Quote of the day
posted at 10:42 pm on September 25, 2008 by Allahpundit
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“Now a natural woman has burst onto the political stage, eliciting the same tropes of authenticity—shootin’, skinnin’, ridin’ (in this case, a snowmobile), and, for the first time, jumpin’. And, as the tradition requires, the glorification of Sarah Palin’s status as ‘ordinary mom’ is accompanied by contempt for the sissified products of an elite education. The conservative commentariat hangs prestigious college degrees around the necks of the media and political liberals like so many dead coons. Charlie Gibson? ‘Princeton ’65,’ sneered one Wall Street Journal columnist. Barack Obama? ‘Columbia and Harvard Law,’ guffaws Ralph Peters in the New York Post. Many of those heaping scorn on the hypereducated elites have a Yale or Cornell degree in their own closet, as was the case in that first burst of Jacksonian populism…
Obviously, learning needs to be merged with experience and common sense to result in political wisdom. The Palin populists are right to point out that many highly educated people make idiotic decisions. Political wisdom can derive from everyday experience and common sense alone. But the populist message at times seems to carry a subtle implication that learning is itself a disqualifier. At a time when historical and literary ignorance is at such a high, an occasional hint of the value of serious study would be most welcome.”
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Greta just reported that two more major Clinton supporters–and one who was her policy adviser–just endorsed McCain. One was named Miguel Lausell, and I forget who the other one was.
Enoxo on September 25, 2008 at 10:44 PM
Heather Mac needs to get a freakin’ life.
km on September 25, 2008 at 10:45 PM
Greta’s husband is also a Hillary turned McCain supporter. I see a huge pattern of this. GO PUMAS!
jencab on September 25, 2008 at 10:45 PM
PUMAs will be united behind McCain-Palin.
No way. No how. No Obama-Biden!
lansing quaker on September 25, 2008 at 10:45 PM
My sister and I were just talking on the phone and she told me that she thinks Hill n Bill ought to just admit they can’t keep up this charade any more and tell the country that yes, they thought Obama was not qualified to be POTUS when they were running against him, and yes, they still think so now.
How sweet that’d be.
Bob's Kid on September 25, 2008 at 10:47 PM
1. why r we beign subjected to another screed from this snobbish, hateful woman?
2. she misses the point — AGAIN — Real Americans tend not to give much of a rip where you went to school, but when WHERE you went to school [and the letters you trail after your name] becomes your PRIMARY qualification rather than WHAT you did after, then, yeah, we tend to peg ya as a poseur — and often we’re right …
Buckaroo on September 25, 2008 at 10:47 PM
There is another writer idiot.
Take a look at your presidential candidate you dumb lib.
jencab on September 25, 2008 at 10:47 PM
Learning is not a disqualifier. Learning with the belief that you now know it all is… Every year of college, I felt like I knew less and less because I became more and more aware of how much I truly don’t know. Some people don’t share my experience…
CC
CapedConservative on September 25, 2008 at 10:47 PM
Bill Clinton
Queen0fCups on September 25, 2008 at 10:48 PM
You know, if McCain wins he’s going to owe Bill a pretty big debt.
I don’t know if I’d want to owe Bill anything.
fiatboomer on September 25, 2008 at 10:48 PM
The contempt is reserved for liberal elitists who think that regular folks are really bitter folks who grasp onto their guns and bibles.
csdeven on September 25, 2008 at 10:48 PM
“Bob’s Kid on September 25, 2008 at 10:47 PM”
we can dream dearie, but that’s not.gonna.happen.
Buckaroo on September 25, 2008 at 10:49 PM
Quote of the Day?
Darn, Must be bedtime.
Amadeus on September 25, 2008 at 10:49 PM
I don’t like Sarah Palin because she’s not Ivy League, I like her because she holds the right values and argues the right positions. Ann Coulter was a Cornell grad and William F. Buckley, Jr. a Yalie; there’s no populism in conservatism. If conservatives liked Huckabee, and overwhelmingly they didn’t, then it would be a fair charge.
