This Too Shall Pass...

The above image on the right, which has actually been circulating on the internet for over a year, drew little attention until it began appearing as the top result in Google image searches for Michelle Obama after being posted to a spam blog called Hot Girls. The blog has a variety of content on Michelle Obama, including some of the glamorous shots of her from speaking engagements, conventions, and dinner parties. But, one image stands out and it has an ape's face photoshopped onto Michelle's profile. The general sentiment in the comment section of the blog was that of disgust so the picture was removed from the blog and the image no longer appeared in the top image search results.

Many people have called the image racist and offensive but Jasmine Waters, whose entertainment blog FlyStyleLife was among the first to republish the image, disagreed and attributed the image to a site called "Celebrity Ape". After posting the image of Mrs. Obama, Waters wrote... "If you choose to visit the source site, you will see that this picture was not created out of racially motivated ignorance. If that had been the case, as a journalist, an American and most importantly, a black woman, I never would have posted it."

Celebrity Ape is owned by Michael Hussey, 31 years old, of Alfred, ME. Hussey runs Sharper Communications, a public relations firm which says on its website that its "goal is to develop and implement creative and strategic breakthrough PR programs that get our clients noticed via news publicity.” In the 1990s, Hussey created the "Rate My Face" website, a precursor to the better-known website "Hot or Not", and his personal blog shows an image of Sarah Palin as a parrot. Celebrity Ape contains altered images of John McCain, Sarah Palin, Nancy Pelosi, Michael Jackson, Jessica Alba, Sarah Silverman, Barack Obama, and dozens of other celebrities and political figures. Nobody was spared, not even Ron Paul.


Google apologized for the racially offensive image of First Lady Michelle Obama, when it surfaced from the ugliest corners of the internet last week to top Google's image search results. Google placed a text ad above the image titled "Offensive Search Results" which states, "Somestimes our search results can be offensive. We agree." Users who then click on the ad are directed to a letter from Google that explains its results "can include disturbing content, even from innocuous queries", but notes that Google doesn't endorse content on these websites.

Unfortunately, Google has resisted pressure to remove the image from its database altogether, saying its role as a neutral tool for searching the web means having to live with the results, whether it likes them or not. Google spokesman Scott Rubin said... "We have a bias toward free expression and that means some ugly things will show up." Rubin would not elaborate on how the image ended up as the number-one result but the company did remove one site displaying the image from its results because it included viruses, which Google policy prohibits, but a different website posted the same image later.

The White House has wisely declined to comment about this ridiculous matter and I, for one, don't blame them. There are much more important issues on the table that need their time and attention. Our President and First Lady are far too busy going about the business of trying to make life a little better for "everyone" in this country, including people like Michael Hussey at Celebrity Ape, to worry about such trivial nonsense.

Just to prove my point, little did we know last week when this story took over the internet, Tiger Woods was about to blow this incident right out of the water! So, for those of you who haven't figured it out yet, I like to give situations such as this a chance to "unfold" so that when I write about it, I have all (not just some) of the facts. And, rest assured, you can check back next week for more on Tiger... but for now, all I have to say about him is "G-R-O-W-L!" (with my claws out and gnashing of teeth, of course).