Math anomalies in new article

Martha Trowbridge continues to develop her fantasy biography of Barack Obama at The Terrible Truth blog. Out of respect for the blog’s copyright policy, I will only include this brief excerpt:

In an AP interview entitled Harvard Student Tackles Racism At Core, published 3 May 1990, he stated three words he surely has regretted:

“At age 2.”

Looking at the actual newspaper article, the material in quote is not said by Barack Obama, but rather the article writer. The context is supposedly the age at which Obama moved to Indonesia. The actual words of the article say “at age 2 when his parents divorced.&#8221. The article just made a mistake.

The whole birther movement is a mistake.

Update:

Obama actually was 2 years old when the Obamas divorced in January of 1964. However, a published Washington Post report indicates that the Soetoro family moved to Indonesia in 1967 (when Barack was either 5 or 6) and that he started school there at age 6.

About Dr. Conspiracy

I'm not a real doctor, but I have a master's degree.
This entry was posted in Alternate Biography, Debunking, The Blogs and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

30 Responses to Math anomalies in new article

  1. richCares says:

    “The whole birther movement is a mistake.”
    .
    your’e giving them too much credit!

  2. Sean says:

    HA! GOTCHA!

  3. Gary Miller says:

    Can’t make any mistakes when it comes to an article about Obama’s history. Every story in every paper around the world should state the facts without error, because that’s the way life is. Beckwith, and most birthers, can’t come to grips with this.

    Gary

  4. Egharcsar says:

    Say what you will about the close reading and analysis, doc. You miss an opportunity to point to a young barack who presents himself with focus of thought and clarity of mission. I encourage all of your readers to sift through the photostat of the old newspaper article, even if they have to hold their nose!

  5. GeorgetownJD says:

    Martha Trowbridge has a bright future authoring cheap bodice ripper novels.

  6. JPotter says:

    Thanks, Doc, for continuing to collect and present material from all over the interwebs in one convenient spot for I and my fellow temporally-challenged birther-gawkers.

    This stuff is amazing. Glanced through it and my brain shut down. I am not ready for this level of silly.

  7. Bob says:

    Martha Trowbridge isn’t quite at the Lamecherry-level of craziness that evokes pity but she is Lamecherry-adjacent.

  8. G says:

    I think the more appropriate term to describe what is evoked from reading Lame Cherry is a strong feeling that you need to take a cleansing shower and use brain bleach afterwards… some real messed up, sick & disturbing issues going on with that one…

    Bob: Martha Trowbridge isn’t quite at the Lamecherry-level of craziness that evokes pity but she is Lamecherry-adjacent.

  9. Rickey says:

    And of course we know from Stanley Ann Dunham’s passport records that they moved to Indonesia when Obama was six.

  10. Rickey says:

    One other point – if Obama had moved to Indonesia when he was two, he almost certainly would have no recollection of it. Studies have shown that the earliest memory for most people occurred at about 42 months of age, although it varies somewhat from culture to culture.

  11. The Magic M says:

    Bob: Martha Trowbridge isn’t quite at the Lamecherry-level of craziness that evokes pity but she is Lamecherry-adjacent.

    I think that’s like comparing schmaltzy romance novels to snuff porn.

  12. Lupin says:

    Reading Martha Trowbridge is sort of like taking a laxative, except more painful.

  13. Egharcsar says:

    Here’s another article written about the same timethat gets facts differently. Here barack reports that he lived with his mom in singapore.

    http://www.theobamafile.com/_images/ObamaHarvardLawReeview.jpg

    Relations between the two nations is summed as follows at

    http://www.photius.com/countries/singapore/government/singapore_government_indonesia.html

    Singapore’s relationship with Indonesia, like its relationship with Malaysia, was built on a foundation of past discord, specifically Indonesia’s Confrontation campaign against Malaysia from 1963 to 1966. After President Sukarno (1945-67) was deposed, relations were based to a large degree on Lee Kuan Yew’s personal relationship with President Soeharto (1967—). Because bilateral relations lacked an institutional foundation, they were vulnerable to the departure of these leaders.

    More smoke, but no fire–right?

  14. ASK Esq says:

    Bob: Martha Trowbridge isn’t quite at the Lamecherry-level of craziness that evokes pity but she is Lamecherry-adjacent.

    I consider Martha to be more at the SvenMagnusson (sp?)/Butterdezillon level. She’s one of those who, when finding what he or she considers to be an important anamoly in Obama’s story, decides that the mistake is the fact, runs with it, and fills in whatever fantasy she seems to think fits. After all, she now has young Barack (or Bari, as she has now decided he was), living in the Presidential palace in Indonesia.

  15. James M says:

    “Reasonable objections to my thesis, anyone?”

    The only one I have is this: No evidence is presented to support the claims being made.

