Thursday, January 26, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
9/11 Was Not an Inside Job
Recently a friend of mine and sporadic co-host of my podcast,
Dr. David Overbey, saw a “9/11 inside job” “documentary” and was swayed by it,
not knowing that he was being sold a rather old bag of bullshit. Now I’m not saying the Bush administration is
not to blame for the disaster that 9/11 was, nor am I saying that it wasn’t allowed to happen by the craven and evil
bastards that made up that bunch. But
these wild theories of controlled demolition and missiles instead of airplanes
are just that: wild theories proposed
and propagated by unqualified conspiracy theorists in opposition to real world
data and eye witness accounts. They are
malicious fiction.
I have a lot of problems with conspiracy theories, mostly
that they impugn hundreds (or even millions in the case of climate change
denial) of scientists and enormous amounts of hard data. The very idea that all the scientists, technicians, investigators, assistants,
secretaries, law officers, attorneys, and everyone else involved in the
examination of 9/11 and the World Trade Center collapses are lying about not only the
conclusions of all the thousands of different tests and analyses but the
accusation that they falsified data and altered evidence across the board makes me absolutely furious. The people that make these conspiracy movies
and blogs are not scientists and they are preying on the American public’s
ignorance of how science functions to make sure they get paid to speak at
conventions, their books are purchased, websites are visited, and tickets to
their movies are purchased. They are
leeches and charlatans no better than the nineteenth century snake oil
salesmen. Science is a meritocracy. You don’t become the head of a scientific
organization because you bought some cameras with your mom’s credit card and
made a movie. You start learning the
basics in elementary and high school, then you learn more detail and
methodology in college, and start to put that knowledge into practice in post
graduate education and as a professional.
Scientists are not perfect and they are not immune to the
influence of fame and money, any more than normal people are, and I would argue
that for most scientists the very idea of falsifying data or conclusions is the
ultimate sin. But conspiracists are all frauds to some degree. They may believe what they’re saying but what
they believe is wrong and by a) not
using rigorous methodology to test their hypotheses and b) continuing to spread
their lies as if they were proven they make themselves frauds. For the most part scientists are specialists
in a particular subject or field, not general, uneducated theorists like
conspiracists. The people that make
movies like this have done nothing other than come up with a theory and then
forced facts to fit that theory. Science
exams the facts and data and sees what that tells them, testing hypotheses with
the goal of causing them to fail if they will.
Real scientists do everything they can to test how strong their theories
are and, if they have extraordinary conclusions they actively look to other
scientists to further test these conclusions, often in the hopes that they made
a mistake they couldn’t catch. That’s science.
None of these movie makers/bloggers are metallurgists with a lifetime of
experience looking at the molecular structure of materials and how they react
to conditions like occurred after the collisions and fires. None of them are experts in fluid dynamics or
combustible materials or architecture or design. But using still frames from blurry movies,
tenuous logical leaps, and ominous music, they are so bold as to deny and contradict
what these expert scientists have concluded after extensive study of the data
returned from extensive lab tests of the materials from the sites, data
recorded in black boxes, radar stations, radio logs, data from examination of
the site itself, and data contained on entire videos, not a single frame of a
window blowing out that is then called the result of an explosive rather than
the massively compressing air in the buildings.
The people that buy these ridiculous conspiracy theories
don’t seem to understand that it’s not just one guy or two or a couple dozen
that are coming to the conclusions that show what actually happened. In the case of the WTC collapses there are
literally thousands of people involved in the investigations. Thousands.
