Quantcast
Channel: Encyclopedia of American Loons
Viewing all 2244 articles
Browse latest View live

#1731: Clifford Herrington

0
0
Clifford Herrington is the former head of the National Socialist Movement (NSM) and the husband of Andrea Herrington, a.k.a. Maxine Dietrich, whom we have encountered before. Herrington was, however, expelled – together with NSM media handler Bill White – from his own group when other members and patrons (in particular the notoriously unsavory Hal Turner and NSM chairman Jeff Schoep) discovered that NSM’s Tulsa post office box was shared by The Joy of Satan Ministry, Dietrich’s Satanist group, which did not sit well with the Christian Identity commitments of many white supremacists. The ensuing brouhaha was the kind of thing that people with normal social and intellectual abilities don’t usually find themselves in but which seemingly systematically happen to the craziest loon groups. The series of events is covered here. Herrington’s activities these days seem primarily to consist in producing anti-Semitic hate tracts and tweets, accusing various politicians of being Jewish or marionettes for Jewish conspiracies.



Diagnosis: It’s hard to take him too seriously and his influence seems to be negligible. We still felt he deserved to be mentioned.


#1732: Alice Hess

0
0
We’ve already covered Richard Gordon, the inventor of “Quantum Touch”, a healing technique that involves both Quantum – which in this case has nothing to do with quantum physics but everything to do with soul stuff and prana – and touch, and who promotes the idea that “all healing is self-healing,” which if it were correct would make quantum touch superfluous. Oh, well.


It doesn’t matter how silly the idea is. There are, apparently, plenty of people who have endorsed and are promoting the technique, for instance through the website quantumtouch (the “shop” section is prominently displayed). One of them is Alice Hess, a retired nurse anesthetist who is not only a Certified Quantum-Touch Practitioner and Instructor, but also does Usui/Karuna Reiki, Craniosacral therapy, Reconnective Healing® (once again: that a therapy is a registered trademark is pretty solid evidence that it is bullshit and developed not with the health of patients in mind; Hess is a “certified Level 3” practitioner), the Vogel crystal technique, and something called Integrative Energy Therapy. Well, energy healing is a nebulous staple among New Age faith healing techniques, but what, exactly, is integrative energy healing? Well, first you need to forget about the “exactly”; the rough, handwaving idea is that “Integrated Energy Therapy is the next level to heal with the energy of angels.” So, it’s a type of angel therapy. According to one Carmela Vuoso-Murphy (her website is here) it was developed by one Stevan J. Thayer at the Center of Being, which presumably is precisely the kind of “research” institution the name suggests that it is, and which “uses a divine angelic energy ray to work directly with your 12-Strand Spiritual DNA.” How? By “safely and gently releasing limiting energy patterns of your past, empowering and balancing your life in the present, and helps you to reach for the stars as you evolve into your future.” Alice Hess has also apparently “studied with Native American Elders in MN, SD and MT.” I am sure they must have been impressed with her ability to integrate elements of their teachings into her own personal brand of New Age thought.



Diagnosis: Ok, there are plenty of people like Hess around, and no particular reason to single her out. But really, the concentrated effort to promote desperately ridiculous New Age religion to real health practitioners is pretty dismaying. As a nurse anesthetist she was presumably helping real people. She is not helping anyone anymore; quite the opposite.

#1733: Bryce Hibbard

0
0
Bryce Hibbard is principal of Southern High School, which is a public school, and would probably have remained obscure (hi, Bryce) if he hadn’t appeared as a speaker at The Louisville Area Christian Educator Support (LACES) conference in 2013. Such conference participation is his own business, of course, but Hibbard made the rather novel point that teaching creationism in the school is perfectly legitimate. Hibbard told the other teachers at the conference that it is perfectly acceptable under Kentucky law to teach Biblical creationism in science classes, and even suggested future meetings with biology teachers to craft curricula. Imagine the expression on his face if he tried that argument in court.


But as Hibbard put it: “I taught biology for 20 years in this state and didn’t know that if evolution is part of the curriculum, that I could have been teaching creation.” Accordingly, “I thought I was sneaky if I had the kids … present it. So it was presented in my classroom by the kids, but I could have been doing it and didn’t know that.” When you hate truth, honesty doesn’t look much like a virtue anymore, does it? We will emphasize once again that this guy has actually for decades been teaching kids in public schools. He also told the crowd that they should be missionaries to students and plant the seed of Christ, since students who aren’t taken to church outside of school will otherwise “have no hope”. Said Hibbard: “At one point I was told, ‘You should be a youth minister,’ and someone said, ‘No, you’re in the greatest mission field there is, stay in the public school.’” Yes, it’s illegal, unconstitutional, and a violation of public trust and religious freedom, but religious freedom presumably means nothing more than freedom to worship Jesus the way Hibbard feels is appropriate.


Moreover, spending science classes giving Biblical lessons would not impede on the academic growth of his students, since creationism is “just another theory.” Said Hibbard: “A theory is a scientific understanding of what we know today. So evolution is a theory. Creation is a theory. Intelligent design is a theory. The theory of relativity is a theory. Yeah.” It’s admittedly an original spin on the “just a theory” gambit, but it doesn’t make Hibbard look particularly competent at the teaching job he is employed to do.



Diagnosis: Possibly the worst teacher your kids could ever be exposed to. Dangerous and repugnant.

#1734: Steve Hickey

0
0
Steve Hickey is a former state representative for South Dakota’s 9th district (2011 to 2015) who received even some national attention when he sponsored a bill that would allow businesses to deny services to same-sex weddings or any others that violate their “sincerely held religious beliefs.” According to Hickey, gay rights are taking the United States “down the road of Iran,” which is certainly an odd claim to make (Iran still has a death penalty for homosexuality).


Hickey’s main characteristic seems to be a persecution complex that might make even Todd Starnes blush. When resigning from the legislature, he was ostensibly going to continue his studies of Christian ethics with a focus on the power of modern surveillance deployed by governments, which he took to be of particular importance since two-thirds of the world is hostile to Christianity. Said differently: If you don’t share his beliefs, you are hostile, an attitude that is the very definition of a persecution complex. He is also bizarrely obsessed with anal sex, going on about it at length even when it is entirely irrelevant to the topic at hand.


Presumably, this Steve Hickey, who has voiced his opposition to having high standards of evidence in medical research, apparently because quackery can’t meet them, is a different one.



Diagnosis: A rather off-putting and unsavory fellow. At least he’s (apparently) out of the legislature by now.

#1735: Michael Hill

0
0
This one’s really too easy. Michael Hill is co-founder and president of the League of the South (LOS), whose goal is – if you’re living in a bubble – to get the former slave states of the American South to secede. Hill is a Neo-Confederate, a white supremacist (he has complained that the South at present isn’t racist enough) and – for good measure – explicitly pro-slavery. Hill actually taught history at Stillman College for a number of years before he founded the LOS together with J. Steven Wilkins and some other Neo-Confederates and co-authored the “New Dixie Manifesto” (with Thomas Fleming).


