Blogistan: Are You Part of the Internet Underbelly?

BLOGISTAN
Babba Zee
Outraged Spleen of Zion



"Those who counsel avoidance of blogs are no different from those who advise against frequenting dark, crime-ridden neighborhoods. There may be bargains to be had in such locales, maybe even a good library or pizzeria. But they are scuzzy places to spend time in."
--Rabbi Avi Shafran, Blogistan


Are you a member of the easiest cult in the world to join? Are you part of the Internet's underbelly?

One of the signs of a cult is the constant search for enemies: someone or something to rally the members of the cult against; something or someone on which to concentrate their energies.

Some blogs--particularly those that concentrate on conspiracy theories--appear based on the premise of finding a dark enemy for their members to combat.

Outraged Spleen of Zion reprints Blogistan, an informative piece by Rabbi Avi Shafran on the darker side of the Internet. It raises some interesting points.

No one knows exactly why the Internet appears to bring out the worst in people, but there is little doubt that it often does. And the cloak of anonymity seems to unleash truly dark, ugly alter egos.

Although the post isn't very complimentary of the Blogosphere in general, many of the points it raises are spot-on.

Perhaps even more disturbing is the apparent gullibility of so many visitors to those blogs, who, from their own postings, seem ready to swallow any accusation or character assassination, as long as the charges are sufficiently salacious or forcefully asserted. Some of the many adulatory comments posted on offensive blogs may have been planted by the blogerrai-meisters themselves, but many certainly seem to be from other citizens anxious to join in the fun.

The post is easy to read and breaks down the problems of the Blogosphere into easily-digested chunks.

Are the blogs you visit part of Blogistan?

Visit, read and decide for yourself.

ALSO at DBKP.com:
Blogistan: Are you part of the Underbelly of the Internet?

by Mondoreb
image: Outraged Spleen of Zion
Source: Blogistan

Today in History: January 14, 2008

WHITEWATER, WAR!, DISASTERS, UNCLE SUGAR, EXECUTION, REVOLT, REMORSE, CONQUEST, JEWS, POLITICS, INVENTIONS, MEDICINE, CONSPIRACY, ASSASSINATION, CONSTITUTION, TRADEMARKS, CIVIL RIGHTS, CUTBACKS, LABOR, PROGRESS, SOCIETIES, RECORDS, MOVIES, DIPLOMACY, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, RATIONING, MARRIAGE, DIVORCE, MUSIC, THE KING, SEGREGATION, The 60s, GERMS, SPORTS, SCIENCE, DRUGS, HOLIDAYS, DEREGULATION, FINANCE, SEETHE, KIDNAPPED, DUI, FUNERAL, LOSER, PLEAS, BORN, DEATH



WHITEWATER

1998 Whitewater prosecutors questioned Hillary Rodham Clinton at the White House for 10 minutes about the gathering of FBI background files on past Republican political appointees. (Sources quoted the first lady as saying she knew nothing about any such collection of files.)

WAR!

1783 Congress ratifies peace treaty between US & England

1784 Revolutionary War ends; Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris

1861 Fort Pikens FL falls into state hands

1863 Battle between gunboats at Bayou Teched LA

1864 Battle of Cosby Creek TN

1864 General Sherman begins his march to the South

1942 Japanese troops land at oil center Balikpapan in Borneo

1943 FDR & Winston Churchill confer in Casablanca concerning WWII

1943 Heinrich Himmler views Warsaw

1944 Soviet army begins offensive at Oranienbaum/Wolchow

DISASTER

1916 Dutch South Sea dike cracks

1946 2 jetties collapse in Ganges-160 Hindu pilgrims are crushed

1952 Snow storm in Sierra NV kills 26

1960 Tuindorp-Oostzaan in Northern Amsterdam, flooded

1967 Earthquake in Sicily kills 231

1969 25 members of US aircraft carrier Enterprise die during maneuvers

1993 Polish ferry boat capsizes in storm, 50 die

UNCLE SUGAR

1799 Eli Whitney receives government contract for 10,000 muskets

EXECUTION

1717 German mob leader "Sjako" sentenced to death in Amsterdam

1948 Anna "Ans" van Dike Dutch Jewish Nazi-collaborator, executed at 42

REVOLT

1847 Governor Bent 5 others in US occupation, killed by revolt in New Mexico

1949 Black/Indian race rebellion in Durban, South Africa; 142 die

REMORSE

1699 Massachusetts holds day of fasting for wrongly persecuting "witches"

CONQUEST

1641 United East Indian Company conquerors city of Malakka, 7,000 killed

JEWS

1601 Church authorities burn Hebrew books in Rome

POLITICS

1639 1st Connecticut constitution (Fundamental Orders) adopted in Hartford

1639 Rodger Ludlow publishes"Fundamental Orders of Connecticut"

2007 President Bush, facing opposition from both parties over his plan to send more troops to Iraq, said on CBS' "60 Minutes" that he had the authority to act no matter what Congress wanted. On "Fox News Sunday," Vice President Dick Cheney asserted that lawmakers' criticism would not influence Bush's plans and he dismissed any effort to "run a war by committee."

