During the 2008 Presidential campaign, a rumor began circulating on fringe internet websites that Barack Obama was not, in fact, an American citizen. It was claimed that he was not born in the state of Hawaii, and because his mother was not yet nineteen and his father a British citizen, this meant that Barack Obama was not, legally, a citizen of the United States.
Barack Obama’s Certification of Live Birth
Despite its fringe nature, those who believe this to be true (often called “Birthers”) have been very loud in the media as of late. CNN host Lou Dobbs has expressed his skepticism that Obama is an American citizen. So, too, have prominent conservatives Rush Limbaugh, G. Gordon Liddy, and Liz Cheney.
It might seem, to the average person, that the “Birthers” must have a tough time proving their case. After all, Barack Obama has released his Certification of Live Birth (pictured above), which meets all the requirements for proving one’s citizenship to the State Department. The authenticity of the certificate has been verified by Hawaii state government. Moreover, Barack Obama’s birth announcement was found in two newspapers at the time, and such notices were provided directly by the Hawaii Department of Health.
Faced with this overwhelming evidence, the average person will no doubt shrug and consider the case closed. There is no question that the evidence points to the conclusion that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii and is therefore a “natural-born citizen.”
No question, that is, if you accept the dominant paradigm of metaphysical realism. That is, the idea that things exist independent of the mind and that those things are perceivable and knowable. Moreover, those who insist that Barack Obama is an American citizen also rely on philosophic naturalism–the idea that reality is subject to objective, knowable natural laws that can’t be tampered with.
However, if one rejects these two philosophic concepts, it’s quite easy to demonstrate that Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and is therefore constitutionally ineligible to be President of the United States.
Cognitive Relativism Shows That Obama Is Not A Citizen
Cognitive relativism is a school of philosophic thought that holds that an idea is only true if it is true within a particular conceptual framework that is subjective to an individual or a particular social group. With respect to the Birthers, then, we can see how Barack Obama is not an American citizen. The conceptual framework makes this an impossibility. After all, according to the Birthers, it is impossible for the short-form Certification of Live Birth to be acceptable proof that Barack Obama because their conceptual framework simply doesn’t allow for this to be true.
Accordingly, it must then be true that Barack Obama’s step-Grandmother saw him born in Kenya, even though she specifically denies that claim. Sarah Obama’s denial simply does not fit in with the conceptual framework of the Birthers, and so what she says cannot be true, and Barack Obama must have been born in Kenya. It’s a simple as that. Thus, because Barack Obama was born in Kenya, the law in 1961 means that his mother’s citizenship was not sufficient to grant American citizenship to Barack Obama. Therefore, Barack Obama is not a citizen.
The Law Of Attraction Shows That Obama Is Not A Citizen
Proving that Barack Obama is not an American citizen is not necessarily dependent on cognitive relativism. Other explanations exist as well. For example, in her book The Secret, Rhonda Byrne has discovered the heretofore unknown “Law of Attraction.” This “Law”, which according to Byrne underlies the entire functioning of the universe, states that thoughts themselves have an “energy” that is capable of controlling the universe by “attracting” reality to one’s thoughts. This is not easy, but it can happen with just a few steps:
1. Know what you want and ask the universe for it.2. Feel and behave as if the object of your desire is on its way.
3. Be open to receiving it.
For the Birthers, what they want is unequivocal proof that Barack Obama was not born in the United States and is therefore not a citizen. Now, if the Birthers follow these three steps, the universe will make it happen. Indeed, since the Law of Attraction underlies the universe (no matter what science and reason dictate), it is very clear that when the Birthers follow these three steps, the very structure of space-time will alter. We will find Obama’s certified birth certificate fade, Back to the Future style, replaced with documents showing that he was really born in Kenya.
Impeachment will soon follow.
The Norse Myths Show That Obama Is Not A Citizen
Another metaphysical possibility demonstrating that Obama is not a citizen is Norse Mythology. Prominent in Norse myth is the God Loki, who is a trickster god associated with fire and magic. Loki, like other gods, has enormous power over the universe. Indeed, in the Marvel Comics saga Ultimates 2, it was revealed that Loki has the power to shuffle the very fabric of space and time itself, making things disappear from perception. Loki used these powers in the Ultimates 2 saga to ensure that Thor was captured and imprisoned so that he could not interfere with Loki’s conquest of Asgard.
