But I wonder what sort of parenting skills resources, child care, job training and counseling, and post-secondary educational opportunities exist for teen moms and dads in her mother's Alaska? It would be kind of nice to imagine Ms. Palin-Johnston becoming a speaker for her peers in similar, but less safety-netted, circumstances. My vestigial sense of reality tells me that's probably not going to happen...

for Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston:

"Slam" By Nick Hornsby.

Best of luck. (Yes. I said that without irony). It's a tough, tough road ahead.

I think that's a little premature, here.

I can't see that the name Tripp is particularly conventional.

It is interesting to note that the Palin family apparently does not use Christian names, even though the mother has a Old Testament name (Sarah--which means Princess).

It seems odd though that the Palin family has raised eyebrows by naming their oldest son Track, which seems like a reasonable traditional name for a young Eskimo, whereas Joe Biden has avoided any snide remarks for naming his son Hunter, which would also be a good name for a young Inuit.

Palin's husband, interestingly, is called Todd, a name that comes from middle English and apparently means fox hunter.

The name Tripp, as one might think, means traveler, but also makes one think of psychedelia, and even more of Linda Tripp, the horrible woman who encouraged Monica Lewinsky to keep the semen-stained dress as a memento of an encounter with the President.

Did Sarah have a say in choosing this name?

And little Tripp will be set more or less for life. Unless his parents become meth heads for Jayzus.

Tod(d) is actually a Scottish nickname for "fox", and was used as slang to describe a crafty person.

Tripp just sounds like a typical preppie name.

Wolf-murdering yahoo granny* or drug-dealing yahoo granny? I'd rather spend Christmas with Leatherface's family of inbred rednecks.

Tripp is being born into it, that's for sure. Just like Bristol and Levi. Kids have it rough, but the parents -- no sympathy for the parents. I hope Grandma two has a spat with Grandma one and slips her an especially immoderate amount of, er, Limbaugh Delight.

*Palin is set to approve a record slaughter of wolf killing.

They gave the boy three names and *still* couldn't find a good one (although I'll concede that Mitchell is a toss-up)?

And what's up with the Palins and the goofy names they give to their boys: Track, Trig and now the li'l bastard Tripp. Yikes.

I’m delighted that mother and baby are fine. After saying that, I have to hope that mom and dad get at least a high school diploma before they have a couple more. It might be nice if the paternal grandmother doesn’t have to spend more than ten or twelve years in the slammer because she’s a drug dealer. The child might like to have this whole family value crowd around to nourish the tot.

My next question is are the people of Alaska going to keep this crew in office as the state’s first family, and is Neiman Marcus opening a store in Fairbanks?

FWIW, Hunter was used as a first name throughout the 20th century and started becoming quite popular in the early 1990s:

http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/1/Hunter

Neither Trip nor Tripp registers:

http://www.thinkbabynames.com/query.php

Please don't let the little guy's grandma have anything to do with naming him...but it seems too late.

Palin Dynasty? Oh, now that's scary. Fortunately for all our sakes, the political matriarch of the clan appears to be gifted in the art of verbal Self-Destruction.

Welcome to the world, little Tripp Johnston. May your mother get wise, and instruct you in ways to protect yourself and your eventual dates from Abstinence Only sex-education.

Because there are whole counties in Kentucky and West Virginia where pharmacies won't carry it. Too many break ins. Oxycodone packs several times the wallop it normally has if it's crushed up and ingested instead of just being swallowed whole. Which is kind of ironic since those are the people who are supposed to be missing most of their teeth too.

Gives me an image of a little boy who can't stay on his feet. Good way to make sure your kid gets beat up on a daily basis, folks.

Greetings, trailor trash baby!...I have to hope that mom and dad get at least a high school diploma before they have a couple more.

I'll bet when they get their diplomas, they'll both know how to spell "trailer."

Though Todd is supposed to have some Eskimo blood, Track is apparently thus named because his parents were enthusiastic about track as a sport.

The next grandchild of the future footnote in history which is Sarah Palin, will be named Trivia.

It is the nickname given to the third male to bear a family name.

Like, say, William David Smith III. Granddad would be "Senior," Dad would be "Junior," and the son would be "Trip," or "Tripp."

Giving a kid the name "Tripp," when the child is not the third male to bear the name is at least as "trailer trashy" as any of the names Sarah and Tod gave to their kids.

Jeeze, Swifty, I know of Ph.Ds in English Lit who sometimes blow it in those little boxes we are supposed to write in on the site. Besides, we’re reading this crap aloud, drinking champagne and wishing you were here to keep us all straight. Happy New Year!

CBS News had an interview with Johnston in mid-October in which "he said his much-maligned MySpace page was a joke--the one that claimed he said: 'I'm a ... redneck,' and 'I don't want kids.' Johnston said his friends created the page a few years ago and he had nothing to do with it."

No kidding, in this interview he sounds like a bright enough young fella, quite civilized. It's my understanding (read it somwhere else; it isn't in the CBS interview) that he quit school to become an electrician's apprentice on the North Slope so that he could be making a decent salary by the time he got married and became responsible for supporting Bristol and the child. (He says they'd been planning to get married long before Bristol became pregnant.)

Drug-dealing mother aside, he may not be so much of a redneck after all. Let's give him a chance.