May 25, 2010

"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...."

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?”
“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.
What that says about Sarah Palin, I'll leave it to you to divine.

245 comments:

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John said...

"Oh, and Brian, it's the very INSANE publisher of World Daily News who has made the most noise over Saudi royal family influence at FoxNews"

Fixed it for you there Alpha. You might as well be quoting the LaRouches.

Fen said...

And the Palin stalkers push the thread to 200.

Nice job Libtards!

AlphaLiberal said...

Synova:

"Okay, got a giggle from this one."

By all means elaborate. And be sure to point out the cases of Mexican terror cells wreaking violence here.

And pointing to organized crime selling banned substances doesn't count.

John said...

"I am not renting the house next to Palin."

No but I bet you buy his book. I don't care what the guy does. But, don't tell me liberals don't have a seriously creepy obsession with Palin. It is just a matter of time before one of them does something dangerous.

AlphaLiberal said...

More from Ruth Marcus:

Three unattractive Palin traits have, if anything, been amplified since the election: her unwillingness to buckle down and do the necessary preparation; her tendency to adopt what McCain adviser Steve Schmidt described as a "down is up and up is down" version of reality; and her enhanced sense of injury at the hands of what she oh so cleverly refers to as the "lamestream media."

That would include me.

AllenS said...

... buckle down and do the necessary preparation

What the fuck does that mean? What on earth is Marcus talking about?

AlphaLiberal said...

John:

But, don't tell me liberals don't have a seriously creepy obsession with Palin. .

Sorry, "liberals don't have a seriously creepy obsession with Palin."

Palin is one of the country's top Republican leaders. So we pay attention to her. (Plus, she revels in people paying attention to her).

Palin is also like an ongoing circus act. So of course we watch. Will the clown really do that again? Yes! She will!

She's also a base liar and a constant source of outrage.

Plus, as leaders go she is very helpful because she drives away all but the most fiercely loyal. So, we actually like her there as the destructive clown that she is.

John said...

"Three unattractive Palin traits have, if anything, been amplified since the election: her unwillingness to buckle down and do the necessary preparation; her tendency to adopt what McCain adviser Steve Schmidt described as a "down is up and up is down" version of reality; and her enhanced sense of injury at the hands of what she oh so cleverly refers to as the "lamestream media."

Palin is popular for no other reason than ignoring people like Ruth Marcus. Seriously, who is she? Who cares what she thinks? Palin in contrast can post a few paragraphs on facebook and millions listen. Marcus is lucky to get a few internet trolls to pay attention.

Of course Marcus doesn't like Palin. Palin is just the biggest example of how people like Marcus don't matter anymore. And I am sure she doesn't like it.

Michael said...

Alpha: Mexico is the sixth largest producer of oil in the world.

S. Palin is getting rich off of crazed lefties who see in her everything they hate: a woman who refused to abort, an attractive woman, a woman who will kill an animal (and leave it to someone else to clean), a woman who wears makeup, a woman whose job experience was significantly greater than Obama's, a woman who went to a state university....

Sane people would let it go. Lefties are not rational when it comes to SP. And it...is....making....her.....very....very....rich. HAHAHAHAHAH

Synova said...

And all this trying to haul the conversation off to other issues because there is nothing to say that is good about a man who rents a residence for the express purpose of watching the neighbors barbecue and their teenaged and pre-pubescent daughters sunbathe and swim while making a point to notice any affectionate gestures or lack of them between their parents.

So yes, lets talk about a Saudi Prince. I've heard there are a whole lot of Saudi Princes. Also, they are very rich.

John said...

YEah,

You don't have a creepy obsession with her. You just spend more time attacking and obsessing over her than you do any other Republican politician even though she doesn't even hold office. Nancy Pelosi is the speaker of the house. Has an IQ just below that of the common house cat. Is rarely caught in the truth. And is widely unpopular with all bot the most derranged Democrats. Yet, Republicans don't spend anywher near the time obsessing over Pelosi as liberals do with Palin. It is not like someone from the National Review has rented the house next to her to stalk her.

That is because Pelosi isn't much of a threat and her career as Speaker will probably end in November. Palin in contrast seems to really threaten Democrats.

Andrea said...

"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."

Um... no you don't. You just have to leave your chi-chi urban neighborhood. Believe it or not, most of this country consists of people who mow their own lawns and do their own grocery shopping and carry their own kids instead of having Manuel or Juanita do it. You know what's odd? The fact that urban upper middle class intellectuals now apparently live in such a rarified, segregated environment that normal day-to-day activities like a mother carrying her own child on her back while mowing the lawn can seem odd to them. These are our so-called cultural elite, the ones who want to set the tone for the rest of the country -- a tiny minority that has absolutely no idea how the majority of the people in this country work and live, and what's worse, think having to know is beneath them.