Clearly, Loki could have used his powers to change the fabric of space-time in order to make it appear that Obama was born in Hawaii when he, in fact, wasn’t. But why would Loki do such a thing? Simple. Loki is fated, according to Norse myth, to bring about Ragnarok–the end of the world. However, it is clear from the sagas that Ragnarok must be preceded by Fimbulvetr, the winter of winters. Fimbulvetr is described as being three years of winter with no summer in between.
What does this have to do with Obama? It’s simple. Obama has been essential in pushing through cap and trade legislation through the United States Congress, and his Administration has made it a major part of its agenda. But as Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle point out in their tome Fallen Angels, preventing the greenhouse effect would lead the Earth into a devastating ice age. In other words, Obama’s Cap and Trade Agenda will directly lead to Fimbulvetr. As no real American would sponsor legislation that would lead to the Twilight of the Gods, it was necessary for Loki to use his powers to make Obama appear to be an American citizen so that Obama’s election to the Presidency would be assured.
Clearly, Loki’s influence into American Presidential elections should be stopped and Obama should be immediately impeached for making use of a foreign power to obtain the Presidency.
Conclusion
While traditional adherence to quaint philosophic concepts might make it appear that the evidence overwhelmingly favors the conclusion that Barack Obama is a United States citizen, it is clear that this cannot be the case so long as we don’t pay any attention to the idea that there is an objective reality.
Cognitive Relativism, the Law of Attraction, and Norse Mythology all provide plausible philosophic justification for ignoring evidence and logic. Accordingly, because Obama’s claim to American citizenship is only supported by evidence and logic, he must not be an American citizen. Thus, Barack Obama is not eligible to be President of the United States.
It’s perfectly logical.
[...] those of you interested in the “Birther” controversy, I’ve written a lengthy philosophic defense of the Birthers at Heretical Ideas. Here’s a quick excerpt: There is no question that the [...]
Thanks Alex. This explains so much. One question though…
Does not the notion that President Obama is promoting his policies as “Fiscally Responsible” while doubling the national debt in five years and tripling it in 10 mean that the President himself is a “Cognitive Realist”? And since he shares this philosophical framework with the birthers, should he not also accept their conceptual framework where he is not a citizen, and simply resign? Just sayin…
[...] It comes from Alex Knapp: [...]
Even though the birth certificate shows Barack Obama to be born in Hawaii; according to the US Constitution
both of his parents also have to be Natural Born Citizens of the United States in order for him to be President or Vice-President of the United States. Since his father was born in Kenya that makes him ineligable for the office of President.
Even though the birth certificate shows Barack Obama to be born in Hawaii; according to the US Constitution both of his parents also have to be Natural Born Citizens of the United States in order for him to be President or Vice-President of the United States.
No, it doesn’t. Indeed, it says nothing about one’s parents. One could have two foreign born parents and still be POTUS:
That’s Article II, Section 1, Paragraph 5
[...] Knapp presents a philosophical defense of the Birthers: Faced with this overwhelming evidence, the average person will no doubt shrug and consider the case [...]
[...] Knapp makes a very convincing argument. Digg it | reddit | del.icio.us | [...]
Well done!
[...] a comment » This is pretty awesome: There is no question that the evidence points to the conclusion that Barack [...]
And if you’ve studied Obama’s biography, you know Obama is an expert in “cognitive relativism” — he soaked in the stuff at Occidental, seeking out the “cognitive relativist” Marxist professors and literary leftists (see Obama’s own memoir), and Obama soaked in the “cognitive relativism” of the Critical Legal Studies professors and “Critical Race Theorists” at Harvard Law.
This cognitive relativist stuff is stuff Obama mainlined in college and at law school.
Greg: I’m always impressed by how absolute absolutists’ ideas of relativism are.
[...] #5: Alex Knapp, with the best commentary [...]
