Facebook Fact Checks Santa Clause
The world’s most famous newspaper editorial, published in the New York Sun Sept. 21, 1887, could get busted by Facebook.
In an effort to stamp out the scourge of fake news, Facebook is outsourcing fact checking to PolitiFact and others .
Facebook Fact Checks Santa Clause
The editorial in question (by me) was in response to a letter to the editor from eight year old Virginia O’Hanlon:
DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’
Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?VIRGINIA O’HANLON.
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy…
You can read the rest of the editorial here at the Newseum site.
“If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.” – Maybe.
Bitter Deplorable Hacks
The Clintons seem bitter.
Bill chatted up a reporter among others at a small bookstore near his home in Chappaqua NY. He said this about Trump: “One thing he does know is how to get angry white men to vote for him.”
Not sure if that was a complaint or a compliment. In 2008 he told Ted Kennedy, “A few years ago this guy (Obama) would be getting coffee for us.”
Rather than reaching out to the non-elite, Hillary characterized Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables.”
Deplorable Hacks
Meanwhile, back at the bookstore, Bill wasn’t finished:
On the question of Russian cyberattacks damaging the candidacy of his wife, Hillary Clinton, the former president said “you would need to have a single-digit IQ not to recognize what was going on.”
Bill didn’t blame deplorables for Hillary’s loss. He blamed FBI Director Comey.
But he didn’t mention the IQ required to recognize what was going on on that tarmac in Arizona.
Democratic Party Meltdown
The Democratic Party meltdown continues.
The party’s condition took a turn for the worse when Jill Stein’s election recount turned up more votes than voters in Detroit. The recount was ended.
Then John Podesta demanded that the 538 members of the Electoral College be briefed by the CIA. The purpose being to inform the electors of Russian efforts to elect Trump.
For his part, President Obama is back to drawing red lines. He says the U.S. will respond to Russia “at a time and place of our choosing.”
Democratic Party Meltdown
Meanwhile, President-elect The Donald tweets, “Are we talking about the same cyber attack where it was revealed the head of the DNC illegally gave Hillary the questions to the debate?”
Big Government
In his 1996 State of the Union speech Bill Clinton signed the death certificate for the era of big government. He went on to challenge Congress to send him a welfare reform bill. Congress did just that and he signed it.
But Big Gov was Rasputin-like. According to the Cato Institute federal spending grew 60% during the George W. Bush years. Then in 2012 Barack Obama killed Clinton’s signature Welfare reform and Rasputin was back.
Hillary Clinton, pushed to the left by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, campaigned to expand the Big Government command and control economy even further. But she lost.
Big Government RIP?
So Rasputin is dead again.
Now what’s this Donald Trump trillion dollar stimulus plan all about?
1980s Are Calling
1980s are calling
In a 2012 presidential debate Romney claimed Russia was the biggest threat to the United States. Obama mocked him saying, “The 1980s are calling and they want their foreign policy back.”
