BREAKING NEWS: TEENAGERS HAVE THE SEX NOW!!!

Yeah, so, the whole Jamie Spears thing. I have to say don't really understand the big deal here.

Firstly, that deciding to keep the child and the ownership of one's decisions that entails is some sort of bad example to the rest of us. Granted, I'd rather the coded words to the "family values" crowd weren't there along with the casual misogyny. But that language is easy and acceptable and isn't going to touch off the firestorm of controversy that even tacitly approving of abortion would. I think the problem isn't what was said but the climate that makes it possible to say those things instead of another and that's not going to change unless people make that point and hammer it into the ground but, not my fight. We are at the Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream point here - I can understand why it's important to some people but I just can't see it myself.

Secondly, that it's even an issue that a sixteen year old girl has gotten pregnant. I mean, it's going to make it hard to keep filming her series but so does the writer's strike (I hope), it happens, you work around it or she takes a few years off from the arduous task of acting to raise the child before getting back to her career. And maybe you make a note of that for the fans who are concerned about the future of their favorite show. And this is, I believe, the Hannah Montana crowd so it's especially rapid and covered in sparkles and cloyingly pinkness so maybe, to those youngster it is, in fact, the end of the world. But Anything beyond that is just...creepy. Look, she's sixteen. Last I checked, it's biologically possible for her to get pregnant and, assuming everything is working fine, it probably has been for a while. You don't, after all, hit the legal age of consent and look down to suddenly discover you've sprouted genitalia. She's a reasonable attractive girl if you're into that sort of thing (I personally don't go for the twin balloons on a stick with bleach-blond hair look but that's just me.) so I'm sure she's had the opportunity.

I'm sure a lot of parents are shocked, shocked to find out that their sons and daughters think about wet, hot monkey sex all the time completely unlike how things were when they were young. Kids have sex. More to the point, kids should have sex because it's a wonderful, life affirming activity that's part of our natural, perfectly healthy urges. Not just for procreation but the ones that lead us to one another for love and companionship and everything that makes life worth living. And, wonder of wonders, sometimes when you have sex you get pregnant. Especially if you don't have any birth control because you're afraid to ask your parents about it and it's more expensive than ever and schools are increasingly teaching the abstinence which leads directly to more unwanted pregnancies than providing information about safe and responsible sexual practices. And why? Because we're the sort of sick, sad society that's at once obsessed with sex and repulsed by it at the same time. Controlled, driven by the same puerile tongue wagers who've made a big issue about this, of all things. But even if there was, as I hope, birth control being used then it's not 100% effective. Condoms rip, the pill doesn't work, it happens.

Like I said, beyond the idea that sometimes stuff happens and you deal with them, I just don't get it. But, then, as always, my belief is that we need to teach our children how to be responsible with the dilemmas they'll face, not to protect them from every last little harm. It's about allowing them to grow and make their own choices and to deal with their own mistakes, not trying to impose your exact way of living your life onto them. Try going on the editorial page and screaming until you're red-faced about that, though.

Am really looking forward to Juno, though, so who knows?