Right Wing Nut House

This is sure to receive a lot of play at the Democratic Underground Forums over the next few days:

A former Bush team member during his first administration is now voicing serious doubts about the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9-11. Former chief economist for the Department of Labor during President George W. Bush’s first term Morgan Reynolds comments that the official story about the collapse of the WTC is “bogus” and that it is more likely that a controlled demolition destroyed the Twin Towers and adjacent Building No. 7.

“If demolition destroyed three steel skyscrapers at the World Trade Center on 9/11, then the case for an ‘inside job’ and a government attack on America would be compelling.” Reynolds commented from his Texas A&M office, “It is hard to exaggerate the importance of a scientific debate over the cause of the collapse of the twin towers and building 7. If the official wisdom on the collapses is wrong, as I believe it is, then policy based on such erroneous engineering analysis is not likely to be correct either. The government’s collapse theory is highly vulnerable on its own terms.

There’s only one, teensy tiny problem with this economist’s engineering analysis; it’s contradicted by the most knowledgeable experts in the world:

The authors attribute each tower’s collapse to three separate but related “loading events.” The first event was a Boeing aircraft hitting the building, cutting through the exterior structure and creating a fireball that immediately consumed some of the estimated 10,000 gallons (38 kiloliters) of jet fuel. The highrises’ structural systems were sufficiently redundant, however, that this major damage by itself did not cause the collapse. According to the report, “most of the load supported by the failed columns is believed to have transferred to adjacent perimeter columns through Vierendeel behavior of the exterior wall frame.”

The second event was the continuing fire, fed both by the remaining jet fuel and the office contents of furniture and paper. This fire heated and weakened the structural systems, adding stress to the damaged structure. Meanwhile, the sprinklers were not operating as designed. “Even if these systems had not been compromised by the impacts,” says the report, “they would likely have been ineffective… the initial flash fires of jet fuel would have opened so many sprinkler heads that the systems would have quickly depressurized and been unable to effectively deliver water to the large area of fire involvement.”

The third event was a progressive collapse: “As the large mass of the collapsing floors above accelerated and impacted on the floors below, it caused an immediate progressive series of floor failures, punching each in turn onto the floor below, accelerating as the sequence progressed. Freestanding exterior walls… buckled at the bolted column splice connections and also collapsed.”

The report was compiled primarily by the American Society for Civil Engineers, world renowned experts in the field of structural failure. In order to believe anything other than the official report, one would have to posit a conspiracy theory featuring a cast of thousands.

The report was also vetted by experts before it was released. In other words, other scientists and engineers who checked the work of the report’s authors would also have to be involved in a cover-up.

What truly makes this bizarre is that an investigation carried out under the auspices of an independent trade association (ASCE) and verified by the most respected scientists and engineers in the field is being questioned by an economist! Far be it from me to pooh-pooh someone’s abilities in a field that they didn’t have any formal schooling. But the people who investigated the causes for the collapse of the twin towers didn’t just have degrees in civil engineering. Many of them had more than 20 years of experience investigating structural failures around the world. That kind of expertise trumps anything someone like moonbat Reynolds could ever hope to come up with on his own from simply reading books on the subject.

The MSM is ignoring this story, as they should (although UPI evidently had it on their wires). I became aware of the story via Drudge. I say “For Shame” to Drudge for giving this story any play at all.

I would love to see a follow-up story on this moonbat Morgan Reynolds. It would be interesting to hear him try to rebut some of the smartest people on the planet and a report that’s been accepted by scientists all over the world.

UPDATE

Surprisingly, it’s been the right side of the sphere that has picked up on this story. So far, even the DU moonbats and Klueless Kossaks are ignoring it.

Little Green Footballs:

None of the chuckleheads who propose theories like this ever seem to consider that professional demolition on such a scale would have been a gigantic task, would have taken a lot of time to set up, and would have been very visible to the tens of thousands of people who worked in the Trade Center every single day.

Not if they were invisible, Charles. You forget the Rovian Cloak of Invisibility. And don’t forget the Cone of Silence.

