- General (10)
- Politics & Society (52)
- Science (21)
- Space (4)
- Friday, 6 August 2010: Determinism and the Dalai Lama
- Friday, 6 August 2010: Culpability
- Sunday, 11 July 2010: Determinism is inconsistent with relativity
- Monday, 3 May 2010: print is dead. long live print!
- Thursday, 25 February 2010: "Part of the burden of being so bright is that he sees his error immediately"
- Tuesday, 16 February 2010: About that 3D movie...
- Saturday, 23 January 2010: Vox Populi: Scottenfreude edition
- Friday, 6 November 2009: The other shoe [BUMPED]
- Wednesday, 4 November 2009: Pleonasmic
- Tuesday, 27 October 2009: The Trajectory
Blogroll
Politics
Punditry
Reference
Science
Space
The Arts
Maverick and Goose
Well, Mother Goose, anyway – Sarah Palin has five kids.
The consensus will no doubt evolve over the next few days, but right now conservative circles are reportedly ecstatic and the Obamaites are in disarray. It seems like a masterstroke, slashing the twine and pulling on the chewing gum with which the Obama campaign has tried to bind the “puma” faction, while simultaneously reassuring the red-staters that there will be a conservative presence in the administration. She has a lot to recommend her, including experience running the nation’s largest state. I had fretted over the possibility of a 4 x Senator race.
I have to say, this has been the smartest campaign McCain has ever run. I might even vote for a McCain-Palin ticket.
UPDATE: Well, as I said, the situation is evolving. Bristol Palin is reportedly with child, and unmarried, and the left is in a tizzy. I wish Bristol well, but in this unforeseen development, she will be an issue in her mother’s campaign.
The left is salivating at the prospect of inflaming the Jerry Falwells of the right. I predict that once again, the Kossacks will be outraged at the “hypocrisy” of the right — meaning, Christians just won’t react with the hatred that Hollywood has led them to expect. In the end, just as the trumped-up campaign against Mary Cheney fell flat, Bristol Palin will evoke smiles from the right — because she will marry her baby’s husband and raise a chubby, happy baby.Meanwhile the “liberals” will fret that Bristol is “too young to have a baby”. Welcome to the real world.
I think there is a gulf in worldview between the leftist humanists and the rightist religionists. In the left’s ideal world, Levi Johnston and Bristol Palin would openly cohabiting, for sure, but Levi would have worn a condom, and if Bristol had gotten pregnant anyway, they would have had “the tissue” removed, as though it were cancerous. In the right’s ideal world, Bristol and Levi would wait until they were married. And in the right’s real world, they would be discreet and careful — and if Bristol got pregnant, they would get married a little sooner and raise a baby (which appears to be their trajectory). Because life happens while you’re waiting for something better to come along.
UPDATE 2:
BO remains, umm, geographically challenged. In response to a question about experience from CNN’s Anderson Cooper, he pointed out the diminutiveness of Palin’s hometown of Wasilla, AK, and by all appearances seemed unaware that a Governor runs a state and that Alaska is a state. Ordinarily one might not even notice this omission, dismissing it as “clever” campaign-rhetorical jujitsu. But Obama now has a considerable track record of geographical goofs: misplacing Auschwitz, Poland; confusing Rapid City with Grand Rapids; confusing Sioux Falls and Sioux City; confusing Sunrise, FL, with “Sunshine, FL”; misstating the number of states in the Union; not knowing that the state he represents, Illinois, shares a border with Kentucky; and just last week confusing St. Louis and Kansas City. Not to mention acting as though Germans had votes that will count in November. Weird.
A Spenglerian would speculate that Obama is not merely “post-racial”, but “post-Faustian” — a candidate free of the tyranny of number and map. Someone should ask him about his web experience.
Friday, 29 August 2008 at 22:18
Stroke of genius, or just eye candy for the Old Guy? Well, my first impression upon hearing the news of Palin’s selection was that it will guarantee Alaska’s three electoral college votes. Woohoo.
Gov. Palin has been a breath of fresh air to Juneau, which in Frank Murkowski’s wake was feeling downright dirty in every sense of the word. The Alaska state legislature — and the state Republican party in particular — has been plagued with corruption and other problems. Ms. Palin is principled, a pretty good executive and manager, I hear, and also fairly benign. There is currently some accusations about her inappropriate involvement in dismissal of a trooper, who was married to her sister, but this is no sign of malfeasance. She has insisted the records related to the incident be opened up. She’s definitely not of the Cheney-Bush school.
She’s a relative lightweight, though. McCain can and will dominate her. She has no strong connections in Washington. To this Alaskan, she looks like window dressing for the Oval Office, a diversionary tactic meant to freshen up the same-o same-o.
Friday, 29 August 2008 at 23:52
Seems like a ‘too clever by half’ move to me, but the next two months won’t be boring!
Wednesday, 17 September 2008 at 22:57
This is precious:
Fascist writer Westbrook Pegler, an avowed racist who Sarah Palin approvingly quoted in her acceptance speech for the moral superiority of small town values, expressed his fervent hope about my father, Robert F. Kennedy, as he contemplated his own run for the presidency in 1965, that “some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow flies.”
It might be worth asking Governor Palin for a tally of the other favorites from her reading list.
– Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/governor-palins-reading-l_b_126478.html
Wednesday, 17 September 2008 at 23:42
Pretty funny. Apparently Matthew Scully (Palin’s speechwriter) lifted the quote from a Pat Buchanan book without researching the original source. The quote Palin used was “We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty and sincerity and dignity”, which is designed to inflame the passions of urbane sophisticates everywhere.
Well, as they say, a stopped clock is right twice a day, unless it’s digital. Pegbrook sounds like a nasty sort, but I think there are probably a goodly number of folks who agree with the sentiment in that particular quote. By all means, though, I urge the left to go global with the anti-small-town meme. It can only help to consolidate the metrosexual image they so desperately desire.
Ironically, my post referred to Oswald Spengler, as many of my posts do. I am sure RFK-lite would be quick to point out that Dr. Spengler was a fan of Der Führer, since Hitler’s rise was a striking confirmation of Spengler’s theory of history. Hitler, on the other hand, was not a big fan of Spengler, since the doctor predicted his downfall. [Right again, Oswald!] And though I am a fan of Spengler, I am no fan of Hitler. Thus, we see fandom is neither symmetric nor transitive. I am also sure that RFK-lite doesn’t care about such subtleties when there are political points to be scored among the unwashed.
However, if the repugnant Jr were to ask me for a tally of other favorites from my reading list, it would include Heisenberg. And Guderian. And on the left, I’ve read Orwell and Neruda and many others. I would be willing to quote from any of them, if I felt that truth were being conveyed in an eloquent way. So who is being intolerant now?