[...] HusseinSecretMuslimTerroristMarxistMalcomXScaryBlackDudeCopHater Obama is not a citizen. var addthis_pub = ”; var addthis_language = ‘en’;var addthis_options = ‘email, favorites, digg, [...]
Come to think of it, Professor Gates never produced an original copy of his lease so how did Officer Crowley really know he wasn’t trespassing.
New standards of proof for African Americans my friends.
Way to go Alex, but you forgot The Sticky Pith Theory.
That is the theory which states that the mind is actually a sticky pith. Ideas enter through the eyes or the ears, continue inward until they find the correct place where that sort of information should be stored and collide with the sticky pith. If the idea isn’t too large or too weighty for the exposed surface of the pith to support, or the viscosity of its stickiness is not too low, the idea will stick. Otherwise, it falls to the floor and is blown out with the next sneeze.
In the case of Obama’s birth certificate: the image is visible on the Internet, or the voice of the talking head acknowledged that Obama had, in fact, a valid birth certificate. This information entered through the appropriate aperture. Having made its way to where such information should be stored, it collided with the information that Obama did NOT have a valid birth certificate, which had been proclaimed earlier. Since this new information cannot reach the surface of the pith to stick, it falls to the floor.
Subsequent repetitions of that information also bounce off the earlier information. Repetition does nothing more than hammer the earlier information more tightly against the stickiest part of the pith. Whatever its truth or authority, any second contradictory information cannot overcome the original information’s advantage of having arrived first.
I admit that some challengers have been able to discredit certain aspects of the Sticky Pith Theory. Nonetheless, no other theory yet propounded can so clearly illustrate why, in the face of overwhelming evidence, so many people cling to those ideas which they encountered first. Nowhere, for example, will you find a more pellucid explanation for the existence of Young Republicans, the popular belief in angels, or the utterances of Fundamentalist Christians
Hey Joyce,
Andrew Jackson was born to Presbyterian Scots-Irish immigrants Andrew and Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, on March 15, 1767, approximately two years after they had emigrated from Carrickfergus, in Northern Ireland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Jackson
Those wacky birthers with their theory about both parents having to be born in the U.S.
They just wiped out the Republican Party’s only non-white candidate, Gov. Piyush “Bobby” Jindal of Louisiana. His parents were born in India.
Rush is going to be so unhappy.
They also wiped out their former presidential candidate, as both his parents were born prior to the signing of the Constitution and therefore couldn’t be natural born citizens.
Who will be the first birther to cite this posting on cable news? You know it’s going to happen.
FYI, you failed to mention that God does not believe Barry Soetorro was born in His Dominion, either. Let’s just say I possess this information on good authority and leave it at that.
And to close the case completely, I personally have scoured the intergoogles for days and nights looking for pictures of his live birth in the USA. Not surprisingly, no such pictures exist.
Although it is remarkable, the sorts of things you’ll find using intergoogle terms such as “birth of Hawaiian negro from white tramp”
-RPTH
Awesome.
But a nitpick: The “Law of Attraction” fun goes back at least 100 years, to the turn of the (last) century New Thought movement, from which much pop New Age goofiness has been mined.
[...] rely too heavily on the metaphysical premise that reality is perceivable and knowable." Is Barack Obama An American Citizen? | Heretical Ideas Magazine __________________ May you live in interesting times. ~ (purported) ancient Chinese [...]
The God Loki and New Age wish-fullfillment? You’re all completely mad! By your logic, no one can proved to be a citizen: Loki tricked us all and we can use “The Secret” to take away your citizenship. That means Bush and Cheney weren’t citizens either! Or does this theory only work on Black democrats?
Insane, the bunch of you. Now go and prove that green is yellow.
Actually, at one time it was possible for a foreign-born person to become president. Anyone who met the age requirement of 35 years and the residency requirement of fourteen years but was not a natural-born citizen could have become president provided they were resident in the United States on or before 17 September 1787, the date that the Constitution was adopted. William Harrison, the ninth president, was the last one to be born a British citizen, and therefore the last elected president to use this grandfather clause exemption. Anyone trying to claim this status for the 2012 election would have to be able to prove he was born 191 years ago.
All very amusing, although one might question whom the joke is on.
