I grew up in a pretty political family. Both of my grandfathers served in the Alaskan legislature, one for over two decades if I recall correctly. For some shameful reason, however, I have never been very political. I vote, and I care deeply about the very scary current state of the world. But I'm not one to watch debates or know the middle names of the candidates or how they stand on certain issues. Instead, I employ the admittedly dangerous technique of either liking or disliking the "general aura" of the political candidates.

But I have to admit I'm obsessed with Sarah Palin. Partly because she's the governor of my home state, who suddenly and unexpectedly has been chosen to run for the office of vice president alongside John McCain. But mostly I'm obsessed because there's a nasty rumor that's been circulating since her son was born last spring-- a rumor that says she's actually the grandmother of the child, and the real mother is her teenaged daughter, Bristol. I try not to gossip, I really do. But there's something explosive about this rumor, and there's some convincing "evidence" to support it. I first heard the rumor from my mom after the birth last spring-- at that point no one outside of Alaska gave a bear's bum about it. But the drama is starting to circulate on the internet, and I'm predicting a very public investigation in the weeks to come.

I won't go into the specifics here of the reasons people think this rumor may be true-- I'll leave you to google it yourselves. Some people say it's no one's business, and some say that if it's true, it was noble of her to protect her daughter. I agree with neither, but that might just be because she's a right winger and I think it takes enormous balls to try to pull off a soap opera stunt like this off while you're in public office... if it's true.

Either way, it should be an interesting story to follow.

By the way, I'm not really pregnant, I'm just pretending to be to protect my teenaged cat. You can see in the photograph above that I'm trying to conceal her baby bump.