  16. Judge Mental says:

    Egharcsar:
    Here’s another article written about the same timethat gets facts differently.Here barack reports that helived with his mom in singapore.

    http://www.theobamafile.com/_images/ObamaHarvardLawReeview.jpg

    Relations between the two nations is summed as follows at

    http://www.photius.com/countries/singapore/government/singapore_government_indonesia.html

    Singapore’s relationship with Indonesia, like its relationship with Malaysia, was built on a foundation of past discord, specifically Indonesia’s Confrontation campaign against Malaysia from 1963 to 1966. After President Sukarno (1945-67) was deposed, relations were based to a large degree on Lee Kuan Yew’s personal relationship with President Soeharto (1967—). Because bilateral relations lacked an institutional foundation, they were vulnerable to the departure of these leaders.

    More smoke, but no fire–right?

    The journalist who made that particular error in that article corrected it long ago by adding the following words after “Singapore”…..”Editor’s Note: We should have said Indonesia”. that can be observed via a direct link to the magazine itself. The journalist concerned still works there.

    http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/archive/1990/06/obama199006

    Why don’t you team up with Orly to harass the journalist and her family?…With a name like O’Shaughnessy she’s probably a secret muslim as well as a co-conspirator.

  17. Majority Will says:

    Egharcsar: Here barack reports that he lived with his mom in singapore.

    So, Glenn, you’re implying that the President wrote the article.

    That’s what “here barack reports” means. Isn’t that bearing false witness?

    Since the editor admitted making a mistake, will you?

  18. Rickey says:

    Egharcsar:
    Here’s another article written about the same timethat gets facts differently.Here barack reports that he lived with his mom in singapore.

    http://www.theobamafile.com/_images/ObamaHarvardLawReeview.jpg

    Read it again. Obama is not quoted as saying he lived in Singapore, The writer obviously confused Malaysia with Indonesia – just as the other writer mistakenly had Obama moving to Indonesia when he was two, and just as the high school reporter in Hawaii misstated the name of hospital where Obama was born.

    I am an acquaintance of Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famer Duane Eddy. He once told me that you could fill a book with all of the erroneous information which has been published about his life over the years, from where he grew up and to he went to school and on and on. Some of the misinformation was even put out by his own record companies.

  19. Majority Will says:

    Egharcsar: More smoke, but no fire–right?

    It’s a patch of wet ground with several confused birthers rolling around, flailing and giggling with glazed over eyes and foolish grins.

  20. bob says:

    Apuzzo mad at Doc C.:

    “For some reason, Dr. Conspiracy wants to make sure that we all know that Obama was 6 years old when he moved to Indonesia, not 2 years old.

    […]

    “First, Dr. Conspiracy knows somehow that the AP writer made a mistake.

    “Second, what is more bizarre is how Dr. Conspiracy, a mathematician, does his math. Obama says he was born on August 4, 1961. Dr. Conspiracy says that the date of the divorce is known. Yes, we know that date to be March 20, 1964, when the Hon. Samuel P. King filed and entered in the Circuit Court of the First Judicial Circuit Court of the State of Hawaii, under docket number 57972, a Decree of Divorce divorcing Stanley Ann Dunham from Barack Obama Sr. But if we do the math, on March 20, 1964, Obama, born as he says on August 4, 1961, would have been 2 years old. Even if we use the date of birth of October 28, 1959, which Ms. Trowbridge says is Obama’s (his real name being Bâri′ M. Shabazz”) real date of birth, Obama would have been 4 years old.

    “So how does Dr. Conspiracy get that Obama would have been 6 years old when the Dunham-Obama divorce occurred which is also the time that he would have moved to Indonesia? Why does Dr. Conspiracy want Obama to be 6 years old rather than 2 years old when he moved to Indonesia?”

    http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=7466841558189356289&postID=909525113481608842

  21. Egharcsar says:

    I bring it up to point that journaliists make reporting errors of minor facts, as doc does. I won,t do it again while trying to feed the kid breakfast. The sentence standing alone implies something that the context does not. A mistake for sure with this crowd– mea maxima
    Thanks for pointing out a correction exists. There is always more to read. As for reading the original article closely the thrust i believe what barack obama was reporting was that he understands poverty and underprivledge first hand havng lived with his mother in ( singapore). O’S, i think, got the jist of it. Overall a nice earlysnapshot of a man we well recognize now. Happy lunch.

  22. Majority Will says:

    Egharcsar: i believe what barack obama was reporting

    You’re still misstating the difference between first and second hand reporting.

    Do you not understand the difference between first and second hand information?

    This is similar to a classic birther tactic when a birther claims that the President is deliberately hiding information that is already “hidden” by privacy laws that protect every citizen’s right to privacy.

    Or that a PDF can be a forgery when the State of Hawaii confirms that the information pertaining to birth data is correct.

    it is misdirection by placing the motive or blame or source for information where the birther finds it to be convenient in order to twist the truth.

  23. Judge Mental says:

    Egharcsar:
    I bring it up to point that journaliists make reporting errors of minor facts, as doc does. I won,t do it again while trying to feed the kid breakfast.The sentence standing alone implies something that the context does not.A mistake for sure with this crowd– mea maxima
    Thanks for pointing out a correction exists. There is always more to read.As for reading the original article closely the thrust i believe what barack obama was reporting was that he understands poverty and underprivledge first hand havng lived with his mother in ( singapore). O’S, i think, got the jist of it.Overall a nice earlysnapshot of a man we well recognize now.Happy lunch.

