I was accosted by a Birther in Ireland last week. Very, very weird -- hopefully for him, too

[Hekate]

I'm breaking my silence because I just had to share this -- apparently some US stupidity has spread like an oil slick to other countries.

I was on a tour with friends and was walking back to the hotel with one of them when this young guy struck up a conversation about our matching shawls. Having ascertained from our accents that we were Americans he then said, "How do you feel about the great hoax that is being perpetrated in your country?" We asked what he meant and the bold keyboard warrior said "Barry Soetoro!"

I wish I could say I came up with some clever remark like "Turn off your computer and back away from the keyboard, bucko," but I was so infuriated at meeting up with a purveyor of this conspiracy theory so far from home that I burst out "I will not discuss this with you!!" and stalked off.

My friend, however, was completely baffled by the exchange, as she intelligently spends very little time online and avoids discussion boards altogether. I had to come back and explain who "Barry Soetoro" supposedly is.

But here's the part that I hope ended up being surpassingly weird for this yokel: We weren't just some random Midwesterners or Texans or Teabaggers. As we told him, we both grew up in Hawai'i, and our children were born there, meaning they have birth certificates that look just like the President's. The details of his life in the Islands are not alien concepts to us, including the notion that a young woman attending UH might meet and fall in love with a foreign student in grad school at the East-West Center. (We didn't mention that my friend did that herself, actually, as it wasn't relevant to the narrative.)

There was a bit more, then we went on our way. I don't know if we actually changed his mind, but I think we might have rattled his brain under that tinfoil hat a little.

But seriously, :wtf:

Hekate

PS: It was a great vacation. Lots and lots of music every night. Lots of beautiful scenery. Nice people.

[JohnnyLib2]

1. Wonderful place, if you have to encounter one of those types!

I want to think he DID go home and think more about it.

Glad you enjoyed the trip. When we win the Powerball---off to Dingle!

[Hekate]

5. Dingle is a tiny town! Though far bigger than many communities we saw...

We went through Leenane, Galway, Ennistymon, and Tralee as well. Walked on the Burren. Almost got to go to Great Blasket Island, but did make it to Inishmore.

8 million sheep and still under 5 million people. Gorgeous, gorgeous place, Ireland.

I hope you win the Powerball.

Hekate

[treestar]

2. Odd to run into that abroad, where the POTUS is more admired than

he is at home!

[POAS]

3. They were probably all emotional about it because

of a wee bit much Irish whiskey and learning that O'Bama has Irish roots.

Go they get FauxNews in Ireland?

[Hekate]

4. I think it's the power of the Intertubes, more than FauxNews (rolls eyes). CNN was all soccer...

That young man looked like he spent too much time indoors.

For my part, I had a hard time getting news from home, as CNN in the hotels was wall-to-wall soccer just then. At least two of the men on the tour brought their laptops, so they kept up, but it was like 30 people had an unspoken pact to leave everything behind for 10 days and just listen to Sean Rattigan's superb fiddling.

Hekate

[Cha]

6. My first thought was .."are you aware of the great hoax

being perpetrated on your brain?"

And, what an igit he is..couldn't wait to pawn his ignorance on someone else not thinking or caring they might not be as brain dead.

How much fun to visit Ireland..I had fun just seeing "Leap Year".:P

And how wonderful for you to have grown up in Hawai'i like Barack Obama and incidently have seen the birth certificates because your children were born there!

I'm going back to live on Kaua'i this year.B-)

[WeDidIt]

7. I've met three Birthers IRL

I told all three of them the same thing:

"I saw the birth certificate when I was in Obama campaign headquarters in Chicago mid-June of 2008. It's real and Hawaii actually put more information on the certificate than Maryland did when I had to get a copy of mine. Funny thing was, I still have the certificate my mother gave me that names the hospital and has the doctor's signature but the Department of Homeland Security refused to accept it for my passport because they are too easily forged. New certificates issued by the states when a copy is requested are much more difficult to forge."

[Cha]

8. Interesting..thanks..I had no idea

there was such a BFD about birth certificates until the attentionwhore, orly taitz, came on the scene.