#646: Michael Ellner

Michael Ellner is an “aids critic”, and his erudite criticisms of contemporary science related to HIV – and its corresponding conspiracies – have earned him his very own page at whale.to. According to Ellner: “Just look at us. Everything is backwards; everything is upside down. Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information and religions destroy spirituality …,” though more reality-apt people would probably note that when Ellner perceives everything upside-down it says far more about his perception of things than it says about the things he perceive. Ellner is crazy. “As far as ‘AIDS’ goes, we have been subject to the most heinous and genocidal fraud in medical history,” and he suggests that instead of ordinary medicine (which kills people) we must renounce evidence, science and reality and go for holistic treatments without the faintest trace of supporting evidence of efficacy. Accordingly, Ellner can offer nothing but anecdotes and imagination to support his claim, but such limitations hwve never stopped a crank (by definition). Then there is POMO: “AIDS is not a disease. It is a social agreement,” writes Ellner and one Tom DiFerdinando; “[t]here are others who need AIDS also. Do not forget. Medicine is a business.” In other words, people are dying because they accept the conceptual scheme on AIDS and death pushed by the establishment. And fortunately Ellner can offer you safe, affordable treatments.

Ellner considers himself “an internationally prominent Certified Hypnosis Practitioner and Pain Relief Educator,” and claims that there is considerable scientific evidence that hypnosis can help reduce, even eliminate pain (assessed here). He doesn't tell us where this evidence may be found, admittedly, but asserts that the “medical establishment” have been spreading lies about hypnosis. It is unclear whether he thinks that hypnotherapy can cure AIDS, but by the power of POMO it probably can.

Diagnosis: It is noteworthy that on his hypnotherapy homepage Ellner writes nothing about his HIV-“skepticism”, almost as if he dimly realizes that there is something less than convincing about it and that it may contribute to undermining his reputation in the field of hypnotherapy. In any case, Ellner is a woo-meister and denialist, who should definitely not be lent an ear in the most desperate of circumstances.

#597: Jake Crosby

Groomed as the Wonder Boy of the Age of Autism blog network (yes, Jenny McCarthy, J.B. Handley and the rest), Jake Crosby is, as you’d expect, a hardcore anti-vaccinationist and denialist, as well as a denialist about his own denialism – Crosby denies that he is anti-vaccine. He just thinks vaccines cause autism and that there is a conspiracy to hide this fact, and that vaccines should probably be avoided, which he asserts is not the same thing as denialism.

Crosby’s favorite gambit is the Big Pharma shill by association; everyone who disagrees with him is obviously part of a conspiracy (involving Big Pharma, the CDC or the FDA) – and anyone who knows anyone with a connection to those institutions is automatically wrong, regardless of what evidence, science, data, observation, reason or reality says. They also persecute him (though the most notable part in that last link is Ginger Taylor’s absolutely astonishing comment), so that’s why he is justified in trying to get his critics silenced or fired. Another popular claim of Crosby’s, that Dr. David Lewis (not that David Lewis) exonerated AndrewWakefield and his fraudulent research, is rebutted here.

A third technique popular with Jake Crosby is slaughtering strawmen. When this technique is combined with conspiracy theories and general ignorance, the results can often be rather staggering. Then, of course, Crosby dons his tinfoil hat and connects HIV with the polio vaccine used in Africa 50 years ago (irrevocably refuted); the purpose being of course to avoid engaging with any real science and real ethical concerns in his crusade against vaccines.

Crosby has even reached whale.to, though I won’t link to it (search for it yourself if you need to) for his marvelous conspiracy theories developed in order to discredit the idea that autism rates have not risen the last couple of decades (e.g. here) – primarily, and as expected, through a guilt by association claim. It is really a perfect game – anyone who has done research on the topic is by that very fact biased and their research must therefore be disregarded (unless it agrees with the conclusion Crosby has already convinced himself is correct). After all, given the always existing possible appeals to conspiracies, no amount of science would convince Crosby that vaccines don’t cause autism, something he has pretty much admitted himself (along with – you guessed it – conspiracy theories and ad hominem arguments (real ad hominem fallacies; that is, such as dismissing scientific studies he doesn’t like by name calling without identifying any flaws in them); also discussed here).

