Last night I got up around 3:30 AM, and I knew that I wasn’t going to get back to sleep. I wasn’t upset about anything; every few weeks my sleep cycle just gets out of whack, and I have a few bad nights (and zombie days). I usually try to lay still and get as much rest as possible, but sometimes that really isn’t possible. So I got up last night and turned on the little plastic radio near my bedside. I tuned into the local station airing the national “Coast to Coast AM” talk show by George Noory, out of Los Angeles. I had recently read up on Noory in The Atlantic, and this was my chance to hear what he and his show were all about.

In a nutshell, Noory and “C2C” are about paranoia and the paranormal. His 4-hour overnight talk show has burgeoned in popularity over the past few years. Basically he’s the biggest thing on the conspiracy-theory market since the X-Files came to an end back in 2002. (Coincidence? I don’t think so. The X-Files gave the paranormal/paranoia crowd a rallying point, a cultural respectability; you would expect someone to eventually fill the vacuum left by it). I listened for about 30 minutes, and heard a handful of callers discussing President Obama’s recent cancellation of the Constellation space program, which was started under G.W. Bush so as to get the USA back on the moon and headed eventually for Mars. They were all defending the notion, against Noory’s very weak “devil’s advocate” posturing, that there are bigger reasons behind the cancellation than those given by the President.

According to these people, President Obama is not in charge; he’s mostly a puppet of some powerful shadow government, an unseen group that really runs the nation. This group has decided that it’s OK for humanity to send astronauts into low earth orbit (as the new Obama space plan includes $6 billion to help private space companies such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX group to develop rockets and capsules to take people into orbit, to get to the International Space Station and for other purposes). But it is NOT OK for people to go to the moon.

Why not? As when watching the X-Files, you never get a straight answer to any “why” question. But after a while, you get some hints. I didn’t really listen long enough last night to get all of the hints. But having had some X-Files viewing experience, I suspect that it means (or IS FELT to mean by sleepless paranoiacs) that something big is going on. Really big.

How big? We’re talking aliens having secret moon bases here, I think. We’re either talking about a conspiracy in cahoots with the aliens to prepare the way for their takeover of our fair planet, or at minimum, about a military group that knows what is going on and is valiantly (if hopelessly) working on a way to save our fair planet. One caller quoted recent statements by NASA’s current director, General Bolden, implying (if you twist them the right way) that NASA is now focusing on the “defense of the planet”. I.e., Bolden is letting the cat out of the bag . . . if you know what to listen for. Regular George Noory listeners and former X-Filer’s DO know what to listen for . . . or so they think. And Noory, despite being a very genial and rational host, is not discouraging such speculation.

Ever since I was a kid I’ve been a space exploration buff, so I have read up lately on the various issues behind the Constellation mission (which consists of two planned rockets, the Ares 1 and the Ares 5, along with the Orion manned space capsule and the Altair Moon lander). A lot of smart people were saying that the Ares development project was turning into a boondoggle, despite a successful initial launching of a scaled-down test version back in October. They cited cost over-runs, big delays, fixation on old technology from the 1960s Saturn-Apollo program, and dangers of instability due to some unique design features to the Ares (they call it “the stick” because it is long and very narrow on the bottom half; it uses a single solid-fuel booster to get going, the first manned rocket ever to rely solely on a solid propellant in the dangerous initial phase of flight). The “Augustine Report” which explains Obama’s new direction for NASA cites these factors, not surprisingly.

I am not sure whether I completely agree; the Ares does have a vocal support contingency, including former NASA director Mike Griffin. But I certainly wasn’t surprised by the Augustine – Obama announcement.

However, I was a bit surprised that the conspiracy theory crowd had latched onto the cancellation so quickly, and managed to work it so seamlessly into their sleep-deprived visions. As I lay awake in bed for the balance of the night, I couldn’t help but be a bit amazed. The paranoia movement in America is perhaps bigger than you would initially think. But you have to get up at an ungodly hour and remember to tune in on your AM radio to catch up with it.

The interesting thing about paranoia is that once it gets growing, it spreads like kudzu. While doing a web search on Google today, I found some sites that suspect that Noory himself is part of some kind of conspiracy. They cite the fact that Noory’s family is from the Middle East, and that he generally avoids discussing and criticizing the most apparent form of dangerous conspiracy threatening the USA today, i.e. Islamic radical terrorism. So, just who is he working for? Is he purposely trying to divert right-wing attention from al-Qaeda? Or even better: is al-Qaeda working with the “New World Order” in its quest to take over the world? Is al-Qaeda really just the henchmen for something much more shadowy and powerful? If so, then is Noory diverting just enough attention towards the true forces behind the dangers facing America today (knowing that the majority of people still don’t take him and his loyal listeners seriously), and away from those who are actually (and unsuspectingly) carrying out their will?

Yes, once paranoia gets going, everything and everyone is fair game. You can’t trust anyone! I wish George Noory and his radio show well, but I hope that he realizes that he’s playing with fire, a fire of distrust that corrupts society and politics.

P.S., today I heard a high-up in the government agency that I work for make a speech, where she cited a popular recent book on reforming government, called “If We Can Put A Man On The Moon”. The idea behind this book is that if a government could get a man on the moon back in the sixties, there’s no reason why government can’t pull up its socks and address the complex problems of today. For a moment I thought about raising my hand and asking her what she thought about Obama’s recent cancellation of the latest attempt at putting a man on the moon, given that it was going awry. Is “yes we can” turning into “no we can’t”? But then I remembered that I need the paycheck, so I let the temptation pass. Thank goodness that my insomnia didn’t get the best of my workday judgment there!