I was a Huffington “Poster”child.

Episode 2 in a series of experiences, observations, 'run ins' and general unhappiness with the moderation policies at Huffington Post in particular and posting and commenting to online sites on the web in general.

I was later than some and sooner than others coming into the age of awareness on the whole Huffington Post thing.
I became a member in April of 2008.

My last 'post' being February of 2011, (just a day or so after the $318 million dollar AOL “buy-in” or “sell-out” depending on your point of view) I had a long run that enabled me to successfully have 11,536 comments or posts approved and published on Huff. While I can't validate my “misses” due to deletion by the 'Mods', my number of rejected posts had to be somewhere around...well, a whole bunch... if not equal to my number of hits over the years.

I still have an account there (though I no longer log in) and a modest “following” of “friends” that number 753 other “poster children” out there, just like me and you.

Before anyone might think those stats are exceptional...don't.

There's a small army of people, here and elsewhere (some still there!) who have two, three and four times that amount of posts and “fans” and have spent more, less or equal time than I have in shouting into that empty well several hours a day.

About a hundred or more of these refugees can now be found spread throughout other free speech zones throughout Cybercity. So I think I represent a fairly good example of your average user. Being in said demographic makes me a middle class Huffmerican. And hopefully I can remain fair about some of the sights and scenes I encountered while in that land beyond the rainbow.

Oz or Wonderland?

A quick look at the 'terms of service” for commenting on Huffington could give anyone the impression that they have landed in Wonderland as opposed to Dorothy's Oz. The ambiguities of the conditional terms in conjunction with the “new Badge program” (which you'll learn more about in the course of this series) makes an argument between Tweedledee and Tweedledum look like a debate between professorial intellectuals on this side of the rabbit hole.

I don't know how you feel about it, but the moment I see that a conditional term of service is dependent on nebulous wording such as “appropriate speech” my palms sweat, my throat gets dry and I just know that ideology and not simply civility and courteousness is the tip of an ice berg that will randomly sink any ship's captain attempting to navigate the straits of good posting behavior.

And sure enough, At Huffington Post it repeatedly does.

Working in the lab...

Let me confess to a small social experiment I indulged myself in shortly after the HP-AOL merge.

It was early on reported and speculated upon that the degree of moderation would increase at Huffington in direct proportion to its becoming a major player in the Main Stream Media conglomerate leading to an even more aggressive push to increase the number of “clicks”and “hits” through the manipulation of posts and 'gotcha' headlining.

Let me explain that this way. If you log on to a site, and you can stop by and leave a comment on an article or join a conversational ebb and flow, you may click once or twice, now and again to see if you had any responses or to add to the dialog. On the other hand, if your posts become tied up for a half hour or more in “pending purgatory” before it became posted publicly, you might come back to check on its health or “click” about a half dozen times or more on that same subject for each posting effort you've made. Coincidence? I don't think so.

It was becoming increasingly common to see items with 500 or more posted comments to have a “pending approval” que consisting of sometimes a 4:1 ratio. People would be clicking back like crazy to bitch about it for an hour or more and sending out fresh versions of their comments multiple times before they learned their posts hadn't passed muster and as well, the politically corrected clones sent afterward were ultimately deleted.

Any idea what this does to make a site look exceptionally busy and profit worthy...even if it may not be otherwise? Plenty lucrative ploy just by clogging the pipes.

I had watched over the course of my time on HP that complaints increased exponentially in the comment section regarding these sort of moderation log jams and expulsions and I wanted to somehow measure this from a new perspective other than just living through the limbo called “pending” and deleted posts. So I put my long standing personae (AV) and account to rest and created a new HP account to see how a new member “poster” might fare under these new rules of engagement.

I presented my same ideologies. I was no more literate or less snarky in my replies and originating posts than I'd ever been and my subjects were as random and occasionally off thread as they had ever been under my old account/personae.

Things went par for about three weeks and the accumulation of 47 “friends” and “fans” until I hit an article of above average controversy rife with moderation.