    It wasn’t Barack Obama “reporting”. It was the journalist. That’s why the correction indicates that it is the journalist/magazine who is making the correction to what they should have said in the article in the first place.

    If it had been Obama who told them “Singapore” and then changed it to “Indonesia” the edit would have read something along the lines of “Editor’s Note: Mr Obama has clarified that he meant Indonesia nor Singapore” not “Editor’s Note:WE should have said Indonesia”

    Why do you birthers always see some convoluted and highly complicated story as being the most likely explanation for something when the plainly obvious and simple explanation is right before your eyes. Is your real life so unbearably boring that you have to create highly imaginative conspiracies to explain why even the most humdrum of normal everyday things happen?

  24. Observer says:

    Doc said: “Looking at the actual newspaper article, the material in quote is not said by Barack Obama, but rather the article writer.”

    The birthers have done this before. They attributed a statement written by a reporter to Obama’s sister. Corsi wrote: “In a November 2004 interview with the Rainbow Newsletter, Maya told reporters her half-brother Sen. Barack Obama was born on Aug. 4, 1961, at Queens Medical Center in Honolulu; then in February 2008, Maya told reporters for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin that Obama was at the Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children.”

    But … the newsletter was not the Rainbow. It was “The Rainbow Edition,” published by the students at Education Laboratory School in Hawaii. The article did not say that Maya Soetoro said that Obama was born at Queens. It was the student writer of the article who began by saying that Obama was born at Queens Medical Center. The quotations by Maya Soetoro say nothing of the sort in the article.

    http://www.radiodujour.com/people/berg_philip/pdf/057_2%20Exhibit%20Charter%20Schools%20Rainbow%20Edition%20Newsletter.pdf

    They do this over and over. They repeat the misinformation without checking it until people believe it through simple repetition.

  25. Majority Will says:

    “his real name being Bâri′ M. Shabazz”

    Then by Mario the putative attorney’s vast powers of logic, his real name must be Aputzo.

    It’s on the intarwebs so it must be true. 😛

    It’s no wonder he loses in court and successful, professional attorneys roll their eyes and pity him.

  26. Lupin says:

    bob: Apuzzo mad at Doc C.:

    Mario is waaaaaay too thin-skinned to be in the slimy business he is. If you get paid to carry water for neo-nazis, you should just enjoy the money and not complain when people point out you’re scum.

  27. The Magic M says:

    Majority Will: This is similar to a classic birther tactic when a birther claims that the President is deliberately hiding information that is already “hidden” by privacy laws that protect every citizen’s right to privacy.

    Or their famous “Dr Fukino said ‘half-typed, half-handwritten'” meme which also hasn’t been traced back to an actual statement by Dr Fukino but seems to be what the writer of the article made of Dr Fukino’s statement (who likely said something like “part typed, part handwritten”). Of course by birther theory, since Dr Fukino never publically corrected the article, it must be true. [Also a common crank tactic: “If what I write in my blog was incorrect, the President would hold a press conference to deny my claims.”]

  28. Keith says:

    Lupin: Mario is waaaaaay too thin-skinned to be in the slimy business he is. If you get paid to carry water for neo-nazis, you should just enjoy the money and not complain when people point out you’re scum.

    Bingo

  29. bob says:

    Apuzzo’s minion on why Doc C. lied:

    SaipanAnnie: They need to keep his age at six to preclude the possibility that the truth about his stay at Sukarno’s Palace is revealed.

    “If BHO was 6, and born in 1961, when he went to Indonesia, he doesn’t arrive until AFTER Sukarno has been removed from power!”

    cfkerchner: I believe the reason has to do with Obama’s citizenship status upon being adopted. As I recall, the Hague Convention treaties covering the citizenship status of children in international adoptions has different rules for an adopted child age 6 and older than one age 5 and under. Thus the Obots want Obama to have been at least 6 when he moved to Indonesia and was alleged adopted there to be able to go to school because it likely is more advantageous to their arguments as to the debate as to whether Obama became an Indonesian citizen under international law and lost his U.S. Citizenship, upon his adoption by his Indonesian step father.”

    http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=7466841558189356289&postID=909525113481608842

  30. So is Kerchner admitting (finally!) that Obama could not have become an Indonesian citizen had he been adopted at age 6? Probably not.

    Kerchner (and Phil Berg) crank arguments aside, US citizenship cannot be erased by anything a parent can do (see Perkins v Elg).

    I do note that as of late, the birthers are at least increasing the sophistication of their arguments so that refuting them can take two steps instead of one.

    bob: “cfkerchner: I believe the reason has to do with Obama’s citizenship status upon being adopted. As I recall, the Hague Convention treaties covering the citizenship status of children in international adoptions has different rules for an adopted child age 6 and older than one age 5 and under. Thus the Obots want Obama to have been at least 6 when he moved to Indonesia and was alleged adopted there to be able to go to school because it likely is more advantageous to their arguments as to the debate as to whether Obama became an Indonesian citizen under international law and lost his U.S. Citizenship, upon his adoption by his Indonesian step father.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.