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America by Heart – Chapter 4, Raising (Small-r) Republicans, Part 2

I was unable to make it through the entire “family values” chapter in one sitting, so today we’ll play clean up and get that out of the way before we tackle Chapter 5, bringing us to the half-way mark when we will be closer to the end than the beginning!

In this chapter we learn about how much liberals hate the family, and the real problem with Hurricane Katrina victims, and what’s wrong with America. It’s possible we may have to outlaw divorce and return to our ex-husbands and wives. Just warning you. Because you may think you’re a family, but you may not be “worthy of the name.” You’ll have to read on and find out if you are.

But let’s not waste any more time procrastinating. Let’s finish with the family – Palin style.

Page 108

Family life at the time of the Founding Fathers was a lot like family life for Americans today. It was full of challenges and full of pleasures – which means it must be just the same.

She quotes from yet another Frenchman. No Tocqueville this time. (And for those of you who think I’m picking on Tocqueville, I’m not. I’m picking on her for pretending she has actually read more than two consecutive pages of Tocqueville. Those who have read him have my undying admiration. But she is not one of them.) This Frenchman became an American farmer in 1782. She thinks he has an impressive name, and she is right. His name is J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur. He talked about what peace and joy wives and children bring.

Page 109

The great thing about the Founders is that they didn’t want to “intervene in the intimate details of Americans’ lives.” (Like who you can marry, and what you do with your uterus, and how you choose to die? Those are some pretty intimate details, you know. Just saying.)

“The Founders simply took it for granted that a republic relies on informed and virtuous citizens.” (Remember how you took it for granted that your teenage daughter living hundreds of miles away was making nothing but wise decisions?  Are we really prepared to rely on people to be informed and virtuous all the time?)

She has found (being a historian of colonial life and all) that the letters between Abigail and John Adams give the best insights into “the role that the family was meant to play in the new republic.”

Page 110

Abigail Adams is her hero. Quotes from Abigail Adams who says that even though women are excluded from government, they are still as patriotic as men. “You go, girl.”

Page 111

The Adamses wanted to elevate the minds of their children.  “If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives.”  The Adamses must have taken their own advice because their son became the sixth president. (Any bets about which Palin kid she’s grooming to take over after her?)

Page 112

The government and the founders did not want to control families, they wanted to “capitalize on the virtues of trust and self-restraint that families create.”

Page 113

Our leaders in Washington D.C. have “completely abandoned the idea of a government that relies on strong families…” The government wants to take over health care, and seeks to “influence our end-of-life decisions.” (Death panels! Death panels! She will not give up on it. Eh-ver.)

The government wants to tax everything we do in the name of a “green” economy. (Whoa! Incoming from left field!)

The government no longer views us as citizens, but as subjects of a nanny-state.

“Families matter. This was something that our Founders took for granted, but it’s a truth we commonsense conservatives are increasingly forced to defend these days.”  Divorce and fatherless children are bad, but apparently liberals just think that’s the best ever. (I bet they just get married so they can GET divorced. Just like they get pregnant so they can get abortions.)

Page 114

The 1960s started it all with the divorce, and the single moms.  Then all hell broke loose. (Waiting to hear how we should illegalize divorce)

Government completely failed the city of New Orleans and revealed government incompetence. (Who hired that ‘heckuva job Brownie” guy again?) It also revealed a lot of poor minority people who are dependent on the government. There was a “spasm of national finger pointing” and people started talking about racism. (which doesn’t exist and simply is used as a ruse to get us to stop talking about the issues and how bad liberals are. See previous chapter)

The problem was not racism. It was actually the number of single parent families and fatherlessness. (I can’t wait to hear the plan of how conservatives are going to save us.)

Page 115

She remembers when Kanye West said that George W. Bush didn’t care about black people.   That wasn’t fair, though, because there were other people affected too that weren’t black. The difference was that the people outside New Orleans had “strong intact families.” (Equal opportunity incompetence?) Elite journalists tried to demonize anyone who talked about this.  Forty five years ago Daniel Patrick Moynihan talked about the impact on African American families from the rise of out-of-wedlock births, but nobody wanted to hear it.

(Fascinating how she would tell you that your 13 year old daughter who was raped should “choose life” and have the child, and has a daughter who just had a baby out-of-wedlock, and yet this is also the problem with everything. Oh, the mental gymnastics.  Why can’t everyone just obey the rules of a perfect world? Things would be so much better, then.”)

Page 116

Standing up for the family is not fashionable. (Standing up for the family HOW?!?)

Murphy Brown had some gall having a baby without a father on prime time television.


Dan Quayle talked about Murphy Brown’s moral decay and criticized the show after she had the baby.  He said, “It doesn’t help matters when prime-time TV has Murphy Brown – a character who supposedly epitomizes today’s intelligent, highly paid professional woman – mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone and calling it just another ‘lifestyle choice.'” (Yes she should have entered into a loveless marriage with a sperm donor, or never had a child at all even though she wanted one and had a financially stable and loving home. SHE’s the problem.)

Page 117

Hillary Clinton said Dan Quayle was out of touch.  The media was really mean to him and mocked him and called him an airhead and a prude.

The Murphy Brown debacle ended Dan Quayle’s chances of becoming president. But now we look back and know he was a prophet.

Hollywood just doesn’t believe that families matter.

“The left wants us to believe that any grouping we choose to call a family is worthy of the name, that it doesn’t matter if children are raised by two loving parents or are shipped off to virtual full-time day care, and that divorce has no effect on children’s quality of life.”  All “lifestyle choices” are not equal.  (I’m still waiting for it. Shall we illegalize divorce? Shall we get rid of day care centers so moms stay home with their kids?  What’s your solution?)

Page 118

Quotes op-ed from the Wall Street Journal about how fathers are important.

Page 119

“The evidence that mother-only families contribute to crime is powerful.”  There’s a study that kids in fatherless households are more likely to go to jail, “and their lives did not improve if their mother had acquired a stepfather. Fill-in dads do not improve matters any more than do fatter government checks.” (Ah… step-parents around the world are feeling all warm and fuzzy right now.  Good to know that Sarah Palin says you don’t make a difference and it would all be better if your spouse had just stayed with the ex.)

To avoid poverty, do three things: finish high school, marry before having a child, and produce the child after you are 20 years old. (Well… that didn’t work out so well at home for the author. Fortunately, the new mom got a truck and a place to live and the support of a loving family, just like all those other teenagers who ‘choose life’ or have their rapists babies, or whatever God’s will is for them.)

Page 120

Poor poor Dan Quayle.


Page 121

But, do we turn our backs on pregnant girls with no man in their life? Noooooo, of course not.  She knows all about that. She knows what it feels like to have a daughter tell her she’s pregnant. SHE stood on the stage at the RNC with the world looking at her daughter’s “baby bump.” (Even though nobody knew she was pregnant then) SHE knows what it’s like to have a child mocked. SHE knows that feeling.

Even though it all worked out great, and Tripp is the best, Bristol has paid a high price. Her adolescence was ruined. She has no fun and can’t hang out with her friends. She can’t play sports.  And she’s out there making sure other girls know how bad it is so they don’t make the same horrible mistake and end up with an adorable little baby who is the joy of their lives. “Don’t do what I did,” she tells them. (Hi Tripp, I’m Dr. Freud. Why don’t you lie down on the couch and tell me when you started having these problems with women…)


If Sarah was given a choice of a role model, she’d pick Bristol over Murphy Brown any day of the week.

Page 122

Recap of what the whole fan damily is up to.  Todd is building an airplane hangar and is racking up the miles on his small plane so he can be good enough to get a big plane to keep up with the size of the family.   Track took over the commercial fishing site in Dillingham.  He helped document the fish slaying for “The Learning Channel’s documentary on the Last Frontier.”  (I assume she means the visual and auditory torture that is “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.”)

Bristol works full time and is a full time mom. (Remember from the previous installment,  it’s the quantity of time, not the quality of time that counts. So that’s why both jobs are full time and Bristol can do it all!) She recently moved back home so that the family can help with Tripp (unlike those single moms who have nobody to help out, but that’s their problem if they want stuff like health care)

“She also engaged in an uplifting family-oriented show called Dancing with the Stars…” (Oh, right! That’s the one where she gyrates around with velcro tear away clothes and rips the shirt off that guy, while they play “Mama Told Me Not to Come.”  It was kind of like a “How Tripp Was Made” musical! Great family show!)

Willow has been babysitting.  She spent her Sweet Sixteen birthday cleaning fish.

Piper is still her “sidekick.”  But she wants to stay home more now so the can dance, play basketball, study the Bible, be a math tutor and ride her bike.

Page 123

Trig is adorable and he likes to be outside.  He spends a few hours a day at a friends house. There are chickens and cows there.

Her family is doing great, but America’s families are not. Despite the fact they don’t want healthcare, Obamacare was thrust upon them. They’re raising our bills and limiting our freedom. (And not disqualifying children with pre-existing conditions, and allowing you to keep Bristol on your health insurance plan until she’s 26, and all sorts of other atrocities!)

Liberals downplay the importance of the family, but they say they are doing things in the name “of the children.” Invoking “the children” is just like crying “racism” because then nobody can argue with you.

Page 124

Talking about “the children” shuts down the discussion. “Anything and everything is justified in the name of “the children.” It’s quite convenient.” (Yes, like THIS ENTIRE CHAPTER PERHAPS!?)

To be responsible to “all children” is to be responsible for none. (I’m guessing the whole ‘It takes a village’ thing is not going to fly with her.)

Being responsible for all children creates “a suffocating state that erases all freedom and human attachment in the name of “caring for the children.””

As a person of faith she believes we have an obligation to all children. But the government doesn’t.

Page 125

“Today the fight for my family’s future is the fight for all American families’ futures.”

And that’s it. We’re done. No plan. We never learn what we are supposed to do that is fighting for the family or anything else. All we know is that liberals hate the family almost as much as they hate America itself.  And that anything that isn’t a two-parent family with a stay-at-home mom or dad in the mix, who has not remarried is just about doomed to be raising future prisoners, and isn’t a legitimate family, and it isn’t “worthy of the name.”  Well…. except for Bristol and Tripp.

Next time… Chapter 5 – The Rise of the Mama Grizzlies. Get your pepper spray.

Comments

comments

Comments
254 Responses to “America by Heart – Chapter 4, Raising (Small-r) Republicans, Part 2”
  1. gsb says:

    Finally, after nearly two years, the public is beginning to say (in print) Sarah is no christian.
    I’ve been saying that after about a month, of hearing her.
    The duplicity she displays in being a single parent, is exactly what Bristol does, except, Bristol has health care for self and child. Bristol has money (made just like her mother) and people to take her children off her hands. Sarah, talks of Murphy Brown having a child on T.V. Isn’t that what Sarah did to Bristol? Outing her on national T.V. What loving caring Mother would embarrass a child in such a manner?
    I wonder why, it has taken so long for the American public to discover what a flimflam person she is.
    Because of Sarah, the United States is the laughing stock of the world, let it be finished before the next election.perhaps the end of Sarah is near.

  2. Jen in SF says:

    Sorry to spam a bit, but here’s another good analysis of Katrina’s impact on New Orleans. I was trying to find this one again….

    http://femmepolitical.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/the-truths-of-katrina/

  3. Jen in SF says:

    Thanks AKM, again.

