How can you not tune in to catch a television show in order to satisfy your increasing curiosity? I would really like to know if anyone has ever resisted the urge to capture something that they knew they did not want to miss. It is the same reason that we, as a society, slow down and look at automobile accidents, no matter how grotesque, simply for the satisfaction of seeing some dismembered limb on the roadway or maybe a recently deceased figure with a pose that bears a striking similarity to Edvard Munch’s masterpiece “Scream.”
For that reason, and really that reason only, I tuned in on the night of Sunday, November 14 to catch the debut of “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” on the Learning Channel.
On his MSNBC show “The Last Word” on November 16, Lawrence O’Donnell made the following comment on Sarah Palin’s reality show: “Nearly 5 million people watched the premiere on Sunday which is way more than watch any cable news show.”
I knew it! I am with mainstream America! However, in the spirit of the debut of Sarah Palin’s show, shouldn’t I say I’m part of the “lame stream?”
The first thing that struck me was the fact that Sarah Palin was hosting something on a channel called “Learning.” Having Sarah Palin host a special on the Learning Channel is like Ted Kaczynski in charge of shipping for the Home Shopping Network. (By the way, that’s my new favorite joke.)
The second thing that intrigued me was the cover of the Baltimore Sun’s TV page from the day the show was set to debut. The cover featured a promotional picture of Alaska’s latest former Governor cuddling two baby cubs. None of my friends would join me in a betting pool on how old the cubs were going to be before Ms. Palin would shoot them from a helicopter.
My expectations on the reality show failed to disappoint. In the first five minutes, she is complaining about her new neighbor, who is a journalist writing a book about her, sitting on his balcony, which overlooks the Palins’ home in Wasilla. Her major complaint, with the cameras and the television crew following her and focusing on the intimate details of her family life, is invasion of her privacy.
Sarah Palin is complaining about the invasion of her privacy while camera crews are following her in the process of filming something that is going to wind up on national television.
How does “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” deal with the issue of a presumably nosy neighbor? The show does this by filming the neighbor sitting on the balcony and writing, therefore invading his privacy!
There is a way they have been able to hinder the neighbor’s supposed spying techniques. Apparently, husband Todd is handy enough to build a fence, which blocks their home from the view of next door. Palin goes on to say that the fence between the two homes is an excellent example of how the United States can secure her borders.
And Sarah Palin is right about that. She is right seeing as how all that the would-be illegal immigrants and al Qaeda operatives are doing is sitting on balconies that overlook the United States border writing tell-all books about the United States.
One of the statements that Palin makes is that she loves living in Alaska because of the fact that since there are few roads in Alaska, you can have a plane pick you up in your backyard whenever you want to go anywhere, as if it is true for everybody in Alaska.
The latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that 7.3% of Alaskans are unemployed. So for those residents, they may not necessarily be able to have the luxury of having a plane for a taxi service.
Wait a minute! Something that Sarah Palin touts for herself is not the case for all of her fellow countrymen? Sarah Palin was mistaken about something? How am I ever going to sleep at night?
The premiere episode closes with Sarah rock climbing. Despite being uncomfortable with heights, Palin says she is going to persist and make it to the summit finish what she started because she does not like to quit what she started.
It’s nice to see that Sarah Palin has her priorities straight. Rock climbing is serious business. It’s not like you’re doing something small like serving out your full term as an elected Governor of a state!
“Sarah Palin’s Alaska” has created buzz since its airing. Surely, she can get positive feedback from her colleagues at FOX News, where she is a commentator. Liz Trotta, a panelist on a show called “FOX News Watch” who was unaware that the camera was still recording the conversation even after the show had gone to a break, said “Alessandra Stanley had the best line. She said the new show was like the Sound of Music without the Nazis, without the romance and without the music.”
Judith Miller, a former New York Times reporter who is also a panelist on the show said during the exchange, “Oh the Washington Post hated it, too. Did you see his review? He said the cowed sound of her voice when warning you to heed the bears actually scared the bears.”
