Monthly Archives: May 2013

“Teen Pregnancy is a Good Thing”

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I made a grave mistake this morning. As I was trolling on some feminist blog sites, I found the article “Will the teen mom shaming ever stop?” Like a train wreck, I couldn’t look away.

Apparently, May is “National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month”. The images are below, but the ridiculousness is clearly in the text. It seems as though the author is upset by the apparent insinuation that mother’s can’t change the world. Wrong. I believe the message depicted is targeted at teen mom’s not changing the world. Which is a substantial claim. The blogger is also upset about the particular comments about the cost of raising a baby because it doesn’t matter what age you are, it’s still expensive a raise a baby. We all know this is true, but how many teenagers do you know that make enough money to support themselves WITHOUT a baby?

This brings me to my confusion with feminists. There are so many types yet they don’t adequately identify themselves. There are those that don’t see ‘sex’ at all and define women as the same as men, despite a few physical differences. We can think of them as the ‘feminist jihadists’. There are the feminists who believe that career trumps family, these are the ‘orthodox feminists’. And there are the feminists who simply think that they are always right regardless of topic. These are the ‘feminist ignoramuses’. (Point of information: the word ‘feminist’ separates you from being a ‘male’ equal just by default use of the term.) All types wear pant suits.

Despite the ‘type’ of feminism said blogger is aligned with, I can come up with several hypocritical and contradictory notions based off of just these few statements.
1). If the idea of feminism promotes the idea of being career oriented and not being in the home,
2.) Weren’t they the same people lobbying to have Plan B Emergency Contraception available over-the-counter to young girls?
3.) Teenagers engaging in sexual activity is not about love. (They may think it is, but it is not.) That means that the acts are simply meaningless, experiments on account of both parties. Doesn’t this also contradict the idea of respecting women and making people aware of your ‘value’?
4.) Feminists want women to be career-driven and independent. At what point would a teen mother be independent if she can’t afford to care for her child and herself and is pushed to collect social benefits?
5.) Why are we upset about discouraging children from having children?

Being a mother is supposed to be a heart-warming experience some people would give anything to get (check http://www.advancedfertility.com/choose.htm to learn about the fertility issues). Being a teenager is supposed to be fun and about finding yourself. You can’t find yourself if you’re caring for a baby. These advertisements are not about shaming, they are about prevention. Hence the name of the awareness month: National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month. The reality is that teenage pregnancy DOES affect the outcomes of your life. And if you’re doing it alone, as feminists would expect, that creates even more hardship. It’s time that feminists stop looking for problems when there aren’t any. They are lookin’ for love in all the wrong places.

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Picking & Choosing in the Republican Party

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I have many different ‘kinds’ of friends in politics. I spend time with a nice spread of Republicans, conservatives who won’t classify as Republicans, liberty-conservatives, libertarians, anarchists, and maybe 1 or 2 (gasp!) liberals.

Post-convention, though, it seems that not only am I coming down from a political overload, I’m also recovering from the pressures of a social quandary. Everyone has an opinion on who you should talk to, who you should ignore, who you have to introduce yourself to and who you can’t be seen with.  This tends to come from their own personal interactions with the people they’re ‘warning’ you about. I’m guilty of it, too. We all create our own ‘haters’ by working in the party. I even have ‘friends’ that I coddle just because I’m a tad bit intimidated by the idea of being on their bad side. But just because you don’t have a positive relationship with someone, doesn’t mean the next person won’t. (There are a few stop sign runners who may be exempt from this, but we’re speaking generally here.) And let’s be honest, I don’t really do well when someone tells me not to do something. I’ve already befriended half of the Republican outcasts. I also tend to believe that everyone can bounce back from bad decisions in politics. My first campaign was for John Albers, for Heaven’s sake.

Besides, you run into the predicament of running out of people to talk to. If everyone has at least one hater and you have a substantial networking circle, eventually you won’t be chatting, or working, or seen with anyone. You’ll be the guy with the lollipop in the corner. No one wants to be *that* guy.

I’ll continue to think and learn for myself. I’m a watcher. If someone is a bad-news-bear, I’ll figure it out. It may be naive, but I’ll hold off on blackballing someone until they personally screw me. And not in the manner that Seth Harp referenced at the Cobb YR debate.

What We Allow Will Continue

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Here we are again.

My friend, Joseph Pond, lost yet another battle with Cobb County on May 8th. The testimony of a neighbor from across the street (not adjacent to the property) determined the fate of Joseph Pond’s variance request:

The second case was my request. A show of hands from the public was eleven people supported and six people did not. I presented my case; three people presented opposition. One person was the President of a local civic organization that has opposed poultry in Cobb County from the beginning. She stated that several of the HOAs surrounding my neighborhood did not support my Variance. My neighborhood does not have an HOA. The second person to oppose is the President of a neighboring HOA. He stated that he and his association did not support my Variance. The third person was a member of the same HOA. During the discussion, an email was read from my neighbor that lives across the street- she opposed my Variance request. The neighbors on both sides of me supported my Variance and signed a petition stating such. The neighbor behind me, in a different neighborhood, did not support or oppose. The Board denied my request for a Variance.

I’m not sure how many times I have to say it, but this isn’t about chickens. It’s about property rights. It’s about neighbors staying on their side of the fence. It’s about local and county governments knowing their place. It’s about denying elected officials the ability to persecute individuals based on personal vendettas or political incest (look at the relationships between the Commissioners and the Board members). It’s time to put them back in their box.

If you recall the story of Andrew Wordes, few offered to help until it was too late. Few offered to acknowledge the political connections that continued the denial of rights. I’m not saying these stories are the same. They are not. But who’s to say that your neighbors won’t dictate what color you paint your house or what type of play ground you can build for your children or whether or not you can plant that garden you’d been planning? (This is not the time or place to retort about HOA’s because we are far beyond that at this point…the County and your neighbors are regulating and approving your back yard activities.)

I said it before and I’ll say it again. It could be you. It could be any issue.
I’m asking you to acknowledge that these kinds of things happen each and every day. I’m petitioning for you to consider the issue in a different light. I’m imploring that you do something to help.

If Mr. Pond is to continue his battle, he needs a legal counsel, but he needs help. You can donate here. (If the goal is not met, the money will be returned)