Are you drunk? Do you own a bunch of guns? Are you a racist, hateful jerk? Do you own a 300-foot yacht? If you answered yes to any or all of those questions, you might be on this week's list of the Worst People! Because this week, we're full up on drunk idiots with guns, racists, grifters, people who want to "take our country back" by blowing it up, and guys doing terrible things related to the high seas.
As always, these aren't the murders and terrorists of the world - those are always the worst people. Instead, these are the idiots, and the lunatics, along with the people who think the KKK was just ducky, gay teens should stay in the closet, protected coral reefs are their private playgrounds, and the only thing better than driving drunk is driving drunk while armed.
Here are the Worst People of the Week - vote early and vote often for the lamest of the bunch.
http://www.ranker.com/list/worst-person-of-the-week-012916/mike-rothschild,
Gwyneth Paltrow
What Happened: The actress's lifestyle website Goop published a long interview with nutritionist and "holistic healer" Ann Louise Gittleman, who detailed how people can take drastic steps to protect themselves from "cell phone toxicity and wifi poisoning" - medical conditions that don't actually exist.
The Details: Paltrow's site has long been criticized for the space it gives to unscientific concepts like detoxing, cleansing, and quack medical treatments. The interview with Gittleman is particularly egregious, as it serves no purpose other than to scare people into thinking their cell phones are going to fry their brain with radiation.
Gittleman herself has no background in electronics or science; instead, she has a PhD in holistic healing from a non-accredited college. The interview links the minor amount of radiation from cell phones and wifi with cancer, a link that numerous reputable health and science organizations assert does not exist. She claims that children who go to schools with wifi capability are at risk for a host of mental and physical disorders and that pregnant women are especially vulnerable to "cell phone toxicity." And she throws around meaningless terms like "digital dementia", "electromagnetically clean", "second-hand radiation," and "electropollution," all of which are made up.
While it's not clear if Paltrow played any part in the interview (it's a Q&A with no byline), she's the editor of the site, and as such, should know better than to foist such dangerous gibberish on her readers.
Paul Allen
What Happened: The co-founder of Microsoft was accused of wiping out 80% of the coral reef in West Bay in the Cayman Islands with the anchor chain of his yacht.
The Details: Allen's 300-foot yacht is said to have dragged its anchor chain through the protected reef, demolishing over 14,000 square feet of it. He then fobbed the blame off on local Port Authority, claiming his crew docked the yacht where they were told to, and moved it when alerted to the damage they'd caused.
Despite laws on the books that allow for fines against ships that destroy coral reefs in the area, it's unlikely Allen will face any legal or financial consequences for his environmental damage.
Sally Kern
What Happened: The Oklahoma state rep sponsored a bill that would bar suicidal LGBT youth in the state from seeking out a gay-affirmative counselor - despite such teens having higher rates of depression, mental illness, and suicide.
The Details: Kern is infamous for being among the most anti-gay elected officials in the country, consistently defaming gay people and sponsoring radical legislation that would curtail their rights. Among her efforts this legislative session are a bill that would forbid HIV-positive people from marrying, and another bill that would protect so-called "conversion therapy" - a discredited and debunked form of "gay conversion."
The most dangerous bill Kern is sponsoring is one that would bar any school official from referring a student to an “individual, organization or entity” if the matter “pertain[s] to human sexuality." It would force students to get parental permission to go to counseling, effectively outing students in the closet and barring access for students going on their own. Essentially, it forces depressed gay teens to either out themselves or suffer in silence.
Fortunately, most of Kern's bills die in committee and never make it to law.
Joseph Stetson
What Happened: Stetson was allegedly drunk and armed with a pellet gun when he was arrested in Oregon on his way to the Malheur Refuge standoff to help kill federal agents.
The Details: The standoff has involved no shortage of deranged characters, from ringleader Ammon Bundy to the anonymous man shrieking on a livestream for people to kill agents at roadblocks. But Stetson epitomizes the mindset of the men and women who took over the remote birdwatching facility - drunk, armed, and looking for a government employee to shoot.
