#639: Tim Dunkin

Nothing out of the ordinary about Tim Dunkin insofar as blathering insanity counts as “ordinary”, which the numbers of entries in our Encyclopedia is starting to suggest that it does. Dunkin writes for RenewAmerica and Conservative Underground, and among his schticks is – you guessed it – the malicious gay agenda. Indeed, Dunkin has joined the Scott Lively train, and taken it upon himself to warn America that not only is same-sex marriage not a right, but that homosexuality itself “is a lifestyle choice that lends itself to violence, degradation, disease, selfishness, and exploitation.” From this not particularly well-supported premise he concludes that gay rights must be “fought, defeated, and thrown back” along with “the rest of the broader revolutionary socialist agenda.” Homosexuality will destroy America also because homosexuality is associated with violence, pedophilia and abuse. But mostly because it is homosexuality and hence icky, on suspects.

It is curious that when pressed for arguments, he appeals to the same shit fluffpot woo-meister hippies generally use: “it’s unnatural”. Though he does, of course, not even get that one right.

Dunkin’s rants on evolution and environmentalism are likewise rather exasperatingly devoid of understanding of either (in Dunkin’s world evolution requires a magic transition from non-life to life; microevolution is well-supported – macroevolution is not and so on), and appallingly fond of strawmen, misrepresentations, and misapplying words he doesn’t understand. But that wasn’t much surprise, was it? (No, you get no link to his drivel; google "Dunkin" and "evolution".)

Diagnosis: Fundie bigot. Standard fare.

#603: Curtis Dahlgren

I know little else about Curtis Dahlgren, but he has written some columns for RenewAmerica, Alan Keyes’s blognetwork and truly a remarkable collection of nonsense. Indeed, Dahlgren has contributed some of the most absurd rants ever committed to the Internet; a prime example being his rant against the legal system and some decisions he disagrees with in which he blamed their perceived errors on elitism, though the lack of any clear point and connection between his (often weirdly false) claims makes it hard to sum it up in any better than that. At least it deteriorates into a cranky rant about those darn hippies and their horrible “civil liberties”, which they have obtained because courts cherry-pick jury members to get the results they want (i.e. there is some sort of conspiracy going on stemming from the “Dark Force” of the left).

Although it is a little hard to discern exactly what his problem is in said column, it is rather obvious that it was written by someone with a tenuous hold on sanity and reason. Dahlgren has also penned columns trying to unmask the conspiracies among those elitist scientists, and his targets are the scientists in precisely those areas you’d expect, evolution and climate change – he calls environmentalist one of the curses of the present age. Dahlgren shows that it is all a matter of politics (failure to draw the distinction between science and politics is a hallmark of wingnuttery), and cites – apparently as support for his claim – how Russians in the 1860s appropriated Darwinism and hence that the Bolsheviks were influenced by the nihilism contained in the theory of evolution. Hence … I have no idea, except that he laments the fact that people always turn to those greedy scientists when they want their problems solved.

Diagnosis: A source of some of the most absolutely utter bizarreness you’ll encounter on the Internet – apparently coherence is no virtue for Curtis Dahlgren, and truth isn’t even on the radar (I suspect even elementary school kids could easily spot a couple of blatant, bizarre falsehoods in any one of his columns in a few seconds).

#523: Michael Bresciani

Michael Bresciani has some serious issues with … you guessed it: gays and lesbians (probably mostly gay men):

”In our world most of those spreading the gay lie are liberals, activists, spineless academicians, Hollywood sellouts, and now we can throw in a president and a large contingent of fully duped politicians … There is little doubt that the entire gay and lesbian community is guided by a powerful demon spirit who is subordinate to Satan.”

I am not sure Bresciani knows exactly what “lie” means.

His day job is to be a Christian author and a columnist for several online sites and magazines, most notably Alan Keyes’s RenewAmerica. According to his bio, “[h]is articles are now read in every country in the world,” which presumably means that they are read in the US because that’s the only country that matters. Bresciani has a very literal view of hell, and explains in detail how it is organized (musings fascinatingly reminiscent of helpless medieval neo-Platonist scholars and comic book authors). Alcoholics are apparently possessed by Satan as well.

Wait; possessed? Yes, possessed by demonic angels. According to Bresciani:

“The demoniac of Gadara (Lk 8: 26f) was said to have, not one devil, but an entire legion of devils. That is about 6,000 devils in that one man alone. What makes us think that there are not enough devils for everyone in our world who steps into Satan's kingdom? One third of the angels departed from the presence of God when Satan left [no citation; seems to rely on Milton]. That could be a number we could not fully imagine.”

I don’t think most people disagreeing with Bresciani disagrees primarily over the numbers of devils. The quote is from Bresciani’s defense of Daniel Avila, the “marriage guy” of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who has himself argued that Satan was responsible for homosexuality but later (non-)apologized. Bresciani didn’t accept the apology, apparently, though for the wrong reasons.