Most of them are simple lab technicians who were doing the grunt work of
examining and analysing samples of material from the sites. Hundreds were men on the ground, looking for
sections of the building’s frames that were relevant to the collapses (while
dealing with the horror of the pulverized remains of thousands of their fellow
citizens). Hundreds of different
scientists in different locations were going over the data provided and testing
every possible hypothesis. They all wanted to know how such an awful
thing could have happened and, again, the idea that they all lied and continue to lie to all of us is so incredibly
insulting to all those people that it makes me taste bile in anger. The evidence shows, plain and simple, that
the fires weakened the structures and caused them to collapse. Building 7 got help from tons of debris on
the roof and the violence of the two big buildings coming down right next to it
but it was mostly the fire. End of
story. The conspiracists know that it’s
easy to tell people that They are “covering it up” because most people envision
one scientist in a white lab coat who has done everything and has just made
everything up and lied to us not seeing how many people would have to be
participating in this vast invention of fact.
If the data were being falsified the people who actually did the work
would be coming out of the woodwork in droves to disclaim the results. They’re not because it didn’t happened.
I am not about to argue the myriad lies told by the 9/11
nuts. It has been done in depth and at
great length and can easily be found by Googling “9/11 debunked.” Popular
Mechanics has an excellent series of articles that condenses the conclusions
of scientists and, surprise surprise,
they are not the wild theories of these crackpots and snake oil salesmen that
make their living off lying to you. Impact
and fire explain the WTC collapses. A
jet hit the Pentagon (there really are pictures of it going in) and a fourth
jet did a nose dive after the passengers attacked the hijackers. The 9/11 conspiracists are in the same league
with the vaccination deniers, holocaust deniers, climate change deniers, moon
landing deniers, alien abduction promoters, chemtrails believers, big foot
believers, psychics, fluoride fear mongers, and the like and the main thing
they do is muddy the waters with their bullshit and extract money from the
pockets of true believers. They distract
intelligent people from what is really happening, causing them to waste their
time and energy worrying about the wrong stuff.
There are questions about 9/11 that need to be answered, but
the ones the conspiracists harp on have been answered but by their circular
logic if you deny what they say is true you are part of the conspiracy that’s
covering it up. Any proof you give to
the conspiracists and Believers will be countered by the “cover up” claim
because there’s this conspiracy to lie to everyone in the world about what
“really” happened. Again, the insult to
the investigators is just horrendous. The
incredible incompetence and arrogance embodied by the Bush administration is
squarely to blame for the 9/11 disaster.
They were told Al Qaeda was planning an attack like this, they even ran
a drill loosely based on the scenario.
They had shut down Clinton’s anti-terrorism efforts, not to allow this to happen necessarily, but
because they were a bunch of stupid assholes that had decided that anything Clinton had started must go
without a moment’s thought to the program’s value. I have my suspicions that Cheney and Rumsfeld
and the rest of the criminals that made up that administration secretly were
hoping for an attack, but I’m pretty sure they never imagined the attacks would
be so incredibly deadly and disastrous and I don’t think they knew it was going
to happen that day. They did not
hesitate on taking us into the wars they had been thirsting for for a decade or
more and immediately began destroying our rights in the name of security, there
is no doubt of this, but there is enormous doubt as to whether they planned and
executed these attacks themselves. By
going that extra step the Believers negate their entire argument against these
crooks and they all go free in the end because millions of intelligent people
around the world are barking up the conspiracy tree instead of the incompetence
tree. The conspiracists were muddying
the water from 9/12/2001 onwards. I
really wonder how many of them were/are on Cheney’s payroll. There’s
a conspiracy I can believe in.
Overbey used a phrase the conspiracists like to plant in
people’s minds, that he was trying to “think for himself.” But when you are accepting weak and bogus
arguments filled with logical fallacies and in complete opposition to facts you
are letting the conspiracists think for you.
Alan Miller
1.22.2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Two Misplaced Posts
I'm not sure how this happened but these two short pieces ended up on my art blog and I never noticed. Here they are, in their rightful place:
November 24, 2011
Bat Shit Crazy Report: Bachmann Leaves Me Speechless
November 20,2011
Bat Shit Crazy Report: She's Baaaack!!!
