palingates

Blackout

2012-01-18T17:05:00.000+01:00

Stop American Censorship

Vote for the Net

Bye bye, Sarah

2011-10-15T13:00:00.024+02:00

This week has been very liberating for me. I'm convinced that I wrote everything I could possibly have written about Sarah Palin. However outrageous her behaviour from now on, it would just be a replay of some previous idiocy.

There are excellent blogs on my blog list where you can follow her antics, some of them still pursuing the truth about Babygate, always a very popular topic.

I won't be writing main posts anymore and I think it's pointless to keep a political blog running on open threads alone. I designed a new blog back in February, when the fate of Palingates was uncertain. The idea was to do what we normally do on the open threads: A mix of everything, with contributions from the readers or anything that took my fancy. It's time to bring it to life!

As Palingates will be frozen in time and comments will automatically close after fourteen days, all readers are invited to continue chatting, sharing and venting HERE. I believe this community deserves a dedicated space to continue to pursue their friendships and I hope you'll feel comfortable in the new home. That means there will be no open thread on Palingates today... or tomorrow or the day after.

I may not post on Palingates anymore, but the blog list will be automatically updated as usual, so you may continue to use it to access other blogs, if you wish.

It's been fun for two and a half years and I'm grateful to Sarah Palin for bringing us together.

Bye bye, Sarah.

Open Thread - Friday

2011-10-14T21:00:00.009+02:00

Mrsgunka sent me some photos of this aeroplane. The airline definitely has a good sense of humour.

Another funny design:

Their announcements are quite amusing too:

On a Kulula flight, (there is no assigned seating, you just sit where you want) passengers were apparently having a hard time choosing, when a flight attendant announced,

"People, people we're not picking out furniture here, find a seat and get in it!"

*****

On another flight with a very "senior" flight attendant crew, the pilot said,

"Ladies and gentlemen, we've reached cruising altitude and will be turning down the cabin lights. This is for your comfort and to enhance the appearance of your flight attendants."

*****

"There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only 4 ways out of this airplane."

*****

As the plane landed and was coming to a stop at Durban Airport , a lone voice came over the loudspeaker:

"Whoa, big fella. WHOA!"

*****

"Weather at our destination is 50 degrees with some broken clouds, but we'll try to have them fixed before we arrive. Thank you, and remember, nobody loves you, or your money, more than Kulula Airlines."

*****

"Your seats cushions can be used for flotation; and in the event of an emergency water landing, please paddle to shore and take them with our compliments."

*****

"As you exit the plane, make sure to gather all of your belongings. Anything left behind will be distributed evenly among the flight attendants. Please do not leave children or spouses.."

*****

"Kulula Airlines is pleased to announce that we have some of the best flight attendants in the industry. Unfortunately, none of them are on this flight!"

*****

Overheard on a Kulula flight into Cape Town, on a particularly windy and bumpy day: During the final approach, the Captain really had to fight it. After an extremely hard landing, the Flight Attendant said,

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to The Mother City. Please remain in your seats with your seat belts fastened while the Captain taxis what's left of our airplane to the gate!"

*****

An airline pilot wrote that on this particular flight he had hammered his ship into the runway really hard. The airline had a policy which required the first officer to stand at the door while the passengers exited, smile, and give them a "Thanks for flying our airline". He said that, in light of his bad landing, he had a hard time looking the passengers in the eye, thinking that someone would have a smart comment. Finally everyone had gotten off except for a little old lady walking with a cane. She said,

"Sir, do you mind if I ask you a question?"
"Why, no Ma'am," said the pilot. "What is it?"
The little old lady said,
"Did we land, or were we shot down?"

*****

"Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to smoke, the smoking section on this airplane is on the wing... If you can light 'em, you can smoke 'em."

Thank you, Mrsgunka!

Open thread - Thursday

2011-10-13T21:00:00.046+02:00

Today we're taking a trip to Algeria, a country of constrasts. It has a beautiful coastline and a vast expanse of desert. The original people of Algeria were the Berbers, then came the Arabs and the French...

North African food is delicious, with very deep flavours. The smells in the kitchen are something else when a tagine is being cooked!

A tagine is a North African stew made in an earthenware dish that has a conical top. You can make a tagine in other types of heavy casseroles, like enameled cast iron, but you can use an earthenware set over a flame tamer. I selected three different recipes, the first two cooked in heavy saucepans and the third using a slow cooker.

Vegetarian Tagine

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 pounds okra, ends trimmed
Salt
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar
1 1/2 pound small boiling potatoes, like fingerlings
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound tomatoes, seeded and grated; or peeled, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup minced parsley
1/4 cup minced cilantro
1 teaspoon spice mix (see below)
1 teaspoon turmeric
Pinch of saffron
2 tablespoons tomato paste dissolved in 1 cup water
1/2 preserved lemon, thinly sliced (optional)
Salt and freshly ground pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. Place the okra in a large bowl. Salt generously, douse with the vinegar, and let sit for 30 minutes to an hour while you prepare the remaining ingredients, tossing from time to time. Drain the okra, and rinse thoroughly. If the potatoes are not very small (no more than 1 inch wide and no more than 2 inches long), quarter them or cut them in half.

2. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large, heavy casserole or (preferably) an earthenware pot set over a flame tamer. Add the onions and cook, stirring often, until tender, about five minutes. Add the garlic, and stir for about half a minute until fragrant. Add the tomatoes, parsley, cilantro, spice mix, turmeric, saffron and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer, and simmer until the tomatoes have cooked down slightly and smell fragrant, about 10 minutes. Add the dissolved tomato paste, and bring to a simmer.

3. Add the potatoes, okra and the preserved lemon. Cover and simmer 45 minutes to an hour, adding a small amount of water if the mixture seems dry, until the potatoes and okra are tender and the sauce they have cooked in is thick. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Algerian Spice Mix

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon powdered turmeric
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom seed
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1. Mix all of the spices together. Keep in a jar in a cool place or in the freezer.

Lamb Tagine

INGREDIENTS

1 pound lamb (cut into bite sized pieces)
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 pinch saffron
1 teaspoon lemon (zest)
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon oil
1 onion (chopped)
1 tablespoon garlic (grated)
1 tablespoon ginger (grated)
2 tablespoons tomato paste (or chopped sun dried tomatoes)
1-2 cups beef stock
3/4 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup raisins
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons harissa
1/4 cup pistachios (chopped, optional)
1/4 cup cilantro (chopped, optional)
1/4 cup parsley (chopped, optional)
1 cup Greek style yogurt (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix the paprika, turmeric, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cardamom, salt, cayenne pepper, saffron, lemon zest and oil in a ziplock bag.
2. Add the lamb, mix well and marinate the fridge for a few hours to overnight.
3. Heat the oil in a large pan.
4. Add the lamb, brown well on all sides and set aside.
5. Add the onion and saute until tender, about 5 minutes.
6. Add the garlic and ginger and saute for about a minute.
7. Add the lamb and tomato paste and cover with beef stock.
8. Bring to a boil, reduce the meat and simmer covered until the lamb is fall apart tender, about 2-3 hours.
9. Add the apricots, raisins and more beef stock to cover.
10. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes.
11. Add the honey and harissa.
12. Serve on couscous and garnished with pistachios, cilantro, parsley and Greek yogurt.

Chicken Tagine

INGREDIENTS

8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 eggplant, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 large onions, thinly sliced
4 large carrots, thinly sliced
1/2 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup green olives, sliced
2 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons garlic salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS

* Searing the chicken before adding it to the crock pot is important to lock in flavour.

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Place the chicken pieces and eggplant in the heated oil; stir and cook until the chicken is browned on all sides but not cooked through. Remove the skillet from the heat.

Place the browned chicken and eggplant on the bottom of a slow cooker. Layer the onion, carrots, cranberries, and apricots over the chicken.

Whisk together the chicken broth, tomato paste, lemon juice, flour, garlic salt, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, and ground black pepper in a bowl. Pour the broth mixture into the slow cooker with the chicken and vegetables.

Cook on Low setting for 8 hours.

Couscous

1 cup water
1 cup couscous

Bring water to boil in a saucepan. Stir in couscous, and remove from heat. Cover, and let stand about 5 minutes, until liquid has been absorbed. Fluff with a fork.

*****

I'm a great fan of Algerian music. The three singers in this video are very popular in France.

And here is Rachid Taha on his own, in a strange, weird video, but I like the song.

Just for fun

2011-10-13T14:49:00.000+02:00

A reader sent me this:

Open Thread - Wednesday

2011-10-12T21:00:00.001+02:00

This is a lot of fun. It starts slowly, but soon builds up.

Open Thread - Tuesday

2011-10-11T21:00:00.001+02:00

Grasshopper sent me the following joke:

A while ago a supermarket near my home was revamped.

It has an automatic water mister to keep the produce fresh.
Just before it goes on, you hear the sound of
distant thunder and the smell of fresh rain.

When you pass the milk cases, you hear cows mooing and
there is the scent of freshly mowed hay.

In the meat department there is the aroma
of charcoal grilled steaks with onions.

When you approach the egg case, you hear hens
clucking and cackling, and the air is filled with
the pleasing aroma of bacon and eggs frying.

The bread department features the tantalizing
smell of freshly baked bread and cookies.

I don't buy toilet paper there anymore.

Thank you, Grasshopper!

Open Thread - Monday

2011-10-10T21:00:00.001+02:00

Without further ado, here's a shiny new open thread, courtesy of Mrsgunka:

Thank you, Mrsgunka!

Questions...

2011-10-10T16:23:00.000+02:00

I haven't written any main posts for a couple of days and did a lot of thinking about the blog during this break. My original idea was to start campaigning for Obama as soon as Sarah Palin made her announcement about not running. I would have turned Palingates into a satire blog, with Sarah Palin as Obama's most enthusiastic cheerleader.

But after a couple of days away, I realized that I have reached my limit and that I can't be a slave to the computer anymore. Following Sarah Palin in recent months wasn't the most arduous of tasks, the posts wrote themselves. If I tried to turn my attentions to Obama, it would be a very different ball game, as I would have to spend much more of my time doing research about him than I did about Sarah Palin. There are many excellent blogs covering general politics and they do a better job of it than I could ever hope to achieve.

Another added factor is that our Billy is coming back from Australia in a couple of weeks. We haven't seen him in two years, so I doubt I would find the time to write many in-depth posts about anything in the coming weeks.

I would love to continue posting the daily open threads, though. I enjoy them too much! They would give the community their usual meeting place and you could still send in your contributions, exchange views, ideas and links, discuss politics or whatever took your fancy.

After two and a half years of a daily dose of Sarah Palin, I'm more than ready to take a breather from the topic. I'll continue to follow the events and if anything worth commenting comes up, I'll write a post, but I simply can't find the energy to do it on a daily basis anymore.

Sarah Palin has always been irrelevant because of who she is, because she has nothing important to say, but for three years she was a dangerous irrelevance. Now that the immediate threat has passed, I think I've earned a bit of downtime.

That's how I feel at this very moment, but you never know, I may miss it too much, make a full comeback and resume business as usual, especially if Sarah Palin proves to be too much of a nuisance, albeit without a "title."

Please let me know how you feel about having only the open threads. Would you find Palingates still worthwhile? Would you continue to visit and have a chat? Do you think Palingates has run its course? If you decide* you don't want a blog without the regular "meat" I'll call it a day. I would miss the community, but I wouldn't miss Sarah Palin, that's for sure!

[*I would not delete the blog, it would stay as it is and become a reference blog, with all the Palingates and other resources intact.]

Here's a bonus photo, she looks really hot:

Open Thread - Sunday

2011-10-09T21:00:00.002+02:00

Hey Linda1961, this is for you!

Open Thread - Saturday

2011-10-08T21:00:00.013+02:00

Today is Peter's birthday (that's why I've been busy these the past few days). We're having a birthday lunch tomorrow (we had to wait for some friends to return from a trip to Barcelona) and I had to plan and shop for it. The menu won't include his favourite dish because it's too hot for most tastes, but the least I can do is share the recipe, courtesy of Jamie Oliver:

CHICKEN MADRAS

Ingredients

* 4 chicken breasts
* 2 large onions
* 4 cloves of garlic
* 1 jar of tomato puree
* 3 teaspoons of garam masala
* 2 teaspoons of ground cayenne pepper
* 1 teaspoon of ground cumin
* 1 teaspoon of ground turmeric
* 8 cardamom pods
* 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
* 1/2 teaspoon of ground coriander
* juice of 1/2 a lemon

Directions

1. Find a large saucepan or frying pan which has a lid. Place on a medium heat and add a liberal amount of cooking oil and then when at temperature add the two onions finely chopped, cook the onions for a couple of minutes until they start to brown slightly.

2. Now add the garlic (finely chopped), ground Cayenne pepper and Garam masala and stir for 2 to 3 minutes.

3. Now add the ground cumin, ground turmeric, ground ginger and ground coriander and stir in for about 30 seconds.

4. Add the diced chicken and stir until the chicken is cooked through.

5. Now add the tomato puree which you will have diluted down 1:1 with water and the seeds from the 8 cardommon pods, stir and then lower the heat and place a lid on the saucepan. Simmer for 30 minutes stirring occasionaly (if the sauce starts to stick to the pan add some water)

6. After 30 minutes remove the lid and squeeze the juice of half a lemon into the pan along with a pinch of salt, stir and let simmer uncovered for 10 to 15 minutes.

7. Serve

Hot curries are best accompanied by a nicely chilled Indian beer:

But as we're in France and won't be having curry, Peter's favourite wine will be served:

Finally, here's one of his favourite songs:

Happy birthday, pet. I love you heaps.

Sarah Palin, taking the money and...

2011-10-07T21:53:00.000+02:00

Reader Meena asked me to post a couple of videos. I'm happy to oblige. The discussion about Sarah Palin taking the money and running (not for president) is fascinating.

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Open Thread - Friday

2011-10-07T21:00:00.008+02:00

There are women who really lead remarkable lives... (unlike a certain manufactured last frontier myth)

From the UK Daily Mail:

From the birdseye vantage of her helicopter, police pilot Kathryn Chapman saw disaster unfolding. An abandoned car sat on a level crossing with police chasing the driver on foot while a passenger train hurtled towards the vehicle at 50mph.