Yippee-Ki-Yay:

Don’t ask an engineer, ask an economist.

Precisely. And if I want to know what the inflation rate is going to be next year, I’ll ask my barber.

Stones Cry Out:

Wait! All of this academia lunacy can be explained rather simply. George Soros and MoveOn are putting lead in the water at major universities! Makes perfect sense!

Maybe not lead. More likely a delicious cocktail of Psylicibin soup with a delicate seasoning containing a dash of LSD and a pinch of mescaline.

The World Wide Rant has the moonbat’s email address. Do ya think he’s going to get some weird mail?

We don’t need a follow-up interview with the moonbat. Here’s a piece on paleo-conservative Lew Rockwell’s site by the nutty professor: (HT: The Corner Via Memorandum)

Knowing the personnel of the Commission, its abysmal Report is no surprise. It did its best for the White House, not the nation. Michael C. Ruppert is one of the more radical 9/11 researcher-critics around. Let’s follow his logic for a bit. He says, put aside the acrimonious debate over the physical evidence about what really caused the twin towers, WTC building 7, and the west wall of the Pentagon to collapse; put aside obstructionism by FBI headquarters, the mysterious U.S. military lay down on 9/11, the nonchalant behavior of Bush and the Secret Service on 9/11, the exploded airliner over Pennsylvania, Saudi flights out of the country, the skullduggery of the Pakistani secret service and the Israeli Mossad and a thousand other gaps in the official theory.

Instead, focus on the suspects. If it can be demonstrated via incriminating, irrefutable evidence that the suspects had means, motive and opportunity, then we’re on our way to criminals convicted in the court of truth. Ruppert says that the pivotal evidence that opens up the case and exposes the government conspirators is the secretive yet undisputed air war games that were going on the morning of 9/11. These games, conducted to protect against hijacked airliners as well as a Russian attack, included Vigilant Guardian, Northern Guardian, Vigilant Warrior, and Tripod II. All were reported on by major press organizations relying on quotes from participating military personnel, as well as NORAD press releases.

Now prepare yourself a jolt: “Ruppert’s new book will name Vice President Richard Cheney as the prime suspect in the mass murders of 9/11 and will establish that, not only was he a planner in the attacks, but also that on the day of the attacks he was running a completely separate Command, Control and Communications system which was superseding any orders being issued by the FAA, the Pentagon, or the White House Situation Room.”

Can this be right? Preposterous? Traitorous? Is Ruppert just another wild-eyed crackpot? I don’t know, but at least he’s not “mobbed up.” That’s more than the Commissioners can say. By its incredible behavior before, during and after 9/11, the government brought this spreading disbelief on itself.

And Kevin at Wizbang sums up the professor’s idiocy regarding “the full range of facts” very nicely:

Only if “the full range of facts” excludes those pesky airplanes that billions of people world-wide witnessed on video tape flying into both towers of the World Trade Center…

“The irrationality of a thing is no argument against its existence, rather a condition of it. ”
Friedrich Nietzsche

“Only someone who made a living out of being irrational can say that with a straight face.”
Me

Cluelessness is more than just a state of mind. After all, most of us at one time or another in our lives have experienced moments of being clueless. How many times have you been in a car and not had the foggiest idea of where you were? Or been at a loss for words when your spouse asks what you were doing out until 4:00 AM? At a strip bar? With the phone number of someone named “Peaches” written in lipstick on your palm?

Now that’s clueless!

Stupidity is an equal opportunity disease. It can strike people of any race, any sex, any nationality, and any political persuasion. Of course, it seems to be funnier when one’s political opponent proves themselves to be clueless. But why limit ourselves here? There’s plenty of ammunition for all sides of the political spectrum. Liberal, conservative, libertarian, anarchist - the possibilities are endless, limited only by good taste and a dutiful sense of noblesse oblige.

Thankfully, the Shadow Media rarely lets good taste stand in the way of thwacking the truly clueless. Hence, the idea for this Carnival. Some of the most interesting and inventive writing can be found when we point our fingers in mirth at the moonbats, loonbats, charlatans, fakes and fakirs of politics and culture.

