RationalWiki:To do list/archive2013

From RationalWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
upneutraldown
127Last Ounce of Courage.Wikipedia 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?
upneutraldown
78Dendritic cells,Wikipedia a possible legitimate alternative to chemotherapy that currently has a lot of woo and quackery around it.
upneutraldown
65The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.Wikipedia "Christian organization proclaims the complementary differences between men and women who share equally in the image of God." Site
upneutraldown
65Gordon KlingenschmittWikipedia deserves an entry alongside his fundie colleagues.
upneutraldown
64Ted PatrickWikipedia Self taught anti-cult 'deprogrammer' whose methods include kidnapping, and activities that border on torture.
upneutraldown
76The Association of Mature American Citizens a.k.a. AMACWikipedia: 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.
upneutraldown
81American religionsWikipedia: 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.
upneutraldown
80The so-called liberal paradoxWikipedia (think classical liberal), a paradox in political philosophy with some interesting implications for real-life socio-political problems.
upneutraldown
133Dave 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.
upneutraldown
125Peter 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.
upneutraldown
62Larry Summers,Wikipedia who was freakishly close to becoming the next Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
upneutraldown
113Lindsey Graham.Wikipedia 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.
upneutraldown
68The wishy-washiness behind "free-market environmentalismWikipedia" (ie. PERC, which openly criticized Bush on his green policies yet still gave the status quo answer.)
upneutraldown
70Washington Monument SyndromeWikipedia: Because the only way Americans will pay for the things they like is to threaten cutting them.
upneutraldown
78The Department of Education,Wikipedia which, before Obamacare, was the GOP's Great Satan.
upneutraldown
127The 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.
upneutraldown
75How do we not have an article on NylonaseWikipedia? It's the greatest proof of evolution!
upneutraldown
78Sex-selective abortion.Wikipedia
upneutraldown
103Yellow fever,Wikipedia 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.
upneutraldown
70The death of Savita Halappanavar,Wikipedia or "How the Catholic Church began to be irrelevant in the Republic of Ireland."
upneutraldown
66Considering our addiction to sci-fi, the Prime DirectiveWikipedia (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.
upneutraldown
91Progressive conservativeWikipedia - no, not a oxymoron, and actually still exist in some pockets outside the US. (Also, movement conservative.Wikipedia)
upneutraldown
133Occidental Dissent, Stuff Black People Don't LikeCreate draft, and the Vanguard News Network.Wikipedia 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.
upneutraldown
120Revelation RoadCreate draft - a two-part Christian post-Rapture film, in the vein of Left Behind.
upneutraldown
66Zahi Hawass,Wikipedia 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.
upneutraldown
88The notion of dimensions,Wikipedia which has become a woo-magnet for people uneducated in physics.
upneutraldown
61Lewis Terman,Wikipedia 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...)
upneutraldown
81Sex differences in humansWikipedia: Is a specific gender genetically inclined to read/do maths better? Have better physical strength? Be more emotional or aggressive? etc.
upneutraldown
84Henry VIII,Wikipedia 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.
upneutraldown
67The Enabling ActWikipedia - the most recognizable proof of the importance of an effective judiciary in democracy.
upneutraldown
44Searchlight,Wikipedia British anti-fascist magazine.
upneutraldown
116Laura EisenhowerCreate draft - see http://americanloons.blogspot.com/2013/07/644-laura-magdalene-eisenhower.html
upneutraldown
61Roger Pielke Jr.,Wikipedia part of the Judith Curry group of denialist apologetics who think that taking action on global warming is "politicizing science."
upneutraldown
74We don't have a full debunking of El Rushbo's Annual Thanksgiving story? For shame. The free market always wins.
upneutraldown
131The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and SecretsCreate draft and/or Barbara G. Walker;Wikipedia Amazon.com link to the book. The Britannica of feminist woo.
upneutraldown
61The Euston ManifestoWikipedia and Spiked,Wikipedia 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.
upneutraldown
132Rabbi 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]
upneutraldown
145Transhumanist theoristsCreate draft, a catch-all of all the more popular nutters. (Especially Ronald Bailey, a Reasonoid who doesn't really understand liberal theory.)
upneutraldown
63The Burakumin,Wikipedia 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.
upneutraldown
67David Suzuki,Wikipedia a zoologist and environmentalist. (Second time requested)
upneutraldown
64Symphony of ScienceWikipedia since it stands quite hard for rationality and science
upneutraldown
45Ernest Becker.Wikipedia Here is his website. Author of Denial of Death.
upneutraldown
65Thilo Sarrazin,Wikipedia 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.)
upneutraldown
104Geomancy,Wikipedia 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"
upneutraldown
46We have articles about Andrew Weil and Dr. Oz, so why not write one about Dean OrnishWikipedia? [3] Orac
upneutraldown
71Sulforaphane,Wikipedia an experimental cancer drug (found in many vegetables) being touted as a cancer cure by CAM promoters. Naturalnews
upneutraldown
47Gottlob FregeWikipedia could use a page. He may have been one of the founders of analytical philosophy, but he was also a raging Nazi.
