9/11 Truth + Mainstream Media = Big Ol' Mess

A couple days ago RD broke his oath to his fellow Civil Information activists by agreeing to be interviewed by a local novelist/newspaper columnist named Todd Babiuk. (They all swore not to cooperate in any way with "mainstream media", since the "MSM" has refused thus far to take their issues seriously or to investigate 9/11 the way they feel it should be investigated). He and Babiuk work for the same paper. Babiuk had introduced himself to RD on the street a month or two ago, expressing interest in what he was doing, but the interview request came rather out of the blue: He phoned RD before noon and asked to meet him at 2:00 the same afternoon. With little time to consider, RD agreed. Afterwards he fretted that the column would just be a hit piece, which of course it was. It was titled "9/11 Conspiracy Theories are a Source of Cheap Entertainment", or something like that, and implied that people become Truthers only because they're bored with karaoke and TV. Also, he hinted that they're enabling terrorists by not actively opposing them as much as the rest of the non-Arab population does. This is a crass mischaracterization of Truthers, but never mind that. I knew Babiuk wasn't on the level and that's not the point of this post. My real aggravation is caused by Robin Hordon's response to all this. We met Robin in his hometown recently and he came across as just the nicest, most amiable activist ever - unfailingly polite, patient, and honest. He is a tad paranoid about COINTELPRO infiltration and that's why he refuses to work with other Truthers in his part of the world, but other than that he's fine. Until today. In response to Babiuk's column, he blamed RD for the whole thing (in CAPITAL LETTERS), scolded him, told him "I STRONGLY suggest you take advantage of this and hold a FREE screening" of some 9/11 films this summer just to make a mockery of the "cheap entertainment" jab, tattled on RD's "misbehaviour" to Kevin Barrett for some strange reason, and made some snide comment about "the Zionist Babiuk." I have no idea what that means. He's not Jewish, I don't think, and Zionism wasn't mentioned in the column aside from the comment that some Truthers (as RD attests) are anti-Semites who still believe The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to be genuine. Perhaps he was referring to the fact that the newspaper is owned by a Jewish family.

At any rate, Robin was horribly rude and parent-like about the whole thing and I'm pretty pissed off with him. RD was nervous enough about the fallout of the interview - he asked me not to show it to any members of our family or anyone we know, lest his father somehow learn that he's mentioned in it - without Robin getting all high and mighty and paranoid. He even said RD came across sounding COINTELPRO. I'm so sick of Truthers carping at each other. If they would just cooperate with each other and get whatever it is they're doing done...

Insane Childish Bullsh**

Above is a tee RD designed earlier this year with his friend Robin, for distribution and sale to their fellow Truthers. They worked on various designs for about a month, and at one point RD balked at including a peace symbol in the design because Wikipedia mentions that "The Cross of Nero" is a broken, upside-down Christian cross and whatnot. Satanic-panic bunkum. Yeah, the peace symbol is derived from older symbols with Paganish connotations... so what isn't? The swastika, ancient Asian symbol of longevity, was used and abused by the Nazis, but that doesn't mean the symbol can never be used again! It's the modern-day context that counts. When people see the peace symbol these days they don't think "Broken upturned cross. Satan. Devil. Hellfire." They think "Deadheads. Bad acid. Birkenstocks. Organic. Hemp." RD knew this, but he also knows the ultra-paranoid mindset of a vocal portion of the Truther crowd, and he worried about offending or frightening those people. As a self-proclaimed anti-Satanic Panic crusader, I told RD I would be sooooo pissed if he left off the peace sign. It would be pandering to paranoia and ignorance! Giving in to ill-informed superstition! He finally agreed with me, and so did Robin. Robin's take on the whole question was "Screw it, we'll use the peace sign." He's been a peace activist for decades - why the hell wouldn't he use the peace sign?

Anyway, things went along nicely for a long time. Truthers liked the shirts and wore them proudly. Then, out of the BLUE, RD received an email from his buddy Wayne, one of the guys who co-blogs with him about their activism, and this letter was basically a rehash of every silly rumour, half-truth, and paranoid delusion about the peace sign ever invented. A few tidbits:

- It's the Aldermaston Peace Symbol, old in origin but resurrected for a youth peace rally in 1958 by Bertrand Russell. Russell didn't like Christianity (duh) and "knew a lot about occultism". I've been hearing this Russell-as-occultist thing a lot lately. You'd think dissidents and anti-war activists of any stripe would really dig Russell, but apparently his critical intelligence and involvement with Fabian socialism freaks the hell out 'em. Ah, well. Their loss.