Then, in a scene that could have come from a Hollywood movie, Mrs Chapman swooped to the rescue.

Flying at three times the speed of the train, she dropped to little more than 60ft above the ground and managed to get ‘ahead and just above’ it.

She signalled to the driver to stop by swinging the aircraft round to face the train and flashing the landing lights. Realising there was an emergency, the driver slammed on the brakes and brought the train to a halt just 30 yards from the crossing.

Mrs Chapman knew exactly what to do because she was also a qualified train driver and briefly had a job driving the same type of train four years ago. This meant she knew what signals to use to get the driver to stop.

Yesterday the mother-of-two, 51, said: ‘My stomach churned a little bit when I looked across and saw the train heading towards the vehicle and the officers on the line. It was probably less than a mile away and there was no time to spare.’

The pilot, who is also a Royal Navy Gulf War veteran, estimated the train was travelling at around 50mph before she intervened and the helicopter swooped down at around 150mph to catch up.

It started with Wall Street...

2011-10-07T11:22:00.002+02:00

Obviously, President Obama can't join the peaceful protesters, but he has been taking steps to prevent Wall Street abuses. He also counts on the power of the internet to spread his message.

Guess who's trying to block his efforts? (Please click on the link to take action.)

Republicans in Congress want to stop President Obama’s Wall Street reforms from being implemented and they’re blocking Richard Cordray’s appointment to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

[H/T to View_From_Here for the first video]

Open thread - Thursday

2011-10-06T21:01:00.003+02:00

Tongue firmly in cheek, I would like to dedicate this song to the poor palinbots...

Sarah Palin: "Family comes first." (But I'm not spending more time with them)

2011-10-06T11:36:00.001+02:00

I woke up to a big surprise this morning. I had already written a post:

I'm taking a bit of a break from the blog because I'm going to be quite busy in the next few days. I've prepared a few posts to fill the gap. Unless something absolutely spectacular happens, you'll have to make do with revisiting some old posts... I'll resume the normal schedule after Sunday.

I then reposted something about Sarah Palin's qualifications. Oh well, it seems that every time I decide to take a break, she does something!

Via Facebook:

After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order.

God comes before family?

If God wrote her one of his letters urging her to destroy her children, would she do it without blinking?

God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah. Abraham sets out to obey God's command without questioning (Genesis 22:5 and 22:8). After Isaac is bound to an altar, the angel of God stops Abraham at the last minute, saying that "now I know you fear God."

Sarah Palin has been sacrificing her children for years. Unfortunately, no angel appeared to spare them...

Sarah Palin's god (Mammon) doesn't send angels...

Her decision has nothing to do with her family and everything to do with herself. She has no plans to devote more of her time to her children:

I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office.

In the coming weeks I will help coordinate strategies to assist in replacing the President, re-taking the Senate, and maintaining the House.

I think she will be busy coordinating strategies on how to continue to fleece the palinbots...

[I'm still going to be busy in the next few days, so any main posts will have to be very short...]

Open Thread - Wednesday

2011-10-05T21:00:00.001+02:00

Mrsgunka sent me this video. Is this guy a preacher or a stand up comedian?

Thank you, Mrsgunka!

The circus is coming to town

2011-10-05T13:47:00.000+02:00

Politics in America is mind boggling. Before I started following it closely, I had the impression presidential campaigns were a bit of a circus, where the person with the most balloons and the loudest music was elected.

The 2012 GOP primaries definitely look like a circus, but it seems to be a contest to find the best clown. There's still the possibility of a certain celebrity clown pitching her own tent and going rogue, running on a third party ticket.

I find it very hard to take candidates like Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann or Herman Cain seriously, but when it comes to Sarah Palin, the whole thing becomes completely ridiculous.

Ironically, Sarah Palin herself compared the campaign to a reality show, and she's right. They might as well be in the Big Brother house, all of them behaving in the most outrageous manner for our entertainement.

That would be OK if there weren't so many important issues at stake. The state of the economy is a global problem. They're already predicting another credit crunch in Europe. The 2008 crisis, which started in America, had a domino effect that plunged the whole world into a serious recession.

Problems can't be solved with idiotic soundbites or by quoting the Constitution (and getting it all wrong). All the candidates (declared or not) who are challenging President Obama sound absolutely pathetic and their rhetoric shows a deep contempt for the electorate.

Pandering to different groups, tailoring their soundbites to please them won't solve any problems. In their quest for power, they don't see the big picture.

Yes, American politics always looked like a bit of circus, but now it seems to be official...

Open Thread - Tuesday

2011-10-04T21:00:00.001+02:00

Sarah Palin, the Koch Brothers and crony capitalism

2011-10-04T11:47:00.003+02:00

Since her speech at the teabagging event in Indianola, "crony capitalism" has become Sarah Palin's favourite expression. She has mentioned it in just about every interview since then. She doesn't spare anybody. Republicans and Democrats are guilty of indulging in it.

The Koch Brothers bankroll the Tea Party movement through Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Works. Sarah Palin has received a fair amount of their money to speak against government regulation, among other topics.

Koch Industries has an abysmal record of breaking regulations and have paid millions of dollars in fines. People died or got sick due to their disregard for safety. The environment has suffered as well.

They don't like paying taxes and don't like paying enormous fines for breaking safety and environmental regulations. They would love to get rid of both. Enter Sarah Palin, advocating tax cuts and urging the government to leave the "job creators" alone.

Now I understand why she says a title would be too "shackling." Should she run for office, she would stand guilty of the crony capitalism she detests so much, but if she's paid just to make a lot of noise on behalf of her paymasters, she can invoke her 1st Amendment right to say whatever she wants... and remain free to take as much money as she can.

Open Thread - Monday

2011-10-03T21:00:00.002+02:00

Ok, so this is not the most patient parent in the world, but it's comedy, not real life and it's really quite funny.

Sarah Palin will speak, speak and speak

2011-10-03T13:30:00.001+02:00

Sarah Palin will speak at the Extraordinary Women Conference at the Liberty University on Saturday, October 8, which will inconvenience the students at the nearby Virginia University of Lynchburg.

(If video doesn't play, please watch it HERE.)

Sarah will be very busy in the next few days, as she's joining her pal Glenn Beck to defend the Republic in St Louis the day before.

A few days later, she'll fly to South Korea, to speak at The World Knowledge Forum. She'll make the second solo speech of the event, early on October 11.

Sarah Palin will have to make speeches on three different themes, so she must be working very hard not to get them all muddled. It should be easy for somebody with a communications degree: The word salad will flow beautifully, delivered in her unique style.

[I've noticed that the same photo is used in the publicity for all her events. Is this her official photo? Couldn't she have chosen something more elegant than a fleece top?]

Open Thread - Sunday

2011-10-02T21:00:00.028+02:00

Here are some unusual or funny photos.

The next two items were sent in by our Mrsgunka:

A very famous monument, seen from a different angle...

Thank you, Mrsgunka.

Learning with Sarah Palin is fun!

2011-10-02T12:10:00.002+02:00

"Paul Revere did warn the British. And in a shout-out, gotcha-type of question that was asked of me, I answered candidly. And I know my American history."

"I haven't heard the president state that we're at war. That's why I too am not knowing -- do we use the term intervention? Do we use war? Do we use squirmish? What is it?" (on the U.S. and NATO bombing of Libya.)

"But obviously, we've got to stand with our North Korean allies."

"Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn't it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate."

"Barack and Michelle Obama have power in their words. They could refudiate what it is that this group is saying."

"This is Reagan country. Yeah! And perhaps it was destiny that the man who went to California's Eureka College would become so woven within and inter-linked to the Golden State." (Eureka College is in Illinois.)

"I think on a national level your Department of Law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we've been charged with and automatically throw them out." (There's no Department of Law.)

"Ohh, good, thank you, yes." (after the Canadian prank caller complimented her on the documentary about her life, Hustler's "Nailin Paylin.")

"They're in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom." (Explaining what the VP does.)

"I like being here because it seems like here and in our last rally too -- other parts around this great Northwest -- here in New Hampshire you just get it."

"They are also building schools for the Afghan children so that there is hope and opportunity in our neighboring country of Afghanistan."

"Oil and coal? Of course, it's a fungible commodity and they don't flag, you know, the molecules, where it's going and where it's not."

"Our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They're in the state that I am the executive of. And there in Russia ... We have trade missions back and forth. We... we do... it's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where... where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to... to our state."

"But ultimately what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy."

Sarah taught us some lovely words and adorable pronunciations: Ions for eons, mandation for mandate, gutteral for guttural, chronosone, nucular, contradictoring and pundents.

Finally, there's the flavour of the week GOP candidate "Herb" Cain also, too.

Open Thread - Saturday

2011-10-01T21:00:00.003+02:00

It's Saturday, so let's spending a few hours relaxing at the beach. View_From_Here sent me some photos of a beach in China:

Questions:

Where do you stretch to sunbathe? What if you need a restroom? How do you find your umbrella?

It's not surprising that China tries to control the growth of the population...

Ah well.. this is more like it, in Guadeloupe:

Thank you, View.

Sarah Palin is stealing our thunder

2011-10-01T12:23:00.001+02:00

We've spent a lot of time researching Sarah Palin's wrongdoings while in office in an attempt to get the word out and prove that she's unfit to lead. We looked for inconsistencies, parsed her word salad, looked at photos... you name it, we've done it.

It's been entertaining at times, but considering how much effort we put into bringing her down, it seems she doesn't want us to get any credit for it and decided to keep it all to herself. She's doing a splendid job!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

[if the video fails to play, please watch it HERE.]

Open Thread - Friday

2011-09-30T21:00:00.004+02:00

I think we deserve some cute today. The mellow music helps also, too...

Sarah Palin's dilemma

2011-09-30T11:46:00.001+02:00

The safest thing Sarah Palin could do now is announce that she's running. Some of the people who obsessed about her and sent her their money over the past three years are not of sound mind.

They went to great lengths to prove their love. They threatened anybody who dared say anything against their muse, they forced a judge in Alaska to step up her personal security because of custody proceedings involving a member of Palin's family. People lost jobs or were silenced. Their rhetoric mirrors Sarah Palin's own. She may have the excuse of speaking metaphorically, but they know no such subtleties.

These people believed in her promises and have been giving their all for the last three years, dreaming of her bid for the White House to save America and the world.

I believe Sarah Palin is perfectly aware of the obsessive nature of some of her fans. Why would somebody so enthusiastic about the right to bear arms have metal detectors at her own public events? Is she afraid of an attack from a liberal? I don't think so. This kind of violence fits the mentality of her own fans, not the liberals.

If she's already concerned about some of these people when they profess their undying love for her, she should be very, very afraid of them when they realize they have been betrayed by her and taken for a ride.

Perhaps she's taking a long time to make an announcement because whatever she choses to do could have dire consequences for her. If she runs, she risks being properly vetted and all those skeletons would tumble out of her closet. If she doesn't, she'll have to face the fury of some of her most ardent fans, those who believe in 2nd Amendment solutions...

Sarah Palin is between a rock and a hard place, and she is the one who put herself in such an uncomfortable spot.

Open thread - Thursday

2011-09-29T21:00:00.009+02:00

This sketch is from 1989, but it sounds quite fresh for the USA of today...

Sarah Palin's close friends

2011-09-29T12:54:00.000+02:00

It's a guessing game for all... Didn't Sarah Palin tell Greta she was consulting with family and close friends about whether or not to run?

"I'm going to keep repeating, though, Greta, through my process of decision-making with my family and with my close friends as to whether I should throw my name in the hat for the GOP nomination or not for 2012..."

From The Hill:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has not talked to close allies in recent days and is set to break her own self-imposed deadline of the end of September for a decision on a presidential run.

Becky Beach, Palin’s top fundraiser in Iowa and a close friend who is usually kept in the loop on the former governor’s plans, told The Hill that she had not heard from Palin in weeks about whether or not she would run.

I expect Becky Beach is not a close enough friend...

Open Thread - Wednesday

2011-09-28T21:00:00.008+02:00

Welcome to relatively new reader ianai, who contributed this joke:

A man walked into a very high-tech bar. As he sat down on a stool he noticed that the bartender was a robot. The robot clicked to attention and asked, "Sir, what will you have?"

The man thought a moment then replied "A martini please."

The robot clicked a couple of times and mixed the best martini the man had ever had.

The robot then asked, "Sir, what is your IQ?" The man answered "Oh, about 174."

The robot then proceeded to discuss the theory of relativity, inter-stellar space travel, the latest medical breakthroughs, etc...

The man was most impressed. He left the bar but thought he would try a different tack. He returned and took a seat. Again the robot clicked and asked what would he have? "A martini please."

Again it was superb. The robot again asked "What is your IQ sir?"

This time the man answered, "Oh, about 120". So the robot started discussing NASCAR racing, the latest basketball scores, and what to expect the Dodgers to do this week end.

The guy had to try it one more time. So he left, returned and took a stool.... Again a martini, and the question, "What is your IQ?" This time the man drawled out " Uh...... bout 50".

The robot clicked then leaned close and very slowly asked,

"A-r-e...
y-o-u-r...
p-e-o-p-l-e...
r-e-a-l-l-y
g-o-i-n-g...
t-o...
n-o-m-i-n-a-t-e...
R-i-c-k....P-e-r-r-y?"

Thank you, ianai.

Sarah Palin, action woman

2011-09-28T11:32:00.002+02:00

Still blinking

Sarah Palin talked to Greta Van Susteren last night, where she praised flavour of the week "Herb" Cain, attacked President Obama, mentioned the "pundents" and was asked (again!) whether she's running.

She's still thinking about it, blinking, asking family and friends, blinking and so on. But she said she doesn't need a title to be influential and affect change. Greta said it was all very well, but it doesn't make much difference to foreign relations and gave Israel as an example. Sarah Palin's answer was great. She took action! She went to Israel and had dinner with Netanyahu.

You may watch the rest of the interview HERE

Thank you so much for taking such decisive action, Sarah. I'm surprised the lamestream media didn't recognize the importance of that dinner and how much it contributed to a change in policy. That's exactly what America needs: More political celebrities without a title taking action and having dinner with foreign leaders and their families. It makes a world of difference!

