nyuuzyou/wikis huggingface dataset:
Values Voter Summit

The Values Voter Summit is an annual conclave of the most hardcore of the United States' right-wing political activists. It was founded in 2006 and promotes the conservative tenets of limited government, reduced spending, and "traditional values".
==Agenda==
The Values Voter Summit website is boldly emblazoned with the words "Limit Government — Reduce Spending — Champion Traditional Values — Protect America", which we can safely assume to be a general overview of their ideology. More specifically, the group is anti-abortion,AFA Action co-sponsors ‘values voter’ conference American Family Association Journal, April 2006 opposed to same-sex marriage, encourages promotion of family values, wants the protection of religious freedom (as long as you're Christian), and believes in a "responsible" foreign policy and strong national defence.Presidential Hopefuls Highlight 'Values' to Christian Conservatives Christian Post October 20th 2007 In short, a fairly typical conservative American agenda.
==Straw polls==
Since 2007 the summit has held its own straw poll each year (except for 2008 when John McCain had already secured a presidential nomination) for a field of Republican candidates. Mitt Romney won in 2007 with 28% of the voteRomney wins straw poll at Values Voters Summit CNN Politics October 20th 2007, Mike Huckabee in 2009, also with 28%,Huckabee Wins 2012 Straw Poll at Values Voters Summit Fox News September 19th 2009 Mike "Gamma Ray the Gay Away" Pence in 2010 with 24%GOP Rep. Mike Pence gets nod for 2012 presidential run Los Angeles Times September 19th 2009, and Ron Paul in 2011 with a whopping 37%.Ron Paul wins Values Voter straw poll; Herman Cain second Politico October 8th 2011
==Guests==
Guest speakers who have appeared at the Values Voter Summit include:
*Michele Bachmann2010 Values Voter Summit Confirmed Speakers Values Voter Summit Accessed November 20112011 Values Voter Summit Confirmed Speakers Values Voter Summit Accessed November 2011
*Bryan Fischer
*Newt Gingrich
*Sean Hannity
*Mitt Romney
*Phyllis Schlafly
*Glenn Beck
*Rick Perry
*Bill O'ReillyHis name isn't with the speakers, but there's a nice ol' picture of him in the picture slideshow at the top of the page.
==See also==
*Values Voter Debate 2007
==External links==
*Value Voters website
==References==
Category:Right-wing activists
Category:Conservatism
Category:Misnomers
Variable ratio

Variable ratio is a psychological concept used in operant behavioral conditioning that describes how often a "reward" is delivered in relation to a discriminative stimulus.Schedules of Reinforcement It is by far the most powerful reward schedule discovered,A Comparison of Variable‐Ratio and Variable‐Interval Schedules of Reinforcement and the one that creates the greatest response to the stimulus, the quickest rate of learning the connection between the reward and the stimulus, and is the most resistant to extinction when the reward is no longer paired with the stimulus. It also has the interesting side effect of creating the most "ghost" stimulus - known in humans as "superstitions" or "magical thinking".
The classic example of a variable ratio reward schedule is the slot machine.[http://jgi.camh.net/index.php/jgi/article/view/3780/3763 
Random-ratio schedules of reinforcement: The role of early wins and unreinforced trials]Modern machines may instead use the similar, but distinct, random ratio. Slot machines nonetheless remain an important example. In this case rather an action (or response) is conditioned. The action is putting your money in the machine and pulling the lever, while the reward is "winning" more money than you put in. The reward is delivered based on the number of times the action is performed, but the number of times needed to get a reward is variable not fixed.
The overwhelming power of this reward schedule is thought to have developed in response to it ecological validity. The mechanisms that underlie conditioned responses developed in order to facilitate survival by linking salient cues with appropriate actions. Conditioned responses are often sub-conscious and very quick. For appropriately conditioned responses this facilitates survival, but for badly conditioned responses it can be detrimental. Therefore, you want conditioned responses to build up most readily to true predictors of consequence. In nature, cues that predict future events are most often going to follow a variable ratio. 
Beyond being capitalized on by casinos the power of the variable ratio has a role to play in magical thinking. While logically it is easy to see that correlation does not imply causation, our underlying psychology is constantly forming just such inferences about the world around us. Superstitions often develop my thinking that certain events predict certain outcomes, when in fact the relationship is random or only loosely related. However, "random" co-variation, or variation due to third variables mimic "variable ratio" reward scheduling. This means that the conditioned response to superstitions and magical thinking becomes highly ingrained very quickly, and is highly resistant to change.
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Psychology
Vashti McCollum

