I first ran across Truthism.com a few years ago, and spent an hour or so laughing at the comic genius on display. The site, which looks like it was designed during the OJ Simpson trial, spends a great deal of time arguing for skepticism, before insisting that only an idiot would not believe that the Earth is run by Reptilian aliens that disguise themselves as humans. The site seems like a goof, but it’s not. The Reptilian mythology permeates ancient alien websites.

While not the most compelling proof that Reptilian aliens created mankind and rule them to this day, this is some pretty airtight logic:

Most importantly, doesn’t it seem rather odd to you that, in the 5,500 years of recorded history, there has never been an official school of thought that states, “The current ruling elite of Earth created humanity,” or one that states, “Aliens created humanity”? Well, the reason why these two schools of thought have never come to fruition is because Earth’s alien rulers would never dare allow such concepts (in other words, the truth) to be openly discussed in academia.

Still not convinced? Truthism.com has video of what they say is an actual Reptilian alien (you can go to the site to see 2 other versions in hilarious slo-mo):

OK, that was a little unnerving. While skepticism is warranted, would it hurt to open up a DHS file on the Reptilians? I’m just saying.

Boehner’s money quote: “This bill is the greatest threat to freedom that I have seen in the 19 years I’ve been here in Washington.” Here are his remarks in full, which the producers of V would do well to work into their show:

Boehner wasn’t the only one at the rally to see dire consequences to health care reform, as Corn points out. Here’s what Gibbs had to say about Boehner’s proclamation:

Q Yesterday at the rally on Capitol Hill, Congressman Boehner said that he considers the health care bill to be “the greatest threat to freedom” he has ever seen. I just was wondering what your response is to that.

MR. GIBBS: I think we could take up the better part of our afternoons and probably significantly into the weekend thinking of other conflicts that we’ve seen or read about throughout the history of the world that might be a greater threat to freedom than what Congressman Boehner was discussing.

I will continue to say what I’ve said before. You hear — in this debate you hear analogies, you hear references to, you see pictures about and depictions of individuals that are truly stunning. And you hear it all the time. People — imagine five years ago somebody comparing health care reform to 9/11. Imagine just a few years ago had somebody walked around with images of Hitler. Hopefully we can get back to a discussion about the issues that are important in this country, that we can do without being personally disagreeable and set up comparisons to things that were so insidious in our history that anybody in any professional walk of life would be well advised to compare nothing to those atrocities.

Watch it here:

My first reaction to the line that’s getting all the attention, “People — imagine five years ago somebody comparing health care reform to 9/11. Imagine just a few years ago had somebody walked around with images of Hitler,” was to suppress a chuckle. As Hot Air’s Allahpundit and The Weekly Standard’s Mary Katherine Ham point out, people walking around with images of Hitler during the Bush years isn’t like conjuring a jet-propelled, laser-wielding unicorn. Furthermore, you only have to go back a few weeks to find a Democratic member of Congress invoking both 9/11 and the Holocaust.

Some might argue that the likes of Boehner’s statement, or Virginia Foxx’s, get extra absurdity points, and defend Grayson on the grounds that he, at least, was making the comparison to something that actually results in deaths. I think Gibbs’ summation is what people should be focusing on:

Hopefully we can get back to a discussion about the issues that are important in this country, that we can do without being personally disagreeable and set up comparisons to things that were so insidious in our history that anybody in any professional walk of life would be well advised to compare nothing to those atrocities.

I would point out that, although it would be hard to miss Bush-era Hitler comparisons, the media has changed since then. The 2008 campaign created a voracious 15-minute news cycle that demands fresh meat, so the bar for what gets reported is considerably lower now. The crazy quote that used to merit a breathless blog post now becomes fodder for endless panel discussion.

It’s become standard practice in partisan politics to respond to ridiculous quotes by saying, “Hey, they do it too,” but not “We should stop doing that.” Short memory notwithstanding, I think the takeaway from this response is that we should replace Godwin’s Law with Gibbs’ Dictum, and just stop doing it.

Here’s a transcript of the conversation, while the video is embedded below:

Tommy Christopher: Robert, I have one question and one clarification. First, the new TV series on ABC, “V,” a lot of people are talking about how this show draws very strong –

MR. GIBBS: I got to tell you — I’m going to start with this: I don’t want to give anybody the impression I have time to watch anything other than what most of you all do each night. So I can’t even tell you what that is or what it’s about. If that makes me fairly un-cool, I tend to watch more “SpongeBob” than “V.”

Tommy Christopher: There have been a lot of news stories about this –

MR. GIBBS: Makes me a hit with one six-year-old, and that really is all that counts.

Tommy Christopher: You haven’t seen the news stories about how this show compares your administration to the alien invaders? (Laughter.)
Seriously, really, you haven’t heard about it?

Q He couldn’t admit it if he had. (Laughter.)

MR. GIBBS: Because there’s a chip in the back of my head that requires me — (laughter) — I don’t mean to — I honestly — I got to tell you, I spend — I watch a little football on Saturday, a little football on Sunday, and a lot of news every other time.

Q Get a life. (Laughter.)

Q (Inaudible).

MR. GIBBS: Pardon me?

Tommy Christopher: Fourteen million people watch it, and the show –

MR. GIBBS: And clearly, me not being one of them. Again, I –

[Cross-talk.] (Laughter.)

MR. GIBBS: Hold on. I’m not entirely sure who I’d check on since I don’t watch the show.

Tommy Christopher: Well, check with the President, see if he has a reaction –

MR. GIBBS: I will assume that the President watches –

Tommy Christopher:– comparing him to a space alien.

MR. GIBBS: What’s the — which would probably, like, be one of the least worst things he’s been called today.

Tommy Christopher: One clarification from yesterday on the meeting with Clemente, it sounded to me like you were saying that Clemente requested the meeting. Can you –

MR. GIBBS: We both wanted to get together.

April.

Is “V” on — what network?

Jake Tapper: ABC.

MR. GIBBS: Okay. Can I get a little briefing after this from the –

Jake Tapper: We’ll send you a tape before the end of the day.

MR. GIBBS: Excellent.

Tommy Christopher: It’s serious.

Missing from the transcript are cracks from the peanut gallery about Spongebob Squarepants.

I sort of expected Gibbs to bust my chops a little since, on the surface, it seems a little bit silly. I wasn’t prepared to be heckled by the bulk of the White House press corps.

But if you look a little more deeply at it, this could be a disturbing development. Although ABC and the show’s star downplay the comparisons, those comparisons are nonetheless being made. The aliens come to Earth promising hope and change, notably in the form of truly universal health care. There are protesters who insist that the aliens are not who they say they are. The alien leader assuages the public, via an in-the-tank media, by saying “Embracing change is never easy.”

When you put this in context with this summer’s mega-hit Transformers 2, which casts the real-life (but offscreen) President Obama as a bureaucrat who wants to try “diplomacy” with the Decepticons, you can see the beginnings of a trend. This is especially noteworthy given the traditional view that Hollywood is an army of liberals.

Political allegory in science fiction is nothing new. Battlestar Galactica dealt with many of the Bush era’s thornier issues, but didn’t cast the administration as villains.

Whether it’s propaganda, satire, or just a convenient coincidence for agitators on the right, the fact that these pretty harsh shots at the President are gaining such traction is worth paying attention to.

Update: From Jake Tapper (via email): “I’ll be delivering Gibbs a copy of the first episode of V on Monday.”