The whole piece is posted at Lew Rockwell.
As I said, I’ve never been a fan of Sarah Palin as vice-president. It was apparent to me from the beginning that she was unqualified. But the fault in picking her was not hers but McCain’s. It was an opportunistic and silly choice, given the economic challenges the country was facing, and in my opinion it called into question McCain’s own temperament. But that said, vilifying the woman at every turn is pointless, ugly, and calls into question the motivations of her critics.
To take the example of a non-white woman who I believe is as unqualified and as polarizing, would people talk about Maxine Waters in the same way? I think not. And I hope not.
Then let’s extend the same courtesy to all candidates, regardless of their political affiliation or religion or race or class.
(Note: I’ve criticized attacks on Hillary Clinton on the same grounds on this blog).
Subject: “Me & Mrs. Palin” on LRC
From: “Mark H
Date: Fri, September 4, 2009 10:27 pm
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
Lila, my unsolicited opinion for you is that the good of our country depends on
astronomically bigger issues than Sarah Palin and her treatment by Vanity Fair.
Mrs. Palin was the star of a reality show–created by the McCain campaign–that was
cancelled after its pilot episode due to dismal ratings.
Over 40 years ago, Andy Warhol predicted that everyone would be famous for 15
minutes. As an average–and thanks to a media-saturated technology and culture that
even he could not have imagined when he coined that aphorism–that prediction has
more than panned out in the US. Mrs. Palin achieved her quota, plus those of many
other people who have had to–or will have to–settle for maybe five minutes or
less, due only to pure, dumb luck. The kind of luck that put the otherwise
unheard-of SP in the national spotlight for one (OK, make that two or three) brief
shining moments.
Don’t let VF distract you from the real substance of what’s wrong with our society.
Their editorial treatment of SP is an inconsequential zit on the grotesquely leprous
body politic.
Full disclosure: I have been a VF subscriber for over 20 years. I have found it to
be an unparalleled source for provocative and entertaining content that I sometimes
agree with, and often disagree with. Its diversity makes is worth the modest price
I pay for its print edition. In fact, it is the only print periodical to which I
subscribe. I jettisoned all others long ago.
If I want to read sources with which I mostly agree (e.g. LRC) or disagree, there
are plenty of each on the web for free.
Mark H
agreed…
but that is why I find it strange that she IS repeatedly made the center
of gratuitous slurs..
I don’t think that is by accident, especially when some major financial news
seems to be in the offing
The name of the game is distraction.
And divide and conquer.
Subject: RE: ‘Me and Mrs. Palin’
From: Rabensteiner
Date: Sat, September 5, 2009 6:22 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
Funny how you completely avoid the jewish angle. All those in question are
jews.
But you don’t have a problem with “white trash”, etc..
Must be a lew rockwell thing
Subject: RE: ‘Me and Mrs. Palin’
From: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Date: Sat, September 5, 2009 6:31 am
To: Chris
Cc: lewrockwell@mac.com
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
What anti-Jewish angle? I am writing about the anti-Christian angle.
Is Todd Purdum a Jewish name? If so, enlighten me.
Why is it OK to call people white trash and say their religious beliefs
are perversions of sexuality?
Does that apply only to Christians? Isn’t that bigotry?
Why the doublestandard?
Simple question.
Subject: ‘Me and Mrs. Palin’
From: “happyknack@yahoo.com”
Date: Sat, September 5, 2009 12:42 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Cc: “Self”
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
This comment has nothing to do with the main subject of this article.It concerns the
last two lines.
‘What sort of
liberalism and what kind of democracy despise the
race, religion, and culture of the majority of the people in a country?
And if we can’t
answer that to our satisfaction, should we stop using words like
liberalism and democracy for whatever it is that rules
America today?’
It’s amazing how the exact same thing can be asked about India. The
Marxist/Socialist/Communist/Nehruvian/Secularist/Macaulayite dispensation that has
been occupying Delhi for the last 60 years, is after all precisely about hating
Hindus, specifically upper caster ones of course, hating all the Dharmas of the
land, specifically Hinduism, and denigrating and dismissing Indian history and
culture as trivial or non-existent.
It truly is amazing. The same can be said, although to a lesser extent, about
political correctness and Islam in Europe. All very bizarre.
Attachments:
untitled-[2] 1.5 k [ text/html ] Download | View
Subject: Levi Johnston
From: MORRIS
Date: Sat, September 5, 2009 12:57 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
Dear Madam:
You left out the most important part. In the disputes between the Palins
and Levi Johnston, I believe him!! I suspect you do as well. Some instances that
come immediately to mind: “I never asked Bristol Palin to marry me. I never told
Bristol PalinI would marry her. Sarah Palin made the whole thing up when they
started talking to her about running for Vice-President.” “The clothes I wore at
the Republican National Convention, I didn’t buy them and I don’t know who did. But
I still have all of them and I don’t intend to send any of them back. So far as I
know Sarah Palin hasn’t sent back any of hers either. Of course, mine didn’t cost
$150,000”. “I suppose the Palins knew we were having sex as whenever I stayed over
there Bristol andI always shared the same bedroom”.
