Can I Please Get a Day Off from Sarah Palin?

No. No, I apparently cannot.

The girlfriend looked up from the paper and asked if I'd read the news roundup on the bottom of the page she was looking at. Nope, I hadn't. So do you want to get pissed off and have your brain explode, or just have a nice enjoyable morning? Ah, no point in messing with the mojo, so I'll take pissed off for the win. She read it out loud:

Gov. Sarah Palin's church is promoting a conference that promises to convert gays into heterosexuals through the power of prayer.

"You'll be encouraged by the power of God's love and His desire to transform the lives of those impacted by homosexuality," according to the insert in the bulletin of the Wasilla Bible Church, where Palin has prayed for about six years.

Palin's conservative Christian views have energized that part of the GOP electorate, which was lukewarm to John McCain's candidacy before he named her as his vice presidential choice.

Neat! I cannot wait to see what else will be required of McCain as he does the bidding of his religious right overlords. I also cannot wait to hear her explanation for why we should not be concerned about that or about her insistence that government is useless if the people's hearts aren't right with God, although since she's ducking the Sunday morning talk shows and every other unscripted appearance, I may be quivering in anticipation for some time waiting on that one.

In other news, not everyone is being fooled by her presence on the ticket.

So why on earth would [McCain] overlook dozens of far more qualified candidates (Tim Pawlenty and Lieberman, for example) only to choose Palin, whose national experience could be described (kindly) as negligible?

Because Palin's a woman. And because Rove, currently serving as an "informal adviser" to McCain's campaign, once read a book about women that convinced him the only thing women love more than a good white sale is casting a vote for another woman. (OK, I just made that up. I have no idea whether Karl Rove has ever read a book).

Here's something McCain might have considered during the 45 minutes his aides apparently spent vetting Palin, whose slowly expanding biography keeps yielding unpleasant surprises: Women aren't interested in voting for just any woman. They want to vote for an experienced, competent woman whose accomplishments can stand up to any man's, not someone they have to make excuses for.