Why Sarah Palin Won't Be President (or Vice)

I have just had a revelation about Sarah Palin. At first, I thought that she was not ready to be president for now. But, on second thoughts, I think the real problem is that she will not ever be ready for the presidency.--Let me try to explain.

Margaret Atwood recently said in an interview that a woman president can never be a woman advocate. This may or may not be accurate, but, nonetheless, a woman president can never be a stay-at-home woman either. Think of the examples of woman leaders in the past: Queen Elizabeth I, Margaret Thatcher. What women like these have in common is that they do not have to try to be men while at the same time maintaining their female identity. The reason is because they have no distinct female identity.

The same cannot be said for Sarah Palin. Her femininity is, in fact, her most appealing feature and the fact that McCain chose a woman was all that was talked about for days after her selection. Now, she may be a baracuda, like she claims, but she isn't made of iron like Margaret Thatcher; she does not have the heart of a man with that man being the king of England, as with Queen Elizabeth. At the end of the day, Sarah Palin will still be Sarah, not the Iron Lady or the Virgin Queen and it is for this reason (and this reason alone) that I do not think that she will ever be president.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

Incidentally, you should check out this video. It's pretty funny.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

LSAT

At this time yesterday, I was taking the LSAT exam, which means that at this time today, I am not. Regardless of the outcome (and generally I have a good feeling) I would like to thank God that it is done.

A Truism

Just came up with a truism:

"Superstition is like a loaded rifle that we can't set down and ought to be treated as such: in other words, keep it pointed at the sky and keep your feet on the ground."

Blatherings on Palin and Damon

Like I said earlier, I was concerned about Sarah Palin, but excited that other conservatives were excited about her. Her interview with Chris Gibson has not alleviated my concern in the least, and, while I think that her selection was a brave and smart move on McCain's part, I am not positive that it will prove a profitable one.

But, for the moment, here are some other thoughts:

I think that Matt Damon plagiarized Maureen Dowd in his embarrassing interview about how he "really needs to know" if Sarah Palin thinks that the dinosaurs were here 6000 years ago. He began by saying something to this effect: "It's like a bad Disney movie . . . she's gonna face down Putin and all that in her folksy way . . ." Maureen Dowd had written approximately the same ideas in the same order a week or two before. (Check out her Sunday column around that time.)

The Case of Rangel

I am not going to say that Charles Rangel should go to prison. I do not actually know the motives for why he failed to pay taxes on his Dominican properties for more than two decades. Maybe he did actually not understand the tax forms. But, at the very least, this incident should make him, as chairman of the Ways and Means committee, rethink the bureaucracy that underlies taxes. It's time for something that's either simpler (flat tax) or more ethical (consumption tax). I would prefer the latter myself, but I would also take the former if it were offered. It would be much better, I think, then having to pay those Social Security taxes. Here's hoping that this incident will cause Charles Rangel to rethink the bureaucracy. (I wouldn't count on it.)

First Lecture

Gave my first lecture in 8th grade history today. Talked about ancient Egypt and touched a bit on Hammurabi. My task for this year is to get all of the way from Egypt to Iraq (that is, post-U.S. invasion Iraq) and the U.S. Presidential elections, 2008. It's going to be an interesting year.