Conspiracy Nuts Never Give Up

PRESIDENT OBAMA. A SPACE ALIEN?




Obama's
Birth
Certificate

Florida Republican Rep. Bill Posey introduced a bill last February to require presidential campaigns to provide "a copy of the candidate's birth certificate."

President Barack Obama is a citizen of the United States of America, except, naturally for the conspiracy theorists out there.

Numerous researchers, in government and out, historians and journalists have reviewed his birth certificate and there is agreement of the fact that Barack Obama is a born and bred American. This should close the books on this myth, but border-line racists and right wingers continue to spout the rumor at every turn. All in an attempt to make folks applaud their wacky scheme against the standing president.

Conspiracy theorists never die and they never fade away. There are those who still believe George Washington was not the first president of the United States. Conspirators are still going wild over the death of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Elvis is still alive; man never landed on the moon; Vince Foster was not a suicide but was murdered by Clinton people (this one was a favorite of the late Jerry Falwell).

Conspiracy rumors will be with us, like the poor, forever. How far will these fanatics go in pushing this conspiracy? One of the richest conspiracy ideologues is Jerome Corsi. Remember him? He is an addict when it comes to conspiracies. He was behind the Swift boat vets propaganda against Sen. John Kerry during the 2000 campaign. It is so nutty when VP Cheney's own daughter, Liz Cheney, agrees with conspiracy.

As of last month, nine fellow Republicans members of Congress have backed Posey's bill. One of our Texas representatives, Randy Neugebauer, supports the bill because he didn't know if Obama really was a citizen. HOW ABOUT THE OTHER TEXAS REPS?

The Republicans claim the bill is for future presidents, not Obama. He will be running again in 2012. With all the country's problems of health care, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Wall Street mess, and high unemployment, these congressmen waste time with such a meaningless bill. Such a bill only encourages the conspiracy nuts that they are on the right track.

The web site FactCheck.org found Obama's birth certificate (pictured above) is not forged or altered. They say they have seen the certificate, touched it, and vouched that Obama "is an American as baseball, apple pie, burritos, pasta and kung pao chicken."

Michael Tomasky, columnist of Guardian.com.uk, writes: "What would I do without crazy conservatives? ... Obama can't prove he's not a space alien either."

Popular cultural myths refuse to die. Another one: rumor that President Obama is a Muslim. A recent Pew study found that many Americans still believe it to be true, and many more simply don't know the President's religion. Bottom line: Coming out from under the rocks are a lot of people who do not want a black president.

Political scientist Brendan Nyhan explains how misperceptions spread and says some of us can be incredibly stubborn in the face of facts.

_______________________________________________________

Support Your Local Newspaper

Newspapers vital for American democracy

Few westerns are as funny as the James Garner classic: "Support Your Local Sheriff." That title, with minor changes, fits my latest crusade best: "Support Your Local Newspaper."

This month the Waco Tribune-Herald has followed in the footsteps of the San Angelo Standard-Times and numbers of newspapers around the country. The Waco paper is now printed by the Austin American-Statesman.

As the American Revolution came to an end in 1783 there were forty-three newspapers in the cities, towns and villages of the new nation. Some doom-sayers think there may be less than that number of newspapers by 2010.

Not all papers are giving up without a fight. Adjustments are being made. Retire some staff. Cut the paper down to fewer columns which cuts the cost of paper, which is going up all the time. Shutting down printing presses and lose a lot of faithful craftsmen who have given their lives to the presses. It was the same when the invention of the off-set method put the linotype machines into museums.

To cut down on expenses a paper in the mid-west has dropped it's Monday paper. True, the growing financial pressure is not just with newspapers. Other jobs, factories or positions can come back after a decline. Newspaper can't do that nearly as well. And that is why it is so important to keep the local papers in business. It is difficult to start them up again.

Without newspapers who will be checking on corrupt officials, or injustice in the workplace, or praise the good deeds and reveal the "bad seeds" of the area? Example: Newspapers revealing the immorality of the secret "Christian" family of 133 C Street in Washington, D.C., where numbers of politicians live and apparently approve each others' peccadilloes.

Another Example: If people would read the newspaper they would not have to keep saying President Obama is a Muslim or doubting that his birth certificate shows him to be a United States citizen. Too many citizens flounder around in darkness by not reading the newspapers. TV sounds bites fall short of informative journalism.

How about all our high school football players and the game write-ups and pictures they treasure (when they win). TV does not give us daily baseball box scores, or financial and market results we can ponder. Another reason people buy newspapers are the comic pages. They may not be as good or funny as in the old days, but Peanut Classics, Zits, Blondie and others are appreciated each morning by the newspaper faithful.

