Glenn Reynolds at the Airport

(A Filthy Lie)
This week’s Filthy Lie Assignment was to answer the question:

What was Evil Glenn’s connection to the mob that attacked the New York Air desk at Washington National Airport?

Turns out there was no connection at all.
Seems Glenn was just trying to catch a flight to Iraq so that he could share Thanksgiving dinner with the troops, as seen in this completely non-photoshopped image:
glenn with troops.JPG
The unruly mob?
They all wanted to get tickets to Amazon.com’s headquarters in Seattle, so they could… discusswhy their 1-star reviews of Cindy Sheehan’s book got deleted:
Amazon HQ.jpg

Amazon.com Shows Willingness To Resolve Reviews Issue

After being informed that Amazon.com has been fudging the reviews of Cindy Sheehan’s new book, IMAO reader TJ dropped them a line:

NICKNAME: TJ
COMMENTS: Just so you know a conservative blog is keeping track of all the 1 star reviews of Cindy Sheehan’s book you are deleting from the web page selling her book.

She received the following reply, which may or may not have been edited to comply with IMAO guidelines:


Greetings from Amazon.com.
Thank you for bringing these reviews to our attention. Each of the reviews mentioned in your e-mail message have been read by a member of our Communities team.
Any of the reviews that we found to be outside our guidelines have either been edited to bring them within our guidelines or have been slated for removal. Any changes made to these reviews will become effective online in 3-5 business days.
Meanwhile, we at Amazon.com would like to reward your dilligence. If you will provide us with your home address, we can send over our team of Amazon.com “Safety Specialists” to perform a free inspection of your house. Did you know that natural gas leaks are the #1 cause of residential explosions? When our team of large, Italian men gets to your door, invite them in and listen VERY carefully to the “safety tips” they offer.
Because that’s a real nice home you got there, and it would be a shame if anything were to happen to it. Don’t you agree?
Again, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to let us know about this. Feedback from conscientious individuals such as yourself helps us maintain the quality and integrity of our site.
Thank you for your interest in Amazon.com.
Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question:
If yes, click here:
http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-y?c=aqhtgvwr3403743366
If not, click here:
http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-n?c=ENEMIES.LIST/EXTERMINATE
Best regards,
Amazon.com Customer Service
http://www.amazon.com


Hmmm… I guess that explains those guys outside my house fixing the gas line.

Cindy Sheehan 1-star Book Review Watch

As explained in this post, Amazon has been quietly removing 1-star reviews from Cindy Sheehan’s new book. Let’s examine the history of the 1-star reviews by date:
3:15 pm 11-30-05
1-star reviews dated Nov 29: 5
1-star reviews dated Nov 30: 6
4:15 pm 11-30-05
1-star reviews dated Nov 29: 5
1-star reviews dated Nov 30: 5
7:00 am 12-1-05
1-star reviews dated Nov 29: 3
1-star reviews dated Nov 30: 5
11:00am 12-2-05:
1-star reviews dated Nov 29: 3
1-star reviews dated Nov 30: 1
1-star reviews dated Dec 1: 2
1-star reviews dated Dec 2: 1
You can easily track 1-star reviews with this link to the reviews listed lowest first.
Here’s an interesting line from Dec 2, as posted by reviewer Jed:

“I left an honest but critical review of the book and the named author, it was removed. I once again left an honest yet critical review of this book; again it was removed but this time along with every review I have left on other items.”

From Dec 1st, reviewer Kenneth:

“why has my review been removed? the book is poorly written and she does her political view a disservice when she espouses hatred. why does amazon censor reviews? does someone on amazon’s staff allow their political viewpoint to override free speech?”

Dec 1st, JR Dunn:

“Be advised that somebody is using this page to target virus attacks against anyone who has written a negative review — which, appearances to the contrary, is several hundred people by now.
(…)(some upstanding, tolerant lefty, no doubt) with the header “Invitation to be an Amazon Friend” appears in your inbox(this may differ from case to case, of course) praising your review and asking you to click a link. Needless to say, don’t do it. Delete the sucker.”

We’ll see where it goes from here.
UPDATE: GOP & College has some more analysis, plus a couple screenshots.

Friday Catblogging

Since it’s Friday, I thought I’d spread the joy of humor-free, apolitical Friday Catblogging to IMAO (aka “I-MEOW”).
Today, it’s Nardo the Greedy grabbing on to a catnip bag…


If you’re not sure how this absurd scene pertains to IMAO, since IMAO is famous for that “political humor” thing, it doesn’t. If you must have some semblance of politics or humor in everything you read here, just assume that Nardo is… um…
Help me out here. Make your suggestions in the comments how this scene is, in fact, a political allegory.
(For more animal goodness, try Friday Ark today and Carnival of the Cats on Sundays.)

Amazing Beliefs Part 4

You want more amazing beliefs about guns from author Michael Z. Williamson? Then here you go! And I might even have an original post today to boot.


AMAZING BELIEFS PART 4
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Continue reading ‘Amazing Beliefs Part 4’ »

Carnival Of Comedy 31 is Up At The Not So Daily Me

Go see The (not so) Daily Me – Carnival of Comedy #31 for your weekly Carnival of Comedy fix.
Hans (not Matt) is a tad bit late with the carnival but with good reason.
Plus he’s got a few gripes about a lot of the entries and um, me. And he links the Scrappleface! Argh!
Oh well, nice job Hans (not Matt). Sorry the carnival submissions weren’t all up to your standard of hahahainess. We can’t all be spacemonkeys, now, can we?