Okay. So a journo-stalker — Joe McGinniss — has moved in next door to Sarah Palin. That happened. But I'm distracted by the idea of Sarah Palin mowing her own lawn while wearing a baby in a backpack.
***
Back when I had my first baby, I thought it would be great to use a backpack, and I used it exactly once, and only for a few minutes. It was terrible! I'm not going to carry anything that weighs more than 3 pounds unless I really have to.
That reminds me... I've been listening to these New Yorker podcasts of authors reading other authors' short stories. I love them. It's cool to hear the voice of an author who really loves some other author's story. The first one I listened to was Monica Ali reading Joshua Ferris’s "The Dinner Party" (which you can live stream at that link or download.) At one point in that story, 2 characters are showing what seems to be a present-day attitude about baby carriers versus strollers:
“How much you wanna bet they buy a stroller?”What that says about Sarah Palin, I'll leave it to you to divine.
“A stroller?”
“A stroller.”
“A stroller,” she said. “To cart the baby around.”
He put cheese on a cracker. “For to cart the baby around in, yes,” he said.
“And you, if you had a baby, there’d be no stroller, right, because it would be oh so predictable? Absolutely no stroller?”
“I was thinking we could duct-tape the child,” he said. “It would be cheaper.”
“Like a BabyBjörn, but duct tape.”
“Exactly.”
“Would the baby face in or out?”
“If it was sleeping, in. Not sleeping, kind of kicking its feet, wanting to see the world, duct-tape it out, so it has a view.”
“Allowing the child to be curious,” she said. “Feeding its desire to marvel at this new experience called life.”
“Something like that.”
“The child must be so relieved that I’m barren,” she said.
He left the kitchen. He stood in the living room with his drink, listening to the sounds of her cooking.
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245 comments:
1 – 200 of 245 Newer› Newest»I don't get it. What's surprising about mowing the lawn with a baby backpack?
In Alaska and many other areas with truly strong women, toting a baby while going about one's day is no big deal.
Babies go and do what Mom and Dad goes and does. And the Palin's have a very full, active life - which is great for the kid and parents.
I'm thinking of writing a Meadhouse expose. Any rooms next door? Even better, for free breakfast everyday, I'll pen one fair chapter. The rest of the book needs to sell the thing, so that's gonna make your life seem very exciting. Incidentally, if I'm going to write all kinds of debauchery in there, you might as well live it anyway. I'm thinking along the lines of Professor Lindsey Lohan.
What other famous politician has a house where a neighbor could move in and watch them mow the lawn? What other politician mows their own lawn?
I'm used to hearing about mansions and complexes and palatiality.
Why mow with a baby backpack?
I guess it depends on how big the lawn is.
And the Dad is there too. Why not just have him hold the kid for a while, or have him cut the grass?
Something is odd.
And you know what they say about “fences make for good neighbors”? Well, we’ll get started on that tall fence tomorrow,
Robert Frost cited that
He is all pine and I am apple-orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, “Good fences make good neighbors.”
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
“Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
But that was by way of Frost mocking the neighbor who said it, as being a simpleton.
What's odd about it? I enjoy mowing the lawn. I enjoy carrying my 6 m.o. around in a pack. She likes to look around, I like to tote her while I'm doing work, even when/if my wife is free to mind her for awhile. It's fun.
It's only odd if you're...odd.
Why mow with a baby backpack?
I guess it depends on how big the lawn is.
And the Dad is there too. Why not just have him hold the kid for a while, or have him cut the grass?
Something is odd.
Really? That sounds odd to you?
I don't really understand what the big deal is. I guess it's odd for someone of Palin's position to mow her own lawn, and probably fairly odd for her to be caring for her own children, but for ordinary people to mow the lawn with a baby backpack on is...ordinary. I've used a back carrier with both my kids, and I don't really know how I would get through the routine tasks of the day without it. My husband mows the lawn, so I've never worn it for that, but I do wear the kids for hanging out laundry, cooking and canning, gardening, vacuuming/mopping, and a lot of the other stuff I do. I would go so far as to say that most women across cultures and through time probably have, because there is (even after the advent of strollers) no other realistic way to do some of these things and also keep the baby safe and close to you. My second son is 1 now, and he's starting to get more mobile, but I still put him in the carrier for parts of almost every day. He likes it, by the way. He likes being up high and seeing over my shoulder and wandering around with me, faster than he can wander, and being with me.
If I did mow our lawn, I would probably wear him in the carrier for that, too, to keep him up out of the way of the mower.
Speaking of shorts. Stuff for Ann's nightmares http://bit.ly/a1V2zv
Strollers are the worst thing ever invented. Yuppie scum or worse their nannies push these monster strollers into every shop and knock things over and break shit. They even line them up in bars while the moms are drinking and bitch that other people are having a cocktail and disturbing their demon spawn.
Listen there is a time and a place for your kids.
In a pillow case at the bottom of a well.
It says that she's hardy and nurturing at the same time.
That Sarah! What a woman. :)
Yes Eric it seems odd to me. That's why I wrote 'Something is Odd'.
If I see my wife mowing the lawn and carrying the baby, I'll ask to either hold the baby, or to mow the lawn. We have a hilly yard, sort of. That colors my thinking here.
That said, what's really odd is renting a house next door to someone you're writing a book about.
"That said, what's really odd is renting a house next door to someone you're writing a book about."
So true. It's not an invasion of the family's privacy or anything.
Maybe he can set up a camera in the Palin's family windows. Plus he can go through their trash. Just to make sure they properly recyle and to get some of Trigs diapers to send to Andrew Sullivan.
Journalists are so classy.
Nothing to see here. Move along now.
There's a very simple rule at work here. If Sarah Palin does something mundane, that proves she's a rube. If she does something more typical of the political class (such as flying first-class), that demonstrates that she's a hypocrite.
Mowing your lawn with your papoose on your back=strange. Moving the entire breadth of the continent to spend the summer ogling the subject of your next book=standard research protocol. My guess is that McGinniss is hoping to put lots of tank-top-and-shorts pix of his new neighbor in the middle of his book, to hype sales.
If I see my wife mowing the lawn and carrying the baby, I'll ask to either hold the baby, or to mow the lawn.
Perhaps he did and she didn't want his help. Maybe he was fixing a broken washing machine or working on the car.
It just seems like the epitome of Rockwell-esque normal to me.
That said, what's really odd is renting a house next door to someone you're writing a book about.
The word I would use is "creepy". But I guess that kind of thing happens when you're in the public eye.
What's weird?
The weirdness is the reporter.
Just try this crap with Madonna or Oprah or Barbara Streisand.
I will congratulate Sarah Palin on her ability to get a story out into the blogosphere, so that her version of the story, which appears first, is considered truth.
Maybe I'm too cynical.
Because the kid likes it? It's fun? It is cool to be outdoors with your child on your back where you can talk and point out things (in between the mowing of course)
I used a backpack with my child for quite some time....until she got big enough and was using my kidneys as a kick off point for jumping and standing. She thought it was funny when I said to knock it off and jumped even harder, laughing all the while.
Nothing weird about it at all.
I've seen moms with baby backpacks shopping, walking dogs, etc. Is mowing the lawn that different? Mom gets things done and baby gets some sun and fresh air.
