Showing posts with label homophobia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homophobia. Show all posts

Friday, May 8, 2015

Entry #070: Jack Chick

70 Jack Chick

Among the more notable loons in our encyclopedia, this amiable fellow is a firmly entrenched acolyte of the abominable William Branham. Jack Chick is of course the guy behind Chick Publications. His tracts deal with various aspects of the Christian faith, including the principles of tolerance and love as well as the Catholics' satanist conspiracy to overthrow God's reign on earth (the Jesuits, in particular, created the Qu’ran, were responsible for the Holocaust, communism and the current conspiracy that controls American media). He doesn’t like evolution either. A representative example is here. The most popular tract is, apparently, this one. I also have a soft spot for this one.

Back in the day, Chick used to draw the tracts himself. Today, they’re mostly drawn by Fred Carter, who is considered covered for the purposes of this Encyclopedia.

Endless hours of indulgence and fascination can be spent rummaging through his backlog. Do visit it.

I am not going to go through in detail the omniprescent homoeroticism in the tracts. Check it out yourself. A longer biography of Chick can be found here. Chick's tract on global warming is discussed here.

The topics vary, but many of them are concerned with God-fearing murderers and rapists ending up in Paradise because they accept the Holy Spirit, whereas the good guys go to hell. Other common targets are rock music, witchcraft, Dungeons & Dragons, astrology, Ouija boards, Evolution, Jews, Muslims,Teenagers, Science (including gravity, which Chick apparently thinks is an atheist myth), the Easter Bunny, North Koreans, the Tooth Fairy, Santa (the message is a little muddled), the Washington Monument, Native Americans, Freemasons, the UN and Satanic books (Tolkien and C.S. Lewis) - among other things. This guy’s got a whole lot of hate and fear to share. There is a documentary available as well.

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Diagnosis: Possibly the most deranged loon in the Western hemisphere. His tracts are widely read, but probably not by the intended audience. Life would have been much duller without people like Jack Chick.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Entry #040: Caleb Lee Brundidge

40 Caleb Lee Brundidge

Caleb Lee Brundidge is a self-professed former gay man who conducts sessions to “heal homosexuality”, and an associate of the slightly weird ex-gay guru Richard Cohen. He is also involved in the gay treatment organization Exodus (also here).

In fact, he is also involved in the ministry Extreme Prophetic (lead by one Patricia King), which even among the most extreme fanatics is considered “fringe”. According to their website:

“Raising the dead has always been a mandate of the church. Jesus commissioned us to go in His name and preach the good news of the Kingdom. He then went on to explain, that includes healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead. Our evangelism teams, led by Caleb Brundidge and Melissa Fisher recently grabbed hold of this and went out to practice raising the dead.”

I guess evidence that curing homosexuality tends to fail and is morally problematic would not necessarily make much of an impact on Brundidge’s brain.

His most egregious crime against humanity must presumably be his involvement with monster Scott Lively in the events leading up to the Ugandan anti-homosexuality bill. He claimed that he felt duped, but there is little doubt that the group was using rhetoric implying that criminalizing homosexuality would be exactly what they want (though given Brundidge tenuous hold on reality his grasp of cause and effect may be relatively poor as well).

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Diagnosis: That this guy has any influence whatsoever is quite simply appalling. He’s your standard high-ranking cult member with virtually no connection to reality whatsoever. Completely mad.

Entry #034: Pat Boone

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.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Entry #013: Matt Barber

Our lucky 13th loon is Matt Barber. Barber is a columnist at Worldnetdaily (Where do they find these people, seriously?). Also policy director for cultural issues at DC-based Concerned Women for America (an anti-gay organization), and spokesman for Liberty Legal Alliance. Very, very concerned about gay people, convinced gay marriage is unconstitutional and that there is a gay conspiracy out there (and Obama is in on the conspiracy because the Supreme Court didn’t quite agree about the unconstitutionality (yes, that’s the reasoning)). Barber has absolutely no insight into how the legal system works, which does not prevent him from commenting on it with brazen confirmation bias, fact-twisting and outright lies. Argues for taking children away from gay parents. Like so many of his ilk, Barber is also a moral relativist when it suits his purposes. Also has a serious persecution complex and is worried about gay jihadists.



A (typical) quote in advance of the 2008 election: ”If Bill Clinton was the first black president, Barack Obama, if elected, will be the first "gay" president. No, I don't mean he'll personally decorate the West Wing, open a bathhouse in the Rose Garden or take up with Barney Frank. I mean he'll be the most radically pro-homosexual, anti-family president in history. He's very quietly pledged as much to the homosexual "Human Rights Campaign" and other fawning members of his homo-fascist fan club” (note the interesting characterization of Obama voters in the last sentence).

