Sarah Palin's resignation--obviously not anything you haven't already heard about. The amazing thing is that millions of people thought (and probably still think) she was a good candidate to be vice president. Amazing.

Even more ludicrous is that she'll go on to make millions with her book(s) and guest appearances and, I even read, a potential TV show.

Only in America.

Added:

I suppose I owe my readers a more in-depth editorial, but I' not sure how much effort this is worth. It seems pretty straight forward to me. McCain's picking Palin was a Hail Mary pass in an attempt to appeal to a demographic he had no influence with, that being middle-aged white women. He figured he already owned the white mail demo and thus didn't need to bolster it (by choosing, say... Romney), and he thought Palin would bring in the votes he needed to push him over the top.

Perhaps a rational decision at the time: Palin looks good on paper. At first blush, she seemed young, articulate, smart and tough. Also a Pro-Lifer, a positive as far as the Republicans are concerned, since there are some people in this nation who simply won't vote for someone who is Pro-Choice. Son in the Army headed to Iraq, mother of five, including a disabled child, member of the NRA.... She's also very attractive, and there's no denying the power of a pretty face in the U.S. of A. She has a compelling story; small town Mom makes good. She's Every Woman (more on that later).

But maybe they should have interviewed her a little more before tossing her the slot. Once she opened her mouth, it was pretty much all downhill, at least with those voters who exercise a modicum on rationality when it comes to choosing their team. There was also some contradiction coming out of the gate. The RePubs had been bashing on Obama's lack of experience, and Palin, despite their protestations, had even less. Then there's the pregnant teen-age daughter--despite Palin's record of promoting abstinence as opposed to sex education. She's been associated with the Alaska Independence Party, which wants Alaska to secede, and attends a church that can most kindly be described as being on the fringe.

And then came the lunacy of her interviews. She came across as more than incoherent. It was as though she lived in a fantasy world. Her responses were so idiotic, Saturday Night Live was able to lift them whole for Tina Fey's comedic skits.

Lastly, referring back the the Every Woman role they planned for Palin to fill, which was a big tactic of the McCain's campaign. We don't want elitists! We want someone just like you! The message they sent was if you were educated and thoughtful, you were an elitist. Boo! Down with education! Down wirth rational discourse! Down with thoughtfulness! Boo!

Do we really want someone who represent the 'average' American as President or Vice President. I run into average American's all the time. They can't get my order at McDonald's right. They tailgate me when I'm already going 10 over. They can't count change. They can't point out Iraq on a map. The average American on the street is overweight, uneducated, irrational and confident that they are the smartest person walking. One of the stalwart signs of incompetence is the inabliity to recognize it in yourself. I can't speak for you, but personally I want someone educated, thoughtful and rational as president.

Maybe now with her resignation, we can hope we've seen the last of her. I doubt it though. Soon her book with be on the best seller racks and we'll be seeing her all over the daytime talk shows pimping it. She'll be laughing all the way to the bank.

Maybe she's not so stupid after all....

I'm interested in fulfillment, methods we can use to find or create meaning in our lives, beyond that which is granted us by those forces which bend us to their will. I often stumble upon the writings and opinions of like-minded people. One such is P.S. Pirro. My paraphrased except is below and pretty much sums up my opinion of our school system, and the system of work-til-you die labor the permeates our society. You can read the full article here.

We are indoctrinated from school age to devote our time, our freedoms, and our attention to the will of the state, so that we're prepared and trained for a work world of wage slavery and obedience to authority. In the factory environment of our modern schools, where teachers are confronted by ever increasing class sizes, a Lord of the Flies political system establishes itself, were the bullies and their violence, both physical and emotional, rule the social hierarchy. School is prison.

Children who excel at school often find themselves lost in the real world. This sense of displacement and confusion is the result of schooling that succeeds in its most basic goal: to keep you dependent, timid, worried, nervous, compliant, and afraid. To keep you manageable, helpless and small.

It's not up to teachers or school administrators to figure out what you should be or do. It's not up to the State, it's not up to your guidance counselors. It's not up to your parents. What you do with your life ought to be up to you. What you learn ought to be up to you. How you navigate the world and create your place in it ought to be your decision. Your life belongs to you. School does its best to disabuse you of this notion.

If every child were given the chance to explore and discover and learn in the real world what they love to do, what they're uniquely good at doing, and what the world needs that they care about -- then we would have a world of self-confident, creative, informed, empowered, networked entrepreneurs doing work that needs to be done, successfully. We would have armies of people collaborating to solve the problems and crises facing our world, instead of going home exhausted at the end of the day seeking escape, feeling helpless to do anything that is meaningful.

We would have a world of producers instead of consumers, a world of abundance instead of scarcity, a world of diversity instead of what Terry Glavin calls "a dark and gathering sameness". We would have a world of people choosing their lives instead of taking what they can get, what they can afford, what is offered to them. We would have a world of people who are nobody-but-themselves, and who know who they are, and how to live and make a living for themselves.

According to the CDC, in 2007, only one state (Colorado) had an obesity rate lower then 20%. Thirty states had a prevalence equal to or greater than 25%; three of these states (Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee) had a prevalence of obesity equal to or greater than 30%. What does this mean? It means that, overall, Americans are a bunch of fatties.

Have you ever been someplace where you can watch people eat? Most people cram down their food as fast as they can shovel it in. They're overfed fatties; people who revel in the ecstatic joy of stuffing their bulging bodies as quickly as they can. And despite this willful over-indulgence, they moan to whomever will listen about how unhappy they are with their weight.

In Being Here, I talked about being mindful, about paying more attention to what you're doing at the moment, and thus bringing more satisfaction and enjoyment into your life. When we eat as described above, we aren't really paying attention to the whole process of eating. As such, we don't get all the pleasure we can from our meal

So I'm offering a tip which, properly employed, can do two things:

• Help you lose weight
• Enable you to enjoy your meals more

Chopsticks will force you to slow down, as you won't be able to lever the half-pound fork-fulls of food into your mouth. It will take longer to eat, and you'll be forced to pay attention to your food and to the whole process of eating. Willfully slow down and notice how the food feels and tastes in your mouth. Close your eyes and focus the entirely of your attention on that single bite. You'll be surprised at how good it can taste.

Eating like this can have another benefit - you'll end up eating less. It takes about 15-20 minutes for your body to acknowledge the food you're eating and to begin to feel sated. Eating with chopsticks and taking your time means you won't have eaten as much food in that 15-20 minutes.

But you need to listen to your body; there's a difference between eating until you're not longer hungry and eating until you're full. Most people keep going, feeling some sort of compulsion to eat everything in front of them. Instead, stop eating when you're no longer hungry instead of going until you're full.

Eat less, enjoy more. Why not try?