Self-appointed arbiters of morailty are rarely right, whether they are from a Red state or a Blue state or a state of confusion.

It's just so weird that only the American culture is so hung up about sex. Our nation was initially colonized by Puritans who seemed to have believed that touching anyone for any purpose other than to pay a debt was disgusting and immoral. As much as the Puritan founders have been diluted with immigrants from around the globe, that sense of "icky" still pervades our culture. I don't want to think that way, but it was inherent in how I was raised. As a kid, I even thought the Life magazine photo essay of a developing fetus (shot in situ with fiber optics) was "dirty." Not to mention all those National Geographic articles on tribal people from warm climates who wear very little clothing!

As a culture, America needs to get out more, meet new folks, get a life, get a sense of proportion.

Hey, I can't find any Executive Orders signed on Monday (presume 29 Jan) either in NARA or White House web sites. The validity of this piece falls apart without that.

A couple of comments sprang to mind as I read this article (and others like it). One, it should not be a surprise that Sarah Palin and the mayor's wife were in the same aerobics class in a small town. That is, after all, the beauty and pain of small towns everywhere, that everyone knows everyone and everyone else's business. So framing the fact of being in aerobics class together as if it has some deeper, darker meaning in Palin's access to the mayor as a mentor is simple big-city bias. It means nothing in the context of a small town.

Two, as every feminist knows, not belonging to the old boys club means that you do not follow their rules. If you take advantage of any mentoring extended by a member, then do not follow the club rules and piss in the corner where and when told, you are bashed. If you also happen to be a woman, it was common 10 or 15 years ago to be called a bitch for this behavior. The representation of Palin as a traitor to her mentors actually signals that she does not accept the old boys club rules.

I do not want to see Palin as Vice President (especially not after Dick Cheney has set the precedent that the veep can do anything under executive privilege without having to bow to executive restraints). But I am against her for other reasons that ones implied in this first part of this article.