SarahPAC

I did not know that SarahPAC existed. Did you?

I Think That Sarah Gave Donald Speech Lessons

Trump’s fight with the lights offers glimpse of what GOP race will be like when there’s no one left for him to fight:

When the lights suddenly went out during a Donald Trump rally in Atlanta on Sunday, the Republican frontrunner gave us a glimpse of what the race for the GOP nomination may look like if no one catches up to him.

The real estate mogul tried to turn the situation with the lights into a teachable moment.

“We save on electricity, right? And because the lights don’t work, I won’t pay the rent — so, better lighting, and we don’t pay the rent. That’s the way we have to negotiate for our country … the lights go off, it’s better. We say we want the lights. Oh, it’s terrible, we take a big deduction off the rent because the lights are off, but it’s actually better. It’s the kind of sick thinking we really need for our country.

The lights go off, and it's better?

The Reason Why Sarah Palin Talks So Funny

Palin Spars With 'Today' Show Hosts Over Obama Comments:

"You said that President Obama may be to blame for some of the PTSD that's out there," said Guthrie.

"I never said that," Palin said.

And when asked if she regrets her comments about her son, she demanded: "What did I say that is offensive?"

"I don't regret any comment that I made because I didn't lay PTSD at the foot of the president," Palin argued. "I did say though that there is – and adamantly that our president needs to let the military do their job. If you have a specific quote, it allows the media to be credible if you would tell me what you're talking about."

Sarah Palin Blames President Obama, PTSD for Son’s Problems:

“I can talk personally about this, I guess it’s kind of the elephant in the room,” Palin said. “My son like so many others, they come back a bit different, they come back hardened, they come back wondering if there is that respect for what it is that their fellow soldiers and airmen and every other member of the military so sacrificially have given to this country. And that starts from the top. It’s a shame that our military personnel even have to wonder, if they have to question, if they’re respected anymore. It starts from the top. The question though that comes from our own president where they have to look at him and wonder, do you know what we go through? Do you know what we’re trying to do to secure America and to secure the freedoms that have been bequeathed us?”

“I can certainly relate with other familes who kind of feel these ramifications of some PTSD and some of the woundedness that our soldiers do return with,” Palin continued. “And it makes me realize more than ever it is now or never for the sake of Americas finest that we have that commander in chief that will respect them and honor them.”

The reason why Sarah Palin talks so funny is because her foot is constantly in her mouth.

Dumbass Quote Of Note - Sarah Palin

"Perhaps if Obama stopped attacking Christians, people who question him could stop questioning whether he is one." - Sarah Palin

Biblical Unimportance

Is Palin's Rise Part of God's Plan?:

A revealing e-mail obtained exclusively by Vanity Fair suggests that some see Sarah Palin as a figure of biblical importance. She may even agree.

Sarah Palin has often suggested that she believes her rise to power is divinely ordained. She is, moreover, the only contemporary American politician whose admirers openly describe her as a modern-day version of a biblical character.

On the main pro-Palin blog, Conservatives4Palin, many postings contemplate Palin’s resemblance to Queen Esther, the eponymous hero of a short book in the Hebrew Bible. And Palin herself encourages the analogy. This past April, for instance, she told a Christian group in Louisville, Kentucky, that she often reads the book of Esther to her daughter Piper at bedtime.

Palin seems first to have gotten the idea that she might be a new Esther shortly after being elected governor in 2006, when she asked one of her former pastors for an example of biblical leadership that she could emulate. Quoting scripture, the pastor told Palin that she, like Esther, had “come to the Kingdom for such a time as this.”

Speaking American

Sarah Palin confounds Rachel Maddow: 'Tell me what this means':

"So up there in Alaska, across the way Russia," Sarah Palin said. "You know there is a name for this taking advantage of America. There is a Russian name for that. And it is called 'fortushka.' And that means Obama's window of opportunity. So as Obama leads from behind the skirt of his right-hand man, Valerie Jarrett, then it's up to Congress to close that window. He may propose. You dispose, Congress. You gotta be in it to win it because we want peace. With unapologetic mighty red, white, and blue, will have peace."