FWIW, I've always understood "Good fences make good neighbors" to mean that "good fences _make for_ good neighbors". A fence is a mental and physical boundary that helps avoid getting on each other's nerves.
Seems plenty normal to me, esp. for the Alaskans I know. We had several different backpacks, as well as a front pack when our kid was too young for a backpack. And I can remember trucking around Vancouver about two decades ago with one of my law professors and his wife with their first kid on one of their backs.
We lived on a gravel road, and so often used one of those big wheeled strollers. That is what they are good for, going off pavement. But there were a lot of places they wouldn't go. Probably used the backpacks more over time.
Part of what I love about her is that she does something like this without thinking about it. Who cares what the neighbors think, even the new one next door? This gives mom and son quality time together, and she gets the lawn mowed at the same time. Sure, it takes more effort to mow the lawn with him on her back. But that is just more exercise.
What is hilarious is that the more the MSM (and her new neighbor) try to portray her as weird, or far out, by this sort of thing, the more votes and/or book sales she will get.
And, I love the way she portrayed it. Not that it was weird that she was mowing the lawn, or doing so with her son on her back, but that this critic had moved in next door. Mowing your lawn is something that normal people do all the time. Ditto with taking care of your kids. But having someone move 6,000 miles or so to live next door to write muckracking novels about you is.
I also enjoyed that she didn't seem to be able to decide whether to offer him typical Alaskan hospitality or not, given why he was there. Offering sugar, but then talking about building a taller fence.
I carried my second son in a backpack, on a 6 mile hike once in the eastern Sierras. I have some great pictures of the two of us looking in the window of a run down building in a cool ghost town.
I don't find anything strange about it. It is good exercise, and a nice way to spend some time with your child. You are both seeing things at the same eye level, just about. That's a whole different experience than a stroller.
The writer next door is a creep. Maybe he spent too much time with that family murderer Jeffrey MacDonald.
A pal of mine could be seen scrambling around the construction site with a baby on her back when she acted as general contractor in building her house. The crafts didn't seem to have a big problem with it.
I agree that it's nice for the baby. It's just heavy and unpleasant for the adult.
I used to use the baby backpack all the time. Ice skating with baby
I only had that image on a photographic print and scanned the whole page.
I will congratulate Sarah Palin on her ability to get a story out into the blogosphere, so that her version of the story, which appears first, is considered truth.
Maybe I'm too cynical.
Why is this considered cynical? From anyone else, it would be considered shrewd politics.
This is part of why she is so scary to the left. While she doesn't quite have her on-camera presence down yet (I think she still talks too fast), she has some of the best political instincts around.
We saw that with her "death panels", and I suspect that we are seeing it with her attacks on the Administration on their (lack of) response to the BP oil spill. She is rapidly getting to be one of the go-to people on the right for quick responses to Democratic problems, because she can respond quickly and, in the end it most often turns out, accurately.
Liberals...weird = normal...normal = weird...obama.
See how it works/
MadMan: nothing is odd -- Trig likes to help his mom mow the lawn, is all.
My two youngest loved the babypack, although it was a front carrier, not a backpack. My daughter always wanted to face out, my younger son, always in, which got a little awkward when he was bigger. We made it work. That thing was awesome.
The great thing about the toddler backpacks is that they get the kids up high where they can see everything. I bet they love it up there -- or at least a certain set of kids do. You do need significant upper body strength to manage one, but it's clear that Palin can handle it.
I agree that it's nice for the baby. It's just heavy and unpleasant for the adult.
Ann, I think it really depends on the parents. By all indications, Gov. Palin is a strong woman, used to working hard physically. Not like many of us "outside".
I carried my kid at times well after it learned to walk. And my ex did the same, without complaint. It wasn't that bad. But, I suspect that we are both a bit bigger than you. She (the ex) is probably 5'9-5'10, and lifted weights throughout much of her pregnancy - which is why we were asked why we were at the hospital at 5 in the morning with her holding up a wall having contractions. She just didn't look pregnant enough to deliver an 8 1/2 pound baby. And, I am almost 6', 200 pounds, and was in pretty good shape at the time. From all indications, I suspect that Gov. Palin is in better shape than either of us were at that time, and it wasn't that bad for us, even when our kid was a year older than hers is now.
My fondest memories were towards the end, when the kid would steal my hat and put it on its head. A bit frustrating, but in retrospect, quite cute. Still have some pictures of that.
Althouse, you would have loved carrying your baby in an Ergobaby carrier. Absolutely comfortable because it focuses the weight on the hips instead of the shoulders, like most other carriers. I am a little weakling that is easily winded, but I carry my 3-month-old everywhere in it. I carried my 2.5 year old in it regularly until she was about 18 months. Much easier to navigate malls, grocery stores, etc. when they're on your back.
Bruce, my cynicism arises from seeing thinking people buying any story Hook, Line and Sinker.
Doubting what politicians (past, present or future) say is healthy.
Whenever you see a story about a politician, ask yourself: Where is the proof that this happened?. I think that's an excellent thing to do.
You do need significant upper body strength to manage one, but it's clear that Palin can handle it.
I think that depends on what you are doing. Palin might need that upper body strength when mowing the lawn. But with me, it was more leg strength, to be able to haul that much more weight up hills. A good pack will keep the weight fairly vertical, which means that you need more balance on the top than anything, once you get moving.
@ Althouse
It's just heavy and unpleasant for me.
Fixed.
I am surprised that you view this activity - or any activity -- from your perspective only.
This is an athlete, a runner, someone who has been cross country skiing since she was a kid, someone who pulls in nets of salmon on Bristol Bay ...
Her mowing the lawn with Trig on her back is entirely consistent with her life style, physical condition and personna.
She's not Althouse.
(And that's good for both of you.)
"Whenever you see a story about a politician, ask yourself: Where is the proof that this happened?. I think that's an excellent thing to do."
Not this time or any future story for the next 5 months involving her life outside on her property. We have stalker verification now added to our political arsenal. Again, she's not even running for anything.
Whenever you see a story about a politician, ask yourself: Where is the proof that this happened?. I think that's an excellent thing to do.
I do like seeing cynicism on the part of someone who at least leans a bit to the left. I think that many of here on the right are very cynical of all politicians, including Gov. Palin. Indeed, watching politicians spin is one of the great joys of watching politics.
In this case, it really doesn't matter whether it happened or not. The visual affect of her blog is what really matters here. Which is why I think that she is pretty good natural politician.
I just wish that more on the left would be more skeptical and cynical about what the Administration and Congress are doing, versus what they are saying. I would suggest that many there close their eyes more than those on the right do with their politicians.
But that is just my opinion.
It's good exercise, and you get useful stuff done.
Plus, who doesn't like playing Master-Blaster
@MadisonMan Whenever you see a story about a politician, ask yourself: Where is the proof that this happened?. I think that's an excellent thing to do.
Bipartisan example?
Whenever you see a story about a politician, ask yourself: Where is the proof that this happened?. I think that's an excellent thing to do.
You want proof that Palin mowed the lawn?
Sometimes mothers like to keep their babies close. It helps protect them from wolves. And jackals like Joe McGuiness.
