Oyster Roundup!
Thick and fast they came at last, and more, and more, and more…
She’ll quit on Republican women’s groups, she’ll quit on pro-life fundraisers, she’ll quit on CPAC, she’ll quit on four colleges, she’ll quit on the great state of Alaksa. Frank Bailey said that trying to get Sarah Palin to commit to anything was like “nailing Jell-O to a tree.” So I found it interesting that her sudden affinity for commitment was for something that everyone else tries to get out of – jury duty. Considering that jury duty comes with a couple months notice, we wonder why this wasn’t on the planning calendar. And apparently filling out the little pink slip they send you where you tell them you’re busy and you’d rather do it another time, was too difficult. Much easier apparently was cancelling her “Bus to Nowhere” trip across America. Not that anyone is complaining.
As someone who appreciates the agony of “rummaging through the Palin files,” I was glad to see that Andrew Halcro had a great piece up on The Anchorage Press. It’s a must-read for those of you who never tire of others refudiating our ex-half-governor. She’s an energy expert? No she’s not. She’s a fiscal conservative? No she’s not. She quit because of ethics complaints? No, she didn’t.
Within weeks it became painfully evident that Palin was incapable of learning much of anything, and she was roundly mocked for her inability to answer even the easiest of questions. Fast-forward three years and nothing has changed regarding Sarah Palin’s character arc.
She has not become more educated on world events, she hasn’t matured as a leader and she hasn’t increased her curb appeal to moderate Republicans and independents. In short, Palin is still performing as if having an understanding of facts, figures and policies doesn’t really matter.
It’s awesome! Did you hear? We’ve changed the chemical balance of the atmosphere so much with our emissions and our greenhouse gases and all that stuff, that we finally did it. And we celebrated with a gathering in Girdwood called the Arctic Imperative Summit. Don’t think of it as global disaster, think of it as a business opportunity. Think of it like they do in the Mission Statement of the conference. Think of it as:
AN ARCTIC AWAKENING
Climate change is causing Alaska’s Arctic to change at an unprecedented rate that will bring more shipping and development to the far north. Declining sea ice means more viable and efficient shipping corridors. There is also a growing interest in tapping the large estimated reserves of oil and gas in the Arctic Ocean off the northern shores of Alaska.
The conference, organized by The Alaska Dispatch, had other sponsors too, like Shell, Conoco, BP, a bunch of Native Corporations, and banks. Go figure.
Looks like there’s a new kid on the bloggers’ block. Who, you ask? They’re not saying. They are smart, funny, engaging, and anonymous. And you all know how much we love us some anonymous bloggers here at the Mudflats. Commenting on Palin’s suspended One Nation bus tour, Denali Post notes, “The USS Malaprop will also fail to make its scheduled port-o-call in the Sudan, it turns out. No moral support for brown people sans birth certificates.” You can find them on the blogroll (Missing Links tab) or at the link in the title.
This could be good.
You Will Feel Better in 8 Minutes
I’m not kidding. This was the best 8 minutes of my week. Watch it. You won’t be sorry. Promise.
Same here Zyxomma, been called many times, never served. They ask me what I do, I say igneous petrologist. End of story. Strangely over the past 5 years I have been called will much greater frequency and were it not for email I would probably have been cited multiple time for contemp for not showing up because I don’t get US mail here in the Brasilian bush. I have written to them over and over explaining that I have now been out here more than 8 years and there is no end in sight. They still send me notices to appear.
Go figure.
The sweetest piece of irony about this excuse to quit again is that we all know that mooszilla could never be bothered to actually do jury duty. Unless they paid her $100k to show up.
My experience of jury duty is limited to voir dire. I’ve never been selected. I used to get out of it because I’m a freelancer; now I just show up and wait, wait, wait. I expect to get notice any time now; it’s been a few years.
The whale rescue was beautiful.
Been called for jury duty a number of times, served on 3. It’s quite flexible for when you might wish to serve, just tell the court you wish to serve on whatever month is more convienent. Most of jury duty is show up and wait to see if you will be called to be questioned. I can’t imagine any prosecutor would allow the Quitter on a jury, too distracting from the case. Only reason I can think that a defense atty would allow her (same reason) would be if hoping for a mistrial before it even started. she’d be too big a distraction.
That made my morning . . . .
AKM, you are so right about the whale video. That’s the best 8 minutes I’ve spent in a long time. Wow!
As for She Who Must No Longer Be Named – I’m not buying that whole jury duty thing. If she did suddenly have to go back it’s more likely that she got the notice and forgot to do anything about it and is now stuck with showing up. If she ends up being selected, I feel sorry for the other jurors and the judge. They’ll have to constantly remind her that she has to follow the rules, which we all know she can’t.
Great round-up and I loved the video (shared it with my family). Thank-you.
On climate change conference: I get nothing when I go to the site, I guess it is because I have to protect this browser from funky javascripts. I think I get the gist of it though and I would restate it as: well since it seems like we are hellbent on destroying the global environment in order to make money, why not make money off that idea? The conference sponsor is just trying to cash in. Conferences are good money makers.
In fact, this is an add-on to the already lucrative business of contriving anti-climate science propaganda. I have seen many new characterizations of this behavior which confuses me somewhat. I guess it can be put down to the natural inclination of people writing down their views to try for some originality, so I have seen it called ‘spin’, and ‘framing’ and a few other things. Why I find it confusing is that there is already a perfectly good and unambiguous word for such behavior, it is lying.
