June 16: Gold, gay rights and Gov. Palin

It's ironic how some people pick and choose what is offensive. It appears that Dave Letterman's comedic comments have stuck a nerve with Governor Palin. She probably views his comments as a personal attack.

Its' too bad she didn't take her own comments into consideration when she said that Barack Obama "pals around with terrorists". She was campaigning as the nominee for vice-president during the time she made that statement.

- Deborah D. Williams

Anchorage

Protect the fund; buy gold

Your June 12 editorial calling for close scrutiny of the Permanent Fund's new investment plan was, as they say, right on the money.

There is an old investment adage that you should never confuse a bull market with brains, but the fund's trustees have done exactly that. They paid people in suits big bucks to help them follow the herd, but it turned out to be a herd of lemmings heading over a cliff.

What I would like to know is why the fund's list of alternative investments doesn't include the granddaddy of them all -- gold. It is true that gold earns no interest, but it is equally true that it cannot be created out of thin air. It passes silent judgment on the world of finance and in recent years that world has been found desperately wanting.

It is a disgrace that there is more gold in the Anchorage Museum than in the Permanent Fund. At least five percent of the fund's assets should be allocated to the "gold standard" for wealth protection.

- Herb Berkowitz

Anchorage

Mrs. Alaska is out of line

Equal housing rights for gays really isn't my issue. I don't have homosexual friends or family, just a couple of young kids of as yet unknown sexuality. Though from a practical standpoint, why would I, a taxpayer, want able-bodied gay people clogging up the unemployment rolls?

But what really ticks me off are the online pictures of Mrs. Alaska (in sash and tiara) leading a group of militant, red-shirted children in a march against the proposed ordinance. The message that I got (and more importantly the message that the red-shirted kids got) was loud and clear: These wonderful heterosexual kids are worthy of Mrs. Alaska's royal approval, and are somehow better than the flawed children of homosexuals, and especially kids who might actually turn out to be gay themselves.

And we taxpayers wonder why our teachers have to spend so much time on "anti-bullying education", instead of the basics? With role models like Mrs. Alaska, who needs violent, drugged out sports stars?

- Anne Terry

Anchorage