Maybe we aren’t in as much trouble as I thought. Clearly there is an awareness of the issue out there and through that awareness hopefully the internet culture (of the few bad eggs out there) will change as we realize that we will not tolerate that kind of attitude towards each other.

Via ReadWriteWeb I read a list of the Top 10 YouTube Videos of All Time. The #2 video is called Charlie Bit My Finger — Again. In order to save you the trip, here is the video:

The video is very cute, especially when little Charlie starts cracking up at the end. Maybe you have to be a parent who has had your finger bit by a kid to truly appreciate the humor, but that is not really the point. My frustration was not with the video, but rather with the comments below. There are people that are just mean to the family that posted this cute little video.  Here is a brief example:

I think it is fine if Kanzo93 doesn’t find little Charlie funny, but does he really need to post that comment? I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but I guess I hope just hope for the best in people. I know the internet provides a certain level of anonymity, but what does Kanzo93 get out of post that? Now, maybe that was just one out of context comment from him, maybe is a normal happy guy. I tend to think not, but like I to believe the best in people. Let’s check his profile:

Alas, no, this 27 year old man from the UK is just mean. People like this just make the internet less fun. Now, I certainly don’t mean to just pick on this comment, because as you can see above and below, several other people felt the need to make just unnecessary comments. But, this was the one that happened to be there when I logged in tonight. Here are a more comments in the same vain.

I think what it comes to is The Golden Rule, If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. However, we need to start adopting an addition to that: If you wouldn’t say it in person, why say it online?

If these people actually met the dad and watched the video, they would never say those things. I’m not sure exactly how we change this mentality, but maybe it just takes each of us to call out one person when they see this behavior. Perhaps all we can do is be the model of the internet user we would like to see and hope the rest of the world follows. Or, maybe it can’t be changed at all. I hope that isn’t true because that would make me sad for humanity and I know we are moving towards a world where more and more communication is going to be faceless. Hopefully each us go forward and make sure our comments and appropriate and fair and hope that everyone else falls into line.

For example:

This story probably wouldn’t have left New York if not for YouTube making it viral. I have seen it on The Daily Show and heard it discussed on the Nick Digilio Show on WGN because it was high on the Yahoo Buzz Search.

The face on the co-anchor is awesome!

The most current example is Congressman Pete Stark from California. The conversation went like this:
Senior Citizen to Congressman Stark: “Don’t pee on my leg and then tell me it’s raining.”
Congressman Stark’s Response: “I wouldn’t dignify you by peeing on your leg – I wouldn’t waste the urine”.

Before YouTube, this comment maybe would have made the pages of a paper in California, but now it is a national story I heard about on a NPR’s Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me quiz show, all because of YouTube. I think this is an example that shows that all public figures need to be on notice, that if you say something unprofessional or beneath your level, it will get noticed and it can travel across the globe.

Here is the video:

1. See It in Color
2. Concrete Angel
3. Waitin’ on a Woman
4. You’re Gonna Miss This

It is a catchy song, but “You Belong with Me” is, in my opinion, better video, it actually tells a story and is clever and creative. Beyonce’s video is different and kind of cool, but to me it is just dancing to music and doesn’t add anything to the song like Taylor Swift’s does. And, even if you did think it was better, it is not “one of the best videos of all time.”

On a side not, I think “Put a Ring on It” is a great song for weddings when the bride throws the bouquet and I often wonder if writes think about that when they write songs. I bet they do.

In case anyone hasn’t seen the videos in questions from the VMA awards tonight, here are links to both.

I can’t embed Beyonce’s but here is a link.

So, I read a story about it on Rolling Stone and I couldn’t believe it.

Before I passed judgment, I wanted to see it for myself. So, after several Google and YouTube searches involving people’s personal responses, I finally found the clip, posted below.

So, I watched the clip and it was surreal that anyone, I don’t care how famous you are, would go on stage and do that. It was almost as bad and as when Faith Hill had a tantrum when she lost to Carrie Underwood at the CMAs in 2006.

