Entry #062: Jack Cashill

Cashill is another one of Worldnetdaily’s columnists and resident conspiracy theorists. A brave journalist and author of several books (e.g. ”What is wrong with California”, a response to the famous ”What is wrong with Kansas”), never afraid to judiciously select which evidence he’ll focus on or for that matter lie through his teeth about. Cashill is reliably moving between the most ridiculous claims and examples of conspiracy mongering of the wingnuts on the far right. His coverage of the Richard Sternberg case is a telling example; this one also gives an excellent illustration of how the minds of creationist believers in the Grand Darwinian Conspiracy work. Cashill also famously reviewed Expelled, but I refuse to link to his review. It’s – predictably – hysterical, extremely sloppy, dishonest and incoherent; even the Kansas Board of Education has had to take Cashill to task for misrepresenting their views (in his ardently sympathetic defense of them). That says quite a lot. His staunch creationist credentials (and dishonesty) is documented here as well.

That he is a climate change denier is hardly a surprise. His linking of this to the ”Darwinist conspiracy” might contain some novelties; again, I refuse to link to the original. But of course this is expected (standard crank magnetism – all the creationist think tanks are also climate change deniers; it’s easy when you already believe that science is a liberal conspiracy).

But Cashill is actually most famous for series of essays concerning his theory that Barack Obama's autobiography ”Dreams From My Father” was ghostwritten by former Weather Underground leader Bill Ayers. Again, I’m providing no links.

This is rather priceless. Cashill comes out of the closet as an ... anti-birther - apparently he found himself a conspiracy theory even more arbitrary and insane than the standard birther ones - one according to which Obama comes out as a covert American. Hah, even Joseph Farah himself has admitted that the garbled insanity of Cashill may have contained some misinformation after Cashill procured solid evidence of his birther claims by very incompetent photoshopping.

Cashill's newest conspiracy is here.

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Diagnosis: Utterly unhinged wingnut, delusional and angry and mentally crippled by confirmation bias. His impact is uncertain, but he is, in fact, a modestly popular writer.

Entry #034: Pat Boone

Singer, actor and writer Pat Boone was hailed (by the conservatives) as the conservative alternative to Elvis Presley back in the 50s. Currently, he is a political commentator, Christian activist and preacher, and a columnist for the fringeloon magazine WorldnetDaily. He is an ardent young earth creationist and has had several stabs at disproving evolution, such as this one; he uses the tried and dishonest “it’s only a theory”, “there is no evidence”, “Darwin recanted on the deathbed” fallacious arguments from authority (his authorities are uniformly preachers and Boone praises their credentials as award-winning missionaries and staunch Biblical literalists) + some novel ones I have, for obvious reasons, never seen before. Another attempt is discussed here (updated here). Boone later wrote an editorial in the form of a fairy tale where a young Prince Charming was seduced by a dwarf, got AIDS, and then overdosed.

Apart from anti-evolution, his columns are filled with the standard delusional moron stuff – Christians are a persecuted (particularly by the ACLU) minority in the US (discussed here and here), defense of torture (discussed here - the ignorance and dishonesty is astounding, even for a wingnut) and similar stuff.

He got attention for the claim that Democrats and others who were against the president during the Iraq War could be questioned for their patriotism – under an interview on this, he expressed his outrage against the opponents of George W. Bush (namely the Dixie Chicks) that their criticisms of the president showed they did not "respect their elders". He also vigorously defended Mel Gibson after the actor was recorded making an antisemitic rant.

He is also a vocal opponent of gay rights, and won some fame for his tasteful comparison between equal rights activists and the terrorist attacks in Mumbai (Boone apparently thinks that the “homosexual jihadists” should be sent to concentration camps because they are anti-freedom, or something like that); discussed here and here.

He is also a birfer (i.e. Obama is not a natural born citizen, but a Kenya-born Muslim, and hence not eligible for being a president). More on Boone's birferism here.

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Diagnosis: Complete moron; hateful, dishonest, zealous bigot and loon. Impact uncertain, but he is probably read by a lot of people who are initially sympathetic to his views – whether he comes across as spurring them onwards into wingnuttery or helping them come to their senses by displaying purefied idiocy is unclear.