*****

Elsewhere, The Rogue is still making waves.

Publisher stands behind 'The Rogue' book on Palin

A publisher is standing behind a book about Sarah Palin, a day after Palin's attorney threatened to sue over it.

Crown Publishers spokesman Stuart Applebaum says the company is confident the reporting in Joe McGinniss' book is "solid, reliable, and well-substantiated." Applebaum says Crown stands behind McGinniss and the book, "The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin."

This is a must read:

Blood in the Snow: Maslin’s NYT Review of The Rogue Is Intellectually Dishonest

Open Thread - Tuesday

2011-09-27T21:00:00.001+02:00

I promised some humour from British female comedians, so here's some gentle comedy from Pam Ayres. Some references may be a bit obscure for the American readers, but you'll get the gist of it.

Sarah Palin wants to know who said what

2011-09-27T12:08:00.000+02:00

Why is Sarah Palin being so selective in her threats to sue for defamation? She didn't like Joe McGinniss's book about her and said the whole book is based on malicious lies. That's a bit much, as not all the sources were anonymous.

How come she's not going after the National Enquirer as well? Or the several bloggers who have been writing about her in the past three years? Does it mean that some people can "defame" her and Joe McGinniss can't?

Sarah Palin's lawyer is using a leaked e-mail from McGinniss to Jesse Griffin as evidence that the allegations in the book are false. McGinniss discusses Shailey Tripp, for example. Her story wasn't included in the book because he wasn't satisfied with the evidence presented to him at the time. It doesn't mean Shailey Tripp's story is not true, it simply wasn't solid enough from a legal perspective, so it didn't go into the book.

The e-mail seems to prove the opposite of what Palin's lawyer is claiming. The letter looks like a fishing expedition to me.

Are they trying to smoke out McGinniss's sources so the Palins can talk to those people?

Open Thread - Monday

2011-09-26T21:00:00.004+02:00

Food for thought.

It's time to stand together- UPDATE: Fear in Wasilla

2011-09-26T12:46:00.003+02:00

When I was young I lived under a right-wing military dictatorship back in Brazil. We lived in fear, but there were many left-wing groups attempting to restore democratic elections. It took over twenty years to achieve it.

Part of the problem were the deep divisions and rivalry among the various different factions within a movement with the same goals. Each group saw themselves as the owners of the truth. The right-wing presented a united front, there were no divisions or disagreements in their ranks and they were stronger.

The example is a bit extreme, as the dictators had all the resources of the military to silence any dissenters of whatever faction. But it does illustrate how divisions weaken a movement.

Historically, right-wingers have been more united than the left. Their interests were clear and their goals quite simple. The left wingers were a more complex bunch, hell-bent on nuance.

In the US, even though all the right-wing candidates (and one maybe/maybe not candidate) sing from the same hymn book, talking about the constitution, traditional values and small government, they are now divided by a new phenomenon: The cult of celebrity. People who support the undeclared one could be described as hysterical fans who can see no flaws in their muse. They attack everybody, on the left and on the right, whenever there's whiff of a threat to their queen. That puts the real the candidates in a bad light. They don't have such dedicated fan clubs.

It seems to be a great opportunity for the left to present a more united front for a change. These days it doesn't seem to be a case of right vs left anymore. It's right vs wrong, and the left is the new right. It is right to hope for a more equitable society, it is right to put the interests of the people before the interests of the corporations, it is right to protect the environment and to strive for world peace.

But the dreaded liberals are still plagued by divisions. The divisions take many forms and are not necessarily ideological. Let's make the most of the weaknesses of the right and stand united while that fan club tears everybody apart. Let's forget the distractions, the egos and all the irrelevant bickering and focus on the goal.

People who once saw themselves as conservatives have battled with their convictions and changed sides, they watched their party betray their interests and embraced different values. Others are still undecided, but growing frustrated with the present crop of candidates. Let's help them find a new path and let's all walk the same path together. Let's ignore the detours that lead to dead ends.

Regaining the focus and staying on course will take us to the final destination. It's worth trying to get there in one piece rather than wounded by friendly fire...

*****

UPDATE

Joe McGinniss wasn't the only person to feel uncomfortable in Wasilla. From UK's Daily Telegraph:

It may be home sweet home to Sarah Palin and her family but Wasilla, Alaska, is not a city for which Nick Broomfield feels any affection. Or one that he ever wants to visit again. “The place makes Twin Peaks look like a walk in the park,” he says firmly.

“There was a genuine fear in the community about saying anything against Sarah Palin because people were worried about the power of the Palins and worried about losing their jobs,” he says. “In some cases, the children were friends with the Palin kids and didn’t want their parents to talk. She is such a polarising character that, even within a family, the husband or the wife liked her and the other one didn’t. She inspired such strong opinions that people were either passionately for her or against her.”

It seems Sarah Palin's own personal power, the actions by her supporters and the MSM's reluctance to stand their ground and face her lies all conspire to keep this woman in a safe niche, protected and insulated against real criticism.

(H/T to MW)

Open Thread - Sunday

2011-09-25T21:00:00.008+02:00

Lillibird send me a batch of cool photos. I chose some of the amusing pictures featuring animals:

This doesn't have any animals, but it's very clever:

Thank you, Lillibird.

Going backwards

2011-09-25T13:25:00.000+02:00

Things seem to be a bit slow, so let's have some humour.

Open Thread - Saturday

2011-09-24T21:00:00.003+02:00

It's time for a bit of travel. Most people know the Argentina of the tango, so I would like to show the Argentina of the gauchos, the Pampas.

Here's a different kind of Argentinian music:

I like this one even better!

Gauchos

The criollo is a small, very strong horse. They learn very quickly and
make the ideal working companions for the gauchos.

Music and dance run through the gauchos' veins

The trousers worn by gauchos are called bombachas. They're very roomy and comfortable.

Yerba mate

Mate is a strong, bitter tea, very invigorating. The gauchos have it all the time, but early in the morning, they get ready to work by having a few rounds of mate. The gourd is filled with yerba mate and boiling water, then passed around and sucked through a pump. I don't know about Argentina, but in Brazil the gauchos don't say thank you when offered the gourd because that means they had enough and are out of the round. In Brazil it's called chimarrão. Gauchos carry a thermos to top themselves up during the working day.

The Pampas

The Pampas

Pampas cat

Pampas fox

Capybara

Rhea

My brother-in-law

My brother-in-law was a Brazilian gaucho from the southernmost state: Rio Grande do Sul. I learned a lot about the culture from him. The customs, the music and the dances are very similar. He played the bombo, the large percussion instrument seen in the video and was a great dancer.

He also made the best churrasco:

Our son Billy learned to ride with with the best and became an honorary little gaucho... Here he is, wearing full gaucho apparel:

I hope you've enjoyed this trip to the Pampas. It was a trip down memory lane for me and gave me the opportunity to pay a small tribute to my dear, remarkable brother-in-law. He died a few years ago, following a riding accident. Well, he lived and died doing something he really loved and those who met him were left with very fond memories of the good times.

Sarah Palin's wild ride - Liar or idiot?

2011-09-24T12:40:00.000+02:00

It seems to be a good time to have another look at Sarah Palin's wild ride. This month two women went into labour during flights and had their babies in the comfort of an aeroplane.

These women had no idea they were going to deliver their babies on an aeroplane. They didn't have a strange sensation down in their bellies the night before, were not leaking amniotic fluid and didn't experience "Big laughs, more contractions."

September 21, 2011

A woman gave birth to a healthy baby boy aboard a Philippine Airlines flight from Manila to San Francisco on Monday, the airline said in a news release.

Aida Alamillo, 41, a passenger aboard Flight 104, told NBC-TV affiliate KNTV that she was due to give birth Sept. 28 but was cleared to fly by her doctor in the Philippines and Philippine Airlines medical personal.

Alamilllo said she never expected to go into labor on the plane. She was traveling with her 13-year-old son, whom she said alerted flight attendants that she was experiencing contractions. She was led to a private spot in a business class cabin on the plane's upper deck, where she gave birth at 3:25 p.m. PDT with the assistance of three nurses on board and several cabin crew members just a few hours before the plane landed.

Alamillo, now a mother of four, said that although this was her most unusual delivery, it was the easiest. “It’s like 15 minutes,” she said.

September 1, 2011

A woman has given birth aboard an Alitalia flight from Milan to Paris.

The mother, a French national, went into labor halfway through flight AZ 3508 from Milan Linate airport en route to Paris Charles de Gaulle Wednesday.

The plane landed just in time for a medical team to enter and help deliver the baby boy to the applause of the passengers on board.

Sarah Palin embarked on two long flights with a 2-hour layover in between. She started her journey from Dallas to Alaska ten hours after experiencing a strange sensation down in her belly and phoning her doctor to report that her amniotic was leaking. She experienced contractions during her all important speech and left the conference in a hurry. Rick Perry joked: "Don't tell me you're going off to have the baby right now!" Sarah Palin thought to herself: "If only you knew!"

An yet she chose not to seek medical attention in Texas, preferring to travel for at least 10 hours by air and another hour by road to give birth in a small hospital without the proper facilities to deal with any possible complications.

Leaking amniotic fluid prematurely is not without risks:

Eighty-five percent of neonatal morbidity and mortality is a result of prematurity. PPROM is associated with 30-40% of preterm deliveries and is the leading identifiable cause of preterm delivery. PPROM complicates 3% of all pregnancies and occurs in approximately 150,000 pregnancies yearly in the United States. When PPROM occurs remote from term, significant risks of morbidity and mortality are present for both the fetus and the mother. Thus, the physician caring for the pregnant woman whose pregnancy has been complicated with PPROM plays an important role in management and needs to be familiar with potential complications and possible interventions to minimize risks and maximize the probability of the desired outcome.

Premature preterm rupture of membranes (PPROM) occurring from 24-37 weeks' gestation is far more difficult to manage than premature rupture of membranes (PROM) at term. Several issues need to be considered in formulating a plan of management. Prematurity is the principal risk to the fetus, while infection morbidity and its complications are the primary maternal risks. All plans for management of PPROM remote from term should include the family and the medical team caring for the pregnancy, including the neonatal and maternal medical team. Remote from term, PPROM should only be cared for in facilities where a NICU is available and capable of caring for the neonate. Because most PPROM pregnancies deliver within a week of ROM, transfer of the pregnant mother to a qualified facility is urgent and should be facilitated immediately upon diagnoses.

The physician who wrote the article above was referring to PPROM in pregnancies in a regular setting, where the mother-to-be is not 4,000 miles away from her doctor...

Now, people who read Sarah Palin's own account of her labour and delivery should be excused for thinking she wasn't pregnant at all, because nobody in their right mind can believe that a governor of state could be so monumentally stupid.

Her stories about tight abs and the photo showing a perfectly flat abdomen at 7 months add to the doubts.

March 14, 2008 - 30 weeks pregnant

Whatever people choose to believe, there's no escape for Sarah Palin: If she wasn't pregnant, she didn't risk her own and Trig's life, but perpetrated a hoax. If she was indeed pregnant, she's an unthinking, callous idiot.

[Please read the full transcript of the wild ride interview plus excerpts from Going Rogue HERE.]

Open Thread - Friday

2011-09-23T21:00:00.013+02:00

Mrsgunka sent me a few of those lovely tales that make the rounds on the internet. Children are truly wonderful! Thank you, Mrsgunka.

As I was nursing my baby, my cousin's six-year-old daughter, Krissy, came into the room. Never having seen anyone breast feed before, she was intrigued and full of all kinds of questions about what I was doing. After mulling over my answers, she remarked, 'My mom has some of those, but I don't think she knows how to use them..'

*****

Working as a pediatric nurse, I had the difficult assignment of giving immunization shots to children. One day, I entered the examining room to give four-year-old Lizzie her needle. 'No, no, no!' she screamed. 'Lizzie,' scolded her mother, 'that's not polite behavior.' With that, the girl yelled even louder, 'No, thank you! No, thank you!

******

On the way back from a Cub Scout meeting, my grandson innocently said to my son, 'Dad, I know babies come from mommies' tummies, but how do they get there in the first place?' After my son hemmed and hawed awhile, my grandson finally spoke up in disgust, 'You don't have to make up something, Dad. It's okay if you don't know the answer.'

*****

Just before I was deployed to Iraq , I sat my eight-year-old son down and broke the news to him. 'I'm going to be away for a long time,' I told him... 'I'm going to Iraq ...' 'Why?' he asked. 'Don't you know there's a war going on over there?'

*****

The following ones were sent to me by my friend Hilary, dedicated to all grandparents out there. They're wonderful too, especially when described by a bunch of eight-year-old children:

Grandparents are a lady and a man who have no little children of their own.

When they take us for walks, they slow down past things like pretty leaves and caterpillars. They show us and talk to us about the colours of the flowers and also why we shouldn't step on 'cracks.'

They don't say, 'Hurry up.'

They have to answer questions like 'Why isn't God married?' and 'How come dogs chase cats?'

When they read to us, they don't skip pages. They don't mind if we ask for the same story over again.

GOP dirty tricks plus unconventional Sarah Palin could spell disaster for Obama

2011-09-23T14:26:00.000+02:00

The GOP, on top of obstructing any initiatives of the Obama administration regarding the economy in order to make him look bad, are also using every trick in the book to rig the 2012 presidential election.

The only way to counter their strategy is for Obama to win the election by a landslide.

Pennsylvania is tweaking the system to change how the electoral college cast their votes and other states may follow suit. Redisdricting, curtailing early voting and requiring photo IDs also play a part in disinfranchising a great number of voters. Then there are those Diebold machines...

According to a Q&A item on the Washington Post, there's very little individuals can do about it.

So landslide it is, and by a very large margin, which doesn't seem to be on the cards if the polls are in any way reliable.

I think that requiring photo IDs, which involve obtaining a birth certificate (at a cost), plus the state photo ID, again at a cost, would prevent the poor and the unemployed from voting, when voting should be free. One way to get around this would require some creative community organizing in the states in question. It would involve serious fundraising and publicizing that funds would be available for all those people without a photo ID to obtain one.

