#33: Alan Bonsell

Young earth creationist and former Dover School Board President. Bonsell was, together with the more famous Bill Buckingham, the strategist behind the Dover curriculum - which was later judged to violate the Establishment clause in the famous Dover trial. Bonsell was apparently the one who had read up on the subject before the curriculum was passed and wished evolution and creation to be taught “fifty-fifty” (initiating campaigns to convince concerned teachers). Bonsell is also a known fan of the reconstructivist work of David Barton (see the entry for David Barton in the Encyclopedia), having distributed Barton’s book “The Myth of Separation” to several board members.

One of the notable events during the Dover trial was when Bonsell initially testified that he did not know where the money had been raised to donate sixty copies of “Of Pandas and People” to the school's library. He admitted later that the money had been raised in William Buckingham's church, and directed through Bonsell's father so that it might be donated anonymously.

Diagnosis: Liar for Jesus; crackpot who is unable to recognize the difference between fact and opinion; despite his previous anti-scientific campaigns, he seems to be relatively neutralized by now.

#32: Christopher Bollyn

A.k.a. "The Truth Seeker"

As 9/11-troofers go, Christopher Bollyn is in at the deep end. A self-proclaimed “independent American investigative journalist”, Bollyn is for the most part a contributor to the despicable cesspool of lunacy whale.to, but many interesting articles can be found on his webpage. Among the gems are articles with enticing titles such as “The Israeli Role in the Plundering of Iceland”, “How Ehud Barak Pulled Off 9-11”, “The Goldman Scam & John Paulson's Links to 9-11”, “The Gang of Czech Jews around the Collapses of 9-11” and “The Jewish Secret Society That Controls the U.S. Media” (I cannot be bothered to check out his explanation of why the US is involved in Afghanistan, but it is surely rewarding).

I guess the reader gets the idea. 9-11 was the product of a Zionist conspiracy (in particular organized by the Rothschild family) – the Zionist conspiracy that controls the US government and media. They have also infiltrated the Senate, as shown by Bollyn’s razor-sharp and fearless investigations, e.g. “Arlen Specter - The Elder of Zion in the U.S. Senate”. Henry Kissinger is at the top of the conspiracy, and “still a key player in the crimocracy as seen by the conspicuous fact that he was sent by the new Obama administration to meet with the leadership of Russia, although the nominal Secretary of State was Hillary Clinton.” I guess you can’t argue with evidence like that.

A tidbit: “Christopher J. Petherick, a self-avowed Satanist, was the editor of American Free Press and the former Spotlight, publications of the Liberty Lobby of Washington, D.C. It makes no sense that a Satanist would be the chief editor of a newspaper that is purportedly written for patriotic Christian Americans, unless one understands that the Liberty Lobby is actually owned and controlled by a Zionist Jew named Mark Lane. The paper is a controlled opposition outlet that acts like flypaper to create a list of active patriots -- for the Jewish intelligence organization Lane works for.”

Who is Petherick? Well, he is the newspaper editor who fired Bollyn back in the day. Of course he must be a Zionist – why else would he try to shut up a honest and brave journalist like Bollyn? Apparently Petherick later organized an assault of Bollyn (using police officers who tasered him) to … shut him up? It's a little unclear. And apparently the incident is related to the real reason for the war in Afghanistan. So it goes.

Oh, and apparently the sinking of Estonia wasn’t an accident and there is depleted uranium everywhere. And Denmark is being set up by the American Zionist conspiracy to take the brunt of Muslim anger (cf. the Mohammed cartoons).

There is really no end to the conspiracies and paranoia here. For a “best of” selection, you can go here. Enjoy.

Diagnosis: Complete loon and master at interpreting the fact that anyone disagrees with him, for whatever reason, as evidence for the truth of his conspiracy theories. Specific impact uncertain, but his views are apparently relatively widespread and must be considered dangerous.

#31: Tim Bolen

a.k.a. Patrick Timothy Bolen (real name)

Bolen is a publicist for the late Hulda Clark, who for the purposes of our Encyclopedia is, in part, tried instead of her. Clark was a crackpot who claimed to have (and sold) “the cure for all disease”, in particular cancer which she said couldn’t exist if the patient had the right mindset and used her devices. Guess what Hulda Clark died of. A critical obituary can be found here, and also here.

(Clark’s healing devices, apparently cobbled together from discarded parts of Radio Shack, included the Syncrometer, the Zapper and Homeography; her medical advice included requiring that her people with fillings have them removed and people with root canals have those teeth removed as part of her "therapy." Clark was, in other words, an unintentionally repulsive human being).

Bolen, her attack poodle, desperately tried to explain her death as being due to something else, flunking all possible rules for critical thinking and understanding of science in the process. He is in general an ardent advocate of Clark’s “scientific research” (always skirting the awkward question of the whereabouts of all those people Clark supposedly cured of e.g. advanced AIDS).

