I think I like this conspiracy theory even more than the "Obama wears a Muslim wedding ring" one, as hard as that is to believe.
During last night's rollicking VP debate, Congressman Paul Ryan replied to a question about abortion and faith by recalling the story of how his daughter Liza got the nickname "Bean" (which was apparently supposed to show how "reason and science" factor into his views on abortion).
"You know, I think about ten and a half years ago, my wife Janna and I went to Mercy hospital in Janesville where I was born for our seven week ultrasound for our first born child," Ryan told moderator Martha Raddatz. "And we saw that heart beat. Our little baby was in the shape of a bean, and to this day we have nick named our first born, Liza, bean."
The Internet quickly noticed that Ryan's anecdote was suspiciously similar to the story of how another famous child got the very same nickname:
Kurt Cobain named his daughter after Frances McKee, the guitarist for The Vaselines, and gave her the middle named Bean because he thought she resembled a kidney bean on the ultrasound.
So, did Paul Ryan really come up with the nickname on his own, or did he help himself to a handful of Kurt's bio for the sake of a good argumentum ad passiones?
Well, let's look at the Internet's "evidence": 1) Paul Ryan is a "devoted" Nirvana fan and 2) He's a pretty devoted liar too.
Case closed? Not so fast: "It is not unreasonable to think that more than one person can see an ultrasound and think that the fetus looks like a kidney bean," posits Redditor RogueEyebrow.
Okay, fine. Maybe it's just a coincidence. Then again, maybe it's something else entirely:
[photos via WENN, AP, animated GIF via gifwich]