Holy !*#&$(!

I finally get offline/no media (except SportsCenter this morning...) for 30 hours or so, and all hell breaks loose.

I figure Steyn is right, as usual, and I just feel sick and sad. And I hope it's not because of something about Trig's health.

Sigh.

My first NY wedding was lovely and fun. Friend's bride is a total sweetheart, wedding was sweet, resort and meal were fabulous. The fire alarm went off during the cocktail hour and the hotel had to be evacuated--so they just had their picture taken with the fire truck (false alarm, thank God). *grin* And my best moved-from-Milwaukee friends were there, we had a great time.

Still homesick, but less depressed. Onward.

Oz

Got a slow start this morning due to migraine, so opted for Oz-stravaganza (closer, later in day). Now I remember why I don't go to small-town festivals--I always come home feeling like Sayyid Qutb (that I actually thought of Qutb while waiting for the parade frightens me). I haven't seen so many 350-lb people since the last family reunion I attended, but we have the good sense not to leave the house wearing only camisoles and short-shorts (especially the men). And then the pregnant teenagers/teenage mothers smoking on the sidewalk and covered with tattoos (easily visible when you're half-naked)--how can they afford cigarettes and tattoos!?!? Also spent some time wondering how 300-lb women with mullets and no teeth have babies and I don't...maybe I was just too picky with my dating requirements back in the day ("basic hygiene" and "literacy"--shameful snobbishness).

Cranky old maid ranting aside, the festival was disappointing--the parade was short, the "history tent" mostly empty--but I had a nice lunch, and there were a lot of cute kids in costume.

So I'm really bummed I couldn't get up earlier and gone to see Sarah Palin. Although better than a short speech in a crowd would have been to be at the Women's Rights National Park* yesterday when she was there. I'm impressed at the ignorance of the people insisting she's some sort of hypocrite for being interested in the first-wave feminists--Elizabeth Cady Stanton had seven kids, including a change-of-life baby, and Susan B. Anthony opposed abortion and once voted (illegally) for Republicans. I bet Gov. Palin had all sorts of interesting things to say there!

* I visited in 2005, and may again; it's open year-round so I'm not in a hurry. In addition to abolition and women's rights, the first-wave feminists were also anti-alcohol, and that's where we part ideological ways, but other than that I find them quite inspiring.

Shut up and read the lines someone else wrote for you

Gillian Anderson blogs.

And how the hell do you clean the house and make the dinner and do the shopping? I know I am sounding like a complete idiot here but I’m telling you, every last one of you from the beginning of time should be given a medal, and free health insurance, and food coupons, and a government subsidized housekeeper that comes in one day a week per child.

I thought Britain already did that for "long-term unemployed" single mothers. Maybe it's only for the wives of Wahhabist imams...

The Sarah Palin icon brings up another interesting thing I did not comment on today because there's really no point...one of my Facebook "friends" posted a link to the announcement of SarahPAC with the usual "she's so stupid, she should shut up and stay home" commentary.

I really wanted to highlight the absurdity of an unattractive woman, pushing 40, divorced after her husband preferred someone else, childless, working dead-end clerical jobs as long as I've known her--and I'm not being catty, except for "divorced" and "clerical" I could be describing myself--thinking they're smarter and less irrelevant than an attractive sitting governor with a nice family, including a son in the Army protecting us from people who would just as soon kill American women as look at them (and don't treat their own women and children any better).

But there's no point in arguing with that sort of self-absorbtion, is there?

[I would like the SarahPAC website to list some specific policy ideas related to "Sarah Palin's plans to build a better, stronger, and safer America in the 21st century." Sounds nice, but I want substance. But I look forward to seeing what sort of local candidates the PAC supports.]

Michael Ramirez!

Hee hee.

Huh.

I hope Mr. Johnston is working on a GED on the side, but other than that, I don't see what the big deal is here. All the women from my high school who had babies at 18 have much better lives than I do. You can always have a career when the kids are grown, if that's what you want; the other way 'round just doesn't happen.

Don't read the comments; the world is full of shit-heads.

(I always have to put a hyphen in "shit-heads" because otherwise I read it "shi-theeds". Bah.)

More like "reluctant McCain supporter."

Is that what my voice really sounds like?!?

• I was there to see Sarah Palin, and I was not alone in that. Nice to see so many pre-menopausal women in attendance, and lots of young daughters.
• Good day overall, although I misunderestimated when rush hour starts around here.
• I was in line with some nice people, a couple my parents' age and a family with an enthusiastic teenage son, and we had some nice conversations about issues and our admiration for Sarah Palin.
• I was in the chairs in front of the media, but too far back to see much. And my camera choked on the low light (flash is really useless from further than 10-12 feet).
  