PS: I'm by no means an athletic woman, but I've carried a backpack that weighs a lot more than three pounds without any trouble. I used to take the bus everywhere when I lived in Miami and Orlando, and the bus stop was often quite a walk from my house. I found carrying stuff (books, groceries, what-have-you) on my back was much less tiring than carrying it on my shoulder or in my arms. I haven't carried a baby, though -- I imagine the difficulties would stem more from the fact that the kid is alive and thus you can't just drop the backpack on the floor when you get tired, the kid moves about, gives off heat, etc.

AlphaLiberal said...

Allen, that means to do her homework and learn about the issues she so often speaks about. She is ill-prepared and doesn't know her stuff.

If you read the article there are very clear examples, such as her mischaracterizing the Rachel Maddow interview of Rand Paul in a wholly counter-factual way.

"Actually, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and other interviewers did not ask Paul about "hypotheticals." They asked whether he supported prohibiting private business owners from keeping blacks off their premises. Paul said he "would have tried to modify" the public accommodations part of the law and that "when you blur the distinction between public and private ownership, there really is a problem." He had every chance to clarify in real time -- and he didn't. A double standard? Call me when a Democratic nominee for a Senate seat questions the Civil Rights Act and liberal commentators drop the ball."

And then she got these facts backwards:

"The cheerleader for "drill, baby, drill" suggested that President Obama was in the pocket of Big Oil"

"Facts are stubborn things. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the McCain campaign -- that would be the McCain-Palin campaign -- received $2.4 million from oil and gas interests to Obama's $900,000. BP employees did give more to the Obama campaign ($71,051) than to McCain's ($36,649), but this was a pittance in the context of Obama's fundraising. "

John said...

Synova,

You have to understand liberals care about getting to the truth about the important things like whether Sarah Palin can really gut a deer or if she actually cooks for her children. They want to keep us focused on important things and not distracted by unimportant stuff like the BP oil spill, the 10% unemployment rate, the 1.7 trillion dollar deficit, and the pending bankruptcy of every state in the union currently run by liberals.

Michael said...

Who is Ruth Marcus? Did her husband start Home Depot?

AlphaLiberal said...

John, you are out to lunch.

"Yet, Republicans don't spend anywher near the time obsessing over Pelosi as liberals do with Palin. It is not like someone from the National Review has rented the house next to her to stalk her."

How do you know that journalist's politics? For all you know, he's just an opportunist looking to cash in on Palin's fame, along with Palin.

Synova said...

"Palin is popular for no other reason than ignoring people like Ruth Marcus. Seriously, who is she? Who cares what she thinks?"

Indeed. "Buckle down and do the necessary preparation" means "do what the handler says."

Why are we suddenly enamored with unelected persons pulling our elected official's strings? Oh, wait. We're not!

And if Palin makes the wrong choices for want of proper humility before the wisdom of Ruth Marcus, we're at least given an honest view of a real person instead of a controlled vision of a political construct.

I consider this a benefit.

John said...

"Facts are stubborn things. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the McCain campaign -- that would be the McCain-Palin campaign -- received $2.4 million from oil and gas interests to Obama's $900,000. BP employees did give more to the Obama campaign ($71,051) than to McCain's ($36,649), but this was a pittance in the context of Obama's fundraising. "

Fact are stubborn things. Obama has sit on his hands and done virtually nothing about the oil spill figuring since he could blame it on BP it wasn't his problem. And regardless of how much money Obama did or did not recieve, BP got the drilling waiver from the Obama administration not the Bush administration. So, clearly they got their money's worth no matter how much money they gave.

Don't you realize what a hack you look like when you refuse to admit any fault on your side whatsoever? Is there anything Obama has done that you won't defend? Everyone knows that if McCain were president and the BP spill happened you would be calling for his impeachment. Your defense of Obama here is a joke. No one will buy it.

Michael said...

Alpha: How is that governmental oversight of the oil spill going? Has the Corps of Engineers gotten approval from the EPA to dredge yet? Has the EPA decided that the cleanup solvents are hazardous to future generations? Has the Corps filled out the forms properly? Has our president cut through the red tape and ordered the dredging done like a true executive would? Or is he not helping out because he didn't get enough contributions from big oil. We have a huge environmental crisis on our hands and all we get from the lefties is talk talk talk and finger wagging. No action.

Synova said...

"By all means elaborate. And be sure to point out the cases of Mexican terror cells wreaking violence here.

And pointing to organized crime selling banned substances doesn't count.
"

Why doesn't it count? Because you decide it doesn't?

