America By Heart – Chapter 6, Are We Really the Ones We've Been Waiting For?
You thought I forgot, didn’t you… No, I just needed to take a little mental break before I picked up that book again. But thanks to determination, and a darn good work ethic instilled in me by my parents, I’m here to march forward. There are nine chapters, and we’re ready to tackle number 6. We can do this.
And we will find the inspiration to go on from a very unlikely place. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the woman who encouraged me to keep going, even when the going is tough – Sarah Palin! (Slow and bewildered applause from the blogosphere)
Page 159
Sarah Palin runs. Running has taught her many lessons.
“You never forget that moment: the moment when you kept going even when you thought you couldn’t; the moment when you didn’t give up even though every nerve ending in your body was screaming for you to stop.” (Yes! Yes! I’m having that moment now! I want to burn this book… throw it out the window into the snow; run over it with my car; let my dog chew it up; tear it into a million pieces and throw it to the winds. But you have given me the courage to go on…)
Page 160
She runs because it requires no talent or coordination.
One of the life lessons she’s learned on the road is to take things one step at a time.
Page 161
She was training for a marathon and Track left her little water bottles with notes on them along the trail.
When no one is looking, and when no one is cheering you on is when your character is revealed.
(Perhaps there is a portrait of her in the closet…)
Page 162
Nothing comes without effort. The pioneers were strong and they worked hard. They had grit and optimism.
Few leaders captured the spirit of greatness like Teddy Roosevelt. Quote from Roosevelt “I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, or labor and strife…”
(Ah, the chapter is beginning to reveal itself. It’s going to be about lazy people sponging off the government.)
Page 163
More Teddy cursing the “life of slothful ease.”
What happened to us? In 1969 we went to the Moon… and now… (I reach across the car and throw my arm in front of you to keep you from potential injury)
Page 164
…the head of NASA tells Arab countries that their number one goal, “according to President Obama’s instructions” is to “find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about the historic contribution to science and math and engineering.”
What is up with this “holding hands and singing Kumbaya with Muslim countries?”
(Don’t worry. I Googled, so you don’t have to. After about a zillion posts from Rush Limbaugh, Fox, the Examiner, NewsMax, etc., Media Matters weighed in:
During a recent interview on Al Jazeera, NASA administrator Charles Bolden discussed President Obama’s efforts to improve Muslim outreach and said that Obama “wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science … and math and engineering.” Bolden said that this wasn’t “a diplomatic anything. What it is is that [Obama is] trying to expand our outreach, so that we can get more people to contribute to the things that we do.” Bolden then discussed examples of other countries’ valuable contributions to the International Space Station and added: “So it is a matter of trying to reach out to get the best of all worlds, if you will. And there is much to be gained from drawing the contributions that are possible from Muslim nations.”
News to me. Click HERE for more on the right wing media freak out after an administration official used the M-word.)
Page 165
Still on the NASA thing. “How unsurprising coming from a man who is himself one of the leading exemplars of the new culture of self-esteem.” Kennedy wanted to work hard, but this guy just wants to boost up the self-esteem of Muslims by denegrating America. They are still going to want to attack us, and American kids aren’t going to be inspired any more. We’re doomed!
We give kids today too much empty praise.
Page 166
People tell their kids they’re “all “winners,” assuring them that every scribbled picture is a work of art and every chaotic soccer game is a triumph.”
We are “creating a generation of entitled little whiners.” (Did anyone else see Willow at her 16th birthday party whining that her parents “never get me a truck” even though she’s a “good kid.” Granted she didn’t actually get it, but she sure felt entitled to it.)
Page 167
More about the “national self-esteem inflation.”
We are not helping our kids when we finish their science project or sell their Girl Scout cookies for them. (OK, I agree with that one. But I’m not taking down my refrigerator art… sorry.)
When she was a kid she picked berries, hauled water, chopped wood, bla bla.
Page 168
When she got a job it was working on a crab and roe slime line.
She battles with temptations to skip a workout or indulge in junk food. (Crunch Wrap Supreme anyone?)
When she gives up fat and carbs she always feels better instead of the “guilt-ridden, sluggish feeling I get when I eat a bunch of crap that slows me down.”
Once she gave up chocolate for a year just to prove a point.
Page 169
“Our failure to instill the virtues of hard work and deferred gratification does a disservice to all our kids, but it is the kids from low-income and broken families who often suffer the most.” (I know! Let’s get rid of government services for low-income people and kids from broken homes… you know, to HELP them.)
“Unlike more privileged young people, they have fewer resources to fall back on when they enter the job market with a shrunken work ethic and an inflated sense of entitlement.” (I didn’t think she actually was going to go there, but she did. Deny poor, disadvantaged kids and they’ll learn to pull themselves up by their bootstraps so they can be on an even playing field with the rich priveleged kids. Makes total sense!)
Page 170
A movie that tells us that working hard pays off, even if it’s not with money, is It’s a Wonderful Life. (AAARRRGH! What is this like the fourth time she’s used Jimmy Stewart?)
Contrast that with American Beauty where the guy quits his job, tells his boss to “f—- himself” blackmails him for $60,000, and seduces his daughter’s friend. That teaches children that hard work is for suckers.
Page 171
Booker T. Washington pulled himself up by his bootstraps by working hard. He tried and tried to get into a school and eventually cleaned the entryway so well they let him in.
Page 172
Booker T. Washington story continued.
Page 173
Booker T. Washington story continued.
A new Booker T. Washington story about how the headmistress who was a woman of social standing helped to clean the windows before the school year began.
Page 174
Booker T. Washington story #2 continued.
He founded the Tuskegee Institute to educate newly freed African Americans in poor, rural communities.
He “had every incentive to, as the producers of American Beauty (or your daughter Bristol) might have put it, give the finger to The Man.” But he didn’t.
Page 175
Every child should be expected to work.
(Coffee spit alert)
“Did you ever wonder where the producers of American Idol (or Dancing With the Stars) come up with the seemingly endless supply of people who can’t sing but are deluded enough to get up in front of a national television audience and screech out a song anyway?”
These poor no-talent hacks are appalled when the judges critique them because nobody has ever told them they have no ability before. Nobody wanted them to feel bad. And now they get humiliated on national TV. (face palm)
Page 176
(Coffee spit alert, continued)
“Of course, these self-esteem-enhanced but talent-deprived performers eventually learn the truth.”
A large part of the appeal of American Idol is that people like watching Simon Cowell “pouring cold water over the heads of these young people.”
“Unfortunately, Cowell is almost alone in his willingness to tell hard truths. Instead, a growing chorus of voices is trying to convince our kids that hard work isn’t necessary anymore…”
Page 177
Obama thinks that all we have to do is “spread the wealth” so we all have the same number of material posessions, which means the government taking from some and giving to others. That’s not American.
We don’t see our neighbors success as our failure. Just ask… (wait for it)… Alexis de Tocqueville!
We don’t want money. We just want the satisfaction of honest achievement. We want “earned success.” (Like the kind you get when your mom’s rabid political followers vote for you because she’s you’re mom even though you have absolutely no talent and gallumph around the stage like a giraffe in a leg brace. Sorry, just trying to help.)
Page 178
“If money without earned success does not bring happiness, then redistributing money won’t make for a happier America.” (Hey, impoverished people! Hey, unemployed people because the Republicans shipped your job overseas! Hey people whose homes are foreclosed upon wrongfully! Are you feeling better yet? Money won’t buy you happiness. Leave it right where it is… in Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck’s pocket. It’s OK, it’s not making them happy either. Really it isn’t.)
Page 179
People still believe that suffering and hard work and selflessness is better than a free lunch “dangled in front of them by the government.”
“There is narcissism in our leaders in Washington today.” (Not as much as there will be if you get your way in 2012.)
They’re not only trying to convince us all that they are our saviors, they are trying to convince us that we are our saviors. We don’t need to work hard, we just need to “believe in ourselves.” Obama said it himself “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change we seek.” She doesn’t think that’s humble. She thinks it’s “self-involved.”
Page 180
We all need to be like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. She wants to give Trig a country where people still know how to “dig deep, and whose government still honors their efforts.”
(I almost made it without feeling nauseous.)
Basically, we need to love deprivation. What Palin and the Republicans have in store for us is another Great Depression. But they give it to us with love, for our own good. We will learn to work hard, and some of us will be like Booker T. Washington, or Bill Gates. The others born to poverty, or illness, or who have no loving parents to teach them lessons around the dinner table… well, whatever. They’ll just have to take the gift of getting nothing and use it to their advantage to earn the tools of success. Embrace scarcity and ill-health and homelessness knowing that the government “honors your efforts.” Measure your success not by money, but by working hard. Get used to it. Palin-DeMint 2012.)
Is there one intelligent and original thought in that book?
Palin likes to run? A year ago thanksgiving she was down in my part of the state of washington,, she has relatives in the tir cities,, she was going to run in the turkey trot run,, She lasted 20 minutes and QUIT,,
She quits every thing,, She is the Queen of the I QUITAROD,,,BTW,, last winter down here was one of the warmest recorded winters here, So the weather was not a factor,,
Thanks once again for taking the poison bullets for us all! I have lurked here since I first discovered the MF in 2008. But this is my first comment.
