THE CRAZY ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

It's really been a banner day for right-wing insanity. Start with a mild example:

A new short-term budget bill introduced on Monday by House Republicans includes a bizarre provision banning federal funding to anti-poverty group ACORN, despite the fact that the group has already been stripped of federal funding -- and has been defunct for nearly three years.

... Section 510 of the latest legislation, introduced by House Appropriations Chair Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), reads: "None of the funds made available in this Act may be distributed to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) or its subsidiaries or successors." ...

Well, it's no wonder Congressman Rogers is confused -- as I've pointed out, Fox News keeps telling right-wingers that ACORN still exists, if only in mutated and renamed form. (Fox considers any organization staffed by anyone who ever worked for ACORN to be an ACORN successor, if not ACORN itself in undead form, so ACORN exists in much the same way that the existence of Wings meant the Beatles didn't break up.)

Then there's this, from Fox:

Fox Business host Lou Dobbs on Monday repeated a conspiracy theory pushed by fringe conservative websites like Alex Jones' Infowars, that the federal government was "arming up" while trying to disarm U.S. citizens....

"At the same time, we’re watching -- inexplicably, without any voice from the Department of Homeland Security -- we're watching the purchase of another 7,000 AR-15-like rifles. We're watching 2 billion rounds of ammunition, principally .40 [caliber] and 9mm. We are looking at the purchase of 2,700 light armored vehicles in the midst of -- at least, allegedly -- 2,700 of those vehicles."

"What in the world is going on?" Dobbs exclaimed. "As the Department of Homeland Security seems to be armoring up, and the [Obama] administration is trying to disarm American citizens." ...

Sarah Palin believes this, too.

From there, the theories become more baroque -- this one, for instance:

Accuracy In Media director Cliff Kincaid yesterday warned that allies of George Soros and President Obama are attempting to pick the next pope. Kincaid warns that a "group of radicals" in the "left-wing lobby in the U.S." are trying to engineer the selection of Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson as Pope.

Kincaid's argument boils down to the fact that Turkson introduced a document on global financial policy which was endorsed by Stephen Schneck of Catholic University (along with Pope Benedict XVI) and attended one of Schneck's conferences in 2011.

Since Schneck supported Obama's reelection and is tied to the group Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, naturally Kincaid has arrived at the conclusion that Soros is plotting to pick the next pope in order to "use the Vatican in a global campaign against capitalism."

In fact, the article is fittingly titled: "Black Socialist Pope to Follow Black Socialist President?"

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, because we know how cooperative Obama and the Catholic Church have been lately. And yes, it makes perfect sense that Obama would want the next pope to be a cardinal who's blamed sex abuse by priests on homosexuality and claimed that the African church doesn't have sex abuse scandals because Africa doesn't tolerate homosexuality.

Hmmm ... what else? Oh, how about this?

Larry Klayman is out with another column....

Klayman claims "Obama and his 'white slaves' in The White House, like his embarrassing boy press secretary Jay Carney" have pushed "attacks on whites" and "provoked this burgeoning race war."

"Put Obama's Muslim identification, his anti-Semitism and his pounding of rich whites together and you have a certified, and highly dangerous Black Muslim in The White House -- ala (pun intended) Malcolm X, Elijah Mohammed and Louis Farrakhan," he said.

In earlier columns, the Judicial Watch founder maintained that Obama wants to make conservatives "become the 'new niggers'" and promoted armed resistance....

And finally, there's the New York Times story about Leo Hindery, a wealthy investor and longtime Democratic donor whose private equity firm recently won a bid to acquire cable's Outdoor Channel, which features a lot of hunting and fishing shows.

Hindery's company already owns the Sportsman Channel, a rowdier version of the Outdoor Channel; the company also owns the publisher of Guns & Ammo, RifleShooter, Handguns, and more than a dozen similar magazines. Those media holdings have been part of his portfolio for several years, with no sign that he's interfered with their content. But he gives money to Obama and to Andrew Cuomo, so the gun crowd wants to block the Outdoor Channel sale. And:

The story took an even stranger turn last week with a conspiracy theory, published in The Daily Caller, the conservative news Web site, asserting that Mr. Hindery’s ultimate aim is "consolidating all of America's leading gun-culture media outlets and stripping them down to virtual destruction."

Um, the Sportsmen Channel just added an NRA-affiliated show and a show hosted by Ted Nugent to its lineup. That's how Hindery's showing his contempt for the gun community? Ahhh, but, according to the Caller, Hindery is reducing employment at his TV properties. Guys, that's called increasing productivity! It's capitalism! I thought you were in favor of that!

Lot of crazy going around. Oh, but Newt Gingrich said something semi-sane this week, so we're not allowed to accuse the right of being stark raving mad.