From Tom Duggan’s Notebook (May, 2016) – Facebook Pet Peeves

ReportersNotebook copy

 

TOP 8 FACEBOOK PET PEEVES

# 1 CLICK BAIT: You have seen it in your newsfeed on Facebook. The title will say something like: “Two year old climbs into box with rattlesnakes, WHAT HAPPENS NEXT IS STUNNING!” This is a cheap and annoying stunt to get you to click the link and it’s called Click Bait. 9 times out of ten when you clickbaitclick the link it turns out to be something completely benign like, “The two year old played with the snakes till his parents pulled him out. PS – the snakes weren’t poisonous and don’t bite. Of all the annoying things on Facebook, this one is probably the most annoying.

#2 TONS OF PHOTOS OF KIDS, PUPPIES, AND LOCATIONS, BUT NOT ONE PHOTO OF YOU IN YOUR PROFILE GALLERY: Unless I know someone personally, I NEVER accept friend requests from idiots who do this. There’s a reason the social networking site is called FACEbook. It’s not so you can disguise how fat or ugly you think you are with photos of puppies and unicorns. It’s so that when you send a friend request to someone like me, I can see if you look familiar in case I don’t recognize your name right away. People who do this should be banned from Facebook, but since they are not, I ban them from my page.
facebook#3 LIKE AND SHARE IF YOU AGREE:
I never, ever, ever share anything that says, “like and share if you agree”. DUH it’s Facebook; the entire purpose of your newsfeed is so that you can like and share things you agree with. I don’t need a meme to tell me to do that. In fact, many times a day I am about to share something that looks pretty cool at first look, only to see the irrelevant instructions which not only makes me refusing to “share and like”, but many times I will remove the person who posted it from my newsfeed.

69842e12ea4264dcf87d77a7491d1a37#4 FOOD PORN, RAINBOWS AND UNICORNS – THE ALAN KNOWLES SYNDROME: One of my friends, Attorney Allan Knowles, is so representative of this next pet peeve that I named it after him. Go to his page, I dare you. Every time I do, my blood pressure spikes. Endless photos of puppies and cute sayings, rainbows, and photos of various gourmet food. But not ONE photo of his kids, his coworkers or anything of substance. Now, because Allan is a friend, I have not blocked or unfriended him. But, he’s the only one. Because I have the maximum number of friends allowed on Facebook (5,000), I have no room for Facebook friends who have absolutely nothing substantive on their page that tells you who they are, or what they like to do in their free time. It really is a waste of a Facebook page. My suggestion for people like this is to print out photos of sunsets, kittens and other mundane garbage, put them in a bunch of frames and put them up on their wall in their bedrooms.

1442806726990#5 ENDLESS MEMES: “God doesn’t give you anything you can’t handle”. Make time for people who make time for you in their lives”. “I love my kids”. These are all mindless memes that clutter my newsfeed. It’s ok once in a while if a meme strikes your mood, but when I peruse my newsfeed and the same person posts 10 meme’s a day with insipid sayings, it makes me want to bang my head against the wall. Often, I will remove these people from my newsfeed, though I almost never unfriend people for it. If this is you, stop it! Stop it right now. I don’t give a rat’s ass if a stitch in time saves nine and I don’t need to be reminded about it on Facebook.

download#6 INFORWARS AND CONSPIRACY NUTS – First of all the so called “news” site INFOWARS is a seditious, anti-American site that promotes terrorist and Anti-American propaganda to try and get people to hate the US government. It’s run by a hack of Vladimir Putin and puts forth conspiracy theories like 911 was an inside job, the US government is poisoning us with “chemtrails”, and Homeland security is constructing concentration camps for Americans. It takes a LOT for me to unfriend someone on FB. In fact, some people say I am far too liberal in allowing views that I do not share from people who have some pretty kooky ideas. But, there’s ONE thing that will make me unfriend you, and that’s an INFOWARS post or a post from a similar pro-terrorist propaganda site disguised as patriotic “news”.

facebook-profile-pic-vs-real-life#7 YOUR PROFILE PHOTO IS AT LEAST TEN YEARS OLD. No, I wont unfriend you for this and I probably won’t even say anything. But, I can’t tell you how many times I meet someone in the real world who say, “Hey, Tom I follow you on Facebook” and I can’t for the life of me recognize their face. That is, until I get back to my car and pull up their page to see that their profile photo makes them look like they are in their early 30’s or 40’s, despite the fact that the person I just met is at least 55 or 60. Women are far more guilty of this than men, in fact I would say 9 times out of ten the (what I call) age-liar is a woman. Ladies, I know you are all obsessed with your looks 24-7. But, if you portray yourself to be ten years younger (or more) than you actually are, you are setting up a false expectation that will call MORE attention to your advanced age from people who are expecting a youthful looking 40 year old … only to be disappointed to meet a 55-60 year old in person. What do you ladies suppose most men are thinking after such an encounter? I can tell you, because my single friends and I talk about this quite often. Most men walk away thinking… if only I had met her 15 years ago. Seriously. Let your profile photo accurately reflect what you look like today!

#8 GAME REQUESTS – Ok, I know I am guilty from time to time of sending game requests to people for “Clash of Kings” (the only game I play these days). But, usually I only send one request to people I know well and think will really enjoy the game. If they don’t respond, I don’t send another request. On the other hand, I get multiple requests every day from the same people trying to get me to play slot machine games, Candy Crush and the like. Stop it. Just stop.