• Paul Ryan is hot. Yes, that's not rational principled discussion, but I never noticed before and I could not not notice.
• Tommy Thompson's speech had me more excited about voting for John McCain than anything John McCain said (with the possible exception of his promise not to bring our service members home in defeat, I tend to like that).
  
• Good soundtrack as they entered.
  
• As noted earlier, not thrilled with this whole government-giving-my-money-to-people-who-bought-too-much-house thing. Although I bet the illegal aliens who took off when they got foreclosure notices are wishing they'd stayed.
  
• Didn't appreciate the undercurrent of body-size bigotry, either. All that yapping about Joe Thomas inspiring kids to "be healthy"--the federal government's stupid height-weight chart that health insurance companies use to deny individuals coverage classifies him as "part of the problem" by about 90 pounds--and look at him! There's nothing wrong with him! *tangent*
  
• The "change the culture to support women" who find themselves contemplating abortion is good, but as usual I note that no one ever suggests changing the culture to teach boys to keep it in their pants (or support the mothers of their children if they don't), or even that young women are valuable for more than sex, etc. Teenage girls don't get pregnant by themselves.
• The adoption stuff was good, although I don't think that's the most pressing issue for most people. It humanizes the candidates, though, reassures that the "good people" stuff isn't a facade. I disagree with some of their ideas and agendas but like Bush, I think McCain's basically good people.
  
• I agree with the angry guys about McCain needing to fight like he wants it. Stop being so nice, dammit.
  
• James Harris was awesome. :) I didn't recognize him at the time, of course.
• I felt McCain's answer about Hugo Chavez and Communist aggression in the western hemisphere was kind of weaselly, but overall I'm satisfied with the attention he'll pay to national security/defense. Especially since the alternative is so very, very bad.
  
• I was dumb for not pressing forward to shake her hand. But it was really hot in there.
  
• My ears got sunburned waiting for the motorcade. *shakes fist at the sky*
  

Overall, a good day. Beat pressing buttons. And it was a lot more fun and a lot less frightening than the al-Gore rally in the middle of the Iowa State campus in 2000 (hey, I wasn't going to vote for him, but I wanted to become well-informed about what I was voting against, and what better source than the jackass's mouth?).

Rally!

They don't need me at work tomorrow morning (I really don't like the sound of that) so now I'm trying to figure out what time to leave to go the Palin-McCain rally in Waukesha. I don't like anyone enough to drive out there during rush hour...

If you're there, and you see a lone Muppety-looking fat woman tearing up during the national anthem and making faces at other peoples' babies, do say hi. :)

Ah, feminists.

They're having psychological issues because conservatives are "violating" Rosie the Riveter. Example: Ellen Goodman in a snit. I fixed this key graf for her:

After all, Sarah Palin Nancy Pelosi may yet be is the fulfillment of an old feminist prophecy that Texan Sissy Farenthold once described with her tongue firmly planted in her cheek. We will have achieved equality the day mediocre women take their place beside mediocre men. Check that one off the to-do list.

There. Now it's true.

And look what they were selling at the Milwaukee County "Victory Center" (my model was uncooperative, something about Palin's lack of interest in Feline-American issues):


Much less vulgar than the "contemporary feminist" version. I hope I annoy them. I also bought a "Nobama '08" button for my ham-sammich-Dem-but-making-an-exception-this-year best friend. :P

(I have a ticket for the rally in Waukesha, but I don't yet know if I can get out of work on Thursday. I'm taking some time off later in the month and I'd hate for them to realize they don't really need me. The GOP could get Obama-like turnout every day if their members/voters didn't work for a living...)

I read this "Help, Sarah Palin is ruining my life!" bit on Salon yesterday, and just stared at it open-mouthed. The "advice" is worse than the letter--smug, condescending, nothing new. But Sweet Michelle Obama's boxing gloves!! How pathetic do you have to be to let someone who doesn't even know you "ruin your life" by being alive and successful??

Kat-Mo at Ace had the best response ever.

I'm pretty sure even The O Himself can't ruin my life just by existing. And he like, controls the oceans and stuff. Yeah, he's going to hope and change America into oblivion and his policies will make my life harder and more painful, but the "ruining" part, I already did that. :P

(I will confess to harboring dark thoughts about smashing the TV in the locker room at the gym this evening when I was changing and O's ignorant 2-minute economics commercial--the one where he promises to Raise Taxes On Businesses and simultaneously Create Millions Of Jobs--came on. I don't need to see O's stupid ears on a big screen while I'm half-naked. What is this, Club Gitmo? But I've had the same thoughts about being subjected to The Biggest Loser, Larry King, and the Cubs. There are just some places you don't need a TV...and if you can't handle being ten minutes without TV, you have bigger problems than I do.)

