This week, Smithsonian magazine asked its readers, “How much does Thomas Paine matter? More than Harriet Beecher Stowe? Less than Elvis? On a par with Dwight Eisenhower?”
But curiously, the in-house magazine for the Smithsonian Institution decided that George W. Bush is a more “significant” figure in U.S. history than the country’s first Black president, Barack Obama, who did not make the list.
Bush appears on the magazine’s list of the “100 most significant Americans,” released in this week’s issue. According to Smithsonian, it put together the list by considering data compiled by Google engineer Charles B. Ward and Steven Skiena, a professor of computer science at Stony Brook University.
But instead of relying simply on statistics to determine the result, the magazine said it split Skiena and Ward’s results into several categories of 10 Americans apiece, then made its own determinations of who fit the bill.
Other notable entries included former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) in the list of “First Women,” Hulk Hogan in the “Athletes” category, as well as Cotton Mather, who was a key figure behind the Salem Witch Trials, under “Religious Figures.”
So there you have it. According to the Smithsonian a with hunter, a witch, and a guy who pretends to wrestle on TV are more significant than the first black man to be President of the United States of America.
I guess ending wars, fixing the economy, and bringing prosperity back to this country is simply not as significant as lying the country into those wars, destroying the economy, and making the word hate America, right?
Here is the full list, just to fan your outrage:
Trailblazers
Christopher Columbus
Henry Hudson
Amerigo Vespucci
John Smith
Giovanni da Verrazzano
John Muir
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
Sacagawea
Kit Carson
Neil Armstrong
John Wesley Powell
Rebels & resisters
Martin Luther King Jr.
Robert E. Lee
Thomas Paine
John Brown
Frederick Douglass
Susan B. Anthony
W.E.B. Du Bois
Tecumseh
Sitting Bull
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Malcolm X
Presidents
Abraham Lincoln
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Theodore Roosevelt
Ulysses S. Grant
Ronald W. Reagan
George W. Bush
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson
James Madison
Andrew Jackson
First Women
Pocahontas
Eleanor Roosevelt
Hillary Clinton
Sarah Palin
Martha Washington
Hellen Keller
Sojourner Truth
Jane Addams
Edith Wharton
Bette Davis
Oprah Winfrey
Outlaws
Benedict Arnold
Jesse James
John Wilkes Booth
Al Capone
Billy the Kid
William M. “Boss” Tweed
Charles Manson
Wild Bill Hickok
Lee Harvey Oswald
John Dillinger
Lucky Luciano
Artists
Frank Lloyd Wright
Andy Warhol
Frederick Law Olmsted
James Abbott MacNeill Whistler
Jackson Pollock
John James Audubon
Georgia O’Keeffe
Thomas Eakins
Thomas Nast
Alfred Stieglitz
Ansel Adams
Religious figures
Joseph Smith Jr.
William Penn
Brigham Young
Roger Williams
Anne Hutchinson
Jonathan Edwards
L. Ron Hubbard
Ellen G. White
Cotton Mather
Mary Baker Eddy
Billy Graham
Pop icons
Mark Twain
Elvis Presley
Madonna
Bob Dylan
Michael Jackson
Charlie Chaplin
Jimi Hendrix
Marilyn Monroe
Frank Sinatra
Louis Armstrong
Mary Pickford
Empire-builders
Andrew Carnegie
Henry Ford
John D. Rockefeller
J.P. Morgan
Walt Disney
Thomas Alva Edison
William Randolph Hearst
Howard Hughes
Bill Gates
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Steve Jobs
Athletes
Babe Ruth
Muhammad Ali
Jackie Robinson
James Naismith
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Ty Cobb
Michael Jordan
Hulk Hogan
Jim Thorpe
Secretariat
Billie Jean King
Wow, so even Charles Manson and Christoper Columbus, who never actually set foot in America, are considered more significant than Barack Obama.
Hell there is even a horse on the list.
Damn, that is cold!
