#661: Mary Fallin

Mary Fallin is the Governor of Oklahoma and a former representative for Oklahoma's 5th congressional district, and damn if she isn’t quite insane. Fallin is a staunch creationist and is on the record expressing a preference for religion over science (but so is her last Democratic opponent Jarl Askins). And of course you presumably see where this is going for education in Oklahoma.

In 2011 Fallin responded to a heat wave sweeping her state by asking citizens to seek divine intervention: “The power of prayer is a wonderful thing, and I would ask every Oklahoman to look to a greater power this weekend and ask for rain,” she said in a manner worthy of Rick Perry. It didn’t have any measurable effect, but does tell you quite a bit about a certain group of politician’s attempt to find solutions to the ordeals facing their constituencies. Indeed, one would think that the Oklahomans who believed this measure to be effective had already prayed for rain, making Fallin’s urge doubly idiotic.

Diagnosis: Another moronic godbot who has been given an irresponsible amount of power to wield, and sure enough uses it to cause as much damage as possible to civilization.

#638: Rex Duncan

Rex Duncan is a (former) Oklahoma State Senator legendary for a level of paranoia that borders on the clinically mentally ill. He is most famous for being behind the Oklahoma anti-sharia law – and although being against sharia law is a good thing, his reasoning displayed less than firm grasp of reality: “This is a pre-emptive strike to make sure that liberal judges don't take the bench in an effort to use their position to undermine those founding principles that are international or Sharia law.” Because the people who would want to impose sharia law are obviously liberal judges – you know, that liberal, homosexual lobby and fundamentalist Muslim alliance and its conspiracy against Oklahoma (since “Oklahomans recognize that America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles”). On the need for a preemptive strike, and against the suspicion that the threat of Oklahoma becoming governed by sharia law is exaggerated, Duncan pointed out that “[i]t's not just a danger, it's a reality. Every day, liberals and uh, just ...”

In fact, the law is not merely an empty gesture to accommodate the paranoid persecution complex of the electorate. It has actual, real life, adverse consequences. There is a pretty good discussion here. Duncan has a history of standing up for the good values, by the way.

Diagnosis: As many have pointed out, Duncan forgot Martian law in his amendment, and there is still an opening that Oklahoma may impose Martian law on Oklahoma. In any case, the features that qualify Duncan for an entry are not the law per se, which is stupid, but the appalling lack of coherent reasoning behind it. Of course, it is rather obvious that this was intended pure demagoguery, but still … there is no evidence that Duncan doesn’t believe his own shit, and the default position must be that he does.

#521: Josh Brecheen

Josh Brecheen is an Oklahoma State senator who also owns a motivational speaking business (Brecheen Keynotes and Seminars). Now, when January 2011 marked the opening of a new legislative session in the State senates (as all Januaries do), some idiots have – they always do – to present a ”teach teh controversy” or outright anti-evolution bill. Brecheen was responsible for Oklahoma’s in2011.

Copied and pasted right out of the Discovery Institute’s anti-science strategy ”Academic Freedom”, Brecheen’s version stated that local education administrators ”shall not prohibit any teacher from informing students about relevant scientific information regarding either the scientific strengths or scientific weaknesses of controversial topics in sciences, when being taught in accordance with adopted standards and curricula,” where such topics “include but are not limited to biological origins of life and biological evolution.” That is, “teach all the science”. Of course, the fact that evolution is not a scientifically controversial issue and creationism is not a scientific theory is uninteresting, and what the law is supposed to do is to let any and every teacher spread the most egregious nonsense to students without having to stand up for it.

Brecheen’s defense of the bill was, predictably, filled with all the usual creationist talking points, including conspiracy mongering (“Renowned scientists now asserting thatevolution is laden with errors [curiously none are mentioned] are being ignored”). Fortunately, as every such “Academic Freedom” sponsor is wont to do, they disregard the Discovery Institute’s stealth recommendation and tell the media what they are really trying to achieve. Brecheen promptly spilled the beans: “I have introduced legislation requiring every publically funded Oklahoma school to teach the debate of creation vs. evolution using the known science, even that which conflicts with Darwin's religion.” He admitted that “One of the bills I will file this year may be dismissed as inferior by ‘intellectuals’”. Indeed.

Diagnosis: Dense dullhead with no aptitude for critical thinking, not the faintest what science is or how it works, and no understanding of the fact that he lacks a clue. Such incompetence won’t prevent you from getting into positions of power, however, so Brecheen cannot be completely dismissed as harmless.