Palin Speak

Immigrants in U.S. should 'speak American': Ex-VP nominee Palin:

Immigrants to the United States should "speak American," former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said on Sunday, adding her voice to a controversy triggered by Donald Trump's criticism of fellow Republican White House hopeful Jeb Bush's use of Spanish.

"It's a benefit of Jeb Bush to be able to be so fluent in Spanish, because we have a large and wonderful Hispanic population that is helping to build America," Palin said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Bush on Thursday rejected the notion offered by Trump that people should speak only English in the United States. Bush, who is fluent in Spanish and frequently breaks into the language at his events, vowed to keep speaking Spanish whenever he feels like it.

Trump, the Republican front-runner whose hardline stance on illegal immigration is a hallmark of his bid for the party's nomination in the November 2016 election, said: "We're a nation that speaks English."

Bush said Trump's jibe at him that he "spoke Mexican" while on a visit to the U.S. border was deeply divisive.

Sarah Palin confuses me. Is she talking about speaking North American, speaking Central American, or speaking South American?

North America includes Canada. Is it OK to speak Canadian?

Central America includes Mexico, so why can't we speak Mexican?

Many in South America speak Spanish, is it OK to speak South American?

If you read between the lines of the Constitution it is clear that the Founders of the United States wanted us to speak the language of God. Therefore "speaking American" surely means speaking Glossolalia, speaking Biblical Hebrew, and speaking Biblical Aramaic. Clearly Donald Trump is Satan for declaring: "We're a nation that speaks English". Where did we go so horribly wrong?

Truth be told, I think that Sarah Palin actually does speak Glossolalia.

Let's Not Speak American

‘Speak American’: Sarah Palin supports Trump’s immigration judgement:

Immigrants to the United States should “speak American,” former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said on Sunday, adding her voice to a controversy triggered by Donald Trump’s criticism of fellow Republican White House hopeful Jeb Bush’s use of Spanish. “It’s a benefit of Jeb Bush to be able to be so fluent in Spanish, because we have a large and wonderful Hispanic population that is helping to build America,” Palin said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Palin, who is popular among some U.S. conservatives, said that “a unifying aspect of a nation is the language that is understood by all” — pushing the idea that majority of the illegal immigrants in the United States come from Mexico and other Spanish-speaking Latin American countries.

I think we can send a message and say: 'You want to be in America? A, you better be here legally, or you’re out of here. B, when you’re here, let’s speak American.’

Sarah Palin

I'm afraid to think of what would happen if Sarah Palin learned how to speak English. Would the things that she says suddenly make sense?

Perhaps Americans could learn other languages, instead of insisting that the rest of the world learn English.

What Sarah Palin's 'speak American' is all about:

Anyone who has problems hearing people who came here at 40 speaking shaky English needs to imagine how well they themselves would do learning Mandarin upon moving to China at 35, or even Spanish moving to Mexico at 25. Then, imagine someone there making comments to the media about how people like you need to talk "the way we do," and bristling when public figures address you in English.

What it comes down to is this. We Americans think it's really cool when someone can speak two languages. It's great if they learned one in college or beyond. It's even cool if they speak a language we have no particular feelings about natively -- Hindi, Greek, Swahili, Albanian.

Yet somehow when someone speaks native Spanish and not-too-shabby English, or even when they grew up here and speak both languages just fine but use Spanish more with their family and friends, many Americans get uneasy. Somehow that doesn't count as "bilingual" -- that's somebody "not speaking American."

The whole idea that the American language is under threat -- I mean, think about it: really? -- is like someone calling for Americans to use soap in the shower. It's a noncrisis no one would ever think of pretending to worry about under other conditions. And it's hard not to suppose that the conditions we are actually under include a degree of xenophobia against Latinos. "Speak American" is code for "Don't be talking like those people."

Dumbass Quote Of Note - Sarah Palin

"The logical result of atheism, a result we have seen right in front of our eyes in one of the world’s oldest and proudest nations, is severe moral decay." - Sarah Palin

Trump Ignores The Atheist Taliban Category

Sarah Palin showers Donald Trump with adoration in 'interview of the year':

...Palin moved on to the journalists who quizzed Trump about his favourite Bible verse, calling it “gotcha” journalism designed to catch conservatives off guard.

“I love the Bible,” said the real-estate mogul. “My first favourite book by far is the Bible.” His favourite verse was a personal matter which he preferred to keep to himself, however.