That maybe wasn’t quite as bad because she was at least off stage, but she had to know the camera was on.

In any event, I am starting to see a disturbing trend of public figures acting out in ways that are clearly inappropriate. Kanye couldn’t have thought that what he did was appropriate. Especially, and maybe this shouldn’t matter, considering that this is a 19 year old girl who has done nothing but be a shining role model in the media. Kanye apparently proceeded to flip the bird to the crowd while Taylor was crying backstage.

This is the same week that Congressmen Joe Wilson of South Carolina decides he should shout, “You Liar”, during the president’s address to Congress. Again, I fail to see how anyone could think that was appropriate, even if the president was lying! And in the same summer that the governor of that same state, Mark Sanford, went off with his Argentinian girlfriend and abandoned the state.

Then we have Chris Brown who decided that he could beat his girlfriend Rihana to within an inch of her life.

What these people all have in common is that the apologized about what they did after the fact and that was supposed to make it all better. And it seems like we in a America are all to willing to forgive. Now, this may seem contradictory on my part because I have posted that I think Michael Vick should be allowed to play football again, but that is different. The biggest difference is that Vick not only apologized, but he also spent 18 months in custody. Additionally, I don’t have to forgive Vick for him to keep playing football, no one does.

Here is a picture of Kanye leaving the show. Look at his right hand, maybe we will see what the really cause of the outburst was:

I would almost guarantee that tomorrow Kanye West will apologize to Taylor Swift. I would encourage her not to accept it. It can not be sincere. How can a person walk all the way on to the stage, take the microphone from someone, make that statement, and then walk away and flip off the crowd and actually be sorry. President Obama accepted Congressman Wilson’s, I know that, but that is the problem. We live in a society now where public people can do or say what they want and then apologize and it’s okay.

I am not saying we should never forgive people and I am not saying that we shouldn’t move on when conflict occurs, but we also need to hold people accountable when they act irresponsibly when they should know better. The governor of a state should be allowed to just disappear for a week and then just be embraced back into the fold by his state or by his wife.

So, I say, do not just forgive Mr. West. I say boycott his music and his antics until he can behave like an adult. I was thinking about Jay Leno’s return to TV tomorrow, but I will not watch if Kanye is still going to perform. I have occasionally thought of listening to his music because my good friend Jenny likes his music, but that will never happen now. This act stupid and apologize culture needs to end!

But, of course there are those who do not use Twitter wisely and get themselves in trouble. There is the infamous story of the person who got a job offer from Cisco and tweeted about it and, seemed to lose the job. It went down like this:

What You Post On Twitter Can Cost You The Job: The Cisco Fatty Incident | Gradversity.com: Breaking Into The Entry Level Job Market via kwout

Even after this, you still see an amazing number of people post negative comments about their work place and other situations on Twitter. I think part of the problem is that people don’t realize how big Twitter is becoming and they don’t realize how public Twitter can be if their profiles are not set to private.

Well, now we are getting to a point where people are being sued over their tweets. I guess this was inevitable, but we entering into a new dimension of the Web 2.0 world. Here is the summary of the story:

Tweet about apartment mold draws lawsuit :: Chicago Sun-Times via kwout

Now, we know that Horizon is a “sue first, ask questions later kind of organization,” so I don’t want to get in trouble with this post. (Although this philosophy makes me think the tenant probably was in the right here.) But rather I’d like to talk about the idea of being sued on the internet.

Since this company filed a suit, I looked up what exactly what libel is to see if this was justified:

MLRC | Libel FAQs via kwout

So, technically it seems this lawsuit would fall under this category. One aspect I am unsure of is if a company can file a libel suit. The FAQ above mentions when a person is wronged, but maybe it can go either way. In this case, the comment was made about a company. But, in this case the statement was definitely made to more than one person and it was clear who the comment was about. The question I guess would come down to whether or not there was mold in her apartment and if Horizon did anything about it. (Was the statement false or not?)

I think what blows my mind is the mindset of the management company here. Now, this tweet happened on May 12th, and the lawsuit happens two and a half months later. That seems odd. Why bring it up now?