If actually acknowledging the existence of the rest of the country is populist, then you know just how far the other side has left its base.
emailnuevo on September 25, 2008 at 10:50 PM
What makes you think she is a lib?
ninjapirate on September 25, 2008 at 10:50 PM
Oh, I wish I wish I wish I wish. Oy.
On topic with AP’s “quote:”
As far as this article goes? Just more “egghead” fantasy. The “educated” would also tell you how organic food is the mark of a true member of the intelligentsia, recycling will save the world, and playing identity politics is the only way to bring people together.
University taught me a lot about the world, and it wasn’t through books or texts: it tought me that demagogues and groupthink will supercede common sense and bi-partisanship. That a liberal arts “education” is nothing more than a nice teflon coat to defelct any substantiative argument.
I prefer not to live in the world of relativism, in which someone who has a textbook knowledge is good because it is low amongst the populace.
At least, not if it carries this “holier-than-thou” baggage that accompanies it.
… And yeah, I know my geography more than most. But I don’t see it as a sign of superiority, as this article would have you believe it is.
lansing quaker on September 25, 2008 at 10:51 PM
It’s not about “elitism,” and it never has been. If it had, thinking Conservatives would never have embraced Bill Buckley or George Will as they have. It’s about smug liberal condescension. It’s not about education, it’s about miseducation. It’s about those who would presume to lead us despising us for what we are, where we’ve come from, and what we hold dear.
Hannibal Smith on September 25, 2008 at 10:51 PM
Bravo! Very well said!
CC
CapedConservative on September 25, 2008 at 10:51 PM
Fine, but our education level is product of governmental involvement. I don’t believe that an education serves the student nearly as well as it did formerly. Moreover, the reader is often the wiser.
And with respect to her example: Jackson. Jackson embraced the man of the people mantle as a result of the other party. He didn’t campaign on being a dumb hick, he just took the negatives of the other party and flipped them around and rode that successfully into the White House. So that’s a successful strategy, and if Palin does that it will be because it is a counter-punch.
Finally, arguing the greatness of Ivy league education right now when main street is about bail out all the ivy league decisions isn’t going to float.
Spirit of 1776 on September 25, 2008 at 10:52 PM
Until evidence is provided to prove otherwise, Barry OBambi got a free ride through college because of his genetics. Nothing he has done or said reveals an original thought. He can’t utter an intelligible sentence without a teleprompter displaying someone else’s words. For all we know, the two autobiographies he’s written were the products of ghost writers who are accessories to plagiarism.
AubieJon on September 25, 2008 at 10:52 PM
That may have been true at one time but now the colleges and universities are cesspools of liberalism and socialism. On many campuses free speech is seriously limited if you are speaking as a conservative.
mrsmwp on September 25, 2008 at 10:52 PM
Projected on to him, I mean.
Spirit of 1776 on September 25, 2008 at 10:53 PM
P.S. Overwhelmingly, one political philosophy reads, and one doesn’t. One group writes books that reach the NYT bestseller list, and one group writes books. Guess which is which.
There’s nothing more anti-learning than “Change you can believe in.”
emailnuevo on September 25, 2008 at 10:53 PM
No, “learning” is not a disqualifier. But being an utter dumbass is, and the conventional wisdom that an Ivy League education inoculates one against the latter is an idea whose retirement is long overdue. And while we’re at it, the meme that “Jacksonian populist” is a proxy for “mouth-breathing cretin” also needs to be shown the door. Thanks for reminding us, Heather.
Tengripundit on September 25, 2008 at 10:54 PM
Who said anyone learns anything at Princeton, Harvard and Yale? Aren’t these the types of schools that gave us the pass/fail option in college?
bloggless on September 25, 2008 at 10:55 PM
Eh, yes and no to this.
No, because public education is not a bad phenomenon. You can receive a fantastic primary school public education.
Yes, because the way monies are allocated continues to allow some (re: urban) public school districts to lower academic standards to receive more funding.
Let those who don’t want to learn fail. By forcing “passing” and “graduation” rates by lowering the bar, it doesn’t help anyone.
