While the beliefs and rituals of the Pentecostals don't surprise me - I've experienced snake handling as a means of Christian worship, and devoted countless hours to studying religiosity in America - what concerns me is the way in which her beliefs seemingly influence her political drive and worldview. And that makes her:

1) A crusader.

She sees the conflict in Iraq as divine. Yet it was started on false premises by men who created the evidence out of whole cloth. So in some ways that makes Pres. Bush a messenger of God - which isn't a leap of logic if you've ever spent time in a charismatic/evangelical congregation in the past 7 years - rather than a fallible sinner like the rest of us.

2) A hypocrit.

She has zero problem with lying about her accomplishments because she has been "prayed over" and delivered to the moment by divine intervention. Whatever she says or does, therefore, is right in the eyes of God. Heaven help anyone who disagrees with this, or happens to attempt the same.

3) A theological scholar.

She speaks of "growing up" in the Wasilla church - and this is important - even though she's been a member only since 2002. She may believe in her "rebirth" in the faith as a true second birthday. (Yes, there are people who celebrate the day of their baptism as a birthday.) So as a 6 or 7 year old, she seems to believe that she is fully in tune with God's will and Scripture as to pronounce what is wrong and right from a moral or ethical standard (for others anyway). Even if it might be on questions that have caused theological debate since the days of Martin Luther taking a hammer in hand.

4) Unquestionable.

Every question that is nuanced or difficult could receive an answer that is delivered from an it's-God's-will point of view. So she'll fight like mad to protect gun-owner rights from the 2nd Amendment (whatever "well regulated" means), but she'll completely ignore the 1st Amendment ... just as the current POTUS and VPOTUS do. Because to someone with such limited intellectual curiosity as to not question any word or syllable in the Bible as to whether it might be poetic license (6 days to create the universe? really?) it would seem right and just that no one should have the freedom to question the actions of someone so divinely inspired.

Zealots don't frighten me.

Zealots with power do.

I'm not sure which is more frightening.

I believe the GOP may want a third war to fight (Iran and Russia are the top two nominees). I suppose if two is good for sustaining eight years of neglect and bumbling on the home front, three would be good for at least another eight.

Odd. I thought the Russians and Iranians were the boogey men for Reagan. I guess the GOP wants to resurrect all of the fun times from the supply-side-meets-cold-war-out-of-control-defense-spending halcyon days of the 1980s.

Or maybe the Mayans were correct.

A land war in Russia could lead to an end of the world in 2012.

I'm sorry ... did Sen. McCain just say South Koreans are three inches taller than North Koreans to make a point? I must have missed what the point was ...