I wrote this weekend about the paucity of war history teaching in our nations schools. I was inspired to write about it because of an article Lorie Byrd wrote in Townhall.com that Betsy Newmark linked.

Michelle Malkin links to an article at The Chronicle for Higher Education about academics who have adopted 9/11 conspiracy theories.

These professors of paranoia beget the teachers of the future who will be infecting students’ minds instead of teaching them. Eventually the only thing kids will be learning in school is that the earth is flat.

And this is good……. As if promoting their loony conspiracy theories weren’t bad enough the Ivy Leagues are hiring sixties radicals with no academic credentials whatsoever.

Nearly five years have gone by since it happened. The trial of Zacarias Moussaoui is over. Construction of the Freedom Tower just began. Oliver Stone’s movie about the attacks is due out in theaters soon. And colleges are offering degrees in homeland-security management. The post-9/11 era is barreling along.

And yet a whole subculture is still stuck at that first morning. They are playing and replaying the footage of the disaster, looking for clues that it was an “inside job.” They feel sure the post-9/11 era is built on a lie.

In recent months, interest in September 11-conspiracy theories has surged. Since January, traffic to the major conspiracy Web sites has increased steadily. The number of blogs that mention “9/11″ and “conspiracy” each day has climbed from a handful to over a hundred.

Why now?

Oddly enough, the answer lies with a soft-spoken physicist from Brigham Young University named Steven E. Jones, a devout Mormon and, until recently, a faithful supporter of George W. Bush.

Last November Mr. Jones posted a paper online advancing the hypothesis that the airplanes Americans saw crashing into the twin towers were not sufficient to cause their collapse, and that the towers had to have been brought down in a controlled demolition. Now he is the best hope of a movement that seeks to convince the rest of America that elements of the government are guilty of mass murder on their own soil.

His paper — written by an actual professor who works at an actual research university — has made him a celebrity in the conspiracy universe. He is now co-chairman of a group called the Scholars for 9/11 Truth, which includes about 50 professors — more in the humanities than in the sciences — from institutions like Clemson University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Wisconsin.

If the Twilight Zone Theme song’s not running through your mind after reading the above you are too young and it’s probably already too late.

Read on. There is more madness.