It's very important that a maximum number of people are elligible to vote and that they actually go out on election day to cast their ballots. That's the only way to ensure a landslide for Obama and counter all the GOP dirty tricks.

As for Sarah Palin jumping in at the last moment, that could be a strategy on the part of the people behind her. They'll wait until the other candidates have put both feet in their mouths during the debates, then she'll come in as the saviour, having spent all these weeks leaking poison from the sidelines. She hasn't been attacking only Obama lately and that's worrying. Her new talking points (crony capitalism, for example) are designed to make everybody look bad.

They might find a way to rig the primaries as well... or she may run on a third party ticket.

When it comes to polling day, faced with the choice between an attractive white woman with instant name recognition, a discredited GOP candidate and the black guy who has been demonized for four years, enough voters may be tempted to go for Sarah Palin. Add the media love affair with her plus some rigging to the mix and... voilà!

She hasn't been talking about an unconventional election for nothing...

George W Bush managed to "win" two conventional elections, so nothing surprises me in American politics.

Open thread - Thursday

2011-09-22T21:00:00.002+02:00

A dollar with a difference...

Sarah Palin accessorizes

2011-09-22T12:43:00.000+02:00

Sarah Palin is very unconventional and that may go down very well with her supporters. As a general rule, a politician's appearance shouldn't be distracting. Men don't have much choice and don't stray from suits and ties for public appearances, occasionally dispensing with the tie and jacket for informal events.

Women in politics tend to chose neutral attire and avoid too many adornments.

Betty McCollum

Condoleezza Rica

Maria Cantwell

Michele Bachmann

Stephanie Herseth

Valerie Jarrett

Elisabeth Warren

Jennifer Granholm

Nikki Haley

Gabby Giffords

Hillary Clinton

Kirsten Gillibrand

Kay Bailey-Hutchison

Susan Rice

A political celebrity who's still considering a presidential run makes very different choices from the women shown above. If she managed to get to the White House, foreign leaders would have to be excused for being unable to pay attention to the actual topics in their discussions with the new leader of the free world...

People dress for the job and women politicians prefer to have a businesslike, unfussy image. Sarah Palin wears layer upon layer of "meaningful" jewellery.

As somebody who has nothing meaningful to say, I suppose she has to let her adornments do the talking...

Open Thread - Wednesday

2011-09-21T21:00:00.008+02:00

We had to travel by Air France on our return from Australia in 2009. I was taken ill a couple of days before the end of our holiday and had to spend a few days in hospital, so we missed our flight with Emirates. The French travel insurance company arranged the replacement flight, so we were stuck with Air France. The plane was very old, the food mediocre and the cabin crew very rude.

Showing these videos is not an endorsement of the airline, but I find this ad incredibly beautiful. It's showing on TV at the moment and it caught my eye (and ear):

Here's how they made it:

*****

I know this is an open thread and I don't like to have anything about "you know who" when we're having a break, but I didn't want to have a whole separate post, so here's Joe McGinniss discussing the wild ride:

Sarah Palin - yaaawn

2011-09-21T12:46:00.000+02:00

Sarah Palin on Hannity last night was business as usual.

Reining in spending - attack Obama - crony capitalism - attack Obama - candidates' records - attack Obama - still thinking about running - attack Obama - there's still plenty of time - attack Obama - unconventional election - attack Obama - attack Obama - attack Obama.

Her eyes seemed dead, her speech sluggish, but her mouth was kind of animated.

It was business as usual for the accessory also, too:

Thank goodness for the gossipy items in the books that just hit the bookshops. If we had to rely on Sarah Palin alone, it would be very b-o-r-i-n-g...

Open Thread - Tuesday

2011-09-20T21:00:00.028+02:00

This is a very special open thread. Today is Pallottine's birthday!

Amy baked him a cake and I found some music and a few Irish jokes... Mrsgunka contributed a "senior" joke, which I tweaked a little bit.

*****

Paddy, the electrician, got sacked from the U.S. prison service for not servicing the electric chair. He said in his professional opinion it was a death trap!

*****

Two Irish couples decided to swap partners for the night.
After 3 hours of amazing sex, Paddy says "I wonder how the girls are getting on"

*****

Paddy and his wife are lying in bed and the neighbours' dog is barking like mad in the garden. Paddy says "To hell with this!" and storms off.

He comes back upstairs 5 minutes later and his wife asks "What did you do ?"
Paddy replies "I've put the dog in our garden. Let's see how they like it!"

*****

Pallottine goes to his doctor for his physical and gets sent to the Urologist as a precaution.

When he gets there, he discovers the Urologist is a very pretty female doctor. The female doctor says,

"I'm going to check your prostate today, but this new procedure is a little different from what you are probably used to. I want you to lie on your right side, bend your knees, then while I check your prostate, take a deep breath and say, '99'."

Pallottine obeys and says, '99'. The doctor says, "Great. Now turn over on your left side and again, while I repeat the check, take a deep breath and say, '99'." Again, Pallottine says, '99'.

The doctor said, "Very good. Now then, I want you to lie on your back with your knees raised slightly. I'm going to check your prostate with this hand, and with the other hand I'm going to hold on to your penis to keep it out of the way.

Now, take a deep breath and say, '99'."

Pallottine begins, "One

...
Two

...
Three"

*****

Happy birthday, dear Irish. I hope you'll enjoy the party.

Sarah Palin® - A sexy brand

2011-09-20T14:05:00.001+02:00

Political wrongdoings are boring. Corruption and cronyism seem to be normal and expected of politicians. The media report their misdeeds, but these things don't fire up people's imaginations.

Housegate was mentioned in the Village Voice, Troopergate gained some traction for a while, but Dairygate stayed only on the blogs. These topics are too complicated and... boring. The media simply yawn at this kind of stuff.

Now, what happens when they find out that a petite white woman slept with a 6'8" black guy? That's fantastic news and stays alive for days on end. Cocaine is the icing on the cake.

90% of my Google alerts have been about Sarah Palin and Glen Rice for several days. It was a clever move to leak those bits of The Rogue. People will buy the book out of their fascination with sex and drugs and, as the book doesn't have an index, they may have to read about other things, the seemingly boring things that don't get too much press.

Sex always sells. In the Oval Office, in airport restrooms or somewhere in Alaska. The more famous (or notorious) the people involved, the longer the stories stay in the headlines. All the large newspapers that rushed to condemn Joe McGinniss for including such politically irrelevant, titilating tales about Sarah Palin in his book were salivating over the juicy details and didn't hesitate to print them.

Others are having a great time reporting Mike Tyson's comments in their full glory.

People who are not normally interested in politics will read these stories. Politics is too complicated, but sex is simple and far more exciting.

Sarah Palin counts on her sexy image to sell her brand. Her own father wore a t-shirt proclaiming she was the hottest governor of the coldest state. Her skirts are too short, her choice of shoes too provocative, her boobs expand at will and she makes constant references to perverted sexual interest in her daughters and herself.

In Going Rogue, she mentions threats of gang rape against Bristol and Willow. Letterman was accused of being a pervert for suggesting the statutory rape of Willow. Piper didn't escape suggestions of Joe McGinniss's unhealthy attention and he was also accused of ogling Sarah in her shorts and tank top, just waiting for Todd to be out of the picture... [based on a tongue-in-cheek joke from McGinniss's son.] The family cheered when abstinent Bristol simulated sex with her dance partner for the benefit of millions of viewers.

Sarah Palin described a run in an interview to Runners World:

I went for a run at John McCain's ranch a couple of days before the debate with Joe Biden. My favorite thing in the world is to run on hot, dusty roads. I don't get enough of that in Alaska. So I was in heaven and there were plenty of hills so I knew my thighs were going to just throb.

She's a hot runner with throbbing thighs, her daughters innocent angels and there are hordes of perverts out there dreaming of having dirty sex with all of them.

Other female governors and politicians are not as hot, don't talk about their throbbing thighs and don't publicize threats of perverted or violent sex with their daughters. They dress appropriately and keep their families protected.

When it comes to Sarah Palin, is it any surprise that tales of sex with a basketball player prove to be so newsworthy?

*****

[This post by Andrew Sullivan is a must read.]

Open Thread - Monday

2011-09-19T22:00:00.016+02:00

Here at Palingates we enjoy a bit of traveling and today we're going to extremes, courtesy of Grasshopper, who sent me this video.

Thank you, Grasshopper, that was an unusual and beautiful journey. It helps to put certain things in perspective. We ALL share this incredible but fragile planet...

Healthcare for all or let them die?

2011-09-19T17:21:00.002+02:00

I've been thinking a lot about healthcare in the US lately. People's personal accounts of their (and their loved ones) experiences with it, the attempt at establishing a government-run universal healthcare scheme, the chaos and compromises that ensued and the pushback by right-wing politicians, talking heads and astroturf movements (financed by the health insurance lobbyists) gave me a lot of food for thought.

I lived in Brazil until 1976, when dissatisfaction with Brazilian politics and curiosity took me to England. In one country those who had money simply paid their medical bills and those who didn't died in the queue waiting for free treatment. In the other, I walked into a doctor's office, registered and was immediately put into a system where the only money involved was for heavily subsidised prescriptions (ten pence for a prescription at the time). I had access to specialists, tests and any necessary treatment just for the asking. I think the system in the UK is a bit too universal, so I'm not surprised there are problems financing it. New technology and expensive new drugs also contribute to the NHS's financial woes, of course.

France and other European countries make checks on elligibility, which I think is fair enough.

In Europe, healthcare is seen as a service, patient-centered. It keeps people healthy and productive. If these socialized services were removed and replaced with the American model, bankruptcies, deaths and total chaos would ensue.

In the US, healthcare (and just about everything else) is a business. The patient is purely a little cog in a money making machine. The insurance companies rule and make the most money, through shoddily insuring patients. They move the goalposts with alarming frequency, denying care at the drop of a hat. The health of the patient is incidental to their profits. They also insure the providers of healthcare against malpractice lawsuits. If a doctor makes a mistake, premiums skyrocket. So doctors submit their patients to all kinds of imaginable tests, just in case.

The cost of healthcare in the US is staggering compared to Europe. I googled the price of MRIs in various countries. The difference took my breath away. In 2000 I had MRIs of my cervical spine with and without contrast, and of my brain. The cost was £800 (approx US$1,300) and the price has dropped since then, to a mere $750. The cost of same MRIs would range between $5,000 and $7,000 in the US. Are the machines gold plated in America? Do they play soothing classical music provided by a live orchestra? Does the radiographer cook you a meal and does your laundry, complete with ironing? Do the technicians walk and groom your dogs for a month? In Japan the same thing would cost around $200. Go figure.

Somebody is making a lot of money in the healthcare business in the US. There seems to be a lot of waste in the way resources are used and it doesn't necessarily mean the patients are better off for all the tests and exams they have to endure. They may have the illusion of excellent care, because not an inch of their bodies is left out of exhaustive tests and procedures.

It comes as no surprise that the idea of single payer, universal healthcare in the US seems to be such a harebrained one. The costs are astronomical. When Obama suggested an independent commission to assess some cost-cutting measures, a certain Sarah Palin called it a death panel.

In socialist Europe there are commissions that look into the costs of the services and the standards of care. It doesn't mean care will be rationed, it means it would be rational. Patients in Europe don't have the expectation of being turned inside out every time they walk into a doctor's office. They expect the doctors to have some degree of confidence in their diagnoses and to be spared endless tests and exams just for the sake of it. They're also aware that if tests are necessary, they won't be carried out on the same day, there may be some waiting involved for conditions that are not life threatening. That's the price people pay in Europe: Some delay in receiving non-urgent treatment in exchange for the peace of mind of knowing that if something sinister is suspected, they will be taken care of as a matter of urgency and it won't cost them the earth.

In order to implement a sensible a single payer, universal healthcare scheme in the US, a vicious circle would have to be broken. Doctors would have to regain their confidence (tort reform?) so unnecessary tests could be phased out and patients would have to learn to be... patient. Expectations would have to change. When millions of people share a marvellous service such as free healthcare, a certain degree of patience is involved. Waiting a bit longer for a hip replacement would be ok, because you'd know that if cancer is suspected, you'd be seen, tested and treated immediately, without having to go through the hurdles imposed by the insurance companies death panels.

The pharmaceutical industry would have to keep their greed in check, so that drugs are available to all when needed. In the UK, children under 16, seniors and pregnant women (during pregnancy and for 12 months after the birth) don't pay for prescriptions at all. Certain other groups are also exempt, but I don't recall what they are.

The bill nicknamed Obamacare by rightwingers is not a healthcare bill, it's only a bill that regulates the health insurance industry.

It's quite obvious that the insurance companies would have been the biggest losers if Obama's original bill had gone through, so they poured money into a vicious campaign to make sure it didn't. They're still unhappy about the bits that did go through and are still pouring money into getting it repealed.

I'm afraid America won't have a national health service any time soon. The corporations rule the country and are quite happy to "let them die."

The way things are going, if the conservatives regain power, the US will start to resemble a third world country, like the Brazil I left in 1976...

Open Thread - Sunday

2011-09-18T21:00:00.000+02:00

My sister posted this video on Facebook and I had to share it.

I wonder why it made me think about mustard...

Sarah Palin's death panels

2011-09-18T15:21:00.001+02:00

Sarah Palin is against "Obamacare" and not very keen on Medicaid and Medicare either. Had she been a declared candidate and on the stage at the debate where some people cheered the "let him die" part of the question to Ron Paul, she would have remained as silent as the rest of the candidates in condemning that ugly display of selfishness.

Solidarity, empathy and compassion are alien concepts to the GOP candidates, declared or not.

In July 2009 the ADN reported the results of a federal review of the Medicaid and Medicare services in Alaska. [Please note that the 2 1/2 year stretch when people died waiting for assessments coincides with Sarah Palin's term in office.]

State programs intended to help disabled and elderly Alaskans with daily life -- taking a bath, eating dinner, getting to the bathroom -- are so poorly managed, the state cannot assure the health and well-being of the people they are supposed to serve, a new federal review found.