Election season...

This would bother me if Pennsylvania wasn't up for grabs.

*

Let's just get this election over with

I'm so tired of seeing this catshit (this is the least offensive example, trust me) everytime I read quilt blogs and friends' personal journals and every other email with "FWD:" in the subject line. Can we just move on to the gloating (and/or race riots) and stop the snide crass self-congratulation-on-how-smarter-we-are-than-people-who-go-to-church? It's like water torture, and I'm only two "Sarah Palin is an evil bitch!" conversations away from going Towanda the Avenger.

Full disclosure: I do laugh any time Gary Varvel draws Obama's ears, but that sort of thing is a) a tradition of political cartooning and b) doesn't co-opt, politicize, and vulgarize any treasured American icon. And half the time I still think McCain looks like Statler and Waldorf's long lost brother. Heh.

(I might start asking them how they think Sarah Palin is going to go about impregnating every American woman after she takes the oath of office. Some of these women I'm convinced there's some Oprah-esque wish-fulfillment fantasy going on here. The liberal ideal of government-as-husband, 35-year-old educated white woman version.)

Semi-related, I attended a birthday dinner last night and at my end of the table conversation centered how how much the Midwest sucks. Too much "sprawl", unlike Portland and Seattle which are awesome because no one's allowed to build so it's pretty and you don't have stupid poor people from the small towns trying to move in (I think I outed myself as an evil baby-polar-bear-starving Neanderthal conversative asshole when I accidentally mentioned out loud that building restrictions are a classic example of how government over-regulation hurts poor people). People from small towns are so..."limited." (guilty) Milwaukee has no progressive culture, just backwards mass-commercial crap (really? There's a one-man play about an East German transvestite going on right now at the Rep....). Lake Michigan is small and boring (!!!). And four distinct seasons? That's for unenlightened boors. You have to be seriously unevolved and classless to like winter.

I LOVE winter. And like the Midwest. And enjoy life in Milwaukee (except for the driving down to the inner city and having to swerve to avoid the people who stand in the middle of the street and stare me down, but I'm thinking you get some of that in the poor parts of any major city, no matter how progressive and cultured it is). Stupid, limit, uncultured, unenlightened, boring, worthless small town hick that I am...I can't help wonder why these people are here instead of someplace more to their liking. I suspect its because it costs a lot of money to live in those places...

I don't think I'll be invited to any more dinners after my friend Andy, who organized it, moves to The Cities next month.

(Two of my favorite writers are Walter E. Williams and Thomas Sowell, can you tell?)

Cold shower

Aw, crap.

In the ABC interview, Palin said she believes that "man's activities certainly can be contributing to the issue of global warming, climate change. ... Regardless, though, of the reason for climate change, whether it's entirely, wholly caused by man's activities or is part of the cyclical nature of our planet - the warming and the cooling trends - regardless of that, John McCain and I agree that we gotta do something about it."

a) "Climate change" is cyclical and heliogenic.
b) What the F does she think we're going to "do" about the sun's natural cycles???

You know how interfering with the wildlife in Yellowstone--because "naturalists" thought they knew more than nature--screwed it all up? Imagine turning those arrogant bastards loose on the SUN. *shudder*

(OTOH, shooting them into the sun....)

Five kids

I'm increasingly bothered by "Palin can't be VP and raise five kids." Her oldest son is not a kid at home needing to be tucked in every night--he's been in the U.S. Army for a year. He's raised. He's a full-fledged adult. I know it's fashionable for lefties and other bleeding heads to cry that American soldiers are poor frightened children who need to be brought home and covered in bubble wrap, but they're freakin' MEN and WOMEN. This "five kids at home" meme disrespects a lot more people than just working mothers.

I'm sure she'll be thinking about him constantly when he's in Iraq, but other mothers hold down jobs just fine when their sons and daughters are deployed.

I further note that no one told Nancy Pelosi to quit Congress in 2006 when her daughter was pregnant for the first time--they told her to run for Speaker.

Unrelated: I've been trying to wear lipstick, just to see what it's like, but my hair keeps getting caught in it. Then the lipstick goes from my hair to my shirt. Sigh.

Gratuitous Reagan post

It's been awhile since I've read Ann Coulter, but I liked her this week.

As a right-winger, Palin will appeal to the narrow 59 percent of Americans who voted for another former small-market sportscaster: Ronald Reagan.

