The pix above is younger daughter holding the cone of a sugar pine in Yosemite. They grow things big there, remember? The white bits you can see on the cone are pieces of resin and they have a glorious smell. (Now why can’t the manufacturers of those awful car deodorizing dispensers reproduce that forest smell of pine leaves and trees in autumn? I’d buy it like a shot to remind me of Yosemite…)
Meanwhile a different kind of smell. It’s called muckraking and it stinks.
When I was at university, I spent hours of my time one year in the company of a man who the following year murdered his son in a premeditated killing. True, I was never actually alone with him, but still… He was my lecturer and tutor and I really thought he was lovely man. I have
spoken in a social setting to at least one other convicted murderer (after he was released from jail). Over the course of my life spoken and yes, dare I say it, knowingly socialised with people who have been in jail, been drug addicts, thieves, religious perverts, Nazis (real ones) and bigots.
Am I therefore one of them? Am I a murderer perhaps? Do I therefore share their views? Yep, according to some. See here.
Then again, Palin herself associates with politicians. Can one sink any lower (or dirtier) than that?
The fraternising issue is a tricky one though. From the point of view of security forces (police, military etc.) one has to take note of associations with known troublemakers – cynicism, alas, is part of the peacekeeping job. On the other hand, from an enlightened thinker’s point of view (the ‘peace lover’ perhaps) dialogue with all manner of people is both interesting and vital to the process of understanding one another as living (human) beings.
Do I count as a religious pervert? Heheh.
That sugar pine cone looks good enough to eat btw, like a giant corn on the cob. 😛
Lol – think you would break a tooth on that one! And somehow I don’t think I would ever class you as religious *g*.
Seriously, I don’t know how one would live a public life, having to attend numerous political and public and business functions and so on (as even small beer like me has had to do over the years) and not meet some pretty dire people. And met them repeatedly too.
To go from “being on the same committee as…” to associating with a terrorist in anti-American activities is a very big jump.
Is Palin – if VP – going to walk out of the room in a huff when she is on official international jaunts just because someone she knows to be a terrorist sympathizer enters the room? Of course not. And let’s hope no one would then accuse her of terrorist sympathies because she stays and has polite conversation.
That is the real world.
Boy, the stink of desperation in the air is strong…
I am just hoping that Americans are smart enough to realise that putting that woman so close to that much power is just asking for trouble!
What makes me think you don’t like her Glenda? By the way, the last 20 years of Matt’s working life he was a Correctional Officer in both English and Canadian jails. He associated with quite a lot of criminals. We also had an apartment in our last house in the UK and the tenant was a money mover for the Kray family (notorious in the UK). Admittedly he was already renting when we bought the house. He was, as so many of them are, a charming man.
America has a new disease: Palinoia
I can see you’re as upset about McCain and Palin as I am, Glenda! I’m staggered that they haven’t been sued or thrown out of the race for some of the blatant lies they’ve told and misinformation they’ve knowingly sown. It’s like parliamentary privilege gone mad.
And if we’re talking about people associating with known terrorists, how about McCain and Palin palling around with Bush, Cheney and Rove? If the definition of a terrorist is ‘one who employs terror as a political weapon’, then ask the (surviving) innocent civilians of Baghdad whether they think Bush and his cronies fit the bill.
I can only hope that the good people of America (and the vast majority of them are just that) see through the smokescreen and the lies and elect the party whose candidates you’d actually trust to pronounce ‘Shi’ite’ properly . . .
Ah, so just plain ol’ perv without the religious kink then, heh.
I’m still trying to imagine Ms. P having a polite conversation on any international jaunt … except perhaps for handing out approved American translations of the Bible, cordially recommending slave trade to certain foreign leaders as a viable economic alternative to genocide, or offering a bounty of $150 for every Palestinian forearm … :