Shame On Google

For a while, this blog had ads on it, served by Google's Adsense system. It doesn't anymore, and I have removed Adsense from every site I work on. Why? Because Google was using my sites to press its political agenda.

Ads appeared on my site constantly which bashed President Bush. The appearance of these was astounding to me because the point of Adsense is supposed to be that ads are served based on the text of the site. The text of this site is centrist. I don't think Bush is all that bright, but I don't think he's the devil either. However, ads from what I can only classify as liberal wacko groups kept appearing here. There were never any conservative wacko ads, which would have at least balanced things out, although I would have preferred to have no wackos advertise on the site.

According to Google, these ads were fine. It's perfectly okay to advertise on Adsense if you're blasting the Republicans. However, you can't blast Moveon.org. Moveon has been attacking Susan Collins, but she was refused the right to advertise her side of the fight. Google put their agenda over the rights of their advertisers.

What happened to don't be evil?

Just The Facts Ma'am

Why do so many people have a problem believing facts? The interpretation of facts may be subject to debate, but the facts themselves rarely are. Yet people cannot accept facts that don't agree with their worldview.

The New England Journal Of Medicine published a research study that found mercury had no effect on a child's brain function. This has been a subject of furious debate among parents of autistic children because they believe the autism was caused by mercury in vaccines. The study has considerable scientific proof on its side. What is the basis of the parents' belief? The children were diagnosed after receiving a vaccine shot. Despite that timing, you can't prove cause and effect. The same logic could be used to say that all the children are food, therefore eating food must cause autism. But rather than accept the facts, autism groups are calling this a cover up and conspiracy.

The world has probably heard of Moveon.org's infamous ad slamming General Petraeus. The facts he presented to Congress didn't match what Moveon wanted to hear. So instead of debating the interpretation of the facts, or accepting that they were wrong, their decision was Petraeus must be lying. They simply can't admit that they don't know the facts. Here's a message for Moveon.org: just move on already.

Supporters of organic farming also blindly ignore the facts. There is, to date, no scientific evidence stating that organic foods are healthier. There is, however, substantial proof that organic farming methods cannot sustain a population the size of Earth's. By supporting organic farming, you are supporting people going hungry with no provable benefit.

Facts are facts. You can adapt your argument to take the facts into consideration, or you can face that if the facts don't support your view, it's your view that's incorrect.

Anti-War Activists Resort To Name Calling

Things are getting out of hand when people can't tell fact from opinion. When General Petraeus testified in front of Congress, he gave the facts about what has been happening in Iraq. Moveon.org accused him of lying because his facts didn't support their opinions. It couldn't that their opinion is incorrect, Petraeus must have lied. An editorial in the New York Times did the same thing. Facts are facts.

With no evidence to back up their claims, and no way to support their own argument, anti-war activists have resorted to name calling to try to discredit General Petraeus. If you don't agree with the war, that's fine. One of the great things about this country is we're allowed to disagree with our leaders. But if you have to resort to name calling instead of intelligent debate, you've already lost.