    By the way, a great analysis of the impact of Katrina on New Orleans today can be found here:
    http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/?s=katrina

    You know, this entire section where Sarah credits a person’s worth to having kids and remaining married, regardless … interestingly reminds me of a conversation I had years ago. It was with a (then) coworker; we were talking about a restaurant run by ex-cons here in San Francisco. They do it to learn restaurant management and gain marketable work experience. He dismissed those ex-cons as “people who couldn’t get their sh*t together” … and then he went on to tell me he liked to ride his bike around the city and shatter people’s side mirrors if he didn’t like how they were driving.

    The whole conversation weirded me out … and Mrs Palin’s judgements sound similar to me. Not so much “i can do what I want” but “i need to define loudly the tiny differences between us for me to feel superior.”

  4. Tanaga12 says:

    I am one of four children raised by my mother after she divorced my abusive and alcoholic father. Palin’s views are not unlike those expressed by our catholic church and neighbors in the small Indiana town where I was raised. We did have problems growing up as Ma Griz describes and I still struggle with self esteem issues, as do my siblings. I’m very aware of, and fight, not to repeat these patterns in my life. Like everything else, Palin has this ass backwards. To stay in that marriage would have ended us all. Instead, I witnessed my mother’s strength and her commitment to her family. She provided for us on her own with very little extended family support. Our biggest obstacles are getting past the anger and allowing trust. It’s not the single-parentness the caused the damage, it was the dysfunctional family life and impact of a poor parenting prior to the split that were most difficult. With some distance from our dad we have been better able to separate the man from the illness, and we have found ways of having a relationship with him within boundaries. If not for welfare programs, we’d have been hungry. If not for financial aid, I would not have made it through college. Palin has no clue of what she’s talking about- but that’s nothing new. I gotta say though; it’s my dad that made me such a liberal. He, ex-military and huge Reagan fan, taught me how to debate politics. My shinning moment… my poli sci class at Purdue was interviewed for TV after the Iran-Contra affair. There I was on the nightly news repeated at 6,8,and 10pm spewin’ anti-Reagan comments for my dad to see out in Calif. He said he spit his gin and almost fell out of his chair. Still makes me smile.

  5. Irishgirl says:

    Dublin looks like a giant pavlova.

  6. Irishgirl says:

    Damn….I let the dog out…in the snow….she shot up to my bed when I let her in.

  7. Irishgirl says:

    Me too.

  8. ibwilliamsi says:

    I’m just dumbfounded.

  9. Rob says:

    Bristol job in the doctors office, I bet she was not there very long as she was busy planning her next move with Sarah , Bristol is just as mean and selfish as Sarah. We wonder so many things, the end will soon catch up with them Truth will come out, and the quesitons will be many, Sarah is going to be caught in her own web of lies. The smug looks that Bristol had on her face at DWTS is enough to tell you she is nothing but a hateful person.

    I think many statements on Bristol will be forth coming from people who were around her. Mark Balles sure got taken in, that dumb idiot if he thinks Bristol has had any time for him he better wake up move fast. Palin family are users. the lie, cover up.

    Sarah has many quesitons that I do not think she will want to be asked. She is playing this con game for all its worth. I will not purchase or read any of her BS. Bristol is nothing but a party girl and was on durgs same as the rest of the kids. Track he is still not doing well, The problem I have they as a family are simply left in the outhouse with no toilet paper. But alas they have the Sarah Palin books they could use.

    I HAVE TO ASK, Todd Palin seems to be very still and says nothing, but stands in his time out chair waiting for Sarah to come home, or is he ????????

    Why is Todd such a chimp and gets fed his banna once in while then climbs back up in his tree. No backbone, just a plain old manhousewife.

    GOP are using and allowing Sarah to do her weekly screeching and stupid remarks, they are like using her and the stupid moron does not even seem to care

    ITS THE MONEY MONEY. STOP THE MONEY FLOW AND PUT A PLUG IN HER MOUTH AND SARAH IS HISTORY.

    Bristol is nothing but a brat, I have to wonder which baby is Levi or if anyone of them is.

    Also what happend to Ben Barber who she was living with when she made the big splash in July about her Levi getting married , which was a sham for money.

    The big splash is yet to hit when Sarah is made to accept her own denial. SHE IS NOT FIT TO BE IN OFFICE OF ANY KIND. EVEN DOG CATCHER.

    jOHN MCCAIN CREATED A VIRUS CALLED SPD its very dangerous

  10. Martha Unalaska Yard Sign says:

    The problem with reading Sarah Palin jabberspeak is that it makes you cringe. I can’t help but know I could never in a million years show the world how stupid I was if I were as stupid as her. It’s what defines her NPDness so I know she’ll never change. Remember how she loves when people (including herself) call her “wired differently”? I say not only differently, but cross wired and shorted out.

    It’s painful to watch / know / hear / read – not like a train wreck painful but a Pee-wee Herman kind of painful. A “What About Bob?” kind of painful. It just has to hurt to be that stupid.

  11. JUST A THOUGHT says:

    WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND!

    SARAH PALIN IS A VERY SICK WOMAN.

    SHE LIVES IN HER OWN WORLD – SELFISH, GREEDY,
    UNABLE TO SPEAK THE TRUTH, FULL OF HATE TOWARD
    PEOPLE OF COLOR, UNEDUCATED, CHILDISH.

    MAY FATE BE KIND TO HER IN HER ENDING DAYS.

  12. NOLA says:

    Wonkette reflects upon Palin’s “Reflections” : http://wonkette.com/431416/sarah-palin-reflects-on-stuff-via-ghostwriters

  13. Marnie says:

    It’s like going into one of those crazy tilted houses in a carnival you stagger left and then right and fall out the door at the other end dizzy and disoriented aware that no real house would ever be built that way.

    Dan Quayle was not invited back to be VP as I recollect because he is as stupid as Sarah. He was a tryout to see if Duhbya could cut it as POTUS, Quayle failed so the Bush Mafia gave Duhbya Chaney as a nanny and diaper changer.

  14. Lacy Lady says:

    BJA——-you forgot that they also eat healthy——from the beautiful garden.
    Poor things!!!

    • BJA says:

      Well, some people have a cement slab and others an organic vegetable garden. I’m votin’ for the garden.

  15. BJA says:

    I keep waiting for the day that one of these “family values” cheerleaders gives a tip of the hat to the first family and the way they conduct their family life. But, no. Instead I’m supposed to cheer for Quittypants, Evil Dude, Troubled Kid, Teen Mama, school drop out #3 and school drop out #4 — yup, I’m talking about the 9-year-old who is out on a book signing tour instead of in school. And this mess is the ultimate definition of family values? Oh, puhleese.

    Then we have those dang liberals in the White House. The awful mom thinks raising her kids is her top priority. Grandma lives with them so there’s always a family member home when the kids get home from school. And yes, the kids go to school. Every day. Then the family has dinner together in the evening. Sounds horrible, doesn’t it? Sure would hate to be in one of those liberal families.

  16. laingirl says:

    Another Republican has given Palin the middle finger. Check this out:

    http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/12/01/rollins.palin/index.html

    • LOL – the best line was the last: “If you want to be a gadfly, then just keep doing what you’re doing.”

      I do have a problem with hearing how wonderful Reagan was. I didn’t think he was then, and I still don’t. But other than that, Rollins gave her a lot of good advice. I don’t expect her to take any of it. She has shown that she doesn’t think anyone’s counsel is important except Todd’s and her own.

  17. Marnie says:

    Speaking of family values what has Sarah said about the Rethugs voting down free lunches for the children of people with no jobs and no income?

    The blog sphere needs to bug her on that until she is on record with her disdain of children’s health and lives.

    Of course it will all be Obama’s fault.

  18. Ennealogic says:

    This book will go down as one of the most negatively subversive volumes ever to have the misfortune to be printed on paper.

    Thanks AKM, your insights and effort are not for naught.

  19. seattlefan says:

    Wow! This chapter may be the worst one so far. What a bunch of hateful, hypocritical and ignorant thoughts and notions she has. I find it hilarious she chooses to trash a fictional character from a tv show that hasn’t aired since 1998. Couldn’t she come up with a more current fictional character to use for her ludicrous analogy? (snark). Is it lost on her that her own daughter is a single mom and doesn’t fit her cozy family unit definition? Does she not think a lot of people in this country don’t fall into her ridiculous picture of her perfect family values? I hope the bots see through this b/s. It has been said many times and in many ways and I’m going to say it again. That woman is an idiot!!!!!

  20. leenie17 says:

    After reading this absurdity, I have some questions:

    1. If fathers are so damned important, why are the Palins doing everything humanly possibly to keep Levi away from Tripp?

    2. Since divorce and single parenthood are so terrible, should women stay in an abusive marriage and endanger their lives and those of their children just so they’re not (*gasp*) “divorced”?

    3. A former coworker of mine is a lesbian, living with another woman and raising four children they adopted from China. Two of the children have significant learning and emotional disabilities. All four children were severely malnourished when they were brought to this country and had medical problems that were the result of poor nutrition and a lack of basic medical care. Would those children have been better off if they had stayed in a Chinese orphanage? What exactly prevents this group from being a real ‘family’?

    4. Murphy Brown vs Bristol: see G@54 (my thoughts exactly)

    I’ve never before experienced stupidity and malevolence so profound that it makes my teeth hurt.

  21. OK, aside from the obvious fact that she has no plan and doesn’t like anyone else’s plan, the one thing that really makes me angry is her generalization that children with only one parent are destined to end up in jail and leading a worthless life.

    My father died when I was ten, making my mother a single parent. She had been the ideal stay-at-home mother, but after a year she had to get a job to support us. (The year was spent tying up the business that my dad had and I’m sure she must have used some of the insurance money for that year.)

    My mother did not remarry. There was some limited dating on her part with a few men who were good male role models and good friends to our family. She found a job, and later changed to another, that allowed her to work mostly the hours that I was in school with summers off. We spent quality time as well as the quantity time – I’m sure my mother spent much more time with me than Palin spends with her children. My mother, unlike Palin, talked to me and listened to me and knew what I was doing. I finished high school and went on to college, with the help of my dad’s G.I. benefits which he didn’t use after WW II. That allowed me to go to a community college for two years and then I had my choice of any of the state colleges in Kansas. I finished my degree in elementary education and got a teaching job. When I married, I kept teaching till my husband finished his master’s in aero engineering. Once he started working, and we decided to have a family (no surprises – our children were planned), I was able to make the choice to be a stay-at-home mom. I loved it, but I didn’t just stay at home. I volunteered at their schools, with Camp Fire (a lot!) and in the community and at church.

    All of those choices were because of my mother’s strength. She showed me what it meant to be a woman who chooses her path in life, who is responsible for her family and community. She was engaged in my life and I have always been engaged in the lives of our daughters.

    And, btw, never once did I get in trouble with the law or end up in jail.

  22. OtterQueen says:

    I’m still stuck on “Bristol works full time and is a full time mom.”

    Well, which is it? If she’s a mom 24/7, how does she spend 40 hours a week at a job? And what happened to her apartment? Apparently, “success” is defined as “couldn’t make it on her own and had to move back home.”

