Friday, December 10, 2010

Annie Oakley - Not!

"I am not a good American...I prefer to form my own opinions" - George Carlin


"It's difficult to remember one came to drain the swamp when one is up to one's ass in alligators" - Barack Obama (not really...but it should have been)

I just can't help myself. This makes me pee my pants it's so good.

There was a 1964 film starring Rock Hudson and Paula Prentiss, called Man's Favorite Sport? Hudson plays a well-known fishing expert who works for Abercrombie & Fitch Co. The problem is, he cannot fish. Not only that, he just isn't an outdoorsy kind of guy. He can't set up a tent...can't make a fire...can't find his way in the woods...and, he cannot run or even board a motorboat. He cannot even swim. In other words...he's a fraud, and Paula Prentiss proceeds to expose him when she finds out. It's a Drawing Room Comedy, taken outdoors.

Expose, is a good thing, methinks.

Why am I bringing this fairly unknown film up you want to know? Because I thought of it when I read an article in The Independent, sent to me by my brother.

It's about our own pistol-packing momma, 21st Century Annie Oakley, re-loading...Sarah Palin...sans drawing room...but certainly comedic.

Excerpts from the article highlight my amusement:

The Conservative blogosphere, usually a forum for cheer leading on behalf the Palin cause, was awash yesterday with suggestions that her outdoorsy image is an elaborate charade.

"I turned on Sarah Palin's Alaska and she just shot four maybe even five times at a caribou and missed," noted a typical comment on the Fox News host Sean Hannity's website. "Needless to say I'm not impressed with her ability to handle a firearm let alone aim it and hit."

Among the basic items of protocol blithely ignored by Palin as she set off into the wilderness in a Rambo-style headband was her failure to take practice shots, or check the sights of the rifle, which duly turned out to be off-kilter. She failed to carry her own weapon, relying on her elderly father and his companion, Steve, to lug it around. When a beast eventually wandered into range, Ms Palin left Chuck Snr to load the rifle, and discharge spent bullet casings.

"What a joke," wrote one viewer on Palin's Facebook page. "I was a fan before the show. No one who is a true hunter lets others carry their rifle or can't load their own shells. Sarah, you are a phony."

The Awl, a website which collated reactions to the episode, noted that, while being passed the firearm, Ms Palin immediately moved her finger inside its trigger guard, a breach of basic safety rules. After missing the caribou several times, she then appeared to panic and shot at the beast while it was still moving, a technique usually avoided by all but the very best marksmen.

On leaving her hunting camp one morning, Ms Palin pointed to the horizon and declared "Let's go west." There followed an awkward pause. "That's east," noted her father.

The cognoscenti was meanwhile perturbed that the fact that Palin seemed scared by her weapon, a small gun described by Chuck Snr as a "varmint rifle". Several times during the episode, she anxiously asked: "Does it kick?"

"What kind of a question is that?" wrote a fan called Brad Schegel on Palin's Facebook wall. "Doesn't matter if it kicks or not, you shoot it the same. That was a girly question, momma griz."

Even Chuck Snr's handling of his weapons drew criticism. "I was surprised to see him using the gun as a walking stick," noted one user on the Free Republic website.

"I do like the woman but think she needs some serious range time. I had the impression it was her first time firing a rifle."

Previous episodes of Sarah Palin's Alaska have already caused debate in sporting circles. On the first episode of the show, she went salmon fishing, but cynics noted that she handled a rod awkwardly and failed to catch a fish, despite being on a river chock full of them.

Here is part of it in video (btw-note that she has a FUCKING SCOPE on the rifle. Even not zeroed in, after the first couple of shots she should have hit something) (btw2-How does one pronounce Snr? Does anyone know? And...isn't that what some people do when they go to sleep? Just wondering.) (btw3-The test out here on the plain Plains as to a real pistol-packing gal is...can she change a tire? I want to see Sarah change a tire):

SARA PALIN'S ALASKA - SHE'S A GREAT SHOT.
HAR!


21 comments:

Susan said...

I grow so tired of her 15 minutes of fame. Only in America could such a person be revered. There is absolutely nothing redeeming about her.

intelliwench said...

Your narrative synopsis was entertainment enough for me, jaded. If I try to watch the video I'll surely fling the laptop across the room.

What a maroon she is.

Doug said...

I didn't watch the vid, I just wanted to say that "Snr" might be a short form of "Senior", though usually shortened to "sr", so maybe there's a Chuck Jnr out there somewhere.

Mr. Charleston said...

