The Scholars' Gotterdammerung on Vyzygoth Thursday

UPDATE: This blockbuster show is now available for download HERE.


Herb Smith and I will appear on Vyzygoth's "From the Grassy Knoll" this Thursday, November 30, at 11 AM EST to discuss the recent upheavals in the 9/11 Truth community (if it still is a community). We'll also touch on the Laputans for 9/11 Truth, who sound almost reasonable compared to the Scholars these days. The show should be archived shortly after the webcast.

Aaaah, Yer Fadder's Mustache!

Sometimes when I consider the strife that erupts in every group of human beings, I am inclined to howl in naive fashion, "Why can't we all just get along?" I check the impulse, because I know that we can't. Dissent, festering (or perhaps "Fetzering") into rancor, ad hominem attacks, and name-calling is the worm in even the most idealistic organizational apple. Politics dictates when there are three people in a room, two of them will gang up on the other one. It doesn't matter whether these combatants are pirates or philosophers--except that the latter are by nature more vicious.

The recent "Oh yeah? So's your old man" tone of discourse between members of the Scholars for 9/11 Truth is distressing to those of us who have looked to the group as a lodestar of conduct and inquiry--but it's not entirely unexpected. The Uticans for 9/11 Truth were in large part inspired by the Scholars, and our tag line "because the soul of our nation is at stake" is from a speech given by Professor James Fetzer. So this current vituperative atmosphere is a case of "say it ain't so, Jim."

Jim Fetzer, while up until recently having presented sound material exposing the 9/11 cover-up, has let a few howlers get through. He repeated without caveat the Tom Flocco story of Barbara Olson being arrested on the German border. When callers or guests on his programs have dared to suggest that the Clintons weren't perfect, he has gone on tirades defending them. And on WING TV he extravagantly praised Victor Thorn's anti-Jew diatribe, 9-11 Evil, admittedly without having read it through. But Fetzer was still doing great speeches and groundbreaking appearances on Big Media talk programs, so we sort of winked at these lapses.

These days, however, the atmosphere at the Scholars has gotten rank. The website (edited by Fetzer) is as cluttered as a batchelor recluse's apartment, and is almost unnavigable. The No-Plane contingent of the group (which includes Morgan Reynolds and Judy Wood), notable for a certain ad hominem style, now purporting the use of high energy beams directed from space to bring down the WTC towers, has enlisted Fetzer in their ranks. This "Gang of Three" has been chipping away at the research, reputation, and character of Professor Steven Jones (whose thermite/thermate theory is now generally accepted by 9/11 Truth activists) to promote untested Star Wars fantasies. Jones has responded in a dignified fashion to their swipes, but the Scholars are irrevocably tainted by the others' vitriol and absurd jockeying for position.

Fetzer has stated that the site should not limit itself to publishing theories that have been through the rigors of testing, because "looking at alternative possibilities that have not yet been 'shaken down' is a large part of what real science is all about." Possibly. But the truculence of the theorists seems to be in inverse proportion to the soundness of the theories. The No-Planers are a testy lot, and now that they have this Outer Space component to their rag-bag of notions, they are impossible. Anyone who disagrees with their hallucination-of-the-month is a liar, a bully, or a Big Stupid.

Without imputing to him more sinister motives, it may be that Fetzer wanted to avoid the space-laser-like sting of their abuse--and so he climbed up on their bandwagon. Moreover, Fetzer is a philosopher--and, Lord knows, those guys will bite on anything, including the idea of their own non-existence. So why not believe in laser beams from space? Chances are, in the Multiverse, you can believe in everything at once and it will all be true. It is even conceivable (though not likely) that in some parallel world, the Official Story is what actually happened.

Nineteen Islamic fundamentalist hijackers with boxcutters flew passenger planes into the buildings to bring them down because they hate our freedom. Or destructo rays. Or mini-nukes. Or "galvanic corrosion." It's all good. Cogito ergo dumb.

Steven Jones -- "Lifting the Fog"

And here Professor Jones responds to the newest Judy Wood hypothesis:

WHAT DISINFO LOOKS LIKE?

Professor James Fetzer here makes a dramatic presentation of a theory that has just been newly minted by Professor Judy ("My Theory That Belongs To Me") Wood. If this Buck Rodgers in the 21st Century Hypothesis gains wider circulation, each 9/11 Truther will be required to wear a foil hat (fashioned of Morgan Reynolds Wrap) as a badge of ignominy. This stuff makes my Laputans piece sound sane. Gotta love the "Zorro slashes," too. I can almost hear the chant going up: "Fetzer and Judy, sitting in a tree--K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

Also, if Fetzer's talking about throwing Steinways off buildings, I'd like one. They're amazing instruments, and I've always really wanted one. Not dropped on me from a great height, but delivered by truck, preferably. If Fetzer is mad enough to wave his arms about like Zorro, he's not far from vandalizing a couple of Steinway Baby Grands. That would just make me weep.

