For Birther maven Orly Taitz, “conspiracy theory” became “conspiracy fact” when she revealed a copy of President Obama's Kenyan birth certificate, thus proving that Obama was not born in the U.S. and was thus illegitimately occupying the office of the president.

For National Review's Andrew McCarthy, “conspiracy theory” became “conspiracy fact” when he saw Jack Cashill's “thorough, thoughtful, and alarming” analysis showing that then-presidential candidate Barack Obama's memoir was actually written by Bill Ayers, thus proving that Obama was actually in cahoots with the former Weather Underground member.

And for Glenn Beck, “conspiracy theory” became “conspiracy fact” today when he realized that financial regulation and the so-called “global tax” form the “cornerstone of the new world order,” thus proving that Obama is attempting to establish a global government that will dominate all human kind.

And that, of course, brings us to one of the many hallmarks of conspiracy theorism -- people who promote them already believe them to be true; so much so, in fact, that they see proof of their existence in just about everything, no matter how ridiculous (the obviously forged Kenyan birth certificate and the transparently ludicrous Ayers ghostwriting analysis being fine examples of that phenomenon). And, as so often happens, when the latest bit of “proof” turns out to be a load of bunk (as is the case with Beck's "global tax" fearmongering), the cranks undauntedly continue the search for the next piece of their sinister puzzle while polite society returns to ignoring them.

So when Glenn Beck announces that his “conspiracy theory” is becoming “conspiracy fact,” you should realize that to Beck, just about everything proves that his “conspiracy theory” is becoming “conspiracy fact,” and so the safest thing to do is believe nothing he says.