RationalWiki:To do list/archive2013

136

Last Ounce of Courage. A hilarious fundamentalist Christian/right-winger propaganda film in which the child of a dead war vet returns to his home town and finds that evil libruls are trying to ban Christmas. Who knew that the ACLU possessed either the will or the capability to get students expelled for keeping a Bible in their lockers or force a church not to display a cross! And did we mention the only non-white character in the entire movie is the evil librul ACLU lawyer?

78

Dendritic cells, a possible legitimate alternative to chemotherapy that currently has a lot of woo and quackery around it.

65

The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. "Christian organization proclaims the complementary differences between men and women who share equally in the image of God." Site

65

Gordon Klingenschmitt deserves an entry alongside his fundie colleagues.

64

Ted Patrick Self taught anti-cult 'deprogrammer' whose methods include kidnapping, and activities that border on torture.

77

The Association of Mature American Citizens a.k.a. AMAC: A wingnut version of the AARP, apparently created as response to the AARP being too liberal for supporting the funding of Medicare and Obamacare. The site itself runs several clogs, with the main one being about Obamacare. The fact that Glenn Beck promotes it is a telling sign.

81

American religions: Mormonism; Unitarian Universalism; the AME; the Seventh Day Adventists; Megachurches; Jesus Freaks; Jehovah's Witnesses. While we have articles on most of these things separately, I would love to read a decent history of the development of all of these uniquely American churches, something that ties together the dynamics -- historical, cultural, and theological, that make America such rich soil for people with new ideas about what God wants.

80

The so-called liberal paradox (think classical liberal), a paradox in political philosophy with some interesting implications for real-life socio-political problems.

142

Dave DaubenmireCreate draft Raging homophobic, wingnut, asshole extraordinaire who defends Fred Phelps on several occasions, and not only openly advocates bullying gays, but says not being allowed to bully them is a form of bullying against Christians. Also a true believer of CHEMTRAILS.

134

Peter RagnarCreate draft This crank has been around so long it's amazing we DON'T have an article on him. Chi, magnet woo, pseudoscience, and claims to be able to achieve age reversal through breathing techniques. No, really.

62

Larry Summers, who was freakishly close to becoming the next Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

122

Lindsey Graham. One of the loudest wingnut voices in the Senate on social issues, though he manages to have stopped clock moments on issues such as global warming and torture.

68

The wishy-washiness behind "free-market environmentalism" (ie. PERC, which openly criticized Bush on his green policies yet still gave the status quo answer.)

70

Washington Monument Syndrome: Because the only way Americans will pay for the things they like is to threaten cutting them.

78

The Department of Education, which, before Obamacare, was the GOP's Great Satan.

136

The Liz LibraryCreate draft ([1]), edited by "holistic lawyer" Liz Kates which denies confabulations, supports recovered memory therapy, states that women who support the concept of false memories and the sex industry deserve to be raped.

75

How do we not have an article on Nylonase? It's the greatest proof of evolution!

78

Sex-selective abortion.

113

Yellow fever, the phenomenon of reactionary white men preying on Asian women under a misguided belief that they're submissive and feminine, as versus western women they believe to be "infected by feminism". This is quite a prominent issue in feminist and social justice circles; Asian-American feminists really hate it.

70

The death of Savita Halappanavar, or "How the Catholic Church began to be irrelevant in the Republic of Ireland."

66

Considering our addiction to sci-fi, the Prime Directive (as a section of Star Trek or in a separate article). The principle of complete non-intervention in the internal affairs of less technologically-advanced civilizations could be prophetic in the years to come, and should be skeptically analyzed.

91

Progressive conservative - no, not a oxymoron, and actually still exist in some pockets outside the US. (Also, movement conservative.)

142

Occidental Dissent, Stuff Black People Don't LikeCreate draft, and the Vanguard News Network. As white supremacist sites, these are second pretty much only to Stormfront in terms of prominence, or at least far more popular than something like Jew Watch, so there's no excuse for having an article on that but not them.

129

Revelation RoadCreate draft - a two-part Christian post-Rapture film, in the vein of Left Behind.

66

Zahi Hawass, good fun because of his utter arrogance and corruption. Egyptian woo-merchants all seem to be very proud of their excellent relations with this villain.

88

The notion of dimensions, which has become a woo-magnet for people uneducated in physics.

61

Lewis Terman, notable for developing much of mainstream evolutionary psychology and the modern IQ test, and for concluding that women were disinclined to seek work in intellectual fields because they faced systematic discrimination. (Mexicans and blacks, on the other hand...)

81

Sex differences in humans: Is a specific gender genetically inclined to read/do maths better? Have better physical strength? Be more emotional or aggressive? etc.

84

Henry VIII, for creating an entire religious sect so he could marry six wives, and Edward VIII, who was one step to creating the most dangerous constitutional crisis of the modern era.

67

The Enabling Act - the most recognizable proof of the importance of an effective judiciary in democracy.

44

Searchlight, British anti-fascist magazine.

125

Laura EisenhowerCreate draft - see http://americanloons.blogspot.com/2013/07/644-laura-magdalene-eisenhower.html

61

Roger Pielke Jr., part of the Judith Curry group of denialist apologetics who think that taking action on global warming is "politicizing science."

74

We don't have a full debunking of El Rushbo's Annual Thanksgiving story? For shame. The free market always wins.

140

The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and SecretsCreate draft and/or Barbara G. Walker; Amazon.com link to the book. The Britannica of feminist woo.