I don't know Mad Man. Renting a house next to a subject you hate and are writing a book about? I don't think it would take much for the general public (not Sarah haters) to say the journalist is creepy and a jerk.
Isn't Trig about 2?
Is it a push mower or a riding mower?
When my son was 2 (and my other children for that matter), he would gleefully yelp to ride on the mower. He's 5, and he still rides on the mower (with earmuffs, of course).
If you have a 2-year-old on a mower, you have a strappy thing to hold him to your body. We four-wheeled on the farm this weekend, and the kids took turns being strapped to Grandpa. Falling off a mower can be a serious accident.
It's much safer to take the kid mowing with you than to mow the kid over when he toddles out to find you -- and he or she will. We had a mother bushhog her child to death here in Virginia a few years ago. The little girl thought it would be fun to play hide-and-go-seek on Mommy in the tall grass.
There's really nothing else to do but take the kid with you to ensure his or her safety, unless you have a sitter, which is not possible much of the time. When you're mowing, you can't hear screams or anything else the kid might be doing when you're not looking.
WaPo's David Weigel blogs on "Sarah Palin's strange, unprofessional and paranoid grudge" by posting on Facebook about Joe McGinniss moving next door to her and watching her mow the lawn. Complete with picture.
Posting it on Facebook is a "despicable thing" for Palin to do.
Specifically Weigel writes: "Can somebody explain to me how this isn't a despicable thing for Palin to do?"
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what is wrong with the American Left, in a nutshell.
McGinniss was there, folks. She even posted a picture of McGinniss up on the deck of the house! All he has to to is deny it. This has been out for a news cycle, and McGinniss hasn't refuted Palin.
And that, MadisonMan, is how we know it happened.
I will say this, when my father was stationed in Japan 1945-47, older children would carry their siblings in backpacks too. My father was impressed with that part of the culture. Of course, there were probably a lot of fatherless kids and the older kids needed to pitch in and take an infant with them when they were doing chores.
The mothers would send the kids with the baby's to the camp fence to get food. Policy was not to feed Japanese through the fence, but all of the soldiers did. Who could resist a small child carrying it's smaller sibling in a back pack?
Oh, and many -- the majority -- of his commenters, agree with him.
They can't imagine what the big whoop is. After all, "McGinniss [just] moved in near the Palin's.
And she did a "mean facebook page...."
And we have put these people in charge of our country.
Trooper - do you live in the slope? I can't stand the stroller bullies, the "my child is the center of the universe" crowd.
I was eating, I think, at Moutard, and my friends were visiting with their 8 and 5 year old sons. Old enough to behave and they did, until we were leaving and a transformer (or something) fell thru the banquette and we were unable to retrieve. We knew we had to head for the door before the crying started - we are not those kind of people who shoot daggers at people unhappy with our crying children.Still, as we were walking out the five year old began to cry with a looooong waaaaaaaah (and I am steering him by his neck towards the door), the looks we got as people assumed they were in for a dinner with screaming kid on the side. Definite divide in that neighborhood. The members of the "Park Slope Parents Association" and everyone else.
Papoose; rhymes with moose. No problemo
@bagoh2o: Troop's got it covered: link
Slightly OT: Joe McGinniss started out writing self-consciously faux-gutsy stories railing at Frank Rizzo when Rizzo was Philadelphia police commissioner. McGinniss thought it was terrible that Rizzo (backed by crime-busting DA Arlen Specter, if you can believe it) was making it safe to walk and shop in Center City.
Not surprisingly, he was living in the People's Republic of Massachusetts before he moved to Alaska.
The guy's as big a phony as Chrissy Mathews.
Joe McGinniss is a pedophile stalking Palin's kids.
Oh c'mon, why are you perpetuating the propaganda. Sarah Palin does NOT cut her own grass.
Danielle: Oh c'mon, why are you perpetuating the propaganda. Sarah Palin does NOT cut her own grass.
She does. You can move in with McGinniss to check it yourself.
Just dont let him near your kids.
Maybe it was being in the Army, but I just don't notice weight on my back until it exceeds 50lb. Now carrying anything on my front causes my back to scream in agony, but a good backpack - no problem. I am really looking forward to our little dude being big enough for a backpack, as even the Ergo gets painful on the front.
"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what is wrong with the American Left, in a nutshell. "
They must be a different species. I know we are not that confused on this side. I don't even see two sides to the creep moving in next door to trash your every move...in writing...for profit.
Would they really all be OK with Ann Coulter doing that to Biden's family with small children? Of course not and they would be calling her much worse than creepy, and this is a guy spying on them.
Besides that, Palin's post on Facebook was surprisingly nice considering how creepy this is. I thought her lighthearted neighborly attitude was what was most effective. She did what hateful people cannot muster: self control and kindness in the face of trespass...by an enemy no less.
Ah yes, good old fashioned journalism, just like the kind the press used to ferret out all those interesting facts and tidbits about our current president!
"Althouse, you would have loved carrying your baby in an Ergobaby carrier. Absolutely comfortable because it focuses the weight on the hips instead of the shoulders, like most other carriers. I am a little weakling that is easily winded, but I carry my 3-month-old everywhere in it. I carried my 2.5 year old in it regularly until she was about 18 months. Much easier to navigate malls, grocery stores, etc. when they're on your back."
That reminds me: we had a front thing like that too. Snugli was the brand people used then but it looked just about exactly like that. I couldn't handle that. I find that sort of weight digging into my shoulders very unpleasant, despite wanting to like that sort of thing. I would prefer to carry the baby in my arms with no carrier at all. I don't want to be strapped with weight. Ugh.
It may be somewhat connected to the fact that both my babies came out large (9 pounds or more) and I was weakened by have C-sections. But I just couldn't do it.
As a full-time dad with twins, I always hated the double stroller. We bought a Kelty backpack (one with plenty of extra storage space) for one kid and an umbrella stroller for the other. Worked so much better, and the kids loved being up top.
So yes, if a person wanted to get some exercise, or do anything else that required two free hands, but didn't want to leave the kid behind, a backpack is ideal.
Also:
1. I do admire Palin's superior athleticism and spunk, which I cheerfully admit I lack. It's not an ego problem for me in any way. I'm just commenting on how extreme it is for her, with all her wealth and responsibilities, to be mowing the lawn and minding the baby in a difficult way at the same time.
2. I don't believe she really did it.
It wouldn't surpise me if it were seated drive tractor mower, especially the way she said "adventure." It sounds like cruising around, and with their property, a tractor would have other uses.
Anybody know whether it was a gas-powered lawn mower of any kind? My concern about Trig would be hearing loss. Do seated drive tractor mowers have better mufflers?
The average electric mower makes no more noise than a washing machine (about 75 decibels), while a gas-powered lawn mower can make as much noise as a motorcycle (about 95 decibels).
Noise pollution is a real problem with gas mowers, as any late sleeper on a Saturday morning knows. But they can be more than a nuisance for those who use them. Loud noise can contribute to hearing loss when it exceeds 85 decibels, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH; www.cdc.gov/niosh). A gas-powered mower producing 95 decibels should be used no more than an hour a day, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA; www.osha.gov). Switching to an electric mower will ease the stress on your ears and your neighbors.