INVENTIONS

1690 Clarinet is invented, in Nüremberg, Germany

MEDICINE

1794 Dr Jessee Bennet of Edom VA, performs 1st successful Cesarean section operation on his wife

CONSPIRACY

1847 Conspiracy in New Mexico against US

ASSASSINATION

1858 French Emperor Napoleon III escapes attempt on his life by Felice Orsini, an Italian patriot who was later executed

CONSTITUTION

1868 North Carolina constitutional convention meets in Raleigh

1868 South Carolina constitutional convention, meets with a black majority

TRADEMARKS

1873 "Celluloid" registered as a trademark

CIVIL RIGHTS

1878 US Supreme court rules race separation on trains unconstitutional

CUTBACKS

2003 Kmart Corp. announced its biggest round of cutbacks yet, saying it would close 326 more stores and eliminate 37,000 more jobs in hopes of getting out of bankruptcy by the end of April 2003. (Kmart emerged from Chapter 11 protection in May 2003.)

LABOR

2003 Thousands of General Electric Co. employees across the country began a two-day strike to protest higher health insurance costs.

PROGRESS

1914 Henry Ford introduces assembly line, for T-Fords

SOCIETIES

1938 National Society for the Legalization of Euthanasia formed (NY)

RECORDS

1973 Tap dancer Ray Castle measured at 1440 taps/minutes on BBC TV

MOVIES

1980 "Blues Brothers" movie with Dan Akroyd & John Belushi opens

DIPLOMACY

1950 US recalls all consular officials from China

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1952 "Today Show" premieres with Dave Garroway & Jack Lescoulie on NBC-TV

1972 "Sanford & Son" starring Redd Foxx premieres on NBC TV

1976 "The Bionic Woman" with Lindsay Wagner debuts on ABC (later NBC)

1990 "Simpsons" premiered on Fox-TV

1990 11th ACE Cable Awards

1993 David Letterman announces his show is moving from NBC to CBS

1998 100th episode of "Ellen" airs

1998 NBC agreed to pay Warner Brothers $13 million per episode to retain the highly rated TV show "ER."

RATIONING

1952 Rationing of coffee in Netherlands ends

MARRIAGE

1954 Marilyn Monroe marries baseball star, New York Yankee, Joe DiMaggio

DIVORCE

1994 Kathleen Kinmont files for divorce from Lorenzo Lamas

MUSIC

1956 Little Richard releases "Tutti Frutti"

1966 David Bowie releases his 1st record (Can't Help Thinking About Me)

1967 Sonny & Cher release "The Beat Goes On"

THE KING

1960 US Army promoted Elvis Presley to Sergeant

SEGREGATION

1963 George C Wallace sworn in as Governor of Alabama, his address states "segregation now; segregation tomorrow; segregation forever!"

The 60s

1967 20,000 attend the Human Be-In, San Francisco

GERMS

1967 New York Times reports Army is conducting secret germ warfare experiments

SPORTS

1968 Super Bowl II Green Bay Packers beat Oakland Raiders, 33-14 in Miami; Super Bowl MVP Bart Starr, Green Bay, Quarterback

1973 Super Bowl VII Miami Dolphins beat Washington Redskins, 14-7 in Los Angeles; Super Bowl MVP Jake Scott, Miami, Safety

