I need to vent about Sarah Palin.

[At Home 0]

I bet ya there's a whole bunch of people who will vote for whoever Glenn Beck tells them to.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

Matzo, you seriously think that many people vote based on what some celebrity thinks?

I bet ya there's a whole bunch of women who will vote for whoever Oprah tells them to.

 

Okay, you can bet me, but that isn't really actual evidence.

[Gary Floyd 0]

I bet ya there's a whole bunch of people who will vote for whoever Glenn Beck tells them to.

Eh, too easy.

[panthermatt7 0]

Matzo, you seriously think that many people vote based on what some celebrity thinks?

 

panthermatt, the plural of anecodote is not data.

 

Not alot but I do think that some groups of people do follow sheepishly after what the celebrities are doing. For example, in Brazil there's a television personality named Xuxa she hosts both a Saturday morning cartoon block for children, and then on Sunday afternoon a more adult centered talk show (basically all the kids who grew up watching her are now adults), she got pregnant and people told me they were trying to get pregnant to be like Xuxa.

 

Teens, women in their twenties... women in their fourties, just to be like a celeb.

 

I find people wandering around in the States that do the same thing to a point. They'll vote according to whatever group they've identified themselves as, and a small percent of people will follow a random celebrity. Not alot of people, but enough to be annoying.

 

This is all I was really trying to say. There are enough people, particularly in my generation and younger, that will follow whatever they perceive to be vogue.

 

My apologies for the lame savior joke, but someone really did make that picture...

 

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

It seems likely that the person who painted that may:

 

a. have been being ironic

 

b. have not been an atheist, as you posited

 

But frankly, who gives a shit.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

 

Funny.

[EricMM 0]

Why does that guy keep staring at her...?

[ZGangsta 0]

What the hell is with the retarded MSNBC captions during that clip?

"Gov Palin keeps talking as turkeys get slaughtered behind her."

"Gov Palin not realizing incongruity of her words versus her backdrop."

Wow thanks for explaining exactly what I'm watching.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

At least they're not dumbing it down...I don't remember the last time I read the word "incongruity."

[bob_barron 0]

Obviously I think Obama was the right choice here, but the whole thing about people embracing Obama so easily reminds me of the bible and Revelations. It'd be interesting if everything follows that prediction as it has begun to.

 

Wait....what?

[BUTT 0]

What the hell is with the retarded MSNBC captions during that clip?

"Gov Palin keeps talking as turkeys get slaughtered behind her."

"Gov Palin not realizing incongruity of her words versus her backdrop."

Wow thanks for explaining exactly what I'm watching.

I like their use of "TURKEY CARNAGE." Someone's band just got a new name!

[ZGangsta 0]

Plus there's the classic "Turkey killing FOWLS Palin news conference."

yuk yuk

[Guest Czecherbear]

Is abuse of the "breaking news" tag okay because it's for a funny-ha-ha news-opinion show? Where on the continuum between Nightly News and Weekend Update does this show want to be, anyway?

[SuperJerk 0]

Oprah wants her, and so do Letterman and Leno. Fresh from her political defeat, Sarah Palin is juggling offers to write books, appear in films and sit on dozens of interview couches at a rate that would be astonishing for most Hollywood stars, let alone a first-term governor.

 

 

Sarah Palin continues to attract huge media interest despite her failed bid to become vice president.

 

The failed Republican vice presidential candidate crunched state budget numbers this week in her 17th-floor office as tumbling oil prices hit Alaska's revenues. Meanwhile, her staff fielded television requests seeking the 44-year-old for late-night banter and Sunday morning Washington policy.

 

Agents, including those from the William Morris Agency, have come knocking. There's even been an offer to host a TV show.

 

"Tomorrow, Gov. Palin could do an interview with any news media on the planet," said her spokesman, Bill McAllister. "Tomorrow, she could probably sign any one of a dozen book deals. She could start talking to people about a documentary or a movie on her life. That's the level we are at here."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/22/pal...h.ap/index.html

 

There is catch, though...

