Friday, November 07, 2008

Sarah Palin: Ambassador to Africa?


Palin Hoping to be Named Ambassador to Africa
‘A Darned Important Country,’ Says Guv

(Signs by Scarlet and Kate, story by Andy Borowitz)

Sarah Palin of Alaska has reached out to President-elect Obama's transition team to indicate her interest in being named "ambassador to the nation of Africa," the governor confirmed today.
Gov. Palin said that although she had planned to continue in her position in Anchorage, she was willing to leave the governorship "because Africa is just such a darned important country."


"I have always been very, very interested in the nation of Africa, partly because of it being located where it is," she said. "If you are standing in Africa and you look real close, you can see South Africa." She added that she had received phone calls encouraging her to vie for the post, including one from French president Nicholas Sarkozy.

In other news from the Palin family, Bristol Palin's fiancé Levi Johnston said he was "totally stoked" about Tuesday night's election returns, calling the results "definitely a game-changer for me." "The election of Barack Obama means different things to different people," he said. "To me, it means freedom, dude!"

2 comments:

Hecate said...

As a witch, I can't tell you how offensive I find the "The Witch Is Dead!" signs. There are places in the world today where labeling a woman a witch is still enough to get her killed. What's funny about that? Would any other religion get mocked this way? Would a funny musical about pograms and a song about how "The Jew Is Dead!" be considered anything other than horrific? What's the difference? That Wicca is primarily a feminist religion. It's ok to joke about killing them.

Unknown said...

Hecate,

First off, allow me to apologize, as I truly meant no disrespect to you - or Wiccans - or your practice. My signs aren’t meant to be mocking or necessarily funny.

My personal interpretation of DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD stirs up imagery of villages and townsfolk, across the land, cheering and dancing in celebration that they are no longer under the tyrannical rule of an evil leader. The Munchkins in the Wizard of Oz weren’t bad little guys – they weren’t so much focused on the death of the witch, as they were relief from repression and absolutism. Their lives were changing. That’s all the song – or the phrase on my signs - is meant to depict.

Obviously, George W Bush is not a witch. I have much better adjectives for him in my bag. Understandably, to call him a witch would surely be an insult to witches everywhere.

I must point out, I was quite happy to find this evening that three of my ‘Ding Dong’ signs were still hanging in primo freeway spots, several days after our historic election. I feel sure I’m not the only driver who interprets the signs in the spirit in which they were hung.

As an afterthought, I do hope you have a template of sorts – something you can cut and paste that eliminates some time off your responses to witch references you find offensive out there. You probably know the nursery rhyme, "Georgie Porgie," was written so that subjects could joke about the king's sexual orientation without risking arrest. "Mary, Mary" almost certainly referred to a Catholic Mary, but whether the subject is the Virgin Mary with her nuns, the frivolous Mary Queen of Scots or the torture and widowing carried out by Mary Tudor remains unclear. Still, each time these rhymes are sung in celebration with small children, they are most certainly not meant to be mocking gays or Catholics.

I have duly taken note of your response and hope you’ll forgive my unintentional Faux pas - and focus instead on the fact that, with the election of Barack Obama, we are all indeed on the same road to hope - and the return of our stolen liberties. Indeed, it is that very Constitution Obama has vowed to protect that gives me the right me to hang my signs in the first place and grants you the freedom to worship as you choose.

~peace~
Kate