Spears' Family Values
by Susan Estrich
Today's newspapers carry the headline that the fertility rate in the United States is going up again, reaching its highest level in 35 years and distinguishing us from most industrialized nations that, faced with the increasing availability of birth control, the opportunity and necessity for women to work, and who knows what other factors (maybe the paucity of good husbands and fathers), are struggling to reproduce themselves. Women need to have at least an average of two children apiece for ...
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Posted by: sandra clarke
Comment: #1
Fri Dec 21, 2007 12:26 PM
Leave it to Susan to write the truth with her usual flair and wit. Thanks, Susan, for your wonderful column.
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Posted by: Maya Nagin
Comment: #2
Fri Dec 21, 2007 6:56 AM
Bravo!You hit the nail on the head with your article.High time somebody took that mother to task.I pray the kid is thrown out of her t.v show.
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Posted by: charles putnam
Comment: #3
Mon Dec 24, 2007 8:11 AM
Being a Christian fan and ultra conservative Fox watcher I never thought Susan Estrich would ever say anything I could agree with, but her column re Jamie Lynn was great!! I hope, even though a Jew, she believes what she wrote.
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Posted by: Jerry G.
Comment: #4
Sat Dec 22, 2007 11:51 PM
Go Susan !!! In the case of Britney and Jamie-Lynn ; WHERE are the christian parents ??? LOL. My grandchildren are the most beautiful beings I have EVER seen. If you don't have grandchildren, just wait its pure joy.
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Posted by: Joe David
Comment: #5
Sat Dec 22, 2007 2:37 AM
This is the first time I've read anything by Susan Estrich, so it's a shame that in the first few sentences of her column dealing with fertility rates in the U.S. she made a mistake that any smart freshman in college should be able to catch. The "fertility rate" which allows a population to reproduce itself is not 2.0 (children per women), as she reports. The official figure is 2.1, due to the fact that a small percentage of children never reach adulthood. Anyone can make a mistake, but wouldn't you expect a journalist to check her facts before sending them out --and thus misinforming-- thousands of readers? It's a responsibility and credibility issue.
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Posted by: Joe David
Comment: #6
Sat Dec 22, 2007 2:42 AM
This is the first time I've read Susan Estrich and it's a shame she gets a fact wrong in her first paragraph. A society does not reproduce itself when every woman has two children as she reports. The correct figure is 2.1, which she cites as the current level of children per woman in the U.S.
The difference is due to the fact that a small percentage of children never make it into adulthood. This, for American couples to reproduce themselves they need to produce on average 2.1 children per household.
Anyone can make a mistake. But journalists have a special responsibility to inform themselves correctly, as what they send out may be read by thousands of people, and influence their views. In this instance, Estrich has mis-educated thousands of people.
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Posted by: Jack Robert
Comment: #7
Sat Dec 22, 2007 3:43 AM
I heard Susan on the Hannity show and was very impressed. I am equally impressed with this article. We can now add that the father of Jamie's baby may be guilty of felony statutory rape. Our children continue to grow up alarmingly fast and no one seems to care about it. But Hollywood and the entertainment industry will continue to fund their right to influence youth and take no responsibility for it.
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Posted by: Carole
Comment: #8
Sun Dec 30, 2007 7:46 PM
Re: Kim Pro
You are so right. I hope Susan reads these comments.
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Posted by: Carole
Comment: #9
Sun Dec 30, 2007 7:58 AM
Susan, don't you think "slut" is a little harsh for an unsupervised sixteen-year-old impregnated by an adult? And please don't be disingenuous, good Christian parenting is no different from good Jewish parenting. Unfortunately, Jamie Lyn Spears had neither. I was lucky enough to have both, and managed not to get pregnant at sixteen. Jamie Lyn had neither and was left to her own devices and made a really bad decision that she'll have to live with. And he TV show won't fire her since they're no more concerned with her well-being that her mother is. Both are concerned about her earning ppotential.
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Posted by: Kim Pro
Comment: #10
Thu Dec 27, 2007 12:07 PM
Lovely, all the compliments to your article. I myself can't seem to get past the fact that a grown adult woman referred to a CHILD as a "slut." Susan, why don't you take a deep breath the next time you find yourself attacking a high school student with high school tactics. You've had QUITE a few years since high school to figure it all out - so can't you afford to be a little more generous with a vulnerable and needy and ill guided young girl. I think your strong reaction denotes a time for introspection for you - where in your own development did you get stuck with a high school mentality that allows for verbal abuse of adolescents? My heart aches for the young girl, and there are lots of reasons, good and bad, to not bring forth a baby. I would consider avoidance of being called a "slut" publicly by grown women to be a bad reason. How many of you anti-abortion people are disparaging not the parents and authority figures in this child's life, but the CHILD herself? It is reprehensible.
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Posted by: Joyce Zukerman
Comment: #11
Tue Dec 25, 2007 7:58 AM
I love the the "Christian Parent" mantra heard all over the media and now with Spears book. There are many racial and religious groups that revere and care for their children. And as a Jewish Mother, I can back up this statement.
The Spear family are "users" of their children, have eaten off of and luxuriated in the stardom, money and spotlight.
Now that each of these "Christian" girls have fallen off the media grace, the Mother is still scratching for some momentum to line her pockets. Thank you for the astute commentary. But I think we should all back off and let this family go into hibernation. And while they are out of the spotlight, I would advise they all go see a group therapist together.
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Posted by: ratdragon
Comment: #12
Tue Jan 1, 2008 2:01 PM
Ms. Estrich ,you said it in your blogg ,you are not a Christian and don't have the values of a Christian. I don''T expect a Jew to understand the concept of forgiveness and turn ing the other cheek.Jews showed their values when they trumped up charges to crucify an innocent man.But I believe that people do give in to temptation !I'm sure you have many secret sins hidden that you can find the the time to criticize and throw stones .Jews are great for thowing stones!But I Think the one redemptive factorin Jamie Lynn is that this girl had the moral courage not to murder her mistake, as so many Jews would have done . Putting the onus on the victim,instead of themselves for the act.BY the way, her big sister is suffering from Bi-pola Which she is living in denial.This will soon be brought out why she acts so erratic.
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Posted by: Bobby Ray
Comment: #13
Wed Dec 26, 2007 5:27 PM
I am a conservative. I admire Susan from watching her on Fox News. Because of this I read her article off of Drudge on the Spears family. I really will never understand how liberals can see such imorality for example in the Spears family and miss the whole point on Bill Clinton. Wonder if ole Bill influenced any of our young people with his conduct?
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