Vashti Cromwell McCollum was the first American to successfully sue to confirm that there is a separation of church and state as expressed in the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The case (People of State of Illinois ex rel. Vashti McCollum v. Board of Education of School District № 71, Champaign County, Illinois, et al. 333 U.S. 203 (1948), aka ) sought to overturn a policy at the public school that McCollum's son attended which mandated Protestant Bible study in the classroom during school hours. (Catholics and Jews were allowed to attend their own Bible study classes during that time.)
As a non-believer, McCollum refused to allow her son to attend these classes. The school responded by sending her son to the principal's office during said Bible study periods, or required him to sit at a desk in the hallway that was intended for students with disciplinary problems.
Although she lost her case at the local circuit court and at the Illinois Supreme Court, the United States Supreme Court issued an 8-1 ruling in her favor.
McCollum later served as a president of the American Humanist Association (1962-1965).
==See also==
* Rationalism vs. Religious Instruction in the Public Schools
==External links==
* "The Lord Is Not On Trial Here Today": Webpage for PBS documentary about the McCollum case
* New York Times obituary for Vashti McCollum
Category:Atheists
Category:History
Category:United States Supreme Court cases
Vassula Ryden

Vassula Ryden is a former professional tennis player and model who claims to receive personal messages from Jesus. 
== Career ==
Ryden is author of a series of Christian books entitled True Life in God which she alleges contain direct messages from angels, saints, and Jesus Christ himself. Ryden says that Jesus dictates the messages to her and guides her hand to write them down using really fancy calligraphy. Some early drafts of the messages contain mistakes. She attributes her subsequent corrections to Jesus changing his mind, or asking her to copyedit his messages.Joe Nickell, Heaven’s Stenographer: The ‘Guided’ Hand of Vassula Ryden Csicop.orgFrancois-Marie Dermine, O.P., Vassula Rydén: the Reasons for the Church's Negative Reaction CatholicCulture.org
 
Ryden is revered by her followers as 'God's messenger'. Many of them believe she predicted the 9/11 attacks because one of her messages contained the rather vague phrase, "every evil built into towers will collapse".Mystic 'who foresaw 9/11' heads for city Scotsman.com, 6 September 2005 The Roman Catholic church issued a number of official statements that warned faithful Catholics that Ryden was not "officially" receiving messages from God.Larry B. Stammer, L.A. Cathedral Disinvites Christian Unity Event Los Angeles Times Ryden's organization claims the Church warnings are outdated, exaggerated, or not legitimate -- and that the Vatican privately assured her they believe she's really, truly in touch with Jesus, but can't say so in public.True Life In God Ryden's organization Ryden does not take criticism well. She's personally initiated legal action to shut down web sites questioning her ability to talk to God.Legal action by Vassula Ryden shuts down critical web site CatholicCulture.org 
== Messages ==
Some of Ryden's conversations with Jesus concern her household chores...
 
Others are a bit more steamy...
== See also ==
*Prophet
== External links ==
* True Life in God Mobile App "Read all the TLIG messages on your iPhone, wherever you are."
* Christian website critical of Ryden
==References==
Category:Living people
Category:Religious leaders
Vatican Observatory

