Encyclopedia of American Loons

At least she can be said to be colorful. Colleen Thomas is a home health administrator turned amateur physicist who specializes in the science of creation. She is also the “mother” of a race of good aliens here on Earth that seek to defend humans from lizard people. Thomas has a whole slew of magnificently lunatic, doom-foretelling web videos that lay out her prophecies in a less than ideally coherent fashion (She is also doing the home health administration thing in the Sacramento area if you need some advice on that.) To take some examples:

Here you can watch her 2011 warning to Obama against going to India (posted after he was already there), claiming that if he does he and all of his “cronies” will be killed by a tsunami. Now, it is unclear whether it will be by the good or the bad aliens, since Thomas doesn’t like Obama, apparently because of something to do with FEMA death camps, and a warning about Reptilians eating human bodies after natural disasters – you remember how there were no bodies recovered after the 2004 tsunami? Well, there were of course plenty of bodies, but thosebodies were just part of the Reptilian conspiracy. The real victims were eaten and replaced with I don’t have the faintest idea.

In 2010 she warned that the reptilians would destroy our network infrastructure with a massive electromagnetic pulse on November 6, and everything would be going to be down for at least 6 months (she also reasserted that she is the mother of every being in the galaxy). It is unclear whether she even noticed that her prophecies didn’t quite come true.

The mythology is a bit unclear, but it seems to have something to do with Pleiadians. In that case, Thomas is in good company – Peggy Kane is another one who thinks that the Pleiadians are helping us combat the reptilians, and Barbara Marciniak has a webpage devoted to them. Lyssa Royal-Germane, on the other hand, thinks they are somehow connected to Atlantis, while Lee Finkle has settled for Lemuria – according to Finkle Jesus was a Pleiadian, as was his father. According to this page the Pleiadians brought dolphins to Earth, and we know that because JFK’s spirit has contacted Barry Martin through automatic writing to tell us so. Brenda Kay thinks Reiki, ear candling, Shiatsu, reflexology, aromatherapy, and crystal healing are all magical gifts brought to us by the Pleiadians, and Lia Shapiro, who seems to run this site, drew the obvious connection between Pleiadians and the 2012 Armageddon.

Diagnosis: One might be inclined to think that someone needs to listen to her and support her in the appropriate manner. She does bring some color to the world, though, and is probably not particularly dangerous.

Jack Thomas is (or was) the guy behind non-normie.com. The guiding idea behind the site’s content was that well-rounded, satisfied people without emotional issues don’t do political or religious extremism. A “non-normie”, on the other hand, is “[an] adult person who is fueled by intrinsic anger from childhood and is thereafter controlled by hate;” an anger manifested in five “dysfunctional choices”: crime, crutches, cults, causes, and crises. “Crises” denote end-of-the world apocalyptic type stuff; “crutches” are things like alcoholism. And the tenor of the site suggests a somewhat simplistic version of something resembling AA’s 12-step programs.

But that’s on the surface. Non-normie.com is, in fact, a front for global warming denialism. According to Thomas, belief in global warming is prima facie evidence of non-normieness because it involves both causes and crises: “Those obsessively promoting this myth are extremely sick emotionally.” And their “crutches” include sexaholism, encompassing homosexuality, transvestitism, and child abuse (lumped together as deviant sexual practices suggesting emotional instability and trauma).

And what he designates as “cults” include virtually anything except traditional Christianity. Indeed, according to Thomas, he “believe[s], contrary to a lot of people, that Satan is a real spiritual person and I have determined that his greatest tool on earth is non-normieism because he is able to control and direct the sinful desires of non-normies through the rudder of their intrinsic anger. Today he is having a field day because of the ever-increasing number of non-normies present on the face of the earth and in ever-escalating positions of their power. As this accelerates, Armageddon cannot be that far off. The only good thing about all this is that it hastens the return of Jesus Christ.” But thatsuggests neither “cults” nor end-of-the world apocalyptic type stuff, apparently.

His “test” for non-normieness consists of 100 questions that are not particularly scientifically vetted, and resembles more the personality tests associated with Scientology adapted to cater to Thomas’s own biases.

Diagnosis: In 2009 the site appears to have been taken down. Its contents were still so illuminating that Thomas deserves an entry in our Encyclopedia.

Randy Thomasson is the president of Save California, a wingnut group if there ever was one. Ostensibly protecting “family values”, Save California is at least borderline dominionist, and Thomasson is primarily known for his anti-gay efforts. His family values are perhaps most clearly expressed in his claim that recognizing legal rights for children of gay parents is “absolute insanity” – California’s efforts to keep families intact are not in line with Thomasson’s brand of family values, obviously.

And when he heard that California students were exposed to the existence of gay people (“sexual brainwashing”) – and that gay people in the past had occasionally contributed to society – he responded by calling for civil war (yes, civil war – “we’re declaring independence. We’re not there yet but I tell you what if we don’t start voting different and telling people how to vote and if pastors don’t repent and teach people how to vote christianly then we’re heading to toward a real civil war I’m afraid” – but he is not “telling people how to vote,” mind). It’s not the only time Thomasson has called for civil war over gay rights, justified by the idea that “gay rights are antithetical to a free society” and the “Devil’s work”, and, as every knows, a really free society would of course ban the devil’s work, like religious rulers have done all over those paragons of free societies around the world throughout history. To bolster his argument, Thomasson is quick to point out that marriage equality is a form of “totalitarianism” and “slavery”.

And when he heard about the existence of a gay studies program at a California University, he reacted this way (the WND promptly cited him as an expert on the issue). California’s enactment of a day to honor Harvey Milk was not appreciated either: it releases a “tsunami of perversity” and is openly gay Senator Mark Leno’s conscious effort to make kids gay. Thomasson was supported by Jerry Cox, head of the Family Council Action Committee in Little Rock, who said Harvey Milk day would “force students to cross-dress”).

CNN once put Thomasson in a debate program, but are presumably unlikely to do so again, after Thomasson displayed a rather embarrassing lack of basic common decency and adult behavior. They should have known, though, after Thomasson tried to blame Larry King for his own murder a bit earlier.