Birther queen Orly Taitz is back and she's as batshit crazy as ever. Yes, having her law license revoked and being fined for wasting the time of California courts means nothing to this lunatic. She filed a suit to have President Obama removed from the ballot in New Hampshire which was summarily and unanimously thrown out by the Ballot Law Commission.
November 24, 2011
Bat Shit Crazy Report: Bachmann Leaves Me Speechless
November 20,2011
Bat Shit Crazy Report: She's Baaaack!!!
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Batshit Crazy Report: Victoria Jackson
So former Saturday Night Live star Victoria Jackson has been a bit of a wingnut for years but she's now jumped completely into the Batshit Crazy club. Apparently she is privy to highly classified information we're not because she hosts a web talk show. Since I have a podcast talk show, why wasn't I invited? I can tell you why: because I'm not batshit crazy. Jackson has entered the self reinforcing circle jerk of BELIEVERS like the 9/11-wasn't-airplanes folks or the vaccine deniers or climate change deniers or even holocaust deniers. She and her bunch of mentally challenged bigots are convinced Muslims are taking over the country... but they're doing it secretly. That's why there's no proof, see. But since "[v]ery few people in America are informed and educated as [she is]" we just can't see the landslide of Sharia law and "extremist" Muslims in our government. Hey, Victoria it's because of lack of existence, not because you're a secret genius. I've come to realize that when wingnuts shout "extremist" the only extremists are the shouters. Any and all environmentalists are "extremist" just as all Muslims are "extremist" but try to tell them (easily proven) that the biggest internal terrorist threat we face is from Christian extremists and you are a dangerous extremist of some sort. Suggest that we conserve energy to combat the biggest threat to our national security, according to the Department of Defense and you're an extremist but actively act in direct opposition to conservation by driving an SUV, heating your house to 80°F in winter, or building a pipeline to carry crude from the dirtiest and most environmentally source of oil on the planet and you're a patriot. Apparently for Victoria Jackson you need to be a religious (and racial) bigot as well as a complete pig to be a true patriot. How you go from SNL to drooling web talk show moron is beyond me but congratulations, Victoria on your entrance into the Batshit Crazy Club!
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
War On Xmas Bullshit Continues
So I signed on to Facebook a few days back and found a "War on Christmas" statement the wingnuts are passing around. As a non-Christian I was slightly offended even though I know this is a Fox News invented pile of shit and the girl that posted it is kind of stupid. Still I decided to pull her strings. I got "unfriended." Just before that I copied the exchange (and missed expanding a couple of the posts to my chagrin). Here it is with last names and Facebook links removed:
Tiffany W_____
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Links!
Marijuana Cures Cancer!!! ...and our government has known about it since the seventies.
That's right, even a Koch funded study finds that the climate is changing as fast as scientists have been saying it is."A single winter storm does nothing to disprove that the planet is getting warmer, but that doesn't stop scientifically illiterate pundits from hi-fiving and telling nonsensical jokes about Al Gore every time it snows. ""Richard Muller, a physicist at University of California, Berkeley, announced the results of new research from the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Project affirming that the planet is getting warmer and confirming the accuracy of several other existing global temperature recorOh yeah, feel that sweet liberal bias... oh wait... ABC Still Fumbling Green Car Story | Media Matters for America ds... One-quarter of the $600,000 to do the research came from the Charles Koch Foundation"
Oh yeah, feel that sweet liberal bias... oh wait... ABC Still Fumbling Green Car Story | Media Matters for America
In case you weren't paying attention, Pat Buchanan is still a horrible piece of shit.
"Republicans may have found their Michael Dukakis, a technocratic Massachusetts governor who takes his bearings from ‘data’ … Has conservatism come so far, surmounting so many obstacles, to settle, at a moment of economic crisis, for THIS?" - George Will"Not data?!!!Yes, data. Conservatives don’t like Romney in part because he lets facts and events influence his views."Who would want a President that pays attention to reality? Not Republicans, apparently.
Hey, what's wrong with violating Federal laws for your boss?