Trivia: try to find the logical structure of the argument presented here.

Oh, and just to emphasize: even if this is an old post, we haven't forgotten about Barber. He is as repugnantly insane as ever. You can see Peter LaBarbera and Matt Barber discuss the New Gay World Order here. And here's Barber denying that he is a Dominionist - he just want fundamentalist Christians in all positions of power and the Bible to replace the Constitution (though he doesn't really recognize the distinction between the Bible and the Constitution).

Ok, Here we go again. And again.

Hey ho ... looks like Barber is in a predicament. At least he knows how to run with a slippery slope. This one sounds like a poor comedy scene, and would have been rather amusing as such. There really, truly is no limit. Breathtaking.

Here's Barber being a total loon and total asshole on the Sandra Fluke matter. And if you want to see Barber going batshit insane due to his fuming, directionless hatred of the SPLC ...

His most recent excursion into making shit up and passing it off as something resembling truth is ripped to shreds here. Would you believe it, but Barber is actually caught lying!

Here's Barber and Staver claiming that failing to overturn Obamacare is judicial activism through omission. You cannot make this shit up.

Every day Barber cranks up the crazy just a little bit. We cannot deal with every piece of delusional insanity, but I suppose we have a duty to check in every now and then. This is where he's at May 2, 2012. Ordinary sane people may not easily conceive of a way to top this one, but I am sure that Barber will continue to impress. More here. And yes folks, this is a guy who considers himself a fighter for morality and decency. At least the world becomes much easier to deal with when you have only one single enemy.

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Diagnosis: Moron; paranoid lunatic with a severe persecution complex; probably little impact beyond the group who already agrees with what he says (i.e. no power to persuade anyone).

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Entry #009: Michelle Bachmann

Coming in at #9 we have one of my very favorite loons, the lovely Michele Bachmann. Bachmann is the United States Representative of Minnesota's 6th congressional district and a member of the Republican Party.



Judging by a number of trustworthy sources and good evidence (mostly the words that come out of her mouth), she may be the single stupidest person alive (perhaps in competition with Steve King, R-Iowa). Staunch supporter of the teabagging party (including all of their contradictory goals, apparently). Good mental compartmentalizer, for she is apparently completely unaffected by (or aware of) cognitive dissonance. Well, I don't think I can be bothered to update this one anywhere near continuously. This, for instance, is just far too typical. Following is a tasty selection of her wide variety of loony times.

A quickly assembled but unrepresentative sample of the stuff that falls out of her mouth
On CO2 emissions.
On net neutrality.
Discussion of her view on the swine flu (and the Democrats’ role in it).
One more informative source of Bachmann quotes.
An update on moronic crap falling out of Bachmann's mouth can be found here
This one is pretty awesome.
Anyone up for more falsehoods from Bachmann?
Her husband isn't entirely well-hinged either, it seems.
This one is also rather appalling. And here she claims that Terri Schiavo was healthy.
At last she's also claimed that hurricane Irene was God's warning to America.
• And just to fill out the picture, she's finally accepted anti-vaxx rhetoric as well, falling for the simplest, most easily refutable talking points from the most insane conspiracy theory-laden antivaxx groups.
Given the recent noise around Bachmann and HPV, this one deserves a link.
This one is pretty good.
• Even though she’s obviously lost steam it’s kinda fun to keep track of her campaign. Here’s her claim that the US should follow China and drop the welfare state to boost the economy (the bizarreness of which is rather astounding). Indeed, she’s been making several, uh, interesting foreign policy suggestions lately. There’s a good Bachmann resource here.
Oh, Michele
• And it never stops, even though you thought the last one was unbeatable.
Here's the latest Bachmann endorsement of creationist and all the creationist talking points.
Here's an illuminating interview with Bachmann on Biblical worldviews, public schools and a general lack of touch with anything resembling reality.
And Bachmann explaining how she wishes to reform the courts to conform to her Biblical view of law. Charming.

Edit: A friend of mine has now provided us with a very detailed profile on Bachmann and what has created her thinking. Thanks!

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Diagnosis: Complete moron – a living embodiment of Dunning-Kruger. Obviously in possession of power and influence, and probably a large fan group as well; in other words very dangerous.

Entry #006: Steven Anderson & Zsuzsanna Anderson

Our sixth loon, Steven Anderson, is a rather frightening one.



