#387: Rusty Lee Thomas

Rusty Lee Thomas (from Waco, Texas) is a proponent of militant Christianity affiliated with Elijah Ministries and the Constitution Party, and one of those people who are organizing and training young Christians to be soldiers for Christ and go out there to engage in spiritual warfare against the evils of the modern world (science, secularism, universal human rights, and so on). It’s not obviously supposed to be purely spiritual either: “Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins.” He has even written a manual for young warriors. Among the main enemies identified in this manual is … well, this quote gives you the idea: “Feminists charge that Christianity promotes a patriarchal religion, which oppresses women and steals their potential. Although it is true that Christianity is patriarchal, the function of true patriarchy is to protect, provide, and care for women and children. Biblical patriarchy is expressed as chivalry […] A woman can manipulate, dominate and control a man to the point that his manhood is slowly eaten away like a cancer […] Too many women seek value by trying to become men, lead as men, and be aggressive as men.” The ideas are discussed here. Clearly Thomas is the real feminist in the culture wars.

The following is from one of his “reports”: “I've been on a forty day fast. Today is the 19th day. The purpose was to end the American holocaust (abortion) and usher in a heaven-sent revival. Little did we know that at the beginning of this consecrated time that the homosexuals in San Francisco would blaspheme the Lord in the most despicable manner. They held a mock Last Supper advertisement to promote their ‘gay pride’ and perverted orgies in the streets of their city. […] I asked God for the message and for the method to warn that wicked city that they have crossed the line and are in deep trouble with the Almighty. 3 days later the Lord gave me the Word and the method. It is called God's Eviction Notice. Tomorrow morning this message will be sent to all major news outlets in America. […]” The Eviction notice in question? “[Insert garbled, hysterical theological ramblings and Biblebotting here] … The Lord God of heaven and earth, the Triune God of the Bible, God the Father, God the Son, (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit has a charge to bring against this wicked city and the inhabitants thereof. […] His patience with these abominations has ceased. […] God has weighed San Francisco in the balance and your city has been found wanting. Your many transgressions reveal not just the revelry of sexual immorality and lusting after strange flesh, but a God-mocking, God-hating spirit that is Anti-Christ to its core […] The tragedy of New York and the disaster of New Orleans are merely first fruits of the many woes that will devastate San Francisco and send shockwaves throughout California, America, and the world. God stands poised with his flaming sword ready to strike your city [and so on …] You must stuff these abominations back in the closet of illegality and punish these criminal acts as God prescribes or your entire house (city) will collapse upon your wicked heads. With all diligence, take heed to this warning, repent or perish, Christ or chaos.”

Diagnosis: Charming fellow.

#386: Cal Thomas

Cal Thomas is an American conservative syndicated columnist, pundit, author and radio commentator. He is a panelist on Fox News Watch, a Fox program criticizing liberals in the media (he used to host After Hours with Cal Thomas), and has written 10 books, including “Blinded By Might”, where he presented his take on the role of Falwell’s Moral Majority in American politics of the 1980s (Thomas was vice president of the Moral Majority back then).

When Clinton addressed the Human Rights Campaign, suggesting that gay people are human, Thomas reacted with condemnation: “God designed norms for behavior that are in our best interests. When we act outside those norms – such as for premarital sex, adultery, or homosexual sex – we cause physical, emotional, and spiritual damage to ourselves and to our wider culture. The unpleasant consequences of divorce and sexually transmitted diseases are not the result of intolerant bigots seeking to denigrate others. They are the result of violating God's standards, which were made for our benefit,” and so it goes. More on Cal Thomas and ze gays here.

He weighed in heavily on the healthcare reform, claiming that the left wanted to kill of old people because leftists believe in evolution – indeed, he claimed that the healthcare reform bill came about as a “consequences of attempting to ban people with a God perspective from the public square”. And then he invoked Hitler, of course. You can read more on Thomas's views on atheism here. His points aren’t generally recognized as particularly good by those who are able to distinguish reason from incoherent babble. You can read Thomas on the Bible here. His ideas are strangely reminiscent of the Conservapedia Bible Project. Isn't it weird that the Bible always comes out supporting whatever position wingnuts like Thomas are already committed to? (It really isn't.)

In a (slightly tongue-in-cheek) study from Hamilton (full text here) Cal Thomas was deemed the “worst prognosticator” among all pundits surveyed in the study by far, loosing even to Lindsey Graham by a mile. In fact, the study concluded that “[r]eaders could literally gain insight by believing the opposite of what they read in his weekly columns. Of his 15 predictions, 13 were wrong, one was hedged, and only one was correct.”

