Monckton goes birther - demonstrates crank magnetism

Via Ed I see that Christopher Monckton is expanding his crankery from denying global warming, claiming to be and MP despite cease and desist letters from parliament asking him to stop, curing HIV, the flu, MS and the common cold to now engaging in Birtherism. It's pathetic when you've been pre-debunked by snopes, but there's no stopping a crank like Monckton.

This reminds me of all the fuss last month over Lewandowsky's study that basically demonstrated crank magnetism, that is, the tendency of those who believe in one kind of conspiratorial nonsense to believe all sorts of other conspiratorial nonsense if it fits with their ideological worldview. One of the major criticisms of his results was the idea that it was scammed by people trying to make global warming denialists look bad, because there were too many respondents who believed in all the conspiracies. Lewandowsky responded that even removing the "true nutters" did not affect his analysis, but I disagree with the move, and as he notes in the post, Christopher Monckton is an example of why such responses are likely real. This guy is convinced he's an expert on global warming (and that it doesn't exist), that he's cured HIV, that he's a member of Parliament (despite a cease-and-desist letter from Parliament), and now that Obama is Kenyan. Why anyone should have been surprised by Lewandowsky's results is beyond me.

More like this

Many of the climate change denialist sites have been up in arms by comparisons of climate change denial to holocaust denial. In particular Marc Morano at climate depot has had multiple articles attacking and expressing hysterical outrage at these comparisons. We know they don't like the comparison…
And it may even be more when one considers that there is likely non-overlap between many of these conspiracies. It really is unfortunate that their isn't more social pushback against those that express conspiratorial views. Given both the historical and modern tendency of some conspiracy theories…
Via Ed I see that Christopher Monckton, the fake expert in climate change who has been repeatedly told by Parliament to stop calling himself an Member of the House of Lords,, claims he's the inventor of a magical disease cure of HIV, MS, flu and the common cold, and recently a birther, has now…
Our recent discussions of HIV/AIDS denial and in particular Seth Kalichman's book "Denying AIDS" has got me thinking more about the psychology of those who are susceptible to pseudoscientific belief. It's an interesting topic, and Kalichman studies it briefly in his book mentioning the "suspicious…

Obviously, Lewandowsky is in on the conspiracy.

I told Monckton that he was not supposed to talk about fairies spreading their carbon dust to heat up the earth. I knew Al Gore believed it, but I did not realize that this pagan religion would spread so fast and have so many devoted followers. However, you have the freedom of religion to believe in your carbon fairies, so I guess I cannot complain too much. At least until the UN passes martial law and executes us unbeleievers. That could happen. There are extremists out there who will slaughter millions to "save the environment". It is those enviroterrorists we have to keep our crosshairs and night vision / thermal vision eyes on. America cannot afford to become as insane and mentally defective as the UN and Europe has become.

By Fred Hidgens (not verified) on 02 Oct 2012 #permalink

aww. Poor baby. Someone mentioned the sin of worshipping carbon fairies and some soviet censor removes the post. Too bad there's not a real man on any of these blogs who can handle criticism without censoring posts and sitting in the corner with their lips poked out.

Mark, you really should grow up and get a pair. You handle criticism like a 1st grader. Too bad you don't have someone you can go tattletale about me with. I bet you were real popular in first grade.

Mark: ' Mrs Mitchell, cain said something mean to me. WAAAH!"

I bet you were always crying about something.

Looks like little has changed. "Hey, you are talking about my belief in global warming. I gonna tell on you!".

By Fred Hidgens (not verified) on 02 Oct 2012 #permalink

I didnt censor anything. Chill out, it's a moderation filter that you must have set off. Trust me, if I ever needed to convince anybody how crazy conspiracy theorists are all I need to do is have you keep talking.

Snopes is not exactly the best example of accuracy. On the issue of weher the toxic oil sludge residue known as aspartame causes cancer and other ill effects, Snopes says "false". Shows you how much snopes can be trusted. Aspartame is a deadly neurotoxin. In the correct amounts it can be lethal. So, technically if you drank several diet cokes a day regulalry you probably will develop cancer. This deadly petrolum chemical is everywhere. Why use oil sludge as a sweetener when Stevia leaf makes a better sweetener than sugar plus has metabolic perks to boot? I guess that would just be too natural for the FDA and big pharma to handle. What? With less people getting cancer how would Big Pharma make bigger profits? Sometimes I wonder if these companies and father government agencies arenn't passing profits and perks out to each other while killing us all.