What do you think does the most direct damage to our country and has the highest economic cost?

And the actual government of Mexico, not some random Mexican with money, promotes illegal immigration and does its very best to hamper our enforcement of rules that might control the criminal element or at least make it easier to do something about them. The number of deaths and the number of disappearances (particularly of young girls) on the border to Mexico is horrific, but the Mexican government prints comic book directions on how to subvert US law?

And you've decided that because Mexicans are to be championed and Arabs are darkly villainous, that pointing out the purposeful actions of Mexico in direct counter to our laws and the lives of its own citizens is off limits?

1775OGG said...

Gee, this has been a fun posting to follow! The comments are so civil and fascinating, almost as much fun as undergoing a root canal procedure!

Well, back to reading my mail and continuing this study about the foibles and follies of the Socialist Leftists of America!

Wendy Kloiber said...

"Mark said...

Wendy, in the country kids aren't treated like porcelain dolls. Trig's what, 3 now?

Let me guess, you're not a parent."

Mark: my 6 year old wears noise-canceling headphones when she goes along grouse hunting with her dad. (She doesn't hunt; ie, pull the trigger, herself yet; in WI you have to meet the age limit and take a safety class for that.)

I firmly believe in rough and tumble. Broken bones will mend. But hearing loss won't.

1775OGG said...

I'm hoping that Todd Palin acquires and uses noise tamping devices to foil McG's efforts to eavesdrop on the Palin's family conversations. Plus a variety of strobe lights pointed towards next door might just mess up the video cameras that McG's aimed at the Palins.

There must be other fun things that the Palins could do, legally that is, to provide McG with a fun Alaska summer.

Wonder where McG's primary domicile is located and whether anyone has plans to visit that area to study how a "famed" writer spends his time at his usual and customary home? That effort might be a good basis for a case study on writers.

damikesc said...

Madison, I applaud your cynicism about elected officials.

Will you join me in condemning John Lewis for lying about epithets being said to him before the Obamacare passage?

paul a'barge said...

Time between the design of baby backpacks back in the day when Althouse bought one and today, when Sara Palin wears one while mowing her lawn?

Need I go on?

paul a'barge said...

Imagine that you own the house next door to Sarah Palin and you rent it out to ... wait for it ... a stalker/writer who is going to use the house to invade the Palins' privacy in hopes of getting into Palin's pants.

Nice neighbors.

This is why people live off the grid on thousands of acres of land ....

because of the neighbors.

Trooper York said...

"Try taking three kids three and under to the zoo without a stroller."

It's not a problem if the little bastards are behind bars for the safety of the adults who want to enjoy the day.

Sofa King said...

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.

Economics fail. If they want to use the oil, they could simply not sell it it us. Presumably they don't do that because they have a strong vested interest in getting our dollars for their oil.

Trooper York said...

And garage, don't think you are going to weasel out of our bet.

I have my cheesehead ready to wear when they have the Superbowl at Giants staduim, but more importantly I have a lovely frock for you to wear if you lose.

garage mahal said...

What's a frock, Uncle Trooper.

MadisonMan said...

damikesc s far as I know, nobody really believed John Lewis (here). That is, except for Jeremyesque posters.

And why condemn something that is so much easier to ridicule?

Trooper, the following factoid is for you: I have turned down the opportunity to watch the Pack play the Giants at Lambeau. It's on Dec 26th (Who wants to watch football then?) I'm going to the Pack/49ers game instead.

chickelit said...

Beau wrote: 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.

And she's been carrying Trig around everyday since he weighed about one cell.

It's funny how much weight people can carry around with ease if it comes on slow and gradual everyday.

Trooper York said...

Don't worry MadMan. You can always catch them when they meet in the playoffs.

Freeman Hunt said...

My dad wore me in a backpack to mow the lawn when I was little. In fact, I distinctly remember the excitement of getting tiny glimpses what was on the other side of the fence. The pack would rise just high enough to see the slightly elevated other end of the neighbor's yard. They grew sunflowers. It was all so mysterious.

Freeman Hunt said...

I have one of those Ergo carriers Jana mentioned. It is wonderful. There is almost no weight on the shoulders at all. Just as she said, it puts it all on the hips.

It looks like other carriers, but it is not like other carriers. (I know because I have them.)

Freeman Hunt said...

It occurs to me that I probably wouldn't have remembered that about riding in the backpack if I'd been a baby. So my Dad must have been doing that even when I was a toddler! Not really surprising though; that would be just like him.

Once when he was moving, I was standing in the kitchen trying to come up with a way to get the refrigerator out without a dolly. He walked past me, wrapped his arms around refrigerator, picked it up, and walked out. Ha! According to someone on the Internet, the average weight for a refrigerator is 400 pounds. That seems like a lot. I assume his was a lighter one.

