A Friend Stopped By | 08/30/2008 11:06 am

Judy Bachrach: What's Not to Like About Sarah Palin?

EDITOR’S NOTE: Judy Bachrach writes for Vanity Fair, and is the creator of thecheckoutline.org, an online advice column for friends and relatives of the terminally ill.

What’s not to like about Sarah Palin, John McCain’s amazingly original choice as vice presidential material? That’s what I want to know. My husband tells me he likes her a lot because “She looks just like a girl I used to know with lots of great hair and good cheekbones, named Amber.” Which I think says it all.

For instance, when asked whether public school children should learn evolution or what is known in certain circles as “intelligent design,” meaning Darwin was a complete phony, Palin, who is the daughter of a science teacher, replied, “Teach both…and let kids debate both sides.”
I love that line, and not just because I flunked biology sophomore year, and would have appreciated the advocate from Wasilla defending my constitutional right to ignore amoebae.

I think Palin has it exactly right , and am not in the least surprised that back in her days as a Miss Wasilla beauty contestant she won the title of “Miss Congeniality.” In the educational arena, she is certainly very affable. Teach students that doing their homework every night is obligatory – and also that it’s optional – and let kids debate both sides. Tell them that if you divide a number by zero, you’re entitled to come up with all sorts of results. Explain in grammar 101 that the word “class” is a collective noun – or that maybe it isn’t – and let kids debate both sides.

In other words, in her view school is the home of untrammeled democracy. She is educationally pro-choice.

Well perhaps not entirely untrammeled. Perhaps not wholly pro-choice. In the personal arena, as it turns out, Palin is anti-choice. So if a condom breaks, then no, kids shouldn’t be permitted “to debate both sides.”

I don’t know what to say about John McCain and his decision-making abilities. Not long ago, I had to redo my will, and you wouldn’t believe the time spent trying to decide who would be the guardian of our kids in the event we died. Longtime friends, close relatives, lawyers – all these were examined, sifted, rejected, and then re-examined before we made a final selection.

And then there’s John McCain …

Read more about: John McCain, Judy Bachrach, Politics, Sarah Palin

79 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Kitty, I live here in Kentucky about an hour away from the Creationism Museum. And, with the people who are serious about going to that museum and the man who started it, theory is not scientific theory. This huge group of folks do not believe in evolution and believe the earth is 6000 yrs. old because that is what is said in the bible. There are bills in the legislatures all over the south and through the bible belt for Intelligent Design to be taught in the same class as the sciences. Intelligent Design is a term that was coined in place of Creationism. I forget where you live. And, I must tell you these schools do not follow the teaching plan of a solid Franciscan school. There are even parents here that do not want their kids in a room where evolution is even mentioned because it is a “theory”. And, people wonder why my blood pressure goes up. I hate the election to boil down to just talking about this subject, abortion and gays, when we have the war, the economy, environment, etc.etc.etc.

By Diana T on 08/31/2008 1:35 am

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Hi Diana, Here is something for you to help make your blood pressure to go down. Folks who think, as I do, that this subject is not worth arguing, say that if you’re going to teach religion in the classroom, they want theirs included as well. It’s called the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and was started by people who wanted to take this line of thinking to farsical levels. The premise is that the world was created by the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and its followers dress like pirates because they say that as the number of pirates in the world decreased, global temperature increased, so dressing as a pirate will cool the planet (called “false cause association” by non-believers, but I digress). More at http://www.venganza.org/ Instead of Amen, they say Ramen (and call themselves Pastafarians). Enjoy. P.S. Please don’t drown me in hate mail for this - it’s satire. P.P.S. If I ever visit the Creationism Museum, I’m dressing as a pirate.

By K O on 08/31/2008 10:51 am

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Kitty, Thank you. I needed that, and I will be sure to look into this send information to my nearest and dearest. Go google. I am sure the Creationism Museum has a hell of a website(pardon the pun). It is very cutting edge, and people flock from all corners and sing its praises.

By Diana T on 08/31/2008 11:15 am

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Hello, Diana….I listen, I watch and I look for a spot to put a comment that hasn’t already been eloquently stated…..makes for sort of a lonely time here…..So…inner and outer Bluegrass…..I want to speak with you… I think that there is a creationist museum waiting to happen in every state… one on every rural route and city block.It has nothing to do with geography….. .the one close to us is just outward and visible….. No, this shouldn’t be the campaign issue…should’ve gotten settled after Scopes and the circus that was that early media monster….that’s almost a hundred years ago…. A hundred years…..Darwin and the voyage of the Beagle…..Duh….. All I can do is dig the garlic and make braids to go around my house to get through the next few weeks…. A large aside: I lived in Jefferson County (Louisville) in the 60’s when school busing was a horror…..I was trained in black churches to be non-violent on the barricades …..had little bitty children and thought I might be in jail or dead….didn’t happen, but an enormous number of people moved one county out, where I have lived for over twenty years….to avoid “those people” and all that they thought that would entail….. Guess what? They are boomers, retiring, angry about high taxes for their privileged property, and they are in the grocery store with two and three year old grandchildren, cafe au lait named Chloe and Trey….Tiffany, Whitney, Brittany, Courtney….soccer grandmoms for absentee children………We have one of the worst records on “skipped generation parenting” in the country…… Maybe I could meet you for a drink at Wakefield-Scearce in Shelbyville…..country ham wrapped around shrimp on a bed of Weisenbarger stone ground grits with a side of cornbread and well seasoned collard greens…….. I live in a newly “moist” county…..that means that the Baptists are happy for us to kill ourselves driving home over 34 miles of bad two-lane roads from a Henry County bar, but we have to drive three counties out to stock a home fridge……Go figure. I’m thinking you are way too young to remember the hippies…could be wrong…but “in the old days” there was a book printed on some early recycled paper effort that looked like Tanzanian toilet paper called “Be Here Now”, written by…(.?.)…who had adopted the name, Baba Ram Dass……I’ve always wanted to write the companion volume by Bubba Ram Dass called “Be Rat Here, Rat Now or I’ll Beat Yer Butt”“….. I’ve really enjoyed watching you have a presence here……when I can’t get into the threads because I can’t add anything, I just go look down an individual avatar for “background”…..Mugsy and Lily have KY connections….. Saying yes, you got the mail, would be nice………I have to go to the post office for box mail because the rural route doesn’t deliver in my eight square block town……… Again….gotta go to Amazon…..not our library……now maybe that’s a board to be on….but I’m having trouble with the Arts Association……oh well, …Amazon: DIVIDED AMERICA by Merle and Earl Black…..this is not a joke…they are twins and bright and you can’t fault them for being Merle and Earl……..Do the Dixie Chicks know about this?

By georgia fatwood on 09/01/2008 6:47 pm

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“Do you know what the first two “powers and duties” are for the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska? Check their municipal code: 1. Preside at council meetings. The mayor may take part in the discussion of matters before the council, but may not vote, except that the mayor may vote in the case of a tie; 2. Act as ceremonial head of the city” John McCain himself has said the most important decision for a presidential candidate to make, is to choose a Vice Presidential candidate ready to take over as president if need be. Palin is the latest in a long list of McCain flip-flops and the most damning of all.

By DeBúrca obj on 08/30/2008 2:22 pm

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Well, I for one think it is remarkably efficient for the “kill and drill” crowd to chose a VP who is already being investigated for malfeasance in office. What a time-saver!

By Mugsy Peabody on 08/31/2008 12:08 am