Not even by comparison to other Republican women is Sarah Palin hot. She may have stood out by not quite following the Stepford Blonde template though.

But really, anyone who'd get turned on by Sarah Palin must get a bit itchy down there when one of those spectacled beehived women popped up in THE FAR SIDE.

You can afford a new car? AND get paid to write a pathetic justification of it? Good on ya, son!

...but for those of us who live in Seattle or other cities with excellent libraries, there is another option nobody ever brings up.

Library copies of CDs have no DRM at all, you know. And realizing that, my music collection has tripled.

Just a thought.

...over at Tina Brown's new club for her rich chums, the Daily Beast, about how now, because of Madoff, she will have to iron her forty shirts herself and may lose one of her homes, and she treats it as though it were on a level with Katrina. (while making money from writing about it) Reading her stuff I was completely ready to have no pity for the "victims" of this fraud except the charities.

So thank you for a more humble, human perspective from someone who apparently understands that this makes her one with the rest of us, as opposed to Penney, who simply feels filled with horror at the idea of being one of the rest of us.

(And don't even get me started on she of the trust fund, Daphne Merkin. On her I wish a tsuris.)

You could be THIS woman.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/business/07medici.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

"Embarrassment from investing heavily with Mr. Madoff could explain wanting to disappear from public view. But another theory widely repeated by those who know Mrs. Kohn is that she may be afraid of some particularly displeased investors: Russian oligarchs whose money made up a chunk of the $2.1 billion that Bank Medici invested with Mr. Madoff.

'With Russian oligarchs as clients,' said a Viennese banker who knew Mrs. Kohn and her husband socially, 'she might have reason to be afraid.'"

...on the other, I've been in a fixed-doubtful state about it for some time now--not ever getting more or less so, just stuck in the same moment of, "Um, are THEY sure where this is going?" I date this from the instant that "All Along the Watchtower" thing began. Up to that moment, it was hard not to follow the show--it was addictive to watch. You wanted to know what happened next, every moment. You wanted to be surprised. It was the best weekly mindfuck since the Prisoner or Twin Peaks(speak not of LOST to me, haven't seen a single one and won't start now).

And then...the cheeseball device of that song.

It's not the unremitting bleakness that bothers me about it now. I am surprised that's surprising anyone--this show has always been very anti-space opera, and always full of loss, compromised souls, and pain. That I have no problem with. Watching how the fleet reacts--and probably falls into chaos--to this ought to generate some decent drama.

But the story seems to have become far too loose and mystical to hold together anymore. Everyone is a cylon, for instance. If everyone is, by the way, no one is. And the more you think it through the less likely it seems it can be resolved--because it just doesn't. Make. Sense. I look forward to seeing them try to tighten this up.

Each "fact" that was supposedly known turns out to be not true. Which, if pushed hard enough, brings us to a total loss of suspension of disbelief. Because it isn't, to me, having the effect of giving what I saw before a different dimension--like, say, finding out Leland Palmer was his daughter's killer did to all his odd behavior after the death. That didn't render what came before meaningless. This does. It's cheating.

And THAT'S what makes one feel, like the characters, tired and no longer giving a fuck.

I wonder if this show will become quickly dated after the Bush years. Possibly not. I'm not sure, though, if the tone will be something most will want to remember. In fact, this will be the decade that nostalgia forgot.

I've noticed we seem to still have some fearful leftovers of DNC thinking, who believe that Obama should exercise caution with the Republicans.

Uh, no, he shouldn't. I love that he's being so bold, so quickly, and that he began being so right in the first speech. The Republicans only ever had ANY power when the Democrats let them.

The Republicans were placated and they quite literally may have destroyed this country, directly and indirectly through both action and deliberate neglect. And more than just ours.

ANYTHING they did was at best a failure. Their damage must be undone, and fuck those who think that somehow the republicans should be pleased now. No, they should be forgotten and ignored. They had their chance and cooperation and collaboration. It resulted in nothing but harm. They are, at least for a while, revealed as pointless wastes of time. Till they get their shit together and realize what century it is, they are not worth much thought, and NO deference.

Again, fuck 'em. Seriously.

And part of growing up is learning lessons. Which they should be taught now, right away, which is that they have made themselves irrelevant and harmful to the interests of the American people, who told them NO.

So until they figure out how to help rather than harm, they should at least get out of the way. Because at the moment they're exhausted and spitting bile all over the place, judging by Fox News.

Oh, they should keep this up. I think this is exactly the public face they'll want. How smart they are!

Please for the love of God, no more stories with the phrase "horrible, no good, very bad day" attached.