But it was never the same after August 29, 2008. As soon as John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his VP candidate, suddenly no one asked about months of darkness or snowboarding to school—only about her. Whenever I boasted of my birthplace to new acquaintances, expecting to become the glorious center of attention yet again, I instead became some random guy indistinguishably whining about politics. Nobody cared anymore. And to this day, nobody cares—it's been two years since anyone asked about gearshifts on dogsleds. Like it or not, America's most hideous politician has ruined America's most beautiful state.
(You can read the entire article by clicking here.)
Marty's complaint is one that I hear constantly among my friends in Alaska.
Where we used to have to answer ridiculous and ignorant questions about Alaska while visiting the Lower 48, NOW all anybody wants to ask is "Do you know Sarah Palin?" I can only imagine their faces if I were to actually hold forth with how well I know Sarah Palin.
In some ways Palin has done for Alaska, what George Bush did for America during HIS two terms..
I remember when my daughter went on a trip to Italy when she was in her teens, which was at the beginning of Bush's second term, and she was instructed, if asked, to tell the locals that she was from Canada rather than America. The school officials explained that, while THEY certainly respected the President, that some in Europe had been known to be quite insulting and sometimes even violent.
Sound familiar Alaskans?
Of course the election of Barack Obama changed all of that virtually overnight.
I wonder when Alaska will elect its version of Barack Obama? Because lord knows we need one.
How did Sarah ruin Alaska?
ReplyDeleteSarah gave birth to a son who tried to inflict harm by cutting school bus brake lines.
Sarah gave birth to a girl who not only broke and entered into house belonging to someone else, she led a gang into the house and trashed it.
Sarah stole unopened mail from the governor's mansion and did not report the contents.
Sarah had a house built wuth stolen material from the hockey rink she had built on someone elses property.
Sarah did not pay property taxes on hidden assets.
Sarah had Todd build a 14 ft tall fence around their house ruining the lakeside view for their neighbors.
Well it's Sarah Palin's Alaska, dontcha know? It's even a TV show coming to TLC this fall. Apparently it is their fiefdom, and their minions in that state exist to placate the all powerful queen of the North Star.
ReplyDeleteGryphen is the only guy wearing big boy pants, the rest of you are too scared of Toad and Scarah to put an end to this nonsense and Resore Honor to Alaska
How did Sarah ruin Alaska?
ReplyDeleteBy opening her mouth.
SO now she is going to make things even worse by having arally in Anchorage on September 11 to announce that she is running for president? Since Beck is now a religious leader, he must be going to bless her? Will the witch doctor be there too?
Gryphen... next chance you get to see Sarah at an event.. please wear a burka so you don't get kicked out.
ReplyDeleteThen say.."Tina Fey, can I get your autograph?"
Yeah, I'll admit it: My opinion of Alaskans is in the toilet.
ReplyDelete(Obviously you're an exception, Gryphen, to everything that follows.) Not only were Alaskans so stupid as to vote a pretty incompetent ignoramus as their governor and then continue to give her a sky-high approval rating, but the entire state is obviously even more corrupt than Louisiana, which is really saying something (and at least Louisiana defeated David Duke when he ran for governor).
Add to that the fact that, again with you as shining exception, most Alaskans are a bunch of easily intimidated lily-livered cowards too afraid to expose this charlatan for what she is, and the image of the tough, frontier state is replaced by an image of Alaska as a benighted refuge of the ignorant, the bigoted, and the easily intimidated.
Y'all will never recover.
My biggest question about VF is, if someone is willing to say anonymously that Ivy Frye ended her professional relationship on bad terms (which is far from true) what else
ReplyDeletePeople are natural embellishers (I make up words yes I admit it) and will say anything anonymously if whom they are speaking with promises secrecy.
She certainly has a hook nose...a Halloween nose (meow); I never noticed it before. Maybe the witch doctor was in the right place after all. Sorry totally off subject...
ReplyDeleteShe is an ugly woman because of the nasty things that come out of her mouth.
