'BIRTHER' alert - but this is interesting. Someone here at SF needs to try this

[landrun]

Check this out. I'd do this myself but I don't have the latest version of Adobe Illustrator.

This guy opens up the long form birth certificate that suddenly appeared after years of the white house saying the short form was sufficient.
It is downloaded from the white house's official site and shows the layers in the file.
The fact that there are layers in this PDF shows it is without question fake. Anyone who has done image editing knows how this works. And there are plenty of us here who have played around with images.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7k8T7tjTEg&feature=related

I'd just like to see a SF poster try this first hand. There is no possible way an origian file would have these layers in it. The layers show the file has been edited A LOT with a graphics program.

[cleller]

Interesting, but apparently its just the way computers make this stuff look. Fox even admits it.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/04/29/expert-says-obamas-birth-certificate-legit/

[Midtowner]

Are you serious? You must be trolling.

[yermom]

snoped by Fox. ouch.

[SouthCarolinaSooner]

Interesting, but apparently its just the way computers make this stuff look. Fox even admits it.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/04/29/expert-says-obamas-birth-certificate-legit/
I'm impressed they didn't seem to try to spin that article in any way. Step in the right direction, Fox.

[KantoSooner]

I'm getting to the point that I'd seriously think about writing a book on the significance of upwellings of conspiracy theories.
From the Birthers to the 9/11 'Truth' squads to the tedious scandals d'jour that Obama is going to take our guns away, or that the government has begun preparing concentration camps for a predicted social meltdown or that Romney takes his orders from a murky cabal of wealthy foreign bankers...generally delivered by some panting galoot who appears to want us to believe that somehow some Joe Everyman has stumbled across the biggest story in history that is just hiding in plain sight.
What does it say about us as a people that at this moment in history we appear so willing to suspend even the most rudamentary common sense?
We put more critical thinking into deciding on a breakfast cereal than we do in giving the foil hat revelation of the day the smell test. It's very odd.

[Skysooner]

I'm getting to the point that I'd seriously think about writing a book on the significance of upwellings of conspiracy theories.
From the Birthers to the 9/11 'Truth' squads to the tedious scandals d'jour that Obama is going to take our guns away, or that the government has begun preparing concentration camps for a predicted social meltdown or that Romney takes his orders from a murky cabal of wealthy foreign bankers...generally delivered by some panting galoot who appears to want us to believe that somehow some Joe Everyman has stumbled across the biggest story in history that is just hiding in plain sight.
What does it say about us as a people that at this moment in history we appear so willing to suspend even the most rudamentary common sense?
We put more critical thinking into deciding on a breakfast cereal than we do in giving the foil hat revelation of the day the smell test. It's very odd.

This is the thing about the evolution of politics that is really disturbing. The lack of critical thought or the questioning of our sources of information. A friend of my wife's asked her when did we know that our son was demon-possessed (he is mildly autistic). If I ever see that woman again in person, she is going to get it from me. That would have been the end of our friendship. The same thing is going on in politics.

[badger]

Even Fox knows that there's no shortage of anti-Obama stuff to work with other than the d@mn birth certificate. Even if he wasn't born in the U.S. (Hawaii apparently is one of our states... why, I really don't know. Ooo, islands! Let's make it a state! groan...), his mother is American, so therefore, he is too.

[KantoSooner]

Although a lot of it manifests in ostensibly political discussion, I'm not sure it really has all that much to do with politics or the polarization of politics. Maybe the political aspect is as much symptom as cause.
It's the suspension of all critical thought and an unwillingness to believe or accept that life is pretty much normal that seems at the core of the phenomenon. It's like the people who doubt the moon landings. Instead of a pretty well documented scientific/engineeering enterprise that went on from Goddard's experiments in the 1920's, we are told it's more logical to prosit a collosal hoax that no one has detected UNTIL NOW. And what's weird is that people buy into it.
Maybe it's the internet and the untethering of 'news' from traditional sources/filters. I don't know; but it certainly supports the happy thought that most of the people I meet on the street each day are actually stark raving mad. I find that entertaining.

[FaninAma]

Kanto, there is no big conspiracy by the Illuminati or big mulit-national banks. We, the citizens of the US, are only too willing to give them what they want with our vote for own greedy self-interest......deficit government spending and Fed monetary easing programs that pump up the value of their financial assets while sprinkling a few crumbs on the middle and lower classes.

I guess if taking advantage of the greed that is inherrant in human nature is a conspiracy then I guess you can call it a conspiracy. It's only a conspiracy if the intention is to cut out the masses by being secretive. There is no secret to what is going on economically so if you understand what is happening you can plan ahead and profit by playing the same game.