    As a single 19-year-old mother, I don’t know why she moved out in the first place.

  23. Irishgirl says:

    The hypocrisy of this woman astounds me. She is lecturing people on FAMILY. Does she ever look in the mirror. She uses and abuses her children at every turn, and the whole world knows that.

    It is obvious to everyone that she is not nurturing her family. Her 9 yr old is appearing in public with streaked hair and make-up and she tells this daughter after a day out….we got one up on McGinniss. Classy Sarah. What a nice way to give values to your children.

    I’m not even going to go there with her other children’s exploits.

    At least one of her sisters has been married four times. How many step-dads is that?

    I actually felt sick having read AKM’s post today.

    I’ll shut up now.

  24. Please note, I’m not digging at Pipsqueak. I’m referring to the passage SP wrote about her being a math tutor. The poor kid has had only one person to learn from for the last 2 1/2 years so I do feel sorry for her.

    Regarding nickname: Aussie give nicknames to everyone it seems. Example: If your last name is Murphy your nickname is automatically Spuds. The vice-captain of the Aussie national cricket team is nicknamed Pup. So please don’t take offense.

    My nickname down here? Canuck. Most Aussie used to think AK was part of Canada, though not anymore. Nickname stuck, I like it.

    • bubbles says:

      Canuck you can dig at whatzerface whenever you want. you have come to the right place. here on the ‘flats we are called mudpups, pups for short. welcome Davedownunder.

    • slipstream says:

      Now there’s a great idea. I am an Alaska resident. Could the state apply to become a province of Canada? I want the health care!

  25. NOLA says:

    I just wanted to say to all of you who are offended by her idiotic comments in this chapter, please, please, please don’t let what that moron says offend you! We are not perfect creatures, but we do try to do our best on a daily basis. Personally, I do not have children, although I do have a step-father, a step-mother, and numerous nieces & nephews (including a step-step-niece I love dearly, who has been in the family since she was 2 (my step-brother’s step-daughter)). I am divorced and not remarried, but I’m not opposed to it if it came up. I guess she’d have rather me stay with a man I didn’t love and who was cheating on me. Someone like Sarah is not fit to tie my shoe (one foot still in cast) 🙂

    I started to get offended at her comments, then I started thinking about just how shallow and unthinking she really is, and I decided to rise above it instead. You are all wonderful, caring people and, judging by some of the comments above, parents. We all have lots to be proud of, and I hope you keep this in perspective as you read her “work”. He(ll), the woman even insulted the man she’d have tried to kill to become president! McCain had kids with his first wife, making Cindy their step-mother. She’s a dolt, her opinion matters to a few, but she’s not worth the emotional upheaval.

    Poor AKM having to wade through a pig-pen so we don’t have to. It is appreciated.

  26. Hmmmm, guess my comment ended up in the dumpster as I referred to her passage of saying Pipsqueak’s a math tutor as a load of s h * t.

  27. “Piper is still her “sidekick.” But she wants to stay home more now so the can dance, play basketball, study the Bible, be a math tutor and ride her bike.”

    BWUHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHH!!!!! I can not seriously imagine Piper tutoring anyone on any scholastic subject, let alone math. What a load of shit! The only subject Piper could tutor any kid in is How To Be Rude since that’s the only thing she learned at all these past 2 years.

    Sorry to pick on Piper, she only has one role model so I guess it’s not her fault.

    You are (as always) very brave to be wading through this load of shit that has spewed forth from SP.

  28. n djinn says:

    Yeh, you know I have much love, but I am not sure I can keep doing this. Truly like a car wreck. I want to see gore, and I want to know if there is anyway I can help; I can’t look away. All and all, I wish there were no car accidents.

  29. overthemoon says:

    What? No dissing on Hilary Clinton’s “It Takes a Village”???

    Thought for sure she’d rip that apart in fine wingnut style (Even though the book is a fine illustration of the importance of a broad concept of family and community. But that’s just librul thinkin’ and momma grizzlies don’t need help from nobody, even if dad is never seen til its time to make some more cubs)

    • LoveMyDogs says:

      Wait for the next chapter. She hasn’t made it to throwing Hillary under the bus yet.

  30. slipstream says:

    Wow! There’s something in the book with which I actually agree!

    “Government completely failed the city of New Orleans and revealed government incompetence.”

    Yep, it certainly did. Now let’s consider why. Under Clinton, FEMA was an effective agency. Then the Bush / Cheney administration intentionally gutted FEMA. They replaced experienced emergency managers with political hacks like Michael Brown — who had been director of an Arabian Horse association. Bush, Homeland Security director Michael Chertoff, and FEMA director Brown failed all the way up the chain of command. Brown — as in “you’re doing a heckuva job, Brownie” — took the blame.

    Even though the New Orleans disaster was 100% anticipated — one of the three national-scale FEMA training exercises that year was a hurricane causing Lake Pontchartrain levees to fail — the gutted FEMA was unable to handle it effectively.

    Since Reagan, the Republicans have chanted “the government is not the solution, the government is the problem.” And they have been working to take the government out of the solution business — you know, things like FEMA doing an effective evacuation during a disaster. Who do they think is going to be able to save lives in a hurricane which goes across four states? Local county sheriffs?

    Yep, the government failed. Yep, it’s the Republican’s fault. Shut it, Sarah.

    • NOLA says:

      I just have to say, since I’m stuck in Houston until I can drive again… I miss New Orleans. Sorry for OT, but if any of you guys have a mind for a visit, please come! The city is back on it’s feet and could definitely use the tourists. And… buy Gulf Seafood. It isn’t all from the oil-spill site and the shrimpers and fisherman all along the coast desperately need the work.

      Have a great day!

  31. Angela says:

    Does she still not realize that she is saying that she isn’t a good mom (you know leaving your kids at daycares and stuff) and that her grandson is doomed to prison? If she thinks women didn’t get pregnant and have kids out of wedlock before the 60’s, she really is living in a fantasy world.

    She needs to read a little history or go through some court records, instead of letting her imagination (or some preacher) tell her different.

    And she is dreaming if she thinks children were the center of the attenion in families back in the day. Children were out working in the fields or somewhere back then, and as much as they needed them for labor, they weren’t always thrilled to have another mouth to feed and that is sad but true.

  32. bwilder says:

    You are just too funny! Have you considered writing a book for the rest of us? A spoof on Pailn’s book much like what you’ve done here and with Going Rogue? I know anyone who reads your blog
    is in stitches throughout and getting a book out there for the rest of America might be a real winner!

  33. justafarmer says:

    it’s obvious why Murphy Brown is a bad example.
    Murphy was a reporter!

  34. bwilder says:

    (Any bets about which Palin kid she’s grooming to take over after her?)

    My bet is on Piper Palin for President. She has learned a thing or two and will be keeping
    little Pip close by not only so she can use her as a shield but so she can monitor the kid’s
    every move, word, and facebook posting. Willow and Bristol have already screwed up and
    so I’m thinking Piper’s her dream child at the moment.

    But to tell you the truth, I think Trig would be a better president. I’ve yet to know anyone
    with Down’s that is intentionally mean like the rest of the Palin crowd.

    • g says:

      I’m waiting for Piper to write a tell-all “Mommie Dearest” style book. Or come out. It’s between Willow or Piper. I’m betting on Piper.

  35. lilybart says:

    Coulter writes this same crap, but she doesn’t try to run for office.

  36. Bretta says:

    I just don’t know how you can slag through that drivel, AKM.

    I imagined this morning how sociology and political science professors will hold lectures and entire semesters on this phenomenon. Horrifying – more fodder for her ego.

  37. who me? says:

    This is just so painful to read.

  38. Lainey says:

    this palin woman is pure, confused, hypocritical wrath-ridden EVIL! unfortunately for whoever, she’s spawned offspring with like for like mental dysfunction! she should never have been let out of AK! we re-gift her back to you.

    • scout says:

      Please, no, Lainey, we don’t want her back and she doesn’t deserve Alaska. Send her to Mr. cantilevered hair in North Korea. Maybe that voice of hers will melt his centrifuges.

      • Lainey says:

        lol…yes!!! she will get along fine over in N Korea, using her evil ways…maybe learn a few more. we need to send her somewhere, b/c I certainly don’t want her as do most ‘rill Amiricans’.

      • jojobo1 says:

        Good one scout LOL better yet China so she can breath all their so called clean air LOL

    • Mugwump says:

      No Way. We more or less got rid of her. We don’t want her back!

      • Lainey says:

        HA! lol thanks much (mccain)…the lower 48 doesnt want her…what do we do with her then?

  39. Moose Pucky says:

    In a complicated world, it appears some folks are truly drawn to narrowmindedness and are threatened somehow of different ways of living and different worldviews.

    I know first-hand some relatively nice friends and neighbors who dote on her every word.

    It’s not logical, it’s not compassionate. It’s gutteral. It’s “like them.” Sarah speaks to divide, to incite.
    She is the screechy voice of fear.

    It’s hard myself to find the tolerance for folks who find Sarah not only tolerable, but refreshing. Maybe they like her because she gets the rest of us in such a snit.

  40. Baker's Dozen says:

    Does Todd have any real interaction with his kids? He’s dissed Track on national TV, which will do wonders for this nuclear (intended) family. He’s tossed Trig in the air. Does he know he has daughters? Does he know anything about them? Does he know one got pregnant on his watch and now has a toddler? Does he do any parenting, or is tearing down your oldest on national TV considered “parenting?”

  41. maelewis says:

    This book is written to appeal to Sarah’s base. They are most likely non-critical thinkers, just like their hero. If we actually examine Sarah’s family through the prism of her own text, we won’t be able to stop laughing. Sarah argues for the importance of fathers, while Todd had jobs which required him being away from the family for extended periods of time. Just when you thought that he would spend some quality time with the family,. he engaged in his snow machine race, which required, again, being apart from the family, other than two brief moments when they cheered for him at the starting line and at the finish line.

    If we use the examples of Sarah’s children to reflect on her parenting skills, I count three kids who have acted outside the norm of Sarah’s socially acceptable behavior. The bratty face book responses posted by Willow and Bristol are a reflection of the family values that have been taught in the Palin family. While many women work outside the home, they make use of quality time with their families. Since Sarah has left her job as governor to travel all over the country giving speeches and signing books, the family unity meme is rather meaningless. Dragging Piper (and maybe Willow) out of school doesn’t help. Trig, at the farm for a few hours each day, requires a regular schedule with therapy. Other than the staged scenes for the TV program, Sarah’s family is anything but the ideal family. When Bristol finished dancing with the dancers, she went one way and Tripp went back to Alaska with grandparents. Bristol as the advocate for abstinence is hypocrisy. Family first, I don’t think so.

    There are people who, through no fault of their own, lost a spouse early in the marriage, and have to deal with raising children in a one parent household. Thank goodness that we do have a government that could provide assistance if someone in the family suffered a catastrophic injury or death. It would allow them a chance to get back on their feet. Many of those families turned out just fine. It is obvious that Sarah has spent as much time thinking about the issues that she writes about as she spent preparing for her interviews with Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric. Sarah couldn’t and wouldn’t prepare for her debate or educate herself during the campaign. And, there is nothing in her book to show that she has studied important issues since then.