upneutraldown
68The hilarious Project A119,Wikipedia or the "nuke the moon"Wikipedia plan, which still ushers conspiracy theories today.
upneutraldown
42Ingrid Rimland,Wikipedia former Nazi hunter and current Holocaust denier, as well as a pal of Ernst Zundel's.
upneutraldown
73Simon Wiesenthal,Wikipedia the Nazi hunter, and his Simon Wiesenthal CenterWikipedia.
upneutraldown
122William BengstonCreate draft, a sociologist who claims he can cure cancer by waving his hands, thus doing... something with energy. [4] [5] [6][7]
upneutraldown
119Dennis 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.
upneutraldown
41"Unfunded liabilities,"Wikipedia 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!)
upneutraldown
47We should have an article on holistic dentistry.Wikipedia
upneutraldown
62Manchukuo,Wikipedia Japanese puppet state in Manchuria, 1931-1945. P.S.: We've already got Vichy France.
upneutraldown
44The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere,Wikipedia or how Japan "wanted" to "liberate" Asia during WW2.
upneutraldown
103Hideki Tojo,Wikipedia Japanese prime minister/dictator during World War II and notorious war criminal.
upneutraldown
146The October Surprise conspiracy theory,Wikipedia or how Ronald Reagan supposedly won the presidency in 1980.
upneutraldown
46Gavin Menzies,Wikipedia who promotes the idea that the Chinese got to America before Colombus. Fu SangWikipedia or 1421 theory might be better titles.
upneutraldown
40Van Jones,Wikipedia if you still remember him.
upneutraldown
41This looks like an awfully fun website to add to our media section. (American VisionWikipedia)
upneutraldown
121La Griffe du LionCreate draft, the pseudonym of a (pseudo)sociologists beloved by white nationalists, the "human biodiversity" crowd, and other assorted racist nutters. [8]
upneutraldown
120Vincent CheungCreate draft, yet another sociopath Calvinist with a god complex.
upneutraldown
40The faith healer João Teixeira de Faria, known to his followers as John of God,Wikipedia particularly now that Oprah did a special on him.
upneutraldown
44Corneliu Zelea Codreanu,Wikipedia a Romanian politician who founded the Iron Guard, an extremist far-right political movement.
upneutraldown
142There's No TomorrowCreate draft, a 30-minute animation on peak oil. Add legitimate criticism of infinite growth forever and some environmentalism with fair amounts of poorly-masked Rotschild conspiracy and survivalism (especially towards the end). Their site, with the video.
upneutraldown
82The liberal artsWikipedia/humanities;Wikipedia a stock pet peeve of right-wingers—but are they truly as useless as said right-wingers claim they are?
upneutraldown
38The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine,Wikipedia 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
upneutraldown
42Quo Vadis?,Wikipedia Henryk Sienkiewicz's famous pro-Christianity novel.
upneutraldown
74Thor Heyerdahl,Wikipedia known for his Kon TikiWikipedia expedition and his theories of Polynesian migration.
upneutraldown
46We need an article on the emergency managersWikipedia 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.
upneutraldown
97Joyce Meyer;Wikipedia 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.
upneutraldown
73Boiling frogWikipedia — particularly the idea that introducing beliefs or political measures gradually is likely to meet less resistance than doing so abruptly.
upneutraldown
40Richard Swinburne,Wikipedia one of the more sophisticated apologists.
upneutraldown
65We need an article on Morris Berman.Wikipedia
upneutraldown
66Fathers' rights,Wikipedia a movement related with the MRAs but much much more mainstream.
upneutraldown
46The Robin Williams movie Patch Adams.Wikipedia While it doesn't directly push pseudoscience, it pushes an attitude and pseudoskepticism towards medical science indistinguishable from most alternative medicine promoters.
upneutraldown
81Chemical castration,Wikipedia increasingly considered as a crime policy.
upneutraldown
66We don't have an article on general MisanthropyWikipedia yet? For shame...
upneutraldown
40Tim Ferriss,Wikipedia perennial slinger of high expectations of success for low effort in works such as The Four Hour Workweek and The Four Hour Body.
upneutraldown
149Hurricane Sandy denialismCreate draft. Yes, this is a real thing, I kid you not. Hell, we have an articlededicated JUST to the hurricane. You know, the cocktail of conspiracy theories, global warming denialism, and just general Congressional vileness.
upneutraldown
73The taxonomic clusterfuck that is the Ediacaran biota.Wikipedia (Aliens and creationists, anyone?)
upneutraldown
94The argument used by racists that George Washington CarverWikipedia stole his ideas from Edmund RuffinWikipedia should be debunked if possible.