If you have half a mind, that's all you'll need...

Last night I watched TV for the first time in weeks and, boy was it good!

In 9/11: Conspiracy Road Trip, five young confirmed conspiracy theorists were given a free trip to the United States, courtesy of BBC 3, where an attempt was made to introduced them to foreign concepts such as critical thinking, probability and common sense.

Charlotte was a nanny in New York at the time of the attacks and had evidently been traumatised by the experience. Charlie, a former philosophy student, thought the twin towers had been brought down by controlled explosion. Rodney took pride, like so many conspiracy nuts, that he was privy to ‘something that very few people know about.’

Each member of the group was allowed to expound their particular take on the events of 9/11 that persuaded them that the attacks were an inside job. The group was then introduced to experts and witnesses in an effort to resolve the issues that troubled them.

One member of the group doubted that anyone but a trained pilot could have flown a passenger plane into the twin towers. She was given a flying lesson and in less than an hour she flew a plane round Manhattan and successfully landed it, which should have proved that anyone with even rudimentary training could have flown an airliner into the largest building in Manhattan.

A technician and a demolition expert demolished the notion that the collapse of the twin towers was due to a controlled explosion in the building. Charlie, at least, appeared almost astonished to discover there were perfectly reasonable explanations for phenomena he'd previously found baffling. But Charlotte and Rodney were not for turning. The fact that one of the expert witnesses had a commendation from President Bush on his wall was proof positive that he was untrustworthy.

As with most conspiracy theorists, nothing was going to persuade her that Bush and his administration had chosen to kill thousands of American citizens as a pretext for invading Afghanistan.

I was listening closely for when Israel would be brought into the equation and, sure enough, Rodney was of the opinion that Israel was in there.

Well, as we all know, only the Jews are evil enough to pull off such a stunt and we know they are evil because they did it.

What a difference a day made

US President Barak Obama has withdrwan his support for plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero (see The House Barak wants to build)after families who lost loved ones on 9/11 labelled him “insensitive and uncaring”.

On Friday, he said: “As a citizen and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right ... to build a place of worship and a community centre on private property in Lower Manhattan.”

On Saturday the President modified his comments: “I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque [at Ground Zero]. I was commenting very specifically on the right that people have that dates back to [America’s] founding … my intention was simply to let people know what I thought. Which was that in this country we treat everybody equally and in accordance with the law, regardless of race, regardless of religion.”

Hamas co-founder leader its chief on the Gaza Strip, Mahmoud al-Zahar, speaking on Sunday on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio” on WABC-AM in the US, said that Muslims “have to build everywhere so that followers can pray, just like Christians and Jews build their places of worship.”

Fair enough. But if Moslems must have freedom to build places of worship wherever they choose in the West, regardless of whether the places they choose to erect their mosques offends the sensitivities of bereft families, why don't Christians and Jews have the same freedoms accorded them in Islamic lands?