US Weekly ran a story yesterday about how Sarah Palin had a tanning bed put into the governor’s mansion in Alaska. She paid for it with her own money and it’s possible it wasn’t as astronomically expensive as they’re claiming, $35,000, because used and refurbished models can go for under $2,000, based on the three minutes of research I did. Somehow they’re trying to make a connection between John McCain’s two bouts with skin cancer and Palin’s use of the tanning bed, which she even discouraged in a public service announcement, saying it contributed to cancer.
Self-proclaimed “hockey mom” Sarah Palin had a private tanning bed installed in the Governor’s Mansion in Juneau, Alaska, Usmagazine.com confirmed on Monday.
“She did. She paid for it with her own money,” Roger Wetherell, chief communications officer of Alaska’s Department of Transportation and Public Facilities told Us.
The Narco News Bulletin first reported on the former beauty queen’s penchant for a bronzed body.
“It was done shortly after she took office [in early 2007] and moved into the mansion,” Wetherell told the Narco News.
According to Wetherell, the tanning bed was purchased used, from a health club.
Tanning beds can cost up to $35,000 to install in a home – not including the cost of parts, Color Me Tan manager Erin Weise told the Narco News.
“I don’t think it’s normal for people to have a tanning bed in their house, ” Wiese, who is based in Fairbanks said. “It’s expensive.”
Palin’s running mate, presidential candidate John McCain battled skin cancer in 1993, and again in 2000.
“I coat SPF 30 on myself first thing in the morning, and wear long sleeves and a hat whenever I’m in the sun,” McCain has told Newsweek.
Palin declared May 2007, “Skin Cancer Awareness Month.” In the press materials it was noted, “Skin cancer is caused, overwhelmingly, by over-exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun and from tanning beds.
[From US Weekly]
Did anyone see that movie with Al Pacino and Hilary Swank, Insomnia? It’s dark all day in Alaska during some times of the year, and light all day at other times. Maybe Palin just wanted some sunshine. Most doctors don’t recommend tanning beds for seasonal affective disorder, but I’ve used them sparingly for that purpose and it does help improve my mood in the winter.This isn’t really anything to fault Palin for and we don’t know if she was tanning every day or if her teenage daughters bugged her to get the tanning bed or whatever.
We have earnestly been cutting back on the political news here after your feedback and the pretty heated discussions about it. More celebrities have talked smack about Palin and McCain, and we’ve stuck to the entertainment news and rolled our eyes. Mollygood has a good take on this and said it’s hard not to do politics because these people are on the covers of all the celebrity magazines. Even if we actively ignore them they’re becoming celebrities on both sides of the fence, whether they’re actively seeking it or the press is helping them along.
Palin using a tanning bed, though, that’s not news. Do any of you use tanning beds in the winter? It really did help me, but I once got burned and have to limit my time in the bed. The politicians should take a similar approach to fame – use it wisely or it’ll bite you in the butt.
That isn’t so bad is it? It won’t give you cancer if you don’t lie in there for six hours every day? Or does it?
Just seems this woman’s life is being pulled apart and no detail is left unturned.
I don’t want to be a celebrity or a politician in America.
Nina, I agree with you. The way Palin has been completely taken apart in the MSM – private life included – bodes very badly for other women thinking about running for office. As for the tanning bed, if I lived in a place that was dark 18 hours a day several months a year, I would probably use a tanning bed too. Todd Palin, her husband, said on Fox News that where they live the sun will rise around 9:30 AM and goes down around 3:30 PM in the winter. That would drive me nuts! It doesn’t bother me that she has one. I know lots of people living in Germany (all military spouses) who go to tanning beds in the winter simply b/c we hardly ever get to see the sun! They would never use one if they lived in say … Florida … but they do here. Big deal.
My mom had a tanning bed in our house, and I can tell you it didn’t cost 35K. I think it was like 1000 or something. This was ten years ago. My skin doesn’t tan (not really, I just burn), so I didn’t use it too much, but she used it a bunch and, yeah, I guess it’s a bit weird (the Hogans definitely had like 2 in their house), but who cares what other people think?
