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You are here: Home / The lions, the witch, and the warmongers

The lions, the witch, and the warmongers

by DougJ|  November 21, 201011:18 am| 113 Comments

This post is in: We Are All Mayans Now

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Sarah Palin’s list of reading material is guaranteed to please all sorts of conservatives — teatards, neocons, and Ross Douthat types — and of course that’s no coincidence:

“There’s nothing different today than there was in the last 43 years of my life since I first started reading. I continue to read all that I can get my hands on — and reading biographies of, yes, Thatcher for instance, and of course Reagan and the John Adams letters, and I’m just thinking of a couple that are on my bedside, I go back to C.S. Lewis for inspiration, there’s such a variety, because books have always been important in my life.” She went on: “I’m reading [the conservative radio host] Mark Levin’s book; I’ll get ahold of Glenn Beck’s new book — and now because I’m opening up,” she finished warily, “I’m afraid I’m going to get reporters saying, Oh, she only reads books by Glenn Beck.”

I’m sure this is what Bill Kristol or Gretta Van Sustern’s husband told her to say she was reading. Personally, I don’t have a problem with that, because I’ve always thought questions about what candidates read are stupid questions. They’re easy to game and the only interest is in seeing what kind of high-brow stuff the candidates going to pretend to have read.

I do wonder, though, if this will make Ross Douthat more favorable to her.

Als too, how long til the gumshoes at Slate find out what’s on her iPod?

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Reader Interactions

113Comments

  1. 1.

    shortstop

    November 21, 2010 at 11:20 am

    She’s reading the Adams letters like Dubya read Camus. The problem with the people writing the lines for these losers is they always overplay their hand.

  2. 2.

    cleek

    November 21, 2010 at 11:25 am

    please, someone ask her a specific question about Adams’ letters.

  3. 3.

    shortstop

    November 21, 2010 at 11:29 am

    @cleek: “Do you find yourself aligning more with Jefferson or Adams on the question of natural vs. conferred aristocracy, and why?” “Oh, you know [waves hand], everything!”

  4. 4.

    Mnemosyne

    November 21, 2010 at 11:29 am

    There is no way in hell that Palin read anything by C.S. Lewis or thinks that her religion resembles the Christianity touted by Lewis.

    Actually, it’s probably like Otto in A Fish Called Wanda: she reads things, but she doesn’t understand them.

  5. 5.

    shortstop

    November 21, 2010 at 11:31 am

    “I’m reading [the conservative radio host] Mark Levin’s book; I’ll get ahold of Glenn Beck’s new book—and now because I’m opening up,” she finished warily, “I’m afraid I’m going to get reporters saying, Oh, she only reads books by Glenn Beck.”

    They may say it, but no one thinks you’ve read a book of any sort since the mid-1980s, and then only reluctantly.

  6. 6.

    Unabogie

    November 21, 2010 at 11:36 am

    Shamelessly stealing from a commenter at Benen’s place: She’s not reading whatever she can her hands on. She’s reading whatever she can get on her hand.

  7. 7.

    GregB

    November 21, 2010 at 11:37 am

    No this is really believable and convincing. From the same person who was unable to say at the very least that she reads the Wasilla Daily Mirror when pressed by Katie Couric.

    Now she has lists and lists and lists.

    By the way, I hope people take note and then ask her about what she learned from the Thatcher book and the Reagan book and who the authors were.

  8. 8.

    J Frank Parnell

    November 21, 2010 at 11:38 am

    @shortstop: Another “gotcha” question from the lamestream media. [wink!]

  9. 9.

    aimai

    November 21, 2010 at 11:38 am

    Why is she *still* reading biographies of Reagan–did something new come out? Were there any hidden things about him that his fans didn’t already know or believe? Plus, as others have said, the CS Lewis thing is a total tell–I hear Burkean Bells every time CS Lewis is mentioned. Plus, I reach for my gun.

    aimai

  10. 10.

    beltane

    November 21, 2010 at 11:38 am

    Wait, wait. I thought Granny Grifter read all the books. She is said to be like the library of Alexandria on two legs.

  11. 11.

    Boudica

    November 21, 2010 at 11:42 am

    She’s the same age I am (46) and she’s been reading for 43 years? No way she started reading at 3.

  12. 12.

    Keith

    November 21, 2010 at 11:42 am

    @shortstop:
    She’s reading the Adams letters as in A-D-A-M-S. New Year’s Resolution is J-O-H-N.

  13. 13.

    beltane

    November 21, 2010 at 11:46 am

    @Boudica: But Sarah loves reading. That’s why she attended five colleges, so she could peruse the contents of their libraries. As you can see from the way she raises her kids, Palin is a firm believer in the value of readin’ and learnin’.

  14. 14.

    THE

    November 21, 2010 at 11:46 am

    @Boudica:

    No.
    3 could be right.
    She doesn’t so much read books as color them in.

  15. 15.

    Ross Hershberger

    November 21, 2010 at 11:46 am

    Probably listens to the audiobooks while being driven to and fro. I was shocked to learn that many people do not differentiate between listening to a book and reading it.

  16. 16.

    Bnut

    November 21, 2010 at 11:47 am

    I figure she used Lewis because he’s probably the most famous modern academic who was both a famous Christian and not an evil soshulist. This way she can make a roundabout connection that she too is an academic and a Christian.