When I moved to San Angelo seven years ago the Dallas Morning News was delivered daily to my home, in addition to the Standard-Times. I even bought the Houston Chronicle from time to time at Hastings. Then the News pulled out to major on the metroplex. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram only gets as far west as Brownwood. I wonder how long before the Sunday San Antonio Express-News will no longer show up at Town and Country?

I like newspapers. The first thing I do every morning is go outside and take a long deep breath of warm air, stretch down for my newspaper. (That counts toward my daily exercise.) After page one there are the obits. Was it George Burns who said it first: I read the obits and if I'm not there I get up? (Few quips are as old as that one.)

You learn a lot from obituaries. Many of these "ordinary" people, who have passed beyond the vale, did amazing things. Interesting to note their birthplace, marriages, and what they worked on or what they enjoyed doing.

I must be a little like the guy who said a lot of ink had rubbed off his psyche. Dad took three newspapers for his barber shop. Those were the days when the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had a morning and an evening edition and he took both plus the local Brownwood Bulletin and the local weekly. Dad and Editor James White had a running battle of wits. White didn't like the haircuts and Dad kept pointing out the short-comings of the paper. Magazines at the barber shop are as old as the ones at your doctor's office. They can't replace the daily paper.

Whenever I travel, I buy local papers. Even when traveling overseas, I like to get glimpse of the local color through the weekly or daily papers, even if I don't read the language. It gives a bit of insight, however superficial, of the local scene.

Buy a subscription for a friend. Think how dull the morning will be with just coffee and no paper. "Support Your Local Newspaper."

David Y.K. Wong influence continues

Observing an individual's contributions a rich experience.

When in a open-aired helicopter, remember to secure your seat belt. I thought I had done that but just as we lifted a few feet, I felt too loose in the seat -- something you don't want to feel. Hooking up the seat belt made me feel as secure as a bug in a rug.

We were lifting off the tarmac at the old Hong Kong Tai-Kak Airport in the year 1974. One of my film students (Hong Kong Baptist University) was in the front with the pilot and I was right behind him with David Y.K. Wong. We were off to fly over Hong Kong's Central District, the harbor and Kowloon. We were taking some movie film of the recently burned and half-sunk liner, Queen Elizabeth in the western outer harbor.

The venture had its beginning in Houston, where Fred, our neighbor and news cameraman for the local NBC-TV station (KPRC), gave me an old 16-mm movie camera. It had been on many a news story from fires to crimes to political gatherings. He gave it to me for use in our television writing and producing courses. It was almost an antique even then.

I was teaching a course in television news production (First in Asia) at Hong Kong Baptist University. One of my students from Malaysia was excellent with a camera, so he got the trip and extra credit. I invited Dr. David Y.K Wong, then president of the Baptist World Alliance, along for the ride.

David Wong, who died last year in California, spent some of the war against Japan (World War II) building an airstrip for the Nationalists army in Kunming, southeast China. Kunming was the end of the Burma Road and the home of the famous Flying Tigers, a group of American pilots who were fighting the Japanese before America got into the war. (John Wayne was in a movie about the Flying Tigers, but he was better in horse operas than playing a fighter pilot. I had a friend who was a pilot with the Flying Tigers and they were pretty special people. That is another story.)

David Wang was the first Asian to be elected to head the Baptist World Alliance, which is mostly a fellowship organization to unite and encourage Baptist churches world-wide. (As to the unifying work they do, it is all uphill!). David and his wife Lillian were always the life of any gathering. Not in the show-off manner of some, but an ordinary and well-to-do architect. Someone who made you feel good and even important.

I have no idea the make of the helicopter, it had no need of windows as it had no sides. But if you ever get in one, see that it has seat belts and then check out the hand grips first. Fortunately we did not have to sit on apple crates and the grips were worn, but did the job.

What does all this have to do with anything? Nothing. Just that there are people who come into our lives from time to time that deserve remembering. People who owe us nothing, but share friendship. People who do not look down on us if we are not really in their circle. "People-persons" as they have been called. They are not looking for what people do or don't do, but see always see their potential. They see the individual trees rather than the forest.

David Y.K. Wong was a people-person as was Millie Lovegren. She was born in the countryside of the Sichuan province in China to missionary parents. Toward the end of her father's service in China the local communist cadres arrested him. Kept him in jail and later house arrest just for being an American.

Meeting Mr. Lovegren later in Hong Kong helped me see why his daughter Millie preferred people to programs and things. Dr. Lovegren had no hard feelings toward his captors or his time spent in their hands. He saw them as young kids terribly misled.