No. It doesn’t interfere one iota with her political ‘abilities’ or suitability for VP. Everything else pales into insignificance alongside that.
(geddit, pales? tanning? never mind.)
Who gives a big shite about what she wants to do with her skin? I am more concerned with the frivolous use of time, and who pays for those electric bills?
That’s not a flattering angle for her at all. She’s looking a little used up but I guess the last few weeks will do that to a person…
If she payed for the tanning bed, that’s her business I guess. While I don’t know of a link between tanning beds and skin cancer, I do know you have to be very careful as to how long you are in one because you can damage your internal organs. I don’t know if this is true in Canada anymore but a number of years ago there was no industry standard insofar as the amount of UV and radiation these beds put out. Probably because they were a fairly new thing then and the government hadn’t gotten around to instituting any standards yet.
With regard to McCain’s two bouts with skin cancer, well he comes from a different time when people didn’t know about sun damage and the link to cancer. He probably played a lot of golf over the years too.
From my experience, it seems that men are very reluctant about using sunscreen, like it’s a ‘wimpy’ thing to do. It’s silly, but for them using sunscreen is right up there with going to a doctor. You can’t get a man to do either!
Aren’t they infuriating?? 😕
Can’t you use other kinds of light (full spectrum?) in place of the dangerous skin risks of tanning beds?
When I traveled to Fairbanks a couple of years ago, I was told that:
1. Alaska has a very high suicide rate during the dark months
2. Many people use tanning beds as a way to treat depression during those months (seasonal affective disorder)
Makes sense to me. And even if she just has it for vanity…so what? It’s not like she used state funds to make the purchase.
TC I agree with you. I was born and raised my whole life in alaska. there are a plethora of tanning salons every where you turn because people dont get that much sun for 9 months. she could go to the tanning booth like everyone else. they aren’t 1,000 dollars though. a regular face lamp that gives you the wavelength of light and vitamin k costs over $300 for a small little thing, so the beds are much more expensive. we had the lamp in our home to combat SAD but a bed in one’s home is very uncommon and ridiculous. she is vain pageant queen material, so this doesnt surprise me.
If I had the money I’d buy my own too, beats going to the salon and smiling at everyone and not being late for an appointment. This way you could use it whenever you want and when it’s convenient for you. Why not?
LOL Geronimo, ‘pales, tan’, wow you are good. 🙂
Palin has more things to worry about than tanning beds. Lehman Bros just kicked a bucket. I hope she knows that that is.
That Weise person they quoted sounds like a weasel, saying it’s “not normal” for someone to have on ein their home. My MIL lives in Washington State and uses a tanning bed (it’s in her garage), and look how much further south that state is than Alaska. I totally get the need for some sun, faux or not. And while I understand it can be dangerous, so can severe depression from lack of sunshine.
Baho, take it from a former MythBusters PA, I’m pretty sure that internal damage stuff is just an urban legend.
Good call on slowing down on the political stories.
I’ve used a tanning bed during the winter for SAD’s. I grew up in a very sunny city and had a hard time adjusting to the overcast months in Toronto. Yes, I could have used the lamps that are specifically designed for treatment purposes but in all honesty, I liked having a bit of a tan too. Nothing beats depression like looking good!
this is all the left has to point out about Sarah Palin…Oh my God, she has a tanning bed! One that she bought with her own hard-earned cash. Hey bros. – have you bought anything in the last few years just for your personal pleasure. I hope not, because then you are a vain, ridiculous person. How dare you spend your money on something you want!! I live in Arizona and know several people who have their own beds (and no, they are not rich) Now, if I lived in Alaska and it was only light 6 hours a day…you better believe I’d buy myself a tanning bed, too. It’s been proven that sunlight is therapeutic and since they don’t have that much sun in Alaska, I find this perfiectly fine.
Bros, that’s what I was thinking – why not just a sun lamp for your face? What do tan legs have to do with SAD?
@TC – Most people I know who use a tanning bed only use it for 15-30 minutes once a week. Is that really that much “frivolous” time? Do you really expect her to not have any personal time simply because of the job she holds?
