Scientists were trying to understand religion from a Darwinian point of view. How could a species possibly gain any evolutionary advantage from learning to believe in things that aren't true?

Most species don't engage in politics. In politics, it can be an enormous advantage to believe in something that isn't true, as long as you can get enough other people to believe that same thing.

Excellent, What a great job Glenn.

Glenn stop it, you are making the journalists look bad. You cannot do that or you will be put on a list!

George Bush will be the last president of the United States. The first president was George and the last will be george.

This will happen through false flag terrorism operatives against us to seal the deal.

If not I will come back on here and say I was wrong.

In the sense that he added "Maybe not, these days. . . ." and linked to it.

This has been another edition of easy answers to stupid questions.

It may, in fact, be true that Melanie Philips is even nuttier than Gaubatz. But look at how Captain Ed speculates about that. First he joins the blogswarm, and links approvingly to her article.

"Bloggers today have been linking to an article in The Spectator, a well-regarded British magazine, written by Daily Mail columnist Melanie Philips regarding Iraqi WMDs. According to the man assigned to look for them, the WMDs were there . . . the truth has been hidden . . . Read the entire article."

Then, later, Captain Ed reconsiders, finding Melanie Philips to be just a bit nuttier than would be proper.

http://captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/009749.php
"See update below -- not very credible . . . is this Melanie Philips' stretching of Gaubatz' reasonable story?"
- - Ed Morrissey

There is one primary reason I know the conspiracy theory cannot be true. The Bush administration has never bothered to cover up it's incompetence before, so why start now?

From Glenn's OP:

It is not uncommon for a substantial portion of the population of any country to live in a purely mythical world, where desire -- rather than reality -- dictates beliefs. But it is most assuredly unusual for such a group to be the dominant political faction governing the world's only remaining superpower.

The fact that all but two federal level politicians in the USA support the war on cannabis is unequivocal evidence that major federal policy is driven by sheerest fantasy.

The fantasy being that cannabis is a "dangerous drug" for which it is necessary to make over three quarters of a million arrests each year.

If it weren't so sad and scary it would be amusing to note that the two federal level politicians who do not support the war on cannabis are Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul, two politicians who are about as diametrically opposed politically as it is possible to get in the USA.

As most neophyte mental health workers quickly discover, you don't argue with a patient concerning their delusions: "No, Mr Jones, your dentist didn't really plant a miniature transmitter in your tooth and is listening to your thoughts."

They will not only not listen to you but you become part of the conspiracy. The only thing that seems to work is medication.

The members of this right-wing cult, and it can't be called anything else, cannot be reasoned with, or persuaded with facts. We can't medicate them all. All we can do is monitor their behavior and, for god's sake, keep them away from positions of power.

As for keeping track of mosques and other subversion centers, that's a great idea. It doesn't go far enough though. One should compile a comprehensive list of all Moslems in the USA, publish it extensively on the internet and elsewhere and develop individual initiatives for combatting the malevolent influence of ethnic Islamic jihadism.

Here's a thought — how about making them wear green armbands with a little crescent and star on it, 'cause, you know, sometimes, like when they shave off their beards or take off their veils, they can look almost human. But if they wore armbands, people could cross to the other side of the street when they see them coming and the police would immediately know who to arrest when there is any trouble.

I originally thought that maybe the armbands should be yellow, but that might remind some people of something else. That wasn't a particularly good idea either

I just now (5:52 am Pacific Time) clicked on Glenn's link to Gaubatz's web site. As of this morning, there is a little comment on the home page to the effect that Greenwald has "sent thousands" to the web page.

Rather like saying "when we lifted the log, we were able to see the little things living underneath the log."

When did Muchelle Malkin have a sex change? You referred to her as a man.

Has anyone seen or heard from Clownsense/BeBop? He hasn't posted for a while.

Turnabout would be fair play. Iran recently passed a law requiring Jews to wear distinctive clothing, although it temporarily suspended its implementation due to worldwide outrage about it. Islam, and Iran in particular, has a long and sordid history of this, long predating Nazi times. See for instance

http://www.meforum.org/article/892

However in the USA there is no need for such intrusive measures. Once we have a database, we can efficiently keep track of them by monitoring their cell phones, which have many capabilities which unfortunately aren't being fully exploited. Besides providing precise location information, they can also be used as surveillance devices. Most cell phones can be remotely activated and can be used to surreptitiously eavesdrop on illegal or subversive conversations. This capability was recently used by the FBI to gather evidence on a Mafia don:

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-6140191.html

How ridiculous is this theory? IF Saddam had them why didn't he use them? IF this story is true then we now know that Saddam had WMD but not the kind he was willing to use against us! These kind of articles serve to perpetuate the fears of our right-wing blow-hards....and we all know how profitable that business is!