I'm a hockey mom, too, having spent the last nine winters ferrying my now-15-year-old daughter to and from one frigid ice rink after another. I've been there, rising in the dark to guide a warm child into a cold car, both of them balky and cranky in the pre-dawn hours, then hurtling down the highway in a mad dash only to spend the next two hours huddling in a sports facility warm room under fluorescent lights, sipping Dunkin Donuts with the other pathetic hockey parents, all of us looking at least a decade older than we appear to those who see us in the hours after nine a.m. It's a bonding experience, the same way prison must be.
And yet for years we've been sorely overlooked, overshadowed by the more popular and telegenic soccer moms – hey, it's easy to look good when your kid plays an outdoor sport during daylight hours! You can't blame a hockey mom for feeling ignored, invisible, and under-appreciated . . .
And yet for years we've been sorely overlooked, overshadowed by the more popular and telegenic soccer moms – hey, it's easy to look good when your kid plays an outdoor sport during daylight hours! You can't blame a hockey mom for feeling ignored, invisible, and under-appreciated . . .
So I figured, when Republican presidential candidate John McCain picked Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and it was revealed that she's a hockey mom, too, that we must have more than a thing or two in common. And that must be what McCain figured, too. Women like me – white, 40ish, married with children – are considered to be one of this election season's swing demographics . . .
Let's start with the things we don't have in common:
1. Palin doesn't believe global warming has been proven.
2. Palin is in favor of teaching creationism alongside evolution in public schools.
3. Palin believes abortion should be illegal, even in cases of rape and incest, except in limited cases in which it might be necessary to save the life of the mother (presumably so she can go on to have more children!) . . .
Basically, Palin's hockey-mom-dom is the only thing that might remotely recommend her to anyone but the most ultra-conservative voters. Turns out, for hockey-mom swing voters, a shared devotion to mouthguards might not be enough of a connection to outweigh her extreme-right stance, her inexperience and her randomness.
Read Tuttle's full post here.
Seriously, can anywhere out there explain to us the selection of Sarah Palin as anything other than a cynical bid for disgruntled Hillary supporters? This Politico item that lists six things the Palin decision says about McCain is helpful, but we're still confused by what seems like an embarrassingly bad choice.
Reader Comments ( Page 7 of 8)
91. here's Inuit creationism:
"An Eskimo Legend
It is said that Raven made the world. He is a man with a raven's beak. When the waters forced the ground up from the deep Raven stabbed it with his beak and fixed it into place. This first land was just big enough for the house that was on it.
There were three people in the house. This was a family with a man, his wife and their little son Raven who had fixed the land. The father had a bladder hanging over his bed. After much pleading by Raven the father allowed the boy to play with it.
While playing Raven damaged the bladder and light appeared. The father not wanting to have light always shining, took the bladder from the boy before he could damage it further. And that is how day and night started over the land."
I don't know how a well a believer might reconcile that with cosmology and molecular genetics but I'm guessing not very.
However, it is just as plausible as creation in genesis, I'll grant the Inuits that. You hear weirder here every week from christians.
Are they all going to demand equal time? Why not just submit your lab reports for review every time you all get something published in a major scientific journal? That'd work.
Clif Kuplen at 4:02PM on Sep 1st 2008
92. What I said was that it IS what a large portion of our population believe and therefore should be taught for that reason alone.
xx
oh, so science is subject to populuar vote, huh. Let's all vote that you can't get fat on less than 40,000 calories a day and that beer squirts out of cow's asses. cool with you?
Clif Kuplen at 6:48PM on Sep 1st 2008
93. Funny. No one can prove evolution. They can't explain fish, dinosaurs, giant mammals, but they can tell you man descended from apes? Ok,prove it.
If you teach philosophy, then teaching intelligent design should be included. Why worry about the kids, as long as they get an X-box and a mom and dad who both work, better religion than nihilism.
It may be getting warmer but think of this..you can stand 110 degree temps all day long, but at -40 you die. The man who founded the weather channel doesn't believe in man made global warming. Its our ego that makes us think we could actually affect global temperatures. We get more energy from the Sun in one day than we could use in 20 years.
As for qualifications, Harry Truman was President after only three months as VP, was not told anything about the A-bomb, was in the middle of a global war followed by Korea. He was in WWI, had a nasty temper and not much political experience. So the arguement about Palin doesn't hold water. Get over it, Dems aren't the only ones who have qualified women or isit only Dem women that deserve to be elected?
Dedmanrisn at 12:40AM on Sep 2nd 2008
94. However, it is just as plausible as creation in genesis, I'll grant the Inuits that. You hear weirder here every week from christians.
Are they all going to demand equal time?
Clif Kuplen at 4:02PM on Sep 1st 2008
Under your "Fairness Doctrine" it would be mandated or does "fairness" only apply to views the are the same.
M2D5 at 7:55AM on Sep 2nd 2008
95. Dedmanrisn: Prove evolution? Okay, first, there is the fact that we share 98% of our DNA with the primates. Second, much older species like chimpanzies have more genetic variance than human beings. That is to say, that any two unrelated chimpanzies are more genetically unalike than any two unrelated humans. DNA had better be reliable since we've been using it to lock people up and to determine whether or not to put them to death!