Diagnosis: Smugly inane God-walloper who is completely – and demonstrably – fully out of touch with reality (the accuracy of his guesses about what the world is like being far, far worse than chance).

#385: Charles Thaxton

Charles B. Thaxton is a chemist, signatory to A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism, and, in short, another intelligent design author and Fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture. He has a doctorate in physical chemistry from Iowa State, and has co-authored several books, including “The Mystery of Life's Origin” (with Walter L. Bradley and Roger L. Olsen), which employs (in effect) the second-law-of-thermodynamics gambit in favor of creationism, and “The Soul of Science” (with Nancy Pearcey).

He is most famous, however, for being co-editor (with Percival Davis and Dean Kenyon) of the first edition of “Of Pandas and People”, the creationist book (book review here) that spurred the Kitzmiller vs. Dover trial. During the trial Thaxton explained that he “wasn’t comfortable with the typical vocabulary that for the most part creationists were using because it didn’t express what I was trying to do. They were wanting to bring God into the discussion, and I was wanting to stay within the empirical domain and do what you can do legitimately there.” Translation: “I didn’t like the formulations, but the content was fine, and I would have preferred to conceal the blatantly religious agenda somewhat better.” His contributions are discussed here.

Together with his wife Carole he runs the “KONOS Connection”, an educational Christian organization in Fayetteville, GA.

Diagnosis: Yet another clueless science denialist (who rejects facts when they don’t conform to dogma), and one who has actually caused some harm. One to scare your kids with.

#384: Randall Terry & Operation Save America

Randall Terry is a completely insane crank, self-proclaimed theocrat, “family value” “proponent”, fundamentalist religious herdsman, and sucker for attention. Sample quote from Terry: “I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good ... Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty, we are called on by God to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism.” Terry also thinks that Pat Robertson is a sell-out.

He generally likes to bash liberals and show great joy whenever “morally reprobate” doctors (guess who) get killed. Terry is the founder of Operation Save America and its subgroup Operation Rescue (as well as the website prolifewarrior.com), which is devoted to the “protecting the innocents”. Here’s Terry summing up his position on doctors who perform abortions: “When I, or people like me, are running the country, you'd better flee, because we will find you, we will try you, and we'll execute you. I mean every word of it. I will make it part of my mission to see to it that they are tried and executed.” His organization has not consistently contained themselves within legal limits (their senior policy director, Cheryl Sullenger, was at one point convicted of conspiracy to bomb a California clinic (the plot thickens here), and Terry, his successor Keith Tucci, and subsequent director Flip Benham have all been arrested and convicted for transgressing legal boundaries during their activism). The group’s involvement with Scott Roeder, murderer of George Tiller, seems rather obvious to many, and after the murder Terry explained: “The point that must be emphasized over, and over, and over again: pro-life leaders and the pro-life movement are not responsible for George Tiller's death. George Tiller was a mass-murderer and, horrifically, he reaped what he sowed.”

The Operation Rescue subgroup, Operation Save America, works out of Kansas and is currently headed by Troy Newman (who succeeded Terry’s tactical director Jeff White). Apparently Terry has later sued Newman, but the circumstances are somewhat unclear and so permeated by unhinged insanity that it is probably not worth trying to grasp them. A study on the group’s rhetoric is here.

Terry, however, does not limit his campaigning to pro-life causes (neither does Operation Save America), but is vociferously attacking anything he deems to be inconsistent with his personal brand of Christian fundamentalism. The typical examples include his anti-gay campaigns (gay marriage isn’t even on his radar; this concerns whether or not good Christians should have the right to discriminate against or beat up people caught having ungodly sexual desires), his campaigns against euthanasia, and his hatred of Islam. When his adopted son turned out to be gay, Randall – as the good, Christian father he is – immediately disowned him. He also disowned two of his children who became pregnant outside of marriage for good measure. It’s all about love; tough love.

Terry has tried to run for Houses of Representatives in both New York and Florida, but hasn’t gained much traction since he is generally shunned by all but the most deranged Republicans. He is, however, a sucker for attention. You can watch him teach tea-partiers on how to get it here. In 2011, dimly realizing that even hardcore wingnuts find his language objectionable, he changed his party affiliation to Democrat with the intention to troll them by running against President Obama in the 2012 presidential primaries. After arguing that Obama supports both slavery and murder, he laid out his campaign strategy here. In fact, he managed to win a delegate, in Oklahoma (who would have guessed); or so it seemed, at least, until it turned out that he hadn’t done the paperwork properly. After this minor setback, he changed his plans to run as a third candidate instead, stating that a presidential run won’t draw votes away from the Republican nominee, but from anti-choice Democrats who would otherwise support Obama. Concurrently with revealing his plans, Terry also hearted Rush Limbaugh for his handling of the Sandra Fluke affair, claiming not only that Fluke is a prostitute, but that Obama is her pimp, the justification being primarily that Randall Terry is absolutely gibberingly crazy and incoherent.