The Crosby story has recently taken a fascinating turn, however. Brought up as he was with persecution complexes and pseudoscience, it may come as little surprise that the fledgling conspiracy theorist has turned on his own masters and found a new outlet on the Bolen Report, where he has published various conversations and email exchanges with other luminaries of the antivaxx movement. Why this turn of events? Well, apparently his former masters just aren’t sufficiently conspiracy minded for Crosby anymore, and – having realized where Crosby was going – they didn’t let him testify before Congress during Dan Burton’s last antivaxx hearing (SafeMinds’ Communications Committee Chair, Kate Weisman, even suggested that Crosby “walk the halls”). SafeMinds’ response to Crosby’s allegations is actually pretty hilarious and feeble (as it had to be, given that Crosby was using precisely the types of arguments against SafeMinds that SafeMinds is using to dismiss science). The ensuing war is covered in three parts here; here; and here. The development didn’t prevent him from appearing at the annual quackfest AutismOne 2013 to teach you how to become a more effective advocate for pseudoscience and denialism; there is a report concerning his scheduled session here (though it is said that he subsequently boycotted the event, presumably not because he had a flash of reason).

Diagnosis: As Age of Autism’s resident conspiracy theorist Crosby was actually not without detrimental influence on civilization. Recent developments seem to have blunted his impact a little as he has deteriorated to his true position as a resident of the whale.to segment, but I won’t write him off quite yet.

#217: Dennis Paul Knicely

Dennis Paul “Dr.” Knicely runs a website called “Healingnews”, which is, basically, exactly what you think it is. Knicely claims to be able to heal pretty much every ailment known to man with fluff, woo and positive thinking (a remarkable remedy – if you didn’t get well, you just didn’t think positively enough). The website has some original content, but for the most part it collects links to all sorts of health-related new age fluff, preferably of the less reality-affected kind.

And do you know what the best part is? The website provides us with the “scientific validation of alternative medicine” as well (Tracy Planinz’s multi-part series, including the validation of homeopathy, herbs, and acupuncture, unfortunately without a trace of science or validation.

In short, his webpage has everything; super-foods, anti-ageing, mind-body-spirit balance, prosperity (law of attraction), detox, drum circles, cancer denialism, mercury dental fillings, Frankenfoods (all modified foods: “There is a systemic illness in modern society: Most are simply so "numb" from constant exposure to chemicals and poisons everywhere they go”), magical plants, anti-vaccinationism (lots), the swine flu was a conspiracy/the swine flu is actually healthy for you (), and so on, and so forth. The most prevalent theme seems to be that prescription drugs are generally killing you, and all serious conditions can really be avoided (and remedied) by veganism (but greedy doctors will of course not tell you that). Knicely’s list of references includes such luminaries as Barbara Loe Fisher, Gary Null and Leonard Horowitz.

It’s all about finding harmony and opening your mind, you see. (The quack Miranda is cleverly hidden.)

Diagnosis: Knicely and his guest writers are, in short, more or less equivalent to healthranger Mike Adams, though the raging insanity is toned down, and while Knicely’s network is probably not unique in any way, it deserves an entry as a representative for this kind of drivel. Knicely is dangerous, of course, but probably not very influential.

#212: David Kirby

Not the poet David Kirby; this guy is a journalist with no medical background who wrote “Evidence of Harm - Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical Controversy” (“controversy” being a mistake for “manufactroversy”). He has since worked relatively tirelessly against vaccines. In later years he downplayed the absolutely unsupportable mercury link, although certainly not the purported vaccine-autism link. Naturally, he uses every fallacy in the book to uphold that argument; in particular, he seems to enjoy skewering strawmen (and who doesn't?) and moving goalposts.

The basic argument in the book is that since each side of the autism-mercury debate finds the other side blind to evidence, biased and entrenched, there must be scientific disagreement. Therefore vaccines are dangerous and thimerosal leads to autism. He conveniently misses the fact that science clearly favors the no-link side – or rather, he explains it away as a conspiracy, coming up with stories about pharmaceutical conspiracies wire-tapping their opponents and paying off governments. Among the more interesting attempts is his Osama bin Laden gambit. As a result, Kirby now has his own blog at Huffington post (i.e. where every non-rightwing-fundie-wingnut loon seems to end up), in company with other anti-vaxxers such as Jay Gordon and Janet Grilo and with the blessings of HuffPo’s wellness editor, the bizarre, newage woo-purveyor Patricia Fizgerald.