- Hitler ordered that the gravestones of killed SS military personnel during the war had to have the Aldermaston Symbol on them.

- The symbol's origin is German paganism; it is a rune-sign that pictured "death." (so?)

- John Knox thought that the symbol was the mark of the beast. (again, so?)

- Being "equal to the Nero Cross", it's the symbol of hatred against the Bible and Christianity through the ages.

- In 1917 the Bolsheviks painted the Nero Cross on the doors of the churches they had closed.

- In 1099 the Muslims fought under this symbol against the Crusaders who invaded The Holy Land. (well, what's paranoia without a little racism thrown in, eh?)

And perhaps weirdest of all...

- "In Switzerland there is a big building that is divided into 3 parts. If you look at it from above it looks like a peace symbol or Rune. This is the headquarters of the United Nations and the World Bank, the third part is the World headquarters of Freemasonry. It's so convenient they can go back and forth between coffee breaks."

Wayne also objected to the color blue, because it is used by the UN. And a later shirt design that includes a dove flying away from the towers is objectionable, in part, because "Columbe = Dove. According to noted occultist Madame Blavatsky, the dove is one of several birds, including the phoenix, associated with scorpio, mystical counterpart of the winged serpent or phoenix."

In conclusion, Wayne wrote, "Sorry, but the UN, it's [sic] light blue color, fake peace symbol and deceptive dove are in my No Fly Zone."

This from the dude who wants their blog logo to be a CIA symbol with a chicken in place of an eagle, because "Roosters wake people up."

Oh, OK, so when designing T-shirts we'll just rely on the bottomless wisdom of David Icke and the good word of Madame Blavatsky, a Victorian toad who pretended to be in contact with Ascended Masters, or maybe dip into old Warner Brothers cartoons for inspiration because all other imagery is of Pagan-Satanic-Nazi-financial origin! Righty-o! Makes sense to me!

Jesus.

Faux Calls: One of the Worst 9/11 Conspiracy Theories Ever

Today I was dismayed to learn that RD accepts the theory that the passengers on Flight 93 didn't really call their families and friends from the plane, that voiceprint technology was used to create one-sided imposter messages, that cell phones couldn't possibly work on planes in 2001, etc. (He cited "scientific" studies by two 9/11 researchers - A.K. Dewdney was one of them - to support that.) I really don't get this theory. It's far too complicated. First off, if you're staging a false flag terrorist hijacking and want to make it look authentic, you don't have to have fake messages to the passengers' loved ones - people wouldn't really expect there to be calls from the plane, right? RD's explanation is that the government needed a "hero story" to give 9/11 that extra boost, to really get folks to rally 'round the war flag. I admit he has a point - "Let's roll!" was exploited to death by the administration in its push for war. But fake phone calls are far from necessary. RD's secondary explanation is that the plane was shot down, and the Powers That Be had to come up with an excuse for why the plane crashed. So they made up a tale about some heroes who decided to take back control of their plane, sending the pilots into a panicky dive. Either way, the faux calls theories don't make much sense.

I pointed out that it should be easy to analyze the recordings of the Flight 93 calls to determine if they're spliced from other conversations or whatever, but he says researchers just don't have the funds for that. They've been working with very limited resources. "You get up the money and do that research!" he said.
"Well, I don't want to. I'm just saying."

I am The Enemy

Originally published May 16/08

Well, the verdict is in: Kevin Barrett will be the keynote speaker at the mini-conference. The professor from Lethbridge will also be speaking, I think.