My late father LOVED AK. He was born in ND and raised in MT, but worked at a newspaper in Juneau and was in AK on Dec 7, 1941. As he recalled it, at the time, people were pretty sure that Japan was going to attack AK, so Pearl Harbor came as a surprise. He returned to the Lower 48 to enlist in the US Navy and spent his WWII years in the South Pacific campaigns. He always wanted to return to the magnificent state of AK, but never did.
I am commenting just to share that my husband and I have just returned to the US from Europe and during our layover at London Heathrow, this so-called book was blessedly absent from any bookstore that I visited there.
That’s just another reason to like Europe!
I cheerfully support her bad junk food and drink eating habits – the more, the merrier!
I’ve been following along with these chapters and I must say it really sounds like she (or whoever has written them) is writing all of this to reaffirm things she has recently been told. She talks about the pioneers. Hello! We all (all of us!) know how hard the pioneers had it. She doesn’t have a clue about feminism yet she tries to make it her own, and her only source of any of her values (outside of the French guy she keeps quoting) are movies. Hmmmm. It is like it is the first time she has even thought about all of it and in writing it down it makes her smart. I don’t know…..I’m probably not conveying what I mean very well, but she must think the whole world is as stupid as she is to put out something like this. She manages to insult women, children, poor people, Muslims, education, those who made it possible for women to be where they are today, our President, ……..I could go on, but you get my point. Her world view is very limited, uninformed and completely bizarre.
I think I know exactly what you are saying, seattlefan. She rather reminds me of a lifelong Banquet/Swanson’s microwave-whiz who stumbles across a cookbook, is jaw-dropped by all the information contained in it , and is –in an instant– an expert on all things culinary because she copies a recipe from said cookbook. But our $arah doesn’t stop there, oh no!…with all that new-found ‘expertise’ from that one recipe found in that one cookbook, she presumes (and proceeds) to tell Julia Child all about how to prepare and cook everything from soup to nuts, too. Also, then. beth.
You’ve nailed it, Beth.
Ooh…new movie for $arah to watch– “Julie and Julia”!
It’s like shes over-compensating as a response to people saying she has no intellectual curiosity.
…but she STILL gets it 83% wrong. beth
I’ve been on narcotic cough medicine for 36 hours now and I’m in a deep fog, but even I can see the complete contradiction in everything she has written in this chapter!
She talks about working hard, never quitting and relying only on yourself. This is the same woman who had to try five colleges before she managed to accumulate enough credits for a degree (still waiting to see those papers, please!). The only jobs she’s ever had have been government jobs, and she quit every single one of them as soon as she actually had to do some real work. She gets paid millions of dollars reciting the same single speech over and over again, selling books that other people have written and appearing on television to spew some unsubstantiated lies and hate for a few minutes at a time. She convinces complete strangers to send her money so she can pay her bills (including her legal bills for ethics violations for which she was found GUILTY!!!!).
Her children – well, they’ve spent less time in classrooms than most hamsters, and one of them is now collecting gobs of money for making speeches about not having sex (which she DID) and not getting pregnant (which she DID) and for shaking her b@@bies on national television for weeks after she should have been thrown off the show (which she never should have been on in the first place). She was kept on the show, NOT for her talent or hard work, but because she happened to be the spawn of $P and those complete strangers who keep sending $P money cheated and voted to keep her uncoordinated offspring coming back.
And the part about running not requiring talent or coordination? We’re all assuming she’s referring to actual physical running. Are we SURE she’s not talking about running for office because she clearly believes that she has every right to run for offices she has no talent, experience, education or ability to perform, and she is obviously convinced that, once she attains said offices, she is only required to pose for pictures in fancy clothes and collect lots of money.
The only positive thing I can say about this book is that is unquestionably demonstrates how truly delusional and despicable she is.
Oy…I need more drugs!
omg- you are funny.
her children have spent less time in a classroom than most hamsters. i love that.
Truly stupid and self obsessed people hare a tough time with irony
I’m hoping no one here truly believes palin wrote this book herself!!!????? Sure she probably added some of those dimwitted comments to the text but come on. To think she took the time to read about Booker T. Washington alone is hilarious.
Maybe Piper wrote it. It’s not too bad for a nine-year-old’s work. But Willow would be crazy to claim it for her own.
Seriously… she compared the G rated, made for Christams movie “Its a wonderful life” to the “R” rated American Beauty that was about a guy chasing an underage girl? Dear Lord! What does she let her kids watch! Even more scary… in her mind the movie was about him quiting his job? So she didn’t notice that the MAIN PLOT LINE was him going after a 16yo? No wonder she’s a grandma!
Did you guys see this? It will give you some comic relief.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC4N5wkp2Ug&feature=player_embedded
This is great! Thanks!
I have been thinking about this book. I am sure many copies will be pulped. I am a little worried about this, because of the massive amount of chemicals that will have to be used to get the stench from the water.
Wow, this alleged “book” just keeps getting worse. I wonder how many copies are actually read versus being used for a door stop. Bless you AKM, you have a strong stomach.
Our thanks to your parents for their skill at instilling. Also too your steel stomach.
You get the feeling that she has spent most of her life watching TeeVee shows and movies on cable. That seems to be where her life’s lessons arise.
Of course Sarah, actually studying things like foreign policy and economics and formulating personal theories of how those complicated things should be applied in the US and then actually writing a policy manifesto before declaring your candidacy, like those entitled people have done so often before, is just a waste of time taking her away from her higher education vie the boob toob.
Regarding her discussion of Booker T. Washington – I actually had to read more of her actual writings, because I was curious. Because it’s interesting that she should bring up Booker T. given the fact that we have a black president, and the fact that she seems to claim that racism doesn’t exist.
For all his admirable qualities, and the fact that he was a man of his times, Booker T’s approach to racism was to accept and accommodate inequality, to accept injustice while trying to prove to those in power that there were some “nice” black people who knew their place and deserved just a little bit of consideration. He advocated against pressing hard for legal and civil equality – he felt it was too soon. Yes, he wanted to improve the lot of people, and he solicited powerful white sponsors to support institutions like Tuskegee. But other black leaders like Dubois considered Washington an “accommodationist.” Washington also didn’t have much of a problem with segregation.
it’s interesting, because Palin clearly seems to advocate for this kind of Uncle Tomism, with people beholden to their wealthy white “betters.”
As a side note, it is faintly amusing to hear Palin speculate that Washington – born in slavery – didn’t know how to “work hard” until he saw the example of an upper class white woman cleaning windows. He worked as a steamboat deck-hand, a miner, a salt-packer, and a house boy, all before the age of 16. In reality, he was probably surprised to see an upper class white woman performing manual work at all.
thank you G. i love your post and i am in complete agreement.
Me, too. And thank you, AKM, again.
Wow…Palin was for the tax break extension before she was against them:
http://www.frumforum.com/palin-on-tax-deal
Page 179
“People still believe that suffering and hard work and selflessness is better than a free lunch “dangled in front of them by the government.”
Sarah, if you don’t like those free lunches, send your kids to private Dr.s instead of having Alaska Native Services take care of their medical needs. And don’t use the taxpayers to support you living at home (per diem) or to pay for your kids’ travel expenses. And the only reason you chartered a plane to fly out to try to prove you’re a hunter was because someone else was paying for it. If that money had come out of your pocket, you wouldn’t have gone. Oh, what about that trampoline you took home from the Governor’s mansion? And what about all the goodies you and your mob took at the the Hollywood event?
You, Mr.s Todd Palin, are one to be accusing other people of being “entitled”!
page 170
“That teaches children that hard work is for suckers.”
I hate to sound like a broken record, but what has Mrs. Todd Palin the quitter ex Gov of Alaska taught her kids exactly?
Page 169
“Our failure to instill the virtues of hard work and deferred gratification does a disservice to all our kids, but it is the kids from low-income and broken families who often suffer the most.”
Again, Bristol, what hard work has she done? Yet she’s making 100’s of thousands with no education and no hard work. It’s all being handed to her. I agree tho, she will suffer because she has nothing to fall back on after her 15 minutes of fame.
Page 166
“People tell their kids they’re “all “winners,” assuring them that every scribbled picture is a work of art and every chaotic soccer game is a triumph.”
We are “creating a generation of entitled little whiners.”
This is so obvious I’m sure someone has pointed it out before me. Bristol “duhhhhhh”. DWTS??? Gotta work the base to get them to keep Bristol on the show despite no talent and the fact that she’s only a “Star” for the fact that she is an un-wed mother and Mrs. Todd Palin is her mother. Also gotta work the connections to keep the kids from facing consequences when they break the law. And gotta get the taxpayers to pay for the kids’ travel to political events. (whoops, had to pay that back)
I really hope that this will be the worse chapter in the book (not holding my breath).