I am sorry but Levi’s account seems much more credible. If he is trailer
trash, which he indeed may be, they never voiced any objections to him dating their
teen-aged daughter. Brief reflection on these matters will, I believe incline you to
my view.
Very truly yours,
Morris
Subject: Re: Levi Johnston
From: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Date: Sat, September 5, 2009 5:55 am
TO: MORRIS
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
Hi –
Actually, I don’t believe Levi. And whether I do or not, it’s none of my
business.
I’m not a fan of Palin, but the point is none of this is warranted.
It’s simply voyeurism and at a time when no one has scrutinized any of the
people who are actually taking apart the country, Rubin, Paulson, Peterson
etc, it’s something of a disgrace….
Lila
Subject: Read Your Palin article. I REALLY do like you!!!
From: “Noel”
Date: Sat, September 5, 2009 6:45 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
You are a real delight to read. Having “discovered” ou on LewRockwell, has
been a most interesting read for me for months, if not a year or more.
Keep up the great thinking and cultural critiques!!
—
Freedom always, Family and friends before all
Noël
Guiding Principles
o Do harm to no one
o Take from none his own
Visit my blog http://wulirider.blogspot.com/
Learn about Liberty & Power, and finding liberty in today’s world,
especially in these most interesting times.
Subject: Re: Read Your Palin article. I REALLY do like you!!!
From: “Noel”
Date: Sat, September 5, 2009 8:09 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
You’re welcome.
My blog is an emerging idea. Right now doing alternative cancer work
and no time to get back to the blog!!
anyway, you take care, you are a neat lady!!
Noel
ubject: Palin
From: “Gayle
Date: Sat, September 5, 2009 7:23 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
Lila,
I’m a libertarian and have written for LRC.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/dean1.html
I usually enjoy your (and BB’s) articles but must object today:
” ‘Todd Palin smuggles beer into the house. The couple fight. They threaten
divorce.’ Yawn. That’s what married people do.”
That’s not what rational married people do. It’s what ignorant, immature, white
trash married people do.
“The real reason why it’s just fine to trash Palin is because she’s a lower
middle-class white Christian from a small town.”
No, it’s her other traits you omitted which make it easy — i.e., the ignorant and
nutty part coupled with a good bit of dishonesty and arrogance. These traits may be
more abundant in lower middle-class white Christians from small towns, but there are
also many educated, intelligent, rational, people who are also lower middle-class
white Christians from small towns. You must make a distinction or else you are
arguing against a straw man!
I cringe at the thought that someone whose husband smuggles beer into the house
causing arguments that threaten divorce, and someone who doesn’t know that Africa is
a continent, not a country, could become the same person who answers the red hotline
phone at 3AM? We should all rest easier that it didn’t come to pass.
I didn’t read the Vanity Fair article…no doubt written by white trash to appeal to
white trash. But really, the country needs to get out of Jerry Springer mode. We
certainly should reject most forcefully, any thoughts that his guests might make
good presidents.
Gayle
Puzzle, Ink.
http://www.geocities.com/gayle5555/
Hi Gayle –
Thanks for your response..
First, I object to deriding any group of people, even if uneducated and
ignorant. It is pure classism, racism, and bigotry. Notice, the biggest and nastiest crooks aren’t poor and would never be derided in this way.
While people were insinuating how low-class Palin was, there were pictures
of Carla Bruni and Jackie O., who both posed nude (in the latter case, by
accident), both slept with men not their husbands, who is/was both very fond of
money, both capitalized on their looks, and were married to coarse men who
did things lots worse than smuggling beer into the house.
If you smuggle in cocaine, does that make it better?
Both women are considered the epitome of what women should be by the same vanity fair crowd.
In the same Vanity Fair magazine there is a puff piece about Hank Paulson
– with references to this bandit as a “prince.”
It’s not about supporting Palin or her positions. I thought she was a bad
candidate and always said she wasn’t qualified.
But that’s all that needs to be said. No need to discuss her water-
breaking, her marital relations, her daughter’s baby or anything else.
And I defended Hillary Clinton the same way – though I detest her positions.
I didn’t care for the sexist attacks on her either.
It’s all cheap and incredibly tawdry.
