Right-wing killer chick slaughters Blitzen

You know Rod, all funny and ha-ha on that, but for people morally opposed to hunting, it's really not so laughing a matter. I'm an ex-Marine, but I don't hunt for sport. Of course, in Alaska, it could be subsistence hunting, but it's hard to imagine that her family can't get by with pre-killed, store-bought meat.

I feel for the animal, and disagree with the values that teach a child to kill innocent wild creatures primarily for the sport involved.

However, I really don't know the circumstances, and can't honestly judge. Beyond which, even if it is sheer sport, I realize many, many perfectly wonderful people, including my own ancestors did the same, and certainly don't paint them all with some terrible evil brush.

And I'm fairly certain she took the animal down fairly and cleanly, as opposed to say hunting pre-stocked, penned animals released only moments before shooting, while shooting a hunting partner in the face and not reporting it immediately, as SOME Republican politico's might do.

Besides, get a snapshot of Obama hugging HJane Fonda, and watch what the conservative blogosphere does with it.

The photo of Governor Palin hunting caribou might interest some ...

.... but for my teenage nephew visiting for the weekend, it was definitely the photo of "Miss Wasilla 1984" that will keep him daydreaming for weeks :-)

Hello JPL,

We don't know how many times Palin and McCain have met.

We do know they first met back in Frebruary. We know they met again this week. Between then and now? I haven't seen any details.

But I bet we will.

I am getting very tired of hearing this argument - that McCain only met her once before selecting her as VP.

Do they have to be bosom buddies in order to have a working relationship? Most people only meet their future bosses once, maybe twice, before they are hired. Big deal!

I am so excited about her I can hardly stand it! Finally, there is a person in Washington whom I can relate to. An anti-abortion, gun-toting, Christian mother who called Hillary Clinton a whiner. Now that's my kind of gal!

I SO can't wait for November.

Google her name. It has been out there for well over a year as a possible Veep pick for whoever got the nomination. Editorial writers have been writing about her for months. The vetting by McCain's team has no doubt been intense. We Northwesterners have known who she is since she took office. The vetting by McCain's team has no doubt been intense, so the rumors being pushed by the Daily Kos are just silly.

And frankly, a woman who can hunt and fish, coach and look good, AND run a business and a state seems a lot more likely to understand the real world than a Senator. And clearly she doesn't kow-tow to party big-wigs.

AML:

Your post at 6:22 PM is right on target. I'd been hearing buzz about Palin as far back as January and, like a lot of other obscure grass-roots activists, I checked her out. A friend of mine who was volunteering time for Romney -- doing fundraising, etc. -- put me on to her and told me back in February that he hoped she'd be on a ticket with Romney. It seemed far-fetched to me ... but I was wrong and my friend was right [at least on the Palin part, not the Romney part :-) ]

One common denominator between McCain and Palin that is being overlooked is .... Alaska GOP Senator Ted Stevens and his promotion of the notorious boondoggle and pork-barrel project known as "The Bridge to Nowhere." McCain opposed this boondoggle as a member of the Senate -- and is a bitter enemy of Stevens. Palin opposed it as Alaska Governor -- and is a bitter enemy of Stevens. Picking Palin contributes to McCain's broader project of remaking the GOP into a modern version of the reformist Party that existed under his hero TR.

Let's bring this back to the hunting. I respect JPL's views, but here are some of the many virtues of hunting.

1. It gets you outside the house.
2. You get to test yourself against nature and the animals (who tend to take the not-getting-shot thing pretty seriously). And since I took up hunting about seven years ago, I take a certain pride that I face harsh elements and overcome them rather than spending all sorts of money in order to never feel uncomfortable.
3. Surely few people really need to subsistence hunt. But I know there is special pride when I cook meat that I harvested, butchered and prepared myself. There is something rewarding in actually working for your meal as opposed to having it literally served to you on a platter.
4. With the knowledge one needs to hunt, namely the knowledge of guns, animals, weather, terrain, plants, how to read a map, a compass and knowledge of basic survival skills, one feels a certain sense of independence.
5. Obviously one gains appreciation of nature. For example, when I started deer hunting I noticed that I was always aware of which way the wind was blowing. Why? Because I was thinking, "If I were hunting now, where would I set up so the deer couldn't catch my scent?" So many people go through their lives totally abstracted from nature (as I suggest above, we literally try to insulate ourselves from it). Hunting breeds an intimacy with nature.
6. Lastly, I don't know how folks think animals die in the wild, but I guarantee you the best death that caribou could have was being shot by Sarah Palin or some other hunter. A buddy of mine likes to recall when he actually saw an owl killing a duck, crunching the duck in its talons while the duck squealed. That, my buddy points out, was when he knew that the best death for a duck was being shot by him.

Rod wrote: I certainly hope the left-liberal blogosphere will rise up in one to condemn this hideous expression of violence, and talk at the top of its lungs about how the American people cannot let this bloodlusty gun nutter near the White House.

I wonder: Are you serious? Or, are you joking? I can't tell.

With your rhetoric...

You guys are starting to look more guilty than a puppy sitting next to a pile of pooh! (borrowed from his eminence, the Blackadder)

Fed people, feed other people,

Duh-sciple

What about these reports that the Downs baby isn't even hers? I saw a photo of her, supposedly 7 months pregnant, looking trim and fit. What's going on here? If lies are being told, isn't this relevant in assessing the character of the potential VP of the US?

I don't see how ridiculous lies being told about the baby she's been seen breastfeeding might not be hers, are relevant to assessing her character. ;-)

Oh, and we do know that the rate of Down Syndrome babies is far, far higher in 40+ year old mothers than in teenaged ones, don't we?

And there are such things as birth certificates and hospital records that can easily be checked out, aren't there?

That the accusation even exists is proof in itself that there's something to Mrs. Palin after all -- you have to be really scared to get that desperate.

"Oh, and we do know that the rate of Down Syndrome babies is far, far higher in 40+ year old mothers than in teenaged ones, don't we?"

From the National Downs Syndrome Society web site
http://www1.ndss.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=23&id=58&Itemid=234

Myth: Most children with Down syndrome are born to older parents.
Truth: Eighty percent of children born with Down syndrome are born to women younger than 35-years-old. However, the incidence of births of children with Down syndrome increases with the age of the mother.

By the way, Rod, us left-wing liberals enjoy hunting and fishing, too. One of the reasons we're so concerned about the environment is mercury levels in water where we like to fish! We also don't want our deer hunting grounds to become a WalMart parking lot. What do you think, that only conservatives enjoy fresh meat and fish?

Well, it's Sunday night. Now, a day or two ago, I could almost have a moment of pause and wonder if perhaps there wasn't something to the meme that McCain was "desperate" in picking Palin, in spite of all the positives I see in her.

But as the weekend has unfolded, we know Andrew Sullivan has gone completely nutters, and the leftist blogosphere is devolving into bouts of swarthy Mr. Hyde rage.

This latest rampant pregnancy smear is pretty much all the proof I needed (as if I really needed any more after the past 8 years) that the American Left is filled with truly deranged individuals.

Lanny Davis was right, but it's far, far worse than he ever knew.

"Is calling Obama and Biden girls immature or not?"

Duh-sciple, all due respect ... but lighten up, Francis.

An answer? Yes, it's immature -- as most humor is on some level! I'm a sucker for sophomoric humor.

I get a giggle out of it - a lot of people I know, both Democrats and Republicans, think it's a funny line too because it allows everyone to take a breather, regardless of political stripe.

Jon S., while I appreciate your pro-hunting points, I still feel necessary to rebut.

First of all, I lived in Alaska for over three years myself, six months of that in Pilot Point, a small fishing village out near the base of the Aleutians. In the bush, certainly prices are insane and people need to stretch their budget. But the stores of Anchorage are very well stocked, and I didn't need to resort to killing animals in the wild for food. Given this woman's prominence, etc., I doubt she's too poor to buy food.

I too love the outdoors. I'm an avid hiker and birder. These also get me into the outdoors, exercise, facing the elements, etc., but without the need to kill anything. And stalking a bird or another animal with a camera and telescopic lens is nearly identical to using a rifle. No one dies when I hit the shutter though.

As for facing terrible hardship, like I say, I've lived in Alaska. Bush dwellers certainly have it rougher, but city dwellers in Alaska face no more hardship than people in Buffalo, N.Y. during a long and miserable winter, if you don't count the damn darkness all the time.

Anyway, as others have noted, hunting isn't really a conservative/liberal issue, having both proponents and opponents on both sides. I neither count her outdoors activities against her, nor in her favor, in terms of my personal judgment of her qualities. She just clearly has some differing values from me.

Indeed she did, John E Agn. Stoic. But this whole thing could be cleared up in an instant: a two minute photo-op with the daughter and her baby (ie Palin's grandchild)would do it. In any case, would she be the first mother in history to cover up for a daughter's mistake this way? I doubt it.

Oh, Rudolph, with your nose so bright,
Would you feed my family for a fort-night?

sis2lis, thank you for proving my point that the incidence of Down is far, far higher among older mothers than younger. OF COURSE far more Down children are born to younger mothers, because far MORE CHILDREN are born to younger mothers. That does nothing to refute the fact that it is far more likely that between two given women, the older one is far more likely to give birth to a Down baby than the younger.

The point is that when there is absolutely no credible evidence of this ridiculous swap story, the Down incidence is another point in favor of how ridiculous it is. Not a slam dunk, just another thing to undermine something that had no foundation in the first place.