Nothing Can Happen, Ever

One of the silliest arguments truthers make for 9/11 being this BIG conspiracy is that at no time in history has an large office building collapsed due to fire.

Of course this is mind numbingly duncical in myriad ways. For one, the idea that something could not have happened the way it did simply because it never happened before is down right childish and defies any rational logic. I guess in the truther world NOTHING can happen, everything must have a first time.

In the truther world the passenger jet that had to ditch in the Hudson river could not have happened! At no time in the past had a jet like that landed in water without breaking apart. So I guess the Hudson river emergency landing must have been an Inside Job or a holographic hoax, and all those people who saw it with their own two eyes? just government shills. The Moon landing? Yeah never happened before ergo a giant government hoax. Same with the Titanic, the break-up of the space shuttle and countless other never before events.

What is amazing is these people will repeat this ludicrous observation never once sitting down to think exactly how stupid it is. To your average brain dead conspiracy loon type this is powerful incite. To the rest of us it’s sad statement on our education system.

UFOs

I had a small discussion with a fellow who was convinced that UFOs were vehicles from another planet and were controlled by INTELEGENT forces. He had all the classic arguments, lights, people being taken aboard a UFO, all the other stories as sold to him in countless “Unexplained Mysteries” TV programs. He even said he saw a light he could not explain, but had to admit he was not sure of what it was.

My question to him was “If these UFOs are controlled by an intelligence… Why don’t they act in an intelligent manner?” Intelligence would denote the things have a purpose outside of just spooking the locals. I asked the fellow if he thought these UFOs wanted to be seen, or did they NOT want to be seen. He came up with some story about how they just may be here to observe us or they fear we can’t handle the idea of advanced intelligent life, so they don’t want us to see them.

Well being a smart-ass skeptic type I ask him “Why then if these so called intelligent being do not want to be seen do they fly around with the light on?” After all even us lowly Earthlings know if you are in the dark, “Job One” in the not being seen business is to NOT flash bright lights at people!!!!! He made up some lame excuse like “maybe their propulsion device makes the lights” But that doesn’t wash, after all we humans can fly around at night and not be heard or seen even on radar, but apparently these interstellar travelers CAN’T mimic what we do? Being seen is even easier for obvious reasons.

No, there is one conclusion you can make about your typical UFO. It is NOT controlled by an intelligence, it’s an unintelligent event that we human attach intelligence to. We do it because it is more fun to claim to have seem an alien spacecraft than to have seen a light you could not explain.

DUDE! THE GUBERNMENT DONE SAID SO!

The 9-11 Commission Report states, on Page 305, that “At 9:58:59, the South Tower collapsed in ten seconds” Well, yes, it does. The 9-11 Commission Report was tasked with looking into events leading up to attack, responses to the attack, and possible changes in procedure and policy to deal with future terrorist activities. What it does not contain is technical information about the causes of the building collapse, that was left up to the NIST report. But because truthers are by their very nature sheep incapable of independent thought they take everything they are told as gospel. Truther like to defend the party line as it comes down from the conspiracy theorist kingpins like David Ray Griffin and Alex Jones, and they wrongly assume people who are debunking them are equally as constrained. As I debunk the bunk from the nincompoop brigade I find I almost never have to reference the 9/11 Commission Report, there is plenty of real world science and just general logic to lampoon truther loons with.

This tactic of picking a small error in a papers is very familiar to anyone who has had to deal with creationist. Anti evolution people love to point out that Darwin believed evolution was a slow and steady progression, as it turns out species tend to evolve in jumps a spirts. It doesn’t negate the fact Darwin has the basics of evolution right.

But then the 911 Commission Report was not a scientific paper and insisting that ten seconds is meant to be a scientifically definitive statement shows a complete lack of critical reasoning skills.

Technical information on the building collapse is in the NIST reports, Like this chronology of the collapse once the buildings began to fall, but the NIST site has the pertinent information.

“The seismic spikes for the collapse of the WTC Towers are the result of debris from the collapsing towers impacting the ground. The spikes began approximately 10 seconds after the times for the start of each building’s collapse and continued for approximately 15 seconds.”

