OH LAY OFF OF FACEBOOK

The most popular social media platform in the world got slammed the other day because in a fit of prudery they took down a post by a reporter for a Scandinavian newspaper that featured Napalm Girl. Which, as I'm sure you will recall, is the iconic photo from the Vietnam War showing a naked tyke grievously wounded by flammatory substances used by the United States Armed Forces running down the road screaming in agony and terror.

It was the nudity.


But apparently removing that picture was censorship run amuck.

In consequence, right thinking people everywhere are dumping on Mark Zuckerbook massively, incensed that part of their childhood has been destroyed, why the nerve of that man! Please note that I do not have to reproduce the picture here, because you have already seen it.

I rely on Facebook for contact with the world and links to news as much as any one, and probably more than many of my friends, real or virtual.
Aleppo, Kaepernick, Nice, massive Indian strike, the idiocy of cleansing diets, Netanyahu, Star Trek, basselopes ...

The Squirrel of Judgment wondering why you aren't creating art ...


Plus Trump, and Irfan's courageous quest to eat photogenic treats at every hour of the day; there may be drag queens in either picture.


If it weren't for Facebook, I would probably have less of a social life than you can imagine -- because abso everybody else is tweeting or texting or sharing kitten pictures -- and also be far less exposed to news articles, history, art, music, cogent analyses of politics and events world-wide.
I have come to rely on Facebook as an essential Fourth Estate.
And Fifth Column.

I knew about Aleppo for a long time, of course. But thanks to Facebook, now almost everybody else knows too. Admit it, some of you thought it was a racehorse.


Ei aleppo. Tu aleppas. El / Ella aleppa. Ei aleppé. Tu aleppe. El / Ella aleppó. Ei aleppado. Tu / El / Ella aleppado. ...


Facebook has come to be the rational and informed person's interface with the world. We use it for information and selective outrage, and it's so cute that advertisers pay for it, imagining that we actually read their blurble.


Oh yeah. Kitten pictures. If only the New York Times or the Süddeutsche Zeitung interspersed their dense blocks of text with kitten pictures, their readership would skyrocket.


The only other site I use as much is Wikipedia.
Knowledge literally at my finger tips.
Sometimes regurged here.




Actually, I sometimes miss the STRONGLY worded letters to the editor, but the audible mumbling more than makes up for that.




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