Women over 30 are no longer attractive to creepy old Republican men who like ‘em young, like John McCain.

Happy birthday from yet another aging slut!

I wonder if Saletan was enjoying himself drawing up that list of under-30 presidential/vice-presidential daughters who might have gotten pregnant. I wonder if he was idly stroking his crotch while doing up the list.

No, wait, I don’t want to think about that.

I’m surprised Saletan didn’t go the extra step, and chart all of these young ladies’ menstrual cycles during the campaigns.

Man, that’s an obnoxious column by Saletan, who once more demonstates that statistics are an alien concept to him . . .

I feel much better knowing that if I ever meet him, I’m in the “hands-off” category.

Ick. Seriously, that really must be a relief.

Anyway, life begins at 50.

of course Saletan didn’t write about the 17-30 sons of presidential/VP candidates. Because that would be kinda gay and besides, it’s OK for boys to sow their wild oats and leave those cheap sluts who consented to have sex with them, to pay whatever consequences there might be.

Fantasizing about teens and 20somethings getting pregnant… now that’s HOT!

Happy Birthday :D

can you imagine the racist ranting of Republicans and the right-wing blogtards if Obama had had a 17 year old daughter who got pregnant?

We’d hear non-stop about black folks and their inborn racial tendencies towards promiscuity and what horrible parents the Obamas are.

I think it’s more fundamentally dishonest than that. The only way he can make the statistical comparison he wants to make is to grossly expand the base category. If he used the most appropriate comparison, candidate daughters aged 18 or younger, than the pregnancy rate for that group is higher than the rate for the country as a whole. But that doesn’t support the point he is trying to make, so he expands the base category until he gets the result he wants.

Oh, and from one early September birthday to another, Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday. Sorry you’re no longer pervert wank fodder.

It’s also a loophole that guys like McCain, Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh (with his suitcase full of viagra) can jump through.

Pre marital?  BAD!!  Extra marital?  Party on, old dudes!

Happy birthday, Amanda. Hilarious post.

Well, since I’m 105.5 now, I suppose I’m completely hors de combat.  Also, I’m not insane.

Happy Birthday Amanda!  Yeah, I read that Saletan column and I have to believe that it may be the stupidest thing that I’ve ever read.  At my age, that’s saying something.

Me too, I’m safe too!  Finally, a reason to rejoice about being in my thirties. 

From his article: “She’s not the candidate whose daughter messed up. She’s the candidate who didn’t get rid of the mess.” 

Fascinating take on the situation.  Apparently it isn’t even about pregnancy; it’s about making sure nobody knows if you’re between the ages of 17 and 30, female, unmarried and having sex.  If anybody finds out, you’ve “messed up.”  At that point, all you can do is “get rid of the mess” by aborting or “own up to the mess” by carrying to term.

The thing about liberal men and shying away from discussing reprodutive rights reminds me of the bf…we were actually discussing this just yesterday…him discussing reproductive rights tends to be a very short conversation, consisting as it does of “It’s your body so the ultimate decision is absolutely yours and because I am 50% responsible for any pregnancy I engendered with you I will support you ungrudgingly in whatever you would decide to do about it.”

How ‘bout a list of current and former canditates who could have knocked up women and ponied up the cabbage for an abortion.  By the standards set for the Palin family, I don’t understand why the religious right isn’t handing out medals to DILF John Edwards.

What a stupid column.

Gave me a Laugh Amanda. Reminded me of the guy in “Throw Momma from the Train” in Billy Crystal’s writing course: “This is a real classic by Mr. Pinsky, it’s entitled: “One Hundred Girls I’d Like to Fu**.”...  “It’s a coffee table book.”

Good fucking Lord, what he’s saying is, “Now we mustn’t say bad things about <strike>my tax cut, o my precious precious tax cut</strike> Sarah or Bristol Palin, because I know for fact that those other presidential or vice-presidential daughters (especially the Democratic ones) got knocked up too, those nasty tramps.  I can prove this by statistics!!!1!  And on top of that those amoral Democratic sluts compounded the immorality by getting abortions!!!1! (a corollary which necessarily follows from my statistical proof)”

Happy b’day. girl…

Good fucking Lord, what he’s saying is…

Exactly, with the added idiocy that his proof is a completely invalid statistical model.

Happy birthday, Amanda!