  17. 17.

    shortstop

    November 21, 2010 at 11:48 am

    @Keith: Coffee through my nose.

  18. 18.

    bkny

    November 21, 2010 at 11:48 am

    c.s. lewis my ass.

  19. 19.

    danimal

    November 21, 2010 at 11:49 am

    Wow! Maybe she was telling Katie Couric the truth when she was asked what newspapers she reads…”All of them.”

    I confess, I didn’t understand what an accomplished reader Sarah Palin is. My apologies to this accomplished intellectual.

  20. 20.

    4jkb4ia

    November 21, 2010 at 11:50 am

    @aimai: An examination of Amazon showed the top recent Reagan bestseller to be “The Reagan Diaries” which was last year. As someone who is sitting on “The Myth of the Rational Market” and two others because Floyd Norris said nice things about them last year, I will cut Palin some slack on that one.

    (“How Markets Fail”. That was the other one. Yves’s book is not yet bought.)

  21. 21.

    Mnemosyne

    November 21, 2010 at 11:50 am

    @Bnut:

    No, it’s because Lewis is inexplicably a favorite of the fundiest of fundamentalists.

    I have no idea how it happened because if you actually read Lewis, the view of Christianity that he has bears absolutely no resemblance to the brand of Christianity that fundamentalists have, but he has somehow become their mascot.

    ETA: Actually, I do know how it happened — Lewis still has bestselling books several decades after his death, so the fundies appropriated him. In their eyes, he’s just like Tim LaHaye.

  22. 22.

    beltane

    November 21, 2010 at 11:52 am

    @Bnut: Please. She has Lewis on her list because one of her handlers put it there as a way to impress the conservative punditry. Palin’s form of Christianity is primitive and tribal. The words of CS Lewis would come across as nothing more than “blah, blah, blah” to someone of her mindset.

  23. 23.

    dmsilev

    November 21, 2010 at 11:53 am

    I wish she *would* read John Adams. Maybe she’d learn something.

    Since she seems to be desperately lacking in basic empathy, I’d suggest she start with _My Dearest Friend_, a recently reprinted collection of letters which John and Abigail wrote to each other.

    dms

  24. 24.

    Ross Hershberger

    November 21, 2010 at 11:53 am

    I read the Narnia books & the Perelandra series about 35 years ago. In the latter, there is a very strong representation of Socialism as evil.

  25. 25.

    Citizen Alan

    November 21, 2010 at 11:55 am

    I don’t think that Sarah Palin is particularly stupid. If anything, it’s worse than that. I think she is a person of at least average intelligence who has consciously chosen to live a life of studied ignorance about things which do not interest her and about ideas and concepts which might challenge her views of the world. I would have a grudging respect for her if she were actually stupid and had risen to her current position despite a below average intelligence.

  26. 26.

    Bella Q

    November 21, 2010 at 11:56 am

    I’m still tired of her. Sigh.

  27. 27.

    shortstop

    November 21, 2010 at 12:02 pm

    @Citizen Alan: I can’t quite agree. She can’t speak with coherence, sincerity or real passion about the few things that do interest her and don’t challenge her worldview. She does embrace ignorance and has consciously chosen it, but underneath that, I don’t think there’s any there there.

  28. 28.

    Brian S (formerly Incertus)

    November 21, 2010 at 12:03 pm

    @Citizen Alan: I don’t think she’s particularly stupid either. She is, however, extraordinarily ambitious, which can make up for a lack of intellectual curiosity in a lot of cases, especially in the world of 21st century US politics.

  29. 29.

    Mnemosyne

    November 21, 2010 at 12:04 pm

    @Ross Hershberger:

    I was shocked to learn that many people do not differentiate between listening to a book and reading it.

    It’s not like it was back in the days when you had to fit a book onto two cassette tapes and they were heavily edited. Thanks to digital files and MP3 players, most of the audiobooks you get now are unabridged. G just finished listening to all 36 hours of Nixonland and since he got every word of the book, I think it’s fair to say he “read” it.

  30. 30.

    jcricket

    November 21, 2010 at 12:04 pm

    @Mnemosyne: It’s the same way the GOP can, with a straight face, reference 1984/Orwell – not realizing they are the totalitarian party.

  31. 31.

    Ross Hershberger

    November 21, 2010 at 12:07 pm

    If you take a person of more or less average brains and typical education and put them in the public eye long term they’re likely to look like a fool now and then. In my case it would be now and always. It takes a particular kind of personality and no small talent to make your way through the public realm without rhetorically barking your shins on the coffee tables from time to time.
    The people who have the easiest time of it are the colossal habitual liars, for obvious reasons.

  32. 32.

    4jkb4ia

    November 21, 2010 at 12:08 pm

    (Do not be intimidated by Reinhart and Rogoff, folks. It has graphs and I am not sure you have to know what a Kolmogorov-Smirnov is.)

  33. 33.

    Sarcastro

    November 21, 2010 at 12:10 pm

    More like B. S. Lewis. Har har.

  34. 34.

    Ross Hershberger

    November 21, 2010 at 12:12 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    It’s not like it was back in the days when you had to fit a book onto two cassette tapes and they were heavily edited. Thanks to digital files and MP3 players, most of the audiobooks you get now are unabridged. G just finished listening to all 36 hours of Nixonland and since he got every word of the book, I think it’s fair to say he “read” it.

