#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.

#623: Harvey & Marilyn Diamond

“Fit for Life” is a fad diet book based on “Natural Hygiene” and on the legendary woomeister Herbert Shelton’s reality-oblivious theories of food combining – if one eats the food in the wrong order they “cause fermentation” in the stomach, and “dead foods clog” the body, whereas “living foods cleanse” it. The ideas have been refuted by research, but this seems not to matter for Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, who have sold millions of books promoting the bullshit. Harvey Diamond has his degree in nutrition from a diploma mill, and it shows – most of the book is firmly based on the ecological fallacy, including the ridiculously false and misleading but exasperatingly common idea that “animals in nature are magnificently healthy in comparison to the health that we humans experience” whereas pets and zoo animals develop “many of the problems of humans” (there are alternative and better explanations for why it is rare to see debilitating diseases in the wild than invoking natural as some sort of white magic). The main claims of the Diamonds are covered here, though see also this admirably comprehensive list of dubious health practitioners.

Diagnosis: There are quite enough of these loons around, and exposing them will probably help little or nothing. Still, we have a duty to try, and the Diamonds constitute yet another scheme to exploit human biases and anecdotal evidence for purposes that have little to do with truth or well-being, regardless of what the Diamonds themselves may believe. 

#230: Marcus Laux

Not exactly a household name, Marcus Laux is in any case a very typical example of how woo is peddled. He is “a licensed naturopathic physician who earned his doctorate at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon. He has been clinically trained in acupuncture, homeopathy, physical medicine, among other healing modalities.” His biography is here.

It’s all there. He chose the woo route because “[science-based medicine] doctors seemed more interested in money than their patients” and – predictably – because naturopathic medicine “looks beyond the symptoms to the source, treating you as a whole person rather than a bunch of separate, unrelated symptoms”. But of course, Laux initially thought naturopathic medicine was quackery, However, he “knew in [his] heart [i.e. rather than by evidence] that the natural path was the right path” (in short, he found fallacious appeals to nature extremely intuitively compelling). He is also coauthor of “Natural Woman, Natural Menopause” (with Christine Conrad) and “Top Ten Natural Therapies” (with Melissa Block).

His web page is here. Now, Laux is the founder of Qivana, a network marketing company peddling all sorts of wellness products (woo-based, of course – no, you don’t get a link) in what they call the “Qivana Qore” series (it even has “Qi” in the name to give them away).

Diagnosis: This is how great woo is done; while Laux may be a fraud, it's more likely he is completely oblivious to the fishiness of his approach to medicine or business. Not very influential or likely to become very influential, but he is still not unlikely to cause some harm.

#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.

200: Jon Kaiser

This may be our 200th loon, but it’s really nothing to celebrate, so let’s go for a relatively negligible (but still crazy) one.

According to the PR letters he sends out (well, spam), Dr. Jon Kaiser is “an esteemed HIV/AIDS and nutrition specialist who specializes in supporting immune system function with nutrition”. You may see where this is going already. “In the 1980's, Kaiser pioneered the use of nutritional supplements in HIV/AIDS patients to help them build stronger immune systems”, he combines “the best of natural and standard therapies" for HIV, he can report on remarkable results, and there are absolutely no scientific publications or studies performed on his unorthodox methods – and he wants to sell you the nutritional supplement K-PAX.

What, by the way, are “natural therapies”? According to Kaiser, “[a]n aggressive natural therapies program includes a combination of diet therapy, vitamins, herbs, exercise, and stress reduction. Emotional healing encompasses a proactive program of psychological healing techniques that ideally includes a spiritually-oriented practice (prayer, meditation, yoga, etc.)”.

And there you go. More here. Kaiser noticed the mild criticism and responded in your typical crackpot manner.

Diagnosis: Kaiser may be a fraud, or he may be well-intentioned and misguided. He might even (in theory) be right in his claims, for all we know (well, not in his prayer, meditation, yoga claims). The scary thing is that someone with such complete lack of understanding of science, evidence or critical thinking is aggressively marketing their products to the sick and desperate with grandiose but completely unsubstantiated claims. Thus, Kaiser definitely qualifies for an entry in this Encyclopedia.

#114: Dinesh D’Souza

One of the more well-known, and rabid, creationists and apologists out there. As a Christian author he has managed to concoct such literary masterpieces as “The Enemy At Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11” (basically: our liberal lifestyle, equality and freedom anger mullahs; therefore we should do away with it – here, and here) and “What's So Great About Christianity (?)” (where he attempts to appropriate the term “evolution”, but distinguishes “Christian evolution” (ID creationism) from “Darwinian evolution”; here). He is also famous for debating people such as Hitchens, Dennett, and Shermer. A debate with Dennett can be found here. It's another piece of mindrot – you are warned. Another one is here, and one here). He has actually hit upon a very useful debate strategy (well, it is normal snowing, really): present as many strawmen, caricatures, bullshit, non-sequieturs and lies as possible in as short time as possible; point out that your opponent hasn’t refuted or addressed every single one of them. Therefore, God exists. It is a common technique among conspiracy theorists and creationists (and AGW deniers), and sufficiently notorious to have been given a name, “gish gallop”)

He has also written “Life After Death: The Evidence”, which according to himself proves that there is an afterlife. The first proof is: In the human heart there is a universal moral code underlying acts of self-sacrifice and charity. It is incompatible with the Darwinian imperative to out-compete thy neighbor. Therefore God, therefore an afterlife. The second proof is: Since there is so much suffering in the world, there must be an afterlife to make up for it. Seriously; those are his arguments. And oh, there’s the Pascal’s wager offshoot: Believing in the afterlife makes you happy, and believers have better sex.

