#618: George Deutsch

George Carlton Deutsch III was a press officer of the United States space agency NASA, appointed by Dubya after having worked on the 2004 Bush/Cheney campaign. He has gone down in history as the very symbol of wingnut efforts to obstruct and suppress science that does not conform to political ideology, and for cutting support to scientists whose results do not line up with convenient denialist talking points. In short, Deutsch was instrumental in implementing an American version of the celebrated scientific policy of Lysenkoism.

Deutsch gained particular notoriety in late 2005/2006 when he instructed a NASA website designer to add the word “theory” after every occurrence of the phrase “Big Bang”, writing in his memo to the designer that Big Bang is “not proven fact; it is opinion ... It is not NASA's place, nor should it be to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator ... This is more than a science issue, it is a religious issue.” More here.

It created a bit of a stir, which partially ended in the discovery that Deutsch had lied about having a B.A. degree in journalism on his resume, which forced him to resign. True to his inborn persecution complex Deutsch later claimed that the only reason his appointment was controversial was because he was a Christian, which, while blatantly untrue, landed Deutsch a career as yet another wingnut on wingnut welfare for what he and his co-conspirators deemed to be ideological reasons.

Dr. James E. Hansen, the director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and several other career NASA scientists and public affairs officials, complained in interviews about “intensifying efforts by political appointees in NASA, including Mr. Deutsch, to control more closely” the content of their public statements, whereas Deutsch claimed – without anything resembling competence on the issue – that Dr. Hansen exaggerated the threat of global warming, and pretty much that NASA’s mission should be to use research to underpin already existing political agendas regardless of whether science or reality, those liberal conspiracies, agreed.

The always perceptive Deutsch had earlier been noticed for claiming that the ties between Al-Qaeda and Iraq were so clear that any informed person should see them.

Diagnosis: As a professionally appointed derp (apparently his job description), Deutsch exhibited spectacular failure to distinguish reality from ideology (i.e. facts from wishful thinking), and a horrifying display of the dangers when such morons achieve positions of power. Don’t for a moment think that Deutsch is an isolated case, however.

#615: Eugene Delgaudio

Eugene Delgaudio is the most colorful board member of the Public Advocates of the US, a deeply homophobic organization devopted to spinning gay-related news (and other things) into their own flavor of loon (their president is (or at least was) one Ronald Pearson). The result is the usual stuff, incuding conspiracy theories, hate, and paranoia (and some rather loaded quizzes for the public). Indeed, the organization serves as a backdrop for Delgaudio’s spamming activities (called “fundraising activities”), primarily in the form of requests for money sent to everyone who has ever discussed issues remotely related to homosexuality, regardless of what side the recipient may happen to be on, and selling his mailing lists (do don’t sign up for anything). Delgaudio also represents the Sterling District on the Loudoun County, Virginia, Board of Supervisors, by the way.

As for his anti-gay agenda, Delgaudio has said things like “[a]s homosexuals die off due to AIDS, the remaining AIDS carriers prey on children to replenish the Homosexual Community,” “the Homosexual Lobby and its billionaire donors are flush with cash. When Congressmen and Senators see the power and riches of the radical Homosexuals, they get tempted. You’d be surprised how many politicians are already bought and paid for,” and “I absolutely must find $73,575 before the end of next month to pay for printing, telephones, research, and postage.” The rest of his output consists of variations on those three (there is a completely weird one here), but primarily the latter. Here is a typical fundraising letter.

You can see Delgaudio claim that the Gasparilla Pirate Festival in Tampa is infiltrated by “radical homosexuals” seeking to exploit unsuspecting college students here (and here). As for paranoia (well, more paranoia – everything he writes is drenched with paranoia) Delgaudio has claimed that “[i]n the past, the radical homosexuals have attempted to kill me, even threatening and stalking my family;” here is the accompanying fundraising letter.

Indeed, according to Delgaudio the homosexual conspiracy is supporting “anti-discrimination” measures as part of their plan to convert kids to homosexuality. Here is the accompanying fundraising letter.

The problem, according to Delgaudio, is that there are too few left willing to fight against the homosexual propaganda machine. Here is the accompanying fundraising letter.

Among his most famous screeds is his argument against the TSA’s full-body security scans: “It's the federal employee's version of the Gay Bill of Special Rights ... That means the next TSA official that gives you an ‘enhanced pat down’ could be a practicing homosexual secretly getting pleasure from your submission;” and here is the fundraising letter accompanying his “TSA porn scanner” rant.

Despite his apparent pathological shortage of cash the Public Advocates actually pay Delgaudio in excess of $ 150 000 a year (more here). In 2012 Loudon County actually initiated an investigation of Delgaudio concerning the way he was using his office. Delgaudio’s response to the investigations was actually quite epic (recommended link).

There’s an excellent, if old, portrait of Delgaudio here. And here is another, more recent, spam mail fundraising letter. A grassroots Delgaudio recall movement was formed in 2013 – this guy holds public office, for the sake of anything and everything that is decent upon this Earth!

In a pang of absolutely astonishing self-aggrandazing delusion Delgaudio was audacious enough to take the credit when TSA replaced the scanners in 2012.

Diagnosis: Thoroughly delusional and deeply paranoid bigotbot and spam machine. Probably more of a nuisance than a real threat, but his blind hatred should probably not be completely overlooked.

