Not all women are for women's rights

It almost seems ludicrous to even suggest it, but since I've been completely taken off-guard by the national response to Gov. Sarah Palin - I'm left trying to justify it in my brain. I think it's fantastic that we've finally gotten to the point, as a nation, where we can have women realistically vying for the highest office in the land. It's sad that we're so far behind the rest of the world in this regard (most notably, the UK and Israel), but uplifting that we're finally getting it right.

Problem is, many of the nation's women seem to care only that Gov. Palin is a woman, with no concern for her politics or her personal beliefs. Now, I'm fine if women take at least a cursory look at these things and still decide to support her - but I think that would be even more surprising to me than the current indifference.

I'm not a woman, so I qualify all of this by realizing that it's only speculation... but I'm just going on what I believe to be common sense. Additionally, I believe it's important to note that I'm a registered Republican, and have been since I was 18. With these things in mind, there are three things which frighten me terribly about the Alaskan Governor:

1. Pro-Life - Now on it's own, there's nothing terribly shocking about a GOP candidate with this position. But it gets worse... much, much worse. Gov. Palin is on record as not supporting abortion in cases of rape, including for her own daughter. Yes, you heard that right. Are the nation's women really ok with this? Alaska's rape rate was an abysmal 2.2 times above the national average and 25 percent of all rapes resulted in unwanted pregnancies. Still think she's a champion of women's rights? Oh, it gets better... turns out she's also in support of women paying for their own rape exams. Hey, maybe she can put together a chart of possible evening outfits for women, so we can figure out which rape victims were "asking for it".

2. Her daughter's pregnancy - Now there are a lot of things I'd like to do to the 17-year old kid that knocked up my 17-year old daughter. As it turns out, one of them is not to parade him around on stage as a new "member of the family" as my wife runs for the second highest post in the federal government. Honestly, have you seen this guy? He's two years and one twelve pack away from beating the hell out of young Bristol Palin because the baby's cryin' "done went and interrupted his hockey game." Seems to me that you'd want a little more for your daughter, especially if you've worked your entire life to raise your family out of mediocrity... than to have her marry right back into it. And honestly, high school seniors getting marred??? In 2008? Marriage won't make the Palins' decisions good ones - they'll only make it worse, and if Levi Johnston doesn't turn out to be a massive wannabe wife-beating douchebag, it'll be the biggest surprise since the Giants won the Super Bowl.

3. Creationism - Gov. Palin is on record as supporting the teaching of so-called "Creationism" alongside the theory of evolution in public schools. That's right, the same theory that despite a copious vacuum of supporting evidence, that holds that dinosaurs and humans co-existed. Woo hoo! Okay, okay, I know that there is a good section of folks that also believe in this theory, so I won't casually dismiss it out of hand - but there's no doubt that that's a matter of faith and not science. And nothing says "I'm winding up to knock down Roe v. Wade" like coming out in a support of an initiative which has been repeatedly defeated by the Supreme Court. The latest courtroom defeat of teaching faith-based history came in the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover case, when the superficially religion-neutral theory of intelligent design was classified as religious creationism. The Supreme Court ruled in 1987 that teaching creationism violated the separation of church and state.

I think it's great that she's got strong religious beliefs, but how can she possibly believe that it's ok to teach this in public schools? She says she wants to encourage debate and discussion on the classroom between "both" views. Are there only two? What about the Buddhist theory of creation? The Hindu? Islam? How far up your own ass do have to be to think that there's only two ways to see the world (like you do, and then the Godless masses who don't see it your way)?

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There's no doubt that the nomination of Sarah Palin is a significant milestone in U.S. history, but it doesn't mean that we ought to overlook some of her strong positions simply because she's a woman... Our nation's women can do better, and they ought to.