In this case, Stetson was driving erratically and was taken into custody when he stopped at a gas station. While being arrested, he claimed he was a former Green Beret whose records were personally sealed by Ronald Reagan, that he was the last hope for humanity, and that he'd kill all of the officers who arrested him. As a felon convicted of burglary and menacing, Stetson is likely prohibited from owning an actual firearm.
Michael Misiewicz
What Happened: Navy commander Michael Misiewicz pleaded guilty to a staggering range of corruption charges, admitting he leaked military secrets to a defense contractor in exchange for cash, prostitutes, luxury goods, and even tickets to a Lady Gaga concert.
The Details: The Navy is currently carrying out a massive purge of corrupt officers, with over 100 personnel under investigation, and nine already pleading guilty. Misiewicz was accused of giving a Singapore-based defense contractor access to classified ship movements in his role as deputy director of operations for the 7th Fleet. Knowing when specific ships were docking in Singapore allowed the contractor to jack up prices, bilking the Navy out of over $20 million.
In exchange for the classified information, the contractor gave Misiewicz cash, plane tickets for him and his family, luxury goods, and VIP concert tickets. They also arranged with local escort services to book prostitutes in luxury hotels for Misiewicz during visits to Singapore and Thailand.
Bruce O'Brien
What Happened: Massachusetts resident O'Brien was frustrated by the slow speed of the snow plow he was driving behind. So he got out his gun and opened fire while passing it.
The Details: The 60-year-old man was driving drunk in the middle of a snow storm, when he got caught behind a plow doing its plow thing of clearing snow so people like Bruce O'Brien could drive. After a while, O'Brien got antsy and passed the plow in the oncoming lane. To indicate his displeasure, he then fired three shots, though it wasn't clear if he was firing in the air or at the plow itself.
The snow plow driver called police, then followed O'Brien, who was arrested and hit with a slew of charges, including assault with a deadly weapon.
Tommy Benton
What Happened: Benton is a Georgia state Representative who introduced two bills, one to protect Confederate statues, and the other to make Robert E. Lee's birthday a state holiday. He also praised the KKK and compared anyone attempting to remove the Confederate flag to ISIS.
The Details: First elected to the Georgia House in 2004, Benton has spent his career trying to protect Confederate heritage and symbols. Among his proposed bills - most of which have no support - is a proposal to rename Martin Luther King Drive in Atlanta after a Confederate General who helped found the KKK.
In his most recent onslaught of bills, he proposed to forever protect the Stone Mountain carvings of Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis; and to formally recognize Confederate Memorial Day and Lee's birthday as state holidays. Most of the controversy, however, came for comments he made denying that the Civil War was fought over the issue of slavery and praising the KKK's ability to keep order.
Benton, a retired history teacher, told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that the Klan “was not so much a racist thing but a vigilante thing to keep law and order. It made a lot of people straighten up,” he said. “I’m not saying what they did was right. It’s just the way things were.” Democratic lawmakers in Georgia called the comments unconscionable.
Richard L. Martin
What Happened: The 59-year-old Postal Service employee was arrested after attacking his supervisor with a chair while shouting racial slurs.
The Details: While Martin has a history of mental health issues, he'd never been violent at work until this incident, in which he walked into his boss' office, punched her in the face, then went after her with her chair. He then ran out of the post office and was on the loose for almost an entire day before being arrested upon his return home.
Martin had accumulated enough years of service to retire with a full pension - at least until this incident.
Daniel E. Musso
What Happened: The 54-year-old New Hampshire man was arrested trying to buy nearly a quarter of a million dollars worth of grenades, explosives, and "rocket-type stuff" that he would use in a one-man quest to bring back "the original Constitution."
The Details: Musso was long known to the FBI as a gun-rights activist and militant, having been arrested and Tazed for disrupting an anti-gun rally and heckling a man whose daughter was murdered. In early 2015, he'd given a gun dealer thousands of dollars in his quest to buy automatic weapons, explosives, and body armor. He was soon approached by an undercover agent, and set up a buy of grenades and plastic explosives. All in all, it would involve over $200,000 worth of material that Musso intended to sell to other militants.
Musso claimed he was part of a group of people who would use violent methods to make the US return to the "original Constitution" and that he needed a bunch of grenades because the government was on to him. He was charged with possession of an unregistered firearm.