1) Whyinthehell does Sarah Palin consider herself our new global ambassador?
Okay, I understand that she (possibly) wants to brush up her (non-existent) international diplomatic skills before (possibly) taking a run at the White House in 2012... but here's the scary part.....in case no one has noticed, we (Americans, that is) as a group are not particularly well liked beyond our own borders.... AS A GROUP, I said, not individually...individually we are lovable and fun and the life of the party and we all have lots and lots of foreign friends.....but as a force-to-be-reckoned-with, we are, sadly, not at the top of the BFF list in too many countries..... oh, everybody in the world loves our money, they would just prefer not to have to deal with us in order to get it. And SHE is our new spokeswoman? She of the Christian missionary-we'll convert-you-even-if-it-destroys-your-entire-social-infrastructure ideology? Really?
2) Am I the only one who is scared shitless that this woman is being taken seriously?
She is a failed politician who resigned as governor of Alaska because she "wasn't being allowed to perform her duties" as governor; she is a failed politician who didn't make the cut in the Presidential election of 2008 and then blamed everyone else; she is a reality-TV personality who couldn't even get her show picked up for a second season in a country that has proven they will watch paint dry on TV as long as it's called 'reality'. What's up with that?
Which leads directly into my next observation (okay, okay.... rant)....
She actually asked a roomful of Indian businessmen "what's up with that" regarding China's military build-up practices. "What's up with that?" What's up with that? I know that the hardest part of understanding any language is getting a grasp on idioms and slang.... yes, these men (there were no women mentioned) are all extremely well-educated and very successful (they would have to be, just to pay the price of admission to Sarah's little elitist shindig) and they all probably speak English better than I do..... English, not American. "What's up with that?" is a distinct Americanism.... why didn't she just go all out and ask "fo shizzle, whazzup wid Chi-nay-nay's hizzle"?
She also told these same Indian businessmen that "free people that make up a free country don't wage war on another free country. I want peace on earth." Is she running for the office of leader of the free world or competing in the Miss America contest?
Okay, enough ranting.... time for a history lesson (okay, with little ranting thrown in)..... pull up your chairs and listen closely.... in talking about the her political party, the TeaParty, she references the real tea party held in Boston in 1773 and says, "see, even back then we believed in free trade". Stop. What? Free trade.... turn to page 139 in your history books and let's review:
We were a colony of Britian. We were being unfairly taxed. We responded by (among other things) throwing tons of tea off British ships in the Boston harbor, thus sparking a revolution that changed the world. Where did that tea come from? Well, China, of course. How did that tea get to the US? Well, the British East India Company imported it, right? Right. How did the BEI Company get its hands on that tea? By promoting the production of opium in one of their OTHER colonies, India, and then exporting opium to China in exchange for tea (and a few other minor things, like gunpowder). It's true, kiddies, look it up. Okay, so that completed two legs of Britian's world-wide trading venture..... Oh, BTW, opium was (and is) illegal in China and everybody knew it. I guess in order to have a "war on drugs" in this day and age, our far-seeing forebears needed to create that self-same problem in order for us to deal with it in the here and now (but that's a rant for another day). Now, let's look at the rest of it... the infamous "triangle" trade that completed the journey of the tea to this country. Ready? Great Britian exported copper, guns, munitions and other stuff to Africa in exchange for slaves, which were then transported to the American colonies in exchange for sugar, molasses, rum and tobacco, which were then imported to Great Britian to feed the need there. Everybody was profiting so much from this "free" trade that the colonists were able to afford to import stuff from the mother country..... including tea. There you have it.... "free" trade. Of course, the folks at the bottom of that dog-pile, the "hands-on" work force you might say, didn't really have a say in any of this.... cuz that "free" trade wasn't really free.
Palin seems to have some trouble understanding that she was talking to the descendents of those self-same "hands-on" workers... they may not have appreciated the reference, but I'm sure they appreciated the sentiment behind her words.
So, today Palin is meeting with the PM of Israel in yet another attempt to prove that some Americans (well, those in her party of course.... us others are too uncouth for polite company) are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and just rarin' to prove to the world that they know what's best for everybody... just listen and they'll tell you, whether you want to hear it or not. And we're gonna sit back and let her speak for us???
What's up with that?
Why are foreign leaders even taking meetings with her???
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