Next, this news story, and their law suit is doing more damage, in my mind, to their company’s name than that tweet, that I never saw, ever did. I got the impression from the story that Horizon doesn’t even really care or want to address if there was mold in the apartment or not. Maybe this tweet was necessary and accurate.

John Willams of WGN-AM radio 720 in Chicago, one of my favorites, interviewed a law professor, Jim Sparta, about this today and you can listen to that interview on-line:

WGN Radio 720 – John Williams Uncut Podcasts – WGN Radio via kwout

John and Jim discussed how the internet is treated in terms of libel and free speech and covered some of the issues surrounding this topic.

Next, let’s contrast this situation with a similar event involving United Airlines. United broke a man’s $3,500 guitar while he was flying from Halifax to somewhere else (sorry I don’t remember where.) He saw them breaking it as it was being loaded onto the plane and after the flight he tried for some time to follow United’s procedure for handling damaged luggage and was eventually told, we aren’t going to help you. So, he wrote a song about his trials, posted it on YouTube, and now United is going to use his song for future customer service training. (Video posted below.) (You can hear the guitarist, Dave Carroll, interviewed with John Williams of WGN-720.)

Now, if the tweet about the mold was indeed false and was intended to cause damage, I suppose I can understand the lawsuit, but I worry about the precedent it could set on the internet, in which people will be scared to post this kind of story. One of the amazing powers the internet gives us is an uncensored voice through which we can share this kind of story to help other people out. Just today woot.com was offering the Oral-B Vitality toothbrush for sale and I thought about buying it to replace our Crest Spinbrushes. I did a Google search and found a review that changed my opinion.

Cheap Electric Toothbrush – Braun Oral B Vitality Sonic Power Rechargeable Toothbrush – Epinions.com via kwout

Now, if beckytcy‘s review couldn’t have been posted because she was afraid of being sued by Oral-B, I would have bought a brush that would have been inferior to the one I currently own. I can see why companies are afraid of this open dialog, but hopefully most will handle it as United did. I like to think that blogs will be protected under some sort of 1st ammendment freedom of speech as newspapers are. As long as people are responsible, then the speech should be protected.

Personally I try to keep my Tweets on the positive side because I know they are public and I don’t know who will see them. This is especially true of any tweets I send about work, because I do not really care to be fired if I post about my students being royal pains one day. (Not that they ever are, that is totally hypothetical.)

Only time will tell, how this sort of suit will be handled, and I for one will be anxiously watching its resolution in the courts. Hopefully as people use the internet and social networking as their consumer advocates, they will be mindful of what they are posting and be factual in their statements and not ruin this outlet for the rest of us. Further, I hope that companies will take the path that United has taken and uses these sorts of incidents to improve their image, and not make is worse.

To me, even if Horizon gets it $50,000, it has done more damage to its name than before. If this tweet had become news, they could have just addressed the issue, if they were in the right they could have just said this girl is wrong and moved on. Now, their name is going to be dragged through the media, and I don’t think in a positive way.

So, this seems reasonable. They are just pointing out that in America we have a good food system. But what is wrong with people growing their own food?

Apparently, not everyone can grow their own food, so no one should. {Shakes head.} In an e-mail the MACA sent out to its constituents sent out to their supporters their true feeling are revealed.

La Vida Locavore:: Organic White House Garden Puts Some Conventional Panties in a Twist via kwout

I am not an advocate of organic gardening. I don’t care either way. I believe that food can be grown well with or without chemicals. What just really gets my goat is that the Obamas are not going around saying you have to live organically. They just wanted to plant a garden to promote healthy eating and this group, the MACA, that seems to be supported by plant chemical producing companies goes and makes a big issue out of it and misses the point of the garden, healthy eating.

TheHill.com – First lady’s organic garden concerns chemical firms via kwout

In case you were wondering who is a member of the MACA, here is a list from their website.

