I am no expert on pregnancy, but is it common for women to get pregnant in their shoulders like Sarah Palin apparently did?

(H/T to Brad Scharlott for the image.)

Laura Novak conducts yet another very interesting interview with Professor Scharlott over on her blog.

This link will take you the most interesting clip, where Mrs. Palin talks about “huntin’ and fishin’” and her big family. The interviewer at one point interjects: “And you have four?” meaning, children. And Palin replies, “I have a bunch of kids” before rapidly changing the subject. Was this because she wasn’t sure how many she would have in the following days, or because she wasn’t yet prepared to tell the world about a fifth? “A bunch of kids.” How maternal.

It’s not just that Palin was supposedly 7 months pregnant during this interview. It’s her behavior, posture, and her stunning announcement the next day that still mystify, dumbfound and disturb so many followers of this fairy tale.

Throughout her entire Newsweek interview, which was at least 10 minutes (judging from several YouTube clips), she remained in that forward-leaning position with her legs crossed.

LN: What an amazing woman.

BS: Amazing indeed. How late into your own pregnancy, Laura, could you comfortably assume that position and hold it several minutes?

LN: Are you kidding? I still can’t, and my baby’s now 16 and rides a BMX bike.

Now for many of us THIS is well covered ground, that we are now seeing revisited by new eyes. However the last part of Laura's answer directed my focus to something that I have not given a great deal of thought to in the past.

As many of you know I have interviewed a number of people who worked with, or around, Palin before, during, and after her "pregnancy." In one of those interviews the person mentioned that not only did Palin not appear pregnant DURING her month and a half long pregnancy, she also did not appear to have just given birth AFTER Trig was born.

Now here you will have to forgive me because I am JUST a man, so until I read Laura's somewhat tongue in cheek answer above I did not give that as much thought as I should have.

So I went back through my notes to check, and was reminded that not only did Sarah Palin not have any of the pain or discomfort you would expect during her pregnancy, she also did not seem to have ANY sign of having just given birth in the days and weeks afterward. 

Now granted these people would have been interacting with Palin in a professional setting where she might not have felt comfortable talking about her soreness, or appearing weak or needy in front of staff, so I wondered how she might have acted in the privacy of her home, when she was just letting it all hang out.

But WHO would have seen her in her home only a few weeks or days after giving birth?

Oh yeah, that's right!

So I gave my friend Mercede a call.

As it turned out Sadie and her mother were stuck in traffic here in Anchorage, and so I was able to ask both of them whether or not Sarah demonstrated ANY signs of having given birth on May 3 2008, only twenty days after Trig arrived, and the day that they both went over to Palin's house to see the new baby and to celebrate Levi's birthday.

To the question of whether she appeared sore, or had trouble moving around or sitting, they both said "No, she appeared fine."

To the question of whether or not they could have discerned that she had just given birth by her appearance, they both replied "No." "In fact," added Sherry, "she did not look like she had given birth at all!"

I then started trying to think like a woman, and asked if Palin complained about any soreness in her breasts, or whether or not they appeared milk laden or uncomfortable. Again the response was "No, not at all."

Sadie did point out that she was in a sweatshirt, so it would have been hard to see if she was swollen, but that she certainly "did not act as if she were uncomfortable."

I thanked them for their time and hung up the phone. (By the way you should be hearing more from Mercede herself later on today.)

You know the difference between pretending to be pregnant on a television show, and doing the same thing in real life, is that in a movie or television show when the director yells cut you can take off the fake baby bump and have a cigarette. But in real life you have to be prepared to play your scene 24 hours a day, for as long as the "pregnancy" (And the appropriate amount of time after the pregnancy), lasts.  Clearly Palin was just not that good of an actress.

Which is WHY we see her bending forward when she should have been seven months pregnant, and WHY her belly changed size and shape so often in that month and a half span of time, and WHY she acted afterward as if it simply did not happen.  Because, and stay with me on this part, it DID NOT HAPPEN!

Now look, one of the arguments against the idea that Palin pulled off this fake pregnancy has always been, "that's crazy NOBODY would do such a thing! Especially while in the public eye!" Which on the face of it seems like a reasonable argument, but not when it comes to Sarah Palin.

Just ask yourself about all of the crazy Palin lies that you know about.  This is a woman who has lied and said that NONE of the ethics complaints filed against her ever had merit, that the U.S. federal debt had grown more under Obama than “all those other presidents combined," repeatedly lied that she quit her job as Governor because under the laws of the state, her family was going to be bankrupt by litigation and public records requests, and apparently supported her daughter's lie that her very obvious facial surgery was really due to a dental procedure to align her teeth. (And those are only the tip of the iceberg.)

So you see what WE all might consider a lie too outlandish to tell by ANYONE, is really just business as usual for Sarah Palin and her family.  And until somebody REALLY calls them out on their lies, there is NO reason for Sister Sarah to change her tactics. None.

(By the way if you want to get an idea of just how often Palin lies, all you need to do is buy "The Lies of Sarah Palin" by Geoffrey Dunn.)