Moving to Idaho

So...I don't know if it's because I'm spending time in a former communist country, or because I've been noticing how strenuously Sarah Palin is branding dissent as "Unamerican", or if it's because I'm expecting my period tomorrow and that usually guarantees one day of feeling completely hopeless, but I am suddenly scared about the possibility of America becoming a police state in the near future. And this didn't help at all:

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_homeland_090708w/

"They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control"

Um, anyone want to join me in buying fireams and forming a separatist militia in Idaho? Or something?

My friend La Nina sent that out today. I'm sure it was partially in response to all the uproar about Barack Obama's alleged ties to a Bill Ayers. I read about/saw it on the BBC news site - Sarah Palin smugly shrugging that she'd read about it in the New York times (like she reads the New York Times. Like she even reads). So smug, yet unable to do the math to calculate that Barack Obama was 8 years old when Bill Ayers was blowing up buildings. It was a little sickening to see how excited she was because she didn't really know what she was excited about, she was like a child who'd been given a pat on the head by a normally inattentive parent. The worst part though, the absolute worst part, is that it doesn't matter to the McCain campaign that no media person or anyone with a brain will take her seriously. All that matters is that there are some idiots - plenty of idiots (people cheering when she "revealed" this "dramatic" piece of sensationilistic tripe that has no bearing on anything whatsoever) - that will actually believe that this piece of information means Barack Obama has the intentions and connections to blow up the Pentagon.

ARRRGH. I've complained about it before and I'll complain about it again: WILLFUL IGNORANCE.

For extra creepiness, because it's nearing Halloween and I have yet to find anything scarier than this picture:


(I guess they have to use a lot of fake tanner in Alaska because of the lack of sunlight part of the year? Maybe it's a safety thing, being that orange, so you don't get shot? This is a seriously weird picture.)