THEY WERE FOR PALIN BEFORE THE WERE AGAINST HER

Let's see what the MSM had to say about Palin in 2007:

In 1998, voters in a focus group were asked to close their eyes and imagine what a governor should look like. "They automatically pictured a man," says Barbara Lee, whose foundation promoting women's political advancement sponsored the survey. "The kind you see in those portraits hanging in statehouse hallways." They most certainly didn't visualize Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a former beauty-pageant winner, avid hunter, snowmobiler and mother of four who was elected to her state's highest office last November. Or Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, a badge-wielding former federal prosecutor and onetime attorney for Anita Hill who has redefined the debate over illegal immigration in her state....

While this year's political buzz has been about Hillary Clinton's run for the White House and Nancy Pelosi's ascension to Speaker of the House, women leaders like Palin, a Republican, and Napolitano, a Democrat, have gained significant power in the lives of millions of Americans at the state level.


In Alaska, Palin is challenging the dominant, sometimes corrupting, role of oil companies in the state's political culture. "The public has put a lot of faith in us," says Palin during a meeting with lawmakers in her downtown Anchorage office, where—as if to drive the point home—the giant letters on the side of the ConocoPhillips skyscraper fill an entire wall of windows. "They're saying, 'Here's your shot, clean it up'." For Palin, that has meant tackling the cozy relationship between the state's political elite and the energy industry that provides 85 percent of Alaska's tax revenues—and distancing herself from fellow Republicans, including the state's senior U.S. senator, Ted Stevens, whose home was recently searched by FBI agents looking for evidence in an ongoing corruption investigation. (Stevens has denied any wrongdoing.) But even as she tackles Big Oil's power, Palin has transformed her own family's connections to the industry into a political advantage. Her husband, Todd, is a longtime employee of BP, but, as Palin points out, the "First Dude" is a blue-collar "sloper," a fieldworker on the North Slope, a cherished occupation in the state. "He's not in London making the decisions whether to build a gas line."

In an interview with NEWSWEEK, Palin said it's time for Alaska to "grow up" and end its reliance on pork-barrel spending. Shortly after taking office, Palin canceled funding for the "Bridge to Nowhere," a $330 million project that Stevens helped champion in Congress. The bridge, which would have linked the town of Ketchikan to an island airport, had come to symbolize Alaska's dependence on federal handouts. Rather than relying on such largesse, says Palin, she wants to prove Alaska can pay its own way, developing its huge energy wealth in ways that are "politically and environmentally clean."

It's no coincidence that two of the nation's most popular women governors come from frontier states (Arizona and Alaska were the 48th and 49th, respectively, to join the Union) without established social orders that tend to block women from power. In Washington (the 42nd state), Gov. Christine Gregoire and both U.S. senators are women, a trifecta yet to be achieved by any other state. As women reach these top jobs, even more women enter the political pipeline. "When voters perceive things are bad, they expect a woman candidate to come in and create change," says Debbie Walsh of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. "Voters give them license not to fit the mold."

They also are willing to embrace women in nontraditional roles as protectors or enforcers of the public interest.Although she has been in office less than a year, Palin, too, earns high marks from lawmakers on the other side of the aisle. During a debate earlier this year over a natural-gas bill, State Senate Minority Leader Beth Kerttula was astounded when she and another Democrat went to see the new governor to lay out their objections. "Not only did we get right in to see her," says Kerttula, "but she asked us back twice—we saw her three times in 10 hours, until we came up with a solution." Next week in Juneau, Alaska lawmakers will meet to overhaul the state's system for taxing oil companies—a task Palin says was tainted last year by an oil-industry lobbyist who pleaded guilty to bribing lawmakers. Kerttula doesn't expect to agree with the freshman governor on every step of the complex undertaking. But the minority leader looks forward to exploiting one backroom advantage she's long waited for. "I finally get to go to the restroom and talk business with the governor," she says. "The guys have been doing this for centuries." And who says that's not progress?

Gosh. Did they fail to vet her?

And, speaking of "established social orders that tend to block women from power"--that seems to be descriptive of today's left, where all the women are strong, except if they don't robotically agree with leftist ideology.

While I'm at it, Gerard Vanderleun makes an excellent point: there is really no difference at all between today's Democratic Party and the left, and they are getting more intimate and more lunatic with every passing day.

To pass off the actions and attitudes of the Democrats, 2008 as those of "the American Left" without seeing the overwhelming overlap between a major political party and a major American political philosophy seems to me to be a denial of the political realities of 2008.

Ms Noonan's observation that the danger is to "the American left and the Obama Candidacy" could be made clearer if she eliminated the code words and just wrote, "the Democrats and the Obama Candidacy." Shorter still, "the Democrats." After all, one of the basic things we learn in "The Elements of Style" is, "Omit needless words."

The idea that there is any significant difference between the Left and the Democrats is so 20th century. It would be nice if everybody, right, left, and center, would just stop pretending.

Read it all. And then remember how self-serving it is for them to rail on about Sarah Palin and her associations while having given a pass on Obama's. Let's just say that it's a pity Sarah Palin hasn't been good buds with an unrepentant terrorist or a race-baiting bigot for decades. Then she could run for President without a problem.

When Palin wasn't a threat to them, they could damn her with faint praise and pretend she fit into their fantasy. She could even be on the VP short-list for months--as long as she was never actually selected from that list.

VDH has coined the proper term to describe the leftocrats behavior:

Palinize: to slander and caricature a working-class female public figure for the noble advancement of liberalism.

Sarah Palin—self-made woman, and governor of Alaska—is being reducing by the left to a hickish, white trash mom of five, analogous to the manner that esteemed jurists like Kenneth ("cigarette lawyer") Starr and Robert Bork were slandered by the media as incompetent right right-wing fanatics, and Clarence Thomas was pilloried as an affirmative action sex-maniac.