Phil 314 said...

237 and counting. C'mon libs we haven't talked about: buying expensive clothes, reading lists, bridge to nowhere, state trooper intimidation, poor relations with future son-in-law, ....

Gosh I could go on forever...and to think conservatives are obsessed with Sarah Palin

As I've stated before I'm no fan of Palin but I can only think of one public figure on the left that the right comparably obsesses about....

and he's the President of the United States. Do the Dems understand the absurdity of that comparison.

So I'll say again if you think she's over-rated then do what you would do with a poorly executed sit-com

STOP WATCHING!

1775OGG said...

Fen: contact me via email. I've got a comment about your "civies present" comment!

After coffee and library; priorities, priorities!

Cheers.

Beau said...

It's funny how much weight people can carry around with ease if it comes on slow and gradual everyday.

Yeah, something about a frog and hot water or something.

Anyway, back in the good old days at 25 months I was expected to mow the lawn all by myself, after mixing a gin and tonic for the Mater. Kids now days, sheesh!

JAL said...

Well, G & Co. here's an article about Sarah Palin from The Sun in 2008.

You note it starts with hunting:

SARAH PALIN learned to call the shots at an early age - she got to grips with a gun at eight and made her first kill at ten.

The moose-hunting mum-of-five from Alaska grew up shooting animals and skinning them on the spot before hauling the meat home for the family freezer.

Sarah's dad Chuck Heath shot a grizzly bear three years ago and its skin adorns a sofa in Sarah's office. Now she is in the political bear pit after accepting the Republican Vice-Presidential nomination.

Chuck told The Sun: "Sarah was always very determined. Whatever she lacked in skill she always made up in determination. She always tried her hardest to be the best at everything she did.

"She was also very stubborn. I wasn't mean to her but I taught her discipline. But I could seldom bend her if she'd made her mind up on something."

She started shooting a gun when she was eight and shot her first animal when she was ten. It was something small, possibly a rabbit.

She is a really good shot. I taught her to shoot a moose and dress it, to fish and hunt for game.


"We raised our family to be able to support ourselves - 90 per cent of our meat and fish we get ourselves."

{more}

If you bother to click on the link to the article (which you most likely won't, because her father is a lying liar also) and scroll down past dad's Alaskan weather beaten face you will see a group shot of the family and friends doing the butchering, wrapping and packing of moose in a packing house... some are in shorts (summer), with a teenaged Sarah in the middle.

I think maybe packing their Brownie point and shoot around 10 years ago for a Kodak moment in the butt freezing Alaskan winter of her working on a caribou carcass for Garage Mahal just was not on their Must Do list that year.

What is it about this that you cannot accept? No one is saying she is the Great White Hunter. (The local guys in the side bar only describe her as being "pretty good.") My father taught me basic survival skill for suburbia ... I learned to change a flat tire on a street when I was 12. Her father taught her the skills he could.

No offense, but I'd rather take my chances with Palin in the woods than your wife.

wv evermagu
That's Garage. Can't see beyond his ideological bias.

Phil 314 said...

Awww, no 300

Palin pundits peter out.

JAL said...

And this started with the Professor asking us what someone discussing duct taping a baby on themselves -- facing out -- has to do with Gov. Palin's mowing her yard with her 2 year old in his toddler backpack.

Oh yeah, and with an invasively intruding neighbor watching from 15 feet away. (Check google earth and the net. The house is *really* close to theirs. It might be 18 feet away, but in cases like this everyone knows exactly where their property lines are.)

Original Mike said...

"If you bother to click on the link to the article (which you most likely won't, because her father is a lying liar also) and scroll down past dad's Alaskan weather beaten face you will see a group shot of the family and friends doing the butchering, wrapping and packing of moose in a packing house... some are in shorts (summer), with a teenaged Sarah in the middle."

That photo brings back memories. We used to butcher the deer our group got in the basement of my Dad's friend, Al.

Where's garage? Long gone.

Chickenshit.

Original Mike said...

"If you bother to click on the link to the article (which you most likely won't, because her father is a lying liar also) and scroll down past dad's Alaskan weather beaten face you will see a group shot of the family and friends doing the butchering, wrapping and packing of moose in a packing house... some are in shorts (summer), with a teenaged Sarah in the middle."

That photo brings back memories. We used to butcher the deer our group got in the basement of my Dad's friend, Al.

Where's garage? Long gone.

Mark said...

I know this thread is dead, but oh, the humor....

http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2010/05/palins-douchebag-stalker-suddenly.html

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