Posted on 07/16/2006 5:44:39 PM PDT by Jean S
Unfortunately, I saw this coming. It is the inevitable downside to Jessica McBride's outing of 9/11 crackpot Kevin Barrett and his enablers within the University of Wisconsin system.
By definition, a true kook refuses to acknowledge that he (or she) is a kook. A kook's world view is that everybody else in the world is either uninformed, ignorant, a dupe of the government or just plain crazy. No amount of discussion will ever dissuade your true kook.
True kooks also crave attention. I think this is because your true kook probably gets bored sitting around wearing a bed sheet talking to the same other seven kooks day after day.
True kooks believe that if they can only get their message out to the world, people will see the light. True kooks don't understand the difference between having people laugh with them and laugh at them.
Anyway, since Jessica McBride exposed Kevin Barrett, I've received several e-mails from a very small number of other 9/11 conspiracy theorists who badly (and I mean "badly") want to get on the radio to share their views. Some seem somewhat miffed that Kevin Barrett is getting all the attention - while they hold views that are just as nutty (if not nuttier) than his. Others are simply thrilled that their crackpot ideas are getting aired in the media and want to extend their 15 minutes of fame for as long as possible.
The following is an example of the type of e-mail I've been getting on this matter:
"Dear Mr. Wagner,
It appears that you and your ilk are now in the minority (see: http://www.mujca.com/insidejob.htm). I rather doubt that you have ever actually looked at the evidence. But I have. As have many of my colleagues.
So, I'll tell you what. Why don't you and your associates, including Jessica McBride, debate Mr. Barrett publicly and in a sanctioned debate forum. I know you cannot. And I know why you cannot. You can take pot shots from your radio show, you can make ad hominem jabs. But a serious, proper debate? Hardly.
You folks have no credibility with anyone who is capable of thought."
Some e-mails are nastier and more challenging. Others are more polite. All want me engage the issue directly - preferably on my radio show.
I concede that devoting a segment of the program to fruitcake theories might make for entertaining listening (at least for a call or two). After all, we often can't look away from a train wreck. That said, life is too short to waste on stuff like this.
I have no intention of exchanging e-mails with people who want to argue that 9/11 was an 'inside job". Rather, I've elected to use this web posting to as my generic response to everyone who badly wants to come on the radio and expouse their "nut case theory du jour". Here are my rules:
If you've ever been abducted by people from outer space, you're not getting on my radio program to talk about it;
If you sincerely believe that the film "Close Encounters of a Third Kind" is a documentary, you're not getting on my radio program to talk about it;
If you sincerely believe that the world will end next Tuesday (or last Tuesday or whenever), you're not getting on my radio program to talk about it;
If, whenever you think the world will end, you sincerely believe that the only people who will survive are the ones currently waiting in a field in upstate New York for a space ship from Venus to land and take them away, you're not getting on my radio program to talk about it;
If you sincerely believe that you have been impregnated by a visitor from Neptune or Saturn, you're not getting on my radio program to talk about it. This especially true if you're a male;
If you sincerely believe that the earth is being carried around the sun on the back of a turtle named "Harry" (and you're really worried because Harry is getting tired), you're not getting on my radio program to talk about it;
If you sincerely believe that your television is watching you whenever you're not watching it, you're not getting on my radio program to talk about it;
If you sincerely believe that the government (or a space invader or your next door neighbor) is trying to brainwash you by bombarding you with gamma rays (thereby forcing you to wear a tin foil hat to protect yourself), you're not getting on my radio program to talk about it;
If you sincerely believe that O.J. Simpson didn't really kill those two people, you're not getting on my radio program to talk about it; and, finally:
If you sincerely believe that 9/11 was an "inside job" orchestrated by President Bush and Vice President Cheney in order to draw us into a global war, you're a nut and you're not getting on my radio program to debate your sincerely held belief with me.
For kooks everywhere, all is not lost however. Many members of the UW Board of Regents apparently don't believe that there is such a thing as "truth". After all, in the words of attorney and UW Regent Jeffrey Bartell, what are falsehoods to some might be "credible truth to others".
As such, everybody who sincerely believes any of the above things that I won't let you talk about on my radio show may be well served to contact the University of Wisconsin. Perhaps you can get a teaching gig just like Kevin Barrett. Maybe the Regents will even donate to your campaign to help "Harry the Giant Turtle" as he carries the earth around the sun.
Wisconsin's Ward Churchill? UW-Madison lecturer on Islam is leading 9/11 conspiracy theorist
The First Amendment still doesn't protect telling lies. On the other hand now that the good professor has brought up the point, didn't I hear that it was a secret underground group of Jihadis on the University of Wisconsin faculty council who planned and executed the whole thing?
Medved had this nut burger on he was pathetic.
Everybody in the world is crazy, except for thee and me and sometimes I wonder about thee.
Aliens? Close the border! Build a fence!
I had a lefty friend who used to say things like this- in all seriousness.
Aliens are just abducting and probing folks Americans won't abduct or probe!
Don't-Talk-About-The-War ping!
Who is Jessica McBride?
Also see my link in #1.
One example was Richard M. Nixon, who declared self-righteously, "I am not a kook!"
Drat! Oh, sure, the television can watch and wait for the signal from the remote control, and it can automatically dim itself as the room light changes, but it's not watching me, hunh?
I just wish I could get the transponder frequency for his TV, so I could get a picture of him sitting around in his underwear!
Hey! What's the frequency, Kenneth?
Whatever happens dont let Scott Baio give you pinkeye!
I was picked up by a nice couple from Zeta Reticuli one time, but when I mentioned an anal probe they said I'd have to wait until they got me to San Francisco. Nice folks. I never did get the probe but I did get this nice chip in my head that whispers to me now and then.
I think my whole planet has been abducted by space aliens...
Which one is yours?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.