Sarah Palin is going to have a TV show where she takes viewers around Alaska and shows them the wonder of it.
This is interesting. Is Sarah ruling out any further political ambitions? Not many presidential candidates film reality television series' about their home states. Is she trying to make a buck for her family? It would be understandable, even though the result will be that she will be taken less seriously as a leader. The left-wing media outlets MSNBC and CNN will ensure that people laugh at her for this by employing the usual exagerating and fact-twisting (and if people don't laugh, then, well...MSNBC will say that they are laughing).
Huckabee's foray into TV has had some success, and now Palin is following along. Will they jump back into the political fray in 2012, or will they stay on the tube? It will be fascinating to see how their TV career choices impact their actions and decisions.
Showing posts with label Sarah Palin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sarah Palin. Show all posts
Friday, March 26, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Joe the Fickle Plumber
"Joe the Plumber" is blasting John McCain and Sarah Palin, saying that McCain "used him" and "I don't owe him shit".
This is what happens when a populist appeal backfires. McCain made much of the "Joe the Plumber" archetype, and how "Joe" represented the typical American common man. Standing up for the little guy is one thing, but McCain should not have elevated one particular little guy to the national stage as a camapaign prop. To do so was poor politics and poor judgment. If "Joe" decides he wants headlines, a book deal, or a reality TV show, all he has to do is make inflammatory statements. People don't like it when their 15 minutes of fame expire.
This is what happens when a populist appeal backfires. McCain made much of the "Joe the Plumber" archetype, and how "Joe" represented the typical American common man. Standing up for the little guy is one thing, but McCain should not have elevated one particular little guy to the national stage as a camapaign prop. To do so was poor politics and poor judgment. If "Joe" decides he wants headlines, a book deal, or a reality TV show, all he has to do is make inflammatory statements. People don't like it when their 15 minutes of fame expire.
Sarah Palin vs. Family Guy (Or, Liberals Hate Disabled People, Part II)
First Things is reporting on Sarah Palin's response to a Family Guy episode that makes fun of people with Down's syndrome, and in particular, her child.
Family Guy is one of those shows that pretends to be equally offensive to everyone yet always ends up slyly, sarcastically endorsing liberal ideas. The creators of the show are the type of Cheeto-eating, fat-ass Generation Xers who deride anyone who finds their humor offensive as "oversensitive" or "paranoid". They get away with both making political/social statements through their work while simultaneously claiming that they are not doing so and that anyone who takes them seriously is too uptight.
Family Guy sucks, as a show. Occasionally it features a funny moment or two (I laugh at Herbert the Pervert's teeth whistle). However, tangential gag writing, shitty animation, and an overuse of truly obscure pop trivia bog it down severely. (For what it's worth, Fox's King of the Hill is three times as funny and contains actual character development, stronger animation, and surprising thematic depth.)
Anyways, you can chalk this up as yet another example of liberal hatred towards the disabled, the likes of which I cited recently.
Family Guy is one of those shows that pretends to be equally offensive to everyone yet always ends up slyly, sarcastically endorsing liberal ideas. The creators of the show are the type of Cheeto-eating, fat-ass Generation Xers who deride anyone who finds their humor offensive as "oversensitive" or "paranoid". They get away with both making political/social statements through their work while simultaneously claiming that they are not doing so and that anyone who takes them seriously is too uptight.
Family Guy sucks, as a show. Occasionally it features a funny moment or two (I laugh at Herbert the Pervert's teeth whistle). However, tangential gag writing, shitty animation, and an overuse of truly obscure pop trivia bog it down severely. (For what it's worth, Fox's King of the Hill is three times as funny and contains actual character development, stronger animation, and surprising thematic depth.)
Anyways, you can chalk this up as yet another example of liberal hatred towards the disabled, the likes of which I cited recently.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
It's All About the Tea Party
The recent Tea Party convention, and its keynote address by Sarah Palin, loom large over the national discourse today. I will have more to say later, but I think it's fascinating that the conservative stalwarts of 2008 are now being pushed askew in 2010. Is the country banking hard right all of a sudden?
Friday, February 5, 2010
Rahm's "Retarded Democrats" Remark
Those loving, caring, social justice-promoting Democrats have shown a real disdain for the mentally handicapped lately. First, there were the pro-abortion propagandists who made posters that depicted fantasy images of Sarah Palin aborting her son Trig, emphasizing the child's Down's syndrome as a major selling point for the wonders of infanticide. Then, there was President Obama's "Special Olympics" remark. Now, liberal guru/White House advisor Rahm Emmanuel is apologizing for referring to some Democratic lawmakers as "retarded".
There is something afoot here. The left wing of the U.S. has promoted and presided over what essentially amounts to an extermination of disabled babies, after all.
