Is Schadenfreude Something So Horrible? Am I bad for feeling it?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/01/palin.daughter/index.html

As you probably know, by the time you are reading this blog, GOP VP Candidate Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol is five months pregnant. Bristol is a senior in High School, and she is unmarried. Right now, her plans are to keep the baby and marry the father. From the perspective of one whom feels we should afford all women reproductive rights, I cannot help but giggle a bit at this.

Why? Well, like so many things, it’s a confluence of various factors. For one, Governor Palin and the GOP’s stance on abolishment of reproductive rights are predicated on “Abstinence Education,” or a lack thereof being the root cause of unwanted pregnancy. Of course, Pregnant Bristol most assuredly grew up in a home with an undoubtedly intense amount of abstinence education, being her mother’s religious-right stance on reproductive rights. In the face of that wonderful education on “waiting,” her daughter, one from an affluent family, became prematurely pregnant—being unmarried and not yet having graduated from High School.

From a second point, one can assume that Bristol was reticent to disclose, or perhaps fully kept her sexual activity from her parents. Perhaps that’s not a safe assumption, but one can doubt that her mother would allow for her to proceed with a sexually active relationship being unmarried and still in High School. Predicated on the current administration’s positions on the Birth Control Pill (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hillary-clinton/an-outrageous-attempt-by_b_114064.html), one can assume with McCain holding his hand over his face in response to the same topic, that Gov. Palin feels the same way as Bush and McCain towards reproductive health--even the pill.

Right now, we have an administration, which wants to diminish women’s reproductive rights. We have a party, presidential and vice-presidential candidates, whom run in lockstep with the same policy, one of whom has a teenage daughter pulling her best version of Juno, and not just because she lives in the city of Juneau!

Go for it McCain and Palin, most assuredly every woman I know is going to vote for you because of the gender diversity of your ticket! Is it wrong that I laugh in the face of that?

PS - what's even more entertaining is the thought that McCain's campaign "knew" of this... do we think so? Or did they vet Palin that poorly, or was she dishonest? Hmmm... It sounds as though it's safer to say we "knew," but do we believe that? Honestly?