Prediction: McGinniss stays for about 10 days, realizes what a laughingstock he is and scoots back to Massachusetts, only stopping long enough on the way to do an appearance on Bill Maher's show.
Can Sarah and Todd win him over by being a good neighbors like the Obama family won a friendship with Tony Rezko? Millions of dollars would first need to pass hands, so forget that. Sarah and Todd would hire the grass cut if they were swimming in Arab money.
"I'm distracted by the idea of Sarah Palin mowing her own lawn while wearing a baby in a backpack."
It's not exactly on a par with Steve Irwin carrying his baby into the croc pen at feeding time.
"2. I don't believe she really did it."
She said there were witnesses: Todd and McGinniss, so it can be verified. It would be silly to lie about it.
People forget that this woman runs marathons. She's no-joke frontier woman, strong as a moose, practical in ways few understand, and probably weird way beyond the understanding of us urban peasants from the lower 48.
Alaska is not like most of the rest of this country. You have to go deep into Cajun country, or even into some of the more peaceful parts of the third world to find people with her sort of mindset...or at least 70 years into the past.
Its not a bad mindset. When Obama has managed to get the world laid waste thru his sheer incompetence and Biblical stupidity, it will be people like Sarah and her family that survive while the rest of us are dying in the streets.
What's worse - to have lied about wearing your toddler while mowing, or to admit that you're not aware that exposing small children to motor noise for prolonged periods can permanently damage their hearing? (By "prolonged periods" I mean long enough to mow the monster lawn around their house with a riding mower.) I guess there's a third option: being aware and doing it anyway, perhaps as a setup for the Facebook post you've decided to write.
"It was terrible! I'm not going to carry anything that weighs more than 3 pounds unless I really have to."
Meade. You are so screwed on the portage trail. I feel for you, man.
"I don't believe she really did it."
By extension, do you disbelieve various stories told here about parents doing 'odd' things with their kids attached. Like say, riding a ten-speed at 2AM?
2. I don't believe she really did it.
I will be EXTREMELY surprised if video of her doing it doesn't hit the internet. (The description of her in what will undoubtedly be very stimulating attire -- even with a lawnmower in two hands and a baby on her back -- makes me believe she's using all the assets she has at hand. Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
Echoing what others have said, she's athletic as hell and in the past two years mastered viral politics. If she can get McGinnis to publish some glamour shots for her, well, let him score as many own-goals as he wants.
I have no idea whether she was having fun with this tale. So what?
But Theo's right. Some people like yard work. I did, when I wasn't working and I was home raising my son. I particularly liked cutting the grass. It was great exercise and I enjoyed the color I got from being outside.
Althouse: I don't believe she really did it.
Lawncare Truther!
Wendy, in the country kids aren't treated like porcelain dolls. Trig's what, 3 now?
Let me guess, you're not a parent.
Is Andrew Sullivan going to spend a weekend with McGinnis too. The more the merrrier.
Maybe Mitt Romney can lend Sarah some Guatamalans to mow her grass for her.
Ann. I used a baby backpack a lot with my kids. I did not mow the grass with them, but I suppose I could have. I do not see it as that weird.
Hey, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards mow their own lawns. >I saw it on the Simpsons.
Wendy, in the country kids aren't treated like porcelain dolls. Trig's what, 3 now?
I don't think quite 2.
As someone who landscaped to pay for college and beyond, I can see Palin mowing her own lawn.
Our clientele was upper middle class or the extremely wealthy. When the summer after the major recession started, we lost customers who simply didn't want to pay for our services. It would not be uncommon to see a former customer's wife to be out cutting the grass. It was mildly humorous, but we usually got a bottle of water for stopping by to chat. :)
Most rock musicians that take their families on tour with them use hearing protection fitted for infants and children.
One of my favorite pictures of my niece is when she was on her (Mom? Dad? Can't remember.) parent's back sticking out of an rei knapsack with a little purple fleece fuzzy on. She wasn't old enough to talk. I was walking behind and she was smiling at me and I took the picture. LOVE IT. One of my favorite moments.
I don't even think it was a special baby backpack. I think they just put her in the backpack. :-)
"Let me guess, you're not a parent."
So what. I'll still tell everyone how to raise their kids and what to drive, eat, think and where to keep their thermostat. Who's gonna look out for people if I don't, some rube in the tundra?
McGinniss once bid $60,101.01 on eBay to win a charity dinner with the Palins. He lost.
I liked him back around the time of Fatal Vision, but what a creep.
Paddy O, I run into one of our senators occasionally, at the snowball stand in his neighborhood. I run into our current mayor at a po'boy shop in the neighborhood. How famous is famous?
And she's not a politician, is she?
(By the way, my point is not that this guy is on the up and up. It's a creepy approach.)
I don't believe she really did it.
But I bet you have no prob believing she does her own gardening...
She's not my favorite politician, but dammit, she sure knows how to volley with the best of them. He now looks like a creepy stalker, and anything he writes is tainted.
I hope she posts something on a regular basis about McGinnis's activities next door. Mockery is the best offense.
Helluva shot, Sarah.
What about the neighbor who rented the house to McGinniss? Apparently he/she does not like the Palins.
Ther's a picture of trhe lake side of her house on the internets. (Find it yourself. I'm no stalker.)
There is a lawn. Not huge. There may be a lawn on the street side also. Not much if any on driveway side. MY lawn is bigger than their lakeside lawn.
Not sure where her garden might be. (I bet she doesn't get help from the local school kids on *her* little garden.)
The Professor doesn't believe Gov. Palin mows her lawn?? (I do ours, and the extensive weed eating.)
I can't believe that's even a question here. The woman can field dress a caribou, for cryin' out loud. So what's the deal with mowing your own lawn? She's not a princess. She's a real person.
And as I head off to bed -- nobody has connected the duct tape child carrier in the story with the Palins?
What with the disbelieving responses to Todd and the snow machiners using duct tape as face protection during on their races, I'm surprised no one has accused Gov. Palin of strapping Trig on a papoose board with duct tape.
(Some of the responses to her mowing her own lawn resonate with the disbelief of the facial duct tape story, though ....)
I hear Alaskans use a lot of duct tape ....
I can't believe that's even a question here. The woman can field dress a caribou, for cryin' out loud.
No she can't. I doubt she has fired a rifle more than 5 times in her entire life.
Where's Hasenstab?
Of course in Alaska, a stone's throw is a mile and a half, anything less and you're laughed off the softball team. Did I give the impression I was mowing the lawn? Don't be silly, I was fixing the mower. The girls and I have this little side business going on up here, well, it's not really an actual business, we don't get paid or nuth'n it's just that the neighbors saw how handy I am with a tool box and a blow torch they just keep bring over all their broken stuff. Speaking of duct tape, I made the backpack for Trig mahself. You betcha. I just strap him right on my back, and if it's real cold outside, real REAL cold outside, then I put a patch of tape over his chubby little face too. The little guy just giggles when I pull it off. It's like everything's a game with that kid.
