Levi Johnston–the father of Sarah Palin’s first grandchild, former boyfriend of Bristol Palin–appeared on the Tyra Banks Show  Monday. And wow, he’s cute. And kinda–well it’s good he has hunting to fall back on. He’s seems very sweet and shy and really not capable of lying…because—um like I said, it’s good he can hunt for his food. By the way in case you were wondering, Levi says  moose tastes like

Moose.

In the first segment, he explains what happened after Tripp was born and why he and Bristol broke up:

Things got all complicated, uh we started fightin’. We just weren’t seeing to eye to each other anymore and we thought it’d better to be friends.

I think the friends thing might be not an option any more, given the harsh words Gov GILF has issued in statements. Comments like these don’t really make for warm Thanksgiving get-togethers:

We’re disappointed that Levi and his family, in a quest for fame, attention, and fortune, are engaging in flat-out lies, gross exaggeration, and even distortion of their relationship. 

It is unfortunate that Levi finds it more appealing to exploit his previous relationship with Bristol than to contribute to the well-being of the child

Unfortunately, my family has seen many people say and do many things to `cash in’ on the Palin name.

Levi admits that since the break up he can’t see cant see Tripp as much. One reason Bristol put her foot down:

Her and my sister don’t get along.

And part of that is because Levi’s sister Mercede (Mer-say-dee) is friends with a lot of the girls Levi used to date and Bristol doesn’t want "previous girlsfriends" to see Tripp.

While he says never felt  pressured into getting engaged to Bristol, Levi did feel a bit pressured about going to the RNC convention. Mercede told Tyra:

Levi told me [Bristol Palin] called and said that, ‘You’re going,’ and he said, ‘I want to go hunting,’ and she said, ‘You’re going.’

Maybe that should have been a clue this relationship was doomed…

So why are the Johnstons breaking their silence? And for free!? As Tyra points out, they weren’t paid for their appearance!

Well, they want to let America know that they’re good people and underneath it all comes out that the Johnstons are genuinely expressing their hurt at not being able to see baby Tripp. But also there’s "so much bad stuff" being said in the media, that they want to clear up a lot of the stories which get distorted.  Oopsie. Maybe posting personal stuff on Myspace isn’t a really good idea.

"Gram" Sherry Johnston, baby Tripp’s other granny, explains that things changed and once Palin was nominated for vice president and are now a nightmare. The Johnstons

Never expected this to happened, the media…media everywhere, never being able to say anything…

Mereced explained thatduring campaign all questions were  to be refered to the McCain campaign and then answered "no comment," which was really hard for her.

The real heart breaker for Gram Sherry, and for any grandmother?

I don’t get no pictures. I’m not wanting pictures to go sell.

Levi and his family now get to see Tripp about once a month, and while they haven’t gone to court, he’s

Looking like it, I don’t want to go that way…

Heck, surely there’s a father’s rights group that will help him out wiht the legal fees, because this could get ugly. And expensive.

Levi’s biggest piece of advice (and not it’s not using condoms!): When it comes to getting a name tattooed on your finger:

I don’t recommend it.

Last night Bristol Palin gave an interview to Greta van Susteren, and without her parents’ permission since she’s now 18. She did give her parents a day’s notice (and Gov GILF shows up in part 2, holding Tripp, to give her insight into the matter). 

Bristol wishes things had gone differently and admits that abstinence is not realistic:

I wished it would have happened in, like, 10 years so I could have a job and an education and be, like, prepared and have my own house and stuff. But he brings so much joy, I don’t regret it at all. I just wish it would have happened in 10 years, rather than right now.

She discusses her future with Levi:

Eventually, we’d like to get married. We’re focusing on, like, getting through school and just getting an education and stuff, getting a career going. 

Despite an extended family that looks after Tripp while she’s at school, Bristol’s been faced with the difficulties of having a baby:

And just you’re up all night. And it’s not glamorous at all. Like, your whole priorities change after having a baby.

Bristol has some words of experience:

It’s not something to strive for, I guess. It’s just — I don’t know. I’m not the first person that it’s happened to and I’m not going to be the last. But I don’t know. I’d love for — to be an advocate to prevent teen pregnancy because it’s not, like, a situation that you want to strive for, I guess.

Greta tries to pry about  whether or not Levi and Bristol were using birth control, but Bristol deflects the question and says that abstinence isn’t the answer:

I don’t want to get into detail about that. But I think abstinence is, like — like, the — I don’t know how to put it — like, the main — everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it’s not realistic at all….o see stories like this and to see other stories of teen moms and just — it’s something that’s — I don’t know, just — you should just wait 10 years and it’d just be so much easier.