The Vatican Observatory is an astronomical research group with telescopes at Castel Gandolfo in Italy and Mount Graham in Arizona, United States.Lovingly referred to as the "Pope Scope". It is one of the few arms of the Vatican City (and, by extension, the Roman Catholic Church) that is actually dedicated to scientific research.
==José Gabriel Funes==
José Gabriel Funes is an Argentinian Jesuit priest and was the Director of the Vatican Observatory from August 19, 2006, until September 18, 2015, when he was succeeded by Pope Francis's appointment of Brother Guy Consolmagno, S.J. .
===On extraterrestrials===
In 2008, Funes asserted that the possibility of the existence of extraterrestrials did not contradict the teachings of God, particularly since the Vatican had already reversed its decisions on denying the research of Copernicus and Galileo as blasphemous. According to Funes, to deny the existence of aliens would be to place limits on the creative powers and abilities of God.http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/14959
Furthermore, because such extraterrestrials are (most likelyTo deny the possibility of a Stargate-style universe would be to place another limit on God, yes?) not human, and therefore not descended from Adam and Eve, said extraterrestrials could be free of original sin… which is kind of a kick in the ass to all of us humans, doncha think?
==George Coyne==
:Not to be confused with Jerry Coyne
George Coyne 212 Funes' predecessor, also a Jesuit priest. During his purview, he published multiple papers on astronomical observances, radiometry, and space dust.
While a priest, it is clear from his research that he was a scientist first. In addition to criticizing the Vatican for their meager apology for the excommunication of Galileo in the 1600s, he has been a vocal opponent against intelligent design, especially as being taught in schools.
Coyne also appeared in the Bill Maher film Religulous, speaking out against the viewpoint that the Bible contains scientific facts and going so far to say that the scriptures contain no science whatsoever.
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Astronomy
Category:Catholicism
Category:Ufology
Vatican website

The Vatican website,Vatican website in English otherwise known as the official site of the Holy See, has many interesting articles.
==On exorcism== 
==On condoms==
==On homosexuality==
==On angels==
==On The Fall==
The Catechism has a surprisingly literal interpenetration of the fall.
 
==.va==
Of note is the (ccTLD) which was created in 1995 by Archbishop John Patrick Foley of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications."Cardinal John Patrick Foley dies at the age of 76". Catholic Philly. Retrieved 2023-03-23. Interestingly enough, the .va ccTLD is for exclusive use by the Vatican and as such is not available to the public; otherwise we would end up seeing trolls registering joke domains such as vul.va or something along the lines of it.
==See also==
*Vatican
==References==
Category:Catholicism
Category:Websites
Vemma

Vemma is an American multi-level marketing company founded in 2004 by Benson K. Boreyko. The main product, Verve, is an energy drink.
The main focus in Vemma is not selling products to retail customers, but recruiting new distributors who are told to earn money by recruiting more distributors. This creates the pyramid effect which is the reason why the vast majority of the participants never see a return of their investment in the business opportunity.
Vemma releases statisticsTheir own site about how much their distributors earn, but these numbers are manipulated to give the reader a false impression of the situation. They claim that 70% of the registered buyers are customers, and only 30% distributors, but they then only consider distributors to be distributors that have been active every month throughout 2013, which means that they must buy products for $90 each month to remain active. If a person signed up in January paying $499 for a business kit, then by November he realizes that he can't afford to buy the expensive products anymore (plus he hasn't recruited one single new member), he will have bought products for about $1,500 through the year in his attempt to build a viable Vemma business. However, in the statistics, he will be considered a customer as he wasn't active in December.
The total number of distributors in 2013 is presented as 105,251 and customers as 246,388. According to a press release,Vemma® Doubles Sales in 12 Months Vemma recruited 30,000 new customers and distributors in July 2013. The monthly sales reached 20 million and the yearly total was 221 million, which makes July an average month for 2013. If 30% of the recruited people bought the silver pack (which is recommended for people planning to build a Vemma business), this would alone generate 4.5 million. If 9,000 new people are recruited every month and the total number of distributors is 105,251 at the end of the year, it also means that the average distributor quits within a year. Actually just a tiny fraction of the people that entered 2013 as distributors were still distributors in the end of the year. If the distributors that Vemma defines as customers are also considered, the situation is even worse.
Even when excluding the failing distributors the statisticsDue Diligence: How to Read an Income Disclosure Statement show that a small group of people get away with most of the money, and the majority will not earn enough to cover the expenses related to their business.
In Italy the authorities have fined Vemma for being a pyramid scheme based on recruitment in an endless chain.http://www.lastampa.it/2014/03/10/vendite-piramidali-antitrust-multa-societ-per-mila-euro-fe5RHpmDQo4vjJtBTApJxN/pagina.html
==References==
Category:Multilevel marketing
Category:Scams
Vibrational medicine

