Hitler salute & Bellamy salute - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_salute
Bellamy salute image http://rexcurry.net/francis bellamy.jpg and photograph http://rexcurry.net/i-pledge-allegiance-to-the-flag.jpg

The Hitler salute originated in the USA as the early salute of the Pledge of Allegiance. This is the Hitler salute http://rexcurry.net/nazisclear.jpg

Wikipedia is called an encyclopedia that everyone can edit, and "everyone" on Wikipedia includes Neo-Nazis who write, post, edit and alter Wikipedia to keep you from learning the secrets exposed here about Neo-Nazis on Wikipedia and their dogma. The Hitler salute and and other secrets of Nazism and ties to the USA are exposed here by the historian Dr. Rex Curry.

Dr. Curry, Libertarian Lawyer, FREE MARKET ENVIRONMENTALISM, ECO CAPITALISM
Pledge of Allegiance in shocking photographs and articles http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-pledge.html
For fascinating information about symbolism see http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-swastika.html 
Hear audio on worldwide radio at http://rexcurry.net/audio-rex-curry-podcast-radio.html

A recent search of the web for images under the search terms "Pledge of Allegiance" showed that the only site that collects and displays historic photographs of the original straight-arm salute of the Pledge of Allegiance is the site of the noted historian Dr. Rex Curry.    

Another study in Nazi propaganda and lies is the Wikipedia article about the film "Triumph of the Will." The Wiki article states that the film "has been described as 'by Nazis, for Nazis, and about Nazis'" and the article uses the word "Nazi" 46 times to describe the film. In contrast, the film does not used the word "Nazi" a single time, neither in graphics nor spoken. In the film, the speakers use the word "socialism" repeatedly because that is how they identified their dogma in the National Socialist German Workers' Party. The Wikipedia article never gives the actual name of the Party a single time. At the time this article was written, the foregoing was correct. It should be noted that the Wikipedia article can be improved at any moment, and those improvements can be deleted immediately, and the Wikipedia article can, at this time, be better or worse than described above. It is sad to note that many articles that have been written elsewhere about the film suffer from the same errors and propaganda as does the Wikipedia article. http://rexcurry.net/filmrev-triumph-of-the-will.html

Bellamy salute image http://rexcurry.net/francis bellamy.jpg and photograph http://rexcurry.net/i-pledge-allegiance-to-the-flag.jpg
Hitler salute - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler Paul Barlow Matt Crypto Stormie David
Bellamy salute image http://rexcurry.net/francis bellamy.jpg and photograph http://rexcurry.net/i-pledge-allegiance-to-the-flag.jpg


WHAT WIKIPEDIA WILL NOT TELL YOU !

Rex Curry is the historian who made the following discoveries that are suppressed by neo-Nazis and others on Wikipedia:

1. Dr. Rex Curry showed that the USA's first Pledge used a straight-arm salute and it was the origin of the salute of the monstrous National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazis).  It was not an ancient Roman salute. Professor Curry helped to establish that it was not an ancient Roman salute, and that the "ancient Roman salute" is a myth. http://rexcurry.net/pledgesalute.html  

2. The Pledge began with a military salute that then stretched out toward the flag. Historic photographs are at http://rexcurry.net/pledge2.html and at http://rexcurry.net/pledge_military.html   Due to the way that both gestures were used, the military salute led to the Nazi salute. The Nazi salute is an extended military salute. http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-pledge.html

3. Francis Bellamy (author of the "Pledge of Allegiance") and Edward Bellamy (author of the novel "Looking Backward") and Charles Bellamy (author of "A Moment of Madness") were socialists.  Edward and Charles were brothers, and Francis was their cousin. Francis and Edward were both self-proclaimed National Socialists and they supported the "Nationalism" movement in the USA, the "Nationalist" magazine, the "Nationalist Educational Association," and their dogma of "military socialism," and Edward inspired the "Nationalist Party" (in the USA) and their dogma influenced socialists in Germany, and the Pledge was the origin of the Nazi salute.  "Nazi" means "National Socialist German Workers' Party." A mnemonic device is the swastika. Although the swastika was an ancient symbol, Professor Curry discovered that it was also used sometimes by German National Socialists to represent "S" letters for their "socialism."  Curry changed the way that people view the symbol of the horrid National Socialist German Workers' Party. Hitler altered his own signature to use the same stylized "S" letter for "socialist" and similar alphabetic symbolism still shows on Volkswagens.  http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-swastika.html

Dr. Curry showed that many modern myths about swastikas rely on a false belief that Nazis called their symbol a "swastika."  German National Socialists did not use the word "swastika," but called their symbol a "Hakenkreuz."   Professor Curry showed that many modern myths rely on a false belief that Nazis called themselves "Nazis" or used some other term (Party members referred to themselves as "National Socialists" and did not use the term "Nazis").