When the California State Senate and an Assembly committee approved a bill placing limits on sexual orientation conversion therapy, Save California tried to frame the legislation as an attack on victims of child abuse. Relying on the utterly debunked claim that homosexuality (which is like “drunk driving”, “drug abuse”) is a result of molestation, the group tried to contact legislators to stop “this horrible bill locking children into homosexual bondage”, which would be “hateful toward children” (but of course). Here is Thomasson’s reaction to the prop 8 decision.

But it isn’t onlythe gays. Thomasson was for instance quick to cite the Newton shootings in December 2012 as “another example of societal degradation, a deadly consequence of promoting murderous abortions, godless evolution, and gratuitous violence,” urging schools to begin “teaching the fear of God” and arming “every school official”.

Diagnosis: Fairly stereotypical specimen. One does wonder whether – especially in a place like California – his efforts actually have the opposite effect of what he is trying to achieve. Maybe Thomasson is inadvertently a force of good … or maybe he is an LGBT plant! Now, that’s something his fans should give some serious thought.

Bert Thompson is a creationist and former director of the Apologetics Press, a creationist organization (from the early 1980s until 2005). Thompson does indeed have a B.S. in biology and a Ph.D. in microbiology, and was for a while professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M (an accredited institution, to be sure, but still something of a creationist hub) and former Coordinator of the Cooperative Education Program in Biomedical Science. More recently he was encountered as an adjunct professor of Bible and science at Southern Christian University in Montgomery, Alabama. He used to conduct regular YEC lectures entitled “Science & Nature: Two Votes for God” until 2005, but appears to have been removed from his post due to accusations of sexual misconduct with young boys (the organization is currently run by one Dave Miller, who promises to continue to fight against evolution “undaunted by Satan”). As for Thompson, he is, at present, apparently retired from active work in the creationist movement.

But even if he doesn’t make new contributions anymore some of his books are still in circulation. Promoting Christian beliefs from the perspective of young earth creationism, these books include Creation Compromises, which criticizes Christians who accept evolution, and The Truth About Human Origins (with Brad Harrub), which says precisely what you expect it to say.

Thompson’s presentations – professionally designed outreach efforts – included many of the standard canards, including appeals to the laws of thermodynamics and, notoriously, the alleged carboniferous footprints, putatively human footprints in rocks dated to be hundreds of million years old. Of course, Thompson notably didn’t include any pictures of the footprints in his lectures, since that would have, shall we say, blunted the impacto of his argument. But the point was of course never intellectual honesty and disinterested evaluation of the evidence (his article on the issue with one Trever Major – not written for serious publication, of course, since that would require actual serious treatment of the evidences – did not cite the relevant literature either). He has, together with many other rather delusional creationists, made a fool of himself over homo floresiensis as well.

Thompson originally gained some notoriety in the early 80s, when he was effective in trying to run off a couple of professors from Abilene Christian University because of allegations that they taught evolution. All in the name of academic freedom, of course.

Diagnosis: Stock creationist, and one of the few who actually has some real credentials (well, at least academic degrees). Probably neutralized at present, by the merciless ploys of the devil.

Bradley Thompson is one of an almost endless row of self-help experts you may encounter on the Internet, and there really seems to be a competition among them with regard to who can come up with the most ridiculous nonsense. So on Thompson’s website you can for instance get sonic vitamins (yes, health benefits by audio – it’s vibrations), “almost 300 MP3 hypnosis downloads”, instructions on how to “improve your IQ” using “scientifically-proven techniques”, information on how to “reprogram your mind with subliminals”, and – of course – everything you ever wanted to read about the Law of Attraction – including “What The Secret didn’t tell you.” NLP and stuff by Joe Vitale figure prominently. It’s bullshit, of course. All of it.

And it is, of course, all about … quantum. The Quantum Cookbook is Thompson’s version of what “The Secret didn’t tell you”, and as anecdotes testify (you really didn’t think there was any evidence, did you) “[f]ollowing the methods in The Quantum Cookbook, my manifestation has provided tremendous results. Within the space of just eight days, I’ve managed to pay off all of my debts, and help attract a new partner into my life.” And no, Thompson doesn’t have the faintest clue about quantum physics, but for people like Thompson ignorance is a blanket excuse for just making up incoherent fluff. The Cookbook includes lessons from Fred Alan Wolf, James Ray, and … Joe Vitale, again.

Diagnosis: There should be some kind of legal protection for consumers against advertisements involving clearly false and unsubstantiated commercial claims.

Jack Thompson was a legendary Florida lawyer, infamous for his campaigns against video games and his attempts to whip up moral panic over those. Thompson blames video games for being the primary cause of violence and crime among young people. He doesn’t care about facts, of course, and became notorious for popping up as a news network “guest speaker” in the aftermath of school shootings to claim that the shooter practiced killing with violent video games. He even accused the U.S. Department of Defense of colluding with video game producers (and unholily so).

His targets also encompassed rap music and Howard Stern, and his general outlook is probably well exemplified by his dismissal of a 2 Live Crew album by: “the ‘social commentary’ on this album is akin to a sociopath’s discharging his AK-47 into a crowded schoolyard, with the machine gun bursts interrupted by Pee-wee Herman’s views on politics.” Not quite, but Thompson argued that it was therefore not protected by the First Amendment. Not quite that either. Thompson also wrote to Bruce Springsteen’s manager about how 2 Live Crew misused a sample of Springsteen’s gloriously pro-American “Born In the USA” in their social criticism. No, Thompson didn’t understand what Springsteen’s song was about.

Unfortunately for lovers of unintentional comedy Thompson was disbarred by the Florida Supreme Court, effective October 2008, for “professional misconduct” (he walked out on his own hearing, apparently, though responded here), thereby ending a long-running feud between him and the Florida Bar Association (which Thompson accused of having a secular humanist agenda – in 1993 he even tried to challenge the constitutionality of the Florida Bar itself; the court was not impressed with his filings). The reason for disbarring him, however, was his filing frivolous lawsuits and defaming various people who opposed him, even accusing them of child pornography. Thompson responded to the charges by claiming to be a victim.

