Sarah Palin pisses me off. There. I’ve said it. I don’t necessarily like being pissed off, but I think it’s important to acknowledge it when it happens. That kind of confession is very Catholic of me, I supposed. I may have lost faith in religious faith, but my teeth were still cut within a compellingly ritual-and-symbol heavy system – and its core messages went deep.

And that’s just one reason among many that Sarah Palin pisses me off – but very few of my reasons are what she and her Greek chorus of moralists expect.

Sure, I’m pissed because she belongs to a church that believes gays need a cure, Jews need Jesus, and speaking jibberish is a sign of divine contact; but those are her personal problems and I’ve got enough of my own to worry about.

Sure, I’m pissed because she violated the trust of the people whose interest she vowed to protect when she changed her story about the so-called “Bridge to Nowhere,” and sure I’m pissed that she tried to censor library books and fire everyone who didn’t snap immediately into parade rest when in her presence, but those were ultimately Alaskan problems to be dealt with and resolved by Alaskans.

And sure, I’m pissed because she thinks creationism deserves serious discussion in science classrooms, while frank discussion of human sexuality does not.

But these are not the reasons that Sarah Palin pisses me off enough to write this.

Sarah Palin pisses me off enough to write this, because she’s a slap in the face of every progressive woman with an ethical backbone, a loving heart, a functioning brain, and an ambitious spirit.

It doesn’t bother me that Sarah Palin can drop an elk with a rifle – although I think picking off wolves from an airplane is unsporting, cold-blooded, and cowardly. It doesn’t bother me that Sarah Palin has a beauty queen background – although I find the timing of her first and fifth pregnancies interesting to ponder. It doesn’t bother me that she’s opposed to abortion and chose to give birth to a child with Down syndrome – although I must admit amazement at her nearly super-human ability to camouflage this last pregnancy as compared to her previous ones.

So, what is it about Sarah Palin that sets my blood to “percolate” and makes my entire epidermis crawl? What is it about Sarah Palin that really pisses me off?

It’s the fact that she uses the contents of her uterus like a deflective shield.

I have never seen anyone throw one of their own children under a bus as quickly as I saw Sarah Palin throw not one, but three of hers. Track, Trig, and Bristol; all momma’s little career-sound bytes and photo ops, with Piper’s gregarious cuteness thrown in for good measure and snuggly dressed, but tastefully underage, Willow wisely fading into the background whenever possible.

When faced with rumors that Trig’s matronage might be closer to Bristol than Sarah, the governor of Alaska/newly tapped GOP vice-presidential pick did the only logical thing to defend her title: she outted Bristol as nearing the end of her own second trimester.

Thanks, mom!

As the daughter of a religiously based female right-to-lifer myself, that feels especially icky.

As someone who found herself having partnered sex late in my 16th year, I can safely say that the last thing I’d have wanted on international television would have been my mom telling the world I’d gotten pregnant and was going to marry the poor schmuck responsible – and then parading us in front of the cameras like a living doll collection.

For all the flag waving and mentally retarded baby hugging, how is the above anything other than Sarah covering her ass at Bristol’s expense – and how on earth does Bristol’s pregnancy prove Sarah’s fecundity?

Even beyond the outrageous insensitivity that internationally famous Mother Palin showed when putting now internationally infamous Fallen Daughter Bristol in her place is the way in which the woman uses her boys. Only one of three candidates with a child in or headed to Iraq, Sarah drops mention of Track’s impending ticket to adventure nearly as much as she mentions that McCain spent some time having his mind and body bent and abused during Vietnam.

But the thing that really pisses me off about Sarah Palin – and I say this as the sister of a mentally retarded adult — is that at every moment possible, poor Trig is clutched in front of the cameras like the photo-op heavy, invaluable, and easily manipulated manifestation of the evangelical movement that he is.

And all of this is being puppeteered by a party that has thrived on condemning the sexual misfortunes or aberrations of others; simultaneously claiming a perverse corner of the market on virtue and family values while its loudest champions are repeatedly found in bed with the polar opposite of their preachings.

(Originally published on http://sexpose.radiodentata.com and http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=9210)