The latest poll, he added, showed him leading with GOP evangelicals as well as with Tea Party members, moderates, the poor and the rich.

“We won on every category,” he said. “I’m very happy.”

One more question, said Palin, blowing her final rose petal. “What is next? Because we know you’re going to keep rolling down the trail.”

Trump purred. He was going to spread the love to Massachusetts, Iowa and New Hampshire. “They want to see something happen, see America be great again. We’re bringing back the silent majority.”

He gazed at his No1 fan. “I have to tell you, Sarah, you’re a terrific person and it’s great to be with you.”

Words can be funny things I suppose. A lot depends on what they actually mean. I think that Sarah Palin has written her own dictionary and changed the meaning of words to suit her own derangement. The phrase "lamestream media" must be in her dictionary. I think that Sarah Palin thinks she is being witty and clever when she uses it. To me she just sounds silly. Sarah Palin thinks "lamestream media" means that all mainstream media has a liberal bias. My dictionary does not have the word lamestream in it. It does give one definition of lame as "not smart or impressive". Funny how the word lame seems to fit Sarah Palin so well. If dictionaries ever did decide to add the phrase "lamestream media", I think that they would give FoxNews, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Sarah Palin as examples that help define the meaning of the phrase. The actual lamestream media has made Sarah Palin very rich by publishing her books, and giving her so much space on television, radio, and the internet.

"Gotcha" is definitely in Sarah Palin's dictionary. Her definition denigrates a liberal reporter that dares ask a serious question of a conservative politician who is too ignorant to know the answer. It is a deflective word meant to try to hide this ignorance and to show how horrible the "lamestream media" actually is. Her dictionary, I'm sure, now includes Univision anchor Jorge Ramos as an example, as well as the whole favourite Bible verse incident. Sarah Palin probably thinks that "gotcha" is exceedingly clever. To me it is simply an ad hominem variation.

Thinking that Sarah Palin has written her own dictionary would explain why those who know the actual meanings of words choose to use the phrase "word salad" whenever she speaks.

I think that Trump has written his own dictionary as well. I think it only has one word in it and that word is TRUMP. No definition, just TRUMP. This would explain why he can say “We won on every category." Trump's dictionary defines "we" as "TRUMP", and it defines "every" as "TRUMP". The TRUMP dictionary does not include atheists, women, Mexicans, liberals, progressives, naturalists, scientists, etc. The TRUMP dictionary explains why these people don't enter into the TRUMP brain or the TRUMP dialogue. To him they simply don't exist.

Trump's dictionary does not have the word silent in it. This explains why he hasn't noticed that the Silent Majority has transformed into the Tea Party and has become very, very LOUD recently.

From Silent Majority on Wikipedia:

Nixon's silent majority referred mainly to the older generation (those World War II veterans in all parts of the U.S.) but it also described many young people in the Midwest, West and in the South, many of whom eventually served in Vietnam. The Silent Majority was mostly populated by blue collar white people who did not take an active part in politics; suburban, exurban and rural middle class voters. They did, in some cases, support the conservative policies of many politicians. Others were not particularly conservative politically, but resented what they saw as disrespect for American institutions.

According to columnist Kenneth Crawford, “Nixon’s forgotten men should not be confused with Roosevelt’s,” adding that “Nixon’s are comfortable, housed, clad and fed, who constitute the middle stratum of society. But they aspire to more and feel menaced by those who have less.”

"See America be great again"? Let's remember that Trump's dictionary does not have the words America or great in it. To many of us America is about equality. We all contribute, we all make achievements, we all judge how "great" we are. Donald Trump's version of America is not at all like this. He doesn't see the real greatness of America, which is all of us working together living our lives with liberty and pursuing happiness. The real greatness of America is not TRUMP.

Left And Right

Victims of words and victims of violence.

Contrast fantasy (the world of Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck):

From The Right Word: Fox News under fire by Sadbh Walshe:

In the wake of Tucson, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck unite in their sense of victimhood from leftwing hate speech.

With reality (the world the rest of us actually live in):

From Another Isolated Incident by digby:

-- July 2008: A gunman named Jim David Adkisson, agitated at how "liberals" are "destroying America," walks into a Unitarian Church and opens fire, killing two churchgoers and wounding four others.