There are some regular writers on Wikipedia (wikiling writers) who knowingly engage in personal attacks and deletions (even of links) of anyone who explains the connection between the Bellamys and National Socialism. Some of the worst falsifiers on Wikipedia are Stormie, Lupo, and Matt Crypto. They spam screeds about their lies all over Wikipedia and vandalize all references to Dr. Curry's discoveries.  They were challenged to respond to the facts that they suppressed or to concede those fact, and the wikilings each conceded that the facts that they suppress are correct and that they delete those facts because they do not want Wikipedia readers to know the truth. They constantly spam their own point of view in their diatribes in which they try to cover up for Nazism. It is behavior that breaks Wikipedia's rules. What kind of people cover-up for Nazis and that horrid ideology?

Recently, someone who posts to Wikipedia wised up and improved the "Roman salute" article somewhat so that it recognizes and repeats some of Rex Curry's discoveries. Other pledge and salute articles on Wikipedia are as inaccurate as they have ever been and they are inconsistent with the "improved" Roman salute article on Wikipedia.

The Wikipedia article for the "Roman salute" used to be complete disinformation, deliberately maintained by phonies who tried to perpetuate myths.  Here is an excerpt of what Wikipedia used to carry: "The Roman salute is a closed finger, flat-palm-down hand raised at an angle (usually 45 degrees) and was used by the Roman Republic. It was also the historical civilian salute of the United States, from 1787?-1934?, known since 1892 as the Bellamy salute. It was also the historical salute among armies of the Middle East and South America. When the Nazi party of Germany adopted the Roman salute from the Italian fascists."  Wikipedia liars also misrepresent neoclassical paintings as absurd support for a Roman connection.  The foregoing is all incorrect and of course without any attribution nor support on the Wikipedia page because there is no support. http://rexcurry.net/wikipedia-lies.html

Similar criticisms still apply to the Wikipedia pages on Francis Bellamy, Edward Bellamy, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the National Socialist German Workers' Party and related articles.

Many regular writers on Wikipedia are intellectually dishonest  and they regurgitate the top media cover-ups.  They cover up many historic photos of the Pledge of Allegiance http://rexcurry.net/pledge2.html that reveal its original straight-arm salute.  They cover up the fact that the author of the Pledge of Allegiance (Francis Bellamy), and his cousin and cohort (Edward Bellamy), were National Socialists and supported the "Nationalism" movement, the "Nationalist" magazine, the "Nationalist Educational Association," their dogma of "military socialism," and Edward inspired the "Nationalist Party."  They cover up the Pledge's straight-arm salute as the origin http://rexcurry.net/pledge1.html of the salute of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazis). As part of the cover up, they perpetuate the myth http://rexcurry.net/pledgesalute.html that the straight-arm salute was from ancient Rome.  They cover up discoveries by the historian Rex Curry.  The Pledge began with a military salute that then stretched outward toward the flag. Historic photographs are at http://rexcurry.net/pledge2.html and at http://rexcurry.net/pledge_military.html showing the evolution of the gesture. Due to the way that both gestures were used, the military salute led to the Nazi salute. The Nazi salute http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-pledge.html is an extended military salute. A mnemonic device is the swastika ("Hakenkreuz" in German).   Although the swastika was an ancient symbol, it was also used sometimes by German National Socialists to represent "S" letters for their "socialism."  Hitler altered his own signature http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-swastika.html to use the same stylized "S" letter for "socialist." Wikipedia's fibbers cover up for the swastika http://rexcurry.net/swastikanews.html and its use as a sick socialist symbol. Wikipedia's dissemblers cover up for the National Socialist German Worker's Party http://rexcurry.net/swastikamedia.html by overuse of the hackneyed shorthand "Nazi."  Many Wikipedia posters are propagandists in that there was no "Nazi Party" because it was actually the "National Socialist German Workers' Party" and the party members did not call themselves "Nazis" nor the "Nazi Party."  The term "Nazi" developed from slang using the first syllable in the German pronunciation of the "National Socialist German Workers' Party."  In that sense, the author of the Pledge of Allegiance was a "Nazi" too, in that the term means "National Socialist."  The term "Nazi" is also used to hide the National Socialist dogma behind the Pledge of Allegiance, its original gesture, and the National Socialist German Workers' Party.  

Wikipedia's cons use the term "Nazi" and the misnomer "Nazi Party" to cover-up the horrors of socialism. Wikipedia's falsifiers cover up the the socialist trio of atrocities and and their socialist Wholecaust (of which the Holocaust was a part): 62 million people were slaughtered under the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; 35 million were slaughtered under the Peoples' Republic of China; 21 million were slaughtered under the National Socialist German Workers' Party. They cover up the fact that socialists helped start WWII with the National Socialist German Workers' Party and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics together  http://rexcurry.net/socialistwar.html as allies in 1939. They cover up for and are deniers of the socialist Wholecaust, http://rexcurry.net/mediacoverup.html of which the monstrous Holocaust was a part.

Liars on Wikipedia repeat common lies http://rexcurry.net/mediapledge.html of the media. http://rexcurry.net/socialistmedia.html

Wikipedia should not be cited for support because it is no different than quoting various anonymous sources who have no knowledge of the topic http://rexcurry.net/wikipedialies.html or who have fibs to spread about the topic.

