Tomecat, Palin was a popular Governor who is also wildly popular among conservatives, the very group that hates McCain and where he needed turnout in order to win. Picking her made all kinds of political sense–in fact, one of the major reasons that he lost may have been that conservatives perceived him as abandoning her and registered their displeasure. I don’t understand where the perception that he picked her to pander to Democratic women and laugh at us for falling for his scheme comes from, except from the idea that nobody would actually pick a woman for a good reason, despite how much she appears to bring to the table in his case.
If he did think he could win by having Palin draw female Democrats, anyone could have told him the chances against it were 10 billion to one.
This is probably the most insightful look into "lefty" minds I've seen in forever.
It doesn't matter that Sarah Palin is a woman who has apparently lived life on her own terms, has a successful marriage to an attractive man, and a brood of children who all appear to be well-adjusted.
It doesn't matter that she also reached the top position in her chosen field (Alaskan State politics).
It doesn't matter that feminists declare that they are all about women succeeding on their own terms.
It only matters that she is not one of them.
I've been reading Reclusive Leftist's post on attempting to understand the Feminist anger and vitriol (hope that's not too redundant) towards Palin.
I heartily recommend taking the time to read the post and all the comments.
I understand that it's difficult to see the Other in compassionate terms, but this is what is happening here. The commenters are mainly women, and mainly self-identified feminists. Some are mothers, some aren't. Some commenters are men.
There are derogatory remarks made about christians (personally I don't like being called a "godbag" and get really tired of anti-christian insults), but as with the MRA sites, look below the surface and see what's really going on.
Palin is a catalyst. She's everything a feminist believes she's entitled to, but she apparently did it without the sisterhood.
She doesn't subscribe to the patriarchy-bashing that is decreed the only path to success for women.
The biggest problem with that, however, is that we really don't live in a patriarchal world any more. Not in America, and not in Australia. Violence Against Women Act? Of course we need one of those, because women get bashed up.
So do men, by women, but we're not supposed to talk about that concept.
Also, whatever happened to the usual laws on the books about assault and battery? Oh, that's right, they don't count in a domestic situation because when you smack someone out, it's worth more if it's a bloke hitting a woman in the home and therefore deserving of more legislation.
I'm digressing again, but I do that when it comes to women's rights as opposed to men's. Ask any of my friends and they'll tell you I'm a tad obsessed.
Back to Sarah Palin and her impact upon modern feminism.
For those too lazy to click, here from 1963 are the CURRENT COMMUNIST GOALS
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use ["]united force["] to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.
Those pieces so bolded (is that a word?) are just what I see from the other side of the pond that seem to be way on track.
Not a good look, and not exactly the "Patriarchy's" fault, I suspect.
Oh dear. I guess I don't need to worry about Gen Y any more.
Pensioners torture financial adviser Yahoo!7 June 24, 2009, 4:40 pm
A financial adviser has barely escaped with his life after being beaten and held hostage for four days by a gang of old-age pensioners.
American James Amburn was beaten until his ribs broke, burnt with cigarettes and hit with a Zimmer frame by the gang of five pensioners furious that he'd lost their £2 million ($4.1 million) savings.
Living in Germany, Mr Amburn was ambushed as he left a cafe and driven in the boot of an Audi to a house, where he was dumped in a cellar.
"I was jumped from the rear and struck," he told UK tabloid The Sun.
"Then they bound me like a mummy with masking tape. It took them quite a while because they ran out of breath."
In four days, the pensioners fed him just two bowls of soup, burned him with cigarettes and threatened to kill him "again and again", angry that he had invested their money in a failed Florida property scheme.
He escaped once but was recaptured and beaten until his ribs broke.
Mr Amburn was eventually rescued after convincing his captors to let him fax a Swiss bank in an attempt to get their money.
He left a note for police at the bottom of the fax and armed cops stormed the house in Bavaria on Saturday.
The "Furious Five" as they have been dubbed, face 15-year sentences for hostage-taking and torture.
Updated to enlighten. The top pic is Philip Seymour Hoffman, excellent actor. The bottom pic is of Santa Monica senator Sheila Kuehl, unfortunately well known as someone who believes that when a child is born then the father's (or putative father's) rights go out the window.
Way back in the dim dark ages (Dec 2006), I wrote a post featuring a Q & A from our fave Imam.
The post merely copied a request from a muslim woman who was having marital troubles, and the response from the imam was basically too bad, so sad with a rather low care factor.
She should just pray more, and be nice to her husband.
That doesn't quite fit in with the idea of women apparently being honoured in islam, but maybe that's just me - I got a corker of a comment today on this post that pretty much says it all:
unbeleivers cannot understand what the faith is. This world is nothing for muslims. Our ultimate goal is Life after death
This is it in a nutshell.
It doesn't matter what your situation is here; it's all about teh After Life.
To get to the afterlife, you have to go through Death.
No wonder al qaeda and the talibs have no problems recruiting. Anything to score points that might go to another and get them to paradise before you.
It's also a very sad indictment on their lives that everything is so focussed on what is to come, there can be very little joy in even the simplest things like the laughter of a child or a brilliantly lit sunset with a mild breeze on an autumn day.
If everything is supposed to be ordained by allah, then surely taking some pleasure in this world is okay, too.
A few bloggers get together and suddenly a new blog is born. I didn't even know we were expecting!
Ocean, Sky and Khaki is a blog set up to help support Australian military forces serving away from home, particularly those overseas, with things like care parcels and information on what to put in them and where to send them.
Kae, Boy and I want OSK to be a point of reference and meeting for those who wish to support Australia's Military and for members to contact us to let us know what to put in those care packages to make their lives alittle easier.
If anyone has any links or ideas for the blog please let us know at OSK.
