From John Stark
Today I got another one of those outraged political emails. You know the ones I’m talking about. The subject line usually has exclamation points and reads something like “Please!!! Take a minute to read this!!!” Somewhere in the text, it says PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!
In past months, I have received messages like this claiming that the Obamas were going to change the name of the White House Christmas Tree to “Holiday Tree,” and that Nancy Pelosi was proposing a tax on 401K accounts to cover the cost of federal benefits for illegal aliens. (Neither one of these was remotely true.)
The most recent one claims that members of Congress can retire on full salary after just one term in office, and that Congressional staffers don’t have to pay back their student loans.
When you get an email like this, take one simple step before forwarding it to everyone you know: visit snopes.com.
Snopes is one of the finest websites in the universe. It debunks hoaxes of every description, not just political. A simple search of the site enables you to quickly determine the truth or falsehood of email messages and warnings.
For my most recent email, snopes.com provided links to background documents that thoroughly debunked both of these false reports about Congress:
Pensions:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/socialsecurity/pensions.asp
Student loans:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/studentloans.asp
“Nancy Pelosi was proposing a tax on 401K accounts to cover the cost of federal benefits for illegal aliens. (Neither one of these was remotely true.)”
October 16, 2008
House Democrats Contemplate Abolishing 401(k) Tax Breaks
Powerful House Democrats are eyeing proposals to overhaul the nation’s $3 trillion 401(k) system, including the elimination of most of the $80 billion in annual tax breaks that 401(k) investors receive.
House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-California, and Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Washington, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, are looking at redirecting those tax breaks to a new system of guaranteed retirement accounts to which all workers would be obliged to contribute.
there was more than a grain of truth to that story if YOU would care to investigate.
I, too, am over the top with e-mails that are just not true. All it takes is checking snopes or a site called fact or fiction before this stuff is sent on. I NEVER forward them. And I go the extra step of sending the snopes information right back to the sender … hitting “Reply All” … either they’ll change their ways or they’ll take me off the address group …
Whatever, a search of the statement you cited yielded a plethora of like from NewRepublic, and RightWingNews, and I had to search long and hard for the following:
“Rep. George Miller, the California Democrat who chairs of the House Education and Labor Committee, shot back with a statement the same day. “The Wall Street Journal is needlessly creating fear among Americans rightly worried about their retirement security by misrepresenting my efforts to strengthen workers’ retirement savings—attacks that have no basis in fact. I do not support ‘abolishing’ 401(k)’s, moving these plans, or changing their tax status, plain and simple,” Miller said.”
Chose your sources more carefully and understand there are 2 sides to every story.
Unfortunately, I have met those on the political right who think Snopes is a left wing site, and don’t even believe what Snopes says. Most rational people do trust Snopes, though, and the advice in this article is good.
The Nancy Pelosi illegal alien benefits story originated as a satirical piece. Someone took it literally, started emailing alerts to everyone, and the rest is history.
John,
At the risk sounding like a broken record, may I propose a change to the blog that might improve comments’ level of courtesy and responsibility?
Simple: the Herald’s comment forms should require, and post, real names with place of residence. Humans tend to be kinder, more restrained, and more responsible if they are not hidden in a cloak of anonymity.
Best wishes,
Abe Jacobson
(who is a real person living in Bellingham)
Abe: Personally I think you are right on target. What do others think? Who can make a valid case for allowing anonymous posts? The Herald still requires letters to the editor to carry the name of the writer, and you are required to give your name when you speak in person at a public meeting. Why should our online forums have different rules?
If you go to snopes and search “George Bush,” you’ll get a long list of stories circulating about him, many of which are flagged as falsehoods. Snopes appears to be non-partisan.
I know a handful of people here that post under a pseudonym because they do not want their business/employer/etc to be affected by their personal political beliefs. With that in mind, I generally support allowing people to go by a name.
That said, people can be quite nasty, and I agree with Abe that when people have to take responsibility for their speech, they are more careful.
So that boils down to enforcement, which in the past led to lots of accusations of bias on the part of the previous blogmaster, Sam Taylor (*genuflect*). Whether those accusations were valid or not is a whole other conversation, but the point is, enforcement is tricky.