Wikipedia falsifiers use the misnomer "public schools" when they mean "government schools" and they both cover-up the Bellamys' desire to promote a government takeover of education, a desire to end all of the better alternatives, and to impose socialism (and what the Bellamys called "military socialism") within government schools.  The Bellamys loved the military and wanted all of society to ape the military.  Those points also help explain why Francis Bellamy enjoyed starting the pledge with a military salute.

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Mom yelled to Stormie, "Stop playing with your wikipedia!"

The bogus bulletin board known as wikipedia enables nazi-style deletions of truthful information. Wikipedia is so unreliable that its worst writers are known as "wikilings."  They spend hours playing with their own wikipedias in their left hands, while using their right hands to delete accurate posts on the wikipedia bulletin board. Wikilings do their dirty work anonymously, hiding behind names like Stormie, Lupo, and Matt Crypto. Stormie deletes valid responses to the personal attacks and kookiness of his “pals, ” such as Lupo, and Matt Crypto; but, Stormie does not delete the personal attacks and kookiness of his “pals.” Stormie protects the personal attacks and kookiness of his “pals.” http://rexcurry.net/wikipedialies.html Stormie deletes accurate information about the discoveries by Dr. Rex Curry that expose the history of Nazism in the USA. Stormie’s behavior is similar to that of neo-Nazis who cover up for the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. http://rexcurry.net/wikipedia-lies.html Stormie's name (and Stormie’s behavior) probably makes people think of “stormtrooper.” But that point would never cross the mind of Stormie's dim-witted cohorts. In similar stormtrooper imitation, Matt Crypto bans people who post accurate information exposing neo-nazi activity.  They delete anything, including even links, to accurate information. They delete accurate information that is posted on “discussion” pages, which are supposedly for discussion, but are not. Discussion pages are where wikilings insult people and then delete responses to the insults. Wikipedia is a completely untrustworthy source of information because it enables wikiling administrators to delete accurate information, but also to ban people who post accurate information, in order to prevent accurate information from being re-posted.

Stormie and other wikilings were so ignorant that they did not even know that "Nazi" means "National Socialist German Workers' Party" until Dr. Curry educated them.

Stormie and other wikilings were so ignorant of American history, that until Dr. Curry schooled them, they did not know that the Bellamys promoted a government takeover of education, and it resulted in government schools that imposed segregation by law and taught racism as official policy, and it served as a bad example for three decades before the Nazis, and for decades after Nazism ended. As under Nazism, the Jehovah's Witnesses, and blacks and the Jewish and others in the USA attended government schools that dictated segregation, taught racism, and persecuted children who refused to perform the straight-arm salute and robotically chant the pledge. Some kids were expelled from government schools and had to use the many better alternatives. There were acts of violence. The Bellamy dogma was the same dogma that led to the "Wholecaust" (of which the Holocaust was a part): 62 million killed under the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; 35 million under the Peoples' Republic of China; 21 million under the National Socialist German Workers' Party. It was so bad that Holocaust Museums could quadruple in size with Wholecaust Museums to document the entire slaughter. . http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-pledge.html

Stormie and other wikilings were also ignorant of the fact that the Bellamys were self-proclaimed National Socialists and they supported the "Nationalism" movement in the USA, the "Nationalist" magazine, the "Nationalist Educational Association," and their dogma of "military socialism," and Edward inspired the "Nationalist Party" (in the USA) and their dogma influenced socialists in Germany. Many people forget that "Nazi" means "National Socialist German Workers' Party." A mnemonic device is the swastika (Hakenkreuz in German). The wikilings were also unaware of Dr. Curry's discovery that, although the swastika was an ancient symbol, it was also used sometimes to represent "S" letters joined for "socialism" under the German National Socialists. http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-swastika.html

Next, Dr. Curry cured the wikilings of their ignorance of the fact that when Jesse Owens competed in the 1936 Olympics in Germany, Owens' fans in the U.S. attended segregated government schools where they saluted the flag with the Nazi salute.

