And just the right amount of sarcasm, too. Says Sarah Palin giving her speech at the Republican Convention:
Before I became governor, I was mayor of Wasilla. And since our opponents seem to look down on that experience, let me explain what the job involves. I guess being mayor is sort of like being a community organizer except you have actual responsibilities.”
A panel (of one) voted this morning and after some deliberation came up with this as the column of the day. A very close second is this one.
I don’t want to see more women in politics if they are all going to be a variation on Judy Rebick. But for those constantly harping on about how we need more women in politics–well, Sarah Palin should be a dream come true. Shouldn’t she?
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The panel of one reevaluates: and actually, David Warren’s column wins out. For lines like this one:
To them, the stark facts of Ms. Palin’s reaction to a Down’s syndrome pregnancy, and to her daughter’s unseasonable one, shines as day to night against Mr. Obama’s, “If my daughter makes a mistake, I don’t want her punished with a baby.”
and this:
For the American liberal media grant themselves a free pass on all traditional principles of decency, and every feminist talking point besides, when they are confronted with a woman not in the feminist stereotype.
From the Calgary Herald:
The question then, is not why Tories are wimps. It is why a small faction has managed to so own the issue that even a discussion about having an abortion law — never mind what that law should say — is effectively excluded from the marketplace of ideas.
The Tories, the Liberals, whatever party will indeed discuss abortion when we, the voters, manage to overturn that small collection of very loud, strident pro-abortion voices. Of course, there could also be a partnership between reasonable voters, ie. that majority who supported Bill C-484 and solid leadership. Certainly defending Bill C-484 did not involve, gasp, being pro-life.
I can see things both ways but am more inclined to this Calgary Herald viewpoint than those Conservative pro-lifers who say they are dumping the Conservatives or not going to vote in the upcoming election.
This article highlights how Annie’s mom, Barbara Farlow, has been inspired by her daughter’s death at three months, three years ago, to find out what happened, and warn and help others. She’s concerned Annie did not get the care she needed:
Annie had a chromosome disorder that would have affected her development. Her family, including two brothers and two sisters, knew all about it long before she was born.
They knew she might not live into her teens, talked about the inevitable challenges and sacrifices and welcomed her into their lives. …
Among other things, the family questions what drugs were used and how a “Do not resuscitate” order was issued without their informed consent.
That’s an astounding oversight. How does a DNR get issued without the family knowing? I hope Barbara gets the answers she deserves on this. We can’t pretend this has nothing to do with abortion, either. Many babies with problems like Annie’s are aborted first thing. It can’t help but seep into the psyche that these kids won’t have a high “quality of life” and that they would be “better off dead.”
Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol, age 17, is pregnant. And so what, I say. She plans on marrying the father and keeping the child. While I agree with the official press release from the McCain camp that it will cause her to grow up more quickly than she ever expected, I also see this as good news. She is getting married and starting a family. It’s only in very recent history that we think of getting pregnant young as wasted potential. Her child (or by that point, children) will be competent near-adults by the time she hits 32. Which is not exactly over the hill, if I do say so myself.
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Brigitte would like to highlight the following paragraph from the story Andrea links to:
Senior McCain campaign officials said McCain knew of the daughter’s pregnancy when he selected Palin last week as his vice presidential running mate, deciding that it did not disqualify the 44-year-old governor in any way.
Disqualify? To be the parent of a teenager who is sexually active? Yikes; not many people would be allowed to run for office if that were the case. Imagine if we had learned that her daughter had had an abortion instead of keeping her baby. Do you think the campaign would have felt it necessary to make the same comment? Do you think we’d even know about it?
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Andrea adds: Good point, Brigitte. One more thing–this situation highlights how inane our abortion-friendly culture is. I looked back at my own post–I wrote she is “keeping the child.” Was I supposed to write “keeping the fetus”? No–we only downgrade to non-human status when abortion is the course of action. A point made at ProWomanProLife before–which I’ll highlight here, is that those who are pro-life are not genetically different from the rest of the population. Namely, a 17-year-old who is having sex with her boyfriend can also be pro-life. It’s the outcome that can redeem the situation. Marriage and a baby does make a happier situation out of an “unexpected pregnancy” than abortion.
