Of all of the downright asinine things to deal with is the latest of the conspiracy theories that Charlie Sheen is running around spouting.

A spirited debunking of Charlie Sheen is provided by Moonage in his post, "Charlie Sheen revisits the 911 Conspiracy theory" but this is such a stupid topic, and so much press type is being consumed by it, I want to comment separately.

What the hell of these people thinking?  Many of us, including myself, were getting dressed the morning of September 11, 2001 (I was watching CNBC) when the first plane hit the World Trade Center, and everyone first thought that it was a small aircraft in a horrible accident.  And then it dawned on us all.  It had been no small plane at all, but a 757.  The fires began to rage, people began to leap to their deaths from the building, and then the second plane hit.  I was shaking, as we all were shaken, as I finished dressing and drove to work.  I’ll never forget the clear blue, cloudless sky that morning as I drove north, seeing a black cloud of smoke rising in the western sky only 30 miles away.  Of course, we all know the rest of the litany of events.  So what the hell is Charlie Sheen and others like him thinking?  This is beyond wacked out Hollywood thinking as Moon writes though.  It is dangerous revisionist thinking that will pollute the minds of many for years to come, and that will sully the memories of those people who perished that day.

No less than New York Magazine is running a lengthy article in its March 27th issue titled "The Ground Zero Grassy Knoll."   Now, as I read this article, I think an attempt to publish an exposé of the ludicrousness of these conspiracy theories without lending any credence to them, there are way too many people like Charlie Sheen running around who for some reason unknown to what I would consider intelligent beings on Earth, believe that it either didn’t happen, or that the events of that day were somehow planned and purposely caused.

From the article:

They keep telling us 9/11 changed everything. But even in this Photoshopped age of unreliable narrators, much remains the same. The assassination of President John Kennedy, the Crime of the Last Century, occurred in plain sight, in front of thousands—yet exactly what happened remains in dispute. The Warren Commission found that Lee Harvey Oswald, fellow traveler of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, shot Kennedy with a cheap Mannlicher-Carcano rifle from a sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository. The commission found that Oswald, who two days later would be murdered by nightclub owner Jack Ruby, acted alone.

Yet, as with so many such events, there is the sanctioned history and the secret history—players hidden from view. In the Kennedy murder, the involvement of shadowy organizations like the Mafia and the CIA came into question. This way of thinking came to challenge the official narrative put forth by the Warren Commission. It is not exactly clear when the grassy knoll supplanted the sixth-floor window in the popular mind-set. But now, four decades after Dallas, it is difficult to find anyone who believes Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman.

But if Oswald didn’t kill the president, who did? So 11/22 remains an open case, an open wound.

Now here we are again, contemplating the seemingly unthinkable events of September 11. An official explanation has been offered up: The nation was attacked by the forces of radical Islam led by Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda jihadists. Again, this narrative has been accepted by many.

But not all…[and the article goes on for 9 full pages]

And then there is the summary list of the conspiracy theories:

The Ground Zero Grassy Knoll

    The Plane Truth
    9/11 conspiracy theories, from nuts to soup.

    Mossad Did It
    A common theory, especially in the Arab world, holds that Israel orchestrated the attacks in order to bring the U.S. into conflict with Israel’s enemies. Evidence cited ranges from the arly spurious and deeply anti-Semitic (the oft-heard, oft-refuted canard that Jews were told to leave the towers before the attacks) to the apparently true but unexplainable. (Five men who were seen filming the attacks in Liberty Park were later apprehended and found by the     Forward to have ties to Mossad.)

    Oilmen Did It
    A theory based on the idea that worldwide oil production, having reached its peak, is beginning a long decline, leading to surging energy prices and global economic collapse. The 9/11 attacks, goes this scenario, were orchestrated by Cheney, Bush, and their friends in the oil industry and government, in order to begin a process that would secure further reserves in Iraq and increase the U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf.

    Bush and Cheney Did it
    The most basic of conspiracy theories. Bush and Cheney orchestrated the attacks, for much the same reason Roosevelt was sometimes said to have orchestrated Pearl Harbor: in order to begin the conflict that would allow them to realize their global ambitions.

    The New World Order Did It
    After winning a long struggle against the old Kissingerian pragmatists and balance-of-power devotees, neocon idealists centered at the Council on Foreign Relations initiated the conflict in order to establish the United States as the sole global power.

    A Rogue Network Did It
    A secret government used Bush and Cheney as patsies in carrying out the attacks. Bush was kept on the run in Air Force One (code-named “Angel”) by an anonymous call saying, “Angel is next.” Bin Laden and his henchmen were CIA plants and double agents. Britain’s MI6 intelligence service was involved. The towers were blown up from inside, by teams of secret government assassins. Even Bush and Cheney are in the dark about why the attacks took place.

    Shrinks Did It
    Scientologists believe that psychiatry (through a mechanism that remains murky) helped give birth to the suicide attackers “through drugs and psycho-political methods.”

    As Moon pointed out, there are people who contend that no plane hit the Pentagon…when oh so many people witnessed it heading right at the Pentagon from I-395!  And afterwards, even I had discussions with people who worked in the building and had luckily either not been there that morning or who had escaped.

    So lets do some more debunking of these "it didn’t really happen that way" fools. 

    Try Popular Mechanics, 9/11: Debunking The Myths
    PM examines the evidence and consults the experts to refute the most persistent conspiracy theories of September 11.      Just a small amount of the article, and then you all can read the rest…"Healthy skepticism, it seems, has curdled into paranoia. Wild conspiracy tales are peddled daily on the Internet, talk radio and in other media. Blurry photos, quotes taken out of context and sketchy eyewitness accounts have inspired a slew of elaborate theories: The Pentagon was struck by a missile; the World Trade Center was razed by demolition-style bombs; Flight 93 was shot down by a mysterious white jet. As outlandish as these claims may sound, they are increasingly accepted abroad and among extremists here in the United States."

    Its not just Charlie Sheen (an actor of dubious abilities anyway) who blurt this blather.  As shown by the article in the New Yorker, somehow, supposedly somewhat intelligent people (at least they are educated), ascribe to these conspiracy theories.

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