***********************************

Regarding the writer at http://rexcurry.net/wikipedialies.html and referenced at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Hitler_salute please note the following:  Mr. Paul Barlow is a nutter with an obsession. The history of the salute is now improved in the Roman salute article (which had many previous visits from Dr. Curry in the past - see its talk page- as Dr. Curry attempted to correct the many errors). The pact between the National Socialist German Workers' Party and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is not well known, and is also not covered widely on Wikipedia, so it is "covered up" by people, and those people also often refer to it as the "Nazi-Soviet" pact (as the writer above does) which avoids ever using the actual name of the horrid Party (the National Socialist German Workers' Party) and reinforces the hackneyed use of the shorthand "Nazi" and the myth that members of the National Socialist German Workers' Party referred to themselves as "Nazis" (they did not refer to themselves as "Nazis").  Some people (note the writer above) try to evade the point with odd comments such as "It wasn't invented by Wikipedia editors to conceal the word 'socialism'!"  That comment does not dispute the fact that there are people who use the word "Nazi" to avoid ever stating the actual name of the party: The National Socialist German Workers' Party. Not only is that done in the title of the page cited (the “Nazi-Soviet pact” page) it is done on that entire article where the actual name of the Party never appears nor even the phrase "National Socialist." The writer above also makes constant use of the shorthand "Nazi" even when discussing the very topic at hand.  The Bellamy salute was not originally the same as the salute of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, as noted by Professor Curry. However, as anyone who looks at Dr. Curry's historic photographs of the salute can see, it developed into the same salute as that of the National Socialist German Workers' Party. Even the writer above concedes Dr. Curry's point that the flag was saluted with a normal military-style salute and then the arm was straightened out toward the flag during the oath. The writer above tellingly evades the point that the use of the military salute led to the change in the salute to the U.S. flag.  It is as if the writer above is conceding the point made by Professor Curry. Indeed, the writer seems to concede it with the comment "Anyway, even if the gesture had been the same, so what? It's just a gesture. The Soviets used conventional salutes, does that mean that the US military are Communists because they use the same gesture as the Soviet military!"   It is fascinating how the writer again avoids the actual name "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" and also uses the term "Communist" instead of using the term "Socialist."  The writer then attempts to avoid the issue, which is the origin of the straight-arm salute, and tries to turn the issue into an odd argument about whether salutes dictate particular dogmas.  Nevertheless, the writer evades the topic that Professor Curry has raised, which is that Francis Bellamy and Edward Bellamy were  self-proclaimed National Socialists in the USA three decades before the National Socialist German Workers' Party, and Edward's book was an international bestseller, translated into every major language (including German, which Edward spoke and wrote, and where Edward had studied as a young man) and that Edward's dogma inspired "Nationalism" clubs worldwide including in Germany.

    Yes, the "Roman salute" page did once contain inaccuracies, and the writer above is to be thanked for conceding that point. But that is no reason for the writer to blabber with his use of the term "conspiracy." It's just what you get when you have an open encyclopedia! The point is to correct error when you see it, and to not delete those corrections when they are made by people like Dr. Curry.   The John Seigenthaler story from Brian Chase is another notorious example of Wikipedia’s untrustworthiness.  On Wikipedia, the intellectually dishonest administrators block people who tell the truth, so it is specious to say that truth-tellers simply need to correct the articles. 

    The writer above also concedes that he is the Wikipedia editor who "became wiser", by incorporating Professor Curry's discoveries.  The writer is to be thanked for crediting Dr. Curry with making it more widely available. It should be noted that the valuable information that Professor Curry provides is his own discovery.  Dr. Curry has also mentioned that the material about the use of the Roman salute in films derives from an academic article by Martin Winkler. Professor Curry pointed out that Martin Winkler did not realize at the time of Winkler's article that the films were all pre-dated by the use of the salute in the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance.  Dr. Curry has also publicly challenged Martin Winkler to debate these issues.  Professor Curry's discovery that the swastika/hakenkreuz, although an ancient symbol, was sometimes used by the National Socialist German Workers' Party as "S" shapes standing for its "Socialism" is also his own original work. And he is right that other writers have deliberately covered up the discovery (as the writer above admits) and have excluded it from the Swastika article.  The writer above simply made up his denial and he knows that Dr. Curry is correct and he shows it because he does not dispute a word of it and can give no opposing citations or reference.  Even when the writer above claimes "The real reasons why the Nazis chose the swastika are well documented" he cannot provide an citation, because he knows that it would either concede (or at least not dispute) Dr. Curry's discoveries.

*******************************A REVIEW OF WIKIPEDIA IS BELOW

This was a very informative article and it is highly recommended. It needs more information about how to deal with intellectualy dihonesty on Wikipedia. There are some regular writers on Wikipedia who knowingly engage in personal attacks and deletions (even of links) of anyone who explains the connection between Edward Bellamy and his cousin Francis Bellamy (author of the pledge of allegiance) and National Socialism. Some of the worst falsifiers on Wikipedia are Stormie, Lupo, and Matt Crypto. They were challenged to respond to the facts that they suppressed or to concede, and they each conceded that the facts that they suppress are correct and that they delete those facts because they do not want Wikipedia readers to know the truth. They constantly spam their own point of view in their diatribes in which they try to cover up for Nazism. It is behavior that breaks Wikipedia's rules. What kind of people cover-up for Nazis and that horrid ideology?