According to Hill, his (“complete”) rejection of racial equality is based on science: Equality is “a flawed idea with no basis in history and biology,” which seems to suggest that he doesn’t really have a clue what “equality” is supposed to mean. And how on Earth could someone, as Hill sees, it justify calling slavery “an abomination”? Surely, it’s “not in the Bible. [Slavery] is regulated there, which means it is an institution approved by God for use in a fallen world.” And if you disagree (or worse, don’t denounce homosexuality) you are a terrorist: “You [sic] worldview is a terror to the truth.” Ouch.


Much of his writing concerns the atrocities committed by Northern libruls to southerners, both during the Civil War and by “the civil rights movement (what we Southerners rightly call the Second Reconstruction),” such as immigration reform, which Hill calls “genocide; this is anti-white genocide,” and which will lead to civil war. Which is what he wants. LOS apparently also has a paramilitary wing now. Which should, in fact, potentially be considered a concern, given that Hill thinks the Second Amendment extends to “weapons systems”, has defended guerrilla warfare applications and even produced a list “primary targets” in the fight for a second secession: “The primary targets will not be enemy soldiers; instead, they will be political leaders, members of the hostile media, cultural icons, bureaucrats, and other of the managerial elite without whom the engines of tyranny don’t run,” Hill wrote, before ending by quoting the Bible: “Blessed be the Lord my strength who teaches my hands to war and my fingers to fight.” Sounds uncannily like some other organizations and networks you might think of, doesn’t it?



Diagnosis: I don’t think someone who is president of the League of the South need any further diagnosis.

#1736: Os Hillman

0
0
Os Hillman is a dominionist, one of the leading theocrats in the US and an overall pretty scary fellow. He is also president of Marketplace Leaders, an organization devoted to making leaders view their workplaces as a ministry, which is part of the “seven mountains” strategy (Hillman is behind the Reclaiming the Seven Mountains website). His website promotes the work of people like Johnny Enlow, who has asserted that the goal of Christians ought to be to establish a “virtual theocracy” and that the best way to achieve this is through stealth, and Lance Wallnau, who also thinks that theocrats should do whatever is necessary to force Biblical law on everyone (including not using the word “dominionism” when the media is present). “Unfortunately, when we embrace a life of sin, no matter what sin it is, we fall into deception,” has Hillman said in a completely different context (while arguing that homosexual love is not love at all but “Satan’s counterfeit role” and should accordingly be actively fought by Christians), which is both perceptive and displaying a staggering lack of self-awareness at the same time.


But no, he doesn’t like marriage equality, and has warned that America may soon face divine punishment for tolerating gay people (he has also suggested lowering the divorce rate as a means to reducing the gay population; the reasoning is, as you would guess, somewhat tortured). In fact, Hillman has prophecied that something bad might be in store for us soon: In “Are We Entering a Modern-Day Amorite Judgment?” he suggested September 2015, and although the prophecy was a bit complicated (it was based on the lunatic rants of deranged Taliban sycophant Jonathan Cahn and is explained here), it involved pointing out that God judged the Amorites by killing them, which doesn’t sound good. Fortunately, according to Hillman, Christians stand to benefit: “If we are prepared this could be the greatest wealth transfer we have ever seen in our lifetime, or it can be a devastating time if you are not prepared,” which sounds remarkably like a standard, cheap magazine horoscope (including the safety valve: if you don’t benefit, you just weren’t prepared enough). Hillman also asked for readers’ email address in order to get his preparation tips. Yes, it’s spam.


He has also claimed that God is (or may be) using Donald Trump to wake up America and “seems to be using Fox News to bring light to moral injustices.”



Diagnosis: Oh, the Taliban-envy. He is also one of those religious fanatics who seems to think that since everyone is a sinner anyways, it doesn’t matter if he lies and deceives a bit extra. Yet, Hillman is a pretty influential character, and it is hard to exaggerate how scary that is.

#1737: Charlotte Hinson

0
0
Roger Delano Hinkins, better – infamously – known as John-Roger, recently passed away. The Louisiana Science Education Act doesn’t seem to go anywhere, however. Passed by the state legislature in 2008, the act permits science teachers to use supplemental materials to “critique” evolution, which in practice means allowing them to teach creationism (of course, doing so would be constitutional, but Louisiana fundie wingnuts hate the Constitution). And Louisiana teachers do teach creationism. One of the ones who is rather vocal about that is Charlotte Hinson, a fifth-grade teacher at Caddo’s Eden Gardens Magnet School, who also wrote a column for the Shreveport Times in which she declared that her “job is to present both [evolution and creationism]” because “God made science.” Well, she doesn’t really do her job even by her own standards: “kids are disturbed when they hear or read that we evolved from apes. Of course, I do NOT teach that, but it is written in books, and they see it on certain TV shows as well.” And apparently she’s successful: after the origins sections “[the kids] always, always say, ‘I didn’t come from an animal. God created me in a unique way; I matter more than an animal; I’m special.’” Indeed, Hinson seems to have her own, personal, view of what school is for: “I will never ever teach what goes against so many of these children’s beliefs, morals and what their parents have worked so hard to instill in their hearts.” So there.


She did receive a letter from the ACLU for that one, but responded by pointing out that she had the support of local lawyers, her principal, and the school board, which is probably true (for instance, Caddish school board member Steve Riall, during a board meeting, affirmed that the Governor has granted permission for districts in Louisiana to give equal value in teaching evolution and creationism, for instance). Hinson ended her response with “Times are getting harder and harder … I feel the end is near. Be blessed!!!” Clearly, being criticized for blatantly violating the First Amendment is persecution.


Hinson is not alone, of course, and support for her efforts extend to the top. Governor Bobby Jindal, who signed the Science Education Act, said it was for creationism, and State Sen. Ben Nevers, who sponsored it in the Senate, said he did so because “creationism should be discussed when dealing with Darwin's theory.” State Rep. Frank Hoffmann, a state House sponsor, has also confirmed that the purpose of the law is to facilitate teaching creationism, and that Louisiana science curriculum policy “recommended a scientific discussion in the classroom of scientific theories including creationism and evolution,” which reveals something rather scary about what counts as “scientific theories” among Louisiana politicians.



Diagnosis: Completely unsuited for her job, but that’s apparently how things run in Louisiana. It’s scary, but at least no one seems to be looking to Louisiana for advice on how to do things these days – pity about the kids whose future Hinson and her ilk are jeopardizing, though.

#1738: Jean Hoagland and Homeopaths Without Borders

0
0
Yes, it really exists (and we might even have covered them before, come to think of it). Homeopaths Without Borders is a non-profit organization that tries to capitalize on the reputation of Doctors Without Borders (no, HWB is not in anything but a homeopathic sense associated with Doctors Without Borders), with a result so hilariously sad that it is matched by little else I can think of. Their stated mission is “to provide humanitarian aid, homeopathic treatment and education by serving as partners with communities in need,” which essentially means that they go to areas with sub-standard healthcare to offer people nothing. At least they are relatively open about their lack of association with Doctors Without Borders on their website, which makes one wonder why they chose the name they did in the first place. It should at this point be unnecessary to mention that homeopathy is amazing bullshit – it’s really no more than prescientific witchcraft aimed at rebalancing the humors (no, it really is) – or that evidence pretty much conclusively shows that it has no beneficial effects on any health-related issues whatsoever.


