The Anti-Education Republican Party
I've begun to notice a definite disdain among the leaders and pundits of the Republican party for so-called "intellectuals" and "elites." (actually, I noticed it four years ago). This behavior fits with their strategy of trying to woo the "common man," whom the Republican party believes is a plumber named Joe who downs a six-pack of beer every night before bed.
To the Republicans, Joe isn't very smart. Note how McCain, in the second, "town hall" debate, said "You probably never heard of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac before this," to the African-American man who posed him a question about the economy. Some people thought McCain assumed the man wasn't informed because the man was black... I say, McCain was simply doing what the Republicans have become very good at: talking down to a populace that they think are idiots.
In the Republican Party's defense, they may be right. After all, Bush was re-elected. How smart can our country be?
But I digress. The Republican party continually paints science and progress as a bad guy-- enemy of religion, killer of babies, liberal poison designed to turn a generation of schoolchildren into Democrats. Need evidence?
Their support for school vouchers and homeschooling initiatives that take funding away from public schools and puts education in the hands of amateurs.
Support for creationism to be taught in schools.
Denial of global warming.
Deriding legitimate scientific research as "pork spending."
Cutting Pell grants and other ways to help people obtain a higher education.
Forcing medical doctors to adhere to politically-influenced scripts which make no logical, medical sense.
Anointing a VP candidate who doesn't read books, doesn't know the role of a VP, and who believes Alaska will be a final battleground of the apocalypse.
Slate has an excellent article here by Christopher Hitchens about this disturbing trend.
I'm not saying voting for Democrats makes you smarter than voting for a Republican. But if Republicans continue to pander to the segment of society which abhors logic and reason, its only a matter of time before the Republican party becomes the thing it covets.
Showing posts with label john mccain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label john mccain. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
What's Wrong With This Picture??
Above is a screencap from the MSNBC site. It also highlights the reason I can't allow myself to get too optimistic about Obama winning this election in a landslide.
The AP poll actually says McCain has gained ground since the third and final debate. Read it and you'd think McCain's "Joe The Plumber" argument is making believers.
Then you read this NBC/WSJ poll, and Obama's up by ten points.
What's the truth? I find it so hard to believe--after 8 years of Republican mismanagement of the economy, the war, and just about everything else--that McCain will win. But then again, the logic of many Americans isn't always sound:
The screenshot above also provides a some reasons not to vote for McCain. The same man who claims Obama will be a "Tax and spender" has a running mate who's using $150,000 of public funds to add to her personal wardrobe. The economy, which McCain claimed was a-ok, is an empty shell hollowed out by the same corrupt businessmen McCain's such good pals with.
With the election right around the corner, Obama supporters can not afford to be overconfident. The New England Patriots were undefeated-- and lost the Super Bowl. The first season of Heroes was great-- until the season finale. Just because things may look rosy for an outsider seeking to upend an inept ruling party doesn't mean Obama's got it sewn up just yet. The AP poll should remind us of this.
Above is a screencap from the MSNBC site. It also highlights the reason I can't allow myself to get too optimistic about Obama winning this election in a landslide.
The AP poll actually says McCain has gained ground since the third and final debate. Read it and you'd think McCain's "Joe The Plumber" argument is making believers.
Then you read this NBC/WSJ poll, and Obama's up by ten points.
What's the truth? I find it so hard to believe--after 8 years of Republican mismanagement of the economy, the war, and just about everything else--that McCain will win. But then again, the logic of many Americans isn't always sound:
The screenshot above also provides a some reasons not to vote for McCain. The same man who claims Obama will be a "Tax and spender" has a running mate who's using $150,000 of public funds to add to her personal wardrobe. The economy, which McCain claimed was a-ok, is an empty shell hollowed out by the same corrupt businessmen McCain's such good pals with.
With the election right around the corner, Obama supporters can not afford to be overconfident. The New England Patriots were undefeated-- and lost the Super Bowl. The first season of Heroes was great-- until the season finale. Just because things may look rosy for an outsider seeking to upend an inept ruling party doesn't mean Obama's got it sewn up just yet. The AP poll should remind us of this.