Kirby has worked closely with Robert Kennedy Jr (on this, among other things), but Kirby is generally somewhat subtler (and frankly more intelligent) than the other dolt. For instance, Kirby (together with the insidious executive vice-president of Autism Speaks, Peter Bell) works here to drum up the respectability of (not evidence behind) the idea that vaccines cause autism.

Diagnosis: Devious and ardent fallacy-monger and strawmanslayer, Kirby is a shameless threat to public health and has influence enough to be considered dangerous.

#204: Robert Kennedy Jr.

Since D. James Kennedy has been an ex-fanatic since his death in 2007, we’ll move on to one of the more famous (though probably not for his woo) people in the Encyclopedia. Robert Kennedy Jr. is the son of Robert Kennedy. He's a lawyer and a staunch environmentalist who has actually done a lot of good in that respect (kudos for that, but doing something right does not mean that you’re not a loon). Lately he has made himself notorious for his anti-vaccinationism and for propagating the thoroughly debunked vaccine-autism connection myth – together with the shitload of paranoid conspiracy theories that follow in its wake.

He has been working closely with the repugnant David Kirby, and has published opinion pieces devoid of fact or critical thinking in several places, including (unsurprisingly) the Huffington Post. See him peddling half-truths and paranoia here, as well as displaying a complete misunderstanding of scientific evidence when lamenting the fact that court cases on the purported vaccine/autism link is based on evidence rather than opinion: “vaccine court gives overwhelming weight to written medical records which are often inaccurate -- over all other forms of testimony and evidence. Observations by parents and other caretakers are given little weight.” A typical, willful failure to see why anecdotal evidence is disregarded in science and why science-based categorizations of ailments are preferred to untrained observer’s diagnostizations.

He also emphasizes that the fact that science disagree with caring mothers’ conviction that their children’s autism was caused by vaccines, means just that scientists and professionals hate mothers. He also recommends chelation therapy for children with autism.

More insane paranoia and conspiracy mongering here, here, and here (and as a follow up to that last post, see here). You get the idea.

Diagnosis: Kennedy is a traditional crank and deluded conspiracy theorist who is thoroughly anti-science (even on the topics on which he is right, he relies almost exclusively on non-scientific arguments); a typical crank and crackpot with little aptitude for actual evidence (as opposed to twisting any fact to look like evidence to lay people). He is enormously influential, and must be considered one of the more dangerous people in the US today.

197: Alex Jones

Alex Jones is the guy who has yet to meet a conspiracy theory he doesn’t endorse, no matter how batshit insane it is (and, interestingly, no matter how much it conflicts with other conspiracy theories he already believes). For at least ten years he has predicted, in his rather popular radio program, the imminent roundup of Americans by the New World Order.

In addition to his radio program, he is also the director of several straight-to-video documentaries, and he runs the websites Infowars and PrisonPlanet (for those who wish to avoid the site itself, it is detailed here).

Some conspiracy theories endorsed by PrisonPlanet are:

-The Bilderberg Group (or Skull and Bones, or the Freemasons - it depends on the day, it seems) controls some/most/all governments in the world as well as the economy.

-The New World Order will kill almost everyone. Vaccine programs seem to be just one of their methods – of course Jones has endorsed Andrew Wakefield as a martyr. To get a feel for the level it is pitched at, you may want to check out this one - or then again, maybe not.

-In fact, Hurricane Katrina was merely an opportunity to test out the FEMA concentration camps.

-And the tsunami in south-east Asia in 2004 was man-made.

-9/11 was (of course) an inside job.

This is, of course, only a selection; in general it is hard to find a loon that Jones does not take seriously. He is basically a living embodiment of whale.to.

Other bizarre antics are chronicled on his wikipedia page. Apparently the ravingly mad and utterly dense (but British) Vicount Monckton views PrisonPlanet as a legitimate news outlet. That explains a lot.

The interesting thing about Alex Jones’ reasoning is that he does not seem to run with the common fallacy ‘authorities (e.g. scientific) say X; I don’t like X; hence there must be a conspiracy’, but rather with the inference rule ‘everything is part of a conspiracy; authorities say X; hence X is false’ (which is a fallacy as well, of course, but a somewhat more interesting one).