HWB briefly made the news in 2010 (or maybe that was just this otherwise somewhat similar group), when they went to Haiti to provide humanitarian help after the Haiti earth quake. Presumably they didn’t manage to do much harm, but they did point out that they discovered a need for “remedies to treat dengue, malaria, cholera and other tropical diseases,” which should be cause for concern. These are real diseases that can actually kill you, and New Age pretense doctors should have no business clowning around and getting in the way of real doctors trying to help patients suffering from these diseases. HWB could also report that the University of Notre Dame in Port-au-Prince was to introduce a homeopathy course that could lead to a certification from the American Medical College of Homeopathy in Phoenix, which is not an institution that can issue diplomas worth quite as much as the paper on which they are printed (since they have ruined the paper by printing on it, that is).


In short, the HWB is not a humanitarian organization but an exploitative one. Oh, and Jean Hoagland, under whose name this post is listed, is the president of the American chapter. 



Diagnosis: No, you are not helping. Think how much better the world could have been if these people had actually spent their efforts on something good instead of deluding themselves into thinking that they are practicing medicine.


#1739: Jim Hochberg

0
0
Jim Hochberg is President of Hawaii Family Advocates, which like every organization with “Family” in the name, is virulently anti-gay and opposed to any family organization that fails to conform to their Biblically based ideal (it’s not Biblically based, of course; family structures in the Bible tend to be interestingly diverse). Hochberg has, as you’d expect from a bigoted loon, argued that marriage equality is only the first step on a slippery slope that will lead to bestiality, concubines and, to top it, persons marrying themselves. He also thinks that bisexual people will always want two spouses, which is, I suppose, just as obvious as the idea that every heterosexual man wants two wives (he also lists “bisexual marriage” as one of the bad consequences of legalizing same-sex marriage, which makes one wonder what he thinks “bisexuality” means).



Diagnosis: And that’s enough attention given to Jim Hochberg. Bigoted, stupid, and probably ultimately rather insignificant.

#1740: Andrew G. Hodges

0
0
Several wingnuts have claimed to be able to read Obama’s mind. The readings tell you little about Obama, of course, but do tell you quite a bit about the deranged minds of said wingnuts. Andrew G. Hodges is one, and since he tells his intended audience exactly what they want to hear he’s been quoted (several times) as an “expert” by the WND. Hodges is apparently a psychiatrist, and the author of “The Obama Confession: Secret Fear, Secret Fury”, who uses a unique [that’s not a selling point in medicine or science] psycholinguistic technique he calls “ThoughtPrint Decoding” to “read between the lines” of Obama’s statements; apparently the technique is called “the cutting-edge of forensic science” by expert investigators, but the WND doesn’t name those investigators.


According to Hodges, if you read between the lines of Obama’s 2012 speech at the UN, for instance, you can detect him admitting that he isn’t eligible to be president (not entirely unlike how the eye on the American dollar is the gub’mint admitting that they are part of the Illuminati), and I think it is worth looking at the evidence in some detail:


For instance, Obama said that: “The attacks on our civilians … were attacks on America … we will be relentless in tracking down the killers and bringing them to justice.” According to Hodges, that means that Obama “again confesses his illegal presidency was an attack upon America, upon justice. So he promises to relentlessly track down his symbolic killing – destruction of – the Constitution.” And when Obama said that “the attacks of the last two weeks are not simply an assault on America. They are also an assault on the very ideals upon which the United [States] was founded,” Hodges sees him “once more alluding to his constitutional attack. He can’t say it enough.” And when Obama stated the “answer is enshrined in our laws: our Constitution … yet we do not ban blasphemy against our most sacred beliefs. Moreover, as president of our country, I [accept that people are going to] call me awful things every day,” Hodges got Obama “unconsciously reminds us that no one has confronted his blasphemy as a false president flaunting our most sacred beliefs — even as he calls his deed ‘awful.’ Obama’s succinct answer to his illegal presidency: enforce the Constitution.” Yeah, that’s the gist of it. Motivated reasoning doesn’t quite seem to capture the level of crazy at work here. (Just imagine how Hodges would have interpreted his statements had Obama not mentioned the Constitution or, well, the attacks.)


Here Hodges finds definite proof that President Obama is stealthily preparing to create a dictatorship, attack white Christian civilians and incite a civil war. This time the evidence is a “spontaneous image” Hodges experienced when the president told a joke. The WND duly published the story. And here Obama apparently admits that he stole the 2012 election through voter fraud. And of course: Obama has (unconsciously) admitted that he is coming for your guns through a comprehensive confiscation program; the evidence is that 1) Obama said the exact opposite; but 2) he is an illegal president: “Ask yourself, if he carried out an illegal presidency and participated in election fraud what would he be capable of when it came to gun control?” The same strategy for interpreting the data was used when Hodges concluded that Obama is “submissive” to ISIS. Here Hodges applies the super-Intel decoding principle of “Thou protests too much.”


Before he got picked up as an “expert” by the WND Hodges used to solve criminal cases using techniques he had developed himself. So for instance, Hodges deciphered the JonBenet ransom note to identify the child’s killer (no killer has been identified) and showed how Casey Anthony secretly confessed to killing her daughter in 200 letters written to a jail mate. Courts and investigators have apparently not been impressed with the efforts.



Diagnosis: Oh, the WND. Hodges is the kind of lunatic that raves about mind control at whale.to, but WND actually believes they are a serious news organization. Good grief.

#1741: Nancy Hokkanen

0
0
Nancy Hokkanen is an anti-vaccine activist and contributing editor to the anti-vaccine and quackery site Age of Autism as well as contact person for the Vaccine Safety Council of Minnesota (not a scientific body). Hokkanen is apparently convinced that autism is mercury poisoning and has compared the use of mercury to genocide; details such as the difference between methyl-mercury and ethyl-mercury don’t bother her that much, nor does the evidence that thimerosal doesn’t cause neurological damage – once you’ve gone down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, everything just fits and any inconvenient data easily be explained away by questioning the integrity of those who identified those inconvenient data.


Hat-tip: Destroyed by Science
Naturally, Hokkanen doesn’t like critics who prefer science and evidence to anecdotes and conspiracy mongering: “They reveal much about their narcissistic personalities via a chilling lack of compassion for vaccine-injured children and their families,” says Hokkanen, because anyone who disagrees with her about facts is likely a narcissist (just think about it). Steve Novella, for instance, is one critic not worth taking seriously, according to Hokkanen; Novella “buries his nose in literature, but he fails to recognize the political backstories that skewed the studies” – in other words, he follows the evidence and doesn’t fall for the ad hominem fallacy of trying to dismiss the evidence with conspiracy theories instead of actually engaging with it – and “he hasn’t had face time – or G.I. time – with any kids on the autism spectrum.” Hokkanen, on the other hand, has a son with autism, and that gives her – by the magic of the mommy instinct, apparently – insight into the causesof autism. Not that Hokkanen has the medical or scientific background to engage with the actual research (she has a BA in communications).


