A Bird in the Hand

I've only occasioned to catch Alex Jones' commentary a few times over the past several years. But he did a brief segment today on a radio show I frequent during my morning drive. The subject: Birds dropping dead from the sky in Arkansas.

Of course, it didn't take long for the conversation to make an outward spin towards talk regarding more general and larger conspiracies. But for a short time some conspiracies regarding the death of said birds were discussed. There was a time in my life where I was far more open to conspiracy theories (as I was to New Age philosophy and spiritualism - but that is another story). But it seems like in recent years, at least for me, most talk from conspiracy wonks meet their end in a long path of logical fallacies. In short, it's hard for me to listen to most conspiracy-theorists without them sounding a little crazy - or at the least unfounded.

Luckily, Alex didn't disappoint.

Unwinding the story, he relayed how "suspicious" it was that the birdly body count kept rising from story to story. I couldn't begin to tell you how quickly my brain began to dismiss every tidbit of opinion that followed that statement. "Suspicious?" I thought. Body-counts (avian or otherwise) rising as a story unfolds doesn't sound suspicious at all. Generally the numbers will match what can be confirmed at any given time. And over time, you might expect that number to remain the same, but it wouldn't be particularly suspicious if it increased...as with any story about a flood, earthquake, or bombing.

In fact, what would be "suspicious" is if that number decreased over time. And even then, I would generally attribute that to over-zealous and shoddy early reporting...not to some global conspiracy to kill us all off via fluoride in our faucet-water. Then again, maybe I'm just one of the "sheeple" as Alex would put it.

Baaaaaaah.