Sentential Links #180

Wow, I've done 180 of these posts now. Where does the madness end! Where, I ask you!!!

Anyhow, the linkage:

:: I've long wondered if there would be a point at which Sarah Palin went just a little too far for the political mainstream. A whole lot of political observers noticed the obvious lies, the cringe-worthy ignorance, the petty feuds, and the bizarre behavior, but wanted to maintain the fiction that Palin was a credible political figure. After all, John McCain wanted her to be one heartbeat from the presidency -- and 60 million Americans agreed.

Maybe, just maybe, her "death panel" message on Facebook -- complete with lies, poor writing, policy confusion, and family exploitation -- will be enough to convince the skeptical that Palin really is that far gone? (God, we can only hope so. What amuses me about Palin isn't so much her brazen stupidity, but rather her stunning hypocrisy. Citing her family's apparent trailer-park morality is just an awful, beyond-the-pale use of her family to make a political point, but holding up Little Trig while squealing "Barack Obama wants to kill my baby!" like the Stepford Moron is A-OK, I guess. Whatever.)

:: End of rant. But since every post is required to have a political point of some kind these days, here it is for this one: there was nothing unusual about my experience. Barely even anything to get upset about, really. So if you wonder why I'm not bothered by the idea of government-funded healthcare, that's why. Frankly, my dealings with the government, on average, are better than most of my dealings with corporations. The government might sometimes provide poor customer service just because they lack the motivation to do better, but corporate America routinely provides crappy customer service as part of a deliberate and minutely planned strategy. I'll take my chances with the feds. (I couldn't agree more. The "free market" does not magically generate great service. It just doesn't.)

:: If you're like us, you saw this image and thought, "sweet, finally a circular saw that comes with its own roll of toilet paper!" But unfortunately, tool technology isn't that advanced yet. (One evening a couple of weeks back, I was finished up my online stuff and gearing up to do some writing when I clicked one more link and found myself at Tool Snob, a blog about tools. I then spent the next two hours wandering through the archives there, tool-obsessed geek I have become. Seriously, I've become one of those guys who gets the same excitement for a trip to Home Depot or Lowe's or even the local hardware joint that I used to get for a decent toy store when I was a kid. Now, I haven't quite rated those places up in my heart to equal status with a trip to a bookstore, but the day may soon come.)

:: Television, I'm sorry to say to those moralist Republicans, is extremely conservative, because all television executives care about is money, which means they can't piss off any portion of their audience.

:: “There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.” (It was "Cat Week" over there, so go have a look.)

:: Oh my God, is she going to TAKE WALLY TO HIS OWN GRAVE? (Yup, that's exactly what she's doing. Wow.)

:: Why, you may ask, would you want to learn facts that are wholly fictional? Would you not be better off learning facts that are, in fact, factual? Don't be foolish. Factual facts are boring, pedantic, pedestrian things. Fictional facts are scintillating, interesting, and other attractive adjectives.

:: I knew this was unwise, but hey: Girlfriend and Nintendo? (What a choice...and condolences to Shamus.)

:: I was babysitting for my mom's friend Kathleen's daughter the night I wrote that first fan letter to John Hughes. I can literally remember the yellow grid paper, the blue ball point pen and sitting alone in the dim light in the living room, the baby having gone to bed. (Everybody and their brother is linking this, but sometimes there's a reason why everybody and their brother links something.)

More next week!