http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDx80bnFrVs

I found the imagery beyond upsetting.  Appalling.  Not in and of itself, but because it was being shamelessly exploited to make people feel afraid, to garner support for Republican defense policies.

I was there on 9/11.  Not the only person I know who was there, and certainly one of a million people in the tip of lower manhattan that day.  Footage of the destruction, the dead and the dying, touch a tender spot that I tend to armor pretty well.  I don’t like it when those feelings and those memories are triggered; I especially dislike it when its purpose is to convince me to hate an enemy or vote a certain way.

Keith Olbermann’s reaction was dead on.  Republicans regularly decry the kind of graphic footage that was used, and yet found it appropriate to stuff their propaganda full of it.

I really am appalled.

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He actually seemed most natural, human and approachable in the moments after the protester was hauled off. His off the cuff comment made him seem for a brief moment connected to what was going on around him.

The rest nearly put me to sleep. It really is a shame that he wasted the whole speech making policy sound like the most boring topic on earth. Even if I disagree, I still enjoy a good speech better than one that sounds half asleep.

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Yes, this builds confidence.

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One step calls for blanching Romaine lettuce leaves, and I believe that I overdid this step resulting in flaccid leaves, so I added eggplant slices for additional hearty substance.  (I love eggplant for its beefy texture without much in the way of nutritional significance.)

The pureed tofu with cottage cheese, herbs and garlic made a stealthy substitute for ricotta cheese, and my kid liked the mixture along with the lettuce and tomatoes to boot!  However, Sami could do without the asparagus and garlic, thank you very much.

The best part of this recipe - portion sizes are huge!  As linked, it serves six, and one sixth of a baking pan of this is quite filing without being excessively… anything.  The eggplant added abotu 20 calories to the nutritional info of one serving while, in my opinion, making the dish much more satisfying.

Highly recommend for the yum factor.

PS: Added benefit for me is that t’s kosher dairy.  So Sami can take it to school.

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Also, why did the RNC come off looking like a really big karaoke bar, while the DNC looked like an actual, professional, coordinated political event?

Anyway….

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1) She’s keeping the baby.  This is a win with pro-life conservatives.

2) She’s embarking on the struggle of parenthood a) by surprise and b) incredibly young.  I imagine this makes Bristol a sympathetic character to many single mothers, pregnant teens, many of whom are not necessarily conservatives themselves.

3) This makes her mom look practically like a saint.  No one can completely control their children, but they can be supportive and see that they “do the right thing.”  And it makes McCain look more progressive for choosing Palin when he “knew” about the daughter’s pregnancy.  Which may help him in the center and have uncertain effects on the right.

Scary, scary.

Of course, Obama shines like gold, saying that this all shouldn’t be a campaign issue.  

Mr. Obama said the pregnancy “has no relevance to Governor Palin’s performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president.” He added that, “my mother had me when she was 18. How a family deals with issues and teen-age children — that shouldn’t be the topic of our politics.” (excerpt from NYTimes.com article here)

I agree, but only if Palin isn’t hiding something - it *is* a campaign issue if the potential vice president of the United States is a big fat liar. It’s true, the pregnancy issue has no bearing on her doubtful but possible abilities.  It does bear upon her honesty.

I would like to see a campaign that is about real issues.  I also think that the problem of unwed pregnancy is sadly a real situation for more Americans than anyone would like to believe.  How either side would handle such a problem presents a real voting issue for many many people.  

On the other hand, if it were Obama and not Palin who had a 17 year old pregnant daughter, I can only imagine the hypocrisy that would be hurled at him. 

All just food for thought.

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But Bristol *is* pregnant, now.  I have a lot less to say about this.  I’m glad the Palin family is supporting her.

However.  This means that *if* Bristol isn’t really the mother of Trig, then the story of her delivering a speech, getting through airport security, boarding not one but a series of connecting flights back to Alaska, and engaging in otherwise risky behaviours during the labor and delivery of her fifth child - IS true.  And personally I think it’s a) implausible at best, and b) if true, horrible that she showed such lack of concern for the safe delivery of baby #5, whatever her reasons were.

