So now that we're about a week into the Second Coming of Sarah Palin, let's examine what we've learned:

* The former vice presidential candidate, in her new book, "Going Rogue," continues to blame CBS News' Katie Couric for the haven't-got-a-clue answers that Palin gave Couric in an interview last fall.

* Also according to the book, Palin's more-miserable-by-the-day performance as John McCain's running mate last year was the fault of McCain's campaign officials, particularly a guy named Steve Schmidt.

* The photo of Palin in bicycle shorts on the cover of the current issue of Newsweek is sexist and an obvious attempt by the magazine to portray her in a negative light. (Never mind that Palin willingly posed for the picture.)

Good Lord, Governor - oops, I mean Former Governor - do you take responsibility for anything that goes wrong in your life? Is nothing your fault? I'd like to tell you to "grow a pair," but that would be sexist. So let's make it "grow a backbone." Own up to your mistakes. Demonstrate that, at least once in a while, the buck stops with you. Your second round as a national figure already is shaping up to be as disastrous as your first, and things won't get any better for you if you continue along the same path.

You can forget about winning (or even running for) the presidency in 2012. Your unfavorable rating is creeping up toward 70 percent in several major polls, and even a large chunk of your own party wants nothing more than for you to just go away. (They know political poison when they taste it.) The best you can hope for at this point is a few million book sales, a regular gig as a talking head on FoxNews and perhaps a flattering segment on some "Where are they now" show a decade a two from now.

Sarah Palin, appearing on Oprah Winfrey's show on Monday, took a verbal swipe at Levi Johnston, the teen father of Palin's grandson, Tripp, saying the new dad doesn't spend enough time with the baby because he's "quite busy with his media tours."

I can't remember if Palin made this remark during the first, fifth or 10th East Coast broadcast interview she gave this week ... all while nearly 4,000 miles away from her children and grandchild.

The editor who was designing the front page of the Freeman's Nov. 15 Life section approached me in the newsroom the other night and asked if I would have a problem with him publishing a photo, to accompany a story about breast cancer, of a topless woman giving herself a breast examination.

The photo, which I told him didn't offend me in the least, is a profile taken from the woman's left side. Her left arm is raised, partly obscuring her face, and the fingers on her right hand are pressed against her bare left breast. It's a fairly standard self-exam pose that most of us have seen depicted in photos and drawings.

Concerned, before hearing my reply, that I might be bothered by the picture, the editor pressed his case for using it by noting the nipple on the breast was not visible — as if that should be the dividing line between acceptable and obscene. I had to laugh, because those (including myself) who maintain an image of a bare breast is not obscene often note the breast's primary purpose is to provide nourishment for offspring — a process that requires the nipple. How, then, could showing the nipple make such a photo more objectionable than if the nipple were obscured?

But the editor probably was right. If we had published a photo of a completely bare female breast, nipple and all, the newsroom almost certainly would have been deluged with phone calls, letters and e-mails from people accusing us of peddling pornography and corrupting the minds of young readers.

Funny, though: We haven't received a single objection to the ads we've been running for the new movie '2012,' which depicts the annihilation of the Earth, of the film 'This Is It,' which portrays presumed child molester Michael Jackson as a person worthy of admiration.

I have no doubt that FoxNews and all the right-wing radio loudmouths will spend most of Wednesday claiming the Republican wins in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races on Tuesday were referendums against the "failed policies" of Democratic President Barack Obama.

Baloney.

Chris Christie won in New Jersey because the incumbent, Democrat John Corzine, had grown unpopular in a state wracked with economic problems and political corruption (neither of which are likely to disappear simply because the governor's office is changing hands); and Bob McDonnell beat Democrat R. Creigh Deeds in Virginia because the state long has leaned to the right and simply reverted to its old ways a year after favoring Obama.

And what Fox and the rightie radio guys surely won't spend much time talking about on Wednesday is the fact that Democrat Bill Owens won the vacant House seat in New York's 23rd Congressional District - a seat that's been in Republican hands for 150 years.

If there is to be a referendum for or against Obama's policies, it will be in the 2010 House and Senate elections - the so-called "mid-terms." Anyone who tells you a few scattered races in 2009 are an accurate gauge of the nation's mood is, quite simply, full of it.

Much of my time the last two weeks has been spent preparing the Freeman's special "Election '09" supplement - it's in the print edition of today's paper - so blogging got moved to the back burner. Now, with the section finally done and in readers' hands, allow me to catch you up on what's been on my mind:

* It's nice to see far fewer campaign signs on lawns and along roadsides this year than in 2007 (not sure why the numbers are down, but I'm not complaining), but at least in the city of Kingston, I've noticed a disturbing new trend: signs for Common Council candidates that are placed outside their wards. I live in Ward 3 and drive through my own ward and Ward 1 to get to work each day, and I've seen signs along my route for council candidates in at least two other wards. Ugh! Yes, I understand the logic - people who live in one ward frequently drive though others - but this new campaign tactic means an even-more-cluttered landscape, and that's never a good thing.