This one sooo misses the mark on James Stewart’s character in ” It’s a Wonderful Life” – which teaches that old dreams sometimes make you miss seeing the gold that is right before you.
And 4 pages about Booker T. Washington……….I read about him in college and did not see any connect with her “insight” of him or any connection to reality to who he was and the times in which he lived.
And, while I am on a rant!!!! Free lunches…entitlements….pulling up your bootstraps……
Easy for some to say if you can afford lunch and bootstraps. I grew up in what was then a middle-class family. My mom was a reg. nurse in a high-school. She told us that many of the students in her school received free lunches, and that for most of them it was the only REAL meal they had. Poverty was high in that area. Most of their parents worked very hard, but due to low education, could not earn enough to take care of their families. How dare she think they don’t deserve what little help they.
End of rant…Maybe
I wonder if $arah knows about redlining? I didn’t until a few months ago-I am ashamed to say. It is the practice of keeping certain areas poor- for whatever reason. It was used to ‘blight’ an area..banks would not give loans to people in the area outlined in red. It was used on poor people- white and black alike. If I had learned of this when I was younger and had more energy—but the truth is, I learned about it online- and googled it: it is enforced poverty! And maybe one voice cannot accomplish what many voices can do….We can inform ourselves, and make ourselves be heard…for our neighbors’ sake and for ours, as well.
Page 159? The moment when you wanted to give up, but didn’t? That was obviously in a dream Mrs. Todd Palin had, because she has quit everything she ever started. Well except for conning people out of money.
“Unlike more privileged young people, they have fewer resources to fall back on when they enter the job market with a shrunken work ethic and an inflated sense of entitlement.”
Sounds kinda elitist to me…
Palin: “You never forget that moment: the moment when you kept going even when you thought you couldn’t; the moment when you didn’t give up even though every nerve ending in your body was screaming for you to stop.”
Hmmm. Makes me think of the time she had her Daddy tape her fingers to fake an injury so that she could skip out of band practice. I guess the screaming nerve endings in flute fingers scream louder than other screaming nerve endings….or something.
Not to mention….on honesty and work ethic scales, her Daddy was doing the equivalent of his little girl’s science project by taping those screaming flute fingers.
I don’t know, Sarah, but I doubt whether Booker T. would have asked his Daddy to tape his fingers so he could skip out of band practice. Tsk. Tsk.
I wonder if he was on the sidelines cheering for her to quit as governor.
THAT’S where she gets her family values..! I get it now….that one statement is very revealing…fraud and deception, condoned and promoted by a parent—-that child grows up and continues the fraud and deception…on and on… oblivious…
Holy crap!…makes me think of the song from South Pacific: ‘You’ve got to be carefully taught…’
I just can’t bring myself to read the synopsis above quite yet, but I’ll read the comments for sure!
Also, a bit OT, but seems more appropriate here than on the Off Topic John Lennon thread… Just saw that almost 6 million watched The Walking Dead finale (What a good show!) on Sunday, compared to that other zombie show on TLC.
Link to Tv by the Numbers : http://tinyurl.com/2b25jkg
The Walking Dead (10pm)
– 5.972 million viewers
– 3.4/6 HH
– 3.0/8 A18-49
Sarah Palin’s Alaska (9pm)
– 2.780 million viewers
– 1.6/2 HH
– 0.8/2 A18-49
What made me smile is that 6 million people watched Sponge Bob Square Pants the same night as Sarah’s first episode. There is still hope.
Well, it makes sense, right? Sponge Bob Square Pants is more engaging intellectually than any of Sarah’s speeches, FB rants, or appearances on Faux News.
“The Walking Dead” and “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” ?? Are you sure that’s not the same show?
You know the book is bad when you can’t even read AKM’s synopsis. 🙂
I found myself reading the red bits only! Glad she did that, because I just couldn’t make myself read the rest.
NOLA, I am like you. I have been reading the red parts only. Even that and however much I enjoy AKM’s humor and insight, it’s more than enough. Who are the people paying for this garbage and/or financing her PAC??? Can’t they find a better use for their money???
Maybe we should have a contest for what AKM can do with the book when she’s done?
Skeet Practice?
Bonfire starter
I really really really cannot figure out how any THINKING person could still support her after the combination of this piece of “work” and SPAK. It all seems so shallow and insane at the same time. But you know there are vast numbers who think she’s just the bee’s knees. (Don’t mean to insult bees!)
Again, kudos to AKM for doing this, I feel guilty for not reading more, when AKM has worked (and suffered) so hard on it. Sorry AKM! I promise to try harder tomorrow 🙂
Loo paper?
I though only Jeezuses words were in red! Obvee-us-lee, AKM really stands for Another Komming of the Mess-i-uh! Close down this libberul blog sight! Blasfummy! Ivirywon noes that SP (Shining Profit) is the next komming!
🙂
(shining profit) LOL!!
I haven’t even started reading your synopsis and my left brain feels like its stroking. Or hemorrhaging.
P. 170 — I don’t know about y’all, but the minute that movie (“American Beauty”) came out, I insisted my children watch it at every opportunity so they could have instilled in them the values it teaches. I also encouraged (and continue to encourage) all of their little friends to watch it, too and also, at least twice a year. We have “movie nights” in our home and watch “American Beauty” as often as we can. We are planning to mount a campaign to Turner so “American Beauty” will be aired as frequently as “It’s a Wonderful Life” is; the values extolled in “American Beauty” are just that important to us, as a family, to emulate. Gaaak!
P. 180 — “She wants to give Trig a country where people still know how to ‘dig deep, and whose government still honors their efforts’.”- (synopsis)
Is Trig-propping here really appropriate? I don’t mean to be cruel, but no matter how much noble effort he puts forth, he will, sadly, never be able to ‘pull himself up by the bootstraps’; through no fault of his own, he will always, always need assistance / help. The government recognizes this (and “honors” it) and has programs in place to assist the Trigs of our nation and their families (SSI, medicaid / medicare, food stamps, WIC for example).
The government also recognizes there are a variety of reasons a person might be in dire need of assistance –either long-term or short-term– and has in place programs to meet those needs. Granted, to actually get that assistance, one must jump through incredible hoops and be humiliated beyond belief by the questions, suspicions, and attitude of the program runners, but at least the programs are there if they are needed. And they are!
From what I gather, $arah feels such programs only show laziness on the part of the recipient; that anyone seeking (or on) such assistance is scum…and always will be: once on, always on. Yes, there are those who take advantage of ‘the system’, but those numbers, I would submit, are miniscule in comparison to the numbers who don’t [scam the system] and who use the programs as they were intended to be used. The programs are necessary! $arah lumps all recipients all together, though — once again, the brush she uses to paint “other” is as perjorative and as uninformed as it is divisive.
Too bad she didn’t Piper-prop on this page. Doing so might’ve let folks know she’s teaching Piper what she’s just finished spouting in the chapter. Instead, she uses as a prop an offspring to whom none of what she’s spouting makes the least bit of difference — face it; Trigs wants are simple. (His needs are many and great, but his wants are simple. That’s the nature of Downs.) Trig could give a flying fig if the government ‘honors’ his efforts, or not; being the little math-tutoring brainiac that she is, Piper should care that her brother is respected / ‘honored’ for his efforts — and she should be encouraging everyone, including the government, to do so at every opportunity.
Oh, oh: time for me to watch “American Beauty” again. I’m feeling a bit of a dip in my “American Beauty” values levels…it’s been over 48-hours since I last had a recharge from the movie. I wonder if my kids want to join me in watching it. beth.
I wonder if my kids want to join me in watching it. beth.
__________________________________________
no mommy we don’t wanna watch it again! we wanna watch the South Park marathon and eat chocolate cake. hugs to Beth.
American Beauty? Wasn’t that the film with Annette Bening and Kevin Spacey? I remember watching that and I thought it was a fantastic film. However, I do remember some very explicit sexual scenes in it. Sure enough I googled it just to make sure I had the right film and this is what it said.
“Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
Rated R for strong sexuality, language, violence and drug content.”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169547/
IS THE WOMAN MAD?!?!
They watch this as a family and she encourages all the little friends to watch it!!!! Well, I’m not surprised that she is a granny if this is what she has her children watching.
She should be locked up.
Ok….I got suckered. 🙂
Ha, I thought Palin said that. I didn’t realise it was Beth being funny. 🙂 🙂
heeheee.
Karma is a bitch.
Maybe you’re right – maybe that is how she got to be such a young granny.
American Beauty is one of my all-time favorite movies, and one of the very few that I own. Along with It’s a Wonderful Life. 🙂 Yep, Sarah absolutely, 100%, does NOT get what IAWL and AB are all about! What an idiot!
PS, if you’ve never seen it, another good one, IMO, is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Love Eternal Sunshine!! The only Jim Carrey movie I’d watch. Kate Winslet is really good.
