Idiocy 9/11

"Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise."
-- Bill the Bard

There's several new rounds of idiocy involving the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. Both are appalling.

According to a Scripps Howard poll, more than one out of three Americans thinks that America either performed the attacks itself, or allowed them to happen:

Suspicions that the 9/11 attacks were "an inside job" -- the common phrase used by conspiracy theorists on the Internet -- quickly have become nearly as popular as decades-old conspiracy theories that the federal government was responsible for President John F. Kennedy's assassination and that it has covered up proof of space aliens.

Just why is it that the tin-foil-hat-crowd is convinced government is completely incompentent, except when it comes to massive, wide-wrought conspiracies? You can't have it both ways. Either government can't buy a toilet seat or ketchup without screwing up, or government can con millions of people easily.

Then again, given the above survey, maybe it's not that hard to con millions of people. Remember how many people -- particularly those who watch FOX News -- thought Iraq had been proven to cause 9/11?

Among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages.
-- Samuel Johnson, 1758

Also via Fark.com, we have the second recent hint of 9/11 idiocy. CBS has already aired the superb documentary simply called "9/11" twice; it's a movie that started by accident, as two French filmmakers tried to document firefighters being trained on the job. Naturally, this offends some people.

Dozens of television stations are already canning the documentary or delaying it, over fears of increased government censorship through FCC fines and other threats. Witness this nice little touch of idiocy:

"This isn't an issue of censorship. It's an issue of responsibility to the public," said Randy Sharp, director of special projects for the [American Family Association], which describes itself as a 29-year-old organization that promotes the biblical ethic of decency.

Because, clearly, guys fighting for their lives and those of thousands of people they strive to protect ... must avoid the potty mouth when buildings are falling on them. The group is trying to motivate its three million members to file complaints because the way some people die doesn't fit their interpretation of the Bible.

It's not even an absolute interpretation of the Bible, as this scholar points out the Bible's ... literary ... references to copulation, excrement, genitalia, water sports and the like. So, what say we let the Bible speak for the Bible and the heroes of 9/11 speak for themselves?