Hokkanen has also been involved in promoting dental amalgam crankery. Apparently, after “learning about the variety of health damage caused by mercury toxicity in medical products [from various conspiracy and crackpot sites], [she] had her amalgam tooth fillings removed; subsequently her health improved.” She also promotes raw milk because she grew up with it and (arguably) turned out fine.



Diagnosis: Lizard-people-level conspiracy theorist. The anti-vaccine movement has devolved into a fringe conspiracy group, and fortunately reasonable people have started to realize that this is what the movement is, but they are still numerous enough to pose a genuine threat to public health.

#1742: Roy Den Hollander

0
0
Roy Den Hollander is a men’s rights activist most known for a range of lawsuits that challenge Orly Taitz for frivolous lunacy.


In 2008, for instance, Den Hollander filed a suit contending that Columbia university could not use government money, such as federal financial aid, to fund its Institute for Research on Women and Gender. (He had by then already made a name for himself for suing Manhattan nightclubs because they offered free or discounted Ladies’ Night drinks to women). Women’s studies courses (“or as I affectionately call them ‘Witches’ Studies’”), argued Den Hollander, discriminate against men and therefore violate the Fifth and 14th amendments. Apparently Women’s studies departments offer networking opportunities from which females benefit more than males, said Den Hollander, apparently not quite realizing that men are allowed to take the courses. Nor did he have a particularly clear idea about what, precisely, were being taught in the courses: “The courses pretty much treat guys as if they’re sources of evil in the world and the women are victims,” said Den Hollander, alleging that Columbia has accordingly become a “bastion of bigotry against men . . . [that has] thrown its influence and prestige into violating the rights of men by offering a women’s studies program, but no men’s studies program.” Oh, yes: “When a university receives government funding, they have to provide equal opportunities for men and women. If there’s no men’s studies, women’s studies is unconstitutional.” (Just think for a moment about how abysmally idiotic that claim is.)


Den Hollander’s real problem is, of course, with the way women’s studies spreads what he calls the “religion” of feminism. And women’s studies do so with the help of federal money, thereby violating the establishment clause; in fact, it would somehow “violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.” “Sounds dumb,” admitted Den Hollander, “but it’s not.” The courts, apparently, didn’t pay much heed to his reassurance that the suit really wasn’t as dumb as it sounded. (You might wonder on what grounds Den Hollander would have standing in such a suit; apparently he would, as a Columbia alumnus whose “direct contact with the offensive religion” of feminism makes him “very uncomfortable” and interferes with his “use and enjoyment of Columbia as[a] member […] of the Columbia community.”


Apparently he has also tried to sue comedian Jim Norton over his treatment of Den Hollander during a phone interview on the Opie & Anthony Show, but apparently agreed to drop his suit if Norton would also drop his motion to have Hollander sanctioned for filing a baseless claim, as well as being forced to pay Norton’s legal fees. An illuminating exchange.



Diagnosis: Good grief.

#1743: Kelly Hollowell

0
0
Kelly Hollowell is an MD and hardcore creationist. Since she has a real education (not related to evolution, of course) she is a mainstay on lists of creation scientists, including Answer In Genesis’s list of creation scientists, Creation Ministries International’s list of scientists alive today who accept the Biblical account of creation and the Institute of Creation Research’s list of creationist scientists (that these institutions feel the need to make these lists is of course telling; that creationists can be listed on short lists containing primarily scientists (often by a stretch) working in completely unrelated fields is telling as well). Of course, the extent to which Hollowell herself is a “scientist” is a matter of debate; she certainly lists herself as one. She also lists herself as a “patent attorney and adjunct law professor of bioethics.” Moreover, she’s a senior strategist for something called the Center for Reclaiming America, a conference speaker and founder of ScienceMinistries Inc. (We haven’t bothered to check those out; we have an idea about what we would find, and we’ve seen enough of that.) Her rants have also been picked up by the WND, which to any minimally reasonable person would be ample reason to rethink one’s whole world view. Hollowell, however, is not a reasonable person, unless she and her Science Ministries are, as some people seem to think, an elaborate hoax.


Hollowell is even a fan of Kent Hovind, no less, whose rants are too idiotic even for Answers in Genesis, and has for instance posted Hovind’s “Questions for Evolutionists” on her webpage, prefaced with the following twaddle: “The test of any theory is whether it provides answers to basic questions? Some well-meaning but misguided people think evolution is a reasonable theory to explain man’s questions about the universe. Evolution is not a good theory – it is just a pagan religion masquerading as science.” I don’t think she knows what a scientific theory is or what a “test” is. Or an “explanation”, for that matter.


According to Hollowell “Darwin’s theory of evolution is now hotly contested by arguments of intelligent design” (no, she doesn’t seem particularly aware of the fact that biology has, well, evolved since Darwin), though Hollowell at least admits that Intelligent Design has some shortcomings as a scientifictheory (it sort of lacks a precisely described mechanism, one that has predictive power; appeals to miraclesdo not have predictive power), but to Hollowell that’s just a reason to return to a literal reading of the Bible, not to accept “evolution’s bogus explanation of diversity through macro-mutation.” (Yeah, read that again; she has no idea, does she?)


As denialists in general, Hollowell has a tendency to accept any piece of alleged evidence that supports her own view regardless of the quality of that “evidence”, up to and including spam from anonymous “former, university professor[s]” who claim to have discovered the theory of everything: “In the Bible, we are told that God created the universe out of nothing by using light. This is confirmed by modern cosmologists. They acknowledge physical existence had a beginning from complete nothingness (no time, no space and no matter). Then from a single focal point of light the physical world came into existence initially in the form of sub-atomic particles, i.e., the Big Bang theory […] Both the Big Bang event and subsequent arrangement of sub-atomic particles, therefore, provide our first opportunity to see light as the interface between the non-physical (spiritual) world and physical existence. Think about it. From light came matter.” Yes, that kind of ranting – Hollowell admits the claims exhibit all the hallmarks of a hoax, but seems to endorse it nonetheless. Just like she in 2005 got really excited (in a WND column, of course) about the imminent discovery of the Ark of the Covenant by one “Dr. Vendyl Jones. He is a modern-day explorer and teacher and the true inspiration for the Indiana Jones series. Startling the world, he announced last week on Israel National Radio that he actually knows the location of the Ark.” Hollowell must hence be unaware that Ron Wyatt already found it? We never saw a follow-up to that column.


