(no subject)

I keep writing and deleting various rants on the whole Palin nomination.

The thing is, I don't agree with her politics, at all. She's 180 degrees opposed to me on most of the things I hold dear. I didn't vote for her as governor and I don't plan on voting the McCain ticket no matter who's running with him; I have more interest in seeing Obama win the election than I've felt for any politician in a long time.

But, as a woman and as an Alaskan, I am finding it hard not to take all of this venom personally. I think it's horrible to see a smart, politically savvy career woman, with a history of standing up to her own party, dismissed as a "vagina", her kids' names mocked, her parenting decisions slandered, her youth and attractiveness used as insults. I find it awfully hypocritical that people are so very quick to dismiss Palin for her "lack of experience" when, with Obama, that same lack of experience suddenly brands him a "maverick outsider" who's going to shake up Washington. I find it hard not to feel offended that being governor of Alaska apparently counts for nothing at the national level; Vermont has a smaller population than Alaska - does that mean Dean is unqualified to chair the DNC?

I really appreciate the people here and there around my f'list and the liberal blogosphere who are sticking to the issues, avoiding personal attacks, and discussing Palin as a serious candidate for VP and not talking about her as if she's some trollop that McCain picked up on a Saturday night. Of course McCain has cynical/practical political reasons for choosing Palin, just like Obama did for choosing Biden, and hopes to pull in more voters by doing so. But it's a huge leap from that to assume that because she's young/attractive/a mom/from a small state/hasn't served in the Senate (take your pick, I've seen all of these and more, yesterday and today) that she's an incompetent VP pick and would be a terrible president. Because you don't know yet. At the very least she deserves to be given consideration -- attack her politics, for pete's sake; there's certainly plenty there for liberals to hate. But lobbing personal insults at her, and dismissing her out of hand for the same reasons that a lot of us have been excited about Obama (youth, energy, fresh ideas, not part of the old guard) makes me want to say, "Get off my side, people, you're making us look bad!"

I think I just need to stop reading political discussions, because I'm starting to get more and more incensed and hurt and upset about the whole thing, and I pretty much said my piece over here, so ... probably good to shut up now before I dig my hole any deeper.

Edited to add: Now that I've calmed down a bit from this morning/last night's blogsurfing, I did want to make it clear that I'm honestly not talking about any one specific person here. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings or imply that anyone doesn't have the right to hold whatever political opinions they so choose. I think I'm just getting much too emotionally wrought over the whole thing, and I need to back away and clear my head a bit ... so apologies in advance if you commented on this post and I'm slow to answer or don't answer at all.

(no subject)

I keep writing and deleting various rants on the whole Palin nomination.

The thing is, I don't agree with her politics, at all. She's 180 degrees opposed to me on most of the things I hold dear. I didn't vote for her as governor and I don't plan on voting the McCain ticket no matter who's running with him; I have more interest in seeing Obama win the election than I've felt for any politician in a long time.

But, as a woman and as an Alaskan, I am finding it hard not to take all of this venom personally. I think it's horrible to see a smart, politically savvy career woman, with a history of standing up to her own party, dismissed as a "vagina", her kids' names mocked, her parenting decisions slandered, her youth and attractiveness used as insults. I find it awfully hypocritical that people are so very quick to dismiss Palin for her "lack of experience" when, with Obama, that same lack of experience suddenly brands him a "maverick outsider" who's going to shake up Washington. I find it hard not to feel offended that being governor of Alaska apparently counts for nothing at the national level; Vermont has a smaller population than Alaska - does that mean Dean is unqualified to chair the DNC?

I really appreciate the people here and there around my f'list and the liberal blogosphere who are sticking to the issues, avoiding personal attacks, and discussing Palin as a serious candidate for VP and not talking about her as if she's some trollop that McCain picked up on a Saturday night. Of course McCain has cynical/practical political reasons for choosing Palin, just like Obama did for choosing Biden, and hopes to pull in more voters by doing so. But it's a huge leap from that to assume that because she's young/attractive/a mom/from a small state/hasn't served in the Senate (take your pick, I've seen all of these and more, yesterday and today) that she's an incompetent VP pick and would be a terrible president. Because you don't know yet. At the very least she deserves to be given consideration -- attack her politics, for pete's sake; there's certainly plenty there for liberals to hate. But lobbing personal insults at her, and dismissing her out of hand for the same reasons that a lot of us have been excited about Obama (youth, energy, fresh ideas, not part of the old guard) makes me want to say, "Get off my side, people, you're making us look bad!"