Many regular writers on Wikipedia are intellectually dishonest  and they regurgitate the top media cover-ups.  They cover up many historic photos of the Pledge of Allegiance that reveal its original straight-arm salute. The photos can be seen outside of Wikipedia in image searches for "original pledge of allegiance."  They cover up the fact that the author of the Pledge of Allegiance (Francis Bellamy), and his cousin and cohort (Edward Bellamy), were National Socialists and supported the "Nationalism" movement, the "Nationalist" magazine, the "Nationalist Educational Association," their dogma of "military socialism," and Edward inspired the "Nationalist Party."  They cover up the Pledge's straight-arm salute as the origin of the salute of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazis). As part of the cover up, they perpetuate the myth http://rexcurry.net/pledgesalute.html that the straight-arm salute was from ancient Rome.  They cover up discoveries by the historian Rex Curry that are written about elsewhere and that can be found outside of Wikipedia on the web.  The Pledge began with a military salute that then stretched outward toward the flag. Historic photographs show the evolution of the gesture. Due to the way that both gestures were used, the military salute led to the Nazi salute. The Nazi salute is an extended military salute via the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. flag. A mnemonic device is the swastika ("Hakenkreuz" in German).   Although the swastika was an ancient symbol, it was also used sometimes by German National Socialists to represent "S" letters for their "socialism."  Hitler altered his own signature to use the same stylized "S" letter for "socialist." Wikipedia's fibbers cover up for the swastika and its use as a sick socialist symbol. Wikipedia's dissemblers cover up for the National Socialist German Worker's Party by overuse of the hackneyed shorthand "Nazi."  Many Wikipedia posters are propagandists in that there was no "Nazi Party" because it was actually the "National Socialist German Workers' Party" and the party members did not call themselves "Nazis" nor the "Nazi Party."  The term "Nazi" developed from slang using the first syllable in the German pronunciation of the "National Socialist German Workers' Party."  In that sense, the author of the Pledge of Allegiance was a "Nazi" too, in that the term means "National Socialist."  The term "Nazi" is also used to hide the National Socialist dogma behind the Pledge of Allegiance, its original gesture, and the National Socialist German Workers' Party.  

Wikipedia's cons use the term "Nazi" and the misnomer "Nazi Party" to cover-up the horrors of socialism. Wikipedia's falsifiers cover up the the socialist trio of atrocities and and their socialist Wholecaust (of which the Holocaust was a part): 62 million people were slaughtered under the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; 35 million were slaughtered under the Peoples' Republic of China; 21 million were slaughtered under the National Socialist German Workers' Party. They cover up the fact that socialists helped start WWII with the National Socialist German Workers' Party and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics together as allies in 1939 in a pact to divide up Europe. They cover up for and are deniers of the socialist Wholecaust, of which the monstrous Holocaust was a part.

Wikipedia should not be cited for support because it is no different than quoting various anonymous sources who have no knowledge of the topic or who have fibs to spread about the topic.

The Wikipedia article for the "Roman salute" used to be complete disinformation, deliberately maintained by phonies who tried to perpetuate myths.  Here is an excerpt of what Wikipedia used to carry: "The Roman salute is a closed finger, flat-palm-down hand raised at an angle (usually 45 degrees) and was used by the Roman Republic. It was also the historical civilian salute of the United States, from 1787?-1934?, known since 1892 as the Bellamy salute. It was also the historical salute among armies of the Middle East and South America. When the Nazi party of Germany adopted the Roman salute from the Italian fascists."  Wikipedia liars also used the painting "The Oath of the Horatii" as absurd support for a Roman connection.  The foregoing is all incorrect and of course without any attribution nor support on the Wikipedia page because there is no support. It is not a Roman salute 

Similar criticisms apply to the Wikipedia pages on Francis Bellamy, Edward Bellamy and the Pledge of Allegiance.

Recently, someone who posts to Wikipedia wised up and improved the "Roman salute" article some, while other pledge related articles are as bad as ever.

Wikipedia falsifiers use the misnomer "public schools" when they mean "government schools" and they both cover-up the Bellamys' desire to promote a government takeover of education, a desire to end all of the better alternatives, and to impose socialism (and what the Bellamys called "military socialism") within government schools.  The Bellamys loved the military and wanted all of society to ape the military.  Those points also help explain why Francis Bellamy enjoyed starting the pledge with a military salute.

In conclusion, the article was well-written and very helpful and worth the time to review.

Dr. Rex Curry & Copyright by Professor Rex Curry

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It's Your Story...You Tell It Anyway You Want On Wikipedia

Journalist, others, experience first-hand that 'truth' is a rare commodity on the Internet

by Greg Lloyd Smith

NEW YORK, NY -- (OfficialWire) -- 12/04/05 -- For many, Wikipedia, has become a useful online source of information. Annonomous volunteers contribute articles to the Open Source community, which are then edited from time to time by anyone who cares to add their two cents. On the face of it, the concept sounds a smashing success! Free speech at work, a tax free playground for thousands of people who have something to say and who believe others want to hear it or in this case, read it.

Some of you may have heard of Wikipedia. For those of you who have not, Wikipedia—is an Internet project that is trying to build free encyclopedias in all languages of the world.

The project started in January 2001 and according to their website, has reached 1 million articles in about 140 languages—about half of them in English. Wikimedia is operated by Wikimedia Foundation Inc., a non-profit corporation located in St. Petersburg, Florida. Its existence was announced by Wikipedia founder Jimbo Wales on June 20, 2003. Interestingly, the domain name (wikipedia.org) on which the entire project is based was owned by Bomis, Inc.—a Florida-based company controlled by Wales that does not appear to be non-profit—until December 2005 when Wales transferred the domain name to his 'Foundation' following a related article published by OfficialWire.

In another article that appeared online today, published by Tennessean.com, journalist John Seigenthaler wrote of his anguish after learning that an anonymous 'volunteer' had penned and posted—for all the world to see—an untrue biography that described him as having been briefly suspected of involvement in the assassinations of both John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy.