By cutting off funding because a school fails x number of students that don’t give any effort, you’re just lowering the standard for all.
That’s my take. There’s nothing wrong with a public school system. There’s everything wrong with obsessing over the “polls” — and by that I mean things like testing/retention/graduation statistics.
lansing quaker on September 25, 2008 at 10:55 PM
tru2tx on September 25, 2008 at 10:55 PM
“ninjapirate on September 25, 2008 at 10:50 PM”
this is at least her 2nd anti-saracuda rant — what makes you think she’s not, doofus?
Buckaroo on September 25, 2008 at 10:55 PM
Bad judgment, Obama.(long time unrepentant Terrorist friends, taking money from slumlords for 17 years, doing a deal with him after he’s be found to be “dirty”, Radial Pastor of 20 years.. taking campaign cash from Fannie May.. Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson, companies are now being investigated by the FBI)
Bad judgment, Biden.(Not sure how highly educated he is, ripping off and plagiarizing things, he does have the bad judgment)
Chakra Hammer on September 25, 2008 at 10:58 PM
Knock down that strawman!
Down, strawman! Down!!
Purple Fury on September 25, 2008 at 10:58 PM
There is value in serious study. But I work at a college where a teacher, in an intro to American Government class, did a full whiteboard-wide comparison of the Bush administration and the Nazi regime. And many many teachers nationwide must be doing the same thing, though perhaps less idiotic, from junior high all the way through different levels of academia. Indoctrination U, indeed.
Serious study is respected. Too bad there is a dearth of serious study in our elites.
silverfox on September 25, 2008 at 10:59 PM
I’ll say it again. Go take the time to listen to Palin’s debates and the few interviews she did after her name was being floated as a possible VP. That person in those interviews is not the same person you’ve been seeing in the past three weeks. Is it the questions, the editing, the situation? Not sure.
AYNBLAND on September 25, 2008 at 10:59 PM
The first thing by Heather MacDonald that I read, but didn’t love, was her whining, pretentious attack on Palin after the nomination, for which I have fully forgiven her.
This is further evidence that MacDonald is taking some part of this quite personally, but I don’t know enough about her to say exactly what. Has anyone heard anything like “a subtle implication that learning is itself a disqualifier” from anyone, anywhere, except for high school wannabe rap/gangsters?
I sure haven’t.
But I have heard – and said – that the fairy tale this is The One is not an ivy-league educated brainiac, full of post college accomplishment among the best and the brightest, but rather is an affirmative action phony, with zero success outside of running for political offices in anything that we know about.
Maybe the hatred of the Ivy League faculty leftists and numbskull little lefty rich-kids is confusing to her and sounds like a disrespect of learning. Au contraire – we don’t think kids learn anything at all there.
Princeton?! Paul Krugman is a distinguished professor of economics there. Get real, Heather… Yet again, Buckley had it right:
Jaibones on September 25, 2008 at 11:00 PM
No, this was in addition to Rothschild. It was Lausell and Luchy Secaira, who was a delegate for Clinton.
Enoxo on September 25, 2008 at 11:00 PM
She has the McCain anchor around her feet. Double-edged sword.
Since she has all the media attention, they want her to be McCain. McCain this, McCain that, McCain’s record, foreign policy, blah blah blah.
This is why you don’t see the same dynamic with Obama-Biden. And Obama gets his special “Get out of Jail [Questioning] Free” card all his own, anyhow.
McCain’s camp needs to be less worried about her “damaging the brand” and let her come out and say “let’s talk some domestic issues. Let’s talk energy!” and flip the debate.
She’s sticking too hard to the talking points.
lansing quaker on September 25, 2008 at 11:02 PM
Great Scott,well said,Alaska didn’t tame Sarah,
Sarah tamed Alaska!
And,like I said before,SarahCuda has the pioneering spirit
that can do,improvise style,get it done,that has made
America great!!
