Entries Tagged 'culture wars' ↓
March 26th, 2008 — Blogburst: stop the Murdoch Flight 93 memorial, September 11, 2001, U.S. Congress, culture wars
…from Alec:

A petition to stop the crescent memorial is now being circulated on the ground in western Pennsylvania. As a complement to this old fashioned canvassing effort, an electronic petition has also been created at ipetitions.com. Please circulate far and wide!
The petitions highlight four cases of apparent Islamic symbolism in the memorial design. Here is the text (electronic):
Call for Congressional investigation of Islamic symbolism in the Flight 93 memorial
Many features of the chosen Flight 93 Memorial design are intolerable:
1. THE GIANT CRESCENT. The centerpiece of the original “Crescent of Embrace” design was a giant red Islamic shaped crescent. Every particle of this original crescent design remains completely intact in the so-called redesign, which only added a few irrelevant trees. The giant crescent is still there.
2. IT POINTS TO MECCA. The giant crescent points to Mecca. A crescent that Muslims face into to face Mecca is called a “mihrab,” and is the central feature around which every mosque is built. The Flight 93 Memorial is on track to become the world’s largest mosque.
3. THE ISLAMIC SUNDIAL. The minaret-like Tower of Voices is a year-round accurate Islamic prayer-time sundial (one of many typical mosque features that are realized in the crescent design, all on the same epic scale as the half mile wide central crescent).
4. THE 44 BLOCKS. There are 44 glass blocks on the flight path, equaling the number of passengers, crew, AND terrorists.
Intentional or not, these features are entirely unacceptable. This travesty must stop and investigations must begin.
- We the undersigned call on our state and federal legislators to undertake their own thorough and independent investigations of the Flight 93 Memorial design. The truth must come out.
- We ask that the crescent design be scraped entirely and that it be replaced with a new design that is not tainted by Islamic or terrorist memorializing symbolism.
- We demand a fitting and proper memorial that HONORS the brave men and women of Flight 93.
Please take a minute to electronically sign this petition. All signatures collected by the end of April will be printed out and delivered to the May 3rd public meeting of the Memorial Project, along with Xeroxes of the hand-signed petitions.
That is just the start. There will be another public meeting in August, where we hope to present a much larger pile of petitions, and all signatures will eventually be delivered to the Pennsylvania state legislature and to Congress. Keep sending until the crescent design is stopped!
In the short term, we have a number of supporters in the Pennsylvania legislature at this point who are working to gain backing for an investigation. A demonstration of public demand should help that effort.
The paper petition
In order to make the paper petition self-sufficient, there is a second page, to be printed on the back of the petition, that provides explanations and graphical documentation of the four highlighted cases of Islamic symbolism. The idea is to have a petition that can circulate virally. Anyone can print it out and have enough information right on the petition itself to know that the objections are legitimate. (Mailing instructions are also included.)
Here are the back-side explanations of the four intolerable features:
1. THE GIANT CRESCENT
The original Crescent of Embrace design was a giant Islamic shaped crescent with the crash site placed between the crescent tips, in the position of the star on an Islamic crescent and star flag:
The redesign was supposed to eliminate these Islamic symbol shapes, but as Congressman Tom Tancredo wrote to the Park Service in November 2007, these features remain completely intact in the so-called redesign, which only disguised the crescent with a few additional trees. Architect Paul Murdoch’s refusal to eliminate the Islamic symbol shapes suggests intent, but intentional or not, these symbol shapes are unacceptable. Congressman Tancredo is now calling for the crescent design to be scrapped in its entirety, and we join in that request.
2. IT POINTS TO MECCA
Several credible analysts have found that a person facing directly into the giant crescent (still present in the redesign) will be facing almost exactly at Mecca:
The green “qibla” circle in the graphic above is from the prayer-direction calculator at Islam.com. It shows the direction to Mecca from Somerset PA (ten miles from the crash site). The red arrow shows that a person standing between the crescent tips and facing into the center of the crescent will be facing almost exactly at Mecca.
This Mecca orientation claim must be authoritatively investigated and answered. If it is true that the crescent points to Mecca, and hence can serve as an Islamic prayer direction indicator (the central feature around which every mosque is built), then whether this construct was intentional or not, it indelibly taints the design.