And  while in the past her mom Gov GILF  has spoken in favor of contraception and would

like to see fewer and fewer abortions,

when dropping in on her daughter’s interview, Palin waffles a bit and tries to stress abstinence, while still kinda supporting birth control:

So you get behind that, that ideal of, yes, abstinence, you know? Hey, don’t get pregnant. Well, get beyond that when it happens, and then you deal with it. Life happens. Life happens and you deal with it, and Bristol’s dealing with it wonderfully.

When asked about the fund-raising campaign yesterday, Alaska’s Frost Lady responded:

I have boxes of thank-you notes from people associated with Planned Parenthood thanking me for the donations. Same with some anti-hunting groups, they’re doing the same thing right now. It’s political theater–it’s great theater I guess for some.

Planned Parenthood Alaska–which received $5000 in donations during the email push– said they would earmark the money to help women access birth control, and that the funds would not be used to fund abortions. Palin is vehemently opposed to abortion as well as Plan B (the morning-after pill), but told Katie Couric she was:

all for contraception..all for preventative measures that are legal and safe.

Planned Parenthood provides sex and STD education,  STD care, women’s gynecological health care, and birth control along with abortion counseling and services. In response to yesterday’s query about Planned Parenthood  Palin said:

But on the issue of Planned Parenthood and abortion, at least Planned Parenthood, officials there and, I, we agree on a mission here that we’d like to see fewer and fewer abortions. And I, embracing the culture of life, have perhaps a different approach in how I would like to see that goal reached.

Here’s a pro tip for Gov GILF: Abstinence doesn’t work.

*  To help parents meet their children’s educational needs, the supergroup Fleetwood Mac is auctioning off VIP tickets and meet-and-greets with Mick Fleetwood as a fundraiser. The auction benefits Hilltop Nursery School in Silver Lake, California, a parent-participation, cooperative pre-school founded over 50 years ago. Pairs of tickets for each show on the band’s Unleashed tour–plus face time with Fleetwood–are up for auction on eBay now and the charity auctions will continue throughout the tour.

*  Justin Timberlake joined Bill Murray, Ray Romano, Kevin James, and Michael Bolton on the golf course at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, helping to raise over $6 million dollars for a number of charities including schools, arts programs, services for the blind and senior and food banks.

*  In an essay in Elle magazine, Bono discusses a trip to Africa he took six years ago and the changes he has seen since there has been an increase in awareness and funding in HIV/AIDS care on the continent:

Our science and technology, it turned out, were more advanced than our conscience. We in the West had the means to save lives, but we lacked the resolve.

What can we do? Well, the short answer is: a lot. At the time of that trip, only 50,000 Africans had access to ARVs [anti-retrovial drugs]. That figure today is 2.1 million. That’s because a lot of people have been doing a lot of things, in Africa and all over the world. In the face of the AIDS emergency, we’ve got to gang up on the problem.

Bono points out the effect of conscious consumerism, specifically the (RED) brands–everyday consumer goods from coffee and wine to clothing and electronics–that benefit the Global Fund to Fight AIDS. Since its inception (RED) has raised $120 million for prevention and counseling programs as well as treatment, and is now the thirteenth biggest contributor to the Global Fund, giving more than some countries. Explains Bono:

The companies involved don’t mark up their products to get you to pay a premium. They take a piece of the profits from every (RED) thing you buy, and they use it to buy lifesaving medication for those who can’t afford it. 

Charities and non-profits are feeling the economic chill, and sadly–between the markets, Madoff and budget cuts–it looks like it’s going to get colder. Celebrities help draw attention and money (maybe giving some of their own cash in the process) to causes, hopefully helping to maintain or increase donations as the need for services is on the rise. 

The Frost Lady of Alaska told People Magazine that she:

wanted to be clear about their continuing work toward high school degrees because any suggestion otherwise "harms Bristol’s reputation and Levi’s reputation and their chances for good work opportunities." 

 Oh you betcha it does. According to an editorial by Dan Fagan in today’s Achorage Daily News:

federal regulations require all members of apprentice programs, union or otherwise, to first obtain a high school diploma, something the governor’s soon-to-be son-in- law does not have. Some apprentice programs even require the completion of high school level algebra or the post-secondary equivalent.

 The head of the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation’s apprentice program, Bo Underwood, confirmed that Levi Johnston is employed by the corporation as an apprentice elctrician. But he claimed not to know whether a high school diploma is needed to be an ASRC apprentice, but said he would check on it.

A quick search online shows that in Alaska a high school diploma or GED is required to apprentice in most trades. A electrical worker’s apprentice job advertised on BristolBayNative.com requires a high school diploma or GED and copies of transcrips, plus

Applicants must have at least one year of high school Algebra with passing grades

 Well at least Levi has a job. For now.

Teenagers need to prevent pregnancy to begin with — this isn’t ideal. But I’m fortunate to have a supportive family which is dealing with this together. Tripp is so perfectly precious; we love him with all our hearts. I can’t imagine life without him now.

