Googling unveils lots of surprises.

• Position: LOCAL NEWS

Byline: George Barnes

COLUMN: Barnestorming

There are many things I find irritating, including ants in my house, litter, loud mufflers, people who drive cars and trucks with loud mufflers, parents of people who drive cars with loud mufflers and energy drinks; but what irritates me more than anything is when people use something positive about someone to make them look bad.

I'd like a show of hands. How many of you would be absolutely thrilled if your child grew up, went to college and was hired after college as a professor at Harvard University? I know I would. I would be thrilled if one of my kids was a professor at any college, but especially Harvard. Why? Well, Harvard is one of the best universities in the world. It may be the best depending on who is evaluating it. The only people they hire are people who are the best at whatever subject they teach.

It is an honor richly earned to work as a professor at Harvard University. Anyone who says otherwise is probably so ill informed they are not worth talking to.

Then why do I get emails pretty regularly from people purporting to represent the Massachusetts Republican Party who attempt to use the fact that U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren is a Harvard professor against her. Every email snidely referred to her as "Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren." I understand one side using the views of the candidate of another side against them, but really, this anti-Harvard stuff is ridiculous. It may play well in other parts of the country, but in Massachusetts we are smart enough to know that Harvard University is a positive place for people to attend college or work.

But in defense of the people who use one of our nation's best academic institutions as an example of what is bad about America, they are just following a twisted strategy used recently in American politics. The strategy is: If it ain't true, twist it until it is true. But what do I know? I don't know, so I turned to the one place where all truth resides - Google.

If Republicans seem to hate Harvard, which I am sure Ms. Warren's...