Will the Sarah Palin Derp Train every grind to a halt? Now the revered Smithsonian Institution, the premier archive of American History, is honoring her as a "Significant American," even though she mangles her history as well as the English language every time she opens her mouth. Why exactly is she significant, beyond the creation of the shameful and racist Tea Party movement and hours of bad reality TV? Remember #Palin Brawl?
And to add insult to injury, Smithsonian left another "Significant American" off the list - President Barack Obama, the first African American President, and one of the most revered men in the world. What? Woodrow Wilson and George Bush are more "significant" than Barack Obama? Hells Bells and Cottontails!
A sad day for our country. Smithsonian deserves ALL the mockery that the Left can throw at them!
Smithsonian List of 100 Most Significant Americans
Their editorial explanation of how they chose the names:
In a culture so saturated with information and so fragmented by the search possibilities of the Internet, how do we measure historical significance?
Steven Skiena and Charles B. Ward have come up with a novel answer. Skiena is the Distinguished Teaching Professor of Computer Science at Stony Brook University and a co-founder of the social-analytics company General Sentiment. Ward is an engineer at Google, specializing in ranking methodologies. Their answer involves high-level math. They subject the historical zeitgeist to the brute rigors of quantitative analysis in a recent book, Who’s Bigger? Where Historical Figures Really Rank.
. . . we asked Skiena and Ward to separate figures significant to American history from the world population. Then, rather than simply taking their top 100, we developed categories that we believe are significant, and populated our categories with people in Skiena and Ward’s order (even if they ranked below 100). This system helped mitigate the biases of Wikipedia.
We have highlighted what we decided was the most interesting choice within each category with a slightly fuller biographical sketch. And finally, we made an Editors’ Choice in each category, an 11th American whose significance we’re willing to argue for.
Or maybe it was just a money-makin' deal? Seems that the Koch Brothers gave them a hefty donation, which might explain why they left the Foreign-Born Kenyan Imperial Emperor off their list.
Now we know why GWB, Hillary &Palin made the list. Smithsonian aims to raise $1.5B to improve museums http://t.co/1JIltcKJlh via @MailOnline
— PBO: VETO-in-Chief! (@JAPITTER) November 23, 2014From Daily Mail
The Smithsonian's Board of Regents announced the goal Monday and revealed more than $1 billion already has been raised in a quiet phase since October 2011. This is the first institution-wide fundraising effort and the largest campaign in history for any cultural institution, Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough said. The campaign will continue through 2017.
Several large gifts were previously announced for large projects.
David H. Koch donated $35 million for a major renovation of the Smithsonian's dinosaur hall.
According to Mother Jones, this has been ongoing since at least 2010
..The museum has defended Koch, the ninth richest man in the United States, as a "philanthropist who is deeply interested in science." Moreover, Smithsonian Human Origins Program director Rick Potts said, "our donors have no control over the content of our science or scholarship of our exhibits." Climate Progress blogger Joe Romm, however, argues that the new exhibit "whitewashes the danger of human caused climate change." See his post for more on the subject.
It's true: @smithsonian include Palin & omit President in 100 Most Significant Americans list http://t.co/4yiZT1PnZ5 pic.twitter.com/vlpieV2KJq
— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) November 23, 2014The #KochBros donated $35 million to @smithsonian for a Dinosaur Hall to house their remains #GOP pic.twitter.com/eIWshL39YM
— Jeanne K. (@SnarkAmendment) November 23, 2014.@smithsonian How does the first African-American President of the U.S. NOT make the list of 100 most significant Americans of all time???
— PragmaticObotsUnite (@PragObots) November 23, 2014.@Our4thEstate @neilpX @TheObamaDiary @smithsonian just another organization that falls prey to the stacked deck of the GOP leadership.
— Jerry Lingle (@JerryLingle) November 23, 2014@theonlyadult @smithsonian No PBO, No LBJ, no JFK, no Harry Truman but somehow Reality TV Sensation Palin is on?
— Rita A (@ritaag) November 23, 2014@Kennymack1971 the irony of the Smithsonian list is cons benefit from the ‘political correctness’ they claim to be against
— lvdjgarcia (@lvdjgarcia) November 23, 2014@smithsonian < Once a reputable organization..becomes a puppet to those who can pay $$$..What a shame you've become..
— Kasai™ (@Kahsai) November 23, 2014