The situation is so bad the federal government has forbidden the state to sign up new people until the state makes necessary improvements.

No other state in the nation is under such a moratorium, according to a spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

A particularly alarming finding concerns deaths of adults in the programs. In one 2 1/2 year stretch, 227 adults already getting services died while waiting for a nurse to reassess their needs. Another 27 died waiting for their initial assessment, to see if they qualified for help.

Doctors and other health care providers wrote to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid with concerns that the state wasn't responsive. Some alleged that the lack of state controls "has resulted in the death(s) of the active clients," the federal review said.

While the people served are frail and suffer from chronic health issues, the state never investigated to determine if any failure in service contributed to the deaths, the federal review found.

When Sarah Palin set out to derail the debate about healthcare reform, she wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal:

...one way Mr. Obama wants to eliminate inefficiency and waste: He's asked Congress to create an Independent Medicare Advisory Council—an unelected, largely unaccountable group of experts charged with containing Medicare costs. In an interview with the New York Times in April, the president suggested that such a group, working outside of "normal political channels," should guide decisions regarding that "huge driver of cost . . . the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives . . . ."

Given such statements, is it any wonder that many of the sick and elderly are concerned that the Democrats' proposals will ultimately lead to rationing of their health care by—dare I say it—death panels?

When 254 people died in Alaska, Sarah Palin was the accountable elected official and her own appointees were responsible for the coordination and running of services for the elderly and the needy. The state failed the people who depended on these services.

While the people served are frail and suffer from chronic health issues, the state never investigated to determine if any failure in service contributed to the deaths, the federal review found.

Sarah Palin's incompetence may have cost 254 people their lives or at the very least made the end of their lives painful, uncomfortable and undignified. People on Medicaid and Medicare cost the state too much.

Let them die waiting...

[Please don't miss this excellent and passionate commentary on Ron Paul's response to "let him die."]

Open Thread - Saturday

2011-09-17T21:00:00.001+02:00

Grasshopper sent me this great photo. Does it make you think of a certain someone?

"Sit down and shut up!"

Thank you, Grasshopper.

Going rogue wasn't a very good idea...

2011-09-17T14:03:00.004+02:00

The media all over the world wasted no time in producing spectacular headlines when they came across the revelations about Sarah Palin in Joe McGinniss's book, paying particular attention to sex dalliances and drug abuse.

Then they started to defend her and attack the author. The New York Times, the Washington Post and even Keith Olbermann deplored the nature of the explosive contents that have been made public so far. They find the whole thing irrelevant and not connected to politics. I think they would have a stronger point if Sarah Palin had not written about her younger years in Going Rogue.

Personally, I couldn't care less how many sexual partners of any race she had before she was married, after she was married or right now. What makes it relevant to me is her hypocrisy and the fact that she lies at any given opportunity.

In her own book she painted her relationship with Todd in very different tones. He was the one, he has always been the only one. Always. She painted herself as little miss perfect, utterly dedicated to Todd and then to her brood. The devoted girlfriend became a devoted wife and mother, her motivation to do anything, including her involvement in politics, always noble and selfless, was based on the values she learned from her dad, her family, basketball, fishing, hunting, all the things that gave her a faultless work ethic.

We had already found many inconsistencies in her account of many events, so when we look at McGinniss's version (from the excerpts so far) side-by-side with hers, her version becomes even harder to swallow. I expect the author and his publishers took all the necessary steps to avoid litigation and should be able to back up any revelations with some kind of proof.

Sarah Palin wrote about her whole life in saccharine tones, with the added twist of "little Sarah against the world" as the running theme of her political career. Why should the world be so against a person who, according to herself, had only the noblest of motives?

Joe McGinniss interviewed a great number of people who know Sarah Palin well and many of them felt they had been wronged by the Palins. People who had once admired Sarah Palin were deeply disillusioned. And they talked.

If The Rogue is being branded a hatchet job, what is Going Rogue? Yes, a hatchet job. The difference is that one book is well written and the other is very badly ghostwritten. Sarah Palin set out to settle scores and consolidate the myths about a persona she created for public consumption. The Rogue simply debunks it.

Now the contents of The Rogue are deemed to be politically irrelevant... but wait a minute! Sarah Palin made them relevant by writing Going Rogue and working the whole of personal life into the narrative of her political career. Sarah Palin provided the context herself.

She wrote her story and somebody went behind the scenes to have a closer look at it. If the picture that emerges is not a pretty one, is shooting the messenger the best anybody can do?

Open Thread - Friday

2011-09-16T21:00:00.009+02:00

Mrsgunka mentioned a dish of chicken wrapped in bacon in a recent thread and I remembered this recipe, from my dormant food blog:

Chicken Caroline

I've learned this recipe a long time ago, from an Irish friend called Caroline and reinvented it over the years. This is the latest version, but still bearing her name. I cooked it for Peter's birthday last year.

Ingredients for the meaty bits

2 or 3 pieces of chicken per person (breast or thigh off the bone, depending on personal preferences. I'm a thigh enthusiast and don't do breast)
1 or 2 rashers of smoked bacon per portion of chicken
Finely chopped garlic. (A little or a lot, depending on how much you like it)
A good sprinkling of dried oregano and parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
Extra virgin olive oil

Ingredients for sauce

3/4 of a pint of milk (adjust depending on number of guests. You want a decent amount of sauce)
Generous amounts of grated cheese. I used Emmenthal, Comté and Parmesan, but it also works with Cheddar instead of the first two.
Dry white wine - 1 or 2 glasses, you decide
3 heaped teaspoons of cornflour (known in the US as cornstarch - it's the fine white stuff, not the gritty, yellow stuff used to make tortillas)
A knob of butter.
Salt and white pepper to taste (bear in mind that the cheeses and the bacon are already salty, so keep tasting and adjusting it as you go)

Cooking

Season the chicken pieces with the garlic, herbs, salt (not too much, remember the bacon!) and pepper, drizzle with some olive oil, then massage all the pieces really well and leave to stand for a while (15 minutes or a bit longer will do). Shape the pieces into neat roundish shapes, arranging them artistically in an ovenproof dish, then wrap each piece with the bacon. Cook in a pre-heated oven at 180C/350F for approximately 40 minutes or until chicken is cooked and bacon is crispy. Transfer the pieces of chicken to another ovenproof dish (why did I bother to do it artistically the first time?) and return to the oven. Skim the oil from the resulting juices and proceed to make the sauce.

To make the sauce, dissolve the cornstarch with some of the milk, add the rest of the milk, the knob of butter, wine, the skimmed juices from above and the cheeses. Cook it gently stirring the sauce all the time. If too thin add more dissolved cornstarch, if too thick, add more milk or wine. Taste, adjust seasoning and pour over the chicken. Leave it in the oven for a few more minutes, sprinkle with some chopped parsley or chives (for colour) and serve.

I served this dish with roast potatoes, Julienne carrots and garlic mushrooms (sliced and gently fried in butter with lashings of finely chopped garlic and fresh parsley).

Whilst I enjoy cooking, I'm not a purist and cut corners by using cornstarch instead of making a proper roux with proper flour for sauces. If you're less lazy and more of a foodie, do it that way and you'll be happier with the results...

You will notice that all quantities are approximate. I have great difficulty following recipes and tend to cook by ear - whatever looks, tastes and feels right as I go along is just fine! Do experiment and adjust here and there until you're happy.

Our friends loved it and talked about it for days, so I'm not as chaotic as I sound...

Sarah Palin's safety tips and advice on how to clear your name

2011-09-16T13:52:00.000+02:00

I finally got the chance to tackle my garden and lawn this evening! So, putting on the shorts and tank top to catch that too-brief northern summer sun and placing a giddy Trig in his toddler backpack for a lawn-mowing adventure, I looked up in surprise to see a “new neighbor” overlooking my property just a stone’s throw away. Needless to say, our outdoor adventure ended quickly after Todd went to introduce himself to the stranger who was peering in...

Sarah Palin's note from last year was packed with little messages:

She's sexy in her shorts and tank top.
Trig IS her son, he has mowing adventures with mom.
The new neighbour is a pervert.

Throwing stones is what they do best. Todd reiterated the lawn mowing performance in his statement, but omitted the bit about Trig in the backpack. I heard that Joe McGinniss confirmed to Gryphen that the mowing adventure did take place. It's quite obvious that the performance was put on for McGinniss's benefit.

Several websites give similar advice:

The power lawn mower is one of the most dangerous tools around the home. Each year, approximately 68,000 persons with injuries caused by power mowers were treated in emergency departments. More than 9,000 of the people hurt were younger than 18 years.

Make sure that sturdy shoes (not sandals or sneakers) are worn while mowing.
Prevent injuries from flying objects, such as stones or toys, by picking up objects from the lawn before mowing begins. Have anyone who uses a mower wear hearing and eye protection.
Make sure that children are indoors or at a safe distance well away from the area that you plan to mow.
Do not allow children to ride as passengers on ride-on mowers.

Screenshots from another site:

She may not care about her own safety, but...

And this bit made me laugh:

Sarah Palin doesn't like to be told what to do, be it regarding lawn mowing safety, wearing seat belts in a moving vehicle or using a cell phone while driving. Her children's safety is her own darned business and can't be mandated by anybody!

The sad part is that she doesn't have any common sense about the safety of her own children. Safety "mandations" by the government are directed at people like her. Somebody has to protect the children of irresponsible parents...

*****

Another interesting thing about the Palins is that they seem reluctant to clear their names in a court of law. Branding people as perverts seems to be their preferred route. Todd Palin didn't deny any of the revelations in The Rogue or the National Enquirer, he just attacked McGinniss.

A Palin fan came up with this idea for a Todd Palin legal fund: People should send $25 to Sarah Pac so Todd could be bailed out after beating McGinniss to a pulp at one of his book signings.

Violence and innuendo seem to be much easier solutions than a lawsuit for libel, eh?

Perhaps we should wait for a while and see if they sue the author when The Rogue comes out next week. Oh, and let's keep an eye on any lawsuits against the National Enquirer.

During the three years people have been writing about Sarah Palin, they only had their lawyer send threatening letters on two occasions. One was about a looming investigation and the other about a possible impending divorce. Neither needed such strong arm tactics, as time would prove the bloggers in question were wrong.

None of the gates (including Babygate) have been challenged by the Palins in a court of law.

Interesting, n'est-ce pas?

Open thread - Thursday

2011-09-15T21:00:00.017+02:00

Yesterday Peter and I went for a long walk around the village and I took my camera with me. The idea was to take pictures of flowers and stuff. The results were not too bad...

This enormous hydrangea managed to pop its head through the railings

Plump geraniums

Pretty...

A riot of colour

Interesting textures

The bike is a permanent feature of this arrangement

Nice colours

An old horse trough

Some purple

Very nice

Pretty in pink

Dainty flowers

There was an elusive yellow butterfly around the bush, but I didn't catch it

A menacing fountain

... and a slug trying to cross the main road.

Please click on the images to see them really big!

Sarah Palin's world in turmoil - UPDATE

2011-09-15T12:24:00.004+02:00

Sarah Palin has a big problem

A few days ago I couldn't find many news items about Sarah Palin. Today my inbox is full of Google alerts, mainly about the explosive revelations leaked from The Rogue and about the Doonesbury comic strip, also related to the book.

Todd Palin made a ghostwritten statement about the stories, via Scott Conroy's Twitter. I can't see a guy who writes the plural of shoes as "shoe's" using the word "innuendo."

This is a man who has been relentlessly stalking my family to the point of moving in right next door to us to harass us and spy on us to satisfy his creepy obsession with my wife. His book is full of disgusting lies, innuendo, and smears. Even The New York Times called this book ‘dated, petty,’ and that it ‘chases caustic, unsubstantiated gossip.’

The story about the one-night stand with a basketball player wouldn't seem so explosive if it had been about somebody who doesn't preach abstinence before marriage. We already knew that she was pregnant when she got married to Todd and who knows with how many lesser known partners she had practised abstinence by that time... This revelation is bound to disappoint her "family values" supporters and the fact that the guy is black will horrify those who can't bear the idea of having a black president.

There are also reports of rifts among Palin supporters, with some showing their frustration with Sarah Palin's teasing about running or not.

A seemingly irreparable divide has developed between Sarah Palin’s key supporters in Iowa. On one side is Peter Singleton, the California lawyer who moved to Iowa ten months ago, traveled the state meeting with activists, and created Iowa’s Organize4Palin group. On the other side are several longtime Iowa political activists who volunteered countless hours to develop a grassroots network of support for the former Alaska governor.

The dissension in her Iowa ranks goes along with the continuing narrative about Palin being disorganized. The Iowa Caucus is less than five months away. Peter Singleton says his group has “laid the groundwork” for Palin in the state. However, Bergman, Beeber and Rogers do not believe there is a legitimate campaign structure in place. They will try to help her create one, but Sarah Palin is running out of time, and some of her biggest supporters are losing their patience.

C4P lost a member as well. The person who runs PalinTV cites personal reasons for leaving their ranks.

It looks like things are coming apart for Sarah Palin on all fronts...

*****

UPDATE

Todd Palin gave a fuller statement to the Today show:

"This is a man who has been relentlessly stalking my family to the point of moving in right next door to us to harass us and spy on us. He traffics in innuendo and falsehoods. A few years ago he interviewed members of Sarah's administration for a magazine article, and afterwards they said that he was the most disingenuous and intellectual dishonest writer they'd ever dealt with. He's spent the last year interviewing marginal figures with an axe to grind in order to churn out a hit piece to satisfy his own creepy obsession with my wife. I'd ask that people consider these facts when evaluating his latest lies."

"I'd ask the fathers and husbands of America to consider our privacy when one summer day I found this guy on the deck of the rental property, just 18 feet away next door to us, staring like a creep at my wife while she mowed the lawn in her shorts, unbeknownst to her that he was prying. As well as our teenage daughters while they tried to enjoy our traditional Alaskan summer days outdoors. Joe's son told the media he advised his dad not to move from the East Coast to become our next door neighbor, but said his dad 'was just waiting for Todd to be out of the picture.' Sarah has never spoken to this intruder into our lives, our friends and family don't speak to him, so we have no idea where he would come up with content for his book. He was on our doorstep one day trying to make conversation with our son until Track cut the conversation short after discerning Joe's odd behavior, and I spoke to him one time when I saw him 18 feet away, just to find out who he was. He took that conversation and reported it to the media as me 'threatening' him."

