When Sarah met Science

There's not much more that Sarah Palin could do or say that would shock us anymore.

She's become like that friend you have that gets trashed every weekend. The first time she had to go to UHS, you were horrified. The next time, when you had to come up with the money to bail her out of jail for public drunkenness and aggravated assault, you were surprised but sort of expected it. After awhile and a few dozen bar fights, you're basically numb to any crazy thing she does.

So that's why it might be unnecessary to post this latest scary statement from Sarah Palin:

But at the same time, I have a feeling my science research teacher would track me down and knock me out with a microscope if I didn't address this. Research in fruit flies is the integral first step to a massive number of major scientific discoveries, including advances in the understanding of autism, advances toward discovering treatments for cancer, and advances in our understanding of gene expression.

Also, I'm getting tired of hearing people knock the French. Was it really necessary to cite Paris, France as the place for fruit fly research with that little sneer? Are fruit flies now pretentious and stuck up because they are associated with France? Was that an attempt to discredit fruit fly research as elitist and therefore not research accepted by the real America? Enough already. Let's show the French some love.

Lastly, I spent a majority of my high school hours in a classroom full of fruit flies in test tubes. Those little buggers (no pun intended) hold a special place in my heart.

Election Day Erotica 2008

I think we all have, at some point, thought these nasty thoughts...

This is just awful

I never heard much about Michele Bachmann until very recently when she made comments that Barack Obama could have "anti-American" views. Unfortunately, she has remained on my radar thanks to a series of inane video clips of words coming out of her mouth:

If you can't watch the whole video for some reason, here's the main message "Not all cultures are equal. Not all values are equal." I can't even comment properly on this video because I'm so frustrated and enraged by the fact that someone with such shortsighted views on the world (not to mention on cultural relations) was ever elected into office. This idea that "small town American values" (anyone care to tell me what those are, by the way?) are the only "true" American values, or the idea that only people from small towns are "patriotic" is starting to make me feel ill.

All I know is that my parents came to this country for equal opportunity, education, and the tolerance toward other cultures. So when I think America, I think diversity. I think melting pot. Bachmann's idea of a melting pot:

"And that's what I had mentioned in my previous response is that America is a great nation, with great values. We are equal opportunity for all. And it's because we all came here and we came together as one. Out of many one. Multi-cultural diversity says out of one many. And if we go with tribalism we will not long be one nation united under God."

Please define tribalism for me. Is tribalism my family watching the occasional foreign sitcom on television? Is tribalism having a Chinatown or a Little Italy? For that matter, is tribalism having any sort of foreign presence at all?

According to Bachmann, the "whole philosophical idea of multi-cultural diversity...on the face sounds wonderful." She continues on to say, "But guess what? Not all cultures are equal. Not all values are equal." There is no "on the face" argument here--tolerance toward others is not a debatable issue.

Actually I'm sort of torn between my anger with Bachmann's blind rejection of anything that she deems "un-American", and the pity I feel for any individual that is this much of an embarrassment to herself and to the country she seems to love so much.

Rolling Stone: 1,000,000, Maverick: 0

The latest issue of Rolling Stone published this revealing article about John McCain. It might be long, but it is completely worth reading. A small excerpt:

"On the grounds between the two brick colleges, the chitchat between the scion of four-star admirals and the son of a prizefighter turns to their academic travels; both colleges sponsor a trip abroad for young officers to network with military and political leaders in a distant corner of the globe.

"I'm going to the Middle East," Dramesi says. "Turkey, Kuwait, Lebanon, Iran."

"Why are you going to the Middle East?" McCain asks, dismissively.

"It's a place we're probably going to have some problems," Dramesi says.

"Why? Where are you going to, John?"

"Oh, I'm going to Rio."

"What the hell are you going to Rio for?"

McCain, a married father of three, shrugs.

"I got a better chance of getting laid.""

Oof. That is definitely not the kind of thing you should ever say out loud.

Mavericks and Newsanchors

Katie Couric better watch her back unless she wants to be the next target of an aerial wolf hunt. Apparently Palin had this to say about her interviews with Katie:

 So not only is Palin from outside of the Washington elite and the media elite, she also appears to be from outside of this planet and in her own world where five weeks of preparation makes you ready to be second in command.

I will, however, concede that her hair looks good in this interview. But as fellow blogger Ali Sikora put it, "it's canceled out by the "blah blah lies, bullshit, spew" coming out of her mouth". Damn, and she was so close to winning me over with the new coiffe.