Day: February 10, 2012

I’ve always been  someone that treated conspiracy theories and theorists the same way that you’d treat a addled old aunt.

You know, you can invite the old dear to the family Thanksgiving just make damn sure that everyone else knows not to say a word about any knitted products. And absolutely NO-ONE is allowed to wear sweaters.

The whole family knows if you get the old bird talking about knitting that no-one will be able to enjoy Thanksgiving day football.

Why? because the old girl will shout louder than you can make the TV about pearl stitches and the inferior quality of anything made anywhere except her house. Then you’ll get her dissertation on the poor quality of the yarns available. Followed up by her fateful meeting with Joseph Marie Jacquard and what a bastard he was to her.

However, as  I mentioned several weeks ago. I was at a friends home and he suggested that perhaps some of the conspiracy theories about 9/11 held merit. My folks taught me that you should listen to everyone even those people that you believed were completely insane or that you disagreed with so much that all you wanted to do was beat some sense into them.

So, I watched the show that my friend suggested. Then I watched another, the second one was much better than the first in that there was what I’ll call a smoking gun.

As I’ve perused Netflix I’ve noticed other documentaries. Normally, I’d have passed these documentaries by as complete hokum and not even sullied my television with their pseduo-science.

Indeed, some of them are complete wastes of time. after about the 4th Dramatic swell of music to underscore a specious argument, I’m done!

You want some fun… Watch Ancient Aliens, in addition to the guy that looks like a character from Babylon 5 who I personally find hard to watch with anything like seriousness. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to take apart their “facts” and come to conclusions that don’t require alien visitation. I find myself watching the show because they mention really interesting archeological sites and finds, which I’ll go online and read about later…

Sometimes though, you stumble across things that really catch your attention.

In this category of attention grabbing, sphincter tightening, documentaries is one called;

The End of America

I’ve been wondering where the hell my country has gone for many years. I’d chalked my disconnected feelings up to dis-satisfaction with the changes that all countries and societies go through over time. You know, I’m getting older… I figured I was becoming my Grandfather waxing longingly about the way things were.

But then I realized the things that are concerning me are issues about what I was taught in school to be fundamental freedoms.

I’ve described myself as a constitutionalist conservative. When I say that, I mean that our constitutional freedoms are to be preserved at any and all costs, while at the same time government shouldn’t be up our asses all the time protecting us from … ourselves.

Freedom means that we’re allowed to make mistakes, we can choose to smoke, drink, fuck, or whatever else as long as in the exercise of your rights… you don’t infringe on mine.

So I’m for small, relatively un-intrusive government and completely equal rights & freedoms for everyone. Suspension or abridgment of any part of the constitution is a really big deal to me.

To date I thought I was alone in my concern that perhaps we as a country were standing on a slippery slope.

I thought that I was over-reacting to disparate events that I saw forming a disturbing pattern. (Yeah, I’m terrified of becoming one of those conspiracy theory nutjobs.)

Yet here is a documentary which isn’t about drama, or spooky music, or anything other than a lady named Naomi Wolf essentially giving a stand up talk about a book she wrote.

The points she makes are well made and can be documented. Whether the connections she makes between the points are valid is something that I don’t think we’ll be able to know until perhaps it’s simply too late to do anything about it.

I’m glad that she wrote the book, I’m glad I got a chance to see this documentary and It’s nice to know that perhaps I’m not one of the conspiracy nutjobs… just yet.

If you have the time, check out the documentary or the book. It’s worth while for you to evaluate and make your own decision especially in this election year.

I do wish that I’d never had that damn conversation with my friend in the first place. I’d have preferred to remain blissfully ignorant and uncurious…

NOT Really!

It’s being able to talk openly and honestly with my friends that has made me a much better person than I ever would have been if they weren’t in my life.