"Unbeknownst" is so Todd Palin...

[Gryphen has the video of the interview with Joe McGinniss on Today's show]

Open Thread - Wednesday

2011-09-14T21:00:00.007+02:00

I can't remember if I've posted this video before. If I did, bear with me, I find it very uplifting. So here it is...

Yo-Yo Ma proves that true love of music crosses all borders...

Of course, I'm unashamedly biased. This piece stirs my Brazilian soul!

Sarah Palin's contradictions - and more!

2011-09-14T13:27:00.001+02:00

Sarah Palin referred to her e-mails regarding the immunization of young girls against cervical cancer. I searched the databasa but found only some e-mails about chickenpox immunization. Sarah was against making it mandatory. In that respect, she's consistent. She doesn't like mandations...

Please click on image to enlarge

Although I couldn't find the e-mails she mentioned, I found an interesting press release from the Department of Health & Social Services on the State of Alaska website:

Press Release
State of Alaska > Health & Social Services > Press

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 4, 2007

(Juneau, Alaska) ─ The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services announced today that an increase in federal funding will make it possible for all Alaska girls ages 9 through 18 to receive Gardasil ®, the vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, at no cost.

Earlier this spring, the department had said it could provide free Gardasil only to Alaska girls who met certain eligibility requirements. Since then, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provided additional funds for Alaska to obtain more vaccine. This boost in federal aid will enable more Alaska girls to receive Gardasil. Distribution of this vaccine to providers is just beginning, so state health officials suggest calling providers before visiting local clinics to find out if the vaccine is available.

“We are thrilled that this unanticipated funding will allow us to provide the vaccine for all eligible girls,” said Laurel Wood, Alaska’s immunization program manager. “Although we have no guarantee that this funding will be available in future years, we hope to immunize as many Alaska girls as possible while we have this unique opportunity.”

The federal government approved Gardasil last summer to prevent certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV) known to cause cervical cancer. Gardasil is the most expensive vaccine recommended today, with a retail cost of at least $360 for three shots given over six months.

The CDC recommends the vaccine for girls and women 9 through 26 years old, but the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services only has funding to cover the vaccine for those ages 9 through 18. Women ages 19 through 26 may be able to receive some coverage through Medicaid, their health insurance companies or a special financial aid program set up by Merck & Co. Inc., the vaccine’s manufacturer.

They were hoping to immunize as many girls as possible, but there's no indication that it would be compulsory, only that they were following the CDC recommendations. The interesting bit is the funding for the immunization programme: Those terrible, terrible federal dollars!

If Sarah Palin believed that there was something up with that issue, it looks like she didn't tell the DHSS. They were merrily promoting the immunization programme.

She likes to mention herself as an example of correctness when attacking other people, but when we look into her record, there are masses of contradictions. She says that taxing the corporations is very bad because it prevents them from making further investments, but she raised the taxes for the oil companies operating in Alaska.

Now she said she knew there was something up with the issue of vaccination and Perry's own issue with it proves that she was right. She didn't make it compulsory, but didn't refuse federal money to make it widely available in Alaska. So what exactly was up with the issue? It doesn't make sense.

She's always right, she always knows everything and everybody else is wrong. Well, at least the person she's attacking at the time...

*****

After I finished the original post I received a link from reader MW. Very interesting stuff...

From the Daily Mail, UK:

Joe McGinniss' book The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin, due to be published on September 20, alleges Palin carried on an affair with Brad Hanson, who ran a snowmobile dealership with her husband Todd.

The book also alleges the former Alaska governor, 47, had a one-night stand with Miami Heat basketball star Glen Rice.

She is said to have met the 6ft 8ins player in 1987 when he was playing in a college basketball tournament in Alaska and she worked as a sports reporter for KTUU television.

In another blow to her chances of running in the 2012 presidential race is the allegation she took Class A drugs.

The book claims that before she was appointed governor, she and her husband both took cocaine and she was seen snorting the drug off a 55-gallon oil drum while snowmobiling with friends.

Now, that's exciting!

Open Thread - Tuesday

2011-09-13T21:00:00.006+02:00

Today is Roald Dahl's anniversary and this year James and the Giant Peach is 50 years old.

Many years ago I offered to help in the classroom in our sons' primary school. I was to assist the children with sewing. Their projects had to be linked to a topic they were studying at the time and it happened to be James and the Giant Peach. The school's sewing kits were hopeless, so we resorted to collages using different fabrics.

Some of the children had not read enough of the book at that point, so I suggested changing the project to their favourite Roald Dahl book. The teacher agreed.

The results were fantastic and showed the children's creativity. Roald Dahl wasn't a particularly nice person, but his books are very present in children's lives in the UK. They like a tale with a twist and seem to enjoy being frightened!

I miss having contact with young people. Having a mixed bunch of 8-year-olds mobbing you with their ideas definitely keeps you young!

Unfortunately I don't have any photos of their artwork. These were the most popular books:

James and the Giant Peach

The Big Friendly Giant

The Enormous Crocodile

George's Marvellous Medicine

Dirty Beasts

Sarah Palin, loyal friend

2011-09-13T13:09:00.001+02:00

Attacking President Obama doesn't seem to satisfy Sarah Palin anymore...

[Full interview HERE]

She must have read Irving Tressler's book:

In 1936 Dale Carnegie, a well known speaker and motivator, published his book on human relations entitled "How to Win Friends and Influence People." A year later, Irving Tressler followed up with a companion guide for those moving in the opposite direction: "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People."

With friends like Sarah Palin, who needs enemies? I wonder what her game is...

Perhaps Chris Weigant has a point when he ponders whether Sarah Palin is going rogue again and is preparing to run as a third party candidate:

If she runs as a Republican, she must win not one but two elections -- the primaries and the general. This means not only taking on Romney, Perry, and all the rest, but it also means participating in the Republican nomination contest. She'd be expected to debate, in other words. She'd be required to stand on a stage with a pack of other Republicans, and compete on the level of answering questions from moderators. Running as an Independent would avoid all of that. The only debate stage she'd expect to appear on would be one with Barack Obama and a single Republican, next fall. Running as an Independent would mean her name would move straight to the general election battle -- with no chance her candidacy would be derailed early next year.

I secretly hope that this is precisely her plan.

Open Thread - Monday

2011-09-12T21:00:00.002+02:00

Our reader wayofpeace sent me this video, by award winning film maker Jean-Jacques Annaud. It's packed with excitement!

Thank you, wayfpeace.

Sarah Palin - You Betcha!

2011-09-12T14:34:00.001+02:00

Nick Broomfield's documentary about Sarah Palin was shown in Toronto and received mixed reviews:

The Independent, UK

The trouble is that Palin has been under so much scrutiny since coming in from the cold, when she was anointed the saviour of John McCain's ailing presidential campaign, that there are no stones left for Broomfield to turn.

Broomfield struggles to keep his footing on Wasilla's icy roads – a good metaphor for the film, which skates on thin ice as a journalistic endeavour.

The trouble is that all the dirty laundry has already been aired, and the desire of Palin's supporters for her to run for President has been undermined. Without a Palin interview, the documentary has no meat to add to the bones.

The Guardian, UK

Broomfield's film has had some of its edge sanded off by the fact its target is now, effectively, neutralised, superseded by a younger model, and so discredited her getting her mitts on the keys to the White House feels a pipe dream, rather than an imminent nightmare. There's not a lot that's truly new here, and Broomfield must bulk his testimonies out with file clips. As cuttings jobs go, though, it's razor sharp. He may look like a pussycat, but Broomfield, too, is a pitbull within.

Time Out Chicago

Speaking of one-note: You won't find anything new in Sarah Palin - You Betcha!, in which the former Alaska governor's hometown gets punked by British documentarian Nick Broomfield. It's certainly amusing to see the residents of Wasilla baffled by the professional sleazeball filmmaker, and it's possible that his complete lack of seriousness made him less threatening to, say, Palin's parents. But there are no revelations here that will surprise anyone who reads Andrew Sullivan's blog, even if the film does manage to be less insufferable than the last Palin documentary.

Palingates reader Bowser left a comment on last night's thread:

Just wanted to let you know I just got back from the world premier of Sarah Palin - You Betcha! It was a really well put together movie, which should really open people's eyes on Sarah!

Some of the critics think that everything that needed to be aired about Sarah Palin is out there already (little do they know!). Of course, the film won't hold any surprises for the people who have been following the blogs about Sarah Palin for the past three years, but it's good to know that the documentary will reach a wider audience and generate some curiosity. Perhaps the blogs will attract more attention and more people will become aware of the real Sarah Palin that we know so well.

At this point, it may no longer be crucial to stop Sarah Palin trying to reach the White House, but Nick made a good point in an interview to The Hollywood Reporter:

“What she (Palin) represents, whether it’s her or Rick Perry or Michelle Bachman, it’s inherently scary because it’s irrational,” Broomfield said.

Sarah may not run, but could have an important role as kingmaker in the irrational landscape of this election. We'll have to stay vigilant and keep an eye on any of them, all of them, whether they run or drop out of the race. Successful in securing the nomination or not, they do influence the political discourse and by a process of nauseating repetition, make their idiotic ideas appear normal.

[Read a very comprehensive review of the documentary on Immoral Minority.]

Open Thread - Sunday

2011-09-11T21:00:00.004+02:00

After I posted the special 9/11 open thread this morning, I decided to look for some music for this open thread. One of the items I found was Yo-Yo Ma playing the Sarabande from Bach's Suite no1 for cello. I bookmarked it and continued to listen to some other pieces.

We had lunch, then switched on the TV and started watching the tributes at Ground Zero. I couldn't believe it when I heard the very item I had bookmarked played by none other than Yo-Yo Ma.

In the end I settled for another video featuring Bach's music, but it's less sombre than the Sarabande.

Special Open Thread - 9/11

2011-09-11T11:43:00.002+02:00

Texasgal2009 sent me some photos from a book commemorating the rescue dogs that worked Ground Zero in the aftermath of 9/11.

During the chaos of the 9/11 attacks, where almost 3,000 people died, nearly 100 loyal search and rescue dogs and their brave owners scoured Ground Zero for survivors.

Now, ten years on, just twelve of these heroic canines survive, and they have been commemorated in a touching series of portraits entitled Retrieved , by photographer Charlotte Dumas.

Tuff

Bretagne

Bretagne and handler in 2001

Guinness

Hoke

Kaiser

Merlyn

Moxie

Red

Tara

Abigail

View_From_Here sent me this touching video about a guide dog and his owner. Both were inside the North Tower when the plane hit.

These beautiful creatures don't know anything about terrorism and don't understand the horror people can inflict on each other.

I don't understand it either and wish it had never become part of our lives.

Open Thread - Saturday

2011-09-10T21:00:00.002+02:00

Grammy97 is on a roll:

Regina, a viola-playing friend sent me this. grammy97

On May 2, 2011, the Copenhagen Philharmonic amazed commuters at the Copenhagen Central Train Station, as they created a kind of orchestral "flash mob" – performing Ravel's famed Bolero, with the musicians gradually assembling in place as the work progresses. The video – which shows not only the assembling orchestra, but also the delighted faces of the commuters – has generated overwhelming interest, and indeed has exceeded the orchestra’s expectations.

Thank you, Grammy.

If speeches turned into results...

2011-09-10T12:51:00.000+02:00

We have a regular troll who claims to be close to the Palins. She changes her username all the time, but as her ISP is in Brooklyn, NYC, I gave her the nickname she uses occasionally. This person posts very childish comments about Sarah Palin and her family and also indulges in bashing President Obama from time to time.

Not everybody reads comments on blogs, so I would like to post the following exchange. Mrsgunka's reply deserves a wider audience.

Brooklyn wrote:

Anyone can make speeches. America needs results. And in 3 years, that dream has been elusive.

Mrsgunka wrote, in response to Brooklyn:

You know Brooky, if you took the cotton out of your ears and stopped singing la, la, la you might really hear what the man has to say. He doesn't speak in word salad or say derogatory things about people. It took Bush/Cheney 8 years to run this country into the ground and it may take that long to get it back together again.

If he had some co-operation from the R's we may have been a lot further along than we are. The jobs were all outsourced before he got into office so the corporations could make more money but the CEOs pocketed that money and didn't put it back into their companies to grow and employ people.

He was left with two wars that were never paid for. 9-11 had taken it's toll and the country was on "fear" cycle everyday. We had one natural disaster after another, and the costs kept adding up. We were going broke because money just wasn't coming in.

The richest weren't paying taxes and the rest of us were drained dry. The housing market crashed and people were loosing their homes. The stock market crashed, taking peoples savings/investments/501's and they couldn't live in retirement because of past investments... homes, autos, business loans couldn't be paid.

Insurance costs were too high for people to make the payment or they were turned down for treatment. You are living at the poverty level if everything is gone but Social Security and small pensions, but you make just too much for Medicaid and Medicare doesn't pay for everything.

President Obama's first goal was to get the Health care passed so people could afford the medical bills. My husband's cancer treatment was over 2 million dollars. If we didn't have health insurance, he would not be alive and I would be living on the streets with thousands of others. My cancer treatment was $788,000. Without affordable medical care we would all end up on the street. The costs don't stop when you are cured. For 5 years it is constant tests and images that cost thousands of dollars.

You may be young and see a doctor rarely, but you better hope and pray cancer doesn't hit you and you have a limit on what your insurance will pay. President Obama had to settle for much less than he wanted for the people because the Republicans fought him every step of the way with money from the lobbyists of the insurance and pharmaceutical companies.

Sarah (Palin) claims she had a baby with DS. Do you know what the medical and treatment costs with a premmie with special needs? These babies usually happen to young parents that don't have the money to pay for them. This is the reason so many young women abort their babies and most are not adoptable.