@bros – A quick search for tanning beds on ebay shows a price range just on the first page of $700-3500. I bet it probably costs the taxpayers more over the long run and creates more of a hassle for the staff at a tanning salon to have the governor go to one. I bet it would be just so wonderful to the other patrons to have her security all over the salon, making sure there are no psychos waiting for her inside, trying to either hurt her or snap pictures of her in her bathing suit or nude while she tries to get her tan on.
No, it does matter she was Mayor of the meth capitol of Alaska. (It’s not just a sketch, folks)
And that her ‘traditional family values’ consist of a pregnant teenage daughter who isn’t married, an alleged illicit with a staff member while in office.
It might not MATTER as such, but it’s not going to help people take her seriously……….
There’s always crap dug up on all politicians….it’s just a ploy to make them look bad. If you’re in support of the person you don’t care and if you’re unsupportive you use it against them.
I live in the northwest and we have loooong winters in my area. My skin is pale (Irish blood) so I don’t tan, therefore no need to spend money on tanning beds, but I do get seasonal affective disorder and have to be around floods of light to help counteract it.
As long as she did pay for it herself, I don’t give a shit. There’s WAY worse reasons to object to her than this. Way worse. And a lot of them.
This is just as stupid as the articles about how much male politicians pay for their haircuts. Seriously…anyone who has a problem with this kind of thing just wants to hate the person and will create reasons wherever possible.
Anyone who uses someone’s choice of hairstylist or someone’s choices in personal grooming/cosmetic maintenance as a voting issue should have his or her suffrage revoked.
I had a physician AND a therapist recommend moderate use of a tanning bed to fight depression. It worked VERY well, and I swear by it for winter blues. It lifts the mood and makes the heavy and irrational sadness that comes with seasonal depression lighten up TREMENDOUSLY.
Who cares if she has a tanning bed? She paid for it with her OWN money, it’s her business… US Weekly needs to stick with ENTERTAINMENT news and stay out of attempting to report on politics.
35k sounds like the price to outfit an complete tanning salon.
I have done light therapy for SAD, but my doctor never recommended a tanning bed, I own a modest 12″X18″ light
i don’t care if she had a tanning bed or not. i do care that she doesn’t know what the bush doctrine is.
Maybe I’m weird, but I’ve never seen the appeal of having a tan. It’s nothing more than slightly burnt skin, and causes people to prematurely age- I’d rather have wrinkly pale skin when I’m 70 than have dry, wrinkly brown skin when I’m 40. I don’t know, I just think it’s kinda dumb when everyone is tan and looks the same, imo. I’d rather have pale, healthy skin than look like a leather handbag. Besides, why pay loads of money to lay in a tanning bed (for vanity purposes) when sunlight is free?
Of course people who use tanning beds for seasonal affective disorder are a different story, and I completely understand their need for such.
All this does is distract from the glaring problems that are of actual concern for Americans and the rest of the world should this person become president. McCain is ancient and in marginal health. Bush will be handing over a disaster on all fronts. Hopefully the next president will be a diplomat with integrity, experience, gravitas, wisdom, honesty. Does this sound like Palin? Would McCain have selected Palin if she were male? Come on! We all know the answer to that one. All this petty distraction is dumbed down crap.
while I think this is just more evidence of her being a caricature and ridiculous choice for VP, I agree that there are way more troubling things about the palinator, and the tanning bed is the least of them.
What a lovely picture… NOT. Why don’t we focus in on Biden telling a guy in a wheelchair to stand up? Isn’t that just as newsworthy?!?
I am really sick of the addition of the politics on this blog. I know that you were quite fair in your writings, CB, but the comments have turned this place into an ugly place, not a place to get away from the stress of the workday.
Have to agree with Kate on this one – really don’t care if she has a tanning bed. What I care about is that I seem to know more about political issues then she does. What worries me is that she thinks it is o.k. if we go to war with Russia over Georgia – no mention of solving problems in a diplomatic manner – let’s just go to war with Russia!!!