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Just In Case Your Were Fooled By Tina Fey... I Mean Sarah Palin
Sharing A Cover With Halibut
Sarah Palin gave a pretty riveting speech last night. I have to say, her speechwriters can sure turn a phrase. "In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers, and then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change."
Ooh! You get him Sarah!
Palin spoke a lot about family, seeking to counter perceived attacks against her brood. But as CNN contributor and Democrat Hillary Rosen points out, all of Sarah's talk about family doesn't change the fact that Republican policies are vehemently ANTI-family:
Republicans define "big government" as a government that spends a lot of money. Um... have they been paying attention the last 8 years? The government is BIGGER THAN EVER. The deficit is climbing astronomically. The last time the Democrats were in charge, we had a balanced budget... and oh yeah, the economy was super. It didn't seem like the Democrats formed a goliath government back then.
Sometimes it seems as if the Republicans live in an alternate universe. One where the economy doesn't suck, where the war in Iraq is already won, and where America is safer, stronger, and smarter than ever. Of course, we who actually live in the real world know that none of those things are the case. The Republicans have had not 4, but 8 years to improve this country's standing in the world. Instead, they've pretty much trashed everything.
Don't let McCain, or Palin, or anyone else convince you that shit smells like roses.
Palin's right about one thing. Words are just words. Actions speak louder.
Unfortunately, the actions carried out by 8 years of Bush have left us all begging for earplugs.
Sharing A Cover With Halibut
Sarah Palin gave a pretty riveting speech last night. I have to say, her speechwriters can sure turn a phrase. "In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers, and then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change."
Ooh! You get him Sarah!
Palin spoke a lot about family, seeking to counter perceived attacks against her brood. But as CNN contributor and Democrat Hillary Rosen points out, all of Sarah's talk about family doesn't change the fact that Republican policies are vehemently ANTI-family:
I don't care about how Sarah Palin or John McCain take care of their families. I care about how their policy choices affect my family and millions of other Americans.Well put. While the Republicans claim they want "less government," what they actually want to do is make the government MORE INVOLVED in the private lives of American citizens. Your every decision will be subject to a moral standard set by the Republican party. If you're cool with John McCain coming into your hospital room and telling you what to do, then vote for him.
McCain and Palin get their health insurance paid for by the government (hers in Alaska and his in Washington). Yet they oppose giving the nearly 46 million uninsured Americans the same access to affordable health care.
John McCain's kids don't have to worry about paying for college. Yet he has opposed every single education support program to help others.
McCain and Palin say they will stand up to oil companies. Yet the only energy policy they support gives millions of dollars in tax breaks to oil companies to do more drilling and he has opposed every piece of federal legislation to explore alternative fuel sources.
McCain and Palin say they will revamp how Washington does business. Yet his campaign is filled with lobbyists and she has cooperated with Sen. Ted Stevens in funneling federal money for useless projects in Alaska for years. And McCain and Palin have no solutions for Americans worrying about their jobs in a fragile economy.
McCain and Palin want us to leave their families alone. Yet they want to make rules for our families by eliminating our right to make our own choices over abortion, eliminate our access to family planning education or domestic partner benefits, and our freedom from discrimination.
They want to control what our kids learn in school about sex and about science. In short, through the policies they promote and the judges they support, they want the government to have more control over our private lives than at any time in history.
McCain and Palin now say their campaign is about change, too. Yet the only real change they have proposed is a change from a suit to a skirt in the vice president's office and one man fighting a misplaced war for another in the Oval Office.
Republicans define "big government" as a government that spends a lot of money. Um... have they been paying attention the last 8 years? The government is BIGGER THAN EVER. The deficit is climbing astronomically. The last time the Democrats were in charge, we had a balanced budget... and oh yeah, the economy was super. It didn't seem like the Democrats formed a goliath government back then.
Sometimes it seems as if the Republicans live in an alternate universe. One where the economy doesn't suck, where the war in Iraq is already won, and where America is safer, stronger, and smarter than ever. Of course, we who actually live in the real world know that none of those things are the case. The Republicans have had not 4, but 8 years to improve this country's standing in the world. Instead, they've pretty much trashed everything.
