A: I don't know. Maybe nothing. It's supposed to be a picture of Barack Obama's short-form birth certificate and it comes from FactCheck.org, and I can't for the life of me figure out why, given the controversy over this documentation, FactCheck.org chose to shoot it on the bias. But I post it nonetheless after an (unhappy) reader of today's column wrote in to say:

You claim that the released Obama birth certificate has had its number redacted. This is not true. Some photos blacked out the number but many others did NOT. Here is a link to photos which show the number.

I feel better? No. I still want to know what the original birth certificate--the "long form" not the computer-generated copy (above)--says. What is the big deal preventing Barack Obama from simply releasing it and putting the matter to rest?