President Obama was looking out for you and me when he wanted to get the bill passed. Single payer or what you like to call socialized medicine is what we really need so everyone can be covered. It would be like Medicare. And no, it isn't free, everyone pays into it. There are legitimate poor people in this country that can't even afford that. They are not the lazy, do-nothings you want to portray anyone who are on Medicaid. President Reagan closed most of our mental hospitals and these people are the ones from the many wars that just can't face life anymore, the drug addicts, the DS children that people had institutionalized. These are the ones we need to take care of with "free" help.

My husband has severe dementia as a result of his cancer treatment and he can't do anything. Most of the time he doesn't know where he is or what day it is. He worked 12-16 hour days for 30 years to keep you safe. Now I can't afford to put him in a nursing home as I would lose our home. It costs over $5000 a month and Medicaid pays for the first 20 days then you pay the full amount after that. There are young people in nursing homes from head injuries from accidents. Do you have $5000 a month for your care? Didn't think so.

And you want to throw out Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid for trying to get this healthcare bill passed. You believe everything Fox News tells you or Rush Limbaugh spouts on the radio.

President Obama gives very clear and understandable speeches trying to explain what we need to do to get our country back on track. It will cost money, lots of money, because GW Bush didn't do what he needed to do. We went into Iraq for the oil and it cost us 1000's of lives and made Halliburton very rich.

It will take cooperation from the R's to pass the bills to heal what was taken from all of us. Why don't you read what he has done in the short 2+ years he has been in office? Look around your world if you ever crawl out of your chair and see just what the government does for us and keeps us safe. Sarah Palin has absolutely no idea what it takes to be a President. It's not just photo-ops and bendy straws!

President Obama makes speeches about his plans, only to have them thwarted by the GOP.

Sarah Palin derailed the debate about healthcare reform with her "death panels" rhetoric. There weren't any death panels in the bill, but they're very real and have been operating for many years, in the insurance companies. President Obama was trying to get rid of the real death panels. Sarah Palin was paid handsomely to mount her attack against the bill. She sold her soul to the companies that run private death panels to maximize their profits by limiting the treatment people receive or by refusing treatment altogether.

Teabaggers and other low-information voters attend rallies with posters saying no to "Obamacare." They would benefit from it. They stand to lose the most if the GOP wins the day and repeals what's left of the original healthcare reform bill, together with tinkering with Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and other safety nets.

The politicians who make the decisions on these matters have a benefits package that insulates them from any of these concerns. Some have real servants' hearts and believe that government is for the people. Others have grifters' hearts and believe that government is for the corporations (and themselves).

GOP politicians make their own speeches, saying they don't believe in government, but they're all desperate to be part of it. They love to quote Lincoln about a government of the people, by the people, for the people. In their case, nothing could be further from the truth. They fight anything that would benefit the people, every step of the way.

Should one of them make their way to the White House, should they be able to turn their speeches into "results," I would like to see how long they would be able to fund government by taxing the majority of the people to give breaks to the so called "job creators" that not only don't create any jobs but send them abroad, where labour is cheap. No jobs, no revenue. No jobs, no healthcare. No jobs, no economy.

How long would it take them to turn the exceptional United States of America into a third world banana republic, with countless homeless people begging and dying in the streets?

Open Thread - Friday

2011-09-09T21:00:00.000+02:00

I have four little items today. The first was sent in by View_From_Here, the second is a religious cartoon that I missed out the other day (for some strange reason), the third is something I found on the internet and to round it up, we have a joke sent in by Grammy97.

Thank you, View and Grammy. Enjoy!

Grammy's joke came all in capitals and I just copied and pasted it here. (It's not shouted...)

A DR. THAT HAD BEEN SEEING AN 80 - YEAR OLD LADY FOR MOST OF HER LIFE FINALLY RETIRED.

AT HER NEXT APPOINTMENT THE NEW DOCTOR TOLD HER TO BRING A LIST OF ALL MEDICINES THAT HAD BEEN PRESCRIBED FOR HER.

AS THE YOUNG DOCTOR WAS LOOKING THROUGH THESE, HIS EYES GREW WIDE AS HE REALISED SHE HAD A PRESCRIPTION FOR BIRTH CONTROL PILLS.

"MRS SMITH, DO YOU REALISE THESE ARE BIRTH CONTROL PILLS?"

"YES, THEY HELP ME SLEEP AT NIGHT."

"MRS SMITH, I ASSURE YOU THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IN THESE THAT COULD POSSIBLY HELP YOU SLEEP!"

SHE REACHED OUT AND PATTED THE YOUNG DOCTOR'S KNEE.

"YES DEAR, I KNOW THAT. BUT EVERY MORNING I GRIND UP ONE AND MIX IT IN A GLASS OF ORANGE JUICE THAT MY 16 YEAR OLD GRANDDAUGHTER DRINKS.

BELIEVE ME, IT HELPS ME SLEEP AT NIGHT!"

Any further tea parties in Sarah Palin's schedule?

2011-09-09T13:17:00.000+02:00

There isn't much about Sarah Palin in the news and I have no idea where she is or where she's going next. We'll have to wait for her to rear her head somewhere...

Open thread - Thursday

2011-09-08T21:00:00.003+02:00

Lovely birds!

Do you think Evolution should be taught in schools?

2011-09-08T12:00:00.060+02:00

There are great scientists in the United States, they lead the world in many fields. There must be very different approaches to education in different states, because this question boggles the mind. We're in the 21st century, are we not?

I know the girls in the video are not representative of the population as a whole, but I find it disturbing that the question is asked at all...

The present crop of GOP candidates have been asked the same question and their responses are not very encouraging for people with scientific minds (apart from Huntsman, who believes in both Evolution and global warming!). Some of them prefer to call Creationism by the more scientific name of Intelligent Design. I have the impression that if the bible stated that 2+2=5, they would try to say 2+2=4 is a nice theory, but no thanks.

And don't forget than a certain undecided would-be candidate is a former beauty queen who gave an answer similar to the girls' in the above video when Katie Couric asked her about it...

If the presidential candidates were in a beauty contest, their views would be seen as quaint or comical, but they're competing to become the leader of the free world!

Believing in Creationism requires faith and it belongs in church. Understanding Evolution requires an education and that's what schools should offer. Most GOP candidates would make sure young people would have as little as possible of the latter.

And they say America is exceptional?

Exceptional as in greatest or exceptional as in out of step with the rest of the developed world?

At least somebody came up with a funny response to the other video:

(H/T to View_From_Here)

Open Thread - Wednesday

2011-09-07T21:00:00.003+02:00

Our irrepressible Mrsgunka sent me this video. It's a hoot!

Thank you Mrsgunka, you never fail to raise a good laugh.

People are getting impatient with Sarah Palin

2011-09-07T14:33:00.002+02:00

It seems Sarah Palin managed to alienate quite a few people who used to support her. Some Tea Party groups and some "pundents" (that's how Sarah pronounces it) are beginning to question her motives for the little games she's playing about making a decision and announcing whether she'll run or not.

If they're fed-up with her indecision, can you imagine how the people who don't support her feel about it?

Well, I'm not terribly inspired to write about her today, so I'll just leave you with a video (5 seconds) of Sarah saying "pundents" plus a couple of links.

So cute...

Links:

Sarah Palin 2012: 5 Reasons Why She’s Not Running (But Won’t Say It)
PICKET: Coulter takes on Palin's base

Treat this as a political open thread. The rest of the candidates seem to provide more material for discussion than Sarah Palin right now...

Open Thread - Tuesday

2011-09-06T21:00:00.005+02:00

I think we need some soothing music to counter the earlier screechy video. [I didn't know Placido Domingo was a conductor as well as being the best tenor alive!]

I couldn't resist this unique version of Fauré's Pavane, Op 50:

Sarah Palin is not for sale

2011-09-06T14:57:00.002+02:00

Sarah Palin made some bold statements in her speech in Indianola. [The video is mercifully short and it pays to hear her stick one foot in her mouth and shoot herself in the other. If you really want to suffer, the whole speech is HERE.]

Sarah Palin proposed eliminating all corporate income taxes and making up the lost revenue by closing corporate tax loopholes (??), ending corporate welfare and eliminating crony capitalism.

Would the corporations be happy to keep all their earned money but lose all subsidies and all their political power?

Another question is whether she can make it to the White House without help from the corporations.

If she's serious about this and announces that she's running, she would be obliged to refuse any donations from the corporations. She's not for sale. She would be morally bound to accept donations only from "we the people."

Sarah Palin stands on her own and the corporations stand on their own. She said it herself: "I'm not for sale."

She make reference to how her opponents outspent her in the elections she won. Perhaps she really believes that running for president of the United States is the same as running for mayor of Wasilla or governor of Alaska.

If she pulls this off, winning the presidential election without any corporate money, she'll make history indeed.

Come on, Sarah, put your money where your mouth is.

Open Thread - Monday

2011-09-05T21:00:00.005+02:00

It's time for a couple of senior jokes. Hey, they keep us young!

Jack, age 92, and Gill, age 89, are all excited about their decision to get married. They go for a stroll to discuss the wedding, and on the way they pass a pharmacy shop and Jack suggests they go in.

Jack addresses the man behind the counter:

"Are you the owner?"

The pharmacist answers, "Yes."

Jack: "We're about to get married. Do you sell heart medication?"

Pharmacist: "Of course we do."

Jack: "How about medicine for circulation?"

Pharmacist: "All kinds "

Jack: "Medicine for rheumatism?"

Pharmacist: "Definitely."

Jack: "How about suppositories?"

Pharmacist: "You bet!"

Jack: "Medicine for memory problems, arthritis, and Alzheimer's?"

Pharmacist: "Yes, a large variety. The works.."

Jack: "What about vitamins, sleeping pills, antidotes for Parkinson's disease?"

Pharmacist: "Absolutely.."

Jack: "Everything for heartburn and indigestion?"

Pharmacist: "We sure do..."

Jack: "You sell wheelchairs and walkers and canes?"

Pharmacist: "All speeds and sizes."

Jack: "Adult incontinence pants?"

Pharmacist: "Sure."

Jack:

"Then we'd like to use this store for our wedding presents list..."

*****

Bob is 87 years old and he loves to fish.

He was sitting in his boat the other day when he heard a voice say, “Pick me up.”

He looked around and couldn’t see anyone.

He thought he was dreaming when he heard the voice say again, “Pick me up.”

He looked in the water and there, floating on the top, was a frog.

Bob said, “Are you talking to me?”

The frog said, “Yes, I’m talking to you. Pick me up then, kiss me and I’ll turn into the most beautiful woman you have ever seen. I’ll make sure that all your friends are envious and jealous because I will be very gorgeous and sexy.

Bob looked at the frog for a short time, reached over, picked it up carefully and placed it in his front pocket.

The frog said, “Hey, are you nuts? Didn’t you hear what I said? I said kiss me and I will be your beautiful gorgeous woman!

He opened his pocket, looked at the frog and said, “Nah, at my age I’d rather have a talking frog.”

There is at least one reason for Sarah Palin not to run

2011-09-05T13:57:00.001+02:00

Sarah Palin said a million times that she's considering whether or not she'll run another campaign, that she's weighing the impact it would have on her family and all that. If Sarah Palin needs to find just one reason not to do it, she should ask Piper for her honest opinion.

Open Thread - Sunday

2011-09-04T21:00:00.009+02:00

Myrtille sent me a collection of beautiful photographs of water drops. Unfortunately, she doesn't know who took the photos, so we can't give credit where it's due. I did a search by image but drew a blank on the identity of the photographer. Enjoy them anyway!

Thank you, Myrtille.

2012: Are we doing enough?

2011-09-04T14:31:00.000+02:00

Joe McGinniss wrote a post about how very little impact the blogs have on Sarah Palin. He suggested we leave our keyboards behind and hit the streets.

As this is a dedicated Palin blog, it's interesting to have a look at the traffic ranking of Palingates and compare it to some other sites and blogs on my blog roll. Palingates is very small and I have always been aware of it.

I also looked at the C4P ranking. None of the anti-Palin dedicated sites ranks high enough to have historic data stored on Alexa, but C4P does...

The really big blogs cover politics in general:

#1. Daily Beast
#2. Crooks & Liars
#3. Politicususa
#4. Firedoglake
#5. Political Carnival

C4P traffic falls between Firedolake and Political Carnival.

The top five smaller blogs that deal with Sarah Palin (some not necessarily exclusively about her) come in the following order:

#1. Immoral Minority (sites linking to it: 403)
#2. The Mudflats (670)
#3. Joe McGinniss (110)
#4. Palingates (288)
#5. Politicalgates (97)

Over a million sites rank higher than the last two.

The reality is: We are small and have niche audiences.

Unless the political scene in the US has become completely unpredictable, Sarah Palin is the least of our concerns. All declared GOP candidates support big breaks for the corporations at the expense of services and entitlements for the majority of the people. They mix religion with politics and have a poor understanding of the Constitution. They don't believe in government but are all itching to be part of it, for some $trange reason...

Do the people who read and comment on the liberal blogs feel that President Obama's heart is in the right place? How important is it to implement some social reforms? Should Americans strive to become a more equitable society? Should everybody have access to healthcare as a right or should it be a privilege?

It's great to be part of a community of like-minded people, exchange opinions and share information online. Unfortunately, these communities are small and if they remain online, it won't translate into votes for what they believe is right.

Irrelevant as Sarah Palin appears to be, there are people actively organizing things for her. The same goes for the other GOP candidates. They're fuelled by corporate money: Oil, Big Pharma, Healthcare Insurance companies, etc.

GOP candidates are courting the teabaggers. They may have shrunk a bit, but they represent an interesting segment, as they probably never bothered to vote before the 2010 mid-term elections. They've been made to feel important, valued and will very likely vote in 2012. The irony is that they will vote against their own interests.

President Obama is raising big bucks for his campaign, but that won't do any good if people don't go out and vote for him. The GOP has already started the voting registration shenanigans and there are those infernal Diebold machines. They play dirty.

The people who elected Obama may be feeling despondent right now. The GOP has sabotaged all his efforts to address the problems of the economy. Recovery has been slower than expected for that reason, but Obama is being made into the scapegoat.

It's absolutely vital to re-energize Obama voters. They have to get out and cast their ballots in November 2012. Every vote counts.