Disgraceful, shameful, embarrassing, but a perfect demonstration of how the power of white privilege denies EVERYTHING for American citizens of color.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention putting the dumb of Sarah palin anywhere near the intelligence and work of Eleanor Roosevelt. Whoever did that should be eternally ashamed
DeleteWhere is Geraldine Ferraro who besides being the first woman to run for VP on a major ticket has overall life accomplishments that far outstrip Sara. Or Ella Grasso who was twice elected Governor of Connecticutt becoming the first woman governor elected in the US not the wife or widow of a previous governor. Or Victoria Woodhull who ran for president in 1872 with Frederick Douglas as her running mate on the Equal Opportunity ticket. Or Sally Ride? Or Harriet Tubman. Or Vivian Malone, Eric Holders sister in law, who stood up to George Wallace to become on of the first black students to enroll at Alabama?
DeleteNo scientists either?
DeleteOkay, a total POS like Sarah Palin is on the first women list, but Geraldine Ferraro, Sally Ride and Sandra Day O'Connor are ignored. SMH.
DeleteJennifer K
You're just plain and simply jealous!
DeleteRaising a brood of dysfunctional dumbfucks makes her significant? Being married to a Pimp? Faking a pregnancy after a 'twobull'?
ReplyDeleteThere goes any creditability for Smithsonion. I have previously held it in some regard but NO more. I hope they lose lots of support and following for this ridiculous piece of work (?)
ReplyDeleteThey have certainly lost mine.
I agree wholeheartedly !
DeleteThere goes the considerable support I used to give the institution.
DeleteI agree. Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci but no John Glenn? Where is Ralph Bunche? Hulk Hogan over Babe Diedrikson? Um, Schwarzenegger was still a citizen of Austria when he won the body building titles, wasn't he? Where is Jim Brown? Did they make this list after pot was legalized in DC? Wait a minute. WHERE THE HELL IS JESSE OWENS ON THE ATHLETES LIST? You leave off the guy who rubbed Hitler's face in the whole master race fallacy?
DeleteChuck Yeager?
DeleteAlan Shepherd?
Uh yup. And am I the only one who looked at the list of empire builders and thought, oh, look at all the people who built empires on the backs or their workers. And as for empire builders, how about the Father of the US Nuclear Navy, Hyman Rickover? Or to get a little more obscure in Trail Blazers, Dr. E. Donnal Thomas developed this little procedure known as the bone marrow transplant. What kind of impact has that had?
DeleteAny of the astronauts?
DeleteAnd yes, my first reaction to reading the article earlier today was total dismay and incredulity. Smithsonian has ABSOLUTELY lost the last of my respect.
Now, the Smithsonian has my support. I see that they can recognize class and love of America in Sarah Palin. Obama has only put our country down and has turned us against each other. The Smithsonian has more of my respect than ever before.
DeleteLet's be fair. The Smith is one of the most WASP organizations in the history of our country. You can't get near the board or management unless you trace back to the first white pale faces who came and illegally immigrated here, murdered and enslaved the natives and proceeded to rape the land and the people. Great group. No wonder Sara made it. Obama should still be in shackles according the the people at the Smith
ReplyDeleteSarah is going to have a field day with this. You betcha!
ReplyDeleteJust keep replaying the brawl.
DeleteExactly!
DeleteShe can add it to her resume !!! Just like college graduate.
DeleteI just cancelled a subscription I had to this magazine (don't ask me why I got it-I never read it anyway), and I made sure to tell why. And I told them, I hope others do the same. This is outrageous.
ReplyDeleteThe word "Smithsonian" brings forth my PTSD because as a kid growing up in Northern Virginia I can't tell you how many times we were piled into busses and sent off to museums for school field trips, at least 4 times per school year! To this day, I can't visit museums because my childhood was so wrecked by being forced into days of boredom thanks to museums. Gahhh
ReplyDeleteI guess it depends on what the criteria are for being considered "significant".
ReplyDeleteIf presiding over the worst terrorist attack on US soil and the second worst financial collapse is your idea of "significant", the clearly Dubya was the right man to pick.
