Who really killed Steve Irwin?

Yesterday, a ?friend? of mine was chatting with another body about 9/11 conspiracies. And, with the Quebecois nation resolution, the Liberal leadership race and with just four episodes left until this season's Survivor finale, I thought I'd spend a word or 250 on this hot-button topic.

Last week marked the 43rd anniversary of the birth of the granddaddy of all conspiracy theories. Now, conspiracy advocates have been around since God created the Earth 6000 years ago (did the Lord conspire with the snake in the Tree of Knowledge just to kick his freeloading kids out of his house so He could get on with His life...?) and they've gotten more sophisticated (read: stupid).

My favorite is probably Roswell. I was a big fan of Mulder and Scully in the early to mid 90's and I wanted to believe the world government was a gravelly-voiced chain-smoker who was selling my future short so he could have a nice 2 bedroom on Georgia and Burrard. But it requires of me to think the worst of my fellow man, which is easy on some days, but no less cynical.

And that's ultimately the problem with cynicism; it takes comfort in pessimism as if it were a justifiable world view.

Which takes me back to my friend, and the 9/11 conspiracy. I won't argue the fine points in this post; smart people do it here. I'll only offer this opinion of the whole messiness. A conspiracy of this size requires a lot of people in the executive governments (not just American governments), the military and the media to keep their mouths shut (and who believes that this guy can keep a secret?). Most people come clean about their crimes, even if only confidentially, but, with time, the truth will out itself.