Why does the left and liberal media, in McCarthyite fashion, now seek to destroy rather than just oppose these public servants?

Finally, Neo summarizes the new rules for female candidates (of the Republican persuasion at least):

Since we all know that a female candidate’s gravitas is highly suspect, and that she is solely responsible for everything about her family, from now on female candidates will not be allowed to have a frivolous past (such as some girly-girl stuff back in high school). Nor can they have families that can be found to have any flaws.

But since those things are not possible for the vast majority of the human race, this calls for drastic measures. So I hereby propose that future female candidates for high office on the Right must be pre-selected early in life and required to take a vow of celibacy, forsaking family and other obligations and entering into a special society somewhat akin to that of the Vestal Virgins of Rome (the thirty-year period could, of course, be easily extended)...

The last thing in the world the left wants running against them is someone real who threatens their fantasy story of O.

UPDATE: And then there's this:

From Ferraro to Palin: My, How The Times Change [Andy McCarthy]
The New York Times, that is.
At TheCatholicThing.org, George Marlin unearths the Gray Lady's editorial from July 3, 1984, gushing over Geraldine Ferraro's nomination and the welcome prospects it presented that little known women would be selected to serve as Vice President despite arguable inexperience and given the opportunity to grow in office. Here are the highlights:

Where is it written that only senators are qualified to become President?... Or where is it written that mere representatives aren’t qualified, like Geraldine Ferraro of Queens?... Where is it written that governors and mayors, like Dianne Feinstein of San Francisco, are too local, too provincial?... Presidential candidates have always chosen their running mates for reasons of practical demography, not idealized democracy…. What a splendid system, we say to ourselves, that takes little-known men, tests them in high office and permits them to grow into statesmen.... Why shouldn’t a little-known woman have the same opportunity to grow?... [T]he indispensable credential for a Woman Who [sic] is the same as for a Man Who [sic] – one who helps the ticket.

The Dems and the MSM have truly become more vile than anyone could have possibly imagined. How's that for 'hope and change', people?

DEMOCRATS, FEMINISTS, AND HYPOCRISY

More Cartoons by Dana Summers

The Anchoress has a comprehensive roundup of Palinsanity.

Victor Davis Hanson has this to say about Palin this morning:

Much has been written why Palin both brings strength to the McCain ticket and is a gamble at the same time. Why then the growing wave of popular sentiment in her favor?

Various reasons, but one I think is that millions of Americans are simply tired of being lectured at by smug elites. Jetting Al Gore made tens of millions finger-pointing at us about our global warming. Obama's America, apparently unlike Rev. Wright's Trinity Church, is a cruel, downright mean and dysfunctional place. John Kerry's United States is one of the half-educated in need of Ivy-League enlightenment and tutorials.

So along comes someone (unlike Biden's vastly inflated middle-class biography) who really is from the working class. She likes it—and finds snowmobiling, hunting, fishing and living in small-town America not as a wasteful use of carbon-emitting fuels, cruelty to animals, gratuitous depletion of our resources, or proof of parochial yokelism. Instead it is a life of action in an often harsh natural landscape, where physical strength is married to intelligence to bring us food, fuel, and progress.

Palin's symbolism is the antithesis of the metrosexual wind- or body- surfing politican, and hair-plugged, neurotic TV pundit So at this time, right now, millions apparently like Palin's atypical 19th-century profile. Again, it's a pleasant change of pace from Harvard Law School, DC politics, "community organizing" and the can't-do, 'they raised the bar on me' collective complaint.

If she can beat off the frothing Newsweek/MSNBC/New York Times inbred rabid wolves, and do it with the grace she has shown so far, she will fill a deep yearning among Americans for someone like her. A lot of Americans, if they watch reality shows, prefer truckers on ice or Bering Sea crab fishing to endless psychodramas of thirty-something suburban whiners.

So apparently they are eager to see a rare politican who is unapologetic about America's past achievements (cf. Obama's "tragic history" and need for more "oppression studies"), and who reminds us with pride that a muscular world of action, not community organizing, creates the bounty that others use and take for granted but so often sneer at the methods of its acquisition.

Right now, there are millions rooting for her in a way not true of Biden—and many who are criticizing her don't have a clue why that it is so.

Along those lines, my completely apolitical daughter--who puts her hands over her ears when I get going on any topic remotely political and chants "lalalalala"--asked me this weekend if we could go see Sarah Palin and John McCain when they were in Detroit later this week. I was so astonished, I almost dropped the plate I was carrying to the dinner table. When I asked her why, she told me she was very excited about Palin being the vice presidential nominee.

What the Democrats and the media are doing to this woman and her family is absolutely unbelievable. I have to agree with Glenn Reynolds when he suggests that: "How they could have kept the Palin pregnancy out of the press: Leaked it that John Edwards was the father."

SARAH, DEAR, WOULD YOU MAKE THE COFFEE FOR US BIG IMPORTANT DEMOCRATS?

Now this is just the sort of sexist dismissal of professional women I witnessed many times in my career:

She Is a Small-Town Mayor. She Is Not — Repeat, Not — the Governor of Alaska. [Byron York]

In an interview of Barack Obama last night, CNN's Anderson Cooper mentioned Sarah Palin's experience as a small-town mayor and as governor of Alaska. Obama, hewing to his campaign's talking points, ignored the governor part:

COOPER: And, Senator Obama, my final question — your — some of your Republican critics have said you don't have the experience to handle a situation like this. They in fact have said that Governor Palin has more executive experience, as mayor of a small town and as governor of a big state of Alaska. What's your response?

OBAMA: Well, you know, my understanding is, is that Governor Palin's town of Wasilla has, I think, 50 employees. We have got 2,500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe $12 million a year. You know, we have a budget of about three times that just for the month.