Lila
Subject: Trash
From: “connell
Date: Sat, September 5, 2009 8:12 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
Dear Ms. Rajiva,
After reading your article I felt so guilty about being a white-lower-middle-class
fan of Jesus, that I was about to set out to work on the huge mountain of trash in
my yard. However before I did, I stumbled across an article about a
upper-middle-class Jesus free piece of trash After reading the following article,
I felt so smug that I am now looking for an old wringer washing machine to add to
my trash stash.
WHAT kind of man would try to “eject” his own frail 85-year-old mother-in-law from
her one-bedroom apartment? Michael Wolff.
The bald, trout-lipped Vanity Fair writer and his wife, Alison Anthoine, are being
sued for $2.5 million by Edith Anthoine, who claims their “upsetting” and
“pressuring” tactics to evict her from her East 74th Street home caused her to
suffer a heart attack. “[They] have continued to communicate hostile messages . .
. and have threatened to ‘eject’ her . . . ,” the suit states.
In her Manhattan Supreme Court suit, Edith Anthoine alleges that, in 1994, the
couple asked her to give them her rent-stabilized four-bedroom unit at Lexington
Avenue and 77th Street, which was turning co-op, so they could buy it at a good
price and have more room for their three kids. In exchange, they agreed to buy a
nearby one-bedroom for her to live in until her death, the suit claims.
But Anthoine says they ordered her out of the one-bedroom in 2007 to “sell the
unit for their own profit.” Last year, they stopped paying her maintenance fees –
part of the original deal – because of “cash flow” problems and instead sent their
teen son to France for the summer, the suit states.
A source close to Wolff said the family considers Anthoine a “batty,” “difficult
old lady” who’d be better off in an old-age home.
But in an e-mail to Page Six, another family member fumed: “It’s really, really
creepy . . . This guy Wolff epitomizes everything that is simply wrong about this
generation of spoiled-brat, entitlement children.”
Steve Wagner, a lawyer for Wolff and Anthoine, told us: “My clients have tried to
relocate [her] from an apartment they own into more suitable housing. She has
refused. [They] continue to believe a move is in the best interests of Mrs.
Anthoine.”
Edith’s lawyer, Kevin Cadden, said: “It’s an unfortunate situation, and hopefully
it will be resolved.” Wolff, 55, recently has been in the news for allegedly
having an affair with blond journo Victoria Floethe, 28.
Regards,
TC
Attachments:
Subject: Sarah Palin and vanity Un-Fair
From: “Richard H”
Date: Sat, September 5, 2009 8:13 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
Wow. Absolutely great!
Subject: Vanity Fair Article
Priority: Normal
From: “Robert R
Date: Sat, September 5, 2009 9:55 am
To: “lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com”
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
Lila:
Marvelous article…………well written………straight to the pooint!
BUT why do they hate Sarah?…………….I believe it is because they
instinctively realize that she has a power to reach into the soul of the American
public in general and voter in particular.
Bob R.
Robert R
Subject: PALIN
From: “Dotti B”
Date: Sat, September 5, 2009 9:57 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
Splendid description of Vanity Fair. Equal to your other submittals.
This type of media coverage by todays journalists has caused a lot of problems for
many readers of equal mental capacity. I think the bulk of society today.
Great job.
charlesb @yahoo.com
Subject: re:LRC article
From: “Herman K
Date: Sat, September lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
Good piece though you had to bring Hitler up which was a false analogy. Hitler
believed in family values and rewarded such with incentives like free housing.
Don’t be fooled by the anti-Hitler propaganda omnipresent in our society.
Subject: Palin
Date: Sat, September 5, 2009 11:03 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
Lila; The main problem is that Sara is a jerk and fake. She is now in it
for the speaking and book income. All details aside, she is trash. Don’t
waste your time on her.
Regards, Dave
forward-usa.org
Hi Dave –
She’s no more fake or trash than any of them. That’s more pure class and religious bigotry.
Why shouldn’t she make money – they all do, from the Reagans, the Bushes, the Clintons on down. Why the special contempt for her? Besides, she has bills from all the frivolous suits filed against.
Finally, we have only Levi’s word that money’s her sole motivation.
Really credible guy.
Subject: ‘Me and Mrs. Palin’ – Vanity UnFair Piece Says More About Its Writers Than Its Subject
From: “RJ Hanten”
Date: Sat, September 5, 2009 11:55 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Cc:
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
Outstanding, just outstanding.
As a Catholic Christian, I go to the sacrament of confession twice a month
(Vanity Fair would surely get a kick out of that). What is good about this
practice is that it forces me to look inward and admit that as a result of
my own free will, I create a lot of garbage and pain for myself and others.
