These ARE the End Times

[oselle]

Twice in the past week I have found myself watching Sarah Palin on television. You who follow my journal know what a fan I am of apocalyptic fiction, yet in all my travels through that genre I have never met a fictitious dystopian villain as over the top as Sarah Palin is in real life. The one that may come the closest is Randall Flagg, Stephen King's grinning, denim-clad antichrist in The Stand. Folksy psychopath (and would-be President of the U.S.) Greg Stillson, from King's The Dead Zone, is also a contender. But none of these characters -- NO fictional character -- even comes close to what Palin puts out there. Her shtick makes the Walkin' Dude look like a two-bit carny hustler. Some people laugh at her but I don't. She scares the living shit out of me.