Greg Hartnett

There are few things in life that can be neatly classified as black or white, yes or no, good or evil. Outside of mathematics and science, I am hard pressed to think of just about any scenario that could be summarily assigned to one camp or the other.

I’m aware that it is human nature for us to try to categorize everything we encounter. It helps our fragile brains make sense of the sensory overload bombarding us. It has helped mankind evolve by learning and adapting to various stimuli and information. These simple classifications help each of us to get through the day. But they also hold us back.

Most people are so accustomed to the categorization model that they fail to realize that most things in life are neither black nor white - they are grey. What is right in one case, may be wrong in another. Good now, evil later. A constant flux.

Don’t get caught in the trap, and more importantly, don’t let others draw you into the game. Adversaries will throw out loaded questions seeking a yes or no answer. Questions like “Do you want the US to win in Iraq?” - how can an intelligent person simply answer yes or no to a question like that? First of all, what does the question even ask? How can you define a “win” in this scenario? It’s not a football game where at the end of the game, the team with the most points wins.

What are the conditions of this “win” - and at what cost does it come? Does it simply mean that we kill more of them than they kill of our troops? Does the democracy we wish for Iraqis come at the cost of 100,000 lives? 200,000? Half a million? Don’t these considerations come into account when postulating an answer?

Refusing to answer such a question with a simple yes or no opens you to criticism and second guessing. Most people simply can’t accept the fact that some questions can not be answered yes or no. They know that they want the US to “win”, without even knowing what the hell that means, and project their simpleminded deductions onto you. When you refuse to accept their flawed arguments, be prepared for ad hominem attacks or other logical fallacies. When you know the game, at least you can be prepared to play.

Update:  It would appear that David Letterman shares my philosophy - give him hell Dave.  I love his “because I’m thoughtful” - zing.

With all the talk of which country is good, which is bad, and which is evil, it’s getting tougher and tougher for a good American to know which people we are permitted to like, and those we are compelled to fear.  Of course we already know that Iraq, Iran, and North Korea are bad bad bad, but what about some of those less overtly evil regimes?

Recently, we have heard with more urgency of Venezuela’s flirtation with the Dark Side.  Their democratically elected official, Hugo Chavez, has become a lightning rod for American critics, wary of his bravado and his democratic socialist rallying cries.  However, most Americans don’t know of (at least not yet) Equadorian leader Rafael Correa.  An outspoken critic of American foreign policy, Mr. Correa has promised that if elected, he plans to nationalize oil production and will remain committed to “popular revolution”.

In a recent TV interview, when asked to comment on Chavez’s comparison of Mr. Bush to “el diablo”, Mr. Correa  replied that it was an unfair comparison.  “The devil is bad, but at least he’s smart.  Bush is a tremendously clumsy president who has done damage to his country and to the world.”  Ouch.

While it’s not yet a fate complete, most pollsters expect Correa to emerge victorious in the elections.  At which point, Americans can expect an onslaught of Correa smearing and Equadorian fear mongering.  By the end of Q1 2007, it will be like we hated Equador since the dawn of the nation.  All in a day’s work for the propaganda machine…

FOX News, America’s beacon for fair and balanced reporting, and home of bully Bill O’Reilly. When I watch TV news (not very often), I always watch FOX. Hey, I like my news fair and balanced so I can decide for myself - ha! Seriously, I watch FOX because at least I know they are full of shit. Not like the folks at CNN or MSNBC who pretend to provide unbiased reporting while pushing their agenda, at least when watching FOX (or Faux, as many lefties endearingly refer to it) I don’t have to sift through the propaganda. It’s right up there on a big plate, with none of that ugly pretense of objectivity to sift through.

Yesterday, O’Reilly “interviewed” professor Jim Fetzer. Fetzer, an outspoken critic of the Bush junta, was on the show to discuss 9/11 conspiracy theories. The entire piece is a character assassination, never once actually addressing any points - in typical O’Reilly fashion. See for yourself, here.

Wouldn’t it have been better for all parties if Mr. O’Reilly had given Mr. Fetzer the opportunity to provide some points, at which point Mr. O’Reilly would have ample opportunity to debunk Mr. Fetzer’s outlandish claims? Aren’t all sides served better when an open debate ensues? Instead of name calling, marginalization, and character assassination.

Not debating Mr. Fetzer and relying on bully tactics shows O’Reilly for what he truly is - a mouthpiece for the furthering of the American elite’s propaganda. God forbid the public have access to alternative views. It is much easier, and the system much less vulnerable, when those who are charged with promoting open discourse use their positions to fein debate while stifling the voice of the opposition. Bully Bill is a master.

Throughout the piece O’Reilly repeatedly calls Fetzer a “loon” a “nut” and tells him that he must have an alien in his bedroom too. All the while, never even hearing a point Fetzer may have to make. Perhaps the most deplorable act is O’Reilly’s accusation that Fetzer et al, “hate your country”. What the hell does that even mean? News flash Mr. O’Reilly - questioning your government does not mean you hate your country. Having a deep resentment towards the current administration does not mean that you hate your country. Hell, even those that hate the government don’t necessarily “hate their country”. Empty words, no meaning, thrown out there to evoke emotion, and call the credibility of the accused into question. A despicable act given that Bully Bill knows exactly what he is doing.

And since we are on the subject of meaningless expressions, how about “Support our Troops”? What the hell does that mean? How do you support our troops? Send them money (because they are not getting paid enough by the government to risk life and limb)? Send them flowers? How about sending them some armor - that would help support them. How about coming up with a plan to get them home safe - before 2010? That sounds like supporting them. But that’s not what the expression means now, is it? As far as I can tell, “Support our Troops” means “Shut the Hell up - GW Knows Best”. Now that’s some good propaganda.

I have to admit it, I am a fan of Alexa. I know it has some flaws, and that it disproportionately skews results towards webmaster-related sites, and that it’s not the best way to gauge the value of a text link ad, and a host of other complaints from the peanut gallery. But I like the numbers, and the cool little graphs. Huh huh… Just another stat for me to check. Another metric to judge the current temperature of the pool.

I remember stumbling across Alexadex a while back, and while the game caught me as quaint, I didn’t bother. A few months ago, I happened across it again, and decided to give it a shot. In a nutshell, is a pretend stock market where you buy and sell shares of websites, based upon the site’s “reach per million users”. That number is a rough guesstimate (this is where the controversy over Alexa begins) of how many people per million visit the site on a daily basis. Yahoo, Alexa’s number one site forever and ever, has a reach that hovers near 300,000. Which means that for every one million people online, almost 300,000 of them visit Yahoo - impressive. On the flip side of that example, my humble blog, typically meanders in the 12-15 area (sometimes single digits). Not nearly as impressive.

You start off with $10,000 (all Monopoly money) and are free to purchase any available shares of any domain of your choice. I typically buy and sell botw.org - it’s easy for me to judge a “fair” price. Most recently, I “purchased” some shares of jimboykin.com, after I noticed a dip in his number. It has since bounced back, and I am up more than 30% on the position. Go Jim go!

I know it’s all some geeky little computer game, but since I check the numbers anyway… And while the Alexadex may share some similarities with a typical stock market, at least when these numbers get manipulated I don’t risk my mortgage payments.

If you want to sign up for a free account, feel free to sign up through this link. They credit me with $1,000 Monopoly money for each person that signs up.