 

Although books and movie deals could be worth millions of dollars, it's not clear whether Palin would be able to legally earn it.

Whew. I think.

 

State rules say she cannot accept outside employment for compensation. But there appears to be little in the way of precedent left by former governors to judge if book deals or lucrative speaking appearances amount to "employment."

 

*grumble*

 

 

 

 

[Guest Czecherbear]

Why do you care whether or not she could make money on the side with a book deal or whatever? How does this affect your life?

[Dobbs 3K 0]

She could always take an advance on a book deal that isn't paid out until after she leaves office, or something along those lines.

 

I really don't see what's so compelling about this woman. Are die hard Republicans really that eager for more of her pandering to the "Real America," that they'll buy a book by her, or watch all her media appearances? Are there really that many more layers of her to explore at this point? (Let's save the dirty jokes, guys).

[Gary Floyd 0]

Why do you care whether or not she could make money on the side with a book deal or whatever? How does this affect your life?

She's a woman. That's how it affects his life.

[SamoaRowe 0]

Why do you care whether or not she could make money on the side with a book deal or whatever? How does this affect your life?

She's a woman. That's how it affects his life.

 

Or it might just might be due to her having another outlet to spread her toxic ideas and beliefs.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Theres already several unofficial books out on her that Ive seen. They're up on my Secret Santa wish list at work but I bet I dont get one of them.

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest Czecherbear]

Why do you care whether or not she could make money on the side with a book deal or whatever? How does this affect your life?

She's a woman. That's how it affects his life.

 

Or it might just might be due to her having another outlet to spread her toxic ideas and beliefs.

People with real "toxic beliefs," not just these half-baked Republican Party puppets like Sarah, publish books, host radio shows, so on, so forth. Her ability to do so and be compensated for it still shouldn't have any effect on the day-to-day life of Y2Jerk, inasmuch as he is not an Alaskan taxpayer nor is he required to spend his money on her book.

 

Speaking of required, this whole Obama/Emanuel mandatory civil service thing is a little sketchy. Why does it keep appearing, disappearing, and reappearing from change.gov in slightly modified forms each time, and why is this even an issue in the first place? I don't get this hangup with service, making high schoolers do x amount of community service hours in order to graduate, or making people drop everything to go to a civil service camp for three months.

 

Regarding the former, giving your time and energy to a good cause is a capital-letters Great Thing to do. Being required to do so, however, is considerably less great, and may in fact be bad, because any bonehead who has even set foot in a high school knows what happens when you tell high school students that they have to do a hard-capped amount of something, whether it's pages or hours or anything: more fudge than a Judy Blume printing press. It's typing in 12.5-point with the margins kicked in an extra eighth-inch, rounding up minutes you spent picking up garbage at a park, all the way to outright falsifying. I know I did that (hitting page requirements was never my problem), because like most of my peers, I didn't fucking have the time to do 30 hours a semester of community service. I had the seven hours a day like everyone else, then I had my music obligations (outside rehearsals, private lessons, fundraising concerts, &c), theater, forensics, mock trial, and the rest of my various dork pursuits, which left enough time to do most of my homework and putz around on the Internet. Right now my little sister is taking a CNA class which has her up at 5 in the morning to be at a nursing home by 6, followed by dance team from 3 to 5, followed by lessons on most evenings, and she also has her required-to-graduate community service project to eat up time she hasn't. Evidently this has worn her down enough that she is very ill right now, and this is someone who shares my tendency toward a hardy immune system. I could go in another direction from here on the emotional/social/physical/psychological effects of high school (extra)curricula on the so-called "honors track" or "achievement culture" or whatever we're calling the kids who do more than come home, put on a Pink Floyd album, eat a bag of Doritos, and masturbate into a gym sock, but the point is that forcing people to do community service takes the good spirit out of it and replaces it with resentment and lying, just like the rest of shitty high school. And besides, if a 16-year-old guy wants nothing more than to come home, put on a Pink Floyd album, eat a bag of Doritos, and masturbate into a gym sock, that should be his choice.

