Thursday, December 31, 2009

Sarah Palin and "virtuous ignorance"

Jonathan Raban does a review of Sarah Palin's book in the New York review of books which Ms. Moose-eater would approve of, since it's a slaughter. There is a Christmas pudding of quotes about the Quitter from Wasilla which I will leave the reader to enjoy for themselves. but some favourites are:
Her encounter with the sincere and passionate ladies, and the jangling false antithesis between "principles" and "politics," which goes little further than the fact that both words begin with a p,
  It was a voice unspoiled by overmuch formal education
 And
When she and Todd Palin "eloped" to Palmer (which is all of eleven miles distant from Wasilla) to get married, they celebrated with a wedding dinner at "the Wendy's drive-thru." Later, they "bought a $35 wedding band from a street vendor in Hawaii, and it still works!" "My family is frugal," Palin remarks, rather unnecessarily.

Sadly Mr. Raban is clever enough to see that Palin is quite good at politics especially of the underhanded kind and I hope he is wrong about her ambition

Having hoisted her banner of Commonsense Conservatism, and campaigned across the country by Lear jet and tour bus to promote Going Rogue, she's unlikely to assuage her compulsion to be a winner merely by selling more books than anyone else during 2009's holiday season. She is the stuff of democratic—with a small d—bad dreams.
It's a good fish in barrel shoot up until the last paragraph and is worth a read.

14 comments:

Smut Clyde said...

Shooting fish in a barrel is actually almost impossible because the water STOPS THE BULLETS. I saw it on Mythbusters.
That's assuming you put water in the barrel, of course. It may be that you filled it entirely with fish. If so, scraping the bottom of the barrel afterwards is not going to be a pleasant experience.

mikey said...

Yeah. I was certain that Americans would recognize an unacceptable level of raw stupidity and thus reject GW Bush. Instead, they elected him once, and got him withing lying distance the first time.

So now, ever hopeful, I'm thinking that in terms of politics (as opposed to governance), there is a significant and telling difference between intelligence and competence. Bush was stupid, but he was a competent politician who surrounded himself with competent politicians and followed the program. Palin is an idiot, who is convinced that her popularity among ignorant white bigots is the same as broad-based popularity and therefore there is no necessity to moderate her message, such as one can determine what it is, nor to obfuscate her fundamental stupidity.

As to taking the life of large numbers of confined fish, anyone with any experience with explosives will happily tell you that the term "shoot" doesn't necessarily apply to a gun, for the reasons itemized by the Smutwagon above. But a little ANFO, a couple meters of Primacord or a good old fashion M61 or M67 grenade will yield many incapacitated fish...

Hamish Mack said...

You also have to take the top of the barrel which can lead to explosions WHICH ARE NOT YOUR FAULT.

mikey said...

While on the subject of fish, I'd like to say that while I can in no way be considered a fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, I just made a fish sammich on a Kaiser roll for lunch, and while I was toasting my Kaiser roll the line "How come everybody wants to keep it like the Kaiser?" got stuck in my head.

And I'd very much like to "Give it away, give it away, give it away now..."

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

hey, you upside down bastards, enjoy the new year.

Don't use it all up before we get some. It's got to last through the Bastard's environs, then the ZOMBIE HEARTLAND, then mikey needs some....

you can keep the spiders though. I just squish em. Competition yanno.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

I kinda like the Peppers, mikey.

But then, Zombie, you know.

Hamish Mack said...

New year is looking OK so far ZRM. Um how far does it have last? It's getting pretty thin already what with my kids whacking the living Jebus out of it. Heh heh sorry and all.

Smut Clyde said...

Turned out that there was just one bad apple in the barrel, trying to conceal itself amongst the fish.

Smut Clyde said...

New year is looking OK so far ZRM.

One of the cats yakked up on March 13th but I've brushed it off and if you don't look too closely it should be fine.

Hamish Mack said...

Looks like there has been some sort of mixup around August 12 and the lettering is all double offset printed there. It'd be a good time to get drunk so's it wouldn't matter, I reckon.

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

It may be that you filled it entirely with fish. If so, scraping the bottom of the barrel afterwards is not going to be a pleasant experience.

Mmm... garum... uhhh...

Happy Antipodean New Year!

Another Kiwi said...

Garum? Bloody near killed 'em.
No that's not right, hold on...

Smut Clyde said...

Clearly, AK, you have not watched that BBC series in which a couple of foul-mouthed celebrity chefs explore the culinary possibilities of rival fish sauces, "Top Garum".

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

It'd be a good time to get drunk ...

As opposed to what?