So, I think that our ability to manage large systems and to execute, I think, has been made clear over the last couple of years. And, certainly, in terms of the legislation that I passed just dealing with this issue post-Katrina of how we handle emergency management, the fact that many of my recommendations were adopted and are being put in place as we speak, I think, indicates the degree to which we can provide the kinds of support and good service that the American people expect.

Just for the record, Alaska's FY2008 operating budget is $11.2 billion, and the state employs approximately 15,000 people. Those certainly aren't huge numbers in federal terms, but they're a good bit bigger than the Obama campaign.

Nice, huh? And Cooper just let that bit of sneering sexism pass. This is exactly what I mean by the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the Democratic Party. They fairly ooze supercilious masculine superiority because they know they have the full and swooning support of today's feminists when they bash a woman not of their tribe.

I mentioned some time ago how much I dislike Hillary Clinton--not because she is a woman, but because her policies suck and I would never vote for her. But the Dems can't even be that honest. And, of course, when she got in the way of their victimhood food chain, she was dead meat.

This is an example of postmodern sexism -- sexism that is perfectly acceptable among the enlightened members of the left because it is politically correct.

For example, we know from experience that blacks, women and gays lose their cherished victim status if they dare to become Republicans; and, to a lesser extent, if they choose to be Christian (except for most Episcopalians, who have seen the secular light).

Being black trumps being a woman or gay (i.e., there is more "social justice" mileage to be squeezed out of the oppression of blacks, i.e., racism, than there is from the oppression of women (sexism) or even gays (homophobia). Just ask Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton.

The oppression of Jews is completely ignored because of the animus the "enlightened" have toward Israel; and anti-semitism, which in past times would have had a ranking up close to the level of dark-skinned people (probably because those who founded the Jewish state were dedicated socialists--unfortunately, they soon realized that in real life, their ideology didn't work too well); but anti-semitism no longer is a compelling issue for the socialists. In fact, they are among its worse practitioners as socialism has spread throughout the Middle East.

If you haven't read this gushing and disgusting bit of feminist porn on Muslim sexuality by a person who considers herself to be a modern "feminist" then I urge you to go and see the idealization of feminine victimhood. Oppressed Muslim women? Who the fuck cares? Certainly not today's feminists, who hate American sexism,Republicans, conservatives, George W. Bush--and now John McCain and Sarah Palin--with a deep, abiding passion; but who champion a culture whose very essence is the domination of women and the suppression of female sexuality. This seeming contradiction is really no contradiction at all.

Feminists today are not pro-female. They are collectivists. From the article of mine I quote above:

From the perspective of the socialist utopian, what matters more than Women's rights or Gay Righs are the rights of a designated culture. The dogma of multiculturalism trumps the dogma of women's superiority. This is probably because for the socialist utopian, might makes right and the needs of the many always outweigh the needs of the few--and the few better remember that fact, or else. In the socialist utopia, there is no room for individuality or personal preference; or tolerance for differences. You always must subsume yourself to the collective; and the bigger the collective, the more power victimization can be exploited.

Quite frankly, the Democrats and their Messiah make me quite ill. So much for them being "progressive"--their mindset is straight out of the insanity of the 1960's.

UPDATE: Siggy just sent me a another link by Naomi Wolf, the author of that nauseating and gushing little article mentioned above. This article was published in every major English-language Arab news outlet:

Dear World, Please Confront America (by Naomi Wolf)

Is it possible to fall out of love with your own country? For two years, I, like many Americans, have been focused intently on documenting, exposing, and alerting the nation to the Bush administration’s criminality and its assault on the Constitution and the rule of law – a story often marginalized at home. I was certain that when Americans knew what was being done in their name, they would react with horror and outrage.

Not only is she a collectivist and a traitor to women, but she is also a traitor to her own country. I'm sure she'll vote for the Messiah.

UPDATE II: Is this the kind of elevated sexuality enjoyed by Muslim women to which Naomi Wolf refers? I don't think this sort of thing has been perpetrated on women in America since...oh, forever--not even under the BusHitler administration.

A JOURNALISTIC SHAMPOO & BLOWDRY

I rather like this comment by Cliff May over at The Corner on Sarah Palin's qualifications:

It's also stunning for my old friend EJ to say that "Obama has been put through the journalistic wringer since he entered the public spotlight four years ago."

Really? Did I miss the 60 Minutes report on Obama's relationship with unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers? The New York Times investigation into the deals Obama made with convicted felon Tony Rezko? The Dateline look at ACORN and what "community organizers" really do?

Dick Cheney has been put through the journalistic wringer. For Barack Obama it's been more like a journalistic shampoo, facial and massage.

He is referring to E.J. Dionne's article which calls McCain's pick of Palin "breathtakingly reckless" and refers to her as "Harriet Miers, except without all the experience."

Unfortunately for the Democrats, this kind of talk only serves to highlight and call attention to any comparison of Palin's experience and credentials with the Dems Presidential choice--a place they really really shouldn't want to go--but then, there's no accounting for fools who steadfastly remain in denial even when they are drowning in the facts.

And, Gerard Baker makes the comparison explicit:

Political experience

Obama: Worked his way to the top by cultivating, pandering to and stroking the most powerful interest groups in the all-pervasive Chicago political machine, ensuring his views were aligned with the power brokers there.

Palin: Worked her way to the top by challenging, attacking and actively undermining the Republican party establishment in her native Alaska. She ran against incumbent Republicans as a candidate willing and able to clean the Augean Stables of her state's government.

Political Biography

Obama: A classic, if unusually talented, greasy-pole climber. Held a succession of jobs that constitute the standard route to the top in his party's internal politics: "community organizer", law professor, state senator.

Palin:A woman with a wide range of interests in a well-variegated life. Held a succession of jobs - sports journalist, commercial fisherwoman, state oil and gas commissioner, before entering local politics. A resume that suggests something other than burning political ambition from the cradle but rather the sort of experience that enables her to understand the concerns of most Americans..