Now, some may think Alex Jones is batshit crazy, and he is. But surely he is beaten by Lorie Kramer, who believes that Alex Jones is a pawn created by the New World Order to divert attention. Seriously. And if that is not enough, this site, run by Gary & Lisa Ruby, claims that Jones is part of a scientologist conspiracy to take over the world and demolish Christianity. I guess this is what you risk when you start to gain notoriety in the hyper-paranoid and chaotic field of conspiracy theory.

Among Jones’s more notable collaborators is the equally insane Paul Joseph Watson, who may consider himself indicted by this entry as well (he does not deserve a separate one). Watson is, among other things, behind this, uh, illuminating screed.

Diagnosis: The ur-loon. Extremely famous and frighteningly influential, but one suspects that he would be able to convince anyone who were not already at least mildly unhinged. Jones may be partly in it for the money, but there is little question that he actually believes much of whatever falls out of his mouth.

#179: Leonard “Len” Horowitz

If you think the last couple of HIV denialists and anti-vaxxers and purveyors of alternative medicine (staple fare in any encyclopedia of loons) have been a little tame, meet Len Horowitz. Len Horowitz is a shrill, roaringly raving loon if there ever was one. He is, according to himself, a diplomatic officer for the World Organization for Natural Medicine. He is a representative of God, knighted in the Sovereign Orthodox Order of Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem, as a Levitical priest in the bloodlines of Moses and Yeshua the Messiah. Indeed.

Watch Len Horowitz take down Peter Duesberg, the king herald of HIV denialism here. But wait, wasn’t Len himself a HIV denier? Oh yes, but in Len Horowitz’s grand theory of everything, Duesberg is really a corrupt shill for the militaristic fascist conspiracy that originally were behind the AIDS epidemic, whose role is (it seems) to spread confusion.

Horowitz, a Harvard-trained dentist who (as you see) identifies himself as a Messianic Jew and frequently cites the Old Testament to condemn blood contamination or injections containing genetic material (such as vaccines), believes that there is a large depopulation conspiracy, the purpose of which is to kill roughly 84% of the population. The purpose is to economically benefit Big Pharma (i.e. Wall Street Bankers, Fox News and the British Royalty). It is unclear which mechanism is supposed to confer these economic benefits on said beneficiaries, but the original article is here in all its glorious insanity. Behind everything? Good old Henry Kissinger, who allegedly called for massive "Third World" depopulation efforts in order to maintain the economic alignment of the superpowers, and his successor "Zbigniew Brezinski” (Horowitz’s spelling), who unknown to absolutely everyone but Horowitz, advanced National Security Memo #46 to cabinet chiefs only, authorizing the FBI and CIA to initiate genocidal policies. Kissinger's security policy specifically stated the need to dramatically reduce African populations, and Brzezinski's memo explained that Black nationalism "posed" economic and security threats to America. Indeed.

One wonders how people could take him seriously, but he was apparently influential in the decision of the (blatheringly moronic) Nation of Islam to call for a boycott of U.S.-sponsored vaccination programs. Hence, Horowitz was only tending his main market segment when he, in 2009, told al Jazeera that H1N1 vaccines would cause sterility, as part of a plan of "pangenocide" against Muslims. He may also have been behind the identical claim circulated by Muslim clerics in Kano, Nigeria in 2003, leading to a resurgence of polio in North Africa. Visit his wikipage for more.

Obama’s unhinged sidekick Jeremiah Wright is also a huge fan of Horowitz.

You can get his products and a load of batshit insanity here. It is, however, over at our friends at whale.to that he can really shake of his inhibitions. Read about Bush, 9/11, anthrax, ebola and how the code-the words "Kissinger" and "Vaccination" both decipher to "666," the infamous "mark of the beast" here (and there's a collection of articles and opinions here; this is serious, serious insanity).

Even the FDA has noticed this raving tornado of whackery and enthropic lunacy, and issued a warning. He first came to their attentions weeks after the initial identification of the virus causing the 2003 SARS outbreak, when Horowitz and associates promoted what they claimed was an “effective treatment” for the disease, a naturopathic product line called "Urbani” after the first identified victim of Sars, Carlo Urbani,

In fact, even NASA has been forced to take action, since Lenny is plastering the colloidal silver he peddles with the NASA logo (since it is, according to Len, “NASA technology”).

Diagnosis: If Gary Null hadn’t existed, Lenny would have been the Kent Hovind of anti-vaccination and woo. He is still pretty close to the Platonic idea of lunacy and crackpottery. But he is not merely fun (like Arthur D. Horn), since his cunning peddling to the most susceptible can possibly be linked to rather extensive actual harm.