While in the game Thompson was notoriously trigger-happy (e.g. here), and his techniques included mass-mailing thousands of game industry employees and threatening to press harassment charges against them when they responded, calling Sony a “Pearl Harbor 2” for their video games, his filings related to the 1997 Heath high school shootings (dismissed for failing to present a legally recognizable claim), and endlessly repeated suits over GTA, Bully (allegedly violating Florida’s public nuisance laws), Manhunt and Mortal Kombat. More examples here (and a fair assessment of Thompson’s claims here). According to Thompson “[w]e have a nation of Manchurian Candidate video gamers out there who are ready, willing, and able to massacre, and some of them will.” Evidence: intuition. Facts are a conspiracy to discredit him.

Here’s a report from Thompson’s interaction with Penny Arcade, and here is another (and another, and another).

Diagnosis: High-profile, hysterical single-minded tragedy chaser with not a shred of concern for reality or facts that do not fit with his agenda. He probably won’t harm anyone anymore, however.

Update: I had written the whole post before realizing that Thompson passed away in 2009. She's thus strictly speaking disqualified for an entry, but I didn't really fancy letting the post go to waste either.

The militia movement is a counterculture in the US consisting primarily of disaffected, rural, white, right-wing fundies who believe that the federal government’s authority is either broadly abused (often because it is populated by lizard people or puppets for dark and nebulous shadow organizations) or outright null and void, and that the American people must form armed paramilitary groups in order to stand up to Washington. The movement was most active in the 1990s, but has made something of a comeback in recent years following the election of a ~~colored~~Muslim Marxist as President.

Indiana attorney Linda Thompson is one of the legends of the movement. Formerly a liberal who had done some work for the ACLU, Thompson made a video called Waco, the Big Lie right after the 1993 Waco siege. Although it was not the first significant criticism of the government’s handling of the events, it was one of the most ridiculous, and actually managed to make a bit of a splash for its sensationalism. Thompson herself moved far right, went insane, and proclaimed herself “Acting Adjutant General of the Unorganized Militias of the United States,” complete with mumbo-jumbo about black helicopters and the quadrant sign code conspiracy (the idea that the bar-coded stickers on the backs of highway signs were to guide U.N. tanks after they invade the U.S). She also claimed that the Amtrak heavy repair shop at Beech Grove, Indiana is one of the FEMA concentration camps, and proclaimed an armed march on Washington, D.C. scheduled for September 19, 1994 during which “all militia units” were to assemble and arrest the entire U.S. Congress for “treason”. The idea was later cancelled due to lack of interest from other groups, who sometimes suspected Thompson of being a government plant. Later she was arrested for blocking a Presidential motorcade in Indianapolis with several weapons in her car.

She was also (but of course) a major proponent of the Vince Foster conspiracy theory, and compiled most of the list that former Rep. William Dannemeyer sent to congressional leaders in 1994 of 24 people with some connection to Clinton who had died “under other than natural circumstances”, calling for hearings on the matter.

Her most famous achievement was the “documentary” America Under Siege, which was sold as a VHS videotape through her American Justice Federation. It was most notable for its perfection of the Gish gallop in the documentary format.

Linda D. Thompson, the former Mayor of Harrisburg, Pa., is (probably) a different one, but she warrants mention as well for her claim thatorganizing a campaign of praying and fasting would be the most efficient way of solving the city’s piling debt.

Diagnosis: Really a sort of Platonic idea of a loon. Angry, paranoid, and moderately desperate. Probably not a very significant threat to civilization in the long run, but keep a safe distance just in case.

Richard Thompson is the President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center (more here), a Michigan-based Christian legal advocacy organization created in 1999 by Thomas Monaghan – the founder of Dominos Pizza – and famous for instance for taking the case of the defense of the Kitzmiller v. Dover case. The organization is currently devoted to all sorts of wingnut cases, such as challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare, and in 2001 it notoriously sued the San Diego chapter of Planned Parenthood to force it to inform women of a non-existentlink between abortions and breast cancer. The Center even has Michele Bachmann on their Citizens Advisory Board, which should tell you quite a bit about what kind of organization we are dealing with.

Richard Thompson is really your standard wingnut (though he probably knows the law slightly better than the Liberty Counsel) – the kind who claims thatAmerica will “disintegrate” because of the homosexual agenda and Obama. Also, Christians are persecuted – by a government whose goal is to ban the Bible. Where does he get the information? "I want to turn around and praise WallBuilders because you are giving the kind of information that people have to have to understand what is going on, to understand the history of our nation.” Yes, that’s WallBuilders, the organization of fraudulent revisionist David Barton.

The Center is really a conspiracy hub. In 2012, for instance, they tried to argue that the Muslim Brotherhood helps run the military and the FBI (thereby jeopardizing America’s survival, of course). Thompson, predictably, is no fan Muslims. Take this claim, for instance, and notice how the argument is premised on the asumption that Muslims, as a group, are the enemies in an ongoing war. What, by the way, happens when Muslims refuse to accept The American Way? Well, then the fundies sue them for discrimination, like Thomas More Law Centre’s Brian Bolling, representing Gerald Marszalek (who used his position as assistant high school wrestling coach to convert Muslim students to Christianity) here (which includes Thompson’s own comments on the events).

Another interesting illustration of the mind of Richard Thompson is here.

Diagnosis: Fundie who apparently hates the Consitution because it appears to grant rights also to people he disagrees with. Of course, that’s not how Thompson wants to see it, so instead, and in a true Orwellian fashion, he tries, desperately and incoherently, to portray himself as defending the Constitution.