Vibrational medicine, also known as vibrational remedies or energy remedies, is a particularly asinine part of the lunatic fringe of homeopathy, apparently the bastard child of homeopathy and radionics. According to proponents, the "energetic imprint" of the mother tincture is transferred by some kind of magic to the remedy. Naturally this is not energy as the real world understands it, but woo energy, the type which has no objective existence.
Typically, the HCG diet scammers are promoting this as being "compliant with FDA regulations"Aloha Vibrations (warning: woo-mungous) — this is a response to the fact that homeopathic HCG is illegal (because it's not in the Materia Medica, not because it's fraudulent — that's America for you). Yes, it's legal, but only because it's even more fraudulent than homeopathic HCG.
==References==
Category:Homeopathy
Vibroacoustic therapy

Vibroacoustic Therapy (VAT) is a form of alternative medicine in which patients are "treated" by either resting on a mattress, bed, or chair embedded with bass speakers that emit pulsed sound at frequencies between 30 Hz and 120 Hz, by using portable gadgets that emit 20 Hz to 18,000 Hz sound waves, or by getting a "musical massage" while listening to someone playing a harp.Vitafon "healing sound"Vibroacoustic harp therapy
==Theory==
Sound waves vibrate the patient and supposedly give organs, tissues and cells an "inner body massage." Such vibrations are claimed to assist in "cellular cleansing mechanisms" and have positive effects on health and illness. They are often combined with recorded music alleged to have some critical effect depending on what kind of music is played.VAT Research & "Scientific Studies" According to self-proclaimed "pioneer" of VAT, Dr. Olav Skille, everything from multiple sclerosis to constipation to cystic fibrosis can be alleviated by administering the "optimal frequency" to a patient. Naturally, Skille peddles training courses, custom made digital sound files, and for a little extra, he'll cut you in for a piece of the action as an authorized "regional business associate."Olav Skille Vibroacoustic solutions 
==Bullshit==
‪VAT practitioners have targeted the often desperate and vulnerable parents of autistic‬ children, and many exploit the confusion between VAT and VAS (VibroAcoustic Stimulation, a widely-accepted obstetrical test for fetal well-being) to lend an air of medical legitimacy to what is essentially the effect one could obtain from visiting a motel with vibrating waterbeds. Some VAT hucksters make a big show of pointing out that the FDA has classified vibroacoustic-related equipment as a Class One Medical Device (a category that includes stuff like elastic bandages, exam gloves, tongue depressors, etc.) hoping it will be misperceived as government approval of their therapy. 
Lacking actual peer reviewed studies indicating that it's any better than a conventional deep tissue massage, VAT remains outside the medical mainstream, but is a popular fixture in places like Canada"Good vibrations: using sound to treat disease" University of Toronto, student-written newspaper, Russiahttp://www.vitafon.ru/ and Slovenia. And if you dig through the layers of pseudoscientific techno-babble published by "The International Society for VibroAcoustics", you'll find their proudest achievement is "not having received any reports concerning harmful effects of VibroAcoustic Therapy."VAT e-Manual VAT manual
== See also==
*Acutonics
*Sound healing
==References==
==External links==
*$4000 "Somatron Clinical Recliner" Basically a chair with speakers in it.
Category:Sound woo
Category:Autism woo
Vice President of the United States

