Jeff Goldstein is a very funny fellow:

A popular German TV murder mystery show recently had an episode that could have come from the pen of Michael Moore and the conspiracy nuts on the left:

The woman, who says in the program that the September 11 attacks were instigated by the Bush family for oil and power, then is targeted, presumably to silence her. The drama concludes with the German detectives accepting the truth of her story as she eludes the U.S. government hit men and escapes to safety in an unnamed Arab country.As ludicrous as it may sound to most Americans, the tale has resonance in Germany, where fantastic conspiracy theories often are taken as fact.

Many Germans think, for example, that the 1969 moon landing was faked, and a poll published in the weekly Die Zeit showed that 31 percent of Germans younger than 30 “think that there is a certain possibility that the U.S. government ordered the attacks of 9/11.”

Here’s Mr. Goldstein:

Another one of those German “thought experiments,” most likely (my favorite is, “what if the Jews were responsible for German unemployment, a flagging economy, and the loss of Germanic pride? Are Gypsies worth feeding? What if we handled the “gay” problem with big pizza ovens?”).
Oh well, let’s cut them some slack. They’re just brave thinkers—positing fictional scenarios as a way to expand their understanding of how the pragmatic concept of contingency obtains in the shaping and propagating of historiographical interpretations of world events.

And what harm ever came from that….?

And speaking of “thought experiments”...

Mel Brooks is also a very funny fellow. In fact, there’s only one time I laughed so hard I actually peed in my pants. It was the first time I saw Brooks’ riotously funny movie “The Producers.”

It’s a Broadway show now. Matthew Broederick and the very funny Nathan Lane played the characters portrayed by the incomparable Zero Mostel and comic genious Gene Wilder in the movie. The plot is simple. A down on his luck Broadway producer, with the help of a mild mannered accountant, seek to make millions by swindling investors. They do this by overselling “shares” in the musical (50% of the profits for one investor, %75% for another, 100% for another, etc.).

But in order not to have to pay out, they must find an absolutely sure fire flop of a show. They find it in a musical entitled “Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchetesgarden.”

Here’s the title song, played to the hilt using showgirls dressed in provocative storm trooper outfits and a huge swastika as a backdrop:

Germany was having trouble
What a sad, sad story
Needed a new leader to restore
Its former glory
Where, oh, where was he?
Where could that man be?
We looked around and then we found
The man for you and me
LEAD TENOR STORMTROOPER:
And now it’s…
Springtime for Hitler and Germany
Deutschland is happy and gay!
We’re marching to a faster pace
Look out, here comes the master race!
Springtime for Hitler and Germany
Rhineland’s a fine land once more!
Springtime for Hitler and Germany
Watch out, Europe
We’re going on tour!
Springtime for Hitler and Germany

Move over Mel…you got company.