House of Eratosthenes

Here’s Palin, giving McGinniss a little advanced publicity for his stalker’s journal, though she doesn’t have much choice, given the bloodsport that is Alaska politics, I suppose. (Sigh.)

Spring has sprung in Alaska, and with this beautiful season comes the news today that the Palins have a new neighbor! Welcome, Joe McGinniss!

Yes, that Joe McGinniss. Here he is – about 15 feet away on the neighbor’s rented deck overlooking my children’s play area and my kitchen window.

:
Politico contacted McGinniss’ son, who offered this response:

Sadly, she’s right. We tried our best to intervene, but alas, the heart wants what it wants. We can only pray for him now. He’s convinced that Todd will step aside and when the time is right, he’ll be there, right next door, to pick up the pieces.

I guess maybe he intended that as a crack about Palin, rather than his dad… I don’t know though. Palin didn’t suggest that McGinniss had some sort of romantic obsession, just that he was creepily spying (which he is; that’s going to be the marketing campaign for his book, of course). It was just the son who brought up that angle.

Unbelievably, David Weigel thinks Palin is the one that’s done something wrong here. Uh, come again Mr. Weigel?

Palin informs her readers that McGinniss is “overlooking my children’s play area” and “overlooking Piper’s bedroom.” Alternately sounding angry and mocking, she refers to “the family’s swimming hole,” which at first reference sounds like she’s accusing McGinniss of checking out the Palins in their bathing suits, until you realize the family’s “swimming hole” is Lake Lucille. And she posts a photo of the space McGinniss is renting, captioning it, “Can I call you Joe?”

Can somebody explain to me how this isn’t a despicable thing for Palin to do? She describes McGinniss as the author of “the bizarre anti-Palin administration oil development pieces that resulted in my Department of Natural Resources announcing that his work is the most twisted energy-related yellow journalism they’d ever encountered.”

Another way of putting it would be that McGinniss is an investigative journalist who wrote his first best-seller at age 26 and was shopping a book about Alaska and the oil industry when Palin was named John McCain’s running mate.
:
Has McGinniss gone to an extreme to get a story? Well, we don’t have his side yet — not that this has prevented every other media outlet from typing up Palin’s Facebook post like some lost Gospel. But assuming he’s rented the house near the Palins for some period of time, assuming the Palins know he’s there and that he’s writing a book, then what, exactly, is wrong with this? [emphasis mine]

Dude. He’s stalking her to get his story.

You’re just so blind. Let go of the Palin hatred for a second or two. Just dang, if Joe McGinniss burned her house down would you come down on her for using up his matches and gasoline?

Can someone please rent a house next to David Weigel’s for five or six months? As long as you got your writing career started at age 26, he doesn’t have a problem with it. Bring your binoculars.

Todd should invite Mr. McGinniss to go hunting. Bear hunting…“damn it, I must have forgotten to load your gun Joe. Just play dead, he won’t harm ya’”
- tim | 05/26/2010 @ 09:47
Palin should stay out of the kitchen if she can’t take the heat. Celebrity comes with a high price, with privacy at the very top of the list. Ask any star. Reporters camp out on your doorstep, dig through your garbage, equip themselves with high zoom lenses and follow your children to school. They even write nasty books about famous people. Everybody wants a piece of famous.

Sarah Palin has consistently sought out high profile celebrity, capitalized on it handsomely I might add, since the election. I find her distress over this writer’s proximity disingenuous at best. It comes as a part of the territory she staked out and I expect she full well knew it, Sarah isn’t stupid, right?

If the woman wanted privacy for her family, she should have gone home to the Governor’s mansion, served out her term of office and stayed off the national stage.

She chose to have the Joe’s of the world crawl up her personal space.

I have no sympathy for Sarah Palin on this one.
- Daphne | 05/26/2010 @ 15:03
If the woman wanted privacy for her family, she should have gone home to the Governor’s mansion, served out her term of office and stayed off the national stage.

If she wanted privacy, she should have remained a public figure?

Holy crap Daphne. Weigel is feeling all hurt and picked on over the bruising he’s taking from yesterday’s gaffe, but even he didn’t get so twisty. Shouldn’t you be at least making a choice — carp about Sarah quitting public life, or call her a whiner over this matter with the McGinniss siege. You want to contort yourself, reaching for both of those at the same time? Hope you don’t throw something out of alignment there.

