For me at least, Alaska steals the show, here, and well it should. One sixth of the area of the United States is in Alaska alone, and this image which portrays the states in their proportional area effectively puts things in perspective. Texas also weighs in heavily, but consider if you will that it is only a third the size of Alaska. Anyone who has taken a road trip across Texas can appreciate what that means.
The map is from the infamous Mütter Museum of Medical Oddities in Philadelphia. I finally visited the fascinating and at times gut wrenching collection of conjoined skulls, shrunken heads, formaldehyde fingers, and pickled fetuses just days after getting back from a short trip to Alaska.
Alaska was my fiftieth state! We actually drove most of the way there and then took a ferry for the last stretch. I’ve now been to all of them and completed the 50 State Challenge before my self-imposed deadline of the end of 2010. More later on that trip, and my trip to the other archipelago state, Hawai’i.
JUNEAU, Alaska – Outgoing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Saturday laid the groundwork to take on a larger, national role after leaving state government, citing a “higher calling” with the aim of uniting the country along conservative lines.
“I am now looking ahead and how we can advance this country together with our values of less government intervention, greater energy independence, stronger national security, and much-needed fiscal restraint,” she said.
Palin also cast herself as a victim and blasted the media, calling the response to her announcement “predictable” and out of touch.
“How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it’s about country,” the statement said. “And though it’s honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make.”
the punditry is beside itself.
Maureen Dowd: Caribou Barbie Is One Nutty Puppy
Sherrilyn Ifill, Professor of Law, U. Md.: Watching this news conference felt like watching a public figure unravel before our very eyes. And it wasn’t pretty. This lady was spooked, scared, angry, I thought, and incoherent.
Andrew Rotherham, Co-founder and publisher, Education Sector: I can see political trouble from my house.
Patrick J. Egan, Professor of Politics and Public Policy, NYU: Governing was never her strong suit.
David Boaz, Executive VP, Cato Institute: Will we one day say that her presidency was “born on the Fourth of July”? I doubt it.
William Jelani Cobb, Professor of History, Spelman College: This is obviously part of a vast left-wing conspiracy designed to assure Barack Obama a second term and, if Rush Limbaugh is to be believed, several more after that.
in case you missed the incoherent ramble echoing from Wasilla, AK:
There’s an old saying, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
And so, being that she’s a fighter, it should have come as a surprise to nobody that Alaska Gov. Sarah “Barracuda” Palin decided to take a page from Eric Cartman’s playbook.
In her resignation speech, which many have described as rambling and/or bizarre, Palin announced her desire to “effect positive change outside government.”
Palin + outside government = change I can believe in.
I’m a little more skeptical. Like I said on Nov 5th last year, we haven’t seen the last of Palin. I mean, she’s 45 years young, unabashed, and the Republican Party’s best (only) charismatic asset (I’ll direct your attention once again to the image at the very top of this post). No, we ain’t seen all of Palin. And certainly not if Letterman and Levi have anything to do with it.
The further along I am in my process of writing final papers, the more my own bookshelf resembles a civil war, and the more my bedroom floor looks like a Hawaiian archipelago…
I know my library science friends will roll their eyes- whether they’re on the Library of Congress or the Dewey Decimal side of the great debate- but I’ve always preferred to arrange my (personal) books aesthetically or even auto-biographically (ask John Cusack about that one), so a shelf like this might do me some good.
Mind you, I am grateful that University Libraries have zero interest in pursuing cartographic cataloging. It would, however make for a different flirting with hot people in the library atmosphere. I could get behind that…
honestly though, what I want to see is a bookshelf like this that includes Puerto Rico, Alaska, Long Island, Guam, and some rendition of Hawai’i that doesn’t look like a series of ethnographies strewn across my floor.
The World is Yrs,
Sunshine Superboy
oh. and in case any of you white folks haven’t felt embarrassed about being white in a while, I’m including a special ethnic treat for you. having access to social, economic, and political power just cuz of skin privilege has its disadvantages too…
its kinda repetitive up until about a minute and a half into it. the end is worth it!!!
Black Maps is the web version of a zine of the same name. Though maps and mapping are the main thrust of the blog, it is also an exploration of science, politics, social movements, co-ops, food, comic books, travel and independent music as experienced by Esteban Sunshine Superboy.
I finally visited the fascinating and at times gut wrenching collection of conjoined skulls, shrunken heads, formaldehyde fingers, and pickled fetuses just days after getting back from a short trip to Alaska.