  42. g says:

    If Sarah was given a choice of a role model, she’d pick Bristol over Murphy Brown any day of the week.

    Seriously, what’s the difference?

    Both decided to have their baby after the relationship didn’t work out. Both have the money to support the baby.

    The biggest difference is that the fictional character Murphy Brown supported herself due to the skills and experience she gained in practicing her profession – based on her long-term career goals – whereas Bristol happened to get lucky financially through her parents’ contacts and is reaping the reward based on exploiting short-term opportunities.

    I actually don’t have a quibble with what Bristol is doing – she had the baby, she’s making money however she can.

    But what does Sarah say is so bad about Murphy Brown’s decision/ Isn’t it EXACTLY THE SAME DECISION?

  43. knittergran says:

    My IGoogle page said this today:
    Aesop said that the smaller the mind, the greater the conceit.

    Sound like anyone we know about?

  44. LibertyLover says:

    What kind of job does Bristol have if she can leave for 3 months to do Dancing with the Stars? Most single parents wouldn’t have a job if they stayed away from work for longer than the duration of maternity leave much less a 3 month hiatus.

  45. beth says:

    Oh, oh: A slight smudge on Saint Ronnie’s sainted saintliness…he was a divorced parent and he gave his two children a step-mother. I wonder how $arah’s mind reconciles what she has to say about divorce and step parents with what her hero actually did?

    Funnily enough, among all his children, it was Patti, the biological child of his and Nancy, who had the most heartburn with her parents and was the one who was on the *major* ‘outs’ with them for years and years. Michael and Maureen (his children adopted w/ Wyman) seemed to be fine with step-mom Nancy — Maureen, in particular, if I remember correctly. I also note his children who had the stepmother ‘foisted’ upon them both followed his idological bent (Michael being a huge conservative ‘voice’ to this day) while the Ronnie/Nancy flesh-and-blood children, Patti and Ron Jr, are about as 180-degrees from *everything* he stood for, as can be. Interesting. beth.

    • lilybart says:

      Well, her favorite movie was written by a communist, so she just has an open mind!

    • NOLA says:

      No one has ever (no will they ever in the future) accused her of being a deep thinker. Just a darn shame, really, that she is allowed to get away with this steaming pile of cow patty.

      It reminds me of the practice of writing a letter or email to someone you’re angry with. Putting in all the horrible things you’re thinking you’d like to do to them, getting it all out there and then balling it up and throwing it away (DELETE!). Then you sit and compose a more calm, less angry, letter stating your issues in a logical way. Sarah and her editors (who should lose their positions, IMO) published after step 1, totally skipping the 2nd part.

      Any English profs out there? Curious how this would get graded as a paper. Geez.

  46. g says:

    Wait, what? My head is spinning. The grandmother of an illegitimate child, the mother of the richest 19 year old single mother in People Magazine today is condemning the phenomenon of single parenthood and the fact that it’s so readily accepted nowadays?

    “The left wants us to believe that any grouping we choose to call a family is worthy of the name [like a family that consists of an unwed mother working as a medical office manager supported by her parents[, that it doesn’t matter if children are raised by two loving parents or are shipped off to virtual full-time day care [or by babysitters, nannies and great-grandmothers while the mom works in Hollywood], and that divorce [or breaking up with the child’s father before marrying]has no effect on children’s quality of life.”

    So the Murphy Brown character’s choice to have her baby after breaking up with the father is an example of moral decay in society, but Bristol’s choice to have Tripp after breaking up with Levi is a great and courageous act? What’s the difference between the two – other than the fact that one is a fictional character?

    • lilybart says:

      SHE KEEPS LEVI FROM BEING A FATHER TO HIS CHILD.

      Not sure how that squares with family values.
      Thought kids needed their fathers too.

  47. g says:

    The 1960s started it all with the divorce, and the single moms

    Right, because before then there were never any dysfunctional families.

  48. SoCalMama says:

    Ok, so just to get this straight – my brother and I both have graduate degrees, have each been married for almost 20 years (to the same spouse even) and have 10 children between us, but because we come from a divorced home, with not one but two step-parents (one of whom can’t legally BE a step-parent in my state), we are doomed? So glad she cleared that up for me.

  49. LibertyLover says:

    In this chapter we learn about how much liberals hate the family, and the real problem with Hurricane Katrina victims, and what’s wrong with America.

    What? I thought Sarah Palin thought America was perfect. Just the way we are.

    I’m so confused.

    • Just the “real” America that doesn’t have single parents, step parents. people of color, liberals, Christians that don’t believe in her very narrow-minded version of Christianity…and the list goes on.

    • dahlia97 says:

      I checked out Wonkette and someone who commented on the article wanted to know if he was the only one who sees the devil when looking at the picture of Palin on the cover…he said the A and l in Palin look like horns.

      The funny thing is when I first briefly glanced at the book cover, I thought there were red horns too.

  50. beth says:

    [In my best Stephen Colbert “gutteral” voice and fist shaking] “Damn you writers of Murphy Brown! You didn’t write the script so that Murphy ‘though for a second about having an abortion, an abortion that would be so easy and no one would know’*** You could have written it so she had an abortion, you know, and then we wouldn’t be subjected to ranting $arah rehashing Quale’s rant on the topic. But noooOOOOOoo, instead, you wrote her “choosing life!” and having a baby out of wedlock! Damn you writers of Murphy Brown for being the demise of decency in our nation!”

    Oh, wait…Murphy Brown was a fictional TV character? Well then, nevermind. beth.

    ***I can’t remember ‘$arah’s’ exact words from ‘her’ first book, but ‘she’ wrote something to that effect in said book about being newly-pg w/ her youngest and in New Orleans, if I recall correctly. b.

  51. Lacy Lady says:

    I believe if people like Wolf Blitzer would stop giving this @#$ woman free air time, she would fade into the sunset. Today he is saying how well her stupid book is doing in Iowa. I dont believe a word of it. I agree with Branstad (Gov elect of Iowa) that cadidates running for pres in 2012 will have to visit all 99 counties in the State of Iowa. Don’t think she will make that one. If she happens to visit Appanoose County, I will be waiting with my sign———-GO BACK TO ALASKA and STAY THERE!!

  52. lovemydogs says:

    Sarah palin hates women and poor people. (Props to Kanye West for the original)

  53. Susan says:

    The thing that is still mind-boggling about the whole Murphy Brown bruhaha, is that while Quayle was complaining about how she was a bad influence, no one mentioned what became of the baby’s father on the show. Anyone remember? When told that Murphy was pregnant, he left for Central America, never to be heard from again. No one, Quayle or any others, commented on what kind of message that sent. It was basically considered a normal response to finding out that your girlfriend was pregnant.

  54. Lisabeth60 says:

    She is absolutely INSANE. That is the only word I can think of over and over again as I read your comments. Does she honestly believe this drivel?? If she does, that means there are many like her who believe this. It is so opposite of everything I believe about human nature and America that it leaves me speechless….

    What is happening to our country? And yes this is MY COUNTRY TOO! I am an American and these beliefs she has highly offend me. And how dare she insinuate that I hate America or anything for that matter……..

    This is so insane that it is frightening. Yes, the left is afraid of this LOON – but for very good reason!

  55. yukonark says:

    AKM, I noticed that there was a distinct lack of head-banging-on-desk as you bravely related the contents of this chapter. I can only conclude that you wrote the review with your head on the desk the whole time, if only to avoid serious head trauma.

    You are fearless – bless you!

  56. I’m nearly speechless with this latest barrage of garbage spewing forth. It’s so beautiful and snowy in town today; it helps brighten my spirits after reading AKM’s synposis that was funny but very pathetic. To actually think some people would believe SP’s irrational disgusting diatribes is frightening and disgusting to say the least. It would be laughable if it weren’t so horrible.

  57. DF says:

    Well, this did make my blood pressure rise!

    $P specifies the importance of Fathers in this chapter and, yet, in Chapter 2 she believes that the choice to go to war should be supported by Mothers.

    And, government did not get Levi and Bristol together nor did government have anything to do with their separation! A Mother did, more than likely! And, what in the heck is she saying about her own grandson — a criminal, a failure, no father could ever come into his life again? Shew, my knees are weak! What child would want to read those words in his grandmother’s book?

    What the heck is a Strong Family? I guess it would have to be big enough to have a doctor, a banker, a judge and jury — oh, I could on! My mind is conjuring up all sorts of societal stuff.

    Round and round we go, all to justify a nutcase!

    I saw Mitt Romney on The Tonight Show last night. Given the opportunity, he said he’d say nothing negative about $P. He stated that she was an energetic, qualified member of their party. Mitt Romney lost a good deal of my respect on that note.

    • lilybart says:

      She actively keeps the father from her grandchild and slags him every chance she gets.

      I wish Greta would ask her what is up with that.

      • bubbles says:

        Lilybart!!! She actively keeps the father from her grandchild and slags him every chance she gets.

        oh gosh. i damned near fell off my chair. i thought you said “and shags him every chance she gets.

        whew. i laughed so hard i hurt myself. gotta take an aspirin. ah jeez.LOL

  58. G Katz says:

    Another big thank you, AKM! As I read part 2 of Chapter 4, I just kept wondering how many Depends it would take to hold the contents of just one half of a chapter in this book. Not a great image to have in my mind either.

    The book remains in the low 20s (23 at last check) on Amazon’s bestsellers. I wonder if SarahPACs massive purchases will push the book into the next NYT list.

  59. Hope says:

    Growing up ultra conservative, this is what I hear from her, “The bible tells me these things are wrong and so they are wrong.” However, if it will infringe upon my belief one day, I can change the rules. Maybe we just add vasectomy for young men as well after they father a few kids!

  60. OMG says:

    Wait a minute: unwed mothers are bad? Maybe Ann Coulter should take her on, after all, Coulter said that all unwed mothers should give up their children for adoption or else the children will grow up to be criminals and go to prison. Sorry Bristol but your mom knows best?

    • You done it now,OMG. You brought up that RWNJ Afghan hound looking Ann Coulter and Now I can’t stay out of this. Coulter and Palin need to do the real Celebrity Death Match and then we can off the survivor and call it a draw. Thanks for waking me up.

    • bubbles says:

      Ann Coulter another one who should have been exposed at birth.

  61. frsbdg says:

    Page 115 – maybe Sarah thinks the answer is for the 13-year old girl to marry the rapist?

    It is beyond me how anyone can read this drivel and not conclude that the woman is a lunatic.

    • Hope says:

      She does not believe that and this is what is sad about her. She is boxing herself in such a far right standing that she is going to have a hard time moving to the middle. She is a walking and narrow path and she is not giving herself any room. The same people that adore her will cry when she starts to use empathy and changes her views. There is nothing that this woman has done lately that leads me to think that she is truly socially conservative. Sarah is selling something and it is not books. I know a ton of conservative women and they do not act or say what she is saying. Fraud!

      • lilybart says:

        And she still calls half of America unRill.

        How does one change that?
        But she doesn’t think she has to, all she needs is one more than half.

      • LoveMyDogs says:

        Empathy? From the Quitter Queen? THAT is NOT going to happen.

