Making Conspiracy Theories Go Poof

Scott H. Payne thinks I'm just throwing fuel on the fire:

[Y]ou can provide a conspiracy theorist with any heap of evidence to the contrary of their theory, be it large or small, definitive or circumstantial, that person will generally find a way of wriggling around your presentation because they generally prefer to believe their story. And hey, sometimes their story is right, but often times it is wrong.

So no, Andrew, offering up the document after digital pictures of it have made their way onto the Internet and reputable public officials have spoke to the issue is distinctly unlikely to make the birther “movement” and its questions “go away”. What will make that “movement” go away will be time and a general lack of interest on the part of its participants and those who are fanning its flames in a variety of foray.

This does strike me as the most convincing argument against mine. But the more you disclose the fewer doubters there are. There will always be some. But it's important to isolate them with facts, not condescension.

The Fierce Urgency Of Whenever, Ctd

“If something is bigoted and if your intent is to see to it that it does not continue, then I did not understand the leadership of Congress or the White House in saying that the time is not right. My position is: The president has said he wishes that this matter be repealed. My colleague, Patrick Murphy, now has more than 170 co-sponsors on a measure to repeal it. Secretary Gates has said, I`m glad he is now saying when we change our policy. Last year, he would have been saying “if.” But my view is, that the time is now to eliminate this bigoted law once and for all,” – Congressman Alcee Hastings (D-FL), who was pressured by the White House to withdraw an amendment that would have weakened DADT.

The Wisdom Of The American People

You can fool some of them all of the time … :

A solid majority of Americans don’t want to see Sarah Palin ever become president, according to the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. Two-thirds, 67%, said they don’t ever want the former Alaska governor to be president, compared with the 21% who said they would. While it should come as no surprise that 87% of Democrats said they don’t ever want Palin as commander-in-chief, some 43% of Republicans said the same thing—as well as 65% of independents. Even 46% of self-identified conservatives said they do not want Palin as president, as well as 44% of those who voted for Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain in 2008. At 44%, white evangelicals are the largest subgroup supporting Palin as president one day.

Goddamn Hippies Watch

Julian Sanchez elbows Mark Krikorian for straw-manning vegetarians:

I know very many vegetarians and vegans. I do not think a single one of them…holds the view that “animals are morally equivalent to humans.”  File this under what is fast becoming one of my chief pet peeves: People who purport to specialize in political commentary and show no sign of having even the vaguest idea what people with different views actually believe.

"Straw-manning". Did I really write that as a verb?