Does that sound harsh? Oh, come on! How many of us haven’t made jokes about our co-workers and how many of us dream about making them on national cable television, even if it means making them while we are being recorded without our knowledge?
Alaska, I’ve discovered, is a very beautiful state and one that I would like to visit. I’ve found a way to discover its beauty thanks to Sarah Palin’s special. All I have to do to fully enjoy the state’s splendor is to hit the Mute button on my remote so I don’t have to hear Sarah Palin speak.
Hey! That was something useful that Sarah Palin taught me on the Learning Channel after all!
Thanks for the chuckle. I haven’t had the stomach to watch that show.
Myer’s comments are stupid. Why did the Daggar even post his comments? Slow news week?
Who in the world IS Tom Meyers? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a positive comment in any of his posts. What’s his background? Who died and let him become the all-knowing, all-seeing OZ?
Does Bristol dance on this?
Can I take back my vote for Meyers on the School Board?
You would take back your vote because Myers didn’t like a televison show?
Based on Myers’ comments, I’m guessing he is a committed liberal. Liberals are very sad people and they tend to viciously attack those they do not like or disagree with. If Myers is on the School Board, it’s sad days for Harford County. There is nothing wrong with one expressing one’s views, but Myers’ comments here were over the top. He is a very silly person.
Censor police. Seems like Rob is a facist!
Do you even know what fascism is . . . ? Don’t think you do. Look it up.
“The Fascist conception of the State is all-embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value. Thus understood, Fascism is totalitarian, and the Fascist State—a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values—interprets, develops, and potentiates the whole life of a people.”
This was said by the king of facists, Mussolini.
He advocates a central point of view and censoring controdicting points of view. In his far right corporatist based facism.
Cdev,
Fascism is a totalitarian leftist ideological system that is anti-capitalist, takes away individual property rights and personal freedom much like socialism and communism.
It is far left not right.
Paca
Censor this
Asked for her read on Palin, Barbara Bush responded:
“I sat next to her once, thought she was beautiful and I think she’s very happy in Alaska — and I hope she’ll stay there.”
Cdev,
I too read that…lol. I love the Barbara, she’s still as quick witted as ever and knows the deal.
She is indeed on sharp tack!
Barbara has always been a gracious and perceptive woman, even though she’s not a dangerous, liberal, and whatever else. fascist
She’s an establishment Republican, the same type were trying to rid ourselves of. Like her son at the end of his Presidency, she protects the power of the ruling class. There isn’t a whit of difference between a moderate republican and most democrats. Both need to go extinct.
She fears the tea party, like Rove, like Graham, etc. It threatens their comfortable grip on power because it comes from the people. It’s sad she has to be crass about this, when she could be remembered for just being Barbara.
It’s called humor – if you dish it out you have to be able to take it.
I want more politicians like Sarah Palin, not fewer.
What was wrong with her management of the government of Alaska or Wasilla or her service on the Commission regarding Energy?
It was my understanding that she represented the interests of the citizens of Alaska more fairly than other elected or appointed officials.
By negociating a fairer agreement with certain oil and gas interests, Alaskan citizens were paid the appropriate amount for their resources and received money back from the government.
I rarely come across substantive information about government and how elected officials are spending money and who is benefiting from the money that they are spending.
Even now, in Maryland with Race to the Top … I heard from Board of Ed members that half of the $250 million award to Maryland is going to go to some kind of state wide tracking system (requiring many more new state workers?) and the other half is to be split between the 23 Maryland counties and Baltimore City school systems. In Howard County, the amount awarded (approx. $800,000 over 4 years) will not even cover the costs of implementing the new Race to the Top regulations.
It is sad to see government spend so much money with so few benefits to the average citizen.
I agree! Sarah tells it like it is and to Heck with the consequences! Would be nice if more politicians had that attitude of straight to the point instead of the mumbo jumbo rhetoric that we hear so often.
Good one … thanks for the laugh.
