She's Ready to Lead? NOT!

Sarah Palin, from the interview by Katie Couric:

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

PALIN: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land– boundary that we have with– Canada. It– it's funny that a comment like that was– kind of made to– cari– I don't know, you know? Reporters–

COURIC: Mock?

PALIN: Yeah, mocked, I guess that's the word, yeah.

COURIC: Explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials.

PALIN: Well, it certainly does because our– our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They're in the state that I am the executive of. And there in Russia–

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

PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We– 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– 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 there. They are right next to– to our state.

I have respect for John McCain, and I don't think he would make a bad president. I think he'd be better than Bush, for sure. But Sarah Palin is utterly unqualified for the job. Answers like the one above are the very reason that the McCain campaign handlers do not allow her to answer questions from reporters, and may have something to do with the stalling on the debates...

History Repeats

Listening to the news about the current financial crisis and the bailouts proposed to prop up the economy, I started wondering about another crisis and bailout: the Savings and Loan bailout in the 90s. I was thinking that the S&L meltdown was caused by Reagan-era deregulation, which led to speculation in search of greater profits. I looked it up:

In the 80s, the government deregulated the S&L industry, which led to investments in speculative real estate and commercial loans. They also reduced regulatory staff via budget cuts. Banks began to fail, the government had to step in with a bailout and more regulation (so it wouldn't happen again). In the end, it cost taxpayers $124 billion (modest compared to the new bailout).

My Children's Education

I hated homework when I was a kid, and I hate my kids' homework even more. My girls are both in middle school now, 6th and 7th grades. When I was in 7th grade, I had a couple of pages of math homework almost everyday, plus assignments from most other classes; a reading assignment and a few questions to answer, but all reinforcing whatever subject we were learning at the time. For years now I've been really annoyed at the innumerable times my kids have brought home word finds as homework. You know, find the word and circle it in the grid of letters. There's absolutely no point to it; it's busy work with no educational value. It's busy work that eats into family time in the evenings. So, a shout out to all those teachers out there, please, just stop with the word finds. Please.

End of Summer

One of my favorite things about summer--fresh tomatoes. Can't beat 'em, gotta eat 'em!

Words from the Potential Veep

From an article by Gene Johnson, Associated Press:

Palin asked the students to pray for the troops in Iraq, and noted that her eldest son, Track, was expected to be deployed there.

"Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God," she said. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God's plan."

The whole article is here. As for my position, I'm all for people praying for the safety of our troops, but I doubt God had anything to do with the decision to attack Iraq; that decision must be laid firmly at the feet of President Bush.

Listen to her own explanation of her words in Charlie Gibson's interview here.