And the Anchorperson on TV goes La dee da de daa

I want winter. Badly. I want it to be cold so that I can wear my stylish heavy blazer(s).


Recently I have become very interested in some of the conspiracy theories that are currently gaining (or have already gained) wide popularity in the video-blogger community.

Stumbleupon.com has been my source for many of these videos (as well as a lot of other entertaining clips). This website does a fairly good job of showing what the liberal extreme is discussing through nothing more than random videos that a user has tagged as "political" in nature.

My favorite conspiracies:

1)
A government geologist by the name of Paul Schneider was videotaped in 1995 giving a lecture in which he reveals some very frightening government secrets. He very casually states that the population at large is only given approximately 5% of the truth while about 95% of what the government is engaged in is secret. He talks about the New World Order and the idea that we have for more than a century been in contact with extraterrestrial beings that have essentially been governing the world into oblivion. His discussion of aliens aside, he also makes some very interesting revelations regarding 131 underground bases in the United States (and by underground I mean a mile below the surface) that are connected by an elaborate system of tunnels. I would not have given these claims my attention at all if the video had not been introduced with a message about how Schneider had been "terminated" very soon after making this video. He also mentions in his lecture that there had been 13 attempts on his life in the months leading up to the video and that they started very soon after he began speaking openly about the work he did for the government.

Here's the video: http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=kh0xxja4nn Let me know what you think!


2)
There is more and more evidence piling up that we have not gotten the whole truth about 9/11. Now, skeptics of the Iraq War have been saying all along that 9/11 was used as a tactic to get us into the war in Iraq. However, these conspiracy theorists are taking it a step further and saying that the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon were "inside jobs" perpetrated by the U.S. government.

Their evidence is interesting, whether or not it is credible. They put a lot of focus on the manner in which the buildings fell, saying that their collapse was almost impossibly perfect and resembled a "controlled demolition." They also go into a great deal of detail about the plane that hit the South Tower (that is, the only plane we have reasonable pictures of) and how it has many of the markings of a military plane (specifically, a large protrusion on the underside that is not present on commercial airliners).

I recommend the website http://911scholars.org/ as a good jumping-off point to learn more about this.

HAVING SAID THESE THINGS, however, I want to check myself. There are aspects of these conspiracies that make perfect sense, but it is very hard for me to be objective if you consider that this is EXACTLY what I want to hear.

I don't have much to say about the Schneider lecture. I just thought it was interesting that he was killed so soon after he spoke out. As for 9/11 being an inside job: A part of me REALLY wants to believe that we are living in a country where the government values its people above all other things. However, there is also a part of me that knows that the entity we refer to as "the government" is not in any way trustworthy. It is common knowledge that it is not in the government's best interests to make their full military and scientific capabilities known to the public. Some would say that the people are safer without that knowledge because although individually we have intellect and the capacity to rationalize, collectively we are fickle and frightened.

Why would the government kill its own civilians in order to begin a war? Well, clearly there are lots of reasons why the government would consider 3000 American lives a negligible price to pay for a greater victory. Isn't that the principle that governs war in the first place? The only difference is that the people in the WTC were civilians, not enlisted soldiers.

If we go on the assumption that 9/11 was an inside job, then the parallels that Bush has drawn between himself and FDR become ironically credible. It is often theorized that FDR did not stop the attack on Pearl Harbor when he had the chance because a large-scale war was the only thing that could bring the nation out of The Great Depression. In the process, FDR unified the nation in a way that has not been seen since, creating a powerful patriotism marching against the Nazis (perhaps the only enemy to America since the end of the Civil War that was truly worth fighting).

In 2001, the Bush administration was facing a nation that was staunchly divided on almost every political issue in the wake of one of the most contentious elections in the history of democracy. Al Gore was sent packing with a dual misfortune: He was not only the last credible member of the Clinton administration, but he was to be, and is to this day, the last truly electable candidate to come out of the Democratic Party. A large percentage of the nation was skeptical and a large percentage of the nation was angry. The Bush administration was DESPERATE for something to rally the people. They needed an absolute evil to give the public something to agree on. In addition, they needed a way to justify claiming a share of Iraqi oil and they needed a way to once-and-for-all vindicate themselves for not taking Saddam Hussein out of power in the first Gulf War.

The solution: A terrorist attack on the ultimate symbols of American power. A plane hijacking thousands of feet in the air where there are no witnesses. An explosion of flame in the top third of the tallest buildings in New York City where no one can see from the windows of neighboring buildings. An explosion so big and a collapse so comprehensive that no independent investigation could possibly have been conducted. OH WAIT, we did find one of the terrorists' passports among the STEEL THAT HAD BEEN TURNED TO DUST. Boy, that was lucky that of the millions and millions of sheets of paper that were incinerated in the collapse of 500,000 tons of steel we found a passport condemning a foreigner.

Also, why would Osama Bin Laden have claimed responsibility for the attacks? It seems like a pretty major tactical error if you're a rogue terrorist organization trying to maintain control in an unstable nation to SLAP A POLITICAL GIANT IN THE FACE and then say "this is what I look like, this is why I did it, you are all infidels and should be killed, COME AND GET ME."

I think it is more likely that Osama Bin Laden was paid off to claim responsibility for the attacks and then sell out his subordinates to make it look like we were getting close to him. I'm asking you, reader, do you really think that the United States was incapable of catching Osama Bin Laden? How many people would have had to screw up in succession in our military to let the man who SENT US A VIDEO OF HIMSELF get away? We can see our fucking DOGS playing in our yards from SPACE on Google Earth, but our entire government can't locate Osama Bin Laden? I just don't believe it. It simply isn't true. Osama Bin Laden is sitting somewhere on a beach counting his American dollars and contemplating getting them exchanged for Euros or Chinese yuan.

What I'm saying is that I am willing to believe that the government is responsible for 9/11. My knowledge of history, my political persuasion, my eyes and my ears all seem to be telling me so. The only forces that are telling me otherwise are the press (which could be a) just as much in the dark as I am or b) paid off not to ask questions) and my own sense of decency (which has no place in modern public policy).

IF THERE'S ONE THING I'M SURE OF, IT IS THAT DEMOCRACY IS DRIVEN BY DISSENT AND DOUBT. GET IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT OR BE CONTENT TO LET OTHERS DETERMINE YOUR DESTINATION.