Shermer Versus Ryan Debate Wrapup

Kudos to Michael Shermer for doing a very, very good job. There were only a couple of missteps. Always consider your audience and tailor your responses based on that. This was an Air America audience. Shermer could have scored big by noting that Ryan was questioning whether the Bush Administration was incompetent, and that he was pretty sure Hartmann would not be surprised at that notion. And the Put Options question should be a slam dunk; all you have to do is note that the Put Options on United were bought by an investor who also purchased a large block of American Airlines stock.

But he hit almost every other note perfectly, and of course it's easy to critique from the sidelines. I'm not saying I wouldn't have made mistakes, just not those particular ones. ;)

Waterboy Wonder was miserable, no surprise. He started out slowly, with the usual "the government's own story is a conspiracy theory". About the only time he was effective was when Hartmann gave him some help with a blizzard of facts lead-in. He absolutely chunked his wrapup by claiming that the conspiracy theory is the only theory supported by the evidence; that's too big a leap for the non-CT crowd and he should have done the usual "there are enough questions that a new investigation is required".

And Hartmann was awful, especially after the debate where he agreed with all the woo callers and stepped all over the non-CTers. The notion that he's an "agnostic" is just a fig leaf. He's full-on Troofer.

Update: For the most laughable attempt to prop up Ryan, check out this ridiculous post by Alex Floum. He's put up some floaters in the past, but this is quite bizarre. Talking about the South Tower and the fact that controlled demolitions always proceed from the bottom:

While this may be considered demolition from the "top" of the building, if -- instead -- we imagine that the top is comprised of a 30-story high building, the demolition would actually proceed from the bottom of that building.

I'm speechless.

Shermer Versus Ryan Debate About to Start

Click here and choose "Listen Live". There will be a test afterwards. ;)

Thom Hartmann, Truther

Okay, I'm calling BS on this Thom Hartmann challenge.

Thom Hartmann of Air America radio is trying to organize a debate on his show between CT's and debunkers. Unfortunately he can't find anyone to defend the official conspiracy theory. The debunkers are obviously scared.

I saw this mentioned over at 9-11 Blogger something like a month ago. I dropped Thom a line, saying that I would be available and noted my credentials, including being cited in minor regional publications like Time, US News & World Report and Vanity Fair, as well as being interviewed by podunk radio shows like the BBC, Mancow, Rob Breakenridge and Andrea Shea-King.

No response to date. Now, it's funny but that's sort of how things go. I'm not Mark Roberts, but I'm certainly prominent in the debunking movement. Rob Bishop invited me on his show against Dylan Avery; as it happened Dylan was out that evening and so I debated Jason Bermas.

Rob mentioned several times during the show that they were getting record ratings and adding servers to handle the demand.

And I have never been invited on Truther Radio again. Record ratings, and nobody wants to debate me? I'm assuming this is something of a compliment.

Last summer I was baffled when I offered to come on the Mike Newcomb show on the local Air America affiliate to debate the Loosers. But I made the mistake of sending the offer to the "Truther" producer of the show, Jeff Farias, so somehow they never contacted me to get my side of the Loose Change story.

So perhaps I need to look harder at Thom Hartmann. And lo and behold, Thom Hartmann is already on record as a 9-11 crackpot. He signed this nutty 2004 declaration that endorses lots of 9-11 Denial, including James' favorite:

Why were the extensive missile batteries and air defenses reportedly deployed around the Pentagon not activated during the attack?

This one never ends, no matter how many times we remind them that there's a major airport only a couple miles away.

So, Thom, you're a kook, and we don't blame you for not responding to us. The 9-11 Denial movement wins all your listeners because none of the top Debunkers was willing to come on your show. Good, you win.

And your listeners lose.