Don't let McCain, or Palin, or anyone else convince you that shit smells like roses.
Palin's right about one thing. Words are just words. Actions speak louder.
Unfortunately, the actions carried out by 8 years of Bush have left us all begging for earplugs.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Palin On The Dirt
By Robbie Republican
Good afternoon, my fellow patriots. Hope you had a fine Labor Day weekend, although, as I've stated before, it's a Communist holiday designed to disrupt American industry. But I digress. If you're a Republican like me, you already know about the shameful exploitation of innocent megacorporations by evil labor unions. I'm here to talk about a different subject, one of my favorites: Family. Specifically, how John McCain's VP choice, Sarah Palin, is the greatest mother in the world, and how she should, in November, become mother to all Americans.
I admit, at first I was stunned by McCain's pick. A woman? In the second-highest office in the land? I accepted it grudgingly, only because I knew it would really piss off Hillary Clinton.
But now I see. The Demoncrats-- no, that's not a typo-- are all up in arms about Sarah's seventeen year old daughter, who has apparently become pregnant out of wedlock. Those backward-thinking, stodgy old liberals seem to believe that teenage pregnancy is a bad thing. They think that Bristol getting pregnant means that Sarah was a bad parent. I have to say, I'm surprised at their attack. This is, after all, the political party that believes two men should be allowed to raise a kid (which Steve Guttenberg, in his documentary "Three Men and A Baby," proved was impossible).
Some people might think that when your teenage daughter is about to have a baby out of wedlock, it's selfish to run for Vice President and expose your family to media scrutiny. But I take a different view. Sarah wants people to see her daughter-- as a shining example. Sarah clearly believes, like I do, that women should give up their dreams, become full with child and become homemakers. You think the Chinese have a billion people because they encouraged their women to wait until after college to have babies? I don't think so.
If only more of our kids got pregnant at a young age. The younger the better. Because how else will we keep up with the Chinese? Or those Africans for that matter. Up with the birthrate, up with American power, I say.
Sarah could have declined the nomination and kept Bristol's life private... but she chose to share it with the world. You've got to admire a parent who would use their kid to further the pro-life agenda. Demo-rats (not a typo) say Sarah neglected her motherly duties. I say... good. Don't we want someone more devoted to her country than to her own children? I don't want a VP watching her kid's basketball game while Russia's fueling their warheads.
Some people seem to think McCain didn't know about this. But what they don't realize is that Bristol's pregnancy was all part of a carefully orchestrated plan crafted by the McCain campaign. What better way to show the social conservatives that you share their values? Values that state sex before marriage is sinful, sure. But if it does happen, as long as a baby is born, its all good. It's in the Bible, people, look it up.
Sure, when the movie Juno came out, I called it, "a sick celebration of teenage sexuality and teenage pregnancy. Yet another instance where Hollywood promotes hedonistic lifestyles that glorify immorality and sex." I, like Sarah, said that an abstinence-based education was the best way to keep our kids from having sex. And that if teens were getting pregnant, it was because of subliminal messages in Sheryl Crow songs.
But this is totally different. Teen pregnancy is a positive, beautiful thing, that in no way reflects on the parents. And if you can't see that, then you must be a Democrat. It's not worth explaining it to you.
It's a known fact that kids are involved in less crime and drugs when they're involved in an extracurricular activity. And what's more extracurricular than taking care of a child with a meathead who's written on his MySpace profile that he doesn't want kids? Something tells me Bristol won't have time to hit up the keggers at University of Juneau.
When Mom's Away At The Gun Range...
Barack Saddam Hussein Osama Obama predictably exploited the situation, saying "Let me be as clear as possible. I think people's families are off-limits, and people's children are especially off-limits." Typical Osama-speak. I wasn't there to hear the rest of his statement, but I'm pretty sure he said something about needing the blood of Bristol's child to perform satanic rituals. Clearly, Hussein believes that families should be dragged through the mud and tortured by the press. I'm not surprised. What else can we expect from a guy who's from Hawaii? That's not even a real state.
