I don’t watch The View very often, but I enjoy their hot topics shows because I think they do a good job of covering the gamut of reasonably expected responses (considered/intellectual: Whoopi, Barbara; ignorant/emotional: Sherri, Elizabeth; going for the punchline: Joy). Today they were talking about the rumor of Joe Biden’s daughter having snorted cocaine and one of her dirtbag ‘friends’ shopping it around to tabloids. They were saying that you can’t tie the actions of a child to the parent, with which I absolutely agree.
Kids come into this world with their own personality and ability to make their own decisions. Ideally, the way that they are raised will influence some of their decisionmaking processes but ultimately they are their own person.
That shook round to the political spectrum and how it’s potentialy MORE unfair to hold these kids up because the press implies their parents aren’t good at their JOBS rather than at parenting (which is the more logical conclusion). This, of course, brought up the issue of Bristol Palin. I think there’s a difference in that particular case.
If Sarah Palin had refused to comment about the pregnancy (Biden has yet to comment on the drug allegation), or simply requested privacy, that would have been just fine. Instead she started crowing about how proud she was of her daughter’s “choice” and turned it into a pro-life wictory. This would also be fine, if Sarah Palin wasn’t actively campaigning to take that exact same “choice” away from everyone else. She SHOULD have been talking about how there wasn’t a choice, of course Bristol was having that kid because it was the only right thing to do – because that’s what she believes.. Instead, she MADE it a political issue by discussing it in those terms, precisely because she’s AGAINST a woman’s right to control her own bodily functions, and that is why it became okay to talk about it. You’ll notice that Bristol’s “choice” was a topic of conversation but her decision to drop out of high school was barely a blip.
Being a politician doesn’t hold you to a higher standard of being a parent. It doesn’t hold your kids to a higher standard, because your kids are entitled to make their own mistakes and learn from them. It DOES require that you occasionally shut your mouth and put your kids before your own political agenda.
The View was also hilarious today talking about Twitter. The whole ‘not getting it’ is easy to see. It’s sort of a mindless occupation, though it can be entertaining.
I was kind of interested to see Bill O’Reilly on the show and see if Joy Behar or Whoopi were going to call him out. O’Reilly *did* make a good point about shopping with your dollars – if you disagree with something, use your money to make your impact. It was also hilarious that Bill suddenly wanted to “move on” when they began discussing WHY we were in Iraq. Oddly, he rarely wants to “move on” on his own show. Speaking of which, I wanted to link this particularly heinous story. It’s especially nice because he has frequently spoken out on the rights of ‘celebrities’ to not be stalked. I guess famous people get more rights than everyone else.
Last political note: when the economists say you’ve got to keep spending money in order to fix the problem, people like Bill O’Reilly and Sherri Shepard should STFU. We’ve already spent into what most average people would consider to be imaginary numbers (as in, we can’t IMAGINE how much money it is) so if the people who study this FOR A LIVING think it’s the right path, I’m okay with it.
In unrelated news, I’m finally posting my CO snowpocalypse photos!
The trees outside my house, when I left.
Merging onto I-70, believe it or not.
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