Orly Taitz Fascinates Me

First off, let me just say that the Birther Movement is ridiculous and idiotic and should in no way be taken seriously. It's based entirely in fiction and inaccuracies and requires intentional ignorance of facts or complete obliviousness to believe. I'm not going to get into the details. Salon did up a nice article that lists the facts against the Birthers. If you want to read it, go there. I'm not here to debate. Most of my readers are smart enough to not fall for that crap, regardless of political beliefs. Besides, conspiracy theories are fun and this one is really awesome because to believe it, you have to believe that Obama's family (or the infant Obama himself) got the government of Hawaii to run birth notices in the local newspapers days after his birth just in case he would one day run for president. Seriously, if that's true, just let the guy be president forever because he's the product of freaking geniuses.

What I want to talk about is the movement's unofficial face, Orly Taitz. I find this woman fascinating. For one thing, she looks like the thinner, younger, less dead sister of Tammy Faye Bakker. I also find it charmingly ironic that a woman who is quite obviously not a natural born citizen (that is one thick accent she has) would be the face of the effort to get Obama kicked out of office for being a durned foreigner. Combine that accent with her fabulous enthusiasm for her cause and you have a nut job that truly entertains. I also want to hear the story about how she ended up with licenses for dentistry, law, and real estate. I understand the real estate license, actually, but did she attend both dentistry school and law school, or did she take advantage of the laws in California that allow you to earn a license to practice law without ever stepping foot on a law school campus?

Unfortunately, everyone who ultimately promotes this conspiracy theory aren't such obvious whack jobs. Too many politicians and public conservatives encourage this crap, at least tacitly. This is kind of like all the crap that surrounds the opposition to health care reform. The main difference is that there's a real debate there (and an important one), but you can't hear it under all the shouts of "Keep the government's hands off my Medicare" and "Obama's Death Panels."