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By Mark D, August 4, 2011 4:57 am

So I was reading a story about a lesbian couple who saved a bunch of kids at the Norway shooting. Basically they were out dining and heard the gunfire, shouts and screaming and went over to the Island. They kept loading people on boats, bringing them to safety and going back. This happened with 4 boatloads, and they even got shot at. Their boat had bulletholes along the side of it that they spotted afterwards. Yet somehow this amazing story was somehow not picked up by the Western Media.

Now an article from The Envoy on Yahoo points it out, and in some sick way of wanting to hurt myself I viewed the comments. Now at first they seem genuinely sane compared to the old comments I’ve mentioned previously. Yahoo reworked it’s comment system, so now if you view the highest rated comments it takes into consideration downvotes. Previously if something got a lot of downvotes it simply disappeared. Now a comment with 500 upvotes but 100 downvotes will roughly be shown after a comment with 100 upvotes and no downvotes.

Now the top rated comments for this article are interesting. Almost every single comment is some variation of the following:

Rowing a boat in open water in the face of gunfire to save kids from being murdered requires a lot of pure courage. I really do not care what their sexual orientation is because it has no bearing on their heroic act.

Which is a well intended thought but seems to miss the point. The point of the story is whether the mainstream global news purposely ignored this story because it was a Married Lesbian couple.

It gets even more incredible though when you read the replies to some of these comments. People claim that the reason the sexuality matters is because it “Advances the Gay Agenda”.  These comments are so outrageous. It seems like a certain group of people are once again working at gaming the comments as much as possible.

Either that or apparently thousands upon thousands of people read this story and got the wrong message from it. But I can’t imagine how low your intellect would have to be to read the article and not understand the concept being put forth. Do they teach absolutely nothing in school anymore? That’s another reason I want to believe that it’s some group gaming the comments. They want people to walk away with a negative viewpoint of the column, without them realizing why they are negative towards it.

I swear, this is the last time I bitch about Yahoo comments.

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By Mark D, April 20, 2011 8:16 am

I swear, the dumbest idea on the internet lately is universal log-ins. Being able to sign into 50 different sites once you signed into one site is NOT a good idea. It’s even worse when stuff like YouTube FORCES you to get a google account. I tried to sign into one of my multiple accounts only to get stopped and informed that I had to either connect the account to my google account or create a new google account. The whole reason that I had multiple email addresses is so my main google account wouldn’t get spammed.

But let’s not dwell on the idea of forcing you to log into services. One of the main reasons that a universal login is bad is that your not protected once someone hacks your account. For example I use multiple yahoo and google email accounts for differing things depending on the level of security I need. My email that gets a ton of spam is not going to be the same email I use to access paypal. Back in the day this was recommended, especially since if you were silly enough to link everything to one email account, someone could reset all your passwords. IE: There is no protection using multiple emails if they are all tied into the same account via password reset.

Making life easier for people is only setting them up for a bigger fall when their accounts get hacked. Now thankfully yahoo has finally taken some steps forward in actually protecting your passwords, but it seems like they’ve taken a giant leap backwards in allowing you to use yahoo accounts to log in to multiple sites. It’s not just them of course. It’s rather insane seeing the number of sites that you can log into using your facebook or something else. It’s sort of disconcerting when you visit a site every once in a  blue moon and you see your facebook info on their toolbar.

Idiots are just asking to have their whole online existence wiped with a single button stroke. At some point  there is going to be a huge mistake that compromises a whole bunch of accounts across multiple platforms and then maybe we can stop this stupidity. In the long run while having one sign in for multiple places makes life easy, it also makes you just that much more susceptible to being hacked.

It sort of amazes me that people don’t realize what they are doing. I mean people are shocked when you find their stuff on other websites because they use the same nickname everywhere. They are almost acting as though google somehow doesn’t exist. To make matters worse, even if you can’t access someones account on another site once your in their email, it is possible they used the same password for everything. All you need is one site that they are signed up to to email you their password without changing it and you can most likely access everything else.

It seems like people are just never going to learn until they get burnt.

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By Mark D, January 24, 2011 3:53 am

And it sounds like, Don’t be a fitness Guru and die, Eat More Donuts!

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By Mark D, November 24, 2010 12:44 am

Looking at the Press release for this one, I’m not sure who to blame. It’s either an original series by Yahoo! sponsored by Bud Light, or a Bud Light commercial on Yahoo! Sports. Either way it’s about as dumb and lowest common denominator as it can come. Two guys pretend to be fans from a team that is facing their rivals that week. They proceed to “invade” the home teams turf. For example when the Pats and Colts played, they showed up in Colt outfits and caused trouble in  Boston.

I almost don’t want to give them the link and the three people who will actually follow through from here to there, but for those of you who are masochists here you go.

