Politics and Culture

1. Remember the "lipstick on a pig" fiasco, the actual turning point of the McCain campaign? This Letterman-Palin thing is similar. We have two competing objections to the joke, the idea of personal affront and group affront. Personal insult to Sarah Palin and her family and of a group insult to conservative women.

It's easier to be noble when reacting to a personal insult. If more prominent, brushing it off might be a good idea. Fighting is the better option when at a disadvantage. When reacting, it's better to keep it short, lest people turn on the offended party for the suspicion that the offendee is using the incident for some kind of gain. It's not good to appeal to victim hood or to say, "if it were x instead of me, people would be more upset." Conservatives don't wear victimhood well, and the media wouldn't cooperate even in the worst cases. It's the people who watch the mainstream media that Republicans want to convert.

2. Besides this, no serious person thinks that David Letterman meant the underage daughter. It's more plausible for Letterman to deny the "knocked-up" remark than Obama's "lipstick on a pig" utterance.

3. If your single-mom daughter on the cover of a magazine, expect some jokes.

Therefore, keep cool. Don't take undue umbrage. Be honorable and have behaved above reproach.

4. One of the ways that Obama wants to save money is by emphasizing prevention. People wrongly think of people as cars. Take care of them and they will last you a long time, with few problems, until you can get another car. The longer you delay another car, the more money you save.

Well, with people the longer you delay death, the more you spend, on social security and, indeed, on health care. In addition, everybody will die. It's the last few months of somebody's life where they use the most health care. Everybody will have a "last few months." If you really want to save money, do like Logan's Run and facilitate an early death.

5. Obama denied being a liberal in the election, as all liberals do. Let's see:

1. Big spender- check.
2. Abortion, gay stuff, family issues- check.
3. Foreign policy weakness- check.
4. Government control over lives- check.
5. Anti-business- check.
6. Taxes- to be checked.

6. Over the top coverage of Obama's fly swatting is good. Remember Sanjaya and the frumpy Scottish lady who sang that song. Every over-exposed celebrity becomes a joke.

7. I don't mind that Sotomayor is a member of an all-female group called the Belizian Grove. I think it's good than guys and dolls have their separate spaces. Isn't that how it is de facto? Why not reflect that reality de jure?