    Okay, I’ll accept that but for me reading and listening are completely different experiences and produce different results. I don’t read a book in a paced and linear manner. To get the most out of it I have to be able to pause frequently, go back, read sentences over, etc. That method meets my needs in reading. I’ve listened to audiobooks for pleasure and the result is shallower. Easier and more entertaining but resulting in less understanding.
    YMMV.

  35. 35.

    eemom

    November 21, 2010 at 12:14 pm

    @Bella Q:

    thisthisthisthisthisthisthisthisthis.

    And it has barely even begun. As constantly and sickeningly as this vacuous woman has been shoved in our faces for more than two years, it is going to get worse and worse and WORSE with the ever-accelerating madness of the 2012 election.

    Just over the next week or so, it is guaranteed to be All Palin All The Time right here on this very blog as Rich-esque commentary spews forth from all directions about her nomination prospects, her idiot kids, her new stupid “book”….. dear God, Andrew Sullivan alone is sure to generate hundreds of miles of comment threads with whatever smoldering scandals he finds embedded its pages.

    We are doomed. DOOMED, I tell you.

  36. 36.

    suzanne

    November 21, 2010 at 12:14 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    There is no way in hell that Palin read anything by C.S. Lewis or thinks that her religion resembles the Christianity touted by Lewis.

    Awww, that’s not fair. She might have read “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe” a couple of years ago. ;)

  37. 37.

    PurpleGirl

    November 21, 2010 at 12:15 pm

    @Mnemosyne: They don’t actually read C. S. Lewis. He has a reputation and name recognition. It sounds good and intellectual to say you’ve read Lewis. And there’s that religious side to it… he’s Christian and writes with a Christian tone and meaning.

    I will admit that I’ve begun reading him several times and never finished any book I’ve started. I was told that I had to read the Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength). I found them boring and couldn’t get into them. I stopped reading them, I don’t force read as it’s too much like punishment.

  38. 38.

    Bill Murray

    November 21, 2010 at 12:19 pm

    Why does anyone assume the CS Lewis she is reading is not The Chronicles of Narnia? I postulate that she sees herself as a combination of the White Witch and Aslan. When she’s down she reads Narnia and gets inspired. Like many reasonably sharp 10 year olds

  39. 39.

    eemom

    November 21, 2010 at 12:20 pm

    @shortstop:

    I don’t think there’s any there there.

    again, this. And no shit. Ferfucksake, we all KNOW she doesn’t read squat. We all KNOW that “reading list” was written for her. We all KNOW she’s a liar and a fraud.

    I mean, WHAT ARE WE EVEN DISCUSSING HERE??

    [primal scream]

  40. 40.

    Mnemosyne

    November 21, 2010 at 12:21 pm

    @PurpleGirl:

    Yeah, I wasn’t too impressed by Lewis’ “adult” sci-fi books, either. I still love the Narnia books since I read them as a kid, but there are definitely a few moments that make me wince as an adult. (Though it is pretty funny to see Lewis dismiss Mormonism as the fad religion of its day in Voyage of the Dawn Treader.)

    If you’re at all interested in his theology, The Screwtape Letters is a pretty entertaining (and short) read and gives you most of what you need to know. It’s generally pretty easy to find a used copy, and you will discern quickly that it bears virtually no resemblance to what fundamentalists tout.

  41. 41.

    Mnemosyne

    November 21, 2010 at 12:22 pm

    @suzanne:

    I think she thinks it counts as “reading” it if she saw the movie.

  42. 42.

    EIGRP

    November 21, 2010 at 12:22 pm

    Maybe she’s reading Glenn Beck’s Christmas book for kids? Or Huckabee’s?

    At the local Borders, the kids table had piles of all sorts of holiday stories. The Beck and Huckabee piles didn’t seem to be selling that well.

    Eric

  43. 43.

    chopper

    November 21, 2010 at 12:24 pm

    @cleek:

    lol. “well, i think Lurch is kinda cool.”

  44. 44.

    Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle

    November 21, 2010 at 12:25 pm

    Has any one realized that the ghostwriter of The Quittah’s latest book is Doughbob Loadpants’ wife?

  45. 45.

    Shell Goddamnit

    November 21, 2010 at 12:27 pm

    The fundies love CS Lewis because he is absolutely infuriating when he writes about religion. They love that shit.

    I count the Space Trilogy as religious writings, also.

  46. 46.

    AB

    November 21, 2010 at 12:32 pm

    So, she likes Narnia. cool.

  47. 47.

    tbogg

    November 21, 2010 at 12:32 pm

    @Citizen Alan: I still have “stupid” in my office pool.

  48. 48.

    The Tim Channel

    November 21, 2010 at 12:34 pm

    Sarah is the gift that keeps on giving. She’s taken shark jumping to epistemological closure. I’ve got some ideas for the opt opt TSA scanner protest scheduled for my birthday (24 Nov).

    Sarah is selling soft core political sex. I say two can play that game and that liberals look better nude anyway. To wit:

    http://thetimchannel.wordpress.com/2010/11/21/a-birthday-fantasy/

    Enjoy.

  49. 49.

    AB

    November 21, 2010 at 12:36 pm

    @Bill Murray: damn, beaten to it.