Anyone interested in a reasoned look at the actual facts sans the wild conspiracy theories ( including why the birther controversy refuses to go away) might find this interesting reading.
Regards,
Rob
[...] Epistemological and Metaphysical Case Against Obama’s Birth Certificate Heretical Ideas just rocked my world: It might seem, to the average person, that the “Birthers” must have a [...]
All conspiracies aside, it would be super sweet to see Obama’s actual birth certificate. I’m pretty sure it could be located and released to the media, as Gov. Lingle stated she viewed the document. That’s all. All the rest of the conspiracies stem from the idea that the document is being hidden from the public. It would be very easy to quell the issue.
There is a distinct difference between being a natural born citizen, and a US citizen. SCOTUS has said that the constitution does not define that clause. We have to look to other writings, which do in fact say both parents need to be US citizens. Sorry your argument does not hold merit. You might need to consult an attorney before your next attempt.
Someone I know in the military sent this to me. It’s spreading around like wildfire within his battalion and he actually received this letter from his CO.
“What passport did Obama use when he was shuttling between New York , Jakarta , and Karachi ?
How did a young man who arrived in New York in early June 1981, without the price of a hotel room in his pocket, suddenly come up with the price of a round-the-world trip just a month later? Also, once he was on a plane, shuttling between New York, Jakarta , and Karachi, what passport was he offering when he passed through Customs and
Immigration?
Q: Did he travel to Pakistan in 1981, at age 20?
A : Yes, by his own admission.
Q: What passport did he travel under?
A: There are only three possibilities.
1) He traveled with a U.S. Passport,
2) He traveled with a British passport, or
3) He traveled with an Indonesian passport.
Q: Is it possible that Obama traveled with a U.S. Passport in 1981?
A: No. It is not possible. Pakistan was on the U.S. State Department’s “no travel” list in 1981.
Conclusion:
When Obama went to Pakistan in 1981 he was traveling either with a British passport or an Indonesian passport.
If he were traveling with a British passport that would indicate that he was possibly born in Kenya on August 4, 1961, not in Hawaii as he claims or that he was a dual citizen at birth, thus negating his being eligible to be POTUS.
.
If he were traveling with an Indonesian passport that would indicate he relinquished whatever previous citizenship he held, British or American, prior to being adopted by his Indonesian step-father in 1967.
Whatever the truth of the matter, the American people as well as we in the military need to know the answers to these questions. How he managed to become a “natural born” American citizen when he has allegiances to other nations through birth and/or adoption is beyond me.
Quasi, a Certification of Live Birth is not the same as a Long Form Birth Certificate. What was posted on the Internet was Obama’s Certification of Live Birth.
Cognitive Relativism and Norse Mythology and such aside, why does Obama spend a fortune on lawyers to prevent anyone from examining his original birth certificate.
And BTW, Obama’s grandmother said she didn’t see hm born in Mombasa only later after saying she did. Maybe somebody explained to her how this could hurt her grandson?
As long as Obama refuses to allow the vaulted version of his birth certificate to be examined, this fire will not go away. It will only become hotter.
I have exchanged letters with several journalists, and the one question I always pose is, “If Obama has nothing to hide, why does he spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on lawyers to keep anyone from examining his original birth certificate?”
It’s a very common sense question. I tend to think Obama is a citizen, but think he is hiding something that he doesn’t want anyone to see. You don’t fight so hard to hide something like this unless it contains an inconvenient truth.
And BTW, I am neither Republican or Democrat. I am a Classical Liberal.
Citizen? Maybe. “Natural Born” Citizen? Maybe NOT?
We’ve had name calling, conjecture, online “documents” of questionable utility in answering the question, vague statements from Hawaii, logic puzzles, newspaper clippings, etc, etc…
Nobody has presented irrefutable proof, a legal ruling by scholarly judges (Supreme Court?), Congressional hearings?, FBI labs?, CIA?
We’re still waiting…
Perhaps you don’t get a good answer b/c Obama isn’t spending money for that purpose at all?
It’s like I heard the pritcher say that one time:
In Man’s world, seeing is believing; in God’s world, believing is _seeing_.