Now they are anting to gentically modify camels. I bet the taliban won't like that any. Monsanto better be careful Jihad is an ugly thin to live with. Then again, jihad against Monsanto might be a good thing.

Snopes goes on to say that aluminum in deoodorants do not cause cancer. Again snopes is wrong.

Snopes is wrong about microwave popcorn. Snopes says that microwave popcorn artifical butter flavors DO NOT cause lung problems. There is a man suing just for that as we speak and many more alwsuits to come. Snopes is wrong again.

Other true things that snopes says is false:

Nasa discovered a missing day.

Scientists drilling in siberia punch a hole into hell. Well, actually I doubt it was hell, but they did punch a hole very deep into an underground system of cities or something. Lots of screaming, chaos, etc down there. So far, no scientiss who claims to debunk it has the balls to go down there and see what is really there. If they say it is false, we should send them down there to verify the falsehood then.

Alabama redefined Pi to be just 3 ccording to Biblical measurements. Well, it wasn't a state mandated official recognition, but some in the legislature did want to simplify it based on Biblical mesurements.

The acids in coca cola make it harful to drink. Actually the acids does lead to GERDS after a while and it does the stomach no good at all, not to mention enamel of teeth. Snopes is wrong again.

I do not have the time to go through snopes correcting their many mistakes, but these xamples should give you a clue that snopes is not entirely accurate. Besides, they still say "holiday tree" and "holiday lights" without ever referring to which holiday the tree and lights are for. They part of the war on Christmas it seems. maybe not, but still seems a little liberal biased to me.

By Fred Hidgens (not verified) on 02 Oct 2012 #permalink

mmmh, that's some good crazy.

Isn't Stevia Leaf a deadly neuro-toxin, too?

I must say, I thought your first post was semi-amusing satire.
Your subsequent posts have changed my opinion, however...Cuck-oo! Cuck-oo! Cuck-oo!

Actually, I changed my mind again - I re-read your 3rd post and it's definitely satire. Quite funny, too.

Russians punching holes into hell? War on Christmas? A missing day? Lollolol!

By Vince Whirlwind (not verified) on 03 Oct 2012 #permalink

Alabama redefined Pi to be just 3 ccording to Biblical measurements. Well, it wasn’t a state mandated official recognition, but some in the legislature did want to simplify it based on Biblical mesurements.

No, that did not happen. You can't even get your urban legends straight. It is no wonder the rest of your comment is fact free (and a little conspiracy-foolish to boot, what with the "war on Christmas" comment and "liberal biased" slam).

Mr. Hoofnagle, - You should not accuse anyone of "lying" without first verifying the facts with him. I am a member of the Lords, without the right to sit or vote, and my passport duly records me as "The Right Honourable Christopher Walter, Third Viscount Monckton of Brenchley". I also have an Opinion from a leading barrister specializing in peerage law, to whom I asked the question "Am I or am I not a member of the House of Lords?" His 11-page Opinion, reviewing 1000 years of peerage history and precedent, concludes that I am a member, albeit without the right to sit or vote, and that I am fully entitled to say so. The House of Lords, to which the Opinion was sent, has been unable to refute it.

As to the pharmaceutical research that I have been conducting with the assistance of a leading Professor with a 20-year history of publication in the premier medico-scientific journals, this has now aroused so much interest that, at a recent international scientific conference on planetary emergencies, I was separately approached by the dean of research at a US university who kindly offered me facilities to conduct clinical trials and by a venture capitalist offering to pay for the trials. I have not made the claims you suggest, though the BBC, in a hate-speech documentary about me, edited the tape in such a way as to suggest that I had. Once again, it would have been better if you had had the courtesy and common sense to contact me before printing your own hate speech.

You say that I have been "denying global warming". To the best of my knowledge I have never done any such thing, for the warming of the past 62 years (during which we could theoretically have influenced the planet's ambient temperature) is a measured fact. However, I have reasonably questioned whether the predictions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are based on reality, given that the predictions they made a generation ago, in 1990, overstated actual warming to the present by more than double. The results of my own admittedly inexpert researches have appeared in reviewed journals, and a paper on climate economics, establishing that it is an order of magnitude more cost-effective to adapt even to the IPCC's predicted rate of warming than to make futile attempts to prevent it by mitigation measures today, is to be published in a long-established scientific journal later this year.

