Farla pokes her head up for a minute - Palin and the Repub convention

[farla]

So Palin is just one long and glorious trainwreak. The people I've talked to were all panicky about how Palin must be some brilliant choice, that the Hillary voters will go to her, that she's going to mobilize the base...

To recap:
Palin introduced.
Everyone: Who?
Everyone, five minutes later: She fired the police chief for not firing her sister's ex-husband?
Half of everyone, ten minutes later: Her account of her last pregnancy makes no sense.
Half of everyone, eleven minutes later: That story is so bizarre it must be a lie. No one possibly has their water break, then gives a speech and takes an eight-hour flight.
Mothers: And she was reportedly polite, calm and good natured the whole time? LOL NO.
Fathers: Seriously, LOL NO.
Pushing three-fourths of everyone: Maybe it was really her daughter's kid and she's covering up a teen pregnancy. I mean, that makes more sense then total nonsense.
Palin, eleven point one minutes later: No it is not. I can prove it, see, my daughter has been teen pregnant since before my newest kid's birth, so she cannot be the mother.
Everyone: WTF? HOW DOES THAT HELP???
Everyone, a second later: And that still doesn't explain the bizarre pregnancy story! Why are you making it worse?
McCain: I totally know that. Knew, I meant knew. Like, before. Not blindsided at all. She was totally vetted but we're, uh, secondarily vetting her, a second time, because she was totally vetted.
Everyone: And she fired a librarian for not banning books?
Palin: Tried to fire. Turns out that like one out of every hundred times you abuse your power, people complain. Who knew?
Palin: I was for the bridge before I was against it! End pork barrel projects - all pork must be mine! MINE!!!!!!! Pregnant mothers can go screw themselves. Global warming is imaginary but give me money to fix the fact the ground seems to be liquefying.
Alaskans: Palin is a scary nutjob. No one says anything because she is like some sort of rabid wolverine thing, if wolverines were powered by a mixture of nuclear mutigens and hate.
Preacher: You thought Obama's pastor was crazy? You ain't seen crazy yet, you hellbound bitches!

Meanwhile:
Feminists: Oh hell no.
Women: Yay history has been made...wait, there was a women vice nominated decades ago.
Women: Wait, she thinks what about abortion?
Women: Wait, she thinks WHAT about contraceptives?
Women: Wait, she voted against equal pay?
Women: Oh hell no.

Meanwhile:
Actual Republicans: Oh god oh god oh god it's over.
Crazy fundies: She's awesome. I mean, I was already going to vote for McCain, but now I'll be much happier about it.
Poll numbers: Yeah, pretty much.

The convention itself is just so weird. It's like a bizarro world. Big Brother surveillance = teh liberals. Promises to tax the rich = taxing the poor. Supreme Court = teh EVIL liberals. War = second most important issue evar. Islamofascijihadcrazy terrorists = THE most important issue, evar. Twenty months experience = more experience than the entire congress (Uh, McCain? Remember, that guy you're running as president?)

And the whiteness, it blinds. So many blonds. So many old men in suits.
(And so many empty seats - guys, China just handled this, how could you forget? Are we falling behind China in the vital manufactured supporters industry?)

In conclusion: Go Palin! Tie yourself around McCain's neck like the glorious millstone you are.

Comments

[ember-reignited.livejournal.com]

Man this woman is a piece of work. I hate absolutely everything that she stands for and yet, somehow, I sort of love her. And, I mean, she likes shooting wolves from airplanes. I should despise her with every fiber of my being. But no, she's just too damn amusing.

I don't know. I guess it's because my subconscious is convinced she's a one-shot supporting baddie on Doctor Who and not, in fact, an actual person. It's an easy mistake to make. (You know what would explain the pregnancy thing? ALIENS!)

[farla.livejournal.com]

Eh, I'm starting to sour on her regarding the pathological lying bit. It's one thing to be full of crazy and scandal, but denying it and having the media faithfully repeat it makes me hate people.

[charizamdc.livejournal.com]

She's also been attending conventions of the seperatist Alkaska party with her husband, which isn't exactly a shining thing to put on your CV as VP.

[farla.livejournal.com]

For that matter the separatists seem to have thought she was supposed to be their sleeper agent in the Repub party. And "attending conventions" involved an awful lot of "giving speeches at" and quite possibly "being a registered member of". As may come out, oh, thirty to fifty years from now when the lockdown on information finally lifts.