3. THE ISLAMIC SUNDIAL
Anyone can see the overt similarity between a traditional Islamic sundial (left-hand image) and Tower of Voices part of the Flight 93 Memorial (right-hand image):
When the shadow of the traditional sundial reaches the outer curved vertical in this photo, it will be time for Islamic afternoon prayers. Shadow calculations confirm that, on any day of the year, when the shadow of the 93 foot tall crescent shaped Tower of Voices reaches the inner arc of trees, it will also be time for Islamic afternoon prayers.
4. THE FORTY-FOUR BLOCKS
Tom Burnett Sr. does not want Tom Junior’s name inscribed on one of the 44 translucent blocks that are to be emplaced along the flight path. Forty-four is the number of passengers, crew, AND terrorists:

The left side of this graphic shows the Memorial Wall, which follows the path of Flight 93 down to the point of impact. At eye level are 43 glass blocks. Forty are inscribed with the names of the 40 heroes. Three are inscribed with the 9/11 date.
Right-hand image: the 44th glass block sits at the end of the Entry Portal Walkway, where the flight path crosses the upper crescent tip. It marks the spot where, in architect Paul Murdoch’s description, the terrorists broke our humanitarian circle, turning it into a giant (Islamic shaped) crescent. This circle-breaking, crescent-creating feat is memorialized by the inscription: “A field of honor forever.”
The Park Service dismisses the suspicious block count on the grounds that the 44th glass block is much larger than the others. Mr. Burnett is not comforted by the magnificence of the 44th block, and neither are we. This design must be stopped, and investigations must be launched!
Other petition formats
The same four intolerable features are described in the annotated “Map of Betrayal” that was the subject of one of last month’s blogbursts. Thus the map makes a perfectly serviceable back side for the petition, providing an alternative petition/flyer combination.
The information on the map is denser than the explanations above, but has its own intrigue, showing how the different terrorist memorializing parts fit together like an elaborate puzzle.
The petition being circulated on the ground now in Pennsylvania is still another variation. It has slightly different wording than the electronic petition, and slightly different explanations of the four points than presented above. All the different formats are interchangeable. They all highlight the same four objectionable features, and they will all be delivered together to state and federal legislators.
Until we get a Congressional investigation, the petition will be an ongoing tool for raising awareness and registering opposition. If you participate in any activist fora or email lists, please forward the text and links along. (The electronic and paper-petition links are collected together on this petition Page at CrescentOfBetrayal.com.)
Blogburst blogroll
To join, email Cao (caoilfhionn1 at gmail dot com) with your blog’s url.
October 29th, 2007 — enemy propaganda, Jihad Watch, SonicWALL, leftist-jihadist convergence, crime, CAIR, litigation jihad, censorware, blog censorship, U.S. Constitution, Foehammer's Anvil, culture wars, wikis, counterjihad, cyberwars, smiley, e-jihadis, censorship
SonicWALL finally unblocks Jihad Watch!
This calls for a PARTY!


Other bloggers who have been wrongfully blocked by SonicWALL or other censorware providers should read this article carefully. Also, please read the comments that follow. If necessary, do as Robert Spencer did and consult an attorney!
Also see:
Blogger WiredPig faces a takedown request 
WiredPig is a retired sheriff who is a prominent Twitter user and a web design/mobile computing expert. He recently got a takedown request that he believes may be bogus. He’s currently trying to determine the legitimacy of the request.
If you get a takedown request on your blog, please make an effort to verify that the request is legitimate and is not coming from a prankster!
Lawsuit Jihad 
This could happen to any of us.
That said, the consequences of failing to confront jihadism would be even worse!
For what you can do to help, see:
Litigation Jihad Update 10/31/07 - Let’s DO something about it NOW!

Attempted Murder: The Ultimate Censorship
We have to keep going nonetheless. After all, they can’t kill us all!