  50. 50.

    Hurling Dervish

    November 21, 2010 at 12:40 pm

    @Ross Hershberger:
    You may be right that reading and being read to are different things. But I don’t buy that one is superior to the other. I have heard a number of audiobooks in which I have caught things I never would have noticed if I had read them. And I am much less likely to skip over something that bores me.

  51. 51.

    matoko_chan

    November 21, 2010 at 12:43 pm

    DougJ, Ross and Reihan were Palins biggest pimps when she burst on the scene. They knew exactly what she was, but planned to pygmalion her before the electorate caught on.
    They used her right up through the midterms like a tasp on the low information base to whip up white jeebus frenzy and ressentiment.
    But they know, along with Rove, she cannot possibly win the presidential.
    So now they will all pile on to kneecap her.
    But they have to do it dellllllllliiiiiiicaaaaately.
    Or the rabid nutjobs will lose heart and stay home, and also RINO them out of the party.

  52. 52.

    jayackroyd

    November 21, 2010 at 12:43 pm

    Aw.

    No lyric in the title.

    Pretty much any line in Pretty Vacant works.

    http://www.lyricsfreak.com/s/sex+pistols/pretty+vacant_20123600.html

  53. 53.

    AB

    November 21, 2010 at 12:44 pm

    agh, beaten by the title even. I should really read those.

  54. 54.

    jayackroyd

    November 21, 2010 at 12:46 pm

    @tbogg:

    I’m sticking with “liar” and “evil” almost every time these days. This START business was the tipping point.

    They are actively working to make things worse.

  55. 55.

    bryanD

    November 21, 2010 at 12:47 pm

    Conversion-tease!

    “CS Lewis” is a sop to get invited to the Vatican in 2011.

    Book it.

  56. 56.

    Citizen_X

    November 21, 2010 at 12:51 pm

    Only Sunday, and DougJ’s already won the Post Title of the Week award. Damn.

  57. 57.

    Ross Hershberger

    November 21, 2010 at 12:52 pm

    @Hurling Dervish:

    You may be right that reading and being read to are different things. But I don’t buy that one is superior to the other.

    For some purposes listening is functionally the same as reading. I’d listen to a Dave Barry book or Carl Hiaasen.
    For me (again, YMMV) more difficult content requires engaging the visual portion of the brain more than the auditory, and the ability to set the pace myself. I certainly wouldn’t want a genius like Adams read to me, especially since the language is 250 years out of date and the subjects are unfamiliar. That requires more concentration to get the content out of it.
    So I’ll disagree and say that for some purposes reading is superior to listening.

  58. 58.

    4jkb4ia

    November 21, 2010 at 12:54 pm

    (Meanwhile, the Rhodes scholarships were given out yesterday, including one to a WashU graduate, and we are talking about Sarah Palin instead of the unmistakable achievements of these wonderful people. Many of them seem interested in global health.)

  59. 59.

    Anya

    November 21, 2010 at 1:01 pm

    What I don’t get is, why does she care about presenting herself as an avid reader? I thought her supporters liked her because she was ignorant like them and did not participate in elitists things like thinking, reading and appreciating other people’s point of views.

  60. 60.

    Mike G

    November 21, 2010 at 1:03 pm

    @suzanne:

    She might have read “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe” a couple of years ago. ;)

    And what she came away with was that the RNC should buy her and her family $150k worth of wardrobe.

  61. 61.

    cleter

    November 21, 2010 at 1:11 pm

    Has she gotten to that part where Adams says “we are not a Christian nation” yet? Wonder what she thinks of that.

    I think by “reading John Adams,” she means “oh, I watched that 1776 movie when it came on the TCM that time–maybe it was the 4th of July?–oh and that little song that John Adams sings is gosh-darn catchy, you know? About the salt, and the peter, and the freedoms that we cherish in the heartland? And I read the credits to see what that actor’s name was, and darned if it wasn’t that Jeff Daniels that was in the Gettysburg, about so many of our brave fighting boys who protect our freedoms, like my son Trog who I’m so proud of.”

    Eventually someone will point out that William Daniels was in 1776, not Jeff Daniels, and outwardly she’ll shrug, but inwardly, she’ll put the nitpicker on her secret List of People to Send to Guantanamo When I Am President.

  62. 62.

    Shalimar

    November 21, 2010 at 1:15 pm

    As loathsome as Glenn Beck is in almost every other way, at least he does have a genuine passion for thrillers and you can tell he really is a reader. Not the kind of thing a political bullshitter admits unless he really likes them, and he has acted like a schoolgirl when he has had his favorite authors on his radio show before.

  63. 63.

    burnspbesq

    November 21, 2010 at 1:22 pm

    I’ll hazard a guess as to what’s on Palin’s iPod.

    It’s mostly horrifying “classic rock.” Journey, Kansas, Heart, REO Speedwagon, Stevie Nicks.

    With a smattering of second-rate Southern rock. Not Allmans or Skynyrd. Sarah doesn’t do authentic. More likely the Marshall Tucker Band and .38 Special.

    You know, the crap that Real Murkins listen to when they are driving around in their F-150s.

