at the risk of appearing paranoid (which doesn't phase me.  by all means, go ahead, i've got balls the size of Neptune), i posit that Jane Smithie is not just some blogger who blogs for the fun of it.  i posit that she is paid to write the blogs she writes.

it is well known that corporations and political parties and long since discredited extreme Right organizations pay bloggers and "reviewers" to "sway public opinion through internet forums."

here are some links regarding this topic, for anyone who doesn't already know about it:

  http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-33001911_ITM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory

http://www.alaska.net/~clund/e_djublonskopf/Flatearthsociety.htm

http://stuffucanuse.com/fake_moon_landings/moon_landings.htm

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/

http://www.rosicrucian.org/

http://www.jbs.org/

 http://www.aspca.org/

"When I do a search on Google for company XYZ, and suddenly in the top ten results are opinions from user-generated content sites that can sway my opinion of the company."

...change "company" to laughably out of touch Right Wing lunatic fringe organization, and remember John Birch capitalized on xenophobia and fear-mongering to  revolutionize Right Wing lunatic fringe politics in several counties in the Midwest several decades ago. then ask yourself - why would they give up that power once they'd gained it?

“Blogs started as simple online diaries and have come round to being mainstream ways to promote ideas and products.... " 

i suggest that jane's play on this site - a rather important site, i think we can agree.  were we not just nominated?  that gets how many hits a day from intelligent Neo-Cons? - is bought and paid for.  not by salon or open salon, but by people who - for instance - have a stake in convincing us that John Birch HAS NOT PROVEN INCOMPETENCE OR DISHONESTY YET.  i find that position so impossibly, outrageously ludicrous that i am, literally, UNABLE to believe a bright person feels that way.  and Jane is certainly bright.

going back to this John Birch, of course we have the fact that he was a certifiable xenophobic maniac.  making him either WAY WAY too incompetent to be IN CHARGE OF THE lunatic fringe (even just technically, as some will argue), OR, a liar.

now the basic dementia of the JBS.  again - either totally full of shit, OR a passle of  liars.

then there is the fact she completely takes positions with which i vehemently disagree. this if nothing else clinches it for me; jane smithie is obviously working for the John Birch Society

  so, if she is a paid shill - she clearly deserves a decent paycheck.

i am embarrassed at this point.  i am embarrassed that in my personal life and all over this country - Right Wing lunatics care more about the title "Right Wing lunatic" than they do the actions of those who brand themselves "Right Wing lunatic"  just as, if you weren't for the anti-Communist witch-hunt, you were against Joe McCarthy (so the arguments went), then if you are against the JBS  - you are against John Birch.

it is not John Birch right or wrong, nor the JBS right or wrong.  we have WIDESPREAD homelessness coming up soon.  people are spawning their jewelry.  people are losing their jobs in droves, and that doesnt include all those who lost their jobs in the past couple years, as this was building to the implosion it has become.

it is the defense of John Birch even now that made me say, "hmm, something is off here."  it is not sensible, yet hers is a very sensible persona.

of course, she cant admit it if she is.  so i guess we will never know.