Read it all, of course. While most MSM journalists are now diligently working on the blowdry to that shampoo and preparing to perform a pedicure in the Obama Day Spa, there are some people noticing that outside, in the real world, things are not exactly as the Messiah and his minions suggests they are.



More Cartoons by Glenn McCoy

THE LEFT'S FIRESTORM OF PROJECTION ABOUT PALIN

Nowhere can the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of today's left be seen more clearly than in their knee-jerk reaction to Sarah Palin as McCain's vice presidential pick.

Newshoggers, for example asks, "And how do we know she is a theocon wingnut extremist? Theocon wingnut extremist James Dobson is now onboard after saying for months he would never vote for John McCain."

Oh gee, Mr. Beasley. I guess then we can safely assume that Barack Obama is an anti-American, terror-sympathizing radical extremist because, not only are anti-American, terror-sympathizing radical extremists William Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn going to vote for him, but they also have a rather close personal and professional association with him!

Glad you finally cleared up any remaining doubts anyone might have about how to assess such connections.

And, The Nation's Katha Pollitt puts it even more plainly:

Here's the reality: Palin is a rightwing-Christian anti-choice extremist who opposes abortion for any reason whasoever, except to save the life of the girl or woman. No exception even for rape, incest, or the health of the woman. No exception for a ten-year-old, a woman carrying a fetus with no chance of life, a woman on the edge of suicide-- let alone the woman who is not ready to be a parent, who is escaping domestic violence, who is already stretched to the limit as a single mother. She wants to force over one million women and girls a year to give birth against their will and judgment. She wants to use the magnificent freedom the women's movement has won for her at tremendous cost and struggle--the movement that won her the right to run those marathons and run Alaska -- to take away the freedom of every other woman in the country.

I must assume from Pollit's passionate screed, that women are dying in droves from back alley botched illegal abortions in Alaska. What? No? I would bet she doesn't have a shred of evidence to back up any of her assertions. And the "magnificent freedom" won at so high a cost by the women's movement? Is that by any chance the freedom to perpetuate eternal victimhood on us poor, helpless women? A scam today's "women's movement" has been getting away with for several decades now (even as they excuse and rationalize away real female victimization in the world).

Consider what Pollit's histrionic and fearmongering statement really amounts to: because Sarah Palin DARES to disagree with the idea of abortion, SHE MUST BE A RADICAL EXTREMIST who is going to "FORCE" millions of women to "give birth against their will".

What crap. They said the same thing when John Robert's was nominated for Chief Justice. They say the same thing when anyone who disagrees with them is on the political stage; and they swoon and wail when it is one of those gender-traitor Rethuglican women.

For the record, I also don't hold with the anti-abortion litmus test that some conservatives demand for all political purposes. IMHO, Roe v Wade has distorted and perverted the entire issue. We should be having a discussion about when life does begin (sorry, but making a judgement on this is not above my pay grade).

I happen to think women should have a choice and be in full control of their bodies (including deciding whether to have unprotected sex and perhaps get pregnant); but then they must deal with the consequences of their actions. Pollit's hysterical assertion is just the sort of tempered discussion on the issue we've come to associate with the so-called "reality-based" political left. These guys wouldn't recognize reality if it smacked them in the face. (But they do worship polls). Not only haven't we had a frank discussion about race in this country for some time (and never will if the left and its Messiah has anything to say about it--because that would be racist) but it is also definitely time to have a national discussion about unconditional abortion rights-- and responsibilities. This is a discussion we must have if we are to stand on the side of life as a culture (i.e. as in "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness").

As I noted in a previous post:

What we have witnessed over the 30- 45 years since the Left ascended to dominate political thought in the mid 20th century, is its rapid and unprecedented decline into wholesale intellectual and moral bankruptcy. The noble values and ideals they once stood for have been abandoned; and almost as if a surreal cosmic joke was being played on them, they have—without even noticing!-- embraced the exact opposite of what they once stood for.

Where once they stood for freedom; they now enable dictatorships and apologize for tyrants.

Where once they sought to bring justice to the world; they now defend horrific acts of mass murder and enslavement.

Where once they rightly demanded equal opportunity, they have embraced all kinds of racial quotas and discriminatory practices and demand equality of outcome.

Where once they sought to empower the weak; they are now instrumental in maintaining and expanding their victimhood.

After all, how can you be a “champion of the oppressed” unless you maintain and nurture an oppressed class that will always require your services to help them?

This rather obvious fact, of course, goes a long way to explaining the rather peculiar attitude that the Left has toward any members of its various victim groups who actually escape victimhood and become successful, achieving and independently thinking adults! The previously altruistic and idealistic worldview is now merely a narcissistic one—and a malignantly narcissistic one at that—wholly preoccupied with the possession and retention of power for an elite few.What was once a concern that equal opportunity be afforded to all members of our society has run amok and is now a shrill, insistent demand that all outcomes be exactly equal... or else....

The main justification for the existence of the women’s movement these days is to support and expand the cult of victimhood that they have created among women. Modern feminists have become the mother, once happy to nurture her child and help her leave the nest and go joyfully off to lead her own life; but now extremely bitter and resentful about the fact that her daughter doesn't need her anymore. Feminists have now dedicated their lives to convincing women that they really don't have any power; aren't capable of living and working equally among men; and encouraging them in demanding the "rights" that will ensure women who embrace their party line will be regarded by any person of reason and responsibility as complete losers and whiners.

Because today "feminists" (and today, I use the term with contempt) have a strict party line. Apparently, if you are not a Democrat, or more generally, a person on the left side of the political spectrum, then you are not a woman who counts. If Rosa Parks made a statement for freedom today, and (God help her) she was a...Republican, well, you know what would happen. The same thing that happened to Condi Rice and is happening to Michael Steele....

If you are the Secretary of State in a Republican Administration and happen to be a woman--and not only that, a black woman, you don't count (as either a woman or a black). If you are a Republican nominee for the Judiciary and a woman—you don’t count.