-- October 2008: Two neo-Nazis are arrested in Tennessee in a plot to murder dozens of African-Americans, culminating in the assassination of President Obama.

-- December 2008: A pair of "Patriot" movement radicals -- the father-son team of Bruce and Joshua Turnidge, who wanted "to attack the political infrastructure" -- threaten a bank in Woodburn, Oregon, with a bomb in the hopes of extorting money that would end their financial difficulties, for which they blamed the government. Instead, the bomb goes off and kills two police officers. The men eventually are convicted and sentenced to death for the crime.

-- December 2008: In Belfast, Maine, police discover the makings of a nuclear "dirty bomb" in the basement of a white supremacist shot dead by his wife. The man, who was independently wealthy, reportedly was agitated about the election of President Obama and was crafting a plan to set off the bomb.

-- January 2009: A white supremacist named Keith Luke embarks on a killing rampage in Brockton, Mass., raping and wounding a black woman and killing her sister, then killing a homeless man before being captured by police as he is en route to a Jewish community center.

-- February 2009: A Marine named Kody Brittingham is arrested and charged with plotting to assassinate President Obama. Brittingham also collected white-supremacist material.

-- April 2009: A white supremacist named Richard Poplawski opens fire on three Pittsburgh police officers who come to his house on a domestic-violence call and kills all three, because he believed President Obama intended to take away the guns of white citizens like himself. Poplawski is currently awaiting trial.

-- April 2009: Another gunman in Okaloosa County, Florida, similarly fearful of Obama's purported gun-grabbing plans, kills two deputies when they come to arrest him in a domestic-violence matter, then is killed himself in a shootout with police.

-- May 2009: A "sovereign citizen" named Scott Roeder walks into a church in Wichita, Kansas, and assassinates abortion provider Dr. George Tiller.

-- June 2009: A Holocaust denier and right-wing tax protester named James Von Brunn opens fire at the Holocaust Museum, killing a security guard.

-- February 2010: An angry tax protester named Joseph Ray Stack flies an airplane into the building housing IRS offices in Austin, Texas. (Media are reluctant to label this one "domestic terrorism" too.)

-- March 2010: Seven militiamen from the Hutaree Militia in Michigan and Ohio are arrested and charged with plotting to assassinate local police officers with the intent of sparking a new civil war.

-- March 2010: An anti-government extremist named John Patrick Bedell walks into the Pentagon and opens fire, wounding two officers before he is himself shot dead.

-- May 2010: A "sovereign citizen" from Georgia is arrested in Tennessee and charged with plotting the violent takeover of a local county courthouse.

-- May 2010: A still-unidentified white man walks into a Jacksonville, Fla., mosque and sets it afire, simultaneously setting off a pipe bomb.

-- May 2010: Two "sovereign citizens" named Jerry and Joe Kane gun down two police officers who pull them over for a traffic violation, and then wound two more officers in a shootout in which both of them are eventually killed.

-- July 2010: An agitated right-winger and convict named Byron Williams loads up on weapons and drives to the Bay Area intent on attacking the offices of the Tides Foundation and the ACLU, but is intercepted by state patrolmen and engages them in a shootout and armed standoff in which two officers and Williams are wounded.

-- September 2010: A Concord, N.C., man is arrested and charged with plotting to blow up a North Carolina abortion clinic. The man, 26-year--old Justin Carl Moose, referred to himself as the "Christian counterpart to (Osama) bin Laden” in a taped undercover meeting with a federal informant.

Palinesque

From Sarah Palin: Graceless Under Pressure by Jeffrey Winbush:

When she should rise above the fray, once again she gets dragged down by her inability to overlook a slight. How sadly predictable. How Palinesque.

Palin uses loaded words and images and then tries to act surprised when they blow up. No, she didn't pull the trigger in Arizona, and I wasn't expecting her to issue a half-assed apology, but she could have expressed a little less of the "Why is everybody picking on me?" whine and a lot more of the "Let's set aside our differences and come together as Americans to help the victims and start the healing." She could have done that, but she decided to stick to her guns. As usual, it's all about Sarah.

