40 years ago, a girl riding in a car in Texas, with bare feet on the dash, would cause the guy driving to be arrested, and convicted, of statutory rape.
People talk about how allowing same-sex marriages devalues marriage. Bull puckey. What devalues marriage is that we stopped enforcing the religious restrictions against divorce, adultery, and fornication. Legally we stopped enforcing laws against adultery, abandonment, and statutory rape.
A girl is pregnant at 16? Fine. The story isn’t complete until you tell me the name of the father that is now serving time. Until the community wants to prosecute those involved, I say just stand back and watch them wring their hands and gnash their teeth.
A girl that gets her sex partner put in jail might have a tough time finding another date.
Personally, the approach I favor is passing a law that makes giving birth an act of marriage. That is, you wheel the teen mother-to-be into the delivery room. The kid takes it’s first breath, and *boom*, Momma is now married and Dad just has to be located - and assets allocated accordingly. I would round out the process by replacing divorce with ‘termination of marriage by abandonment’. Anyone could walk away at any time. But they abandon all parental rights, and it would be a federal felony to take any assets at all, even pocket change. That would leave the teen mothers set up a bit, and reduce the allure of casual sex.
As for Gloucester, I imagine the more positive thinkers will consider extending sex-ed down to 5th grade, and include family planning. Maybe lab time in the onsite day care. Make sure they all, boys and girls, know about changing diapers, hemorrhoids, pregnancy-induced diabetes, etc.
Oh, and publish the names of the fathers every time the girl’s stroller rolls down the hall.
June 21st, 2008 at 12:31 amDepends on the state law and age of consent. This varies GREATLY. I offer, in deference to the physical location of our most gracious hostess, Texas statute in re: statuatory rape law:
FYI, the age of consent in Texas is 17. In South Carolina, the old adage “if they can bleed they can breed” is in effect. In case you are concerned, here is the age of consent in your state.
The definition in itself is so obtuse that I would personally be disinclined to prosecute without defense representation, and who the hell can afford that cost short of true innocents who are facing personal hell in the death-penalty-friendly-Texas penal system.
I am certain you are at this point inclined to bandy about the concept of prosecution by the state as a result of law violation. Here’s your state appointed; hope he’s not overwhelmed with his pending death penalty case.
Anecdotal evidence indicates that this is futile, as it typically involves the testimony of the minor in question, who at that point, barring strong parental intervention, is inclined to hope for the best.
Thus, between the ill-defined nature of state statuate and reluctance of the witness, you ultimately end up with welfare babies.
June 21st, 2008 at 1:05 amSweeping generalizations.
June 21st, 2008 at 1:22 amYou’re doing it wrong.
Mary in crotchless panties.
People wonder why there’s a growing gap between rich and poor. Let’s see: some people study for 20 years and learn how to make iPhones, while others sleep with homeless guys before their 18th birthday.
Of course, that can’t be the explanation — it would piss off too many voters. I blame the oil companies.
June 21st, 2008 at 2:25 amThe fathers of these babies are going to be very surprised when the welfare agencies come after them to recover the costs of providing welfare to the mothers. The only guy who might “luck out” is the homeless guy.
June 21st, 2008 at 9:51 amStill, Iowavette does have a point.
Trends in Hollywood and academia follow American culture, but they can also guide and direct it. To say they are totally at fault is wrong, but to say they played no role at all is just as wrong.
June 21st, 2008 at 10:01 amAgreed.
However, I am involved with many academics who find the current political situation abhorrent.
I also find it funny because, for me, academia has recently involved working with crop and soil scientists.
The closest they possibly come to influencing American culture is when they say the word “angiosperm” in public.
June 21st, 2008 at 10:08 amThe point was not that the world would come to an end because teenage girls had gotten pregnant and decided to keep their babies. I’m pro choice, so obviously, to my way of thinking, if a girl becomes pregnant for whatever reason, I’m not going to complain about her decision to give that baby a life!
The point was that a world where it is considered socially acceptable amongst their peer group that these girls should have made a conscious decision, as a group, to deliberately choose that “really really hard” upbringing for their children and themselves — a world where teen pregnancy is so normalized as to be considered not only acceptable, but desirable? — is a royally screwed up world!
14k Says:
Damn right!
I’m late to this part of the thread (and have to run off again in a minute — I hate drive-by posting!), but even with the deletion, I can see where you’ve been. Damn!
Anybody who can read this thread and think that your incredible, hard-won success in the face of overwhelming odds supports an argument for complacency??? Lost cause.
Pre-med, eh? Crushed, crushed that stereotype, Awesome Woman!
June 21st, 2008 at 12:06 pmwatchel, you run for office. you do it now.
June 21st, 2008 at 12:25 pmWhile I don’t know all the details, I think this indicates that it is time to seriously examine the idea of sex education through the schools. My reasons:
1) I have trouble with the idea that teachers and administrators who cannot instill basic literacy over twelve years are qualified to teach anything as subtle as the nuances of human sexuality.
2) I am disturbed time and time again at accounts of sex ed classes in which the teacher insists that the students take active part in conversations about intimate sexual fantasies. This strikes me as questionable at the junior-high and highschool level, and smacks of child sexual abuse at the grade school level.
3) As late as the 1970’s there may have been an argument for the theory that if the cold facts were explained to them the little teen darlings would make wise choices. now, thirty years later, we are frankly at the point of “We tried that. It didn’t work. Time to go back to the last thing that worked better.”