It's an Alaska thing. I went to Barrow a few years ago. We were picked up by a local Inupiaq woman at the airport. As we're driving on the way to the hotel, I see a head peering out from what I thought was here backpack. Yes, she was driving a van with a baby on her back.
CatherineM, you're mixing points. Don't confuse the creepy "journalist" next door -- a very odd person (and I agree -- what kind of neighbor would rent to him?) story with the story of people believing blindly every nugget that drops from a politician's pen.
The dynamics of that neighborhood must be fascinating. I would never dream of renting my house to someone who would harm a neighbor.
Like I said, odd.
We also had a Snugli, by the way. Daughter would fall asleep in it, and it was the Devil of a time to extricate her from it and put her in the crib without her waking up. We also had a baby backpack from LL Bean -- daughter was a great hair puller. WIth the son, we just carried him or used a stroller. Much easier on the back (he came weighing more than anyone else's kid on this blog).
And I really like Theo's idea @ 8:54.
I would never dream of renting my house to someone who would harm a neighbor.
They may not have known who he was.
Also, alot of peeps use agents to rent their property out.
Not claiming, just pointing out it may not be as simple as it appears.
And of course, predators like McGinniss misrepresent themselves to get close to children.
No she can't. I doubt she has fired a rifle more than 5 times in her entire life.
Yeah, right.
tinyurl.com/dbygw3
@ Garage I doubt she has fired a rifle more than 5 times in her entire life.
I don't know why I am bothering.
Garage. There are multiple quotes out there from fellow Wasillians who have seen her hunt or hunted wiith her. Her dad is an avid hunter (remember the problematic the bearskin in her Governor's office?) who took her the first time at 8. She shot her first animal (small) at 10. (That's two time by the age of 10?) She took her kids hunting. <--- There are pictures.
You really do just make stuff up. You don't give a rat's ass about what you post.
You are pathetic.
Garage. There are multiple quotes out there from fellow Wasillians who have seen her hunt or hunted wiith her
I've taken my wife hunting too. I would bet $1000 she wouldn't know the first place to start dressing a deer, caribou, or a squirrel for that matter.
Libtard: I've taken my wife hunting too. I would bet $1000 she wouldn't know the first place to start dressing a deer, caribou, or a squirrel for that matter.
Who's fault is that?
Oh right. Bush.
Hey guys -- some of you are jumping the shark here.
And of course, predators like McGinniss misrepresent themselves to get close to children.
There is no reason to believe that McGinnis is a "predator" as in sexual predator.
I would never dream of renting my house to someone who would harm a neighbor.
Good grief.
The harm is from knowing some guy who lives next door is always checking out the windows, hoping for a sighting, watching what everyone does and trying to hear what they say. (Does he have one of those listening gadgets pointed at the house, eager for their dinner menu and family gossip? A telephoto lens on a camera?)
The moving next door does have a really intrusive feeling to it, perhaps bordering on stalking.
Violating the Palins right to privacy on their own property doesn't seem to be a problem for McGinness, the openminded, tolerant, liberal, respecter of the Constitutional right to privacy.
But the [sexual] predator crap is just that.
When it comes to hunting, Alaska is not Alabama.
I guess it depends on how big the lawn is.
It's only odd if you're...odd.
Tint
Republitard said...
Who's fault is that?
Oh right. Bush.
nah, Bush couldn't either.
And there is a picture of her in a group large game butchering thing back in Wailla when she was a teenager, so guts and gore don't seem to be a problem.
So why haven't you taught your wife?
Mr. Heath taught his daughter.
"Hey guys -- some of you are jumping the shark here."
And of course, predators like McGinniss misrepresent themselves to get close to children
Naw, thats deliberate. Fire with fire.
JAL
No links, pics. Nuthin. NOT surprised!
JAL. No links, pics. Nuthin. NOT surprised
Maybe your "wife" can teach you how to google.
Sarah Palin photos - with a very dead caribou and carving up Bullwinkle at the age of 17.
tinyurl.com/32hs3b8
No she can't. I doubt she has fired a rifle more than 5 times in her entire life.
I have a hard time believing that you made that statement.
Here are a couple of examples you can find if you Google "Sarah Palin Shooting".
Sarah Palin Rifle Training
Sarah Palin in Iraq
Palin with caribou
Newsweek cover
Shooting With Sarah Palin article
But, no, that picture of a woman in an American flag bikini with a gun is not Palin. Someone "Photoshopped" her head onto a body.
I wouldn't mind seeing Sarah Palin in shorts and a tank top. Provided I did not get busted by Todd.
I do the lawn and yard and stuff. My husband doesn't consider that his job at all.
He did help with the shed but I did the shingles. I helped the contractor shingle the garage.
Sometimes its nice for an excuse to be outdoors. Sometimes its nice to do a job that is done and stays that way, at least for a little while. "Women's work" tends to be indoors and needs to be done over the moment you turn around.
so why did the professor wait to disclose that she doesnt think sarah actually mowed the lawn with the baby in the back pack ???
catering to the wing nuts !!!
or covering her own hide in case the likes of those liberals she's been beating down on lately link to Althouse in amusement ?
how hilarious would it be if Andrew Sullivan linked here in agreement ? HA ! I dont think the professor could bare it !
Danielle; so why did the professor wait to disclose that she doesnt think sarah actually mowed the lawn with the baby in the back pack ??? catering to the wing nuts !!!
Huh? How so?
If anything, its an embarassing admission from Feminist Ann: she finds it credible that Palin works in her garden, but not the lawn.
its not about not thinking sarah cant mow the lawn because she's a woman. its about sarah not mowing the lawn because her time is way more valuable these days. the woman is a multi-millionaire, and her effective hourly wage is *insane*.
Call the waaaaahmbulance. This woman is such a whiner.
What David Weigel said:
Can somebody explain to me how this isn't a despicable thing for Palin to do? She describes McGinniss as the author of "the bizarre anti-Palin administration oil development pieces that resulted in my Department of Natural Resources announcing that his work is the most twisted energy-related yellow journalism they’d ever encountered."
Another way of putting it would be that McGinniss is an investigative journalist who wrote his first best-seller at age 26 and was shopping a book about Alaska and the oil industry when Palin was named John McCain's running mate. And another way of describing those "bizarre" pieces is that no one has ever challenged the facts in them.
Well, you have an excellent point there, David. And, more?
Politicians don't have veto power over who gets to write about them, or how they research their stories, as long as they're within the bounds of the law. It's incredibly irresponsible for them to sic their fans on journalists they don't like. And that's what Palin is doing here -- she has already inspired Glenn Beck to accuse McGinniss of "stalking" Palin and issuing a threat to boycott his publisher.
i hope you're not one of those people who falls for the 'poor man's teleprompter' line. i'm sure palin has got more money saved than the Obama's at this point. she definitely pocketed more money than they did last year and will do even better this year
The former half-term Governor and failed Vice Presidential candidate has a passionate need for victimhood.
But her fans sure do serve up the dollars to her. They've made her rich for.... for what?
And let's not forget the FoxNews network lining her pockets. The same FoxNews where the second largest stake to any Murdoch is owned by the Saudi Arabian royal family.
Odd that.