Alternative article title:
“Having Sarah Palin Host a Special on the Learning Channel is Like Tom Myers thinking he’s qualified to run for a seat on the Board of Education.”
Bravo!!!
Kinda like having a socialist as President trying to ruin the Country. Or a spend then tax liberal as Governor of a one party plantation State with most of the residents too ignorant to realize that government handouts ie: welfare, is the same as the old master down south instead of working on their own. Kinda like that Tom? You betcha!
Tom Meyers IS a committed liberal. While he was campaigning on my front lawn, my daughter spotted his car up the street. It was covered with former and present state democrat stickers. If I had only known how mean and disrespectful Tom Meyer is/was, I would have never let him set his progressive, loser feet on my property!
Tom’s article clearly belongs on the Politics link – not Entertainment. If Tom really believes this is anything other than a political attack add his thought process is wanting. And I do not state this as a supporter of Sarah Palin because I am not. Those in charge at the Dagger should also recognize this and place a such future articles in their proper place.
During the course of the recent school board elections I had occasion to speak with Tom about his views concerning education and his motivations for running. I thought he was a sincere young man who was interested in doing what was right for the students of Harford County. He expressed some ideas and a perspective that I thought would be of value on the board. I was even upset about the way Terrance continued to attack him in what I thought was an inappropriate manner. I have since changed my mind and am thankful that Tom lost his election bit. His conduct and commentary since the election has demonstrated to me that he is not ready to assume the mantle of a community leader. The more he continues down this road the further he will alienate himself from those in his community, damage any political aspirations he may have, and make himself unelectable to any office.
Tom is a smile a minute. I’ll bet he supports all of the liberal causes like showing porn at the University of Maryland, kicking a soldier out of CCBC for expressing his feelings about war and the ever popular ” they’re not illegal aliens they’re NEW AMERICANS” mantra. Since we all live in the Peoples Republik of Maryland his views are not suprising.
Please tell me more about the CCBC soldier incident. I work there and have not heard a thing about it.
He apparently wrote an essay about the allure of war and made some statements in the essay that concerned his professor enough that apparently it was forwarded to administration who decided that the soldier needed to have a psychological evaluation before being allowed back on campus.
Based just on the statement in the article I saw I can see the concern, but it’s taken out of context and without reading the entire essay it’s hard to say whether or not barring him from campus pending an evaluation is justified.
http://www.wbal.com/absolutenm/templates/story.aspx?articleid=62731&zoneid=3
Back to the topic…Palin is a kook and is not remotely qualified to be President (neither is Obama.) I just hope the far right doesn’t end up giving her the nomination in ’12 because that will virtually hand Obama the office for another 4 years and this country can’t afford 4 more years of him.
Dittos Tom……Mega Dittos! Sarah doesn’t speak for me (and countless other moderates). We ARE (ususally) the silent majority. If the dumb ass’s in the Republican Party puke up Sarah Palin as our candidate in 2012, well, I guess I’ll be voting for some yet unknown third party candidate. 🙁
I too hope that she is not put up as a republican candidate for president. It is not bacause I don’t think she could handle the job; gee, look what’s in the White House right now. Obama is the perfect example of inexperience, and one not as smart as the media made him up to be (that thing that Chris Matthews’ felt going up his leg is no longer tickling him).
I don’t want Palin to run because of what the liberal media will do to her (and her family) to support and protect Obama, but also to keep a conservative out of the White house. I would put Palin up against Obama anyday, but not with most of the media in Obama’s corner and in the pocket of the democratic party.
P.D.S., Palin Derangement Syndrome. When Mr. Bush left office, the fevered swamp of leftest thought found a new target. The minute you wrote about shooting the cubs, I had you sized up. You would never understand about culling the wolf population so they don’t over harvest prey. You also wouldn’t understand how a family might depend on Moose meat to make it through the winter. You don’t realize that hunters keep the deer herds thinned out so the deer don’t starve or become sick from over population. Speak with someone in wildlife management, someone with credentials who might be able to explain it in language you would understand.
