Good Morning.

Ah, gotta love the book of face. In addition to our little corner of the internets, I've been able to connect to little-known cousins, other random relations, and some old friends that have scattered to the four winds since High School.

I'm even in touch with an unknown relative back in the mother country; the only thing we share is the last name. She can speak English, but most of her posts are in Tagalog.

Nevertheless, it's been quiet and benign...until today. Have you seen this drivel circulating around the internet recently?



Of course, this is utterly ridiculous. I didn't have to look at Snopes, but I did anyway.

Needless to say, I ripped my cousin a new one over this.

But isn't this really the problem? Remember when you had to read a newspaper or a book, and you had to go to the library to research things? That gave you a chance to slow down and think about what you wanted to say....gave you time to check a couple of sources for your information, and yes....maybe even gave you the chance to sound intelligent and articulate when you finally wrote that paper.

The internet has taken all of that away from us. I could post right now "Supreme Court agrees with Taitz - moves to block Obama Inauguration" out on FB, and within the hour it would be re-posted to hundreds, if not thousands, of waiting sheep.

Nobody even thinks anymore, and I think this is the real symptom behind our dysfunctional government and society. You'd think that people would be smarter, but because "I saw it on the internet", it becomes the Gospel Truth. But I don't understand why information from one unreliable source would trump history, books, libraries, and plain old facts.

I suppose ol' Joe Goebbels had it right: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

But of course, this is why internet freedom is so important. In places like China or Cuba, where the net is controlled, so is information, and Mr. Goebbel's observation is actually in practice.