Is there a conspiracy?

But wouldn't there always be a lack of substance? If its a government scandal, I mean.Government commits scandal
Government conducts investigation of scandal
Government determines it was indeed a scandal and apologizes for and corrects unethical behavioursHaw!I thought it was curious about 9-11. Many folks think 9-11 was a US government conspiracy committed for, among other things, to further strip the Constitution (Patriot Act) and to provide a reason to start two strange wars. But when I tell this to others, they say...oh no the 9-11 commission demonstrated there was no conspiracy...oh well I guess it wasn't then.Or here in my home state, we had a scandal. A very influential man who was senator (state legislature) for 20 years quit running for senator and ran for a county commissioner seat (my county). He was elected...I mean what couldn't he do for our county? Not too far into his term there's suddenly horrible soap-opera disagreements in commissioner meetings (which are mandatorily public). Then there's a scandal...it involved bribes and a tremendous real estate deal. Mr. Big Shot's friend is a realtor who wants to sell this expensive but useless piece of property. Who better to buy it than our county? Need a majority of the commissioners to vote for the deal. Mr. Big Shot buys the votes (bribes). The county buys the land; money changes hands. The newspaper DOES find this out. It hits the fan. One of the bribe-ees turns state witness against Mr. Big Shot.After its almost all over, the bribe-ee "commits suicide." Hey, maybe he did...I don't know, but one of the bribe-ees friends was worried that maybe he was actually killed and calls up the local police and asks for requests that there be no cover-ups in the investigation of his death. The police chief assures him there will be no cover-ups. (honest...the newspaper quoted this guy saying this). I laugh whenever I think about it. I'm not saying there WAS a cover-up, but IF the police chief were planning a cover-up, is he going to say, "Oh I'm sorry, sir, we've got to do a cover-up on this one, unfortunately."There certainly was a good explanation for the man's death. He drank radiator fluid. It definitely was suicide. There definitely was no foul play. The police reports assure us. The newspaper and TV informed us.Somehow Mr. Big Shot doesn't even go to jail IIRC.If there was no cover up...that's the way it'd be. But then, if there was a cover-up, that's the way it'd be, too. That's the trouble with cover-ups.

CF,I can't do the statistical analysis (not by a long-shot), but perhaps, if these fellows/fellowettes work in fields that do require they know "sensitive" knowledge, the odds of them dying might be higher. Though it might not be a single conspiracy...maybe just a bunch of little ones. You've got sensitive info...you're more likely to be the target of narfarious conspiratorial types...<*shrugs shoulders*>

Contracycle, I don't know that PaulK actually did this knee-jerk thing (he was originally concerned that there WAS a conspiracy of sorts). I do think he is a little too trusting of those who investigated the problem...(if the ones conducting the investigation ARE the conspirators--or paid off by the conspirators--then of COURSE they wouldn't find any conspiracy!) I really don't see it as being too difficult to do. You could even pay off (or blackmail) key people in the media biz and get proper coverage of the investigation not finding any data to suggest a conspiracy.So while I wouldn't say PaulK was having a knee-jerk moment (not exactly one, anyway), I do think you've raised an excellent point in general about conspiracies in the above quote.--TheLit