The more we learn, the less there is ignore...the Vanity Fair piece's author says the worst isn't even in there...and he started out liking her!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/02/vanity-fairs-sarah-palin-_n_703412.html?ir=Politics
I agree that she helped ruin Alaska. But she has had help. The politicians that are going along finishing what she started, the people who let this continue, the bloggers, with the exception of a few, who are now softballing the issue of her....the list goes on.
ReplyDeleteAnd it HAS hurt Alaska. I know of at least 3 families that changed their cruise vacations from Alaska to somewhere else. My family canceled their trip. (an 8 family get together on a cruise) to do a caravan to the Black Hills instead.
The vision of Alaska as the Last Frontier has been changed to the vision of the crazy people who carry guns and take federal money by the truckloads and don't care about the environment..
It's really sad.
Off topic...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38973757
Oil rig explodes off La. coast
Coast Guard responding to reports of people in water.
Not again! *sigh*
Drill baby drill.
Yeesh, Alaska can survive this if people start coming forward. I don't equate Alaska with Sarah Palin, I do think people can keep the two separate. I totally understand the reluctance to act against the Palins, though; they are scary people and they have scary people helping them. And they have friends up there, though it sounds like they are not as plentiful as once upon a time.
ReplyDeleteThis is your civic duty, your patriotic obligation. Make no mistake about it. Those of us who have no information about her can't do anything unless those who do start to talk.
Now is the time. There are a number of people you could contact, even anonymously. We need to build a critical mass, where the damning truths about Sarah Palin add up to a consensus she cannot escape - even in the MSM and with the general public.
Please help your country. Please.
I'll tell you who could Restore Honor to Alaska--the State Legislature.
ReplyDeleteI understand Andre McLeod has petitioned (is that the right word?) the State Legislature to investigate a laundry list of ethical violations, which include misconduct by the Personnel Board and, notably, a conflict of interest breach by Tim Petumenos (and his firm) of the infamous Personal Board Troopergate report that absolved Palin. Apparently, while performing several investigations (including the Arctic Cat conflict of interest, the padded expense reports and the improper per diems), ostensibly as an "independent" investigator, he/his firm was also soliciting civil contracts for the state (Tim scratches the PB's back and the state scratches his). Note that in these instances, Tim either determined no cause of action, or allowed Palin to negotiate a secret agreement at at discount without accepting fault - a do-over, if you will.
(I remember that Tim had to meet with Palin on the campaign trail to interview her for the report. I wonder what actually went on in that conference room. Did they just shoot the breeze?)
What do you know of this Gryphen?
Even with the Branchflower Report that resulted from the Legislature's own investigation on Troopergate that found Palin had abused her power as Governor, they did nothing. Knowing Palin as I'm sure many did, how irresponsible it was to allow her to skip out on facing the consequences of her actions. I hope the minions on the Personnel Board et al pay a heavy price for having gone along with the lies.
7:23, did the VF report mention Ivy Frye? I thought it named Meg.
ReplyDelete7:57Am I hear you. Our family, quite extended, was going to head to Alaska for a reunion of epic proportions this summer. That was been canceled, a $250K (yeah K) batch of cash the state did not get thanks to several things, ANY wolf hunting and Palin being the biggest reasons.
ReplyDeleteWe've had 3 family members and their families cancel their scheduled Alaskan trips. I also canceled mine. Been there before many years ago but now I see a state filled with stupid people (with notably exceptions such as Gryphen), that whine about the feds but have their hands out to take whatever they can, get a check from the state every year (isn't that socialism??!! lol), don't care about their environment, don't really care about education(see the Palin clan), and cower in fear because of an ignorant chillbilly and her family. Oh and BTW, Ms. S Moore should stop whining about the VF article and saying people were outed. I call BS on that. She now sounds as whiny and petty as Palin. Good luck Alaska in getting any credibility back.
ReplyDeletei don't get it. How can this depraved psychopath who can harldy speak English intimidate so many people? What does she do, threathen their lives? Why won't someone, anyone expose the whole Trig story thingy and destroy her like a bucket of water destroyed the Wicked Witch of the West. (Or North in this case.)
