Palin, World, War & Kissing Girls

At the risk of pissing some of you off, I have to say I think Palin's extremely awesome. I liked her before she was veep nom from watching her on CSPAN. As a Republican with serious Libertarian leanings, she fits the bill in all but two ways: choice and marriage. I'll die in a ditch over gun rights and national security before those two any day. (Choice and marriage are rightly state issues anyway. No one's amending the Constitution any time soon over a state's rights issue. It's a red herring, albeit a noisy one.)

My friends. My liberal friends. We love each other, I know. And at the same time you know I will not speak kindly of anyone engaging in Socialist rhetoric. Never, never, never. Marxist, Socialist rhetoric, totally lacking in balls-on-the-line specifics. Espousing casting in our lot with other governments, redistributing our wealth, and socializing medicine. That's the Dems number one. Such a master of smoke and mirrors, no one notices the Marxism. No one stops to think what it will mean for him or her personally. He's so good on stage, it might as well be a Vegas revival.

Versus the Reps number two, who has such integrity she exercised her right to choose by having her baby. Not it, "the baby", as some have called him, but their child, who is healthy and whole with potential all his own.

I know personally of a case where the amnio came back with problems (AFP, then sono, then amnio, of course), and the woman was advised to abort given the risk of DS. The baby was not only born without DS, but grew into a lovely young lady. If she'd been born with DS, I believe the Sears' analogy fits best. The family would have found out mid-flight they were going to Holland instead of Italy. Not the same, but no less wonderful.

That's where she found herself. No one can say what she should or should not have done without being in her shoes. Get the fuck off, especially if you're a guy trying to win points with liberal women. If you're a guy in the position of supporting progeny who have difficulty, I'll listen, but I've yet to hear any men speak ill of the experience, though my exposure is somewhat limited. Given that limited exposure, I think it wise to defer to those actually in the position of raising such a child, rather than sound like an ignorant monster.

(Do you know when those tests happen? The AFP happens around the time when you can hear the baby's heartbeat. In the sonogram, it looks like a baby. And you're well into it before you can have an amnio, which could cause miscarriage. You can't be on the fence and pregnant at the same time, because the clock's a-ticking every minute, with that march toward some arbitrary line that defines personhood moving closer every second, if you don't think conception is the magic moment. What about autism, schizophrenia or epilipsy, which aren't diagnosed until well after birth? Tests in that case are never a death sentence, at least not in our country.)

Where are the feminists when choice is actually that, not a euphemism for abortion? And where are the liberal feminists when the woman on the ticket is a Republican? Get on the bus.

Someone I know of actually said he "heard on t.v. she was a woman only in body". Wow. There are so many layers of idiocy there, I find myself unable to respond politely on the thread. Maybe that's what I'll say.

"I'm sorry, I'm unable to respond politely at this time."

(Ad hominem, "t.v." as a source, the sheer and brazen sexism--all oddly followed in his comment by some sensitive claim about what women want regarding choice, because he knows best).

Perhaps we'll stay true to our history, and a Black man will achieve the presidency before a women of any color does. I grew up as a racial minority in NYC public schools. I don't care about the stupid race card. In fact I think Obama is an extremely compelling speaker, a dynamic personality. He's passionate, and able to lead. Clearly. I find myself repeatedly sucked in by his winning smile. His family is charming. I can see him stepping down from Air Force One. I can't wait to see the family pet in the Times, and find out about his jogs, her favorite causes.

And then he talks about being a citizen of the world. Oh, help me.

I have no interest whatsoever in being a citizen of the world. The world actually sucks. In the world, having indoor plumbing and electricity are signs of disproportionate wealth. Never mind personally owned vehicular travel that is not mammal powered.

It drives me crazy when the "for the people, but not of the people" folks get their Atkins full bellies out of their Eames chairs, put down their iPhones, and take a stand from within the palatial air conditioned splendor of their fucking vacation homes.

Wealth in this country is general. The lowest common denominator has a plasma t.v. and a vehicle. Or at least knows someone closely who has one or both. Electricity is taken for granted, and it is considered suffering if one has it turned off temporarily. If the indoor plumbing is faulty, lawsuits follow. If you go anywhere else in the world, that's not the case. Unless you hit an upside down imperialism, guilt-ridden, welfare (dhimmi tax) paradise like the U.K..