After four months, Seigenthaler was finally able to get Wales to remove the offending piece from Wikipedia and from the other online 'resources' that simply copy from Wales' pool of data, but not before it had been read by tens of thousands of people, who may or may not have repeated, copied or stored the nonsense.

Despite his best endeavors, Seigenthaler was not able to identify the 'author' of the Wikipedia material, such was the intention of Wales when he created his website. As many people know and as Seigenthaler has now discovered, accoutability, reliability and truth are in short supply on the Internet and their antithisis are being distributed by Wikipedia.
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http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051204/NEWS01/512040352/1006/NEWS
Sunday, 12/04/05
Truth can be at risk in the world of the Web

By JOHN SEIGENTHALER

This is a highly personal story about Internet character assassination. It could be your story.

I have no idea whose sick mind conceived the false, malicious "biography" that appeared under my name for 132 days on Wikipedia, the popular online free encyclopedia whose authors are unknown and virtually untraceable. There was more:
   

"John Seigenthaler moved to the Soviet Union in 1971 and returned to the United States in 1984. He started one of the country's largest public relations firms shortly thereafter."

At age 78, I thought I was beyond feeling surprise or anger at anything negative anybody said about me. I was wrong. It was infuriating to read that stuff under my name. And it was mind-boggling when my son, John Seigenthaler, a journalist for NBC News, phoned from New York to say he had discovered the same scurrilous text on two other Web sites, Reference.com and Answers.com.

There was but one factual sentence in the article. I was the administrative assistant to Attorney General Robert Kennedy in the early 1960s. I also was his pallbearer and participate each year in annual awards programs of the John F. Kennedy Library and the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial. I never lived in the Soviet Union. My late brother, Tom Seigenthaler, founded a Nashville public relations firm, but I had nothing to do with its creation or its success.

At my request, executives of the three Web sites now have removed the false content. But the operators of Wikipedia, Answers.com and Reference.com have no idea who wrote those toxic sentences and no way to find out.

In a telephone conversation with Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's founder, I asked: "Do you, in fact, have any way to know who wrote that?"

"No, we don't," he said. Neither did representatives of Answers.com or Reference.com. Their computers are programmed to pick up material verbatim from Wikipedia. They don't check on whether the copied document is factual or false.

Searching cyberspace for the person posting spurious information can be frustrating and irritating. I traced the registered IP (Internet Protocol) number of my "biographer" — 65-81-97-208 — to BellSouth Internet Services. That meant a BellSouth customer had written it and posted it on Wikipedia.

BellSouth Internet advertises a phone number to report "abuse issues." An electronic voice told me that all complaints were to be e-mailed. I followed directions, explained that I had been maligned by a BellSouth customer and requested the name of the person who had defamed me. The company immediately e-mailed back a "Dear Sir or Madam" form letter signed "Abuse Team." The letter promised an investigation but said BellSouth might not be able to share the results with me. I shot off another e-mail asking for the name of a BellSouth spokesman with whom to discuss it. "Abuse Team" replied with the same "Dear Sir or Madam" form letter. Obviously, Abuse Team did not want to talk on the telephone.

I had heard for weeks from friends — teachers, journalists and historians — about "the wonderful world of Wikipedia" where millions of people from around the world visit every day for quick reference material that can be composed or posted by anyone, without special expertise or knowledge. School children use the Web site for research.

"Wikipedia is intellectual democracy," a teacher told me. "My students love it. They can contribute articles, and it can give them quick facts."

It also can give them quick falsehoods. Erin MacAnally, a Belmont University graduate and former First Amendment Center intern, found my "biography" on Wikipedia while researching a writing project at the University of Hawaii where she now is a graduate student. "I couldn't believe me eyes," she said. She worried that other students in her program would read and believe it.

I paid my first visit to the wonderful Wikipedia world in late September after an old friend, Victor Johnson, suggested that if I "Googled" myself and clicked the Wikipedia link, I would find something "outrageous and libelous" about myself. So I Googled and clicked.

What I found was hardly wonderful.

From the moment I read it, I had an interest in unmasking and confronting whoever wrote it. I also have an interest in letting as many people as possible know that Wikipedia is an irresponsible research tool. What is presented as helpful facts may well be harmful fiction. And there is no way to tell the difference.

After waiting three weeks to receive word from BellSouth Internet's Abuse Team, I contacted the company's corporate headquarters in Atlanta. That led to conversations between my lawyers and counsel for BellSouth. The company, like all major online communications enterprises, is bound by federal privacy laws not to divulge the names of its customers. My only remote chance of learning the identity of my biographer, I learned, was to file a "John or Jane Doe" lawsuit. The company then would respond to a subpoena and disclose the identity of the "biographer" to the court.

I also discovered that Congress has creatively barred defamation lawsuits against all Internet service providers — Wikipedia, Reference.com, Answers.com, BellSouth, Adelphia, AOL, MCI, etc. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, passed in 1996, specifically states that "no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as a publisher or speaker."