Still not enough? Okay, in any scientific process, we have what is called exclusionary evidence. This means what is not there that can often tell us more than what is. For this, I bring to your attention the Continent of Australia. Since geology tells us that most of the major land masses were once part of a large super-continent and that Australia was the first to drift away, whatever life lived there became isolated early on from contact with other species. So, genetically, whatever evolved there would have to be different than life forms that evolved anywhere else. Australia has more unique species (that is, species with no living relatives anywhere else) than anywhere else on earth. When you consider how sparse the ecology is there, the unique diversity is truly amazing. Additionally, the only species native to Australia that have living relatives elsewhere are the older species that would have pre-dated the break-up of the super-continent.
As humans colonize space, they will also see evolutionary shifts as environmental, dietary, and the limited selection of genetic material play out to create a variety of human distinct to a particular colony.
Keith J. Mohrhoff at 8:00AM on Sep 2nd 2008
96. This seems to be a gal who uses her office to intimidate those who do not agree with her...I wonder if there was any cause for law suits when she fires the 2 public safety managers ....Her candidacy reminds me of Tom Eagleton's.
cris ware at 3:19PM on Sep 2nd 2008
97. I heard this from a biological scientist recently on a science channel program.
Biological science is now digital. It is just as rigorous as chemistry or physics, and any stated hypothesis can be demonstrated molecularly.
There aren't any evolutionary mysteries left except to people who don't have 21st century scientific awareness, and they'll all be gone soon enough.
Don't bother engaging with them.
Understanding evolution is just like understanding any other scientific discipline.
You have to clear out superstition and prejudice first to have any hope of getting up to speed, and there isn't a one of them who could do that or they wouldn't need convincing.
If a person believes steam engines are run by invisible demons, it's not time for Boyle's law. Same with evolution. That alone is enough reason why Palin isn't qualified to govern in the 21st century.
Where would we go as a nation if the wedge doctrine were enforced here and the rest of the world advanced normally? We're already well on our way to third world status. Do republicans ever consider a week in advance? Is it always the instant gratification? It's shameful.
Clif Kuplen at 4:19PM on Sep 2nd 2008
98. How is telling somebody that they may have been created in the image of God a bad thing?
xxx
Why make schools to it? And why try to insist it's science when anyone with an education knows it isn't? Obey the law and keep it in church. Why speed up our descent into third world status?
We're already too far behind, and outside of the middle east, we don't have dominionist governments on Earth anymore.
Clif Kuplen at 4:58PM on Sep 2nd 2008
99. Ada- Thank God the Hockey moms are helping you with your little bits now... I'll sleep better having heard their tidbits of wisdom. Whew, that was a close call........almost forgot to check them out!!!!!
Could you possibly take up tap dancing or something? Don't really think you are cut out for this job..
sjd8325 at 9:43PM on Sep 2nd 2008
100. No one has mentioned that Sarah Palin has a B.S.
degree in journalism with no graduate degree. Why
is it that only women who have done their homework
are offended by her being selected. She will be like a fish out of water. The whole idea is scary.
I think that she should step down. It is obvious that she has been properly vetted.
M. Archer at 10:41AM on Sep 3rd 2008
101. No one has mentioned that Sarah Palin has a B.S.
degree in journalism with no graduate degree. Why
is it that only women who have done their homework
are offended by her being selected. She will be like a fish out of water. The whole idea is scary.
I think that she should step down. It is obvious that she has been properly vetted.
M. Archer at 10:41AM on Sep 3rd 2008
Funny how one Harry S. Truman with little credentials, who had the fate of the free world dropped in his lap after only a small amount of on the job training was able to rise to the occasion?
I guess that is only possible if you are of a particular political persuasion. May be it was one of those correspondence school courses that was the key. I doubt it strongly. He rose because the talent was there hiding under a rather rough exterior. Not one of great eloquence or a fair number of sheep skins on a wall. Someone who was practical, who started out, oh my god !, as a county commission as part of a rather corrupt political machine. He still rose to the occasion.
So this is not doable if someone is a woman and does not toe the feminist line.
M2D5 at 3:25PM on Sep 3rd 2008
102. He was in WWI, had a nasty temper and not much political experience.
__________________________
Dedmanrisn, that revisionist attempt at history leaves out one important fact: Harry Truman served as a United States Senator for ten years before becoming Vice President of the United States.
randy at 3:57PM on Sep 3rd 2008
103. Yes, humans do certainly effect global temperatures. That said, we also KNOW for certain that the earth's climate has always been cyclical--having experienced at least two ice ages before the dawn of man and, we must assume warm period before and after each and between the two.
So, my question is this: If the earth were heading into another ice age--which would certainly be just as perilous to our survival--would there be as much outcry? Would we then try to generate more fluorocarbons in an effort to raise global temperatures?
Keith J. Mohrhoff at 7:40AM on Sep 4th 2008
104. This is a funny article. And I would never have guessed it was written by another woman attacking another woman...ha ha ha .....So typical...Woman hate to see another succeed...MEOW......."What type of haockeymoms were asked? Real ones or the type that have the nanny bring the kid to the rink at 4 am? Hey ADA? You are really scraping the bottom of the barrel for this info. Why don't you go and write an article on plagerism...Now that's a story...
sue at 12:42PM on Sep 4th 2008
105. Who ever heard of Obama until he was on Oprah? And then surrounded himself with Hollywood types..And we should all vote for whoever Hollywood backs because they are so informed with current events.
sue at 12:45PM on Sep 4th 2008