Italian Government Caves 

Wiki page for reformist Irshad Manji vandalized, then reverted
Posted on 1389 Blog - Antijihadist Tech and on Fort Hard Knox
Technorati : Foehammer s Anvil, Jihad Watch, SonicWALL, U.S. Constitution, blog censorship, censorship, content filtering, crime, culture wars, cyberjihadism, cyberwars, e-jihadis, enemy propaganda, flush a Koran, jihadism, leftist-jihadist convergence, litigation jihad, media, military, smileys, wikis
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October 26th, 2007 — media, enemy propaganda, leftist-jihadist convergence, U.S. Constitution, smiley, privacy, culture wars, counterjihad, censorship
Will net neutrality keep the largest ISPs from restricting the way we use the Internet? Michael S. Malone thinks so. He says: “That does it: I am now a full-fledged convert to net neutrality.” Read the article and decide for yourself.

Dan Sytman, of Sytman & Boze, brings us some audio from the jihadist ranters and ravers who are protesting Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week (IFAW). For other IFAW censorship issues, see yesterday’s Censorship Update 10/25/07.
On the evening of October 25, I attended the protest of Islamo-fascism Awareness Week at the University of Washington. Here is my conversation with Zakariya Dehlawi, President of the UW Muslim Student Association. He insists that even though Islamic terrorists frequently invoke their religion before detonating themselves, we shouldn’t ever mention the word “Islam” when we’re talking about those attacks. The conversation is interupted by an angry Muslim man, who you’ll hear from next.
UW Muslim Student Association President
Here is the rest of my conversation with the Muslim man who clearly wanted to talk, but didn’t want to answer questions. Note that he says “you didn’t catch Osama Bin Laden.” He, along with the next member of the UW MSA, doesn’t appear to identify with the country in which this protest is taking place. This leads to the obvious question: which side are these guys on, anyway? The following clips includes both men, both of whom seem to justify the 9/11 attacks because of the American foreign policy.
Hostile Muslim Protestors at the UW

The University of Delaware folds like a lawn chair!
Yesterday, the University of Delaware asked Asaf Romirowsky to step down from an academic panel at the University of Delaware because another panelist, University of Delaware political scientist Muqtedar Khan, didn’t want to share the podium with anyone who served in the Israeli Defense Forces.
And how dare the Pentagon get its advice from such a bigot?
If Khan was just an academic, that would be one thing. But he also straddles the policy world: Khan is a a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a Pentagon consultant. According to an e-mail he sent to the University, he gave a workshop at the Pentagon yesterday afternoon.
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October 25th, 2007 — leftist-jihadist convergence, political correctness, cartoon censorship, YouTube, tyranny, smiley, counterjihad, privacy, culture wars, immigration, U.S. law, blogging

Free Speech on Campus Takes Another Hit
Emory:
GWU:
Wisconsin:
Elsewhere in Wackademia:
Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week (IFAW) has certainly brought out plenty of barking moonbats from the infamous leftist/jihadist convergence:

Stein hoist to Jenn Sierra and to Terp Mole on LGF!
Bad News in the EU
Murder - The Ultimate Censorship
Cartoon Censorship
Privacy and Freedom of the Press
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IN YOUR FACE! FURIOUS PUBLIC BACKLASH FORCES COUNTY ATTORNEY ANDREW THOMAS TO DROP CASE AGAINST NEW TIMES.
Your opinion, in the blogosphere and elsewhere, makes a difference! Although Arpaio remains in office, the prosecution has backed off on this abusive venture. (See Tinpot Tyrant Sheriff Joe Arpaio Invades YOUR Internet Privacy for background.)
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Denmark: Defending Free Speech in the Mainstream Media
Yes, it can be done; this article shows how!
It has been said from time to time that Islam-critics are kept out by a ‘Media Wall’, barring certain viewpoints from the Mainstream Media.
My experience doesn’t substantiate this. Over the last 2½ years, I had something in the league of 150 letters printed in the largest mainstream newspapers. My ‘hit rate’ varies wildly, but has at times been hovering at 60-70 %, well above the average of around 30 % in Danish papers.
“But that’s Denmark, and you guys are special.”
Might be. But a dozen of those letters were printed in International Herald Tribune, which is hardly a Danish special case.
The take-home lesson is encouraging:
Your time and effort is well spent when you write or blog to raise public awareness about threats to our First Amendment rights, or when you write, call, or email to protest against infringements on these rights.