June 21st, 2008 at 12:30 pmIt seems pretty obvious that it has nothing to do with regional differences. Don’t go bashing the state that John Adams hails from. It’s a national cultural problem on a monumental scale. Most every problem in our society stems from idiots like these girls. Just imagine the offsprng of thier precious little daughters in 14-15 years. I know this part of the country and most of these girls could not locate Aspen on a map. They have big dreams of visiting Florida, as if it is some far away paradise. The solution is too complex, it is the erosion of the whole societal framework. No religion, no civic pride, no value for a father, intellect is not valued, it’s simply not cool.
June 21st, 2008 at 12:36 pmRead Tom Wolfes “I am Charlotte Simmons” and it will scare the shit out of you, because it is hauntingly accurate. It is a huge problem and it pisses me off to no end because I love this country and I do my best to not witness it’s decline. Chat with any liberal and they will explain blissfully how it is going down. I think they hate life, they hate their own nature and they want the country destroyed. I would like to see a pecture of one of these retards. My bet is that they are fat, slovenly, slut-pigs. Bring back shame and scorn. no more accomodating these bastards with more programs.
While watching the film Juno–hilarious and thought-provoking and altogether well done–it struck me that much of our society assumes kids will become sexually active in their teen years but scorns them when they get pregnant. They called pregnant Juno the “cautionary whale.”
June 21st, 2008 at 1:49 pm[As Rachel channels Osama]
June 21st, 2008 at 8:00 pmIt’s the one thing about which the filthy cretin is dead-on. No,no, not YOU, Rachel — OBL!
Janir said:
Yes, and the horrifying part of the trend is that the current one is hell-bent on electing a clueless Boy-Wonder who will do his utmost to accelerate the defining-of-deviancy-down [being the useful idiot he is].
June 21st, 2008 at 8:50 pmI live in Gloucester - It’s not actually a strange place. This could be happening anywhere in America.
Although they have daycare at the school, that’s not all that uncommon. Normally they only have 3-4 babies there. We don’t have “strollers in the hallways”. The babies are kept separate from the rest of the school. I suppose an unintended consequence of providing such services may be that girls find it easier to get pregnant, but I don’t think this kind of increase is due to that, otherwise, we would be seeing numbers like this all of the time.
I think this story took off because it’s striking a chord with people. They realize that what we’ve been doing with birth control and sex education isn’t really addressing all the problems that teenagers can get into. It’s nice to think that if we just design the right program, then all our kids will turn out all right, but teenagers will persist in being morons despite our best efforts.
June 21st, 2008 at 9:12 pmBrad, let me see if I have this straight. A 16 year old female chooses to intentionally get pregnant (i.e. consensual sex) and the male who has sex with her should do time? One would think that this story - of all stories - would do away with that “evil male took advantage of a poor little innocent girl” bullsh*t.
FYI - I am the father of (and have sole custody of) my 3 teenaged daughters. So I think I bring a somewhat unique perspective to this. What would my daughters say about this (after they finished laughing at their incredible stupidity)? Most likely “dumb sluts” and other similar comments.
The culture is a a strong negative force, but if you parent well/properly, the odds are still in our favour that your kid turns out ok.
Oh, and Rachel, my daughters have watched MTV and all sorts of garbage for many years. Yet, they were somehow able to differentiate between the garbage they saw versus how to properly live their lives. I wonder why that is? Answers: the parents, the upbringing, the home environment, etc.
Is it possible that great parents doing everything they can still produce a messed-up kid? Certainly. But it is NOT probable.
Rachel, you’re right that the parents in that article don’t understand, but neither do most of your commenters. In most (not all) cases, the problem isn’t “out there” - it’s “in here”.
We all watched Juno. But when we discussed it, we all understood that while it was funny on one level it was very disturbing and sick on another. Funny how all the garbage WE watched as kids - all those movies and TV shows full of violence - didn’t make us violent adults. So far, I’ve managed not to kill, blow up, etc., anything or anyone in my life despite the millions of images depicting those acts which I saw throughout my childhood.
The parents have the greatest impact (if they parent well). The kids who do not have hands-on, loving, responsible parents and who are left alone for great periods of time (whether it be at home or outside of the home) are the ones most vulnerable to the damaging “surrogates”.
One more thing. A society that makes it EASY for people to do irresponsible things encourages more of the same irresponsible behavior. Duh.
June 21st, 2008 at 10:55 pmOh really? Then I wonder why I had to appear at the trial of a father who’s child died from being shaken? I’m a 911 dispatcher. He admitted to to me that he had shaken the infant and the baby was DOA when I got the medics there.
Must be one hell of a myth.
June 21st, 2008 at 11:24 pm“guess I’m just bitter and jealous”
You forgot clinging to your guns. Well in the case of Massachusetts it may be clinging to your staves.
June 21st, 2008 at 11:28 pmWell said, slick!!
June 21st, 2008 at 11:30 pmThere is nothing — zip, zero, nada — in the gospels regarding Mary’s age, either at her marriage, or at Jesus’s birth. Nor are there any other credible sources regarding the details of her life.
June 21st, 2008 at 11:53 pmfelicity and maggie,
Thank you both very much for your kind words.
I have a simple worldview when it comes to experiences such as mine:
Choose to revel in your victimhood or choose to make the world your victim as you annihilate preconceived notions of who it believes you will become.
Life. It’s mine to live.