That legalese means that, unlike print or broadcast media companies, online information providers cannot be sued successfully for disseminating defamatory attacks on citizens. A string of court cases, little-noticed by the news media, documents that Congress has blocked successful defamation suits in cyberspace.

Wales, the Wikipedia founder, had alerted me during our phone conversation that BellSouth would respond negatively to my request for the "biographer's" name. "In my experience, they won't be very helpful," he said. "What they probably will do is say (to the customer), 'Well, your service is canceled with us.' That's about all they would do about it."

He added: "We have trouble with people posting abusive things over and over and over. We block their IP numbers, and they sneak in another way. So we contact the service providers ... and they are not very responsive about it. They get so many complaints."

If Wales is right, BellSouth may have completed its investigation of my complaint and canceled its business with my "biographer," who now may be a customer of another major online service provider, free to defame someone else or me.

The Wikipedia Web site warns that it is not legally responsible for inaccurate information appearing in its encyclopedia. Wales, however, insists that his Web site is "accountable" and corrects mistakes almost immediately.

In a revealing C-SPAN interview with Brian Lamb, Wales claimed that his Internet community, made up of thousands of volunteer writers and editors, provides constant monitoring and almost instant editing to eliminate inaccurate data. Academic studies, he said, have shown that "fairly obvious vandalism" is caught and corrected "within a median time of under five minutes." More "disgusting" postings, "we revert ... within a minute," he claimed.

My experience refutes that. The "biography" was posted at 2:29 p.m. May 26. On May 29, one of Wales volunteers, identified only as SNlyer12 "edited" what had been written about me only by correcting the misspelling of the word "early." For four months, Wikipedia continued to present me as a suspected assassin and a 13-year resident of a communist regime.

In his C-SPAN interview with Lamb, Wales said Wikipedia is the 40th-busiest Web site in the world with "millions" of daily global visitors who number more than the combined Web sites of USA Today, The New York Times and The Washington Post. He said he has only one paid employee, a software technician. His volunteer community runs the operation.

He funds the Web site through a nonprofit foundation, he said, and estimated his 2006 budget to be "about a million dollars." His donors include Yahoo and he is negotiating with Google, he said. His list of contributors includes Reference.com. When I found my "biography" on that Web site, I found a line that followed the text telling visitors: "Donate to the Wikipedia foundation." I ignored it.

And so, we live in a universe of new media with phenomenal opportunities for worldwide communications and research at our fingertips — but populated by volunteer vandals with poison-pen intellects. Congress has enabled them and protects them.

When I was a child, my mother lectured me on the evils of "gossip." She held a feather pillow above her head and said, "If I tear this open, the feathers will fly to the four winds, and I could never get them back in the pillow. That's how it is when you spread mean things about people."

For me, that pillow is a metaphor for Wikipedia.

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http://news.baou.com/main.php?action=recent&rid=1979
One Man's Personal Quest Against Earthquake Charity
Christian Wirth, hero or heavy?

by Jennifer Monroe

NEW YORK, NY -- (OfficialWire) -- 01/03/05 -- While many tens of thousands of people are busy helping the victims of the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunamis, one man has chosen to spend his time and energies in other ways. This is the tale of how Christian Wirth (shown here) has contributed.

Some of you may have heard of Wikipedia. For those of you who have not, Wikipedia—is an Internet project that is trying to build free encyclopedias in all languages of the world.

The project started in January 2001 and according to their website, has reached 1 million articles in about 140 languages—about half of them in English. Wikimedia is operated by Wikimedia Foundation Inc., a non-profit corporation located in Florida. Its existence was announced by Wikipedia founder Jimbo Wales on June 20, 2003. Interestingly, the domain name (wikipedia.org) on which the entire project is based is owned by Bomis, Inc., a Florida-based company that does not appear to be non-profit.

Emails sent to that company's email address of record for comment were returned: 'unknown user: "bomis"'.

Wirth, better known by the pseudonym RaD Man, calls himself a "computer artist and historian".

Wirth spends much of his day editing articles published on Wikipedia.

"I am not an administrator or sysop of any sort on Wikipedia. While I've made several thousand edits here and try to do my part to contribute and preserve (yes, preserve), I am just a regular Wikipedia user like most everyone else," he said.

Shortly after the tragic events of Sunday, December 26, 2004, in which more than 155,000 have been killed, a page was published on Wikipedia listing various organizations who were accepting donations on behalf of the victims. The page is located here.

I added a link on that page for QuakeAID, a charitable organization for which I volunteer. According to the Wikipedia terms of use, anyone can contribute. At this stage, let me explain that Baou Trust, parent of OfficialWire, provides considerable funding for QuakeAID.

Soon after I added the QuakeAID link, RaD Man took it upon himself to make unfounded, untrue and libellous statements about QuakeAID, published on Wikipedia, based solely on search results or indeed, the lack of search results found in Google—the popular search engine.

Since then, he has waged what can only be described as a personal war against QuakeAID. He blatently and repeated removed the QuakeAID link and said he would do so each time it was restored.

"I do find it laughable that you refer to yourself as a "reputable charity" which has been in existence since 1998 yet in 2005 is still not recognized by the U.S. government as an actual charitable non-profit agency," he said.