Seriously, just what is Fetzer trying to do here? It begins to look very much like disinfo.

9/11 and American Empire

Great Programs from "Guns and Butter"

HERE is a link to the archive page of the excellent radio program "Guns and Butter," which has often featured such guests as Steven Jones, Webster Tarpley, Kevin Ryan, and David Ray Griffin.

Jim Hoffman -- 2004 LA Citizens' 9/11 Grand Jury

Announcing Laputans for 9/11 Truth

We have just received word of the formation of a new group, Laputans for 9/11 Truth. The Laputans take issue with what may be termed "logical" explanations for the destruction of the World Trade Center, such as the posited use of explosives and thermate to melt the steel, asserting if the cause "were merely that cut-and-dried, every schoolchild would know it." Having established that as a basis from which to work, the Laputans devote countless hours to constructing elaborate hypotheses limited only by their speculative imaginations.

Laputa, as you may be aware, is an island discovered in 1707 by Lemuel Gulliver. Its most salient characteristic is that it levitates at some distance above the surface of the Earth in accordance with the lofty thoughts of its inhabitants. Since the days of Gulliver, Laputans have kept pace with developments on other portions of the globe, though they remain aloof from it. They enjoy all the modern benefits of our television and radio broadcasts, though "enjoy" is probably too strong a word. They are too distracted by their own theorizing to enjoy much else.

Since the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Laputans like any other people could not fail (eventually) to be moved. Early last year, when they had become aware of what had occurred, Laputa opened its heart to us and sent us theories. But Laputan conspiracy theories, like their other musings, have nothing of the mundane about them. Because of their advanced learning and disinterested nature, we feel we must defer to these scholars. And so we present a few of their highly credentialed speculations concerning the occurrences of that fateful morning.

Dr. Jessie duBois, Ph.D., in her monograph "A Tree Dies From the Top Down" states that despite the popular belief that they were steel, the Towers were in fact made of wood to save on construction costs. The wood was then covered in aluminum foil to perpetuate the illusion of structural integrity. Since dry rot had already set in, it was no great difficulty to release huge swarms of ravenous termites (secreted in the top floors of the buildings) to bring the Towers down in rapid fashion.

Dr. Jay "Flash" Fitz-Gordon, Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Letters, not only believes that no planes hit the buildings that day, but that the buildings themselves did not really exist. "The Twin Towers," he says, "were a three-dimesional projection from outer space rendered so convincing that people actually worked in them." The cause for their destruction? "Somebody tripped over the power cord and unplugged the projector."

Dr. Ray Mullins of Laputa Tech offers what he calls his Zeitgeist Hypothesis: "No planes, no explosives. The Towers fell simply because it was an Idea Whose Time Had Come."

Dr. Felix Tannhauser suggests that the Towers are still there. "It was all done with mirrors. Big mirrors. Go ask any magician. David Copperfield was in on it."

And Dr. Bart Milvain, DDS, author of "Eskimos Shot Kennedy," affirms that steel is a liquid at room temperature, "like mercury." "There were huge refrigeration units in the towers to keep the steel from melting. After the planes hit, setting up a stress on those units, they malfunctioned. So the towers thawed like huge popsicles. That would also explain the persistence of molten steel in the basements, since steel is molten in its natural state." After we told Dr. Milvain that, with all due respect, steel had a somewhat higher melting point than he supposed, he snapped, "I have a diploma. And a corner office. Do you have a degree? Hah! I thought not. Just a bum. Well, I have a degree, and I'm right."

Molten Metal (and evidence of Thermite) at the WTC

Rare footage of Shanksville, PA

WHY THE OFFICIAL THEORY IS FALSE

No steel-framed building had ever collapsed due to fire. Due to the properties of steel, three conditions must be present for the collapse of a steel-framed building. Fires must be intense, long-lasting and large relative to the amount of steel in the building.

The corollary is that every previous total collapse was due to a controlled demolition. The Twin Towers, like WTC-7, exhibited all of the features of a controlled demolition. The official theory cannot account for any of them.

1) Sudden onset. Buildings are still, then suddenly the collapse starts as supporting columns are sliced by explosives. The Towers were motionless before they collapsed with no bending of the vertical steel columns and no video evidence of floors sagging.

A fire-induced collapse, if there were an example of one, would be gradual as floors would sag and vertical columns would bend.

2) Straight down. One of the hallmarks of a controlled demolition is the buildings fall in their own footprint so surrounding buildings aren't harmed. The Towers didn't land in their own footprint but came straight down centered around their vertical axes.

Again, due to the bending of steel a fire-induced collapse would asymmetric.