#506: Edward Blick

Scene: James Inhofe, infamous denialist whose concern for truth and accuracy is legendarily absent, submits a list of ”604 scientists who rejects AGW”. Among the curious assembly of names found on that list – insofar as you didn’t have to sign up for Inhofe’s list, he’d just add you if he interpreted or wished to interpret you as a ”skeptic”, he (probably deliberately) made some, shall we say, controversial choices – in addition to people such as (the Argentinian) Eduardo Ferreyra, orgone ”expert” James DeMeo, certified crackpot Joel Kauffman, and conspiracy theorist Michael R. Fox, who all also appear on a list of ”HIV/AIDS ’rethinkers’”, and in addition to a lot of people with real credentials who deny that they reject AGW, we find people like Chris Allen and this entry’s featured loon: Edward Blick.

At least Edward Blick does reject AGW. He also has credentials, being Professor Emeritus of the Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering at the University of Oklahoma. Unfortunately for his reputation he has also said: “The predecessors of today's unbelievers replaced the Holy Bible's book of Genesis with Darwin's Origin of the Species. Now with the help of Al Gore and the United Nations they are trying to replace the Holy Bible's book of Revelation with the U.N.'s report Anthropogenic Global Warming,” and that “This whole [AGW] scheme is a ‘Trojan Horse’ for global socialism!” And he has argued that climate scientists fail basic reasoning: “How does God control our warming and cooling? Scientists have discovered it is the Sun! Amazing, even grade school children know this.” Yeah, those dumb scientists and their critical thinking skills (apparently Blick misses the fact that the sun does play a rather crucial role in the AGW “scheme”).

Apart from garbled fundamentalist conspiracy mongering, Blick is also devoted to showing how modern science is already explicitly given in the Bible. For instance, when Isaiah says that the obedient ones “shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Isa. 40:28-31), this is an accurate description of modern, cutting-edge research in aerodynamics. Thing is, Blick and other scientists have actually found that eagles can fly for a long time without getting tired, and obviously such uncanny premonitions are evidence that the Bible is accurate and a source of scientific insight.

It’s also worth mentioning Blick’s colleague David Deming, who also made it to Inhofe’s list and who is, well, let’s say that the University of Oklahoma is not coming off in a particularly favorable light.

Both Blick and Deming are also among the signatories of the Discovery Institute’s meaningless petition “A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism”, by the way (the others who are on both lists, as of 2008, are Guillermo Gonzales, Robert Smith (professor of chemistry at the University of Nebraska), and James Wanliss (Associate Professor of Physics, Embry-Riddle University), though there are surely other creationists on Inhofe’s list), another boon to their credibility. Blick has of course, in various books and pamphlets, come clean as a staunch creationist.

Diagnosis: Total fail, at every possible level.

#490: John Benefiel

When you look into the people participating in Rick Perry’s prayer rally in Houston in 2011, The Response (you can see spokesman Eric Bearse reveal the purpose of the rally here), you’ll find some interesting sludge from the pits, and John Benefiel may perhaps be the most insane one (others are covered here). Benefiel is head of the Heartland Apostolic Prayer Network and thinks the Statue of Liberty is demonic: “You know where we got it from? French Free Masons. Listen folks that is an idol, a demonic idol, right there in New York harbor.” Ok, that might need some explanation, and Benefiel’s got it: “We don't get liberty from a false goddess folks, we get our liberty from Jesus Christ and that Statue of Liberty in no way glorifies Jesus Christ.”

Can you guess what position Benefiel takes on the ethics of homosexuality? Or the health care bill? According to Benefiel homosexuality is part of an Illuminati plot to reduce the world's population to 500 million. “Homosexuality was and is one of [Baal’s] big strongholds […] the entity that we call the Illuminati which is really over, above Free Masonry, has stated it as their goal [no source] to limit the world population to no more than 500 million […] What do you think the health care bill is? Oh yes, it's a death culture.”

Benefiel has also broached the difficult questions concerning the name “District of Columbia”. According to Benefiel the District of Columbia is named after the “queen of heaven” instead of Columbus (the queen of heaven being probably the one that’s idolized by the Statue of Liberty; it’s all an Illuminati conspiracy, remember). Hence he has renamed the District of Columbia “the District of Christ” and some day, he thinks, it will be renamed that for reals (he has divorced it from Baal as well). Obviously, he thinks the country’s political problems are to blame on the District of Columbia’s supposedly pagan foundations – kinda similar to recognizing a national policy problem and blaming it on a group of coniferous trees outside of Tulsa. Or the Jews, which is more common.

Even though he already claims to have reclaimed the District of Columbia for Christ, he was apparently leading another effort in October-November 2011 (with Cindy Jacobs, to be covered). You can find a link to their prayer guide “Declaration of Dependence: How to Heal Our Nation Through Prayer” here. It is not … particularly moderate.

It ought to be somewhat troubling that this guy has political connections to Rick Perry. He also claims to have most of Oklahoma’s conservative representatives as followers, but it is tricky to get this verified.

Diagnosis: There seems to be some sort of competition going on in certain wingnut circles to make Pat Robertson look sane (kind of a “save Robertson by moving the Overton window”), and Benefiel’s effort is a good one. Absolutely stunningly insane.