Hollowell has a beef not only with evolution but with relativity as well. Like evolution, the theory of relativity corrupts the youth and turn them into godless moral relativists (Conservapedia also struggles with the distinction between relativity and moral relativism). Nor does Hollowell like plate tectonics (she doesn’t understand plate tectonics either, of course – “Continents and oceans ride on top of these plates” is not a phrase you would find in a geology paper), but promotes instead something she calls “catastrophic plate tectonics” (that would be John Baumgardner’s idea) – i.e. flood geology. As evidence she cites the Mid-Oceanic Ridge: “Imagine, if you can, a massive earthquake and the flooding splash made when this mountain range fell into the waters of the deep. It would be like a fat man jumping into a bathtub of water. The displacement would be so great, it could easily cause worldwide tidal waves and flooding.” Yes, imagine that.


Like so many whacky fundies Hollowell has also tried to argue that the US was founded as a Christian Nation, that the founding fathers were really religious fundamentalists and that the Constitution is really based directly on the Bible. As evidence, she cites the separation of powers, which is apparently taken directly from Isaiah 33:22 (rather than, you know, John Locke and Montesquieu). Isaiah 33:22 says “For the Lord [is] our judge, the Lord [is] our lawgiver, the Lord [is] our king; he will save us.” Critics may note that there are some steps from the idea expressed in that verse to the separation of powers most of us think is enshrined in the Constitution (one possible difference, for instance, is that the verse suggests the exact opposite of the separation of powers).



Diagnosis: Not only does she try to out-Hovind Hovind; she arguably succeeds. Hollowell must be one of the craziest and most deluded fundies out there, and that’s quite something.

#1744: Mark Holmberg

0
0
A minor one, but still instructive for its illustration of how some (many?) people think, stunning ignorance and breathtaking stupidity. Mark Holmberg is apparently an investigative reporter and commentator for WTVR, Channel 6, the CBS affiliate in Richmond, Virginia. Holmberg qualifies for an entry because of his stunningly idiotic piece “Theory of evolution should be challenged – scientifically”. How stupid is it? Well, here’s the framing: “Why does the apple fall from the tree to the ground? The 325 year old law of gravity explains it. In science, a law is a theory that has been proven, without a shadow of a doubt.” That stupid. And just in case: No, that’s not the relationship between a scientific theory and a law, and you have to be audaciously ignorant of science to think it is. But you can probably predict the reasoning trainwreck that is going to follow from Holmberg’s framing. Oh, yes: “A century and a half after Charles Darwin published his theory of evolution, it remains a theory. It hasn’t been proven.” And it follows with: “Even Darwin himself, 155 years ago, wondered why there are no transitional fossils – missing links – between not only man and ape but between dog and cats, fish and amphibian. In fact, all the animals alive today can be found in the most distant fossil records [trilobites and rabbits, all cuddling up together], although many have slowly changed over time to adapt to changing environments. But nothing showing one species turning into another.” In other words, Holmberg has apparently been perusing creationist literature and failed to even understand the positions those creationist authors arrived at by misunderstanding evolution.


And for the final flourish: “Me, I have a bachelor of science in biology, and have a lifelong fascination with this study of life. I am constantly amazed at the absolute certainty of peole [sic] who, armed with maybe one high school biology class, believe so completely and passionatey[sic] in the theory that man evolved from apes.” We haven’t double-checked his claims, but Holmberg may have grounds for claiming a refund; of course, given that this is Virginia, perhaps the institution that gave him his “education” was a particularly glitzy and expensive diploma mill.


Holmberg wrote the piece in support of one of the creationism bills submitted by Virginia House Delegate Richard Bell. The problem Holmberg, uh, identifies is of course that “this theory of evolution is considered a law by many. It’s often taught in schools as a law. It is widely believed as a law. Typically, anyone who doesn’t believe it is branded as a religious kook or an idiot.” Indeed.



Diagnosis: Religious kook and idiot. Minor figure, but his facepalm-inducing powers are impressive.

#1745: Doretta Holyfield-Vega

0
0
Another very minor but ridiculous figure, Doretta Holyfield-Vega is an “Independent Minister” and concerned resident of Alabama who filed suit against the government for “the removal of prayer” from schools and other public places, claiming that such “removal” was a violation of her religious freedom. The district court dismissed the case and the appeals court upheld that dismissal. Of course the courts dismissed the case because of Holyfield-Vega’s lack of standing rather than bothering to engage with the ridiculous, crazy persecution conspiracies that were fueling the complaint and similar complaints about persecution from figures on the religious right. One fun detail about the suit is that Roy Moore was named as a defendant.



Diagnosis: Raging fundie with a raging fundie’s trademark martyr complex. A minor figure mostly good for laughs, but her delusional view of the world is scarily widespread.


#1746: Zen Honeycutt

0
0
Zen Honeycutt (we have no reason to think its not a given name) is an anti-biotech activist and figurehead in the anti-GMO movement, a conspiracy theorist, and the founder of the anti-biotech organization Moms Across America (MAA). In that role Honeycutt has been heavily involved in spreading bizarre myths, claiming things like that going GMO-free and organic cures autism (she has appeared at the Autism One quackfest conference, for instance, and on Dr. Oz's show – neither of which inspire much confidence in what she is saying – as well as The Liberty Beacon), and that glyphosate causes maladies ranging from mental illness to infertility.


People who know anything about the topics disagree approach, of course, and Honeycutt’s approach to critics is to question their integrity (and even identity) and assume that they are bought by nefarious shadow organizations, since no one can disagree with her delusions without being corrupt and out to get her and ruin the world. And of course, since Honeycutt’s main scientific credential is being a mom she dismisses non-mom contributions as irrelevant (“You don’t have children. You don’t know what it’s like. You haven’t had a child come from your body”). Indeed, the motherhood angle really is the subterfuge on which her approach to biotech issues is based; science and evidence and cold facts matter little when up against the mommy instinct (Honeycutt and her group accuse critics of being “mommy shamers”). That, and – of course – shill accusations; when you don’t understand and therefore cannot engage with the science, dismiss the scientists as corrupt; it’s the mark of idiots to try to explain why someone is wrong before establishing that they are, in fact, wrong, and thinking that questioning someone’s motives for making a claim is a substitute for evaluating the claim. But when you aren't competent to engage with the claim itself, what choice do you have? Examples of what interacting with Zen Honeycutt while disagreeing with her is like can be found here and here.


The MAA’s misinformation-based political campaigns are sponsored by donors that include Organic Consumer’s Association, Nature’s Path Organic and Nutiva, largely unregulated commercial outfits that stand to gain a lot from any successes MAA’s campaigns may enjoy. But those are good companies. The companies that in fact don’t sponsor the critics of MAA are evil, and conflicts of interest arise only for those who disagree with MAA while being (in fact not) sponsored by companies.