Puzzlingly, you accuse me of "birtherism", but without providing any evidence. For the record, I have no idea where Mr. Obama was born, since there is no available evidence. It was not I but the Sheriff of Maricopa County, AZ, who determined, after a 9-month investigation involving specialists in relevant fields, that the "birth certificate" that Mr. Obama endorsed and caused to be posted at the official White House website is a manifest forgery. My own role has been confined to independently verifying those of the Sheriff's results that fall within my competence as a former investigator of scientific frauds for Her Majesty's Government, together with the application of elementary probabilistic combinatorics to some of the anomalies identified by the Sheriff. The technique, which I have successfully deployed in court on previous occasions notwithstanding attempts by expert witnesses to overthrow it, is a recognized method and is not particularly difficult to understand.

I should have hoped that you would have provided at least an attempt at a rational argument, rather than resorting to a series of inaccurate, ad-hominem attacks calculated to mislead your readers while reinforcing your own apparently irrational prejudices.

Please do me the courtesy of not blocking this comment, so that your frankly libelous errors can be corrected. Thank you. - Monckton of Brenchley

By Monckton of Br… (not verified) on 03 Oct 2012 #permalink

Mr. Hoofnagle, – You should not accuse anyone of “lying” without first verifying the facts with him. I am a member of the Lords, without the right to sit or vote, and my passport duly records me as “The Right Honourable Christopher Walter, Third Viscount Monckton of Brenchley”. I also have an Opinion from a leading barrister specializing in peerage law, to whom I asked the question “Am I or am I not a member of the House of Lords?” His 11-page Opinion, reviewing 1000 years of peerage history and precedent, concludes that I am a member, albeit without the right to sit or vote, and that I am fully entitled to say so. The House of Lords, to which the Opinion was sent, has been unable to refute it.

That's interesting, maybe they are ignoring you, as multiple articles as well as a cease and desist letter still present on the parliament website indicate you are not, in fact, any kind of MP. Have you not read it? I'll post it in full here:

Dear Lord Monckton

My predecessor, Sir Michael Pownall, wrote to you on 21 July 2010, and again on 30 July 2010, asking that you cease claiming to be a Member of the House of Lords, either directly or by implication. It has been drawn to my attention that you continue to make such claims.

In particular, I have listened to your recent interview with Mr Adam Spencer on Australian radio. In response to the direct question, whether or not you were a Member of the House of Lords, you said "Yes, but without the right to sit or vote". You later repeated, "I am a Member of the House".

I must repeat my predecessor's statement that you are not and have never been a Member of the House of Lords. Your assertion that you are a Member, but without the right to sit or vote, is a contradiction in terms. No-one denies that you are, by virtue of your letters Patent, a Peer. That is an entirely separate issue to membership of the House. This is borne out by the recent judgment in Baron Mereworth v Ministry of Justice (Crown Office) where Mr Justice Lewison stated:

"In my judgment, the reference [in the House of Lords Act 1999] to 'a member of the House of Lords' is simply a reference to the right to sit and vote in that House ... In a nutshell, membership of the House of Lords means the right to sit and vote in that House. It does not mean entitlement to the dignity of a peerage."

I must therefore again ask that you desist from claiming to be a Member of the House of Lords, either directly or by implication, and also that you desist from claiming to be a Member "without the right to sit or vote".

I am publishing this letter on the parliamentary website so that anybody who wishes to check whether you are a Member of the House of Lords can view this official confirmation that you are not.

David Beamish
Clerk of the Parliaments

Official confirmation that you are not a member from parliament itself. Hmm, if you object to the way I phrased it, I'll just update the post with the facts and let the readers decide what it means when someone claims to be a member of parliament, and parliament has to write him letters asking him to stop.

As to the pharmaceutical research that I have been conducting with the assistance of a leading Professor with a 20-year history of publication in the premier medico-scientific journals, this has now aroused so much interest that, at a recent international scientific conference on planetary emergencies, I was separately approached by the dean of research at a US university who kindly offered me facilities to conduct clinical trials and by a venture capitalist offering to pay for the trials. I have not made the claims you suggest, though the BBC, in a hate-speech documentary about me, edited the tape in such a way as to suggest that I had. Once again, it would have been better if you had had the courtesy and common sense to contact me before printing your own hate speech.

Hate speech! So the film of you saying "we've cured everything from HIV, to malaria, to multiple sclerosis" that's just fabricated? You didn't say that? You didn't claim that a drug you developed cures the common cold as described here? The UK independence party, which claims you as a member, publishes this supposed CV of yours which includes this claim:

2008-present: RESURREXI Pharmaceutical: Director responsible for invention and development of a broad-spectrum cure for infectious diseases. Patents have now been filed. Patients have been cured of various infectious diseases, including Graves’ Disease, multiple sclerosis, influenza, and herpes simplex VI. Our first HIV patient had his viral titre reduced by 38% in five days, with no side-effects. Tests continue.

