CNN -- Conspiracy Busters

CNN spent the weekend tackling a few conspiracy theories. No, not the 9/11 mystery plane (hmm, "interesting") or the anniversary of TWA800, they stuck to the more important 40th anniversary of the moon landings and a certain birth certificate.

First, reporters took a somewhat serious look at Al Gore's favorite comparative device-faked moon landings, and in the process provided some light entertainment:

Kaysing theorized NASA sent the Apollo 11 astronauts up in a rocket until it was out of sight, then transferred the lunar capsule and its three passengers to a military cargo plane that dropped the capsule eight days later in the Pacific, where it was recovered. In the meantime, he believed, NASA officials filmed the "moon landing" at Area 51, the high-security military base in the Nevada desert, and brainwashed the astronauts to ensure their cooperation.

Wouldn't it be wild to watch the military transfer astronauts from a capsule traveling thousands of miles an hour to a transport plane flying around 500? That might be better than a moon landing itself. The article did mention some soon to come incontrovertible proof--pictures from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter expected to show some of the toys still parked up there. But who needs it? There's no way to compartmentalize such a massive project and keep the Soviets from leaking it to the Times. Well wait check that, it was a Kennedy legacy. Even still...

CNN also tackled the Obama birth certificate conspiracy with the seriousness they thought it deserved:



That's the same lawyer representing the Army Major (now joined by two others) in the lawsuit against Obama. She appears somewhat wacky. Not sure about Keyes but his point about releasing everything and anything to answer the questions sounds fairly prudent for a president who espouses sunshine in government, that is, assuming the birthers would accept the evidence if it didn't go their way. Even if they didn't the saga would be closed for most people, that is unless it was released on the Daily Kos again.

THE SKEWED VIEW 7/20/09

First Rosie and fire, now Whoopie and the lunar wind. Loons.

By the way, most people still remember where they were when Armstrong stepped out of the capsule and onto the lunar surface (or according to Whoopie, the surface of Area 51). I was home from school. We had been watching the coverage on TV there earlier. Everyone was excited.

Like many other kids I had become a rocket nut, purchasing and building scale models of the Saturn Five and the LEM and flying them around the back yard. It was a time when it seemed America could do anything.