#worstresponders

Earlier this year the Republican-controlled House and Senate allowed for the expiration of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which provided health care coverage to first responders to the 9/11 terror attacks, many of whom are now suffering from illnesses & diseases directly related to their exposure to any number of toxins in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.

Five years…

I don’t really use Tumblr all that much, but I have to say, I’m a little disappointed by the people whom I follow.  I always see Tumblr crusaders for things like sexual equality and things of that nature, but I’ve been on Tumblr all day today and I haven’t seen one single thing about the Zadroga Reauthorization Bill.

Right now, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is holding up the passing of a bill to make permanent the Zadroga Act, which provides free healthcare to the 9/11 First Responders who have been suffering from debilitating and sometimes fatal aftereffects of all the debris present in the wake of the attacks. The Zadroga Reauthorization Bill was originally attached to a transportation bill, but Mitch McConnell pulled it out of that bill when he didn’t get concessions about loosening oil export regulations. He essentially pulled it because he wanted to use it as leverage to make it easier to sell oil.

If you are seeing this, and you care at all about the health and safety of America’s First Responders, you have an obligation to stop what you are doing right now, and tweet at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell @SenateMajLdr and tell him to stop fucking around with the lives of American heroes. Tell him to pass the Zadroga Reauthorization Bill, and end the fuckery. Make sure to use the hashtag #WorstResponders.

WATCH: Jon Stewart Crashes Colbert, Lampoons Trump While Fighting For 9/11 First Responders (VIDEO)

Jon Stewart made a surprise appearance when he crashed The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Stewart came out on stage during Colbert’s monologue to the surprise of the crowd, who met him with an extended standing ovation. Stewart was there to bring awareness to his efforts on the re-authorization of  the Zadroga act to help 911 first responders. While he was there, both he and Stephen took the…

Most people think "Conspiracy Theory" is hokum. They think it's just a bunch of nuts who come up with some weird story, connecting things that are unrelated, to criticize something they are unhappy with, or explain something they do not understand. Like, lets say, that the moon is not real, or dinosaurs were used to build pyramids, or that trump has brains. 

Of course, there is a lot of nonsense. There are a whole lot of nuts out there, who really fall into that category. But then there are others, who theorize about conspiracies - although they try to avoid using that particular term, because of it's negative connotation - who are actually worth listening to. The simple fact is that the distribution between nuts, normal and smart theorists of conspiracies, follows the same bell curve as the one that describes the intellect of the general populus. A few seriously mentally challenged people, a whole lot of stupid morons, a bunch of relatively normal folk and a few really smart ones. Even among neurosurgeons you will find the most stupid people, statistically speaking.

It's a bell curve and there is an equal amount of stupid on every level - just look at politicians, a good 80% is as dumb as ants fart (Sorry, I am practicing bad analogies for a script I am working on). Meaning: the reason "Conspiracy Theory" has such a bad rep, is because stupid people, fabricate stupid bullshit stories, that then are scrutinized by an equally stupid public. 

Ironically it is also the reason, why real conspiracies pass by unnoticed. It's like when I am in a bar full of hot women, all the other "men" are actually goats, and still, or because of that, nobody pays attention to me. (Sorry, I apologize again.)

So when there is actually a conspiracy, even if someone would point it out, most would not even look, assuming it's just another goat; and lets be honest, if you have seen one or two goats, you pretty much know what they look like and why they plagiarized the "goat look" for Satan. Have you seen their eyes? 

This of course creates a real problem. With tons of flamboyant theories of reptile people, weather control and fake moon landings, the more every-day-conspiracies hardly even register. And since many of the more weirder conspiracies are really nothing but hokum, even the real ones are dismissed without much thought. 

If one would be a bit paranoid, one could come to the conclusion that someone wants conspiracy theories to have a bad rep, so they are all too easily dismissed... if one would be paranoid, which one is not! One did a test on the internet and got a near perfect score (after only 3 tries!)

So for example: 9/11 sits very close to the hearts of many people, especially Americans (actually, it sits in the brain, and every time we remember it, we reshape that actual memory - that's what we do on a neuronal level, seriously). And there are many conspiracies surrounding that event. Of course there are. Many questions stay unanswered.

Under the stress, the confusion, the fear and panic, many things just blurred. Weird things occurred, related and unrelated (or seemingly so). And when the lack of information, logic, reason and common sense, leaves a huge gaping hole, there is a whole lot of room for goats. 

Usually, the stupid fill those holes with stories of aliens or gods, or with mindless love to guns, skin color or hate of [ethnic/political/social scapegoat]. And for most people, especially the stupid ones, who have bigger holes then the rest of us, there seem to be more hole than anything else really... (Again, I am terribly sorry. Although this time, the analogy started out ok, but then got away from me... mea culpa). In the end, it is really hard to know, what is actually true or not.

And that is the real problem of conspiracy theories. Because when the real and very clear ones show up, we ignore them just as much, or even more, because they are not based on tragedies that are close to us all, or not as spectacular, not media ridden, or are just not loud enough... (even if some good folks try really hard to be heard)

So when Majority Leader of the Senate - and shell-less man-turtle, Mitch McConnell makes sure that certain interest groups (i.e. the unions in his home state, the atomic energy lobby) get what he denies others (9/11 1st responders), it is per definition a conspiracy. Yet we don't pay little attention to it. It becomes a footnote. A short tail of a very long dog; a bad punch line of a terrible long joke. Like the anticlimactic end of a bad analogy.