Quotes of the day are intended to represent what is being said by people on both sides of the birther question. They do not necessarily represent the views of this web site.
…learned institutions…throw light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty….
— President James Madison
I believe that Stanley Ann Dunham and Barack Obama, Sr. were chosen by the U.S. and British Intelligence to parent a future black president.
— Clifford Shack
Folks, people may honestly disagree with you. Remember that. A man may be factually wrong without being morally evil.
— Pastor Charmley
The Talent for insinuating is more useful than that of persuading. The former is often successful, the latter very seldom.
–Cardinal de Retz, 17th century French politician
Come, noble Republicans, disdain these sons
Of screech owls, monkeys and baboons.
— Dr. Conspiracy, after a poem by President James Madison
Kept alive by diehard believers, newly sprouted nutcases and shameless publicity seekers, the ridiculous theory that Obama was not born in the U.S. and as such is not qualified to be President periodically raises its ugly head.
— Albor Ruiz
— The New York Daily News
Sheriff, I’m gonna do your job.
— Daryn Moran
Conspiracy Theory falls spectacularly short regarding the relationship between observed phenomena, explanation and the use of reliable and relevant data and thus prediction.
— Tony Sobrado
It’s kinda like when you are married and you have an argument with your spouse and you know that you’re right. You have them cornered. Everything is going your way and you expect that your spouse is just going to back down and say “you know what, Honey, I was wrong.” You know what? That really never happens because they come up with some other theory about why they were right in the first place, regardless of what the facts were. That’s exactly what birtherism is all about. It’s always about changing the goalposts and finding some new way to establish that they were right in the first place.
— Captain Jack
Opinion masquerading as information is frequently accepted as fact by individuals who have neither the training nor the inclination to skeptically evaluate the reporting they encounter. The “Birther” controversy counts as just one example of how misinformation can be spread virally and never completely put to rest, no matter how thorough a debunking it receives.
— Anne P. Mintz
— Bloomberg Business News
Taitz has — by her own actions — made herself a caricature. Her very name represents a dogged pursuit of the ridiculous, ignorance of the obvious. She’s been a one-sided one-issue gal so long, it’s come to define her. THAT’S why, as she says herself, she’s got a name that’s well-known.
— Jeanne Sager
Tolerating “birtherism” is intolerable
— The New Hampshire Union Leader
The case law in the United States, as well as the clear historical record, does not support the argument or contention that there is some further or additional “subcategory” of “citizen” of the United States who, although native born and subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, is neither a “natural born” citizen nor a “naturalized” citizen.
— Jack Maskell
— Congressional Research Service
I know that Obama would not be able to get a driver’s license in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with the personal documentation he has provided to support his eligibility to serve as POTUS — and would someone explain how anybody can get any job without presenting their scholastic and medical records?
— Beckwith
— The Obama File
How curious it is that LJW faints with alarm if commenters say much beyond “booh” to each other but then turns around and chooses to republish slanderous piffle against a long dead President that reads like some low grade ‘alt history’ work by Newt Gingrich (or birth certificate analysis by Orly Taitz).
— Jimo
I just came to realize how similar the birther issue is to Herpes. Occasional flare ups, but easily manageable.
— Cletus Amlung
Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be most unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law, and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way as we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal.
— Karl Popper
— The Open Society and Its Enemies
Most Trumped-Up Political Controversy: The Obama birth certificate saga. The media gave Donald Trump a soapbox to advance his crackpot ‘birther’ theory that the president hadn’t produced evidence he was a U.S. citizen. Obama released his long-form birth certificate, but The Donald was still barking with skepticism about its authenticity in December.
— Sheldon Alberts
— The Montreal Gazette
