The homework, it piles on

[greybeta]

Independence Day: July 4th went well, despite the rain ruining any ideas of shooting fireworks. On the plus side, I was greatly entertained by my friends beating Gain Ground, an old game for the SEGA Genesis (Rouge bought the Sega collection for PS3).

Church: Sunday I helped out at the 4 year old preschool class again. Priceless exchange:

Miss B: Remember, God loves everybody!
Kid: Miss B, does that mean He loves the Devil, too?

School: But today was back to school. On top of my ten week educational technology class, I'm taking a cultural anthropology and Arkansas history class this semester. Which means I'm in in class from 8am-12:30pm four days a week. I have two tests on Thursday, so I may abbreviate my posting a little.

Wimbledon: Roddick played the match of his life and he still lost to Federer. The Swiss legend has ice water running through those veins. Also, he's much more confident when he's not playing Nadal. I guess even the best players have their personal nemesis to deal with.

MLB All Star: Tim Wakefield makes his first All-Star game. I remember him breaking through with the Pittsburgh Pirates in the early 1990's. He threw TWO complete games in the NLCS. But he struggled the next season and the Pirates released him. Pittsburgh's loss was Boston's gain, and the tradition continues with Jason Bay.

Sky Crawlers: I tried watching this anime. It was late on July 4th when we fired this up on the PS3. I failed to get through the first half hour before falling asleep. My friends tell me the idea was good, but the execution was lacking.

Sarah Palin: Uh...why is everyone criticizing her? Don't they see that she just made a genius level political move?

Comments

[ink_13]

I didn't realize that forever labelling yourself a quitter was a genius political move in the States. What a country!

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

One hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the mark of a supreme general.

[ilgreven.livejournal.com]

Yes, but quitting after being in a losing battle isn't the mark of a general at all.

She can't take the heat, she got out of the kitchen. If she re-enters the kitchen, that heat will be twice as searing.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

To see victory only when it is within the ken of the common herd is not the acme of excellence.

[atdt1991.livejournal.com]

Regarding S.P., I think she's set herself up for even more jokes by Jay Leno et al - like Quayle can attest, once you've positioned yourself as foolish, it is incredibly difficult to come back from it. Especially when you have people out there eager to keep that going.

It's extremely rare for a governor to quit in the middle of a term, and the reasons tend to be disgraced/impeached or have life-threatening illnesses in the family. As I see it, she's positioned herself to appear selfish and unwilling to finish the job under the same adverse conditions that Bill Clinton stood up under. She makes it sound like she's Nixon, y'know?

On another note of analysis, I don't believe her speech makes any sense. In nearly every sentence of the transcript, I feel like she's twisting the english language. How is maintaining governorship the same as "sitting down and shutting up"?

Ultimately, I think she's angry at being a less effective governor now that she's under the microscope than she was before, and I don't blame her for being unhappy about it. I think walking away in a hastily-created unrehearsed speech was probably a mistake for her.

I guess that'll depend on where she goes from here: If she's working in a republican 'think-tank' until 2010 or 2011, maybe disappearing from the public radar while working behind the scenes will work for her.

[wdomburg.livejournal.com]

If she plays up the "less effective governor" aspect, she might be able to effectively sell it as selflessly ceding power for the good of the state. If she runs in 2012, best bet might be to make it a campaign issue on her terms from the beginning; i.e. attack Obama for depriving the people of Illinois of a Senator focused on their issues by holding on to his office while he spent the majority of his time on the campaign trail.

Not sure if that's the angle she's working, or whether she could pull it off, but right now everything is conjecture.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Nobody knows what Palin will do next. She's precisely the kind of politician the Establishment dislikes. I think that's a good thing, and I'll do my best to explain more next week after test/project craziness of this first school week of the second summer session.

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

I think the only shrew thing she did was quitting just before a long weekend, in the midst of the Michael Jackson hysteria. She found the perfect time to flounce.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

This move has to seem sane compared to Michael Jackson, right?

[kmg-365.livejournal.com]

Don't they see that she just made a genius level political move?

Sarcasm?

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Ambiguously sarcastic.

[cynicalcleric.livejournal.com]

Criticizing Sarah Palin is a popular hobby.

Not that I take the time to participate often, but I don't really disagree with the hobby much either.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Call me a devil's advocate, then. '_'