His poor girlfriend was so scared that she was later found by police hiding under a bed in the Palin home.
I really hate Sarah "Momma Grizzly" Palin. Aside from being an amazing simpleton, she's also the antithesis of everything I stand for (nuclear non-proliferation, separation of church and state, personal liberty, personal responsibility, equality under the law, science, rigorous education, free education, etc.). Still, I can't help but feel bad for her kids.
Her kids never really got a fair shake at life, Track least of all. The eldest kid always bears the brunt of the parent's failings. Let's be honest here: the entire Palin clan is pretty nomadic and backward. Most families don't have brawls at birthday parties.
Palin Family Brawl
Most families don't have "abstinence only" daughters getting pregnant (twice) before marriage (while criticizing successful free birth control programs in my state).
Bristol Palin is a Hypocrite on Washington State's Free Birth Control Program
But just look at their parents. Sarah Palin (also an "abstinence only" crusader) got married on 08/29/1988. Their first child, Track, was born on 04/20/1989. That's 7.8 months. It is conceivable that Sarah got pregnant in the first few weeks of marriage and had him early, but it's pretty unlikely. What's more likely is she was pregnant from a rendezvous with boyfriend Todd, and they "eloped" so they could claim they hadn't been fucking before marriage. One interesting tidbit: They seem to go out of their way to keep their son's date of birth out of the media. You've got to dig a bit to find his DoB. We only have Todd and Sarah's wedding date based on Sarah's claims that it was her 20th wedding anniversary during a campaign speech on 08/29/2008. We always know we can trust politicians to tell us the truth. I mean, Sarah always accepts the word of politicians without requiring any documents, right?
Reliable Citation? Really, Kelly?
At least we can say for certain that Track WAS born on 04/20/1989. The complaint from his arrest on 01/18/2016 clearly shows his date of birth.
Track Palin Complaint - January 18, 2016
Let me be clear: I personally don't care if she did have pre-marital sex. I personally think it's foolish to wait until you're married to find out if your future spouse can satisfy your needs. I personally think it's a great idea to not only fuck before marriage, but actually live together! If you live together for a year without cheating or killing each other, you're probably going to have a long marriage.
Sarah Heath (later Palin) switched colleges 6 times in 5 years (in 3 states) before finally getting a bachelor's degree in communications with an emphasis in journalism.
Pre-marital sex and shotgun wedding speculation aside, when Sarah Palin finally ran for Mayor of Wasilla, she used social issues (abortion, gun rights) in a non-partisan election, and received support from the state republican party in the form of attack ads against her opponent. These were novel things for politics in the small town.
Once in office, she immediately purged the city government of anyone who wasn't a firm supporter of her agenda. She even tried to push the city library to ban some books that offended her born-again sensibilities. The librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, refused to co-operate with the censorship, and was fired.
Sarah Palin as Mayor of Wasilla Alaska
She was also very good at pulling the levers of patronage to get a job. After a failed bid for lieutenant governor in 2002, Sarah campaigned for U.S. Senator Frank Murkowski, who was running for Governor of Alaska. Murkowski told her she had been short-listed as his replacement in the U.S. Senate. Murkowski, upon winning the governor's race and vacating his U.S. Senate seat, gave the job to his daughter instead. He gave Sarah a lucrative ($122,400/year in 2003 dollars) job as a "Public Member Commissioner" in the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (a state agency) as her reward for her hard work on his campaign.
And then there's the whole "Wasilla Hillbillies" incident. What kind of horrible person makes low-level (probably volunteer or low paid) staffers put extravagant purchases on their personal cards so Sarah and her family can go on a shopping spree? That horrible person would be Sarah Palin.
Wasilla Hillbillies Raiding Neiman Marcus
Then there's the crazy bullshit surrounding Trooper Gate. That whole damn thing demonstrates how absolutely fucked up that family really is.