Likewise, $arah is clearly significant as far as her mutant superpower to call forth tidal waves of ridicule against herself.
god, are we one fucked up nation! Bush and Palin? The worst POTUS and the idiot from the small white trash town of Wasilla, Alaska?
ReplyDeleteI'd vote for our outstanding President Obama AGAIN if he could legally run for another term. He's done an outstanding job in spite of the obstruction of the Republicans and what POTUS Bush and VP Cheney left to be cleaned up!
What if all the people that voted for Pres. Obama twice, would write in his name? Is that possible? Would it be legal?
DeleteFirst woman what? Have they not heard of Geraldine Ferraro?
ReplyDeleteI agree wirh 12:20 and 12:22. This is an absolute travesty. Shit!
ReplyDeleteShe is in the "First Women" category for what now?
ReplyDeleteIt can't be first woman vice presidential candidate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geraldine_Ferraro
So....
Apparently their method was to include people for being a celebrity (certainly NOT gravitas) and an internet "meme."
In that regard also, too there are others with much greater significance.
So... ??
Maybe cheating to get your craptastic book on the NYT best sellers list will put you in the running?
Keep in mind that these two uber geeks are doing this to promote a book they corroborated on which was published last Oct. Steven Skiena uses algorithmic methodology to do a number of scientific studies.
ReplyDeleteSo this is NOT what America thinks, rather it is two goofballs having a very good time of it.
The Smithsonian magazine should be ashamed. Overpriced irrelevant piece for Repubs with much entitled leisure time.
Google has also been part of ALEC until just recently. And the Smithsonian. Well, I used to have respect for the institution; now, not so much. This list is infantile. I'm surprised they didn't include Kim Kardashian. God only knows how they compiled the list.
ReplyDeleteGWB: I don't think about Bin Laden
ReplyDeletePresident Obama got him.
GWB waged war against a country which did not invade us
I think that the list is a spoof. Someone must have hacked their website.
Hulk Hogan is not an athlete. He just plays on on TV.
Sarah Palin quit her job as governor. That is nothing makes her term of office insignificant. I didn't look. I hope that Nixon isn't on that list. He had to quit, too.
Columbus was not an American.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they meant Columbo.
DeleteAmerigo Vespucci was an Italian map maker. He was not an American. It's just his name that became America. He always was in Italy.
ReplyDeleteSecretariat was a horse. Are the animals in this country considered Americans? Are they registered to vote? Do they pay taxes? No, give the credit to the owner and jockey-- the owner paid the taxes on the winnings and the jockey rode the horse to win the triple crown. There have been other triple crown winners.
ReplyDeleteAnd much better horses who didn't run in the Crown races- Man O Wa r and Seabiscuit to name two.
DeleteIf corporations are people, why can't animals have citizenship?
DeleteHenry Hudson was an English explorer. He may have discovered the river named for him, but he claimed it for England, not America.
ReplyDeletePocahontas was not an American woman. She was belonged to a native American group of people. When she was captured and converted to Christianity, she remained in England. She was never an American. Actually, she was more American than the people who stole her people's land, but that's another story.
ReplyDeleteSarah Palin may have been the first woman governor of Alaska, but she was not the FIRST WOMAN GOVERNOR.
Nellie Tayloe Ross: The First Woman Governor. Nellie Tayloe Ross was the 14th governor of Wyoming, serving from January 5, 1925 to January 3, 1927. She was elected to complete the term of her husband, William Bradford Ross, who died in office.
Since Pocahontas was a Native American, she was as American as one could get, and she was en route home, but died at port before she could return. Her body is somewhere in England and there has been more than one attempt to find her remains and repatriate them.
