Maggie's Farm

The University of Wisconsin at Madison has, in their wisdom,�hired a certain Mr. Barrett to teach a course called "Introduction to Islam." Mr. Barrett has founded an organization called: "The Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9-11 Truth." That sounds nice, if a nightmare for the caterers; people of many faiths getting together to... hey! What's this "truth" he's talking about?

''The physics of those collapses clearly could not have resulted from plane crashes and jet fuel fires with office materials.''�Barrett says jet fuel does not burn�hot enough to melt steel, and says recent tests on melted steel from the building prove his theory that it was wired to collapse, by the Government.�

� Barrett says the Bush Administration is fooling the American public with the Adolf Hitler 'Big Lie Technique'...

�Out there in Iowa...I mean Wisconsin... That's truth with a capital "T" and that spells out Trouble!

the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance, which claims the Bush administration planned the attacks to create a war between Muslims and Christians. He argues that members of the faiths must work together to overcome the belief that terrorists were to blame.

"The 9/11 lie was designed to sow hatred between the faiths," Barrett has written on the organization's Web site.

"Either we discuss the compelling evidence that 9/11 was an inside job, or there is precious little to talk about."

Oh, I see. George Bush is a crazy lunatic that wants to foment war with the Muslims. Hmmm. Well, since George Bush is the President, I guess he can do that without all the genocidal urban renewal Mr Barrett figures he needs to undertake, but hey, I'm not the expert. Apparently, Mr. Barrett is. He claims to know all about the structural properties�of skyscrapers, and the ramifications, if you'll pardon the term, of ramming big airplanes filled with jet fuel into them. Who are we to quibble? He's got degrees in Arabic and African Folklore. Those come in handy when you're setting rebar in concrete, no doubt.

He's� a deep thinker, Mr Barrett:

9/11 was designed by non-religious, Machievellian-Straussian cynics who believe that hatred and hostility are what move the world. By uniting for 9/11 truth we are standing up for love and compassion against their hatred. And we are standing up for astonishment and awe against their cynicism. For them, it was just a minor special effects extravaganza, put together by Hollywood specialists to manipulate audience emotion and pave the way for war�a slightly more realistic version of Wag the Dog. For them, the deaths of a few thousand people mean very little..

Astonishment and awe? I thought it was "shock and awe." And he wants to do swell things by talking about this stuff:

Kevin Barrett will discuss strategies for turning the 9/11 psychological warfare operation against its perpetrators, and using 9/11 truth as a "magic bullet" that could demilitarize the American economy, overthrow corrupt elites, turn attention and resources toward pressing environmental concerns, and usher in a new era of peace and justice.

Hmm. Magic bullets. What, no magic beans?

Now when someone tells me they want me to believe them about one thing, so they can get me to do something else, I wonder about the veracity of that thing I'm supposed to believe. Like when bums ask�you for money for food. Sometimes, I hate to disappoint you, but they spend the money you give them on booze and drugs. That's just�FYI; I don't want to cast aspersions on hobos by associating them with Mr Barrett.

And so if Mr. Barrett wishes to have me�pay attention�to his beliefs on environmental concerns and so forth, which seem, well, not germane to discussions of mass murder, and to get me to do so by accusing the President of the United States, along with large numbers of other persons in the government and military necessary to mount such an audacious scheme, I have but one question for him. Just the one.