The issue surrounded a video from a police helicopter circling the Twin Towers on the morning of 9/11. I was careful not to advance any (“kooky”) theories, either conspiratorial or supporting the establishment's accounts of that day's events. But I stood firm on insisting in “to the point” fashion that there remained in fact, mounds of evidence from that day to this that was never properly investigated or verified. I was fully aware from my HP experience that this sort of speculation was never well tolerated. I suspected that deletions of my posts was bound to follow. Four non confrontational exchanges later, I was informed that I had been banned from commenting. Evidently, a moderator held a different (or corporate) ideology on the subject.

Yes. It was that obvious.

After waiting through three days (of 'crickets') to hear a response from Hufiington Post to my email queries on what exactly my transgressions might have been...even within the broad spectrum of their terms of service, I scrubbed the account completely and bailed.

The punchline is this. Immediately following my canceling of my account I received an email from HP's Admin. They said they were sorry to see me go! Go? For all intent and purposes, I didn't even exist to begin with and it isn't likely that you do either.

Dedicated To Free Speech Through Extreme Moderation...A Contradiction In Terms.

Episode 1: The first in a 4 part series of experiences, observations, 'run ins' and general unhappiness with the moderation policies at Huffington Post in particular and posting and commenting to online sites on the web in general.

First, let's come to grip with something that few people will openly admit...or perhaps simply can't accept . (I'm sure, which one or the other varies from person to person, dependent on the situation.) Unencumbered “free speech” is limited to the confines of being a concept and is not the reality we love to imagine it to be.

Ogg

Since the very first time that little Ogg picked up a charred wooly mammoth bone from the previous evening's dinner off the floor of the cave and whacked his sibling for any real or imagined expressed verbal affront leveled in his or her direction, freedom of expression has been a very elusive object of desire and attainment for anyone not a cast away or shielded from the influence of the social human condition. To make matters worse, when Mom or Dad came back from drawing primitive pictures of the hunt or splattered hand prints in the lower section of the cave and found out about what Ogg had done, reprimand and censorship of unbridled self expression was yet again established (at least) as far as one or the other party in any debate or dispute would from then on, ever be concerned.
Since then little (if anything) of this social etiquette has been able to recover entirely from this stipulation enough for it to be considered intrinsically fair in regard to the right of anyone to pure, unabridged self expression.

Onward!

Now, fast forward (if you will) to today's modern society, the complexities that concept and language have under gone and the means of mass internet communications such as texting, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and a multitude of on line information sources run often for far more mercenary motivation than to simply allow people to avenue to express a multi-verse of topics such as The Huffington Post does (or doesn't)...which brings me to the object of my current focus.

“The truth Is Out There!"

Anyone can, if they so choose, easily provide their own search/research on the topic of moderation as it is practiced at the Huffington Post web site. The information, opinions and carefully compiled hard and anecdotal evidence of the short comings on (this loosely termed) "moderation" as presented on HP are plentiful and date back to May of 2005, which is when the site was first launched.
I've waded through sites and postings that covered a wide swath of cut and pasted screen grabs, opinions, complaints, examples, comments and incentives for the scrutiny now being given this subject surrounding HP and the mass publication of said information.

“Everybody's got an ax to grind.”

Some (but not many) were less than subtly progressing their own personal, commercial or political agenda -- which to their way of thinking were not being given the attention on the comment boards to the degree that they felt their topic of concern or 'cause du jour' warranted. In this class, of course, some even appeared to be (perhaps paid?) 'activists' who (for want of supplementing their livelihood) wished to be the St. George who would slay the dragon or the Don Quixote who would help vanquish what to many might have amounted to little more in reality than a tattered, old wind mill. Others I found were apparently using this chink in HuffPo's armor (there are, as many are already aware, several) as a commercial tool in an effort to maybe pry away a few "clicks" or pull a few advertisers in their own direction and open or level the readership playing field a bit through their rapier critique.

...but some people have a legitimate need to use that ax sharpener.

For the most part, I came away from it all with an unshakable belief that the bulk of what fruits I had gathered, did not come from these groups. Neither was it limited to simply disgruntled people. But instead, the time and efforts were taken by a majority of those people to publicly express themselves about being rendered utterly disillusioned and more than curious about the genuine intent and dedication of HuffPo to freedom of speech... as the 'pub' and policy (of HP) would like to have everyone believe. {Links will be provided in episode 2}

On a curious note:

The absence of web published material in defense of the moderation found on the Huffington site was notably apparent through out my research, except for the rare and occasional references (noticeably) from Huffington Post staff, co founders or people associated or aligned with that site in some cooperative fashion or another.