She’s the real deal!:)
canopfor on September 25, 2008 at 11:02 PM
I’ll paraphrase my HS civics teacher, a Citadel grad:
“There are people with brains. There are people with common sense. There are few with both.”
thirtypundit on September 25, 2008 at 11:04 PM
According to this blog, Clinton supporters Miguel Lausell and Luchy Secaira have endorsed McCain. Secaira was a Clinton delegate from Florida.
Terrie on September 25, 2008 at 11:05 PM
When you attend a liberal university the object is to make you think like everybody else at the university.
They do not hand out degrees to the intellectually fittest, just those best at jumping through hoops.
So when we get people like Palin who succeed IN SPITE of this hoop jumping, it drives the lemmings crazy.
Elizabetty on September 25, 2008 at 11:05 PM
ok…so the liberal populist message (F’in screaming neon sign) is ethnic, cultural and socio-economic diversity trumps all forms of education, skill, commitment and values.
Yo Heather, bend over and grab um… because thats how my tribe likes it!
dmann on September 25, 2008 at 11:06 PM
Enoxo on September 25, 2008 at 11:00 PM
Well, I welcome them all over here to the “dark side”.
/snark
tru2tx on September 25, 2008 at 11:06 PM
I finally broke free of my liberal education when I joined the infantry at age 30. Revelation!
Sarah’s gonna do just fine. This is EXACTLY how Reagan was treated.
Mojave Mark on September 25, 2008 at 11:07 PM
That looked wrong – I meant dark side snark, not welcome.
It’s late and I’m tired.
tru2tx on September 25, 2008 at 11:08 PM
I love this line:
It is a great answer. Thank God she is not part of the liberal elite culture. That is what will make her such a great leader.
As far as a postmodern “education” by socialists at an Ivy League school, that is an anti-education. These graduates know nothing about history, literature, the classics, our heritage. They have received dumbed-down “multicultural” communist propaganda for four years. Palin is FAR more educated and experienced than the average, leftist graduate.
Gabe on September 25, 2008 at 11:09 PM
Back in the day, they subscribed to the theory that the earth was the center of everything, and all the spheres revolved around it. Now obviously, it took a pretty complicated system of math/geometry/astronomy to square that circle. What a brain it must have taken to follow the Ptolemaic calculations. Along comes Galileo–says the sun is the center and the earth and all the other planets revolve around it. Very simple really. And when you look up into the sky, everything is where it was predicted to be. How much less of a brain it took to comprehend Galileo’s system. Simple! Imagine the sneers of contempt from the Ptolemaic crowd. Hah! You don’t have to twist your brain into a pretzel to understand it–it’s that stupid. Exit question: did the fact that Galileo’s system was so much simpler than Ptolemy’s make Galileo anti-intellectual?
smellthecoffee on September 25, 2008 at 11:11 PM
Sigh.
Bob's Kid on September 25, 2008 at 11:11 PM
There’s nothing inherently wrong with highly educated people with advanced degrees from the most highly rated schools, unless they are snobs.
And the same thing goes for people without such degrees, or hardly any formal education at all.
The difference between what the most and the least learned people know is inexpressibly trivial in relation to that which is unknown.
+
Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
Loxodonta on September 25, 2008 at 11:11 PM
I’m not necessarily against a public education system. Washington was for a public education, albeit a national university, and I take his opinion very seriously.
However, our system as it stands is does not impress me. I don’t wish to turn our children into stressed out computers, etc, but I don’t want to see 1/4 of them on drugs because they aren’t ‘behaving’ in school, etc. Education desperately needs reform, and the public senses that. Homeschooling has been on the rise, and those students are scoring higher on aptitude tests.
Spirit of 1776 on September 25, 2008 at 11:12 PM
+1
.
The linked Ralph Peters article was a much better read.
abinitioadinfinitum on September 25, 2008 at 11:12 PM
Actually, no. A particular kind of upper-level liberal arts education is an obstacle to sound policy-making and legislation. The problem is that controversies in the real world are *hard* – there are good arguments on both sides of any real challenge, otherwise good people would have been swayed by the force of the better argument to go one direction or another. But the kind of upper-level Ivy education that populists sneer at is actually unsound (although not for the reasons that many anti-elitist populists think). It’s debilitating because inculcates in its graduates a confidence, insulated by a sneering disdain, that’s totally divorced from what they actually know.