1974 World Football League founded

1976 Ted Turner becomes CEO of Atlanta Braves

SCIENCE

1969 Soyuz 4 launched; rendezvous with Soyuz 5 two days later

1994 Russian manned space craft TM-17, lands

DRUGS

1973 Grateful Dead bass player, Phil Lesh, busted for drugs in California

HOLIDAYS

1979 President Carter proposes Martin Luther King's birthday be a holiday

DEREGULATION

1981 FCC frees stations to air as many commercials an hour as they wish

FINANCE

1985 British pound (£) sinks to record low-$1.11

SEETHE

1989 1,000 muslims burn Rushdies' "Satanic Verses" in Bradford England

KIDNAPPED

1989 Former Belgian premier Paul Vanden Boeynants kidnapped

LOSERS

1990 Perez de Cuellar says he has lost all hope for peace in the Gulf

DUI

1991 Tyne Daly arrested for drunk driving in Van Nuys CA

FUNERAL

1995 10,000s South Africans attend state funeral of Joe Slovo

PLEAS

1998 Charles Barkley pleads not guilty to an assault charge

BORN

1730 William Whipple merchant/judge/patriot (Declaration of Independence signer)
1741 Benedict Arnold US General turned traitor (Revolutionary War)
1791 Calvin Phillips became shortest known adult male (67cm; 2'2")
1861 Mehmed VI last sultan of Ottoman Empire (1918-22)
1892 Hal Roach early film director/producer (1 Million BC)
1892 Martin Niemöller clergyman (German Protestant); imprisoned by Hitler
1896 John dos Passos novelist (1919, Big Money, 42nd Parallel)
1906 William Bendix New York City NY, actor (Lifeboat, Babe Ruth Story, Life of Riley)
1919 Andy Rooney Albany NY, CBS news correspondent (60 Minutes)
1924 Guy Williams New York City NY, actor (Zorro, Lost in Space)
1936 Clarence Carter US singer (Thread the Needle, Patches)
1937 Billie Jo Spears country singer
1938 Jack Jones Los Angeles CA, singer (Love Boat Theme)
1938 Allen Toussaint [Naomi Neville], pianist/songwriter (Ride Your Pony, Wild Sign of New Orleans)
1940 Julian Bond Nashville TN, (D-GA) civil rights leader
1941 [Dorothy] Faye Dunaway Bascom FL, actress (Chinatown, Bonnie & Clyde)
1948 Carl Weathers New Orleans LA, actor (Apollo Creed-Rocky)
1948 T-Bone Burnett musician/producer
1949 Lawrence Kasdan Miami FL, director/writer (Accidental Tourist)
1952 Sydney Biddle Barrow madam/author (Mayflower Madam)
1958 Colin Ferguson murderer (6 people on the Long Island Railroad on Dec 7, 1993)
1959 Susan Smith Beloit WI, playmate (Sept, 1981)
1964 Steven Soderbergh writer (Mimi, Schizoplis)
1965 Vanity [Dee Dee Williams], singer/actress (Action Jackson)
1968 L L Cool J [James Todd Smith], St Albans NY, rapper (Bigger & Deffer)
1969 Jason Kent Bateman Rye NY, actor (David-Valerie, Hogan Family)
1969 Dave Grohl drummer (Nirvana, Foo Fighters)
1973 Lethon Flowers NFL defensive back (Pittsburgh Steelers)
1988 Jamie Altman son of Lynda Carter & Robert Altman
1989 Sextuplets Paris France, (to a 29-year-old woman)

DEATH

1595 Ferdinand archduke of Austria/mayor of Bohemenia, dies
1742 Edmund Halley genius eclipsed by Newton, dies at 86
1898 Reverend Charles L Dodgson better known as Lewis Carroll, dies at 66
1957 Humphrey Bogart actor (Casablanca, Caine Mutiny), dies at 57
1965 Jeanette MacDonald soprano (When I'm Calling You), dies at 63
1977 Anthony Eden British premier (1955-57), dies at 79
1977 Peter Finch actor (Network, Nun's Story, Judith), dies at 60
1978 Blossom Rock actress (Grandmamma-Addams Family), dies at 81
1984 Ray Kroc founder of MacDonalds/owner San Diego Padres, dies at 82
1986 Donna Reed actress (Donna Reed Show, Dallas), dies of cancer at 64
2007 Actress Darlene Conley, feisty fashion mogul Sally Spectra on "The Bold and the Beautiful," died in Los Angeles at age 72.

January 14, the 14th day of 2008. There are 352 days remaining.

compiled by Mondoreb
[image:
Source:
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

Poll: Is the Country Populated by Kooks?

Click to enlarge picture

The NY Daily News is titled "Blame US for 911 Idiots in Majority". The story by Andy Soltis, reports Scripps-Howard/Ohio University poll results showing that "nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the federal government had warnings about 9/11 but decided to ignore them".

Some will shake their head in sad resignation, others in vigorous agreement with those particular figures. However, what is really interesting to those who fret about the U.S. becoming "Jerry Springer Nation" was at the end of the story.

In the latest Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll, 811 US adults were interviewed Sept. 24 to Oct. 10. Among the findings:

* 42 percent believe the federal government knew in advance of the plot to assassinate John F. Kennedy, compared with 40 percent who call that theory "not likely."

* 37 percent believe UFOs are real and that the feds have been hiding the truth about them.

The 2006 poll found 36 percent believed the government was also hiding proof that intelligent life exists on other planets.

* Eight out of 10 Americans suspect oil companies are conspiring to keep fuel prices high and 50 percent said a conspiracy is "very likely." Only 14 percent felt it was unlikely.

And some finding from the same poll in 2006.

In that (2006) poll, 16 percent said the Twin Towers might have collapsed because of secretly planted explosives - not hijacked passenger jets flown into them.