Bolen is a self-proclaimed “health freedom fighter” and a tireless enemy of science and science-based medicine (a flaming conspiracy theorist), and purveyor of every crackpot alternative treatment that exists.

Covered here, and also here.

Diagnosis: Dishonest, sleazy and absolute loon; impact uncertain, but this guy is tireless.

This post should by the way also indict Hulda Clark’s son Geoffrey Clark, who administered her business and tirelessly promotes it after her demise, including setting up a defense fund to pay for expenses associated with defending her against "legal attacks."

The entry should also indict the Swiss scientologist David Amrein, Clark’s business associate and staunch defender (who has been legally banned from making false claims about her products for advertising purposes) – Amrein is an utter loon, but disqualified from an entry in the Encyclopedia by not being American.

The whole Clark-Bolen story is also well covered here.

#30: Mark Biltz

Biltz is a Biblical Astrologer and a pastor at El Shaddai Ministries in Bonney Lake, Washington. Biltz made the DVD-series "Studies in Our Hebrew Roots", claiming that the biblical plan of God on display in the physical heaven.

Claims that constellations (or point-to-point drawings between various stars) display a picture depicting the second coming of the Messiah (the names of many of the stars are also relevant, apparently).

Of course, since hardcore Christians denounce astrology, Biltz is adamant that what he does (looking at the hidden meaning of constellations to predict future events) is not astrology but astronomy. Discussed here.

Diagnosis: Unhinged loon whose beliefs correspond to reality with a remarkably low frequency. Impact is probably small.

Note: We originally entered him as "Blitz", and apologize for that. The name is Biltz - which means that the entry doesn't quite fit with the alphabetical order anymore.

#29: Mark Blaxill

Blaxill is not a scientist. Nor is he a doctor, though he plays one at SafeMinds. Blaxill is a former businessman turned spokesperson for the anti-vaccinationist movement (Vice President of SafeMinds). Fancies himself a self-made expert epidemiologist. In the grips of extreme confirmation bias (science doesn’t support his views, hence scientists are probably mislead by their own personal interests – having no clue as to how a controlled experiment is carried out).

Liar, crank and conspiracy theorist (Big Pharma is out to get us – Blaxill actually terms it the “autism holocaust”), as discussed here; also a professional shifter of goalposts (without necessarily being aware of it himself).

Among his most prominent techniques are faking statistics to show an explosion in autism the last thirty years, and looking at new studies to determine whether they are scientifically "solid" or not (meaning he determines whether they can be interpreted as agreeing with his lunacy or not).

Diagnosis: Delusional and belligerent crank; relatively influential and quite dangerous.

On an unrelated note, here is a hilarious game; test yourself!

#28: Don Bierle

President of Faithsearch International and another Liar for Jesus. Claims to be a “former skeptic” (the claim is kinda undermined by the fact that his MA was in New Testament Studies) who has become an evangelical, fundamentalist whackjob whose shtick argument is that since there are lots of copies of the New Testament around (written only a couple of hundred years apart and based off of each other), then it must be literally true. Author of several books on creationism and is an ardent campaigner for it, giving numerous talks and presentations. Accepts Behe’s and Dembski’s discredited arguments for ID (and the Bible) at face value and rejects evolution (which he certifiably does not understand, mixing it up with ‘everything must have occurred by chance’) through an argument from incredulity. Briefly discussed here.

Diagnosis: Dishonest (unintentionally?), pernicious godbotter; impact unclear, but he is probably a minor figure.

#27: Al Bielek

Al Bielek claims to have been involved in The Philadelphia Experiment as well as The Montauk Project. Bielek believes he was placed into another person's body back in time, and was age recessed as well as physically recessed. He currently gives lectures and is involved in numerous books, retelling his stories and explaining his involvement with both The Montauk Project and The Philadelphia Experiment. He traveled in time to ancient times (6452 B.C.) and met himself in the future during those experiments.

Interviewed here (whale.to’s interviewer, Preston Nichols, is very sympathetic – he will receive his own entry in due time).

Apparently the leader of the experiment was John von Neumann (who died many years before). Bielek’s explanation for that fact is:

“He was still alive up until 1989. He has run into a problem with the government as well as other problems, such as a personality split in 1977, when he resigned as director and became a consultant. The government told everyone he died in 1956. The government is still interacting with him.”

Read that quote a couple of times to get the full gist of it.

Another priceless quote:
“No one has picked up a tangible future beyond 2012 AD. There is a very abrupt wall there with nothing on the other side. Prophecies speak of earth changes around then. Curious, isn't it?”
Not really, no. Bielek’s views are relatively predictable on these matters.

Oh, and about the Philadelphia experiment - the time travel is conveniently covered up by the government, and was of course made possible through the use of alien technology.

His website is here (warning: the lunacy here is boundless).

Diagnosis: Stark, raving mad. Ûber-nut (though he might at least initially have been a fraud); probably relatively harmless.