Somewhere in those eight minutes, she and her speechwriters could have referred to an even greater communicator than Reagan -- and that's Martin Luther King Jr., who said, "Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies -- or else? The chain reaction of evil -- hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars -- must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation."

Sliding Down The Pole

“I learned that it pays to hang around with people better than you are, because you will float upward a little bit. And if you hang around with people that behave worse than you, pretty soon you’ll start sliding down the pole. It just works that way.” Warren Buffett

I think that the Republican Party thinks that plenty of voters are stupid, crazy, and angry white men. There is some overlap of course, but here’s how I see it:

• Sarah Palin stumps for the stupid vote.
• Glenn Beck stumps for the crazy vote.
• Rush Limbaugh stumps for the angry white male vote.

Why does the Republican Party have such a low opinion of so many American citizens? The answer is votes. And the dumber, crazier, and angrier The Republican machine can make the average American citizen become, the more votes they can get. Cutting funding for worthwhile government programs, especially education, helps to increase the Republican voter pool. It has become a cycle of more stupid, more crazy, and more angry. And the country slides even further down the pole.

Blood Libel

Right wingers think that the 1st amendment applies only to them. They are free to say anything that they want to. They are free to say nasty and violent things. They are free to lie about things.

If anyone on the left voices the least bit of criticism of the right, then the right-wingers are outraged. Doesn’t the left know that the 1st amendment only applies to the voices of the right wing?

Are there any adults left in the world of the Republican right-wing monstrosity? The right-wing act like spoiled little children. Most of them are bullies (Rush Limbaugh) or like little two year olds saying “No, I won’t do it, you can’t make me.” (The Republican Senate) Not to mention the childish, bully Bill O’Reilly who responds to any challenge with a loud obnoxious “Shut up.”

The left is not telling Sarah Palin to shut up. Many of us wish she would, but we are not telling her to. We would like her to consider her words more carefully. We would like her to realize that words have meaning. We would like her act like an adult. We would like a little civility.

Obviously the right-wingers think that guns and gun owners breed civility. If the left questions that belief we are accused of “blood libel.”

From Sarah Palin accuses critics of "blood libel" by David Morgan:

Prominent Republican Sarah Palin on Wednesday accused critics of "blood libel" by blaming her rhetoric for contributing to the shooting rampage in Tucson that killed six and wounded 14, including Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords.

"Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals who commit them," the conservative Tea Party favorite and former Alaska governor said in her first major response to critics.

"Especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible."

Some commentators and bloggers questioned whether last year's election rhetoric from conservative Republicans including Palin and some Tea Party candidates created a climate that bred violence.

If  “Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own” then why did the right-wing want to go after Saddam Hussein because of 9/11? Why do so many right-wingers hate all Muslims, even the ones who are not criminals? Words do have consequences. If they didn’t Sarah Palin would not have responded to the commentators and bloggers accusing them of “blood libel.” She didn’t like what we said. She has a right to respond. However, she is simply wrong to think that words cannot compel people to action. Barack Obama’s words compelled people to vote for him. Sarah Palin’s words compelled people to vote for him. Soon we celebrate the birth of Martin Luther King. Need I say more? Well I will. I’d rather have a dream than reload.

Also, does Sarah Palin have any bone in her body that cries out for logic? First she says that her words could not have incited violence. Then she says that journalists and pundits can incite violence with words. What’s that all about?

I am tired of the right-wingers. I am fed up with the right-wingers. Whatever happened to the melting pot? The United States is a country with all kinds of people. We should nourish our diversity, not starve the parts that you disagree with, simply because they disagree with you.

Listening seems to be a lost art. Contemplation seems to be a lost art. Compromise seems to be a lost art. Hate, however, seems to be thriving, and Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly and all the rest who preach the gospel of hate are the reason why.

I am tired of the hate. I am tired of politics as war. I am tired of being seen as an enemy of the country I am a citizen of. I am tired of Sarah Palin and her ilk always being on the offensive, as well as being offensive.

The United States needs to be positive in it’s thinking. All that I hear from the right is “No.” All I hear from the right is “Shut up.”

By the way, what the hell does “blood libel” even mean?

Update:

Now I know. You learn something everyday. Why did Palin choose those words?