Thank God for Sarah Palin of Alaska. A woman who's not afraid to put her ambitions above her family. A woman who bravely trots out her child with Down Syndrome to prove what a saint she is, and but righteously gets upset when the media starts noticing her other children. A woman who has the experience, knowledge, and most importantly, glasses to help lead this country into the future. A future, which, as a Republican, I hope will closely resemble 1952.
As always my faithful, stay safe, stay strong, stay straight.
By Robbie Republican
Good afternoon, my fellow patriots. Hope you had a fine Labor Day weekend, although, as I've stated before, it's a Communist holiday designed to disrupt American industry. But I digress. If you're a Republican like me, you already know about the shameful exploitation of innocent megacorporations by evil labor unions. I'm here to talk about a different subject, one of my favorites: Family. Specifically, how John McCain's VP choice, Sarah Palin, is the greatest mother in the world, and how she should, in November, become mother to all Americans.
I admit, at first I was stunned by McCain's pick. A woman? In the second-highest office in the land? I accepted it grudgingly, only because I knew it would really piss off Hillary Clinton.
But now I see. The Demoncrats-- no, that's not a typo-- are all up in arms about Sarah's seventeen year old daughter, who has apparently become pregnant out of wedlock. Those backward-thinking, stodgy old liberals seem to believe that teenage pregnancy is a bad thing. They think that Bristol getting pregnant means that Sarah was a bad parent. I have to say, I'm surprised at their attack. This is, after all, the political party that believes two men should be allowed to raise a kid (which Steve Guttenberg, in his documentary "Three Men and A Baby," proved was impossible).
Some people might think that when your teenage daughter is about to have a baby out of wedlock, it's selfish to run for Vice President and expose your family to media scrutiny. But I take a different view. Sarah wants people to see her daughter-- as a shining example. Sarah clearly believes, like I do, that women should give up their dreams, become full with child and become homemakers. You think the Chinese have a billion people because they encouraged their women to wait until after college to have babies? I don't think so.
If only more of our kids got pregnant at a young age. The younger the better. Because how else will we keep up with the Chinese? Or those Africans for that matter. Up with the birthrate, up with American power, I say.
Sarah could have declined the nomination and kept Bristol's life private... but she chose to share it with the world. You've got to admire a parent who would use their kid to further the pro-life agenda. Demo-rats (not a typo) say Sarah neglected her motherly duties. I say... good. Don't we want someone more devoted to her country than to her own children? I don't want a VP watching her kid's basketball game while Russia's fueling their warheads.
Some people seem to think McCain didn't know about this. But what they don't realize is that Bristol's pregnancy was all part of a carefully orchestrated plan crafted by the McCain campaign. What better way to show the social conservatives that you share their values? Values that state sex before marriage is sinful, sure. But if it does happen, as long as a baby is born, its all good. It's in the Bible, people, look it up.
Sure, when the movie Juno came out, I called it, "a sick celebration of teenage sexuality and teenage pregnancy. Yet another instance where Hollywood promotes hedonistic lifestyles that glorify immorality and sex." I, like Sarah, said that an abstinence-based education was the best way to keep our kids from having sex. And that if teens were getting pregnant, it was because of subliminal messages in Sheryl Crow songs.
But this is totally different. Teen pregnancy is a positive, beautiful thing, that in no way reflects on the parents. And if you can't see that, then you must be a Democrat. It's not worth explaining it to you.
It's a known fact that kids are involved in less crime and drugs when they're involved in an extracurricular activity. And what's more extracurricular than taking care of a child with a meathead who's written on his MySpace profile that he doesn't want kids? Something tells me Bristol won't have time to hit up the keggers at University of Juneau.
When Mom's Away At The Gun Range...
Barack Saddam Hussein Osama Obama predictably exploited the situation, saying "Let me be as clear as possible. I think people's families are off-limits, and people's children are especially off-limits." Typical Osama-speak. I wasn't there to hear the rest of his statement, but I'm pretty sure he said something about needing the blood of Bristol's child to perform satanic rituals. Clearly, Hussein believes that families should be dragged through the mud and tortured by the press. I'm not surprised. What else can we expect from a guy who's from Hawaii? That's not even a real state.