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that I, too, have a diminished desire to visit Alaska, a state I had hoped to eventually come see and once almost did while on an extended road trip. I realize that there are going to be all kinds of people there, but I see now the corruption and fundamentalism is much bigger than I thought, sort of like the deep south of the far north.
ReplyDelete7:57 AM, you are out of line. Alaskans actually care deeply about the environment and cherish what they have.
ReplyDelete6:09 AM, you are a nasty piece of work and I would not want to be your relation
Gryph,
ReplyDeleteDo you know anything more about the Beck/Palin event in Anchorage on 9/11 than is being reported by HuffPo?
Could Sarah be low enough to announce a run for President on a very sacred day?
It's weird because it's not really being advertised.
if you choose not to go to the most beautiful state because of one person, you are deranged and need psych treatment
ReplyDelete10:17 AM
ReplyDeleteOf course you care about the beauty around you. But what are you doing?
That would be why my in-box is filled with petitions and people asking for my money to help save the polar bears, beluga whales, wolves and to stop Pebble Creek mining.
I'll get bk in line when you do.
Somewhat O/T. I just saw the short clip CNN aired with the Vanity Fair author Michael Joseph Gross, and was very impressed. I can see why some Wasilla residents opened up to him; he does not come across as someone with a bad agenda, just someone who wants to know the truth.
ReplyDeleteIvy Frye, although banished from the presence of Quitty, is still on the Palin payroll.
ReplyDelete10:17 and 11:00 I can CHOOSE what ever I want to do for whatever reasons I care to think up.
ReplyDeleteYOU chose to vote in that monster and her ruination of Alaska is on YOUR heads.
Suck it up butter cup and look in the freaking mirror and see who is the real thrashers of Alaska. It's own people who allowed this moron to get as much power as she has without vetting her first.
I have to laugh when people are saying they are not going to visit Alaska because there are too many ignorant people here and Sarah Palin lives here. There are ignorant people everywhere. Remember George Bush was re-elected.
ReplyDeleteI really feel for you, Gryphen. My young son went with his French class on a tour of France for three weeks in 2003--right around the start of Bush's war against Iraq.
ReplyDeleteI sewed an "I Am Canadian" sticker onto his suitcase for the same reason as you had. We've never even been to Canada.
It is very sad that your state (and Arizona, too) are reduced to such simplification. Yet, we need to expose the bad in order to bring about the necessary change and healing.
It would be nice to learn more about the good people and the spectacular environment of Alaska.
Once your citizens rid the state of the crazies, you'll get more visitors!
When I went to Europe back in 96, my friends from Canada gave me a little Canadian flag pin and people told me to say I was from Canada. I instead told people I was from Alaska and they loved it. I had an amazing time during my trip.
ReplyDeleteNow, it's 'oh Sarah Palin'. Blah. I cannot tell you the desdain I have for that woman. She truly did a lot of damage and is to stupid to know it.
Warning, Will Robinson! Warning! Warning!
ReplyDeleteShe ruined Alaska. She ruined Wasilla. She ruined her own family. She only loves herself. She caused the breakdown of her own family because indulging her ego was more important. Be warned, Americans. Turn away from her wanton seductions. This notorious media whore is just not that into you.
I was planning to visit Europe during Bush's second term. Friends advised me to to buy a Canadian hockey jersey and say I was from Toronto. I look too American, and a lot of Europeans were very hostile because of our politics. We are so isolated and self centered, we have no idea how the rest of the world sees us. Now Alaskans are paying the price for their politicians' lack of professionalism.
ReplyDeleteI live in a small Alaskan community
ReplyDeleteand have for 51 years, It bothers the hell out of me that a bunch of outsiders are bad mouthing the ALASKA that I love because they don't like one person, namely Sarah Palin.
I meet many people from outside that come to Alaska each year and not one this summer has asked about Palin. They are interested in the history, tours, fishing and the people in general.
Maybe some of you folks should get a life.