This morning, I read the first 100 pages (about one-quarter) of Sarah Palin’s book, Going Rogue: An American Life. And despite the “narrative” that this book is whiny, with the former Alaska Governor portraying herself as a victim trying to settle scores, there is no trace of that in the book’s first two chapters.
Indeed, on a number of occasions, this charismatic woman acknowledges her own mistakes, particularly in her 2002 bid for the Republican nomination for Lietenant Governor of the Last Frontier where she fell short by just 2% of the votes cast. Her style is a little breezy for my taste, but the book is very readable. And like Barack Obama, she does use a lot of clichés. She seems to talk more about common sense conservative principles than actually articulate those principles and show how they work in the real world.
But, there are times, when she does provide examples which illustrate the meaning of those principles. My favorite such example was when she explained why she stopped frequently a local café in Wasilla that she used to visit regularly when she first become mayor of that booming Alaskan metropolis:
I finally slowed down on that Friday-morning routine when I was pregnant with Piper. Nearly every pregnant woman has something that can make her instantly ill, and the cigarette smoke inside the café kind of nauseated me. Instead of supporting a much-talked-about citywide smoking ban at the time, though I just stopped going to that restaurant. It eventually went smoke-free on its own, which is the way things like that should work.
No nanny-stater she. Sarah Palin shows exactly how one should react if a business doesn’t cater to her particular needs. Instead of running whining to the government, she takes action on her own. She doesn’t go to the offending establishment and notes how it, without the heavy hand of the state, changes its smoking policies on its own.
Palin is right, that’s the way things like that should work.
“No nanny-stater she.”
Get back to me when she supports the legalization of drugs
or allowing the sale of alcohol to 18 year olds
or stops trying to protect society from gays and supports indifference to gay marriage
oh wait… i forgot. For the intellectual dishonest conservatives in those instances, its OK for the gov to nanny…
sorry about that
– but it would be much easier if you folks simply posted the exceptions to your principles
um, gillie, where has she ever said anything about protecting society from gays?
Dan,
gillie doesn’t understand principles. Thus his confusion.
Actually, I must admit that I prefer the Palin type of nanny-state. The one where the government levies a tax on extractive industries and uses it to cut a welfare check to every citizen in the state. Why cant we nationalize that scheme? I mean, Alaska oil is American oil – it belongs to all of us.
Get back to me when the liberal party does the same.
You mean the Alaska Permanent Fund which was added to Alaska’s Constitution 30 years before she became governor?
If we did, would you push for more drilling, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico and expansion of Oil Sands?
And to hell with state’s rights, property rights and mineral rights, eh? We could just claim it all in the name of Chairman Obama.
gillie demands that conservative means libertarian.
Tano pretends that conservatives are for a weak confederation.
Of course, neither diverting tactic has anything whatsoever to do with the issues. But then, that is how liberals debate. They say Bush lied and skip the part of how really, really really, dumb that makes their chosen leaders for being suckered.
Gays who take risks with HIV/AIDS are expensive. Maybe the nanny state will crush fat gays extra hard for their lifestyles. After all, preventative medicine will bring health care costs down and fat people, drug addicts, homeless people, rare disease people, elderly people, premature births, people who keep having heart attacks, STD people, combat soldiers and the weak minded are the most expensive consumers of health care.
What is the nanny state to do with people who just won’t be healthy or stay out of harm’s way? Why seat belts? After all, mangled is far more expensive to the nationalized health care than dead.
See how this works? Conservatives see the nanny state as the judge and jury. Liberals see the nanny state as a fat sow and a free ride for everyone from citizens to poor illegal aliens who vote Democrat.
As to nationalizing Alaska’s oil and gas, I can see Tano’s point. That way Obama can fill the gas tanks of the people ACORN and SEIU designate as needy and worthy.
love your comments heliotrope.
this is also how i would like the legalization of homosexuals and lesbian marriages to come about.
the issues being forced down our throats are issues that one generation after another corrects. the gov doesn’t need to interfere with our social issues. after a time, social issues will right itself. only interference from mandated policies cause rebellion from the people.