In the Financial Times Gideon Rachman said that you told him it cures 2/3 of all diseases!

.I began to think that Viscount Monckton might be a formidable opponent during the debate. Then he told me that he has discovered a new drug that is a complete cure for two-thirds of known diseases – and that he expects it to go into clinical trials soon. I asked him whether his miracle cure was chiefly effective against viruses or bacterial diseases? “Both”, he said, “and prions”. At this point I felt a little more relaxed about the forthcoming debate.

I'm sure you'd love to share some preliminary data on this drug. If it's already patented, share with us the patent. What is the name of the compound? What is the name of the surgeon? Please. Tell me. I dare you.

You say that I have been “denying global warming”. To the best of my knowledge I have never done any such thing, for the warming of the past 62 years (during which we could theoretically have influenced the planet’s ambient temperature) is a measured fact. However, I have reasonably questioned whether the predictions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are based on reality, given that the predictions they made a generation ago, in 1990, overstated actual warming to the present by more than double. The results of my own admittedly inexpert researches have appeared in reviewed journals, and a paper on climate economics, establishing that it is an order of magnitude more cost-effective to adapt even to the IPCC’s predicted rate of warming than to make futile attempts to prevent it by mitigation measures today, is to be published in a long-established scientific journal later this year.

I await it with baited breath. Although you claim to have published in "reviewed journals" this appears to be false. You made this claim again on Watt's up with that citing your work in physics and society:

The editors of Physics and Society asked me to write a paper on climate sensitivity in 2008. The review editor reviewed it in the usual way and it was published in the July 2008 edition, which, like most previous editions, carried a headnote to the effect that Physics and Society published “reviewed articles”. Peer-review takes various forms. From the fact that the paper was invited, written, reviewed and then published, one supposes the journal had followed its own customary procedures. If it hadn’t, don’t blame me. Subsequent editions changed the wording of the headnote to say the journal published “non-peer-reviewed” articles, and the editors got the push. No mention of any of this by the caveman, of course.

What the editors actually wrote was this:

The following article has not undergone any scientific peer review, since that is not normal procedure for American Physical Society newsletters. The American Physical Society reaffirms the following position on climate change, adopted by its governing body, the APS Council, on November 18, 2007: "Emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are changing the atmosphere in ways that affect the Earth's climate."

Are they lying? Or is the guy who has claimed to cure 2/3 of all diseases lying? As far as whether or not you are engaging in climate denial you are, as while acknowledging CO2 is a greenhouse gas etc., you completely reject all science on the expected climate sensitivity without basis or merit. I think Hadfield has you in this debate and demonstrates your denialist tricks pretty adequately. It was amusing to watch him shred you, that is until you cried and had it all shut down.

On to the next topic!

Puzzlingly, you accuse me of “birtherism”, but without providing any evidence. For the record, I have no idea where Mr. Obama was born, since there is no available evidence.

This is the definition of Birtherism! I love it. I don't provide the evidence, other than the link to you being an outrageous birther, but as if that's not enough, you provide it in the next sentence! I love it. Obama was born in Hawaii, as his birth certificate shows. Your claims were pre-debunked by snopes.

It was not I but the Sheriff of Maricopa County, AZ, who determined, after a 9-month investigation involving specialists in relevant fields, that the “birth certificate” that Mr. Obama endorsed and caused to be posted at the official White House website is a manifest forgery. My own role has been confined to independently verifying those of the Sheriff’s results that fall within my competence as a former investigator of scientific frauds for Her Majesty’s Government, together with the application of elementary probabilistic combinatorics to some of the anomalies identified by the Sheriff.

Oooh, another claim about a grand role in government. I hope someone can look that up for us. I don't need to debunk this. It was already pre-debunked by snopes. These are just the common tropes all dredged up again and lamely attached to probabilities you frankly are pulling out of your ass.

Please do me the courtesy of not blocking this comment, so that your frankly libelous errors can be corrected. Thank you. – Monckton of Brenchley

Libelous. I'm honored to be a recipient of one of your libel threats, albeit underhanded. However my major claims - that you are not a member of parliament, that you deny the science of global warming, that you make outrageous medical claims for some mystery drug, and that you are rehashing long-debunked talking points of right-wing racists to attack the birth certificate of the president (birtherism) are all demonstrably true. My sources are Parliament itself, and your own words.

M of B comes off a bit vainglorius as he rattles off his substanceless (non)accomplishments.