He doesn’t like education or science: “The next step, if at all humanly possible […], it is to get our children out of the humanistic, brianwashing institution called 'public education'. Frankly, it is a mixture of insanity and irresponsibility to turn our children over to our adversaries and their curriculum in a God-less education system (i.e., a system that teaches history and science without God).”

Terry is the author of several books, including “Accessory To Murder: The Enemies, Allies, And Accomplices To The Death of Our Culture”, “Why Does A Nice Guy Like Me ... Keep Getting Thrown In Jail?: How theological escapism and cultural retreatism in the Church have led to America's demise”, and “The Sword: The Blessing Of Righteous Government And The Overthrow Of Tyrants”.

He has promised to testify against his enemies (Rightwingwatch, Jezebel, Huffington Post) on the Day of Judgment, mostly because he’s such a nice guy.

For something hilariously bizarre, look here.

Diagnosis: One of the most vile, and most batshit crazy people in the US – and pretty dangerous and influential to boot. Terry is not funny (as opposed to the impotent Phelps gang), however; he is just despicable.

#383: Ginger Taylor

Ginger Taylor is an ardent anti-vaccination activist and conspiracy theorist perhaps most famous for her attempts to blame criticism of the anti-vaccine movement on misogyny. The fact that science doesn’t support the vaccine-autism link is explained by “there seems to be a denial of the fact that scientific consensus has quite often been (and most assuredly still is in many places) wrong.” Yes, it is the Galileo gambit again – it doesn’t matter that Taylor has no evidence in favor of her cherished position (though she has some “other ways of knowing”, specifically “I am a mother, so I know what caused my child’s autism”). Furthermore, according to Taylor “science" is the new religion and their dogma cannot be questioned. Scientists are the priests, and those who diverge from the cannon are branded heretics.” She has also claimed that listening to science rather than her is “elitism”. In short, instead of actually engaging with the science, the data, or reality, she tries, feebly, to discredit the results by all other possible means.

Taylor has her blog at Adventure in Autism. There’s a decent takedown of her idiocy here. Her lack of self-awareness is rather stunning, even for a hardcore denialist.

After the utter discrediting of anti-vaxx hero Andy Wakefield, she was one of the people who tried to distance herself from Wakefield while simultaneously portraying him as the victim of a conspiracy, providing for instance blathering attacks on Brian Deer (who was a large extent responsible for having Wakefield exposed).

Diagnosis: A particularly dimwitted denialist, Taylor has apparently applied every single fallacy known to man, though she harbors a particular fondness for appeals to emotion. She seems to have some readers, however, and must be considered dangerous.

#382: Tom Tancredo

Tom Tancredo is a former Republican Congressman (Colorado). He ran for president in 2008, but didn’t make much of an impact. His main schtick, then as now, was to end all immigration (legal and illegal) to the US (including criticizing the Denver Public Library system for purchasing reading materials written in Spanish on the grounds that putting Spanish-speakers in a ‘linguistic ghetto’ would delay their integration into American society), and for receiving political contributions from the Federation for American Immigration Reform. He has also been linked to The League of the South. During his garbled opposition to the appointmen of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, he managed to claim that she is a racist, citing her Hispanic-American background as evidence. His defense of Robert Bork’s theocratic views is, if possible, even less coherent.

Tancredo is also a notable proponent of torture, and invoked, during the debates in the Republican primaries, Jack Bauer as a model of how to deal with terrorism suspects. He also advocated nuking Mecca in the event of more terrorist attacks against the US. He is a major teabagger, who currently represents the Constitution Party.

These features are arguably not sufficient to qualify him for an entry. So to make it clear to everyone that he is indeed a loon, Tancredo pointed out that “If his wife says Kenya is his homeland, why don't we just send him back?” Yes, he is a birther, and he does claim that Obama is a Muslim. Furthermore, in a 2007 debate among the ten candidates for the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination, Tancredo was one of three who raised their hands when asked if anyone did not believe in the theory of evolution. (The others were Brownback and Huckabee.) He expands on his views here (more here).

Tancredo is also the founder of Team America PAC, and a notable abortion opponent, agreeing that the U.S. Supreme Court should repeal the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, adding that it would be “the greatest day in this country's history.” On gay rights, his position is summed up by: “You have to remember that we are always just one kooky judge away from actually having homosexual marriage forced on all the rest of us [no, Tom, no one will force you to marry gay] […] Therefore, we need, we absolutely have to have, a constitutional amendment that defines marriage.”

