#1663: Gwen Goodwin

When Gwen Goodwin ran as a candidate in a Democratic primary for the NYC City Council in 2013 she ended up losing spectacularly to Melissa Mark-Viverito. Since she is a serious loon, Goodwin did not react reasonably to the loss: She sued. In particular, Goodwin accused Mark-Viverito of a conspiracy that put a black-magic mural on her building that cursed her and robbed her of energy; Mark-Viverito had earlier led an urban-art campaign called Los Muros Hablan (“the walls speak”), an effort to celebrates Latino culture by painting murals on walls, and as part of the campaign a five-story image of a bodiless rooster atop wooden poles was painted on Goodwin’s building, and “[a]ccording to neighbors of Puerto Rican and other backgrounds, in the Caribbean culture, this constituted a curse and a death threat, as a swastika or a noose would symbolize typically to many Jews or African-Americans,” said Goodwin. I don’t think that comparison puts her in a particularly favorable light. In any case, Goodwin alleged that she endured “emotional distress” from the spell, which distracted her from running a winning campaign: “This intimated me and caused me fear. I’m a Christian. I don’t believe outside my religion, but strange things were happening” (yes, there’s a contradiction there, but never mind). As evidence, she claimed that she suddenly got a blood clot in her foot and that a close friend began “acting crazy” right after the mural went up. We haven’t even bothered to check what eventually happened to the lawsuit.

Diagnosis: Just based on this story alone we can imagine some alternative explanations for Goodwin’s lack of success in the primaries. We would probably prefer not to have her as a neighbor either.

#1662: Charles Goodson

There seems to be plenty of lunatics in the US prepared to refight the Civil War, but since their leaders tend to be as competent as David Icke forum participants we are probably in no immediate danger. The New Confederate Army, for instance – which appears to be primarily a facebook group – seems to have fallen on hard times due (in part) to problems with dissenters and traitors who are trying to raise their own new Confederate Armies, and its founder and leader General Charles Goodson seems to be ready to launch wars on these traitors since they are “trying to destroy me and the Confederate liberation cause” and “have spies on all of my pages.” According to Goodson, the dissenters are “no different from the Europeans who collaborated with the Nazi’s during WWII. They are pro-Imperialists, no matter what they tell you, they are for the Empire,” and they also tend to accuse Goodson of being like Hitler.

You can watch a summary of their political positions here, but with clowns like this any movement toward realizing those goals seem bound to implode more or less immediately. If you wish to join them, the application form is here; you do, however, have to “solemnly swear and affirm, that [you] will support and defend the Constitution of the Confederate States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic”. 

I am pretty sure our Charles Goodson is unrelated to this Charles Goodson, but I betcha they would have lots to discuss.

Diagnosis: Just sit back and watch the sordid affair run its course. Or do something completely different; that’s OK, too.

#1661: George Gonzalez

It’s amazing what you can get away with when your audience is scientifically illiterate. George Gonzalez doesn’t understand quantum physics, but neither does his audience; and if you even wonder whether “quantum neurology” as offered by a chiropractor has something going for it, then you are surely disposed to swallow any bullshit you may be served. Gonzalez is also the author of Holographic Healing, the very title of which should suffice to scare away anyone with an even remotely developed critical sense.

According to Gonzalez “We now understand that the Nervous System is inclusive of every aspect of action and communication available to our body. It includes our physical body and our all aspects of our nonphysical body: also known as our energetic body, Bio-Energetic Field, Aura or LightBody. It includes our mind, our thoughts, our emotions and our Spiritual connection.” Well, no: I am pretty sure even George Gonzalez have no actual understanding of what he is trying to say, since what he is trying to say makes no sense whatsoever. He also offers something called the GRT LITE™, which is some kind of light therapy and accordingly pure bullshit backed up by no evidence or plausibility whatsoever.

What about his evidence? Well, Gonzalez does assert that research is important and an important component of his quantum neurology™ seminars. Of course, he doesn’t have the faintest idea how to actually do research; he has case studies – anecdotes, really – written up by someone (himself) apparently completely lacking any shred of knowledge of neurology or idea about how to evaluate cases.

Diagnosis: There probably is no law prohibiting Gonzalez from doing what he is doing, but unless you wish to commit money and effort to something based on abysmal ignorance of how physics and medicine and, well, reality work, as well as garbled nonsense, you ought to stay well away from this one.