All that aside...

...this much is certain, (and a notable portion of the internet blogging population seems to agree) in regard to HP's moderation practices... if nothing is wrong, then something is terribly wrong.

[In episode 2, we'll take a look at some of the comments, replies and stories from others who have either broken away from HP for greener pastures of self expression online and an update on some of the damage control taking place at HuffPo in the wake of the continuing exodus of 'posters' due to their dissatisfaction over having contributed to the rapid rise of this online news empire -- only to find that the rules of the game had changed dramatically over time, without anyone telling them.]

[My thanks to the folks at http://condemnedtorocknroll.blogspot.com...(and "please send bail if needed") for my use of their graphic illustration used above...albeit for this all together different subject of coverage.]

Father Knows Breast: Mother's Milk Cocktails For Stay-At-Home Dads

Big eye roll.

I can see the scene now.

High noon. The sun is effectively baking the earth's surface. Tumble weeds roll lazily across the dusty street between clap board building under the shade of post and beam over hangs...circa mid 1800's ...a lone old timer dozes while leaning back against a building on but two legs of a kitchen chair in the shade while a mangy homeless dog wanders the ally sniffing around for it's daily bread.

[Cut to interior of a saloon:]

The swinging doors fling open. In the void that takes thier place stands a tall, mysterious stranger who appears to have been rode hard and put up wet for three days.

He saunters to the bar. emanating mystery, danger and a n'er do well demeanor like another man might wear cologne. There's a small scar on his cheek and a predators look in his eye.

The Barkeep swallows hard spits in a glass and begins wiping it clean to keep his hands from shaking.

"What will you have stranger?" he asks the parched, sun burned gunslinger with skin like hard tack.

The stranger raises the brim of his hat using just his trigger finger with an air of impatience and with a look as hard and bitter as Cain himself answers, "Give me one of those Mother's milk cocktails. And just keep em' comin'!" He slaps down a confederate gold piece on the bar never taking is eyes off of the inn keeper.

The piano man diverts his gaze from the exchange He knows the slinger is aware he's been staring and the last thing the Gurdyman doesn't want is for the stranger to turn and take notice of him. He focuses on the 88s and begins a soft but lively lullaby on his piano.

Read the Original Article at HuffingtonPost

Why Are You Here? A New Theory May Hold the Missing Piece

Be sure to read the story linked below to see what prompted this post. It's an interesting piece that you might like to muse over. I did, until I came to the following line of quote. After listing the various hominids who have come before us...and departed the author (Dr. Robert Lanza) pointed out, in his opinion:

"Indeed, we happen to be the only species of Hominina that made it."

I'd definitely put away the party hats and horns and just be thankful that we've been here long enough to fluff ourselves up with that sentiment..
As Yogi (Berra) said, "It ain't over till it's over."
We haven't been around long enough to declare victory on a playing field where other hominid species have come and gone many times for reasons we can still only speculate on.
Some more and some less advanced than we have become.
I do like the reference made to how the observer changes the results of the experiment. This has come as a surprise to scientists and researchers for some time throughout modern scientific experimentation and exploration.
Everything is in flux and even infinity must change from what it is into whatever it will become. (Thoth/Hermes attested to this 10's of thousands of years ago in his Emerald Tablets which he allegedly left behind for us.)

So where does this leave us?

Hoping for the best and taking things one moment at a time, realizing that this world of illusion is simply that and looking inward for our own explanations for the world around us rather than attaching ourselves to one more religion that proves itself a modification of another that proved ultimately temporary or by grasping onto another unfounded scientific paradigm that like the flat earth theories of the past fall by the way side to more current and definable speculations and unintended skewed observations.

Find your "truths" within yourself. That's what we're here for.
That's what individuality is about.
Really, after countless civilizations and species that have come and gone through one reason or another in spite of the answers they thought they had for their purpose and their origins...what have you got to lose?
Go for it.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Bumper-Sticker Patriotism Is No Way to Honor Our Veterans

If this government gave one half as much concern for our people in the military or the voice of the people we could have had our troops home and safe years ago.

