The Kremlin says that the Islamic State shot down a helicopter gunship, killing two Russian crewmen. For its part, the Islamic State put out a video showing the helicopter crashing. Both Russia and the Islamic State are lying. The video is fake. Someone created it using computer-generated imagery (CGI). Fake Russian announcement Here’s what the…
The sicker they are, the more predictable
February 17, 2015
The late psychiatrist David Viscott said that the sicker people get, the more generic they become. Their actions become entirely predictable. Before I give you the latest example, I want to clarify: By sick, I mean pathological, not ill. People make themselves pathological. It’s a choice. They engage in behavior that they know is wrong….
At the root of all conspiracy theories
February 16, 2015
Behold a reader’s message. Personally, I don’t believe in ANY of the classic conspiracy theories that refuse to die: the JFK assassination, Area 51, Flight 800, Roswell, 9/11, chem trails, the Illuminati, and so on. Of course some conspiracies theories are true, but the overwhelming majority aren’t. To me it’s extremely obvious that the Islamic…
This is why I debunked the Islamic State video
February 12, 2015
My post “The Islamic State did not burn the Jordanian pilot alive” made a lot of people angry. They said that I was trying to minimize Islamic State savagery, and that the post denigrated the courage of Royal Jordanian Air Force pilot Lieutenant Moath Youssef al-Kasasbeh. If you actually read the post, you saw that…
The lost art of disagreeing
February 9, 2015
When I wrote my post debunking the Islamic State propaganda film Healing the Believers’ Chests, I had two goals: to show that Lieutenant Moath Youssef al-Kasasbeh didn’t suffer the hideous death depicted, and to undermine the terrorists’ ability to recruit new members. I didn’t anticipate that so many people are personally and emotionally invested in the…
The Jordanian pilot was not burned alive
February 5, 2015
Royal Jordanian Air Force pilot Lieutenant Moath Youssef al-Kasasbeh was murdered by the Islamic State. However, the video they released of Lieutenant al-Kasasbeh’s murder—freakishly titled “Healing the Believers’ Chests”—proves beyond all doubt that he was not burned alive. The flames are computer-generated imagery (CGI). I had initially intended to not watch the video, but the…