  62. Cackling Rad says:

    Oh, how she contradicts herself; let me count the ways. Single mothers are bad, except for Bristol. Teenaged mothers are bad, except for Bristol. Women who get pregnant outside of marriage are bad, except for Sally, Sarah, and Bristol. Divorces are bad, unless you are Sarah’s sister. Stepparents are worthless (Is this a reflection of the job Todd did parenting Track?) Women having children out of wedlock are destroying society, so lets make abortion illegal and take away easy access to birth control. Women should stay home and take care of their kids, except for Sarah and Bristol and Sally.

    Is there anyone who can read that and not feel offended? Seems to me she has insulted: single mothers, children of single mothers, anyone who has ever been divorced, stepparents, children of stepparents, working mothers, children of working mothers…. wow.

    • lilybart says:

      I think all women would be offended by this chapter, except a few religious nuts in bad marriages they must stay in and pretend God wants it that way.

    • NOLA says:

      Love the nick, Cackling Rad!
      If there is any bonus to Sarah’s “opinion” it is that following her mother’s rules, Bristol will never procreate again. She won’t be able to get married, because step-parents are bad (mmmkay), and she says she won’t have sex until she’s married. So at least there is one way to ensure fewer Palin offspring!

  63. OMG says:

    It was only a matter of time: the right tries to blame the left for Palin:

    http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/presidential-campaign/131593-sarah-palin-for-president

    • LibertyLover says:

      I would expect no less from that weasel Armstrong Williams. He was paid commenter to promote the failed No Child Left Behind mess from Bush’s administration.

      • bubbles says:

        Armstrong Williams is a disgrace. let me say say no more about him……except !@#$@#%%&^ sack of @!#$&*(* piece of sh#@%son of a b^%$*(!!!!

    • LoveMyDogs says:

      Actually, after thinking hard about why all of the press seems to be promoting her so strongly, I have had the same thought. And believe me, it isn’t coming from a “blame the left for her” point of view as I am pretty far left. The big question is what horror show does the right have waiting in the wings to promote.

    • physicsmom says:

      The comments are hysterical. I have no love for Armstrong and neither do the commenters. They seem to think $P is the second coming and a bag of chips. So delusional…

  64. SendLawyersGunsAndMoney says:

    I married a wonderful woman who had three young teen children, their biological father no where to be found, running from state to state to keep from paying child support. That was almost twenty years ago. I now have three grandchildren, and MY children have me as their “dad” in all ways possible. I would like to stick my foot up this pompous, narcissist, hypocritical piece of garbage’s arse. Then you would really hear a voice like fingernails on a chalkboard.

    • CO almost native says:

      Bless you for being a real dad to those teens, and creating a real family. Palin wouldn’t know reality if it bit her on the ass.

    • bubbles says:

      Lawyers!!! thank you. you have brought tears and laughter to me today. yes. they are your children. now and forever yours. bless you sweet man.

    • leenie17 says:

      DNA does NOT make a Daddy or a Mommy.

      All five of you were lucky to find each other and create a family in the most important way of all…in the heart.

  65. jwa says:

    Dear Sarah,
    I say this in the kindest way possible – S. T. F. U.
    and Go Away.

  66. Ripley in CT says:

    {Insert deity of choice here} that woman is an idiot.

    Here’s my idea of what to do in your local bookstore, Costco, B.J.’s Wholesale Club, or Tire Warehouse. Basically, anywhere this book might possibly be sold. Grab up 2 or 3 of them and bring them to the register with all your other things. When you get there, put them up on the conveyor right next to your bulk toilet paper and tubs of peanut butter. But, just before the cashier, who luckily still has a job, rings them up, tell him/her, “Oh, I don’t want them after all.” This does two things: first, it gets them off the shelf, probably till very late in the shift. Second, it provides job security for the person who is responsible for restocking all the things people decided they didn’t want after all. I guess there’s a third: It might make the person in line behind you laugh themselves silly.

    If one person does this, it’s like a singular little fun thing. If two people do it, they might think something weird just happened. If 3 people do it, they might think it’s a covert op, but if 4 or more people do this… it’s certainly a movement. (thank you to Arlo Guthrie for the idea here)

    Of course, there is the turn-the-book-jacket-upside-down-and-backwards trick, flip the books over, or stick another book in front, as well. Too, slip some notes into the pages for the next unsuspecting buyer. All perfectly innocuous. But you’ll feel so much better ;D

  67. KJ in NC says:

    Trig is adorable and he likes to be outside. He spends a few hours a day at a friends house. There are chickens and cows there.

    Huh? Does this run up a red flag for anybody? Since she never tells the truth, my conspiracy theorist mind is wondering if Trig, which isn’t her child anyway, is really living with his real parents and is just brought out on occasions when the media is around. Especially since Sarah is so big on quantity of time.

    Visitor: “Where is Trig? Sarah: “Oh, he is having fun playing with the cows and chickens at my friend’s house. You will just have to see how adorable he is the next time you come over.”

    Who is close to her that has a farm?

    Then, of course, there is the issue of the two Trigs. Interesting.

    • lilybart says:

      I bet he spends most all days on the farm. When she says a few hours, we know she is lying because every word out of her mouth is a lie.

    • Laurie says:

      My thought when I read that comment was that he was with someone who is being paid to care for and work with him on his skills/therapy. She can’t admit to having paid help with her children. It would totally blow her narrative.

      • DF says:

        She blows her narrative all the time!

      • lilybart says:

        Yes except that most DS kids DO have paid therapeutic help! That would normal, not a failing.

      • Valley_Independent says:

        I know she had a paid nanny years ago, and I suspect nannies have been a frequent part of that family, yet she has the nerve to say negative things about single parents and daycare. Hypocrisy, thy name is Sarah.

    • Mag the Mick says:

      I get a red-flag feeling too. Historically, unwanted kids were often placed w. farm families, which is, I believe is the origin of the phrase “farmed out”. Whenever my mother got rid of our pets, she told us they had “gone to live on a farm”. (Yikes – BAD memories surfaced for a minute!) My gut reaction when I read this was that Palin has indeed “farmed him out” somewhere and comes to call for him only when convenient.

    • Nan (aka roswellborn) says:

      not to mention the whole “quantity vs quality” of time spent with one’s little angels from heaven. Or is that – silly me, that’s only if you’re not a palin.

      gads.

  68. 24owls says:

    I agree with southern and yet on the other hand she is making millions of dollars being such an idiot along all the other crap she does to stir up the worst in people. Another scarey point is that she has a following of devotees that think she is the choosen one. She has certainly proven that the dumbing down of America is profitable and those of us that try to educate ourselves and look out for our fellow citizens and be good stewards for the planet and our families are —– what?!? I guess you can fill in the blank with good high quality meaningful words but as far as I am concerned I wouldn’t trade places ever even if she was the last person on earth. All she is a shell that talks and looks good for now, but for all those millions of dollars can’t buy a brain or heart or soul. And to think she/ghostwriter titled the book America by Heart is just pathetic like the rest if the pages within.

  69. Crunk Petrol says:

    Finally, for those of you who really want to be scared **itless this fine December morning, here is an article from Huffington Post on the five potential VP picks that could make Palin a viable Presidential candidate.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keli-goff/5-vp-picks-who-can-make-p_b_790822.html

    • lilybart says:

      Nah. Lugar would NEVER run with her, he is a sane person, maybe the last sane republican there is. Lieberman won’t take #2 to her. Rubio, too new and too shiny, he has NO credentials yet. Kasich, Ohio I get but who is he?

  70. merrycricket says:

    If she wants to run for POTUS she needs to stop insulting over half of American voters. I’m certainly not going to find it in MY heart to support her after that little diatribe against my parenting skills. Both of my sons are happily married and gainfully employed. My youngest is working to become a teacher in the inner city schools. Oh, wait, I am obviously doing it all wrong because she hates teachers too.

    Honestly I did fall off the bed laughing at the whole Dan Q/Murphy Brown thing.

    So I am waiting to hear her solutions. Any of those palin-bots know?

    • LibertyLover says:

      You don’t honestly think that her supporters are actually going to ‘read’ her book, do you?

  71. Crunk Petrol says:

    This is an interesting article on Palin and her “new racism”, which essentially accuses people who complain about the injustices in the US of being unpatriotic.

    http://www.theroot.com/views/palins-dangerous-race-game

    • jwa says:

      this is an old GOP tactic. When Dubya was pres. any criticism of him or his policies was decried as giving aid and comfort to the enemy and unpatriotic. Remember the moronic outrage at the Dixie Chicks when they complained (in England) that they weren’t proud to say they were from the same state as Dubya? Now the worm has turned and they pass up NO opportunity to criticize the current president – of course acting in their role as LOYAL opposition. ….. Bull pucky.

  72. Crunk Petrol says:

    ACQUIRED a stepfather? Can you mail order one? Is there a raffle?

    • Baker's Dozen says:

      No–it’s something that gets stuck to the bottom of your shoe when you aren’t watching where you’re walking.

  73. johnny says:

    Those were real family values when she broke her water in Texas and flew across the country while in labor with a special needs baby.

    • LibertyLover says:

      She was putting her family first, of course. No word on who was taking care of the rest of her kids since Todd was with her.

  74. johnny says:

    Request: Can any of you throw some light on this claim she’s making in speeches that she spend “20 years in public service”. I know she was on the oil commission just short of a year, she was gov just over 2 years, both posts she quit abruptly. That makes just over 3. She says she was on the city council, mayor, “lawmaker”, and all of that adds up to 20. How can this be accurate? Not so say that I expect her to speak accurately, ever, but can someone give us the actual years that she was on the city council, and how may years was mayor, and what the “lawmaker” crap is all about.

    • johnny says:

      Here’s what she is claiming on FOX:

      “For 20 years as a city manager, as a mayor, councilmember, lawmaker, commissioner then governor, ”

      She was city manager? When was that? When was she a lawmaker? I thought that label was reserved for house and senate members? Is she saying that as a wasilla council member she was a “lawmaker”?

      • lilybart says:

        She was a city manager because she had to hire one, so she must have been doing that job too before she hired someone, is her rational.

        But no, she was not a lawmaker unless you count city council garbage pick up laws?

      • CO almost native says:

        Hmm…someone needs to do the math. How old is Palin? 42? So, if she’s been in public service for 20 years, she started at 22? If this is correct- and I don’t think it is- hard to claim outsider status when you’ve been in “public service” almost half your life.

      • Mugwump says:

        She is dilusional. She shouldn’t even count her time as Governor since she spent most of it hanging out at her house collecting per diem.

        • scout says:

          239 shopping days left for filing ethics complaints….

          Pay back the per diem, quittypants.

    • beth says:

      Ahhh, Johnny — you are looking for precise, accurate accounting (ie – the total of the *exact* amount of time she spent doing those things); $arah, though, doesn’t deal in precise and –or!– accurate.

      She is taking the *first* time she did *anything* in the “public service” arena (“twenty years ago*) as her starting point and is listing everything she has done in the ensuing years *as if* it has all been one continuous, back-to-back effort on her part. 24/7/365 with *no* ‘breaks’.

      It’s like the kid writing their resume who lists under “Volunteer Work”: “Habitat for Humanity, Animal Rescue Foundation, Meals on Wheels, and Walk for Life” *without* mentioning their volunteer work for each organization was a one-shot, one-time only deal. The kid wants the resume reader to *infer* all of the seamlessly listed endeavors have had the kid’s dedicated devotion and *presume* the kid’s volunteer efforts have been (and are) continuous…even though the facts (ie – honesty through the inclusion of dates) would certainly show otherwise. beth.

