Editor’s Note: A longtime journalist, Margo Howard went into the family business (her mother was the fabled Ann Landers) in the 1990s as Dear Prudence. Her broad experience and understanding of human nature provide answers for the troubled — and entertainment for everyone else. Click here to read her column on Yahoo!

I know, I know, everybody and their dog is weighing in on Sarah Palin, but I must add to the noise. I am channeling Joan Rivers here, but can we talk? I am going to come right out and say it … and I will say it in English. I think the deal with the kid who is knocked-up is tacky. I have no problem with a 17-year-old getting tripped up with her boyfriend of a year. My problem is with a mother who not only allows it to be breezed around the globe, but who then gets very in-your-face about it, as in, “I dare you to make something of it.”

The conservative fundamentalists who would have raised cane if Chelsea Clinton had gotten herself in a family way at 17 have found a way to pretzel this around so that the family is heroic for not choosing an abortion. And … as if this weren’t enough, the father-to-be, or “sex on skates” as one publication called him, is flown to St. Paul where he is met at the airport by John McCain! 

Are these people crazy? It all looks like a reward for, well, never mind. Then, the kid winds up on stage with Palin’s family and he is chewing gum. And … in place of a ring on his ring finger is the tattoo “Bristol.” If you can think of anything more tasteless, do drop me a line. I have about had it with “family values.”