Todd M. Thomsen is the Republican Majority Whip in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, and was elected in 2006 in part for his promise to “improve education”. Of course, “improve education” does, very obviously, not mean improve education, but ensuring that students are taught what Thomsen wants to believe is the truth based on wishful thinking and various deeply nurtured biases. Accordingly, Thomsen has introduced various antievolution bills, and attacked the University of Oklahoma’s Department of Zoology for “framing the Darwinian theory of evolution as doctrinal dogmatism rather than a hypothetical construction within the disciplines of the sciences” and for engaging in “one-sided indoctrination of an unproven and unpopular theory” (note the relevance of “unpopular”) while branding “all thinking in dissent of this theory as anti-intellectual and backward rather than nurturing such free thinking and allowing a free discussion of all ideas [which is, of course, antithetical to free thinking, though Thomsen have no clue what either means] which is the primary purpose of a university.” And no, that is not the primary purpose of a university.

He even managed to gain himself international attention when he introduced a bill trying to prevent the University of Oklahoma from inviting Richard Dawkins, with a resolution stating that “the Oklahoma House of Representative strongly opposes the invitation to speak on the campus of the University of Oklahoma to Richard Dawkins of Oxford University, whose published statements on the theory of evolution and opinion about those who do not believe in the theory are contrary and offensive to the views and opinions of most citizens of Oklahoma.” All in the name of Academic Freedom, of course.

Well, he didn’t succeed in disinviting Dawkins – who even waived his speaking fees. That didn’t prevent Representative Rebecca Hamilton (a Democrat) from filing a lengthy open records request with the university, asking for any correspondence regarding Dawkins’ speech, information on any costs to OU, a list of any money Dawkins received, information on who provided the funds, and any other “pertinent financial information.” Nor did it prevent Thomsen from concluding that “[h]is presence at OU was not about science […] It was to promote an atheistic agenda, and that was very clear.”

Diagnosis: Yep, people in Oklahoma elect these kinds of leaders. It’s not particularly surprising but it is scary.

The story is famous, but may be worth repeating: Paul Wellstone was a senator from Minnesota, serving from 1991 until his death in a plane crash in 2002. A Democrat, Wellstone consistently ranked as one of the most liberal Senators – he was also for instance one of only a handful of Senators to have voted against military action in Iraq in both 1991 and 2002. Wellstone’s Senate seat was up for election in 2002, running against Norm Coleman, but eleven days before the election, Wellstone, his wife, and one of his children were killed in a plane crash. Partially because they handled the aftermath poorly (experiencing a backlash after politicizing Wellstone’s funeral, for instance) the Democrats lost the election.

Enter the conspiracy theorists. According to an NTSB investigation, numerous pilot mistakes were solely to blame for the crash that killed everyone on the plane carrying the late senator, but, you know, such conclusions carry little weight in certain quarters. Here, for instance, is Michael I. Niman raising the question on alternet (Jim Fetzer also weighed in). But we will let one Jackson Thoreau (a pseudonym) serve as the front figure for the idea. Thoreau raises, in particular, the pertinent question of whether Wellstone was assassinated by Dick Cheney for voting against the invasion of Iraq. “My first hunch upon hearing about the tragedy was that the Beech King Air A-100 was tampered with by right wingers, possibly the CIA, either directly or through electromagnetic rays or some psychic mind games. And,” rather unsurprisingly, “nothing I have heard or read since then has made me drift from that hunch.” And what do you know – Thoreau has rumors, second-hand stories from people who have allegedly been in contact with the CIA and can verify that something fishy is going on, and unverified sightings and tidings of black vans and helicopters.

He does assure us, however, that “I'm not a big conspiracy nut,” which is, I suppose, good to know, but somewhat undermined when you explore Thoreau’s other writings, which include articles for Rense.com with titles like “The Strange Death Of The Woman Who Filed A Rape Lawsuit Against Bush”. I have found little information on the contents of his books, such as Born to Cheat (on the Bush elections), but he is at least behind several political campaigns to “impeach Bush”, “indict Bush and Cheney”, “remove Tony Blair”, “remove Texas Gov. Perry”, and “totally recall Schwarzenegger”. I suppose some readers here agree with the sentiment, but presumably not the reasons Thoreau offers.

Diagnosis: Another event, another conspiracy theory. Thoreau is not the most incoherent of such theorist, and one even suspects that he could have been a force of good if he realized a few things about how psychological biases work and why conspiracy theories are stupid.

Ah, the starseeds. Starseeds are reincarnated space beings in human form who are destined to lead humanity into a shining tomorrow. They usually don’t remember that they are aliens but have special genes that activate at some point in their life (no, I don’t think the proponents of the theory really understand how genes work) to help them recover their lost memories; they have psychic powers and sustains a relationship to every mystical and religious tradition in Earth’s history because they tend to reincarnate as shamans, holy men and sages (but the genes are still from space). Younger starseeds are often designated as crystal children. Indeed: you may very well be one – after all, many starseeds haven’t been activated yet, and if you just seek the help and paid services of a qualified medium he or she can assure you that, sure, you are just waiting to be activated.

Theresa Thurmond Morris is one of the people who can help you. She’s a starseed herself and explains – or whatever you call it – the phenomenon here. It involves Lemuria, Atlantis and all sorts of exotic goddesses, and even the Bible: “The Indians were the closest spiritually to receiving the ET and their wars of the past long after Lemurians and Atlantians existed. However, some who lived beyond the great cataclysm and separation from the heavens of water and the worlds created below were allowed to live as beings of the ETs or Alien Hybrids to continue to come to back as in reincarnation from time to time. Jesus the prior master knew this.” And now you do too.

And yes, her rants are all written in a hilariously stilted and not impressively grammatical tone derived from the Bible and the speech of wise beings as portrayed in cheap, romantic Wal-Mart novels: “I have also asked how I can possibly put up with all the adversity in the world and on the topics in supernatural and paranormal opposing views as one who claims to be of both Christian and Science belief systems. My answer is this. We are all of the ALL and the Great I AM. What labels or threads we claim of our own life force as enhancements or ornamental behavior patterns is no more a control factor than our own DNA Genome,” which is (I think) not an answer. And even less coherently (perhaps): “One can learn to time travel with out of body experiences and if one needs to train we have the metaphysical institutes around the world.” Apparently Jesus was her brother in a previous life.