Apparently it never occurs to Saletan that there’s this thing called birth control. (At least for now).He must think we’re like Soviet Russia, where the absence of reliable birth control led to gimongous abortion rates.

Oh, and isn’t the abstinence-only crowd more likely to get pregnant? (and not less likely to have sex).

Phony moralists like Saletan are the absolute worst enemies of women and girls.

Well, we know at least McCain is perfectly happy to touch women, or at least stare at their asses on national TV, when they’re well past 30…

This whole youth thing is overrated, anyway. Speaking as a liberal, straight, early-30s male, I can assure you that there are all kinds of insanely hot women out there in their 40s and 50s.

Amanda, I’ll take your side in this argument even though I haven’t read the column. Saletan hasn’t been right about anything -ever.

Amanda, you misunderstand Lord Saletan. It’s not that you’re no longer desirable. It’s that, at 30, if you choose to have a romantic interlude or an abortion, it’s your own business. By 30, of course, you have recovered from the mists of confusion around the control of your body that you had when you were younger, and are now to be trusted with the momentous decisions of having sex and how to deal with a wanted or unwanted pregnancy.

Besides, whether you do or not, Lord Saletan hears your biological clock ticking, and is certain that, if you were to get pregnant, there would be no doubt about what to do. By now, after all, if you did happen to get pregnant, it would be on purpose for sure.

You forget that Saletan’s view of women is that you’re either too young to understand sex, life and reproduction, or too old to worry about if you don’t.

Welcome to being old enough to be considered rational by Saletan and company. The fact that, due to my external genitalia, I was ALWAYS that old should not make you angry in any way. He’s not sexist. He’s just concerned with your delicate sensibilities…

Happy Birthday, you old hag.

Happy Birthday Amanda! Thanks for all you do.

Hey we have the same B-Day!
Virgos Rule, yup, yup.

I think the implication is that women Amanda’s age are finally mature enough to either use birth control consistently, or resist being seduced by some sweet-talking guy.

Oh yeah, 217 in dog years.  Almost as old as McCain!  Happy birthday.

It’s very simple. By the time you’re 30, you’ve figured out that you won’t die alone if you don’t sleep with the next weirdo who tells you you’re pretty, so Lord Saletan no longer has a shot with you.

Congrats on making it to the safe zone without being harassed by Salaten.  I’d say his problem isn’t that it is hard to write about reproductive freedom without coming off as a neck breathing pervert but rather that he is a neck breathing pervert.

I think that only the very extreme lunatic fringe extremists have problems with birth control (a good fifth to third of the population including Mike Huckabee but still the fringe).  I think the problem is that unwed pregnancy is allowed only for hollywood celebrities, abortion is condemmed, and all birth control methods fail sometimes. 

To me the craziness is the assumption that people who are responsible about birth control never get pregnant.  That’s just not the way it works.  Everyone knows this and everyone just assumes that couples with unwanted pregnancies were reckless.  That’s cognitive dissonance.

Oh and happy birthday !

Unfortunately, as a 34 year old man, I’m not out of the danger zone of being found attrative by creepy pervy Republicans. Sigh. Also, Happy Birthday. plus actor.

NOTE: Gay is definitely not creepy. However, gay republicans are the living embodiment of the quality known as creep.

Happy Birthday I guess.  I useta think you were kinda hott but now you’re too old.

/snark

“Does Saletan think that women over 30 can’t get pregnant and require abortion services?”

One or the other, not both.

“can you imagine the racist ranting of Republicans and the right-wing blogtards if Obama had had a 17 year old daughter who got pregnant? “

Can you imagine if Chelsea had gotten pregnant?  I’d imagine it’s just a matter of time before someone makes up a rumor about that.

Happy birthday. Sorry you’re no longer pervert wank fodder.

My kingdom for a Hallmark card that says that…

Also—happy birthday, Amanda.  But I wouldn’t say you’re in Saletan’s ‘hands-off’ category.  He’d probably be glad to smell your hair & grope you in a crowded elevator; he just wouldn’t openly admit to lusting after a decrepit 30-something.

Advanced Pervert Technology = the name of my new band.

“can you imagine the racist ranting of Republicans and the right-wing blogtards if Obama had had a 17 year old daughter who got pregnant? “

Hey, just think of Fox’s “Obama’s Baby Mama” jab at Michelle Obama.  Am I the only one who loathes these people?

Happy birthday, Amanda, you’ll still get a wolf-whistle from this ol’ perv.