The problem is that it is so convoluted. It’s the same two guys every week, it’s obvious that the guys don’t care about whatever team they are dressed as. The other problem is that they have a professional team with them. This means a television crew, probably security too, making sure that no one would really attack these guys. My one ex had an Uncle who was a Dolphins fan in North Jersey. So of course he dressed up the kids in Dolphins stuff and brought them to a Jets – Dolphins game in the Meadowlands. Of course they had to leave early sometime in the 3rd Quarter after people were spitting and pouring beer on them and threatening to attack them. The aunt of course blamed the fans, not the fact that they showed up wearing the other teams stuff. So these two guys would probably be skinned alive if they went into a stadium without protection and pulled any of this stuff.

But the ones I’ve seen were incredibly dumb. They were beyond stupid. In Pittsburgh, fans going to the game actually take a barge across the river to the game. Well these guys decided to pull up alongside the barge in a speedboat dressed in Baltimore Ravens gear and flags. They taunted the fans with a megaphone, while the fans were angry. This went on for a good 2 minutes before I finally stopped watching it. There was almost no point to the whole thing. It was a joke without a punchline.

They show up to this “Worlds Biggest Pats Fan” house to pretend to interview them. Meanwhile they had one of their members dressed up as a Colts fan (it was Pats Vs Colts) causing trouble around the house. Meanwhile the woman of the house is wearing a sweater which says I Hate Peyton Manning. I just don’t have words for it at all. It almost makes What If? On Spike TV seem like a legit program.

I just get annoyed when stuff plays down to football fans. There are an awful lot of very bright football fans around. There’s so much going wrong that you can’t suspend your disbelief. I don’t know why the segments exist, as they don’t specifically promote Bud Lite, but they are created by Yahoo! to do what exactly? I can’t see anyone with half a brain recommending his friends to check these videos out. Even if you are a complete idiot, your friends would probably yell at you for wasting five minutes of their time with it.

In the end it’s either an excuse for Yahoo to get a little extra advertising money, or, please feel free to give your answer in the comments, I am dumbfounded by this practice in futility.

Comments (11)

By Mark D, October 28, 2010 9:30 am

Just a week or two ago I talked about the Yahoo! News comments section, which surprisingly seems to lean overwhelmingly conservative. Last night Obama was on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Now personally, I was surprised to find Stewart asking some of the questions which I was mumbling as Obama answered. It’s easy for a President to force a show to ask only softballs or prepared questions. It seemed (key word is seemed, if I’m proven wrong I’m sorry) that Obama was answering off the cuff. That some of Jon’s questions really did cut to the chase of what people are complaining about.

This morning I go to the Yahoo! News story about it and find the first page of the highest rated comments almost overwhelmingly conservative bashing of Obama. Not only that, but any comment not bashing Obama seems to be getting overwhelmingly voted down. Just in case people don’t know, on Yahoo! you can thumb up and down comments, if a comment gets enough thumbs down it gets removed. These are the Comments and the Thumbs Up/Down they had when I read the story.

Obama is a joke. All that talk about making change, and now he wants to make excuses. No more years.

234 Up, 148 Down for +86

I think he went onto the wrong show. Does anyone really think that Jon Stewart was going to put him on the spot? That red phone Glenn Beck has never rings

165 Up, 57 Down for + 108 and Glenn Beck would NEVER have Obama on. Obama would run circles around Beck and actually prove all his crazy conspiracy theories wrong.

The Democrats deserve to continue the clean-up necessary after the two unpaid wars and the de-regulation fiasco of the Bush years. The obstructionists are only interested in personal power and gain.

151 Up, 227 Down for -76.  I should point out that no other comment on the highest rated page has over 200 votes (either up or down) except for the Obama is a Joke one. Suspiciously, the Obama is a joke has 234 votes for it while this one only has 7 less against.

obama is a failure just like carter and he will be a 1 term president.

146 Up, 92 Down for +54

What a load of crap…Obama and Stewart.

143 Up, 91 Down for +52 It amazes me that there’s a 140 people out there who find these two comments constructive in any way.

The Republicans were in control from 2000-2006 before the Democrats took over congress in 2007.

In 2006, the final year under a Republican President and a Republican Congress, the unemployment rate was 4.6%.

Today, under Obama and a Democrat congress, the unemployment rate is 9.8%.

Under Obama and the Democrats, poverty has reached its highest level since 1959. Families who were middle class under Bush are dropping below the poverty line under Obama.

Under Obama and the Democrats, more able-bodied people are on the public dole than ever before. In fact, people receiving public assistance now outnumber working people by almost 2/1. If the government feeds people, the government controls people. Look at North Korea. And this is what he Democrat is about. Control.

The numbers don’t lie. The failed economic policies of Democrats have been destroying lives, wrecking our economy and shattering the American dream since the Democrats took over congress in 2007. The before and after statistics prove it.

