Building Character

Jessica Gavora, native Alaskan (and aka better half of Jonah Goldberg) has some thoughts on basketball and Sarah Palin:

We didn’t play basketball to pad our college applications or fulfill some bureaucrat’s notion of “gender equity.” We played because the winters were long and cold and dark. There was nothing else to do. Maybe as a result, basketball was deadly serious business. Away games were played at the end of eight-hour bus rides or
harrowing plane landings in frozen, remote villages. Our opponents were tough, and the fans were unforgiving. And even though the law that feminists like to credit with all female athletic success, Title IX, was then unenforced in high school sports, we girls wouldn’t have dreamed of taking second place to the boys–nor did we.

Palin earned her now-famous nickname on the hardcourt–“Sarah Barracuda.” Her enemies have tried to belittle her by pointing to her stint as a beauty queen, but it is clear that Palin’s background in sports, more than any other experience, is what has made her the existential threat to liberal feminism (and possibly the Democratic ticket) that she is today.

I wonder how she’d do one on one with Senator Obama? Did he ever win a state championship for his team? Perhaps it’s another comparison that his campaign should avoid.

15 thoughts on “Building Character”

  1. I go away for a week and come back to all this excellent stuff. Most enjoyable. Keep it up, this stuff will make the next 50 odd days fly past.

  2. >>> Her enemies have tried to belittle her by pointing to her stint as a beauty queen, but it is clear that Palin’s background in sports, more than any other experience, is what has made her the existential threat to liberal feminism (and possibly the Democratic ticket) that she is today.

    Maybe not. From what little I have seen of the beauty pageant racket, it might be THAT experience more than any other that allows her to appear so poised and confident — not to mention likeable and attractive — in front of large audiences and under the fierce glare of the national spotlight.

    Remember what Reagan would say when asked how he could have been so succesful in politics coming from a background in acting. He would respond that he couldn’t understand how anyone in politics could be successful WITHOUT such a background. Electoral politics is in large measure theatre, after all.

  3. Sports does teach you about life. I played football
    in high school, and it taught me about team work,how to
    deal with pain, and how to try to strategically plan to win.Football, like chess, is a war game.

  4. A direct quote from Palin in the WSJ article above:

    “Ketchikan desires a better way to reach the airport, but the $398 million bridge is not the answer,” she said. “Despite the work of our congressional delegation, we are about $329 million short of full funding for the bridge project, and it’s clear that Congress has little interest in spending any more money on a bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island. Much of the public’s attitude toward Alaska bridges is based on inaccurate portrayals of the projects here. But we need to focus on what we can do, rather than fight over what has happened.”

    So think about it. On her introduction to the country, her first national speech, she LIED to the nation. An insult to the American people, and an insult to the truth. Some devout Christian this is!

    Simberg, you have always been so offended by the lies of the Clinton’s. Could you please try to be consistent. Or would that be too much to expect?

    The next item that needs to be publicised is her copying her husband on e-mails that she now claims are official business. Tell me, why is Todd Palin cc-ed on e-mails that are confidential issues related to the state of Alaska? issues the Governor of Alaska was working on and which she now says cannot be made public?. In what capacity does he, Todd Palin, have the right to be part of that discussion? Is the Governorship of Alaska a Family Affair?

    As Ed Rendell, Gov. of PA, said today, if he (Rendell) had acted like this, Pennsylvania would be calling for his immediate impeachment.

    How do libertarians feel about all of this?

  5. “How do libertarians feel about all of this?”

    That anonyomus retards are as full of shit as always.

  6. Well anon POS, then you’ll agree Bill Clinton should have been impeached for the Travelgate scandal and those FBI files, right?

  7. Simberg, you have always been so offended by the lies of the Clinton’s.

    I was never “offended” by the lies of the Clintons, troll. I was offended by their horrific corruption and obstruction of justice. When Sarah Palin does something similar, get back to me.

  8. Shame on you Simberg. Shame. Read Paul Mirengohoff at Power Line and more thoughtful real conservatives.

    Moronic questioner, Clinton should have been impeached. Why do you think so many Dems didn’t want the Clinton’s back in PantSuits?

    Pucket, your view are irrelevant. You are a well recognized non-sequitir.

  9. I actually knew a girl who won a local beauty pageant and went to the state level. She was, probably not coincidentally, one of the smartest and most disciplined girls in my grade.

    You have to be focussed, disciplined, and cool under pressure to do well in that setting. It is not just about looking pretty — everyone who enters a pageant is that. The winner needs a lot more under the hood.

  10. “Pucket, your view are irrelevant. You are a well recognized non-sequitir.”

    You are a well-recognized waste of sperm.

  11. Shame on you Simberg. Shame

    For what?

    Read Paul Mirengohoff at Power Line and more thoughtful real conservatives.

    What does what “real conservatives” think have to do with anything? I’m not a conservative, “real” or otherwise, and knowing that someone else is neither denigrates or elevates their opinion in my mind.

    Moronic questioner, Clinton should have been impeached.

    Clinton was impeached. Read a little history.

    One of the characteristics of trolls here seems to be that a) they post anonymously and b) they call me “Simberg” (when they don’t call me worse things). I wonder what is the character defect that causes this common behavior?

  12. I actually knew a girl who won a local beauty pageant and went to the state level. She was, probably not coincidentally, one of the smartest and most disciplined girls in my grade.

    I went to college with a young woman who had a beauty pageant scholarship. She was very intelligent and saw pageants as a way to pay for college. Sarah Palin is the daughter of a school teacher with 3 siblings. There was no way her parents could afford to pay for her college education and athletic scholarships for women weren’t very common back then, so she chose an outlet that worked for her.

    To the East Coast/Ivy League/Beltway snobs, that’s just further proof that Sarah is unworthy. She has the wrong attitudes (e.g. abortion) and doesn’t know her place when it comes to kowtowing to her “betters.” She’s young enough that in 4-8 years, she might make a go at the presidency herself. Therefore, to the anonymous morons out there, Palin must be destroyed. What the morons don’t seem to realize is that their desperate attempts to destroy this woman are backfiring on them. If, as is now looking possible, McCain/Palin wins the election, look for the morons to go absolutely bat-shit crazy. BDS will look mild by comparison.

  13. Rand noted:
    One of the characteristics of trolls here seems to be that a) they post anonymously and b) they call me “Simberg” (when they don’t call me worse things). I wonder what is the character defect that causes this common behavior?

    They’re both defense mechanisms; ways to create emotional distance.

    Trolls are human underneath all their issues, after all, and humans (as a rule; sociopaths excepted) don’t like being mean to other humans. It causes emotional distress. By calling you “Simberg” rather than “Rand” it de-humanizes you (surnames are less personal than first names) and allows them to spew their venom without feeling as bad about it (similar to how calling someone “a dirty Jew” rather than “Etai” is more likely to result in violence against Jews). Similarly, by posting anonymously, they can speak for the troll collective and don’t have to take as much personal (emotional) responsibility for their words.

    Not to Godwin myself, but it’s like being a Nazi in that respect; “Simberg” is your gold star and “Anonymous” is their stormtrooper uniform. They want to vent their anger and hate, but doing so person-to-person is so distressing that they raise these defenses to protect their emotional core.

  14. Why is the bridge to nowhere such a big deal?

    Palin was, at the time, an Alaskan official. She wasn’t in any position to decide what the feds would pay for.

    Obama and Biden, meanwhile, took a couple of moments from filling their own pockets, to cast a couple of votes for said bridge.

    Palin’s position was like that of an AL manager who thinks that the designated hitter is an abomination. Is it really reasonable to fault her for not sending the pitcher up to bat?

    Note that she’s trying to get into a position to change the rules. And, for some reason, the porkers are squealing.

    From their point of view, her great sin is that she hasn’t taken as much money as they find seemly.

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