Obama conspiracy theories

I Googled "Obama conspiracy theories" this morning, thinking I might come up with something nutty; instead I found this very thorough site that documents and debunks the nuttiest claims--its name is Obama conspiracy.org.I added a few items to CULTS last winter when it was in proofs. I thought about writing some lines about what a few prescient journalists had already dubbed "Birtherism," but I never imagined that people would still be talking about Obama's birth certificate this fall.  In retrospect, I wish I'd known about Abraham Vereide and the so-called C Street Family--which, though not exactly a cult, a conspiracy, or a secret society, has much in common with all of them; it's sort of a Protestant version of what Opus Dei is accused of being.  But thanks to Mark Sanford and John Ensign's embarrassments, the paperback edition of Jeff Sharlet's THE FAMILY has put them on the national radar in a much bigger way than I ever could have.