We tend not to ask this about people like Sarah Palin, who show little or no interest in playing the victim. But it remains a legitimate question to ask: Aren’t there some situations in which they are, plain and simply, the victim even if they don’t willingly play the role? The people who declare her to be in the wrong in this situation, seem to have already made up their minds the answer is no. Do anything you want with her, bury her, stone her, crush her, burn her, steal her money — there will always be some red herring argument against any conclusion that harm has been done. Just because of who she is.

But this is not responsible thinking. McGinniss’ actions may not be illegal, but reasonable, sober, fair observers can immediately recognize this is creepy as creepy can be. And to fault Palin for pointing out on FaceBook what McGinniss is doing, supposedly because she’s trying to intimidate him, while looking the other way while he moves in next door to her, is just deranged. Isn’t McGinniss at least as much a public figure as Palin? Seems to me he’s certainly striving to be one, whenever he starts to write a book. That entails some responsibility as well does it not?
- mkfreeberg | 05/26/2010 @ 15:22
What took you so long, Morgan?

Yes, she should have remained the Governor (or quit), the hype would have died down. She lived a pretty private life as an elected official before last November, I don’t see any reason why that wouldn’t have continued.

I have no love, much less any thought, for Weigal, McGinnis or any of the other fools who obsess over Mrs. Palin.

I’m not contorting anything, she chose a very public, rock star life – the assholes of the world come with that territory. You know it, I know it, anybody with a little gray matter knows it. Are you telling me that Sarah should be treated special, that her celebrity is subject to different rules than other high flyers? You look to be the one bending your principles out of shape, my friend.

She is most definitely playing the victim card on this one and she doesn’t have a leg to stand on. How is she any different from any other famous person who has to deal with this same sort of personal invasion by creepy people looking to make a buck?

Sarah wants to be in the spotlight, keeps her family in the spotlight and she’s going to pay a price for that spotlight.

I’m surprised that you, of all people, would support this blatant pussy yank.
- Daphne | 05/26/2010 @ 15:41
She’s speaking out on matters that are of interest to her. That is a right guaranteed to us in the Constitution, and it is a recognition of what are presumed to be rights granted to all of us by our Creator. Obviously she enjoys a lot of advantages there that you and I do not. Nobody gives a rat’s ass, for example, if Morgan K. Freeberg is going to address the next Tea Party in Seattle or in Memphis or in Austin. So Palin has advantages I don’t have, and you don’t have…not all of which she has actively sought, they come naturally to someone who has her gifts.

She’s exploited these to the hilt, as you would if you were her. For this she incurs your wrath? How so?

You seem to have lost sight of what is at stake her, doll. If you did have the recognition Palin has, and tore up the lower 48 running from stump to stump to stump as is your God-given right — at the end of the day, you’d want to go back to your home to look after your children and your grandchildren. Yes, I see your point, to go shopping downtown in relative anonymity without strangers asking for her autograph, that would be too much to ask.

But there’s something about a home. Obama gets to have one. All of the Kennedy brats got their “private” Hyannisport compound. The Bushes still have Kennebunkport. The Royal Family has Windsor castle. Do you really find Palin so loathsome that she’s the one “rock star” that can’t have one?
- mkfreeberg | 05/26/2010 @ 16:02
No wrath, just irritation.

She’s whining about the life she’s chosen for her family and that life comes with intense scrutiny. Other celebrities (political or otherwise) live behind high walls for that very reason.

Tell me again why Sarah is exempt from the evils of successful celebrity?

Oh, and don’t you dare go dogging me for dumping on her wealth or stature. I have never done a bit of that. And stop being so snarky because you’ve got wood for the woman.

Treat her like a self determined, responsible grown up who made her decisions and now must live with the good and bad consequences of her choices.
- Daphne | 05/26/2010 @ 16:25
Other celebrities (political or otherwise) live behind high walls for that very reason.

Not sure if you mean figurative or literal height. Hyannisport seems to me, if my visual memory serves, to be behind low walls or none at all. So those “high walls” must consist of simple common human decency.