I worked with kids from alcohol and drug impacted homes for 12 years. I came away with a deep understanding of just how difficult it is for kids from these situations to compete with students who have strong support at home. There are kids who “rise above” but not all of them have the smarts or strong inner core that allows them to become someone like Bill Clinton. I admire President and Mrs. Obama for the kind of encouragement they give kids–work hard, stay in school. When she said the poor kids have a shrunken work ethic (translate that into poor lazy black kids) and inflated sense of entitlement (translate into lazy black kids get free lunch) she wonders into an area that defines who she is. Here is a women who has her Daddy load her gun. She is a beautiful women, who is spoiled and vain. I really can’t stand the b—-.
“Basically, we need to love deprivation. What Palin and the Republicans have in store for us is another Great Depression.”
As in, an even grimmer continuation of the one we’re in right now?
Who else has made it through Matt Taibbi’s latest?
Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con that is Breaking America
http://www.amazon.com/Griftopia-Machines-Vampire-Breaking-America/dp/0385529953
You can download the first chapter for free – a totally worthwhile use of time, as it’s heavy on the Palin skewering and will make you grin. A nice shot of pick-me-up after having to even read AKM’s summary of AbyH lunacy.
I would like to know why his work ethic does not apply to her own children in the pursuit of their jobs (schoolwork). None of them has been a superior student–she even mentioned one was “failing” school during the election. She hasn’t been able to teach her own kids that school is their “work” and they should take it seriously.
How is the book doing on the charts these days?
Answer to my own question. It’s #32 on Amazon with “Of Thee I Sing” at #31. — Purchase President Obama’s book and all proceeds go to military families. Let’s do it!
I ordered three books for a total of $26.97 at Amazon, free shipping. And I know just who to give them to for Christmas gifts.
yeah. i got one and i think i will pick up another two for some sweet little girls i know and love.
Reviews say the book is inspirational for adults, too…..one of my recipients is a woman who works incessantly (volunteer) for the local Dem Party and has a FT job, I doubt she has had time to consider purchasing the book. I know she’ll love having it for a keepsake…
I ordered it last week – someone recommended it here, I ordered a couple of copies for Xmas presents. Thanks for the tip!
VYCCAN—–I am afraid you will wait until Hell frezzezes over!!!!!
L L: I fear the same thing, but in an attempt to be fair (ahem) I want to give her the benefit of the doubt until we get to the end. Up to this point in my life I’ve always worked on the assumption that everyone has good points and bad points. What can I say, I am ‘fighting’ to hang onto my theory.
My first impression of this chapter:
Whaaaaaaat???????????????
Every nerve ending in your body screaming for you to quit
“….the moment when you kept going even when you thought you couldn’t.”
How many jobs has she quit? Three in Alaska, at least, plus other things she said she’d be there for then didn’t show up – a couple of Republican fundraisers in the last year.
I said months ago when Palin unveiled her Mama Grizzly shtick that she, in her typical hubris, was trying to style herself as the political incarnation of “Teddy Bear” Roosevelt.
Hey, Sarah! Teddy didn’t have his Daddy reload his gun for him!
Daddy carrying her gun, reloading her gun, telling her how to shoot her gun….all documented on national TV.
“Does this gun kick, Daddy?”….. I suspect that Daddy finished her science projects too.
-snort-
From Teddy Roosevelt’s classic book, “African Game Trails,” written in 1910 (holding the copy in my hands as I write this), here’s an example of Teddy’s writing in his introduction:
“But there are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy, and its charm. There is delight in the hardy life of the open, in long rides rifle in hand, in the thrill of the fight with dangerous game. Apart from this, yet mingled with it, is the strong attraction of the silent places, of the large tropic moons, and the splendor of the new stars; where the wanderer sees the awful glory of the of sunrise and sunset in the wide waste spaces of the earth, unworn of man, and changed only by the slow change of the ages through time everlasting.” — Khartoum. March 15, 1910.
Theodore Roosevelt, the twenty-sixth president of the United States, was a world-renowned hunter, conservationist, soldier and scholar. Mrs. Palin is a reality TV star wannabe whose Daddy reloads her gun.
“Don’t retreat. Have your Daddy reload.”….a motto for Daddy’s little “entitled whiner.”
One wonders why Todd Palin isn’t part of the hunting party — why not Willow? or Bristol? Doesn’t she have an empty refrigerator too? Even if this was simpler for the show, why not bring in some narrative of the “usual” hunts. And it is odd that she needs the help of the two men, who do all the prep work but don’t shoot at anything themselves. Most hunting parties are made up of people who each bring gear and permits and hunt.
This was Dad’s episode. Aren’t they all like that? Halibut bashing was Brittle, mother and daughter death bonding, etc..
Does Sarah ever mention being close to her mother?
Me, I’m not saying much, as I’m patiently waiting for the inspirational portions to surface. See, to me the word ‘inspiration’ connotes something positive, and I’m thinking her publishers/editors would have made sure that there was SOME inspirational element before they gave the go ahead for this project.
If we had to count the positive things Sarah has said on our fingers and toes, I think we’d at least fifteen “slots” free. Honestly, if she ever has said anything positive, it has been erased from our memories by all the dung she keeps slinging at us.
Speaking of dung – wonder what Rebecca Manure will “ghost write” on Facebook next.
vyccan, I have a feeling the editors abandoned this project early on.
What is this world coming too? I heard about this the other day, the DSM is considering dropping the diagnosis of Narcissism from the up coming edition.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/narcissism-no-longer-a-psychiatric-disorder/?partner=rss&emc=rss
Does this mean they will consider Scarah the new “normal”?
OMG – that thought alone is terrifying: Sarah the new “normal.” If I have nightmares tonight, know that I will be thinking of you. hehe.
Nah just Personality disorder with narcissistic features
Sarah is just the right person to talk about a work ethic. Instead of completing her term as governor, she cashed in, taking (what appears to me) the easy route of highly paid speaking appearances, glossy magazine shoots, two ghost written books (it was hard work proof reading), and commenting on the news of the day in nasty girl sound bites. She doesn’t even write her own face book posts, but I think that some of the more illiterate tweets must be her handiwork.
If this book was supposed to show how much time Sarah has spent studying and thinking about important issues of the day, she just showed us the opposite. Sarah considers it hard work to apply make up, get her hair done, pick out an outfit for the day and make an appearance. Waving at the crowd is such hard work.
But, but on her show she said she does her researchin’ and writin’ on her cement slab. So she must have written this book, right? Just kidding.
Snark alert: when I heard her say that she sat on her cement slab to research and write, I have to admit that my mind’s eye pictured her sitting at the picnic table in her runner shorts, tennies, tank top bending over her Big Chief tablet with her crayons., asking Piper to come out and proofread her work.
I’m still amazed at how many times she references movies in this book. I say again, that I think that she gets all of her history from movies. I still believe she doesn’t read.
and she doesn’t get the message of whatever movie she watches. she project’s her own interpretation onto the screen of a mind that is totally fractured.
we have to remember that this woman’s mind does not work in a linear or lateral fashion but in a hit and miss sort of way that makes sense only to her.
I think that other people will see that by watching her infotainment- self-serving-promoting show.
Ugh! It will be a relief when they’re all done! THEN, someone can do a show about Alaska and the hardy people who live there- that would be TV worth watching!
Algebra is an Arabic word. The early Islamic cultures made huge advances in astronomy and higher mathematics. They had a thriving scientific culture then.
So, why would the President want to include the Muslim world in the work of NASA?
I am not a bestselling author like Miss Wasilla, but I know the answer.
The Muslim population is HUGE. They are currently regressive. They had an amazing past in science and math and poetry etc…so to remind them that science and math and their religion DO mix, in an effort to pull the people into the 21st century which will end radical Islamic terrorism one day.
The President is a long term thinker. We can’t kill all Muslims as the teabaggers might prefer, so our best bet is to invite them to join us in the modern world. let them know we respect their culture and their history, try to end the hate so we can end the threat of terrorism.
This is why she cannot be president and why Obama is still the best choice for these times.
Isn’t it also the case that one of the main reasons much of the early western writings survived was that it had been translated/archived by the Islamic scholars before it was purged by the church leaders at the onset of the dark ages?
I believe this is correct, if my memory is serving me well. The Dark Ages would have been even more devastating to recover from if it hadn’t been for the Muslim world.
If you want to know more about this, I highly recommend you see “Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain.” It’s too bad the light of learning didn’t last, but many of the classics would have been lost to history had it not been for this period of Islam.
Yes.
You have put my thoughts into words! I know everyone is mad at President Obama right, but even when I am disappointed that we aren’t getting more done, I do realize he is always thinking long term, and I agree that he is hoping to bring the Muslim people out of their own Dark Age.
Islamic scholars and architects(designed the Alhambra in Spain) Astronomers(Uleg Beg-a grandson of Tamerlane- was such a brilliant man…as clever as Gallileo..he built a sextant that was so large it was built into a hill, its’ remains are still there) …it is the FUNDAMENTALISTS-of every religion who are the problem–in every nation–including our own..!
This is so very true! It is the fundamentalists of every religion, with their narrow literalist mindsets, who are the problem.