Let someone who is out to write a tell all book about you, move in next door to you. You would be fine letting them around your kids? Sanctimonious bull%$*t.
Sarah Palin is far more qualified to be President than the waste we have in office now. The American people have awoken to the reality that they were duped by a narcissistic incompetent who’s main talent is reading from a teleprompter.
I lived in Alaska for two years and I would rather see a show from a native than some credentialed gentry who wouldn’t understand why Alaska is different. You would be wise to keep your comments to yourself, lest you show your ignorance.
Jay = Idiot. Birds of a feather flock together. PLEASE move back to Alaska!
Oh yeah, one more thing Jay. Please remove your photo! It looks like an old promotional photo from “Deliverance” 🙁
Just as I wrote in one of my postings above, liberals are sad people and will personally attack anyone who disagrees with them. WTF (now that’s real appropriate) is a fine example . . . a real sad individual and certainly a piece of work. We should feel sorry for WTF.
COnservatives don’t do the same thing?
I’m just confused about why Tom would print this on a public forum. Whether or not you like Sarah Palin, this is incredibly mean spirited but mostly just stupid. I’ve never read anything so stupid on the Dagger before. There have been some terrible comments, but as an article, this just leaves me wondering why?
Another example of why you should thoroughly research all candidates before an election. It looks like the Harford County Board of Education dodged a bullet this time.
What a fascinatingly-sad commentary on our society — attacking the message rather than the messenger would make for much more enlightening and intelligent debate. Everyone is quick to point out the shortcomings in the American education system, yet here we have supposed adults resorting to childish and viscous name-calling in an effort to make a point. Unfortunately, the only point made by such behavior is that we have regressed into a collection of boorish and coarse individuals incapable of thinking outside the “fox” to make any sort of cogent or well-informed argument. With role models like these, no wonder our children lag behind those in the rest of the developed world. Wake up and listen to yourselves, people.
This is a strange little article. I couldn’t be bothered to watch the show becuase I thought it would be annoying. I think I would rather have watched an episode of that show instead of having read this article.
Funny how all the trouble in this country is caused by liberals and progressives. Perhaps we could go back to the days where there is no longer a 40 hour work week, on the job safety is at the discretion of the factory and child labor helps put bread on the table. Everyone likes a little socialism… you just don’t look at it as socialism… imagine the outrage people of your ilk felt when Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana Purchase and helped with the construction of the Erie Canal and Cumberland Road.
Its funny to me how scared the left is of Sarah.
The U.S. has been a socialist country since the New Deal… So everyone flipping out about our “socialist” President “socializing” the country, you should have been complaining for years now. Unless of course you are a true libertarian and want to scrap Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, etc… you can keep on complaining.
Now on to Tom’s article, I felt it was not a hit piece on Palin herself but rather her show, which truly was a terrible piece of programming. Palin fans who watched the show, were you truly entertained? I was not. People on both sides of the aisle act as though everything their favored political leader does gold! If Palin was to launch an hour long special of her knitting socks in an old rocking chair the TP’ers would eat it up! Substitute BO and the lefties and you would have the same thing! As a true centrist with no political affiliation, I hope that one day the citizens of this great country will learn to think for themselves and form their own opinions, and not result to nasty names (republitards and demonrats, anyone?) when someone disagrees with them.
/rant
You can take this a step further — we’ve been a socialist nation since the late 19th century, when public education started.
Palin is a bimbo. The more attention she is given, the better for all concerned.
You people are deranged, getting all worked up about an opinion article regarding a tv show, reading all sorts of politcal overtones into it. It’s called satire, idiots.
But doesn’t satire usually involve humor?
“But doesn’t satire usually involve humor?”
Ha! Not when you’re dealing with Tom Myers. Check out his idea of comedy:
Let’s see
LBJ was a womanizing bombast.