I can see why McCain chose her as a running mate.
CB – I like the addition of politics!! Thank you for including this!!
there is no way a man with her same background would have been picked to run for V.P. i am all for the RIGHT woman running for office but she is not the right woman. she knew what she was getting herself and her family into when she said yes to running she also knew/knows she is not ready for this job, its like we are watching a really bad made for tv movie
Don’t mind at all. I just don’t think the color orange would be a flattering color on her.
Looks great on George Hamilton. 😕
It’s Palin’s money, her business.
I also have a tanning bed, I paid $300 for it. I purchased it from a local tanning salon that were updating their tanning beds.
It’s a free standing unit and it cost me $3.50 for the 110 volt plug to use in my home. The special indoor tanning supplies (lotion) cost me $20 for a case on eBay.
Um… isn’t the point that she has a tanning bed in her home, and she made a huge deal about skin cancer awareness, releasing that “Skin cancer is caused, overwhelmingly, by over-exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun and from tanning beds.”
I think the whole point is she’s a hypocrit, not that she has a tan.
Yeah, this whole tanning bed story is stupid given that there are so many terrible things about Palin that actually do matter (and I’m NOT referring to her family drama, which I also view as totally irrelevant).
I will say that there’s a tinge of hypocrasy in the fact that she declared May 2007 to be Skin Cancer Awareness Month, despite having a skin cancer-causing appliance in her home. Then again, aren’t we all guilty of small examples of hypocracy like that?
None of the above changes the fact that Palin is an ignorant, evil, robotic douche utterly unfit for office.
Whatever she does with her own money is her business. As trillion said, this is just a distraction from the real issues.
And I like the political discussion here, contrary to some posts. It’s interesting to read different perspectives. I can do without the snide comments and insults that some people put forth but overall I think it’s a good avenue for discussion.
that’s funny cause she calls anyone that isn’t white an “arctic arab”
http://www.laprogressive.com/2008/09/05/alaskans-speak-in-a-frightened-whisper-palin-is-%e2%80%9cracist-sexist-vindictive-and-mean%e2%80%9d/?racist-sexist-vindictive-and-mean?/?racist-sexist-vindictive-and-mean?/
I think the point of it is that she says she’s committed to one cause, but then does the opposite thing. Kinda like those ear marks…
to bring back a term from the 2004 elections…
FLIP FLOPPER!!!
I loved that!
Oooo, what, you’ve hit on the ONE Palin issue I can’t keep my mouth shut on…
Sarah Palin doesn’t refer to anyone who is not white as an “Arctic Arab”, she calls Native Alaskans, and therefore, Americans, “Arctic Arabs”. The woman is unbelievably racist and resents the people who inhabited Alaska originally.
Sorry… I had vowed not to get involved in any of these threads, but since someone else brought it up, I couldn’t keep it zipped!
diva i had just read that article and wanted to post it so badly, but couldn’t think of a way to make it relevant, haha.
it’s damn close though. they are tan, the aboriginal.
and she’s supposedly killing all those wolves for the native’s sake.
but back to the tanning…
Not important, not relevant. Not even revealing of her as a person, it’s more revealing about us collectively that we found the time in our busy day to read this and to comment on it. We are all peeping toms
I didn’t bother to read the article, I’m just responding to the title question: No.
This woman is treated worse than Heidi Montag! 👿
A tanning bed, so what? There are loads of celebrities who are far more tanned than she is. Plus, she paid it with her own money. 8)
How is it that using a tanning bed being against Skin Cancer Awareness? Using tanning beds in *excess* causes cancer, just like the old fashioned sunbathing. Exposing oneself to some light, especially during the winter in dark Alaska, only does good to her middle age bones.
Don’t know what any of this has to do with a tanning bed, but try these slants;
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/terry-trippany/2008/09/06/rumor-palin-called-obama-sambo-spreading-across-internet
http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/sambo.asp
My other comment with links is being held in moderation, but here’s food for thought;
Todd Palin’s mother, a former secretary of the Alaska Federation of Natives, is one-quarter Yup’ik, and his maternal grandmother, Lena Andre, is a member of the Curyung tribe.
