It's hard being blue in a red state. Not really blue, I'm more a bit of purple. But aren't we all? Who really agrees 100% at all times with every position of their "side"? And why have we allowed ourselves to be so segregated?

I am liberal on most issues, but a few of my beliefs leave my liberal friends with their jaws hanging open.

For instance, I don't believe that pregnancy should qualify you for government aid. Free medical care, free housing, free food, reduced utility rates. It's an elective condition and perhaps if there were financial consequences, people would be more careful with birth control and/or abstinance.

My liberal friends gasp at this cold heartedness and tell me that this would only hurt the forthcoming baby. Sentencing a baby to a life of welfare poverty will hurt it also. We've watched it happen generation after generation.

Then I cheer my liberal friends up by saying that we should pay girls not to have babies. Give them a hundred dollars or so when they show up for a depo shot.

Those of us who planned (or at least had the financial means to accomodate) a baby, have no idea the conditions and chaos and levels of dysfunction that most poor babies grow up in. They literally don't have a chance.

And welfare doesn't help. Postponing pregnancy until schooling and jobs are obtained will help. And that won't happen until there are financial consequences for behavior.