Many of the “named” stars in our charts have Arabic names. Muslim scientists were naming the stars and charting the heavens while Europeans still believed the Sun circled the Earth. If Western scientists are able to bring young scientists and students from Islamic countries into the quest to explore space, it can only benefit everyone invoolved.
I’m a bit confused. Palin says: When she gives up fat and carbs she always feels better instead of the “guilt-ridden, sluggish feeling I get when I eat a bunch of crap that slows me down.”
But didn’t she just criticize Michelle Obama for trying to improve school lunches from unhealthy to healthy?
—
And as far as the comment: When no one is looking, and when no one is cheering you on is when your character is revealed.
I wonder what she is revealing when the public isn’t looking.
Point scored, Liberty Lover!
good one Liberty.
A foul mouth/mind, for one thing. Check out her language when she’s upset with someone and is trying to rein in her language (crap / corporate bastard / etc.)
Not only does the Empress have no clothes, she has no heart, nor brains.
Really though–can anyone find any record of her running a marathon? Anywhere? I mean, this book is so chock-full of lies, but that one could be the EASIEST to demonstrate as an outrageous lie.
In addition, if she were actually RUNNING a marathon, she wouldn’t be stopping, picking up and untwisting caps on water bottles. She’s do the grab-gulp-drop it-while running thing in order to not lose any time. What a load of twaddle.
This whole thing is a cartload of road apples though. You’re donation bucket is getting closer to being filled though…
that’s what I asked earlier. Even TRAINING for a marathon takes hours of work — with all her family and jobs, when did she have time to train several hours a day? and how old was Track when he obligingly put little bottles and notes alongside her training runs?
Hey, she mentioned Track! Why don’t we hear more about him? Why isn’t he included in her wonderful family saga? Is he a bad boy? Why isn’t he still in the Army? I thought enlistment was for more that one year..Just sayn….
I believe I remember her running in a couple of 5K fun runs years ago in Wasilla. Back before she thought she was somebody. But a marathon? That doesn’t sound familiar at all.
No brain, no heart, no courage. She wouldn’t have made it with Dorothy and Toto, now would she! 🙂
“You’re donation bucket is getting closer to being filled though…”
Apostrophe and homophone abuse! Where was my HEAD yesterday?
Your donation bucket…
Muslims contributed to the development of math? We use Arabic numerals? Algebra, the bane of every high school student’s academic life, comes from “al-jabr” meaning “the cipher?”
That’s reason enough for any red-blooded, American patriot to stand up against formal education!
We should just go back to Roman numerals and avoid all that complicated stuff like column addition, subtraction, multiplyin’ and dividin.’ (sorry – couldn’t resist)
You forgot the zero. Of course she wouldn’t get that one because you can’t count it on your fingers or shoot it. Although she does embody it.
Algebra was a subject I loved. I still use it frequently. Sarah’s arithmetic skills are very limited. She can multiply (unless she’s going through menopause which, given her mood swings, she may be experiencing).
Her best skill, however, is division. Unless she’s stopped, she will continue to divide us.
It cracks me up every time I hear an adult say that they’ve never had to solve for ‘x.’ Every time you use logic to reach a conclusion (such reviewing a recipe to determine if you need a particular ingredient or whether there’s enough gas in the tank for the trip to work) you are using the skills predominantly taught in a math or science class.
You also make great points about her abilities to multiply and divide, and now I’m having a flashback to the opening scenes of Idiocracy.
Abacus?
Bless you.
🙂
Next up–how to use a slide rule!
America by Heart? This makes you envision that America was best in times of slavery. And, who were the happiest people of all — well, of course, those enslaved who worked their fingers to the nub.
My gosh, according to her, there’s a huge “illegal” wall that is crossed when choosing to give anything to anyone — be it praise, money, etc. It’s like everyone is an entrepreneur who creates their own world — or they don’t, in which case they are doomed.
Does ice flow in this woman’s veins?
yes
heh–just felt compelled to answer that queston
She’s hard to fathom…she’s so strange I can’t wrap my brain around it…except maybe she has practiced since childhood the art of rationalizing her thoughts and behaviors to the highest degree until she is devoid of logic and reason.
And now she’s totally comfortable with herself until someone questions her…then she has to rationalize again and explain to herself that she’s okay and it’s the other person who is bad. Wow! Just think what is buried in her subconscious. It’s scary.
Can’t wait to see her reflections on religion!
No wonder this book is getting NO traction and few reviews of any kind. It is empty. Is it s diet book? Blog posts?
There is nothing there, even when you review it, there is nothing remarkable.
Old stories told yet again, “choosing” life yada yada yada…
i noticed that her chorus (Beck, Hannity, OReilly and ilk) are not singing her praise in her choir.
what’s up with that?
I would like to see this woman live thru a “great depression”. She wouldn’t be talking about people pulling theirselves up by their bootstraps. I was a child during the “great depression”. My mother told the story about when she would “hide” when the rent man came to the door to collect the month’s rent, because she didn’t have the “$10.00 for the month’s rent.
It was my grandfather who had a grocery store that kept the family in food. He also kept others from going hungary, as he let them charge their groceries.
When the country came out of the depression, my parents always helped people in need.
It was many years later, that the children from the families that my grandfather helped, paid the old groceries bills. They had moved to the cities to work—Chicago, the tri cities & etc.—-even though my grandfather was no longer living—–they paid these bills to family members.
My father went on to become a successful business man, and carrried these values of giving.
And YES Msquitty pants—–He was a Democrat and a liberal
What a fabulous story about people coming back after growing up and paying old grocery bills! Such incredible gratitude! And compassion on both your grandfather’s part. I think that when people are shown compassion in hard times like these and back then in the depression, that it creates a culture of compassion down the road. It builds on itself and it creates a better world in the long run.
Mrs. Palin probably would have charged them interest!
wonderful story LacyLady. he was a good man.
I became immediately distracted right near the beginning of this entry when she talks about running and finishing. Isn’t she the one who QUIT the run on the Road To Nowhere? She’s such a fraud I can’t stand it. I’d love to find just ONE person who has EVER run a marathon with her. Almost nobody runs by themselves.
Do you mean she quit an actual run that took place, or are you talking about her quitting office?
An actual “race”. It was on the infamous Road to Nowhere. She let halfway through. I’ll look for the link.
With no edit button, I have to make a correction here. I was confusing two things. The Road to Nowhere run was quit by everyone as a mockery of Palin.
The one that the “governor” quit was in Washington. http://tinyurl.com/y8tqysv This was on Thanksgiving Day 2009.
I don’t believe I have ever seen a politician preen and pat herself on the back and brag the way this one does CONSTANTLY. Ooh, she’s such a good mother, she’s a frontier woman, she runs, she hunts, she fishes, she works so hard, she walks the walk, she crops wood and reads every newspaper put in front of her. She turns my stomach. Her ego simply never quits and she has nothing but contempt for everyone else (except Reagan, de Tocqueville, Teddy Roosevelt, and Jimmy Stewart).
I know so many people who are forced to work two jobs simply to make ends meet, including one African-American single mother raised in the projects who is sending her son to a Jesuit college. And for an entitled whiner like Sarah to look down her surgically-enhanced at them just makes my blood boil.
And her kids have no entitlement issues, don’t expect something for nothing…..never got unearned praise….bet they never got any praise from her.
“She turns my stomach. Her ego simply never quits and she has nothing but contempt for everyone else (except Reagan, de Tocqueville, Teddy Roosevelt, and Jimmy Stewart).”
No, no, she fancies herself as the intellectual and political heiress-apparent to Margaret Thatcher as well.
*cough cough*
Dear whatzername-
Hoo, boy.
Hon, you derailed so seriously here I’m not sure all the first responders in Alaska could cut you out of this wreck…
This is the timeworn Economic Darwinism argument, dear. Granted you stopped short of making the argument that those who are ill prepared to be lil work puppets for the revered capitalist/entrepeneurs should just die but you were sneaking up on it…
News flash for you -human beings respond in a predictable variety of ways to cultural imperatives and the blighted work-ethic argument has been beaten to a pulp dear.
Suggest you start with Aleuts in Transition by Dorothy M Jones, published 1976 , and expand your horizons from there…control over work conditions and availabilty of work,adaptive responses to having no control… Ms Jones manages to cram an enormous amount of information and understanding of human beings in that slim lil book…
We have many reading mentoring programs here in Alaska so I’m sure there will be help available for you if you stumble on reading whole paragraphs and suchlike
Pffft!
Pffftttt!
thanks for the book.
Yes, thanks for the book suggestion.
Booker T. Washington “had every incentive to, as the producers of American Beauty (or your daughter Bristol) might have put it, give the finger to The Man,” but he didn’t.
yes, well, mainly because if a black man in 1900 America did “give the finger to The Man” he would have been lynched.
She IS dumber than a bag of hammers.
Now you’re just insulting hammers.
True. Hammers unite boards, not divide.
“Dumber than a box of rocks” is the way I heard that expression.