  75. kerryann63 says:

    I’m sorry – but isn’t her sister divorced……possibly more than once?

    I’ve never had much use for the sow but she’s really gone over the line this time. My own mother raised 7 children on her own. My parents fought constantly (both with hot Irish tempers), staying married was the worst thing they could have done. Now that we are all adults I have to say this: none of us have trashed empty houses, guzzled vodka at 14 or had to make a choice between prison or army.

    THANKS MOM! (in case I didn’t say it enough growing up)

  76. mary says:

    Bristol’s pregnancy was announced just before the RNC, it was the hot topic at the time. Just FYI. Maybe you’re thinking of Palin’s first speech with McCain when they tried to cover her belly with a blanket AND poor Trig.

    Great recaps, thanks for doing the dirty work! I can’t imagine how infuriating it must be to read that drivel.

    I wonder what Sarah thinks of step-parents of children whose mother or father passed away….. Challenging concept! Nah, she probably thinks they suck and are worthless.

  77. mary says:

    Bristol’s pregnancy was announced just before the RNC, it was the hot topic at the time. Just FYI. Maybe you’re thinking of Palin’s first speech with McCain when they tried to cover her belly with a blanket AND poor Trig.

    Great recaps, thanks for doing the dirty work! I can’t imagine how infuriating it must be to read that drivel.

    I wonder what Sarah thinks of step-parents of children whose mother or father passed away….. Challenging concept! Nah, she probably thinks they suck and are worthless.

  78. benlomond2 says:

    speechless….. just plain mind numbing speechless…..

  79. lilybart says:

    It really is Opposite day in Wasilla,every day, isn’t it?

    I HATE this Family Values are only found in GOP homes BULL HOCKEY.

    My most liberal friends have a huge family, they had lots of other kids living with them at various times, they “adopted” me when I met them in college (orphan, they are my family now) and they had the most beautiful 25th anniversary Vow Renewal party with tons of family and friends and guess what, there is a STEPFATHER involved too. God I hate her.

  80. debinOH says:

    I could NEVER read this drivel so I am glad someone else is doing it for me;)

    I am so sick of hearing that liberals are awful. It is infuriating. I would just love for her to actually sit down with families who voted for BO. I don’t know about you guys but I think that all people (w/o mental problems) want our marriages to work, our children to be happy, healthy and educated (okay so maybe educated doesn’t go along with what Sarah wants).

    Who just gets married just so they can get divorced? Who gets pregnant just to have an abortion? What is wrong with this woman?

    I am pretty sure that christians are getting divorced at the same rate (if not slighty higher) as us god forsaken liberals. I am pretty sure that republicans get as many divorces as liberals.

    When I look at all the famous republicans in the spotlight at this moment I sure don’t see the good moral values they are pushing going on in their own lives.

    One thing that really galls me is that you would think having a Down Syndrome child would give her some empathy for the parents who have children that can’t get their child health care because they either can’t afford the premiums or they are dropped from the insurance plan because of their health costs or are denied health care from the get-go.

    I guess when you have the luxury of knowing that your handicapped child will be okay when you die doesn’t really give you much perspective?

    • lilybart says:

      Here, here!! Maybe THIS is the wedge we use to totally discredit her. Women already don’t like her, GOP women too. We need a movement of liberal and conservative women to tell her to STFU.

      She is unrelentingly negative, a constant whiner and she disparages half the families in America. She can just go to flippin’ hell.

    • CO almost native says:

      Some of us god forsaken liberals are Christian, and try to follow its precepts: treat your neighbor as yourself, heal the sick, feed the poor, clothe the needy…

      I know Christians, Sarah Palin- and you’re not one.

      • Hope says:

        This is exactly how I feel. I don’t know if she understands that she is offending other people who are Christian? I actually spoke to my priest (I am embarrassed to admit). He evidently has heard this a lot. He wasn’t really plugged into the hype. Maybe a good thing!

      • jojobo1 says:

        CO almost native right you are and I cannot say that often enough. I am or consider myself a moderate and just hate the remarks made about others whom the republicans and TP people considered liberals.The name calling at every turn.It is like they don’t get that republicans and TP members are not working either it isn’t only liberals that are out of work.I also read some of the comments at Amazon and how some could read this book and not see it for the drivel it is,is beyond me.Do some of these people actually believe a woman should stay with an abusive spouse whether it be spousal or the children..I would think woman would see that.men may love the idea and agree but woman how could they agree with her????

  81. barbara says:

    her hatefulness is showing. i read up on some of the reviews on amazon. i could only read the one-star reviews and assumed that all the 5-star reviews (for the most part it was one or the other) were written by palinbots. there were a couple 1-stars from palinbots though – their autographs were signed by bots!
    thank you AKM. you made me laugh out loud and that’s good for my BP. not in a million years would i read this book. maybe for a million dollars.

  82. dee says:

    I recently purchased “Of Thee I Sing”, President Obama’s book written for his daughters and all the other children in America. Each page contains an inspiring, uplifting , loving message for his daughters and any other child lucky enough to read it.
    Her book is pure hateful, illogical CRAP!!
    Every sentence she utters or “writes”???is dismissive, derisive,rude, annoying, illogical,rhetoric.

    • Hope says:

      I love this book. I would give them out as gifts but there is so much negative rhetoric that a lot of people that I know believe that the President created all this debt in two years. They honestly believe that. I am really sad that people can’t get passed what they are feed. I am sad that both sides do it but for some reason there is just yuck feeling that I get when I hear people talk about the President. I may not agree with him fully, but I believe that he is doing far better than what people give him credit for. They are screaming indoctrination. Holly cow. A tab of a stretch don’t you think? My entire life growing up being religious has left me speechless to some of the things that people are saying. I have never had a priest tell me to dislike this type of person or that type of person.

  83. Southernmuse says:

    Mrs. Palin’s greatest success is she manages to be so stupid that is is impossible to react to her. Where to start? What to grab hold of? Because she is unanswerable she must therefore in her mind (and the minds of her loyal followers) be brilliant. Her unrelenting program of verbal bombardment by the endless tweeting, and facebook posts, tirades, and of course her “books” have worked really well for her. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so proud of being an idiot.

    Is there a name for this condition?

    • jimzmum says:

      Sociopathy comes to mind.

      • barbara says:

        i was thinking NPD.

      • jimzmum says:

        Here is a list of symptoms. I think this is quite telling.

        * Persistent lying or stealing
        * Apparent lack of remorse[3] or empathy for others
        * Cruelty to animals[4]
        * Poor behavioral controls — expressions of irritability, annoyance, impatience, threats, aggression, and verbal abuse; inadequate control of anger and temper
        * A history of childhood conduct disorder
        * Recurring difficulties with the law
        * Promiscuity
        * Tendency to violate the boundaries and rights of others
        * Aggressive, often violent behavior; prone to getting involved in fights
        * Inability to tolerate boredom
        * Disregard for right and wrong
        * Poor or abusive relationships
        * Irresponsible work behavior
        * Disregard for safety

        Between the most common characteristics of the TPA they find the absence of empathy and remorse, also a vision of the distorted autoesteem, a constant search of new sensations (that can come to unusual ends), the dehumanisation of the victim or the lack of worry to the consequences. The egocentrismo, the megalomania, the lack of responsibility, the extroversion, the excess of hedonism, high places levels of impulsiveness, or the motivation for experiencing sensations of control and being able also are very common. This type of psychosis does not relate to assaults of panic or to schizophrenia. [1]

        Source: Wiki

        • Dagian says:

          She could have more than one thing going on between her ears (in addition to the wind whistling through):

          Borderline Personality Disorder DSM IV Criteria

          A pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

          1. frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in Criterion 5.

          2. a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation.

          3. identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self.

          4. impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating). Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in Criterion 5.

          5. recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior

          6. affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days).

          7. chronic feelings of emptiness

          8. inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights)

          9. transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms

          The DSM IV goes on to say:

          The essential feature of Borderline Personality Disorder is a pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity that begins by early adulthood and is present in a variety of contexts.

          Individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder make frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment (Criterion 1). The perception of impending separation or rejection, or the loss of external structure, can lead to profound changes in self-image, affect, cognition, and behavior. These individuals are very sensitive to environmental circumstances. They experience intense abandonment fears and inappropriate anger even when faced with a realistic time-limited separation or when there are unavoidable changes in plans (e.g. sudden despair in reaction to a clinician’s announcing the end of the hour; panic of fury when someone important to them is just a few minutes late or must cancel an appointment). They may believe that this “abandonment” implies they are “bad.” These abandonment fears are related to an intolerance of being alone and a need to have other people with them. Their frantic efforts to avoid abandonment may include impulsive actions such as self-mutilating or suicidal behaviors, which are described separately in Criterion 5.

          Individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder have a pattern of unstable and intense relationships (Criterion 2). They may idealize potential caregivers or lovers at the first or second meeting, demand to spend a lot of time together, and share the most intimate details early in a relationship. However, they may switch quickly from idealizing other people to devaluing them, feeling that the other person does not care enough, does not give enough, is not “there” enough. These individuals can empathize with and nurture other people, but only with the expectation that the other person will “be there” in return to meet their own needs on demand. These individuals are prone to sudden and dramatic shifts in their view of others, who may alternately be seen as beneficent supports or as cruelly punitive. Such shifts often reflect disillusionment with a caregiver who nurturing qualities had been idealized or whose rejection or abandonment is expected.

          There may be an identity disturbance characterized by markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self (Criterion 3). There are sudden and dramatic shifts in self-image, characterized by shifting goals, values, and vocational aspirations. There may be sudden changes in opinions and plans about career, sexual identity, values, and types of friends. These individuals may suddenly change from the role of a needy supplicant for help to a righteous avenger of past mistreatment. Although they usually have a self-image that is based on being bad or evil, individuals with this disorder may at times have feelings that they do not exist at all. Such experiences usually occur in situations in which the individual feels a lack of meaningful relationship, nurturing and support. These individuals may show worse performance in unstructured work or school situations.

          Individuals with this disorder display impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (Criterion 4). They may gamble, spend money irresponsibly, binge eat, abuse substances, engage in unsafe sex, or drive recklessly. Individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder display recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior (Criterion 5). Completed suicide occurs in 8%-10% of such individuals, and self-mutilative acts (e.g., cutting or burning) and suicide threats and attempts are very common. Recurrent suicidality is often the reason that these individuals present for help. These self-destructive acts are usually precipitated by threats of separation or rejection or by expectations that they assume increased responsibility. Self-mutilation may occur during dissociative experiences and often brings relief by reaffirming the ability to feel or by expiating the individual’s sense of being evil.

          Individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder may display affective instability that is due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days) (Criterion 6). The basic dysphoric mood of those with Borderline Personality Disorder is often disrupted by periods of anger, panic, or despair and is rarely relieved by periods of well-being or satisfaction. These episodes may reflect the individual’s extreme reactivity troubled by chronic feelings of emptiness (Criterion 7). Easily bored, they may constantly seek something to do. Individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder frequently express inappropriate, intense anger or have difficulty controlling their anger (Criterion 8). They may display extreme sarcasm, enduring bitterness, or verbal outbursts. The anger is often elicited when a caregiver or lover is seen as neglectful, withholding, uncaring, or abandoning. Such expressions of anger are often followed by shame and guilt and contribute to the feeling they have of being evil. During periods of extreme stress, transient paranoid ideation or dissociative symptoms (e.g., depersonalization) may occur (Criterion 9), but these are generally of insufficient severity or duration to warrant an additional diagnosis. These episodes occur most frequently in response to a real or imagined abandonment. Symptoms tend to be transient, lasting minutes or hours. The real or perceived return of the caregiver’s nurturance may result in a remission of symptoms.

          Associated Features and Disorders

          Individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder may have a pattern of undermining themselves at the moment a goal is about to be realized (e.g., dropping out of school just before graduation; regressing severely after a discussion of how well therapy is going; destroying a good relationship just when it is clear that the relationship could last). Some individuals develop psychotic-like symptoms (e.g., hallucinations, body-image distortions, ideas of reference, and hypnotic phenomena) during times of stress. Individuals with this disorder may feel more secure with transitional objects (i.e., a pet or inanimate possession) than in interpersonal relationships. Premature death from suicide may occur in individuals with this disorder, especially in those with co-occurring Mood Disorders or Substance-Related Disorders. Physical handicaps may result from self-inflicted abuse behaviors or failed suicide attempts. Recurrent job losses, interrupted education, and broken marriages are common. Physical and sexual abuse, neglect, hostile conflict, and early parental loss or separation are more common in the childhood histories of those with Borderline Personality Disorder. Common co-occurring Axis I disorders include Mood Disorders, Substance-Related Disorders, Eating Disorders (notably Bulimia), Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Borderline Personality Disorder also frequently co-occurs with the other Personality Disorders.

          Specific Culture, Age, and Gender Features

          The pattern of behavior seen in Borderline Personality Disorder has been identified in many settings around the world. Adolescents and young adults with identity problems (especially when accompanied by substance abuse) may transiently display behaviors that misleadingly give the impression of Borderline Personality Disorder. Such situations are characterized by emotional instability, “existential” dilemmas, uncertainty, anxiety-provoking choices, conflicts about sexual orientation, and competing social pressures to decide on careers. Borderline Personality Disorder is diagnosed predominantly (about 75%) in females.

          Prevalence

          The prevalence of Borderline Personality Disorder is estimated to be about 2% of the general population, about 10% among individuals seen in outpatient mental health clinics, and about 20% among psychiatric inpatients. In ranges from 30% to 60% among clinical populations with Personality Disorders.

          Course

          There is considerable variability in the course of Borderline Personality Disorder. The most common pattern is one of chronic instability in early adulthood, with episodes of serious affective and impulsive dyscontrol and high levels of use of health and mental health resources. The impairment from the disorder and the risk of suicide are greatest in the young-adult years and gradually wane with advancing age. During their 30s and 40s, the majority of individuals with this disorder attain greater stability in their relationships and vocational functioning.

          Familial Pattern

          Borderline Personality Disorder is about five times more common among first-degree biological relatives of those with the disorder than in the general population. There is also an increased familial risk for Substance-Related Disorders, Antisocial Personality Disorder, and Mood Disorders.

          Differential Diagnosis

          Borderline Personality Disorder often co-occurs with Mood Disorders, and when criteria for both are met, both may be diagnosed. Because the cross-sectional presentation of Borderline Personality Disorder can be mimicked by an episode of Mood Disorder, the clinician should avoid giving an additional diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder based only on cross-sectional presentation without having documented that the pattern of behavior has an early onset and a long-standing course.

          Other Personality Disorders may be confused with Borderline Personality Disorder because they have certain features in common. It is, therefore, important to distinguish among these disorders based on differences in their characteristic features. However, if an individual has personality features that meet criteria for one or more Personality Disorders in addition to Borderline Personality Disorder, all can be diagnosed. Although Histrionic Personality Disorder can also be characterized by attention seeking, manipulative behavior, and rapidly shifting emotions, Borderline Personality Disorder is distinguished by self-destructiveness, angry disruptions in close relationships, and chronic feelings of deep emptiness and loneliness. Paranoid ideas or illusions may be present in both Borderline Personality Disorder and Schizotypal Personality Disorder, but these symptoms are more transient, interpersonally reactive, and responsive to external structuring in Borderline Personality Disorder. Although Paranoid Personality Disorder and Narcissistic Personality Disorder may also be characterized by an angry reaction to minor stimuli, the relative stability of self-image as well as the relative lack of self-destructiveness, impulsivity, and abandonment concerns distinguish these disorders from Borderline Personality Disorder. Although Antisocial Personality Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder are both characterized by manipulative behavior, individuals with Antisocial Personality Disorder are manipulative to gain profit, power, or some other material gratification, whereas the goal in Borderline Personality Disorder is directed more toward gaining the concern of caretakers. Both Dependent Personality Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder are characterized by fear of abandonment, however, the individual with Borderline Personality Disorder reacts to abandonment with feelings of emotional emptiness, rage, and demands, whereas the individual with Dependent Personality Disorder reacts with increasing appeasement and submissiveness and urgently seeks a replacement relationship to provide caregiving and support. Borderline Personality Disorder can further be distinguished from Dependent Personality Disorder by the typical pattern of unstable and intense relationships.

          Borderline Personality Disorder must be distinguished from Personality Change Due to a General Medical Condition, in which the traits emerge due to the direct effects of a general medical condition on the central nervous system. It must also be distinguished from symptoms that may develop in association with chronic substance use (e.g., Cocaine-Related Disorder Not Otherwise Specified).

          • Hope says:

            I don’t think she has a mental disorder. I just think greed and power can cause people to act in ways that change them. I am not a fan of SP, but I don’t care if she makes money. In fact, she should probably make a bunch of money because she might be turning off a ton of people. I am not sure she is electable and I think it is time that people treat her that way.

            We all make our beds in some way or another. I actually wish this woman happiness and the self realization that “she didn’t have to step on people, offend large numbers of individuals, or create division.” I think a person can have faith without crushing another human being for advancement. We each have our own path and our own conscience. I wish anyone with children to be a force of good.

          • bubbles says:

            Palin in a nutshell. Palin is an outstanding personification of antisocial/borderline personality disorder. as such she is a danger to all who come in contact with her. it doesn’t matter if the contact involves one person or millions. notice the effect her affect creates in us for example. notice the effect her personality has on millions who are vulnerable to this kind of personality.

    • lilybart says:

      I agree, where to start? I posted below that women need to start talking back because I bet even conservatives know really good solid liberal families on their blocks.

      The Obamas for one, by the way, Quitter Queen with troubled children. HIS family is lovely, well behaved, loving and no matter what, I dare her to find fault with Barak Obama the husband or father. They are the picture book story of an American family.

      • Keaaukane says:

        Not to wish Obama ill, but lets hold off praise until the girls are teenagers, which is when it really gets tough. Though the previous Dem Pres, despite quite a bit of turmoil, did manage to produce a sane, functioning daughter. And the Dem before him.

        The Republicans? Not so much. How does $P rationalize St. Reagan’s divorce?

  84. ks sunflower says:

    Well, at least we know what Sarah didn’t study at any of those colleges she attended: analytical thinking or logic.

    Thanks, once again, AKM, for helping us laugh through the pain that Sarah’s brain.

  85. LA Brian says:

    Didn’t Quayle’s son just get elected to the House for the Ft. Wayne area?

    Poor Dan? Ha! Poor Marilyn – she’s the one many of my teachers (back home again in Indiana) thought had the capacity for a political future.

    • LA Brian says:

      *I meant the US House of Representatives from the district that includes Ft. Wayne. Woke up several hours too early, and it’s been a long day already.

  86. Pat in MA says:

    Well, Palin is certainly consistent – consistently hypocritical, uninformed, infuriating, nauseating, nonsensical, and as always, without a plan to correct all the ills she sees around her. She of ALL people is going to lecture us about family values? Yes, let’s go back to those euphoric days of the aproned housewife, oh but wait, what about making obscene amounts of money for writin’ (cough cough) books, and givin’ speeches and makin’ “reality” TV shows? God she is an idiot.

    • lilybart says:

      It’s the Rove tactic: blame others for what YOU do.

    • CO almost native says:

      No, the idiots are the ones who buy her books, donate to her PAC, buy tickets to see her speak, and believe all this drivel.

      • Pat in MA says:

        Yes, you’re right about that – she’s making millions off the idiots. I have a hard time believing she’s evil enough to plan on duping these people, I think she is truly delusional and believes her own tripe, and only allows people around her that worship her and wouldn’t dare say no to the Queen or it’s off with their heads!

  87. Cortez says:

    We need to get Sarah on Shannon’s show to talk about her book. You should be there too, Jeanne. I think the prospect of Sarah actually having to defend all of the BS she spews is what keeps me looking forward to another day with her in the news.
    Anyway, just a suggestion, don’t know until you try. I’m sure Shannon would be up for it.

    • barbara says:

      sowah would never show. i wouldn’t be surprised if shannyn hasn’t asked a dozen times or more.

    • ks sunflower says:

      If Sarah can’t or won’t show up on Shannon’s show, then she has no business saying she could be President. If she can’t take the heat in her own backyard, then how could she take it on the world stage?

      Besides, Shannon and Jeanne are civil, intelligent women who would not attack her. Question her, pressure her, do follow-up questions sure – but always civil, always respectful.

      • Valley_Independent says:

        I am not so sure Shannyn wouldn’t be on the attack, but even so, you are right. If she can’t take the heat from the likes of Shannyn Moore, what makes her or her supporters think she would be able to stand up to world leaders that aren’t fans of Palin or the USA?

    • birdy figgis says:

      But if she had to discuss the book, she’d have to read it first!

  88. Alaskan says:

    What a pompous ass, and those are the kindest things I can think of at the moment. I was raised by a loving, kind, gentle stepfather who helped take our family from near poverty to a middle class family with a home and food on the table after our DNA dad decided to split.

    As usual she doesn’t know what the hell she is talking about.

  89. twain12 says:

    if i’m not mistaken wasn’t there a study out recently that showed that those “elite” blue States had the lowest divorce rates and teen pregnancies ?
    to lazy to look for it right now.

    • lilybart says:

      That is correct. Maybe she should stay home and help Alaska, which has very high rates of teen pg, STDs, incest, domestic abuse, you name it.

      Blue states have better stats on every quality of life issue and it is because red states are generally poorer and poverty creates family problems. But why are Blue states more prosperous? Quitter Queen, wanna answer that one????!!!

      • CO almost native says:

        This is a classic case of do as I say, not as I do. Her “ideal” family puts the mother in the house, in charge of the kids- no sharing child-rearing duties with the “breadwinner”, and no opportunities to improve one’s life if the father turns out to be a deadbeat, or abuser.

        Does Palin really believe we should all live on the set of “Father Knows Best”?!

        (oh, wait…she is the major breadwinner, her kids are misfits, the unmarried teen mother lives with them, not the father–)

    • Laurie says:

      They had divorce rates on the Huff yesterday. Massachusetts and D.C. have the lowest rates!

