No more conspiracy theory crap please

This blog is now a crappy conspiracy theory-free zone. (Well, it always was on my side, but one or two regular visitors need to get with the programme.)

Any more posts about British military intelligence, the CIA, MI5 or 6, collusion between paramilitary groups, the New World Order, Zionist Occupational Governments, the Jesuits, or shape-shifting lizard people will be removed.

Same goes for nonsense about what 'really happened' in relation to 9-11, the bloodline of Jesus Christ, the conflict in Northern Ireland or the English royal family.

I lost patience for all that crap a long time ago, and I'm going to delete it any time I see it because those sort of contributions only serve to derail actual interesting debates.

I don't mind a topic going off-topic, so long as it's heading in some interesting directions. But the welcome mat is no longer out for anyone who's sole interest is to derail every single thread they post on with the same paranoid conspiracy theory crap.

Real Estate in the virtual world is pretty cheap. Go build a temple to the madness somewhere else on the interwebs. This blog ain't it. Sorry.

The Politics.ie conspiracy theory

It is strange how politics in Ireland functions sometimes.

While the Taoiseach's position hangs in the balance, with opposition TDs calling for him to quit and coalition partners demanding he make a statement, and while he is soon to face difficult questions about his evidence to a Tribunal of Inquiry, his legal firm instead are spending their time pursuing an online politics discussion board over a potential libel.

Obviously, in times like these, such an unusual set of events can provoke imaginative flights of fancy in the more excitable of politicos. Inevitably, therefore, a conspiracy theory has grown up around the events affecting Politics.ie the past few days.

Here's a little chronology of events in order for you to understand the context of the conspiracy theory. And following, there is the conspiracy theory. The first is factual, the second - I would like to stress - is fictional, though no doubt it is believed as fact in some quarters.

In order to highlight the difference, I have put the latter into italics. But first, let us go over the chronology of actual events:

A few weeks ago, the popular political discussion website Politics.ie was hacked into. The accounts of some Young Fine Gael members were accessed by the hackers, who proceeded to post on the website under their guise.
The opinions expressed were certainly not opinions those individuals would espouse. One of the Fine Gael members was able to prove categorically that they could not physically have accessed the website when posts were made under their name.
It became evident that the site administrator's own account had been hacked into, giving the hacker access to the passwords and email addresses of anyone registered with the site. Fortunately, as soon as this came to David Cochrane's attention, he took the site down for almost two weeks as he sought to make the accounts and the site more secure.

A few days ago, following revelations at the Mahon Tribunal, a poster who had only posted eight times in total and not at all since last Summer, opened a topic on the site entitled 'Grainne Carruth.'
Ms Carruth is the former secretary of An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern who recently gave testimony to the Mahon Tribunal that appears to contradict evidence previously given by An Taoiseach.
In the opening post of that topic, this poster made an allegedly libellous suggestion about Frank Ward and Co. solicitors, who represent An Taoiseach at the Mahon Tribunal.

This post was noticed by a prominent Fianna Fail poster on the site, who immediately suggested it could lead to a libel action. Others posted on the topic, but none mentioned Frank Ward and Co., nor did they make any suggestions of impropriety about them.
However, after the other posters, including myself, had concluded, someone changed the title of the topic to 'Grainne Carruth and Frank Ward'. As only moderators or those who commence topics are capable of changing topic titles, it is reasonable to assume that this title change was committed by the original poster, the same person who had made the allegedly libellous comment.
Overnight, Liam Guidera of Frank Ward and Co. contacted David Cochrane to demand the removal of the alleged libel. The tos and fros of that particular interaction can be examined here.
In short, he demanded the removal of the libel, an apology and the identities of six posters on the topic in question, including my own. I have made my response to that demand in my post below.

Mr Guidera told Mr Cochrane that his attention had been drawn to the alleged libel by Sean Dorgan, who is the General Secretary of Fianna Fail. Given that the alleged libel did not involve any Fianna Fail members nor indeed the party itself, it remains unanswered as to why the General Secretary of Fianna Fail would take it upon himself to scour the internet for potential libels of legal firms and then draw their attention to any he believed he had found.

In an attempt to maintain the forum of free speech and political debate that has become the hallmark of Politics.ie, Mr Cochrane has taken the brave step of moving the site to servers located outside of the country. This may have the effect of frustrating future legal action. Then again, it may not. Mr Cochrane has indicated, in the comments on the post below, that he intends to fight against this attempt to silence Politics.ie.

Today, the mainstream media have noted the affair (subscription required), but given its legal nature, have shied away from describing the full nature of the case, as I am doing here.

That is the story so far.