We’re talking about people who – on the ground – had a couple decent literature classes in high school before taking 5 or 6 specialized courses in college. And then they come out thinking that they’ve learned something. Obama actually had the temerity to cite his *undergraduate degree* in IR as a qualification for being Commander In Chief. It wasn’t because he was desperate for even the thinnest qualification – although he is. It was because he thought that the 6 classes he took in IR, in between all of his liberal electives, *actually meant something*. And that, for those of you who are keeping track at home, is retarded.
So there is actually a good reason why electing debt-ridden Ivy liberal arts graduates is a bad idea. It’s not because they don’t know anything. It’s because they don’t know anything, but they THINK they do. Ergo: “Do you ever have any doubt.” “Never”.
omriceren on September 25, 2008 at 11:12 PM
I wasted my liberal education drinking and sleeping late. Paid a big price career-wise but with me and the mrs. married 34 years, I’m dumb AND happy. (I’m not sure that came out right.) Anyway, with age came conservative thinking.
Mr_Magoo on September 25, 2008 at 11:13 PM
We need more carpenters, mechanics, electricians and stone masons.
We have enough lawyers.
mylegsareswollen on September 25, 2008 at 11:13 PM
I don’t know anything about this writer, but in today’s populist climate, a businessman who had created a successful enterprise would only be acceptable if he didn’t become wealthy in the process.
Oh, and by the way, Sarah does have experience working on the family business.
Y-not on September 25, 2008 at 11:13 PM
BREAKING: MSNBC…
Sarah Palin cast an absentee ballot in Florida in 2000.
Limerick on September 25, 2008 at 11:13 PM
Heather has become more that tiresome lately. I guess she’s feeling uneasy now that she is aware that the little perch she sits on is not as highly regarded as she once thought.
She’s like most elites who think they’re doing us all a favor writing and preaching to the rest of us peons. Well, Heather, that’s not so. You’re not so hot.
We can take you down a few pegs or at least knock you off that perch.
/feh
Cody1991 on September 25, 2008 at 11:13 PM
To Chakra Hammer on September 25, 2008 at 10:58 PM and many others:
Yes, too many people confusing “clever” with “wise”. Now that higher education has become just one more thing you can buy, lots of liberals know that they are *clever*…
Fortunata on September 25, 2008 at 11:14 PM
Dumbing down for McCain’s sake? Seriously, she drew 60,000 people on Sunday. McCain couldn’t draw that many people if he were fighting Obama in the Roman Colosseum like the gladiators of old.
csdeven on September 25, 2008 at 11:14 PM
The problem with this article is that it makes its argument on a meaningless dichotomy. This isn’t about elitism vs. populism. It’s about meritocracy vs. aristocracy.
Leftists are aristocrats by nature. The “middle class” is always teetering on soup lines because they are simply incapable of making their lives better on their own. They need the government. Minorities will always be downtrodden because they’re incapable of rising above their demographic place in life. They need the government. And who is the government? The aristocracy of beneficence of the Left. All the world’s a playpen for them to graciously monitor.
Conservatives are precisely the opposite. We believe that individual choices based on individual merit make things happen. All men are created equal, and their individual merit will determine their lives’ outcomes. Each man is the arbiter of his destiny (save divine Providence, in the case of the religiously inclined among us), and nothing stands in the way of his personal happiness but himself. We look men directly in the eye and judge them as equals, not children to be coddled or bullied.
The woman that wrote this article should simple ask one conservative what he thinks about Thomas Sowell, W.F. Buckley or Jeane Kirkpatrick, and she’ll understand that we have no problem with highly educated men and women.
spmat on September 25, 2008 at 11:15 PM
You see what Ivy League educations get you? A $700 billion rescue!
Vince on September 25, 2008 at 11:15 PM
Just as long as Sarah isn’t the one who has to pay off that debt.
Ewwwww.