  90. Nan (aka roswellborn) says:

    I’m actually having trouble getting through just this ultra-condensed version. I honestly don’t know how you’re doing it, AKM. My vote is for a full week at a spa where you can be pampered, cosseted and rejuvenated, with nary a palin in sight or sound.

    If a stepparent isn’t good enough, then my widowed mother did her children a disservice, apparently. And divorce was around from at least years before the Andrew Jackson presidency. “started in the 60s” my foot.

    Some people simply Don’t. Have. Family, period. I’ve been the surviving member of my family since 1981, I have raised a responsible son and daughter. My son is a veteran, but apparently not a “rill American.” humpf.

    If I’d remained with my ex, my children and I would have wound up on the streets; he was that “good” a provider (ha).

    How dare she belittle the efforts of those who deal with what life hands them, of those who keep on keeping on. How freaking dare she!

    Um. I wonder if the spa might have extra room…

    • Nan (aka roswellborn) says:

      Apologies for the massive italics above – meant to close it after “Don’t. Have. Family.”

      • Tan says:

        You are exactly the sort of good person I am thinking of when I read this horrificly evil ‘family
        values’ crap. She has absolutely zero compassion for the millions, hundreds of millions and likely billions of people the world over for which a perfect family wasn’t feasible.

        She is blatantly insulting women that flee from abusive relationships, men that flee from them, young women (just like
        Bristol!!!) that do what SHE WANTS them to do and carry their unplanned pregnancies to term despite less than perfect circumstances I.e. Father having no interest.

        It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t thing for her. Choose abortion and you are a baby killer. Choose life without a father figure for your child (an incredibly
        brave decision worthy of everyones respect) and you are irresponsible for raising a child in a single mum household.

        Like everyone else here, I’m reaching the end of my tether. I can’t believe someone so viciously disgustingly monstrous actually has RESPECT in this world. She is no Christian and any decent Christian should be appalled at this disgusting drivel which openly shows contempt for every good hard working person in situations other than the perfect nuclear fam.

        And what is family
        values about lying to everyone about her firstborns biological father? Raising children with a compulsion to drink excessively and do drugs, call people disgusting names and break the law.

        • lilybart says:

          Well said!

          How is Bristol a better role model than Murphy Brown?
          Bristol fights to prevent the father from having time with his baby. SHE is a better role model??!!

          • Molly says:

            Plus there’s the whole “possibly pregnant as many as three times before the age of twenty” thing goin’ on.

          • vyccan says:

            ‘There’s a study that kids in fatherless households are more likely to go to jail, “and their lives did not improve if their mother had acquired a stepfather.’

            Seems to describe Track, doesn’t it? Except that his mother had the connections to work a deal around an actual jail term.

          • MonaLisa (inCT) says:

            Bristol will be invisible for the next few months. I guarantee it.

          • jojobo1 says:

            How well I remember the fiasco about Murphy Brown.I supported her all the way. She at least had the Money to take care of her child by herself unlike someone else.I really love the Murphy Brown show and for palin to pick on this woman sure goes against what she calls her christian and family values,IMO she has non

      • barbara says:

        she’s really kinda dissing everyone in this book, eh? my mother was divorced in the early ’50s. if she hadn’t been i would have never been born. i had 3 out of 4 children out of wedlock. one is a successful plumber with a family of his own, one is at law school working on his JD, and the youngest is a freshman at university. my only girl was killed nine years ago. all are/were citizens of the USA. since the 18th century at least! screw sowah. she just can’t hide her ugly core.

        • lilybart says:

          Barbara! So sorry to hear that but your three boys are doing so well, you must be so proud.

          Everyone I know wants to get married and I know almost all liberals.
          God I hate her and I can’t say that enough.

          • sallyngarland,tx says:

            Excuse me if I sound like I’m bragging, but there are alot of us single parents who raised quite productive children who aren’t on DWTS but have college degrees instead. She truly makes me sick.

          • sallyngarland,tx says:

            This is her backhanded diss at Obama’s single mom. Hmmm–a single mom raised a President. She can’t stand it.

            I can’t add to my other comment but didn’t mean that only children with college degrees are productive because those without degrees are productive as well.

      • fromthediagonal says:

        Nan… my compliments to you for remaining civil. I am having a tough time with it.

        My questions to Sarah Palin:

        How dare you judge others?
        How dare you condemn single parents?
        How dare you say you support the military when you ignore the mates of those who did not make it home from ill conceived wars, who have been maimed both physically and mentally?
        Woman and men who raise their children alone and to the best of their abilities?
        How dare you! Woman who sees nothing besides blind ambition!

    • lilybart says:

      Divorces happened when women could support themselves wtih a good job and yes, not all women stay in bad marriages anymore like in the olden days when the courts gave kids to the fathers and you could not support yourself as a single woman.

      Things were so much better when women had NO CHOICES. That is what she means.

      • Valley_Independent says:

        Thank you lilybart for capturing those thoughts. I too fail to see how the world was a better place when battered women (and their children) stayed with an abusive man because divorce was not possible or acceptable. Neither of my parents was abusive, but it did get a lot more peaceful at home when my parents divorced. My mother raised three kids mostly on her own, and none of us ever got in trouble, was ever on public assistance or had children out of wedlock. The least college we have is two years, and we are doing just fine, thank you.

        As for how liberals hate families, how does she explain the lovely two-parent family in the White House? They seem much more family-values oriented than the dysfunctional Palin clan.

    • NOLA says:

      It seems to me that Republicans divorce too. Wonder how old man McCain would react to all this stupidity (assuming he would actually read it, which I highly doubt). Or any of those other “Family Values” hypocrits who are on their 2nd, 3rd, 4th marriages to their latest mistress.

  91. thatcrowwoman says:

    Message to whatzername:

    Silence is golden….
    so Shut Up and get rich!

    Sincerely,
    thatcrowwoman

    • jimzmum says:

      Amen, amen, and another one for luck! Would that she would listen. That baby boy is obviously not getting the services he needs. The other children are exhibiting behaviors that are obviously from lack of decent parenting. I am now going to stomp around and gripe for 20 minutes until it is time for me to go warm up my truck and get busy!

  92. Reading for the rest
    Taking the hits to the brain
    Stay sane, dear Mudflats.

  93. Pinwheel says:

    I like the concept of putting the pants on her head and then adding the hat !! I can’t go thru this at the moment. Tomorrow. nem

  94. Leota2 says:

    There are no words . . . .Does Palin put her pants on her head and then add her hat?
    AKM, somehow, someway I hope you are not too nauseous or exhausted.

    Truly, this book is the worst kind of drivel. Actually, drivel is too good a name for this bound waste of paper. I would reach into a bonfire so this book would not be burned because that’s the way I roll. But after I rescued it from the fire I’d have no problem using the pages to better the world we live in by lining a hamster cage or plugging up cracks around the living room window.

    • Attagirl says:

      I defintely WOULD toss this one into the burn pile…and I truly do not believe in book burning. But, this is an exception. Sweet Jesus on a bicycle the woman is a dangerous idiot.

    • Blooper says:

      Would toilet paper suffice?

  95. Husky says:

    This is starting to be too much for me. For more than two years now, I’ve started my days here on the east coast of our Exceptional (capital E) nation by checking in at the Mudflats for my daily dose of wit, sanity, amusement and information.

    I’ve learned a lot about Alaska, been stunned by truly great turns of the phrase, had my blood pressure raised, spewed my coffee, and have felt, though I rarely comment, a great admiration for so many of the commenters here.

    But…though I sense that it has to have taken a superhuman effort beyond the ability of most mortals to have waded through this Palin drivel, I don’t know if I can follow along with any more installments of this. The woman so sickens me, gives me such a generalized anxiety, and gives me such a headache over living in a country where this could be happening, that even just reading a sane and witty SUMMARY of her open hypocrisy and idiocy is just more than I can do.

    At least until tomorrow. Why, oh why can we not look away? I don’t get it.

    • Nothing_to_see_here says:

      It’s the same reason people can’t look away from a train wreck, or car crash. There is something about the outlandish, grotesque, or strange, that attracts people. I have no other explanation.

    • dee says:

      Right there with you, Husky!

      • Attagirl says:

        We can’t look away because she is a trainwreck……………..

        • Cackling Rad says:

          Our country is the train. She’s the crazy engineer driving us toward the abyss. We are the helpless, screaming passengers.

        • Omomma says:

          Yes, that is it exactly, a slow-moving train wreck, no one able to look away! It’s going to get uglier–she’ll have to respond to the current trickle of Republican naysayers. And then we REALLY won’t be able to look away.

    • GrainneKathleen says:

      i’m sure we all feel your pain, husky. to family members who don’t understand why i keep myself informed about the comings and goings of miss sarah, i just ask, “what if sarah decides to rear her head and fly into our fake american airspace… where will she come – she’ll come to fake america, more precisely to dc to try and usurp the presidency with her army of palinbots. someone’s got to watch and scream bloody murder should this happen. i also describe it as watching a rogue stray dog who is circling you, taunting you, ready to attack until you grab that big ol’ can of pepper spray…
      she is a hound from hell. more like a chihuahua from hell, really.

      • Chaim says:

        “She is a hound from hell. more like a chihuahua from hell, really.” Good one! Shrill and nippy, she makes a big show of defiance from a safe distance where she won’t have to be confronted with facts and logic.

      • Nan (aka roswellborn) says:

        “she is a hound from hell. more like a chihuahua from hell, really.”

        OMG, that’s positively inspired! Circling, darting out to nip at the big dog’s heels, but never too far from her Blackberry to hide behind…

        I’d like to borrow that sometime, if I may?

    • Denise says:

      LOL…I feel your pain and do the same thing you do. I can’t wait for the next installment…but I really wish Sarah would just go away. I’m scared to death that ANYONE in the US thinks this deranged woman is qualified to be President. Yikes.

    • Polly says:

      … not only am I sick of her, I am tired of her… she is an energy vampire…

    • DF says:

      Husky, $he’s out there. This is the place to dump a little. Hopefully it will make you feel a little better having added to all of the eloquent words on this website. Stay with us!

    • Kim says:

      I agree. It’s hard to swallow. I love this country, but she represents the worst of it.

    • I am pretty much looking away, but just don’t want to loose touch with the mudpuppies. I am to the point that I am barely interested in her – what she says is too predictable.

    • Blooper says:

      Nice to see your comment, Husky!

      It really burns me up as well to read what $carah’s been ‘writing’ (or blathering about loudly to her ghostwriter while kicked back on a leather sofa with cocktail in hand). As painful as that may be, I do think it’s important that we know what she is preaching to her ‘cackle of baggers’ as it helps us know where she is planning on taking her narrative and how she plans on using it against (presumably) progressives like us.

      I’m tempted to use the ‘nobody paid attention to Hitler until it was too late analogy’ but I won’t as I think it’s cliche and overused, but I do think we need to keep this idealogical fight going and unfortunately one of the only ways of doing that is seeing what kind of ‘attack rhetoric’ she is using so that we may formulate an intelligent/rational response.

      But I weep for AKM that she puts herself through this to help enlighten us. AKM, you deserve a big glass of Layer Cake and a slice of Tiramisu from Villa Nova for your efforts. 🙂

    • Jen in SF says:

      So wonderfully put, Husky, on all accounts.