So according to the seismic record, the first impacts are about ten seconds after the onset of collapse. That would be the free-falling debris. Seismic signals continued for 15 more seconds. So it took at least about 25 seconds for the buildings to totally collapse. The fact dust obscured the last few seconds of the collapse the seismic records is the best way to judge the total collapse time. When I first heard the 10 second claim I did what any skeptic would do, I watched some of the videos and “counted” and it confirmed what I suspected. it took more than twice as long for the buildings to fall than the conspiracy kook tell you.

From video evidence, significant portions of the cores of both buildings (roughly 60 stories of WTC 1 and 40 stories of WTC 2) are known to have stood 15 to 25 seconds after collapse initiation before they, too, began to collapse. Neither the duration of the seismic records nor video evidence (due to obstruction of view caused by debris clouds) are reliable indicators of the total time it took for each building to collapse completely.

In other words, the momentum (which equals mass times velocity) of the 12 to 28 stories (WTC 1 and WTC 2, respectively) falling on the supporting structure below (which was designed to support only the static weight of the floors above and not any dynamic effects due to the downward momentum) so greatly exceeded the strength capacity of the structure below that it (the structure below) was unable to stop or even to slow the falling mass. The downward momentum felt by each successive lower floor was even larger due to the increasing mass.

9-11 troofers are a lot like some Biblical fundamentalists. Anything that they want to believe is to be taken with absolute literalness, and anything that contradicts what they want to believe, they just ignore.

Psychics Miss in 2008

So caller “Psychic” Sylvia Browne Misses Big in 2008. Sylvia went on on the Montel William’s show were she predicted the housing market would get stronger and the automotive industry would rebound! OK so it’s not as bad as when she made a major mistake about the West Virginia miners tragedy on a live radio. And again on Apr 26 2004 on the Montel Williams Show Sylvia predicted some sort of implant that would be used on paralyzed actor Christopher Reeve, the Superman actor died on Oct 10 2004. And who of course can forget the tragedy of her telling Shawn Hornbeck’s parents their son was dead, she still is very quiet on how she was so wrong, as you may know the boy was found alive after being held for four years. The woman does have a history of being wrong and 2008 was no different. To be fair she did say “President Bush’s approval rating will continue to drop” and Jamie Lynn Spears, 16-year-old sister of Britney, will have her baby. Well… DUH!

But why should she be any different than all the other psychics who failed to get it right last year. Soothsayer Elizabeth Joyce told us a terrorist attack will force President George W. Bush to declare martial law and postpone the election, and Al Gore will decide to run at the last minute and be voted president by a landslide. Gee, you would think with all those psychics out there you could find one who would be correct in predicting an Obama win, I have not seen one yet.

Nikki, a Toronto-based self-proclaimed “psychic to the stars” told us how George Clooney will get married and have a child. Penelope Cruz will run for political office in Spain and Sean Penn will be wounded in a visit to the Middle East. Also there will be a terrorist attack at the Beijing Olympics, a hurricane will wipe out Miami and a transvestite will compete in the Miss USA contest. Either Prince William or Prince Harry will be kidnapped in 2008. As for the presidential election, Nikki said she sees John Edwards in the White House after Sen. Hillary Clinton drops out of the race due to health problems.

Being a Medium is a very simple job, you merely sit around and make predictions. Some you base on educated guess and some you pull straight out your ass. The key here is volume, make a prediction that a passenger aircraft will crash in a major American city and make this prediction every day and sooner or latter it may happen. We just saw one crash land in the Hudson River. Make hundreds of such prophecies each day and you are bound to get a hit or something you can spin to sound like a hit.

The misses are far more telling when it comes to these charlatans because there are so many incorrect forecasts from them. It’s human nature to remember the hits, (or the bogus claims of a hit) and to forget the misses.

