Politics

[ellenmillion]

I don't generally follow party politics, and I usually lean slightly more democratic than republican (when forced to choose), but McCain TOTALLY won me with his VP nomination. I have nothing but respect and admiration for our governor Palin. I think I may have cheered out loud when I read that. Go Sarah!

PS: Don't worry, that's probably all the politics you'll get out of me for the whole rest of the election.



ETA: WHY I like Sarah Palin. Disclaimer: I don't generally follow politics, and I base this fondness on not much more than my own personal experiences... you want a fair, in-depth and researched opinion, that's not here. This is the stuff that affects me directly.

Point 1. She's tough and charismatic. She usually has a smile on her face and is upbeat and cheerful. I really like her get-it-done attitude. It's something I respect in anyone.

Point 2. She repealed the fee hikes for business licenses that her awful predecessor levied.

Point 3. She thinks ahead and gets it done. Alaska is going to get a natural gas pipeline someday soon. Not only is she working towards that, she's not considering 'oh, we've negotiated it' as the end of the deal. She's already allotted the money to improve our roads to the point where they will handle the construction equipment needed to make it happen. She's looked at things that slowed the 70's gas pipeline and thinking YEARS ahead.

Point 4. At the same time, she's managed to get an oil relief bill through the red tape so that every Alaskan is getting an extra $1200 with their PFD next month. I dunno that it's the best possible solution to the problem, but it Got Done, and I gotta give kudos to her for that.

Point 5. She doesn't say stupid things. There are so many people in politics that I otherwise like that just up and say Stupid Things periodically and make me cringe to support them. She hasn't done that (that I've noticed).

Point 6. Some folks are saying her 'husband is in oil' like this is a bad thing, but he is an oil operator, which is a far, far, FAR cry from being an oil CEO or an oil executive. An operator is a blue-collar, dirt-under-the-nails job. I like that, too. If we smear everyone who ever works in oil ever with the paintbrush of Slimy Big Oil Execubots, that would include a LOT of good, hardworking technicians I know and would be brutally unfair. I like politicians who come from families that work for a living.

Someone mentioned that she ran on a creationism in school campaign, too, but I honestly don't remember ever seeing that. Like I said, I don't pay much attention to politics.

As with all politics, I do suggest you do your own research and go with your own gut. But I feel GOOD about Palin being our VP.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Actually, I think one can figure out what they would do if they were pregnant with a rapist's child without having it happen. I can tell you that it took months for me to stop feeling sick over it after being raped, and there is NO way I could have spent nine months carrying his child if I'd gotten pregnant. I agree that most of the time you have to be in a situation to know what you would do, but this is one time when I feel confident that many women can understand and figure it out. And whether or not a two week old group of cells is actually an "innocent life" is a whole other matter... but in my opinion, that group of cells should not take precedence over a woman whose had a terrible experience. At some point I think abortion does become murder, but not at the beginning.... and this is all a huge gray area that one person or group shouldn't be able to decide on for everyone.

[marina-bonomi.livejournal.com]

Here's were we differ 'that group of cells' is a human being.
I and you were 'that group of cells' once.

[pseudopagan.livejournal.com]

By that token, using condoms is homocide. There are people who will argue that is the case, by virtue of nothing more than the same faith your 'group of cells' must be a human being. Are they wrong? If so, why are they wrong but you're right?

Of course, you might actually believe that, I suppose. What you're espousing isn't really very far from it.

[marina-bonomi.livejournal.com]

Not true: condoms act by not allowing fertilization, the sperm doesn't *reach* the egg, much less fertilize it, neither the sperm nor the egg are alive, on their own, each has only half of a genetic code.

Once fertilization has happened what you have is a human being, why? Because if left to it's own devices (barring interruption of pregnancy by natural occurrence or artificial means)it will grow and be born as human being, I've never heard in nature of something 'magically transformed'into something it wasn't to start with.

[pseudopagan.livejournal.com]

And during the act of copulation, the biological processes of the two engaged will (barring interruption of fertilization by natural occurence or artificial means) progress and be born as a human being.

I'm sorry, but that is what your argument that a cluster of cells with no discernible anatomy, neural activity, or even the semblance of awareness amounts to. You are making an arbitrary decision that a purely biological process must be designated as a 'human being' in exactly the same way that those who make the arbitrary decision that condoms are murder are.

Why don't you just come out and say you believe God thinks it's murder, and stop trying to cloak your arguments in this ridiculous veil of science? Because frankly, the idea that anyone would actually assert that a 15 year old girl raped by her father should be forced to go through months of pregnancy and the further trauma of giving birth (and yes, for that girl, in that circumstance, trauma is exactly the word to use), just because you believe a cell splitting into a couple more cells means suddenly it's a human life? Is disgusting.

[(Anonymous)]

You may put it as you like and I don't want to hijack Ellen's thread any more, but I'm really curious to see what you from your high seat of absolute knowledge see as the beginning of human life and on which scientific basis. Feel free to get in touch with me through my profile.

[pseudopagan.livejournal.com]

You posted as Anonymous so I'm not sure which of the comment folk you are (maybe the one I was speaking to, but I'm not sure).

You're right about not using Ellen's journal as a springboard for this, though.

Here's my response.