Y-not on September 25, 2008 at 11:15 PM
I smile every time I see your user name. I hope they aren’t really swollen.
Mr_Magoo on September 25, 2008 at 11:16 PM
Stone masons? Anything like stone cutters?
ManlyRash on September 25, 2008 at 11:16 PM
Bill will be appointed Secretary of Hot Tubs. He’ll hold court out in the Rose Garden…
Mr_Magoo on September 25, 2008 at 11:18 PM
I tried to logon with “myhovercraftisfullofeels” and that was taken. Someone must be sitting on that one. *makes a fist in the air and shales it in the air* Oh well. Had to go with my last name instead.
wise_man on September 25, 2008 at 11:18 PM
Maybe the question should be……. “What did they learn?”
……. if I am not mistaken, the Bureaucratic Political Elite and Ivy League Politicians are believers in “Social Engineering”, which in most part, caused our current financial crisis, along with a litany of our other current social problems.
How many Liberal Professors run these institutions? What exactly are they teaching? Can anyone name one Socialist Ideology that lead to success in the history of the world?
Seven Percent Solution on September 25, 2008 at 11:19 PM
I have an advanced degree. not from an Ivy League School though. My first year in law school was pretty rough – got a couple “C”s UNTIL it finally dawned on me that the teachers were not interested in my thinking – they were interested in my ability to regurgitate THEIR THINKING during exam time. After that, it was “A”s all the way. So much for higher education. I’ll take common sense and street smarts and school of life anyday.
HawaiiLwyr on September 25, 2008 at 11:19 PM
We need more hammer guys:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7YYLo4p06E
Mr_Magoo on September 25, 2008 at 11:20 PM
Heather, honey, I don’t think Michelle Obama will allow her husband to take a second wife. I know it’s going to be difficult for you, but do try to cope.
funky chicken on September 25, 2008 at 11:20 PM
Deregulate it from the top down. Start by abolishing the federal department of education. Then abolish the NEA.
If the states are smart, they’ll leave the matter up to the counties which, in turn, will leave it up to communities – as it should be.
ManlyRash on September 25, 2008 at 11:20 PM
Gabe on September 25, 2008 at 11:09 PM
Well said. I was one of those kids whose parents gave them a backpack and passport to travel the world. If the liberals hate Sarah, they would hate me more – nuke ‘em all and let Darwin sort ‘em out.
Laura in Maryland on September 25, 2008 at 11:20 PM
Explain that to Robert ‘Sheets’ Byrd.
ManlyRash on September 25, 2008 at 11:22 PM
What are the odds that McCain will send Palin to the debate.
I think that would be a no lose move. Kind of like the thinking that picked her in the first place.
1. It diminishes Obama (not important enough to remove McCain from the work at hand)
2. It elevates Palin (she can take over when McCain is busy, ending the silly one heartbeat meme.)
3. Obama unscripted would be clobbered by Palin unscripted, she does think on her feet well when not reciting McCain talking points.
Maybe its just wishful thinking, but I’d love to see her take him down.
drewmesq on September 25, 2008 at 11:27 PM
Sounds like a well orchestrated campaign by a masterful, experienced politician. 3 guesses and like we used to say when I was a kid – the first 2 don’t count.
bill30097 on September 25, 2008 at 11:28 PM
As someone with a range of degrees working in academia, I can assure you that the perceived value of “serious study” far outstrips its actual value.
Lehosh on September 25, 2008 at 11:30 PM
(in this case, a snowmobile)
Allahpundit they are called snowmachines in Alaska. ;)
mgtanner on September 25, 2008 at 11:33 PM
drewmesq on September 25, 2008 at 11:27 PM
That would be awesome and a great move! Any question about the phony issue of Sarah Palin’s “lack of experience,” (despite her being the governor 24/7 of the nation’s largest state), she could bounce right back onto Obama. He is the one running for president and the one with absolutely no experience except for running for the next office. He has never accomplished a single thing.
I totally agree. Make it a type of town-hall meeting where Obama will have to speak unscripted. That would be hilarious!