There is no greater connection we can have with these men and women than to want them removed from the dangers of a theater of war or invasion that was neither necessary or warranting the sacrifices of life and family such as our troops and their family have made over the last 10 years and in the course of America's propensity to have an armed conflict somewhere approximately every 15 to 20 years...all too often for less than immediate self defense.

It doesn't help to justify this governments position in doing this in light of the mass of information that is currently available through current technology that has shown more than one would like to admit, that this government is often complicit in creating the very conditions and situations that have put our sons and daughters in uniform and in peril for little more than corporate incentives and the desire of the military industrial complex to continue to establish itself as the fourth column and most powerful branch of this 'democratic, representative republic' which constitutionally does not include them in the role of governing membership.

While many choose to see Veterans Day as a day of memorial, others such as myself see it as a day of defeat and sorrow in that so many have sacrificed so much so often, for all too frequently, little more than less honorable political ambitions.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Debt Commission Report Targets Social Security, Medicare

Do the math people.

435 people voting as often as they like on whatever they like and making life and death decisions for 307 million Americans who get the free-dumb to vote for little more every two years than who the next courtesans will be to make decision for us.

These numbers of congressmen might have worked out well for the population of the 13 original states, but let's get real. This is all way out of reasonable proportion.

We have 435 people...generally living much better off than at least 300 million other people, (certainly as far as salary and health benefits) making decisions that become the laws of the land which in more cases than not, (and even in the case of criminal behavior) these 435 aren't even affected by.

Why?

If that doesn't pretty much depict a proportionate royalty versus serfs society and the way property and people were ruled in the middle ages then I've studied my history incorrectly.

This is one thing that should very well be changed if Americans are ever going to again have a genuine voice for their country and their destiny as countrymen/women and as individuals.

The US population of 2010 has outgrown the representation mandated in our constitution of 300 some years ago and the additional population of some 307 million more people.

No way 435 people can represent 307 million...and that might explain why (as can be seen again and again in the 20th and 21st century, they don't.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Martin Erzinger, Morgan Stanley Wealth Manager, Won't Face Felony Charges For Hit-And-Run

Ok, this aristocratic, dual system of justice just keeps getting worse and worse.

At what point does someone (anyone) call this sort of judicial latitude and preferential treatment of establishment figures, politicians and finance barons into question on a national level as an affront to our sensibilities and our constitution?

A blind man can see that in 2010 America all men and women are no longer made to so much as even appear to be created equal in a court of law.

People are shot to death by rented security personnel while handcuffed and held on the floor of train stations with below minimal prudence of the laws that apply to everyone else and given a fraction of the punishment the average American would receive while financiers are given a pass for hit and run and fleeing the scene of an accident.

This double standard of justice that continues to grow and continue unchecked is worse than having no constitution at all.

Where is the check and balance for the judicial branch of this government??
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

GOP Plan Hit On All Sides: Not Far Enough For Tea Party, Doesn't Make Sense To Economists

Yet another issue that has become little more than the trials and tribulations of the rich and famous in the "green zone" that is DC, rather than the back story which is basically how legislation in America for the country and the people is in a state of stagnation with little to nothing being done to move this country in any direction at all...neither left, right or somewhere in between.

All we've been hearing is how difficult it is for either party to grapple and secure more power for themselves as opposed to doing what they were elected and sent to the green zone (DC) to do...address and remedy the needs of this country.

We're so far behind, we're practically running up on the heels of ourselves!
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

New Figures Detail Depth Of Unemployment Misery, Lower Earnings For All But Super Wealthy (VIDEO)

I wonder if the champions of capitalism rich and poor alike, (which has solidly failed the American people twice now in but 80 years) are ready to concede that it may not be all it has been cracked up to be?

The immediate response to this (if any) will be through Ad Hominem from those who see the world in only two contrasting colors with the ever popular shield that surely I must be talking about taking our country communistic, socialistic or some other "istic"...failing to see that perhaps a mix of the tried and untrue economic models might be the way to go for us. Or something new entirely.