Yesterday, Bolta brought to our attention the interesting tidbit that our soldiers need to cough up for their own life insurance.
The comments at the original article are enlightening. While plenty of pundits are outraged, there are also a few who don't seem to get the issue.
they get paid enough, what's their risk compared to a lowly paid cop.
True, Saint George of Brisbane. It's not like Mt Gravatt is any less dangerous than Afghanistan now, is it?
Then we have the remarkably astute Rex of Camp Hill:
JohnP (6) You say "..Govt SHOULD and MUST pay for life insurance". By that, you mean taxpayers?? These boyscouts are already overpaid for doing bugger all.
Boyscouts? My girl's in Scouts, and I don't see her roaming around Iraq trying not to get blown up, or the same in East Timor or Africa.
Why should I, through my taxes pay for diggers insurance? I did not ask them to take a job with the army/airforce etc. My employer (state government) does not pay life insurance for me, nor do I ask for anyone else to do it for me. Suck it up and pay it out of your own pockets. The Australian people are not going to add this to all the other perks you lot get for serving overseas. Remember, you chose that lifestyle, you were not forced. And before all the mums etc get on the band wagon, I honestly believe that we are sending troupes out to fight wars that are not of our making. We are only propping up other countries.
From mates of mine who've served overseas, I don't know a whole lot about perks. I've heard of the heat, and the boredom, and the tension and lack of sleep, and missing home.
Some perks.
In the comments at bolta's, Boy On A Bike pointed out something that really does need a bit more publicity than it currently gets.
Did you know that if you are in Australia, you can send a care package to a soldier in Afghanistan for free?
I did learn of it a while back, but didn't take advantage of that until easter when I sent easter eggs and other goodies over.
Slack of me, I know - I have tended to send stuff to people I know personally.
Unfortunately, not all of our guys and girls have anyone to send the things and just let them know that they are thought of and their work appreciated.
If I'm getting off my arse, it's about time others did too.
So many people like to put down America and how they act like they're so good, well when it comes to showing appreciation for their troops, they are light years ahead of us.
These are only a few off the top of my head, and yes, I know they have a population of 300 million.
That's not the point.
They are our men and women in harm's way, so we should support them.
I've started making enquiries about what is appreciated, but as a starter kit, how about:
Via one source:
Lollies, small fruit cake, muesli bars, small deodorant, small sultana packs, soap, hand lotion (antiseptic type), ANZAC biscuits, short bread, vegemite and peanut butter.
Australiana is also popular for trade purposes such as pins of Aussie flags, kangaroos etc
Via source #2:
Snacks - nuts, chips, BBQ Shapes etc, Twisties, Cheezels - all are good, they'll be shared out among the Aussie contingent when we play cards of an evening.
Biscuits - other than Anzac bikkies. It takes about 3 weeks to get here, and often sits in quite hot warehouses on the way. Butternut or other types are good, even chocolate bikkies (not iced ones though)
Sauces and condiments - tomato sauce, BBQ sauce, asian sauces, Tabasco etc - We're mostly good for this stuff. The PX stocks most condiments.
Spreads - vegemite, peanut paste, jam, marmalade - Peanut Butter!!! The RSL sent us a heap of Vegemite (with ANZAC Bikkies and real knitted socks).
Drinks - Milo, tea, coffee - Again, the PX stocks most of this stuff, no Milo though.
2 minute noodles, packet soups - Rolled gold! All good. Also good would be those Continental meal sachets. We are cooking our own food, and some variety would be a bonus.
Chockies - violet crumble, picnic, polly waffle - Not likely to travel very well.
Minties or other chewy things - See chips etc.
Staminade/Gatorade powder - A good idea. Might be a bit bulky though.
Cereals - weetbix, just right etc - No milk. They get fresh milk in Khartoum, but out here it is all powdered.
Magazines: Ralph, Top Gear, motoring or fishing mags. Home decorating and gardening (if you're into that) - Boys mags (not stick). 39 PSB send us some, but they tend to be Take 5 and New Idea, I suspect the guys in Khartoum are taking first dibs on what comes in - can't blame them I guess. The one female here is well catered for. Mags like Ralph and FHM should pass the "not stick" rule, and still give us the necessary ammunition when we brag to the other nationalities about how much better looking our girls are.
For a few extra bucks when you go shopping, I don't believe that it is all that difficult to put together a small pack that you can send for free.
I also like to send those biodegradable toilet wipes. I'm the biggest fan of baby wipes out, and these ones have the added bonus of biodegradability, which can only be a Good Thing.
The Robert Timms coffee sachets as well are something I have a stash of in the cupboard.
I don't have scales, but I add up the weights on the pack as I go, and can generally get it to within a cooee.
You can buy boxes to pack from the post office, or recycle boxes. I buy from amazon.com, and so I have a nice supply of boxes that are the perfect size. Two or three books at a time works best in the box department, or else shoe boxes. Nothing that can't be sealed with a bit of packing tape.
So, if you do decide to do like I have and get off your backside and down to the post office, where do you send?
I've only one address so far, and that's for Afghanistan. You can send to:
“An Australian Soldier” Op Slipper AFPO 13 Australian Defence Force SYDNEY NSW 2890
In my experience, contact from home is the most longed for thing, but a few other goodies can only help.
And besides, it's free to send!
Email me if you want to know more. rwdbanon@yahoo.com.au
Please leave your Political Correctness at the door. Freedom of speech and thought are mandatory.
Good grammar will be rewarded (although posting and drinking may impact upon this at times).
About Me
Name: Nilk
Location: Melbournistan, Australia
I rock, and that is all anyone needs to know about me.
Oh, and I also suffer a deplorable lack of humility.
