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February 13, 2012
Binyamin Rose: Back to the Bunker: How a life-risking act by a Christian family during the Holocaust saved a family and built a thriving community a world away
Menachem Wecker: Business Schools Teach Real Estate Despite Troubled Housing Market
February 10, 2012
Lisa M. Krieger: Man with defibrillator demands access to his own heart's information
David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
February 9, 2012
Laura McMullen: 10 Least Expensive Public Schools for Out-of-State Students
Kimberly Palmer: How to actually enjoy -- relaxing, financially -- your vacation
February 8, 2012
Warren Richey: Why momentous Prop. 8 ruling might not satisfy gay-rights groups
Menachem Wecker: Though Controversial, LL.M.'s Can Lead to Specialized Legal Jobs
The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
February 7, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Caught off-guard? President's Super Bowl interview with Matt Lauer gives those who need a reason not to vote for him, a darn good one
Suzanne Bohan: Leaping lizards! Tiny reptiles advancing robot design
February 6, 2012
Jonathan Tobin: Iran Threatens Israel With Destruction, But the New York Times Doesn't Hear It
Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
Conspiracy theories, why people believe them and how they spread
By Glenn Garvin
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | (MCT)
David Aaronovitch and I are reporters, born the same year, but it seems he was a lot luckier than I for the first 30 years or so of his career. His first exposure to the world's wing-nut conspiracy theorists came only in 2002, when one of his cameramen earnestly explained to the dumbfounded Aaronovitch that the 1969 moon landing was faked by NASA for reasons unknown but doubtless sinister.
Underwhelmed by the theory — "a hoax on such a grand scale would necessarily involve hundreds if not thousands of participants" — but fascinated that an otherwise sensible colleague could believe it, Aaronovitch plunged into the murky waters of conspiratology.
"Voodoo Histories" is his witty and unnerving report on what he found, and apparently Aaronovitch has more than made up for all those years of sheltered existence. He's spent much of the past decade reading and speaking with the world's most profound nut cases. From the murder-by-enema of Marilyn Monroe (by the Mafia, the Kennedys, communists, her shrink, her housekeeper, take your pick) to the nerve-gas assassination of Princess Diana (by a transvestite hooker or an irate dry cleaner, take your pick), poor Aaronovitch has listened patiently to them all.
He even read the collective works of the Chaucer of conspiracy theorists, former newspaper reporter Jim Marrs. Marrs has written books connecting the Kennedy assassination, the Trilateral Commission, 9-11, Freemasons, UFOs, Nazis and ESP. "Here is a man," Aaronovitch observes respectfully, "who must think very deeply before taking a decision about whether to cross the road."
It is tempting to regard conspiracists like Marrs as the political equivalent of circus clowns, wearing tinfoil hats instead of bulbous red noses: comic relief in a troubled world. Does it really matter if a few loons want to waste their lives linking cattle mutilations to the death of Marilyn Monroe?
The answer, as Aaronovitch argues with grim conviction, is yes: They divert us from real threats. Fruit-loop perorations about explosives concealed in the elevator shafts of the World Trade Center distract Americans from the "un"imaginary conspiracy by Islamic fundamentalists to destroy us. And if the feds really blew up the levees during Hurricane Katrina, there's no need to examine the emergency preparedness of New Orleans' government, is there?
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Worse yet, conspiracy theories can creep through history like evil vines, enveloping and strangling the innocent. Easily the most fascinating — and horrifying — section of Aaronovitch's book is his account of the origins and growth of the myth of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion."
Supposedly a series of secret lectures by senior rabbis outlining their master plan to destroy civilization and impose an autocratic Jewish world government, the protocols read like a ludicrous parody of anti-Semitism. (Or, as Aaronovitch drily suggests, a transcript of "the board meeting of Evil Jews Inc.")
And, in fact, they started out as satire: They were first published in the 1860s as a satirical commentary on French politics between the souls of the conniving Italian diplomat Machiavelli and the French philosopher Montesquieu as they roast in Hell. They had nothing to do with Jews.
But a German author plagiarized them for a Jew-baiting novel, which Russian anti-Semites stole and presented as investigative journalism. By the 1920s, the protocols were widely circulated throughout Europe as a satisfying explanation for World War I that didn't require any self-examination by the continent's political establishment. The protocols were sympathetically received by The Times of London, Henry Ford and The Christian Science Monitor.
They also came to the attention of a frothing little German politician named Adolf Hitler. "They uncover, with really horrifying reliability, the nature and activity of the Jewish people," Hitler wrote in "Mein Kampf." Even when German newspapers began denouncing the protocols as a forgery, Hitler insisted that was "the surest proof that they are genuine." (Even then, conspiracists were ranting against the mainstream media.)
Nor did the protocols die with Hitler or his six million victims. Since World War II, they've continued to inform the dingbat yet deadly ideologies of anti-Semitic ravers from Idi Amin to Hamas and the mad mullahs of Tehran. Iranian television recently used the protocols as the foundation of a program accusing Israel and the CIA of carrying out the 9-11 attacks.
The obvious rejoinder to that is, if George W. Bush and the CIA were such adept conspirators that they could pack skyscrapers in Manhattan with explosives and fake planes flying into them to justify the invasion of Iraq, why couldn't they manage to plant a weapon of mass destruction or two in Baghdad to avoid all the embarrassment that came later? But that question, Aaronovitch sadly concludes, misses the point. "Conspiracies aren't powerful," he writes. "It is instead the idea of conspiracies that has power."
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© 2010, The Miami Herald; Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
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