So let me begin on the second part of my rant tonight. Alaska. I’ll admit that I didn’t know much about our northernmost state before the start of this election — just assumed that it was a cold yet beautiful, sparsely-populated yet geographically huge state.

I’m not that fond of winter, but I was definitely happy to continue in my naive bliss and assume that Alaskans felt as though they were part of the US despite their detached location. Now I have my doubts.

NPR tonight quoted one Alaskan woman who in response to the Ted Stevens conviction said, “Twelve outsiders trying to pass judgment on our United States senator? I won’t have any part of it,” she said. “That’s like in the days pre-statehood, when outsiders used to pass judgment on us.” Yes, I know this is hardly a significant sample size, but I found her comment utterly shocking. (1) She’s undermining the very basis of our judicial system — the jury system. (2) She’s saying that mainland USA is so completely different from Alaska that it’s impossible for people there to “pass judgment” on a legislator from Alaska (who has, by the way, probably spent more of his life in DC than Alaska). (3) Alaska became a state in 1959… I don’t think many people viewed the trial as a fight against Alaska or its sovereignty. This is about political corruption, not membership to the union.