Have at thee knave!!!

I watched some interesting videos on YouTube not long ago in which the program Democracy Now! featured a debate between the makers of Loose Change and Popular Mechanics.

Loose Change is a film made by a pair of college students questioning the events of Sept 11, 2001 and who is responsible. Although no explicit statement is made, Loose Change strongly implies that the U.S. government planned and executed the aircraft hijackings, suicide strikes, and demolition of the World Trade Center Towers and parts of the Pentagon. The film asks many questions regarding unreleased footage and bases many of its assertions on footage from the network news services. Needless to say, Loose Change has gained quite a following of conspiracy theorists accusing the U.S. government of attacking its own country and detractors debunking the film's assertions.

On the other side of the debate are Popular Mechanics editors that worked on PM's articles explaining and debunking numerous 9/11 conspiracy theories. PM gained quite a bit of attention for their articles which was escalated after their rebuttal to Rosie O'Donnell's scientific challenge on ABC's The View. PM has been praised for their articles as well as accused of being stooges for a government cover-up. On PM's side is also an author of a 9/11 conspiracy theory debunking book.

I found videos of the debate on YouTube here:

Loose Change and Popular Mechanics Debate

The series is in 5 parts and they are well worth watching. I find it interesting how the debate starts off rather civil and articulate. However, tempers begin to flare at the end and the rudeness, sarcasm, and volume picks up. There seems to be more inpolite behavior on the part of the Loose Change creators. The Loose Change guys do make some good points about unreleased footage from the Pentagon attack. However, PM overpowers them after the priceless look on the Loose Change guy's face after being told Underwriter's Laboratories do not certify steel. I also wonder just how much the Loose Change creators really know about the physics of a plane crash. Therefore, I think the overall debate goes to the PM side.