Stay in touch with my trousers

(Thanks to the Register)

GOP Veep candidate Sarah Palin’s belief in creationism brings the evolution of a crank’s outlook into an asset in US public life into plain view. It’s simply the rock-like belief that if science isn’t convenient to a very personal value or notion, then it constitutes an attack on such and is to be set aside.

Katie Couric’s CBS interview with Sarah Palin. Seriously. This comic book character is in the running to become a Vice President.

(Look. Seriously now. The Republicans are supposed to be all about the ducats, right? All the money? The Dems spend, the Repubs make the cash? Will SOMEONE for CHRISSAKE, buy McCain a halfway decent PR TEAM????!!!!!! Honest to god! You’d think that they could afford the best and the brightest, but instead it sounds like either the candidates are ignoring their current PR folks or they’re not worth a hill of beans. Either way, this is just embarrassing to watch.)

Transcript as follows, originally taken from here

The video of this, is in the above link, you just gotta scroll down to see it. And you gotta see it.

Katie Couric: You’ve cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?

Sarah Palin: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and, on our other side, the land-boundry that we have with Canada. It’s funny that a comment like that was kinda made to … I don’t know, you know … reporters.

Couric: Mocked?

Palin: Yeah, mocked, I guess that’s the word, yeah.

Couric: Well, explain to me why that enhances your foreign-policy credentials.

Palin: Well, it certainly does, because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of. And there…

Couric: Have you ever been involved in any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

Palin: We have trade missions back and forth, we do. It’s very important when you consider even national-security issues with Russia. As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right next to, they are right next to our state.

Canada!

Hey, Canada! Yeah, you!

I say to you, my benevolent northern brothers and sisters!

It’s not enough that us Americans have gone and bollocked things up again, (re: the market) and our “will the young black fellow or the old wrinkly white fellow be president?” news stories that are taking over the world at breakneck speed, but HEY! What the HELL is up with all the knife-play going on over there?

(I specifically refer to the fellow who beheaded his fellow bus passenger, and now THIS!)

Canadian Found Guilty of Plotting to Behead Prime Minister

Is it because you are also in election season?

Are you getting strange south-to-northward blowing Santa Ana winds?

Have you finally decided that North America isn’t fucked up enough, what with our colossal insanity and you’ve decided to join the party?

(Speaking of which, what’s everyone’s thoughts on the upcoming elections?) Will it be:

• Green Party: Elizabeth May.
• New Democratic Party (NDP): Jack Layton.
• Bloc Quebecois: Gilles Dueceppe.
• Liberal: Stéphane Dion.
• Conservative: Stephen Harper.

????

At least ONE inquiring American mind wants to know.

Admittedly, it’s been a while since I’ve actively participated in helping police `the community’ so-to-speak and I came across something weird.

There were a few users with, “get fatter”, or “bust a button on my pants” sort of goals, or cheering such goals, etc. They’d all been flagged to be suspended with a, “prohibited content – self harm goals” or “prohibited content – cheering self harm goals” reason.

Hmm.

So now I’m in a bit of a quandary. My initial inclination was to “Defend” these users, after all it’s not something that I particularly agree with, or think is very flattering, bit it’s their choice if they want to do this. Before defending I attempted to seek out more information, specifically what was considered “prohibited content”.

Oddly, I could not find any reference to what was and wasn’t `prohibited content’. Sure there were some loose guidelines and whatnot, but nothing… Concrete.

I could of course be missing some obvious link to a whole 90-page “acceptable use” policy or something, (god knows, it’d be JUST like me to overlook something like that) but I’m honestly having a hard time finding anything that would support flagging a user like that.

What gives, my friends? Is there something that I’m missing here, with “prohibited content”? Does anyone know where I can find that set of criteria?

(As a post-script to this, I will say that because I diligently searched for guidelines to `prohibited content’ and could not find anything to substantiate users with goals like that, I defended them with, `So what if somebody wants to do something stupid, if you don’t like it, then turn the channel.’)

Check it out, here

A pretty interesting article. My friend says that “Time” is a `leftist leaning rag, run by commie pinkos’. My friend also believes that there’s a vast `intelligentsia’ liberal conspiracy. My friend is also, exactly that. My friend. And while our politics don’t match, I am lucky to count him as such in that small, small circle of those in my life.