…and in tea-bagger states the danger of being lynched is still there. In Alaska two people were just convicted of a hate crime against a native person. Ten years after James Byrd’s murder in 1998 another man of color was killed by being dragged under a truck.
Matthew Shepard.
It may no longer be “okay” to target someone for the degree of melanin-enhancement in their skin, but attacking “those people” hasn’t raised the ire of nearly enough Americans.
More is the pity.
A movie that tells us that working hard pays off, even if it’s not with money, is It’s a Wonderful Life.
er….where did she find that lesson in “It’s a Wonderful Life?” The lesson of “It’s a Wonderful Life” is that we are all part of a community and there is a greater reward in working to better the community at large than to give in to your own selfish desires? And that no man is a failure who has the love of family and friends? George Bailey didn’t find a pay-off from “working hard”, he found a pay-off in the way his kindness and selflessness to other people improved their lives and that of the community.
Agree. She has misinterpreted at least 2 of Jimmy Stewart’s movies.
Does she understand “it’s just a movie”? I don’t think she distinguishes between real life and fantasy. It’s all the same in her sick little brain.
I have this movie on DVD and watch it every year at this time, repeatedly. I don’t think I can watch it now. She has ruined it.
I watch this movie every year as well, while preparing Thanksgiving dinner. I refuse to let her ruin it for me.
I’m glad I didn’t read all of AKM’s writing. I think I’ll stop now before she ruins that movie for me. Thanks for the heads up.
Isn’t that “socialism”? Bettering the community and all.
Yeah, George Bailey saved the community from the heartless, greedy capitalist. What movie was SHE watching?
Even though she got the “message” of this classic movie totally! wrong, $arah did me a good by bringing it up — I now have in my mind’s eye a modern-day equivalent for Capra’s mean, conniving, under-handed, money-grubbing, soul-warped Mr. Potter when watching it: $arah Palin. beth.
This book stinks on ice.
That would be because it’s full of S**t?
LOL!!
“Unlike more privileged young people, they have fewer resources to fall back on when they enter the job market with a shrunken work ethic and an inflated sense of entitlement.”
Wait, so she’s saying the problem with poor kids from broken homes is that, unlike rich kids, they have an inflated sense of entitlement?
Yep. I don’t even begin to try how her feeble little mind works anymore.
“try to understand” her feeble mind, that is. oops.
It seems that what Palin is saying is let’s not make sure those less privileged kids don’t have more important things to worry about then school, like where their next meal is coming from and whether they have a safe place to sleep at night, and let’s not make sure they have the same opportunities for job training or higher education , so they enter the work place at a disadvantage, and then, if they don’t succeed or get as far ahead as those with more affluent backgrounds, let’s call them lazy or say that they had an entitlement mentality. How Christian of sister Sarah to tear down those less fortunate than herself. There are a lot of kids who come from tough backgrounds and make it. Shouldn’t we be celebrating their success, rather than jumping to uninformed generalizations to disparage those that haven’t done as well?
That’s compassionate conservatism in a nutshell. Make sure the bastard gets born (even if he was the result of rape or incest), then abandon him and his mother, so they won’t get used to that entitlement mentality. Don’t fund his education, even in the lower grades. Let him go hungry at lunchtime rather than give him lunch at school.
I wonder about that chopping wood and such. If daddy still loads the guns for her and tells her when to shoot and didn’t even teach her to carry her own backpack when they went hiking and instead carried it all himself, I doubt he made her carry and chop wood. She may have took an ax and chopped at some wood but I doubt it was a regular chore.
Her dad sounds like a great father how-ever it sounds like he really didn’t teach her anything except he’d be there to make sure everything was alright……
I sort of wonder how a science teacher feels about spawning a Creationist.
He doesn’t care, it was just a job with retirement. Sally is the church goer one. Chucky got into religion cause it was trendy.
*cough cough*
Bill Gates hardly pulled himself out of some inner city slum (which is not to say he hasn’t accomplished a great deal [but I still don’t like his business practices in a lot of ways]).
His family was upper middle class; his father was a prominent lawyer, his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate BancSystem and the United Way, and her father, J. W. Maxwell, was a national bank president.
Exactly.
Yes, and some people are just born smarter than others. Much smarter! You can’t tell all poor kids that THEY could be Bill Gates one day because they CAN’T. Only a few people are born with something more. Sure, Bill Clinton got himself from a trailer park to Oxford, but that does not mean every trailer park kid can do that.
Republicans always use these stories to prove that hard work will make it so you always end up like Gate and Buffet. Not True and a real disservice.
This world has gotten very unforgiving for most people who are born normal, not exceptional.
Let’s not forget that many kids who come from impoverished backgrounds ARE (not just were) exposed to lead (paint, mostly). I bet Sarah doesn’t want landlords to be financially or legally liable for getting their units fit for (poor) people to live in safely.
Lead is forever if not caught right away and causes so MANY problems–often it’s not diagnosed until the kids are older and in Big Trouble.
i remember mama gave me my first spanking for eating the paint. even though i was no more than three years old. i remember the shock of being hit hard with a belt on my plump little thighs. it was terrible but i didn’t try to snack on the wall ever again. years later i had a very hard time with maths. i still do.
He was made fun of a lot though, for being a nerd…in fact his parents had to change middle/ high schools for him because it was so brutal.
Bill Gates said the experience gave him compassion.
How unlike Sarah.
I hope your post was just a recitation of the facts, and you weren’t trying to slam Bill Gates. Whatever his business practices, he’s way ahead of another son of actual ‘privilege’, Prince Georgie W. Bush.
And I don’t think he’s any more predatory than the heads of Chase, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs or other rich people who HAVE NOT pledged millions/billions to charity work.
Yes, it was a recitation of the facts–she portrays him as entirely self-made and overlooks that he while he worked hard–he didn’t climb out of an Appalachian coal town or inner-city slum.
I still dislike his business practices. The fact that he funds charities still makes me think of the robber barons of the 19th century. Particularly the actions of those AFTER the Johnstown flood.
She runs because it requires no talent or co-ordination. Hmmmnnn! Is this why she thought she would be a good Veep? Maybe its why she chose to go into politics in the first place. Afterall,having a real job requires ….uh…..skills that Quitty seems to lack. Then she wants to give Trig a country where people still know how to “dig deep”, She didn’t apparently believe that 8 glorious years of Bush and Cheney didn’t leave us in a really deep hole that we aren’t out of yet. To AkM- please head to nearest transplant location and be prepared to have some grit and moxie DNA harvested to transplant into Dems and see if we can;t make a liberal politician stand up and fight for once. Your Nation needs you “NOW”, We can’t afford to wait. Rethuglicans already sense they have control of all branches of gov’t. Please,please and pretty please with cream and sugar on top.
Okay, so Simon Cowell is one of her heroes because of “his willingness to tell hard truths” to those lacking the talent to achieve their dreams. Who knew Sarah liked facing the truth?
Well, I guess we will all be her heroes because we are willing to tell her the hard truth that she lacks the talent to achieve her dreams. Will she be grateful to us for helping her face that truth? No.
Will she be graceful and pull herself up by her bootstraps, learning the lessons necessary to change? Not if her track record is any indication. She screech, rant and rail, and condemn anyone who finds fault with her self-image of perfection and threatens her sense of entitlement.
We say this time and time again, but truth bears repeating: Sarah Palin is a Hypocrite of the First Order!
I wonder if Simon could tell Miss Wasilla a few Hard Truths?
Sunflower i would give a week’s pay to have Simon Cowell critique Sarah Palin and her book. even though i know that Simon’s opinion would put me in the hospital and i would die laughing.
I’d rather die laughing than any other way. I just wish this $P-cancer-on-the-world would go away. And take her screwed up family with her.
“learning the lessons necessary to change”
You mean like studying up on what the Vice President actually does after embarrassing yourself on national TV? Not our Sarah! The first time she revealed her ignorance of the job she was applying for, I thought it was funny. By the second and third times, I was stunned. She’s smart enough to understand it, but she’s too lazy and arrogant to expand her knowledge at all. Her lack of intellectual curiosity is amazing.
Missed opportunity! “Dancing with the Stars” should have had Simon Cowell as a guest judge . . . so WGE could have heard the truth about her precious daughter’s ability.
Pow! I don’t think this fellow is a fan of the book and definitely not the Reality Show:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-sorkin/sarah-palin-killing-animals_b_793600.html
brilliant!
Youch!
I love this Writer! If you don’t know who he is, he wrote “A Few Good Men” and was a writer for “The West Wing” for a time.
sorkin actually created “the west wing”.
loved it and miss it.
Hi Fawnskin, my darling new friend! I have been thinking about you, my dear. Hope all is well 😉
And you didn’t just do it for fun and you didn’t just do it for money. That was the first moose ever murdered for political gain. You knew there’d be a protest from PETA and you knew that would be an opportunity to hate on some people, you witless bully. What a uniter you’d be — bringing the right together with the far right.
