“I’d like to hear Barack Obama come out and renounce Lucifer. I don’t recall hearing him do it.”
–Jerome Corsi
I’d prefer he renounce Cthulhu. Compared to Cthulhu, Lucifer is a wimp.
Also, seeing as I don’t recall ever hearing Jerome Corsi renounce Lucifer (or Cthulhu), I have to assume he is in league with the devil himself.
The level of stupidity in this country continues to escalate to all new heights. Alas, it appears the stupidity is becoming a worldwide problem, so there’s no use moving to some other country. Seeing as we don’t have a space program designed to get me off this rock, I guess all I can do is hope the coming New Dark Age (of Utter Stupidity) holds off until I am dead. Because I am in a pessimistic mood this morning, I’m just going to guess it won’t, and I’ll have the “pleasure” of living my golden years in an intellectual wasteland that was once a thriving human society. Woe is me.
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
–Frank Herbert, Dune
2. Verify authenticity of sources, and develop trusted sources.
3. Locate and consume original source of information.
4. Do 1, 2, and 3 before becoming outraged or passing it on.
Those these sound like they would only apply to journalism and politics and the internet, I apply them to just about everything in life. I find them useful, and I wish more people would use them. Especially people in journalism and politics … unlike all the people currently embroiled in the Sherrod drama.†
Footnotes
† Especially the Obama Administration. Their overwrought and hasty reaction to a clip of an edited video tape has made them look completely stupid. [↩]
Since I’d seen a lot of people talking online about Senator Coburn saying something about the USA being more free 30 years ago than now and couldn’t find the actual quote from the confirmation hearing so I could read it in his own words, I had to annoy myself by listening to him drone on and on in order to make my own transcript of it. If you also like to hear or read people’s own words, rather than have people tell you what someone said (in quotation marks, no less, even though it’s not a quote), here you go:
Have you ever contemplated the idea of what your freedom was like 30 years ago and what it is today?
I want to tell you, a lot of Americans have, and I certainly have. There’s a marked change in this country, from when I was twenty to now when I am 62. And one of the problems with confidence –and the reason I asked you the question– is a lot of Americans are losing confidence, because they are losing freedom. They’re losing liberty.
–Sen. Coburn, R-Oklahoma, Kagan confirmation hearing, Day Three – Part Four
I would imagine that Senator Coburn, a white man of some means, has noticed a “marked change” in this country since 1980. I would also imagine minorities and women have also noticed a “marked change” in freedom since 1980 as well. As a woman, let me tell you, Senator Coburn, I feel far more free now to do as I wish than I did in 1980.
In 1980, I was told I couldn’t take shop class, because I was a girl. In 1983, I was told I couldn’t be a Navy pilot, because woman are irrational (no shit, really that was the excuse given to me). So, yes, seeing as girls can now take shop class and women can be Navy pilots, seems to me freedom has increased for some people, though perhaps not for wealthy white men … if only because they do seem somewhat opposed to sharing their freedoms with others not so white or male (or straight).
Senator Knotts (R- S.C.) –the man who thinks it’s “coy and funny” to call the President and one of his own Republican Party members “ragheads”– has been flapping his sagging jowls again.
Reporter: Are you a racist?
Knotts: No. I’ve got… I help anybody. It don’t matter what color their skin is. Doesn’t matter what party they in, whether they a Democrat or Republican. I work both sides of the aisle.You can’t work both sides of the aisle if you a racist, and I’ve done that for 16 years.
I like how he started to say “I’ve got…” which is usually followed by “black friends.” Then he thought better of it and worded it in a slightly different way. Of course, while he’s busy insisting he isn’t a racist and will help anyone, no matter what, he also had this to say:
Knotts: …the press has given Nikki Haley a free ride ever since she has been runnin’, and you know it, ’cause WIS is exactly responsible for that.
Reporter: Where have we not held her accountable? What questions have we not asked her that you would like to have asked?
Knotts: Have you ever asked her if she believes in Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior and that he died on the cross for her sins? Have you ever asked her that? Not just ‘Do you believe in God?’
So, I guess he isn’t so much a racist as just a general purpose bigot.
You can watch the interview I pulled this quotes from here at WMBF News.
“A couple of things about the searches on Google and Yahoo… it’s not just that thing you showed there, Keith. It’s not just the sponsored link at the top –I was fooling around with it this afternoon. They’re buying the Google algorithm, not just that first thing up top. If you put in all kinds of other combinations, and you do the search, the top several responses you get in the un-highlighted area –supposedly the journalistic area– also take you directly to the BP page. So I think there are questions to be asked about that whole thing is working.”
–Howard Fineman on Keith Olbermann, , 2010
Accusing Google of selling listings or “page rank” in the non-sponsored section of the search is a pretty bold claim. Much like saying “That politician took a bribe!” or “That woman killed her husband!” I would like some proof with that statement. He didn’t say “It seems like…” or in some other way leave himself an out with his statement either. Fineman came right out and accused Google of shady business practices, and his only proof? When you type “BP” and “oil” and “spill” into Google, in addition to the sponsored link BP actually did buy, the first couple of links also go to BP’s homepage.
Let me take a moment to explain to the elderly gentleman how it could possibly be that BP’s own web site might come up highly listed on Google’s search results OTHER than BP having bought something Google says they don’t sell (Page Rank):
Everyone and their pet dog has been linking to the live camera on the gushing oil pipe, which just so happens to be on a sub-page of the BP web site. Many of these places linking to it have high page rank themselves (Rachel Maddow’s blog, for example), which then also gives the page linked to a page rank boost. Additionally, all these other pages linking to that page are undoubtedly doing so in posts or articles using the words “BP” and “oil” and “spill” which will lead to that page being ranked highly for those search terms (on top of the fact BP probably has high page rank anyway, even before everyone was talking about them -they are the fourth largest company on the planet). Since the live camera is on a sub-page of a main web site, it’s going to be listed as such in the search listings underneath the link for the main web page (so it’s really only one listing). This is totally not at all surprising to anyone who has any understanding of how Google works.†
If I were Google and had Google’s bank account and team of lawyers, I’d probably be having a discussion with Mr. Fineman. “They’re buying the Google algorithm,” he says quite clearly in the following clip.
Like I said, that’s a bold statement without any actual proof to back it up. Why, I’d say it’s positively slanderous, and I bet there would be some Google lawyers who agree with me.
Just because you are on TV does not mean you can say whatever thing pops into your head! Stop making stuff up and believing it’s true just because the thought crossed your mind and you lack the knowledge, imagination, and/or research skills required to understand how search engines like Google work!
NEWLY ADDED INFO: Becky at White Hat, Black Belt has a much more knowledgeable explanation for those who want more information on why exactly Fineman’s statement about Google was completely ignorant. I’m not wrong, but she really knows her stuff!
Footnotes
† And if you leave off BP and only search for oil spill, there is no link at all to the BP web site. Once again, I am not at all surprised. Duh. Most major corporations have great page rank on their own company name. Hell, if you type the words “just” and “orb” into Google, lo and behold, I dominate the top several listings, and I am hardly a major corporation. [↩]
“What a piece of worke is a man! how Noble in Reason? how infinite in faculty? in forme and mouing how expresse and admirable? in Action, how like an Angel? in apprehension, how like a God?”
—The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
(Act II, Scene ii, 285-300)