There is no reason at all to think that Palin wasn't mowing the lawn with Trig, or getting set up to mow the lawn with Trig. What a foolish thing to lie about. It would be too easy, if one figured that mowing the lawn was a common-woman signifier worth spreading word of to advance oneself that it would be rather trivial to actually do it so it wasn't a lie.
And anyone, BTW, who thinks Palin is even the least bit of a dim bulb didn't read that post. I've no doubt she was livid and felt entirely violated. But she managed the cuts with skill and deftness rather than ranting or screeching. There is no doubt at all that the journalist moving next door is creepy beyond measure. And Palin is out of line for pointing that out? How? Because she effectively made him look like a stalker and did it with a smile?
There is a lot of subtext in what she wrote. Althouse is always big on that. The remark about Piper's bedroom is obvious. The bits about mowing, and even what she was wearing, are calculated. But the remark about sugar if he needed a sweetener was personal commentary.
Maybe the person who thought she was out of line was on to something, only excepting the part where she was actually out of line to do it.
Alwaleed bin Talal, the Saudi billionaire prince who has pull at FoxNews. Audio from Joseph Farah, publisher of WorldNetDaily.
They have pretty much every potential Republican nominee for President on the payroll.
Not quite the Manchurian candidate. More like the Riyadh candidates.
I see alpha is spammng the thread to cloud his pathetic performance.
Danielle: the woman is a multi-millionaire
source?
its about sarah not mowing the lawn because her time is way more valuable these days.
uhm... you judge how others decide to spend their valuable time?
What are you? A liberal?
I sense a new book coming soon in this incomparable series.
Hey Alpha, its a conspiracy between the House of Saud and Fox News. You should get a blog or something. And lots of tinfoil.
"its about sarah not mowing the lawn because her time is way more valuable these days. the woman is a multi-millionaire, and her effective hourly wage is *insane*."
What better reason to get out of the house, stick your baby in a back pack, and mow the lawn? She never gets to take a break, have a change of pace, get some sun and a breeze on her face because her time is valuable and she needs to be making money?
And Alpha... people don't get to veto who writes about them, but they sure as heck get to speak their piece about it. Someone who is discourteous doesn't get excused from being called on it on account he's decided to call himself a journalist or writer. And someone who moves next door to someone for the express purpose of watching them IS a stalker. Period.
Perhaps Alpha finds Arabs frightening. Boogie men in closets.
I think that's called... prejudice?
AlphaLibtard: former half-term Governor and failed Vice Presidential candidate
I honestly tried to find your rhetoric annoying, but then I remembered Bumblefuck Biden is the guy you chose.
2. I don't believe she really did it.
for 5 minutes maybe. Trig is 25 months old now and must weigh at least 25 lbs. that's a lot of weight to lug around in one of those baby packs.
Have you ever been hunting hiking or camping? 25# on your back is nothing.
Hell, my quiver, loaded, is 30# and I hardly notice it.
i'm sure palin has got more money saved than the Obama's at this point.
Probably, but that's because Palin is a conservative, not because of income flows. (Mind that apostrophe, btw; it's not right.)
FWIW, The Obamas don't live in a house where any old stalker with means can move in and have higher ground, tactically speaking. (Hell, even John Edwards managed to secure secure lodgings before going off the reservation for some starfracking nook-nook.) This is not in keeping with a narrative where the Palins are part of some Alaskan branch of the political elite.
Hint: If anyone has a deck looking into your yard, you aren't lording it up over anyone.
"for 5 minutes maybe. Trig is 25 months old now and must weigh at least 25 lbs. that's a lot of weight to lug around in one of those baby packs."
We really have become a nation of pansies, haven't we?
(I have to admit, when I put one kid on my back and the other in the stroller, which I still do when I'm worried about controlling them both, I get a kick out of the stares, and smile. But what I'm thinking is, "pansies".)
A story published last November by the New York Daily News quoted McGinniss as saying, "I'm not intending to write a salacious book about Sarah Palin's sex life. But if it's true, I'll find out"
http://palintwibe.blogspot.com/2010/05/palins-can-see-mccreep-from-their-house.html
"Sarah Palin's unwanted biographer, Joe McGinniss, doesn't buy rumors that she and her husband, Todd, may split -but if there is trouble in that marriage, he promises to find it.
As for reports of infidelity, he says, "I'm not intending to write a salacious book about Sarah Palin's sex life. But if it's true, I'll find out."
http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/11/01/2009-11-01_sarah_palin_and_todd_palin_unlikely_to_divorce_biographer_joe_mcginniss_says.html#ixzz0p1BblheR
How to contact his boss: crownbiz@randomhouse.com
George Bush does his own brush clearing, I don't see why Sarah can't cut her own grass.
Why don't you contact Mr. McGinniss and ask him if Palin was mowing the lawn, Althouse. Then you could post this:
3. I think both of them are liars.
Jana- My four month old loves the Ergo, too! It is so much easier to navigate public places and lots of fun for both of us on long strolls. I have a rather weak lower back, but the Ergo has yet to cause any problems.
I'm looking forward to trying the back carry position, but I'm nervous about getting him in place on my own.
Great to hear you used it to 18 months with your oldest.
When the McGinniss book finally comes out, I'll bet there will be a lot of pictures. Including at least one with Palin in a tank top and shorts.
And the Dad is there too. Why not just have him hold the kid for a while, or have him cut the grass?
Something is odd.
Really? That sounds odd to you?
You're talking about Madison liberals here. They probably think its odd someone who isn't named Manuel is mowing the lawn.
She doesnt mow the lawn AND she doesnt take care of her kids. Witness the the druggie, pregnant brood she calls her family.
I love those podcasts too. I don't usually like being read to, but these have been marvelous. I listen to them when I walk ---
Good stuff.
I've taken my wife hunting too.
Mmmhmmm. Sorry garage, hunting for the right Burberry purse doesn't count.
I've taken my wife hunting too.
Yeah, I had a good laugh at that one.
"after Todd went to introduce himself to the stranger who was peering in...."
No doubt blocking her view of Russia.
Very good, Mr. House. Witty.
I'm with Theo. Whenever the Big Bad Stuff of Life really starts wearing on me, I work on down-home chores: vaccuuming, working in the garden, etc.
(I also mow our tiny strip of flat "lawn" from time to time. My sweetheart cuts the grass on the larger, very steep bank out front, because it's more difficult.)
All this debating about whether the Facebook entry is just propaganda puts me in mind of an old lyric- maybe Sarah (or if you aren't a Sarah fan, her handler)was humming it as she worked:
I'm your average, ordinary kind of woman.
Practical as salt
Modest to a fault
Conservative with a budget,
Liberal with a meal
Just your average ideal...
My telling you this might seem sudden and strange,
But things change, things change...
Another Libtard confuses Palin with Tina Fey. Again.
Fen said...
...confuses Palin with Tina Fey..."
oh the one with talent?
Well HD, you cant be blamed for confusing parody with real life. For yours, there's no difference.
"I've taken my wife hunting too. I would bet $1000 she wouldn't know the first place to start dressing a deer, caribou, or a squirrel for that matter."
So? You're a bad teacher. No surprise there.
@fen
...and all this time I thought Sarah was a parody of real life...
ya'betcha
The troll hand is very weak today. Must have been an intimate night.