Iraq War Vet Hospitalized with Fractured Skull After Being Shot by Police at Occupy Oakland Protest
No! There's not endemic racism in the GOP?!? That's can't be! That whole "Southern Strategy" thing is a liberal myth, right?
"NASA experienced two suspicious events with the Terra spacecraft in the summer and fall of 2008." - Of course with the new GOP (aka Teabaggers) we will soon have no functioning satellites of any kind and our life will be so much more exciting as we'll have no way to track hurricanes or other severe weather.
That's right, even a Koch funded study finds that the climate is changing as fast as scientists have been saying it is."A single winter storm does nothing to disprove that the planet is getting warmer, but that doesn't stop scientifically illiterate pundits from hi-fiving and telling nonsensical jokes about Al Gore every time it snows. ""Richard Muller, a physicist at University of California, Berkeley, announced the results of new research from the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Project affirming that the planet is getting warmer and confirming the accuracy of several other existing global temperature recorOh yeah, feel that sweet liberal bias... oh wait... ABC Still Fumbling Green Car Story | Media Matters for America ds... One-quarter of the $600,000 to do the research came from the Charles Koch Foundation"
Oh yeah, feel that sweet liberal bias... oh wait... ABC Still Fumbling Green Car Story | Media Matters for America
In case you weren't paying attention, Pat Buchanan is still a horrible piece of shit.
"Republicans may have found their Michael Dukakis, a technocratic Massachusetts governor who takes his bearings from ‘data’ … Has conservatism come so far, surmounting so many obstacles, to settle, at a moment of economic crisis, for THIS?" - George Will"Not data?!!!Yes, data. Conservatives don’t like Romney in part because he lets facts and events influence his views."Who would want a President that pays attention to reality? Not Republicans, apparently.
Hey, what's wrong with violating Federal laws for your boss?
Iraq War Vet Hospitalized with Fractured Skull After Being Shot by Police at Occupy Oakland Protest
No! There's not endemic racism in the GOP?!? That's can't be! That whole "Southern Strategy" thing is a liberal myth, right?
"NASA experienced two suspicious events with the Terra spacecraft in the summer and fall of 2008." - Of course with the new GOP (aka Teabaggers) we will soon have no functioning satellites of any kind and our life will be so much more exciting as we'll have no way to track hurricanes or other severe weather.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Incitement to Murder?
BOORTZ: You know what? I, for one, am tired of putting up with this crap. And you want to know why I moved out of Atlanta and only spend a couple of weeks a year in this town? That's one of the reasons. Carjackings, violence, people getting shot. It's ridiculous. This city harbors an urban culture of violence. And I want you to look around. You drive into the city. The railroad overpass is on the downtown connector covered with graffiti. And that-- That is just an advertisement for everybody coming into this town that we really don't give a damn about those who would screw up our quality of life around here. We really just don't care. We don't care enough to paint over graffiti on the overpasses that come into our city, advertising welcome to Atlanta, here's some of our finest graffiti, from some of our finest urban thugs and their little gang signs. And pick up the paper tomorrow morning. Read about all the carjackings. Read about the innocent people shot for the pure de-hell of it.So what exactly does it take to convict someone of incitement to murder in this country? If this doesn't qualify as a broadcaster telling his audience to kill people, what the fuck does?
This town is starting to look like a garbage heap. And we got too damn many urban thugs, yo, ruining the quality of life for everybody. And I'll tell you what it's gonna take. You people, you are - you need to have a gun. You need to have training. You need to know how to use that gun. You need to get a permit to carry that gun. And you do in fact need to carry that gun and we need to see some dead thugs littering the landscape in Atlanta. We need to see the next guy that tries to carjack you shot dead right where he stands. We need more dead thugs in this city. And let their -- let their mommas -- let their mommas say, "He was a good boy. He just fell in with the good crowd." And then lock her ass up.
And racist? How dare you even think it? He's a Republican, they get away with condoning murder and prejudice...
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