This is the best entertainment I’ve had in a long time! When I tell people I don’t have TV, they usually respond with astonishment, usually asking, “don’t you get bored?” Well, as if books were not enough, I will now refer them to this post.

Not only is this exchange a hoot, it’s a grand lesson in critical thinking.

Hate to be the beaeer of nad news, but there really is a WAR on Christmas. How else do you explain all the anti-Christmas attacks in schools, workplaces, stores, etc.

This kind of thing never used to happen. Those hippies from the 60s smoked too much dope and it fried their tiny brains and now they are zombies doing the work of satan waging war on just Christmas. They never say a word about other religious holidays, just Christmas.

Not a war on Christmas eh? Explain the following:

Merry Christmas got translated into "happy holidays" by liberal elites.

Christmas tree got translated into "holiday tree" by same liberal elites.

Christmas party got translated into "holiday party" by same liberla elites.

Christmas break got translated into "winter break" or"holiday break" by pitiful liberals

Christmas presents got translated into "holiday presents" by pathetic liberals.

I could go on on and for pages. These are afew of the assults on christmas. that comes to mind. If I search, i could write whole volume of books on the matter.

Oh, and it ws real cute for anti-Godders to change the time from BC and AD to BCE and CE. That was real European anti-christ of you. Sad that it helped nothing. Most people still use BC and AD and refuse to chnage to the new politically correct terms. Those who do use the newer more leftist terms simply imply that BCE means "Before Christ's Era" and CE as meaning "Christ's era". So, technically in the conservative ranks nothing has changed. You failed. your highness.

Everytime some idiot in authority changes something, we conservatives find a way of translating it back to what it was before. Good luck with your change of the future. We will not comply. Good day sirs and madam.

By Fred Hidgens (not verified) on 03 Oct 2012 #permalink

dean

M of B comes off a bit vainglorius as he rattles off his substanceless (non)accomplishments.

I'm reminded of the Commander McBragg segments I saw on The Bullwinkle Show when I was a kid.

The Flying Machine

Is this Fred guy a real person?

From the craziness, I'd say it could be a bot that is simply spewing nonsense, trying to disrupt a blog.

Acid in Coke. Yes. There is acid in every soda. Carbolic acid from dissolved co2. There is acid in oranges, lemons, limes. Vinegar is acid.

I wonder how many have died in this war against Christmas? Do these brave warriors get enough personal armor? Or like the Bush Iraq war, those poor soldiers must fight with the army they have, not the army they want! Oh the humanity! Where is the front line? Idaho? Carolina? Stupidville?

Poor Freddy three fingers is showing his ignorance as he says he doesn't want to be like Europe. But of course, Europe contains many different countries, many of them are healthier, live longer and are happier then most Americans. Because of healthcare. Germany has an economy that is going gangbusters. Plus universal healthcare. They don't depend on Doctors Without Borders to help their people, unlike the USA, the only western country in the developed world that needs Doctors Without Borders.

It's hard to know what nonsense of Freddies to refute first, it's all so much fluff. Underground secret cities? Fred, thats your septic tank! Stand back and get some air. It'll be all right. Get some oxygen and those pesky hallucinations will go away.

Tell me Fred, in your world, did Jesus ride a dinosaur? What kind of Dinosaur did he ride? How old is the earth, Freddie my boy? Tell me Freddy three fingers, what side is the Easter Bunny on? Is he helping the Christians win the war for Christmas? Or is the Easter Bunny against Christmas? And does he carry an AK47, or an M16?
Definition: War
Noun:
A state of armed conflict between different nations or states or different groups within a nation or state.
Verb:Engage in a war.

Definition: stupid /ˈst(y)o͞opid/
Adjective:
Lacking intelligence or common sense.

Definition: ignorant /ˈignərənt/
Adjective:
Lacking knowledge or awareness in general; uneducated or unsophisticated.

Praise Zeus the Elder God!

Abita Springs prolly ain't never seen a Lord before (the British kind, anyway), so they'd maybe be willing to accept him at face value.

By CherryBombSim (not verified) on 04 Oct 2012 #permalink

Too funny. If Monckton comes back be sure to post where we can see it. Most amusing thing I've read all day.

By Physicalist (not verified) on 07 Oct 2012 #permalink

He was probably there to do a public lecture to 60 geriatrics at the local Bowls club. At least that's what he does in Australia. It's pathetic that the media give him and his idiotic nonsense any oxygen at all.

By Vince Whirlwind (not verified) on 13 Oct 2012 #permalink