Thank God for Sarah Palin of Alaska. A woman who's not afraid to put her ambitions above her family. A woman who bravely trots out her child with Down Syndrome to prove what a saint she is, and but righteously gets upset when the media starts noticing her other children. A woman who has the experience, knowledge, and most importantly, glasses to help lead this country into the future. A future, which, as a Republican, I hope will closely resemble 1952.
As always my faithful, stay safe, stay strong, stay straight.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Hillary Just Slammed It Out Of The Park, Didn't She
"No way, no how, no McCain," Hillary declared, loudly, in her speech at the Democratic National Convention tonight. If only the Yankees could be so clutch (big Boston loss tonight).
"John McCain says the economy is fundamentally sound. He doesn't think 47 million Americans without health insurance is a crisis. He wants to privatize social security. And, in 2008 John McCain still believes its okay if women receive less pay for equal work. It makes sense that John McCain and George Bush will be together in the Twin Cities this week. Because these days, its getting awfully hard to tell them apart!!!"
Go Git Him Hillary!!!
Watch the Speech here. My favorite part (other than quoted above)? When she thanks her "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pantsuits."
She came out pretty damn strong for Obama. Pretty hard to see how anyone who legitimately was her supporter to not follow her lead and join the Obamawagon.
I mean, you really want to vote for McCain? The guy doesn't know how many houses he owns and probably smells like mothballs.
"No way, no how, no McCain," Hillary declared, loudly, in her speech at the Democratic National Convention tonight. If only the Yankees could be so clutch (big Boston loss tonight).
"John McCain says the economy is fundamentally sound. He doesn't think 47 million Americans without health insurance is a crisis. He wants to privatize social security. And, in 2008 John McCain still believes its okay if women receive less pay for equal work. It makes sense that John McCain and George Bush will be together in the Twin Cities this week. Because these days, its getting awfully hard to tell them apart!!!"
Go Git Him Hillary!!!
Watch the Speech here. My favorite part (other than quoted above)? When she thanks her "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pantsuits."
She came out pretty damn strong for Obama. Pretty hard to see how anyone who legitimately was her supporter to not follow her lead and join the Obamawagon.
I mean, you really want to vote for McCain? The guy doesn't know how many houses he owns and probably smells like mothballs.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
And We're Back
Sorry for the lack of recent posts. It's been a busy time in Adam's Life. Between my coverage of the Tribeca Film Festival for work, a new article for MSN.com, and the recent, mind-blowing news that I've been chosen as Best Man for my best friend's wedding, I've been slacking on my blogging duties. To you, loyal and frustrated reader, I apologize.
So let's get to it.
I'm still in the Hillary corner personally, but don't you suspect she's disgusted with herself at how ugly she let this campaign become?
Once the shining star of a powerful, respected Democratic party, she now finds herself fighting for position in a spring break KY-wrestling match. Obama vs. Hillary!! Drink specials all night!!
The saddest thing is, at no other time in American history has the media focused so heavily on one political party for so long in the months leading up to an election. It's almost as if Republicans don't exist, other than a few lost souls wandering the halls of the White House. And instead of using that media attention to promote their platform, the democrats instead are shining a spotlight on internal divisions, campaign mismanagement, and extreme wackos like Reverend Wright.
If only Hillary and Obama had led civil campaigns, we'd be hearing about how the Republicans bungled the war, and continue to bungle the war. We'd be hearing about how 8 years of Republican leadership has left our economy on the brink of ruin. We'd be hearing about how Senator McCain sold his soul to the radical right, and plans to continue the misguided policies of Bush II. But instead, we hear about a screaming black preacher, imaginary snipers, racist blue collar workers. It's a damn shame.
McCain loves America-bashing preachers as well, Frank Rich of the New York Times points out. But McCain is not under the microscope. Not yet. The Democratic party is, and will continue to be for as long as this drama continues. And if the slides being magnified are dirty with the muck and mire of two squabbling contenders, you can bet the American voting public will see it. Wouldn't the Democratic party be better served by TWO candidates going after the ONE Republican nominee? Instead of ripping each other's throats out? And Obama fans, don't be so quick to blame Hillary either. Snipergate stole at least a week's worth of headlines that could have been about glaring Republican failures. I get that they can't agree to be President and Vice President. No one wants the consolation prize. But can't they at least agree to support one another against the Manchurian Candidate?
