Josef Stalin & Sarah Palin’s Face

Things are getting spooky in Siberia. Tomorrow, Russians may very well name Josef Stalin as the man they believe to be the greatest Russian in history.

Russia’s influential television outlet, Rossiya, is staging a year long poll for Russians the country over to weigh in on who they believe to be their greatest countrymen. From an original list of 500 cold-dwelling-Russophiles the tally has now been whittled to twelve. One of the remaining aspirants is Josef Stalin, murderer of millions and architect of the Cold War Soviet Union. Foxnews quotes the St. Petersburg Communist Party’s leader as saying that, “Stalin made Russia a superpower and was one of the founders of the coalition against Hitler in World War II….” How terrifying is it that the opinions of the millions of Russians who voted in the poll appear to be agree? Substantively terrifying.

The horses at Disney have decided to cease their support for producing the next planned Narnia film, “Voyage of the Dawn Treader”. Walden Media, which partnered with Walt’s Wonderful World to produce the first two movies, still has exclusive rights from Lewis’ estate to make movies from ye olde books and is now looking for other hosers to help out. Here’s hoping they’re successful, because the first two movies were actually good representations of what I saw in my head when I read Lewis, and also because Reepicheep the mouse was set to have a bigger role in this upcoming buzzard. I’m realizing I have very little hope of seeing my favorite of the books – the Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle - ever made into moving pictures. It’s emotional.

The buzz is a flutter about Sarah Palin potentially offering her grandeur to the senate instead of the Alaska statehouse. Moosevile will have a senate seat opening in 2010, and it’s being suggested that a run may be a boon of potential media coverage and an upgrade in influence for the woman some liberal radio humanoids have dubbed ‘Caribou Barbie’. Recent polling suggests that Alaskans would prefer her to current Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, who is the daughter of former governor Frank Murkowski. The elder statseman was the founder of Palin’s popularity, as she ousted him to become chief executive herself. If Washington is everywhere she wants to be then she might have to continue beating up on the Murkowski’s.

I’ve recently noted to others that Palin will be 48 years of age in 2012, and I cant help wondering how aging might perhaps dampen the cute factor at work here in regards to potential presidential postualation. Her good looks were undoubtedly helping her with the portion of the male electorate that didn’t know Dan Quayle from Danny Tanner this go round. I’m not sure how much of an impact it will have. Age defying technology will also be four years older, and I’m certain there are a lot of cute 48 year olds running around too as some sort of precedent setter. But it’s undeniable that her appealing visage was a cornerstone of her ’08 mass popularity, and any diminishing of that might be harmful to her political hopes. Despite whatever conclusion is reached on that though, Palin remains enormously popular with Alaskans and Conservatives nationwide.

Britney Spears has apparently completed her comeback. For Spears, this means she is once again successfully removing all her clothing on television while music plays in the background. But, as she’s no longer shaving her head and running over people with her car, things are declared back to normal.