Quote Of Note - Gabrielle Giffords

"We're on Sarah Palin's targeted list. But the thing is, the way she has it depicted it has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. And when people do that, they've got to realize there are consequences to that action." - Gabrielle Giffords

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sarah palin retard

Retards Without Fucking Is Satire

Thank God we have Sarah Palin to help us make sense of the world.

Palin latest to walk back criticism of GOP leader Limbaugh

Sarah Palin Wins An Award

I’m sure that the image of Sarah Palin in hot pants is exciting to some. Not to me. I find it to be repulsive.

From PolitiFact's Lie of the Year: 'Death panels' by Angie Drobnic Holan:

Of all the falsehoods and distortions in the political discourse this year, one stood out from the rest.

"Death panels."

The claim set political debate afire when it was made in August, raising issues from the role of government in health care to the bounds of acceptable political discussion. In a nod to the way technology has transformed politics, the statement wasn't made in an interview or a television ad. Sarah Palin posted it on her Facebook page.

Her assertion — that the government would set up boards to determine whether seniors and the disabled were worthy of care — spread through newscasts, talk shows, blogs and town hall meetings. Opponents of health care legislation said it revealed the real goals of the Democratic proposals. Advocates for health reform said it showed the depths to which their opponents would sink. Still others scratched their heads and said, "Death panels? Really?"

The editors of PolitiFact.com, the fact-checking Web site of the St. Petersburg Times, have chosen it as our inaugural "Lie of the Year."

PolitiFact readers overwhelmingly supported the decision. Nearly 5,000 voted in a national poll to name the biggest lie, and 61 percent chose "death panels" from a field of eight finalists. (See the complete results.)

Gotta love this:

From And the runners-up ... by Angie Drobnic Holan:

Rounding out the rest of the finalists:

• 5.8 percent: The shout of "You lie!" by Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., in response to President Obama saying health reform would not insure illegal immigrants.

I’m sure that the image of Joe Wilson in hot pants is exciting to some. Not to me. I find it to be repulsive.

Caution, Balance, And Gambling "Conservatives"

“…everybody knows that most people who trade in the market lose money at it in the end.” Benjamin Graham

Once upon a time caution was considered to be a good thing. Now it seems as though the word has been excised from the dictionary. Caution and balance seem to be nonexistent in the corporate world and in the political world. Unfortunately this affects my world.

Once upon a time gambling was considered to be a bad thing. Now it seems to be the means for greedy people who already own more than most of us to try to own even more. And when they win the rest of us lose, and when they lose the rest of us lose. I’m part of a game that I don’t even want to play.

Once upon a time the word conservative meant “marked by moderation or caution.” Now it seems to mean radical (“marked by a considerable departure from the usual or traditional”) gambler (“to play a game for money or property, to bet on an uncertain outcome.”)

These changes have caused great loss and hardship for many.

Once upon a time insurance companies and banks were cautious entities. They did not gamble. It was illegal for them to do so.

From The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham (page 60):

Our argument against the purchase of corporate bonds and preferred stocks by the defensive investor needs now to be balanced by an argument in favor of placing some part of his funds in high-grade common stocks. In the old days such a proposal was little short of heresy. All common stocks were considered more or less risky and therefore unsuited for a conservative portfolio. This concept was and remains embedded in the state laws governing the investments of trust funds (unless the instrument provides to the contrary) and also those of savings banks and life insurance companies, which in many states may not hold common stocks.

That is from the 1949 edition. Mr. Graham also states that this conservative approach was also mandated by law for university endowment funds. How things have changed. (Also, his argument against the purchase of corporate bonds and preferred stocks had to do with a preference for U.S. Savings Bonds at the time. He did not dislike corporate bonds and preferred stocks, he simply saw that at the time U.S. Savings Bonds paid higher interest and provided more safety.)

From The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham (page 12):

Investment requires and presupposes a margin of safety to protect against adverse developments. In market trading, as in most other forms of speculation, there is no real margin for error; you are either right or wrong, and if wrong you lose money. Consequently, even if we believed that the ordinary intelligent reader could learn to make money by trading in the market, we should send him elsewhere for his instruction. But everybody knows that most people who trade in the market lose money at it in the end. The people who persist in trying it are either (a) unintelligent, or (b) willing to lose money for the fun of the game, or (c) gifted with some uncommon and incommunicable talent. In any case they are not investors.

