Inktrails from Alaska

Political, But Funny!

From The Onion, my favorite silly fake newspaper:

First, go here:
McCain Speechwriter

Now, watch this:

Old, Grizzled Third-Party Candidate May Steal Support From McCain

Oh yeah, that guy is almost crusty enough to be an Alaskan!

Lies and More Lies

McCain's picking up white women voters? Sarah Palin with a 90% approval rating?

As if! Dream on, number crunchers and angle spinners!

I've been learning about how these polls are done. Everyone with an agenda has a way to skew the statistics depending on the way the ask the question, which answers they allow the respondents to choose, and who they exclude. That, and absurdly small sample numbers!

There is no doubt in my mind that this particular "story" has its roots in McCain's PR department.

I've been talking to people on the street, in the grocery line, at the gas pumps (we have the highest fuel costs in the nation, and yet we are supplying the fuel ourselves, what is wrong with that picture?), in the music store, everywhere I go. In case you have forgotten, I am in Alaska. What I'm being told is this:

"I can't believe McCain chose Palin. I could see her running for an office like this in ten years, but not now! She's very inexperienced. I'm switching my vote."

"Now we get to see what she's really like, and so does the rest of the world. I can't vote for her."

"Wow, this is going to be an extremely entertaining election!"

"This is the end for Sarah Palin. She's going to lose the election because she's so inexperienced and because she's really extreme."

"Oh God, now people in the Lower 48 will think we are really crazy!"

"That woman is nuts. I don't want her just one heartbeat away from the Presidency! McCain is too old and not in good health. I'm going to vote for Obama!"

All over the internet I'm hearing the same things. Not ONCE have I heard that someone is voting for McCain because of Palin. Oh, I'm sure there must be women out there, but I'm sure not running into them. I'm actually surprised at the number of Republicans I've met either in person or online who are switching their votes because of Palin.

And here we go with something the Republicans harped on over and over during their convention, that there is an "elite liberal media."

Okay, then which elite liberal media is spouting out these stories about the supposed gain to McCain's campaign brought by Palin?

The "elite media" is only as liberal as their rich, white, male owners. And we all know which party those guys cling to, the one that protects the rights of rich people. And then there is Fox News, that might as well call itself  Elephant News. No folks, look into how polls are done and you will see that there isn't a one of them that can be trusted.

Remember, there are two kinds of lies: lies and damn lies.

Fall Colors

On one side a lovely cloud was coming through.

But just turn your head and it was sunny.

Two varieties of birch here, one in golden glory and the other quite green yet.

Birch tree in the midst of turning golden.

Right out front. Come on Ole! Here Sofie! Let's go for a walk!

Cyberbullies

If a child or teen is being sent nasty and mean messages, emails, flames, text messages or other electronic communications by another child or teen, that is called cyber bullying. Some people define it very strictly as a child to child or teen to teen thing, and say that adults doing the same to other adults is properly called cyber harrassment, or cyber stalking. I'm not so sure that's correct, however.

I think an adult can be cyberbullied just as much as a child could be. If the perpetrator hasn't matured beyond a high school mentality, and if the victim is caught unaware, it is easy to suddenly be slammed with some nasty things that drag you right back to feeling like a vulnerable kid. No one is perfect, and all of us have buttons that can be pushed.

I don't know if any of you saw it, but there was an attempt to bully me recently. It was interesting that the bully attempted to find a weakness to exploit. He asked me if I knew they all pm'd and emailed about me and laughed behind my back. Apparently he thought this would upset me a whole lot.

If I were 13 years old, that might bother me, but as far as I'm concerned they can pm and email and make jokes behind my back as much as they want! Who cares? I have never met this guy, though I do know, since I used to be on a forum he was on (until he got banned from that, too) that he's over 50 years old. A bit long in the tooth to be behaving like a 7th grade bully.

I guess there are always going to be people like this. That's too bad. I don't know how they got to be such unhappy people that they are made happy by trying to make others unhappy.

I did suffer some real, in-person bullying when I was in intermediate school. It sucked. However that experience has taught me how to recognize a bully. That's a good skill to have.

TV People, Let Me Introduce Alaska

I made the mistake of turning on the TV today. I found the Inside Edition show exclaiming, "And they really eat MOOSE!"

I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg. I'm both dreading and looking forward to all the stupid misconceptions that are going to be spouted by reporters. It's going to be annoying and hilarious at the same time!

Maybe people in the Lower 48 will finally realize that we don't all drive sled dogs everywhere, that we don't live in igloos and we put our pants on one leg at a time, just like everyone else.

As long as they don't start to think it's like California or even Oregon or Washington, that's fine. Ugh. I'd hate to see a whole new wave of people come up here only to build their houses that are too large to heat. Then they have to sell them, and move back to Utah or whatever, because they can't remake Alaska into suburbia...either that or they can move to Wasilla!

Well That Just Does It!

I have to get a new computer! I mean, there's a Princess Bride GAME out and I can't play it because my computer's operating speed (400mghz) is less than HALF the measly requirement(867mghz) for the game!

How can I live without a Princess Bride game? ::sniff::