I think I just need to stop reading political discussions, because I'm starting to get more and more incensed and hurt and upset about the whole thing, and I pretty much said my piece over here, so ... probably good to shut up now before I dig my hole any deeper.

Edited to add: Now that I've calmed down a bit from this morning/last night's blogsurfing, I did want to make it clear that I'm honestly not talking about any one specific person here. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings or imply that anyone doesn't have the right to hold whatever political opinions they so choose. I think I'm just getting much too emotionally wrought over the whole thing, and I need to back away and clear my head a bit ... so apologies in advance if you commented on this post and I'm slow to answer or don't answer at all.

Whew. Brainmelt.

It took me six hours to sort and assign prompts for the sgahcchallenges ficathon. I really wasn't expecting to spend the entire day doing that! I'm not complaining, per se, just somewhat startled and happy to be done. All prompts are sent out! I'm not writing anything for this one, unless I have to pinch-hit -- I figured that I'd use myself to make the numbers come out even, depending on how many people signed up, and it was an even number, so ... *shrugs*. There are lots of lovely-sounding prompts and I don't think I'll have any shortage of fic to read once they're done!

Done with my month's reccing commitment for stargateficrec -- whew! Anyone want to take the John and Rodney friendship category in September?

Still need to finish my story for livelongnmarry (it's mostly done) but that's my only outstanding fic commitment right now ... aside from all the WIPs. I want to do the "first lines" meme that's going around -- it looks really fun, but I really ought to get some writing done tonight!

I haven't responded to most of the comments to the last post and, in honesty, given my state of mind lately, I may not, at least not for a while. But I really appreciate everyone who weighed in on both the pro *and* the con side. I do think your comments/discussion have helped me in understanding where the other side is coming from, and considering what a tense subject it is, I really, really appreciate that people have been reasonable and considerate of each other in the discussion. I like discussing these things, I believe they should be discussed; it's the partisan rhetoric and mudslinging (no matter which side is slinging the mud) that makes me flee screaming to huddle back in my journal, and I really do appreciate the generally civil discourse.

Presently reading news stories about Hurricane Gustav, which, just ... god. I hope everyone is okay.

Whew. Brainmelt.

It took me six hours to sort and assign prompts for the sgahcchallenges ficathon. I really wasn't expecting to spend the entire day doing that! I'm not complaining, per se, just somewhat startled and happy to be done. All prompts are sent out! I'm not writing anything for this one, unless I have to pinch-hit -- I figured that I'd use myself to make the numbers come out even, depending on how many people signed up, and it was an even number, so ... *shrugs*. There are lots of lovely-sounding prompts and I don't think I'll have any shortage of fic to read once they're done!

Done with my month's reccing commitment for stargateficrec -- whew! Anyone want to take the John and Rodney friendship category in September?

Still need to finish my story for livelongnmarry (it's mostly done) but that's my only outstanding fic commitment right now ... aside from all the WIPs. I want to do the "first lines" meme that's going around -- it looks really fun, but I really ought to get some writing done tonight!

I haven't responded to most of the comments to the last post and, in honesty, given my state of mind lately, I may not, at least not for a while. But I really appreciate everyone who weighed in on both the pro *and* the con side. I do think your comments/discussion have helped me in understanding where the other side is coming from, and considering what a tense subject it is, I really, really appreciate that people have been reasonable and considerate of each other in the discussion. I like discussing these things, I believe they should be discussed; it's the partisan rhetoric and mudslinging (no matter which side is slinging the mud) that makes me flee screaming to huddle back in my journal, and I really do appreciate the generally civil discourse.

Presently reading news stories about Hurricane Gustav, which, just ... god. I hope everyone is okay.