Dragaera

Humans and the Cycle

Fri Jan 16 15:05:40 PST 2004


On Fri, 16 Jan 2004, Matthew Hunter wrote:

> On Fri, Jan 16, 2004 at 02:06:07PM -0800, Philip Hart <philiph at SLAC.Stanford.EDU> wrote:
> > On Fri, 16 Jan 2004, Charlie Smith wrote:
> > > > When exactly is the dawn of Internet time, again?  The September
> > > > that Never Ended?  I think that's about right.  Up until then the
> > > > Internet was quiet but purposeful, like night before dawn...
> > > > since then the cacophony has never ceased!
> > > I dunno, lets go over and ask Al Gore, he invented it didn't
> > > he................. nah, lets not.  He's got SOOO many things to do right
> > > now, he won't have time for us....
> > Please refrain, this is a) an ignorant fabricated smear, and b) liable to
> > result in an ugly political discussion on a polite list.
>
> Reason a isn't terribly accurate; you've just done the same thing
> you are complaining about.  The "internet thing" was overhyped by
> conservatives trying to discredit Gore, and is overhyped by
> liberals trying to defend Gore.  Saying Gore "invented the
> internet" is a misquote, but what Gore actually said, in context,
> was a fairly clear (and typical of just about any politician)
> attempt to take credit for the creation of the internet.
>
> Whether he deserved that credit is an argument for another day.

You're quite simply wrong, but I won't bother to educate you on this point
in the spirit of point b).