Abstinence Has A Price

While I'm all for people talking to kids about abstinence, how much should it really cost? I mean, I don't know, I'm sure that there is a price that you can put on it, but I wouldn't say that the price is between $15,000 and $30,000, even if you are Bristol Palin. Wait. What now?

Correct. According to Radar Online Bristol Palin has "...signed with a speakers bureau called Single Source Speakers, charging between $15,000 and $30,000 a speech." Fifteen and thirty grand? EACH time she speaks?! Are you kidding me? All she has done is gotten knocked up and regretted it! Granted, she has stuff to say, but thirty grand worth of stuff to say? I can't possibly imagine. ]

I checked out Single Source Speakers to see what the deal was and because I'd never heard of them before. From what I can tell, they seem to have a theme of God and/or religion infused within each one of their speakers. But also from what I can tell, pretty much anyone can be a "speaker". That doesn't mean that you're going to command the kind of fees that Bristol Palin is getting. They don't come right out and tell you what the speaker's fees are. Instead, they use a system of dollar signs to give you some sort of an idea as to what you are looking at in terms of payment. There seems to be one dollar sign, two dollar signs, three dollar signs and then four question marks. Bristol Palin and two others get the four question marks. Those other two? Alan Keyes and Drew Brees. Wait. Drew Brees? The guy who quarterbacked the New Orleans Saints to their Super Bowl victory? THAT Drew Brees? He's in the same four question mark speaking fee group as Bristol Palin? What the what?

I didn't know who any of the other speakers on their list were. Some of them only had one name. That didn't help me out, either. Seriously, you need to have two names. A first name and a last name. Sure, there's Cher and Madonna and Bono, but none of them are speakers. And really, what did it get them? Bono is just annoying, Madonna just got divorced and Cher's daughter is now officially a man. I'm not saying that a last name would have saved them all from their fates, I'm merely pointing out that they didn't have last names and now look at 'em.

And while I understand her "need" to make money because that dirtbag, Levi Johnston, isn't going to cough up any dough, it's not like her family can't afford to help her out or anything. Her mother is Sarah Freaking Palin, for cryin' out loud. I'm sure they can spare a little spare change for their unwed daughter. But even if they couldn't, is she really worth even fifteen grand to speak for less than an hour? I don't think so.

Look, I think that her message is a good one. She had unprotected sex and got knocked up. Now she's raising a baby without a father because she picked a loser to fornicate freely with. And she has obviously realized that she made some poor choices. I am all for someone standing up and saying, "Hey, I screwed up and here's why you don't want to do what I did." That's a great message. Should it be so expensive? I don't think it should. On top of that, how long is she really going to have any clout or whatever attached to her name for those who really need to hear her message the most? Sure, adults who were adults during the 2008 election will remember who she is. Her mom is in the news for reasons I still don't understand every other freaking day, so it will be hard to forget who she is. But I don't know that the name Bristol Palin is going to have a whole lot of sway five or eight or ten years down the road. I actually question how much pull it has right now.

Can't she just write a book like everyone else and go away? It's not so much that I have anything against her, I'm just really tired of seeing and hearing from her mom all the time.