If you ever had the pleasure of watching the venerable 'Hill Street Blues', from the 1980's, the character of the old Sergeant stands out vividly in the memory. He gave the morning briefing to the patrol officers in a drug-ridden and despairing neighborhood, and would always end with the admonishment: 'Let's Be Careful Out There'.
Fast-forward to Summer 2009. There is a gentleman named Tim Wood, whose public credits are as follows:
Timothy L. Wood is an assistant professor of history at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri. He is the author of Agents of Wrath, Sowers of Discord: Authority and Dissent in Puritan Massachusetts, 1630-1655 (Routledge).
There is another Tim Wood out there, who posted some sort of rant comparing our current President to Adolf Hitler.
Someone, with waaay toooo much time on his/her hands, decided that Timothy Wood, the professor, and Timothy Wood the wearer of tin-foil hats, were the same person!
(Which they definitely are not!)
Timothy Wood the professor has been bombarded with email from all corners, and his life has been disrupted by thousands of gullible people who assume: 'Well, it's on my email, it must be true!'
Take a moment to read his account, please.
It's insightful, both as to how this sort of lunacy gets underway, and why it can flourish so easily.
Let's Be Careful Out There!
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