Do I believe that Obama, Emmanuel, and lefties of their ilk are intentionally attacking the handicapped with their gaffes? No, because such gaffes are politically dangerous, and a politician stands to lose much by making derisive statements about the disadvantaged. However, perhaps, on a subconscious level, the callousness of America's current attitude towards Down's syndrome children (roughly 90% get aborted) is beginning to filter into public speech. It's an interesting trend, at the very least.
There is something afoot here. The left wing of the U.S. has promoted and presided over what essentially amounts to an extermination of disabled babies, after all.
Do I believe that Obama, Emmanuel, and lefties of their ilk are intentionally attacking the handicapped with their gaffes? No, because such gaffes are politically dangerous, and a politician stands to lose much by making derisive statements about the disadvantaged. However, perhaps, on a subconscious level, the callousness of America's current attitude towards Down's syndrome children (roughly 90% get aborted) is beginning to filter into public speech. It's an interesting trend, at the very least.
Friday, December 18, 2009
It's Sad That People Care About Levi Johnston
Of all the aggravating pukes who have graced the tabloids lately, there is one who reigns supreme above the rest. He is emblematic of America's love for useless people. His name is Levi Johnston, and he is as distasteful a fame-seeker as they come.
You all know the tale: Johnston got with Bristol Palin. They found that she was with child. The two publicly acknowledged the pregnancy. They announced they would be married. They broke up. Johnston has pimped himself to the media.
There it is. Like so many of today's celebrities, Johnston is receiving attention for no good reason. The root of the word "celebrity" is "celebrate", though these days you don't have to do anything worth celebrating to be celebrated. In this case, a young man is famous for getting a seemingly pleasant, attractive young lady pregnant, leaving her, and then embarking upon a cross-country media campaign. He is no better than Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, or Rachel Uchitel, all of whom are famous for doing nothing (other than a lot of rich guys).
So what of this media campaign? What is Johnston's goal, exactly? To clear his name of any potential charges of negligence? No. To stump for his prior/potential mother-in-law's enemies out of revenge? No. To promote abstinence, or non-abstinence, or to talk about teenage parenthood, or grouse about what life under the thumb of Sarah Palin is like? No.
Johnston has no real angle at play, no direct line of attack, from what I can glean. He's been jetting from talk show to talk show, gracing the couch of Tyra Banks, the desk of Larry King, and so on. Dressed like Edward Cullen, replete with mall-boy bouffaint and clothes he couldn't afford a year ago, Levi has merely been fielding softball questions about his fifteen minutes of fame. Naturally, there's some bomb-lobbing towards the Palin family matriarch ("time to take the gloves off", he impotently promises here). Overall, though, there is no substance. He just seems to like attention for attention's sake.
In fact, Johnston does not seem to have anything worthwhile to say about his experiences. Consider the following exchange he had with Larry King last April, when Larry asked him how his relationships with the Palins fell apart:
Larry: So what happened?
Levi: I don't know what happened. I think somewhere along the lines, we just weren't hitting it off anymore and...
Larry: But they won't let you see your kid?
Levi:No. I can go over there and see him. But it's kind of an uncomfortable thing for me to go over there. You know, I want to be able to take him and do that kind of thing, go do the father thing with him and I can't.
Larry: Why can't you?
Levi: You know, I'm not sure...
"I don't know." "I'm not sure." Phrases of doubt, of non-clarity, of an utter and unabashed cluelessness, are peppered throughout the transcript. You really don't know, do you, Levi? Than why did you go on a major national news program? If I had fifteen minutes on Larry King, I don't know what I'd talk about, but I would try to prepare somehow.
Now, you might not like Bristol Palin or her message. However, at least she knows what she thinks. At least she actually thinks something. She has shared the experience of her teenage motherhood with other young people in order to educate them about the issues of abstinence and teen pregnancy. This strikes me as a reasonable line of thinking for a person in her position, or at least an intuitive way of connecting her life circumstances to larger societal issues. (Whether she should be parading around in public so much is a legitimate question; there is some contradiction between her role as an "abstinence spokesperson" and her own disavowing of abstinence as a viable lifestyle choice, and perhaps it would be most approrpriate for her family if she stayed out of the papers altogether).
Now, as the year winds down, we have been treated to far more of Levi Johnston than anyone could have imagined. Levi Johnston has posed for the pornographic Playgirl magazine. Apparently, he collected $100,000 to bare his rear end for the mag, though Levi's Johnston remains incognito. This outrageous move has secured him a place as a national joke, but being a joke in America can sometimes pay well, and therein lies my disgust.