According to Wirth, one must be recognized by the U.S. government.

QuakeAID was founded in 1998, in Athens Greece, but has recently established a presense in the U.S., and initiated the process to qualify for 503(c)(3) federal tax-exempt status.

Wirth has spent the last several days on a personal quest, attempting to sully the good work that QuakeAID represents. As a historian he should know that history is never kind to the heavy’s efforts during a time when more positive action is required.

We believe Wirth should focus his energies on more positive work rather than attacking other people's work. Tell him what you think. Send Wirth an email message by clicking here.

For more information about QuakeAID, visit www.quakeaid.org.

Posted   1/03/2005 5:00 AM
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Wikipedia Celebrates 750 Years Of American Independence
Founding Fathers, Patriots, Mr. T. Honored

July 26, 2006 | Issue 42•30 From the Onion  http://www.theonion.com/content/node/50902

NEW YORK—Wikipedia, the online, reader-edited encyclopedia, honored the 750th anniversary of American independence on July 25 with a special featured section on its main page Tuesday.

"It would have been a major oversight to ignore this portentous anniversary," said Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, whose site now boasts over 4,300,000 articles in multiple languages, over one-quarter of which are in English, including 11,000 concerning popular toys of the 1980s alone. "At 750 years, the U.S. is by far the world's oldest surviving democracy, and is certainly deserving of our recognition," Wales said. "According to our database, that's 212 years older than the Eiffel Tower, 347 years older than the earliest-known woolly-mammoth fossil, and a full 493 years older than the microwave oven."

"In fact," added Wales, "at three-quarters of a millennium, the USA has been around almost as long as technology."

The commemorative page is one of the most detailed on the site, rivaling entries for Firefly and the Treaty Of Algeron for sheer length. Subheadings include "Origins Of Colonial Discontent," "Some Famous Guys In Wigs And Three-Cornered Hats," and "Christmastime In Gettysburg." It also features detailed maps of the original colonies—including Narnia, the central ice deserts, and Westeros—as well as profiles of famous American historical figures such as Benjamin Franklin, Special Agent Jack Bauer, and Samuel Adams who is also a defensive tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals.

"On July 25, 1256, delegates gathered at Comerica Park to sign the Declaration Of Independence, which rejected the rule of the British over its 15 coastal North American colonies," reads an excerpt from the entry. "Little did such founding fathers as George Washington, George Jefferson, and ***ERIC IS A FAG*** know that their small, querulous republic would later become the most powerful and prosperous nation in history, the Unified States Of America."
Wikipedia Celebrates R

"All our lives, we are taught about the achievements of Washington, Jefferson, and FAG, but we seldom consider the factors and conditions that led them to risk everything for a republican cause," Wales said. "What was it really like to be a patriot in those times? How did the colonists' perception of democracy conform and contrast with our modern one? Did Betsy Ross, as legend has it, really have the biggest boobies in the New World? It's these types of questions I want Wikipedia to be a forum for, all at the click of a mouse."

The exhaustive entry also includes links to video clips of the First Thanksgiving, hosted by YouTube.

The special anniversary tribute refutes many myths about the period and American history. According to the entry, the American Revolution was in fact instigated by Chuck Norris, who incinerated the Stamp Act by looking at it, then roundhouse-kicked the entire British army into the Atlantic Ocean. A group of Massachusetts Minutemaids then unleashed the zombie-generating T-Virus on London, crippling the British economy and severely limiting its naval capabilities.

The entry also addresses several traditionally taboo subjects, such as the influence of LSD on the drafting of the Constitution and the role of funk-slaves in painting the White House black.

While other news and information websites chose to mark the anniversary in a muted fashion, if at all, Wikipedia gave it prominent emphasis over other important historical events from the same day, including the independence of the nation of Africa in 1847, the 1984 ascension of Constantine to Emperor of the Holy Roman Emperor, and the 1998 birth of Smokey, a calico cat belonging to Mark and Becky Rousch of Erie, PA.

Founder Wales, a closeted homosexual and hot-dog freak, according to his user-edited bio on the site, also hosted a symposium of amateur historians at the New School in New York on Saturday.

"The Revolution's main adversaries were the patriots and the people from Braveheart," said speaker Tim Capodice, who has edited hundreds of Wikipedia entries on subjects as diverse as Euclidian geometry and Ratfucking. "The patriots, being a rag-tag group of misfits, almost lost on several occasions. But after a string of military antics and a convoluted scheme involving chicken feathers and an inflatable woman, the British were eventually defeated despite a last-minute surge, by a score of 89-87."

Despite spirited discussions bloggers present later described as "eluminating" and "sweet," the symposium was cut short when differences of opinion among the panelists degenerated into personal insults and name-calling.

While Wikipedia's "American Inderpendance" page remains available to all site visitors, administrators have suspended additions and further edits to its content due to vandalism.

Bellamy salute image http://rexcurry.net/francis bellamy.jpg and photograph http://rexcurry.net/i-pledge-allegiance-to-the-flag.jpg