    ETA: If there’s any country on Sarah’s iPod, it’s probably female artists, who are her role models for their brave fight against the male-dominated Nashville establishment. Not anybody good, of course: no Emmylou Harris, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Rosanne Cash, or Kathy Mattea. More like Reba McIntyre, Lorrie Morgan, Martina McBride. Trisha Yearwood is probably as edgy as Sarah can handle.

  64. 64.

    Shalimar

    November 21, 2010 at 1:26 pm

    @Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle: Someone married him? Holy crap, we are in the end times.

  65. 65.

    Shalimar

    November 21, 2010 at 1:33 pm

    @4jkb4ia: I know what a Smirnov is. Does Kolmogorov mix well with vodka?

  66. 66.

    patrick II

    November 21, 2010 at 1:39 pm

    @Boudica: She’s lying about her age.

  67. 67.

    Hob

    November 21, 2010 at 1:49 pm

    @bryanD: Huh? Lewis wasn’t Catholic.

  68. 68.

    matoko_chan

    November 21, 2010 at 1:53 pm

    @burnspbesq: dude, where were you during the campaign, when Palin got dissed by one 80’s hair band after another (and plus Foo Fighters) for using their beats?
    Bon Jovi, Heart, Survivor, Van Halen….the list goes on.
    Van Halen had to leave to leave a serious mark.
    Track Van Palin was named after them.
    She’s just a sad mallbangs and big hair 80’s dimbo that got shut down for the WH prom.

  69. 69.

    DougJ

    November 21, 2010 at 1:59 pm

    @jayackroyd:

    And we don’t care.

  70. 70.

    Cacti

    November 21, 2010 at 2:06 pm

    She probably has the Narnia books on tape…

    Or what I like to think of as the retarded step-cousin of Lord of the Rings.

  71. 71.

    licensed to kill time

    November 21, 2010 at 2:07 pm

    @Anya:

    What I don’t get is, why does she care about presenting herself as an avid reader?

    Because she has been doing a slow burn ever since she got punk’d by Katie on what she reads. It just took her this long to come up with a snappy answer.

    Palin holds grudges longtime.

  72. 72.

    MaryRC

    November 21, 2010 at 2:09 pm

    @Hob: Lewis was Anglican, but many trad Catholics like to claim him as one of their own. Not sure how the Vatican feels about that, though.

  73. 73.

    4jkb4ia

    November 21, 2010 at 2:13 pm

    @Shalimar:
    I asked for that.
    The Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test Kolmogorov was a Soviet-era mathematician so may go well with vodka

  74. 74.

    parsimon

    November 21, 2010 at 2:20 pm

    @cleter:

    I think by “reading John Adams,” she means “oh, I watched that 1776 movie when it came on the TCM that time

    She’s likely just gesturing toward teh Founders, which is all that matters for her listeners/readers.

    I’m slightly intrigued by the fact that this Palin profile is appearing in the NYT magazine. Last I heard, a certain type of conservative eschewed the NYT altogether. I wonder whether — but doubt that — this will get them to look at it once in a while beyond just the Palin profile.

    Her publicity machine is really pretty amazing, you have to give it that; but there’s no way it can withstand the pressures of an actual Presidential campaign.

  75. 75.

    Anya

    November 21, 2010 at 2:30 pm

    Via Palingates

    Chalk some of them up as victims of the cult of self-esteem. No one they have encountered in their lives – from their parents to their teachers to their president – wanted them to feel bad by hearing the truth. So they grew up convinced that they could become big pop stars like Michael Jackson. On American Idol, of course, these self-esteem-enhanced but talent deprived performers eventually learn the truth. After they’ve embarrassed themselves for the benefit of the producers, they are told in no uncertain terms that they, in fact, can’t sing, regardless of what they have been told by others. But in the wider world, these kind of instances of hard-truth-telling are increasingly rare. Instead of eventually confronting the limits of their inflated egos when it comes to paying the rent and putting food on the table, Americans are increasingly told not to worry about it. Someone else will provide for them.

    This is from the leaked pages of Sarah Palin’s new book.

    Have you ever met anyone who lacked self awareness like this woman? Her whole career is based on American public rewarding mediocrity, and she is a prime example of someone who fails to confront the “limits of her inflated ego”. Not to mention her daughter is in a show where she’s the least talented, and yet, she believes she deserves to win the meaningless trophy.

    Can we please stop talking about this woman because she gives me a headache.

    @licensed to kill time: Her vindictiveness is the same reason she continues to attack her grandson’s 20 year old father.

  76. 76.

    shortstop

    November 21, 2010 at 2:33 pm

    @Anya: Okay, they’re just blatantly, gleefully fucking with us now.

  77. 77.

    Brachiator

    November 21, 2010 at 2:45 pm

    @Ross Hershberger:

    For me (again, YMMV) more difficult content requires engaging the visual portion of the brain more than the auditory, and the ability to set the pace myself. I certainly wouldn’t want a genius like Adams read to me, especially since the language is 250 years out of date and the subjects are unfamiliar. That requires more concentration to get the content out of it. So I’ll disagree and say that for some purposes reading is superior to listening.

    I see where you are coming from, but could it be that reading and listening are just two different ways of getting to the same place? Much of what is considered important in human society is still based on listening, while reading and literacy are very, very recent adaptations. All kinds of stuff in the brain and the eyes have been gimmicked and improvised to accommodate reading (maybe why there are a wide variety of reading problems).