(Let me be the first to say that I abused cocaine and was arrested for it in April 2001. I want to be the first to say it so that when Palin’s Army of Arrogant Assholes, bereft of any reasonable rebuttal, write it all over the internet tomorrow they will at best be the second.)
I eat meat, there are leather chairs in my office, Sarah Palin is deranged and The Learning
in case someone has no time to click, this is the closer…
oops, should read…”….and the Learning Channel should be ashamed of itself.”
i need to have some coffee. so i can reread AKM’s recap. i just got to Booker T Washington.
Booker T Washington Sarah? really?
iknowright? $he’s trying to prove she’s not a racist.
just read the article OMG. stunning. brilliant essay:
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I’m able to make a distinction between you and me without feeling the least bit hypocritical. I don’t watch snuff films and you make them. You weren’t killing that animal for food or shelter or even fashion, you were killing it for fun. You enjoy killing animals. I can make the distinction between the two of us but I’ve tried and tried and for the life of me, I can’t make a distinction between what you get paid to do and what Michael Vick went to prison for doing. I’m able to make the distinction with no pangs of hypocrisy even though I get happy every time one of you faux-macho shitheads accidentally shoots another one of you in the face.
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couldn’t have said better myself.
thanks OMG. this is a stunning essay. my favorite paragraph:
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I’m able to make a distinction between you and me without feeling the least bit hypocritical. I don’t watch snuff films and you make them. You weren’t killing that animal for food or shelter or even fashion, you were killing it for fun. You enjoy killing animals. I can make the distinction between the two of us but I’ve tried and tried and for the life of me, I can’t make a distinction between what you get paid to do and what Michael Vick went to prison for doing. I’m able to make the distinction with no pangs of hypocrisy even though I get happy every time one of you faux-macho shitheads accidentally shoots another one of you in the face.
She couldn’t just BUY some moose from a neighbour? She has to save money from her millions and shoot it. After chartering a plane, a guide, paying the sherpas for toting her cr@p all over the place instead of carrying it for herself (like an adult)…
I gotta ask–did she do this in season? I imagine she would be using the outfitter’s hunting license, if she’s not required to buy one for herself. Wouldn’t she already have one anyway, if this is their established habits?
Holy cr@p on a cracker, this woman is beyond the pale.
“Unlike more privileged young people, they have fewer resources to fall back on when they enter the job market with a shrunken work ethic and an inflated sense of entitlement.”
Ok…I keep reading this quote from Palin over and over again.
Um, Sarah? Hello??
Now, this is only MY life experience but, I was raised by a single Mother (divorced) back in the 60’s when children like me were frowned upon, even to the point of some parents not wanting their children to play with me since my Mom was one of those “Dee-Voor-Says”. (A Happy Days episode is coming to mind right now) Our neighbors were Catholic with 14 children, but my yard was off-limits for playtime, they didn’t want their kids to “catch anything” I suppose.
They were also quite well off. NONE of those kids ever worked, except for……hold on…..letting their Dad sell their candy/cookies etc. at his business so they could hit the high marks in sales and maybe the occasional Sat. afternoon “helping” at their local business until the kids became bored and whined to go home.
My Mom, rest her soul, worked 2 jobs w/o a day off to support me. Back then, child support for her was only $50 a month. That paid for the rent on the small apt. we lived in. When I was 12, every summer until I turned 16 I worked ALL summer picking asparagus, strawberries, trimming trees at the “Christmas Tree Farm” and in the fall, apples. ALL “my” money went to the household of two. 16 years old was the time you went out and got a “real” job, mine was making donuts. I had to pay for my own car, car insurance, clothing, etc. I never felt POOR. We were I suppose. She instilled a work ethic in me that I will defend until the day I die…..at the time I felt angry that I HAD to work while my “privilaged” friends spent summers playing, riding around w/boys, going to dances, etc. I do not regret a minute of it. I take such offense at that particular passage in her book I can’t see straight.
I do not believe for a minute that her parents instilled a “work ethic” into her. Look at her college record. This woman is so out of touch with “her” America. My Mom was also a life-long Democrat. She NEVER used welfare. She certainly qualified for it. Shame on you Palin! You are totally off your rocker and one big MEAN GIRL. Chopped wood when you were a kid? Give me a break. Daddy wouldn’t let you break a nail.
And for the record Ms. Palin….I own my own business, work 12-16 hr days 7 days a week and I am a Liberal. I have NEVER taken advantage of any “handouts” the gov. offers. I have always worked and worked HARD. At this moment in time I wish I was standing in a line to meet you just to get the chance to give you a piece of my mind in person. You lady are one horrible piece of work.
OK…..better now after venting. Off to work! 🙂
One great big thumbs up for a wonderful slap in the face(since the real slap could get costly) to Queen Quittypants. I feel better for having you get this off my chest,too. Thanks and I will reward you richly since I plan on winning the Powerball lottery this week.
thank you for replying to that completely offensive, ignorant, and ugly comment in the best way possible. i’m sure many of us came from underprivileged backgrounds with parent/s who worked hard to give us the basics, which rubbed off on us and made us who we are. she must not be listening very hard on those listening tours because it seems to me many of her “fans” are poor and probably have stories such as these. what a slap in the face even to them. oh wait, i forgot, you’re not allowed to talk to the queen during a book signing.
good for you for your success – i’m sure you’ve earned every bit of it!
Somehow, I think her ‘fans’ have a disconnect between what she says and how it could relate to their own lives. They seem to point their fingers in the same directions she does instead of at themselves.
I’m right there with you. My mother owned her own business when I was growing up and from the time I was 11 I was expected to work every free moment in the shop to help her. Every day after school I was in her store for hours, sometimes I’d get home after midnight and then work on homework until I just couldn’t stay awake anymore. I finished high school in the top 5% of my class despite working and not having access to the private tutors that most of the other students were able to afford. Oh and this November was the first time I’d had an entire week off from work since I started at my mom’s store 14 years ago but even then I took it off because I had papers due in my college classes.
Every time Palin makes a comment about her work ethic and her hardships I see red. That woman has NO CLUE. I’ve lived my whole life hearing about how the poor get so many benefits that makes their life easier but the poor don’t get benefits, they get just enough to keep them alive and working.
“Unlike more privileged young people, they have fewer resources to fall back on when they enter the job market with a shrunken work ethic and an inflated sense of entitlement.”
Not only is she throwing those with fewer financial means under the bus, she’s insulting the kids and parents who are struggling. “Fewer resources to fall upon when they…” = Kids who move back home and live with their parents.
Unless you’re a Palin. Then it’s a tight-knit family compound and that’s good.
Unless you’re a Kennedy (or Bush), then it’s bad elitist blue-bloods.
B*tch.
ToesInTheSand- Thank you for sharing your story…certain parts of it ran parallel to my own…you make me proud..!
Had to add more. My grandmother would look at Bristol and say that the best she could do is marry an undertaker, because she really has nothing to offer. She moves like a drafthorse, has the eyes of a racoon, and the personality of an oyster.
you go, Grandma!
lol! grandma was sharp!
Yes, but pity the poor undertaker.
I’m sorry, but I’ve owned draft horses and that one really is true… I never thought about it before, but she really does move like a draft horse!
I happen to think racoons are cute, so can’t agree with that one.
I’ve never talked to an oyster, so have no idea there either 🙂
You have to wonder what kind of childhood those kids had with the things she writes… make you wonder if its not ‘pre-emptive’ in case the kids do their own tell all books…
She wants to give Trig a country where people still know how to “dig deep, and whose government still honors their efforts.”
I just wish she’d give him his glasses, hearing aids, and therapies that are so very obviously lacking.
That running thing? I thought that was disproved by the Hawaii pictures. Marathon? The only thing that woman runs is her mouth.
The Government her party wants will reward investments with 0% taxes but full taxes on any schmuck who gets a paycheck for that hard work they believe in.
UGH.
Yes! You hit that rusty nail right on its head!
And they don’t call it redistributing the wealth….this country is so brainwashed.
And on and on and on …
I have had enough.
page by page – as much as I could—–
1969 we went to the moon, Now, Oh, please, can we just send her there?
We give kids empty praise. OMG. Have you seen her kids???
P 168 — on and on about her food. I really, really do not care what you eat. really.
P 169 “poor people have a shrunken work ethic” — did she really say that??
Is she F*****g kidding me????
P 175. — Bristol, Honey, please cover up those cottage cheese thighs. I do not want to look at them any more. Get a dress with a complete skirt. Your thighs are not great enough to flaunt on national TV. Honey, really.
P. 176 — Bristol — really. see p.175.
P 179. — Sarah, do you even know what Narcissism means???
Maybe Bristol is graceful when performing horizontally, rather than vertically.
SWIMMING, people! I know what you initially thought! 😉
She lost a lot of weight when she was hanging with the swimming coach in Wasilla. 2009 – right after Tripp was born and prior to the announcement about Candies. She wasn’t preggers then.
Palin is delusional and has no sense of shame.
There is so much wrong with this, I don’t know where to start.