A list of his most notable achievments can be found here.

Diagnosis: complete moron; dangerous.

#381: Orly Taitz

Orly Taitz is a dentist and real estate agent lawyer (paper mill diploma), and among the most prominent – and certainly most ardent, zealous, and ardently delusional – birthers (Joseph Farah is a fan). She attained national fame through TV coverage of her exceptionally wild-eyed and paranoid attempts to invalidate Obama’s presidency, including using fake (poorly forged) birth certificates allegedly placing his birth in Kenya, while claiming that she has been the victim of a liberal conspiracy whenever she is exposed. At the outset, some commentators actually thought she was extremely dishonest. It pretty soon became clear that she is a very hardcore cook. Timecube-wise.

She’s been to court several times representing a variety of loons, and received a 20,000 dollar fine for frivolous lawsuits during one particular case where she claimed that United States army personnel do not have to go to Iraq or Afghanistan because Obama isn’t really president (which is fractally wrong; this one, though, is epic; more here). The hysterical insanity of her cases, and the patience of the legal system with her, is well described here.

Of course, the smackdown added grist to her conspiracy mill. Taitz requested that the judge recuse himself “because he has equity ownership of certain securities (e.g. Microsoft and Comcast) which are aligned both politically and economically with a key Defendant in this case, namely the de facto President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, in such a direct and personal way that it could be said that this Judge has a financial stake in the outcome”. She also accused the judge of being part of the conspiracy to cover up Obama's citizenship, and attempted unsuccessfully to appeal her fine to the Supreme Court. She also wanted the judge tried for treason, and seriously considered to take the case to an international court and to file “a proper complaint with the Committee of the Judiciary with the U.S. House” (Taitz has also appealed to the UN for protection against the government).

Her plans include having Andrew Lloyd Webber contact here to turn her case representing Lieutenant Colonel Terrence Lakin into a musical. Lloyd Webber has thus far not engaged with the project.

Taitz’s view of reality also includes such things as “[i]f Obama is not legitimate, neither are his appointments, including his pick of Biden. We will need to have a new election ASAP, before these diabolical psychopaths completely destroy US economy, currency and unleash some bio engineered swine flu virus as an excuse for martial law and suspension of our constitutional freedoms”. Remember that this comes from a person who calls herself a “constitutional lawyer”. An excerpt from an illustrative interview is here.

In 2011 she attempted to run for California secretary of state, but was crushed in the primaries, explaining her defeat as a result of the Obama administration’s shadow campaigns against her since they view her as a threat. Not having learned her lesson the first time, she subsequently entered the race for the United States Senate instead. “I think I do have a chance specifically because I do speak Spanish and I speak Hebrew,” said Taits, apparently worrying less about what she uses the languages to say. Her first campaign ad is here, and it is absolutely magnificently. (The point she makes about having escaped from the bloodshed caused by Hitler and Stalin to ener the US should be understood in light of the fact that she is born in 1962.) She lost rather badly in the California Republican primaries this time around as well. Afterwards she teamed up with Sharron Angle to form the craziest tag-team ever and to combat voter fraud (after all Angle says voter fraud is the only reason she lost the Senate Race to Harry Reid in 2010).

In 2009 there was some brouhaha related to Taitz’s website defendourfreedoms.net. The website suffered some technical problems, which Taitz’s blamed on the Obama-connected hackers that were, supposedly, also behind ruining her first blog. The real site owner later discovered that the problems were due to a third-party data mining application Taitz had installed because, well, who knows. She had also installed the application on her first blog, and it was the cause of the trouble here as well. (Described in more detail here)

Lately Taitz seems to have toned down her legal tactics (not completely, though, and she recently lost a suit in which she tried to force Occidental College to release Obama’s undergrad transcripts and financial aid information, which is absolutely illegal) and entrusted those to zombie birther Joe Arpaio. Instead Taitz appear to be targeting representatives directly, and does indeed succeed in finding some serious lunacy. In November 2011 she threw a tantrum before the New Hampshire Ballot Law Commission when calling for the removal of President Obama from the state’s presidential ballot, and received staunch support from state representative Harry Accornero, who referenced the “overwhelming” evidence against Obama being a natural born citizen, and Susan DeLemus. After the hearing said representatives went (literally) violent, forcing the more sane members to actually having to run for safety.

As of December 2012 she seems to have found a client even crazier than herself, one Keith Russell Judd.

More on Orly Taitz here.

Diagnosis: Blathering moroniac. The Lloyd Webber thing sums her up pretty well.