Everyone's all up on Obama, even despite the racist attempts to link him with a loony. But this race is a lot closer than some pundits would have you believe. And when one of the candidates loses, the other one doesn't necessarily win. As hard as it is to believe that an Obama backer could suddenly go against everything Obama stands for and vote for McCain, that's exactly what polls show if Hillary wins the race. That begs the question, Does the Democratic party want a candidate who's supporters would rather vote for the enemy than a fellow party member? How loyal are those Democrats?
It's not looking good for the party of light and hope... something I never thought could happen just a few short months ago. And that means it's not looking good for America. There may be people who still believe McCain is a maverick moderate, but clearly they haven't been watching how McCain's changed since his handlers said the code word, activated McCain's implant and turned him into a robot for the elephant party line. If McCain actually believes what he says (war is good! give the rich tax breaks!) then he may just be more incompetent than George W. Bush, who at least has an excuse. A lot of cocaine use.
Hopefully, the primaries today will cause one or both of the candidates to realize they're not getting anywhere by playing a game of division. Only by rallying their supporters around the party, and not themselves, can either of the candidates hope to reclaim this country from the crooks and liars who've owned it the past 8 years.
Ah, kickin it off with a patented Adam's Life rant. It's been a while.
Sorry for the lack of recent posts. It's been a busy time in Adam's Life. Between my coverage of the Tribeca Film Festival for work, a new article for MSN.com, and the recent, mind-blowing news that I've been chosen as Best Man for my best friend's wedding, I've been slacking on my blogging duties. To you, loyal and frustrated reader, I apologize.
So let's get to it.
I'm still in the Hillary corner personally, but don't you suspect she's disgusted with herself at how ugly she let this campaign become?
Once the shining star of a powerful, respected Democratic party, she now finds herself fighting for position in a spring break KY-wrestling match. Obama vs. Hillary!! Drink specials all night!!
The saddest thing is, at no other time in American history has the media focused so heavily on one political party for so long in the months leading up to an election. It's almost as if Republicans don't exist, other than a few lost souls wandering the halls of the White House. And instead of using that media attention to promote their platform, the democrats instead are shining a spotlight on internal divisions, campaign mismanagement, and extreme wackos like Reverend Wright.
If only Hillary and Obama had led civil campaigns, we'd be hearing about how the Republicans bungled the war, and continue to bungle the war. We'd be hearing about how 8 years of Republican leadership has left our economy on the brink of ruin. We'd be hearing about how Senator McCain sold his soul to the radical right, and plans to continue the misguided policies of Bush II. But instead, we hear about a screaming black preacher, imaginary snipers, racist blue collar workers. It's a damn shame.
McCain loves America-bashing preachers as well, Frank Rich of the New York Times points out. But McCain is not under the microscope. Not yet. The Democratic party is, and will continue to be for as long as this drama continues. And if the slides being magnified are dirty with the muck and mire of two squabbling contenders, you can bet the American voting public will see it. Wouldn't the Democratic party be better served by TWO candidates going after the ONE Republican nominee? Instead of ripping each other's throats out? And Obama fans, don't be so quick to blame Hillary either. Snipergate stole at least a week's worth of headlines that could have been about glaring Republican failures. I get that they can't agree to be President and Vice President. No one wants the consolation prize. But can't they at least agree to support one another against the Manchurian Candidate?
Everyone's all up on Obama, even despite the racist attempts to link him with a loony. But this race is a lot closer than some pundits would have you believe. And when one of the candidates loses, the other one doesn't necessarily win. As hard as it is to believe that an Obama backer could suddenly go against everything Obama stands for and vote for McCain, that's exactly what polls show if Hillary wins the race. That begs the question, Does the Democratic party want a candidate who's supporters would rather vote for the enemy than a fellow party member? How loyal are those Democrats?
It's not looking good for the party of light and hope... something I never thought could happen just a few short months ago. And that means it's not looking good for America. There may be people who still believe McCain is a maverick moderate, but clearly they haven't been watching how McCain's changed since his handlers said the code word, activated McCain's implant and turned him into a robot for the elephant party line. If McCain actually believes what he says (war is good! give the rich tax breaks!) then he may just be more incompetent than George W. Bush, who at least has an excuse. A lot of cocaine use.