Media Disinformation
Flooding both the blogosphere and traditional media with disinformation is a de facto method of censorship, because it crowds out any attempt to get true information in front of the public. Those using search engines will see the baloney at the top of the list, and most people won’t bother to dig down to find the real information. This technique is well known to black-hat search engine optimization (SEO) and “reputation management” purveyors.
Stein hoist to Little Green Footballs!
“Fairness” Doctrine
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October 19th, 2007 — crime, corruption, tyranny, media, smiley, privacy, culture wars, immigration, censorship
(Updated 10/22/2007) Your opinion in the blogosphere makes a difference!
IN YOUR FACE! FURIOUS PUBLIC BACKLASH FORCES COUNTY ATTORNEY ANDREW THOMAS TO DROP CASE AGAINST NEW TIMES.
Your time and effort is well spent when you write or blog to raise public awareness about threats to our First Amendment rights, or when you write, call, or email to protest against infringements on these rights.
“But I’m not a prisoner and I’ve never been to Maricopa County!”
Doesn’t matter! If you’ve visited Phoenix New Times Online, your browsing history has been swept up into a nasty local investigation that has nothing whatsoever to do with you. Everything in the server logs pertaining to your visit is up for grabs.

If, that is, you’ve ever read the Phoenix New Times online. The alternative weekly has run several articles over the years critical of the so-called “toughest sheriff in America.” But when an investigative piece on a series of questionable Arpaio real estate transactions included the sheriff’s home address (possibly violating state law), Arpaio launched an incredibly broad, wide-reaching investigation that looks an awfully lot like retaliation.
Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, the executive editor and CEO, respectively, of Village Voice Media, were arrested at their homes on suspicion of violating grand jury secrecy, said sheriff’s spokesman Capt. Paul Chagolla.
Both were released from custody early this morning. Lacey posted a $500 bond, according to New Times.
The two, who together started New Times in 1970, were the authors of Thursday’s cover story revealing that a special prosecutor, retained by the county attorney’s office, had issued subpoenas to them and other staffers in a criminal case against the paper. The case stems from the paper publishing Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s home address more than three years ago.
. . .
Especially disturbing, Lacey and Larkin wrote, is that one subpoena asks for online profiles of anyone who read four specific articles about Arpaio and profiles of anyone who visited the paper’s Web site since Jan. 1, 2004. The county officials also want to track what Web users did while on the site, the story says.
Michael Lacey, the executive editor, and Jim Larkin, chief executive, were arrested at their homes after they wrote a story that revealed that the Village Voice Media company, its executives, its reporters and even the names of the readers of its website had been subpoenaed by a special prosecutor. The special prosecutor had been appointed to look into allegations that the newspaper had violated the law in publishing the home address of Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s home address on its website more than three years ago.
The weekly and its leadership has been in a long running battle with Mr. Arpaio, after the weekly published a series of stories about his real estate dealings.
How did Arpaio become entrenched in power?
He’s no hero!
Too many conservatives admire Arpaio from afar, thinking he has the answer to problems of crime and social disorder.
It’s true that there are some very real problems in Maricopa County, especially in regard to illegal immigrants, and some people are content with the fact that Arpaio seems to be addressing those problems and are unwilling to look any further.
Nonetheless, riding roughshod over due process of law, common decency, and everyone’s privacy is never the way to go. Think about it: If you enter Arpaio’s jurisdiction and you get picked up for something you didn’t do, especially if you are physically fragile, you’re out of luck. Don’t think it can’t happen to you!
To top it off, Arpaio has such an effective PR campaign going that you’ll be unlikely to get anybody’s sympathy or help. He has played on public anger at rampant crime to make a seeming virtue of his smug, self-righteous, and cruel behavior. Even so, these tyrannies don’t last forever. When the bovine effluent from Arpaio’s reign of terror finally reaches the rotary ventilation enhancement device, Maricopa County will become known as an object of derision and a place to avoid.
Commenter blames federalism:
Mr. Nice Guy | October 19, 2007, 10:46am | #812184
I hope the folks who always moan about the federal government is always evil and federalism is always da bomb read this. Local government can be very tyrannical, and often it’ only the feds who can set these kind of tin-badge tyrants straight.