GMOs

Honeycutt knows nothing about GMOs, and ignorance breeds fear and so on. A good illustration of her approach can be found in her own responses (discussed here) to the “scientific report” MAA published in 2013 concerning the “stunning” nutrient content in GMO corn vs. non-GMO corn (apparently they mistook a report of soil data with nutrient contents – and promptly failed to understand the difference when it was pointed out to them), complete with no cited sources, no methods, and blatantly wrong definitions in the footnotes – when scientists pointed out the, uh, shortcomings of the “report” in the comment section, the comments were of course mostly deleted, but Honeycutt’s own telling responses include:

- “(GMO nurition) explains a lot…why animals will NOTeat GMO corn even in the dead of winter.” (A glorious example of PIDOOMA; Honeycutt doesn’t appear to understand why anyone would ask for references.)

- “(this is) Why human allergies have increased 400% since GMOs were introduced…why health issues have skyrocketed.” The increase, were it accurately reported, correlates better with the rise in sales of organic foods, in fact.
- “Irregardless of this report, I have scores of Moms who have answered our health survey who repeatedly share that going off GMOs reduced, improved or dissappeared their children’s and their own health issues.” That would be the survey on her own website.
- “Not eating something that has this many toxins in it would for sure be a factor in an improvement in health.” Yes, the toxin gambit. Only Honeycutt can know how her mind gets GMOs to have anything to do with toxins, but she probably doesn’t.

At least it gives you an idea of what you are dealing with.


Glyphosate

Honeycutt and MAA are also ardent campaigners against glyphosate (actual factshere) with all the accuracy and precision of the dolphin healing section at whale.to. According to Honeycutt and the MAA glyphosate residues can be linked to autism, allergies, infertility, eczema, fibromyalgia, Crohn’s Disease, cancer, childhood tantrums and pneumonia, and the existence of such residues in breastmilk is accordingly a real cause for concern. Of course, glyphosate doesn’t cause any of the things mentioned (this one refutes the idea that glyphosate is a carcinogen, for instance), and residues are in any case not found in breastmilk, as confirmed by real scientists with real studies. The idea that it does, comes from an incorrectly processed assay of ten sampleswith a method that is known to generate false positives, gathered and reported by … none but Zen Honeycutt herself and published in the reputable venue of the MAA website. Honeycutt’s response to the refutation of her results was to invoke a Monsanto-led conspiracy. She didn’t engage with the data, of course.


Standard trajectory of GMO
debates. I'd like to hat-tip this
one, but I'm not sure what the
source is.
Not surprisingly, Monsanto is Honeycutt’s prime nefarious Illuminati shadow government agency (this is a telling refutation of that idea), and one of the main reason why people continue to disagree with Honeycutt is “the hold Monsanto [a company roughly the size of WholeFoods] has on our media”.


Her tweet “@BarackObama Teen pregnancies are at an all time low because our people are being sterilized by glyphosate in our food and water‼!” sums her approach to facts up fairly well. In fairness, the idea expressed in the tweet isn’t new – insane conspiracy websites like NaturalNews and GreenMedInfo have been pushing it for a while. But it is exasperatingly stupid.


Cures

Fortunately, eating organic can reverse or even cure the maladies caused by GMO foods. (According to Honeycutt, “we want not only GMO free but organic, to avoid pesticides,” which suggests that she is under – or at least pushes – the delusion that organic foods are pesticide-free). On Dr. Oz’s show, Honeycutt claimed that her son had at some point been experiencing autism symptoms; because her doctor didn’t test him for glyphosate levels, Honeycutt used a private lab which detected glyphosate levels “8 times higher than found anywhere in Europe urine testing,” and that within six weeks of going “completely GMO-free and organic, his autism symptoms were gone and the level of glyphosate was no longer detectable.” She didn’t back up her claims because the idea that autism can be reversed by going organic is ridiculous and false.


Another cure for autism pushed by Honeycutt is … “molecular hydrogen”. That’s right. Molecular hydrogen is a tinyform of hydrogen that enters your cells and turns the bad free radicals (not the good ones) into water; and to top it all: it’s natural, so it’s safe. The cure comes in the form of a little pill that you drop into water containing hydrogen and magnesium and releases hydrogen gas. Yes, magnesium hydride tablets. 



Diagnosis: Though their grammar is better than the grammar of people who think they are vampires and rant about how alien atheist-Muslim lizards from Mars are trying to mind-control them through their television sets, the actual claimsmade by Honeycutt’s group aren’t many steps up. And the tactic of accusing your opponents to be shills for Monsanto because your mommy instinct tells you that you’re right and that those who disagrees you with you are organized and wouldn’t disagree with you if they were honest isn’t much better than the tactic of dismissing your opponent’s claim that lizard people conspiracies are unlikely by pointing out that this is precisely what those in on the lizard people conspiracy would say. But the MAA has influence – even some political clout – and that’s very, very scary.

#1747: Rob Hood

0
0
Rob Hood is – or at least used to be – a commentator at Conservative Voice, and a deeply paranoid, raging lunatic fundie and conspiracy theorist. His main claim to fame is probably his development of “Nine Principles of Conservative Christian Thought” (“conservative” and “Christian” seem to be synonymous for Hood), which he penned in 2006 and which made some rounds in the blogosphere. Of course, some conservatives would probably identify a conservative position with, I don’t know, responsible fiscal policies, free enterprise and protection of personal freedoms. Boy, how stupid aren’t they! As Hood spells them out the core principles of conservatism are rather:


1) Evolution is a myth. Creation is real. God is real. It is still legal to say the word Jesus [yes, persecution is a core doctrine for these people; while it may still be legal to say “Jesus”, people like Hood are convinced that if libruls got their way a ban would be just around the corner.]

2) The Earth is only around 6000 years old Noah built an ark and the world was flooded which created the Grand Canyon. Millions of years is absurd. [But, of course, not really possible to deny if you harbor any commitment to truth, evidence or reason.]

3) Global Warming is a myth and is totally junk science that should be trashed. Volcanoes produce more harmful pollutants in one eruption that all of the cars and factories in the United States have in the last 50 years. [Nope; not even remotely in the ballpark.] For more on the junk science of global warming and Al Gore’s post election failure elusions, take a look at Tom Bethell’s bestseller, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science. [Yes, Tom Bethell, no less; why not Jack Chick? He wrote about global warming, too, you know, and is at least as well-informed on the issues as Bethell].


I think the definition of delusional wingnut might cite Hood’s conviction that the issues described in 1)–3) are politicalquestions. Hood’s points 4–9 concerns commitment to Christianity and anti-abortion, defense against the War on Christmas, the sinfulness of homosexuality (and sex outside of marriage), the infallibility of the Bible and a commitment to the Second Amendment. Said differently: Not a word about fiscal policies or individual freedoms; contemporary conservatism is apparently not about any of that stuff but about guns, Jesus and science denial.


Hood’s wingnut paranoia is well captured in this analys: “Believe it or not many commercials have very liberal overtones and hidden messages that one would not pick up on unless one was actually trained at doing so or used to seeing. I recently saw a commercial where two men were grilling steaks outside on a patio. This commercial seemed innocent enough, but when I saw it the second time around, I noticed the two men were closer than normal and all throughout the commercial there were kids there, but no women. Get the point?” Yup, the libruls are exerting mind control through TV commercials in a deliberate plot to drive Hood insane.



