On July 16, 2013 on KPFA, Michio Kaku, "Professor of Theoretical Physics" and host of a long-standing radio show called "Exploration", gave a completely unscientific and unskeptical interview platform to Michael Shermer to discuss "The Borders of Science - Why People Believe Strange Things". Dr. Shermer is introduced as the "dean of debunkers", founder of The Skeptical Society, and a regular writer for Scientific American.

Dr Kaku lets Dr Shermer ridicule Dr Steven Jones without even mentioning a single detail of his work or his research on samples of WTC dust. What does our host do to challenge Shermer? Kaku has no informed questions for Shermer to debunk!

Jonathan Kay
Among the Truthers: A Journey into the Growing Conspiracist Underground of 9/11 Truthers, Birthers, Armageddonites, Vaccine Hysterics, Hollywood Know-Nothings and Internet Addicts
Toronto: HarperCollins, 2011

A couple of months ago I emailed Michael Shermer. To my surprise, he responded.
I wrote him as a "concerned citizen and parent" ( I'm not a parent, btw,) wondering what he would say to someone genuinely questioning the official 9/11 narrative.

Mr. Shermer,

A colleague referred me to this video clip of Dr. Niels Harrit, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen. In this video he refers to a substance called "nanothermite."

"Conspiracy Theories" do not interest me. However, scientific evidence of an extremely high tech explosive in the lower Manhattan dust bothers me greatly.

Is there any validity to this claim?

***

No, Richard, no validity to the "microthermite" story whatsoever. None. No one found thermite or microthermite or superthermite or any other type of thermite at ground zero. And even if they did, thermite cannot do what they claim it can. This was all tested years ago.

***

Mr. Shermer,

Thank you for your reply. That eases my mind a great deal.

Presented with 11 questions by world911truth.org, Shermer compares 9/11 skepticism and inquiry to holocaust denial and creationism, only addresses questions related to the WTC destructions, and in doing so, relies on Eager's claim of pancaking (debunked by NIST), and then reposts material from the Implosion World 'debunking', previously debunked by Jim Hoffman: http://911research.wtc7.net/reviews/blanchard/index.html - loose nuke

http://trueslant.com/michaelshermer/2010/01/29/rebutting-again-the-911-truthers/

Rebutting (Again!) the 9/11 Truthers

9/11 Truthers Foiled by 12/25 Attack

Hey 9/11 Truthers, CNN is reporting that al Qaeda just took credit for the Northwest Airlines terrorist attack:

“Be prepared to suffer because the killing is coming and we prepared you men who love death just as you love life and by God’s permission, we will come to you with more things that you have never seen before. Because, as you kill, you will be killed and tomorrow is coming soon. The martyrdom brother was able to reach his objective with the grace of God but due to a technical fault, the full explosion did not take place.”

—al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula

(Scroll down for direct links to MP3 D/Ls)

Click Here To Listen -- http://noliesradio.org
Saturday, Sept 20th at 11am Pacific - 2pm Eastern - 18:00 GMT
Will be archived HERE after the broadcast.

Exciting on-air debate with Richard Gage, AIA, of Architects and Engineers for 911 Truth and Michael Shermer of Skeptic Magazine on Oakland's KKGN 960am radio this last Thursday, September 18th. Don't miss this one!!!

Pseudo-Skepticism is so important for people to understand because it is quite possibly the strongest force preventing 911 truth from breaking wide open (although what an amazing achievement for the movement to have made it this far in the face of such seemingly insurmountable odds). Pseudo-Skepticism is the greatest enemy of 911 truth and as the great Sun Tzu remarked in his classic book, "The Art of War,"
"Know Your Enemy"

There is also a bit of advice at the end of the article that could certainly apply to 911 truthers and how they should conduct themselves when debating "debunkers."

PS - Michael Shermer is perhaps the greatest example of a Pseudo-Skeptic and he has been at the forefront of 911 truth debunking.

On Pseudo-Skepticism

A Commentary by Marcello Truzzi*

9/11 "Truthers" a Pack of Liars

Michael Shermer

Ever since Skeptic magazine published an investigative article on the 9/11 "Truth Movement" and analyzed their claims, which were found wanting, I have been hounded by the so-called 9/11 "truthers" because I am the editor of the magazine and therefore am suppose to be a "skeptic" of the official explanation for 9/11.

In fact, throughout January I have been on a book tour for The Mind of the Market, my book on behavioral economics and evolutionary economics, and at every event during the Q & A one of these "truthers" pretends to ask a question about economics but then quickly shifts to a rant about what "really happened" on September 11, 2001.

At my appearance at Powell's bookstore in Portland, Oregon, for example, someone with a video camera captured the rambling screed and posted it on YouTube the same night: http://screwloosechange.blogspot.com/2008/01/when-troofers-annoy.html

Source: http://911research.wtc7.net/debates/ryan_v_shermer/index.html

Related Blog: http://www.911blogger.com/node/12441

Thom Hartmann Show, November 8, 2007
Kevin Ryan and Michael Shermer Debate
What Really Happened on 9/11

[The transcript below begins as Host Thom Hartmann is explaining some background relating to his research into the JFK assassination, about an hour an eight minutes into the unedited recording of the show at http://www.whiterosesociety.org/content/hartmann/HartmannShow-(8-11-2007).mp3 .]

TH: I’m very skeptical of anybody who says I know exactly what went on, or I know exactly what didn’t go on. So my position is very agnostic on this. I think it's going to take – I mean, here we are, with the JFK assassination, 40 years later, 44 years later – I think it's gonna take a long time to figure out. That said, a good healthy discussion, a good healthy debate and raising the questions and for that matter raising the answers to the questions, is a reasonable and healthy thing.

After working with my freeware Audacity wave editor (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows) all afternoon, I've managed to compile a relatively complete audio version of the debate (from hours 1 & 2) that is generally commercial-free.

Here is the Putfile link:

http://media.putfile.com/Commercial-Free-Thom-Hartman-911-Debate-Ryan-vs-Shermermp3

In case you have trouble downloading it from there (as opposed to just listening to it) you can get the full 41.38 MB MP3 file at the following (somewhat slow) link:

http://www.freefilehosting.ws/file/744/Commercial-Free-Thom-Hartman-911-Debate-Ryan-vs-Shermer-mp3.html

Also, mirrored for QUICK download here.

Thank you, Kevin! It was a good debate!