So you’re taking the angle that Palin opted to have a snoopy reporter rent out her neighbor’s house and go peeking into her windows eh? Home and hearth mean so little because of some choices she’s made?

I recognize, if I was calling for McGinniss’ arrest or ouster I’d have much more to prove. But I’m not. The guy is a slime ball, what he deserves is public (electronic) embarrassment, and she gave it to him. Weigel is now whining and crying on McGinniss’ behalf…because the two “gentlemen” happen to dislike her politics. In their world, she can never be in the right, because they aren’t rational thinkers.

You won’t disagree with them, but you won’t say anything nice about them either. So you’re making it a little bit tough for me to figure out if you’ve joined them or not.

Whatever. It’s still wrong, and the fact that Palin is a stunner doesn’t change the equation one bit.
- mkfreeberg | 05/26/2010 @ 16:39
Literal walls, darling. Famous people erect them for a reason. They also hire security, bullet proof cars, private jets, publicists, handlers, agents and nannies. Sarah isn’t exempt from those rules. She knows this and so do you.

Morgan, I don’t know who either of these men are and I couldn’t give a rat’s about their opinions regarding Palin. They may be awful slime balls, who cares? More will take their place in the days to come. Sarah’s decided to live a path that invites bottom feeders.

I do happen to care about your opinion and I’m wondering why you would skew my argument so egregiously.

So you’re taking the angle that Palin opted to have a snoopy reporter rent out her neighbor’s house and go peeking into her windows eh? Home and hearth mean so little because of some choices she’s made?

Honey, I know you’ve been debating longer than I, so where did this wild hair of a distortion sprout? I never said anything remotely like this load tripe you attribute to me.
- Daphne | 05/26/2010 @ 17:34
She’s whining about the life she’s chosen for her family and that life comes with intense scrutiny.

It is debatable — at best — that this scrutiny includes having a hostile reporter as your new next-door neighbor. I’m really not sure what the history is on that particular tactic. Lacking a court-ordered restraining order, I’m sure it’s legal; you’re sure these two guys are slime. So I have a sense that you and I are arguing in a vacuum here.

Except you’re going off in the direction of saying — if you’re concerned about the direction the country’s taking and you’ve got a stature that could be used to right the course, and you make use of that stature, you’ve opted-in to all of the abuse you have coming to you. This is to include slimeball moves like this McGinniss siege.

Again, as far as legality, you and I are probably on the same page. As far as Sarah Palin having somehow planted the crop she’s reaping here, sweetheart you can go chasing off down that bunny trail by your lonesome. There’s just something about the house. When a truly detestable liberal like that worm-eating chef you want to screw all night, goes home and does the Mr. Rogers routine with the sweater and the shoes, it just seems to me the ankle-biting should be hung up for the night. And I maintain that whether the fence around his house is three feet high or thirty feet. There is a standard of live-and-let-live that has endured this long somehow, and in this week is being cast aside. Not a positive development by any means.
- mkfreeberg | 05/26/2010 @ 17:44
It’s not debatable at all, she’s living in a neighborhood that’s apparently rent affordable to the average scumbag with a book contract or a stringer with the National Enquirer and she hasn’t taken the precautions necessary to secure her home’s privacy. I’m sure there are scores of lowlife writers who would live next door to Pelosi or Jolie-Pitt in a split second if they could foot the lease.

A right to privacy for public figures? Are you kidding? Live and let live for public figures? Since when and what alternate universe are you inhabiting?

Once more, I couldn’t give a shit about these men, their motives or base natures. Nasty people come with the territory of fame, they’re will be plenty more to follow, as all famous people understand down to their marrow.

Sarah’s not taking back the country, she’s making some serious cash by dishing red meat sound bites and garnering a full load of publicity along the way. The hounds will follow and she damn well knows it. A shame that you don’t and a bigger shame on her for taking advantage of your genuine support.

She’s purposely using you for faux sympathy and I think she’s a lousy bitch for doing so.
- Daphne | 05/26/2010 @ 18:13
Excuse my horrible lack of preview this evening, I’m feeling impetuous and passionate today.
- Daphne | 05/26/2010 @ 18:16
…that’s apparently rent affordable to the average scumbag with a book contract or a stringer with the National Enquirer and she hasn’t taken the precautions necessary to secure her home’s privacy. I’m sure there are scores of lowlife writers who would live next door to Pelosi or Jolie-Pitt in a split second if they could foot the lease.

