Simon is dead. Piggy is dead. Ralph is being hunted.
The Blurry Line Between Bill Cooper and Bill O'Rilley A list of the top-ten conspiracy theories of 2003-2004 from AlterNet. I got into a discussion on somebody's LiveJournal recently about the bizarre crossover between conspiracy theory and reported news since we all collectively went through the looking glass after September 11th.
Loyal MLWL reader will take not that most of the "conspiracies" noted in the list are actual news stories, based on fact and public record, not the imagined theories and speculations of a paranoid nut. The neo-cons manifesto for shuffling the Middle East according to our interests is public knowledge. Apocalyptic Tim laHaye-types openly brag about their influence on Bush. It is now a matter of public record that Bush was briefed in August on al-Qaeda's plans to attack America, Pentagon employees cancelled their flights on September 10th citing "security concerns" and binLaden's family was quickly ushered out of the US.
Moreover, the list ignores the completely absurd stories reported by the mainstream media that no self-respecting conspiracy nut would touch. Mohammad Atta's passport found in the WTC rubble? I heard that one on NBC. Al-Zarqawi is quickly ID'ed underneath a hood on a grainy video by the CIA and is identified as Nick Berg's killer, while months earlier Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is claimed to have killed Daniel Pearle in Pakistan? Senior al-Qaeda travel the globe to personally behead American captives? I read about those in the NY Times. Iraq's stockpile of WMD? Where DIDN'T I hear that from.
I long for a time when books like "Behold a Pale Horse" had less of a grip on reality than the newspaper.
Why is it Ironic? Because They're Worried About Feeding Their Children. About a year ago Bush visited the Timken's world headquarters tout his tax cut and job creation plan. Now the Timken plant in Ohio is cutting a quarter of its workforce and laying off 1,300 people.
New Weblog! I'm proud to announce the launch of my new weblog Florida, the Phallus of a Nation, dedicated solely to detailing the horrors of the worst state ever. God, we need to give that wasteland back to the Spanish...
-The Sikh Geek