You can read an appreciation of some of her work here. At least she is pretty optimistic about the future: our “etheric ascension” was going to make us more highly evolved beings. The ascension was set for 2012. I have no idea whether Thurmond Morris thinks it actually happened or not.

Diagnosis: Needs help – at least with her grammar. Otherwise fairly harmless.

Robert Gibson Tilton is a legendary televangelist who achieved notoriety in the 1980s and early 1990s through his infomercial-styled religious television program Success-N-Life. At its peak it brought in nearly $80 million per year, and was described as “the fastest growing television ministry in America.” It lasted until ABC’s Primetime Live aired an expose of Tilton’s fundraising practices (including testimonials of miraculous recoveries), thereby spurring a series of investigations into the ministry. Tilton’s program subsequently disappeared from the air.

The investigations were started in part after the Trinity Foundation, who works with homeless and poor people in Dallas, started noticing the pervasiveness of people who had lost everything to Tilton. When confronted with the fact that he would just throw away the prayer requests sent to him (which admittedly would have been just as effective) but keep the money – after ABC investigators found said requests in the garbage – Tilton went into denial, saying that ABC had stolen them and put them in the dumpster, that he had “lai[n] on top of those prayer requests” so much that “the chemicals actually got into my bloodstream, and ... I had two small strokes in my brain,” and that he had needed plastic surgery to repair capillary damage to his lower eyelids from ink that seeped into his skin from the prayer requests. He also thought he was justified in using the money to purchase multiple multimillion dollar estates. He also had some problems with some fraud lawsuits, and an incident where he sent a letter to a woman claiming that he just spoke to God and that God was going to heal her husband several months after her husband had died, thus proving that he was lying and knew that he was lying.

Like Jesus, he later returned to television, first in 1994 with a new show called Pastor Tilton that emphasised “demon blasting” exorcism practices usually involving Tilton shouting as loudly as possible at demons supposedly possessing people suffering from pain and illness. It wasn’t very successful (people prefer being defrauded with fluffy self-help advice), but he has more recently returned via his new version of Success-N-Life airing on BET and The Word Network, where he still performs miracles such as making bones grow together (though the embedded video sort of suggests that the patient’s bones did not grow together). A typical fundraising letter is discussed here.

Tilton is the author of several self-help books about financial success, including The Power to Create Wealth, God’s Laws of Success, How to Pay Your Bills Supernaturally [wheee!] and How to be Rich and Have Everything You Ever Wanted. And yes, you can probably discern the nature and quality of the advice from the titles.

His daughter Amy Kushnir doesn’t seem to be a very decent human being either.

Diagnosis: The question mark is obvious. If Tilton believes in the miracles he professes to believe in, then he is a loon. But there is plenty of evidence suggesting that Tilton is perfectly aware of the nature of his business, which would technically disqualify him.

The creationist rants of Bill Tingley are pretty typical in their display of profound ignorance of science and, in particular, evolution. But we haven’t really managed to find much other information on this guy, so we’ll leave him alone in favor of one of creationism’s big fish.

Frank Jennings Tipler is a once-good scientist turned crackpot. He is still professor of Mathematical Physics at Tulane, and in his early career Tipler published technical work on general relativity that were well received by the scientific community. His writings gradually morphed into eccentric pseudoscientific books on intelligent design and Christianity in an attempt to scientifically prove the existence of God. He has thus far failed.

His most famous contribution to pseudoscience is the Omega Point, a ghastly pseudo-scientific mix of cosmology and theology that supposedly proves God’s existence and the immortality of intelligence. His book on the matter, The Physics of Immortality, was described by George Ellis as a “a masterpiece of pseudoscience … the product of a fertile and creative imagination unhampered by the normal constraints of scientific and philosophical discipline.” In essence, the Omega point is a state in the distant proper-time future of the universe occurring after intelligent life has taken over all matter in the universe and eventually forced its collapse. During that collapse, the computational capacity of the universe diverges to infinity and environments emulated with that computational capacity last for an infinite duration as the universe attains a solitary-point cosmological singularity – the Omega Point, or God. With computational resources diverging to infinity, Tipler states that a society far in the future would be able to resurrect the dead by emulating all alternative universes from its start at the Big Bang – in other words, he thinks he has proved the immortality and resurrection of the Bible by physics alone. The whole thing is theological nonsense, of course, blithely misapplying the laws of probability, but made to sound “plausible” to laypeople (who don’t really understand the terminology) by using the technical language of physics. Martin Gardner dubbed Tipler’s “Final Anthropic Principle” (used to derive his results) the “completely ridiculous anthropic principle” (CRAP). Michael Shermer devoted a chapter of his book Why People Believe Weird Things to Tipler’s theory, and Lawrence Krauss described the book as the most “extreme example of uncritical and unsubstantiated arguments put into print by an intelligent professional scientist”.

But really, what qualifies Tipler as a loon isn’t so much his unsubstantiated ravings on theology and metaphysics, but how it affects his views on real science. At present Tipler is also a Fellow of the International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design, and a signatory to the Discovery Instititute’s petition A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism; he also writes for Uncommon Descent.

And yes, his rants and ravings are utter crackpottery, complete with misuse of technical vocabulary, random capitalization and failure to understand how science works (a scientific theory is only truly scientific if it makes predictions “that the average person can check for himself,” says Tipler) – some examples are discussed by Sean Carroll here.

He also endorses global warming denialism: People say that anthropogenic global warming is now firmly established, but that’s what they said about Ptolemaic astronomy! Therefore, I am like Copernicus (Carroll’s paraphrasing). In other words, that a theory is established in the scientific community is no reason for me to accept it, even though I lack any expertise in the field. To back up the claim, Tipler engages in a lengthy description of the woes ofGalileo. His dismissal of global warming involves ranting about sunspots (apparently unaware of the literature, of course) and alleging that the data has probably been fabricated since it was very cold outside when Tipler was writing his rant. (Another example here.)