So am I the only one who worries not that she’s a pregnant 17-year-old, but rather that they have been “dating” since she was 14?

Has Jenna dropped the first kid yet?  The National Enquirer said she was pregnant when she got married, so it must be true.

I skimmed that this morning and I found it deeply creepy too. I only got as far as the list of daughters but I assumed he was saying that 30 was the age at which single women could have sex without it reflecting badly on their parents. So it may be that Amanda has actually just now become fair game for Saletan.

So sorry.

I think it’s possible for men to write intelligently about the intersection of reproductive rights, sex and politics.  Lord Saletan, as Atrios calls him, doesn’t count because he hasn’t written anything intelligent in quiet some time, reproductive rights or otherwise. 

One cannot legislate a one size fits all solution for reproduction.  The variables are too complicated to ever work.  There’s religion and culture, income and race, geography, work, school, life style and dozens of other things that enter into any decision about when to have a baby.  The choice therefore, must remain with the woman and man who are ultimately responsible for the product of their union.  I think men should have some input into this decision but there can only be one commander and chief so the final decision should, in most circumstances, be made by the woman.  We may not like the choices some people make.  There are children born everyday to unfit parents.  Unfortunately, the only other option is to allow some government agency to set rules and limits on choice.  That solution will not prevent the next child abuser from hurting his son or daughter.  It won’t help feed the children growing up homes where there is little food to eat because the parents are either to addicted or too uncaring to provide properly for their offspring.  It will only result in more misery and pain for the children born into the families who don’t want them.  Politicians should admit they cannot change the
circumstances of every disfunctional family in America but they can try their best to help those they can help and resolve to not make more of them by forcing unwanted babies on those least able to care for them.  I know there are plenty of rich or middle class people who have been touched by abortion but they will always have options.  Does anyone doubt if we banned abortion tomorrow,  the service would be provided in some near off shore country who would quickly establish a cottage industry built around abortion services.  It’s the poor, the addicted, the mentally ill who will be forced to raise children they’re ill equiped to raise in already disfunctional families.

Happy birthday. Sorry you’re no longer pervert wank fodder.

No-one is immune from being wank fodder.  Why do you think they call them perverts anyhow?

I have a friend in her early-20s who finds it incomprehensible that I prefer mid-30s women to, say, her.  I haven’t had the heart to tell her that it’s mainly because she doesn’t read, and focuses her intellectual activity mainly on clothes and shoes…

There’s a moderately reasonable point lurking deep undercover in the mess on Salon. The US has had to face up to the fact that youngsters are getting it on in their private lives; it’s stupid not to acknowledge that as a political reality as well.

I think men should have some input into this decision but there can only be one commander and chief so the final decision should, in most circumstances, be made by the woman.

And which circumstances, pray tell, trump the woman’s decision, hmm? Are you suggesting that there are circumstances in which the man whose sperm fertilized the egg should get to make the decision?  Because if you are, you FAIL.

How convenient that his cut-off age of 30 allows him to avoid discussing Mary Cheney’s pregnancy at age 37. The religious right called it “unconscionable” and “tragic” that Cheney and her partner Heather Poe would bring up a child without a father. Well, it clearly wasn’t an unintended pregnancy!
Really, though, what is the point of this article? Oh yeah…IOKIYAR!

And which circumstances, pray tell, trump the woman’s decision, hmm? Are you suggesting that there are circumstances in which the man whose sperm fertilized the egg should get to make the decision?  Because if you are, you FAIL.

A coma maybe? Imagine a Schiavo-like situation where the husband and the parents disagree about the woman’s wishes. I can’t think of anything else but it would have to be a situation where the woman was unable to make the decision herself.

I’d give him the benefit of the doubt that he was making a legalistic allowance for marginal, hypothetical cases like this.

There are many women over 30 I would enjoy fucking.

“Mouth breathing pervert” please!  The only “neck breathers” among us are people with tracheotomies and we shouldn’t be making fun of them for that.

Language Cop— no, most newts breathe through their necks.

Saletan obviously has gills.

“Mouth breathing pervert” please!  The only “neck breathers” among us are people with tracheotomies and we shouldn’t be making fun of them for that.

We should instead be making fun of people with adenoiditis.

Happy Birthday.

Unfortunately, now that you are over 30 you can’t trust yourself any more.
You also officially became “interesting.”

I’m glad someone finally explained it.  I was confused.