    Also, you have to decide to keep your attention focused if you are listening to something. If you get distracted while reading, you can go back over the material again.

    It’s interesting that trials are based on testimony, speaking and listening. Jurors cannot read transcripts or depositions, but must make life and death decisions based on what they hear.

    Anyhoo, this is much more interesting than the tricked up reading lists of Snowmobile Snookie, but still…

    @Citizen Alan:

    I don’t think that Sarah Palin is particularly stupid. If anything, it’s worse than that. I think she is a person of at least average intelligence who has consciously chosen to live a life of studied ignorance about things which do not interest her and about ideas and concepts which might challenge her views of the world.

    I agree with you, but Palin speaks to the sweet spot of contemporary America. Sometime after the Kennedy Administration, the US gradually became a more anti-intellectual society. Anyone in public life who reads books for anything other than professional reasons is suspect, probably being pretentious.

    Politicians must always show themselves to be a regular guy. And regular guys don’t read no books.

    For conservatives, the rules are even more rigid. Aside from the Bible, conservatives can only safely only admit to reading stuff that confirms and reinforces their ideological principles.

    As an aside, it’s funny, but typical, that Palin talks about reading the Adams letters, but not any Adams biography or analysis. Conservatives are big on originalism, and the idea that one only has to read what the Founders, or the Deity, actually wrote, in order to understand the world.

    Also, too, Dubya and Palin both lack any intellectual curiosity. This has become a feature, not bug, of modern Republican thinking.

  78. 78.

    Kathy in St. Louis

    November 21, 2010 at 2:47 pm

    She reads? I believe her about as much as I believe George W. Bush’s reading list the summer it included Albert Camus.

  79. 79.

    Kathy in St. Louis

    November 21, 2010 at 2:47 pm

    She reads? I believe her about as much as I believe George W. Bush’s reading list the summer it included Albert Camus.

  80. 80.

    parsimon

    November 21, 2010 at 2:50 pm

    @Anya:

    Wait, that’s from Palin’s book? Huh. I’m not inclined to read the Palingates site closely, but I take it that’s part of an anti-welfare-state theme. The notion that people expect handouts is anathema, etc.

    I’m concerned less about her running for president and more about her harping on this theme. She’s doing a fair amount of damage with it, and she’s only in a position to do it as long as she’s not running for public office (not needing the votes of those who rely on a social safety net).

    Who the hell are her handlers? She’s not coming up with this stuff herself.

  81. 81.

    Kathy in St. Louis

    November 21, 2010 at 2:53 pm

    She reads? I believe her about as much as I believe George W. Bush’s reading list the summer it included Albert Camus’ The Stranger. Yessir, I also believe she’s fabulous homemaker.

  82. 82.

    parsimon

    November 21, 2010 at 2:53 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Jurors cannot read transcripts

    Not true.

  83. 83.

    parsimon

    November 21, 2010 at 2:56 pm

    @Brachiator:

    I see where you are coming from, but could it be that reading and listening are just two different ways of getting to the same place?

    I’d say they’re different ways of coming to different places.

    But I can leave this — rather interesting! — subthread alone.

  84. 84.

    Tom

    November 21, 2010 at 3:04 pm

    All this media celebrity whore dolt likely reads are ‘People’ and ‘US’ magazines.

  85. 85.

    asiangrrlMN

    November 21, 2010 at 3:09 pm

    @Ross Hershberger: Yeah, I am going to agree with you on this, but I am a word-lover, and nothing to me replaces the actual experience of having book in hand. In addition, I don’t learn as well by hearing as I do by seeing/doing, so there is that, too. I am a complete Luddite in this matter, but I also agree that for purely entertainment reasons, there’s nothing wrong with audio versions.

    As for Palin, yeah, whatever. Benen said it best. The people who are skeptical of her anyway won’t be swayed by this comment. The people who love her won’t give a damn.

  86. 86.

    Zuzu's Petals

    November 21, 2010 at 3:18 pm

    @Ross Hershberger:

    I too read both series back in the ’70s, and am assuming she’s probably read the Narnia series as it’s the most popular and accessible. She’s probably willing to let us infer that she reads his more serious work because why not?

  87. 87.

    Anya

    November 21, 2010 at 3:29 pm

    @shortstop: That was my initial thought. This person will ruin American politics for ever and out sanity in the process.

    @parsimon: Isn’t the tea party all about apposing “government handouts”? And Sarah Palin who argues that no one should be dependent on the government for anything is as hypocritical as the teabaggers, because her husband, her children and even grandchild all have socialized health care courtesy of the federal governement, through Indian Health Services and the Alaska Native Medical Center. But they (Palin and the baggers) will get away with this because the media refuses to report, instead they’ll just continue to repeat the nonsense that comes out of her hateful mouth.

  88. 88.

    curious

    November 21, 2010 at 3:45 pm

    again, i wonder when she’ll be ready to handle an in-person interview with someone besides her co-workers. i don’t trust this phone interview business.

  89. 89.

    parsimon

    November 21, 2010 at 3:46 pm

    @Anya:

    Isn’t the tea party all about opposing “government handouts”?

    Opposing government handouts for those who don’t deserve them –something which is defined very specifically — yes.

    As you say.

  90. 90.