I have to confront my meanness, short temper, self concern, using people,
vanity, all of that. I have to look at it and own it. Then I tell another
man about it. It is humiliating, as in humbling, which puts me in a proper
stance to be in front of the Almighty God. Humble is good, because humble
is the truth. On Ash Wednesday, we are told “remember man that you are dust
and unto dust you shall return”. The quotes from Vanity Fair are dripping
with arrogance, pride and well.vanity, the most deadly of the seven deadly
sins..
The left cannot even see themselves as they often are. They are the way
they are, as you have just pointed out so succinctly, because they are too
proud and unable or unwilling to confront themselves. Proud, hypocritical
Christians are rather ugly, too, however they are a leftist icon, the
caricature you point out in your piece. This caricature is almost a
security blanket for the leftist intellectual. One the left loves to point
out the poor uneducated Christian and their personal foibles in order to
contrast these stupid, hypocritical Christian rubes to their enlightened
selves. The educated left thinks they are the Ubermensch (over man). They
think themselves to be very smart, educated, urbane, sleek and civilized.
They believe that what ever they say or think is right and that if they
think it is right, that makes it so. Pride.
Hypocrisy is not just something for the religious right, hmm?
P.S. Why does the left just love the dirty, superstitious, uneducated
indigenous non-Christian peasant that is found about the world?
Robert J. Hanten, LUTCF, FICF
President
Solidarity Financial, Inc.
Subject: Re: ‘Me and Mrs. Palin’ – Vanity UnFair Piece Says More About Its Writers Than Its Subject
From: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Date: Sat, September 5, 2009 12:00 pm
To: “RJ Hanton
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
Because they (some liberals/left) don’t really love the dirty superstituous peasant or third
worlder any more than they love the one at home..they just use them as
excuses to beat the people and things they hate –
primarily, reality…- because it’s not amenable to delusion
..but let’s not demonize anyone the way they demonize the right…
It’s what’s got the country distracted from the reality of what’s going on
Subject: Re: ‘Me and Mrs. Palin’ – Vanity UnFair Piece Says More About Its Writers Than Its Subject
From: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Date: Sat, September 5, 2009 12:00 pm
To: “RJ Hanton
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
Because they (some liberals/left) don’t really love the dirty superstitious peasant or third
worlder any more than they love the one at home..they just use them as
excuses to beat the people and things they hate –
primarily, reality…- because it’s not amenable to delusion
..but let’s not demonize anyone the way they demonize the right…
It’s what’s got the country distracted from the reality of what’s going on
Subject: Re: Your request for net security tips!
From: “Gadget42”
Date: Sat, September 5, 2009 12:27 pm
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
—–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–
Hash: SHA1
Here is a security/anonymity LiveCD that you might check out and definitely pass on
to your security-minded friends and
associates
http://anonymityanywhere.com/incognito/
Sincerely,
Rob
Subject: Sarah Palin and the noisemedia
From: “TTI_BC”
Date: Sat, September 5, 2009 11:34 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
After another three years of the big B-O wrecking what is left of our country from
the Oval Office, especially since Palinphobes continue to run both (mad)houses of
Congress, Palin, or someone like her, might not look so bad! The irresponsible
leftist goofs and cretins who attack Palin–and yet worship the late drunkard/cheat
of Chappaquiddick fame–are the same people who convinced themselves that electing
Obama would be a “transformative” experience.
The contempt of such ninnies for real people living real lives in what was once a
real country will come back to haunt them in a big way come 2010 and 2012! Then we
will ask “whose laughing now?
PEACE AND FREEDOM!!
D Meller
Subject: Me and Mrs. Palin
From: “Rick”
Date: Sat, September 5, 2009 11:49 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
Hello Lila Rajiva
I agree with your analysis except for one big issue that was not
mentioned. All my life, I have heard Repubs rail against sex
outside of marriage, teen pregnancy, etc. Then, when one of their
own fails to keep her legs shut, it is okay because she is engaged,
in love, etc. Fine. Then, they break up, so now what is their excuse?
Why can’t she just admit her own hyporcrisey and the hypocrisey
of all the other anti-sex idiots that she has supported all her life?
It was a perfect oppertunity for her to do the right thing. Instead, she
breaks her employment contract because she can make more
money by doing so and won’t even admit this truth. She is a typical
lying, phoney, politician.
It is true that Levi is young and immature just like Bristol,
but he was used, paraded around as prop, etc. and then dropped
like a hot potato when the election was over. If it is okay for Sarah to
sell her soul for a million dollars, why can’t he make a make a few dollars?
For Free People and Free Markets
Rick E
PS. Todd would have been a much better candidate because he
is a more honest, less hypocritical, defender of individual rights.
