Changing your pillow is probably worth a try, but don't assume that it's the cause. Could be your position in bed, a sag in your mattress, etc. Do you own a really big cat?

OK, you make some good points. But:

Except that nobody did take it away from him. He got all high-and-mighty about being "villified" and gave it back.

Right, because I'm not an expert on how AIG is run, I'm not allowed to have opinions about how well they're run. Even though they've given plenty of widely-accepted evidence that they are badly run.

When I complain about executive compensation, I'm not just talking about AIG. I'm talking about the whole corporate sector. For decades, American capitalism did just fine with executives that made maybe 20 times what the ordinary employees made. Now all of sudden we're being told that in order to stay "competitive", we have to pay executives 100 or even 1000 times what the ordinary employees make.

And has this made American Enterprise more robust? Hardly. We're losing ground to other countries where executive are not a priviliged class. American companies stagnate around obsolete business models and technologies. Stockholders have less and less say over how their companies are run. And the workers, who ought to be cultivated as a long term resources, and treated as interchangable and disposable.

What we have here is a self-perpetuating class of corporate drones, who effectively determine their own compensation. With the result that you have an executive who can afford to throw a $750,000 snit! This may not be socialism, but it's not free enterprise either. If it were self-sustaining (which it's not, which I find fortunate as long as I don't look at what's left of my 401K) I'd call it corporate fascism.

Pudge, you really need to learn the difference between "argument" and "contradiction". I think I'll just say "Monty Python" every time you do this.

If I talked like you, this is where I'd call you a liar. I made it pretty clear I was talking about the corporate environment as a whole, not AIG.

Monty Python.

You sir, with your creative semantics, your constant insults, and your selective reading of what other people say, are in no position to accuse anybody of insobriety.

I'd like to hear the exact wording of that "promise". A bonus is not supposed to be an entitlement. I didn't get my bonus last year because my company lost money. I really don't see why this guy should be any different.

If he agreed to work for a year in exchange for taking his compensation as a guaranteed "bonus" instead of as a salary, then he and his employer are playing stupid bookkeeping games, and shouldn't get all self-righteous when their games backfire.

Yeah, it's not fair that this guy had to work for a year for free. Lots of unfair things are happening this year. The fact that this guy can afford to express simple self-righteousness by voluntarily returning his bonus tells me he's doing pretty well financially, with or without that bonus. Maybe AIG will be hurt by losing him, but I doubt it. He sounds very much like the top echelon of suits who have an excessive sense of entitlement over their excessive compensation.

This is not even new. It's bothered me for years that the compensation for the top echelon of corporate suits has gone up and up, all in the name of "competitiveness". Meanwhile, the ordinary folks who actually make the business work have actually lost real earning power. They've seen their inflation-adjusted incomes and benefits wither — and that's when they even manage to keep their jobs.

This inequity is not merely unfair. It's bad for business. The outrage is necessary and overdue.

That last November, Obama wasn't elected, the Electoral College was elected. That would be an important distinction if you could name a single member of the Electoral College. Or knew anybody who could. Or if there were the slightest chance a significant number of electors changing their votes.

Tell me, when the networks called it, and your friends said "Darn it, that idiot liberal Obama's been elected President," did you say, "No, only the Electoral College has been elected"? If you did, they probably thought you were pretty lame.

...the party protects you!

... the party amputates you!

Uh, dude, how hard did you look? I'd never even heard the quote, but it only took me a few minutes to trace it back to Doug Thompson who claims that he got it from multiple sources in the meeting where Bush said it. Now, you can question Thompson's honesty — I'm sure you will — but it's not exactly unsourced.

... welcome our new McFly overlords!