Gabe on September 25, 2008 at 11:35 PM
The key word here is serious.
I’m sure that there is serious history being taught, but the stuff taught in a lot of “liberal” arts schools doesn’t count.
Twenty-odd years ago I went through engineering school, watching students across the street in art school getting humanities credit for art history. Engineering school students never got a break like that.
But there were good moments. I was creaking through Freshman Humanities II with a C when I finally had enough and wrote a frank essay on the final exam about what I thought of James Joyce. Not frank as in uncensored, but a point-by-point description of what I thought was wrong with his way of writing. I got a B on the course. I don’t know if I took the right life lesson from the experience or the wrong one, but I admire the professor for a kind of integrity that seems to be lacking today.
njcommuter on September 25, 2008 at 11:37 PM
The NYT has a piece up on Palin that is unexpectedly fair.
Apparently, her parents helped WTC recovery effort, doing the work that
Americansenvironmentalist wackos wouldn’t.Terrie on September 25, 2008 at 11:38 PM
The nutroots have some posts about how the vp should step up in place and the Biden/Palin debate should be tomorrow. I think Palin should do it as though McCain were unable to act.
I don’t think Obama could really refuse, and I am fairly certain he couldn’t really win no matter what he does.
It would be a third “game changer” and might just be the end of the game.
drewmesq on September 25, 2008 at 11:43 PM
Good god, are you warm! Wrong sketch however.
mylegsareswollen on September 25, 2008 at 11:44 PM
I went through 4 years of engineering college and didn’t learn any of those things.
Then on my first day of graduate school, I was thrown into a giant room with a bunch of liberal arts whack jobs for one of those New Agey feel-a-thons. It was meant to dispel the nasty preconceptions we’re all supposed to have about this or that group by having representatives of each group get up and tell us all about how evil everyone is for misunderstood them so horribly.
I didn’t have ANY of those negative stereotypes when I went into that room. But by the time I came out, the battle lines had been drawn.
logis on September 25, 2008 at 11:46 PM
There… fixed that for you Heather.
Mcguyver on September 25, 2008 at 11:46 PM
Olberman snapped his penis off?
mylegsareswollen on September 25, 2008 at 11:46 PM
What are the odds that McCain will send Palin to the debate.
I made the same conjecture in another thread. If it could be pulled off without advance warning to anyone in Obama’s campaign, Teh One would be freaked, and she would tear him a new one!
Election. Ovah.
drunyan8315 on September 25, 2008 at 11:49 PM
For what good is an education if the results are writers that wrap their main point in “at times seems” and “subtle implication”?
Nope. I will not read the article.
I’m an American. I’m busy. Don’t waste my time.
Saltysam on September 25, 2008 at 11:51 PM
Bingo
Steps to a perfect America:
1) Term Limits on all public servants at the Federal level, appointed or elected with lifetime bans on lobbying for any corporations of foreign governments. No family members can be permitted to enter an office within two terms of another family memeber.
2)Abolish the NEA.
3) Ablish the DOEd.
4)Privatize the public school system.
5)Close the borders and increase legal immigraion of highly skilled workers.
6)Legalize drugs.
7)Arm every citizen with a long gun or hand gun.
Perfect country!
mylegsareswollen on September 25, 2008 at 11:52 PM
Steps to a perfect America:
1) Term Limits on all public servants at the Federal level, appointed or elected with lifetime bans on lobbying for any corporations of foreign governments. No family members can be permitted to enter an office within two terms of another family memeber.
2)Abolish the NEA.
3) Ablish the DOEd.
4)
Privatize the public school system. Allow communities the choice.5)Close the borders and increase legal immigraion of highly skilled workers.