Subject: Re: Sarah Palin and the noisemedia
From: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Date: Sat, September 5, 2009 11:38 am
To: “TTI_BC”
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
it’s all class snobbery and racial/religious hatred masquerading as public
information
There is always a market for salacious gossip, whether it be a supermarket tabloid or a glossy magazine with expensive advertisements. Also is the preemptive strike factor, tainting the jury or whatever term you assign it. Whether or not SP makes any future endeavors, I cannot foretell, but keeping the sheep-minded duly biased and distracted from the events of the day seems plausible as well.
I have no opinion on her qualifications or lack thereof….A person should see what is going on outside of the name on the headline.
Right on with your article about Vanity Unfair and Palin.
>
> It’s just more female bashing of a sexist society at heart.
>
> Ann G
> San Francisco
Subject: Re: ‘Me and Mrs. Palin’ – Vanity UnFair Piece Says More About Its Writers Than Its Subject
From: “Bill M”
Date: Sun, September 6, 2009 6:50 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
She’s had her 15 minutes of totally undeserved National fame. The best thing “Mrs.
Palin” can do for herself, the Country and the State of Alaska is to drift off into
obscurity…..
WPM
Subject: re: trashing sarah
From: “ed s’
Date: Sun, September 6, 2009 6:55 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
>>What sort of /liberalism/ and what kind of /democracy/ despise the
race, religion, and culture of the majority of the people in a country?>>
The contemptuous (opposed to the progressive) feminism and affirmative
action minorityism that won the struggle for the heart of liberal America.
Ed S
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbQwAFobQxQ
HERE is why people “hate” Sarah. she is the female George Bush.
Hi –
You don’t seem to get it. I know why people hate Palin. That’s not the point. People hate terrorists too..and with good reason. That doesn’t justify torturing them.
There may be plenty of reasons to dislike a politician – what I am saying is humiliating them in this execrable way should be off-bounds.
Otherwise, we cannot justify our own privacy. After all, we’re all using the power of the pen, aren’t we? Don’t we have a public platform too?
Then why aren’t our private lives fair game too?
In which case, the whole of public discourse sinks into a cesspool, in which the things that really should be discussed go awol.
This stuff has got to stop. It’s the very first step to getting back rational and critical debate that is not just vile and childish gotcha journalism.
Without genuine journalism, we will continue to have a kleptocracy. And guess what? We’ll deserve it. Every second of it.
Subject: Sarah Palin
From: “Douglas C”
Date: Sun, September 6, 2009 10:42 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
Lila, While I agree with you about the media’s treatment of the
Palin’s, I’m a little confused. Sarah Palin isn’t really “white
trash” is she? There is no way on earth anyone could or would be
elected the governor of a state who was really white trash is there?
The Palin’s are rich people who pal around with other rich people.
The left attacks Palin for her white trashiness, but where does that
live those of us who actually are or come from white trash? I’m not
sure exactly why this bothers me except that it suggests that the
people around where I come from have something in common with Sarah
Palin and, in truth, we have nothing at all in common with her. I’m
pretty sure she never had to worry about where her family’s next meal
was coming from and never was on the verge of losing her house trailer
or car because of an impending layoff. I’m pretty sure she has never
had to depend on Goodwill or The Salvation Army to put clothes on her
kids backs. I guess my point is this: Us, people like me and from
where I come from still are left out of the equation – even when
people are ostensibly talking about about “us”. My Best, doug c
yes – that’s true..
They (the media) use the term against sarah so as to confuse and distract..
But certainly a lot of middle class whites identify with her
and lower middle class too.
As they did with bush, even though bush had little in common with them
None of that is central to my point though, which is this – enough with the personal
trashing
Lila
It’s not because she’s a conservative. It’s because she’s in so
> incredibly far over her head and the media (and you) treat her like
> she has a brain.
>
> Disgusting, shameful.
>
So – if a person isn’t as intelligent as you think she ought to be, she
should have her emails hacked…and if I as a journalist protest that kind
of treatment, my defense of her is “disgusting and shameful”?
Let’s see, would you also mock a disabled person, a fat person, a person
from a lower class? Would you hack their email?
Lila
From: “Skip C”
Date: Sun, September 6, 2009 11:42 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
Read receipt: requested [Send read receipt now]
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
You have such a beautiful way of separating the sense from the nonsense. I
am not much of a country-western fan. Nor am I much of a Sarah Palin
worshiper. I am more turned on by her personally (and I don’t mean sexually)
than I am by her politically. I like her unabashed (sometime almost vulgar)
honesty-it’s always present-even to a fault.
I think you are willing and able to call sissy-assed liberalism for what it
is. Such a parsing reminds me of the implications of one of Hank Williams
Jr.’s sometime-ago-country hits: A Country Boy Can Survive. In the not
too distant future, in our hopelessly over leveraged economy, the qualities
Williams sings about may become more and more necessary for sheer survival.