That raises the issue of whether or not turn about really is fair play? If your opponent lies, and in a clever enough way that it is difficult to refute the lie (I’m sorry, I meant refudiate) is it then justifyable to resort to the same tactics albeit perhaps with some attached scruples, e.g. not tell lies that have direct harm on anyone?
This is a classical dilemma. What it amounts to is whether it is more important what the outcome is or how the outcome was achieved? I do not pretend to have an answer to that one. But I will say I have an ethical standard that I cannot exceed. That does not prevent me from suggesting to others that actions beyond my standards are not necessarily inappropriate.
In terms of the issues that face us as a species at this time, well – we will see won’t we?
Great video, thanks. It was good to watch after reading about SP, made my night.
I am sitting in bed ready to go to sleep and that wonderful whale story is the perfect bed time story for me. Thank you AKM! for sharing that.
FYI — we just passed the time when those who were in trouble with the Permanent Fund Division were notified by mail — i.e. those who were not eligible for the 2011 dividend for various reasons, those who needed to provide more paperwork, etc…
One of the things that can now disqualify you from receiving your dividend is failure to appear for jury duty. They give you tons of opportunity to make up for it as well.
If you do lose it for that reason, it might be public record.
Also, one of the caveats of signing the Dividend paperwork is that you must swear that you fully intend to remain a resident of the State of Alaska for that year.
It’s a fair bet that Palin has put off jury duty repeatedly and may now have been threatened by the State of Alaska with more public humiliation. That could also coincide with the rumor that she will be renting out her Arizona house.
wow- not official resident of Alaska?….. would that disqualify her and hers for the Native Ameriacn health insurance ??? She’d actually have to PAY for medical insurance? and we’ve seen the news about AZ’s medical insurance policies – pay or die…..
From my understanding if a beneficiary of the “Native American Health Insurance Company” in Alaska is going to travel outside of Alaska, that person will still be able to have their insurance company pay for any medical services they receive (within guidelines) while traveling outside of Alaska, if that person let their insurance company know they will be traveling out of Alaska .(within guidelines .. plastic or elective surgery, etc…)
My friend’s baby is covered by the native health care system and she just moved to Oregon. She will be covered by the native health care system there, because it is a federal program administered by BIA. The only problem is that the system here is supplementedby the Alaska Native Tribal Health Care Consortium and is very well funded. In other places, they face having nothing more than an area clinic with a nurse-practitioner.
LKB – good point and good hint. Public records…
One quibble, I believe it is the palin spawn that is renting out the new digs because she must reloc to L.A. to cash in on her next gimme.
Another point I think is worth making. Now that incarceration is a “business”, the increase in the number of people incarcerated is a given, more prisoners = more profits. More prosecutions = more prisoners. I’ll stop there with the premises. It is a positive feedback loop. The kind of thing that was first discovered when people began experimenting with steam engines and such like. They in turn invented a device that would prevent runaway revving of the system. Irony upon ironies it was called a “governor”.
Plus, requirements to receive the PFD state that you have to have been a resident and actually IN the State of Alaska for a certain number of months/days to receive the benefit.
I would be surprised if Palin would be selected to be on a Jury. But, if she were hope she realizes she’d have to sit down, shut up, listen and not play w/her Blackberries for a long period of time.
LKB.. The last time I was on jury duty, 2 1/2 years ago, the judge told us the jury is chosen through the names of the people receiving the Alaskan Permanent Fund Dividends. He also said that if you did’nt want to be on jury duty , don’t apply for the dividend. He mentioned juries used to be chosen through the DMV, but so many people had Alaska drivers licenses that only lived here a few months out of the year , and it was harder to get a jury pool if the state had to track down people. From my understanding a person can be away from Alaska legally for 6 months out of the year, and be eligible for the dividend. (although there are exceptions, attending college out of Alaska, Military and the families, illnesses requiring medical care outside of Alaska, and more …
The plot thickens…
The plots thicken?
Oy, vey.
I always enjoy animal rescue stories with happy endings. And you can’t get much happier than that little whale, dancing up a storm for her rescuers!
Tnx for the tip on The Denali Post – gotta love this pic of their editorial meeting:
http://denalipost.com/?page_id=2
Oysters! Yaaayyyy!!! Anybody bring some of those tiny little crackers?
Here ya go. I’ve got a bottle of Louisiana hot sauce, too. 🙂
I love love love the Oyster Roundups!!!! (as well as oysters!!!!! )
sheesh, I’m only 2 minutes in and I’m crying already….
Thank you for the love! The admiration is mutual.
Lovely!!
Another rescue video, a seal pup rescued in Homer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnqV1qAwpf0&feature=player_embedded
Gee, is the state Great State of Alaska so hard up for jurists that, A trip to the Sudan with Franklin Grahmn is not good enough?
Sadly, ten years ago our oldest daughter spent 6 hours helping to “hold up” a whale off the Georgia coast until the overworked marine veterinarian could arrive to tend to it. They lost the whale, but the experience greatly affected all of her family and is a story shared with the next generation.
I love a happy ending.
I saw that video a couple of days ago. VERY cool!