Why Not

Off and On
Amber Strader, 27, was in an on-and-off relationship with a clerk at Sears a few years ago when she found herself pregnant. A former nursing student who now tends bar, Ms. Strader said her boyfriend was so dependent that she had to buy his cigarettes. Marrying him never entered her mind. “It was like living with another kid,” she said. 


When a second child, with a new boyfriend, followed three years later — her birth control failed, she said — her boyfriend, a part-time house painter, was reluctant to wed. (NYT, 2/17/2012)


The Times gives us this charmer in an article on the new normal: out-of-wedlock births. What are we supposed to feel about Amber the Trainwreck?  Is it possible that she is responsible for her own life and her own mistakes? Liberals will say that this is exactly the person who society has to protect via the safety net of entitlement programs. 


Heavy D
Though Maryland is heavily Democratic, the party is sharply divided on the issue of same-sex marriage. 


Of 98 Democrats in the House, as many as 30 — mostly more-conservative Democrats known as Blue Dogs, and African-Americans from districts where churches are strong — had been undecided. (NYT, 2/17/2012)


Dems and African-Americans who oppose gay marriage are bigots, cretins, homophobes! How dare they deny gays this "basic human right." Oh, wait. It is only "conservative activists" who oppose gay marriage who are the homophobes:


Gay-rights activists accused Christie of scuttling gay marriage to curry favor with conservative activists within the GOP. (NYPost.com, 2/18/2012)


PCH
Hundreds of protesters lined Pacific Coast Highway Thursday morning to greet President Obama who was visiting Newport Beach for a campaign fundraiser. Most of the attendees awaited the arrival of the president in protest though a number of pro-Obama supporters were sprinkled throughout the crowd. (Brian Calle, Foxnews.com, 2/17/2012)


What is happening on the Left Coast? Is California trying to get back in the good graces of RedStateVT?


Long Term
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, speaking on behalf of the Obama White House, to Rep. Paul Ryan: "You are right to say we're not coming before you today to say 'we have a definitive solution to that long term problem.'  What we do know is, we don't like yours." (Guy Benson, Townhall.com, 2/17/2012)


Benson calls Geithner's comment to Paul Ryan on the deficit the "political quote of the year." It might be the Political Quote of the Millenium!