Hopefully, the primaries today will cause one or both of the candidates to realize they're not getting anywhere by playing a game of division. Only by rallying their supporters around the party, and not themselves, can either of the candidates hope to reclaim this country from the crooks and liars who've owned it the past 8 years.
Ah, kickin it off with a patented Adam's Life rant. It's been a while.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
McCain Learns Internet Manners
McCain Was No Doubt Surprised By His MySpace Page
Presidential nominee Sen. John McCain is 70 years old. When he was young, the only way to get "online" was to stand in one. So he can be excused for not knowing some of the basic rules of the internet world. But his web team should know better.
Unfortunately for McCain, the people who set up his MySpace page broke one of the cardinal rules of the internet--by committing a sin called "hotlinking." And the victim got revenge. Just see the picture above.
For those of you not up on the internet lingo. "Hotlinking" is when someone copies the location of a picture or video on someone else's site (for example: http://sokpuppet.blogspot.com/PICTURE.JPG) and then inserts that location into the html code of their own site. Lost? Well, its as simple as this: The image appears on that person's page, but it's being loaded from someone else's. Anyone visiting the hotlinker's page sees the image and has no idea its from another site.
People usually do this because they're too stupid and lazy to download the image, then reupload it onto their own web server.
But it isn't a victimless crime. Every time an image is loaded, it uses up bandwidth (space) on the host's server. Web site owners pay good money for a limited amount of bandwidth, and when someone hotlinks to an image on their page, then their bandwidth gets eaten up without anybody actually going to their page. You can see how this could be frustrating. It's even worse when that image is original and/or copyrighted.
In this case, McCain's MySpace page "hotlinked" to this image:
When the original owner of that "contact me box" found out he was being hotlinked, it was very simple to get revenge. He simply replaced that image, hosted on his server, with a different one, but kept the name the same.
The Result: McCain suddenly supported hot lesbian marriage.
McCain should consider himself lucky. Other "hotlinkers" have suffered far worse retribution. Think about all the images someone less mature could have replaced that image with. We could have seen McCain's smiling face right above some farm animal in a compromising position...
I use Photobucket or TinyPic to host my images. McCain should look into it.
McCain Was No Doubt Surprised By His MySpace Page
Presidential nominee Sen. John McCain is 70 years old. When he was young, the only way to get "online" was to stand in one. So he can be excused for not knowing some of the basic rules of the internet world. But his web team should know better.
Unfortunately for McCain, the people who set up his MySpace page broke one of the cardinal rules of the internet--by committing a sin called "hotlinking." And the victim got revenge. Just see the picture above.
For those of you not up on the internet lingo. "Hotlinking" is when someone copies the location of a picture or video on someone else's site (for example: http://sokpuppet.blogspot.com/PICTURE.JPG) and then inserts that location into the html code of their own site. Lost? Well, its as simple as this: The image appears on that person's page, but it's being loaded from someone else's. Anyone visiting the hotlinker's page sees the image and has no idea its from another site.
People usually do this because they're too stupid and lazy to download the image, then reupload it onto their own web server.
But it isn't a victimless crime. Every time an image is loaded, it uses up bandwidth (space) on the host's server. Web site owners pay good money for a limited amount of bandwidth, and when someone hotlinks to an image on their page, then their bandwidth gets eaten up without anybody actually going to their page. You can see how this could be frustrating. It's even worse when that image is original and/or copyrighted.
In this case, McCain's MySpace page "hotlinked" to this image:
When the original owner of that "contact me box" found out he was being hotlinked, it was very simple to get revenge. He simply replaced that image, hosted on his server, with a different one, but kept the name the same.
The Result: McCain suddenly supported hot lesbian marriage.
McCain should consider himself lucky. Other "hotlinkers" have suffered far worse retribution. Think about all the images someone less mature could have replaced that image with. We could have seen McCain's smiling face right above some farm animal in a compromising position...
I use Photobucket or TinyPic to host my images. McCain should look into it.
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