Sarah & Bristol meltdown the haters

:::Note:::My latest piece on Palin is here:::

I’m sitting here right now with my jaw on the floor. I cannot believe what I am reading on the forums of the far-left.

I’m not going to link to them – you know where to find them – or even bother quoting their incredible, insane prattle.

They’re in trouble over there. They’re in serious trouble of the mind, and trouble of the heart and trouble of the soul. They are so paranoid, and so full of hate, at this point, that they are clinging to an insane idea – one that betrays a sort of soul-sickness that leaves me feeling both incredulous and chilled.

How much do you have to love your hate in order to surrender your reason, and your humanity, to it?

Sarah Palin has been in the race for what, three days, four? In that very short time she has so deranged the left that they are revealing something truly awful within them.

It’s not just the thrill of creating a stupid conjecture for these people – that’s just normal campaign garbage. But now that it has clearly been debunked these folks have a need – and in some of these people it seems to be a truly deep need – to cling to the fantasy so that they can keep hating, so that they can continue to believe the absolute worst thing they can; because that’s what they want to believe…the absolute very worst.

How sick is this? It is meant, I guess, to shield them from any possibility that their worldview might be altered, or penetrated.

This seems like massive insecurity, to me. And I wonder if they even know what their worldview is, since…these same people who say women’s children and family lives should not affect their careers are the ones who (at their mildest) are demanding that Palin go home and stay out of politics until absolutely nothing is happening in her family.

These people are afraid; and their fear is making them mad and reckless. They sound like wild, rabid creatures, out of their heads, and they’re starting to worry me. I begin to think they have surpassed the madness of the right at its Clinton-hating worst. Hell, I think they’re surpassing the left at its Bush-hating worst. And I didn’t think that could be surpassed!

And there is a difference, too. Clinton and Bush “hate” grew over time to the insane levels. These people admit they knew nothing about Palin before John McCain announced her, yet their hate for her was immediate and electric. It is not sane. It is disturbingly unnatural. It is almost supernatural.

There is some sanity to be found on the issue of Sarah Palin and Bristol Palin – and we need to find it, to get the stink of madness off of us – so let’s go.

In Time Magazine, there is a very good piece which, if the sad, sick people on those forums are interested – makes it pretty clear that Bristol’s pregnancy was known in Wasilla, Alaska where the Palins live, and pretty much a non-issue.

I just got off the phone with a longtime Wasilla resident. She had urged me to find time today to go up to Hatcher Pass—”the most beautiful place in the valley!”—when I mentioned that the story on Bristol’s baby is now national news. Her voice slowed. “Oh,” she said. “I’m so sorry. That’s so unfair.”

Wasilla seems at times to be utterly without guile. It’s a large part of the town’s charm, and it’s exactly the quality that could make an unorthodox pick like Palin pay off. Don’t get me wrong — she’s a tough politician with sharp enough elbows on her own. But still, she appears to be more steeped in the values of her hometown than any politician I’ve ever come across.
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If you haven’t guessed yet, the people here are genuinely friendly…All weekend they had the decency not to pretend that they didn’t know the governor’s eldest daughter was pregnant. But they also expected decency in return, that I wouldn’t be the kind of person to make sport out of a young girl’s slip.

The fact is, regardless of what you will hear over the next few days, Bristol’s pregnancy is not a legitimate political issue. Sarah Palin is a longterm member of a group called Feminists for Life, which is not opposed to birth control. So you probably can’t tag her for consigning young people to unwanted pregnancies.

I wrote this morning that Ed Morrissey would be the blogger to watch on this story and he put up a great post:

First, this is not some catastrophe, although it is hardly an optimal situation. As Harold Ramis remarked in Knocked Up, a hurricane is a catastrophe — which we can easily see today. A baby is new life, an addition to the family, and most people would welcome this. And many can never experience that joy, either. It is a blessing, as long as people don’t treat it like a catastrophe.

