Off The Radar

It's another Friday the 13th. Second in a row, no less. I don't think I'm even leaving the house today, just in case.

I've already had my share of bad tech karma yet again (with a dose of bad karma generally, for good measure). First off, my work computer died earlier this week (after my back-up program went on the fritz not too long ago). That same day, my iPhone was not working due to some technical problems AT&T was having in Maryland & Pennsylvania. I experienced intermittent service on a few other days as well.

To take my mind off things, I figured I'd turn my attention to one of my favorite topics -- my wager with one of the LLWL on the fickle fate of Sarah Palin. See Out of the Spotlight. At least on that front, my luck seems to be going my way.

Of course, as I mentioned the other day, the Bristol Break-up is all the news. One of the LLWL gang sent me a link to a gossip website, Crazy Days and Nights, which had its own take on the split, Levi & Bristol Break Up:

Come on. All of you thought Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston were going to last forever didn't you? From what I have read today it didn't even last until the birth of their baby. It seems to have ended right about the time that Levi's mom was arrested for drugs. Since then, depending on who you believe, Levi and Bristol have been model parents and Levi has seen his son everyday, or you could choose to believe that the Palin family considers Levi's family to be white trash and so Levi is not allowed to have his son at his house. Or, you could go to the other extreme which is that Levi's family are a bunch of money hungry pigs cashing in on the Palin name.

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I think we all know they probably stayed together longer then they would have if it wasn't for being in the spotlight. I bet they had already broken up prior to the Vice President announcement because there are just too many stories about both of them cheating to not be believed. When it comes down to it they are just two teenagers who had a kid and broke up. Happens everyday. It just so happens one grandparent is facing serious time in jail for drugs and the other grandparent wants to run for President in 2012.

Now this little dust-up would ordinarily be of no concern to anyone other than the involved families, if not because of who she is. Since she comes from a "family values" conservative family, it has caused no end of glee in the liberal community, because it highlights the hypocrisy of the conservatives, who would have been all over Bristol if she were the daughter of a Democratic politico.

To temper that view, the great conservative, Jon Swift, counters that this is irrelevant, Why Bristol Palin Is Different, noting:

Why is Bristol Palin different? She is different because she is a conservative.

It's different when unmarried teenage mothers come from conservative, wealthy Christian families. Although it would be preferable if her child had a father, even a white trash one, she will still be able to raise her child with the kinds of values that liberals, poor people, gays and non-Christians would not be able to give to their little bastard children who are destined to become our future criminals. Why are conservatives so reluctant to point out this obvious fact?

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Why can't we unequivocally state there should be different standards for liberals and conservatives? One of the problems with liberalism is that they believe everyone is the same and that all morality is relative. But if there is anything that conservatives reject it is the idea of moral equivalency. When America tortures a terrorist suspect that is not the same as when a terrorist tortures someone. Killing civilians in a war or accidentally executing the innocent is not the same as abortion. Denying gays the right to marry is not the same as outlawing miscegenation. Giving corporations tax cuts is not the same as welfare. David Vitter and Larry Craig are not the same as Bill Clinton. Liberals are always trying to confuse us by making false analogies but conservative ideology is based on rejecting false equivalencies and making important distinctions. So we shouldn't be reluctant to say that indeed it is different when a conservative teenager has a child out of wedlock and an inner-city liberal teenager does. We should have the courage of our convictions and not play the liberal game of moral equivalency. Instead of trying to explain away Bristol's pregnancy we should be defending it, holding her up as an example of the difference between liberal teenage unwed mothers and conservative teenage unwed mothers. Because just as it is true that, as Richard Nixon once said, "When the President does it, that means it is not illegal." when a good Christian conservative has a child out of wedlock, that means it's not immoral.

Certainly sums up the philopophy of the GOP correctly.

However, Palin the mother isn't looking so good right about now to the "family values" crowd, so she's nowhere to be found. That, to me, is the best part of the story, since it forces Sarah Palin to hide out -- just in time for our wager to be decided.

Finally, what really made my day was the Countdown piece on the Palin split up. Keith Olbermann may have clinched it for me, in this segment by saying that Sarah Palin has been off the radar lately:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News

Check it out at the 3:53 mark. For my LLWL pal, listen & get ready to take the pizza order.