Monday, March 08, 2010

Myth America

Here in the land of free speech and press, we get used to hearing the occasional crazy notion or conspiracy. Thank goodness for the Mythbusters, who have not only shown conclusively that Corona beer does not contain traces of urine, but also that the Apollo moon landings were fact and not elaborately staged hoaxes. Polls show up to twenty-five percent of the populace still believe just the opposite. My guess is that those folks don't drink Corona, either.
In our information age, it only takes one big, loud voice to get smaller brains running for the nearest cliff. That's why a recent spouting by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was so unfortunate. "September 11 was a big lie and a pretext for the war on terror and a prelude to invading Afghanistan," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by state TV. He called the attacks a "complicated intelligence scenario and act." No matter that this is the same guy who refers to the Holocaust as "a big deception." In its own twisted way, this logic makes sense for the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The problem is that it finds its way into the darnedest places, like between the ears of Americans who can find their way onto the Internet or read. As many as one third of America believes that the attacks of September 11, 2001 were allowed to be carried out or perpetrated by the U.S. government. Take a moment and look around the room. If there are more than two of you, ask one of them to 'fess up. I currently believe that my dog is harboring dark conspiratorial thoughts.
It is a truly ugly irony that those who might find themselves agreeing with Ahmadinejad on this matter would have a hard time getting in line with the rest of this guy's party line. No matter, though. Additional gunmen and UFO's and AIDS are great, hanging questions in the minds of those who have trouble with the "easy answers." That's where Adam and Jamie come in. In the coming season, they will do a series of shows that will deflate the lingering doubts about one of the biggest myths of the new century: can a cell phone really pop corn? If they can, why not see if they could use a few to pop that nasty pimple on top of Mahmoud's neck?

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