So asking David to take the helicopter ride over Hong Kong was a way of thanking him for being who he was and all he and Lillian meant to the Christian cause and his dreams for all the Chinese and, especially of south China and his Hong Kong home.

(First appeared in the Brownwood Bulletin and San Angelo Standard-Times, 7-17-09)

WACO MAMONTH SITE -GOING NATIONAL?

Waco Mammonth Site Nears National Monument status (Above photo from Baylor/Mammoth web site www.wacomammoth.org/ with appreciation)

Mammoths have always taken second place to the dinosaurs in museums and in children coloring books and text books. Fossils and a few teeth are about all we have of the huge mammoths that came our way from Eurasia about two million years ago. (Or far older than the crazy uncle in your attic.)

A note from Chet Edwards says that soon Texas holiday-makers can visit a national monument for mammoths. Last month the U.S. Congressional committee approved the Waco Mammoth Site to become a national monument. Congressman Chet Edwards (D-Waco) said the Establishment Act of 2009 was passed with little to no resistance. This was the biggest hurdle so far in this ten-year struggle to protect the site of a mammoth herd's death just north of Waco. The world's largest known concentration of prehistoric mammoths perishing in the same event. (For history, photos and partners of the endeavor see: www.wacomammoth.org/)

From encyclopedias, we know there were three species of mammoths that lived in our country at the end of the last Ice Age. (That was a while before our land became the United States.) These were the Columbian mammoth, Jefferson's mammoth, and the woolly mammoth.

Mammoths, are in same family with elephants and mastodons (mastodons differ from elephants and mammoths in their teeth structure). Mammoths are closely related to our elephants, especially the one from India or Asiatic elephant. They stood 10 to 12 feet and weighed around six to eight tons.

Those in the know tell us that approximately 11,000 years ago all species of mammoths became extinct. They passed from the earthly scene about the same time (given a 100,000 years or so) as the well-known saber-tooth cats and mastodons. The horse also became extinct in North America but survived in other places.

The question is why did they become go extinct? To be honest no one knows how or why they disappeared. Research has developed several ideas as to what happened to these huge beasts. The mammoths were here long before the Clovis people (thought to be the first people to cross from Asia to the North American continent, some 14,000 years ago). As hunters the Clovis people contributed to the extinction. This also led to an environmental collapse.

Back in 1978, Paul Barron and Eddie Bufkin discovered a bone protruding on a creek bank outside of Waco. By 1990, fifteen mammoths had been identified. More scratching around identified more mammoths, a camel, and a young saber-tooth cat's tooth.

I am not a student of such things; just found it interesting and thought other Texas might also. The news of a nearer place to see the fossils and learn more about them caught my eye.

The U.S. House and Senate still have to vote final approval of the Waco mammoth site, but were impressed that $3.5 million had already been raised locally in Waco and Baylor University, partners in the effort.

The Waco Mammoth Site, if it becomes a national monument, puts it in the same category as the Statue of Liberty and General George Washington's birthplace.
__________________________

TWO THOUGHTFUL INSIGHTS

From back in mid-20th century Stewart and Mackintosh speak to us.

"God has committed to His Church – that is, to you and me – the possession of the gospel, the glorious tidings which are the lost world's only hope. Breathe on us, Breath of God! On us in the Church send resurrection: that the world may know that in Christ is life, and the life is the light of men!"
------- James Stewart, Scottish minister.

""I fancy that as we grow older, as we think longer and work harder and learn to sympathize more intelligently, the one thing we long to be able to pass on to men is a vast commanding sense of the grace of the Eternal. Compared with that, all else is but the small dust of the balance."
---------- Hugh R. Mackintosh, theologian

REMEMBER A REAL HERO

Memorial for Darrell "Shifty" Powers

I did not write this week's column. I don't know who wrote it, but want to believe it and share it with all who know what real heroes are like. The media honors and memorializes so many who are less than worthy of it. Stop for a moment this morning and consider one real hero, Darrell "Shifty" Powers.

Perry Flippin sent this to me with a note: "Memorial Service: you're invited," and enclosed the following E-mail. Don't miss the end of the story.

"We're hearing a lot today about big splashy memorial services. I want a nationwide memorial service for Darrell "Shifty" Powers.

"Shifty volunteered for the airborne in WWII and served with Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Infantry. If you've seen *Band of Brothers* on HBO or the History Channel, you know
Shifty. His character appears in all 10 episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them.

