Amazingly, there were no new conspiracy theories this week. Everyone just kind of got it together and things ended up being pretty groovy. OH WHO AM I KIDDING?! I’VE BEEN SENTENCED TO LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE!!!
At any rate, I picked up Conspiracy Rising by Martha F. Lee. I’ll likely review it here in a few days. It’s one of my first few ebooks. I may review the ebook experience while I’m at it, since I have been a holdout for a long time.
- Nanoparticles? At Fukushima? Oh no! Not NANO! Nano’s the conspiracy theorist’s flubber! Sure, there haven’t been any deaths from the meltdown at Fukushima, that doesn’t mean you can’t scare your readers. Unethical, InfoHub. Would you at least apologize when you are wrong? Reputable news outlets do that when they screw up so epically.
- A new study finds that some conspiracy theorists are capable of believing two incompatible conspiracy theories at once. We are going to have to revise the definition of “genius,” clearly.
- Well, a graduate student at Yale is having a bit of a protracted freakout. She was relieved of her teaching duties when she unrolled a mother of a conspiracy theory on her students. It’s out there.
- Now, I’m not calling Above Top Secret reputable, mind you, but a mod did go out of his/her way to correct misinformation a contributor released. The tweet I received read:
|
A moment’s consideration reveals that since this is not front page news all over the country it is unlikely to be true. The mod links to the AJC, which is darned respectable. Here’s their take.
- Sometimes I wish I could make money by crusading against boogeymen like Alex Jones does. Of course, if it means that I would have to speak in a civil tone to Mayer Eisenstein, it’s can’t possibly be worth it. Odd that Jones does not mention the fact that Eisenstein was on the losing end of one of the largest infant death malpractice suits in history–$30 million. I think that any doctor who suggests there is a link between autism and vaccines should have their medical license revoked for incompetence. (I’m looking at you, Mayer.)
- Of course, Alex Jones has discovered, eek, more “FEMA rendition camps.” The description of this facility is the same one I got from someone fretting about the murals in the Denver International Airport:
The photos and an interview with an eyewitness who described the facility and its inward facing barbed wire fence and one-way turnstiles add more compelling evidence to the indisputable fact that FEMA operates as a modern version of the Gestapo.
- Protip: nothing is indisputable. Also, I thought they were preparing stadiums in L.A. for rendition. It’s interesting, but Rex84, the source of this latter theory, first appeared, if I remember correctly, in the Soviet paper Pravda. Not exactly an unbiased source, given the times.
- Of course, it is the Intel Hub. They ran a headline about the President not showing in a Georgia courtroom to answer idiot questions from birther and dentist Orly Taitz, “POTUS Gets a Failure to Appear – 100 Times Bigger than Watergate.” So, they don’t really have that whole perspective thing down yet. So it goes.
- Bob Tuskin, oh, man, made an ass of himself at Rudy Giuliani’s appearance in Gainesville. I met him at the Richard Gage event in Altanta back in the day. The local Truth community filmed my interview with him. (The comments are, as always, precious and dear to my heart.) Bob, the crowd was not laughing at Building 7, but at you. Seriously, walk away from this silliness while you are still young.
- ATS contributor uploads photo of a werewolf, ATS readers get hilarious. (No werewolves were harmed in the writing of this post. Or the picture in question.)
- Does the Fed “print money”, like so many conspiracy theorists claim? Yahoo! finance tries to clarify what the Fed does and does not do.
- And the psychogenic illness spreading among teens at a New York school continues. Now, so help me, Erin Brokovich gets involved.
- Brian Dunning hops out of the Hot Tub of Justice just long enough to talk about a possible explanation for perceiving non-existent malevolent agency everywhere as a part of his InFact video series.
- Dr. Rachie is a conspiracy-debunking machine, but not a robot:
- Rand Paul was stopped at an airport gate this week but refused a pat-down. That guy holding up the line? A Senator. I told the TSA workers at the Atlanta airport this week that I felt safer knowing that Rand Paul was not on my flight. One worker was positively distraught by the coverage they got in the press, noting that when they get charged by the press for “confiscating 100s of thousands of dollars a year” when passengers with short attention spans have actually left their change in the little trays.
- There was a little buzz this week about military equipment being moved in and around the Mexican border. Eric Jon Phelps thinks it may be “used for America’s future Sino-Soviet-Muslim-Mexican invasion.” I didn’t even know we were going to have one. Dr. Roth (if I’m reading her ‘about the author’ right, she has a Ph.D. in Tae Kwan Do) thinks the shipment is to impose martial law.
- ALRIIIIGHT! ZOMBIE RAGE VIRUS!
- I have wondered about this, whether 9/11 Truther would go on the record suggesting that the commander of the fire department in NYC was complicit in the catastrophe. And, yes, they go that low. Put aside the fact that fire departments have neither the training, equipment, nor authorization to tear down a building, and it i still just a crummy thing to suggest. However, if Shepard Ambellas ever decides to attend be in the same room with Thomas von Essen, I would pay cash money to be there. You’ll notice that this reporter’s villain is indistinguishable from Icke’s reptilians.
- Sigh. Someone thinks we’re setting up an “Iranian Pearl Harbor.”
- Why doesn’t Santorum correct this woman who says Obama is a Muslim? What a barf.
- David Aaronovich interviewed about conspiracy theories.
- More about Lady Gaga “bathing in blood,” from the WhoForted blog.
- “Whistleblower: Monsanto Wants to Kill The Bees To Make Way For Its Super-Bee“
- Here’s Eve’s contribution to the week in conspiracy.
- A writer at the Washington Times finds herself mentioned in a conspiracy theory and is not impressed.
- HAARP can not only cause earthquakes, but it makes the skies snore.
- Ron Paul’s newsletter entertained the idea that Oklahoma City was an inside job.
- Slate asks if Google should tweak its algorithm to knock down anti-vaccine conspiracy theories.
- Ooh! PalMD made it on my list this week! Are liberals or conservatives more likely to reject science? Yes.
- I’m not necessarily on board with the politics of the Center for Consumer Freedom, but they do have some humdingers from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: “[hog producers] “a greater threat to the United States and democracy than bin Laden’s terrorist network.” Kennedy, you may remember, published a hysterical, utterly uninformed article about vaccines in Rolling Stone that was basically corrected out of existence point by point after the public pointed out his factual errors.
- Why does NASA keep the blurry, unclear photographic evidence of aliens patrolling the solar system under wraps? Surely it’s not out of fear that those not trained to examine it would blow it way out of proportion!
- Here’s a sort of new age twist on the Matrix metaphor of conspiracy.
Conspiracy Theory of the Week:
I easily could have picked “Extraterrestrial War of the 1930’s reveals Jewish holocaust true masterminds,” but I didn’t. I picked the conspiracy theory I’m calling: “You got the right one–babies!” Mike Adams over at Natural News accuses Pepsi of using aborted fetuses in taste tests. The story does not originate with Adams, who I can’t remember ever being right about anything, but it prompted an Oklahoma state senator to introduce anti-Soylent Green legislation. This guy also happens to be a birther. My favorite headline: “Fun-Hating Legislator Proposes Ban on Eating Aborted Human Fetuses.” Forbes discusses the fake controversy.
Exopolitics let me down this week, I have to day. Oh, well. I’m sure there will be more to it.
Posted by Bob 
Skeptical Humanities 