(No, he didn’t go on to say, ‘In Soviet Union, external obervation of state vector causes YOU to collapse!’ Not one bit.)
And as for student Obama’s interests: I am a partcularly devoted student of many things I don’t find credible…formal systems do not need to map (injectively or surjectively) onto reality to be interesting. Study does not imply belief; I once shocked a cab driver by demonstrating knowledge of Islam without belief in any of it.
Alex Knapp, on July 28th, 2009 at 9:47 pm Said:
Perhaps you don’t get a good answer b/c Obama isn’t spending money for that purpose at all?
##########
Then what is the purpose?
Hostile: what evidence do you have that he’s spending that money at all? Obama’s well off, but he doesn’t exactly have liquid “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to bandy about on legal fees.
Alex Knapp, on July 28th, 2009 at 11:21 pm Said:
Hostile: what evidence do you have that he’s spending that money at all? Obama’s well off, but he doesn’t exactly have liquid “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to bandy about on legal fees.
###################
So your only reply is that I need to provide you with evidence that he is spending the money on these legal fees?
And who do you think is spending this money and why?
Critical thinking is a valuable asset in life. Catch it!
Hostile,
I’m questioning whether said money is actually being spent by anybody for any purpose whatsoever. In other words, how do you know that “hundreds of thousands of dollars” are being spent on lawyers to keep his birth certificate secret? (Which seems unlikely, since the state of Hawaii destroyed all its paper birth records in 2001.)
[...] Submitted By: The Glittering Eye – Heretical Ideas - Is Barack Obama An American Citizen? [...]
Hostile Knowledge,
Please name the lawyers being retained by Obama in these lawsuits. Then I can call them up and ask first what their hourly rates are, and then if Obama is indeed their client and paying their fees (in most states this information is not covered by attorney-client confidentiality).
Since you seem very confident that this is happening, I am sure you can give me these names with no difficulty whatsoever.
I had to stop reading the JoshuaPundit post at the point he said, “And by ‘birth certificate’, is he referring to the crudely forged photoshop of the short form certificate of Live Birth posted on Daily Kos? Because that’s the only one that’s ever been posted publicly to my knowledge, although Hawaiian public officials have publicly acknowledged the official short form Certificate of Live Birth’s existence.”
If he’s actually been following this at all (like, even read http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthcertificate.asp), he would know that Obama’s own campaign posted a copy of his Certification of Live Birth and that factcheck.org has inspected it and posted photographs of it on their own site (http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html).
Finally, I figured out why people are convinced that the Constitution requires both of your parents to have been born in the U.S. in order for you to be deemed a natural born citizen — they are relying on the Kerchner lawsuit, which says, ‘According to “The Law of Nations” by Emmerich de Vattel, 1758, Chapter 19, Section 212, “natural-born citizens are those born in the country of parents who are citizens.”’
Of course, Vattel was a Swiss legal expert who made that statement in reference to European law generally, not with regard to the then-nonexistent United States Constitution. When it comes to challenging Obama’s presidency, people who normally puke at the thought of citing foreign sources for authority are happy to do so.
As for why Obama wouldn’t want to produce whatever documentation de jour the birthers say they would consider to settle the matter: why should he? Folks like Hostile Knowledge are making asses of their Republican representatives and driving safe (and sane) incumbents like Mike Castle to retirement. So long as the birthers don’t take their belief that Obama is not the “real” president to the point of assassination (though some have warned Obama that he is playing with fire by allowing such rumors to fester), what’s the downside in having one’s political opponents descend into kooky conspiracy theories?
This is all highly amusing. A witty and timely article followed by dozens of comments from Conspiracy Theorists or just plain dupes (in both meanings of the word).
The sort of evidence supplied by birthers is similar to the evidence provided by tax deniers - easily disproven, but the “strength” lies in their abundance. No one has time to rebut each point every time its made (over and over and over).
For example: Despite whatever false emails are circulating around the military, there was not any sort of Travel Ban to Pakistan in 1981. Do you see how “facts” can just be stated without any sort of evidence, by putting it in the form of a question?
Q: Is it possible that Obama traveled with a U.S. Passport in 1981?