My grandpa, who died in 1986, told me about listening to Reagan call baseball games on WHO out of Des Moines (which is where I first heard Rush Limbaugh). And every time Reagan gave a speech on TV, we all had to be quiet because Grandpa would put his tape recorder right up next to the set to record it. :) I don't know what happened to the tapes, if Grandma threw them out or they were sold at the estate sale after she passed; I wish I had them now.

I'm holding off on "the female Reagan" for a few years, just to be sure. Actually, in 20-30 years, I'd rather be calling someone "the male Palin" ;) I'm a chauvinist like that.

Best analogy yet

From a "mrkwong":

McCain is the carrier deck, Palin is the F-18 taxiing up to the catapult. It takes four years to turn the USS McCain into the wind for launch, and that's plenty of time to do a systems check on the VP.

We throw our bag aboard the USS McCain 'cause if the trial lawyers' and enviro-lobbyists' booze-cruise that is the MS Obama puts to sea, it'll throw a prop and drift around in left-hand circles and it might take eight years to beach the thing.

Also, I should start reading Jim Treacher regularly. Cookie made of dreams!

October 2

The only scheduled debate between vice-presidential candidates is October 2. I hope Biden shows up. ;)

You know what has really stuck out the past few days? Urban/suburban folks--especially in the media--like to go on about how they're smart and sophisticated and rural folks are naive mouthbreathers, but the ones making the most noise seem to have lived really sheltered lives. Change-of-life babies, older sisters babysitting (hi Joel!), nieces and nephews going to preschool with their aunts or uncles--there is nothing going on in the Palin family that doesn't happen outside of major metropolitan areas everywhere.

Except maybe the PTA. Does MPSD have a PTA? That's not a joke, really...

Much has been made about the "hypocrisy" of supporting Bristol Palin while "condemning inner city women who bear children out of wedlock." Hey, if 2012 rolls around and Bristol has one or more additional children out of wedlock with one or more different men who are nowhere to be found, I'll be the first to say, "Wow...that's just wrong." I've never condemned anyone who had an accident, only people who don't learn after the first 2-3 accidents, and people who encourage their behavior. And it's not a "racism" thing as the snide comments imply--there are plenty of dumb white women with 3 kids by 4 men.

(And hey, if any boy who wasn't my cousin had given me any attention in high school, I could have been in Bristol's situation. No condemnation here.)

Best comment: Tonight, she showed how to field dress Democrats. Heh, after Fred Thompson made the comment Tuesday about field dressing moose, I got a mental picture of the Obama staff Googling "field dress" to try to understand why moose need women's clothes.

Mmmmrph.

I'm always impressed by how much feminists hate, despise, and condescend toward women. You'd think by now it wouldn't surprise me; they've never cared about empowering ordinary women, only about forcing a different oppressive structure on them.

(I could do without all the conservatives repeating over and over that you have to have had babies to be a "real" woman but I'm hoping they're not motivated by malice.)

(Goldstein: "I mean, who knew it would be the left who saw sin growing in a young woman’s womb?")

Oh, and I've spent most of the weekend wishing I could eavesdrop on phone conversations between Bobby Jindal and Ray Nagin.

Insert squealy noises here

I've been trying for a couple of hours to write a post about John McCain picking Sarah Palin as his running mate, but I'm having trouble remaining coherent. How freaking cool is this?!?! Never expected I'd be excited about voting this November.

Her whole biography/family--I want to BE her. They're all adorable. But more importantly: anti-pork, anti-corruption,
sound ideas on energy, has actual executive experience (more than Obama and Biden put together), has actual life experience outside politics (more than Obama and Biden put together)...

I might even buy a T-shirt, although I don't know where I could wear it around Milwaukee without getting things thrown at me.

(People are already being assholes about her decision not to abort baby Trig. Don't do it in my hearing; my inner Erzulie Dantor has been working some overtime lately.)

(And, superficially...a conservative woman second in line for POTUS should the unthinkable happen? Nancy Pelosi, eat your black little heart out. *grin grin grin*)

UPDATE: Mark Steyn: Whenever Senator Obama attempts anything non-political (such as bowling), he comes over like a visiting dignitary to a foreign country getting shanghaied into some impenetrable local folk ritual. Sarah Palin isn't just on the right side of the issues intellectually. She won't need the usual stage-managed "hunting" trip to reassure gun owners: she's lived the Second Amendment all her life. Woo-hoo!

I can't make this up...

The shoes of Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain (L) and his vice presidential running mate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin are shown as they stand at a campaign event in Dayton, Ohio August 29, 2008. (John Gress/Reuters)

I can't tell if this is parody or satire or if Reuters really thinks shoes are important.