AROUND THE VALLEY

Lawrence Fire Chief Brian Murphy
Lawrence Fire Chief Brian Murphy

CHIEF MURPHY RETIRES – Former Lawrence Fire Chief Brian Murphy retired last month after decades of putting his life on the line to protect the people of Lawrence. Murphy was the winner of the 2015 Officer Tom Duggan, Sr. Hero Award, and was the whistleblower who exposed the dangerously low staffing levels of the Lawrence Fire Dept. under corrupt Lawrence Mayor Willie Lantigua. Because of his efforts to warn the public he was demoted, but not until Lantigua rammed a home rule petition through the legislature (with the help of Barry Finegold and David Torrisi) to remove the chief’s position from civil service protection. Good luck in your retirement Chief Murphy. You earned it. 

THE SILLINESS OF TODAY”S MYTHS ABOUT THE INDIANS – It’s so sad that so many Americans have fallen for the revisionist history and propaganda of freedoms’ enemies. Recently a debate occurred on my Facebook page about the American Indians. One clueless participant wrote, “the US belongs to the Native Americans”. This is a very ignorant and somewhat foolish school of thought shared by many young people today. First, most American Indians didn’t believe in the concept of owning land. In fact, the Indians themselves thought they were ripping off colonists by “selling” the land for food and trinkets. The fact that they were wrong does not make them victims of “land stealing”. Secondly, the belief that the US belongs to the Native Americans, presupposes that any land occupied by any peoples who were not the first, are not the rightful owners/occupants. That opens up all kinds of problems for modern humanity. If the US “belongs to the Native Americans” then all of Jordan, Israel, the so-called Palestinian territories and parts of Israel, and the pyramids belong to the Jews. Furthermore, Africans owe reparations to the Jews for enslaving them for a thousand years. Also, Canada belongs to the Norwegians.

We live in the NOW folks. You cannot correct perceived wrongs of the past by trying to take land from people today and give it to others based on things that happened long before we were all born. If we start taking action based on this revisionist history of giving back everything that was taken from everyone in the past, there will be no future.

TRANSGENDER BATHROOMS – It is clear that those driving this public debate of letting self-identifying transgendered persons use whatever bathroom they want, are just exploiting transgendered persons to wage war against Christians. Having said that, the concern most people have with the concept of the transgendered bathrooms is not with the transgendered people themselves. To most who share this view, transgenders are not the problem. The real concern is that other people, particularly perverted men who are NOT transgendered, will take advantage of this, resulting in more sex crimes being committed against our daughters, sisters, and mothers. Having said that, I think both sides have missed the forest for the trees. If someone is truly a transgendered person and needs to use a bathroom at the mall or in a restaurant, they should simply be allowed to use the employee bathroom. Problem solved. But I suspect those driving this debate will not accept this solution, as the public debate on the subject really isn’t about transgenders at all.

LAWRENCE STUDENT GRADUATES – Lawrence resident Christopher Anthony Maniachi has graduated from Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kan., in the fall 2015 semester with a Master of Science in special education.
FHSU does not release the lists of undergraduate and graduate degrees until transcripts have been verified as having met all requirements for graduation. This is a labor-intensive process that delays FHSU’s release of names by several weeks. Fort Hays State is one of six public universities in the Kansas Board of Regents system.

TAX AMNESTY – Take Advantage of the Tax Amnesty before May 31, 2016
The vast majority of Bay Staters pay their taxes, but not all. Now there’s an opportunity for those who have not filed, or have underreported, to get on track and pay no penalties through a tax amnesty.
Open to Businesses and Individuals:
* Who have not filed all Massachusetts tax returns when obligated to do so – could be one or more returns.
* Or, who have underreported taxes on a previously filed tax return and want to correct the error.
New tax system makes it easier to identify tax evasion
Massachusetts’ new system for filing and paying is now available to businesses and will soon be available for individuals. This state-of-the-art tax system will play an important role in identifying tax avoidance. Time is limited to take advantage of this amnesty and waive penalties.
Easy, online Amnesty Return
First, the amount of tax is calculated by completing a return and any schedules. Then, the amount of tax due is entered on the easy, secure, online Amnesty Return, which will be available on the amnesty webpage as of the April 1 kickoff date. Interest is automatically calculated and the balance due will be shown. Payment can be made electronically and confirmation of receipt of the Amnesty Return is immediate.
More information is available at mass.gov/TaxAmnesty including FAQs.

HAMPSTEAD ACADEMY MATH TEACHER AWARDED – Congratulations to Hampstead Academy Upper School Math Teacher, Cecelia Carroll for being named “NH Air Force Association Norman “Bud” Frontier Teacher of the Year” for 2016! In the past year, Cecelia Carroll has brought a group of her students to Space Camp in Huntsville, AL, led an afterschool SeaPerch Club and rocketry activity class, attended the Space Exploration Educators Conference in Houston, Texas and participated in Civil Air Patrol workshops for teachers at the Laconia Airport.

The Air Force Association is dedicated to ensuring America’s aerospace excellence and supports the teachers that carry out this mission in the classroom. AFA supports K-12 teachers who specialize in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM fields). This award recognizes those who educate America’s youth and particularly those who educate children in math and science.