Rant on.

It’s sad, really. I read yesterday recent polls show increasingly more people believe President Obama:

1. Is Muslim.
b. May not be Muslim, but is not a Christian
iii. Was not born in the U.S.

Frankly, the first two points don’t really matter much anyway. Some will roar that yes, they do, but there is nothing anywhere in any of the rules about being president of the U.S. which state anything about what faith the president must (or must not) adhere to. Even if the conspiracy theorists are right and Obama is a Muslim, the worst thing would about it would be he lied convincingly to everybody about it for most of his life. Holy crap, a politician has never lied before! This would be a first!

Okay, sarcasm aside, there has yet been any evidence to suggest Obama is anything but Christian. He has attended a Christian church most of his life. Why would a Muslim man do that? The conspiracy theorists would say it’s to undermine the faith or to fit in so he could sabotage the country when he became president one day. Given the difficulty of becoming president, that’s one hell of a long shot. The members of the small sects of the Muslim faith who have committed acts of terrorism have not demonstrated a propensity to attempt plans which have only the most remote chance of success, so trying to get one of their number to appear Christian in the hopes of gaining the presidency…well, it just doesn’t seem like the way to go. These are organizations who favor quick and violent solutions, not ones who tend to make decades-long plans.

Besides, the president is, by design, not capable of making the sweeping changes the conspiracy guys seem to think he wants to make. The president simply cannot make up laws and put them into effect. There’s an immense process involved, one which would require the cooperation of Congress and the Supreme Court. Given that most of the members of both these government bodies were in office before Obama became president, it’s a little far-fetched to suggest he’s going to somehow take over the country and re-invent it with a Muslim bent.

Of course, reality doesn’t affect the conspiracy folks much. I came across one site with a whole page about how Obama is lying to us all and he’s a Muslim, etc., etc. Partway into absurd piece, I came across a sentence which noted how Obama’s name is one letter different from Osama. Seriously, this is a connection? So…since my name is Andrew, does that mean I could somehow be a comedian like Andrew Dice Clay? Or perhaps I need to change a letter for it to work…so does that mean I am secretly a woman named Andrea?

Conspiracy is nothing new. There are still those who believe the Earth is flat, and anybody stating otherwise is either foolish or (more likely) part of a conspiracy to keep the truth from everybody who thinks it’s a sphere. (One site pinned this to Christopher Columbus even though knowledge of the world’s shape predated his infamous voyage by millenia.) Then there’s the moon-hoaxers who think the trips to the moon–one or all of them–were faked in spite of overwhelming evidence it really happened.

I’ve quoted my father on this kind of thing many times before: Nevermind the facts, I have my own opinion.

Still, I like to think of this country as having, on the whole, reasonably intelligent people in it. Perhaps it’s just because I am an optimist, but I keep hoping these folks will see the light, give up their conspiracies and acknowledge what the rest of us knew all along.