Effect Measure

Annals of McCain – Palin, XXX: ageism

Posted by revere on October 18, 2008
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The pundits keep telling us that a particular problem for Barack Obama are older, white Catholics. Like this woman?

Sister Cecilia has lived in the convent in Rome for 50 years.

A 106-year-old American nun living in a convent in Rome could well be one of the oldest voters to cast a ballot in the 2008 US Presidential election.

Sister Cecilia Gaudette, who last voted for President Eisenhower in 1952, has registered to vote and says she will vote for Democrat Barack Obama.

Although hard of hearing, she keeps herself informed by reading newspapers and watching TV at the convent.

“I’m encouraged by Senator Obama,” she says.

“I’ve never met him, but he seems to be a good man with a good private life. That’s the first thing. Then he must be able to govern,” she adds.

Sitting in her modest office in the convent where she has lived for the past 50 years, the diminutive nun appears uninterested in the row inside the American Catholic church over Senator Obama’s support for pro-choice policies on abortion. (BBC)

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Comments

  1. #1 Oolon Colluphid
    October 18, 2008

    Here’s some tips for AoMP XXXI:
    McCain-Backing Congresswoman Suggests Obamas Have Anti-American Views
    Michele Bachmann also calls for the media to investigate anti-American members of Congress.

  3. #3 Dylan
    October 18, 2008

    I saw a news segment on her a few weeks ago; she appears to be doing remarkably well, for someone 106 years old. She is living proof that if you’re a member of the Catholic clergy (or a member of a subset thereof), and you live long enough, there is some chance that your brains can, somehow, still become unscrambled. Perhaps there actually are some miracles out there, after all. I’m reminded of the Belgian nuns who sold their convent, after they were all ready to retire, and the Church tried to shaft them. I thought that one was a wonderful, heartwarming tale.

  4. #4 Oolon Colluphid
    October 18, 2008

    Palin on Pro-American places

    “We believe that the best of America is in the small towns that we get to visit, and in the wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard-working, very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation,” she said.
    “This is where we find the kindness and the goodness and the courage of everyday Americans,” Palin added.

  6. #6 tincture
    October 19, 2008

    I saw a news segment on her a few weeks ago; she appears to be doing remarkably well, for someone 106 years old. She is living proof that if you’re a member of the Catholic clergy (or a member of a subset thereof), and you live long enough, there is some chance that your brains can, somehow, still become unscrambled. Perhaps there actually are some miracles out there, after all.

    You’re kidding, right?

    “I’ve never met him, but he seems to be a good man with a good private life. That’s the first thing. Then he must be able to govern,” she adds.

    She’s got the right answer but she still got there by a fucking stupid route. Sounds the same as people who say they’ll vote for Palin because she’s a “True Xian.”

  7. #7 Dylan
    October 19, 2008

    tincture: Yes, I’m kidding you.

    I’m sixty-three years old, and I’ve been an atheist since I was five years old. I’m a fundamentally rational creature; rational beliefs and religion are utterly incompatible. I view all religions in the same manner as Revere; they are an absolutely pernicious, monumental public health menace; and a universal form of tyranny, designed to thoroughly subjugate, and ultimately destroy the human spirit. They are a reflection of all of our very worst, most destructive impulses. They consist entirely, at their core, of fear and hatred. Even the most “benign” are insatiable parasites; and the least benign are carefully crafted to induce the most destructive sort of personal insanity, in their various hosts. And we are, unfortunately, a very long way from seeing the last of them.

  8. #8 tincture
    October 19, 2008

    Phew.

  9. #9 John S
    October 19, 2008

    Dylan: Amen, brother.

  10. #10 Victoria
    October 20, 2008

    Dylan,

    Wonderfully put. Could not have said it better.