1389’s response:
1389 | October 19, 2007, 4:12pm | #812774
Mr. Nice Guy:
You are correct in pointing out that state and local authorities can become tinpot tyrants too. However, I take issue with your assertion that the feds can set them straight. That doesn’t seem to be happening! It’s the job of the local citizenry to do that! In other words, it all comes down to YOU!
1389
What to do?
Vote with your feet and boycott the place! If you live or have a business in Maricopa County, Arizona. move out! For everyone else, don’t visit!
Arpaio the Voyeur - So concerned about his OWN privacy! (Updated 10/20/07)
Dennis Wagner
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 12, 2006 12:00 AM
Maricopa County inmates have won a settlement with Sheriff Joe Arpaio over his live Internet broadcasts that showed prisoners being booked, photographed and, in some cases, using a toilet at the county jail.
The Sheriff’s Office agreed Monday to pay the legal fees for the inmates, plus $500 in damages to each of the 11 who remain in the case that was filed five years ago in U.S. District Court. Arpaio also agreed to accept the court order blocking the so-called jailcam.
. . .
Donna Hamm, executive director at Middle Ground, said the inmates all were pre-trial detainees, presumed not guilty under the law, subjected to public humiliation, with women prisoners shown partly undressed as they used a toilet.
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August 28th, 2007 — injustice, Islam, political correctness, media, CAIR, MSM corruption, flame war, Florida, censorship, culture wars, hate, counterjihad, Christianity
CBS has no room for Christians or for American Southerners.
For those who are not aware of this, it’s part of the Christian faith that believers are required - yes, REQUIRED - to tell the truth about our beliefs, and to bring the Good News to everyone we can reach. Taqiyya has NO place in Christianity. Florida televangelist Bill Keller was simply doing what a good Christian should do on a Christian talk show. But CAIR, a Muslim pressure group affiliated with Hamas, bullied CBS into dropping Keller’s show.
Here are two accounts of the disgraceful way CBS Corporation treated Florida televangelist Bill Keller:
But that’s not all. The CBS website has been providing a forum for over-the-top hate comments. CBS has allowed random crazies to spew filth and venom on the CBS website, particularly against American Southerners. After they got enough complaints, they eventually deleted the comments and, in effect, pretended the comments had never existed.
A high-traffic mainstream media site such as CBS has no business ever allowing unmoderated comments to appear in the first place. They should publish a comment policy with enough moderators to enforce it. They refuse to take any responsibility for what happens on their site, and they have no respect for Southerners or for anybody with traditional values. With that corporate mindset, it’s no wonder that the networks and the mainstream media have been steadily losing their audience!
Now let CBS know what you think of this!
Address of CBS Headquarters:
51 West 52 Street, New York, New York 10019-6188
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Also on FHK and on JennSierra.
June 19th, 2007 — Amnesty International, communism, Winds of Jihad, corruption, Australia, culture wars, history, liberal, Europe, politics
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(For rolling updates, please scroll down)
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Our Suspicions Proved Correct
Read the above article by Claudio Veliz in Quadrant Magazine: Australia’s independent review of literature and ideas. Veliz was involved with the organization from its founding. Just for starters, Amnesty International came into being much earlier than its official founding date of 1960.
And if you have ever suspected that Amnesty International is anything but politically neutral, despite its stated policy of representing “prisoners of conscience” from both the left and the right, you will learn exactly how and why your suspicions are correct.
According to Veliz:
The Cold War experience would also have confirmed Münzenberg’s conviction that waged urbi et orbi, such campaigns would be ignored inside a communist world undisturbed by a free press and public opinion, but would undermine the moral status of policies advanced by the United States and its allies.
This article sheds additional light upon the hidden leftist agenda of Amnesty International. One need not be a Catholic to regard AI’s recent activities as a grotesque betrayal of the organization’s stated aims:
Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace at the Vatican, called on Catholics to stop supporting the group.
“If in fact Amnesty International persists in this course of action, individuals and Catholic organizations must withdraw their support, because, in deciding to promote abortion rights, AI has betrayed its mission,” the National Catholic Register quoted him as saying.
(Stein hoist to Gop3.com: The Triumvirate!)
