I read with interest Jim Castagnera's column on conspiracies last week and have written about some of those conspiracies he cites from a recent poll. It is interesting to view public opinion about various conspiracies and see where belief lies, but I point out with caution that because the majority of the public opinion believes or doesn't believe a position does not necessarily make it so. Some conspiracies are utterly stupid while others are framed to sound implausible. There is a difference between the two perspectives.

For example, the alleged reptilian leader theory that claims our world is being run by a network of clandestine reptilians who are manipulating the human race is one of the conspiracies in that poll by "Public Policy Polling". While Jim didn't cite it in his column, I found it amusing to see that four percent of our population believes lizards walk among us. In a previous column, I wrote about this particular conspiracy. It is the brainchild of hustler David von Icke, a British former pop-star who at one time thought he was a god and now teaches very expensive seminars on the reptilian cover up. When confronted on Jesse Ventura's "Conspiracy Theory" program last fall, Icke walked out on the interview when Ventura pushed him to show him a reptilian. The simple answer is Icke could not. Why? Because interestingly enough, the epiphany Icke had of this clandestine conspiracy popped into his head after the miniseries "V" aired on television and became a series.Those of you who remember the 1980s will recall this science fiction, and I emphasize "fiction" was about almost this exact plot with the added twist of the reptilians hiding themselves as humanoid aliens. Many critics believe this was the catalyst that drove Icke's gravy train.As far as global warming being a hoax, it depends on how you frame the word hoax. Most of those who believe in "global warming" really mean they believe that the earth is warming as a result of humanity's use of fossil fuels and that recent records are indicating the temperature is getting warmer because of us. These same people also tend to support that government taxes and regulation can improve our lot. This is a shameless ploy to over-regulate industry, drive down the economy and seize money they don't deserve for a problem that cannot be fixed.The hoax in the whole global warming debacle is the one being perpetrated by power hungry politicians and environmentalists on an unscientifically minded populace. First and foremost, the earth has been without polar icecaps many times in its long history so why is it unusual to believe it would be without them again especially when most scientists will agree at least that the earth warms up and the earth cools down. Second, climatology is a science that studies cycles that are thousands of years long. Within that cycle, a hundred years is an anomaly. Any one hundred year period or even a five hundred year period will show variations of warmth and coolness. Big deal.Their cries are not mathematically or statistically sound. Show me a thousand years of documented warmth and then there is a significant trend. Third, one massive volcanic eruption will do more damage to our atmosphere than anything humanity can do to it. This possibility is only a matter of time. Inevitably somewhere on this planet that explosion will take place and Al Gore and these environmentalists cannot stop it. I'm not saying we pollute the atmosphere recklessly, but it is unrealistic to think that we can zero out our effect on the earth. That's just not realistic.The real hoax is the one that these Gore-minded extremists are perpetrating on society by scamming your hard earned dollars while claiming they can control the weather's effects. That is the falsehood. They can plant as many trees as they like. That will not control global warming. It is a fact that the sun is warming our atmosphere as well as the atmospheres of our sister planets. How do we stop that global warming? What we do is a pittance in the scheme of the solar system.The other conspiracy I have written about is the JFK assassination. I have not read the Bugliosi book and do not intend to do so. If it takes 1600 pages to convince someone that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone that is a great deal of rationalization. To me it sounds as convoluted as the original Warren report another obfuscated document that hides any semblance of truth in an incomprehensible web of bull. I have read parts of that document. I am proud to say I am in the 51 percent that believe the JFK murder was a conspiracy. Furthermore I am in the camp that believes it was a coup by extremists in the government to advance the Vietnam War.It is interesting to note that many of the witnesses that day in Dallas died right before they were to testify. A new book by David Wayne and Richard Belzer called "Hit List" details the deaths of 18 witnesses who seemed to make a habit of dying before testifying either at the original Warren Commission hearing or later in 1979 at the assassination hearings. The odds according to the authors of that many witnesses to one event dying in such a short time span before two proceedings in which they were supposed to testify are hundreds of trillions to one against. The biggest witness is your own eyes. The Zapruder film lives on YouTube. Go watch it again and again and again. I do not know about conspiracies but I do know a little bit about guns and JFK's head is driven backward by a bullet indicating at least one shot came from the front. Just watch it a few times for yourself. The kill shot hits him from the front, not the rear. Who really did it and why, I do not know. But don't let spin doctors misinterpret your instincts.Til next time…