Palin's expensive tanning bed
Kudos to the folks at NarcoNews.com in Alaska for digging out the story about the tanning bed Gov. Sarah Palin had installed in the Governor's Mansion in Juneau. They got a tip from a citizen and broke a story which, while not as cancerous (in metaphorical terms) as some of the others, raises a lot of interesting questions.
But first, tanning beds are those sarcophogus-shaped machines in which one lies down to get an off-season tan. I used one myself a couple of times when I was heading down to Latin America and wanted to get a base tan to reduce my chances of getting a bad burn. NarcoNews quotes a Fairbanks tanning salon operator as saying a tanning bed costs upwards of $35,000 and the electric work is extra. Interestingly, the mansion has had a lot of electric work lately, but an official spokesman insists it was merely to bring the house up to code. No doubt.
Palin's spokesman says she paid for the tanning bed herself, which is what you'd better say if your the reform queen and don't want to go to reform school. Well, I guess adults can't do that. Using taxpayer funds would turn your reform credentials into something looking like a bad application of Tanfastic, if they still market that stuff. Accepting it as a gift would mean disclosing it on her financial disclosure form, since its value is higher than $150. That's Alaska law. NarcoNews says there's no mention of it on her form.
So we are left with the possibility that she dropped $35,000 on an impulse purchase, which is nice if you can manage it on a salary of about $115,000 a year. But none of her kids appear likely to incur any college expenses, so maybe Palin was feeling flush. Of course, there's that shotgun wedding to pay for, but how much is a box of shells?
All kidding aside, the steady drip, drip, drip of embarrassing revelations about Palin can't be helping her standing among voters. Or at least I hope.
Comments
If you peel away the thin veneer of tan, is Sarah really green? With the carbon footprint of a synthetic tan, I sincerely doubt virtually all of her "credentials". It's time to put her under a light that doesn't promote skin discoloration.
Perhaps she was lying in repose when the Bush Doctrine was first put forth. Then again, if you can count airplane refueling stops and Mexican resort vacations as foreign affairs experience, stopping at a gas station must make you an energy expert.
Can I borrow your lipstick?
Posted by: Jim Harris | September 18, 2008 11:47 AM
Because you are about the most uninformed person about the issues of which you blog, I thought I'd point something out.
Alaskans endure darkness and limited daylight for months on end. This results in a physiologic response which leads to seasonal affective disorder, which even the most enduring Alaskans experience. Tanning beds have served to provoke the physiologic response that you and I get from daily exposure to sunlight, and thereby reduce this horrible and depressing condition.
Many Alaskans use or purchase tanning beds specifically because of this.
BTW, the only two presidents to ever have a doctrine were Truman and Monroe. Maybe Biden should be quizzed spontaneously about the Clinton Doctrine.
Posted by: Lived there, nothing new | September 29, 2008 08:30 AM