#167: J.B. Handley

J.B. Handley is the founder of Generation Rescue (GR), an organization advocating the view that autism (and related disorders) are primarily caused by environmental factors, and in particular by vaccines (shifting goalposts for the previous “autism is misdiagnosis of mercury poisoning”). For anyone in doubt, these claims are biologically implausible and lack scientific evidence. But evidence hardly matters. GR may be the most famous of the anti-vaxx groups, and certainly among the most aggressive, gaining widespread attention from aggressive media campaigns (including sponsoring full page ads in the New York Times and USA Today). Today, Generation Rescue is known as a platform for Jenny McCarthy's autism advocacy, but Handley is still pulling most of the strings. The wikipedia article is actually fairly balanced. He is generally known for supporting discredited researcher Andrew Wakefield and offering arguments of dubious coherence.

He also founded and has an editorial role (but denies that) in the Age of Autism community (AoA), which basically does the same as GR (it’s a blog/news community) at a broader scale, but with the same level of reason and accountability.

The AoA has repeatedly called for a civil debate on vaccination. Some of Handley’s contributions on behalf of AoA to the civil, reasonable debate are covered here (a good illustration of how denialist movements actually work). See also this, or for the truly bizarre, this.

He has absolutely no understanding of science either, and has confirmed that if scientists say something that contradicts his belief that vaccines cause autism, then they must be corrupt and lying.
Diagnosis: Dangerous, zealous crackpot – more precisely a hysterical pinhead unable to distinguish scientific evidence from emotional reactions. Unfortunately he is rather influential and a real danger to civilization.

#134: Ralph Fucetola

a.k.a. The Vitamin Lawyer

… and his alias gives him dead away, I would assume. Fucetola is a rather minor figure on the woo-scene, most notable for his antivaxx screeds, which are fully over the top. When Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services reasonably suggested that the media should not give equal coverage to anti-vaccinationist conspiracy theories because they lacked scientific foundation and could actually be harmful, Fucetola responded this way.

It is an instructive piece of conspiracy theory thinking with gems such as “You may therefore conclude that the information you receive about autism and vaccines from the "mass media" and from the government is not complete and truthful. You may therefore conclude it is merely propaganda... or worse, it is part of a systemic "cover-up" of the autism and vaccine issues.” Because … Sebelius controls the media? It is all there, really. Fascinating. A comment on the post is here.

In his daily life, Fucetola is a lawyer specializing in defending woo and nutrient supplement distributors. His website is here; it doesn’t exactly exude reason and sensibility. And he seems to be into everything. In this piece the distortions, misguidedness, ignorance, confirmation bias and paranoia is without limits.

Diagnosis: Standard cranky conspiracy theorist; zealous. I find no evidence of any real significance, though.

#131: Barbara Loe Fisher

Barbara Loe Fisher is an anti-vaccination activist, founder of one of the oldest anti-vaccine websites in existence, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) (a cesspool if there ever was one) and the blogger behind the prominent anti-vaccine blog Vaccine Awakening.

She is especially famous for suing her opponents or trying to intimidate them into science (here, and here). She has no qualms about that, since obviously she is correct and that means that everyone who disagrees with her must be corrupt. Yes, the very foundation for confirmation bias (double standards) and all conspiracy theories (the case was dismissed, of course).

Naturally, after suing some major opponents and threatening others, Fisher wrote a grand screed entitled “2010 Needs a Fearless Conversation About Vaccination”. Touché. Under that title, she went on to connect “government regulated vaccine science” to 9/11 (fear-mongering and conspiracies).

In general, Fisher is one of the grand old ladies of the antivaxxers – her site was one of the first to go online, and she’s been enormously influential.

Diagnosis: Utterly confirmation biased loon; highly dangerous – what she runs is, in effect, a campaign against human well-being, and she may already have several detrimental consequences on her hands.

#127: Celia Farber

Some readers are probably fed up with “HIV dissidents” by now. The thing is, however, that these people are really, truly dangerous, and they need to be outed, as often as possible. Farber is not a scientist. She is a journalist, and in her work the last twenty five years she has emphasized the negative role she feels is played by pharmaceutical industry with respect to AIDS treatment and the flak given the claims of whackaloon denialist Peter Duesberg and others. Emphasis in that sentence should be on “feels”. With a huge arsenal of misunderstanding and ignorance, she has attempted to point out methodological flaws prevalent in the scientific work on HIV, and has more than once suggested a conspiracy (dealt with here, along with some other conspiracy theorists). She is, in other words, HIV denialism’s answer to Viscount Monckton (who will unfortunately not be covered in this Encyclopedia since he’s British). This is a classic example.

