Alaska doesn’t take the Federal “abstinence only” funds.

The latest stats from Guttmacher are for 2005: Alaska ranked 30th in teen pregnancy, 1st in the availability of family planning services, 1st the funding of services among the 50 states and DC.

As noted, Palin’s nomination is a bone thrown to the religious right, which loves her views on feminism (she hates it and will go back to being barefoot and pregnant just as soon as she can get rid of the feminism that allows her to hold political office), abortion (she hates it), creationism (she loves it), and so forth. I don’t think there’s anything that will get the religious right to not be enthusiastic about Palin. It is other female voters who might vote for Palin simply because she’s a woman who are being targetted by liberal bloggers right now, who are simply trying to educate people on Palin’s views, which are not the views of the majority of women, the majority of whom support the ability to get an abortion, oppose creationism taught in the schools, and support at least some aspects of feminism such as equal rights under the law (something currently not guaranteed by our Constitution) if not “feminism” as a movement. Palin’s views on sex education are a prime example of why most women should not support Palin’s candidacy, and the fact that Palin’s own daughter is an example of the documented fact (via statistical research on “abstinence-based education”) that Palin’s views on sex education simply don’t work … well, you might as well try to stop an oncoming flood with a bucket of sand as stop folks from pointing that out.

– Badtux the Reality-based Penguin

Misogyny is alive and very well in our society AND definately found on the web.

Teen pregnancy happens. We wish it didn’t. Families everywhere are dealing with that fact. We should concentrate on how the Republicans want to take away everyone else’s right to choose…how they want to take away everyone else’s right to privacy.

I respect your opinion, and in your initial message, I don’t disagree. However, I’m just not seeing all the mysoginy in the major progressive blogs. I’m sure you can find it if you search for it, since almost all blogs have the occasional crazed poster.

The woman has an 85% approval rating in the state.

It’s a stupid situation, that I hate the Republican Party, but I’m having to defend her. There are policies to attack, stop attacking the person and her family.

There were a lot of people angry about the FISA vote, and then he picked Joe Biden, who supported the Bankruptcy Bill. FISA ended any possibility I would vote for Obama, although it was already not much of a possibility because of disfranchising Florida Democrats.

Now they are losing my Mother’s friends, who were ready to do what they always did and vote. These are older women and they are angry about this garbage.

At the same time, there is going to be some of Obama taking the high road and surrogates fighting in the trenches. This however, I don’t think is that battle. I think the real battle is McCain’s judgement and leadership. I also think that any provable lack of judgement on Palin’s part can be used, but only to reflect on McCain’s lack of judgement. Palin is small fish to me.

At the same time, it does seem that the most families I see in trouble are those which are the most outwardly Republican. Not conservative, but more authoritarian.