I've been browsing around several forums, reading here and there about Bristol Palin, Jamie Spears and of course, how to handle teenage mothers. unwed mothers & unplanned preganancy if it happens. Nothing mentioning the teenage & unwed fathers. Does it really only take one to make a baby?

I just finished reading an autobipgraphy called "Infidel" and I highly recomend it to any one and every one. Regardless your religious beliefs everyone needs to read and witness the suffering caused by the hands of the fundamentaly devout. Infidel handles an islamic women's escape from a controlinh religious society that views woman as fundamentaly wrong, and always, always to blame. Only blaming the female for an unplanned pregnancy is much like blaming the female for arounsing a man simply by showing her face (as the Islam faith beleives) and placing no blame on the lack of self control and will power from the man.

Teenage boys are growing up in a day where not only are sex, violence & drugs glorified- they are excused! If he and his girlfriend/partner get pregnant, she seduced him, why wasn't she on birthcontrol and didnt her mother teach her anything? The double standard is frightening- boys, after perhaps a brief period of social awkwardness, he is accepted back into his normal friends for the same mistake that completley and utterley changes every aspect of a girls life. And heaven forbid she choose to have an abortion, choose to try and live her life uninterupted, like her male partner was so graciously allowed, now not only is she a slut & a fornicator, she's called a murderer and is surley condemned to hell- and disgustingly selfish too!

Any teen fathers who care to speak about their social experience since getting a girl pregnant?

This isn't attacking teenage fathers at all, I believe if they where equally treated for teen pregancy, treated as the girl was treated then they would deserve the same amount of sympathy, but as far as I can see, things are not even close to similar. I would love to hear another side of the story. Let me also clarify- I want stories about how your life changed socially- good for you if you "did the right thing" or whatever... how did your friends & peers react, teachers? family?

I try to be a tolerant person, I think I have better patience than most in being understanding of all walks of life, I genuinely try to respect the beliefs of others, no matter how much I disagree but despite my best efforts, I find their is one predjudice I can not get over. I am ashamed, but I will admit it.

The summer I spent as a camp counsler, for all it's wonderful moments, was one of the worst of my life. It was the first, and only time I have ever dreaded time spent around horses, a feat not considered possible until that point. As old men go, Mr. Sir (I've renamed him, he's well known) looked the part of any sweet country grandpa, he held a thick southern accent and wrapped her sermons around the smooth drawl of friendly country folk. His eyes are bright, he moves quick for a man in his 80's and can easily create a compliment like you've never heard. He's a people person, for the first few meetings anyways. His drawl, just as smooth as any compliment, will condemn you to hell before you can blink- for reasons unknown and unlikely to be understood.

Mr. Sir is what can only be refered to as a bible banger. The phrase makes me cringe, but it aptly discribes him, this man makes me cringe. The camp was not a religious one, though it did openly state the owners firm christian beliefes. Children off all socio-economic and religous backgrounds came to spend a week with horses, in the country living like true farm hands. My fellow counslers all agreed this was more a ploy by Mr. Sir to not only get FREE labor, but to be paid to have children work his ranch. The amount of actual work done to acutal playing was depressing. Several hours of cleaning/mucking for one hour of riding a day and some poorly planned arts and crafts- all for 600$ a month! But I digress... Mr. Sir, who ran an "equestrian experiance" summer camp took it upon himself to seperate the catholic children from the "christian" children. I am catholic myself and had on a few occasions been subject to Mr. Sir's tirades against the sinning catholics, but what happened next was entirley unprecidented and extremley inapropriate. The speech is burned into my mind.

"Children, I know that at your age you did not choose to be.. catholic. But did you know that Catholics are scorned by God, and are guranteed to burn in hell? Do you want to Burn In Hell? Jesus loves you, and God loves you, but your parents have been wicked, and you can choose to save yourself, and maybe save them too. Do you want your parents to burn in hell? The Lord said that if you are shown the true way and do not follow it, he has no mercy for you, but if you follow, you are always his and he will forgive you and let you into heaven."

5 6yr olds and 7 or 8 older kids where subject to this speech, all of them left crying, ready to accept anything, just so they might save their parents from hell. Was any thing truly accomplished? Was any child "saved"? No. They where terrified, given a cruel taste of an already unexcepting religion.

