Apparently, the entire Internet did not appreciate the meaning of last week’s conspiracy-related snark. What I was trying to say was that you should not take conspiracy theories at face value because they are often unreliable. So I’m going to do another week, and I would very much appreciate it if the entire Internet would give me its full attention. Surely that is not too much to ask? Please try to keep up, Internet.
- A document suggests that FDR knew that the Japanese were going to attack Pearl Harbor. A DOCUMENT!?! Of course, it’s something signed by FDR telling his generals to park all of the fighters in the middle of the runway so the Japanese could strafe them. Maybe an order directing the Admirals of his beloved Navy (of which FDR was once Secretary) to stow their ammunition ahead of the anticipated attack. Nope! It’s a story from the daughter of a guy who said that that he talked with FDR about the impending attack. Hearsay twice removed. Technically I guess that’s a document. Oh, there’s also some low-level bickering about decoding methods that doesn’t mention FDR.
- The President cracks wise about the Birthers.
- That did not take long. A full-length documentary about the James Holmes conspiracy.
- “HAARP is down, I repeat HAARP is down.” This, of course, means that all weather is suspended until further notice.
- Chuck Norris warns of 1000 years of darkness is Obama is re-elected. If it means that I don’t have to see Chuck’s face for the next millenium, then I’m totally voting for Obama. Perhaps we could get a thousand years of silence too? *hopeful eyelash flutter*
- I read pretty good, but I am not sure how Richard Gage ended up in this letter to the editor. Maybe it was written by Grandpa Simpson.
- 2 fighter jets escorting a UFO! Make sure to read the redditors’ hilarious comments about this one:
- The Reptilians’ undersea base has been destroyed, according to the Andromeda Council. Thank goodness. It seems that David Icke has not yet gotten the message. (It’s an old video he reposted after the destruction of the base.)
- Bigfoot hunting academic lives in his own private Idaho.
- HOLD ON! WHAT THE HELL IS THE ANDROMEDA COUNCIL?!?! That is all.
- Government’s plan to aid mentally ill veterans and their families is JUST LIKE HITLER’S!!!!rage!!!!
- Vigilant Citizen has still not caught on to the possibility that the music industry might be using the Illuminati motif to, you know, generate buzz in the not-think-so-well-o-sphere. In related news, if you want to see the worst movie analysis ever, watch this video.
- 9/11 truther deaths and the post hoc ergo hoc fallacy.
- Steven Greer is still talking. Why won’t it stop?
- Well, it’s about time that the UN got on with the conquering and exterminating. They’ve been planning it for YEARS! The article is called, “UN Termination Ships Preparing to Set Sail Worldwide,” and the source is http://www.AmericanHolocaustComing.blogspot.com. This is a good example of 1) the Christian variety of the NWO conspiracy and 2) how not to use confidential sources.
- Interstellar racism from the disturbingly melted wax figurines at Exopolitics: “Glyphs Affirm Pleiadians as Extraterrestrial Originators of the Australian Aboriginals.” If you can’t trust a glyph, well, what can you trust?
- Gordon J. Gianninoto wonders if Obama is going to announce Planet X and the ET presence. His planet X is between the earth and the sun, which, uh, would be orbitally impossible to keep hidden because we’d all see it either right before sunrise or after sunset. Unless his Planet X is Venus or Mercury, but really, how much of a bump in the polls could Obama expect from announcing the discovery of Mercury? Come on, people.
- When English teachers go bad. Every factual assertion this guy makes about 9/11 is dubious. But I’d like to give Brent Harold a single solid thump to the nose before I’m done with his endorsement of the Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth movie: “The brain trust of engineers and academics who question the official version of 911 seems at least as impressive as the large majority of scientists who stand behind climate change science.” OK. I know 90 percent of professional climate scientists are behind the anthropogenic climate change model. How do Gage’s numbers compare? Well, there are 1.5 million engineers in the US. Assuming that all of the “building professionals” who signed Gage’s petition were US engineers (and they are NOT), that would be 1700+ engineers. So, when I’m wildly generous about how many engineers have signed on, about 1/10 of 1% of engineers think that this is a viable hypothesis. This could only be more fringe if I used the actual numbers of engineers who signed. I know English professors are notoriously bad at math, Brent, but this is embarrassing.
- Here’s the poor sonofabitch who answers the 2012 mail for NASA.
- Man, I need to look at this climate science denial/conspiracy theory belief study! But who has the time?
- Ah, reddit doesn’t suffer credulousness lightly. See their headline for the climate deniers’ response to the previous story, for instance.
- Is there a massive pyramid at Area 51?
Nope.
- Cliff Kincaid says that George Soros (the boogeyman that conservatives use to terrify their children into obedience and from whom I receive my instructions daily) “started the Akin controversy,” as opposed to Akin, who basically said that rape doesn’t cause pregnancies. It’s despicable buck-passing.
- We Are Change continues to be almost too embarrassing to watch. They almost make me want to defend Condoleezza Rice. Almost. Also, they interviewed Grand Master Flash.
- Everyone remembers 9/11 in their own way. AE911Truth does it by irritating people.
- Bob Saget on 9/11 Truth. The comments are positively perplexing.
- “Fox’s Dick Morris: Clinton “Wants Obama Defeated” But Won’t Say “Because His Wife Is A Hostage … They’ll Kill Her If He Loses“”
- From our friends at the indispensable Rational Wiki, an annotated version of Sovereign Citizen classic “Citizen’s Rule Book.” Love it.
- Wanna see something really racist?! ME NEITHER!
- Oh! It’s so cute! A communist conspiracy! I miss those.
- In what I shall now use to teach the “slippery slope fallacy,” a guy named Roscoe says that federal student loans could lead to a Holocaust.
- Via my former student @AlwaysStandOut, “10 Creepy Conspiracy Theories.” If you master these, you’ll have a pretty good handle on the field.
- My new favorite video ever: Apollo astronauts being painfully honest with moon landing denialists:
- Gais! Gais! People from Portland are going to have really gross teeth! Let’s sit back and watch.
- Jonathan Kay interviewed by some guy. My fellow Americans, we’re scaring the Canadians.
Twit of the week:
Alex Jones, who just couldn’t be more of a scam artist:
My gut tells me #Gold is only going up. Call Midas Resources & Ask about the ‘Alex Jones Specials’ 800-fwe-f2w7 — Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones)
As Carl Sagan said in the reading I just assigned my students, “I try not to think with my gut.”
That’s what I have. We’ll have another episode of the Virtual Skeptics live on Wednesday night at 8:00PM Eastern. Keep your eyes here or watch for the #virtualskeptics hashtag.
RJB
Skeptical Humanities 
Bob The link at the Rational Wiki story is borked-it leads to the Fox story.
Appreciate the roundup. First FDR link is missing, it’s a duplicate of the little boy and the birth certificate story.
Fixed and fixed. Thanks!
RJB