House, for the umpteenth time, it's ya, you betcha. Honestly, sometimes you're as dumb as a box of rocks. I'm sorry that I used the word witty.
@bagoh20....well in my defense fish like Fen swim pretty close to the surface of the barrel and it really doesn't pay to overkill - just leave them with a "taste of the hook rather than the feel of the frying pan" so to speak....then they bite yet again and the fun resumes.
Strollers are the worst thing ever invented. Yuppie scum or worse their nannies push these monster strollers into every shop and knock things over and break shit.
Try taking three kids three and under to the zoo without a stroller.
Because the kid likes it? It's fun? It is cool to be outdoors with your child on your back where you can talk and point out things (in between the mowing of course)
Also, while I’m thinking of how hot that would be right now living in Arkansas, in Alaska the baby probably would derive benefit from being outdoors during the part of the year when that is feasible without being completely bundled up. Vitamin D is good for babies too!
Maybe she can get the reporter cited if he does anything too obtrusive. I don't know what the laws are in Alaska, but there has to be something about peeping toms and stalking. Creepy!
The sole fact that Palin makes all the right people frothing slobbering mad makes her ok in my book.
In the matter of field dressing an animal with which you have had no previous experience it is always, as you would expect, safe to start or end at the asshole.
McGuinnis is the one doing something odd and creepy.
Palin has made much more money than McGuinnis and she stands to make much more. She should deploy some of it to fuck up his life.
Do you think that is what drives the lefties so crazy about SP, that she has made so much money out of all this with more to come? Do you think that the raggedy ass lefties on this site are a tad envious of the money that dumb SP has made dwarfs their own meager holdings? When they are so very smart themselves? It is really unfair, no?
Palin is back, over 150 comments.
And once again I am amazed at the apoplexy of the left.
If you believe Palin is irrelevant or inconsequential then ignore her. What was that phrase yesterday....
dog whistle
"I've taken my wife hunting too. I would bet $1000 she wouldn't know the first place to start dressing a deer, caribou, or a squirrel for that matter."
So? You're a bad teacher. No surprise there.
I originally meant that I would bet $1000 that Palin wouldn't know the first place to stick the knife dressing a caribou, refuting the claim above that she did. Granted, it's not a common sense thing, field dressing an animal. Not that she has any common sense obviously.
Not that she has any common sense obviously.
Christ garage, you were provided ample evidence she hunts, shoots a gun and can field dress her kills. Why do you continue to demonstrate what a complete hack you are?
I can almost hear you stamping your feet.
Honestly, sometimes you're as dumb as a box of rocks.
Hey now, that's insulting to my pet rock.
Garage: I originally meant that I would bet $1000 that Palin wouldn't know the first place to stick the knife dressing a caribou, refuting the claim above that she did.
Put up or shut up. You can mail Ann the $1000 to hold while Palin teaches your wife how to field dress a caribou...
I've taken my wife hunting too. I would bet $1000 she wouldn't know the first place to start dressing a deer, caribou, or a squirrel for that matter.
Just because YOUR wife is unable to do those things doesn't mean other women can't. Judging others by your own inadequacies is not a good practice.
I have killed and field dressed so many Canadian Honkers, Pheasants, Quail, Doves, Mallards etc that I can't even count.
I have caught and cleaned at the stream/lakeside Salmon, Stripped Bass, Large Mouth Bass, Trout, Croppie etc.
I also have field dressed Mule Deer. I didn't care for it because it was messy, really hard work and, somehow because it was mammalian, instead of fish or fowl, I felt bad about it. So I quit hunting deer many years ago. I don't feel bad about cooking and eating it though.
I routinely kill ground squirrels and have no intention of ever touching the nasty things except to dispose of them.
And I don't even LIVE in Alaska.
Michael said...
".. what drives the lefties so crazy about SP, that she has made so much money out of all this with more to come?"
Earth to Michael. If you right wing zealots want to waste your money listening to this pipsqueak of a brain that is your problem not ours. She is making money hand over fist but from you guys not us guys and that very fact must drive you over the edge. She is sucking the blood from the GOP veins...
although I would happily contribute to her political career because she is the ultimate gift to the liberals ... the gift that keeps on giving so to speak.
ya'betcha.
Getting your picture snapped next to a dead caribou hardly qualifies you on how to field dress it.
Dust Bunny Queen said...
I've taken my wife hunting too. I would bet $1000 she wouldn't know the first place to start dressing a deer, caribou, or a squirrel for that matter."
She'd probably pick the upstairs bedroom to dress a deer..seems logical...although a deer in a dress might obscure her view of Russia or distract her a little.
Libtard: Getting your picture snapped next to a dead caribou hardly qualifies you on how to field dress it.
So you're backing out of your $1000 bet.
Typical.
@HDHouse:
That line about Sarah Palin "seeing Russia from her house" was from Tina Fey on SNL, but whatever.
You misattributed that quote from DBQ. Unless DBQ got really progressive here and has a wife now.
@Garage:
I thought one of the reasons to hate Sarah Palin was that she hunted and ate meat (Caribous Barbie). Now you're saying she just posed next to dead animals someone else shot. As a teenager. So she knew she would run for higher office when she was in high school, and needed the equivalent of "I served in Vietnam" back then?
So now there's little reason to NOT back her politically. She lies like any other politician. I mean, if D.A. Richard Blumenthal running for congress can lie about serving in Vietnam repeatedly, what's the big deal?
HD: Dude, you are the one with your pants in a wad about SP, not me. You lefties are the ones making this girl very rich and some broke "writer" is trying to get a scoop by writing a book about dumb old SP that lefties like you are going to buy. You actually think that SP said she can see Russia from her living room. You have heard that enough to believe it true and you will take your dwindling cash to buy a book written by Joe M that we could sit down and write right now without bothering to go to Alaska. It will be a sad little mirror put up to how lefties think and he will make a little money from it. SP will make lots more. Lots more.
Synova:
Perhaps Alpha finds Arabs frightening. Boogie men in closets.
I think that's called... prejudice? .
Synova, the Kingdom of Saud represents a different country. That is, Saudi Arabia.
We live here in the USA. See, that's a whole different country than the one of the Saudi aristocracy, the second most powerful owners of FoxNews.
We have different interests, so politicians on the Saudi payroll, like Sarah Palin, should be suspect.
Simple concept but still...
I thought one of the reasons to hate Sarah Palin was that she hunted and ate meat (Caribous Barbie).
Nah, that's not it.
This from the Libtard who thought Rezko-Auchi was a pasta dish.
@AlphaLib:
I see the piece on ThinkProgress about the Saudi prince Alwaleed owning a 7% stake in News Corp. I assume this is what you mean.
I also assume we can't trust anything the New York Times has to say about Mexico, illegal immigration from Mexico, the drug wars going on there, corruption in Mexico, etc. Because Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecom billionaire, has loaned the NYT $250 million and has a 7% stake in the company.
So you can't trust Fox News or the NYT. Oh well.
Funny how HdHouse bravely ran away after being asked to back up his $1000 bet.
I won't bother to email Palin. We all know HD's a weasel of low character who will welch.