Edit* Diva, I was referring to the ‘racist’ label, what does his mother’s opinion, which I have googled and cannot find, have to with my links? Can you be more specific. I don’t understand your point.
And Todd Palin’s mother has said exactly what she thinks of her daughter in law as a vice presidential candidate.
The article doesn’t concern me much; what she does with her money is her business, so long as it’s not being claimed as an expense as makeup for appearances may be.
What does concern, nay, scare me is the lack of awareness of sunbeds displayed here. Moderate use of a sunbed is about 10 sessions per year – an absolute maximum of 20, for no more than 10 minutes each.
Many repuable tanning salons will not allow people have more than a course of 6 in a year in Ireland. Of course there is nothing stopping people from going to multiple salons and lying that they’d just come back off holiday.
I’m very wary of home sunbeds – how many people have maintenance contracts for theirs? How do you know if it’s malfunctioning and emitting more UV radiation than it’s supposed to. Do you know the UV radiation of the sunbed and how much more concentrated is it than normal outdoor sunlight?
It’s believed that 20 minutes in a sunbed is about 4 hours in the sun. UV radiation is still radiation – if it can be a disinfectant and be strong enough to release dioxins in upVC (that plastic type stuff used to make ugly “maintenance free” windows, doors and gutters)
As an aside, damage to internal organs is an urban legend. It’d say it’s because someone assumed UV radiation is the same as microwave radiation.
http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleId=852
http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/healthyliving/sunsmart/staysafe/sunbeds/
http://www.cancer.ie/sunsmart/sunbeds.php
Heidi Montag is a true blue idiot!
She can do what she wants with her money but it doesn’t change the fact that I don’t want her or her 72 year old granddaddy running our country! She’s a liar, a hypocrite and she’s not ready. This woman will set women back 200 years if she’s put into office and there’s a very scary chance that she’ll be in charge due to McCain’s failing health.
And yes CB this is a gossip site but really no ones cares about celeb gossip at a time like this when our country is going down in the dumps. That’s why so many of us post comments when it comes to election threads.
I mean really. Think of all the women who are more qualified than Sarah Palin to run our country. This is an insult to Hilary Clinton.
Backing out of this conversation.
Not because I don’t know what I’m talking about, but because I’m not going to argue this on here, or anywhere. I should have just kept my mouth shut.
Forget it.
@what – like diva, not getting involved here but I read your link and it made my blood run cold. I understand there’s lack of verification surrounding the ‘sambo/bitch remark but there’s enough additional inflammatory material in that link to confirm her as a very worrying prospect indeed.
Diva, I wasn’t trying to start anything here,you have a right to voice your opinion. 😉
I was interested in the claims/link from @what.
I did however find a comment made by Todd’s step-mother Faye, not his mother Blanche Kallstrom.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/republican_race/2008/08/30/2008-08-30_sarah_palins_motherinlaw_uncertain_about.html
Politics is just like Hollywood for women, the more attractive you are, the better. Who really cares about your views as long as you have a tan, cute glasses, and can see Russia from your house.
I don’t really see that people are arguing on this thread. Nearly everyone on this site hates McCain/Palin, so I’d think you’d all be in agreement and would just enjoy the chance to vent your hatred of them 🙂
To me the more important issues are whether or not she can help run this country??? This is a male dominated society…are we ready for a VP who has no foreign policy background. Can she be effective??? If Hillary was running for VP I wouldnt have second thoughts because I feel she would have Bill at her side but this women has ZERO experience. She brings nothing to the table…
I live in Alaska and yes tanning beds do help. Juneau is particularily dark, cold and miserable, being in the world’s only temperate rain forest.
I’m more concerned w/ the fact that she pays herself a daily per-diem when she’s in her home in Wasilla, and doesn’t live in the Governor’s mansion full time.
This woman is utterly terrifying to me, but hey, at least she has a tan!