61

The Euston Manifesto and Spiked, two unusual mutations of the UK left that swung to the right post-9/11 (Eustoners typically supporting the Iraq War against the Galloway types, Spiked a quasi-libertarian whinefest). Representatives of both typically write for The Telegraph, Standpoint and Spectator.

141

Rabbi Moshe AverickCreate draft should have his own page, just for all the sexist, bigoted, racist stuff he's spewed in his little column at The Algemeiner. [2]

63

The Burakumin, an oppressed minority group that, sadly, most people have never heard of. Also evidence against racial realism - they regularly test 15 IQ points below the Japanese mainstream, but are the same genetically.

67

David Suzuki, a zoologist and environmentalist. (Second time requested)

64

Symphony of Science since it stands quite hard for rationality and science

45

Ernest Becker. Here is his website. Author of Denial of Death.

65

Thilo Sarrazin, who believes that Jews are genetically superior than Arabs, and that the solution to integrating Muslims is to halt all immigration and cut off their state benefits. (Oh, he's also a popular eurosceptic German Social Democrat, because Germany.)

112

Geomancy, the art and "science" of predicting the future by tossing and then interpreting dirt. May be confused with Feng Shui, which is sometimes also called "Geomancy"

46

We have articles about Andrew Weil and Dr. Oz, so why not write one about Dean Ornish? [3] Orac

71

Sulforaphane, an experimental cancer drug (found in many vegetables) being touted as a cancer cure by CAM promoters. Naturalnews

47

Gottlob Frege could use a page. He may have been one of the founders of analytical philosophy, but he was also a raging Nazi.

68

The hilarious Project A119, or the "nuke the moon" plan, which still ushers conspiracy theories today.

42

Ingrid Rimland, former Nazi hunter and current Holocaust denier, as well as a pal of Ernst Zundel's.

73

Simon Wiesenthal, the Nazi hunter, and his Simon Wiesenthal Center.

131

William BengstonCreate draft, a sociologist who claims he can cure cancer by waving his hands, thus doing... something with energy. [4] [5] [6][7]

129

Dennis SewellCreate draft, who has drunken the Hitler and evolution/scientism kool-aid to the point that he believes that the British welfare state iseugenics in disguise. Seriously.

41

"Unfunded liabilities," a term misused by certain ideologues and think tanks to inflate the US debt burden multiple times than what is currently estimated. (So privatize pensions and Medicare now!)

47

We should have an article on holistic dentistry.

62

Manchukuo, Japanese puppet state in Manchuria, 1931-1945. P.S.: We've already got Vichy France.

44

The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, or how Japan "wanted" to "liberate" Asia during WW2.

112

Hideki Tojo, Japanese prime minister/dictator during World War II and notorious war criminal.

46

Gavin Menzies, who promotes the idea that the Chinese got to America before Colombus. Fu Sang or 1421 theory might be better titles.

40

Van Jones, if you still remember him.

41

This looks like an awfully fun website to add to our media section. (American Vision)

130

La Griffe du LionCreate draft, the pseudonym of a (pseudo)sociologists beloved by white nationalists, the "human biodiversity" crowd, and other assorted racist nutters. [8]

129

Vincent CheungCreate draft, yet another sociopath Calvinist with a god complex.

40

The faith healer João Teixeira de Faria, known to his followers as John of God, particularly now that Oprah did a special on him.

44

Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, a Romanian politician who founded the Iron Guard, an extremist far-right political movement.

82

The liberal arts/humanities; a stock pet peeve of right-wingers—but are they truly as useless as said right-wingers claim they are?

38

The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, an organisation with a journal and website (worldhealth.net). Worldhealth.net apparently has a group promoting orthomolecular medicine as a partner. Their forum seems to reference NaturalNews frequently and there's a thread by a doctor which bashes HFCS, GMO foods, and aspartame. Review on about.com

42

Quo Vadis?, Henryk Sienkiewicz's famous pro-Christianity novel.

89

Thor Heyerdahl, known for his Kon Tiki expedition and his theories of Polynesian migration.

46

We need an article on the emergency managers being used in Michigan. There's hardly a more authoritarian position in American government. They have no real oversight, and they can do whatever they want to the city, regardless of the will of the people or their elected officials. They're essentially mini-dictators installed to control townships.

99

Joyce Meyer; yet another televangelist who begs for money from her followers under the ostensible penalty of God's disfavor and spends it on private jets and Mercedes-Benzes.

73

Boiling frog — particularly the idea that introducing beliefs or political measures gradually is likely to meet less resistance than doing so abruptly.

40

Richard Swinburne, one of the more sophisticated apologists.

65

We need an article on Morris Berman.

66

Fathers' rights, a movement related with the MRAs but much much more mainstream.

46

The Robin Williams movie Patch Adams. While it doesn't directly push pseudoscience, it pushes an attitude and pseudoskepticism towards medical science indistinguishable from most alternative medicine promoters.

81

Chemical castration, increasingly considered as a crime policy.

66

We don't have an article on general Misanthropy yet? For shame...

40

Tim Ferriss, perennial slinger of high expectations of success for low effort in works such as The Four Hour Workweek and The Four Hour Body.

73

The taxonomic clusterfuck that is the Ediacaran biota. (Aliens and creationists, anyone?)

94

The argument used by racists that George Washington Carver stole his ideas from Edmund Ruffin should be debunked if possible.