Nixon was a crook
Ford was a caretaker
Carter surrounded himself with idots
Regan was at times clueless
Bush 1 a liar
Clinton lying womanizer
Bush 2 arrogant
Obama – arrogant
Why wouldn’t Palin fit right in?
There’s enough stupid that’s been going around for a very long time.
Bel Air Fed,
Are you that cynical with the list of presidents? They all have their ups and downs, good and bad points, etc. Remember, they are selected by the people, so I guess you don’t like Americans either.
I researched the candidates for School Board B. In looking at the qualifications, I only found Mr. Eaton and Mr. Seltzer to have the experience, qualifications and community involvement to serve on the Board.
This article only demonstrates how immature Mr. Myers is.
I am amazed by the number of votes he did get. What were the people of District B thinking? I think he has shot himself in the foot with respect to future political aspirations.
Writing a satirical article about a reality tv show featuring a polarizing politico is now “shooting yourself in the foot for further political aspirations”? You would seriously base your vote on this article???????????
If I were a Republican, I would not want Palin representing me. She is an embarrasment to the political landscape of this country.
I always chuckle at those who sit on the sideline and throw daggers at those out there getting dirty. Sarah Palin has a set of beliefs that are clearly important to her and she fights for them. If you agree or disagree, she is doing much more with her life then you the website poster who hides behind a fake name.
I feel the same way about President Obama, clearly he is wrong to me, but at least he is out there doing what he can.
State what you think to be correct, do it clearly and do it without name calling. The battle of ideas will be won with the best ideas and the best defense of those ideas. Not with silly name calling.
A very sensible post.
Nice post Brian King and it has a ring of irony in it for me. I don’t dislike Sarah Palin for the sake of disliking Sarah Palin. As you mentioned in your post, there are people who sit on the sidelines and through daggers at people….. Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin quit her job as Governor of Alaska and travels the country throwing daggers and bombs at elected officials (and others) without any recourse. Sarah is not challenged or checked because she no longer holds office so she is allowed to spread false rumors of death panels, make up words, preach abstinence and critique the work of all of those who decided to remain or run for office. It’s just Sarah being Sarah. Please.
Contrarian,
Are you endorsing Barack Obama? While she was Governor of Alaska, that’s what the Democrats did, while Obama had no experience of running anything.
@Monster…I don’t understand your question in regards to my post. Am I endorsing Barack Obama in what regard? What did the Democrats do when Sarah was Governor? Also, please know that I do not play the Democrat/Republican/Conservative/Liberal/Progressive game so if your question is based on trying to reduce my opinion based on party affiliation save it for someone else.
Myers should instead start making articles bashing on the majority of posters on this website. It is beginning to look like yahoo message boards here where people who don’t even know the basic differences between a conservative and a liberal attempt to make anything and everything out to be a political issue. I watched the show, it sucked and Sarah Failin is still one of the dumbest individuals to walk the face of this earth.
All you people who spend your entire workday refreshing the dagger and making idiotic claims and boasts about politics are the ones at fault for why the country is how it is. Instead of actually doing something you all latch onto one insignificant thing that you don’t like and rage about it on the internet. I personally dislike most of Myers posts here, but I dislike even more how half of the misinformed dolts on this site can spew their rhetoric and misinformation and not even bat an eyelash.
And we should listen to a post full of insults and namecalling. Riiiiiight.
It’s good to hear from the reasoned, intellectual side for a change.
This is why Tom Myers lost and never will win… He needs to grow up. He should have nothing to do with education!
It bothers me also that someone would critique a show, when it obvious that he doesn’t like the host. But, how many people have felt the need to take the bait and respond. As someone said, ignore this kind of reporting.
Don’t laugh. People on the right absolutely adore her. And the more she irritates the left the more they like her. thats what folks on this don’t seem to get about her – the more gringeworthy, petty and willfully ignorant things she says the better for her fan DCouple that with the huge disappointment big O has been and spineless congressional dems, the left base likely won’t turn out, or go third party. very likely we will be singing hail to the chief to Ms Palin