Working in Ottawa today --An Old-Fashioned Foot Burning!

Sarah Palin made news again Saturday evening.  Speaking in Calgary Palin explained that growing up in Skagway, Alaska it was routine for her family to cross the border into Whitehouse to partake in Canada's socialized medicine.  She specifically recounted how one day he brother burned his foot in fire (?) and off by rail to Canada they did trek.  She stated that she thought that it was kind of ironic now.

Two things were somewhat interesting about her recount of this foot burning.  

The first is that she already used this story back in 2007, explaining that her brother burned his foot in a fire and her family traveled by ferry to Juneau and that she then pledged to improve ferry service to Juneau.

I won't comment on the traveling by rail from Skagway to Whitehorse it seems unlikely to me that there is a rail line between but not impossible.  Perhaps one of you could check and report back to this group.

The second is her use of 'ironic'.  There may be an irony to this story, but probably not what she intended.  I actually have no idea at all what she meant by saying it was ironic since an irony is one of two things.

The first is an occurrence that runs counter to what was planned.  For instance a girl falling in love with a weatherman after being so impressed with his weather predicting abilities and having him pick a day for the nuptials and it rains.  Perhaps that is what Alanis meant since no other complaints in her song are ironical.

The second is a theatrical device where the audience is aware of something that the actor's character is not.  The audience observes the young lover taking a potion that will make her body appear dead and escape the clutches of her family, but the young male lover is unaware and believes her deathlike trance to be the real McCoy and takes some real poison (no, not fish) and succumbs never knowing what the audience does.

So, Palin's irony?  Was she stating that it was ironic that she was "Zooming across the border, gettin' heath care from Canada" and now she is zooming across the border to raise Canadian money through speaking engagements to fund her 2012 U.S. campaign?  That's not ironic, a bit odd, but sans the irony.

Perhaps that her family zoomed over to use Canada's heath care and Palin now speaks against it and our evil death-panels, and having to have your doctor appointment approved by a bureaucrat first.  Again, not really an irony just hypocritical and misinformed.

Perhaps she is suggesting that now Canadians are no zooming over the border to receive U.S. heath care, no irony there either, just a rare occurrence that we eat up any time we see it in print.

Perhaps the irony had to do with her brother repeatedly burning his foot --maybe the audience knows.

Have a good day, and wear asbestos socks.

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld -- Envoyé de mon sans fil portatif BlackBerry