Keep the change in the sofa...

It is amazing to me that we are a relatively educated public with a wealth of evidence at our fingertips, but something like Loose Change still gets the masses going. For you two people out there who haven't seen and/or heard of Loose Change, it is the foremost authority on the 9/11 conspiracy belief that the attacks were not orchastrated by a terrorist organization desiring to strike a blow at Americans, but instead a clever inside job organized and performed by highly skilled professionals.

Sounds like a great movie, doesn't? Well, yes, and it was going to be that. When the producer and creator of Loose Change, Dylan Avery, began to research the project, he was hoping to show a group of friends who find out that 9/11 was indeed an inside story. While in the process of doing so, what do you know but he himself became convinced. Is that life immitating art or what?

So, Avery and his friends put together a little film which is free to anyone to watch where they go step-by-step over the many, MANY reasons they believe that 9/11 was not just the darkest day this country has ever faced, but also the biggest lie this government has ever told. You thought JFK was something? Listen to them.

However, between making a movie with a good plot and a "documentary," the producers failed to provide something that I believe even Stephen Colbert could have helped them with. Truthiness, or just straight up truth.

It begins early in their film when while discussing the Pentagon's attack, they conclude that the plane could not have made the maneuvers it did without being a military plane. Their proof came in a quote from Danielle O'Brien, an air trafic controller with Dulles. She said, "The speed, the maneuverability, the way that he turned, we all thought ... all of us experienced air traffic controllers, that that was a military plane" This is true. She did say that. She followed with, "You don't fly a 757 in that manner. It's unsafe." However, the second quote was not in the film. The answer is of course quite simple. The first quote makes you believe that those watching were convinced what they were witnessing in horror on their radar screens was a military plane. The second quote specifies that they felt that way only because of the way it was flying, not because they felt it _was_ a military plane.

The film goes onto discuss an event that occured involving former President George H.W. Bush's plane. It hit a light pole and crashed. The light pole caused severe damage to the plane. Meanwhile, the 757, as it heads at dangerous speeds at the Pentagon, hits five of them. Loose Change says the light poles caused no damage. They would later say that there was little, if any, wreckage from the crash as part of their reasoning that they were convinced of a missile hitting the Pentagon and not a plane. See any problem? How did they know the light poles did not cause much damage? If you can answer that, you are either pretty smart or as crazy as Dylan Avery and his partners are.

We continue. I don't want to focus entirely on the Pentagon story, but there are so many things that are just too good. The film goes on to state that there was in fact little wreckage of the plane. First, the point about if a plane _had_ hit the Pentagon, a bunch of wreckage would have been everywhere. This is a picture of a C-130 that crashed while it was attempting to land at the Tehran airport.

What plane? That is what the Loose Change producers would want you to think. If you want evidence, I will give you a link but want to specify that if you scroll to almost the bottom, there are pictures of human remains. The page is pretty big so you can avoid it by not scrolling that far down, but I wanted to make that clear. Here is the link. These pictures were pretty easy for me to find. They're pretty easy to find period.

The film (I really struggle to call it that) continues with details about an engine that could not have possibly been the two large jet engines a 757 would carry. While ignoring all the strawman arguments they make, I will move on to the picture they put up as evidence:

Bam. Not an engine, right? Nope. But it is a rotor to an engine. It is not, as they state, an entire engine in tact. I guess that hurts the theory.

But the real fun stuff, if it wasn't so sad, comes up when they discuss the World Trade Center. First, they time the collapse of both towers to ten seconds each. They're off by about seven seconds. Big seven seconds I would say. They also say that the WTC towers and WTC 7 were the first three buildings to collapse because of fire. I just realized why we don't see them when they are telling their story. You can't possibly say that without a straight face. No buildings...in HISTORY...have collapsed because of fire? What now?

They use evidence, if you want to call it that, of a B-52 hitting the Empire State Building in 1945 and amazingly, the Empire State Building still rises above buildings in New York. It's either a miracle or shows that planes didn't bring down the WTC, right? They don't even state in their narration that the building was open the next day. Little nugget of trivia.

First, a B-52 didn't hit the Empire State Building. In fact, the B-52 would not fly for another seven years. Its maiden flight took place on April 15th, 1952. Why tax day? No clue. Now, a B-25 did hit the Empire State Building. A B-52 has eight engines and was designed for long bombing runs across the planet. A B-25 was a World War II 2-engine bomber that could barely bomb Germany and make it back to Franch bases. See the differences?

My favorite part of the entire trainwreck is when, as evidence that it couldn't possibly have been the airplanes, their fuel, and the collissions, we should listen to Willy Rodriguez. The janitor. That's your argument. The janitor?

You can't make this shit up.

This is just some of the interesting stuff the 9/11 conspiracy movement tries to bring up. There is plenty more. I just had to get some of this off my mind as I watch friends try to tell me how great Loose Change is. There are several problems with these theories.

One...George W. Bush was in office for about nine months when this event happened. If you've ever studied government, you know how long it takes to get something done, like increase your department by five. Even if they had all the plans before Bush took office, it would have taken a huge amount of manpower.

Second...how many people are involved here? Let's start with the pilots. You've got the ones on 9/11 and then, the ones who saw these airplanes, or at least claimed they did, while they were flying on 9/11. Then, you have all of the people who planted bombs in the World Trade Center. Let's say...we're up to 50 people, not including the high-up parties. Alright, we have, what, 225 or so on the four planes that are unaccountable for. If they're dead, well, that solves that. If they're alive, we include them in this conspiracy with their families. A good 750 people there and 800 overall. Then, you have all of the intelligence figures involved, politicians, etc. Between 500 and 1500, depending on how many Americans we killed to keep them quiet. Now, say, there is just 500 people involved. How in the hell do 500 people keep quiet about anything, let alone the juciest lie ever told? Answer that one, Dylan Avery.

Third...if these guys are so good, and you have to admit they are because I'm quite skeptical of nearly everything and I do not doubt the official story, they made a lot of amateur mistakes to allow this to occur. Why, for instance, would you not have plane wreckage everywhere near the Pentagon, at least more than was visible? Why, for instance, would you slam the second plane in the WTC tower at an odd angle after hitting the first one straight on? Why, for instance, would you develop this story of a plane crashing in Pennslyvania?

And finally, the fourth reason the 9/11 Conspiracy movement lacks any real teeth is that you have to suspend your complete understanding of the way this country works. This country could not cover up a blow job. You really think they can kill nearly 3,000 people without everyone knowing? Please.

Would have made a great movie, though.