But surely, I'm just dreaming in print, because our economic and social futures are already designed and set for us all (globally) by the wealthiest and most powerful; who amassed said wealth and power through nurturing the system(s) we live under to the detriment of the vast majority of Americans whose misfortune can be seen growing daily.

I wouldn't want to be a person of grade school age today, anywhere in the western (or eastern) world and have the next 80 years of being treated like a farm animal... to look forward to.

This is the result of short sighted greed and rampant capitalism with no consideration toward it's workability for the people or the possibility of adapting it when it's failure showed itself evident.

This is the legacy we leave our children.

And our "children's, children's, children".
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Sean Bielat Compares Gays To Short People

I'm scratching my head over here... What's the issue?

Knowing the sort of military conflicts and righteousness in pursing them that we have witnessed over the last decade, why in the world would anyone actually want to join or fight for the right to join the military in the first place.

Sure, maybe some college opportunity. Perhaps a little financial security and a shot at a veteren's loan or two.

But you can join Blackwater/XE and do better in these areas if that's what you're willing to sell your soul over.

This whole argument of who can and who can't be in the military and what must or shouldn't be disclosed (although there's hardly ever a secret to it in the first place in the foxhole) simply goes right over my head.

Now I know some people will say most things do go over my head...but let me help you out...this one item really does and I won't even bother to dispute that with them.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Will Republicans Take Control Of Congress In Midterm Elections? Michael Steele, Tim Kaine Debate GOP 'Wave'

GOP...DEM, what's the difference?

The same party wins every time regardless of what they publicly call themselves or use to make it appear that there's actually a chasm between them.

To muddy the waters further, these two (supposedly individual) entities hold an open exchange regularly and reverse their personae like a good cop/bad cop routine.

Give yourself a pop quiz. Pick 10 random, major issues of legislation or policy throughout our brief history then look up which party was responsible for them.

You'll find that contrary to the illusion presented today the GOP has often been "the people party" (abolishing slavery) and contrary-wise the DEMS have also played the role of champion for banking, business and war (Creation of the Fed Reserve, income tax, Viet Nam).

Of course, currently and within the last few generations, it would appear that these characteristics and concerns are once more being attributed in reverse order...but that's the illusion...that's the lulling effect of choosing the blue pill.

Do yourself a favor if you want to break the spell. Make and take the quiz.

Escape the matrix.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

FDIC Called On To Put Bank Of America Into Receivership

Hate to break this to anyone unaware of it, but if anyone thinks that we are going to resolve the banking problem in this country by going after one or more established banks at a time, you've got another think coming.

By all reports and opinions I've heard on the subject by "expert analysts" BOA should have been declared bankrupt and seized and foreclosed upon by the US government rather than included in the taxpayer bail out. So too, JP Morgan and possibly Sachs/Goldman.

They weren't but America was thrown the bones of Lehman and Bear Stearns as sacrificial lambs instead.

BOA came up golden and nothing is going to bring down the same banks that are providing buoyancy to BOA or the industry as it stands (with their hands out) today.

It's lose-lose for the American borrower and taxpayer.

These guys (banks) think nothing of biting the hands that feed it.

We're on our own, no matter how many stories like this come out to make it appear otherwise.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Juan Williams FIRED: NPR Sacks Analyst Over Fox News Muslim Comments

The hypocrisy is this, if the majority of nationals in America were not equally "nervous" about this or any other people, why would we have allowed our government to erode our constitution under the guise of the Patriot Act and Homeland Security in an effort to single out and scrutinize certain "types" of people who don't conveniently fit the christian cookie cutting mold? Why are we in a ten year multiple invasion and funding covert operations in other primarily Muslim countries and churning out propaganda against others as yet uninvolved?

Since 9/11 this country has again and again taken steps (including the elimination of civilians in far greater numbers than what occurred on 9/11) for nothing more than being nervous about a particular people.

But Juan, mentioning his own trepidation is too brutally honest and out in the open for the squeamish or reluctant to speak what has been carried out through international policy by America (and the nations of NATO) for a decade??

Ask the people who have a problem with a mosque at "Ground Zero" if they're not nervous.

As a people and a nation our hypocrisies out shadow our feigned concern for these other people who justifiably or otherwise, America itself has shown itself to be nervous about.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost