Several moons ago, I visited the TruthCon, a convention with a difference. It brought together a wide variety of extraordinary claims together under one roof. I was unable to write about it here because I was reporting on it on behalf of Skeptical Inquirer. Well, it’s up now and ripe for your delectation. Enjoy!
(I should mention that I am also going to be appearing on the conspiracy theory panel at the upcoming CSICon in New Orleans in October. You should really come. It’s going to rock out!)
Just over a week ago, I was at a local 9/11 Truth event to interview members of the movement on behalf of Skeptical Inquirer. After my talk with one of the speakers, I approached two guys up at the front of the church where the event was going to be held. I remembered that they filmed, but you know, that’s totally fine. It gives you a chance to see me nod and look deep. Here’s what they got:
A choice selection of the comments:
watch everyones eyes, look at the calculation in the bearded guys eyes… he is info collecting! for the think tanks to see how to better do it next time. to see what we think, and how “they” messed up in our eyes.
Of course I’m info collecting–I’m conducting an interview! Silly goose! Of course, I like being known only as “the bearded guy.” It’s not quite as cool as “the one-armed man,” but I’ll settle for what I can get!
Good work- although I would have liked to see more of the skeptic’s responses
That’s healthy, I think. I would have been happy to reciprocate with an interview, if we had thought about it or if I were at all worth interviewing. But they were very nice to sit down with me.
All our protesting and discussions only fuel the evil elite with how to fool us better the next time. They study us and our reactions. He askes “What would an investigation look like to YOU” so next time it LOOKS better!
Dude, you have no idea how utterly unconnected I am. I was asking what would satisfy a Truther that a fair investigation had been done. That’s all. Also, I have implanted a chip in your brain and know what you’re going to say, because I put your ideas there.
this is all a waste of time. this is just more Jewish diversions on how 9/11 was done. 911MissingLinks(.)com has already covered who did 911. Israeli Mossad and the Neocons (Jews) within the government pulled off 911
You suck.
apparently a beard and snarky conjecture cannot stand up to the truth
Um…That’s not even a thought. (See? THAT’S snark.)
when we are finally free – we will be coming for you NWO – i just want you to remember that
when the peaceful revolution has succeeded
i am going to enjoy locking you globalists scum bags in a concrete cage for the rest of your lives
we will map your very DNA using the systems you created to enslave us
On April 20th, I was a guest on Inside the Black Box, a science-themed radio show produced at Georgia Tech. Well, they have archived the show, which makes me very happy, because now I get to hear myself speak, which as you can imagine is something I enjoy immensely! Also, I am dying to know if they kept in a calculus joke I made that they thought might be too dirty for the archives. I know! I can make calculus positively obscene!
I was recently accused of having never done anything for my country. This may be true. As an English teacher, it’s often difficult to take my peculiar skill set out into the real world, what with the decadent lifestyle of a professor at a Research 1 institution like mine. When you are a member of power-elite like me, dropping nuggets of wisdom like so many water balloons from the pinnacle of my ivory tower, you wonder, “How can I make a difference? I mean a real difference in the lives of the little, unimportant people? One that they’ll have a chance of understanding?” It’s tough, let me tell you.
Then it hit me. The Internet is a vast repository of unreadable prose and poetry. Surely I could ply my trade to make the Internet just a little bit more pleasant. With that in mind, I knew exactly where I could make the most difference–the public forums of Alex Jones’ Prison Planet. And there it was, a whole world just begging for me to improve it. My first effort is for a poem called “Stand.”
The 9/11 Truth event with Richard Gage last night was exhausting. I was literally the only one who was skeptical, as evidenced by a show of hands at the end of his talk. (The title of this post comes from something I heard an audience member shout, nothing that you heard from anyone on the stage.) I’m spent, I think, right now. So instead of posting This Week in Conspiracy tonight, here’s a picture of my cat, Gavin, asleep this afternoon:
“Andy Warhol said that everyone gets 15 minutes of fame. Well, with the coming of high speed processors and fiber optics, we’ve gotten that down to .15 millisecond…”
“I dawned upon Atlanta today. Unfortunately, Atlanta is on the arctic circle, and it’s the winter solstice…”
“Wait, was that me? I couldn’t tell. I didn’t get a good enough look…”
Just some of the possible ways I could have started this post. Yep, I was on the TV for like 6 seconds. (Shakes my head.) I am actually glad that I pause and stutter when I speak because because it, like, doubled my face time. It was an interview about the Georgia Guidestones. The interview was about 20 minutes or so.
Yeah. It’s come to this. Writing about Ghost Hunters slash-fic. The “slash” does not mean that they finally met a ghost who was capable of carving them up. (Man, I’d totally record that episode.) It is a pairing of two characters in a TV show or movie and then making them have sex with each other. Want Kermit and Miss Piggy to get it on? Think that Shaggy and Scooby could build a relationship on something more than Scooby-Snax? Hell, you could even have Marge Simpson do it with the Church Lady. The possibilities are endless, and with your imagination and access to the Internet you can not only make it happen but also traumatize strangers!
It feels like Jason is looming over him, menacing and Grant gets the strangest feeling that Jason is pissed, maybe wants to hurt him, and he tries to get a hold of himself, because it’s just Jason. His friend. He’s pissed, yeah, but not at him. Grant forgets, and takes another deep breath and holds it for a second even though that means they’re pressed against each other again. He lets it out slowly and he doesn’t think, he just does what feels right, and melts back against the wall and lets his head tilt to the side. And Jason just sort of goes with him, pressing him back and nosing at his cheek, a touch so soft Grant barely feels it. Jason whispers, “Grant” and sighs, and Grant thinks Jason is smelling his neck.
Two words: Neck odor. Sexy!
The comments are even better:
“ever since i started watching ghost hunters, i’ve always wanted to write some jason/grant. they are just too in love. <3333333”
But equally, no, even more disturbing is Tango/Steve fic (from Tango’s POV):
It’s too easy just to lean a little closer, brushing my mouth against his. One of us pushes harder, adding more pressure. I’m not sure which of us did it, but then Steve is kissing me hard, pushing me back until my back bumps up against a wall. His hands flit around me, either unsure of where to settle or unable to decide which part of me to hold on to.
His neck. Grab his neck with both hands and squeeze hard.
Of course, if you are gunning for actual throw-up, I recommend dwelling on the idea behind this image. In the end, they both look a little too much like Nintendo characters for me to take too seriously.
“Can I say, ‘I love you’ without implying that I want to marry you and bear your children through weird future-science?” Sergey panted mindlessly as he felt the squishy flesh giving at the back of Ryan’s throat to accommodate his member.
And this makes me wonder….is there Deadliest Catch slash fic? Dirty Jobs slash (gag) fic (“This time Barsky has to shave more than his head…”; aka, “Splendor in the Pooh”)? 60 Minutes slash fic?
Plowed Clouds reports that HAARP closed down its website, apparently realizing that they had been blowing all of their war- and weather-inducing schemes by publishing them to a website. I simply do not believe that The Age of Reason is one of her favorite books. Do read the list of her favorite sites, btw. Wow.
A proposal to tax people who drive the most sends technophobes into a tizzy. Of course, it seems the proposal would only track how far someone drove, not, you know, relay their information to a directed energy weapon satellite in orbit.
The number of Birthers is down following the release of the birth certificate, says Rolling Stone. Remember when Obama released his birth certificate? Seems like years ago.
Images from the compound where OBL was killed, if you flip through them to the bloody ones (and they are graphic), reveal that one of the men is lying on what appears to be a water pistol. I can’t wait to see the conspiracy theories that come out of that one.
Daily Mail says that Zawahari may have been responsible for tipping off the US with this something-other-than-confidence inspiring opener: “Osama Bin Laden’s deputy led U.S. troops to the Al Qaeda leader’s hideout so he could take over the terrorist group, it was claimed today.” Damn you, passive voice!
Prince William and Kate Middleton demonstrated their blood lust and newfound birth into the Illuminati on April 29, 2011.[…] My suspicions were first aroused when I looked at the date of the wedding. The date is April 29, 2011. Or remove the april 2 and the 20 and you get 9, 11 or as the cabal who lead the new world order would say 9/11. Personally I watched this wedding so I know what the real deal is since it was broadcast live. My evidence that I have unearthed through my research fully supports my claim that Prince William and Kate Middleton sought the head of Bin Laden to be procured for them as a honeymoon gift from the Illuminati so they could baptise themselves into the Illuminati by drinking the blood of the innocent from the rotting skull of Bin Laden as a blood oath of allegiance and unswerving obedience to their overlords.
