schachterrific!

As the national health care coverage bill gets nearer to passing, it is becoming more obvious as to just how scary it is. As a self-emplyed entrepreneur, I should be happy over the idea of government provided coverage. I’m not. Any process that takes away freedom in the name of government control, is not something to be happy about.

And now I find out that once you go in, YOU CAN’T GET BACK OUT.

I stumbled over this incredible blogpost about Sarah Palin, and for once I think someone got it right. This is the executive summary of what a mean, sad country we’ve become.

All national politicians take their share of potshots; it comes with the territory, and anybody who can’t take the heat, as Harry Truman famously said, should get out of the kitchen. And with that heat inevitably comes some spillover onto a politician’s family members – especially if those family members are politically outspoken adults, Washington lobbyists, or businesspeople involved in shady practices. But some grief will come as well to soft-spoken spouses and minor children. It’s the nature of the business.

But no politician in modern memory, not even Bill Clinton or George W. Bush, has faced the sort of ferociously personal assault that greeted Palin from the instant she set foot on the national stage, in many cases before her detractors even knew anything about her besides that she was female, attractive, pro-life and pro-gun. And while the pervasive crude sexual references to Palin were horrible, the assault on her family was the worst of all. Palin has worn many hats in her life – Vice-Presidential candidate, Governor, Mayor, Oil & Gas Commissioner, City Councilwoman, sportscaster, point guard, runner, beauty queen, moose hunter – but it’s clear that the role that defines her is her role as the mother of five children. And as James Taranto put it, “If you’ve never met or had a mother, the thing to know about them is that they tend to be very protective of their children.”

Probably, one of the best blog posts I’ve ever read.

And Sarah Palin? Don’t count her out just yet. Take it or leave it.