Getting A Whipping With The Transmission Belt

It looks like, thanks to Jared Lee Loughner, reality is finally descending on the "smart set" that, so far, ain't provin' to have been so smart:

If you've ever gone browsing in an occult bookstore (and you really should; it's like browsing in a science fiction bookstore, only the authors really believe the stories they're writing, or pretend to), you may have seen a shelf labeled "conspiracies" right alongside the sections marked "astrology" or "Tarot." People who write about fringe politics often miss the extent to which New Agers serve as a transmission belt, allowing ideas from the left, the right, and the counterculture -- not to mention more outré folks like the UFO buffs -- to slide from one subculture to another.

Not to mention the folks who make, and many who go to watch, movies like 2012. And the beliefs of Oprah. And don't forget the money funneled into PBS by Louise Hay's cult empire. The NewAge is all around us, and it's very happy few realize it's influence. Otherwise the public would be all over them for killing people. And nobody wants that, right?

Let's go ask Gabby Giffords how she feels about it,...