Sorry to pull a Richard May here (“this side has a point and this side has a point and isn’t that interesting?”) but I think that there isn’t really a good solution. Requiring names means we will lose some voices who fear for their employment, but it means that we gain more vicious anonymous comments.
John, because we can wade through the nonsense and make up our own minds. We don’t need the Herald playing big brother censor. We keep it relatively clean and civil and that’s good enough.
But this has been rehashed so many times here it is old news and should be to Abe too. It is more an attempt to squelch diverse comments than encourage them. What would be the point other than exacting some revenge on those pontificators we don’t like. And since I don’t know Abe, how could I know if he’s really Abe, are we going to have to include fingerprints, picture ID and DNA?
We are not simple sheep who can be easily mislead or who can’t decide who to believe and who to question. Plus there are many more reasons than employment/employer targeting, as Riley talks about, to use different names here.
Also, I just read Abe’s comment again that we should include place of residence….WTF, they don’t even do that in the letters and for all the reasons above including stalkers. Just get over it ABE.
Correct Riley, there is not always a simple, partisan solution to a problem.
I think the Herald simply can not verify the “realness” of any person on the blog, so all that would happen is that anonymous would start to look like “Pete Smith from Ferndale” (not really that person’s name or city) instead of “apexnerd”, “AFY”, and “Worst_President” etc.
Oh and by the by, Shaun is a real person living in the county who prefers not to have his mailbox bashed, eggs thrown at his house or his house TPed by Abe….or anyone else who doesn’t like what he says…..
Two words: Hate mail.
I do not, and will not by convention, use my real name in any Herald blog due to unfortunate past experiences which upset the wife.
Yikes an address?
That’s just crazy talk.
That threat of violence is supposed to keep a comment polite?
As someone who has been “cyber stalked” under a previous identity where part of my real name was used, I am not in favor of using real names.
And it’s still happening. Often, LTE writers (who are required to give their real name) are “Googled” and all sorts of personal info. about them posted by commenters, as some sort of supposed “insight” into their letter.
You guys are all on the predominant side here, and you’re worried?
What a bunch of weanies.
Doesn’t matter what side I’m on, esp. since it seems the Conservatives are generally a lot more vicious.
The person I’m referring to posted a link to photos of my KIDS, and my address. Not cool. I don’t think I’m being a “weenie.”
“Weenie” it is.
It’s nothing that hasn’t happened to me.
Well, I guess we have different levels of concern about our families’ safety from such actions. My kids’ safety, and mine, is paramount to me.
Educator,
“Doesn’t matter what side I’m on, esp. since it seems the Conservatives are generally a lot more vicious.”
With respect, LMAO!
You haven’t been around the blog much, have you?
I’ve actually been posting for quite some time – maybe a year and a half? Changed names a couple of times – here, it’s different than on the comment forums, for some reason.
Have you met: birdfeeder, ChaosReigns, Worst44Ever, Terrorist44? I don’t see any liberal posters that vicious. We can be feisty sometimes, but those guys are downright MEAN.
Educator,
With respect, I haven’t seen you, so you don’t have much penetration, as they say.
In addition, I don’t see too many posts from those guys, and I don’t take them seriously.
Ya know, you don’t have to read everything.
I’ll tell you what: take a look at a post or two of mine, and tell me what you think.
I will keep an eye out for your posts. Are you referring to the comment section of articles, or THIS politics blog? I mostly post in the comment section of articles (the Disqus system). And I have a new name over there. This blog kept my old one, for some reason.
Educator,
I’m davesix on disqus.
I think there must be something wrong with my email account because I haven’t received any email.
Dave, you’re also at least one other, so fess up….
Also, Dave, calling someone a weanie? Seems I remember your crying to Sam every time I looked cross wise at your posts… just sayin… let alone getting me banned with all that fake ferret blood….
By the by, hope you checked out my responses to your ignorance about Chernobyl on page 2, where I link you to many stories about the millions affected, the wasteland that still exists, the hundreds of thousands dealing with related cancers and the thousands who have died as a result that come from such suspect sources as MIT.
Question of the day, if the radiation coming from Japan is so minute that we need not worry and everyone should have a nuke in their backyard, how come it is now showing up in Seattle?