A: No. It is not possible. Pakistan was on the U.S. State Department’s “no travel” list in 1981.
The funny thing about “no travel” lists is that all you need to get around that is to have a State Dept license. I have gone to Cuba legally with a US passport and a license. It’s a simple process and probably much simpler in 1981.
[...] that sometimes piling on seems unsporting, but Alex Massie’s circuitous philosophical “defense” of the Birthers reminds me that it’s not so much what they don’t know that marks [...]
Get over it. A guy is part black and part white won. We won. You lost. Get over it.
Now have B ush show us his military record. We won. You lost.
The simplest way to prove he isn’t a citizen is to disclaim Hawaii as a state. As McKinley pressured the senate to ignore our constitutional prerequisites in order to annex Hawaii, it is actually constitutionally not a state. Therefore he is not a citizen.
A++++, would lol again.
I never thought that a discussion of birthers could be so much fun.
BTW. Ithink that they all got plenty of practice at this in the 1980’s when they were explaining how massive tax cuts raise government revenue.
I’m a neuroscientist, and one time student of philosophy at a well known university in England.
I thought this article was absolutely, utterly and completely hilarious. it is just completely fantastic. and very well written.
Have you thought about extending it with arguments based on bishop berkeley? Or Hegel?
A Hegel based argument would be almost impossible to understand, and very very funny too. If only I had the time…
I wonder when the Birthers will switch to claiming that Obama isn’t eligible to be president because he’s not human. Then you can have:
Citizen? Maybe. “Human” Citizen? Maybe NOT?
Insane, the bunch of you. Now go and prove that green is yellow.
Mark — Of course green is yellow. If Barack Obama is black, with a white mother and black father, then green, which has a blue mother and yellow father, is yellow.
Neoconned said, “How he managed to become a “natural born” American citizen when he has allegiances to other nations through birth and/or adoption is beyond me.”
Neoconned, you have been neoconned. It was George W. Bush who had allegiances to other nations: he acted as a Saudi agent. Didn’t he get them everything they wanted during his time in office? and fly them (the Bin Ladens) out of the country on Sept.11, 2001, before banning all air flight.
[...] the debate should be dead, right? No, no, not at all: Another metaphysical possibility demonstrating that Obama is not a citizen is Norse Mythology. [...]
It takes a real look at unreality to really show how unreal the unreality of our present reality really is.
h
The certificate of live birth (pictures of it is available on the internet) is enough proof, anyone who tells you otherwise is a conspiracy theorist or ignorant
[...] http://www.hereticalideas.com/2009/07/is-barack-obama-an-american-citizen/ [...]
Hey, good job with that logical hula hoop. You have really impressed us.
Really.
[...] try to follow the logic, there is none). But perhaps the most impressive argument of all is this one (ironic text alert for the humor [...]
[...] Is Barack Obama An American Citizen? A delightfully tongue-in-cheek article in Heretical Ideas Magazine offers those wacky mavericks, the “Birthers,” three theories (equally as bizarre as their political leanings) they can use to “prove” Obama isn’t a citizen and therefore cannot be president. [...]
[...] I wrote my satire of the Birthers last week, I assumed that the folks who seriously believe that Barack Obama is not a citizen was [...]
[...] Second place with 1 2/3 points – (T*) – Heretical Ideas - Is Barack Obama An American Citizen? [...]
Joyce Fail!
[...] favorite take on the Birthers, via the Economist’s Democracy in America [...]
[...] Birthers are right! Finally, a compelling argument proving that Obama is not a natural-born [...]
“Hostile: what evidence do you have that he’s spending that money at all?”
Alex, don’t you know how this works by now? It’s up to Obama to prove that he is NOT spending all that money on lawyers to cover up his birth certificate/school transcripts/police report of him stabbing an old lady in a voodoo ritual. That way, the crazies can make all the accusations they want against him, and until Obama provides documented PROOF that he is not now, nor has he ever been a Cylon, his whole presidency is illegitimate!