In fact, it turns out that if you happen to disagree with them on any issue you don’t count and are instantly labeled a traitor to your gender; and their most vile and derogatory remarks are reserved especially for you.

Within days of her selection by McCain, Palin has been the subject of the most vile and obscene accusations. Reasonable people may disagree with the selection of Palin on a number of fronts (e.g, for EXACTLY the same reasons that a reasonable person might consider Barack Obama uniquely UNDERqualified for the job of President; or because they object to the whole diversity scam perpetrated by the left on women and minorities); but then, reasonable people don't hysterically shriek about protecting some primal need to kill unborn babies to ensure that women--what was it Pollit said? Oh yes--aren't forced to give birth against their "will and judgement".

Let me tell you about my own "triumph of the will" and a decision that led to what ranks in my own mind as the best example of my own abysmal judgement when I was young: when I was 16 years old, I had an abortion. It wasn't nearly as easy to get as it is today; and I didn't have the option beforehand of obtaining birth control to prevent the inevitable consequence of choosing to have sex. Yet, I chose to have unprotected sex anyway.

Now that I'm a grown up; and from the distance of many years, I find that I'm sick to death of the whole 'give me abortion or give me death' argument of leftist feminists today. In case they haven't noticed, abortions have steadily declined and reached their lowest rate in three decades this year.

It's not hard to speculate why--women (and girls) are more empowered and able to take effective action to prevent pregnancy. Women are smarter and savvier about their bodies and their choices. And thank God for that. My own daughter was born to a young woman who CHOSE to give the child up for adoption after birth (I was blessed to have the experience of being the physician who delivered her).

It turned out that I became infertile and endured multiple miscarriages primarily because of the therapeutic abortion I had 20+ years earlier.

Infertility was only the physical price I happened to pay for exercising my 'will' when I was a callow and insensitive young person. I won't bore you with the details of the psychological sequelae which took decades for me to come to terms, particularly after I went into a profession that strives to protect and preserve human life.

At any rate, nowadays I no longer see abortion as the be-all and end-all of Women's Rights--as most of the dead-end feminists and their metrosexual male pets do. And I have great respect for women who exercise their own will and judgement and chose differently than I did--people like Sarah Palin, for example. She had what amounts to a genuine medical reason--Trisomy 21, or Down's Syndrome--that supposedly would have made the decision morally easy. Instead, Sarah Palin chose life.

In my mind, that's pretty 'pro-choice'.

But because he happens to be a Conservative Republican, her choices and judgement and will as a woman don't count in the leftist 'mind'. In truth, she has shown more integrity and strength of character in that one decision, than most of those who are currently demonizing her have shown in their entire lives--or certainly than I was able to muster up when I was 16 years old and found myself pregnant due to my own irresponsible behavior.

I happen to think Sarah Palin will make an excellent vice president--she has, after all, excelled in everything else she has done in her life. But I wait with some excitement to see how she does. Why not let her and her running mate have a chance to make their case?

Meanwhile, the left will continue to do a Clarence Thomas on her (remember Joe Biden was a key player in that particular racial lynching; expect to see high profile feminists do an overtly sexist lynching on Palin--e.g., along the lines of Pollit's piece--without ever being able to see the irony and hypocrisy of their behavior).

In a post titled, "The Fantasy-Based Community and Their Messiah", Gagdad Bob reminds us that:

...the liberal -- if he wishes to gain power -- must necessarily revert to either conscious or unconscious distortion and trancemission. It reminds me of what movies were like before the sex could be shown explicitly. Instead, everything had to be suggested and implied. This can be done in an artless manner or in a masterful way that is obviously more powerful than contemporary films, because of the unconscious resonance. Most people will agree that the sexual tension between, say Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca, or Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity, is much more interesting than that between... I don't know, you name it. Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon. {shudder}

Now, the most primitive psychological defense mechanisms are 1) denial 2) projection 3) splitting, and 4) projective identification. All are related, and are actually necessary conditions of each other. For example, what is denied doesn't just disappear, but is split off and projected, usually into other people. Likewise, what is projected is necessarily split off. The group unconscious relies upon all of these mechanisms -- for example, scapegoating is just group projection.

When one engages in projective identification, one is necessarily in denial. (As the wiki article states, projective identification involves projection into another, followed by behaving toward the recipient of the projections in such a manner as to invoke in the other person precisely the thoughts, feelings or behaviors projected.)For example, the primitive Palestinians project all of their sadism into the Israelis, and then, when Israel responds, it "proves" to the Palestinians how sadistic and oppressive the Israelis are. Or, closer to home, the left projects so much hatred and viciousness into President Bush, that most anything he does or says is proof of his hatred and viciousness. (emphasis mine)

It is no coincidence that communist ideology--which was reponsible for the deaths of millions and the enslavement of millions more as they preached their gospel; as well as every Arab extremist organization that cries 'slaughter the jews!' also happen to support Barack Obama. When it comes to projective identification, the lunatic left is second to none.

Sarah Palin has unleashed a firestorm of projection by the political left. If I know the left, then the worse of the hatred and viciousness--unconsciously transmuted into the loving and compassionate discourse we've come to expect of them--is yet to come. Just wait and watch as the PDS ratchets up.

UPDATE: Ann Althouse tears into the "despicable, sexist trash" coming from you know who and suggests that they "stop prying into other people's vaginas." She has hit the nail right on the head when it come to exposing the psychological projection of these denialists.

CARNIVAL OF THE INSANITIES - August 31

Time for the weekly insanity update, where the insane, the bizarre, the ridiculous, and the completely absurd are highlighted for all to see! This has been a week of rare idiocy (as always!). So, if you want to remain sane, the best thing is to poke some fun at the more egregious absurdities.

