# My mom is a birther **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 18, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-is-a-birther/619195 "2012-04-18T18:53:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-is-a-birther/619195/21 "2012-04-19T12:48:11Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Tell your mom you were born in Kenya. When she says you weren’t, ask for your birth certificate, and if she gives you one, tell her it’s a forgery demand a different one - either the long-form one or one that’s on file with the government. Then start asking why she won’t just produce the birth certificate since it’s a simple request. I don’t think she’ll stop being a birther, but it’ll be a nice lesson in how annoying this crap is. 😃 I really like this. OP, are you willing to give it a try? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-is-a-birther/619195/22 "2012-04-19T12:53:39Z")
Again, I probably shouldn’t ask but I’m going to. Ann Dunham was a student at the University of Hawaii in 1961. So was her husband Barack Senior. Dunham’s parents were living in Hawaii at the time. Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Senior were married in Hawaii a few months before their son was born. When exactly do the birthers feel Ann flew around the world to deliver her child? And why? Due to the “false” records and “false” newspaper reports, the birthers obviously feel a conspiracy existed right from the time of the birth. So why do they feel the family made a secret flight to Kenya? Instead of going to all this trouble to make it look like Barack was born in Hawaii, why didn’t they just take the easy route and stay in Hawaii? Has the birther crowd offered a motive for all this nonsense? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-is-a-birther/619195/23 "2012-04-19T12:55:43Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > who knows what they think. one variant floating around is that you’re not a natural born citizen unless both your parents were natural born citizens, so by that approach, even if they accept Obama was born in Hawaii, they argue that he wasn’t a natural born citizen because his father wasn’t. Just off the top of my head, Andrew Jackson’s parents were both immigrants (from Ireland). And there were probably other presidents whose parents were also immigrants. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-is-a-birther/619195/24 "2012-04-19T13:07:31Z")
> [@Tamex](#): > > My Montana birth certificate does not have all of that information. (It doesn’t even have my city of birth–just the county.) Does that mean I am not a citizen either? As near as I can tell, the only way to prove you’re a citizen these days is to actually run for president and see if you get challenged on it. I expect passport applications to be backed up for the foreseeable future. > [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > who knows what they think. one variant floating around is that you’re not a natural born citizen unless both your parents were natural born citizens, so by that approach, even if they accept Obama was born in Hawaii, they argue that he wasn’t a natural born citizen because his father wasn’t. Does anybody qualify by that standard? There’s language in the Constitution declaring people who were citizens at the time of its adoption to be eligible to be president. If you can trace back _all_ your direct ancestors to be in the U.S. at that date, maybe you qualify. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-is-a-birther/619195/25 "2012-04-19T13:08:13Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Again, I probably shouldn’t ask but I’m going to. > > Ann Dunham was a student at the University of Hawaii in 1961. So was her husband Barack Senior. Dunham’s parents were living in Hawaii at the time. Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Senior were married in Hawaii a few months before their son was born. > > When exactly do the birthers feel Ann flew around the world to deliver her child? > > And why? Due to the “false” records and “false” newspaper reports, the birthers obviously feel a conspiracy existed right from the time of the birth. So why do they feel the family made a secret flight to Kenya? Instead of going to all this trouble to make it look like Barack was born in Hawaii, why didn’t they just take the easy route and stay in Hawaii? Has the birther crowd offered a motive for all this nonsense? Of course: He’s black and/or he’s a Democrat. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-is-a-birther/619195/26 "2012-04-19T13:08:27Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Just off the top of my head, Andrew Jackson’s parents were both immigrants (from Ireland). And there were probably other presidents whose parents were also immigrants. Anybody who was a citizen at the time of the adoption of the constitution qualified. So Jackson had that out. (edit :Ninja’d.) Admittedly, nobody said Dukakis couldn’t be president because his parents immigrated from Greece. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-is-a-birther/619195/27 "2012-04-19T17:50:42Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Of course: He’s black and/or he’s a Democrat. No, I want to know what the birthers offer as the reason. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-is-a-birther/619195/28 "2012-04-19T18:26:46Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > No, I want to know what the birthers offer as the reason. I’ve never heard any of them offer any reason whatsover for Obama’s parents to have behaved in such a bizarre way. They just want desperately for it to be so, so they believe it. It’s like that old saying about income tax protesters: “Some people believe with great fervor preposterous things that just happen to coincide with their self-interest.” ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-is-a-birther/619195/29 "2012-04-19T19:57:24Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > who knows what they think. one variant floating around is that you’re not a natural born citizen unless both your parents were natural born citizens, so by that approach, even if they accept Obama was born in Hawaii, they argue that he wasn’t a natural born citizen because his father wasn’t. Actually, what I’m hearing is that both parents just have to be citizens – naturalized is okay – but of course this rules out President Obama because his father was not a U.S. citizen. It was explained this way on a talk show by a “constitutional expert”, so you know it must be true: 1. The U.S. Constitution says the President must be a “natural born citizen”. 2. “Natural born” means “as established by Natural Law”, not man-made laws. 3. “Natural Laws” come from God. 4. In the Old Testament, (Jeremiah I think), God said leaders must come from “among your brethren”. So Obama’s father disqualifies Obama. Apparently Chester Arthur’s father wasn’t a citizen at the time of his birth, so this requires some hand-waving why he is okay and Obama is not. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-is-a-birther/619195/30 "2012-04-19T21:56:50Z")
I assume they deny that Obama’s parents were really living in Hawaii, that it was all a pack of lies. Delusional people can believe anything they truly want to believe. That’s what delusional means, after all. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-is-a-birther/619195/31 "2012-04-19T23:35:01Z")
Whatever you do, don’t let your mom see [this.](http://pandagon.net/images/uploads/COLMKBTWL.gif) ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-is-a-birther/619195/32 "2012-04-20T00:21:18Z")
> [@whitetho](#): > > Apparently Chester Arthur’s father wasn’t a citizen at the time of his birth, so this requires some hand-waving why he is okay and Obama is not. As was mentioned upthread, the hand waving involves the color of their respective skins. But birthers, in today’s political environment, can’t come right out and say that, so they twist facts into a pretzel. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-is-a-birther/619195/33 "2012-04-20T01:12:45Z")
No, wait, I’ve got it-- Obama wasn’t “natural born”, because he was from his mother’s womb untimely rip’d! His mother’s real name wasn’t “Dunham”, it was “_Duncan_”. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-is-a-birther/619195/34 "2012-04-20T01:21:09Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > No, wait, I’ve got it-- Obama wasn’t “natural born”, because he was from his mother’s womb untimely rip’d! His mother’s real name wasn’t “Dunham”, it was “_Duncan_”. I’m amazed that the birthers haven’t made an issue out of the fact that his mother’s real name was Stanley. (Her father had wanted a son. Which is no excuse for naming your daughter Stanley.) I’m surprised the birthers haven’t claimed that the story about Obama’s birth is an obvious fabrication because Ann Dunham was actually a man. Obviously, little Barack Hussein was born in Africa to a Muslim woman and then given to this white American female impersonator to raise as “her” son, in order to someday become president and promote the gay Muslim agenda. ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-is-a-birther/619195/35 "2012-04-20T01:21:38Z")
> [@bup](#): > > … his parents immigrated from Greece. \…his parents \*emigrated \*from Greece. They _immigrated to_ the U.S.\ ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-is-a-birther/619195/36 "2012-04-20T21:06:57Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’m amazed that the birthers haven’t made an issue out of the fact that his mother’s real name was Stanley. (Her father had wanted a son. Which is no excuse for naming your daughter Stanley.) > > I’m surprised the birthers haven’t claimed that the story about Obama’s birth is an obvious fabrication because Ann Dunham was actually a man. Obviously, little Barack Hussein was born in Africa to a Muslim woman and then given to this white American female impersonator to raise as “her” son, in order to someday become president and promote the gay Muslim agenda. Can we start a betting pool, on how long before we see this used by a birther? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-is-a-birther/619195.md?page=1)