6)
Legalize drugs. You mean pot, right? Otherwise, if you have ever suffered a physical dependence on opiates or know someone who has, you can’t possibly be serious.7)
Arm every citizen with a long gun or hand gun. Don’t touch the 2nd amendment. Encourage responsible gun ownership. That’s all you need to do.ManlyRash on September 25, 2008 at 11:58 PM
I don’t like term limits because they create lame ducks in their final term.
csdeven on September 26, 2008 at 12:00 AM
The first fire was from Obama’s cronies on Palin, pointing out that she was a “beauty queen” (no mention that she did it for scholarship money), who went to six colleges before graduating from the University of Idaho with an undergraduate degree in communication. They chose to posit her as a higher education wannabee when compared to Barack Obama.
They were the ones who started this by taking our Vice Presidential nominee and comparing her to their Presidential nominee and finding her wanting in the brains category because she had to transfer so many times before getting her degree.
Then they start complaining about all those earmarks she garnered as Mayor of some hick town, not realizing that they were secretly lauding her intelligence and acumen — it takes quite a bit of political astuteness as Mayor of a small town to get earmarks. She used them well — her town tripled in size from 3,000 to 10,000 during her mayorship, she managed to keep services going during that time, and she managed to add new services, such as a regional transportation authority. Had she failed in Wasilla, she would not be Governor of Alaska today.
Steve Lopez from the LATimes crapped on Wasilla, but, between the lines, we find a vibrant modern town, without the quaint architecture Steve was looking for [Calico Ghost Town is down in the lower 48, Steve!].
Having a college degree. Cool. Not hauling your kid down to the abortionist like the other side’s daddy would — cooler. Hunting and dressing the food you put on the table — really cool! Successfully wielding executive power — really really cool!
unclesmrgol on September 26, 2008 at 12:05 AM
Dear Ms. MacDonald,
It is possible to learn stuff without going to Ivy League schools.
Pasalubong on September 26, 2008 at 12:06 AM
You know what a pneumatic nailer is, right?
One of our guys put a nail in his foot, went to the hospital emergency room. The doctor looked at the guys foot, looked at the nail, looked at the guy, looked back at the guys foot. Then looked at the guy as said:
“I have to ask you, why didn’t you stop hammering?”
rockhauler on September 26, 2008 at 12:07 AM
Heather Mac is a dogmatic atheist. Her hatred (fear?) of God trumps all. Obama is the atheists’ candidate. I’ll cling to my religion. And guns. Bitterly.
boko fittleworth on September 26, 2008 at 12:08 AM
No term limits. The fathers knew best. Term limit create more problems then they fix.
Spirit of 1776 on September 26, 2008 at 12:09 AM
Agreed. I neglected to address that point. Thanks!
ManlyRash on September 26, 2008 at 12:14 AM
Thanks. Now I have to get out the wet/dry shopvac to clean up the keyboard.
ManlyRash on September 26, 2008 at 12:15 AM
Projection.
Speakup on September 26, 2008 at 12:40 AM
You know what I like also about Sarah? How she worked to put her way through school. She didn’t need some arab rich dude forking out big bucks like what Obama got.
Also, she went to Wasilla’s high school, not the elite Puna Hoh in Honolulu. My Dad’s half-nephew (his half-sister’s son)went there. Nice kid, but it was a total elitist thing.
I went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Decent university in the CSU system. It’s way more leftist now than way back in the mid-80’s.
Sapwolf on September 26, 2008 at 12:42 AM
That’s why I support a different kind of term limit. Simply don’t allow a Representative, Senator, or President to run for re-election to the consecutive term in the same office. (Anyone appointed to finish someone else’s term, with less than a year remaining, can run to serve in the next term.) Let someone serve as many non-consecutive terms as the people will vote them.
Look at how George McGovern has matured since he left the Senate and got into the real world. He now opposes laws that he co-sponsored!
The Monster on September 26, 2008 at 1:00 AM
That introductary phrase would never, could never, be employed to describe Hillary. Or any female Democrat.
silverfox on September 26, 2008 at 1:02 AM
Okay, this post had a bunch words, but I finally am forced to ask… what the hell is your point? I mean really? Something about how an elite education is not intrinsically good or bad, or education generally is not good or bad… or something. Yeah… so? I think you started out talking about Palin, but if so the conversation seems to have taken a turn -
fabrexe on September 26, 2008 at 1:14 AM
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