Like I said, the changes that I mentioned earlier have caused great loss and hardship for many. However, I have no sympathy for those at the top of AIG.

From AIG top staff struggle financially: report by Ajay Kamalakaran:

Top executives at troubled insurer American International Group have been struggling financially after taking personal losses in the wake of the near-collapse of the company last year, AIG's chief executive Robert Benmosche told the Wall Street Journal in an interview.

The losses were incurred when the executives' cash bonuses were cut and unvested stock salary and stock options that were previously earned were rendered almost worthless after AIG's near-failure in September 2008, the paper said.

Benmosche told the paper that 10 people reporting directly to him lost a combined $168 million in prior years' pay since the insurer was bailed out by the U.S. government last year.

Five other employees at the company's financial-products division, who are unwinding its derivative trades, lost $88 million in prior pay, the paper cited Benmosche as saying.

"Many people think there was no penalty for the executives at AIG when it did poorly and that they need longer-term compensation so they don't benefit from taking inordinate amounts of risk," Benmosche told the paper.

"But if you look at where they've been this year, they've been pretty much wiped out," the paper quoted Benmosche as saying. "And we have to recognize that we're not 100 percent sure about what the value of AIG will be in the future."

How can this be? At an insurance company? Insurance is “a means of guaranteeing protection or safety.” Not only did the “top staff” at AIG fail their customers, they have failed themselves.

Again I ask, how can this be? Let’s do some basic arithmetic. 168 divided by 10 is 16.8. 88 divided by 5 is 17.6. So 10 people lost 16.8 million dollars each. And 5 people lost 17.6 million dollars each. What the hell kind of money were these people making when business was good? And the bigger question, why is all of that money gone now? (“… they've been pretty much wiped out…"). Compared to these people I make very little money. I invest heavily in stocks. Like everyone else my portfolio suffered when the stock market collapsed recently. However, I was not wiped out. Again. How can this be? Perhaps it is because I try to be an intelligent investor and not a greedy gambler. I have also never whined to the Wall Street Journal, or anyone for that matter, about my losses.

At AIG we have “unintelligent” people, “willing to lose money for the fun of the game.” Definitely not “gifted with some uncommon and incommunicable talent.” Clearly “they are not investors.” AIG's chief executive Robert Benmosche seems to think that they deserve our sympathy. They are not getting any from me. Instead I ask a question. Why do they still work at AIG?

Allow me to shift gears here. Did George W. Bush show any moderation and caution when he decided to invade Afghanistan and Iraq? Or was he gambling? Making a high stakes bet using other people's lives, and other people's money?

Allow me to shift gears again. I see a parallel with this issue to the current debate on global warming. Those who side with Sarah Palin, believing in “climategate” and denying global warming seem to be gambling on our future. The stakes are very high. Shouldn’t we at the very least be truly conservative here? What is wrong with a little moderation and caution when it comes to the future of the planet? Could we please put more intelligence into this debate and remove the greed component? Sarah Palin’s either/or argument seems incredibly dangerous. What if she is wrong? Once again I feel like I’m part of a game that I don’t even want to play.

Thick As A Brick

Sarah Palin responding to the responders:

The response to my op-ed by global warming alarmists has been interesting. Former Vice President Al Gore has called me a “denier” and informs us that climate change is “a principle in physics. It’s like gravity. It exists.”

Perhaps he’s right. Climate change is like gravity – a naturally occurring phenomenon that existed long before, and will exist long after, any governmental attempts to affect it.

However, he’s wrong in calling me a “denier.” As I noted in my op-ed above and in my original Facebook post on Climategate, I have never denied the existence of climate change. I just don’t think we can primarily blame man’s activities for the earth’s cyclical weather changes.

Logic? What is this thing called logic?

Obviously, Al Gore is claiming that Palin denies the existence of global warming. (Gore says “global warming is not a political issue but a moral one.”) So, of course Palin chooses to base her argument on the existence of climate change. Somehow this all makes perfect sense to Palin and to all those who have bought her book and think she is the next saviour of the country, if not the world. How ironic.

If Palin can make such a simple error of logic, why should we believe her when she claims to understand the science of both climate change and global warming?

Update:
In case you are wondering what a climategate is, take a look here.