Her view of the American scientific community and the National Institutes of Health is that they are "totalitarian" structures. Hence, the fact that her claims have been thoroughly refuted by people who know anything about the issue has been impotent when it comes to changing her mind.

Farber’s work has been featured in numerous magazines and outlets, and in 1999, she co-founded the non-profit organization “Rock The Boat”, whose mission was to arrange rock music concerts to “stimulate independent thinking about subjects which the organization's proponents believed had been censored by the media”. She also made a very ugly figure in the Christine Maggiore case (ending with a desperate “radical detox, not HIV”), with her screed usually being of the form “doctors are not only wrong; they’re evil”.

The wikipedia article is far too friendly, but this article (book review) on HIV denialism in general, is helpful.

She also cooperates with denialist blogger Dean Esmay, a relatively unimportant but angry and seriously deluded anti-science guy, who dislikes peer review, and does think that intelligent design creationism should be taught in schools and … you get the drift.

During her time at Spin magazine, she was involved with its publisher Bob Guccione jr. (there was a lawsuit involved there, as the wikipedia article points out), who seems, at least at the time, to have shared her ideas. Guccione later dated Ann Coulter, no less.

Diagnosis: Utterly ignorant conspiracy theorist, whose grasp of the distinction between arguing by emotions and arguing from facts is tenuous at best. But she is certainly influential in her apparently relatively popular contributions to the death campaign that is the HIV denialist movement.

#110: Larry Dossey

A staunch opponent of the scientific method, Larry Dossey argues that the scientific method leads to Hitler and that indoctrinating children with the scientific method is a form of child abuse.

It is unclear what he wants to replace it with; presumably intuition, anecdotal evidence and “different ways of knowing” (i.e. “facts are just opinions and claims that are true for you may not be true for me”); perhaps something like this. You see, Larry is completely out there – he’s a virulent defender of all kinds of woo - Deepak Chopra, Gary Null, Joe Mercola, Gary Zukav and those kinds of people. He is, in fact, reckoned as one of the “Three musketeers of Woo”. Dossey is the author of (among other books) “Healing words: the power of prayer and the practice of medicine”, “The power of premonitions” (uh-oh) and, with Lewis Mehl-Madrona (who must be considered equally insane on this evidence alone) “Coyote healing” about the power of Native American healers to produce "miracles". Betcha there was a lot of controlled studies behind that one. He is also the former co-chairman of the Panel on Mind/Body Interventions, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, National Institutes of Health. And he is the executive editor of the “peer-reviewed” journal “Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing” (the journal known for this one, and this one). He seems to accept any conclusion as long as it is not science-based, since science is a conspiracy of the pharmaceutical companies and therefore a sham (which, you know, does not follow even if the premise is true – it’s called “ad hominem”, and is, in this case, a fallacy). Kinda like Alex Jones.

Diagnosis: Clinically lacking in critical thinking skills and understanding of the scientific method, and utterly lost to confirmation bias. Impact uncertain, but he does (of course) write for Huffington post on a regular basis. Total moron.

#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.)

#29: Mark Blaxill

Blaxill is not a scientist. Nor is he a doctor, though he plays one at SafeMinds. Blaxill is a former businessman turned spokesperson for the anti-vaccinationist movement (Vice President of SafeMinds). Fancies himself a self-made expert epidemiologist. In the grips of extreme confirmation bias (science doesn’t support his views, hence scientists are probably mislead by their own personal interests – having no clue as to how a controlled experiment is carried out).

Liar, crank and conspiracy theorist (Big Pharma is out to get us – Blaxill actually terms it the “autism holocaust”), as discussed here; also a professional shifter of goalposts (without necessarily being aware of it himself).

Among his most prominent techniques are faking statistics to show an explosion in autism the last thirty years, and looking at new studies to determine whether they are scientifically "solid" or not (meaning he determines whether they can be interpreted as agreeing with his lunacy or not).

Diagnosis: Delusional and belligerent crank; relatively influential and quite dangerous.

On an unrelated note, here is a hilarious game; test yourself!

#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).