#1136: Martin Sheen

A.k.a. Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez;

We’ve sort of refused to give an entry to Charlie Sheen, since he doesn’t appear to be the right kind of crazy. But his father, Martin Sheen, is a different matter. Martin’s crazy seems to be far more … systematic, for lack of a better word. Martin Sheen has a long career as an activist, having allegedly been arrested some 66 times for protesting and acts of civil disobedience, and seems, indeed, to be rather unselective in the kinds of causes to which he will lend his voice. In particular, Sheen has come out as a troofer; indeed, he was supposed to feature in the movie September Morn (together with e.g. Woody Harrelson and Ed Asner), a fictionalized account of 9/11 written by Howard Cohen and directed by BJ Davis, but the project seems to have run into some problems (apart from the obvious ones). According to Martin, he started “asking questions” about the official story after having discussed the matter with his son Charlie. No, seriously.

It seems like he is also a fan of homeopathy.

Diagnosis: Well, it’s really just another celebrity being dense – but since many are more than willing to give such celebrities a microphone to rant incoherently (mental acuity was not the reason they became celebrities in the first place) about matters on which they have no expertise or insight, someone like Sheen may actually have some influence.

#1135: Donna Sheehan & Paul Reffell

Global Orgasm is apparently a semi-annual event and takes place everywhere in the world on December 22. It’s for everyone. Why should you participate? “To effect positive change in the energy field of the Earth through input of the largest possible instantaneous surge of human biological, mental and spiritual energy.” Well, as far as New Age mumbo-jumbo goes, I suppose Donna Sheehan and Paul Reffell, the people who came up with the idea, have an even more positive outlook than most. Their reasoning, however, seems to be that orgasms are fine things, therefore it must be able to change the world by interacting with its underlying metaphysical fabric.

“The intent is that the participants concentrate any thoughts during and after orgasm on peace. The combination of high-energy orgasmic energy combined with mindful intention may have a much greater effect than previous mass meditations and prayers.” At least it probably doesn’t have much less effect. “The goal is to add so much concentrated and high-energy positive input into the energy field of the Earth that it will reduce the current dangerous levels of aggression and violence throughout the world.” Yeah, it’s a nice goal, but since wishful thinking is the guiding inference rule, and the premises are incoherent rubbish … well, let’s just point out that violence still exist.

According to Sheehan and Reffell The Global Consciousness Project (also here) in Princeton, New Jersey, apparently runs [not anymore] a “network of Random Event Generators around the world which record changes in their randomness during global events. The results show that human consciousness can be measured to have a global effect on matter and energy during widely-watched events such as the collapse of the World Trade Center towers, large antiwar protests, natural catastrophes, acts of war and mass meditations. Concentrated consciousness has measurable effects.” They don’t link to the evidence, but “[o]ur minds influence Matter and Quantum Energy fields” – yes, it is quantum; it just had to be quantum – “so by concentrating our thoughts during and after The Big O on peace and partnership, the combination of high orgasmic energy combined with mindful intention for peace could reduce global levels of violence, hatred and fear,” which doesn’t even remotely follow even granting the ridiculous premise. But Sheehan and Reffell are utterly unable to distinguish such nebulous musings from evidence- and reason-based inferences, and will probably remain that way.

Diagnosis: At least one hopes they enjoy themselves. It would be so much sadder if they didn’t. 

#1134: Cindy Sheehan

There may be plenty of good things to say about Cindy Sheehan. As an antiwar activist (her son was killed by enemy action during the Iraq War) she has attracted national and international attention, especially for her 2005 extended antiwar protest at a makeshift camp outside Bush’s Texas ranch, and she has been a passionate critic of American foreign policy – actions and stances that have drawn the support of plenty of people we admire.

However, critical thinking is clearly not her strong suit. In 2007 Sheehan began expressing sympathy for the truther movement, and in 2010 she came out as a confirmed truther: “I think it [9-11] was an inside job, I just don’t know how far inside it went. […] Was it CIA? Was it whoever? Whoever, um, it had to be an inside job. There’s like no way they could have done that, just like the one on December 25th. There’s no way that guy could have done it without some kind of help, and we know he got help. Who was (crosstalk) that nice-dressed man that got him through that these people witnessed, got him through security?” Subsequently, she has appeared at several truther events with people like Dylan Avery, Jon Gold, Richard Gage and others, thereby amply undermining any efforts for good she may previously have been involved in – and indeed: The result of her rebranding has precisely been not to draw people to the truther cause, but instead to make people distance themselves from her previous causes.

