It seems quite evident that God created snow, first and foremost, because of its great gift of quieting the earth. The muffling effect of the water crystals is high in the hierarchy of created blessings. It should come as no surprise to you then, dear reader, that among ochlophobic disdains few rank higher than the ochlophobism felt with regard to that most abysmal of wintertime mechanical monstrosities - the snowmobile. When I lived in beautiful Stillwater, MN, some neighborhood fellows, every Saturday winter morning, quite early every Saturday winter morning, revved and raced their snowmobiles up and down our street, preparing for that day's drunken mechanical escapades which never resulted in them being the ones who cracked through the ice in the pond and drowned. Anyway, at first I did what any sensible ochlophobist would do, and borrowed the bb gun of the boy next door. It seems that was not strong enough to penetrate the snowmobile riders special suit (even the attire is loud). Of course, I then borrowed a CO2 gun which fired pellets, but either they were already drunk at that time of the morning, or, given that I was sometimes prone to drink on Friday nights back then my hands were not as steady as they could be, or, their suits are made of a stronger material than is issued to your average Marine in Iraq. In any event, my wife convinced me that it was not in keeping with one of the major tenants of any Christian just war theory to escalate hostilities to the point of a few .22 long rifle rounds, so the mobilers won that war. The snowmobile is horrifically loud and in the context of a snowy world stands out as perhaps, in terms of relative pronouncement of presence, the most obscene transportation device known to man. Thus, you will understand my further dismay upon discovering that Todd Palin has won the Iron Dog competition four times, and is considered one of the world's most accomplished snowmobilers. That skill, as far as I am concerned, ranks right up there with being able to "play" one's flatulents to the tune of God Save the Queen, excepting that one only has to see that uncle a few times a year, whereas the snowmobilers are ubiquitous on otherwise perfectly peaceful winter weekend mornings in MN. It is, perhaps, possible that Toyota could make a hybrid snowmobile, which would be quiet like a Prius, and that this would be an acceptable winter vehicle for ochlophobists. But upon reflection, this idea is bound to invoke such ridicule from the "Stuff White People Like" fellow that we best not pursue it. Obviously that fellow never lived in MN, where every snowmobiler is White, and not of the sort he ridicules, though MN has no shortage of his target either. So as to not entirely pick on the poor Palins, it strikes me as sighfully predictable that it would be the Republicans who have the first person on a Presidential ticket who is married to an actual union steelworker. Democrats of that rank don't actually know union members of their own generation, excepting of course high ranking union leaders (the sort of union members who don't work and never really did), and they certainly don't marry people who work with their hands. Whatever one's gripes about Palinpolitics, and I have my gripes, it is telling that it is the Republicans that are the first party in many years to nominate at this level a person who has actually worked with her hands as an adult, and is married to a person that works with his hands. This should not be lost on us, and should be that unneeded reminder that the Democrats, by far, are the party of elitists, and it is the Republicans who actually make some meaningful gestures towards a functional populism. As an ochlophobist I run from populism, and am certainly no Republican, but I am one who appreciates irony.