In addition to the already mentioned Physics of Immortality, Tipler’s books include The Physics of Christianity (2007) and The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (1986). The Physics of Christianity (reviewed here) attempts to give tortured explanations of the Shroud of Turin and various Christian miracles (desperately trying to avoid the obvious explanations). It is easily dismissed as profoundly silly, but as Lawrence Krauss points out: “As a collection of half-truths and exaggerations, I am tempted to describe Tipler’s new book as nonsense – but that would be unfair to the concept of nonsense. It is far more dangerous than mere nonsense, because Tipler’s reasonable descriptions of various aspects of modern physics, combined with his respectable research pedigree, give the persuasive illusion that he is describing what the laws of physics imply. He is not.” For instance, Krauss continues, “he argues that the resurrection of Jesus occurred when the atoms in his body spontaneously decayed into neutrinos and antineutrinos, which later converted back into atoms to reconstitute him. Here Tipler invokes the fact that within the standard model of particle physics the decay of protons and neutrons is possible, although he recognises that such decay would likely take 50 to 100 orders of magnitude longer than the current age of the universe: thus, the probability of such an occurrence is essentially zero. However, using a strange ‘Christian’ version of the anthropic principle, a subject he once co-authored a book about, he then claims that without Jesus’s resurrection, our universe could not exist – therefore, when one convolves this requirement with the almost, but not exactly zero, a priori probability, the net result is a near certainty.” Elements of the religious rightwing media were quite impressed, however.

Diagnosis: A crackpot’s crackpot. This guy is really a phenomenon. His (mis)use of scientific vocabulary in the service of sheer crackpottery may perhaps convince some, but I hope even the reasonably educated layperson will quickly understand, upon encountering his books, that they are in the presence of some serious gibberish. Yeah, right.

Herbert W. Titus is an American attorney, writer, politician, and supporter of the Christian Reconstructionism movement, known for his dabbling in pseudohistory (he made an appearance for instance in Kirk Cameron’s 2012 “documentary” Monumental) and for running for Vice-President of the in the 1996 U.S. presidential election on the Constitution Party ticket (running mate of the late Howard Phillips). He was once a respected law scholar, but left his tenured position as professor of law at the University of Oregon in 1979 to become a member of the charter faculty at Oral Roberts University and later dean of Regent University’s law school.

We note that Ed Brayton repeatedly denies that he is a dominionist, but Titus’s actions make it fair to label him a “supporter” of certain dominionist views – he is committed to exercising what he believes is a “dominion mandate” to “restore the Bible to legal education,” i.e. to teach that Christianity is the basis of our law, that lawyers and judges should follow God’s law, and that the failure to do so is evidence of a “tyrannical,” leftist agenda; and if not necessarily dominionism proper it is definitely an attempt to make fundamentalist religion the foundation of the law. Indeed, Titus claims that religion, as used in the Establishment Clause (“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”) does not mean, religion. Rather, Titus insists that this clause means that Congress cannot make you do anything that you are otherwise commanded by God to do: in other words, Congress cannot flout God.

To get a further idea of what kinds of positions he supports, Titus has argued that the Bible shows that Obama is ineligible for the presidency of the US. According to Titus, both your parents need to be citizens of the US (that’s established by the Bible), and “the form that was produced by the Obama administration indicates that his father was not an American citizen. Where people said, where race usually you put ‘black’ but it has ‘African,’” which settles the matter: “I think this president does have a divided loyalty. I think he is more loyal to his African father than he is to the American nation.” Yes, the argument is as mind-bogglingly, hysterically insane as it appears to be (elaboration here). Titus also appears to think that Obama is the harbinger of fascism for signing an executive order establishing the National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council; his tortured reasoning was duly reported by the WND, of course.

As for marriage equality Titus has said that the government should define marriage based on Leviticus and “screen out those people who were violating the rules the Bible laid down as to who could be married and who could not be married.” He was also a signatory to what has become known as the mother of all prop 8 briefs.

As for gun rights, Titus maintains that the NRA “compromises” on gun rights. According to Titus the Second Amendment isn’t solely about firepower: “You have to see it in its spiritual and providential perspective.” It’s not only a matter of a right to bear guns; you have a religious duty to do so. Indeed, we have a religious duty to arm Americans against the government and the “totalitarian threat” posed by “Obamacare” and “what Sarah Palin said about death panels.”

Along with our old friend Roy Moore, Titus was an original drafter of the Constitution Restoration Act, which sought to take out of federal court jurisdiction cases that involved public officials that acknowledged God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government, and provided for the impeachment of federal judges who disregarded the act.

Diagnosis: Dangerous and crazy.

A.k.a. Renee Hunter

Renee Tocco is a Michigan-based chiropractor well known in the anti-vaccine movement, and signatory to the International Medical Council on Vaccination’s list of people … well, anti-vaccinationists (and, yes, IMCV is a belligerent anti-science organization). She is also the founder of Hope for Autism, another group devoted to proposing unsupported claims about the causes (and potential solutions) of the probably mythical autism epidemic. And of course the vaccines are to blame. According to Tocco there is a conspiracy going on in the medical community to protect (for rather nebulous reasons) the idea that autism has a genetic component and exonerate vaccines.

She also has the solution: “I truly believe that chiropractors, as primary health care physicians, are destined to change the world of autism.” The reason is that instead of medication, Tocco thinks, chiropractors can use woo. In particular, her woo. “Hope For Autism offers BioNutritional Care training for both chiropractic physicians and the general public. Bionutritional Care utilizes diagnostic tools and methods of testing to determine the underlying physiological causes of symptoms particular to an individual suffering with a disease or condition. These underlying physiological conditions include, but are not limited to, chronic fungal, bacterial, viral or parasitic infection, nutritional deficiency, food and inhalant allergies, heavy metal toxicity, systemic inflammation, and immune system deficiencies. Then, with a focus on natural and non-invasive treatments and modalities, an individual’s fundamental diagnoses are addressed with methods that have been shown to be effective.” Evidence for efficacy? How dare you even ask – it is “natural.” And the approach can, in a few easy steps, take care of a lot of things in one fell swoop, non-invasively, which is the hallmark of good woo.

