World News Korner

Possibly the best review of Sarah Palin's new book ever!

This comes to us from the Daily Beast:

Initially I planned to ignore this week’s release of Good Tidings and Great Joy, Sarah Palin’s book waging war on the war on Christmas. Few political hucksters milking the culture war for an easy buck peddle antics more shopworn than the annual fear-mongering that secularist Scrooges are coming for our creches.

But then I couldn’t stop wondering: What happens when the Queen of Grievance takes up arms on behalf of the Prince of Peace’s birthday?

I’ll tell you what happens. Pure magic.

Don’t misunderstand. Palin’s book is neither well-written nor informative on either a political or a theological level. She does what plenty before her have done: scour the news for any cases of holiday-themed lawsuits or political scuffles, even ones where Christmas emerges triumphant, and whip them into a towering soufflé of proof that Jesus’s, and maybe even Santa’s, days are numbered. Her favorite conceit is to weave unconnected news snippets into over-the-top fantasy sequences—some set in the future! That allows her to mash up real-world episodes with more baroque scenarios sprung from the fever swamps of her imagination (like the lad docked points for using the word “Christmas” in a school essay), jack up the outrage factor with moralizing dialogue, and then proclaim: See, it’s all really happening!

But to focus on Palin’s narrative or polemic gifts is to miss the point. The book is not, as the subtitle maternally suggests, about “Protecting the Heart of Christmas.” As with pretty much everything the former governor does, this is all about Venting the Spleen of Sarah. And that’s what makes it so gosh darn refreshing. Screw those treacly holiday offerings aiming to melt your heart or lift your spirits. Dickens? Bah, humbug. It’s a Wonderful Life? Sentimental swill. That tear-jerking “Christmas Shoes” song so nakedly exploitative that it makes you want to take a blowtorch to your ears? ’Nuff said. Good Tidings and Great Joy gives the finger to all that, offering instead Palin at her toxic best: snippy, snarky, snide, and thoroughly pissed off.

The review goes on from there to give the ghostwritten future doorstop the savaging it deserves. And never forgets to remind people that this book has really NOTHING to do with Christmas, and everything to do with furthering Palin's brand. Above all, Palin never misses an opportunity to turn the attention back toward herself and how shabbily she has been treated in recent years.

I almost did not post this article, but then I ran across another article posted by a starry eyed Palin-bot and I thought the jarring juxtaposition between the clear headed and those who are still drunkenly stumbling around under the influence of Palin's potent purple potion.

The title of this mash letter is, and I kid you not, "I Dream of Sarah's Eyes," which is all about this person's experiences seeing Palin during a book signing in Naples, Florida.

Here are a few of the low points:

I squatted in front of her. She was focused on her book signing right away and was kind of waiting for me to speak. So when she looked up, I asked: “Sarah, I just want one thing today:

I just want to look straight into your eyes.” She looked up from what she was doing and liked the question I think, and immediately stared right into mine. I was in heaven.

I can’t describe just how powerful that encounter was. I will have to etch it in my memory and sketch it soon, because no one I know has a shot of Sarah’s luscious, penetrating eyes anywhere. Not from the angle I was at – eye level. Not up close.

After Sarah and I looked at each other she asked me my name. I told her it was Isabel and that we had met in New Orleans last year. That’s when something clicked and she knew who I was. I know we’re a community, and I am always happy when someone gets something from Sarah or Chuck, but for two years I have yearned for some type of formal response or a special card from her recognizing something, anything, but nothing. This was so special - just for me and in front of me. I cannot ask for more. The rest is a blur.

I have heard less gushing from faithful Catholics who have had an audience with the Pope, or teenage girls of the fifties who got to see Elvis live in concert.

Yet somehow, from this small pool of deeply disturbed people, Palin is still able to elicit this fanaticism.

Something to keep in mind even as we celebrate how despised and ridiculed she is by a growing majority of Americans.

(P.S. I feel I should mention that I included the link to the Palin-bot blog becasue it is the right thing to do when borrowing somebody's words, but I caution you against going there and trying to mock her or challenge her in anyway. After all, nothing would make her feel closer to her ideal then coming under attack from the "libruls.")

Source