DeleteWell Gryphen has to update his blog so like Malia's I can post from my Twitter account. The Palin's with the help from their supporters in the federal government have tried to silence me from telling the truth for five years now. But I am back. I am going to show the proof in my defense, and how all of the legal action taken by the Palin's against me for the last five years was a federal hoax. They have tried to label me a stalker, mentally unfit, and the like. I now have a twitter under my name Shawn Christy, as well as a facebook under Shawn Christy. Sarah Palin would like to buy off federal judges, but this is illegal, and the truth will come out, and justice will prevail. Read more here, http://shawnchristypoliticalprisoner.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2014-01-01T00:00:00-05:00&updated-max=2015-01-01T00:00:00-05:00&max-results=14
ReplyDeleteDude, Move on with your life!
DeleteOne interesting thing I saw on your page was referencing Hugh "Bud" and Mary Jane Fate. They are our new (carpetbagger) Senator elect Dan Sullivan's inlaws, their daughter is Julie Fate, Dan's wife.
DeleteMost significant American Publications:
ReplyDeleteNew York Times
Wall Street Journal
Time Magazine
Life Magazine
Newsweek Magazine
National Geographic
Scientific American
Popular Science
Sports Illustrated
Vogue Magazine
NOT SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE
Welcome to The Idiocracy.
ReplyDeletegood one. Excellent name for the
DeletePost-Democratic America
Giovanni da Verrazzano explored North America while he was in the service of the King of France. Giovanni da Verrazzano was an Italian.
ReplyDeleteLucky Luciano was a Sicilian. He was deported back to Sicily after WWII.
DeleteAnd Texas just changed their textbooks to include Moses as one of the four most significant influences on the founding fathers of our country. Whatever.
ReplyDeleteOT but Piper is attending Teeland Middle School this year instead of Colony Middle. Wonder why? (she's on the far left)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.frontiersman.com/sports/teeland-girls-continue-success-middle-school-basketball-program--/article_8f5daebc-7146-11e4-8349-f3d7f102e54e.html?mode=image&photo=0
Piper? Really? Why do you care? Creepy.
DeleteJust wondering why those kids are always attending different schools, that's it. Happened to see her in a photo in the newspaper and Sarah was having fits about her being on the Colony Girls B-Ball team last year but now, just like Willow, she's mysteriously attending a different school. I guess they wear out there welcome pretty fast around here, given their issues?
Delete2:28pm
DeleteIt's a legitimate question why these kids are always switching schools outside of their actual district requirements. Piper should be at Wasilla Middle School. Why has she been at Colony and now at Teeland when she should be in Wasilla Middle School? Will she ever graduate to high school? Much less actually graduate (Hello, Track, no degree, Willow, fast tracked and "graduated" after only 11th grade and Bristol we were led to believe she actually got a GED and walked with a class 2-years after her actual graduating class). I just wonder how serious these parents are equipping their children for an actual High School Certificate. I for one hope that Ms. Sarah can keep up her grift or we as taxpayers are going to be supporting this welfare headed brood.
Yep. In most states, and districts, one simply CAN'T choose to go out side of district. Does AK have tuition transfers, Gryphen? Where a student can go to the school of their choice, but the parents have to pay tuition? Or at least tuition to make up the local tax paid to support the school district?
DeleteApparently here in the Valley you can apply for a "boundary exemption" and if approved your child can attend a school other than the one who's area they are in.
DeleteIs "Hellen" Keller related to "Helen Keller" or are there two blind/deaf ladies out there?
ReplyDeleteAnd, actually, wouldn't Sandra Day O'Connor rate being on the "First Women" list?
ReplyDeleteWas Sarah Palin the "first" one in Alaska to swallow the nectar from an out of town black basketball player?
ReplyDeleteHow about that Todd?
I think that Sarah and Todd have both swallowed a lot of sweet nectar from a lot of people outside of their marriage, especially Todd, at fish camp and up on the Slope. Plus Todd does boys, he's an equal opportunity philanderer.
DeleteShe must be considered significant because she can,
ReplyDeletewhile liquored up, brawl, cuss , screech ,lie and keep
her wig from falling off while wearing stilettos!
Charles Manson's kind of gal!
Harry S. Truman was more significant than George W. Bush.