"I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn't know who he was at the time. I just saw an elderly gentleman having trouble reading his ticket. I offered to help, assured him that he was at the right gate, and noticed the "Screaming Eagle", the symbol of the 101st Airborne, on his hat. Making conversation, I asked him if he'd been in the 101st Airborne or if his son was serving. He said quietly that he had been in the 101st. I thanked him for his service, then asked him when he served, and how many jumps he made. Quietly and humbly, he said "Well, I guess I signed up in 1941 or so, and was in until sometime in 1945 . . . " at which point my heart skipped.

"At that point, again, very humbly, he said "I made the 5 training jumps at Toccoa, and then jumped into Normandy . . . do you know where Normandy is?" At this point my heart stopped. I told him yes, I know exactly where Normandy was, and I know what D-Day was. At that point he said "I also made a second jump into Holland , into Arnhem ."

"I was standing with a genuine war hero . . . and then I realized that it was June, just after the anniversary of D-Day. I asked Shifty if he was on his way back from France, and he said "Yes. And it's real sad because these days so few of the guys are left, and those that are, lots of them can't make the trip." My heart was in my throat and I didn't know what to say.

"I helped Shifty get onto the plane and then realized he was back in Coach, while I was in First Class. I sent the flight attendant back to get him and said that I wanted to switch seats.

"When Shifty came forward, I got up out of the seat and told him I wanted him to have it, that I'd take his in coach. He said "No, son, you enjoy that seat. Just knowing that there are still some who remember what we did and still care is enough to make an old man very happy." His eyes were filling up as he said it. And mine are
brimming up now as I write this.

"Shifty died on June 17 after fighting cancer.

"There was no parade.

"No big event in Staples Center .

"No wall to wall back to back 24x7 news coverage.

"No weeping fans on television.

"And that's not right.

"Let's give Shifty his own Memorial Service, online, in our own quiet way." Rest in peace, Shifty.

______________

See the tree, rather than the forest

Observing an individual's contributions a rich experience

When in a open-aired helicopter, remember to secure your seat belt. I thought I had done that but just as we lifted a few feet, I felt too loose in the seat -- something you don't want to feel. Hooking up the seat belt made me feel as secure as a bug in a rug.

We were lifting off the tarmac at the old Hong Kong Tai-Kak Airport in the year 1974. One of my film students (Hong Kong Baptist University) was in the front with the pilot and I was right behind him with David Y.K. Wong. We were off to fly over Hong Kong's Central District, the harbor and Kowloon. We were taking some movie film of the recently burned and half-sunk liner, Queen Elizabeth in the western outer harbor.

The venture had its beginning in Houston, where Fred, our neighbor and news cameraman for the local NBC-TV station (KPRC), gave me an old 16-mm movie camera. It had been on many a news story from fires to crimes to political gatherings. He gave it to me for use in our television writing and producing courses. It was almost an antique even then.

I was teaching a course in television news production (First in Asia) at Hong Kong Baptist University. One of my students from Malaysia was excellent with a camera, so he got the trip and extra credit. I invited Dr. David Y.K Wong, then president of the Baptist World Alliance, along for the ride.

David Wong, who died last year in California, spent some of the war against Japan (World War II) building an airstrip for the Nationalists army in Kunming, southeast China. Kunming was the end of the Burma Road and the home of the famous Flying Tigers, a group of American pilots who were fighting the Japanese before America got into the war. (John Wayne was in a movie about the Flying Tigers, but he was better in horse operas than playing a fighter pilot. I had a friend who was a pilot with the Flying Tigers and they were pretty special people. That is another story.)

David Wang was the first Asian to be elected to head the Baptist World Alliance, which is mostly a fellowship organization to unite and encourage Baptist churches world-wide. (As to the unifying work they do, it is all uphill!). David and his wife Lillian were always the life of any gathering. Not in the show-off manner of some, but an ordinary and well-to-do architect. Someone who made you feel good and even important.

I have no idea the make of the helicopter, it had no need of windows as it had no sides. But if you ever get in one, see that it has seat belts and then check out the hand grips first. Fortunately we did not have to sit on apple crates and the grips were worn, but did the job.

What does all this have to do with anything? Nothing. Just that there are people who come into our lives from time to time that deserve remembering. People who owe us nothing, but share friendship. People who do not look down on us if we are not really in their circle. "People-persons" as they have been called. They are not looking for what people do or don't do, but see always see their potential. They see the individual trees rather than the forest.

David Y.K. Wong was a people-person as was Millie Lovegren. She was born in the countryside of the Sichuan province in China to missionary parents. Toward the end of her father's service in China the local communist cadres arrested him. Kept him in jail and later house arrest just for being an American.