The Japanese officials have been lying to the world and now today they’re all..”we don’t know what that smoke coming from the old fuel storage pools is about” but don’t panic, we’re getting it under control. Cesium is actually a new food additive in Japan.
Or maybe it’s showing up in Bellingham which is why so many responses on the Libya question today seem somewhat confused about the world…
When I started participating in online blogs/story comments, I didn’t realize that using your real name was an option.
Seriously.
I use my real name in my real life but when I’m commenting in cyberspace I’m just plain old Camille; it helps to keep me safe from an abusive ex-husband, and that is the truth.
Plus it’s more fun this way.
Shaun,
You insulted me personally in post after post.
If you didn’t like being called out, well, you were the example of anonymous insult that everyone complains about.
All I asked for was a debate about the issues, and you descended to personal insult and ad hominem in post after post.
Shaun,
I’ve noticed that my eyes have been itchy lately and I have a runny nose.
shaun,
I assert that the assertions in your earlier post are unsupported by real data.
Unsupported, they are repugnant.
Inflammatory.
Beneath even you.
shaun,
“Dave, you’re also at least one other, so fess up….”
Who’s that?
David, I thought you were referring to Disqus with the real name stuff. I was.
If you believe so strongly in using real names, why a pseudonym over there?
Conservatives are nastier than Liberals because Liberals tend to couch their opinions in thought and reason and Conservatives in something that isn’t thought or reasonable.
Conservatives will bring the wrath of their religion down on any thinker
and they’re also the ones that post ‘Elitist’ and ‘LMAO’,
instead of adding thoughtful and substantive responses to discussions.
Conservatives pride themselves in having no ideas that haven’t already been tested in 18th century society.
The 18th Century citizen?
“Tell me then, O thou heir of the argument, what did Simonides say, and according to you, truly say, about justice?”
From Plato’s Republic, 400 B.C.
The 18th Century – fresh air and daylight are poisonous,
germs don’t exist since they can’t be seen,
kids are simply short wage slaves,
safety is the opinion of those advancing hazards,
God destroys unbelievers,
but is merciful to the wealthy,
Coal is the new panacea,
women aren’t seen or heard,
The rich white man is the proven top of the ‘evolutionary’ ladder, in case you believed in one.
I don’t think the Conservative view has changed any, do you?
Why should boards have a looser standard for identity than an official LTE?
They are judged by a different standard of proof and opinion,
they aren’t part of any conversation,
and are PUBLISHED for eternity as an integral part of the newspaper’s edition of the day.
Tell ya what,
anybody that can’t stand to talk to someone you may not know,
or listen to someone likewise.
should go somewhere else for personal commentary.
The same tripe about anonymity
shows up from the same person who gripes about their insecurity around strangers and expects that we care about his real name as if we could even check.
Who needs it.
Dave, what assertions are unsupported? That you often sent e-mails to whine about my disagreements with you and my attracks on you for own repugnant posts?
What else, Chernobyl? You were dismissing volumes of information out there for decades so I gave you some stuff to read.
What else? The other name or names you have used on Disqus? OK. I apoligize for insinuating that some unknown pontificators have been using signature phrases similar to yours and attacking the same people, also here and also using other names on disqus, in the same ways that might lead one to believe it was you. I have no such proof and will never mention it again.
Finally Dave, I have recognized you and I sometimes agree and I will refrain from mocking you if you can refrain from mocking me or others. Fair?
Educator,
“If you believe so strongly in using real names, why a pseudonym over there?”
I use my Disqus username over there, where I hardly ever comment anyway, and haven’t for two or three weeks, because Disqus is the system they use for comments there and that’s my Disqus username.
I can’t change my username there without closing my Disqus account and opening a new one, since the Disqus account is linked to your IP address or email addy, and then signing up again for every blog that uses Disqus for comments where I choose to comment.
It’s not worth the trouble.
I’ll just include my name, which everyone knows anyway.
shaun,
“Also, Dave, calling someone a weanie? Seems I remember your crying to Sam every time I looked cross wise at your posts… just sayin… let alone getting me banned with all that fake ferret blood…. ”
You got banned?
Darn!
You must have abused the rules.
You’ve just made my point.
Yeah Dave, I abused the rules of Brazilia and I got banned, but your still were an a hole….just sayin my bro , brother from a different mother….