And the chatter keeps going on...

The Red Sox send Paul Byrd to the hill tonight to face the Orioles.

Speaking of bumps, (sorry!)

According to numerous sources, Bristol Palin, the 17 year old daughter of the presumptive Vice Presidential nominee of the Republican Party, is pregnant.

My first reaction is pity and grief. Pregnancy is hard, teen pregnancy doubly so, and it cannot be made easier by living in the public eye. I hope she is able to go through this privately, with as much dignity as she can, and go on to have a wonderful life.

My second reaction is, I wonder how many times the Party of Personal Morality is going to have to have its leaders brought low by personal failings before they will learn to tone down the hateful, divisive rhetoric? People make mistakes. They don’t need you kicking them as they fall down.

My third reaction is that this really encapsulates the abortion issue nicely. According to the reports, the pregnancy has progressed to the point where it is no longer an option, or soon will be at that point. Obviously, her mother is pro life-she has been abundantly clear about that over the years. Whether or not the daughter feels that way is really known only to her. But the point has always been-shouldn’t it be up to her?

My fourth reaction is, doesn’t this say all kinds of interesting things about abstinence only education and teen access to birth control? If this teen, raised by evangelicals in the public eye with, one would assume, fewer opportunities to sneak off with boys than normal teens, (ie with state troopers around) can get pregnant, can’t anyone? No sensible person wants teenagers having sex willy nilly. But, given this obvious biological fact-teenaged humans will want to have sex- that and our sex laced culture affecting even the daughter of an evangelical governor-shouldn’t they have access to birth control?

My fifth reaction is a darkly cynical one- in my obsessive reading about Palin, the notion that she is a stalking horse, put up as a sop to the right wing, who will quickly withdraw in favor of Romney or Olympia Snowe or someone like that, has been thrown about. This news seems to feed right into that. The same dark, atavistic part of my brain wonders when Palin knew about her daughter’s condition. Did she learn about it between Friday and today? If she knew before, what kind of monster does that make her, being willing to pur her daughter and first grandchild through this? Additionally, how stupid is she, being willing to accept the job knowing what she knew? Did she think, or does she think, she can just brazen her way through? Did she see, or does she see, how an unwed teenage mother in her family makes her moralistic worldview look hypocritical?

And my sixth reaction, again, is just pity. This can break bad, as the saying goes, in so many ways-and everything has to go perfectly for it to come out right. I just hope it goes well for her, and I’ll pray for her.

OK, enough. Again.

I got a voice mail last night from someone named Maurice, asking when I was going to come down to go fishing. I don’t know anyone named Maurice. I haven’t been fishing in 25 years. Obviously a wrong number, but I find this a little amusing at the same time.

Some people call me Maurice, because I speak with the pompatus of love.