Facebook, Social Media

The article re the Fed smells strongly of a cleverly conceived spoof designed to appeal to the anti-government, anti-Fed and anti-Bernanke conspiracy theorists in the run up to the 2012 elections.

There is simply no logic to the Fed having any such desire – except in the minds of the Fed haters

Well, what's not to like about the Fed, right? That upright gang of brilliant bankers and economists.

Sounded incredible to me as well, Jimbo, which is why I did a search on it before posting it. Certainly don't want to join the ranks of conspiracy theorists -- isn't "theorists" rather a glorified term for them?

I didn't spend too much time on the search admittedly, but mostly found discussions about how incredible this is, and yeah, no logic to it, except maybe slipping it in a "back door."

No spoof or debunking links that I've found yet. Perhaps you can find a few and post them.

I'd love to be proven wrong on this one, believe me. Hard to believe they've actually gotten to this point!

As the allegations about the Fed only surfaced very recently the fact checking sites have not had any time to research whether there may or may not be any substance to them (I did have a look before posting).

While logic tells me there is not any substance I will be looking to see whether the fact checking sites confirm my logic or whether I have to make an post saying I was wrong.

Unfortunately, as Mark Twain said (or to be more precise, was attributed as saying) “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes” – and that was way before the internet.

Even if the allegations are comprehensively rebutted there will be people who will continue to believe them – just look at all the fruit and nutcases who continue to believe the birther nonsense about President Obama.

A bit more googling and I came across this article on "True North" which gives some background and insight into the Fed scaremongering rumour, it can be found here:

http://looktruenorth.com/liberty/powers ... sites.html

Like any good scaremongering rumour there is a grain of truth - which is then twisted, spun and unbelievably stretched.

Glad this one doesn't seem to be true, at least. Good job debunking it, Jim.

Reckon we'll be seeing lots more of this type thing in the coming year.

Given this and the previous administration's policies, it's hardly surprising people believed it, though. Some of the emails one receives nowadays are simply shocking, and would be laughable if so many people didn't believe them, and pass them on.

Would love to see a thread on Clinton and Echelon, as well as The Fed, though I'd need to do lots more research; it's becoming more and more difficult, ironically, to find legitimate sources, with so many sites spewing biased, bogus information. One of the Web's big issues.

Given the little I do know, however, I can't see me changing my online behavior anytime soon.

@JS: Let us know if you experience FB/SM withdrawal, cave, and create another account.

I still say, "Careful what you share." It's a jungle out there, with a huge underbelly.

"Would love to see a thread on Clinton and Echelon"

I'm just beginning to read "The Shadow Factory" by James Bamford.....he discusses Echelon and how leaks about its existence raised a firestorm of controversy about the potential of the hush-hush system (Business Week described it as the granddaddy of all snooping operations). Privacy and civil liberty groups encouraged people to flood phone lines and the internet with words that would trigger the surveillance system: 'terrorist' 'bomb' 'assassinate' among a few. The fear among European countries was that the US would use the Echelon system for industrial espionage.

Given that Echelon was 1990's technology, and we're 10+ years past that (AND we're post 9/11), I have little doubt that every word you transmit via phone, every keystroke you send via the internet is intercepted by the US government. It's all filtered for key words/phrases/telephone numbers/email addresses of suspicious people. The rest probably sits in massive archives in the event that something/one slips through the algorithmic cracks. I personally don't feel threatened by it....certainly no more threatened that that camera that watches what I do at an ATM machine or on the sidewalk of a city street.
Somewhat related to our privacy concerns: Prior to renewing our annual extensions at immigration, I'd guess most folks go to the local copy shop to make copies of their passport, wife ID, bank books, house papers, pension papers, maps to their homes, etc. And if the copy machine is one made in the past decade, it likely has a hard drive that stores all the images that it scans. Thinking about all the personal data on my immigration paperwork makes my head spin, that's why I always burn down the copy shop after I burn my copies.

With the remarks like that one does wonder, but as you say it has been an untruth spread by rumour mongers of the worst sort. personally although I may have a facebook and twitter account I never open them and wonder why i have them I find them too intrusive and invade my personal space ( if that is the right phrase) so I guess I should cancel them.

Information about oneself is kept by many Govt agencies i do not see why i would really want to openly and publically put more information on the web at all in reality, anyone that wants to know me can talk on the phone or even meet me, old fashioned I maybe, but I have ( touch wood ) never been hacked nor had my identity stolen.

I like the peace of no mobile phone, no facebook ( with its constant updates ) and no twitter. lokk out on the garden and muse.

I am a strong supporter of facebook, as it lets me keep in touch with friends all over the world. However one must be careful of what one writes on facebook. A good example in this article where a mother posted that her children did not live in the area of the school they attended. Once this was found out they were suspended from the football team. Obviously she wasn't thinking when she wrote that.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/highschool/blog/prep_rally/post/Tennessee-team-vacates-wins-after-mom-8217-s-Fa?urn=highschool-wp6392

Facebook Criticisms all summed up in a neat and tidy package. You'll like delete your account (hahaha! But they still keep it all "archived" and can do whatever they want with your "deleted" content and info!):

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook

I'd be more worried about my iphone spewing toxic personal data everywhere when it's not busy altering the genetic makeup of my braincells. Of course, you could turn off all the extra features of your iphone or not load any apps and have a glorified Jitterbug (photo) at many times the cost of a cheaper phone.

I knew people in the late 90's who would not use an ATM machine because they didn't trust them.....and many people in the early 2000's who wouldn't shop online because they feared entering their credit card information online.......yet, they'd just as easily give their credit card to an 18year old waiter/waitress in a restaurant who would disappear with it for a few minutes.

I don't use facebook or twitter, not because I fear my loss of privacy, but because I have no time for it. For those who do, more power to you! Enjoy!

Nice article:

Shunning Facebook, and Living to Tell About It
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/shunning- ... 04976.html

OT's youngest son called earlier today quite upset because the middle son had taken a photo of him whilst he was taking a dump and ran off telling him he was going to put it on facebook.

Yet another reason not to have facebook in the family.

OT.......................