She’s pro-life.  That is why she carried a Down’s Syndrome baby to term.  (Over 90% of Down’s Syndrome pregnancies are terminated - according to wikipedia.*)  Her behaviour between water breaking and delivery certainly indicates a lack of concern for the safety of the child, an inconsideration for the other passengers on the two flights that could have been grounded if she needed to be brought to a hospital mid-flight, not to mention for her own health.

This is infuriating, to say the least.

I just don’t buy it.  I think that maybe Bristol is 3 months pregnant, and being used as a convenient cover up to the original cover up.  It certainly is a resonably successful diversion to the rumor about Trig’s birth.

The bottom line is that no matter what is true, at this point, something is seriously wrong with Sarah Palin.

*A 2002 literature review of elective abortion rates found that 91–93% of pregnancies in the United States with a diagnosis of Down syndrome were terminated.

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What in heaven’s name is Sarah Palin doing being Governor of Alaska with 5 kids at home?  What kind of good Christian mother leaves her children at home to be educated outside the home, where they could be infiltrated by other people’s values?  THEY MIGHT LEARN SCIENCE!!

But I’m not.  So instead I just think /she’s/ the nut job.

1) She sued the Bush Administration for declaring polar bears an endangered species… because that would hinder her plan to drill the bleeding shit out of Alaska.

2) She’s part of an organization called “Feminists for LIfe,” which at its face doesn’t sound like such a bad thing.  Feminists can be pro-life while recognizing it’s none of their damn business to meddle with the interior of anyone else’s uterus, right?  Nooooooooooo.  (Well, I mean, feminists CAN think that way, but it isn’t the case with Feminists for Life.)  Nope.  They think abortion is wrong no matter the case - incest, rape, risk to the mother’s life.

3) John McCain is 72 and has survived cancer like a hundred times.  (Or at least a handful.)  This makes her so much closer to being president than I am even comfortable thinking about.

4) She may or may not actually be the grandmother of her 4-month-old “son,” possibly covering for her unwed 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy.  To summarize, her pregnancy was a total surprise to her coworkers when it was announced at her “7 month mark.”  Pictures do not indicate much showing.  Her daughter had been out of school for 4 months before the child’s birth, supposedly with extended mono.  And in the family’s Christmas photo, who looks pregnant here?

Personally I couldn’t give less of a crap whether or not Bristol was unwed or pregnant.  Or both, as the case may be.  And it’s not that I want Sarah Palin in the white house to start with, but especially not if she’ll lie to cover up for her daughter while simultaneously showing no holds barred on telling other women what to do with their bodies.

I guess with more media attention this rumor will eventually be verified.  What a disaster for the McCain/Palin campaign.

OK, I just had to add the lagging, nagging thought in my head.  Either Sarah Palin is lying to cover up for her daughter, which is icky.  Or she showed some reckless abandon in boarding a plane with leaking amniotic fluid to take a 12-hour flight back to Alaska to deliver this child.  What does that say about her pro-life beliefs?  I’m pro-life, but if the kid has Down’s I don’t really care about delivering safely?  What would this say about her doctor - bordering on malpractice so that her child wouldn’t be a Texan, as Mr. Palin weakly joked?  I know I’m babbling a little bit, but for the love - something is not right here.

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In any case, I wasn’t particularly  motivated to go out in the first place, but the chocolate chip pancakes I threw together for dinner tipped me over to the “squeeze in a workout” side of the balance.  I went out for one of my high intensity runs, just to get it all over with somewhat quickly.

I was surprised to find that going without my accoutrements actually improved the workout (because it was a HIIT run.)  I didn’t rely on music to give me cues about when I should sprint or on the timer for when I should stop - and I didn’t fall back on the music’s rhythm to guide my exertion.  I think that the sprintervals (haha, my own term) I did last night had more intensity and lasted longer.

It did help that I didn’t have to think about switching the hand my iPod was in (yes, I carry it, no armband here) and it was much easier to pump my arms without the headphone cords to get tangled up in.

I’m excited that I actually defied my own will and got the damned workout, but I’m also stoked that doing it in the face of adversity taught me something new.  And to be honest, I’m totally knackered from the run, so I did succeed in pushing myself past my limits.

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But I sure am happy with Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee.

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