ReplyDeleteWhy is Sarah Palin a 'first?" Was she the first woman elected governor? No, that would be Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming, who was elected on November 4, 1924, and sworn in on January 5, 1925.
ReplyDeleteWas Sarah the youngest woman governor? No, that would be Jane Swift, Acting Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 2001 to 2003. She is the only woman to perform the duties of governor of Massachusetts, doing so from April 2001 to January 2003. At the time she became acting governor, Swift was 36 years old, making her the youngest female governor or acting governor in American history.
Was Sarah the first female governor to give birth while in office? No! First of all, it's questionable whether Sarah actually gave birth to Trig, but assuming her crazy story of traveling 12 hours while in labor and leaking amniotic fluid, Jane Swift gave birth to twins one month into her term of office in 2001.
Was Sarah the first woman to be nominated as a vice presidential candidate? No, that was Geraldine Ferraro, 1984.
Maybe Sarah is the first (and only) female governor ever to quit her job mid-term and not serve out her full term of office. That would be a first that Sarah should be proud of, Quitter in Chief.
Sarah has not been first in anything. She did not win the Miss Alaska beauty contest. She did not win the election in 2008. Maybe she graduated first in her class from the University of Idaho, ha ha ha ha ha ha right! With straight A's.
Sp first to be a vp n she had a child before being wedded to a pimp.
Delete6:55 : nope. Geraldine Ferrero was the first woman to be running for VP.
DeleteBut you got THIS right: $ARAH IS THE FIRST WOMAN NOMINATED FOR VP WHOSE FAMILY GOT INTO A BRAWL!
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!
This list is just stupid on so many levels. First of all, it is top heavy with figures from the last 100 years. Second, since when was Benedict Arnold an outlaw? A traitor, yes, but he was no outlaw. Same with Boss Tweed; he was a crooked politician, but he was not an outlaw.
ReplyDeleteThere are a number of people listed who are not Americans. There is not one person from the Mayflower on that list. Where is Edward Winslow and where is Massasoit?
Where is Benjamin Franklin and where are the Wright Brothers? Where is Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin? Many think the cotton gin helped to perpetuate slavery in the South. Of course, this was not Eli's intent, but it was an unintended consequence. Where is Harry Truman who ordered the bomb dropped on Japan. Where is Paul Tibbets who actually dropped the bomb on Japan.
Where is Clara Barton and where is Molly Pitcher? Where is Henry David Thoreau, where is Emerson, where is Faulkner? Where is Abigail Adams or Harriet Beecher Stowe? Where is Harriet Tubman.
I didn't know that Frank Lloyd Wright was an artist. He was an architect. Don't they know the difference? Where is Jeanette Rankin, the first Congresswoman and where is Amelia Earhart? Where is Margaret Chase Smith? Where is George Patton or Douglas MacArthur or Dwight Eisenhower?
I could go on, but I will stop now.
I read the comments to the actual article that you linked to and I can tell you that I did not read one positive comment. Rightfully so; this list is a crock.
I have not subscribed to the Smithsonian in over 10 years. I thought it was going downhill fast and I can see I was correct.
Was Paul Revere on the list?
DeleteHow about the scientists who invented the bomb that was dropped during World War II?
DeleteHow about Chuck Yeager who was the first pilot who flew faster than the speed of sound?
Anonymous2:03 PM
ReplyDeleteDude, Move on with your life!
- - -
This is a perfect comment for Palin - as she is still stuck in 2008, and cannot get over how she lost the election for John McCain.
I just blocked my emails from the Smithsonian lol!
ReplyDeleteWhat utter bullshit.
Welcome to the Idiocracy.
I can't think of one positive thing that GWB did. Maybe he is on the list for attacking a country which did not attack us. That's a first.
ReplyDeleteThe Smithsonian list makes a good bookend (negative) to the editorial cartoon in the Indianaolos Star. As reported by Huffington Post:
ReplyDelete"This past Friday, The Indianapolis Star published the cartoon seen at left above, which depicted a family of apparently Latino immigrants, led by a mustachioed man, climbing in the window of a white family's home to join in their Thanksgiving dinner. The white father is telling his family, "Thanks to the president's immigration order, we'll be having extra guests this Thanksgiving."