3) Near free-fall speed. According to NIST who authored the definitive government report on the collapses of the Towers, the North and South Towers fell in 11 and 9 seconds respectively. Free-fall from their height in a vacuum would be 9.2 seconds.

Because floors were pulverized from the top down, free-fall would not be necessary. The rate of collapse would be determined by the detonation timing.

Pancaking floors would be slowed by the resistance of the floors in accordance with the Law of Momentum Conservation .

4) Sliced steel. Explosives are used to cut through the vertical support columns into pieces. The steel is also generally cut into manageable lengths. Researcher Jim Hoffman observed most of the perimeter columns were sliced into 30 foot sections and the core columns sliced into sections a few stories high.

It takes high temperatures and directed energy to slice through steel.

5) Pulverization of concrete and non-metallic material. Explosives powerful enough to cut through steel can pulverize concrete. Virtually all of the concrete and non-metallic materials were pulverized into a fine talc-like powder while the building was falling.

Gravity can break the concrete into pieces but does not have the energy to pulverize it into dust. According to MIT scientist Jeff King this pulverization requires the breaking of chemical bonds, it is not a physical process.

6) Horizontal ejections. In controlled demolitions, there are horizontal ejections of dust and material from areas the explosives are set off. The ejections from the Towers were far more energetic, however. Massive steel beams were ejected in all directions at distances of up to 500 ft. and aluminum cladding was thrown up to 700 ft. away.

Gravity, of course, is a vertical force.

7) Total collapse. The Towers were reduced to rubble only a few stories high. Prior to and after 9/11 the only total collapses of steel-framed, high-rise buildings (aside from earthquakes where the building topples) were due to controlled demolitions.

Even if all the floors had pancaked, which they clearly did not, that would not account for the failure of the vertical steel columns.

8) Pyroclastic Flow. Controlled demolitions produce huge dust clouds when dust is ejected with great energy. Dust clouds were evident with a second of the buildings' collapse and expanded to many times the volume of each Tower.

Jim Hoffman calculated that the heat required for the dust clouds was over ten times the potential gravitational energy of the buildings.

9) Squibs, indicative of cutter charges. Horizontal ejections of white-grey smoke are seen below the collapsing areas. The location of the plumes corresponds to the location of the core columns.

Although it's been theorized the squibs were pressure releases from pancaking floors, the floors were pulverized with much of the debris thrown outside the fooprint of the building.

10) Molten metal in the basements areas. The high temperatures explosives generate to slice through steel produces molten metal. There were numerous accounts of molten metal buried under the rubble.

It requires temperatures of 5200 degrees F to liquify metal. The maximum temperature jet fuel reaches is approximately 1500 degrees F. Further, it quickly burned off leaving ordinary office fires that were relatively cool, oxygen-starved fires as indicated by the thick, black smoke.

11) Sounds produced by explosives. The 9/11 oral histories recorded by the Fire Dept. of New York (FDNY) contains numerous accounts of the occurances of explosives. One could perhaps argue that the explosive sounds were caused by gas lines. However, given that the collapses exhibited all the characteristics of a controlled demolition, it's clear that the sounds heard were caused by explosives. For example:

"There was just an explosion [in the South Tower]. It seemed like on television [when] they blow up these buildings."

- Firefighter Richard Banaciski

"It was [like] a professional demolition where they set the charges on certain floors and then you hear 'Pop, pop, pop.'"

- Paramedic Daniel Rivera

GUARDED PESSIMISM by Andy Senior

As an incorrigible skeptic sailing under the nominal registration of Democrat, I'd have to say that my mood right now may be characterized as "guarded pessimism." I did permit myself a few beers last night in observance of the Changing of the Guard; such libations being analogous to those consumed on any given New Year's Eve. ("Happy New Year!" is more of a cry of desperation than an assertion.) The fact is, they are still the Guard, and we are still the ones being Guarded.

The outlandish hubris of those now packing their bags to go at last offended the most brain-constipated voters in our nation, and faced with a choice between the sybaritic cast of perverted and corrupt Republicans and a gaggle of shiny new Democrats not much further to the left than their opponents, those voters opted for the Same Great Service Under New Management. Even the programmers of the rigged voting machines concurred.

It may feel like a purifying ritual, fumigating the stench of graft and hypocritical sodomy from our government, but the sanctimony of the other side (there being, by law, two sides) will rot and reek in its turn. When the virtuous Democrats invade our privacy "for our own good" will we hear the same yelps of outrage? When President Hillary moves to contain dissidents "for our nation's security," will her champions say, "Hey, wait a minute?"

I have no great hopes of the official story of September 11, 2001 being exploded in a new surge of truth and retribution. When it comes to telling the 9/11 Truthers to "shaddap!" no one does it more vehemently than their ostensible allies, the Democrats. They have just as much to gain by playing the Terror card, and will not relinquish it lightly. They will try to fight the War on Terror more "sensibly," but they will never allow examination of the basic assumptions of whether such a conflict really exists. When the Democrats take office, the 9/11 Truthers will become further marginalized in the controlled public debate, and may find themselves branded Traitors for their hard-headed insistence that 9/11 was an inside job.

Both parties funnel directly to despotism, through kicks and caresses alternately. Bush is the very model of a modern Mussolini, albeit with a weaker chin. Mario Cuomo, scholar and embodiment of compassion, hugged his state so tightly as governor that it began to feel like suffocation. Now his son is New York Attorney General, and is poised to reopen the flow of Governmental Love. The movement of this balance wheel between jack-booted brutality and the smothering of the Mommy State keeps the cycle of oppression in perfect time. You can set your watch by it.

And somewhere, Hegel is smiling.

UTICANS FOR 9/11 TRUTH ON VYZYGOTH THURSDAY!

UPDATE: This program may now be downloaded HERE.

Herb Smith and I will appear again on Vyzygoth's "From the Grassy Knoll" at 11 AM EST this Thursday (November 9) to discuss the (staged) mid-term elections and their impact (if any) on the 9/11 Truth effort. (Remember: Republican or Democrat, whatever Kool-Aid you imbibe is bound to give you a hangover.)

Tain't So, Honey, Tain't So

Here's a song to lighten your step on the dreary way to the polls tomorrow. (Real Player required.)

Letter to the Observer Dispatch

(Should be appearing soon. Here it is in unedited form.)


The collapses of the World Trade Center Buildings on 9/11 exhibited all the features of a controlled demolition. WTC -7 fell suddenly into its own footprint at free-fall speed. The Towers came down centered around their vertical axes with 500 ft. lateral ejections of massive steel beams and the pulverization of virtually all of the non-metallic material into fine powder.
The manner in which the buildings collapsed is inconsistent with the official theory of fire-induced, gravitational collapses. The discrepancy proves so problematic that NIST, who produced the definitive government report on the collapses of the Towers simply chose not to address it. (Nor does NIST address WTC-7.) The NIST report "does not include the structural behavior of the Tower(s) after conditions for collapse initiation were reached." Further, NIST obtained collapse initiation via computer simulations which they refuse to release.
What else could this indicate but a cover-up and high-level government complicity?

Explosions on 9/11

David Ray Griffin Copenhagen Speech

The Day No Moles Would Die

It is time for those in the 9/11 Truth effort to stop squandering the precious time and energy employed in responding to and attempting to refute (however successfully) any and all theories not sanctioned by the government that purport to bolster the "official" version of events. This would include the Rube Goldberg fantasies proffered by Popular Mechanics (in either periodical or book form), speculations by radio pundits and televised talking heads, editorial pronouncements from self-appointed "conspiracy debunkers" of Pitts-Cockburn-Taibbi stripe, and the sly brickbats cast by anonymous "experts" lurking in internet chat rooms.

Whether these moles are bona fide government shills floating trial balloons that the Washington establishment itself is too craven to endorse, or are merely proud Americans so far gone in terminal cognitive constipation that, however much they hate the current Administration, they assert the government "would never do anything like that," we must refrain from whacking them. (The latter are actually the more troublesome subset of hecklers, since they acknowledge the villainy of the elite while exonerating it of its most obvious crime.) Though pesky they may seem, they do not actually endanger our lawn. They exist instead to cloud and distort the issue, and to keep 9/11 Truth-seekers occupied in replying to their diversions and hallucinations. They feed on our attention, and any retort helps them to flourish.

There is but one Official Theory on the collapse of the buildings at the World Trade Center, and that is the account embodied in the ten-thousand-page report (produced at the cost of twenty million dollars) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Any other theory is simply not worth responding to. The NIST document, being the story offered by the government itself to cover and cloud its own wrongdoing, is the account that every 9/11 Truth researcher and activist must refute through concerted effort.

Fortunately, for all its bulk, the NIST report is easily demolished. It may be handily discredited through its assertion that the Towers fell as a result of the jet-fuel fires (after the planes dislodged the fireproofing material), its computer models manipulated to provide an outcome favorable to its own case, its refusal to show the visualizations of events leading to the moment the buildings were poised for collapse, its lack of data concerning the structural behavior of the buildings after the initiation of collapse, and its absence of any mention of the free-fall implosion of WTC Building Seven.

Directing the main force of the 9/11 Truth effort toward debunking this mendacious and unscientific document should be our primary concern. Once this Official Theory is proven conclusively to be a sham and that proof is made evident to all, let the moles, shills, Kool-Aid dipsomaniacs, and keepers of the flame of cognitive dissonance shout their cacophony of denial from the housetops. If we then need to respond, it should be with howls of laughter and the occasional well-aimed bit of ripe produce.