His ability to connect premises and conclusions is seriously questionable. For instance, he argues (discussed here) that atheists are hateful robots because Dawkins wasn't invited to any of the memorials at Virginia Tech, and because he couldn't spot any atheists in the crowds. This, according to Dinesh, shows that the problem of evil is a bigger problem for atheists than for Christians and that modern science is bunk.

He does try to have it all ways, though. While he rejects evolution, he also arguest that evolution supports conservatism (here), so liberal scientists are doubly confused. To ensure that the conclusion goes through he glues it to his (moronic) premises with a naturalistic fallacy. It is almost as good as his liberal left caused 9/11 fallacies, entailing gems such as: if you've ever given money to Planned Parenthood or the ACLU, you've been aiding groups “at least as dangerous as any of bin Laden's American sleeper cells” (no failure to separate opinions from fact in that one, no?); here, and here.

This “man is like a magnet of wrong", and he just doesn’t get the naturalistic fallacy.

Diagnosis: Ardently moronic nitwit who wouldn’t be able to distinguish facts from wishful thinking or identify a fallacy if his life depended on it. Zealous. How he has achieved the status and influence he has ought to be a mystery (but really isn’t).

#98: Lorraine Day

Once a respected academic orthopedic surgeon who has fallen deeply into woo, conspiracy mongering and holocaust denialism. According to her own website, “Dr. Lorraine Day reversed her severe, advanced cancer by rebuilding her immune system by natural therapies, so her body could heal itself.” Her evidence for her therapies? Testimonials – in other words, pure anecdotal evidence and wishful thinking, and Day doesn’t seem to have the slightest understand of why alternative medicine “testimonials” for cancer treatments are inherently misleading.

That makes her but one of many (though still a loon). Dr. Day, however, really stands out for her attempts at combining woo-mongering with holocaust denialism – a leap, true, but one that is understandable given the total lack of critical thinking skills involved in both. An infamous interview can be obtained from here (and a debunking here). The blurb reads: “Dr. Lorraine Day discusses the control over the medical industry by a small group of Jews and Goyim who consider us pawns in their game of world conquest. However, the Jews who follow the Talmud are actually using their Goyim "friends" also” – that should give you an idea.

A telling claim from her website: “[the] term [”Holocaust”] has been ’hi-jacked’ by the Jews who use it, incorrectly, to describe the purported treatment of the Jews at the hands of the Germans during World War II. Actually, it better describes the Post-World War II treatment of the German citizens by the Allies (the U.S., U.K and USSR), who were taking their orders from International ... Very few people realize that the Zionist Jewish version of the "Holocaust", what the revisionists refer to as the Holocaust Hoax, is the CENTERPIECE of the Zionist Jews' Plan to destroy all nations, control the entire world, slaughter most of the population of the earth, and reduce the rest to slaves.”

More on her antics can be found here (oh yes, it is all there: drugs don’t cure diseases, they only cover up the symptoms; chemotherapy doesn’t cure cancer; Dr. Day has glorious credentials; natural fallacies and so on and so forth).

She is also a 9/11 truther and religious whacko.

Diagnosis: One of the most unhinged, insane crackpots out there; utterly lacking in critical thinking skills, sanity and rationality. Must be considered dangerous.

#11: Arthur M. Baker

Baker (no photo available) is an ardent proponent of that brand of food woo known as "raw foodism", i.e. the idea that we should ideally only eat raw (even living) food. This new age trend is primarily founded on the naturalistic fallacy (+ confirmation bias and anecdotal evidence) and has little scientific foundation. Not cooking any of one's food might be acceptable (though not recommendable) were it not for pesky food poisoning and bacteria. This by itself might not be enough to merit inclusion in the Encyclopedia - but of course folks like Baker have to take it a couple of steps further.

Baker is the author of "Awakening Our Self Healing Body", and he avoids the problem of bacteria in uncooked food since he doesn’t believe in the germ theory of disease anyway (it’s a conspiracy to support the food industry or something). A central supporter of the Natural Hygiene Movement (no, I won’t provide a link; google it), Baker rejects Western medicine and its theoretical foundation, and in his book “rips apart the notion of viruses destroying your body” (since viruses cannot do that since they are not living things) and similar claims, mostly based on ignorance, lies, bias and the purported fact that raw food is obviously natural and hence good, and Western medicine does not unequivocally recognize that. Parts of his ramblings are, however, semitechnical and well-written, and might to people with little knowledge about the matters look convincing. Support for raw foodism is, according to Baker, also found in the Bhagavad Gita and the Essene Gospel of peace. Another convincing argument he subscribes to is that Methuselah only ate raw food – and he got to live pretty long, didn’t he?

Diagnosis: Loon. Confirmation bias is strong with this one, but he is only one of an almost endless parade of food cranks. The movement seems to have some impact, but Baker’s own influence in particular is uncertain; should be considered dangerous, however.

#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).