More:
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Winds of Jihad: Amnesty calls for Bali bombers’ lives to be spared
* Amnesia Intentional, Irene `Gulag’ Khan’s far left Islamo-fascist front against freedom and democracy, is looking for bleeding hearts and other useful idiots to save the lives of the good Muslims who blew up 200 Westerners in the Bali bombings.
FRIENDS and relatives of Bali bombing victims have rejected calls by Amnesty International for the lives of three Bali bombers to be spared.
The human rights group has called on Australians to write to the Indonesian authorities in a bid to avert the execution of Imam Samudra, Ali Ghufron and Amrozi bin Nurhasyim…”
Hmmm…I thought that AI made a big deal out of their policy of not helping anybody who has “used or advocated violence.”
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Amnesia Blasts US on Terrorism War
“* AI is rotten to the core, just like the UN. Their sole purpose seems to be to hide and excuse the embarrassing filth and depravity of non-Western (Islamic) countries, by exaggerating and lying about what Western countries do.
* More proof that human rights organizations have degenerated into a front for Muhammedan agent provocateurs like the excremental Irene “Gulag” Khan, with help of her Marxist enablers:
[Amnesty International (AI) Secretary General] Irene Khan is a Muslim and was born in Bangladesh. Obviously Bangladesh has become a paragon of human rights and equality in the past few years, unbeknownst to all of us, for someone from there to righteously preach to the rest of us about rights as if it was invented by them.
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New York Sun: Scrutinize Amnesty International
…In contrast to the democratic governments that Amnesty officials frequently denounce and condemn, including Israel, NGOs are not subject to independent accountability.
No one outside the inner circle knows how or why they choose their particular “targets,” or how they assess the “evidence,” or write their reports. And officials such as Amnesty’s Irene Khan are often in power and in control of massive budgets for many years, without significant challenges or competition.
Given this situation, the time is long past due for ending the “halo effect” that surrounds powerful groups such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch. Their reports should not be given automatic credibility by journalists, diplomats, academics, and individuals genuinely committed to the universality of human rights principles.
Rather than publicizing their reports and endorsing their campaigns, the publications of Amnesty and similar groups need to be subjected to the same type of independent questioning as is done for reports issued by governments and other political organizations.
June 5th, 2007 — the human condition, Jenn Sierra (author), cyberwars, conservative, search engine, Web 2.0, politics, culture wars, Google
If you are not a liberal when you’re 25 you have no heart, and if you’re not a conservative when you’re 45, you have no brain.
This saying, sometimes credited to Winston Churchill, seems to hold a bit of universal truth, as does the notion that the young people of a generation affect change, while the older folks lend stability. This certainly seems to be the case when it comes to politics online in the 21st century (allowing, of course, for exceptions such as the Young Republicans clubs and the die-hard hippies).
Web 2.0 technology affects our lives online in the form of blogs, online citizen journalism sites (social news), wiki’s, folksonomies, social networking sites, collaborative bookmarking sites, podcasts, aggregators (e.g. RSS), semantic web, collaborative software, and other online scenarios in which users create and share content such as graphics, news, informatio
n, technology, creative writing, software, photos, and videos. The original World Wide Web gave us the opportunity to share information by posting what we had to say, and by reading what others had to say. Web 2.0 takes that concept to the next level, by giving users the opportunity to collectively influence what information is available and how the information is distributed.
Today’s twenty-somethings grew up online, and generally seem to be more intuitively tech-savvy and more comfortable with online collaboration than those of us that are older (“older,” in this case meaning anyone over 35!). It is no wonder, then, that there is a noticeable liberal/progressive majority in the politics discussions of any of the social networking sites, which extensively utilize the newest technologies and the art of collaboration.
Largely due to Web 2.0 technology as well as increasingly interactive search engines, there is a growing body of knowledge online that is taking on a life of its own, and it is very influential. Features such as Google PageRank assure that the majority view of any issue is likely to be the first available information on any given topic. Anyone interested in the accuracy of the information that is being disseminated online, needs to have a voice in this increasingly important global discussion.
As conservatives, we need to understand and utilize Web 2.0 technology if we want this body of knowledge to even partially reflect our values, attitudes, respect for history, and vision for the future.
(Go to Part 2 of 3)
(Go to Part 3 of 3)
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