#600: Bill Cunningham

Bill Cunningham is, essentially, a slimmer and possibly slightly dumber version of Rush Limbaugh. He hosts a couple of conservative radio shows as well as his own national TV show. He is also a commentator/contributor for Fox News, and fits their profile rather perfectly. Cunningham is, for instance, a perceptive and profound critic of Obama (and what he allegedly takes to be Obama’s plans to revive the Holocaust). In 2008, for instance, Cunningham discussed the life of Obama's father, remarking that “his father was a typical black father who, right after the birth, left the baby. That's what black fathers do. They simply leave.” He also weighs in with facts and reason on redistributive justice, arguing for the position that poor people are poor because they “lack values, ethics and morals,” and advocates “beat(ing) the hell outta homeless people” as a measure to solve the problem of homelessness – if they just take a good beating once in a while they’ll probably stop being homeless.

Of course, this is what wingnut talkshow hosts say. They simply spew nonsense and vitriol. Are such comments sufficient to qualify Cunningham for an entry in our Encyclopedia? Well, Cunningham – a local hero in the dimmer parts of Cincinnati, Kentucky – has made some efforts to settle that question, in particular with his furious attacks on the Cincinnati Zoo for pulling out of a promotional partnership with the local Creation Museum, probably realizing that teaming up with such a monument to anti-science wouldn’t help their credibility. In Cunningham’s mind, however, the zoo “buckled under” when faced with “intolerance of Christianity”. It is worth quoting Cunningham at some length: “We cannot put up with a religiously based discriminatory organization and the bigots at the Cincinnati Zoo who would do this to the Creation Museum. It's not necessarily about the museum; it's about publicly practiced bigoted racial discrimination against individuals who have a different faith set. Whether it's race discrimination or religious discrimination, it cannot stand.”

Yes, Cunningham is qualified for an entry.

Diagnosis: At least he doesn’t buckle in the face of reason, reality and sanity. His impact is probably limited to those already in the grips of Rush Limbaugh, but Cunningham should be watched nonetheless.

#595: Caroline Crocker

Caroline Crocker is another Intelligent Design creationist and another martyr for the cause of religiously motivated pseudoscience. She was prominently featured in the hackjob documentary Expelled (analyzed here, and here), where she was presented as one of the “scientists who are being persecuted for their views.” More precisely, Expelled claimed that Crocker was fired because she mentioned Intelligent Design in a class she was teaching. And Crocker was indeed teaching demonstrably false creationist material (for instance about this), so there would have been good reasons to fire her. As a matter of fact, however, Crocker wasn’t fired. She was teaching on a one-year contract, and was simply not rehired at the end of the year for undisclosed reasons – like so many adjuncts. The whole, true story is here.

Crocker later ended up on wingnut welfare with a gig at the ID creationist IDEA center (which blithely lies about her incompetence). There, she tells us, she helped create “safe houses” and fake identities so students could secretly come “out of the closet.” It is interesting, once again, to notice the depth of the persecution complex among the denialists, and Crocker – despite the complete groundlessness of the accusations – has frequently been used as an example by Intelligent Design creationists in their dishonest outcries about oppression and calls for“Academic Freedom”.

Diagnosis: Crocker is in other words indeed a fine example of the alleged persecution faced by fundamentalist pseudoscientists, but not in the way they see it. She also splendidly illustrates Intelligent Design Creationist tactics: the abject failure of science to support any of their claims with evidence is not an interesting detail, as long as there are other routes to victory, such as screaming “persecution”.

#593: Michael A. Cremo

A.k.a. Drutakarma Drasa

Benjamin Creme is Scottish but so magnificently insane that you need to check him out. Michael A Cremo seems to try his best not to be overshadowed by said amazing Scotsman. Cremo, a hinduist, is a “vedic creationist”, hardcore proponent of woo, and even more intensely hardcore conspiracy theorist. His most famous book is Forbidden Archaeology (written with Richard Thompson, to be covered later), which promotes his rather idiosyncratic take on creationism: humans (homo sapiens) have lived on earth, unchanged, for billions and billions of years. Of course, given the existence of that branch of scientific inquirey called “archaeology”, Cremo & Thompson’s claim requires a conspiracy. And indeed, we get one – Cremo and Thompson pull it out over 900 pages of what amounts to nonsense and feebly helpless ignorance of geology, archaeology, or evolution, instead pushing an impressive array of pseudo-archaeological and fraudulent “fossil” evidence of the kind that is so stupid that even your stock creationist may stop referring to it after a while because it’s too silly (says a bit). It is discussed here. The abridged version of their book, The Hidden History of the Human Race, is reviewed here.

The general idea, which researchers presumably happily cover up while cashing their fat research grant checks, is that “[w]e did not evolve up from matter; instead we devolved, or came down, from the realm of pure consciousness, spirit.” Cremo suggests that before we ask “where did human beings come from?” we should ask “[w]hat is a human being?” His answer is that it is a combination of matter, mind, and consciousness (or spirit). Which is an assertion displaying little understanding of matter, mind, consciousness, or evidence. At least he predicts that his book will be ridiculed (a sudden dim flash of insight there) since all great ideas always are, despite the demonstrable fact that great ideas have, contrary to popular belief, no more than exceedingly rarely (perhaps never) had to go through a period of ridicule before they have been accepted. Cremo explicitly admits that his governing strategy is confirmation bias here (“[w]hen operating from a different metaphysical perspective, I seem to see the evidence in a different light … was surprised to find there was so much evidence that is consistent with the Puranas”).

Cremo has no scientific education (his credentials are discussed here), and his associate membership of the Bhaktivedanta (“specializing in history and philosophy of science”), the scientific research branch of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, doesn’t count.

He has, however, appeared on TV –  More precisely in Charlton Heston’s legendary “The Mysterious Origins of Man”.

Diagnosis: Confirmation bias is not rigorous testing or evaluation of hypotheses, but Cremo would never know the difference. His screeds are of the kind that to a rational mind reads as well when the font is set to wingdings.