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Warning: Lots of bad language. NSFW

A Few Stray Thoughts About Sarah Palin

Something is seriously wrong with this woman. Besides the obvious. Besides the fact that she is an under-informed, unintelligent airhead who has always gotten by on looks and charm. Something is seriously wrong. Because I think she really believes a lot of what she says. When she says that, for instance, Katie Couric asking her the same kinds of questions asked of every candidate is unfair "gotcha" journalism. I think she believes it.
When she says that the ethics complaints lodged against her are frivolous and the "politics of personal destruction," I think she believes it. And when she says she quit her job as governor to answer a "higher calling" I think she might even believe that.

I think the scariest thing about Sarah Palin is that she seems to think that everyone is out to get her and that she's always being treated unfairly, and poor little me, waah waah waah! At least two of the ethics complaints lodged against her stood up. She had to pay back some money that she used to bring her children along on business trips, and the ethics comittee did find that she abused her position in the "troopergate" mess. But Palin claims with a straight face that she has been cleared of all ethics charges and that they were all just frivolous attacks on her.


She seems to truly believe that she is being held to an unfair double standard. This is what she posted on Facebook re: her resignation:

"How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it's about country. . . And though it's honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make."

In an interview with the Anchorage Daily News, she stated:

"With Sean in the governor's seat, it won't be the politics of personal destruction,
I don't believe,"

Which would seem to indicate that she thinks that "they" were after her personally, and won't go after the new governor because he isn't her. That seems like paranoia.




And when she says things like this:

"I said before ... 'You know, politically speaking, if I die, I die. So be it. . .I'm not going to take the comfortable path. I'm going to take the right path for the state,"

And:

". . . my family and I determined after prayerful consideration that sacrificing my title helps Alaska most,''

I can't tell if she really believes that she is "sacrificing" for the benefit of Alaska, or if she just thinks that the people who are reading her posts are gullible enough to believe it.

She sounds like she has a martyr complex. I imagine Todd trying to dissuade her from quitting, and Sarah shouting "Get thee behind me, Satan!"

She is still talking about running for president in 2012, and here's what she sees as one advantage of the Presidency:

"I think on a national level, your Department of Law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we've been charged with and automatically throw them out."

Of course, there is no such thing as the "Department of Law," but putting that aside, in this one sentence she a) refers to herself as "we" [which she apparently does a lot] b) restates her belief that the charges against her are all frivolous personal attacks, and c) shows her complete ignorance of the workings of the Federal Government.

Geez, there's so much more. She tells baldfaced, easily verifiable lies (bridge to nowhere, Alaskan Independence Party). She can't even keep her story straight about why she's quitting. Just in her Facebook explanation, she starts out saying it's "about country," then says that it's what's best for Alaska, then that it's for her family, and that she's answering a "higher calling."

And for someone who is supposedly quitting to answer a higher calling, this is a strange thing to say:

"I can't predict the next fish run much less what's going to happen in a few years," she told the Daily News. "I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm going to keep working hard for Alaska."

If you're going to have delusions of grandeur, they should probably be more specific. If you're going to claim to have heard a higher calling, shouldn't you know what that calling is? You can't just say "all options are on the table" and "I don't know what doors will be open or closed by then. We can't predict the next fish run, much less what's going to happen in 2012." And claim that you're answering some higher calling.

Apparently, a lot of folks are speculating that Ms. Palin is afflicted with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/archive/236/blog/w/sybil_adelman_sage/diagnosing_sarah_palin_9582.html

It could just be that she's both stupid and crazy, a condition which I believe the DSM III refers to as "Stuzy"

Yes, that's it. Sarah Palin is stuzy. Feel free to drop that word into conversation.

I Love This Headline

This is the headline from Yahoo News:

Sarah Palin breaks her silence about resignation

Breaks her silence! She managed to remain silent for, what, 48 hours? Although for her, that might be a record.

Good Heavens, I've been Twittered!

This afternoon, while innocently Googling myself (don't judge me!) I ran across this:

Twitter / TallahasseeCENTURY21: The Daily Irritant: Joan S ...

The Daily Irritant: Joan Swirsky Is One Crazy Tea-bagger!: Besides the Fact that Ms Napolitano had fuck-all to d.. http://bit.ly/DVckA.
twitter.com/TallyC21/status/2469138161 - Cached - Similar -

So I clicked on it, and I saw this:

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The Daily Irritant: Joan Swirsky Is One Crazy Tea-bagger!: Besides the Fact that Ms Napolitano had fuck-all to d.. http://bit.ly/DVckA6:40 AM Jul 4th from twitterfeed

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So, I guess I've been Twittered, but I don't really get what that means. I don't have a Twitter account. If anyone out there understands Twitter, I would sure appreciate it if you could explain this to me. (Bear in mind, I'm over 40 so use small words)

My theory is that someone sent a link to my "blog" as a "tweet" to his or her "friends" and if that's so, THANK YOU. I need all the linkage I can get.

Magical Thinking

Sarah Palin's attorney, Thomas Van Flein just spoke with Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC. Mitchell asked him if Palin was upset that critics called her speech "rambling." " Well, I don't think she's upset. What I think is, she sees it as the standard criticism that she receives....She's actually very articulate."

Why do these people think that they can make something be true just by saying it? Saying that Sarah Palin is articulate is like saying that she's male, or black, or not a vapid, publicity-hungry baby factory.

Why do you think that that's the "standard criticism?" Do you think that people listen to her prattle and think "wow, she's really articulate. I guess I'll say the exact opposite when asked for comment?" Take a look at this:

Our destiny to be reached by responsibly developing our natural resources. This land, blessed with clean air, water, wildlife, minerals, and oil and gas. It's energy!
God gave us energy.

(source: http://gov.state.ak.us/)

Does that sound like something an articulate woman would say? It's incoherent. There's barely a complete sentence in there. And this is from the transcript on the Alaska State Government website. So is this:

We took government out of the dairy business and put it back into private-sector hands – where it should be.

See, anyone with a basic grasp of English syntax can see that here she is claiming to have put government into private hands.

Um, by the way, sure wish folks could ever, ever understand that we all could learn so much from someone like Trig - I know he needs me, but I need him even more... what a child can offer to set priorities right – that time is precious... the world needs more "Trigs", not fewer.

That's pretty much gibberish. And by the way, Ms Palin may be the only one who can "learn so much" from an infant.

. . . we can ALL learn from our selfless Troops… they’re bold, they don’t give up,

That's an ironic reference, since the theme of the speech was "I quit!"

So, articulate? Not so much. Simply saying that she is doesn't change anything. This is a sort of magical thinking, believing that saying something as if it were true somehow makes it more true. It's how you get people saying things like "we'll be greeted as liberators" and believing it. Or "Sarah Palin is qualified to be president."