Grumpy With Conspiracy Theorists

I haven't been posting all of my Grumpy columns because I'm a bit slack. Either that or I've been taken over by lizard aliens who think it's in the wider population's best interests that not all of my Grumpy columns be read.

I was reminded of this semi-recent column after reading that some sheriff in Arizona has fluffed up the Obama birth certificate conspiracy theory again. It's the conputer generated/layer thing again. It's not new news... in fact it's not news at all. Interesting that the sheriff in question demands an investigation into this old chestnut at the time he himself is under investigation for racial profiling (apparentlyhe don't care much for Latino types in his parts). Also, apparently, this layering in electronic copies of scanned documents is common and does not prove a document has been forged.

And yet conspiracy theorists jump on it. Thing with conspiracy theorists is that it doesn't matter what the conspiracy, they will subscibe to it. For them, nothing is random. There are no coincidences. There is just a great, all-powerful sinister force manipulating everything.

I wrote this Grumpy around the time of the approach of doomsday commet Elenin, whic many believed was going to flip the Earth over or something. What did it do again? Oh that's right - not a Goddamn thing.

I feel sorry for the doomsday wishers and conspiracy theorists. They create so much angst for themselves.