Today RD received an invitation from a new local Truther to have lunch with himself and Kevin Annett, the former United Church minister who alleges a nationwide campaign of genocide and abuse was carried out in Canada's Residential Schools. RD saw a documentary about these alleged abuses online sometime last week, and mentioned his horror to the new Truther, who happens to know Annett. Annett is also a Truther.
RD asked me if I wanted to join them, since child abuse/clerical abuse issues are very important to me, and I snapped, "No, I'm not welcome. I'm the enemy." I confess this was partly jealousy. I've been closely following and studying such issues for years, and here's Johny-come-lately having lunch with Kevin Annett! It's not right! In fact, RD continuously told me not to be so anti-Catholic, just because I felt the Vatican erred by rejecting the U.S. bishops' decent plan for dealing with abuse problems in American churches.
But we didn't bicker over that. We argued about my use of the word "enemy". RD insists the majority of Truthers see me as a potential recruit and a person with a right to make up her own mind, not as the enemy. Never mind that I've been called an "accessory to war crimes after the fact" by a prominent Truther/exopolitician. Never mind that the first time she clapped eyes on me, RD's Truther friend Barb laid a sympathetic hand on his shoulder and said, "It must be so hard for you to be with someone who doesn't GET IT." Never mind that when RD told one local Truther I wasn't a believer yet, he cheerfully said, "Well, fuck her." Yes, there are some lovely and tolerant Truthers out there - I know several and am very friendly with them - but let's face it, most of them want nothing to do with a firm non-believer.
Yes, I AM the enemy. I accept reality. I know that Truthers aren't suddenly going to say to me, "Oh oopsy-doodle, you're not the AntiChrist, maybe we made a mistake."

I know this. I understand. And I'm OK with it.
If thinking with my own brain instead of David Ray Griffin's brain or Alex Jones's brain makes me The Enemy, so freakin' be it.

Anyway, on to other news. On Air America last week, Steven Jones said his theory is that the World Trade Center was brought down not by thermate, as he has attempted to prove, but by radio-activated nanothermate. Unlike plain ol' thermate, it's explosive. Apparently this stuff really exists, unlike the nanobacteria and scalar weaponry other conspiranoids talk about, but I know nothing whatsoever about it. RD has bought into Jones's new theory already, at least partially, since it finally allows for Jones's thermate theory to explain the pre-collapse explosive sounds Truthers are always talking about.

I'm relieved that RD isn't into the other conspiracy theories so popular among Truthers: chemtrails, depopulation schemes of the global elite, Illuminati occult ritual mind control assassination training, etc. Yesterday I played for him a few minutes of a cable access TV show out of Austin, The Freeman Perspective, in which host "Freeman" tried to explain that Anna Nicole Smith and Britney Spears are mind-controlled slaves and that Anna Nicole's baby might have been a fatherless "moonchild" summoned to her womb by a Crowleyan Satanic ritual. Um. 'Kay. RD just finds hooey like this extremely annoying, and asked me to turn it down after about 5 minutes.

Update: By an odd coincidence, we ran into Kevin Annett on vacation and I was able to arrange a local speaking engagement for him.

I Say, Son, I Like My Truth Extra-Crispy!

The new face of 9/11 Truth?

Today RD is facing three pressing issues:

1. The local Truth group is sponsoring a "mini conference" this September, but the keynote speaker is still up in the air. Will it be Kevin Barrett, who's available and willing? Will it be Richard Gage, who's willing but might be jetting to Europe? Or will it be a professor from Lethbridge? RD's pulling for Barrett, who's a nice enough guy....but. He has said he wants to someday see those who had any foreknowledge of 9/11 hung publicly from gallows, including Amy Goodman, so we have two possibilites here: 1) He has twisted sense of humour (fine with me!), or 2) He's a stark, raving psychopath. He also has some "questions" about the Holocaust, tho he's not a full-on denier. I'm just not sure this is a dude I want sleeping on my couch, y'know?

2. There's all kinds of trouble agreeing on a logo for the 9/11 blog RD and some friends share (Robin Hordon and about 5 others). Since RD is quite the artist and has done commercial design before, he worked up a decent one with input from the other guys about a month ago. Everybody approved it except for RD's friend Wayne, so back to the drawing board. Then yesterday Wayne came up with a very polished design that's a takeoff on the CIA emblem...with a chicken instead of an eagle. Wayne says it's fitting because "Roosters wake people up." RD couldn't stop laughing and wrote a joshing letter to Wayne about how they can't very well use Colonel Sanders tactics to enlighten the masses. Wayne was not amused. In fact he's pissed. Wayne is pissed off a lot at Richard, most recently because RD (not having a background in conspiracy theorizing like his co-Truthers) didn't know what the hell "psyops" and COINTELPRO were.

I hope these issues are resolved ASAP, 'cause I'm damn sick of hearing "Barrett? Or Gage? Barrett? Or Gage?" and "Chicken? Or something else?"