Diagnosis: Insane.

#1748: Brian Hooker

0
0
The 2004 study “Age at first measles-mumps-rubella vaccination in children with autism and school-matched control subjects: a population-based study in metropolitan Atlanta” is one of an almost endless string of solid studies refuting the delusional idea that there is an association between vaccines and autism. Antivaxx conspiracy theorists, on their side, naturally want the evidence to fit what they have convinced themselves is true for non-evidence-based reasons and are accordingly very interested in anything that can be used to discredit such studies. Enter enter William Thompson, one of the coauthors of that study. The original study couldn’t do a comparison of certain subgroups of subjects based on race since the data on race were incomplete (that’s a simplification; you can read the complete explanation here). Well, Thompson was unhappy with that decision, so he suggested Brian Hooker take a look at andd analyze the data (and let’s be clear; the CDC did not“hide” any data as conspiracy theorists claim; they are and have always been available – instructions here – in fact Hooker himself got the data he used from the CDC.) And that was the start of what has later been called “the CDC whistleblower affair”, and it really, truly is a whole lot of nothing (even Thompson has been careful to avoid endorsing the antivaxx spin – Hooker thinks that’s because the powers that be have gotten to him).


But who is Brian Hooker? Hooker has a degree in biochemistry, but has no formal training in statistics, epidemiology, or any field pertinent to the study of vaccines or autism. But he is a hardcore anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist. Hooker also has a son with autism and an open case claiming vaccine injury before the Vaccine Court. He is also a board member of an anti-vaccine organization called Focus Autism. When the quackery-friendly journal Health Impact News got Hooker to comment on a 2013 DiStefano et al. study that for the nth time undermined the idea behind the antivaxx conspiracy theorist rally cry “too many too soon”, they introduced him, audaciously, as follows: “There are probably very few people in the world who have spent as much time looking at CDC studies related to vaccines and autism as Dr. Hooker. Dr. Brian Hooker, a PhD scientist, has been fighting the CDC since 2004 in trying to get them to comply with Freedom of Information Acts to see the CDC research that supposedly shows there is no link between mercury in vaccines and autism.” Well, yeah. That’s what cranks do. It’s quite a bit like getting Jim Fetzer to talk about 9/11 and terrorism, I suppose (Hooker has himself participated inseveral “conspiracy realist” conferences and movements to talk about how the CDC covers up the data that would vindicate what Hooker has convinced himself into believing without accessing those data). Health Impact News elegantly sidestepped the question of whether Hooker has anything resembling any competenceon or education or training related to the issue. At least Hooker’s comment amply displayed his lack of relevant competence.


Anyways, Hooker reanalazyed the CDC data. If the data had been reanalyzed properly they would have made no difference, but Hooker’s goal wasn’t proper analysis but to force a conclusion that supported his ideological stance, and by mangling the data – he basically treated data for a case control study as data for a cohort study (he doesn’t really understand what a case control study is), and then used inappropriate statistical methods to analyze them (Hookeradmitted in a presentation at an anti-vaccine conference that he used a very simple technique, that “simplicity is elegance”, and that he prefers to do simple things rather than intellectually challenging things; that’s, to put it bluntly, not how statistics work). Well, to make a long story short (full story here) he managed to make it look as if there was a slight association between vaccines and autism for African American boys given their first MMR vaccine between 24 and 31 months of age: no one else! – so even if you ignore all of the flaws in the study and assume that his findings are accurate, Hooker’s study actually shows that the MMR is not associated with autism. Thus, even Hooker’s analysis disproves the conclusions of Andrew Wakefield’s debunked and retracted 1998 study – often cited as the main instigator of the modern antivaxx movement – though Wakefield nevertheless and absurdly took Hooker’s analysis to vindicate him, which is not surprising in light of recent research on conspiracy thinking.


The results were published in the journal Translational Neurodegeneration, though when the incompetency of the analysis was exposed the paper was retracted, and the anti-vaxx community screamed ‘conspiracy’: if you can game the system and get your pseudoscience published, you won, and it is unfair for the referees to change their mind later and disqualify the victory just because the results were false and the methodology disastrously flawed. Actually, the journal retracted the study because inappropriate and incompetent statistical methods and analysis, and because Hooker had dishonestly failed to disclose glaring conflicts of interest: though he admitted that he “has been involved in vaccine/biologic litigation,” which implies that he is no longer involved in such litigation, he failed to mention that he was at the time of submitting the paperinvolved in a case involving his own son, and hence that he stood to benefit greatly from studies that could support a connection between vaccines and autism. Makes a bit of a difference with regard to conflicts of interest, don’t you think? We don’t wish to imply that Hooker was lying, but he was.


Nor did he mention that he is board member of Focus Autism, the anti-vaxx organization that funded the study. Nor did he mention an email he sent to former director of the CDC, Julie Gerberding, in which he wrote, that “I would personally urge you to review the Book of Matthew 18:6 and consider your own responsibility to all children of the U.S. including my own son” (But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea), but I suppose he might have dropped that just because he didn’t want to up the word count of the paper.


Hat-tip: Destroyed by science (it's not the first time we
have been compelled to post this).
Hooker seems otherwise to be one of the fringe lunatics who still thinks thimerosal, which is safe (and notthe same as the unsafe methylmercury, a point lost on the chemistry challenged) in vaccines causes autism. The MMR vaccine never contained thimerosal. He also really, truly thinks that the CDC knows this but is desperately trying to cover up the truth for nefarious reasons (though, of course, you cannot really be a vaccine skeptic and not be a conspiracy theorist). Hooker and Focus Autism have no qualms about extending their conspiracy mongering beyond the CDC, either. In 2014 they attacked a high school student film (!) “Invisible Threat” that investigated the vaccine/autism link from a reasonable point of view. Suffice to say that Focus Autism’s (and it’s founder Barry Segal’s) response cannot be called “reasonable”: They accused the film of being scripted by Big Pharma and “approved by Common Core” (no less) and even put out a press release “encouraging citizens to contact their legislators to counter ECBT’s public relations effort targeting legislators”. Idiots.


The Hooker-Thompson affair is the basis for the “documentary” Vaxxed, produced by Del Bigtree and featuring e.g. anti-vaxx activist Jim Sears (who, like most anti-vaxxers, claims to be “not anti-vaccine”), Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL), and anti-GMO activist Stephanie Seneff (who has absolutely no expertise in epidemiology but who thinks that GMOs are gonna make us all autistic), which was initially supposed to be shown at the Tribeca film festival (because it was endorsed by Robert De Niro, one of the founders of the festival and a celebrity anti-vaccine loon). Actually, the Thompson-Hooker link doesn’t figure very prominently in the movie (review here) since even a cursory glance reveals it to be nothing; instead, the movie explores a range of anti-vaxx tropes and conspiracy theories.



