Birtherism: It’s the New Trutherism

As my readers know, I have a congenital allergy to conspiracy theories. I’ve actually been to Dealey Plaza (I had some time to waste before catching a plane from Dallas and it was the only famous spot I knew in Dallas, so I went there). I came away more convinced than ever that JFK was killed by a nut with a gun shooting from not all that far away at a pretty easy target. There was nobody on the grassy knoll (or the shot would have deafened Abe Zapruder).

Similarly, there was no 9/11 conspiracy, except among the actual terrorist who pulled it off. Bush had nothing to do with it. Heat melts steel. Buildings fall down. Get. A. Life.

And, dear people, Barack Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. The birth announcement is in two papers from the time. No, the images are not fakes. However, paranoid conspiracy theorists being what they are, birthers will continue to maintain that they are and obsess over “seeing the birth certificate”, never seeming to realize that if these images can be faked, then so can birth certificates. So the “controversy” will rage on, further proving to normal people that the Right has devolved into a rump party of paranoid fools and media manipulators who have nothing to actually contribute to our public life in a time of grave crisis for our country and our world. That many of these people call themselves Christian just adds to the embarrassment.