Not that you asked

She's baaaack! Yes, Sarah Palin, the conservatives' favorite pin-up dimwit emerged from the frozen wasteland that she once ruled to endorse Donald Trump for President. Well, you know what they say about like minds. Her endorsement speech was such a muddled mess that if it had been delivered by anyone else, people would be wondering if the speaker were drunk or on drugs.

Sarah's like a chronic bad back. There are times when it hasn't bothered you in so long that you almost forget about it. But it's always there. Then, every so often it flares up, and you remember how painful it is.

Palin and her brood are people that most of us wouldn't even associate with if John McCain hadn't picked her as his running mate in 2008. Thanks John. As I wrote last week, her daughter Bristol is the paid spokesperson for an organization that advocates telling young people to just abstain from sexual activity instead of teaching sex education and birth prevention. She still has that job in spite of the fact that she is currently pregnant with her second child who, like her first, was conceived out of wedlock.

That of course, makes absolutely no sense to most of us, but not to conservatives and abstinence advocates. Even though study after study after study has shown that abstinence education is the least effective way to prevent teen pregnancies, they stubbornly cling to the belief that it is the best course of action. Telling an 18-year-old boy who is walking around figuratively with a loaded gun and plenty of targets to just say no to temptation is like asking an addict or an alcoholic to just say no to drugs or alcohol. And it's just as unlikely to succeed. When I think back on those years, I wonder how I was able to concentrate on schoolwork at all. The fact that so many boys manage to graduate from high school at all is a minor miracle.

Bristol isn't the only one of Sarah's children who doesn't follow the conservative family values rulebook. Last week her son Track punched his girlfriend and threatened to kill himself. At least he has the excuse that as a veteran of our Middle East wars he may be a victim of PTSD. However, his mother has no excuse for her explanation for his behavior.

In a feat of logic that only she could devise, Palin has decided to blame President Obama for her son's problems. She doesn't blame her son. She doesn't blame herself or her husband. She doesn't blame the war he fought in. She doesn't even blame George W. Bush, who started the wars. No, she blames Obama because in her words, "He doesn't support the troops." Never mind the fact that if Obama did visit a military base or a military hospital, Sarah would be one of the first to accuse him of "wrapping himself in the flag" or "using the troops to boost his poll numbers."

This all goes back to what I wrote about last week. Conservatives claim to be the champions of family values, yet they love Donald Trump, who has been married three times and cheated on his first two wives. They claim that they believe in self reliance, yet they love Sarah Palin, who has a daughter who cannot say no and blames her son's domestic violence arrest of President Obama.