Stories about Mr. Sir could go on for pages, every few hours he was doing something mildly deranged in the name of the Lord. One exceptionally hot texas morning, I was standing around with my other counslers and a very old, cery crippled black lab named Lucille. Mr. Sir, noticing what might be a congregation speed up to us on his Gator, which at this point was more an extension of his body than a seperate vehicle. Yelling, so he could be heard over the roar of his engine, he pointed to Lucille, and began
"You see that dog ovah there? That dog, she come limping into my office one morning, and I look at her and I say, DOG! you will not limp! And that dog, she looks at me, straightens up and walks away. The next day she come limping into my office agin, and I say to her DOG, you WILL walk... and she does, she walks away! Now, on the third day- that dog, here she comes into my office and she's limping and I command to her DOG, In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to NOT LIMP and walk! and I swear to you, that dog walked away and sure as I'm here she hasn't walked with a limp once more!"
We all looked around at each other, and down at the decrepit labrador at our feet. Mr Chown, perhaps noticing he was loosing his crowd, continued in a voice ment to carry through cathedrals, if he's been a Catholic that is..
"God, GOD, God gave us Dominion over the animals, he gave Adam the right to name them, and control them and that right is in all MEN and all you need to do is be SAVED and invoke the name of Jesus Christ, and in the name of Jesus you will COMMAND that animal to do as you demand for that is your God given right, and Lucille knows she must listen, the Lord Jesus makes her obey!"
Lucille, hearing her name a few to many times, opens one rheumy eye and than the other, trying to judge if the talking is going to continue, or will we possibley shut up and let her nap. Deciding we probabley wouldnt shut up, she slowly, carefully, stiffly pushed herself off the ground, her hips gave a painful crack. She balanced herself for half a second, and then as slowly as she had stood up, she took her first halting step. Every other step, a pronounced limp, presumabley caused by arthritis.
Silence followed. We where trying to hide giggles- thankfully Mr. Sir is mostly deaf, and mostly blind. I'm not even sure if he noticed the dog's limp or thought the silence was out of awe or respect.
As quickly as he had sped up, Mr. Sir dished out morning chores and was gone. Lucille was happily passed out in a mud puddle in the donkey pen.  

Maybe it's a little bit of catholic pride that makes me hate this man so much, maybe it's a little unfair to blame him for my loss of faith in christians as a group, but since meeting him, I've only met more like him, girls my age, completley blinded by some fanatical preacher and his skewed bible verses. It scares me, the hatred they can back up by twisted bible verses, proving to themselves they are right- and what more do you need than self approval? It's when you don't approve of yourself that you seek others opinions, but if your sure your right, no matter the cost.... that just seems so dangerous to me, believing your hate is sanctioned by god.

It's experiences like the summer with Mr. Sir, and the vast amount of people I know personally who carry this same hate, combined with the acts we've already seen Bush & McSame commit (and all of it sanctioned by there firm beliefe in the fact that Christ is on their side!) that scares me about Sarah Palin. Her beliefs are even more on ther for front than Mcains, she believes, much like Bush does, that invading Iraq was God's plan, therefore unquestionably right. She believes in continuing the segregation and degradation of working, functioning, contributing and tax paying american citizens simply because their love does not qualify in her bible. She openely condemns healthy adult relationships of those of the same sex (and of course, this is so widespread not even to be news, but it's still infuriating) simply because her bible, her god, her beliefs say it's wrong- who care's what yours say! And from experience, the hatred is just as strong for Catholics, Jews and Muslims as it is for gays, if gay's can be discriminated against for the sake of religion, where is the line drawn between other non christian ideas?

I came to a terrifying realizationg a few moments ago- one i'd have come to sooner if I was watching the news as much as I used to. John Mcain is an old, old man. I suspect he's begining to show signs of alzheimers... (when he visted troops in the middle east, the supposedly reported him seeming a bit senile..) and lets face it, old people are more likely to die than young people. This of course means that his VP is far more likely to become president than Obamas, more likely than any VP in recent years- do we really want Sarah Palin to be our first female president?

She's female, fabulous. This unfortunatley does not make her a good person, or a good candidate for president. Obama may be inexperienced, but at least his experience consists of more than being an etremely small town's mayor, and and extemely small (population speaking, of course) states Gov? That doesn't sound like much preparation for leading the country, especially in a time of crisis, like the presidents death. I'm as eager as the next feminist for a female president- but not for sarah palin, and especially not for the set backs she seeks to do for womans rights. IMO, she's the absolute worst thing that could happen to this country. 

• Anti-abortion, even if her own daughter was raped
• Vehemently opposes stem cell research
• Thinks it's "ok" to deny benefeits to homosexual couples
• Top Priority: Preserving the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman
• Wants to teach creationism in science classes in public schools
• Does not think Global Warming is a human impacted phenomena
• Opposed protecting salmon from mining pollution
• Doesn't think Beluga Whales are "endangered"
• Thinks the was on iraq is God's will

The position for President of the US is not, and should not be used as a religious platform, a way to further ones religious beliefs on an unsuspecting mass. The division of church and state was stated for a reason, to differ ourselves from the political system we left behind, to create an educated and rational society above the blind judgements of whatever religion is en vogue at the time. Sarah Palin clearly wishes to use her VP, her republican conservative right wing following to further the cause of her narrow minded branch of christianity. She wishes to use her political influence as a pulpit, to enforce her narrow sighted vision on every citizen of the US, whether they be of her own particular breed of christian.. or jewish, or muslim, or catholic, or lord have mercy- atheist. America was founded by people looking to escape perseuction, and it's back to persecution that Sarah Palin would take us, for if you do not think as she does, worship as she does, you are lesser, and must be saved- through her interpretation of the law, whether you want to be or not.