He’s also a renowned birther and a staunch defender of Ray Comfort (he shows up in the comments here to defend him).

Diagnosis: Amazingly deranged and ignorant Taliban fundie with a strong nostalgia for early Medieval Times and the appurtenant cartoon interpretation of the Bible. Dangerous.

#207: Linda Kimball

One of our previous idiot Alan Keyes’s pet projects is the delusionally ignorant website Renew America (for which luminaries like Fred Hutchison, Bryan Fischer, Wes Vernon and Grant Swank have written). Among their writers are Linda Kimball, who is apparently engaged in a desperate battle with Ray Comfort (and some others) for the most thoroughly moronic anti-evolution screed ever written.

Her masterpiece is surely “Evolutionism: the dying West’s science of magic and madness”. Here she traces evolution back to Nimrod of the Old Testament, and then to Ancient Greek where “evolution serves as the mechanism of soul-transference in metempsychosis and transmigration of souls. In the ancient East, the mystical Upanishads refine evolution and it becomes the mechanism of soul-movement in involutions, emergences, incarnations, and reincarnation.”

Huh? Does she have the faintest clue what she is talking about? Not at all. This is Time Cube level stuff. After carefully inventing the genealogy of the cult of evolution, she points out – in a manner that would probably make even Alex Jones raise an eyebrow (or perhaps not) – that “whereas occult pantheism quietly flowed beneath 'red-colored' atheist-materialist-communism and Nazism during the twentieth century, that order is quickly reversing. Today, 'green-colored' occult pantheist-socialism is brazenly striding onto the world-stage in full public view while materialist-secularism slowly fades to black. Already, zealous High Priests and Priestesses of the occult arts are calling the U.N the world church and the world mind, while other madmen such as David Spangler, demand that everyone submit to a satanic-initiation to qualify for entry to the coming green New World Order.”

And that, readers, is Linda Kimball’s attempt at refuting evolution. Discussed here.

She also made an earlier attempt, where her main argument seems to have been: “Jeffrey Dahmer, a psychopath who cannibalized his victims, acted on Darwin's advice.” (remember that Dahmer’s father was a known creationist lecturer, and Dahmer was raised a creationist).

Her contributions to other matters are not pitched at a higher level of quality. Her column is here. Enjoy.

Diagnosis: Mind-numbingly idiotic wingnut fundamentalist who is pathologically unable to separate evidence, science, logic or reason from religion. One of the most hilariously stupid characters we have covered thus far.

#206: Alan Keyes

Alan Keyes is a conservative speaker and activist who has run for President and the Senate numerous times (always losing, thankfully – in 2008 he ran with Wiley Drake). He is most famous for being clinically insane, completely ignorant and pathologically intellectually dishonest. More about his career can be found here and here. He used to try to run on a Republican ticket, but after 2008 ran with the Constitution part - but since they supported Chuck Baldwin he started his own party, the Independence Party.

He is insanely anti-gay, actually arguing that gay people cannot have sex (they are rather “mutual pursuit of pleasure through the stimulation of the organs intended for procreation, but it has nothing to do with sexuality because they are of the same sex. And with respect to them, the sexual difference does not exist. They are therefore not having sexual relations”). When Keyes’s own daughter came out as homosexual, she was promptly disowned.

He is a strong champion of gun rights, coming up with reassuring claims such as “gun owners are pro life and their guns are to defend the lives of the unborn” (see also this). He has also claimed that downturns in the economy prove that God is angry with legalized abortion.

Keyes is also a staunch supporter of teaching Biblical creationism in public schools, and he supports mandatory prayer and faith initiatives – as long as they are not Jewish, since Jewish (as opposed to Christian) initiatives promote enmity and hatred (see also this). He is also a firm believer in theocracy and the religious foundation of the U.S. - in the sense of Gary Bauer, Gary DeMar, Gary North and David Barton (who should apparently change his name to “Gary” as well). See also this.

In November 2008 Keyes (and Markham Robinson) filed a lawsuit against the California Secretary of State, then-President-elect Barack Obama, then-Vice President-elect Joe Biden, and California's 55 Democratic electors, seeking to challenge Obama's eligibility for the US Presidency (though Keyes didn’t like McCain either). The suit requests that Obama provide documentation that he is a natural born citizen of the United States. Following Obama's inauguration, Keyes denied he had been constitutionally inaugurated, refused to call him President, and called him a "usurper" and a "radical communist". He has even resorted to civil disobedience over the matter (though refusing to call it “civil disobedience, since he doesn’t believe in that). Keyes is thus one of the most central idiots of the birther movement. He has also been affiliated with the Christian Exodus independence movement.

Keyes also made a rather unflattering appearance in Borat.

Diagnosis: Blatheringly moronic fundamentalist and rabid clown. He has some die-hard followers, but even the more extreme Republican wingnuts often find that they have to distance themselves from him.