The Anchorage Daily News has more from Gov GILF who spent the last day of the year, emailing the Associated Press and Anchorage Daily News and calling People Magazine to counter the impression that Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston, Tripp’s 18 year old father are a high school drop-outs. In October, Johnston told the AP he had "left" high school to work as an apprentice oil field electrician. Previously Palin had said Bristol had taken high school correspondence courses as well as attending high school.

Then just to make sure her frantic spin was received, Palin issued a statement :

Bristol begins her final semester of high school next week where she’ll get her last credit needed to graduate. Levi is continuing his online high school work in addition to working as an electrical apprentice on the North Slope.

The gubernatorial grandma went on to say:

When Bristol and Levi first told us the shocking news that she was pregnant, to be honest, we all at first looked at the situation with some fear and a bit of despair. Isn’t it just like God to turn those circumstances into such an amazing, joyful blessing when you ask Him to help you through?

I wonder what Bristol is going to do with all those baby gifts from around the world? Will she sell the baby pics of Tripp?

The statement ended with Palin stating she preferred to keep the baby a private, family matter. However she admitted about Tripp:

We are over the moon.

Palin’s spokesperson Bill McAllister said:

Palin chose to break her silence on the birth because of the volume of questions coming from the press, and because of "erroneous information that was published."

Palin had a few weeks between the end of the election and Tripp’s birth to frame how she’d handle Tripp’s birth.  Her lack of both foresight and insight into how the media and the public work is further proof she doesn’t have the chops for 2012.

You need to know that both Levi and Bristol are working their butts off to parent and going to school and working at the same time.They are certainly not high school dropouts.

People further reports that the Frost Lady of Alaska:

wanted to be clear about their continuing work toward high school degrees because any suggestion otherwise "harms Bristol’s reputation and Levi’s reputation and their chances for good work opportunities." 

Kinda veiled threaty, dotcha think? And so weirdly illogical, jobwise, since either a job requires a a certain degree or it doesn’t. Maybe Palin is concerned about her own reputation and "chances for good work opportunities."

Levi–who told the AP in October he had left high school (that would be "dropped out" in the vernacular) to apprentice as an oil field electrician–is now attending high school via correspondence courses,  according to what his potential future mother-in-law told the Associated Press today.  She also explained that Bristol is enrolled in regular high school and has taken correspondence courses in the past.

And no mention of  her feelings about the birth of her grandchild. Which sorta explains how she’s feeling.

 (WARNING:  EXTREMELY DISTURBING IMAGES)

Christian religious extremism hits the American psyche when a fundamentalist church– Assemblies of God, which thinks Harry Potter is the gateway to Satanism, while facing charges of child abuse requests a $500,000 earmark from the federal government.  Or when Sarah Palin is cleansed of witchcraft by a Kenyan Assemblies of God minister. 

This form of religious extremism when exported to Africa is killing people and causing rampant child abuse.

For decades, fundamentalist evangelical churches have sprung up throughout Africa. Some are affiliated with American congregations, while others are a bit more free form; all claim belief in Jesus. Many of them of share a common hysterical belief in "witchcraft."

"Witch" gets misinterpreted as anyone who is different, weaker, who can be scapegoated for one’s troubles. Heck Sarah Palin and her pals "prayed a witch" out of Alaska. And the prayer group gleefully recounted the results.

In Akwa Ibom State, the center of the Nigerian child witch hysteria, the State Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, lamented:

The church will torture children and some of the churches will pretend to use oil to try and remove witchcraft from a child. So far we have we have 165 children some of them are not up to 9 months old who have been thrown away by their parents because the church said those children will bring them misfortune.

The Governor  has taken a firm stance, declaring

The churches are busy deceiving people in many aspects including avoiding deaths. We have to do something to re-strengthen the Child Right Law. We must fight against the abuse of children and ensure proper education for them.

AllAfrica news service reports:

Analysts trace the phenomenon to poverty which drags parents to Churches and other spiritual centres to seek prosperity…Further investigations show that such parents are usually ready to pay anything to the spiritualists to "deliver" their children from the "grip of the devil."…In some cases, all that is needed for parents to begin to suspect their children of witchcraft, is a manifestation of certain "strange" behaviour. Others are "identified" any the presence of an "inexplicable" illness afflicting them.

Strange behaviors for the Assemblies of God?

Smoking
Drinking
Drugs
Homosexual behavior
Staying in room alone
Dressing in black (fingernails, lipstick)
Body piercings
Demonic symbols on jewelry & clothes
Music (Marilyn Manson, Godsmack, Korn)
Books (Majick, Harry Potter)
Unusual scars and burns on right hand

 Time to send Trey or Tiffie to Teen Boot Camp.

Or time to crack down on religious abuse of children at home and abroad.