Diagnosis: Strictly an Infowars-style conspiracy theorist, nothing else, and we believe most minimally reasonable people realize that. While he has managed to create some noise, it seems to be mostly the old, merry band of insane conspiracy theorists who buy his shit.

#1749: Tom Horn & Cris Putnam

0
0
Tom Horn and Cris Putnam comprise a pair of delusional fundie conspiracy theorists who, it seems, run the website Exo-Vaticana. The main purpose of the website is to uncover Vatican-led conspiracies to cover up alien visitations, and “break the greatest story of our time and expose the elitists and intellectuals who are planning to assimilate mankind under a coming ‘savior,’ one whom the prophet Daniel foresaw as ‘an alien god’” (link here; it’s … fascinating). It offers things like:


- UNVEILED! THE VATICAN’S SECRET PLAN for the arrival of an alien god.

- DISCLOSED! SECRET FILES in the Vatican Library on the reality of the alien presence.

- FOUND! THE HIDDEN DOCUMENT detailing the Vatican's position on the extraterrestrials.

- REVEALED! PROJECT LUCIFER and the quest for “Fallen Star.”


And so on. You have to look for the revelations yourself, or buy their book Exo-Vaticana: Petrus Romanus, PROJECT LUCIFER, and the Vatican’s astonishing exo-theological plan for the arrival of an alien savior (with a foreword by Chuck Missler – the guy behind the peanut butter argument against evolution – no less). Apparently, Horn and Putnam are Jack Chick-style fundies who has gone a step further in their Catholicism conspiracies and – somehow – ended up with UFOs and aliens, all of it tortured to fit wht they take to be a literal interpretation of the Bible.


Despite some deviations from mainstream theology, Horn and Putnam have nevertheless managed to draw some attention from rightwing fundies. Here, for instance, is Horn talking to Jim Bakker about “GIANTS – THEIR FIRST ARRIVAL … AND SOON, THEIR SECOND COMING” (they’re aliens, of course). And of course, the WND has never failed to offer credulous coverage of wild-eyed fundies ranting about conspiracies or pseudoscience, and at least they try to offer a minimally coherent representation of Horn’s and Putnam’s raging lunacy (their own websites are predictably undermined by dizzying color and font choices, as well as stream-of-consciousness random capslock rantings): Apparently, there is a conspiracy – going back all the way to Nimrod (of the Bible), who is also Osiris in Egypt and Apollo in Greece – involving pagan sun-worshippers, America’s Founding Fathers and Freemasons. And they have been planning the endtimes or at least the coming of the Antichrist or some sort of ancient, extraterrestrial Cthulhu-like, magic and evil being, which is the being whose eye is depicted on top of the pyramid on the $1 bill. Importantly, the date at the base of that pyramid is 1776, which is the beginning of a new Mayan “katun,” a time period of 19.7 years. If each of the 13 levels of the pyramid on the Great Seal represents one of these time periods, the top level would mark the year 2012 (oh, yes). So, because of the Mayan calendar, the end times will come in 2012. Moreover, the phrase “Novus ordo seclorum” is part of the American seal, and that proves that there is a “New World Order” coming. And if that wasn’t enough, remember that the famous painting in the Rotunda of the Capitol is titled “The Apotheosis of George Washington,” and since “apotheosis” means to deify or elevate to divine status, it depicts Washington as being resurrected and becoming divine (among Greek deities and devils), which means that George Washington was Cthulhu all along‼‼


Yeah, the WND synopsis (slightly paraphrased here) is not very coherent either, but it’s actually less derangedly confusing than Horn’s own writings. So yes, Horn and Putnam are grown-ups who don’t seem to realize that the Da Vinci code is not a documentary, and that Lovecraft’s stories are fiction. And they believe in trolls, too – it doesn’t matter if you call them “nephilim”; they’re trolls. Martian trolls.



Diagnosis: It is really tragic, but we can’t quite manage to look away either.

#1750: Richard Hoskins

0
0
The Phineas Priesthood, or Phineas Priests, is a title for self-selected vigilantes who commit violent acts in accordance with the ideas described in Richard Kelly Hoskins’s 1990 book, Vigilantes of Christendom: The Story of the Phineas Priesthood. The Phineas Priesthood isn’t an organization, but the title chosen by certain terrorists acting on their own (like Larry Steven McQuilliams) The original Phineas Priesthood described in Hoskins’s book was a group of four guys who, in the 1990s, carried out bank robberies and a series of bombings in the Pacific Northwest before being sent to prison, and Hoskins’s fans have engaged in typical terrorist activities like abortion clinic bombings, the bombing in Spokane of The Spokesman-Review newspaper, bank robberies, and plans to blow up FBI building.


Hoskins, then, is a deranged promoter of white supremacism and Christian Identity, and is opposed to evils such as interracial relationships, race mixing, homosexuality, and abortion, and is involved in – you know the type – anti-Semitism, anti-multiculturalism, and sovereign citizen claptrap. His book gives approving descriptions of murderers of homosexuals and interracial couples, and praises Phineas credo followers like John Wilkes Booth, the Waffen SS, the Ku Klux Klan and the 1980s terrorist group The Order. He also devotes a section to “proving” that the Holocaust was a hoax perpetrated by the Jews to destroy the German nation. “Phineas” refers to the Israelite Phinehas, who executed an Israelite man and a Midianite woman while they were together in the man’s tent and thereby ending a plague sent by God to punish the Israelites for intermingling sexually and religiously with the Midianite Baal-worshipers.


Hoskins is also the author of Our Nordic Race (1958), a self-published attempt to prove the superiority of “pure Nordic” peoples and warn about the dangers of “race traitors”. Jewish people, on the other hand, are a “mixed breed” of Mongolian descent, unable to “blush red” and unrelated to the “Nordic” Israelites of antiquity (oh, goodies). Like in Germany in the 20s, “agitation Jews” have been working in concert with the Nordic “race traitors” to undermine Western civilization. These are, of course, central tenets of the Christian Identity movement: whites are God’s chosen race and descendants of the Bible’s Israelites, whereas Jews literally and figuratively descend from Satan. In 1985 he published War Cycles, Peace Cycles, which purported to be a Christian analysis of banking and economics denouncing predatory lending and banking practices, but was most notable for blaming everything on a conspiracy of Jewish banking concerns and corrupt political leaders, as well as its intermittent advocacy of racial purity.


He is still publishing his financial/racist newsletter The Hoskins Report, which has for instance laid out his research on the Holocaust (“Constant lies. Lies, lies, lies [repeating “lies” many times substitutes as evidence]. Forty years of lies ... the anti-Christ Holohoax scam”), integration (“Better a blood-soaked Joseph Stalin than a smiling Ian Smith or congenial DeKlerk who opens the door to the barbarians. Compromise means death”) and politics (“A political candidate need take just 3 simple stands. 1) Abolish usury. 2) Root sodomists from the land. 3) Outlaw racial interbreeding.” Simple, really).


Hoskins has also written for Willis Carto’s neo-fascist Western Destiny.



Diagnosis: Downright charming, isn’t he?

Viewing all 2244 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images