As pointed out on the Food and Water Watch blog, it is especially interesting that they call it “conventional gardening” when people were gardening chemical free for centuries! Now, the organic side is just as biased towards being chemical free as the MACA is towards using chemicals, but the fact that this is an even an issue just makes me feel sorry for the Obamas who are trying to just live a normal life and promote healthy eating.

And, the notion that the White House garden is what is going to lead to people rejecting chemically grown food is ridiculous. I like that the White House grow organically, but the cost of organic food is going to keep me out of that market.

Also, the notion that the White House garden is what will out organic food on the map is also mis-guided. More and more stores, such as Jewel, are constantly increasing their organic sections and this is what putting organic on the map more than the White House is.

Both sides just need to celebrate the idea of growing food and eating healthy rather than focusing on the methodology all of the time.

The two best news shows in the country have covered this issue. Here are the clips.

He starts discussing the garden about half way through.

Round 1

Danny Gokey — Dance Little Sister

Danny came out singing a song I had never heard of which is sometimes helpful and sometimes confusing. I can’t tell if they are just doing a sound alike performance or if they are being original. I liked the energy he brought with the song even the through judges mocked his dancing. I don’t care if they are great dancers, but I like the effort. He did a nice little bee bop thing with the saxophone player in the middle of the song which I thought worked well for him. Again the judges didn’t agree.

Kris Allen — Apologize

I thought this was Kris’s best performance of the year. I liked the hip hop background beat combined with him at the piano. I thought he sang it well. Usually when I hear songs on idol I can’t imagine actually hearing them on the radio (this is especially true with Adam Lambert) but this was a song that I could totally hear on the radio. The judges seemed to disagree, so maybe it sounded too much like the original, which I have not heard. This was another instance where I was a big fan of Kara and her little, this is a song everyone knows. Well, sorry, I didn’t.

Adam Lambert — One

Well, I’m glad Simon called Bono because Adam did a great job with the song. He made it original and he sang it like a song that could actually be on the radio without losing his personal touch. It was Adam, but not so over the top as usual Adam. Not much more to say about him except he is really good and really should win the contest.

And now…

Round 2

Danny Gokey — You Are So Beautiful

Danny sang very well with this class song. I like the beginning with the slow balad touch, but the end got a little too big for me. That song is best used as a soft, slow love ballad. The big ending like that would not play real well as a single. Having said that, as the Simon said, the vocal was great.

Kris Allen — Heartless

Wow, Kris is brining his A game tonight. He sang Heartless which I guess is a Kanya West song with just an acoustic guitar. If possible this performance was better than his first one. He singing was in key and well done. He brough a lot of energy to the song and again it sounded like a song that could be on the radio. I don’t know exactly where this new Kris came from tonight, but I really feel like he is passing by Danny Gokey tonight.

Kara faux paus number 2. She said Kris was gutsy for just using an acoustic guitar. No one else would have the courage to do that. Well, Kara, I would like to point her to the end of season 2 when Bo Bice sang a capella with a single spot light and it rocked. I am not trying to detract from Kris’s great performance, but Kara needs to learn her idol history. (I have included the video below as a special treat.)

Adam Lambert — Cryin

As I said, Adam will most likely win this competition, and I think he kind of knows he is in a good place. Because of that, I feel like he chose to sing a relatively safe song (safe for him that is.) And so I will fault him for playing it safe for his second song, but that song would be very challenging for anyone else, so that says something. Cryin is exactly the kind of song he will end up singing in his career so it was a logical choice. And clearly he is ready. In many ways I am glad idol exists for him to get noticed.

Conclusion

This may be the tightest top 3 in America Idol history. Coming in I would have picked Adam and Danny for the finale, but if I look at just tonight I think Kris out performed Danny (and Adam). I am not sure if tonight is enough to push Kris past Danny’s performances throughout the year. Danny is probably a better singer, but Kris performed better tonight and probably has performed a little better throughout the year. Great night, should be a good finale.

Here’s the pic:

Now, I am not sure why I am listing as being from Canada, but I am guessing my web host, Velcom.com, is based up north. Either way, I’ll take.

In honor of the event, here is a clip from the South Park Movie, Blame Canada: