Palin is a grown-up, and walked into this with her non-blinking eyes wide open.

All this "Obama has basically won" talk (especially over at Newsweek, damn) has me nervous, because I may not believe in god, but I sure am superstitious. It's all I can do to remind myself that if McCain wins (by theft, naturally), life actually will go on. I will probably not move to Canada, I will probably not actually want to die...any more than usual. Let's see what happens Tuesday--if it's over, which it probably won't be, or if we have another protracted battle ahead of us.

...and my guess is that much of the prostitution "problem" would go away. Probably larger than the phenomenon of trafficked women from other countries is the home-grown phenomenon of prostitutes who are in it for drugs. Putting a prostitute in jail for exchanging sex for money or drugs is no more useful than putting a drug user in jail for using. Criminalizing prostitution is just another way to punish drug users.

I'd like to think that every election brings out its share of insane theories and fear-baiting, but the reason we're hearing so much about them in this one is because the right literally does not have another thing to talk about. This is it. This is all their news. These are the people who are left voting for McCain.

...well, them and the quiet ones who don't believe a word that comes out of any politician's mouth, so might as well go ahead and vote for the one who will lower their taxes. Who would have thought that the folks simply voting with their wallets would be the least repulsive of McCain's supporters?

Bittersweet, indeed. But I agree with others--these are among the last death throes of the bigots.

He's not sour enough for me yet. I want these people to really suffer. I want them to feel as disaffected and alienated from their own fucking country as I did for 8 years, and see how well they like it. I want Obama to convert to Islam just to really put the screws to them. I want them to cry like the fucking assholes at the McCain speech last night--but harder.

Well, that's what the devil in me wants. The real me just wants my country back.

This was the only real crack in my day.

More dirt on in-fighting! More dirt on the cynicism of republican strategists! More dirt on the symbolic middle finger that was extended to thinking people everywhere! More more more! I'm looking forward to the book, frankly.

"So all of you wizards of smart on our side, all of you intellectualoids who think that Palin was a drag, the party loves Sarah Palin. The vast majority of conservative Republicans love Sarah Palin."

Is there a stronger clarion call to conservatives who DON'T "love" Sarah Palin to get the hell out of the republican party? Then the party can be 100% in favor of Palin, but perhaps much, much smaller.

I'll second the notion that hunting your meat is less cruel than buying the deformed products of factory farming.

Still not great.

I don't think there'd be so much chatter about this if the wingnuts didn't have an idea of how it might happen. We have to remember that for terrifyingly many, Palin was a positive addition to the ticket.

But you know? Let's not worry about this now. A lot can happen in 4 years. Barack Obama can go from giving a good speech to being elected president, for example. Palin could, theoretically, learn that Africa is a continent.

You said, "It's no worse for [DurianJoe] to eat an animal than for a tiger to eat an animal."

I would say aside from the fact that tigers need to eat animals and we--Westerners in the 21st century--don't, I actually agree with you. It's not *eating* animals that's my problem. It's the way the animals are raised before they're eaten that I find truly problematic. Like it or not, it's hard to get away from that issue if you're going to eat meat on a regular basis, unless you're pretty wealthy.

Why does animal behavior become such a compelling model for people when the behavior in question is eating meat?

Do people still think that expensive toys confer a greater advantage than a couple of basics that allow for imaginitive play? Good lord. The falling middle class can be so damn annoying.

are as appealing as ever.

Too bad so many people are having such a hard time with equality.

You're doing better than I am. I'm not exactly a failure, so you're probably doing better than many. Here's the thing about all your illustrious former classmates, and I'm only guessing--it's not much of an accomplishment for a privileged, pampered, loved child to become a successful adult. Things that look smaller on paper may be far greater accomplishments. People have vastly different starting points in life.

One good thing happened at my high school reunion, though--I was the only person who had gotten thinner. Shallow? TOTALLY. Felt nice, anyway.