196: Marie Jon

From her own biographical info: “Marie Jon is a political/religious analyst-based writer and founder of www.DrawingClose.org and www.PeoplePoliticallyRight.com — sister websites to RenewAmerica. Marie extends her hand of welcome; visit DrawingClose and receive your free gift of salvation by taking an online Bible study.” That sets the tone.

Her column can be found here. In her column, Marie Jon offers marriage advice and advice on love and women’s interests, as well as general commentaries on the development of society (she is a huge fan of Rush Limbaugh), all against a background of firm Biblical values. She accuses Obama of introducing bigotry, racism and Marxism dishonestly disguised as Christianity (huh?) and blames him for the BP oil spill – at least accuses him for having a hidden agenda for being so slow to act, (as opposed to how Bush acted responsibly and immediately after Katrina!). Oh, and then of course there is the healthcare/death panel stuff. A common thread through her columns is the extreme paranoia for something she calls “social justice”, but which she never really seems to quite grasp. Fortunately, her main strategy in her fight against communism is … to pray.

She is also a firm young earth creationist, and complains that modern genetics pay too little attention to our last known common ancestor, Noah. She even bought into the Bob Cornuke story (here and here).

Still, it is her advice on love and relationship that has garnered the most attention – in particular her well-founded claim that modern feminism is founded on occultism, demonic spiritualism and necromancy. Yup – pro-choice advocates, women's rights movements and feminist movements are all satanic. Which, to Marie Jon, is obviously true insofar as they seek to violate God’s natural law set down in the Garden of Eden. You can figure out her relationship advice from there.

Diagnosis: Irrevocably insane and moronic godbotter who is unable to see that her fire and brimstone fundamentalism and godbottery sits poorly with the fluffy, rosy, children and laughter perspective on the world she attempts to deploy. Her impact is unknown, but probably not too extensive.

188: Fred Hutchison

An associate of Alan Keyes (writing on his website) Hutchison is the kind of guy who insists that he masters all sorts of sciences, but whose positions roughly correlates with that of the European church in the 15th century. A sample:

- He rejects Einstein, because the theory of relativity offers “no explanation of why an apple falling from a tree moves straight down” (as opposed to Newton). Of course Hutchison knows nothing about physics – he has managed to misunderstand some popular scientific presentation of Einstein.

- He rejects global warming because we have no “explanation of how CO2 differs from nitrogen and oxygen in its influence on the greenhouse effect”. He denies that gases can affect atmospheric temperature.

- He rejects the theory of evolution because, well, he doesn’t have any clue whatsoever how it is supposed to work.

- He believes he has decisively shown that Terri Schiavo must have been conscious, simply because “Consciousness must subsist in the incorporeal spirit”.

And of course, there is the usual anti-gay and anti-abortion stuff – you know how it goes.

Interestingly, he brags about how he debated two scientists in an e-mail exchange and won hands down – he doesn’t quote them, only provides some of the usual garbled nonsense about evolution and global warming, and then declares himself the victor.

Diagnosis: The living embodiment of Dunning-Kruger, Hutchison’s gloating confidence that he’s won combined with his total ignorance about the field of discussion in which he was “participating”, is disconcertingly common. His influence may be slim, but the Dunning-Kruger effect is the very thing that sustains manufactroversies.

#113: Wiley Drake

The amiable, lovable Wiley Drake is a Californian Southern Baptist minister and talk radio host, and a prominent member of the American Independent Party. In fact, he was their vice-presidential candidate in 2008 (with Alan Keyes - who will be covered later - rest assured, as the presidential candidate). He is most famous for calling for prayers for the deaths of those who disagree with him, including political opponents.

He was most famous for urging his followers to pray for the death of Obama ("Imprecatory Prayer is now our DUTY"). In fact, his obsession with imprecatory prayer is based on its success rate. God had already answered his call with the murder of George Tiller who, according to Drake, “was far greater in his atrocities than Adolf Hitler, […] so I am happy. I am glad that he is dead". Actully, Drake said he didn’t think the killer was pro-life – rather, the killer was planted by Obama to make anti-abortionists look bad.

Well, it wasn’t his first attempt at calling down the wrath and death mongering of God. The reason he wanted to take down Americans United for Separation of Church and State was primarily not because they defend the separation of church and state, but because they filed a complaint against him with the IRS for violating his church's tax exempt status. A fairly typical Jeebus and Christian™ cause for invoking the wrath of God, in other words.

Before running on Keyes’s ticket, Drake had endorsed Huckabee. Even Huckabee wasn’t particularly pleased about that.

Drake is a birfer. In fact, his main (official) argument against Obama is that he was born in Kenya rather than Hawaii and is thus an usurper.

Diagnosis: One of the most repugnant characters alive. Clinically insane, fascist piece of mindrot who needs serious medical attention. His influence is to some extent marginal, but he can’t be written off as harmless.