Gustav and Palin

I spent a good portion of this weekend watching news coverage of Hurricane Gustav. When a hurricane is headed into the Gulf of Mexico it immediately grabs my attention. I think I am so fascinated because I lived in Beaumont, Texas until I was seven and in Houston until I was twelve. We have a lot of family living in southern Louisiana and Texas and many of the towns along the coast have familiar names. I watched HOURS of the coverage when Hurricane Katrina (and later Hurricane Rita) made landfall. A year later I visited my grandmother, who lived about an hour north of New Orleans. Everyone I talked to had a story to tell about "the storm".

I've only weathered one hurricane myself - a category 1 storm when I was five or six years old. But I remember it. You don't forget something like that.

I woke up Monday morning and couldn't go back to sleep, so I started watching the news at 7:00 AM. We don't have cable, so I bounced back and forth between delayed internet video and the snowy TV coverage I managed to rig with our bunny ears.

I really can't figure out why I am so compelled to watch. But I'm so thankful that this Hurricane wasn't another Katrina. Still, I think there was a lot more damage done than we've figured out just yet. The media ditched the story after the levees held in New Orleans, but a lot of people will have a lot of work to do getting homes and businesses put back together.

If you're following my uneducated political coverage, here's my latest thoughts... Sarah Palin is sure making waves this week. I've listened to some of the news coverage and I've read about her online. Everyone is talking about her. In fact, I'm more interested in hearing her speech on Wednesday night than I am in hearing John McCain speak on Thursday. And I don't think I'm the only one!

Conservatives have a lot to be excited about with Sarah Palin... she is strongly pro-life, works hard to cut budgets and spending, and wants to teach Intelligent Design in the public schools. She's a basketball playin', gun totin', huntin' and fishin' Alaska girl. On top of that, her record as governor is impressive.

So here is a mother of five (including a special needs baby and a seventeen year old daughter who is five months pregnant) that just hit the campaign trail. Right now, no one is talking about Obama or Biden or even McCain. Everyone is focused on Palin and giving their opinions on her experience (or lack thereof) and her personal life.

Really, you have to chuckle when you see Republicans praising the way she has handled her teen daughter's pregnancy and Democrats questioning whether she is "irresponsible" for pursuing a political career instead of taking care of her family. Is it just me, or do we all lose our objectivity when we start talking about politics?

I started thinking about how we always spin things the way that benefits us the most. Is it because we always want to be right? Is it pride that keeps us from being objective?

As for what is going on around here... my parents came over on Saturday and all four of us worked on the front porch. We got the whole thing primed, so everything is white. It looks very clean :) But if it took FOUR PEOPLE about FIVE HOURS just to prime it, then we still have a lot of work ahead of us. This is a big project. (I can hear Frank saying, "I told you so....")