Hoaxer Claims Credit for Palin Africa-Continent Story, MSNBC Fooled
Please see http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/arts/television/13hoax.html?_r=1&em
I know one friend of mine, usually an extremely well-informed lady who checks her sources, who thought that Sarah Palin, not Tina Fey, made the joke about her foreign policy experience was that she could see Russia from her house. When I sought to correct my friend, she reacted, not with disbelief, but with rage. (It may or may not be a coincidence that this friend of mine has had several abortions in her life.)
I know another friend who said he voted against Palin because Palin did not get a passport until late in her life: this was the shallowest reason I ever heard for making a judgment about a political candidate. My friend could not name whether Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, or Carter got a passport early or late in life. So it was also a (ahem) "standard" used only for this one judgment.
He also said he was offended that Palin did not know whether Africa was a country or a continent. This seems to have been a hoax. (It may or may not be a coincidence that my friend works for the State Department.) Ironically, he claims to be wary of newspapers, and thinks of himself as ungullible.
Well, if this report is true, then my friend was simply fooled.
My hope is that Sarah Palin run again in 2012, under the banner "Keep Your Change."
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