So sit back and enjoy! And make sure you bookmark this site and return every Tuesday for some rollicking good writing and good times!

Van Helsing of Moonbattery makes his living feasting off the idiocy of others. In this post, find out what happens when our Customs and Border Patrol proves that we have a little work to do when it comes to defense of the homeland.

A likely candidate for Cluebat of the Year would have to go to Irene Kahn of Amnesty International. Here’s Mark of Decision “08 and his take on The Great Gitmo Gulag Gaff of 2005.

Pamela of Atlas Shrugs takes Hillary Clinton to task for her selective memory on China. Why do I get the feeling Hillary is going to be a Carnival regular?

Minh-Duc of State of Flux fisks Kevin Drum’s choice of books he considers among the 10 most harmful written during the 19th and 20th centuries. A response to the Human Events piece, Drum jumps the shark…and then some with his selections.

Josh Cohen of Multiple Mentality has a beef with the Supreme Court’s medical marijuana decision. So do most of us, I imagine.

A.J. of The Strata-Sphere wonders about Congressional spending on a report stating the obvious.

Nickie Goomba is mad at the ACLU for complaining about “cruel and unusual plumbing” at Gitmo. “Military guards have been heard complaining that it takes over 400 plunges of the toilet handle to flush a standard Koran. A Torah can take almost a week to flush.” I agree. We need to work on the technology of waste disposal if we want to get truly efficient with our desecrations.

Diamond, AKA “Zombie” is a photographer. Peruse this page of photograph links and get a true sense of the marvelously clueless moonbattery on display at demonstrations against…well just about everything.

No Carnival would be complete without Howard Dean. The Powerline guys says he’s a gift that keeps on giving,” kind of like a Norelco Electric Razor but without the Fathers Day wrapping paper. Raven at And Rightly So simply calls him an idiot. C’mon girl! Tell us what you really think!

Our lone lefty entry this week is from Jack Cluth at the People’s Republic of Seabrook. His subject is James Sensenbrenner. You remember Representative Senseless? He wanted to criminalize “indecency.” Actually, it may have been worth it just to see Oprah do the perp walk. This time, Sensenbrenner is taken to task for walking out of the hearing on re-upping the Patriot Act. Mannerless? Yes. Warranted? Depends if you like political theater or not. The two act comedy put on prior to Sensenbrenner’s exit could qualify for an Academy Award Short nomination.

Kender of Kender’s Musings trains several well aimed barbs at Socialism (capital “S”). I almost penalized my blog bud for picking too easy a target. But then I remembered…Don’t get on Kender’s bad side. I’m still pulling the stingers out of my hide from the last time I crossed him.

I’ve just got one question for The Maryhunter of TMH Bacon Bits: Who is Squidward and where in God’s name is “Bikini Bottom?”

Cao (pronounced “Key” for those of you not familiar with the Celtic idiom) of Cao’s Blog plays with one of her more clueless trolls. Now Cao, how many times have I told you not to feed the trolls? Feeding them only helps them procreate and make many where before there was only one. In this case though - an Islamist loon - we can make an exception.

Barry Ready, the Palmetto Pundit, takes on the idiocy of Charles Rangel. Rep. Rangels hyperbole regarding the holocaust and the Iraq war is typical of a man who introduced a measure last year to re-institute the draft and then got mad when Republicans brought it up for a vote. Charlie must be a lousy poker player. It was a no brainer calling his bluff when he wasn’t even holding a pair of deuces.

Bill Teach over at Pirates Cove has an exclusive picture of one of John Kerry’s advisors. Now, where have I seen that face before?

My own entry this week knocks Frank Rich for not staying on as the New York Times Drama Critic.

That’s it for this week. I hope a few more of you liberals out there will join us next week. I promise to include your entry regardless of subject matter.

If you’d like to enter next week’s Carnival, send me an email with your post’s URL or, go and visit Ferdinand T. Cat and use his handy Carnival Entry Form.