Keep those entries coming in every week, and try to get them to me by Saturday. If you have questions, go here before submitting an entry. You can also submit an entry via Blog Carnival.

Try to make it funny, ironic, or clearly insane, people...I get a lot of "self-help" stuff that doesn't seem particularly funny or even ironic to me--and, if it doesn't seem that way to me, then its likely it won't be included-- unless it just happens to fit in with one of the COTI themes for the week.

Also, a link back to the Carnival if your submitted post is included would be appreciated...and some extremely harsh penalties await those who do not comply with this simple and reasonable request!

REMEMBER, THERE ARE SO MANY INSANITIES AND SO LITTLE TIME!!!

1. An ego for the ages! Freudian slip? It's too good, but true-- but maybe he's just lost his mind? An analysis of the unconscious fantasies of the 'reality-based' community.

2. The Iliad Odyssey Idiossey! A speech to the Delegates--any delegates. After which, the opposition sues for peace!

3. We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him. The Sermon in the Temple.... Oh, gee; maybe God is on their side? Amusing.

4. She's really proud of America. Really she is.

5. Oh, goody! Mandatory volunteerism is just what we slackers need.

6. Hope, Change, and just a pinch of pathological, subliterate hatred to keep it spicy. I wonder why?? And the media begins its assault. Inexperienced? You compare and decide-- in words, or in pictures.

7. No bounce after all?

8. Little known facts about Sarah Palin....now they're all flailin at Palin....a heartbeat away from the Presidency? But it's a combination of true grit and the political union of Mr. Curmudgeon and Miss Congeniality ! Hilary's unintended consequences!

9. A general devotes himself to stand-up comedy. Oh so casual. A flotilla of useful idiots even at the DNC. It's all about sisterhood.

10. Marxists of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your complete and utter irrelevance. Not to mention your mediocrity. Why can't we just move on?

11. Political dilemma? For a peace protest, they were ready to make war on anyone they didn't like. Free speech is only for them, obviously.

12. The nominee who could have been?

13. Dude, where's my recession? Part II. The real 'housing crisis'.

14. Your call means nothing to us....

15. More in the annals of idiocy.

16. Are bored people stupid? Put on a pair of Neon red trout shoes --they are clearly inspiring!

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Carnival of the Insanities can also be found at The Truth Laid Bear's ÜberCarnival and at the BlogCarnival.

If you would like to Join the insanity, and add the Carnival of the Insanities button to your sidebar (clicking on it will always take you to the latest update of the Carnival), click on "Word of Blog" below the button to obtain the html code:

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THE SANITY SQUAD - Special Edition: 'WHY WE HATE US'

On Thursday, THE SANITY SQUAD hosted a very special interview with author Dick Myer whose book "WHY WE HATE US: American Discontent in the New Millennium" is a best-seller. Meyer was a reporter, producer, online editor, and columnist at CBS News in Washington for more than twenty three years. He is now the editorial director of digital media at National Public Radio.

Publisher's Weekly had this to say about the book:

In this study of American social self-loathing Meyer addresses why Americans have come to hate themselves (and each other) at a time of national prosperity and relative peace. In compelling, wonderfully cranky and comic prose, the author contends that the radical social changes of the 1960s and the recent technological revolution have drastically altered the pace of life, leaving Americans morally and existentially tired, disoriented, anchorless, and defensive. In arguments familiar to any sociology student, Meyer describes how the rise of freedom of choice in nearly every aspect of American life has been accompanied by the enervation of traditional social institutions (Our communities have been neutered, and our traditional, inherited moral, religious, and aesthetic sensibilities have been discredited). Pointed critiques of political theater, celebrity culture, the rise of marketing and media conglomerates and the decline of manners elaborate on the growing trends of bullshit, belligerence, and boorishness. Meyer is gleefully critical and very sincere in his concern for the state of American life; his practical suggestions urging readers to turn the tide of self-hate and phoniness are a must-read for anyone fed up with modern life

Join Siggy, ShrinkWrapped and me for a lively interview and discussion of these fascinating issues.

Listen to the podcast:

THE CANDIDATE TO NOWHERE...

...voted for the "Bridge to Nowhere":

...Obama and 81 other senators opposed an amendment in 2005 to strike the infamous $231 million “Bridge to Nowhere” earmark for Alaska and redirect that funding to help with rebuilding New Orleans.

The Senate rarely backs efforts to strike another member’s pet projects.

Translation: Obama, for all his hype about 'hope and change' , is actually the poster boy for 'politics as usual.'

Sarah Palin, however, killed the entire project:

Some called it a bridge to the future. Others called it the bridge to nowhere.

On Friday, Alaska decided the bridge really was going nowhere, officially abandoning the project in Ketchikan that became a national symbol of wasteful federal spending.

Gov. Sarah Palin said Friday the project was $329 million short of full funding.

"We will continue to look for options for Ketchikan to allow better access to the island," the Republican governor said. "The concentration is not going to be on a $400 million bridge."

Palin directed state transportation officials to find the most "fiscally responsible" alternative for access to the airport. She said the best option would be to upgrade the ferry system.

HEH.

Not only that, but "before she was on the national stage" and when no one was watching, Palin actually visited wounded American soldiers in Germany (hat tip: Ace)--something the Obamessiah somehow neglected to do when he was there.



The guys at Power Line have some great pics of Palin.

THRILLED !

Look for the overtly sexist (and latently racist) left to dismiss and sneer McCain's choice; and in general be extremely ungracious about the whole thing. I would bet that inside they are furious and outraged that McCain could be such a....maverick.

Compare and contrast.

SANITY HAS RETURNED

After a restful, non-blogging summer, I intend to blog on a semi-regular basis beginning post-Labor Day. I have come to the conclusion that it is far far too easy to get caught up in the political obsession/madness du jour; thus, my plan is to post (almost) every day on a topic that grabs me and makes my spidey-psych sense tingle.

