Post Turtle Palin

I have never followed, nor felt as strongly about, another election as I have about the current presidential election. There has, of course, always been one candidate that I preferred over the other. But this year, there is one candidate that causes me to tremble with fear at the thought of her being "one heartbeat away" from leading this country (hey, if the candidates can stretch the truth...).

Yes, it's Alaska's down-with-the-peeps, soccer-mom governor Sarah Palin.

So when I saw this comment made by a reader of AOL's Election '08 "Palin Defends Her 'Terrorist' Remark", I wanted to share it as I believe it aptly describes her position in this race:

"While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75 year old Texas rancher whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Sarah Palin and her bid to be a heartbeat away from being President. The old rancher said, "Well, ya know, Palin is a post turtle. When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post turtle."

Seeing that he didn't understand, the old man explained. "You know she didn't get up there by herself, she doesn't belong up there, she doesn't know what to do while she is up there, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put her up there to begin with."

JohnDLevan9 10:05 PM Oct 06 2008

For the sake of this country, I'm hoping that some passerby will be kind enough to take this turtle off of the post and return her to where she came from.

Please.

Political Parody

The following videos were on today's AOL's Election '08 page.

Thanks to Saturday Night Live for the comic relief! And to AOL for their "survey" questions that ask: "Do comedy bits affect your opinions on the election?" and, "How much do you think they affect the election overall?"








Isn't is great that we live in a country where even the potential president can be mocked without fear of retribution? Imagine this same scenario in, say, North Korea...

Near Opportunity

At the beginning of this year, I was invited to be part of a Pa'u unit representing the island of Maui for the Aloha Week Festivals parade. I accepted the invitation mostly because it meant that I would be able to ride a horse, and partially because I thought it'd be a great new experience.

A float representing King Kamehameha and his Court

I'd always dreamed of having my own horse when I was young. And although we did have a Shetland pony when I was about 6, I never really got to ride much. So, needless to say, I was more than excited about "having" to practice riding. I even bought myself some cowboy boots!

Yep, these very ones.

Over the months we went to Uncle Harry's ranch to get matched to our horses--I got Hoku--and practice riding. The horses we rode are trained for parade riding only, so they were very mild mannered and, for the most part, easy to ride. I did have a couple of panicky moments, however, when Hoku decided that she wanted to test me out and would suddenly take off galloping. But overall, I was in horse heaven!!! I even enjoyed the saddling up, unsaddling, and washing of the horses. Anything to be close to the them.

We did fundraising--selling cookies and putting on a luau; learned to wrap a pa'u skirt (there's much more to it than you'd ever guess), prepared our outfits, and planned our pooper scooper bin design.

Now the parade is nearly here--Saturday, September 13th. And unfortunately, we won't be riding. Our princess (and group leader) is unable to leave Seattle where she is caring for her terminally ill mother. I'm disappointed that I won't have this experience this year; but maybe next year we'll be able to ride. And I'll be able to be one of these regally beautiful women in the parade:

The Princess

Her two Attendants (my position)