Showing posts with label NaturalNews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NaturalNews. Show all posts

Saturday, November 20, 2010

#99: Vox Day (and his dad)

A.k.a. Theodore Beale (real name)


Computer game designer, published SF writer, arrogant conservative pundit, WorldNetDaily columnist and anti-evolutionist whose main argument against evolution appears to be “I am a member of the SFWA, Mensa and IGDA, and I don’t believe in evolution”. If his credentials are correct, it is good evidence for the claim that critical thinking skills need to be learned; they don’t just come automatically with a high IQ (actually, he applies a genuine ad hominem as well, but I don’t think that helps his case). Day likes to go on long rants without even the slightest hint of an argument. For his other endeavors, look here. We’ll restrict ourselves to documenting his lunacy.

He is, for instance, an anti-vaccinationist loon (parroting the anti-vaccinationist lunacy, again concerning a field he does not know anything about, just like biology). Also, he has actually argued that women shouldn’t be allowed to vote since they are fascists at heart,and that they should be kept out of science because they are a threat to it (this coming from an anti-evolutionist anti-vaccinationist). Atheism is hence a threat to science as well mainly because it apparently leads to introducing equal treatment.

Vox Day’s most famous loony claim, however, might just be his suggestion that we look to Hitler to solve the illegal immigrant problem in the US.

He also rejects AGW, and he seems to do so primarily because science and scientists support it. Vox Day is no fan of science, really, even though he himself thinks he is. In fact, he thinks that materialist science is refuted.

Claims to be a Christian libertarian, but is more or less as libertarian as Chuck Baldwin.

Diagnosis: Exasperatingly ignorant bigot and anti-science loon and lover of middle school level fallacies. In fact, he is the very epitome of a crank. He does in fact have a fair amount of readers, however, and must be considered dangerous.

His daddy, Robert Beale, is actually even more unhinged. He is one of those I-refuse-to-pay-taxes-and-don’t-recognize-the-authority-of-the-courts type. Instead he and his organization seeks to establish "a superior court for the People, original jurisdiction under Almighty Yahweh exclusive jurisdiction in and for confederation-government United States of America."

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

#45: Rashid Buttar

Among the most belligerent quacks in the States, Dr. Buttar is a medical doctor who, apart from his genuine qualifications, espouses a line of treatment for autism that is as bereft of scientific rigor as transcommunication (see previous post).

Buttar has been under investigation by the North Carolina State Medical Board for a decade and for a variety of misconducts involving "unconventional treatments" to which he subjects autistic children and cancer patients - all for lots of money to line his pockets. He views the medical board, in his own words, as a "rabid dog."

Ultimately, the medical board has recommended restricting Dr. Buttar's license to prohibit him from treating children or patients with cancer. That hasn’t stopped him (discussed here; for a more neutral assessment go here).

Among his more famous autism treatments is the transdermal chelation cream (a.k.a. “Buttar’s butter”). He has been known to come up with some truly bizarre protocols to treat autism, with rumors that Dr. Buttar's armamentarium of woo even included urine injections to "boost the immune system". Of course the fees are exorbitant.

His cancer quackery is even worse, and Buttar has apparently said that ”it didn't matter what kind of cancer anybody had, he could cure it."

Uh oh.

And yes, it is there, all of it: Buttar believes most patients with cancer also have high levels of heavy metals, such as mercury, and other toxins, such as pesticides, because of environmental exposure”. His treatments include chelation, ozone therapy and hyperbaric oxygen chambers – dangerous, potentially lethal devices or regimes with not the slightest trace of evidential support for any claims to efficacy. He even has an AirEnergy Machine.

His website is here: http://www.drbuttar.com/Articlesview.asp?articleID=5

Buttar is most prominent, however, for being a rabid anti-vaccinationist, running all the usual canards. Remember Desiree Jennings? The gal who claimed to have her walking impaired by the H1N1 vaccine (but got magically cured right after the media forgot about her?) Guess who her accomplice was, the doctor who “diagnosed her and helped her”.

Diagnosis: Crackpot, and a severe case of confirmation bias coupled with belligerence. Very dangerous – many of his treatments are definitely harmful (and hardly beneficial), and they are being used. Should be stopped as quickly as possible.

Btw, his website prominently displays the following quote: "All truth passes through 3 phases: First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed, and Third, it is accepted as self-evident." (Schopenhauer). Anyone who uses this quote as support for his or her ideas is a seriously delusional crackpot. That’s a law.

(Come to think of it, it’s a strikingly stupid and magnificently false claim Schopenhauer is making to begin with.)

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

#1: Mike Adams


Up first in the Encyclopedia of American Loons we have Mike Adams, a.k.a. “The Health Ranger”.

Adams runs the website NaturalNews.com, one of the most disturbing cesspits of quackery on the net. He is a fierce opponent of science and evidence-based medicine, providing long screeds about the danger of conventional medicine and against skepticism based on confirmation bias, misleading vividness, paranoia and conspiracy theories. He has absolutely no understanding of either science or critical thinking (complete inability to recognize fallacies or bias). He is also a proponent of every imaginable alternative treatment.

He is also a 9/11 troofer.

For examples of his antics, you can read about his “takedown” of Obamacare here: http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/03/mike_adams_takes_on_obama_care_with_hila.php

And also here:
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/04/mike_adams_10_biggest_lies_about_health.php.

A truly stunning case of paranoia and stupidity here:
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2009/05/mike_adams_brings_home_the_crazy_over_th.php

A scintillating display of ignorance, stupidity and self-unawareness here:
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2009/10/mike_adams_evaporates_yet_another_of_my.php

and here:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/01/sometimes_i_think_we_break_the.php

Mike Adams, a pyromaniac in a field of strawmen:
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/01/a_pyromaniac_in_a_field_of_straw_man_or.php

Diagnosis: Complete loon, flamingly stupid, extremely paranoid, a zealot and a fraud; his influence is probably limited but given just a small base of followers he could wreak some havoc.


(this one is probably a different Mike Adams, but one that deserves a footnote in our lexicon in any case: http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2006/08/mike_adams_and_the_shape_of_th.php - this latter guy might or might not be identical to this one: http://blogs.salon.com/0002874/2004/12/01.html#a1310; this means that there are most likely at least two, possibly three, wildly crazy Mike Adamses out there, at least two of which are 9/11 troofers).