I continue have a real job (i.e., one that pays money--unlike blogging); and to intermittantly work on a major book project, which I hope will be completed soon :-)

I also am looking forward to the end to this seemingly bottomless pit of an election cycle with all the insanity it is generating.

Spread the word...Sanity has returned!

THE RELATIONSHIP OBAMA DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT

First there is the ad (Michelle Malkin has more) his thugs are trying to squelch:




Then there is this, from Ben Smith:

Barack Obama's campaign hasn't advertised this a great deal this week, but the campaign's "Action Wire" has been waging large-scale campaigns against critics. That includes tens of thousands of e-mails to television stations running Harold Simmons' Bill Ayers ad, and to their advertisers — including a list of major automobile and telecommunications companies.

And tonight, the campaign launched a more specific campaign: an effort to disrupt the appearance by a writer for National Review, Stanley Kurtz, on a Chicago radio program. Kurtz has been writing about Obama's relationship with Bill Ayers, and has suggested that papers housed at the University of Illinois at Chicago would reveal new details of that relationship.

The campaign e-mailed Chicago supporters who had signed up for the Obama Action Wire with detailed instructions including the station's telephone number and the show's extension, as well as a research file on Kurtz, which seems to prove that he's a conservative, which isn't in dispute. The file cites a couple of his more controversial pieces, notably his much-maligned claim that same-sex unions have undermined marriage in Scandinavia.

"Tell WGN that by providing Kurtz with airtime, they are legitimizing baseless attacks from a smear-merchant and lowering the standards of political discourse," says the email, which picks up a form of pressure on the press pioneered by conservative talk radio hosts and activists in the 1990s, and since adopted by Media Matters and other liberal groups.

"It is absolutely unacceptable that WGN would give a slimy character assassin like Kurtz time for his divisive, destructive ranting on our public airwaves. At the very least, they should offer sane, honest rebuttal to every one of Kurtz's lies," it continues.

Kurtz, in case you are not aware, has been researching the connection between Barack Obama and Bill Ayers, including looking into records from the Chicago Annenburg Challenge (see here, here, here, and here for more details).

I don't know about you, but I for one would like to know as much as possible about the personal and professional associations of a potential US President. Those associations matter because they give insight into character and judgment--or lack of same.

If you think John Edwards' "association" with Rielle Hunter; and his subsequent attempts to squelch the story make him unfit to remain in politics, then what about Obama's relationship with the likes of Bill Ayers? The Edwards-Hunter relationship is just another example of adolescent-style hormonal imbalance coupled with the narcissistic entitlement mindset so prevalent in our political culture these days. The Obama-Ayers relationship is far more dangerous in its implications--because Ayers is not exactly a beautiful woman attemptimg to capture a powerful politician with her sexual wiles, he is an unrepentent terrorist, murderer, and liar with an ideological agenda he wants imposed on American society. Ayers famously said in his Underground days:

Characterizing Weatherman as "an American Red Army," Ayers summed up the organization's ideology as follows: "Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, Kill your parents."

His successful seduction of people like Barack Obama means he doesn't plan on being "underground" anymore.



Ayers stomping on an American flag in 2001
(and if that is not the symbolic equivalent of his words quoted above from 1970, then I haven't been practicing psychiatry for the last 25 years).

UPDATE: If you'd like to listen to Stanley Kurtz being attacked on the Milt Rosenberg Show, you can go here. It will be very instructive.

THE SANITY SQUAD Interviews Author DICK MEYER on Thursday !

THE SANITY SQUAD will host a very special interview with author Dick Myer whose book "WHY WE HATE US: American Discontent in the New Millennium" is a best-seller. Publisher's Weekly had this to say about the book:

In this study of American social self-loathing Meyer addresses why Americans have come to hate themselves (and each other) at a time of national prosperity and relative peace. In compelling, wonderfully cranky and comic prose, the author contends that the radical social changes of the 1960s and the recent technological revolution have drastically altered the pace of life, leaving Americans morally and existentially tired, disoriented, anchorless, and defensive. In arguments familiar to any sociology student, Meyer describes how the rise of freedom of choice in nearly every aspect of American life has been accompanied by the enervation of traditional social institutions (Our communities have been neutered, and our traditional, inherited moral, religious, and aesthetic sensibilities have been discredited). Pointed critiques of political theater, celebrity culture, the rise of marketing and media conglomerates and the decline of manners elaborate on the growing trends of bullshit, belligerence, and boorishness. Meyer is gleefully critical and very sincere in his concern for the state of American life; his practical suggestions urging readers to turn the tide of self-hate and phoniness are a must-read for anyone fed up with modern life

Join Siggy, ShrinkWrapped and me for a lively interview and discussion of these fascinating issues.

Listen Live on Thursday evening, August 28th from 8 pm to 9 pm ! Click on the button below to listen...or, call in with your own question (646) 716-9116.

CARNIVAL OF THE INSANITIES - August 24th

Time for the weekly insanity update, where the insane, the bizarre, the ridiculous, and the completely absurd are highlighted for all to see! This has been a week of rare idiocy (as always!). So, if you want to remain sane, the best thing is to poke some fun at the more egregious absurdities.

DURING MY BLOGGING HIATUS, I WILL CONTINUE TO POST THE CARNIVAL EVERY SUNDAY! So keep those entries coming in, and try to get them to me by Saturday. If you have questions, go here before submitting an entry. You can also submit an entry via Blog Carnival.

Try to make it funny, ironic, or clearly insane, people...I get a lot of "self-help" stuff that doesn't seem particularly funny or even ironic to me--and, if it doesn't seem that way to me, then its likely it won't be included-- unless it just happens to fit in with one of the COTI themes for the week.

Also, a link back to the Carnival if your submitted post is included would be appreciated...and some extremely harsh penalties await those who do not comply with this simple and reasonable request!

REMEMBER, THERE ARE SO MANY INSANITIES AND SO LITTLE TIME!!!