Waitaminnit. I have to a) keep my opinions to myself, b) peel off with ’em, but only to such a limited visibility and profile (“The Blog That Nobody Reads”) that I remain non-threatening and therefore ineffectual, or c) buy a house with 25-foot walls around it?

You’re proving my point for me. We’re losing a shred of decency here, perhaps our last, and with that our privilege and ability to continue living as a civilized nation. If the only people who can mold and shape our nation’s discourse are the people who don’t have families & homes — or do, but don’t give a shit about either of ’em — well, obviously that cannot be good.

Excuse my horrible lack of preview this evening, I’m feeling impetuous and passionate today.

You’re entitled to your passions however wrong they may be. I closed the ital for you.
- mkfreeberg | 05/26/2010 @ 18:28
Another point here that bears repeating, if only for the reason that I have the impression it’s being glossed…

There is a difference here between declaring something slimy, and saying it’s against the law (or should be). I’m not some pussy liberal who, in the instant he figures out he dislikes something, starts rallying and lobbying for a ban against it.

I’m just saying McGinniss, if he’s shamed by this searing scrutiny brought down on his head by the Eskimo Whore’s latest FaceBook update, deserves every single ounce of it. That’s all. Lord knows I wouldn’t want to rent a lakeside cabin and then get told “Sorry, we’re refunding your money, Elena Kagan lives on the plot next door and she was unhappy about some of the things you said about her on your blog.”

If the situation is uncomfortable for both Sarah and Joe, then I’m not crying in my beer if the greater heat is being felt by Joe. He’s the one who created the situation, after all. Sarah was minding her own business living in her house, and then heard through the grapevine she had a new neighbor. So no, Daphne, she did not opt into that situation, in any way.
- mkfreeberg | 05/26/2010 @ 18:34
You are full of straggly ass strawmen tonight, good man.

If you ever get multi-million dollar famous pontificating on the political landscape, I’ll be happy to slap your ass over cocktails when you bitch about your lack of privacy.

xxoo
- Daphne | 05/26/2010 @ 18:37
By the way, you do know that I like you big time, to the moon and back again, Morgan?

Even when you’re wrong, which you’ve admitted with your lame, random arguments to my salient, rational, no pussy licking points.

Differing over these quibbles and kicking your ass tonight will never diminish my fondness for your good heart and exceptional, manly wonderfulness.
- Daphne | 05/26/2010 @ 19:08
[…] Did Politics Get So Messed Up That This Type of Conversation is Considered Appropriate?” Sarah Palin Has a New Neighbor Regulating On Obama Getting Angry Rectal-Cranial Inversions… America’s Culture War Not […]
- House of Eratosthenes | 05/27/2010 @ 05:35
[…] Did Politics Get So Messed Up That This Type of Conversation is Considered Appropriate?” Sarah Palin Has a New Neighbor Regulating On Obama Getting Angry Rectal-Cranial Inversions… America’s Culture War Not […]
- House of Eratosthenes | 05/27/2010 @ 05:35
Well, yeah, when you become a public figure, you have to learn to accept some press attention, even aggressive press attention, as part of the deal. For that matter, a stripper has to accept a certain amount of attention from the clientele as part of the deal, but that doesn’t mean she’s obligated to put up with one of them camping outside her place with a camera, a laptop and a pump bottle of Jergens.

And the flipside to public figures not having a veto over what reporters and other writers write is that those writers don’t get to have a veto over what others, and certainly not their subjects, think about what they write and how they go about their business. If Joe McGinniss and others don’t like Sarah Palin writing about him like he’s a creepy stalker, maybe he should try not acting like one.
- Rich Fader | 05/27/2010 @ 08:38
[…] to Palin’s house, and Palin had the audacity to jot down a Facebook note about it, Weigel had this to say: Can somebody explain to me how this isn’t a despicable thing for Palin to […]
- House of Eratosthenes | 06/27/2010 @ 09:51

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Sarah Palin Has a New NeighborWednesday, May 26th, 2010

Sarah Palin Has a New Neighbor
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010