After all, here we have a young man who could have been a role model for what a responsible teen father would look like. Instead he is merely someone who turned tail on his family in order to make some money doing porno, trashing his baby's grandmother, and booking talk segments. He could have had a nice life with a pretty girl, but nay, he has chosen the way of the well-paid boot-licker. He shall be the delight of the weak-minded, the laughingstock of the serious, and the talking-point of the clueless.
His lack of direction and values, and our own obsession with people of his ilk who seek publicity and shame themselves for the hell of it, do not bode well for us. That Levi Johnston has risen to such prominence is indicative of our country's maddening, base desire for mindless "infotainment" and juicy gossip. These things serve no purpose, and as they crowd the public's collective mind, attention to real public affairs material wanes.
You all know the tale: Johnston got with Bristol Palin. They found that she was with child. The two publicly acknowledged the pregnancy. They announced they would be married. They broke up. Johnston has pimped himself to the media.
There it is. Like so many of today's celebrities, Johnston is receiving attention for no good reason. The root of the word "celebrity" is "celebrate", though these days you don't have to do anything worth celebrating to be celebrated. In this case, a young man is famous for getting a seemingly pleasant, attractive young lady pregnant, leaving her, and then embarking upon a cross-country media campaign. He is no better than Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, or Rachel Uchitel, all of whom are famous for doing nothing (other than a lot of rich guys).
So what of this media campaign? What is Johnston's goal, exactly? To clear his name of any potential charges of negligence? No. To stump for his prior/potential mother-in-law's enemies out of revenge? No. To promote abstinence, or non-abstinence, or to talk about teenage parenthood, or grouse about what life under the thumb of Sarah Palin is like? No.
Johnston has no real angle at play, no direct line of attack, from what I can glean. He's been jetting from talk show to talk show, gracing the couch of Tyra Banks, the desk of Larry King, and so on. Dressed like Edward Cullen, replete with mall-boy bouffaint and clothes he couldn't afford a year ago, Levi has merely been fielding softball questions about his fifteen minutes of fame. Naturally, there's some bomb-lobbing towards the Palin family matriarch ("time to take the gloves off", he impotently promises here). Overall, though, there is no substance. He just seems to like attention for attention's sake.
In fact, Johnston does not seem to have anything worthwhile to say about his experiences. Consider the following exchange he had with Larry King last April, when Larry asked him how his relationships with the Palins fell apart:
Larry: So what happened?
Levi: I don't know what happened. I think somewhere along the lines, we just weren't hitting it off anymore and...
Larry: But they won't let you see your kid?
Levi:No. I can go over there and see him. But it's kind of an uncomfortable thing for me to go over there. You know, I want to be able to take him and do that kind of thing, go do the father thing with him and I can't.
Larry: Why can't you?
Levi: You know, I'm not sure...
"I don't know." "I'm not sure." Phrases of doubt, of non-clarity, of an utter and unabashed cluelessness, are peppered throughout the transcript. You really don't know, do you, Levi? Than why did you go on a major national news program? If I had fifteen minutes on Larry King, I don't know what I'd talk about, but I would try to prepare somehow.
Now, you might not like Bristol Palin or her message. However, at least she knows what she thinks. At least she actually thinks something. She has shared the experience of her teenage motherhood with other young people in order to educate them about the issues of abstinence and teen pregnancy. This strikes me as a reasonable line of thinking for a person in her position, or at least an intuitive way of connecting her life circumstances to larger societal issues. (Whether she should be parading around in public so much is a legitimate question; there is some contradiction between her role as an "abstinence spokesperson" and her own disavowing of abstinence as a viable lifestyle choice, and perhaps it would be most approrpriate for her family if she stayed out of the papers altogether).
Now, as the year winds down, we have been treated to far more of Levi Johnston than anyone could have imagined. Levi Johnston has posed for the pornographic Playgirl magazine. Apparently, he collected $100,000 to bare his rear end for the mag, though Levi's Johnston remains incognito. This outrageous move has secured him a place as a national joke, but being a joke in America can sometimes pay well, and therein lies my disgust.
After all, here we have a young man who could have been a role model for what a responsible teen father would look like. Instead he is merely someone who turned tail on his family in order to make some money doing porno, trashing his baby's grandmother, and booking talk segments. He could have had a nice life with a pretty girl, but nay, he has chosen the way of the well-paid boot-licker. He shall be the delight of the weak-minded, the laughingstock of the serious, and the talking-point of the clueless.
His lack of direction and values, and our own obsession with people of his ilk who seek publicity and shame themselves for the hell of it, do not bode well for us. That Levi Johnston has risen to such prominence is indicative of our country's maddening, base desire for mindless "infotainment" and juicy gossip. These things serve no purpose, and as they crowd the public's collective mind, attention to real public affairs material wanes.
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