 

Re: the latter, I think the master plan is that everyone from 18 to 25 will have to go to a camp for three months to learn how to defend our nation or some shit and more importantly "learn what it means to be an American" through a common experience. This I don't buy. There's no shortage of nearly universal experiences among people. We're all unique (sorry Pit), but in a way we're all mundane, too: we've all had to go through school and deal with their sclerotic bureaucracies, and most of us have had to go through the drudgery of CCD or Hebrew school or some other supplemental religious education (I dodged this bullet), and there's really no shortage of "what it means to be an American" things in our lives: we all know where we were on 9/11, or when Obama won, and we'll continue to have universal moments like that. I don't see how making everyone get on a bus to do government labor is really necessary in once and for all addressing that particular concern. Logistically speaking, it's anywhere from impractical to ridiculous to expect people to pause their lives to learn how to build levees. Some 18-25ers have new families of their own. Some are at school. Some are working full-time. It's not realistic, to say nothing of the 13th amendment ramifications of such a plan. I know Israel has mandatory service, and Emanuel, who served there, has good intentions in enacting this, but it's apples and potatoes to compare the two countries, and you can't legislate morality, or kindness, or service, and so forth. Besides, have you seen some of the fuckos in this country? A few of them post here. You want them building levees for your local river when it overflows? I don't want them driving their own cars!

[jimmy no nose 0]

Yesterday I saw a commercial for the Huckabee show and they said they were going to have Sarah Palin reveal who were favorite Baldwin Brother was. I hope it's Billy, but if I were a betting man I'd say it's Stephen.

[SamoaRowe 0]

Why do you care whether or not she could make money on the side with a book deal or whatever? How does this affect your life?

She's a woman. That's how it affects his life.

 

Or it might just might be due to her having another outlet to spread her toxic ideas and beliefs.

People with real "toxic beliefs," not just these half-baked Republican Party puppets like Sarah, publish books, host radio shows, so on, so forth. Her ability to do so and be compensated for it still shouldn't have any effect on the day-to-day life of Y2Jerk, inasmuch as he is not an Alaskan taxpayer nor is he required to spend his money on her book.

 

Perhaps, but having a strong dislike (or hatred) of Sarah Palin =/= hatred of women.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Any person or agency that tries to tell me to serve mandatory community service will get a hearty "Go fuck yourself."

[At Home 0]

AFAIK, the community service thing is to get money off to go to publicly funded colleges.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Oh, ok. That doesn't apply to me anyway.

[Toxxic 0]

 

That picture makes it look like Obama was casually strolling along the beach and then suddenly got hit by a drive-by bukkaki-ing. Which might not be out of the realms of possibility, given the reaction of some people.

 

Just to clarify, I'm very happy Obama won, as it means your country is now far less likely to drag mine into a Third World War. All I need now is a leader who someone actually fucking elected, and things might look slightly positive for once.

[Jingus 0]

more fudge than a Judy Blume printing press.

I admit it, I lolled. Stupid Judy Blume and her heartwarming tales of childhood which are written in such a simplistic style that binary code might be considered a step up for her. How the hell did this literary equivalent of Skittles become required reading, anyway?

[Guest Czecherbear]

Don't step to Judy Blume, crackhead.

 

pbone, I'm pretty sure Rahm wants everyone 18 to 25 to ship out for civil defense camp, not just college students or aspiring college students. I don't know. Hard to tell when they keep taking it down and revising it. I'm not good with nuance

[snuffbox 0]

I didn't hear that they had changed it to compulsory service for the entire demographic.

[Jingus 0]

Don't step to Judy Blume, crackhead.

Says the guy who only consumes the work of Victor Hugo when it's on clearance.

 

In seriousness, though, I don't see the point of the mandatory civil service. Sure, it will get a bunch of people out on the streets doing stuff, but most likely doing stuff in a sulky half-assed manner since they don't want to be there. You couldn't trust them with anything more complex than picking up garbage off the side of the road. And I don't see how being used as slave labor for a period of time is supposed to just magically make someone a better person. What's it supposed to do, teach 'em the value of hard work? When they don't get paid for it?