• Look, you know how this kind of thing works. Pretend that Bill Gates is shaped like an ACORN employee. Or maybe he’s looking a bit like Shirley Sherrod nowadays. Because, like those examples, this clip is only a minute long and takes some stuff he said out of context and makes him look like a monster. This guy is giving nearly all of his money away to charity! Not buying it. It’s a hit piece, pure and simple, and you should view it as such. And let’s face it – the way it was presented, it’s basically designed to be the kind of thing that’s going to gain traction in the mainstream press. Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us. Let’s criticize him for things worthy of criticism, like that Seinfeld ad he did. source

• A bunch of people were booted off a flight after “a comment” was made. What was the comment? Who said it? And why was it alarming enough that they had to be booted off a flight at Dulles International Airport? Why is this story the most read item on CNN.com right now? There’s like no information here and it says basically nothing at all. source

• please dont let your daughter do a reality show : ( but i love your family and you ..hope thats just a rumor from the liberals.
• A comment on Sarah Palin’s Facebook page • Which was subsequently deleted. Palin does this a lot – her Facebook page is immaculately vetted, something that seemed very likely to us when we noticed basically everyone on Palin’s Facebook page was pro-Sarah a couple of months ago. Palin’s staff deletes a lot of comments – good, bad, not really that bad at all – but fortunately for us, Slate devised a script that grabbed those comments so we could read them before they got deleted. Good show, guys. source

• If you’ve ever used the internet, you could’ve seen this coming from a while away. After House Republicans launched a site looking for democratic input on their new agenda, the site got overloaded with comments that perhaps didn’t show the GOP’s decision-making process in the best light. A few samples to nosh on:

• one“Require all Muslims in the U.S. to wear ankle bracelet transponders so we know where the terrorists are at all times.”
• two“Consensual bestiality should not be illegal. No, I am not joking. Everything I’ve said is logically sound.”
• three “End the idea of Net Neutrality. American’s do not need the government censoring our websites for us.”

And the best answer goes to …

• We need to train an army of Ninja Cats. Cats are natural born hunters and predators, and it is known that they indeed have 9 lives, many more than the typical human life (being one).
• An absolute genius • Saying everything that needs to be said about this endeavor. It’s absolutely perfect in its conceit – the world needs stronger counter-terror measures, and how much stronger could you get than ninja cats? You know, seriously. source

• We don’t care about the end of “American Idol.” We ESPECIALLY don’t care about Simon Cowell leaving the series. So if you care about stupid things like that, feel free to see the bajillions of tweets going through this post. But we won’t be listening. Maybe if one of the contestants sang Deerhunter.

• I like the approach because it doesn’t limit speech. Anonymous loudmouths can still shout. But ‘trusted commenters’ will be easier to hear.
• Washington Post Ombudsman Andrew Alexander • Discussing the Post’s decision to switch to a tiered commenting system like Gawker. Why? Too many loudmouths who hate the liberal media and everything it represents. With the system, it adds a layer of trust that encourages more good comments by allowing users to promote those and leave the conspiracy theories behind. Seriously, though, they found that a lot of story sources were getting scared off because anonymous commenters were so mean. A new bride, for example, was told to get a life insurance policy for her husband because he was obese and would probably die soon. Yeah, the Post needs to fix that. source

• This is not an issue of freedom of the press. The concern is not the content per se, although some of it is alarming – homophobic and racist and so forth.
• Virginia Tech Vice President for Student Affairs Ed Spencer • Regarding the school’s push to take funding away from the school paper, The Collegiate Times, due to the fact that their site allows anonymous comments. Apparently, it breaks some stupid policy. While the paper has independence from the school, they do receive $70,000 yearly, along with free office space. In case you need a single reason why this is a bad idea, whatever the policy may be, we have a pretty good one: The paper’s excellent coverage of the school’s 2007 shooting. Student journalism needs to be protected. (hat tip Charles Apple) source

• enabled The Mac-oriented technology blog Daring Fireball has never allowed comments, but some clever bastard decided to add them on their own. This will probably end well.
• disabled After a rough battle with trolls, super-popular gadget blog Engadget decided to shut off comments for a while, partly to ban certain ungrateful users.

• The fact that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch would allow this to happen just shows how completely out of touch they are with the Internet and the modern world.
• The anonymous author of “Kurt Greenbaum is a #&(&@” • Describing their feelings on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s handling of the Kurt Greenbaum incident. As you recall, Greenbaum called a commenter’s employer and got them fired. The person behind the site emphasizes two things: One, commenters should be allowed their privacy, and two, the Post-Dispatch’s policies are old hat at best. source