Amazing. All over the news today are headlines about how Sarah Palin passed her big mid-term exam at last night’s debate. “G.O.P. Ticket Survives a Test,” the New York Times says. “Palin Recaptures Her Image.” Doesn’t anyone understand the difference between a “debate” and an interview in which people actually have to answer questions? Not […]
Palin, the Born-Again Bush (Just Add Lipstick)
OK, I have to admit it: I can be a bit slow. I didn’t get it till today, even with the evidence mounting higher than a pile of Alaska earmarks. I’d often wondered, in recent months, why Bush, who has so maimed the Constitution, did not simply scrap it altogether and continue his reign of […]
The U.S. Financial Mess? Just Follow the Money
Come on. Enough of this hand-wringing. It would really be remarkably simple to fix this nation’s financial mess. How? Just follow the money – and, when you find it, grab it. Amid all this apocalyptic talk of $700 billion disappearing into the ether to save capitalism as we know it, everyone’s forgetting to ask […]
Palin, abortion, and the blindness of the one-issue voter
A recent letter to a local paper noted, quite correctly, that Sarah Palin has "taken this country by storm" partly because of "her strong opposition to abortion." (Thankfully, though, as a wise analyst noted some 400 years ago, "sudden storms are short,” and Hurricane Sarah does indeed seem to be fizzling into a swirl […]
Beyond That Palin Perkiness, an Empty Shell
What do a boulder and Sarah Palin have in common? Absolutely nothing. One is all substance, the other seems totally devoid of it. What prompted this comparison? Well, I was hiking in the Catskills yesterday, my mind blissfully free of political nonsense, and as I came across some of the massive, stunning rocks strewn […]
Bristol Palin’s Pregnancy, the Tip of the Disastrous "Pro-Life" Iceberg
Is the pregnancy of Sarah Palin’s teenage daughter off limits as a relevant political issue? Absolutely not. “It’s a private family matter,” a McCain strategist said. “Life happens in families.” No, things happen for a reason. Palin, staunchly anti-abortion, believes the sum total of sex education should be about abstinence. So, presumably, in […]