Trooper Gate
I don't think those kids had a chance in hell to turn out normal. I'm really surprised Track wasn't accused of molesting his sisters, as Josh Duggar was. That's what happens when you're raised in a "no sex until you're married" family. Maybe his parents at least had the wisdom to tell him it was ok to rub one out periodically. If that happened, I suspect that's a bit of dad's wisdom (Shh... don't tell Mamma Grizzly).
I suspect Track Palin does have PTSD. As an Air Guard in the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team. Air Guard makes it sound like he flew a plane, but he didn't. He was one of the brave soldiers who was exposed, sticking their heads out the top of the armored fighting vehicles looking around for IEDs and ambushes.
I'm sure Track saw a lot of death and destruction during his deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm not sure what exactly he expected signing up for the army after 9/11. I suppose he was young and wanted to serve his country. I felt the same way when I joined the Clinton army as a field medic. If "don't ask don't tell" hadn't got me, I'd probably have been in the thick of that disaster as well.
I feel a huge amount of compassion for Track Palin. I sincerely hope he gets the help he needs. He certainly has the grit to get through terrible difficulties. If he can stop this self-destructive behavior, he will go on to do great things. The self-destructive behavior isn't all a result of PTSD, though it has certainly been magnified by PTSD. Track started misbehaving at least as early as 16 when he was arrested (with 3 other boys) for vandalizing 44 school buses. This after the group stole a bottle of vodka from a liquor store earlier that night. The buses tires were deflated, mirrors broken, and their engine block heaters were unplugged. The damage was so extensive that the school district had to close for a day awaiting repairs. The fact that he didn't end up with a permanent criminal record probably has something to do with the fact that "Momma Grizzly" was, at the time of he incident, mayor of the largest city in the borough served by the school district. Because he was a minor, his name was not released without his parent's consent, which obviously wouldn't be granted.
The cherry on top of this redneck sundae is how Gov. Palin used her son's shell shock (PTSD) to take a cheap political shot at President Obama. She claims POTUS doesn't "respect" or "know" what wounded warriors have done to protect America and "secure our freedoms".
If Track actually feels like the President is to blame for his PTSD, he's probably been misinformed by right wing propaganda. The only difference between right wing and left wing responses to veterans is which side is most eager to make more dead and wounded warriors. The left tries hard to avoid wars when possible, whereas the dominionist war-hawks on the right go out picking fights at every opportunity.
If Governor Palin had a shred of compassion for Veterans and Wounded Warriors, she wouldn't be so damned eager to create more of them by supporting bullshit aggression. What's more horrifying to me is how Governor Palin doesn't see the inherent disconnect between her militant pro-life stance, and her burning desire to barbecue children on the playground (also known as a nuclear attack). No one who calls for nuclear attacks is "pro-life". We need to agree as a species that nuclear weapons are so violent and destructive that they cannot be used under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. Barbecuing innocent children on the playground is not a military strategy, no matter what kind of political spin you put on it.
If you think I'm just being melodramatic about the "barbecuing children" thing, take a look at these pictures. These were done with a primitive atomic bomb in 1945. The hydrogen bombs we have now are WAY MORE POWERFUL. To illustrate the point, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima (called Little Boy) had an explosive yield of 15 kilotons of TNT, instantly burning anything within 1 mile of ground zero, and causing over 100,000 deaths. Modern hydrogen bombs have explosive yields in hundreds of kilotons, and up into the megaton range. The largest hydrogen bomb ever detonated, by the Soviet Union, was Tsar Bomba, which had an explosive yield of 50 megatons. The fireball was 5 miles across, a town 34 miles away was destroyed, the heat at 62 miles could still cause third-degree burns. Tsar Bomba broke windows as at a distance of 560 miles. A bomb like that could kill tens of millions in a few seconds, with tens of millions more dying over the following months. Nuclear war is evil, and so is anyone who proposes to unleash it on humanity.
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| Charred body after nuclear bombing of Hiroshima |
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| Little Girl Charred after bombing of Hiroshima |
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| Child Charred by nuclear bomb |