In the 60's I went to the only high school in Denver that was integrated without busing. That diversity was a big advantage for me and had a huge impact on my life.
50 years later, I can't believe how rascist we still are.
'Scuse me, but exactly WHAT are they claiming Palin is first at? Geraldine Ferraro? remember her?
ReplyDeletePalin id the first 'official' who got involved in a brawl.
DeleteThey used to have some pretty good articles. Now, they're nothing more than blood diamond and ridiculously expensive watches.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone proofread this list? Bother to check it out at all???
ReplyDeleteBarack Obama is THE MOST significant person of my lifetime.
Palin? Secretariat? Manson?
Barack Obama is the MOST INSIGNIFICANT person in my lifetime. You are totally uninformed and misinformed to even think B.O. has done anything worthwhile for our country.
DeleteSignificant because it was a WTF moment in history.
ReplyDeleteThat she's contributed anything to this country is knee-slapping laughable.
That's a thought. Sarah was chosen as the dumbest candidate ever to be nominated for national office.
DeleteI was thinking of Sarah's disastrous interview with Katie Couric and I realized that there are no representatives from our media-- Woodward and Bernstein who broke the Watergate scandal, Ben Bradlee the executive editor of the Washington Post, Barbara Walters who deserved to be on the list of "First Women" more than Sarah Palin, other iconic reporters such as Huntley and Brinkley, not to mention significant producers such as William Palley (CBS). While a few movie stars are listed, Louis B. Mayer and other Hollywood pioneers formed our movie industry.
Totally agree.
DeleteSignificant because Sarah Palin made Dubya Bush look smart.
DeleteWhile the Smithsonian honored outlaws and trailblazers, they failed to honor scientists and some of our most important teachers and educators. Smithsonian seems to be more interested in naming a horse who can run faster than any man than Nobel Prize winners.
ReplyDeleteThe category of artists lumped together include an architect and a landscape architect, artists and photographers. But there are no musicians. No Leonard Bernstein. No Stephen Sondheim. Rodgers and Hammerstein. There are musicians listed as pop icons, but serious musicians claim Phillip Glass as an important American composer.
ReplyDeleteWhere are the iconic American writers, Steinbeck, Hemingway? The poet, Robert Frost?
ReplyDeleteCancel trip to smithsonian. If this is the level they go dumbest fuckhead ever, they can do without my visit.
ReplyDeleteThen again you could look at it another way- 'significance' is not necessarily a positive attribute. Palin and W are included in the same list as Charles Manson, Lee Harvey Oswald, L.Ron Hubbard, and Billy Graham, but Obama isn't.
ReplyDeleteAll I can think of for criteria in choosing Sarah as a first woman was:
ReplyDeleteWho ran for VP that is a sociopath, narcissist, with a well below normal IQ, hell bent on dividing the country, set the women's movement back 100 yrs and lost the election for the Republicans.
8:26 : you forgot:AND got involved in a brawl!
DeleteI didn't realize the Smithsonian was so irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteAdd the Smithsonian to The List of institutions that have been bought -- who paid them to make that list? There should be a category of Treasonists -- The Cock Bros would head the list.
ReplyDeleteJust canceled my subscription and told them why, in no uncertain terms. I know they don't care, but it made me feel better.
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a compilation done before a student says "My Dog ate my homework", not like anything done with forethought or attention to facts. So what, exactly, did Sarahla Palinski actually accomplish to be on the list? First female Republican GOP VP choice? First to run for VP with a gravid daughter? First to occasionally have 38 DD's? First to (cough) graduate with a degree in journalism? First to birth a pillow after a wild ride?
ReplyDeleteNot saying she doesn't belong in the Smithsonian Institute, just have a problem with the grouping. There's plenty of freaks and circus side shows, and she'd be first on the list.