In most places in the world, there's a trench in which everyone goes, or perhaps, more creatively, a platform off of which one can perform. Even in Europe you're as likely to find a hole in the ground as a throne. It was about 50/50 last time I was in France. Yes, even in quite a bit of Paris.

And when the sun goes down the light is gone. Dinner is likely gruel cooked over dung. And may have included insects, on purpose. Women are stuck at home when they bleed, are quite probably beaten, even just a little as needed, and babies come too often and die almost as much. Charms are medicine, hope is a luxury, and exploitation is a step above the starvation alternative. Disease is rife, 40 is old, political unrest is daily a clear and present danger, and the idea that we put our plastic organic yogurt containers in the dishwasher before we send them to be recycled is so inconceivably wasteful of resources it cannot even be explained.

Feminism on the left doesn't even bother to veil its Marxist ideals. Feminism on the left is perhaps the biggest hurdle women have to overcome now. Marx may have lent us the language to discuss oppression in a meaninful way, and the rigor with which one can analyse any situation in those terms has had value. Then there came a time when we stopped diagnosing and started acting. Much was achieved. But it was not without cost. Many young feminists are seeing the flaws in the pattern. (Quick! Who's Mom is still married to Dad/first husband? Who has a career but not kids? Who is still expected to take care of the aging parents while husbands and male siblings continue to earn income and advance their careers?)

Marxist countries are not fun. You don't really need to be told this. Nor is living in a Socialist country, where the sucking sound of the government taking 40% of one's income in tax is almost audible. That's not really something for which I can see the American people jumping with glee. The founding fathers thought anything over 10% was exploitative. What do you pay?

Socialist countries make you wait bleeding in the hall of the hospital while they change shifts and discuss how many people are before you in the queue. People die waiting. And their taxes paid for the honor. Their taxes push 40%, their wealth is reclaimed by the government when they die, and the rich pay extra to get proper health care anyway. But if someone breaks into their house, and they defend themselves, they land in jail. Seriously.

What the world has to offer, you don't want. It is downhill from here. If you're talking citizen of the big, industrialized city with university, relative freedom and uncensored internet, then great. I'm quite happy to be a citizen of that world. But that world is tiny, even if we throw in Ulanbataar for good measure. The rest of it pretty much sucks, no matter how dreamy the romanticising "noble savage" lefty doc makers try to make it seem.

An aside. Notice they're generally big guys, these doc makers. Off-the-trail world travel for the diminutive female of childbearing years is not so enticing. No one's going to be greeting me with respect and offering me sliced goat balls. They're more likely to look at each other with that "what luck!?!" expression and stick a bag over my head. Yahoo. Where do I sign up for that one?

Do you really think someone who is squishy on the 2nd A and wants to cut down on defense spending is a rational choice our president at this time? As I recall, having abortions and being gay aren't really popular in the countries where our enemies are hiding. Yes, enemies. The people shooting at our sons and daughters. The people plotting for our pain, anxiety and downfall. The people receiving (however indirectly) the wealth of our nation because we don't want to sully our own soil with taking care of business by drilling and going nuclear locally.

We'll worry about caribou while they suck us dry. We'll concern ourselves with whether I could be stoned for kissing girls in a meaningful way, while they raise an army of discontented and unmarriageable young men with philosophical differences, to say the least. We'll have dove-flying demonstrations where we cry about CO2 with our bare armpits flailing next to men who have somehow lost themselves in their joy over the freedom the pill affords them, while those opposed have babies, and have babies, and have babies. They don't just want to step in our new snowfall, they want to make us bleed and scream for having new fallen snow at all. And they're not afraid to use their children to do it, praying all the while.

By the way, we are at war. Remember? That whole nasty business, over there somewhere, where our soldiers are keeping bombs from going off here while being accused of occupation? You know, beheadings on youtube, burkas, opium markets, oil wells in disputed territories, tribal mentality, hostile neighbors, Israel set up alternately as the stooge or the noble exception? Our soldiers fighting for freedom the locals can't even imagine? That war.

In my mind, McCain is a genius for pulling in Palin. The Conservatives and Libertarians are over the moon, the hottie playing field is levelled, and McCain looks progressive. Even if you won't concede those points, at the very least his choice and his timing show strategic brilliance. What do you think wins wars?