(Personally? I support Alaska's secession. We don't need the dumbasses to protect endangered species (Canada's already the sole reason half of them aren't extinct) and it's not like they were obeying federal laws in the matter anyway, and a red state filled with gun-touting lunatics demanding welfare so they have more time to chant about their independent self-reliance deserves every bit of the misery and suffering such a move would bring.)

[kddreams.livejournal.com]

McCain only picked her so that he could get Hilary's supporters. Weak choice on his part.

[farla.livejournal.com]

The speculation seems to be half and half that or to get evangelicals.

My money's strongly on him not having *any* real plan. It's confirmed now that she absolutely wasn't vetted and McCain barely knew her. He made a spur of the moment decision when his original VP picks were rejected - it may have been to get Hillary's supporters/shore up his base, or simply a desperate attempt to get any attention at all from the media after Obama dominated the coverage for several weeks, or the decision that he was screwed and might as well spend the rest of this fiasco in the presence of someone moderately hot. Or anything, really.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, my views on the Republican VP choice were pretty much limited to 'oh please god just anyone but Huckabee'.

Then I looked up this lady's background and political stances and realized her nomination was simply a sarcastic new chapter of my ongoing 'screw you' from the universe.

Unrelated side note: You seem to know a lot about fish. Any advice on keeping my new Halfmoon betta happy?

[farla.livejournal.com]

Huckabee at least acts like an actual human being when he talks and can sound really good when he's playing the crowd. I recognize that's probably just low-grade sociopathy, but at least he's still at the level of crazy where he's able to function and interact with people. I wouldn't want the guy in charge and I wouldn't want to be in the same room as him, but I also wouldn't believe he'd single-handedly destroy the country either.

I've come to realize McCain, while quite likely a nice person, has issues with war, namely understanding things like Americans not supporting war, American soldiers committing real war crimes and wars sometimes not being winnable no matter how many bodies you throw into the grinder. If he's elected, Iraq will be a smoking crater. He'll have the absolute best of intentions, but it will be a smoking crater all the same.

And the best thing that can be said for Palin is that sometimes, when given the choice between standing by her convictions or gaining political power, she goes for political power.

...

As to the betta - ten gallon or bigger tank. They're agile swimmers but they don't handle current well, so no filtration system unless the tank's more like thirty gallons and has plenty of still areas. A heater's usually necessary as they're tropical fish. They love plants and decorations - broad leaf plants they'll bask on, everything else they'll swim around/through/under/into. If the tank's deep it's good to have something high up for them to rest on for if they're sick and have trouble getting to the surface. And they prefer live prey. I usually leave out containers of water with a few dead leaves in them, then feed the resulting mosquito larvae to the fish. Large bubble nests (several inches across) are a good indicator they're well fed and have good water quality, small bubble nests a sign something's wrong. And generally keep an eye out for changes, like a decrease in fin size (finrot), raised scales, etc, which need prompt medication.

Oh, and if you just got it from a pet store you'll probably need to feed it heavily for a few weeks. Places like Petco don't feed their fish.

[(Anonymous)]

Pretty much.

As a matter of fact, I did buy him at PetCo. It was kind of obvious they want us to kill the fish quickly so we'll buy more--hence the improper feeding and care instructions printed on the tiny containers--but to not feed them all? That's horrifying.

Ten gallons is a lot of water, though. I kind of thought it was okay to keep them in larger goldfish bowls because my mom's hasn't died yet, but if that's going to make him really miserable then I'll try to convince my family to let me buy the tank.

[farla.livejournal.com]

We found out because my mom had gone into Petco and seen this betta, and we were talking and decided to go back and get it. It was still there about a month later, and when we bought it I fed it a few pieces of food, then put it in the tank. It started eating bits of my goldfish. I took it back out and fed it until it finally stopped lunging at what I put in. It ate thirty or forty pieces of food. And it never grew to full size no matter how well I fed it. I don't know why they do it - maybe it's just considered a waste of time to pay the employee to feed them.

Betta can survive in pretty much anything, but it's likely that kind of treatment is what gave rise to common wisdom that their lifespan tops out at a maximum of four years. The actual gallon size isn't important the way it is for most fish, since they're air breathers, but they do need space to move. And they're the most inquisitive fish I've ever seen. I don't know if they can feel bored but...Bettas kept in small/empty containers act weird, and they perk up a lot if you put something in. If the goldfish bowls are in the five gallon range it's not vital they get a bigger tank, but it's not really an ideal one for them either.