Friday, September 16, 2011

It Hurts Doesn't it Palin Supporters?


I hope most of you reading this by now have heard of the new book that just came out called The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin.

In this book the author makes claims that Sarah Palin had an affair with a business partner of her husband. Apparently she also did cocaine with her husband(1). Blowing her image wide open to criticism.

Of course the Palinites have gone to extreme lengths to denounce this book as lies and just general misinformation.

Her own husband (probably in denial) came out calling the author a liar and "This is a man who has been relentlessly stalking my family to the point of moving in right next door to us to harass us and spy on us to satisfy his creepy obsession with my wife,"(2)

I just want to ask the republicans and Palin supporters one question: How does it feel?

As Maoist we know how it feels to have someone release a book about some one who inspires us, and that book is full of lies. The book "the private life of Mao Zedong" was written by a Dr who claimed to be Mao physician yet no evidence exist that points out that this Li Zhisui ever even met the red sun. Let alone this is a second release of this book. His first edition didn't sell. But when he added bad things about Mao it started selling like crazy among capitalist nations. I think he even apologized to Mao's family for the lies he put in this book to sell it.

The book: "Mao the untold story." is another case where people quote untrue things from this book to me all the time. Academic experts have criticized the book for its falsifications of interviews and selective sources. Professor Andrew Nathan of Columbia University said of the books sources: "many of their discoveries come from sources that cannot be checked, others are openly speculative or are based on circumstantial evidence, and some are untrue." David S. G. Goodman, Professor of Contemporary China Studies at the University of technology, Sydney said of the book: "the 'facts' in The Da Vinci Code are about as reliable as those to be found in...Mao: The Unknown Story." Goodman argued that the style of writing was "extremely polemic" and that the book could even be thought of as a "form of fiction" where "a strong narrative" is "a substitute for evidence and argument." And many other criticisms were made of the book's facts, even by people's who studies are specific to modern China.

And what were the writers response to these criticisms? "the academics' views on Mao and Chinese history cited represent received wisdom of which we were well aware while writing our biography of Mao. We came to our own conclusions and interpretations of events through a decade's research." Wow, this is suppose to be a research/history book of a leader of China and the writers say themselves the cited 'RECEIVED WISDOM' and what takes the cake here in what is suppose to be a book on history, there for a non-fiction they say "WE CAME TO OUR OWN CONCLUSIONS" How was this book ever printed in the first place? Even worst: "we came to our own conclusions AND INTERPRETATIONS OF EVENTS"(3) I'm sure most people who would read this has had to write a research or argument paper at some point in their life. Never has a teacher in the history of ever allowed a student to cite their own conclusions and interpretations of events as evidence. A conclusion is the only place a student would be allowed to use this. So as writers of a research/history book it is completely unacceptable for this to happen.

But yet I still have these books quote to me all the time to point out the horribleness of Mao's personal life. At least now there is a book I can use to quote from to attack republicans on their hero's personal life. So I ask: How does it feel?


(1) "Sarah Palin: Bio Says She indulged in Sex and Drugs Husband says Biographer Has 'Creepy Obsession'". Montreal Gazette. AFP. September 16 2011. Web. September 16 2011. http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Sarah+Palin+says+indulged+drugs/5410793/story.html

(2) Philip Elliott. "Palin Camp Denounces Racy Bio of Former Governor. Yahoo. AP. September 15 2011. Web. September 15 2011. http://news.yahoo.com/palin-camp-denounces-racy-bio-former-governor-162709708.html

(3) (all quotes take from wiki page for easier access to reader) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao:_The_Unknown_Story#Criticism

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