Skeptical Humanities

So apparently facebook has a feature that directs messages from people you’ve never been in contact with into a mailbox called “other”. If you look at the left-hand side of the screen under “messages,” the folder is in there. I had nearly 70 messages, and, let me tell you, I am a popular guy. (A shout out to Atlanta homegirl Angie Mattke who alerted me to this feature. You are sorely missed up here in the middle of the snowpocalypse!)

Here’s one that came to me in November, from Padz Evans from Petersburg, VA, apparently after I wrote something about Stanislaw Burzynski, the notorious cancer quack out of Houston.

I’m glad you liked the article, Padz!

I was quite pleased to learn today that a complaint I sent to the ombudsman of PBS was quoted in Michael Getler’s column. It was about PBS putting up promotional material that seemed to be pushing a rather crummy and unconvincing straight-to-internet documentary on their website. Here’s the original letter:

I wanted to alert the viewer advocate about something that I saw on the PBS website and register a complaint. I notice that on the list of the most watched online videos at the PBS website that a 9/11 Truther video is currently very near the top. I understand that member stations maintain their independence, and that this is crucial to the mission. I do not see how it follows, however, that a video which is so misleading and factually inaccurate should be made available through PBS’s national website. It seems to violate basic program quality standards which PBS is known for. I am not advocating censorship, merely that PBS should examine the decision/process that led to this appearing on the national website and see if it aligns with the mission of public broadcasting to produce a better educated populace. I appreciate your attention to this matter.

Bob Blaskiewicz, Chippewa Falls, WI

Well, Jeff Sellars did not like what I wrote.

The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. The American mind simply has not come to a realization of the evil which has been introduced into our midst. It rejects even the assumption that human creatures could espouse a philosophy which must ultimately destroy all that is good and decent…The conscientious citizen asks, “How can one be sure what the truth is?”…[We] must ascertain for [ourselves] what the facts are. [We] must accept nothing less than the facts— neither the majority version nor the minority version. [We] must view all the evidence until the face of truth is plain.
—President J. Edgar Hoover

Your cognitive dissonance is blocking your ability to accept Newtonian Physics. Building 7 collapses in 6-7 seconds at free fall speed. There’s nano sized thermite in the dust. www.RememberBuilding7.org

“Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light?”

There were a number of birthday invites that I missed (which is probably why I’m such a social pariah), honest questions about things I’ve written, and other missives (as well as stuff so abusive that facebook automatically deleted it).

Ah, modern life on the Internet!

RJB

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2012 at 8:32 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.