An Arizona-based pastor at Faithful Word Baptist Church, Anderson is famous for sermons where he fervently prays (and asks his congregation to pray) for the death and eternal torment of people who disagree with him (mostly President Obama, democrats and gays), including urging his congregation to murder his enemies (i.e. gays and liberals). Strong advocate of Old Testament morality (“God didn’t change his mind”) but oblivious to the cognitive dissonance it brings with it. No qualms about lying about his opponents. Convinced that gays are currently bringing an end to America (and that liberals are really disguised gays – Anderson has several ad hominem arguments of the kind ‘x says p; x is a liberal; hence x is gay, hence p is false, a lie and part of a scheme to bring down America’).

Discussed here, for instance. And here.

After being out of the limelight for a year or so, Anderson seems to have decided to increase the volume.

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Diagnosis: Deranged, vile and very possibly clinically insane. Fred Phelps wannabe. Very dangerous to the extent that some of his (presumably relatively small) congregation might actually do what he tells them to do.
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Here we have an interesting and entertaining addition to my reproduction of the Encyclopedia of American Loons: the wife of Steven Anderson, who goes by the lovely name of Zsuzsanna. Here we have Anita Dalton of I Read Odd Books describe her:


She's one of the most vicious, nasty, mean, arrogant, lying pieces of shit one could ever hope to be the partner of the Pissing Preacher (PP) (explanation for this name here). It's like she was sent from Central Casting. She could not be a better partner to our Steven.
Over on Free Jinger, some think she is abused and should be pitied but I say dear ZsuZsu is Anderson's perfect helpmeet because her hate is just too heartfelt. She's raising her six, soon to be seven, children, to be virulent and ignorant homophobes and conspiracy theorists. And hey, if she births an army, she will never get breast cancer like all us childless lesbian atheists! She rejects all science except that which proves her spurious ideas - convenient!

Here's her blog. Literally every entry has some lovely bit of heinous ignorance, but here are some examples of the well of poisonous hate to be found in this stinking example of fine Christian womanhood:
• Here ZsuZsu says she disregards all science that is contrary to the Bible (she homeschools her kids, hahahahaha), every male OBGYN is a pervert, and she's psychologically torturing her neuro-atypical son, who has dyslexia except charming ZsuZsu says he's "artistic" which means he's thisclose to gay (in other entries she has said she would abandon and disown any child of hers who was homosexual). Don't miss the comments, where she is sure to point out her midwife IS NOT A LESBIAN!

Here she chimes in on the extended breastfeeding issue, which is pure comedy gold coming from a woman having a baybee a year for Jesus and thinks the Bible has the answer for her every nutritional issue. A highlight: "Mammals are animals. Humans are - well, humans. NOT animals." SOTDT is gonna equip her kids well for life, no?
It's hard to find links when I just read her for fun because she is evil incarnate covered in baby barf, but some of her greatest hits include cursing down a couple down on their luck who came to their church asking for help because Jesus has no use for the poor - oops! ZsuZsu has no use for the poor and thinks that charity weakens people. Her views on welfare recipients are beyond hate speech. She believes that all church nurseries are run by pedophiles so any church that has a separate place for young children during services is probably raping children - found a link for that one. She encourages her children to demean other kids who attend school and have had vaccinations and her children are literally never out of her sight, which means they have zero friends because ZsuZsu hates all children but her own and would never permit other children in her house.

Her suspicion of modern medicine meant that one of her sons who suffers from extreme asthma was near death before she finally got him some proper care and he ended up in the hospital for days. She believes the government is out to get her and everyone else. Her children wear "9-11 was an inside job" shirts and have a poster on their walls that says the same. Though impoverished in every sense of the word, the family took a vacation this year to visit "Dr." Kent Hovind in prison. Hovind is a Christian martyr imprisoned for tax evasion and smurfing so no worries that the Andersons were taking their kids to see a rapist or a common liar and thief. (Editor's Note: We will be visiting the wondrous lunacy of Mr Hovind later on in our Loon Retrospective.)

Also the pictures on her site will warm your heart as the vomit surges forth. Her kids are off-limits to me because they did not choose that life but everything else... The PP in his underpants at the Thanksgiving table was a particular hit with those of us who just don't feel that we see the soft side of vicious hatemongers who want Obama dead.

Seriously, the next time you get the flu and can feel no sicker than you already are, read ZsuZsu's blog. She's the most charmless, jealous, wicked, stupid, self-impressed hate-mongering mommy blogger on the planet.

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Diagnosis: Just like her husband, she's deranged, vile and very possibly clinically insane - and a PERFECT MATCH for her Phelps-wannabe hubby. And despite her blogging, her influence is probably even less than her husband's, due to the subordinate role she would have in a Christian patriarchal community.