I’ve been trying to keep up with the conspiracy theories this week, but they are coming so fast and furious 5 that I can hardly get to them all. Nonetheless they are fascinating, not only for their predictability (many of the same ones were repeated about Elvis, Hitler and Michael Jackson) and…utter inconsistency with one another. Usually clusters of correct ideas tend toward what actually is correct. This is narrative noise, as far as I can tell.
Let’s get at it, and may Shatner give me strength:
Do you notice how conspiracists in the consequent 8 pages of comments start to get into it? Sad. WHY CAN’T YOU SEE STARS IN THE PHOTO?!?
Striking similarities have emerged between the hunt for OBL and the trajectory of the Harry Potter series. (While not a CT, I think that it is part of the propensity to link unrelated things.)
Lew Rockwell describes the “doctored” Situation Room photo as a screening of a “snuff film.” He follows the post with the comment: “How telling is it to see the military guy sitting in the larger ‘running the meeting’ chair while Obama sits off to the side with Joe Biden?” Since you asked, not at all, you delusional twit. And by military guy, you mean “Brigadier General Marshall Webb, Assistant Commanding General, Joint Special Operations Command.” Notice how he’s a little too busy to “run a meeting.” Other groups are picking up this narrative, like Before It’s News, whose correspondent says that because we don’t have film of the firefight, everything is a lie, a non sequitur on steroids.
We Are Change L.A. is citing Russia Today, a slightly worse source than the Weekly World News, to support their claim that the US is just getting rid of an old CIA asset. If you needed to see how reliable RT is, they had Alex Jones on.
I freaking love this story, how a group of undergrads predicted where bin Laden would be found. Down to the house. I remember the story when it broke a few years back and was wondering how they had done. But then William Gibson retweeted the follow-up. Heheh. Not a conspiracy theory, but fun.
Today Jones announces “US Official calls 9/11 and Osama bin Laden Death “Hoax“. OMG! Of course, since all he has to offer is that he is “prepared to testify in front of a grand jury how a top general told him directly that 9/11 was a false flag inside job,” and since by “official” Jones means, a guy who claims to have advised the Carter Administration, the chances of him getting to perjure himself are relatively remote. Oh, he’s also apparently a health crank on the side. Furthermore, the destroyed helicopter was apparently a super secret stealth helicopter (perhaps the type that is following Mel Gibson around in Conspiracy Theory?). Of course, there was that guy tweeting about their stealthlessness during the raid.
[Update! Turns out, according to Jane’s, the images of the helicopter that was left behind suggest that it is classified technology. I’ve also heard people talking about radar-frustrating skin.]
Pittsburgh Steeler Rashard Mendenhall should have his twitter account taken away from him for his own good. “We’ll never know what really happened,” he twat (the accepted past tense of the verb “to tweet”). “I just have a hard time believing a plane could take a skyscraper down demolition style.” Good for you, mate! Nobody other than wackaloons say that happened. And you don’t get to suspend your judgment in ignorance and say, “We’ll never know.” Of course the crap we can know. Get off yer backside and do your homework! And go run laps.
The Kristian Krazies have refused to be silent about this. Worldview Weekend, who wants us, apparently, to just trust them, says Obama was not in charge of the operation that took down OBL. Presumably “they” are also forcing him to go to Ground Zero for the victory lap. Evolution News, which is apparently a thing, says that somehow, through junk DNA, Osama’s death proves evolution is false:
President Obama is said to have known the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden since September but chose to wait until May to authorize action against him. Why the delay? Could it perhaps have been to provide a super-timely news hook for the rollout of Jonathan Wells’ new book, The Myth of Junk DNA? If so, an additional note of congratulation is owed to Mr. Obama.
Shameless. Of course it’s not just our own domestic weirdos who have lost it, but also members of the Iranian Parliament (the original “No Spin Zone,” if I am not mistaken) have decried OBL as a Zionist puppet.
Posted by Bob 
Skeptical Humanities 