    Ross Hershberger

    November 21, 2010 at 3:46 pm

    A lot of what I read is technical or abstract. I need to be able to re-read. Think it over, look for the loopholes or hidden assumptions, analyze and understand before moving on. I would say that anything that you’re paying close attention to benefits from that treatment. It’s not the same as having the text presented to you linearly at some fixed, arbitrary pace.

    One of the most awesome sentences I’ve run across this month:
    “Einstein deduced that free fall – the path of least resistance – is motion along the spacetime geodesic.” That made me literally jump up and yell.

  91. 91.

    Zuzu's Petals

    November 21, 2010 at 3:54 pm

    @matoko_chan:

    So now they will all pile on to kneecap her.
    But they have to do it dellllllllliiiiiiicaaaaately.
    Or the rabid nutjobs will lose heart and stay home, and also RINO them out of the party.

    In which case we can hope that she makes an independent “screw you” run after being beaten up in the primaries. Splitting the GOP vote and all that.

  92. 92.

    Ross Hershberger

    November 21, 2010 at 4:01 pm

    @Zuzu’s Petals:

    In which case we can hope that she makes an independent “screw you” run after being beaten up in the primaries. Splitting the GOP vote and all that.

    That may be our best hope. Either the GOP will subvert and re-absorb the TP-ers before 2012 or the TP-ers will revolt and run against them from the Right. Nothing would make my decade like seeing Huck or Romney Nadered by the monster that the GOP created.
    This is why I watch Palin carefully. She’s a loose cannon with potential to do much more damage to the GOP than the Dems.

  93. 93.

    Zuzu's Petals

    November 21, 2010 at 4:01 pm

    @Anya:

    Oh God, that is rich coming from Dancing Bristol’s mother.

  94. 94.

    Zuzu's Petals

    November 21, 2010 at 4:03 pm

    @Ross Hershberger:

    I agree. The deliciousness of Rove et al being discombobulated by the prospect is simply delicious.

  95. 95.

    Zuzu's Petals

    November 21, 2010 at 4:08 pm

    @Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle:

    Guess it’s not too surprising, as she and the Witless One go way back:

    [Jessica Gavora] grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska where she played high school basketball against Sarah Palin.

    Yuck.

  96. 96.

    Mike in NC

    November 21, 2010 at 4:14 pm

    @Tom:

    All this media celebrity whore dolt likely reads are ‘People’ and ‘US’ magazines.

    Nah, more like “In Touch” and “National Enquirer”. Actually, she’s such a preening narcissist the Palin’s must have dedicated an entire room of their house (AKA “the Library”) to hold a copy of every newspaper and magazine that’s ever run her picture.

  97. 97.

    Ross Hershberger

    November 21, 2010 at 4:17 pm

    The TP-ers have had a taste of electoral power. They have a figurehead in Palin. I think it’s up to her whether she sticks with the GOP or follows her adoring fans and runs for office as a 3rd or indie candidate. I give it a low chance of happening but 2 years is a long time in politics. Especially lately.

    I think what Palin clearly wants is attention. If the GOP snubs her the attraction of her own party might be too much to resist.

  98. 98.

    Brachiator

    November 21, 2010 at 4:39 pm

    @parsimon:
    RE: Jurors cannot read transcripts

    Not true.

    What I originally wrote may have been overly broad. During the trial, the jury can take notes, but while the attorneys have all kinds of stuff available to them, including computers, jurors cannot halt a trial to ask to read earlier testimony. And as far as I know, jurors cannot take written copies of the entire trial transcript with them when they deliberate.

  99. 99.

    Paris

    November 21, 2010 at 4:45 pm

    Douche-hat will be hot for Palin when she mentions Chesterton.

  100. 100.

    Brachiator

    November 21, 2010 at 5:11 pm

    @Ross Hershberger:

    The TP-ers have had a taste of electoral power. They have a figurehead in Palin. I think it’s up to her whether she sticks with the GOP or follows her adoring fans and runs for office as a 3rd or indie candidate. I give it a low chance of happening but 2 years is a long time in politics. Especially lately.

    The mainstream GOP is stuck between a rock and a hard place. They count on the Tea Party to energize the Republicans and possibly even bring new people to the party. And the Tea Party people see themselves as purifying the GOP. A lot of the money going into Tea Party candidates comes from people who also donate to the regular GOP. However, the mainstream Republicans don’t always appreciate Palin’s “thoughts” and contributions, but they are powerless to control her.

    But I can’t see any elected or potential Tea Party people following Palin into a third party. And I would be very surprised to see Murdoch or the other money interests funding a Palin breakaway.

  101. 101.

    Zuzu's Petals

    November 21, 2010 at 6:11 pm

    I have to scratch my head at this nugget:

    That’s what happens when you grow up in a house full of teachers — you read; and I always have.

    A “house full of teachers”? Uhm, her dad was a science teacher and her mom was a school secretary, so unless she had a few aunt and uncle teachers living with ’em … .

    Plus, no offense to the scientists among us, but the fact that your dad taught science and coached track doesn’t lead to the logical conclusion that you developed well-rounded tastes in reading…history, literature, art, etc. And of course reading and listening to interviews of her parents and siblings, much less Barbie herself, makes it pretty hard to believe there was much of an intellectual life going on in that household.

    And her college years bear that out…in my opinion, anyway.

  102. 102.