Meeting Mr. Lovegren later in Hong Kong helped me see why his daughter Millie preferred people to programs and things. Dr. Lovegren had no hard feelings toward his captors or his time spent in their hands. He saw them as young kids terribly misled.

So asking David to take the helicopter ride over Hong Kong was a way of thanking him for being who he was and all he and Lillian meant to the Christian cause and his dreams for all the Chinese and, especially of south China and his Hong Kong home.
____________________________

AMERICA NOT FOUNDED ON HATEFUL SPIRIT

HATE, much more than love, is BLIND.

I thought the Hate Mail Bag was full, but its cup runneth over. The heat of President Barack Obama's critics is definitely not on simmer. It is on high, possibly higher than when he was a candidate.

North America's first African-American president, the man right-wing talk radio calls "Messiah," "Savior," "the holy one," with all the cynical sarcasm they can muster. Such hate speech is not only on the rise, but dangerously close to urging some gun nut to attempt to hunt him down.

Lush Rimbaugh (not his real name, I don't want to give him any free publicity), the arch-conservative radio guy, called Obama a "half-rican," because his mother was white and his father a black African, famously played the "Barack the Magic Negro," take-off on his program. He applauds anyone who denigrates our president.

His latest idiotic "news" is to blame Obama for South Carolina Governor Sanford's going to Argentina. Obama has made government so bad, Sanford had to leave the country.

There is a cable-TV program that claims to be a "no spin zone," which might better be called "Don't try to out-spin the host of the O'Really show." Though his spin is apparently well rehearsed, it shows lack of research.

Another Fox TV cable show, the Hean Sannity program, proudly gets in on the act of slamming Obama. One of his radio program sponsors is a San Angelo church. (Again, I will not name the church because they do not need any more free advertising, but it is on Sixth and Main.)

This week a San Angelo radio station played a national talk show where a caller compares Obama to the biblical "uncircumcised Philistines." The host agreed and noted ancient Israel knew how to take them down. (I will not name the station, but it is 91.9 on the FM dial.)

Then there is Dr. Sam Vaknin, an Israeli psychologist whose writings are making the Internet rounds. He writes:

"Obama will set the clock back decades. ... It is no wonder that Ahmadinejad, Hugo Chavez, the Castrists [sp], the Hezbollah, the Hamas, the lawyers of the Guantanamo terrorists and virtually all sworn enemies of America are so thrilled by the prospect of their man in the White House. America is on the verge of destruction. There is no insanity greater than electing a pathological narcissist as president."

Just for the record: Vaknin (I suppose that is his real name) has no medical or academic training in the field and his Ph.D from Pacific Western University is in philosophy.

These brazen attacks on our president have not been entirely by politicians and media personnel or pretend-psychologist. Several black ministers and some white preachers are getting bolder with their potshots.

Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, a West coast black preacher, has published a thesis called: "10 Reasons to Fear an Obama Nation." He calls Obama's appointments dangerous and corrupt (a free-speech opinion); continuing genocide against the unborn (poor use of words against a law of the land); and claims Obama is turning "America into a ghetto." (We've had ghettos from the get-go.)

Peterson attacked his black brother preachers like T.D. Jakes of Dallas for "worshipping the wrong Messiah."

Rev. James David Manning (appears on YouTube a lot) reached way down low and said Obama "was white trash." He has written more vulgar things about Obama but I omit those as this is a family newspaper.

Some blacks are not sure he is really black while there are still some white preachers on radio still saying he was not born in the United States. My problem with all this is these guys have a growing following. I've no problem with people expressing their views or opinions. I do that for a living myself. Hate speech incites those with wobbly minds and is dangerous for all free-speech lovers.

Then there is Wiley Drake, a Southern Baptist pastor in California, former vice-president of the Southern Baptist Convention, announced he was praying for Obama's death. Using Old Testament texts to back up his "prayerful spirit."

Where were these critics when President Bush and Vice President Cheney took us from "shock and awe" into war? Where were the hate speech purveyors? They were cheering the neo-cons ever-onward into battle

Criticism of city, state or national government policies or church practices, or our neighbor's lifestyle, is a part of human nature. Hate, if nurtured, infects like disease. Look at the misguided mob in a scene from a Frankenstein movie (where the villagers go after the monster with pitchforks and blind hate). Think before your criticism evolves into hate.

If readers have read to this point, I admit my approach has been confrontational. But when all is said and done, I fully agree with humorist Garrison Keillor. Last week on the American Masters TV program, he reminded us that this beautiful country of ours could not have been created by angry people, people who hate.

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