Just Asking Questions

I was watching one of the early James Bond movies the other day. It’s amazing how many men the evil villain can get to work for him. All of them loyal to a fault, willing to surly die for whatever plan the good doctor Evil has in store. Completely trustworthy never spilling the beans even on their days off. But how did he get these guys???? Ad in the help wanted page? Maybe they are from some temp service, a henchman for a day thing.

I think the problem with truthers is a lack of intelligence and imagination, they can’t see beyond the fairy tails told to them in countless YouTube videos and conspiracy theory sites. They are told the world is full of evil doers who possess powers beyond belief, just like in the movies. They never try and imaging exactly how one would go about doing what they propose thousands of people did on and before 9/11 in real life. They just wave it off with a “DUH.. I dun know” “I’m just asking questions” They don’t even have the imagination to ask smart questions. YEAH, YEAH I know your mom told you there was no such thing as a dumb question, but she lied to you.

A smart question would be “Why go through the impossible task of trying to arrange a controlled demolition of two buildings, both three times as tall as any known previous controlled demolition?” How would you even try and go about do such a thing? Call or email controlled demolition companies and ask if they could do a implosion job on such and such a date and hope they don’t turn you over to the authorities? You would have to be certain EVERY man from the demolition company is willing to do the job and keep quite after the fact. That kind of thing only happens in those 007 movies.

If you did find such a company how much would you have to pay them? Would that not cut into the profit? or Did the controlled demolition company do it Pro Bono? Would you not maximize your profit and minimize your risk my doing something much simpler and feasible like arrange fires that would damage the building beyond repair? After all there is no reason to believe the towers would have been rebuildable even if they had not collapsed. You could arrange a kickback on the dismantling of the building and it’s reconstitution! To anyone with half a brain doing the controlled demolition thing would be down right foolish. Far too complex, far too many people involved, too much of a chance something could go wrong.

Kevin Trudeau banned from Infomercial for three years

With 9/11 trutherism fast becoming a dead issue maybe it time to take on scams of a different kind. Huckster Kevin Trudeau with his conspiracy theorist laden outlook on traditional medicine, finance and weight loss has been banned by the FTC from making infomercials for three years and was fined $5 Million. Seems his dieting book was a bit deceptive. Judge Robert W. Gettleman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois noted:

the diet protocol could not be done “easily” and “at home,” because the protocol described in Trudeau’s book requires colonics, which must be done at the office of a licensed practitioner, as well as injection of human growth hormone;

dieters could not “complete” or “finish” Trudeau’s four-phase program, because Trudeau’s book states that “Phase 4 is for the rest of your life”;

dieters could not eat “anything” they want, because Trudeau’s book prescribes that dieters following Phase 4 must eat “only 100% organic food,” and no “brand name” food, “fast food,” or “food served by regional or national chain restaurants”; and

the diet protocol did not require “no exercise,” because Trudeau’s book states that three of the diet’s four phases, including Phase 4, require walking one hour outside every day.

This of course is not the first time Trudeau has run afoul of the FTC, in 1998 they charged him with making false and misleading claims in infomercials for products that he claimed could cure addictions to heroin, alcohol, cigarettes, and help you lose weight as well.

In 2003 Trudeau claimed in infomercials that a product called Coral Calcium Supreme could cure cancer. The FTC again filed a contempt action and fined him 2 million. After that Kevin changed his tactics and stopped directly pimping snake oil but instead he started to write books…… Books that in essence compelled you to buy the same worthless cures he had been pushing for years.

Trudeau latest scam? Well like any good con man he has jumped onto the next big social problem, DEBT. And of course his “Expert” advice to those with money problems is to make MORE money and spend LESS money. Or you could follow Kevin’s lead and cheat lie and steal it.

Swiftboating Truther

You got to love the diverse nature of the crackpots who inhabit the 911 Truth movement.

In 2004 Jerome R. Corsi’s wrote “Unfit for Command,” which inspired the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in their attack of presidential hopeful Senator John Kerry. His new book “Obama Nation.” is a similar hit piece on Barack Obama. Corsi is by his nature racist, anti-Semitic and believe 911 Was an Inside Job.

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