But I promised you a conspiracy theory, so let me pass it onto you. Here's how it goes:

It has been suggested by some people on Politics.ie that, because of
David Cochrane's involvement with the lobby group Libertas, which is campaigning against the Lisbon Treaty, he has become unpopular with some people in some mainstream political parties, all of whom with the exception of Sinn Fein are campaigning in favour of Lisbon.
It has been suggested that the recent attempt to hack the site in order to discredit Fine Gael posters may not have been a simple prank by a bored hacker, but potentially something more serious, more targeted, more organised.
It has been mooted that the hackers were seeking access to the database of passwords and email addresses in order to identify certain posters, and in order to make fake and discrediting comments under the guise of others, such as had happened to the Young Fine Gael posters.
It has further been suggested, even in the comments on my post below, that a 'false flag' poster could possibly have gone onto Politics.ie with the express intention of creating a libel, which was then coincidentally spotted almost immediately by a prominent Fianna Fail-supporting poster on the site.
Then the General Secretary of Fianna Fail somehow becomes aware of this alleged libel of a legal firm, who happen to represent the leader of Fianna Fail, and brings it to their attention. They immediately initiate action against Mr Cochrane and Politics.ie.
In addition to the poster alleged to have committed the libel, the firm also demands the identities of others who posted on the topic, but NOT the Fianna Fail supporter who identified the post as potentially libellous.
Instead, they seek the identities of individuals who did not refer to the firm at all in any form, but who are in general noted critics of Fianna Fail.
In short, according to this conspiracy theory, Fianna Fail, or someone acting on their behalf, would have successfully hacked into a website to discredit Fine Gael supporters and obtain the email addresses of posters who were anti-Fianna Fail.
Then, according to this conspiracy theory, the party manipulated a libel on the same site, knowing that David Cochrane as publisher would be legally liable, in order to silence the site and to damage him and the anti-Lisbon campaign.
And here endeth the conspiracy theory as I understand it.

It seems to me that some politicos have very feverish imaginations, not to mention a large degree of paranoia. Such a conspiracy theory could clearly not be remotely true. It is clearly preposterous to suggest that either Fianna Fail or Frank Ward and Co. would ever be involved in such an outlandish set of events.

Rather, Fianna Fail's General Secretary was simply doing a good turn when he passed on details of this potential libel to the legal firm, and they, as is entirely their right, sought to defend their good name.

Of course, in order to dispel this sort of nonsense, it would be helpful if Sean Dorgan explained the circumstances surrounding how he came across the alleged libel in the first place, and why he chose to take it upon himself to pass on the information to Frank Ward and Co.

Until he chooses to clarify those details, I suspect that this conspiracy theory may continue to have currency among the more gullible and suggestible in political circles.

It just goes to show what strange times we are in when such a conspiracy theory about the largest political party in the country can arise so quickly. What could they have possibly done in the past to make such an outlandish story plausible to people?

Man on the moon?

Everyone is entitled to believe one crazy conspiracy theory.

Human minds being what they are, discerning patterns among unrelated events is both the reason we rose above the other great apes to the level of civilisation and the reason paranoia is endemic.

Hence the popularity of clearly mental propositions, whether they be the Zionist one-world government, the secret bloodline of Jesus, the CIA took out the twin towers on 9/11, or my personal favourite, the faked moon landing.

Now, being by nature too lazy to research the facts about dubious issues, I am happy in my ignorance over whether man ever did make it to the nearest satellite or not. Suffice to say, that in my lifetime precious little advancement in space travel has occurred.

So either NASA hit a wall pretty quick in terms of what's technologically possible, or they faked their early successes in order to get one over on the Russkies. Since whatever factual records exist are edited, or classified, or possibly faked, it's hard to know for sure.

Certainly, the issues over lighting in the moon landing footage, and the inability of satellites to discover where the original landing site is today, do raise a few concerns. But let's face it, none of this particularly matters in (and on) a world suffering so many wars, famines, corruption and atrocities as the one we inhabit.

There are other things to get upset about, you know.

Like the Jews running the world with the shape-shifting lizards, who got the Vatican-controlled CIA to blow up New York and blame it on the ragheads because otherwise people would find out about Jesus's children, for example.

The moon landings, fiction or fact, don't rate highly in terms of contemporary relevance, I'd argue.

But you'd think that NASA, conscious that there are people out there who doubt everything they've ever claimed to have done, would be sensitive to anything that would imply it was all a big game.

Apparently not. The defunct Multideath Corporation, so defunct in fact that they never got to funk at all, has drawn my attention to NASA's latest project: they're looking to team up with a computer games firm and create an educational online game about space travel.

So NASA intend to go up against the World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings online and all those other outlets for net-enabled nerds with too much time and not enough social life.

Fair enough, one thinks. A little bit harsh on the games companies who will have to compete against the US government in their own market, but if this is where NASA are going, so be it.

But it does leave me wondering why they're ploughing US tax dollars into creating games software, designed to allow people to pretend they've visited the moon when they haven't left their unkempt bedrooms. Unless, of course, NASA have a special expertise in this area.

Is this a prelude to NASA admitting that they've been spunking tax dollars on fantasy space travel for the past fifty years?

Just a thought. A crazy, paranoid conspiracy theory thought. But we're all entitled to one.

P.S. Seems like Fred Reed agrees too. I'm becoming worried at how many opinions I find I'm sharing with a notoriously unhinged, former 'Soldier of Fortune' staffer.