    Ross Hershberger

    November 21, 2010 at 6:33 pm

    I don’t have a clear understanding of the TP/GOP dynamics. There are at least three major aspects: rally motivated enthusiasm, support money and actual voting. I’d like to get a grip on what’s going on there but it’s far from clear where those people in the peculiar hats came from, what they were doing before and what they’ll actually turn out to vote for.

    I think that if more mainstream GOP-ers follow Bar Bush’s lead and tell Palin to butt out she’ll get peeved and push back. She doesn’t seem to take criticism well.

  103. 103.

    Zuzu's Petals

    November 21, 2010 at 7:08 pm

    @Zuzu’s Petals:

    Okay, I see she posted this at her FB page (which I refuse to link to) last summer, after the “rolling her eyes at a teacher” moment:

    I come from a family of teachers; my grandparents were teachers, my father was a teacher, my brother is a teacher, my sister works in Special Needs classrooms, my aunt is a school nurse, my mom worked as a school secretary for much of her professional life, we all volunteer in classrooms, etc., etc., etc.

    But don’t her grandparents and aunt live in the lower 48? And unless her brother was credentialed while she was in grade school, it’s hard to see how he could be part of the “house full” of teachers she grew up in. I guess we’ll have to give her a bit of a pass on this one, winking at her typical fact-challenged resume padding.

    And regardless, my point stands re the ludicrousness of thinking of Palin as the result of an intellectually vital household.

  104. 104.

    shortstop

    November 21, 2010 at 7:57 pm

    @Zuzu’s Petals: Not to mention that neither of her first two kids managed to finish high school; smart money’s on the third living down to their example (especially as the local high school is so darn full of faggots). During the 2008 campaign, SP had #3 and #4 out of school for weeks at a time to serve as props. For growing up in a houseful of teachers, she doesn’t seem to have a lot of use for schools and education.

  105. 105.

    Frank

    November 21, 2010 at 8:08 pm

    I have sincere doubts that she does a lot of reading when hopping into bed at night. (No, I’m not going to paint a lewd picture of her and her knucklehead husband frolicking. That would really put the “ick” in “frolicking”!) But I imagine she’s much more likely to grab the remote and click on her gigantic plasma-screen TV and settle in for some sort of snarky reality program that might actually make her look intelligent by comparison to the dufuses (dufi?) depicted.

  106. 106.

    Svensker

    November 21, 2010 at 8:12 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    There is no way in hell that Palin read anything by C.S. Lewis or thinks that her religion resembles the Christianity touted by Lewis.

    I have family in the same branch of Christianity that Palin follows and they are big Lewis fans, as well. I don’t think he’d like them, but they love him.

  107. 107.

    Bruce (formerly Steve S.)

    November 21, 2010 at 8:25 pm

    C.S. Lewis

    The oldest trick in the book. If you want to maintain marginal cred with both Christians and intellectuals just drop this name.

  108. 108.

    4jkb4ia

    November 21, 2010 at 9:11 pm

    DougJ has forgotten to say that in the preceding paragraph Draper mentioned that Palin has also referred on Twitter and Facebook to Thatcher and Reagan biographies she has read. So there is more evidence than the single quote that she did read them.

    In terms of complicated literary style, Adams isn’t John Stuart Mill (with whom some people I knew had difficulty). Adams might be a model for Palin in sounding blunt and educated at the same time.

  109. 109.

    mds

    November 21, 2010 at 10:10 pm

    DougJ has forgotten to say that in the preceding paragraph Draper mentioned that Palin has also referred on Twitter and Facebook to Thatcher and Reagan biographies she has read.

    Hmm, did she skip over the bits about Reagan signing treaties with the Russians, or sensibly cutting and running from Middle Eastern terrorist attacks? Or how about Thatcher getting a real college degree in chemistry, and being a pre-Gore advocate of fighting anthropogenic climate change? Perhaps her reactions to those facts just didn’t make it into those otherwise-conclusive Twitter and Facebook references.

    Adams might be a model for Palin in sounding blunt and educated at the same time.

    Also in being a Unitarian, in being dismissive of End Times kooks, and in signing off on treaties with Muslim pirates.

    Though to be fair to Palin, the Alien and Sedition Acts would probably be right up her alley … as long as the seditionists in question weren’t the ones who support her. And as long as someone wrote how to pronounce “sedition” on her hand for her.

  110. 110.

    Judas Escargot

    November 21, 2010 at 10:29 pm

    @mds:

    She should refudiate all seditionizers.

  111. 111.

    PanurgeATL

    November 21, 2010 at 10:58 pm

    @matoko_chan:

    Well, that’s nice to know. (Did you know that White Lion’s “Little Fighter” is about the Rainbow Warrior?)

    I’ve gotta say, though, that this little exchange bolsters a point I keep trying to make–that post-punk alterna-hipster disdain for ’70s rock is part of the reason people who cherish that stuff (whether you like it or not) tend to vote Republican. Cultural resentment plays itself out in politics. Stupid, yeah, but there you go.

  112. 112.

    DPirate

    November 22, 2010 at 9:17 am

    I wonder who told her to say those authors. Does she know Lewis thought women should not hold positions of power?

  113. 113.

    Wednesday

    November 22, 2010 at 12:20 pm

    If she’s read C. S. Lewis, I’m a queen in Narnia.

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