Written by Lawrence Brown   

I love Google and hate Facebook;

so I'm at least half as stupid as you are.

The Google addiction started instantly

because,as a research-oriented writer, it

could deliver wayyy more of those elusive

"magical facts" that make reading something

worth it.

GoogleSearch literally felt like a natural

extension of my nervous system; I had no idea

Google kept a record all my searches for 18

months---till CNBC's Maria Bartiromo said to

Google's then-CEO Eric Schmidt "Google

knows everything about me from my searches

and you just admitted getting over 10,000 legal

subpoenas a year from lawyers taking someone's

personal search history into courts to use against

them."

The Google CEO's response? "Maria,if you

are doing something you don't want anyone to

know about,maybe you shouldn't be doing it

in the first place."

(Guess he was home sick the day they taught

about "Privacy".....in third grade.)



Schmidt was soon replaced as CEO by

Google co-founder Larry Page. Duh.

Double duh.

But I still use Google constantly because

there isn't a 12th Step Group called

"Google Anonymous" in my area. Yet.

And of course my search history over

the last 8 years is as pure as the driven

snow. I think.

But if it wasn't,all it takes is one genius

hacker (or disgruntled Google computer

genius employee) to get a copy of all

my searches and email it to every name

on my email list.

Or email it to me with a threat to do so;

the ransom I must pay to stop this being

our first born child or every penny

I have in every bank account.

The great slogan-genius Goethe said

it all long ago:

"The hardest thing to see is what is

right in front of you."

Fortunately,once in a while,someone

like either Woodward or Bernstein says

to the other one "This Watergate thing

doesn't seem like a "third-rate burglary"

to me...does it to you?"

( In this case that genuine American

is Maria Bartiromo,who is light years

better than the 5th Wheel cable network

CNBC.)


Why do I hate Facebook?

1. They have debased the word

"friend" in the English Language.

I don't have 100+ imaginary "friends".

But I've got 5 real ones.


2. If Hitler had had Facebook,the entire

world would have been Nazi Germany for

the past 70 years. He and his creeps could

have instantly discovered what everybody

thinks about everything.

And what everyone they know thinks.

With everyone's address and phone number.

Hey,there are still Bad Guys in the world--

and some of them already are--or soon will

be--far more brilliant than whoever designed

the user-privacy systems at Google and

Facebook.

I earlier mentioned feeling GoogleSearch

is the greatest invention since The Wheel.

Recently came across this joke by Sid Caesar,

an awesome comedian from

1950's TV who was kind of the George

Carlin/Chris Rock of his time:

"The guy who invented The Wheel

was a moron. The guy who invented the

other three--he was a genius."

Anyone up for inventing"the other three"?