Why isn’t Bristol in college, preparing for a profession that will support the child she had as a teenager? Nope. She’s entitled. She goes on talk shows because she is the daughter of someone famous and had unprotected sex and had a baby as a teenager.
I think Sarah should shut down her pac immediately. If she is going to advise others to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, then she should use her own money to pay for everything she does. Why should anybody have to send her money, she’s rich!!!!
She is seriously deluded and crazy. The fact that she writes this and has no understanding that she herself is doing exactly what she is criticizing others for is astounding.
And this idiot id criticizing the POTUS?
BB was right. There is a sucker born every min. Anybody that buys this book or sends money to palin is an idiot. Excluding you, of course! We all know you did this so we would not have to suffer!
The thing that gets me the most is—Barack Obama actually DID pull himself up by his bootstraps. Son of a single mother, abandoned by his father, occasionally on food stamps, living in a small two-bedroom apartment with his grandparents so he can finish high school in the same place….oh yeah, that’s entitlement all right.
She hates him because he actually did what she couldn’t do. In the words of Nelson from the Simpsons: Hey Sarah, ha ha!
wow. she really sickens. apparently a woman without an iota of compassion or empathy in her. jeez i wish she would go away. the basic message i’m hearing is screw everyone especially the poor. she goes through quite a few contortions to make that message sound palatable, and fails. what a terrible person she is.
“She runs because it requires no talent or coordination.” lol – i just started reading this, and my initial perception was that it meant running for office. hehe
lol! mine, too.
She says she was training for a marathon and that Track left her little bottles of water and messages. But does she ever actually compete in marathons, or even races. And how old was Track at the time of her training? Training for a marathon means lots of 15-20 mile runs….three or four hours at a stretch. Did she do this while she was a full-time governor?
“Training for a marathon”? Prove it, Scarah. Just more delusional BS.
She said she completed one marathon “with only a few seconds to spare” or something like that… not sure what that was all about.
Don’t worry, neither is she. Nor her insane clown posse. Thanks for reading this garbage so we don’t have to, hero.
Depends on the marathon. Most have cut-off times where a “sag wagon” will sweep the course after a pre-determined length of time picking up the stragglers with “only a few seconds to spare”. They are the bane of Race Directors worldwide since it costs big bucks to have the course open for extended lengths of time in order to accommodate slower runners or those who walk part of the race. On the other hand, some races do not set limits (Honolulu Marathon – where some racers even stop for lunch before finishing the course).
I call BS on SP’s “marathon”. If she has only done one in her lifetime, she’d name it specifically. It is what runners do.
I recall Sowah did run a race (marathon?) in Washington state. However she cut out early because of the attention and it was distracting for the rest of the runners.
This was around the holidays because the family was going to eat dinner at auntie Katies.
Track must’ve devoted A LOT of time to that special little endeavor. My heart is so warmed!
What a load of moose crap.
p.s. – Running requires both talent and coordination. The stupidity of this woman knows no bounds (obviously her stupidity was raised to have blind self-confidence).
She even manages to tick off the running crowd. I’d like her to tell the top runners in the country that there is no talent or coordination required. She might run around the block to pick up her Taco Bell order but I’m doubting even that. Running is hard work. Sarah is averse to any of that.
Right — she doesn’t know because she doesn’t run. I’d like to see her name any marathons she has run. All horse puckey.
Right — she doesn’t know because she doesn’t run. I’d like to see her name any marathons she has run. All horse puckey.
I put a post at the end of this but I will say this again,, a year ago last Thanksgiving, she was down in my part of the state of washington, she had relatives here in the Tri Cities,, She said she was going to run the 5K turkey trot run,, She lasted 20 minutes and quit,,the weather was not a factor here as it was one of the warmest winters recorded here,, She is the Queen of the IQUITAROD,,
It is interesting that Bristol’s middle name is “Sheeran;” whatever could that mean?
It’s SP’s mother’s maiden name.
Well, I have to admit, that was funny. Especially how Obama’s comments are ‘self-involved’….and the American Idol thing – how could she let that go to print with a straight face, or no sense of embarassment! She is getting humorous, inadvertently!
That whole disconnect makes me wonder if she has even read this book at all. All the quotes from people that haven’t been on her radar before and then this whole whinge about American Idol when Bristol was doing the same thing on Dancing with the Stars – wow.
Right on Pat! I also wondered whether she read her own book. But, let’s be real, we are talikng about a woman who is not prone to serious self reflection. In fact, I think she has escaped herself every step of the way. She is just a shell of a human being. Her self is total act.
“Once she gave up chocolate for a year just to prove a point.”
Could she give up being on Facebook, Twitter and Fox for a year, just to prove a point?
PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE!
“How unsurprising coming from a man who is himself one of the leading exemplars of the new culture of self-esteem.”
With all of her pandering to national pride and lauding her own actions, she still says a sentence like this? Oh, wait. What am I saying….?
The American Idol thing is bizarre. Why would such a pretty trivial thing even be a priority for her in the first place? And then since DWTS and Bristol’s participation are EXACTLY THE SAME THING, you’d think she’d be able to comprehend the disconnect.
What I wonder about is whether this rant about American Idol is a familiar rant around the Palin household, since even before DWTS was on their radar screen. What must it do to Bristol’s pysche, to have heard Mom (and maybe Dad) over the last few years rant on American Idol contestants for being talentless and stupid, and admire Simon Cowell (of all people!) – and then have Mom force her to go on a similar show? Plus everytime Sarah opens her mouth about DWTS she has to say that Bristol “stepped out of her comfort zone” – which is passive-aggressive code-speak for “doesn’t she look awkward.”
And now to have the rant appear so prominently in the book, released AFTER we’ve all had the opportunity to see Bristol’s lackluster performance – jeez, what a weird family dynamic.
Remember the Gong show?
making fun of no talent people is not new
But I remember the Gong show being fun—everybody was having a fun time…a party. At least, that’s what I remember..!
I have to agree. This is really strange on so many levels. I wonder if this is from the ghost writer and Scarah just never read the galleys. It so describes Bristol on DWTS. I still have a part of me that feels sorry for these kids even as they grown into nasty adults. It not all their fault having been raised by these demented people.
No, no , no. You Just don’t get it. Everyone else shouldn’t encourage no talent children. It’s only OK if Sarah does it. /snark
It’s a corollary to the “It’s OK if you are a Republican” (IOKIYAR) meme. It’s OK if you are Sarah Palin.(IOKIYSP)
The difference between what happens to the contestants on American Idol and what happened to Bristol on DWTS is that Bristol was handled with kid gloves by the judges. The judges handled Kelly Osborne in the same gentle way I think because she was vulnerable. They handled Bristol that way, I think, because THEY were vulnerable to the Mama G.
I would love to have Simon Cowell be the judge of $arah Palin’s life right now. Do a weekly on-the-tee-vee-live summation of her performance, bit by bit. It would be fantastic. I would tune in every time.
Simon Cowell could put Rush Limbaugh in his place—take him out of commision, even…now THAT would be a joy !
Yeah, g, I wondered if this was a back-handed slam on Bristol … or at least a reassertion of Sarah’s position as top dog among the increasingly famous Palins.
” how could she let that go to print with a straight face, or no sense of embarassment!”
I think her ghost writer, editors and publishers all decided to have a little fun after a long week of staring at her “thought processes on paper” and drinking themselves blind.
I can picture the scene–every time one of them turns to another and says, “WTF?! This doesn’t make any sense” or “WTF?! This contradicts what she said earlier!” they all have to drink a shot of whisky.
I feel for the typesetters, too.
My eyes! My eyes!
*splashes them with lye*
This one is a classic:
“She runs because it requires no talent or coordination.”
People tell their kids they’re “all “winners,” assuring them that every scribbled picture is a work of art and every chaotic soccer game is a triumph.”
Yup, and when they don’t or can’t win it’s not because of lack of talent or ability, it’s because of the “haters”.
Palin even has professional football players using that excuse now. NFL defensive lineman Albert Haynesworth said:
“I believe there’s some kind of haters in the organization, that they don’t like me,” Haynesworth said on 106.7 The Fan. “I don’t know if it’s players, I don’t know if it’s coaches, I don’t know who it is. Obviously somebody who doesn’t like me, which is fine. But when you go out there and start making up lies, then, yeah, I’ve got something to say.”
You know, it sounds like whining when it comes from Palin and especially when it came from Bristol. But from a football player? Good grief, man. What game are you playing that everybody has to like you. Grow up and get over it!
You know when someone takes twenty or twenty-five million dollars under false pretenses,that sounds like a pretty big lie right there. Take money to play football and then pull every excuse not to play. He also learned its better to be the victim from Quitty.
Actually (and sadly), it’s Palin who is ripping off professional athletes, rappers, etc.
Next she’ll be tweeting: “Don’t hate the playa, hate the game. Haters gonna hate.”
I don’t think Quittypants will ever be a sponsor of “Special Olympics”! She only thinks people are “special” and worthy of praise when they do something to further her agenda!