[...] Is Barack Obama An American Citizen? | Heretical Ideas Magazine Cognitive Relativism, the Law of Attraction, and Norse Mythology all provide plausible philosophic justification for ignoring evidence and logic. Accordingly, because Obama’s claim to American citizenship is only supported by evidence and logic, he must not be an American citizen. Thus, Barack Obama is not eligible to be President of the United States. [...]
wow, I’ve never seen so much mental masturbation and ego-stroking in one place before. To deny metaphysical realism’s place at the forefront of everything this beautiful civilization does is the ultimate tragedy of ‘the American Empire’ as history will no doubt label us. Even pondering any alternative distracts from the real work of our generation: To set forth “constitution 2.0″ if you will.. and metaphysical realism is at the core of that. Please, for the sake of my child and your own.. start awakening others now, before carbon taxes and other policies take our ability to provide.
Tim, I think you missed the joke, which is that under metaphysical realism, the claims about Obama’s not having been born in the U.S. are clearly nonsense, but under a rather superficial interpretation of cognitive relativism and other theories, they could seem plausible.
[...] first truly persuasive evidence that Obama is not a native-born American citizen… No TweetBacks yet. (Be the first to Tweet [...]
[...] I am pleased to say that it is very easy to demonstrate that President Obama is not a US citizen. This can be done in a number of ways: Cognitive relativism is a school of philosophic thought that holds that an idea is only true if it [...]
The proper question is not whether Barack Obama is an American citizen, but is Barack Obama a natural born American citizen.
The elephant in the room:
The real issue here is that a great many Conservatives harbour racist views and are just not happy about having a black man in the whitehouse. It seems these people, either conciously or otherwise, have latched on to this idea of him not being a natural citizen in order to legitimise their plainly racist dislike of Obama.
It’s similar to the 911 truth people, they cannot bring themselves to accept the truth of the situation and so will hapily ignore strong evidence that they simply don’t like, instead giving undue credence to weak or fabricated ‘evidence’ in an effort to boulster their preferd version of envents.
As a Uk citizen (birth certificate to prove it)I I have to say that the Birhers bullshit is presenting us with a very very poor impression of US conservatives - That said, we always knew the ultra-cons were fuckwits.
Besides, the last guy you voted in was a absoloute idiot who ruined your economy and sanctioned torture. Perhaps America shouold be more concerned with enacting a law requiring Presidential candidates to score above 100 on an IQ test
Also, you can use the same iffy interpratation of metaphysical realism to ‘prove’ that Obama is a block of cheese from mars.
[...] Second place with 1 2/3 points – (T*) – Heretical Ideas - Is Barack Obama An American Citizen? [...]
[...] your amusement, here are some arguments about why Barack Obama is not a citizen, if you’re willing to reject metaphysical [...]
[...] As someone who’s been writing about politics for almost a decade now, I am inundated with conspiracy theories in my inbox and my daily reading. They are simply unavoidable, as conspiracy theorists tend to be both loud and happy to share their beliefs with you at the drop of a hat. My response to most conspiracy theorists is to ignore them. Unless, of course, they’ve come up with something particularly entertaining, like David Icke’s theory that the world is controlled by shape-shifting reptilian humanoids from another dimension, or if they’re widespread enough among the general populace that they’re worth looking into and debunking, such as the JFK assassination conspiracies or the Obama birth certificate nonsense. [...]
[...] given that Taitz has so many accomplishments, how can she honestly believe such a ludicrous theory? My guess is that she probably doesn’t. No doubt she’s being forced against her will to [...]
[...] Yon’s “An Artery Of Opium, A Vein Of Taliban”. Second place honors went to Heretical Ideas’s “Is Barack Obama An American Citizen?” which I nominated and American Thinker for [...]
if people would study and focus on Hawai’i’s history, international law, and political science, they would come to see that Hawai’i ISN”T legally a state of the U.S. These people trying to “kill” Obama’s presidency should push this birth certificate crap aside and focus on the ILLEGALITY of Hawai’i’s “statehood”. It’s much easier to to prove.
nicely written piece. it’s unfortunate that there are so many people who live their LIVES according to the dictum that reality is a matter of opinion.
[...] Boykin when stating – delegitimize his presidency – is referring to the question of whether Barack Obama is a citizen of the United States and his records are false in Hawaii. But even if he was born in [...]