And what hit the Pentagon? Twelve percent figured it was a US cruise missile.

Anger at the federal government and skepticism in general by younger Americans is fueling the popularity of crackpot conspiracy theories.

Only 12 percent of Americans expressed anger at the government following the 2001 terrorist attack, but that grew steadily and reached 54 percent last year.

Most young adults give some credence to a conspiracy theory, while seniors are the least likely to believe in one, pollsters found.

Is the whole country populated by kooks?

These poll results might be used to illustrate almost any point one is trying to make: that U.S. education is failing miserably to teach students critical thinking skills; that video games are the ruination of the Republic; that lunacy loves company; that the system works; or, that the "truth" is getting out.

Soltis' point is a good one: anger and mistrust at the federal government has clouded the judgment of many Americans participating in polls.

Once, only Democrats had to worry about feeling the wrath of that mistrust.

Now Republicans, once the party of limited government and lassez faire are known for 'compassionate conservatism', and other fuzzy re-labeling of federal government expansion.

The frenzy of Republican-controlled Congressional earmarks further alienated conservative voters.

Any presidential candidate need only look at these poll results to see, come next November, which side to be on.

by Mondoreb
& Little Baby Ginn




Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

JFK Assassination Plot in Chicago Revealed

Forty-four years after it happened, details continue to come to light about the assassination and the presidency of John F. Kennedy.

World Net Daily has a story of more intrigue: an attempted whistle-blower in the form of a secret service agent; the agent's imprisonment; the recanting of the testimony of a key witness against the agent; and, the story of another November plot to assassinate JFK.

From JFK assassination plot uncovered in Chicago?:

Ex-Secret Service agent reveals tip caused president to change travel plans 3 weeks before Dallas shooting

Former agent Abraham Bolden, 72, told Chicago ABC affiliate, WLS-TV, Kennedy was waved off from a much-publicized visit to Chicago on Nov. 2, 1963, to attend the Army-Air Force football game at Soldier Field and ride in a parade after the Secret Service received a report from a motel manager who told of seeing several automatic weapons with telescopic sights on the bed of a room rented to several Cuban nationals. They had an outline of the route Kennedy was to follow from O'Hare airport that would take his motorcade past the motel. The route had been printed in Chicago newspapers.

Bolden, a former Illinois state trooper, was the first black agent to protect a president.

The Secret Service was already uneasy about the presidential visit because an outspoken critic of the president, Thomas Vallee, had arranged to take off work for Kennedy's visit. Vallee was arrested before the planned visit with an M1 rifle, a handgun and 3,000 rounds of ammunition in his possession.

News of the Cuban nationals triggered an investigation but, Bolden charges, the surveillance was mishandled and the Cuban suspects disappeared and were never identified.

"No one was sent to the room to fingerprint it or get an ID. The case was lost and that was the end of it," he said.

More food for thought for both those interested in full disclosure of the JFK story's details and JFK conspiracy theorists.

The day of the planned flight from Washington, D.C., with a suspected Cuban hit team somewhere in Chicago, the Secret Service urged a change of plans.

"The morning of the game, the special agent in charge of the Chicago office called the White House and recommended the president cancel his trip to Chicago," Bolden said.

News reports at the time blamed the change in plans on illness and a diplomatic crisis. South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated in Saigon on that same day.

But Bolden told WLS-TV neither illness nor crisis were the reason plans were changed – JFK stayed away from Chicago because of the suspected assassination plot.

Bolden tried to come forward at the time, but his story about the assassination attempt and the bungling by officials was overshadowed by another story: that of a secret service agent arrest for bribery.

It was hard for Bolden to make much noise from a prison cell.

Following Kennedy's murder in Dallas three weeks later, Bolden said he tried to inform the Warren Commission of the Chicago plot and misconduct by Secret Service agents, including on-duty drunkenness, but his efforts were thwarted when he was arrested, prosecuted and sentenced to prison for soliciting a bribe from a counterfeiter.

Bolden, who served six years, claims he was set up to silence his criticism of agents' behavior and is hoping to clear his name after the main witness against him recanted his testimony.

This story is an illustration of the times: with so many sources of media available to people--the Internet and blogosphereare bit two--it's hard to imagine the story staying out of the public eye today.

The same media voices who chastise the blogosphere as some sort of irresponsible "Wild West" environment are the same ones who left this story unreported for years.
There's a difference between the media of 1963 and the media of 2007.

It's the difference between having 5 or 6 points of view and having a choice of thousands.

Given his choice between the sanctimonious gatekeepers of Traditional Media and today's Internet news resources, Abraham Bolden would probably cast his vote for the "Wild West".

by Mondoreb
[hat tip: pat]
[image:prisonplanet]




Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.