. . . is that I can officially declare Shannon McArdle's Summer of the Whore the album of the season. And a strong contender for the year.

Look. With the many, many, many instances of incoherent, not-ready-for-prime-time inanity coming out of Sarah Palin's mouth, there really should be no need for anyone to resort to sexist attacks on her. So I would appreciate it if everyone would STFU about her having been in a beauty pageant, and would really, REALLY appreciate it if people would dispense immediately with the dumbass critiques of her walk in the swimsuit portion of the 1982 Miss Alaska pageant. What, exactly, do we learn about her qualifications for national office by viewing 26-year-old footage of her in a bathing suit? Jack shit. All it is, is a chance to be demeaning.

This is all especially frustrating because Palin, in her pre-Veepstakes days, actually held forth fairly intelligently on why she ever entered one and how annoying it is to have it constantly made her biographical tagline. George W. Bush is not introduced as "former cheerleader George W. Bush" (which he is); John McCain is not introduced as a guy who philandered on his horribly injured first wife (which he is); Barack Obama is not introduced as a guy who tried coke (which he is). Again: all the crazy shit this woman says, and you have to try to take her down a peg with this?

A special fuck-you to the commenters at Huffington Post (and to HuffPo for posting the video in the first place). The one brilliant thing about McCain picking Palin is that it provided another chance for many librul dudes to shine forth as sexist creeps. It's nowhere near enough to make me vote for Team Wingnut, but it sure is making me hate a lot of people who advertise themselves as feminist allies. How far out of the mainstream do I have to get just to avoid the assholes?