Vote Democrat if you want more unemployment and more poverty.

124 Up, 52 Down +74 Wow, this guy is so far out there. Sure, it’s the Dems who ruined the economy in 3 years and has nothing to do with Bush and the poor Republicans.

Obama wants Carters number 1 spot!

121 Up, 29 Down + 92 Of course there are very few polls which actually rank Carter the worst President ever. Personally for me Buchanan wins that race, as he sat by and did nothing while the Union collapsed. But other Presidents towards the bottom are Andrew Johnson, Warren J. Harding and Franklin Pierce.

Obama went to become the president of a country left by Bush come on guys !!!
theres alot of work to be done ,alot of things to fixs and it will take time
This is the best country still

111 Up, 94 Down +17 I have no idea, I’m speechless. But in the replies is apparently a bit of Copypasta.

I actually gave this comment a thumbs-up by mistake so I feel obligated to correct it. Let’s correct the fact that the country was not left in a mess by Bush. It was a mess by Bush AND the Democrats that controlled congress! Secondly, spending trillions of dollars on government jobs and programs will NOT create productive jobs and lead to future prosperity of this great country. Obama will never be done transforming this country into a third world country. He needs to go NOW! Before he does any more damage. God willing, his power is coming to an end soon. Then sane people will have to undo his mess.

Once again, how did the Democrats help ruin the country in the 12 months they controlled congress before Obama was elected? See, just like the President, congress doesn’t just change overnight after the election. For example, after the election the new congress will sit in Janurary. So that means that although the 2007 election saw the Dems take power, they didn’t sit till 2008. To blame the Democratic control of Congress is just ignoring that Bush with 7 years of Republican control ran the country into the ground.

Meanwhile back in the reality-based community — in just 12 short months — President Obama:
• Continued to draw down the misbegotten war in Iraq (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
• Thoughtfully and decisively picked the best of several bad choices regarding the war in Afghanistan (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
• Gave a major precedent-setting speech supporting gay rights (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
• Restored America ‘s image around the globe (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
• Banned torture of American prisoners (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
• Stopped the free fall of the American economy (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
• Put the USA squarely back in the bilateral international community (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
• Put the USA squarely into the middle of the international effort to halt global warming (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
• Stood up for educational reform (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
• Won a Nobel peace prize (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
• Moved the trial of terrorists back into the American judicial system of checks and balances (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
• Did what had to be done to start the slow, torturous and almost impossible process of health care reform that 7 presidents had failed to even begin (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
• Responded to hatred from the right and left with measured good humor and patience (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
• Stopped the free fall of job losses (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
• Showed immense personal courage in the face of an armed and dangerous far right opposition that included the sort of disgusting people that show up at public meetings carrying loaded weapons and carrying Timothy McVeigh-inspired signs about the “blood of tyrants” watering the “tree of Liberty.” (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
• Showed that he could not only make the tough military choices but explain and defend them brilliantly (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
• PLUS – Just recently installed a “Consumer Protection” expert who plans to se ethat Credit Card Co.’s, Auto Dealerships, Mortgage Co.’s & Mortgage Banks do not rip you off, provide 2 – page easy to read contracts with no hidden language. WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT? MORE of Bush Years Lies & Cronyism?
• Plus, the Obama Administration is now installing New Oil Drilling Regulations and a Gold Statndard that Oil Companies have to go by so the oil spill that was in the Gulf never happens tp our coasts again.
Other than those “disappointing” accomplishments — IN ONE YEAR — President Obama “failed”! Other than that, he didn’t “live up to expectations”!

106 Up 116 Down for -10. I like this guy

why does Obama even bother with stupid shows like the daily show? since when does a comedians opinion matter these days?

105 Up 58 Down for +47 I don’t know, but you probably take Glenn Beck seriously and a lot of people think he’s a comedian.

It just doesn’t make any sense. All these comments are marked as being made 6 hours ago. I’m not blaming Yahoo! either, I just get the feeling that it’s getting spam voted like crazy. How come the two one line comments have almost the exact same number of ups/downs? How come the highest Ups on the page is also the highest Downs on the page? Are people with liberal leanings just not bothering, while conservatives run around marking every single comment?

Interestingly I refreshed the page, and almost all the more Pro-Obama ones are gone except for the one that made no sense and this one: “The Democrats deserve to continue the clean-up necessary after the two unpaid wars and the de-regulation fiasco of the Bush years. The obstructionists are only interested in personal power and gain.” In the 15 Minutes it took me to write this, it added almost another 100 negative votes, going up to 329. At the same time the highest rated comment added another hundred itself, going to 335. I think Yahoo should just do away with the comments, it’s obvious people are just spamming them. Then to make matters worse it seems as though the spam comments are also getting spammed voted. It’s a good attempt at self policing but I believe it has failed.