There is a certain poetry to self sustenance. I think the snobby self avowed
liberals who slam Palin do so not just from loathing her politically, but
they despise her ability to think or act independently. They are victims of
their own hyper -need to kiss the derriere of the status quo. For a left
leaning state worshiper, any person, including Palin, who travels an
independent road, is a scary reminder of who they are NOT.
In the south, we conclude, “Most of these people wouldn’t make a good pimple
on a real person’s butt.” Gross I know, but I am convinced at some
disturbing level, they get that picture. Violently reacting to such personal
dissonance, they act out in a way which off loads their self disgust on a
more visible target like Palin.
My conclusion: You do a remarkable job of reminding them, to use a Biblical
analogy, to get the railroad tie out of their own eye before they attack
another over a splinter lodged in theirs.
Likely, if they ever get the message loud and clear, they will morph into some journalistic black hole
and never write again. That, of course, would have a sweetness to it for
sure.
For your entertainment, I have included the lyrics from, A country Boy Can
Survive.
Thanks for your continued mind vibrating pieces on LRC. You write them, I
promise, I will read them
I am so please to have discovered you on LRC
Best Personal Regards,
Skip Cook
The preacher man says it’s the end of time
And the Mississippi River she’s a goin’ dry
The interest is up and the Stock Markets down
And you only get mugged
If you go down town
I live back in the woods, you see
A woman and the kids, and the dogs and me
I got a shotgun rifle and a 4-wheel drive
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive
I can plow a field all day long
I can catch catfish from dusk till dawn
We make our own whiskey and our own smoke too
Ain’t too many things these ole boys can’t do
We grow good ole tomatoes and homemade wine
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive
Because you can’t starve us out
And you cant makes us run
Cause one-of- ’em old boys raisin ole shotgun
And we say grace and we say Ma’am
And if you ain’t into that we don’t give a damn
We came from the West Virginia coalmines
And the Rocky Mountains and the and the western skies
And we can skin a buck; we can run a trot-line
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive
I had a good friend in New York City
He never called me by my name, just hillbilly
My grandpa taught me how to live off the land
And his taught him to be a businessman
He used to send me pictures of the Broadway nights
And I’d send him some homemade wine
But he was killed by a man with a switchblade knife
For 43 dollars my friend lost his life
Id love to spit some beechnut in that dudes eyes
And shoot him with my old 45
Cause a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive
Cause you can’t starve us out and you can’t make us run
Cause one-of- ’em old boys raisin ole shotgun
And we say grace and we say Ma’am
And if you ain’t into that we don’t give a damn
We’re from North California and south Alabam
And little towns all around this land
And we can skin a buck; we can run a trot-line
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive
Subject: ‘Me and Mrs. Palin’
From: “Michael S”
Date: Fri, September 4, 2009 10:08 pm
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
Good article at Lewrockwell.com
Regards,
Michael
Subject: Sarah Palin
From: Sandra O
Date: Sun, September 6, 2009 4:10 pm
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
Lila, with all due respect, MS. Palin is, INMHO, either insane or a glory pig. She
does not deserve any pity or praise. She represents the worst of our society. She
belongs in the dust bin of politics.
Rick
Subject: comment
From: “mario l”
Date: Sun, September 6, 2009 3:51 pm
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
Real good piece about the savaging of Saracuda Palin.One thing to remember; The more
the attack her the more petrified they are of her. They are quaking more then an
arab at a firemans ball.These elitists have built up an image of what a “woman”
should be for 40 years. Now along comes Palin a nice
looking fertile SELF MADE woman who had her own business and she throws a wrench in
their plans.Maybe the millions of women they have turned in rotten bitches who don’t
know if they are male or female might be impressed with a REAL woman who is not
ashamed of being a woman. You are in top form,I am glad to see it.
Sandra –
nonetheless..
no matter how detestable her policies/ideas might be considered by some (and everyone has different opinion as to who’s detestable),
she deserves to be treated – like everyone else – as a human being with
dignity
Lila
Thank you for your “Me and Mrs. Palin” review. I found it through Lew Rockwell’s site. Excellent analysis!
I especially like your closing: “The real reason why it’s just fine to trash Sarah Palin is because she’s a lower middle-class white Christian from a small town. So here’s what I want to know. What sort of liberalism and what kind of democracy despise the race, religion, and culture of the majority of the people in a country? And if we can’t answer that to our satisfaction, should we stop using words like liberalism and democracy for whatever it is that rules America today?”
The snobby ideology of self-proclaimed “liberals” and “progressives” is elitism. It has nothing to do with the long line of traditional liberals in U.S. history. It is light years away from the principle and populism of genuine liberals of our own day (e.g., Russ Feingold, Ralph Nader, Sam Smith, Alex Cockburn). Obviously democracy–rule by the people–cannot come from such elitism. Elitists, from the Federalist Party to Vanity Fair, despise democracy. I examine, from a scholarly point of view, how such elitism and mislabeling corrupted the Democratic Party during the 20th century in my book Where Did the Party Go?: William Jennings Bryan, Hubert Humphrey, and the Jeffersonian Legacy (University of Missouri Press). If you’re interested, here’s a link to my book website: http://www.popcorn78.blogspot.com.
Thank you again for the insightful essay and Keep up the good work!
Jeff Taylor, political scientist
I don’t see how giving an interview to levi johnston is being unfair. I have no way of knowing who is telling the truth but it’s not hard to believe some of her image is manufactured.
People aren’t angry at the tone of this article but at what this kid is saying and the fact that alot of it is probably true.
As a reader of lewrockwell and other libertarian sites I am baffled at the support I see for Sarah palin. She is as much of a hawk, insofar as she is educated enough to even have an opinion, as any neoconservative on iran, israel and all that. she was john mcCain’s VP, and as far as I know she agrees with him on Immigration and campaign finance reform ie mcCain-Kennedy and McCain-Feingold.
there is not one solitary thing she is good on. and she gave some of the most foolish interviews I’ve ever seen, way worse than GWB in 2000.
the empress is wearing no clothes.
* Why unfair? Is he running for office? Why is his opinion worth anything? Are we going to start asking the disgruntled friends, boyfriends, ex girl friends, and stalkers of candidates what they think, pay them money for their opinions, style it salaciously and then call that serious journalism?
*Levi contradicted himself on practically every point just a few months more. Go check it out.
Palin’s positions are routinely exaggerated and distorted.
*Levi’s an 18 yr old who made a girl pregnant and then abandoned her, has a drug-addicted mother, lives off the people he is trashing now…and wants to pose nude for money now…what a rock of credibility
* All candidates’ images are polished up. Obama’s isn’t? Why don’t we ask some disgruntled teen to pose in a slimy fashion giving the impression (wink, wink) that Obama is a closet seducer of minor boys who live in his house…would you call that a fair criticism of his policies? Or what if people implied Michelle was a slut – is that a fair criticism of her? Let’s have someone sit in their house for 3 months and then recycle garbage about their daily lives..about who burps at dinner…picks his nose… drools on the pillow case. No one would look good to a self absorbed randy teen, like Levi. Methinks, he was trying to come onto mom and this is his revenge for not getting anywhere with that. It’s called projection. And methinks a few of the Vanity Fair writers might have some problem that way too.
*The point is not whether you agree with Palin or not…but everyone on Lew Rockwell and other sites can see (as you don’t seem able to) that the extra venom employed in bashing her is class, race, gender, and religion based – it’s bigoted.
And coming from liberals who are supposed to be far more enlightened than anyone else on those points – it’s an eye opener.
People hate..or love..Palin not for what she professes – there are many other fundamentalists who don’t get that kind of response – but for what she is…her frank political incorrectness, her bounce, her unpretentiousness. And many people think she’s very pretty.
*The fact that you think it’s ok to say anything you please about someone because you disagree with their politics shows what political debate is in this country has sunk to.
The whole point of civil debate is to be able to debate people who think differently from you with civility. Being civil to people you agree with isn’t the test…everyone does that anyway, out of self-interest.
* I despair for this country if seemingly educated liberal-minded people can’t see that the whole point of a standard is that it applies equally to everyone – the people on your side and on the other. Otherwise it’s not a standard. It’s just tribalism. If Palin is a hawk, that is a reason for me not to vote for her. It’s not a reason for me to demonize her, hack her emails (democratic operative’s son), call her Goy scum and ask for her to be raped by big black brothers (Sarah Bernhardt), call her a slut (Letterman, Purdum), imply she has something sexual with her daughter’s boyfriend (Purdum), etc., etc., gloat over nationally humiliating her.
*The more the liberal establishment attacks her and humiliates her, the more everyone else will rally to her defense. Can’t you see, the people in this country see the establishment media, the ruling class, and the academic “experts” as all united in opposition to them. So how do you think they’re going to react if Palin becomes the target for that crew? They’re going to love her all the more.
Shows you how clueless the establishment is. They only talk to each other and read their own insular opinions and pat each other on the back… and that’s the end result. The media in this country – mainstream and some of the alternative as well – have zero credibility in the world. If they only knew.
People really aren’t that stupid, once they get away from brainwashing…they’ll learn. Give them awhile, and they’ll begin to figure out that the war on terror is also an establishment thing. Once that happens, see this house of cards collapse.
*Joe Lieberman is a hawk – catch any of these brave souls talking about him in such terms.
Oh no. The ADL would be on the case. So they know whom they can beat up on without any real consequences and that’s why they do it. And that
s called cowardice and bullying. It’s disgusting.
checkmate
http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2009/09/07/from-the-people-and-sarah-palin-who-brought-us-the-iraq-war/
” the extra venom employed in bashing her is class, race, gender, and religion based – it’s bigoted”
lol this sounds like the plitical correct theorizing I heard on campus in thje 90’s.
it’s not as copmlicated as all that.
let me ask you a question ms rajiva or anyone who thinks of themselves as a palin supporter and I’m pretty sure none of you will have the courage to answer:
what do you think of theose katie couric interviews?
do you think she showed presidential qualities in them? a command of the issues?
I am anticipating SILENCE on this and that’s fine, lets keep silence, and sarah palin together indefinately
Oh please.
Did you even read what I wrote?
I am a long time antiwar activist. Of course, I don’t support Palin’s positions.
I am not a Palin supporter. How many times do I have to make that clear.
Nor is this about political correctness.
I am not a supporter of certain forms of PC.
I am a supporter of privacy (don’t hack her emails) a supporter of decent behavior and civil political discourse (don’t smear and slander her personally or her family)
and a critic of bigoted, racial or antireligious attacks.
Since when did that become so marginal?
Can you make a logical distinction between supporting Palin’s positions and not supporting them but supporting her right be be free of bigoted personal attacks?
Apparently, you can’t..
Because you don’t read what’s written, you read whatever it is you want to see on paper to justify your own limited understanding of things.
The whole point of a civil debate is to be civil to everyone, no matter how you differ from their positions.
As for courage, why don’t you try criticizing AIPAC (which I’ve done) and then prattle about courage. Much courage it takes to jump in with the crowd and smear someone..
give it a rest. It doesn’t impress.
You obviously don’t understand the terms you’re using.
Subject: Me and Mrs. Palin ….
From: August G
Date: Tue, September 8, 2009 10:29 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file
Excellent, thank you.
August G
It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is,
after all, a “dismal science”. But it is totally irresponsible
to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic
subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.
Rothbard
A plausible explanation:
If you consider that for approximately two million years our ancestors existed as hunter-gatherers. They were familial tribes, egalitarian in nature, very warlike towards others (perhaps losing 2% of population per year), lacking entirely or later having primitive religion, and with little or no concept of trade or property. Socialists (liberals) are their cultural-biological descendants.
About 10,000+ years ago agriculture and settlements developed. With a new social organization, towns, came a need to control and to civilize multiple warring tribes (like the Hatfields and McCoys) into a larger ‘tribe’. Sort of an early New World Order. Cultural adaptations of the hunter-gatherers were re-adapted by the more aggressive of the townsfolk. Thus the alpha-male social hierarchy was remade into government with rulers and primitive spirituality became organized religion with local (personal) gods. These structures allowed the development of classes and the continuation of ‘civilized’ hunter-gatherer culture within the under-classes. Due to the development of agriculture and positive sum economics, limited concepts of trade and property arose. What didn’t change was the warlike behavior. Fascists (conservatives) are their cultural biological descendants.
So if you look at the Palin smear in light of the moral spheres (Stephen Pinker, the Moral Instinct….my previous post) and how there has been a 10,000+ year struggle between hunter-gatherer culture and townsfolk culture, using these moral spheres against each other for control, you will see that Sarah is just collateral damage in a long war.
What I find most fascinating about Palin is how she came into power. As far as I can tell (and despite the media attack no one has tried to refute this, only ignored it), the dynamic is thus: 1. Palin gets involved in some relatively low level of politics. 2. Palin encounters corrupt GOP male leadership trying to get her to assist them. 3. Palin gets mad and topples corrupt GOP patriarch and rises in the process.
Palin is not even a “conservative” politically. She’s pro-development and pro-American which are both her strength and weakness. But she is *anti-corruption.* In my opinion this does more to explain establishment hatred of her–her personal character, not her ideology.
And if I ever vote again, and have the opportunity to vote for her, it will be for her character not her philosophy of politics.
Hi Mark –
thanks for that. People now say she isn’t all that much of an anticorruption pol…
I don’t know.
I think that would endear her to liberals. I honestly believe it’s the reproductive rights issue. For a lot of people, on both sides, it’s the central issue and it arouses very vehement passions. And then there’s the evanglical background – that doesn’t sit well, just after Bush. Someone called her Bush in a bra…which I thought was funny but not true.
I think she’s not any kind of definable political figure…which is her appeal. I hope she stays out of politics, does extensive reading, moves toward the libertarian side of things, and goes into some kind of business.
She can do a lot more for others and for herself.
Politics isn’t everything