"I originally meant that I would bet $1000 that Palin wouldn't know the first place to stick the knife dressing a caribou"
Do you have any evidence that Palin doesn't hunt, or are you just blowin' smoke?
Funny how HdHouse bravely ran away after being asked to back up his $1000 bet.
I thought it was garage, which would be a suckers bet because he'd expect you to help subsidize him if he lost.
How pathetic do you have to be to be threatened by Palin's ability to hunt? Liberals are truly desparate and pathetic. And one of the ways this shows itself is liberls constant desire to build up their heroes and belittle their opponents. The Obama obsession is the best example of the former. Liberals tell us he is athletic for a President (he is not), that he is a foodie (his wife is but he stays rail thin by having little interest in food) and any number of other lies right out of the North Korean News Service. Meanwhile, they obsess and are threatened by abilities of any opponent no matter how irrelevent those abilities are to being a politician.
Some of my favorite memories of my daughter (from long ago, she's now in med school) are of walking with her every day in a backpack. One of my routes was past a construction site - if the workers were on break they'd yell "We want to see the baby!" and I'd walk over. They'd give her little bits of wood and such to play with and talk about their children. Many had never seen a baby backpack before and wanted to know where I got it. Great inventions, when my daughter has children it will be the first thing I buy for her.
I thought it was garage, which would be a suckers bet because he'd expect you to help subsidize him if he lost.
My bad. I get the two confused.
As does HDHouse/Garage.
The main problem with this is that Sarah is a Republican (obviously).
A REAL (read: Democrat) woman would have the illegal she hired mow the lawn.
The nerve of these teabaggers taking work away from illegals.
Do you have any evidence that Palin doesn't hunt, or are you just blowin' smoke?
For the 10th time:
I said I would bet $1000 she doesn't know how to field dress a caribou. After seeing a few feeble attempts at proving me otherwise, I'm even more convinced.
The thing that I can't get over (and it's not like I'm a huge fan of S. Palin; I don't think she'll run for office), is why can't liberals just be content to dismiss her and ignore her? I mean, it's not enough for them that they consider her dumb as a post, she has to be a phony too?
Next thing is that garage will tell us she just posed in that uniform as a basketball player in high school, and never made the team.
I said I would bet $1000 she doesn't know how to field dress a caribou. After seeing a few feeble attempts at proving me otherwise, I'm even more convinced.
Actually garage, you said a "deer, caribou or squirrel." It also looks like you've backed off the claim that she probably hasn't fired a rifle more than 5 times in her life.
Blowin' smoke.
Well O.M.
If you can provide a shred of evidence that Palin does know how to dress a caribou, or has done it, let's see it.
Garage: I said I would bet $1000 she doesn't know how to field dress a caribou. After seeing a few feeble attempts at proving me otherwise, I'm even more convinced.
Okay then, send Althouse the $1000 to hold. When she confirms she's got it, I'll have Palin prove you wrong.
[bawk! bawk bawk!]
garage asking us to prove that Palin hunts, is like us asking him to prove that Obama was born in the USA. Two identical idiot questions.
Garage: Palin has never dressed out a {fill in the blank}.
Everybody Else: What's your evidence?
Garage: Prove that she has!
Talk is cheap garage. You made the bet, now send the money to Ann to hold so Palin can make an easy $1000 off your sorry ass.
Michael:
"You lefties are the ones making this girl very rich..."
Can't imagine how you think this is true. We're not paying her to make lame speeches, running out and buying her crappy book or otherwise shoveling our heard-earned dollars to her.
That's from the rubes who support her. And from the FoxNews Network -- and their Saudi investors.
Delicious line today from Ruth Marcus:
But Palin has had ample time now, outside the crash course of a presidential campaign, to develop and exhibit some understanding of the issues. Her learning curve, from all the available evidence, is a flat line
Brian, as it turns out, I'm not a real fan of the New York Times. Ever since Judith Miller funneled war mongering stories and falsehoods from Rove and Cheney to the front page and they took years to apologize for publishing falsehoods as fact.
But I don't think Mexico has the same stake as does Saudi Arabia in keeping us addicted to oil. After all, they'd like to use some of that oil, as well.
Nor is Mexico financing anti-American terror networks, as do the Saudis.
Ruth Marcus is dumber than Katie Couric.
The trouble with trying to fake a nationalistic attitude, Alpha, is that you get it wrong. Likely because you're making the argument because you think that it's going to have a particular weight with your opponents. Which it won't, because you get it wrong.
Certainly there are isolationist conservatives and isolationist libertarians, but they are a minority. Most people understand that we live in a global economy and would have it no other way. Well, okay, maybe they are bothered by the debt our *government* owes to China, but that hardly translates to being upset that a foreign person has US investments in a private industry.
Yes, yes, lots of people thought it horrible that a Dubai based firm was bidding to provide security for US ports (not me) but that is arguably directly related to our security so I'll give others a pass on it.
Investments in Media is only an issue for those with a fascist need to control information.
Will you forbid foreign investment in US companies? Will you forbid US citizens and corporations from making foreign investments? What are you actually arguing here, Alpha? Or is it that you are just trying to make an argument that you hope will play on conservative insularity? Is this one of those "make the other side live up to their own rules" thing, where you believe that your opponents are reflexive nationalists who will be alarmed that a scary Islamic person has business interests here, with the added benefit that you believe that your opponents are reflexive racists who dislike Middle Eastern persons?
Again, you are mistaken in your original assumptions about what the "rules" of your opponents even are.
And you should consider that when you make these arguments, you make them as yourself... as *you* making the argument. So you end up taking for yourself what you feel your ideological opponent believes... which is that fear of Arabs thing, and isolationist thing. Or even the prudish and unforgiving attitude toward youthful error thing every time you bring up Bristol and her baby.
It doesn't matter if you're trying to Alinsky people by beating those drums... you're still the one beating them. You're still the one bringing up an out of wedlock birth as if it is a horror or an Arab like we ought to care. So you own those things. You own that attitude toward unplanned babies and you own that attitude toward Arabs. You, yourself.
Which is a weakness of Alinsky, don't you think? If you're arguing what you believe are your opponents principles, you're the one arguing those principles
"Can't imagine how you think this is true. We're not paying her to make lame speeches, running out and buying her crappy book or otherwise shoveling our heard-earned dollars to her."
No. You are just stalking her and renting the house next to her and obsessing over her every word. If none of you care, why is that guy renting a house next to hers to write a book? It is not like anyone from the fox news crowd plans to buy it. The guy may be a derranged stalker, but I think he knows a market when he sees one. Same with Andrew Sullivan. Only liberals go to his blog. Yet, he continually obsesses about Palin's vagina and gets big numbers for doing it.
Oh, and Brian, it's the very conservative publisher of World Daily News who has made the most noise over Saudi royal family influence at FoxNews - not ThinkProgress. They just reported his comments.
Audio of him making this same point is at the link, above.
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"Nor is Mexico financing anti-American terror networks, as do the Saudis."
Okay, got a giggle from this one.
John, get a grip. I am not that guy. I am not responsible for that guy. I am not renting the house next to Palin.
It's a free country. If the guy wants to rent a house next to her to do his research, why do you give a rat's ass?
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