November 1, 2005

Take note of a serious rumor.

I wasn't going to mention it, but Eric Muller writes "I just got a hit to this blog via the google search 'Is Samuel Alito Jewish.'" Muller chuckles over what he's perceiving as one clueless Googler. But look at my Site Meter's ranking of recent search words. I've been getting numerous hits from "samuel alito jewish" and "alito jewish" in the last two days. Here are my current top hits:
36 ann althouse
27 althouse
11 samuel alito jewish
8 rapex
5 kate moss naked
4 therefore symbol
4 pamela anderson roast
4 ann althouse blog
4 althouse blog
3 seamus farrow
3 alito jewish
2 wsj photos halloween
2 tyler durden sunglasses
2 sexy comedy
2 sexplay
2 sam alito jewish
2 pajama media
2 oogle
2 let it be dvd
2 kate... naked
2 judge samuel alito
2 federalism
2 ann althouse wisconsin
2 "ann althouse"

Put my name aside, ignore my usual traffic over "kate moss naked" and the "therefore symbol" (what this blog is all about, right?), and you can see that the question whether Alito is Jewish is a web trend of the last 24 hours. There's a serious rumor churning up out there, I would guess. Where did it originate?

17 comments:

goesh said...

Ah, Ted Kennedy???

XWL said...

Strange thing to be obsessed with, the only thing that I can imagine this is about would be repeat of the KosKrowd's tactic against Chief Justice Roberts (with an assist from the NYT).

In summary, he's qualified, intelligent, and too glib to screw up during the hearings so let's spread gay rumors about him at every opportunity to drive a wedge between the Pres. and those evil fundamentalists.

Now replace gay rumors with Jewish rumors and you have the same thing.

The prevailing assumption being that if this rumor sticks those bigotted fundys will turn on Judge Alito.

And if that smear doesn't work they are working on hitting him on supposed softness while prosecuting mafiosi (cause after all, he's Italian so he most know somebody that knows somebody)

(Now does the NYT have a photo of Alito holding a cake with a couple of men in yamulkes?)

Ann Althouse said...

Gerry: Note that he's a Jr., so his father, who was born in Italy, was named Samuel.

Alcibiades said...

Gerry: Note that he's a Jr., so his father, who was born in Italy, was named Samuel.

That's interesting, since biblical names are not very common in Italy - although the custom may have been different earlier in the century.

goesh said...

At least his son didn't dance for the cameras - surely he will be given some credit for that, even if he is a Jewish/Italian. Where is the M(mafia) word at in the smear campaign?? As a taxpaying layman, I want to know how often has the SC overturned him? How does he stack up with other federal judges in this category? What's the score here? 15 years on the bench and how many times has the SC flogged him for erroneous judgement(s)? Most voting, taxpaying citizens do care about things like this. He comes from a darn good college, served as a Prosecutor and I hear he argued a dozen cases before the SC. Has he ever been disciplined or reprimanded in chambers by a higher authority? How often and how serious was it? Let me invoke a false collective here and say we don't give a rat's ass about his ancestry or what his mother said.

Meade said...

XWL has it. After all, "neocon" is the new "jew" in the conspiracy theory fevered minds of the KuddlyKosKrowd. Those Americans on the left who have been afraid to move toward the center after Sept. 11 due to ConservaRepubliphobia need not drink KoolAid. But they would be wise to take a long drink of cool clear water, a series of deep reflective breaths (btw, "alito" means "breath" in Italian), and ponder just who some these folks are they are traveling with.

Attila said...

I get "X Jewish" queries all the time (where "X" is someone in the news). Most of them are not.

Assuming someone is Jewish, usually someone you don't like, is very common in the deranged segment of our population. When I was a freshman in college, William Shockley, the physicist-turned-racialist-genetics-media-hound, was scheduled to speak amid much uproar. A kid in my dorm, raised in a poor area of Los Angeles, and quite paranoid, informed me darkly about the "fact" that Shockley was Jewish.

Craig said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Rick Lee said...

Looks like I need to come up with some spurious reason to mention Kate Moss on my site! Something about the naked truth.

Troy said...

Rick... Just go with naked capitalism and post KATE MOSS NAKED on your blog. Do the same for any famous and semi-famous female and your traffic will go up exponentially.

If you want to get the rednecks then type in KATE MOSS NEKKID (I had a sister joke for Ark. relatives, but I left it alone).

reader_iam said...

1) Regarding search terms: Oh, Ann, you really DO have a more interesting life than most of us.

2) There really does seem to be evidence for an increasing anti-semitism these days, here and--of course--in Europe.

3) Wow! Shockley caused a huge controversy at (and there were protests on) my university when he spoke there. Odd thing is, it must have been a good 10 years later. Weird.

Anonymous said...

Althouse isn't even in the first 10 pages of results for "Kate Moss Jewish". Better get busy!

Ann Althouse said...

Paul, Sebastian: Google will see your comments and bring me the relevant traffic.

Troy said...

You can send me a check...

Charlize Theron naked Jewish
Jennifer Aniston naked Jewish
hurricane naked Jewish
madonna naked Jewish
powerball naked Jewish

Oh! Britney Spears naked Jewish

That oughta do it.

Troy said...

The thought of doing a "Jewish" search of a name is so completely foreign to me. While I think humankind is generally bad news it is still somewhat surprising to be alerted to the presence of real trolls.

MommyLydia said...

Yeah, that was my first response to "why does it matter"

Now if it turns out he wasn't an American citizen, I would be concerned.

But other than that, who cares? My husband is German-ancestry born in America. Should this "be revealed" if he ever goes into judge-ship?

Attila said...

Just this morning, I had two hits on searches asking, in different words, whether David Addington, Cheney's new chief of staff, was Jewish.

Both were from Germany. (Cue scary music.)

If, as Dana Milbank wrote last year, Addington is an adherent of a supposedly "obscure philosophy" called "unitary executive," why can't he be an adherent of an obscure religion.