1. The Obamamatons? Half-cocked? No change? I'd say, definitely no change. And, leading the Clinton whining is....but there will be much more of that in the coming week!

2. Was it a response to the scary new Zogby poll, perhaps? Or, for foreign policy chops? Or maybe because they're not fainting anymore? The VP vetting list explains the process. Too bad they didn't vet the mechanic!

3. About that American "selfishness".... Whatever the U.S. does is clearly wrong--that's a given.

4. Don't know much about history...but they do know ideology--and that's all that counts for them. Just part of the machinery of the State.

5. A tale of two Rosies. Wacko unleashed. Then there's Yoda the wacko cat. (also unleashed)

6. Duke and Duchess of Edwards?

7. Exposing liars--the science. Hmmmmmmm. Too bad you can't see blinking in photos.

8. You know, it does sound like Olberman, who really is a prick (and I am not making a Freudian slip). And, speaking of pricks....

9. For heaven's sake, Get Smart. The brouhaha came about because they know the One came in second. Oh! He thought they were asking how many combs he owned!

10. The cause of all corruption and wickedness? That's cold. Honestly, A-jad is a walking, talking psychological projection all by himself.

11. Ivan wants to play--or should I say, bully. Who will stand up to them? Or to Saudi Arabia for that matter? I suggest that John Bolton will do the job! There are pluses and minuses to being too aggressive.

12. Those whores are such lawyers !

13. Top 10 funniest country song titles (most of which aren't!)

14. Obvious hoax confirmed as obvious hoax. Very sad. But there's still the Mighty Mullet Man !

15. Life in line at the DMV. The most boring sport in the world?

16. Estate planning for pets.

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Carnival of the Insanities can also be found at The Truth Laid Bear's ÜberCarnival and at the BlogCarnival.

If you would like to Join the insanity, and add the Carnival of the Insanities button to your sidebar (clicking on it will always take you to the latest update of the Carnival), click on "Word of Blog" below the button to obtain the html code:

Heard the Word of Blog?

LIVE FROM NEW YORK! IT'S THE CARNIVAL OF THE INSANITIES !

Time for the weekly insanity update, where the insane, the bizarre, the ridiculous, and the completely absurd are highlighted for all to see! This week I am in NYC on vacation and enjoying a family reunion, and it has been a week of rare idiocy (as always!). So, if you want to remain sane, the best thing is to poke some fun at the more egregious absurdities.

NOTE: DURING MY BLOGGING HIATUS, I WILL CONTINUE TO POST THE CARNIVAL EVERY SUNDAY! So keep those entries coming in, and try to get them to me by Saturday. If you have questions, go here before submitting an entry. You can also submit an entry via Blog Carnival.

Try to make it funny, ironic, or clearly insane, people...I get a lot of "self-help" stuff that doesn't seem particularly funny or even ironic to me--and, if it doesn't seem that way to me, then its likely it won't be included-- unless it just happens to fit in with one of the COTI themes for the week.

Also, a link back to the Carnival if your submitted post is included would be appreciated...and some extremely harsh penalties await those who do not comply with this simple and reasonable request!

REMEMBER, THERE ARE SO MANY INSANITIES AND SO LITTLE TIME!!!

1. A typical programming day at Al Jazeera. A typical day in Saudi Arabia, land of the tolerant where belief is unutterable. It's already radioactive and extremely toxic there.

2. Such good friends! Isn't there a phallacy in there somewhere?

3. Georgia after the Soviet...errrr I mean the ...Russian invasion. The ubiquitous "But". Popeye McCain: Too bellicose? Off to see the Wizard!

4. Ok, where's Code Pinko and the antiwar robots when you need them? Parroting the Russian line, of course. Coming soon to a former soviet republic near you!

5. Seems they've been going out of their way lately just to prove why the shield is necessary. It's still 'trust but verify' Russian statecraft meets Western appeasement head on, once again. Back to the future.

6. Postcard from the realm of stunted possibilities.

7. The left wing protection racket? Well, yes. And this is your FINAL warning. Heh. If they had their way, they'd ALL have brain tumors (tomours?).

8. The 2008 Presidential kippah collection! Does McCain know this horror about Lieberman?? Speaking about religious tolerance (see # above).

9. Buyer's remorse? Just a taste of things to come.... In the pocket of Big Air! Another major endorsement!

10. Finally! Victimhood is within reach!! We will be the world.

11.Sex, more lies, and videotape. Sheesh. What a louse. John Edwards is (fill in blank--see image above) . But, the left forgives him because he's not a hypocrite, after all. When will he take a paternity test? After he's selected AG?

12. And, of course, the MSM really pursued the story from the beginning, the same way they will (have) pursued this story. Uh oh! McCain caught with a younger woman! As for that evil hypocrite, Bush....

13. Surely they're kidding? Aren't they? It doesn't seem like the Democratic party is really able to moveon, does it? Or be very progressive, either.

14. For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of overpaid professional athlete basketball stars in my country. NYTimes memo to staffers covering Olympics.... Meanwhile, can your budget handle becoming an Olympic athlete?

16. Makers and takers? A spectacularly ugly bit of moral equivalence.

17. Good Lord! And he's not even an opining politician! Bikini olympics?

18. The American Psychological Association wants you to go green. And manipulating behavior is what they do. Isn't that special? You've got to wonder who funds studies about turds on the tongue?

19. Bigfoot was real, after all? Or is it a big hoax?

20. Kinda ironic, huh? BigEgO is really just a big hoax.

***************************************
Carnival of the Insanities can also be found at The Truth Laid Bear's ÜberCarnival and at the BlogCarnival.

If you would like to Join the insanity, and add the Carnival of the Insanities button to your sidebar (clicking on it will always take you to the latest update of the Carnival), click on "Word of Blog" below the button to obtain the html code:

Heard the Word of Blog?