And downwards it spirals. In the 2012 presidential election Sheehan ran as the vice-presidential candidate for Roseanne Barr’s Peace and Freedom Party. The same year she traveled to the Bohemian Grove to protest against their annual meeting together with Mark Dice and Alex Jones, who thinks the meetings are Satanic rituals. She has recently lent her voice to anti-GMO protests as well, but fortunately few seem to care anymore.

Diagnosis: A sad, sad tale.

#1133: G. Thomas Sharp

G. Thomas Sharp is a grand old man of creationism. That is, Sharp is hardly a central authority, but he has been in the game doing his small contributions to damage awfully long. Even back in the sixties Sharp, at that time already an experienced “science educator” and pastor in Alabama, started researching what he perceived as the roots of the staggering domestic problems in the lives of his church members and students, culminating – in 1985 – in his three-volume Science According to Moses. The books “revealed” that Darwinian evolutionism has lead to the downfall of the Bible (creation in particular) as the foundation of America’s worldview, thus giving apparent “scientific” sanction to the moral decline of society, and therefore promoting the need for “a return to our Biblical foundation (Genesis 1-11) in complete faith and practice”. Sharp formed the Creation Truth Foundation, Inc. in 1989 to do precisely that. As of 2009, at least, he was still touring with his sideshow through the Bible Belt, giving presentations such as “The Truth About Dinosaurs”, “A Thousand Years in a Day: The Mount St. Helens Catastrophe”, “Radiometric Dating” (actually, he seems to leave that to one Charles Jackson), and “Evolution: The Greatest Deception of All Time”. Here is a summary of his presentation on dinosaurs. The reviewer was not impressed.

Sharp’s main points seem to be that if death was in the world before humans (Adam) existed, then humans were not responsible for the Fall, and thus Christ’s sacrifice is meaningless. “Liberal social engineers” and “the uncircumcised philistines of Hollywood” (his words) deliberately use dinosaurs as candy to lead children away from Christ into the windowless van of secular humanism; and “never, ever take a scientist’s word, no matter how many degrees or studies he has, over the word of God.” Why, pray, don’t scientists pay proper attention to tour-de-force arguments like these?

Diagnosis: There is no point in bothering trying to refute delusional morons like Sharp, who won’t hesitate to argue in bad faith if it serves his overall point (Jesus). But at least I hope we can help civilization by exposing him, if only just a little. 

#1132: Sophia Shafquat

A.k.a. Sofia/Monica Smallstorm

Sofia Shafquat is another ridiculous Internet cult-celebrity of the Nancy Lieder type. She made her name for her movie “9/11 Mysteries Part 1: Demolition”, a truther pseudo-documentary intended to be the first installment in a series of three. Though it apparently looked convincing to many of those already committed to trutherism and uninterested in applying any kind of critical approach to claims purportedly supporting claims they are already committed to, Shafquat’s flick received some criticism when it was discovered that she had a edited the footage, erasing sounds and adding her own background noises, in particular explosions before and after the towers fell. Apparently she also got sued for copyright infringement by the guy who had taken the footage used in the movie. Shafquat subsequently disappeared from the web for a while in 2009.

With regard to the quality of Shafquat’s investigations, it is perhaps worth quoting her: “Right, people want me to be absolutely precise. Umm, I say that the demolition wave is moving faster than gravity itself. It is making the path for the demolition, which is falling at free fall speed. Virtual free fall speed. Again it is hard to determine how long did it take for the towers to fall visually, and I know there is seismic data that pegs it, you know, a little more accurately. Regardless, I tell people, these buildings fell in 10 seconds, they’re 110 stories. Now let’s just use our mouth to demonstrate this. If a pancake collapse can be described as ‘clunkity clunk’. How many times can you say that in 10 seconds? And if one floor is ‘clunkity clunk clunkity clunk’ you cannot say that 110 times in 10 seconds. So let’s even give it the benefit of the doubt, let’s just take off the ‘clunk’. Let’s just say ‘clunkity’. You can’t say that in 10 seconds, 110 times.” No, it’s not a parody. There were idiots nodding sagely in agreement with this kind of reasoning.

Around 2013 Shafquat reappeared, however; this time as an “expert” on chemtrails, as well as engaging in Sandy Hook conspiracies – her powerpoint presentation “Unraveling Sandy Hook in 2, 3, 4 and 5 Dimensions” is apparently on youtube. Not particularly surprising, really – even back in her truther days, she would market Holocaust denial material on her website.

Diagnosis: Worthy of comparison with legendary Internet kooks such as Nancy Lieder, Nancy Luft and Gene Ray himself. No, really: This is kook gold.