The Canadian government’s Heritage department wants to fight religious extremism. After decades of promoting a model of multiculturalism that helped spread it throughout Canada. I feel better already.
…it’s that she’s not running for president. This action letter from Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund is just way too much fun:
What might have been encouraging news for women was just the opposite — somehow McCain had managed to find a woman running mate even more conservative than he is on women’s rights. … If you can only do one thing, it should be to tell every woman you meet that McCain and Palin are the most anti-choice, anti-women pair imaginable. Don’t stop at just telling your friends. You can bet that I’ll be telling strangers in the checkout line at the grocery store, the women I see at the gym, parents at my kids’ schools.
Oh Cecile. You’re breaking my heart. But not my confidence, baby.
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Brigitte also found something: She has an annoying mother-in-law. I like her even more… And it looks like I’m not the only one.
The children have been back in school for a week in Ottawa’s French school board and recent scares about processed meats and plastic containers have sure made lunch-making a bit of a challenge. Lunch-making is the bane of my existence. I am certain that Hell is paved with lunch-making. Please don’t write that risks related to plastics and processed meats have been exaggerated by the press. When a spokesman from the cosmetic industry tells me that levels of lead in my lipsticks are “acceptable,” I beg to wonder “acceptable for who?” I’m of the prudent kind who believes that if lead is bad for you, none is better than a little. Same goes for hormone-mimicking chemicals in plastics or chances of catching a deadly illness from tainted meat. Sure, my sons run a greater risk of dying in a fiery crash from being driven around than growing a uterus from drinking bisphenol-A-laden water. Still, I think that if risks related to meat processing agents, plastics, lead and other hair coloring ingredients are low, there is such a thing as a cumulative effect. Think of cigarettes and lung cancer: one smoke might not kill you but a lifetime of smoking on the other hand…
So out with the sandwiches. Oh. My. Goodness. Now what?? What I don’t understand is how children who have been eating salami sandwiches day-in day-out for several years get sick of tuna sandwiches within a week. What do they put in their salami? Crystal meth? If anything, this makes me even more dubious of processed meats than before. But it also makes me think about a different pace, a different lifestyle, when children came home for lunch. When I was a kid, most children went home for lunch and school lunches were exceptional, a special treat. In any case, there was nobody at school to look after children during lunch break. My children never came home for lunch: even when I was at home, we lived too far from the school for them to walk and picking them up every day was difficult. But friends whose children have consistently come home for lunch talk about it like a privileged moment where the children get to unload their morning before taking on the afternoon.
As I am throwing plastic containers and lunch meats out the window, I can’t help but think that the long gone days where someone – usually mom – held the fort even after the children had started school were not only slower, they were also healthier. And we keep finding out in how many ways by the day it seems.
This letter writer to the Globe is a wee bit more pessimistic than I would be. “No single individual in the entire nation who can stir the blood and energize the soul”? Still, I see his point–and wonder whether the problem isn’t with the voters, ie. us, who have low and apathetic expectations.
Listening to the radio early this morning and they’re saying it’s possible John McCain will nominate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. I admit to not knowing anything about her, so off to Wikepedia I went. Among other impressive things, I see she’s a strong pro-lifer:
On September 11, 2007, the Palins’ son Track joined the Army. Eighteen years old at the time, he is the eldest of Palin’s five children. Track now serves in an infantry brigade, and will be deployed to Iraq in September. She also has three daughters, Bristol, 17, Willow, 13, and Piper, 7. On April 18, 2008, Palin gave birth to her second son, Trig Paxson Van Palin, who has Down syndrome. (Sarah returned to the office three days after giving birth.) Palin refused to let the results of pre-natal genetic testing change her decision to have the baby. “I’m looking at him right now, and I see perfection,” Palin said. “Yeah, he has an extra chromosome. I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?”
[…]
Palin is strongly pro-life and belongs to Feminists for Life. She opposes same-sex marriage; but, she has stated that she has gay friends, and is receptive to gay and lesbian concerns about discrimination. While the previous administration did not implement same-sex benefits, Palin complied with a state Supreme Court order and signed them into law.
She sounds pretty cool to me.
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Andrea admits she had not heard of her either. But hey, she’s the type of woman I’d choose to blog for this site–strong, confident–and, of course, pro-life. Wonder if she has some spare time? She looks like a great pick.