#1660: Steven Gollmer

If nothing else, the Discovery Institute’s petition A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism nicely illustrates the bankruptcy of the DiscoTute anti-evolution campaigns (and their Intelligent Design movement, which really is just an anti-evolution movement). Of course, the value of appealing to petitions in discussing scientific questions is one thing; another is that the signatories they actually got constitute a motley crew at best, many of whom are non-scientists and few of whom are actually experts in any relevant areas; and even if they were experts, which they aren't, they would in any case only comprise a negligible fraction of working scientists in the fields. To illustrate that, the National Center for Science Education initiated their own tongue-in-cheek response, Project Steve, a list of living scientists named “Steve” (or variants of the name) who support evolution. As of 2012 the list contained 1187 signatures – as many as the total number of signatories to the Discovery Institute list – of which two-thirds are qualified biologists; and, as random searches quickly reveal, the Project Steve signatories are overall far more consistently active scientists and researchers with real credentials than the Discovery Institute list. To underscore that point, the Discovery Institute’s list had 12 or 13 signatories whose names would have qualified them for the Steve list as of 2012 (possibly a few more if you count middle names, which are usually not given on the Discovery list), of whom at least two are non-scientists (Stephen Meyer and Stephen Cheesman), one a certified crackpot (Stephan Gift), and a single one of whom is a biologist, C. Steven Murphree, who has later regretted his involvement with the Discovery list and signed Project Steve instead. One almost feel sorry for them.

Steven Gollmer is another “Steve” on the Discovery Institute list, and a fairly typical entry. Gollmer does have a PhD in Atmospheric Science from Purdue (which has little to do with evolution) and is currently affiliated with Cedarville University, a small Bob-Jones-University-like institution in Ohio that teaches young-earth-creationism and requires all students to have a minor in Bible studies. Like most institutions of that kind, Cedarville faculty is notoriously inbred (i.e. many of their “scientific” faculty have their degrees from … Cedarville), but Gollmer is apparently an exception. What about his scientific credentials? In line with the school’s position Gollmer has declared that “[o]ur approach to science and origins is based on the presupposition that our highest and ultimate authority is the unchanging Word of God,” which effectively means that he rejects the science part of it all. He has also been active in creationist attempts to impose lesson plans on the Ohio State Board of Education, and is a signatory to the CMI list of scientists alive today who accept the biblical account of creation.

Diagnosis: He might have a degree, but Steven Gollmer is not a scientist, and he hates science to the core of his being. Like so many of the signatories to that Discovery Institute list.

#1659: James Goll

James Goll is the Director of Prayer Storm, Coordinator of Encounters Alliance, and co-founder of Encounters Network, as well as author of numerous books (we don’t know them in detail, but titles like The Seer: The Prophetic Power of Visions, Dreams, and Open Heavens, Dream Language: The Prophetic Power of Dreams, Revelations or Angelic Encounters are not testament to a healthy relationship with reality). Goll is a proponent of Seven Mountains dominionism, affiliated with C. Peter Wagner, and instructor at the Wagner Leadership Institute. So he is not only a raging fundamentalist, but a true dominionist of the kind who wants a literal reading of the Bible to serve as the law. Of course, he is also, demonstrably, a false prophet, and the Bible is pretty clear about what to do with those, but the laws of the Bible should presumably only be interpreted literally when they apply to those who disagree with Goll.

His Mitt-Romney-will-win-the-2012-election prophecy is actually rather hilarious: During a baseball game in a dream he had in 2008 “the external voice of the Lord came to me saying, When the nation has been thrown a curve ball, I will have a man prepared who comes from the state of Michigan and he will have a big mitt capable of catching whatever is thrown his way… But the Lord said there would be a man prepared who would come from the state of Michigan who would have a big mitt. Little did I know at that time that Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, was born in the state of Michigan. Little did I know, when I received this in 2008, that he would win his party’s primary for the 2012 national elections!” The level of delusion required not to laugh at this drivel is staggering, but apparently people listen to James Goll. His “prophetic insights” for 2014, for instance, were less detailed (they concerned the future, after all; descriptions predictions you allegedly made about past events can be as detailed as you’d like, but predictions about the future must necessarily be a bit woolier); they still managed to reveal an absolutely deranged mind: Apparently Goll meets with angels (including “warrior angels”) the way whale.to tinfoil hatters meet with aliens, and with the help of angels Goll has received prophetic insights about spiritual warfare, the visions of “prophet Bob Jones” and achieving “the full restoration of the supernatural” and such things. Goll has also written extensively on faith healing, claiming that it trumps “science and the medical arts” (though admitting that it is a bit unpredictable).

Diagnosis: Blathering maniac; ragingly insane fundamentalist of the kind one really should expect to meet only in parodies of fundamentalists. But despite appearances to the contrary, Goll isn’t funny.