It's important to share information online, but it's equally important to go out there and do some community organizing. I agree with McGinniss about hitting the streets, but I think it's possible to combine it with the keyboards. Campaign online, by all means, but those who can, please do it in the real world as well.

I'm not a voter, obviously, but I plan to make my small contribution to these efforts from afar. I will continue to write posts on my little blog, urging everybody to do what I can't do physically: To get out there and do some organizing.

If the GOP and the teabaggers can do it, we can do it!

Open Thread - Saturday

2011-09-03T21:00:00.002+02:00

Religious jokes can be very funny. Here's a mildly irreverent collection:

Sarah Palin's body language and tone of voice

2011-09-03T14:18:00.001+02:00

I had seen stills of a "tender" moment between Sarah Palin and Todd in her reality show and it had always bugged me. I found some interesting footage and noticed that Sarah's words don't go with her body language. Please note the distance she keeps, how her body is at a funny angle:

I also searched for footage where her tone of voice is dismissive or aggressive:

Loving wife and mother? Hmmm...

Open Thread - Friday

2011-09-02T21:00:00.001+02:00

Today's open thread comes courtesy of Grasshopper.

PARAPROSDOKIAN

"Figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; frequently used in a humorous situation."

1. Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on my list.

3. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

4. If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.

5. We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.

6. War does not determine who is right - only who is left.

7. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

8. Evening news is where they begin with 'Good Evening,' and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.

9. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.

10. A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station.

11. I thought I wanted a career. Turns out I just wanted paychecks.

12. Whenever I fill out an application, in the part that says, 'In case of emergency, notify:' I put 'DOCTOR.'

13. I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.

14. Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.

15. Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman.

16. A clear conscience is the sign of a fuzzy memory.

17. I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.

18. Money can't buy happiness, but it sure makes misery easier to live with.

19. There's a fine line between cuddling and holding someone down so they can't get away.

20. I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not so sure.

21. You're never too old to learn something stupid.

22. To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.

23. Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

24. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

25. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

26. A diplomat is someone who tells you to go to hell in such a way that you look forward to the trip.

27. Hospitality is making your guests feel at home even when you wish they were.

28. I always take life with a grain of salt. Plus a slice of lemon, and a shot of tequila.

29. When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the Fire Department usually uses water.

30. Where there's a will, I want to be in it.

Thank you, Grasshopper, some of them are very interesting indeed...

Tea and fun with Sarah Palin - UPDATE 2

2011-09-02T12:52:00.003+02:00

Sarah Palin will be serving the tea in Indianola after all. I expect there will be further servings until she goes to South Korea... to speak.

Considering her level of knowledge and previous experience, she would be more comfortable doing this at the World Knowledge Forum:

Sarah Palin, an insult to speakers and waitresses!

Or this:

She looks even better with the appropriate flag pin:

She has the big shoes already...

The way she's going, she's becoming an insult to clowns, also too.

*****

UPDATE

A reader sent me a copy of the e-mail he sent to the World Knowledge Forum and their reply:

Please click on image to enlarge

Yes, WKF, we have many other thoughts...

******

This is fun. WKF seems to have a stock answer to e-mails protesting Sarah Palin's appearance at their event, but there are minor variations. A different reader sent me another exchange:

Please click on image to enlarge

I wonder if they bothered to click on the link MO included in the e-mail...

Open thread - Thursday

2011-09-01T21:00:00.022+02:00

The following photos fit one description: Therapy!

Sarah Palin to speak at a knowledge forum. Really?

2011-09-01T12:23:00.000+02:00

Sarah Palin is going to speak at the World Knowledge Forum in South Korea in October.

The World Knowledge Forum is the grandest fete of knowledge in Asia. It is also known as Asia's Davos Forum. Established in October 2000, the World Knowledge Forum gathers more than 200 world business leaders and expert from environmental and international organizations to world's biggest corporations and institutions. These leaders predict the future and discuss possible solutions for current and imminent issues. The main aim of this forum is to highlight the importance of sharing knowledge in promoting a balanced prosperity of the global economy.

The people on the list of speakers seem to be described by their current occupation, as in Gordon Brown's case:

Why is Sarah Palin described as politician? She has no title, as she loves to tell the world. She doesn't need one. Perhaps, for the sake of accuracy, they should have described her as a Fox News contributor or simply as a political celebrity.

Click HERE to see the pop-up about Sarah Palin

While they're revising the site so it's truly accurate, they could drop "Knowledge" from their own title.

Inviting Sarah Palin to speak in a forum about knowledge amounts to a serious misrepresentation of the event. After all, she's all for her North Korean allies...

Sarah Palin's map

It would be poetic justice if speakers started to pull out due to her inclusion in the forum. If Sarah Palin had reservations about appearing with Christine O'Donnell at the teagaggers rally in Indianola, any of the speakers would be more than justified in their own reservations about being thrown in the same category as Sarah Palin!

Apart from this one, a Russian minion of the Koch Brothers:

Open Thread - Wednesday

2011-08-31T22:00:00.006+02:00

There are many compilations of these funny talking animals on youtube. We had one of them posted in the comments a while ago and now I found quite a good one. They're always good for a laugh.

The next clip features elephants and it's very funny...

It looks like Sarah Palin quit on the Tea Party rally on September 3 - or maybe not...

2011-08-31T17:13:00.001+02:00

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Sarah Palin canceled her Saturday appearance at a tea party rally in Indianola, Iowa, a person close the former Alaska governor told The Wall Street Journal.

The person cited “continual lying” from event organizers at Tea Party of America, including a recent mixup over whether former U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell of Delaware would also speak.

Later in the same article:

Ms. Palin may still hold an event Saturday, the person said, though she has no firm plans. It’s also possible she could still attend the Indianola tea party rally, the person said.

Is she going? Is she not going? Is it because O'Donnell is going again?

The Tea Party of America call themselves the organizers of the event. Organizers? They don't seem capable of organizing anything!

And maybe Sarah Palin quit again... or not.

Whatever...

A Christian God in the White House?

2011-08-31T13:23:00.001+02:00

OzMud posted this video, one of our readers drew my attention to it and I would like to repost it here, adding a couple of videos I put together.

These people would take their beliefs into the White House and promote policies based on them, affecting a great number of people who don't share those beliefs:

They advocate freedom from government when it comes to services and "entitlements." They want to keep government out of people's lives when they need help from the government. But they would have no hesitation in bringing the full force of the government into people's lives when it comes to sexuality and women's wombs.

They would also open the door even wider to the extreme religious fundamentalists who preach that all aspects of society should be infiltrated by their God, a trend started by GW Bush.

Considering that these people "quote" the Constitution ad nauseam, it seems clear that they don't understand it all!

[H/T to Sleuth]

Open Thread - Tuesday

2011-08-30T21:00:00.009+02:00

Mrsgunka sent me a link to a site showing a fascinating video, with explanations:

What it shows: Fifteen uncoupled simple pendulums of monotonically increasing lengths dance together to produce visual traveling waves, standing waves, beating, and random motion. One might call this kinetic art and the choreography of the dance of the pendulums is stunning! Aliasing and quantum revival can also be shown.

How it works: The period of one complete cycle of the dance is 60 seconds. The length of the longest pendulum has been adjusted so that it executes 51 oscillations in this 60 second period. The length of each successive shorter pendulum is carefully adjusted so that it executes one additional oscillation in this period. Thus, the 15th pendulum (shortest) undergoes 65 oscillations. When all 15 pendulums are started together, they quickly fall out of sync—their relative phases continuously change because of their different periods of oscillation. However, after 60 seconds they will all have executed an integral number of oscillations and be back in sync again at that instant, ready to repeat the dance.

Setting it up: The pendulum waves are best viewed from above or down the length of the apparatus. Video projection is a must for a large lecture hall audience. You can play the video below to see the apparatus in action. One instance of interest to note is at 30 seconds (halfway through the cycle), when half of the pendulums are at one amplitude maximum and the other half are at the opposite amplitude maximum.

Perhaps there's too much science in the explanation, but the video is beautiful!

And here's a very artistic version of a similar set-up:

Thank you, Mrsgunka, for making our minds boggle (in a nice way...).

Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnell - Grifting for America

2011-08-30T13:52:00.000+02:00

The teabaggers seem to go by many different names. It's not a single organization and new tea parties pop up here and there all the time...

I googled "tea party" and found teaparty.org, teapartyexpress.org, teapartynation.com, teapartypatriots.org on the first page. I'm sure there are more.

Wikipedia lists some of the supporters of the Tea Party Movement:

The movement has been supported nationally by prominent individuals and organizations, including:

501(c)(4) Non-Profit Organizations:

- Tea Party Patriots, an organization with more than 1,000 affiliated groups across the nation that proclaims itself to be the "Official Home of the Tea Party Movement.
- Americans for Prosperity, an organization founded by David H. Koch in 2003, and led by Tim Phillips. The group has over 1 million members in 500 local affiliates, and led protests against health care reform in 2009.
- FreedomWorks, an organization led Dick Armey. Like Americans for Prosperity, the group has over 1 million members in 500 local affiliates. It makes local and national candidate endorsements.
- Tea Party Express, a national bus tour run by Our Country Deserves Better PAC, itself a conservative political action committee created by Sacramento-based Republican consulting firm Russo, Marsh, and Associates.

For-Profit Businesses:

Tea Party Nation, which sponsored the National Tea Party Convention that was criticized for its $549 ticket price.[103][104][105][106] and because Sarah Palin was apparently paid $100,000 USD for her appearance (which she put towards SarahPAC.)

Informal Organizations and Coalitions:

- The National Tea Party Federation, formed on April 8, 2010, by several leaders in the Tea Party movement to help spread its message and to respond to critics with a quick, unified response.
- The Nationwide Tea Party Coalition, a loose national coalition of several dozen local tea party groups.

Michele Bachmann will be addressing a rally in Des Moines tomorrow, an event organized by the long established Tea Party Express.

Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnell will appear at another event on September 3, organized by the newly formed Tea Party of America. One of the co-founders left Herman Cain's campaign to form this new group. Both Palin and O'Donnell took part in earlier Tea Party Express rallies.

I find this teabagging thing very confusing. It looks like a bandwagon, with people jumping on it for reasons that don't appear to be very clear.

The formation of his latest arm of the so called Tea Party, by being associated with two grifters like Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnell, may have been motivated by opportunism and greed.

Some people have been talking about Sarah Palin running for a third party, but I can't see all these different groups coming together to form a single party. The organizers of each group would have to get off their individual gravy trains and defer to a single central entity. Also, if they form a party for Sarah Palin's benefit, what would they do with Michele Bachmann?

There must be a deadline for registering a new party in time for the 2012 elections, but I couldn't find much about it.

The Tea Party rhetoric is disruptive and poisonous to the political discourse, but as a party they simply don't exist.

When I started researching this post, I hoped to write something enlightening, but ended up more confused about the whole thing than before...

I suspect that's exactly the goal of the Tea Party Movement: To spread confusion.

Open Thread - Monday

2011-08-29T21:00:00.004+02:00

Lets' have a couple of cute cat videos. The first one is about love...

And here's a compilation featuring the famous cat Maru:

Maru is a seriously funny cat...

Recent bits and pieces about Sarah Palin

2011-08-29T13:12:00.000+02:00

I was going to do one of my "Recent bits and pieces about Sarah Palin" posts and all I found was this:

The latest thing is still about Rove's prediction that she'll run and the rebuttal on Sarah Pac's blog.

As there isn't very much about her at the moment, and the major speech (will she, won't she?) at the teabaggers rally on September 3 has already been covered, I looked further ahead.

Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are going to defend the Republic. That's very strange. I didn't know there was a king or queen trying to usurp power in the US. Hey, they must know, being intellectuals and all that, and somebody has to prevent America turning into a monarchy!

Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are coming to town for a once in a lifetime event and you don't want to miss it.

Do not miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to witness the fusion of two intellectual conservatives as they Defend the Republic on the Family Arena stage.

After I stopped laughing at the description of these two as "intellectuals," I turned my attention to the sponsors of the event: Hansen's.

I visited their website and in the section about pests and diseases, I found this:

It's frustrating to watch a tree that was once as strong and colorful fall victim to disease or insect infestation. Sometimes you can treat a sick tree; other times, removal is the best option. Either way, you have to know what you’re dealing with – and fast before it spreads to your entire tree or plant population.

I couldn't help comparing the diseased tree to the GOP...

*****

Unless Sarah Palin does something spectacular before September 3, we'll need to wait until then to have some recent bits and pieces about her...

Open Thread - Sunday

2011-08-28T21:00:00.001+02:00

Our more mature female readers send me some very funny jokes, sometimes a bit blue... This one came from view_from_here and it's hilarious! We're all adults here and I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

The year is 2222 and Mike and Maureen land on Mars after accumulating enough Frequent Flier miles.

They meet a Martian couple and are talking about all sorts of things. Mike asks if Mars has a stock market, if they have laptop computers, how they make money, etc.

Finally, Maureen brings up the subject of sex.

'Just how do you guys do it?' asks Maureen.

The Martian responds, 'Pretty much the way you do.'

A discussion ensues and finally the couples decide to swap partners for the night and experience one another...

Maureen and the male Martian go off to a bedroom where the Martian strips.

He's got only a teeny, weenie member about half an inch long and just a quarter-inch thick.

'I don't think this is going to work,' says Maureen.

'Why?' he asks. 'What's the matter?'

'Well,' she replies, 'it's just not long enough to reach me!'

'No problem,' he says, and proceeds to slap his forehead with his palm. With each slap of his forehead, his member grows until it's quite impressively long.

'Well,' she says, 'that's quite impressive, but it is still narrow.'

'No problem,' he says, and starts pulling his ears. With each pull, his member grows wider and wider until the entire measurement is extremely exciting to the woman.

'Wow!' she exclaims, as they fell into bed and made mad passionate love.

The next day the couples rejoin their other partners and go their separate ways. As they walked along, Mike asks, 'Well, was it any good?'

'I hate to say it,' says Maureen, 'but it was wonderful.

How about you?'

'It was horrible,' he replies. 'All I got was a headache ...

She kept slapping my forehead and pulling my ears.'

Thank you, view. Very funny!