The Vice President of the United States (also known as the VP or "veep") is a murky political office. The primary function the office holder serves is to be a "heartbeat away" from the Presidency. That is, according to the rules of succession, if the President should leave this mortal coil, the Vice President is automatically moved into the much fancier office. This would also happen if the president resigned (as with Nixon), or is impeached (and convicted), or if they declared inability to discharge the duties of the office (either permanently or temporarily). Other than that, the Vice Presidency is pretty much "not worth a bucket of warm piss."As FDR veep John Nance Garner said.
The Vice President has a rather short list of "powers" and responsibilities, which include:
*Being the President of the US Senate. In the early days of the Republic, this actually meant presiding over Senate sessions on a day-to-day basis. Today, it means that they "gavel in" each annual session, and, rarely, run certain special functions, such as ratifying the results of a Presidential election.
*Casting the tie-breaking vote in the Senate - now mostly meaningless thanks to the perversion of the filibuster which means nothing gets passed if 40 or more senators say they don't like it.
*Often picking a pet project and working on it, in order to avoid boredom while...
*Attending second-tier state funerals, and
*Waiting for the sitting president to die, or complete two successful terms so they can run themselves.
Politically, the Vice Presidential choice is often made in order to "balance the ticket" — that is, the veep selection is intended to draw in voters who might not be impressed by the presidential candidate, or to perhaps bring an important state's electoral votes to the table. As such, this often means that the veep is someone despised by the president, coming from a rather different political perspective.The classic example of this entire paragraph is John F. Kennedy and his Vice President, Lyndon Johnson. Of course, this tends to be a terrible idea when the President actually dies; notably, Abraham Lincoln ran for re-election with a running mate from the opposing party as to gain Southern votes. A month into his second term, he was shot, and the country was controlled by a drunken idiot for 4 years.
They are usually kept in the dark and fed bullshit; however, starting with the Carter administration the office started to take on a more active role. Most strikingly, Dick Cheney practically ran the United States for eight years from this office.Into the ground, we might add. And arguably Joe Biden, while not as much "the power behind the throne" as his predecessor was kind of a big fucking deal - notably when it comes to gay marriage.
==See also==
*Warm bucket of piss
==References==
*
Victor J. Stenger

Victor J. Stenger was an American particle physicist, philosopher, skeptic, author, and outspoken atheist. He was the author of nine books on physics, atheism and skepticism as well as more than a dozen peer reviewed articles.
He popularized the phrase "Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings."http://richarddawkins.net/articles/3567
In a rare moment of sanity, the Huffington Post decided to give him a blog, presumably to balance out all their quacks and woo-peddlers.
==Bibliography==
* 1988. Not by Design: The Origin of the Universe.ISBN 0879754516
* 1990. Physics and Psychics: The Search for a World Beyond the Senses.ISBN 087975575X.
* 1995. The Unconscious Quantum: Metaphysics in Modern Physics and Cosmology.ISBN 1573920223.
* 2000. Timeless Reality: Symmetry, Simplicity, and Multiple Universes.ISBN 1573928593.
* 2003. Has Science Found God? The Latest Results in the Search for Purpose in the Universe.ISBN 1591020182.
* 2006. The Comprehensible Cosmos: Where Do The Laws Of Physics Come From?.ISBN 1591024242.
* 2007. God: The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows that God Does Not Exist. ISBN 1591024811. New York Times bestseller.
* 2009. Quantum Gods: Creation, Chaos and the Search for Cosmic Consciousness. ISBN 1591027136.
* 2009. The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason.ISBN 1591027519.
* 2011. The Fallacy of Fine-Tuning. ISBN 9781616144432.
* 2012. God and the Folly of Faith: The Incompatibility of Science and Religion. ISBN 1616145994.
==See also==
*Quantum consciousness
==External links==
* Official Website (From Wayback Machine)
* Curriculum Vita (From Wayback Machine)
*blog (From Wayback Machine
Articles
* The Physics of 'Alternative Medicine': Bioenergetic Fields
* The Myth of Quantum Consciousness
* Has Science Found God?
* Anthropic Design: Does the Cosmos Show Evidence of Purpose?
* The God of Falling Bodies: Galileo, Newton, Bentley, and Leibniz Chat on the Internet
* Flew's Flawed Science
* Is the Brain a Quantum Device?
==References==
Category:Authors
Category:Skeptics
Category:Philosophers
Category:Physicists
Category:Skeptics
Vietnam syndrome

The Vietnam syndrome infected American political leaders from the mid-1970s until the late 1990s.
After the end of the Vietnam War, American presidents were loathe to send U.S. troops into combat situations for fear that, as had happened in Vietnam, a prolonged engagement (or a "quagmire," to use the common parlance) would lead to a loss of support for the administration.
==Case studies==
Two examples of the syndrome in action are the sudden withdrawal of U.S. Marines from a peacekeeping mission in Lebanon following the suicide bombing of their barracks in 1983, and the removal of American forces from Somalia after the infamous "Black Hawk Down" incident a decade later. 
With the nation emboldened by its successes in the first Gulf War, the Kosovo War might be seen as the first sign that America had recovered from Vietnam syndrome; the broad support that the political establishment gave to the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the lack of dedicated, enduring mass protests against those wars suggest the syndrome is a thing of the past.
==References==
Category:United States politics