Decision making

Thanks to Yellowdog Granny for this flow chart. I look at it and the various points along the way where she could have gotten herself to a doctor, and I don't just see poor choices, I see "Please, Lord, let this baby be born dead!!" flashing in crimson neon lights. I think even if I agreed with Palin's politics*, I'd both despise her as a person and question her judgement skills.

This whole episode with the flying home while in labor reeks in multiple ways. The options, all equally unpleasant, are: 1. She's so self-centered and flatout stupid she never thought about the risks. 2. She did think about the risks and is so self-centered and stupid she didn't care. 3. She thought about the risks and made a conscious decision to fly anyway because she hoped the baby would die.

I keep hearing the talking heads of the MSM opining that voters like Palin because she's "just like them." I sincerely hope that isn't true. I'd hate to think there really are that many self-centered stupid people walking around.

Then again, the depressing truth is that most Americans are very shallow thinkers. We look at the surface, the first thing presented, and rarely go beyond that. Long term or unintended consequences? Heck, all we can see is the fancy packaging. We'll get pissed off later when we discover the box is 99% empty, and then we'll blame someone else (blacks, Mexicans, those damn Chinese with their cheap labor, whoever the scapegoat du jour happens to be) for problems we created ourselves. I see people applauding Palin for lines like "I'm going to give your taxes back to you because you know how best to spend your money."

Yeah, right. Like the typical citizen is going to spend his or her money directly on repairing infrastructure. But we fall for the easy lines, don't think about long term consequences, dance the happy dance when we get our ludicrous "rebate" checks in the mail, and then bitch about crumbling highways. You get what you pay for, and in the case of the U.S. more and more what we're getting is a third world nation.

Does Palin recognize the long term consequences of what she's advocating? Does she care? I don't know. I have a feeling she really doesn't give a rat's patoot about anything other than Sarah Palin. For sure she doesn't seem to be a very discerning thinker. As mayor of Wasilla she ignored problems with the city's sewer system in favor of pushing through an ice arena that left the city saddled with debt and on-going litigation. Ditto with the state of Alaska -- imposed that windfall tax on the oil companies but instead of using any of the money to address some of the problems the state has she did the bread and circuses route again.

(*I don't disagree with all of Palin's positions -- I do think we should impose whopping windfall profits taxes on oil companies here in the lower 48 the way she did in Alaska. Exxon, BP, etc., have all been raking in such obscene profits for the last few years while refusing to expand refinery capacity that they deserve to pay through the nose for awhile.)

Update: I have now consumed enough coffee to be awake enough to see the typo in the flow chart. The chart is a jpeg, people, that I did not create. If you spot it (and I realize I've now mounted a challenge), please don't tell me about it.