* Strange foliage season this year - badly muted colors in some parts of the region, breathtaking reds and yellows in others. It caught our attention enough at the Freeman to make it the subject of a story, written by Patricia Doxsey, that will appear on the front page of this coming Sunday's edition. Be sure to check it out.

* A new element of New York's bottle bill goes into effect at the end of this week - a 5-cent deposit on each bottle of water purchased. On the surface, this seems like a sound policy: Encourage people to keep plastic bottles out of the waste stream by charging them extra money that they'll get back only if they turn in their empties. The reality, though, is that this is a money-making scheme for the state, evidenced by the official announcement last week that included estimates of how many millions of dollars New York hopes to reap by keeping each nickel that isn't refunded. The message from the state is, in effect, throwing our your plastic bottles will help the state close its budget gap. How sad.

* Nice to see most of this year's World Series games starting at 7:57 p.m. instead of 8:40, as has been the case for the last decade or so. Forty-three minutes may not seem like a lot, but it's a very big deal to East Coast newspaper editors who are facing deadlines around midnight. A nine-inning game that starts at 7:57 ends around 11:30. An 8:40 game is likely to last until 12:10 or 12:15. The earlier start time means readers virtually are assured thorough coverage of each night's game in the next day's paper. That's good for you and for us.

* Speaking of the World Series, how can anyone take the Yankees seriously? This is, after all, the only team in Major League Baseball with TWO admitted steroid users (Alex Rodriguez and Andy Pettitte). I, for one, will not recognize the Yankees as valid champions if they win this thing. But if you're a Yankee fan and can live with a tainted title, good for you.

* I opened this post by mentioning the "Election '09" supplement that appears in this morning's Freeman. I read every word of this section in preparing it for print, and I lost count of how many candidates said in their platform statements that they want to ease the local property tax burden and bring jobs to the region. Great ideas. Sadly, though, not one person among the 800 or so we profiled explained how these goals can be achieved.

* Lastly, belated condolences to the family and friends of Phil Terpening, an Ulster County legislator and former town supervisor from Rosendale who suffered an apparent heart attack during a candidates' forum last week and died a short time later. Phil was a gentle giant who was loved by many and respected by all. Local government has been diminished by his loss, and he will be missed.

There have been some comments around town (and in the reader response area on the Freeman's Web site) that police overreacted by sending dozens of heavily armed officers to the Lake Shore Villas apartment complex in Port Ewen on Thursday after being told a man there was holding a woman against her will.

I couldn't agree less.

All police knew — from the suspect's aunt, who alerted the Ulster County Sheriff's Office — was the man was having "psychotic episodes" and wouldn't let the other person in the apartment, his sister, leave.

So dozens of cops descended on the scene, most of them armed to teeth and looking ready for battle. A hostage negotiator was brought in. Roads were closed. School buses were kept away. Other residents of Lake Shore Villas were told to stay inside their apartments.

The suspect, 28-year-old Warren Allen of Maryland, surrendered a few hours later, having done no harm to his sister, was taken for a psychiatric evaluation and was charged the next morning with unlawful imprisonment.

Once the drama ended, police determined Allen had only knives (meaning he posed no danger to anyone who wasn't within arm's length) and that his sister had locked herself in a room separate from Allen and stayed there throughout the standoff. These are the facts that have compelled may people to say the police response was over the top.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and second-guessing authorities is easy for those who don't have to make critical decisions on a moment's notice.

But remember this: The only thing the cops had to go on at 12:15 p.m. Thursday was a report of an imbalanced man holding someone hostage. Given that limited information, their response was appropriate. Because, make no mistake, if they had sent only a few officers, skipped the hostage negotiator and let people move at will through Lake Shore Villas during the ordeal, they would have been branded reckless and incompetent — and rightly so — if the suspect had been in possession of a firearm and had shot his sister or people walking within a bullet's range of the apartment's windows.

This was a classic example of where erring on the side of caution made sense, and I, for one, am glad the police did just that.

Boston Red Sox Manager Terry Francona - his team just bounced from the baseball playoffs on Sunday by an Angels team that mounted a ninth-inning comeback for the ages - summed up the harsh reality of post-season elimination with one of the best baseball quotes I've ever heard:

"The season doesn't wind down. It just comes to a crashing halt."

Poignant, painful and perfect - especially from a man who still was reeling from a loss, just moments earlier, that he surely didn't see coming.