Our son and daughter-in-law had just started their senior year in high school when they became pregnant, and I use that pronoun deliberately. The two of them formed their own unit and held each other up during a terribly stressful year. Meanwhile, we parents had to support them as best we could, and make sure they knew we loved and supported them through it all. In return, we discovered two wonderful adults who had just been children shortly before, and when the Little Admiral came, two wonderful parents as well.

None of this was easy, and we certainly all had our moments during this stressful time. However, we took each day as it came…

The Palins all chose life and lived their values. That doesn’t strike me as news, as we already saw that with her commitment to her son Trig. The Democrats won’t dare mention this as a campaign issue, and even the blogs will probably leave it alone soon enough. Most people, I’d say, will wish Bristol and the Palins well. None of us quit our jobs to help our son and daughter-in-law cope, and neither will Sarah Palin, because it’s unnecessary.

I love the smell of sanity in the afternoon!

Finally, Neo-neocon brings some historical perspective:

I think Palin’s nomination has caused much of the Left to flip its collective wig, or what’s left of it (puns intended).

The rumors about Palin’s baby—that it really was conceived by her 16-year-old daughter and that Palin faked her own recent pregnancy—make National Enquirer stories look like well-researched doctoral theses.

And now the Left should be proud…that the vitriol of many of its members has managed to out a 17-year-old’s unwed pregnancy and imminent marriage, the news of which should have been allowed to emerge in its own sweet time and way. …
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I’m not naive enough to think the “Trig wasn’t really Palin’s baby” rumors show how awful the Left is; this sort of venom is, unfortunately, an equal-opportunity human characteristic and not a trait merely of one side or another. Case in point: the accusations that Vince Foster was murdered by the Clintons. And yes, I am well aware that the details are different. But the impulse to cruelty and the level of fantasy is the same.

Neo relates that Dr. Sanity is back on the blogs, and with a vengeance, posting a rip-roaring one on the projections of the left.

But because he happens to be a Conservative Republican, her choices and judgement and will as a woman don’t count in the leftist ‘mind’. In truth, she has shown more integrity and strength of character in that one decision, than most of those who are currently demonizing her have shown in their entire lives–or certainly than I was able to muster up when I was 16 years old and found myself pregnant due to my own irresponsible behavior.

Ace has an incredible rundown of the insanity and declares (excuse the language this once):

Which only tells me one thing: We need this fucking woman as Vice President. Or at least Director of Operations at the CIA. [emphasis his -admin]

He has more here. He likes getting all the traffic, btw.

I’d just like to ad that now the press is murmuring “abstinence only, abstinence only,” their new phrase of the day. I personally believe that a comprehensive sex ed class should include abstinence information. But it must be said – because it’s true – that after 40 years of sex ed, free condom distribution, etc, etc…teenagers still get pregnant all the time.

More:
Althouse coins a new word/disease: Palinsanity
Michele Catalano at PJM: …privacy in the womb?
Baker: Palin vs. Obama
A Secondhand Conjecture: MSNBC’s Brian Alexander says “STOP IT” on behalf of Palins and the nation. He’ll probably be out of a job, now.
Protein Wisdom: Message from The One and Strange Days
Bill Kristol: lays into Mort Kondrake. This is going to be a looooong week!
Beldar: Palin’s credentials
Rachel Lucas: telling it
American Power Blog: Did the Kossacks bungle a leak?
Sundries Shack:looks at what the left preaches, vs what it says these last few days
Deacon Greg: Palin’s hidden agenda
The press: Awful. Awful.
Clear threats to business as usual in Washington DC: McCain/Palin?
Patterico: taking on Andrew Sullivan and Privacy. He’s maaaaaad!
Kim at Wizbang
More differences: between Palin and Obama.
Sisu: Strong Men, Strong Women
Knitting Muse: Palin ass-kicking
Pro-Contraception: Sarah Palin
Open Blog: Palin and American Exceptionalism
Dirty Harry’s Place: A shockingly foul bit of projection. I’m starting to think this is plain evil.