The Inscrutable Sarah Palin

I have to tell you that I find Sarah Palin increasingly intriguing, and when the dust settles and the books have been written I'm going to read 'em. Obviously, everyone's heard she's stepping down as Alaska governor, for reasons she didn't quite articulate and no one is really sure. Slate's Bruce Reed points out that this is symptomatic of present-day Republicans:

What makes her sudden resignation especially troubling, though, is not the flawed strategy so much as her jubilation and relief in putting the statehouse in her rear mirror. Palin's resignation is a symptom of what's crippling the Republican Party of late: Governing has become an unwelcome distraction.

Anyway, what I find so fascinating about Palin is that she has half of the qualities a politician needs for success, each counterbalanced by a weakness that dooms her to failure. She's cunning but not truly clever or smart. She makes a good impression on people but can't truly read them. She's very aware of how people react to her but doesn't waste a moment actually listening to them. She's enormously ambitious but she leaves behind her a wake of bruised egos and ill feelings. Palin can put herself in the catbird's seat but she just can't seen to stay there very long.

I said it before, I'll say it again. Palin is the political version of that girl you knew in high school, and we all knew one of these girls, regardless of where or when you went to high school. When you first met her you thought she was great, but the better you got to know her the less you liked her. She wasn't book-smart and her classwork was unremarkable, but she always knew who the winners were and how she could be among them when the credits rolled. She had the cutest boyfriends and she associated herself with the most popular circle, but none of them seemed to care for her very much, and in fact were sometimes downright wary of her. And no matter how sure you were that you'd seen her worst, she could always shock you with her near-total indifference to your concerns, needs or point of view.

Needless to say, this turn of events has only piqued by interest in Ms. Palin. So I'll be watching the bookshelves!

Two things

That's what this weekend was. Thusly:

Thursday night**: Ultimate
Friday night: RPG
Saturday afternoon: Ultimate
Saturday night: RPG
Sunday morning: Ultimate

The combination of those two in my life throws off every Internet geek test I've ever taken.

All that Ultimating meant that a) I was eating like crazy all weekend; and b) I was sore as hell. B was particularly acute because Sunday morning's game was filled out by a number of tall, young, extremely fast guys who forced me to play as if I were fifteen years younger. Argh.

July approaches, and that means the Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, or Q'Fest or whatever the hell they're calling it these days. I have five films lined up, which is unusual for me. What's even more unusual is that Dan will accompany me to two of them...yay!

On a tangentially related topic, the Log Cabin Republicans have in the grand tradition of all organizations gay, splintered, most likely over egos or a stolen blouse. But don't worry...no doubt the new gay Republican group, GOProud, will just as pathetically support GOP candidates who take their votes and their donations and still vote against same sex marriage. I find gay conservatives immensely amusing, mostly because all of their efforts to "work from the inside" of the Republican Party haven't resulted in any significant policy achievements. For more fun, check out this article. Here are some gems:

"If you pulled the lever for John McCain in 2008, then passing hate-crimes legislation or ENDA [Employment Non-Discrimination Act] is probably not your priority," says Mr. LaSalvia. "Most issues that are defined as 'gay' issues have been defined by the left. We take a different approach."

That approach evidently does not include protection from gay-bashers or employment discrimination.

Take abortion. Christopher Barron, GOProud's chairman of the board, points to an example from a few years back, when a Maine state legislator introduced a bill that would have outlawed abortion for a child thought to be gay, in the event genetic testing ever reached that point. That politician, Mr. Barron says, received virtually no support from gay groups.

I cannot imagine why gay groups would be uninterested in supporting a law to ban a practice that is legal nowhere nor even scientifically possible.

This is why I loved the Log Cabin Republicans, and why I look forward with great pleasure to watching GOProud make tools and jackasses of themselves.

**I know Thursday night is hardly the weekend, but when you aren't working Friday it may as well be.

Happy Birthday Star!

Some of those who remember you well are getting together tonight, and we will think (and speak) of you. and I'll raise a glass, although it may contain only Diet Coke.

Woot, loot and fruit

I have posted the vids of my performance at Gayety, the event that commemorated the closing of Joe Coffee Bar. As you will see, it was a fun crowd and I had alot of fun performing. And I got to open for Deirdre Flint...eat it, bitches!

Wolf Block is now officially dead, although a few of the employees - me included - have been asked to stay through the summer to attend to the burial. So I spend much of my days cleaning out offices and boxing up files. It's kinda fun, because the place is nearly empty so you can yell down corridors and throw empty boxes around without fear of hitting anyone. And so I do. Also, you can have your pick of the stuff the firm is throwing out, so there is a significant amount of looting.

Looking forward to lunch so much that I will savor even the granny smith apple I brought. In case you don't know I am not wild about fruit, although I eat it on a regular basis. Strawberries, pineapple and grapes are my favorites, but I eat the apples because they're more convenient to carry and they keep alot longer.

Two Milestones

Milestone the First: WolfBlock closes its doors today, although I confess they made me a pretty good deal to stay on through the summer so I will not join the ranks of the unemployed until September. I may, however, become one of the 47 million uninsured Americans, because WB is closing the group health plan. That means no COBRA, no nothing. Back to the good old American universal health care system: Don't get sick.

Milestone the Second: Someone totally recognized me on the street today...for comedy, and not robbing a bank or something. I was on 12th Street heading north when a guy who was at Saturday's show at Joe cheered me. That made me feel better about having to go to work. A little better, anyway.

Speaking of Saturday, my two shows were, respectively, great fun and so-so. The crowd at Joe, two dozen strangers supplemented by about ten people I knew, was terrific, and I effortlessly did a twenty-five minute set. (OK, not quite effortlessly without a mic, but you know.) The Comedy Cabaret gig was a tougher nut, and I think I could have picked better material, but I got some laughs all the same, particularly on my heckler joke. And the Yoo-hoo bit worked again. I don't know why that joke has never failed me, but it's probably best not to ask why.

Yes!

I am totally digging Toni Basil's outfit in this video. Electric blue, boxy, with an over-the-top hat...ooh la la! Anyone who wears this outfit to my Halloween party automatically wins a prize. Fuck the vote! Right in the mouth.

There is no page you could turn, Mr. Steele

Evidently, Michael Steele thinks that four months is plenty of time to forget eight disastrous years.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele insists the GOP has embarked on a new chapter and says it now must offer genuine solutions for the ailing country.

"The era of apologizing for Republican mistakes of the past is now officially over. It is done," Steele said in remarks prepared for delivery Tuesday to state party chairmen. "We have turned the page, we have turned the corner. No more looking in the rearview mirror. From this point forward, we will focus all of our energies on winning the future."

An unnecessary war, a ruined economy, botched disaster responses and federal corruption on a grand scale...four months is not enough to forget that, sir. Four years isn't enough.