Chocolate Chip Cookies and Birthers

I've been on some version of the Net (starting with BITNet)since the mid-eighties when there was nothing to do but FTP and email. As such, I've seen most of the great Internet Hoaxes. Most had to do with virus warnings and other net-related stuff; typically you would get an email which looked seriously official and warned you of some impending calamity. Others were so obviously false that one wonders, in retrospect, how anyone in their right mind could have believed them.

One of the most renowned of the latter group was the Neiman-Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe. For those who don't remember this one, the scam went like this: someone is having lunch in a Neiman-Marcus restaurant. At some point in time, they are served a chocolate cookie which is the best cookie they have ever tasted. Enthralled, they ask the server for the recipe - which he/she promptly delivers to the table. The diner then presents a credit card, mindlessly signs the receipt, and is off for an afternoon's shopping.

The big surprise comes when the credit card bill arrives some time later. The hapless diner finds an outlandish charge - usually $250 - for (you guessed it) the recipe. Indignant about being taken in, the diner then proceeds to email the recipe to everyone he/she knows - taking revenge by destroying any market the recipe might have.

The story was bogus (Neiman-Marcus does not sell its recipes), but thousands - and likely millions - of early Net users fell for the prank. For one thing, the recipe supposedly was pretty good - the cookies were quite tasty according to some. But it was goofy - and Neiman-Marcus spent years dealing with inquiries about this hoax.

Fast forward to 2009 and we have a similarly goofy situation with the so-called "birthers" - nitwits who have been taken in by talk radio blowhards and internet whackos so that they believe that the President was NOT born in Hawai'i, but in Kenya. These cretins are out in force for tea parties and, now, Republican official appearances - as evidenced by the footage from last week showing Rep. Mike Castle being harangued by a group in a hometown audience. When Castle attempted to answer reasonably, he was shouted down.

I almost felt sorry for Castle - almost. The thing is - if the Republicans had not spend the last 4 decades recruiting racists and right wing extremists (starting with Nixon's Southern Strategy) by demonizing the "Other," they wouldn't be having this problem. So now they are hoisted on their own petard. What is scary about this is that a lot - probably most - of these jokers are armed. This has nothing to do with where the President was born - rather, it has to do with a percentage of our society who cannot bring themselves to accept that an African-American with a funny sounding name is the legitimate President of the United States. They have been convinced that "their" country is being stolen from them by unlawful usurpers. The Republicans fed this frenzy during the last election: remember Sarah Palin beaming at the crowd as yells of "kill him!" were clearly audible. Remember John McCain and the woman who believed the Barack Obama was an "Arab."

I can laugh at these fools with everyone else, but a nagging fear is also present. I sincerely hope that the President's Secret Service detail is successful in protecting him from these people - because sooner or later, one of them is going to snap and start shooting. These are the same people who glorify the murdrers of abortion doctors as "heroes" - don't believe for a minute that they wouldn't extol a presidential assassin in the same, deranged way.