Puleeeeeez! Don't we get enough of that wench in every other media on earth? Do you really have to make us suffer through it here too JJ? I agree, it's fun to see her comeuppance, but puleeeeez spare us the videos. I'd rather hear fingernails on a blackboard.

jadedj said...

Susan---Which is why I agonized over posting this...but...my pedestrian side said..."DO IT, DO IT".

intell---Sometimes violence is the only course. Of course, it can be expensive.

Doug---I'm going with the nasal sleep thingy.

Punch said...

hey yo!!!!
Mr. Chuck was over LOOKED!!!!
commie, pinko.

Punch said...

Actually Mr. Chuck??? I would rather hear her nails on my back.

intelliwench said...

Ewwwww @ Punch. I think that's the most disgusting thing you've ever typed. I have to go wash my eyes out now.

yellowdoggranny said...

I don't care if she can shoot, if she cant' shoot, she makes my ass red and I can't watch 3 seconds of her without wanting to commit homicide..

Debra She Who Seeks said...

The woman is smoke and mirrors in every way.

jadedj said...

Mr. C---Sorry, for some reason yours and Punch's comments did not make it into my email. As to watching...don't watch, don't tell.

Punch---Whatda you? The overlook pooolice?

Punch---This is what happens to SOME old codgers...any moose will do.

intell---Nah, this isn't the most disgusting thing he's ever said. Let me tell you about what he said on June 3, 1989...maybe not, I think too highly of you.

YD G--My money is on you in a shootout.

DSWS---And a dog and pony show.

Any additional persons who did not show up in my email---so sue me!

Joe "Truth 101" Kelly said...

Personally, I take great comfort that there are worse hunters than me JJ.

I did carry my own (borrowed) gun though. And believe it or not, I'm a good shot. Just at inanimate objects though. I have a trophy room full of "No Trespassing" signs.

Chimp said...

"No one who is a true hunter lets others carry their rifle or can't load their own shells...except the true hunter, Dick Cheney. And he didn't miss - the lawyer!"

Levi Johnston said of Sarah Palin:

"People think that Sarah likes hunting, fishing and camping, but she doesn't," Johnston told the magazine. "I've never seen her touch a fishing pole. She had a gun in her bedroom, and one day she asked me to show her how to shoot it."

Chimp said...

"Rambette" she's not! "momma grizzly" she's not. Politician, she's not. Intelligent, she's not. LET'S ELECT HERE THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THESE HERE UNITED STATES!

Tom Harper said...

I think the caribou that Palin shot was one of those animals that's raised in a pen, completely tame, and then gets let out of the pen, totally dazed, just so some genitally-challenged "hunter" to shoot it.

Sort of like Dick Cheney's "hunting" trip where he "accidentally" shot his fellow hunter.

Chimp said...

Dick Cheney's "hunting" trip was one in which they ride in a limo drinking their cocktails and then the limo stops in front of a pen full of quail or pheasant. The "hunters" put down their drinks, climb out of the limo, get their (loaded) shotguns handed to them, they aim into the air above the pen, the birds are released, they shoot, give their guns to the handlers, climb back into the limo, refill their drinks and continue to the next pen.

Chimp said...

A Secret Service agent reported that Dick Cheney was drunk when he shot his friend. You or I woud have been jailed.

squatlo said...

jadedj, I watched the clip on another site and was amazed that anyone as inept with a firearm as that woman would attempt to portray herself as some kind of outdoorsie-hunter type. Of course, she likes to make people think she knows something about foreign policy, too, and a lot of folks seem to fall for it.
All I can remember is McCain's debate prep team having to explain to her that Africa was a continent, not a country, and that North America was made up of three countries (she apparently couldn't name them).

Sarah's popularity with the right is directly proportional to her ability to annoy the left.

Anyone who "misunderestimates" her potential as a candidate does so at their own peril, however. We've already proven we'll vote for the idiot son of an asshole, and accept the results of a stolen election to boot. She's a clear and present danger to this country, in my humble opinion, simply by virtue of her popularity.
We should encourage Sarah to hunt grizzly bears or wild boar... or to snorkel with manta rays... or hand feed crocs... or sky dive, bungie-jump, and spelunk in her next episode.

jadedj said...

squatlo---"Sarah's popularity with the right is directly proportional to her ability to annoy the left." This is true, because it is the one thing she does so well.

How about sky diving sans chute?

squatlo said...

I wish we could get her to take Cheney hunting with her... and take along a pitcher of margaritas for Dick.

jadedj said...

squatlo---Are you suggesting that Dead-eye Cheney (albeit, bloodshot) can hit the broadside of a broad? Hmmmmm. Good thinking.