Diagnosis: I kinda hope this entry is greeted with a yawn. There is nothing new or original here. Just the standard admixture of conspiracy theories, pseudoscience and spamming.

The unfortunate demise of John Todd leads us to another stock creationist, Jeffrey P. Tomkins, “research associate” at the Institute for Creation Research. Tomkins has a PhD in genetics (Clemson University) and a master’s degree in “plant science”, and his “research” for the ICR accordingly focuses on genetics, particularly (as per 2011) on the genetic similarity between humans and chimpanzees. He has already discovered that the similarity between humans and chimps was “merely” 86– 89% by failing to understand some rather central distinctions (he never told us what the differences were, but did claim that evolutionist attempts to sequence the genome were biased). His 2012 article on the sequencing of the Gorilla genome, “Gorilla Genome Is Bad News for Evolution,” promptly failed to understand the science (detailed explanation here).

Needless to say, Tomkins avoids serious, scientific journals for his rants, but instead likes to publish his “results” in venues such as Answers, the house journal of Answers in Genesis. For volume 4 of that journal he published, in addition to his human-chimp difference paper, “Response to Comments on ‘How Genomes are Sequenced and Why it Matters: Implications for Studies in Comparative Genomics of Humans and Chimpanzees’,”, a response to (creationist) criticisms of said paper. He continued the confusion in volume 6.

His latest project is apparently concerned with the “concept of genetic diversity in biological adaptation.” We are still waiting for any insights.

Diagnosis: Clueless moron, whose understanding of central concepts in biology seems to be – willfully – more or less non-existent.

Robin Toms is an Associate Professor at Texas Woman’s University College of Nursing, where she researches “Reiki – Complementary Therapy, Leadership-Work-Life Balance, Online Education Outcomes.” Well, “research” might be a misnomer. She panders reiki. According to Toms “Illness results from blockages in the energy field,” and “Reiki balances the human biofield to unblock the energy”. Yes, it is faith healing based on traditional medieval vitalism under a new name, nothing more, and by “energy” Toms doesn’t mean energy, but magic spirit-stuff. She has, for instance, laid out her new age metaphysics in the article “Reiki Therapy: A Nursing Intervention for Critical Care,” published in Critical Care Nursing Quarterly, which some actually treat as a respectable source of information (not anymore, one hopes optimistically). In that article she justifies her position thusly: “Florence Nightingale viewed the spirit and body as inseparable. When there is disruption in the body, the energy fields within and surrounding the body are also disrupted. Energy fields, though we cannot see them, are part of the body as well as the spirit. Although we, as nurses, may be primarily focused on the care of the body, we are also in a unique position to address the needs of the spirit through the use of complementary therapies.” Yes, that’s the level at which it is pitched. What’s her evidence for this energy field? Wait for it: “Attempts have been made to photograph the energy fields surrounding the body and plant life. Kirlian photography has been used to produce images of bioenergetic radiance emanating from and surrounding plants and the human body.” Yes, the testimony of playfair crystal ball gazing techniques. The mind boggles, and the article is pertinently discussed here.

Diagnosis: Another religious fundamentalist newage crackpot, you’d think. But Toms is also an “associate professor” at an institution that ostensibly teaches nursing (I have no idea what its accredidation status is, but it’s not on Quackwatch’s list, though it probably should be by now).

A.k.a. Silver Ravenwolf (chosen)

A.k.a. $ilver Ravingwolf

Her chosen alias might give her away rather promptly, and Trayer is a prolific neopagan author of many books for teenagers attracted to neopaganism (To Ride a Silver Broomstick, Teen Witch, and so on). As such she is the starting point for many neopagans (although given the daftness of her chosen alias one wonders how even deluded teenagers can get through them), and many young neopagans thus feel some attachment to her ideas. Apparently, however, older neopagans consider her work to be historically revisionist, overly simplistic, or as having borrowed too much from other religions. Her other nickname is derived from the suspicion that Trayer is not really motivated by sincere religious convictions.

We’ll leave the complaints of other neopagans to other neopagans. Reasonable people will probably take issue with Trayer’s promotion of magic in a manner seemingly inspired by the law of attraction (or prayer): that invoking the proper spells or using the proper herbs/candles/metals will make all of your problems go away. According to Trayer, however, neopagans are in fact just practicing science (no, she has no idea). In To Ride a Silver Broomstick, the claim is “[I]t is my personal opinion that most people are attracted to the Craft not by its religious content, but by its scientific and technological allure.” In MindLight, almost surprisingly unsophisticated quantum woo is invoked to back up the law of attraction – yes, you, too, can use quantum physics to get whatever you want. It has to do with energy.

I do, however, wonder what she means by “[t]here is NO difference between Wicca and WitchCraft. Anyone who tells you there is a difference is experimenting in the theory of Occum’s Razor.”

A critique of her work can be found here (can't vouch for the source, but may be fine).

Diagnosis: Actually rather boring for this kind of crazy, partially given the nagging suspicion that Trayer isn’t being completely upfront about her motives. Still, she does continue to exert some influence over the weak of will (teenagers in particular), and it is certainly not benevolent.

Matt Trewhella is pastor of Mercy Seat Christian Church in Wisconsin, Missionaries to the Preborn (the agenda of which should be clear from the name), as well as the Voice of Christian Youth America, and one of the religious right’s religious right. One telling characteristic of the religious right’s religious right to distinguish them from the “mainstream” religious right is their 2008 reaction to Sarah Palin’s vice-presidential candidacy; while roundly endorsed by the religious right, Trewhella and his ilk complained that a woman would be unsuitable for the job. Said Trewhella: “I was almost ready to vote for McCain and Palin myself. Almost. But I won’t. I was never keen on McCain to begin with, and his decision to add a woman to his ticket sealed my decision. I won’t vote for them. Why? Because I’m a sexist (as many accuse)? No. But because I’m a theist.” And of course, there is a liberal conspiracy to “effeminize, neuter, and rob males of their manhood,” an agenda that “results in rampant male irresponsibility,” which sounds conspicuously like the kind of rhetoric that certain groups in e.g. Afghanistan have used to argue that women should cover themselves up. And the problem isn’t just that women are allowed to hold positions of leadership; the problem is that they are allowed to vote in the first place – allowing women to vote, you see, is a socialist idea that emasculates men: “The Suffrage movement, wherein women obtained the right to vote, was manufactured by socialists who – because of the Christian consensus in the country at that time – guardedly used Christian words (and dress) to move their God-hating agenda forward.” But Trewhella is not a sexists, as he informatively points out himself.