To everyone who says “just a little won’t hurt you”, I used a tanning bed for just three years and ended up with a malignant melanoma at the tender age of 22. Melanoma people – not basal cell carcinoma, or squamous cell carcinoma – mela-friggin-noma. The kind that will kill your ass dead in the ground. At 22. I’m not saying everyone who does it will end up with malignant melanoma, but it was sure enough of a wakeup call for me.
This is probably the least of her problems. Let’s stick with the major problems. This is trivial stuff to keep us from looking under the covers.
@Ziggybuttfly: Just curious. Do you get 6 months of darkness and 6 months of light? I was a big fan of Northern Exposure and in one of the episodes, the towns-people wore light-visors to keep the darkness away.
Also, in the movie “Insomnia”, Al Pacino was sleep-deprived because of the constant daylight.
I’m just curious Ziggybutterfly.: 🙂
oops, posted twice.
I think its up to her if she wants to tan but, she should not endorse that it causes skin cancer in a PSA and then go home and tan. And to the person who said you wont get skin cancer unless you lay in the bed 6 hours a day, are you kidding me?? My mom had skin cancer and she was not in a tanning bed even close to that much she went occasionally and would tan in the summer and on vacations like most people. And now less then 4 yrs after her being diagnosed, she has been deceased for a yr. and a half. And i know that this only bothers me more probably b.c i have experienced skin cancer first hand but i just don’t think she should have done the PSA, she can tan if she wants.
Why shouldnt she have done the PSA? Its true that you can get skin cancer from tanning beds. I liken it to the people who know that smoking is bad for them but they do it anyway. It isn’t illegal and they aren’t making an uninformed choiced so whatever. It’s their life, not mine.
For all you “oh noes, hypocrisy!” folks, I don’t really consider it hypocrisy when whats being said is pretty much a universal truth (like tanning being bad). It’s hypocrisy when you do something like become vegan because you disagree with slaughterhouse practises but you still wear leather shoes or that perfect shade of lipstick that contains hidden animal fats.
i still don’t think she should have done the PSA. She shouldn’t own a tanning bed and do a PSA against tanning, it is hypocritical in my eyes, maybe not yours maybe not others peoples but in mine it is. In my opinion its like Lindsey Lohan or any other smoking celeb doing a PSA for how smoking causes lung cancer, and then she goes and lights up later that day. And I’m sure celebs have done PSA’s like that, that they don’t actually believe and i think that they are hypocrites too. If your going to do a PSA i think you should believe in it, ya I’m sure Palin believes tanning can cause cancer b.c its a fact, but she obviously doesn’t care enough because she still uses a tanning bed.
I’m all for letting people just be their natural color and not baking in a bed or the sun. I’m fair and the very, very small amount of sun I have had is still causing skin cancers. I’m currently in the process of having dozens of places removed.
I never heard of using a tanning bed for SAD, that sounds like an excuse. There is a safe alternative with light boxes.
it is odd to me that PETA has no complaints about Palin and her love of bear skin rugs?…but don’t let Aretha Franklin walk around with a fur coat on……….
My doctor recommended a light fixture that’s specially designed to treat seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
This is a low-cost and SAFE alternative to tanning beds.
I suspect, however, that seasonal depression is not why Palin likes tanning beds. People want a tan because it makes them look.
It does say something about her character — that she’s willing to risk getting cancer to look a little better. Especially because she already looks good–she doesn’t need it!
Here’s the thing –
No, I don’t care what Sarah Palin puts in her MANSION. The reason this is making headlines with the Democrats is because she and McBush are chanting how they “understand the middle class” struggles. HAA! I don’t know any downhome, small-town families with tanning beds in their homes.
Jees leave her alone already. Who cares about a $1000 tanning machine?? In a way, all this media attention makes me realize how normal she really is. … (no matter what she does, she still has more experience than Obama, and she’s only running for VP)
WHO CARES? What does a tanning bed have to do with her as a political leader…really!!! They don’t cost near as much as stated, tons of people have them in their house…I use one because I have psoriasis. And the Dr. told me too if I can not get any sun exposure. Just because you use one doesn’t mean anything…it is those who abuse it. Relax…and focus on issues that really matter!