Well, that gives you an idea of what this creature is about. He doesn’t like gay people either. Indeed, he hasn’t restrained himself much in his criticism not only of gays but of those who don’t abhor the gays like he does, and “disgusting” parents who “don’t protect your child from the filth of homosexuality”. He has at least admitted that he wants homosexuals to be arrested and imprisoned like they used to be (most wingnuts won’t admit that).

His organization Missionaries to the Preborn is militant (and sufficiently scary to make it to this one), and Trewhella has signed the “Justifiable Homicide” petition defending the murder of abortion providers (though he claims to have later removed his name). He has also been associated with the US Taxpayers’ Party (later Constitution Party), whose “patriotism” bordered on the terrorist; in the 1995 convention Trewhella suggested that: “This Christmas I want you to do the most loving thing, and I want you to buy each of your children an SKS rifle and 500 rounds of ammunition,” presumably as a way of both honoring the Second Amendment and sow the seeds of armed revolution against whoever Trewhella suspects to be opposed to it on the grounds that they disagree with him on other issues.

Diagnosis: A rather unpleasant fellow, in fact. He is unlikely to convert many to his cause, but he seems to have a knack for riling up the already hysterically insane.

John Trochmann is a retired maker of snowmobile parts of Noxon, Montana, and founder of the paramilitary organization The Militia of Montana (MOM - at present usually interpreted as an acronym for "mail-order militia"), founded partially from the remnants of the earlier United Citizens for Justice in late 1992 in response to the Ruby Ridge standoff. The organization largely disbanded after the Y2K threat unsurprisingly turned out to be minor, but continues to exist at least on the Internet.

The basic beliefs were standard sovereign citizen stuff, for instance that individuals are not subject to the authority of either state or federal government unless they formally chose to enter into a “contract” with the government (e.g. having a Social Security Number). Trochmann has, accordingly, filed documents with a Montana court to have his status recognized. In the 90s he and his brother David, then familiar figures at town meetings, often argued that “common law” (their version, not the illegitimate version used by the courts) has established that property taxes invalid.

Prior to founding MOM, Trochmann spoke at and attended meetings at Idaho’s Aryan Nations (including several of the group’s Bible studies), and in the early days MOM’s sovereign citizenship idea also included a white supremacist component, e.g. that the citizenship requirements in force at the country’s founding were still operative, and therefore only white male landowners could be sovereigns, whereas all nonwhites and non-Christians were second-class “14th Amendment Citizens.” Though Trochmann later desperately tried to distance himself from white supremacism in order to make MOM more mainstream, MOM continued to publish material from white supremacists, including articles claiming that Jewish people are the “synagogue of Satan” and (predictably) in control of the government. Other central topics for MOM’s newsletters (Taking Aim) were conspiracies surrounding the alleged trail of blood and cover-ups on Clinton’s road to the White House, that the Oklahoma City bombings were orchestrated by the government (MOM’s Robert Fletcher declared “expect more bombs”), conspiracies surrounding NAFTA, the afore-mentioned Y2K – MOM promoted plenty of survivalist gear and techniques designed for getting through Y2K, and Trochmann managed to achieve some fame for it – and, most importantly, that unseen powers were using the United Nations to overturn the American Constitution and invoke martial law as they absorb the United States into an international totalitarian state. So that became their main target. They did, unsurprisingly, not accomplish much, though the aforementioned Robert Fletcher did reproduce a map from a KIX cereal box that purportedly denoted the occupational zones into which the United States was to be divided following the United Nations-sponsored takeover (we don’t know whether government officials accidentally put the map on the KIX box, or whether it was the work of a whistleblower). Later the ideas were expanded with various conspiracy theories surrounding the September 11 attacks in 2001 and the 2007 Financial crisis.

Trochmann later founded the Sanders County Resource Council (SNaRC), which is associated with campaigns against the tribal sovereignty of the Salish and Kootenay tribes, birtherism, and exposing the ominous threat of bear-activated satellite surveillance systems – Montana GOP vice-Chair Jennifer Fielder is associated with the group as well, despite the fact SNaRC was formed to serve as a front group for militia activity (Trochmann admits as much). As for the bear thing, SNaRC believes that conservationists who support wildlife management of local bear populations are part of a conspiracy to conduct surveillance on the militia movement. How? According to Trochmann “[i]f you try to do anything with these bears – they have collars on them. If you try to plug a bear and the heart stops there will be a satellite over the top you instantly to take your picture of you and call out the game wardens instantly.” And since a good militia members can’t avoid things with bears this is a powerful weapon.

Diagnosis: No, seriously, this guy is something of a legend – the Montana militia is a canonical example of how these militia movements work. It is somewhat disconcerting that “mainstream” Montana politicians are so heavily involved with the group, though, but I suppose it tells you something about rural Montana culture?

#1200: Colleen Thomas

#1201: Jack Thomas

#1202: Randy Thomasson

#1203: Bert Thompson

#1204: Bradley Thompson

#1205: Jack Thompson

#1206: Linda Thompson

#1207: Richard Thompson

#1208: Todd Thomsen

#1209: Jackson Thoreau [a pseudonym]

#1210: Theresa J. Thurmond Morris

#1211: Robert Tilton

#1212: Frank Tipler

#1213: Herb Titus

#1214: Renee Tocco

#1215: Jeffrey P. Tomkins

#1216: Robin Toms

#1217: Jenine Trayer

#1218: Matt Trewhella

#1219: John Trochmann