Epistemological issues seem so central to everything. Within the libertarian devotion to reason that Chomsky has praised, two camps seem to be at odds with one another, in a kind of in-house brawl.
One camp holds the empiricist skeptics who also happen to favor scientific materialism (like Penn Jillette and James Randi and some others you may not have heard about, or maybe you have) and the other camp holds the natural law axiomatic-deductive philosophers who don't outright dismiss homeopathic medicine, for example, and who question flouride in the water.
We can broadly see at least seven different positions. One writer I enjoyed a bit in college, Robert Anton Wilson, seems to have accepted empiricism in conjunction with intuitive-mysticism as valid sources of knowledge but not axiomatic-deductive reasoning. He wrote a short piece on his opposition to natural law in "Natural Law and Don't Put a Rubber on Your Willy." I don't think he developed his opposition thoroughly. He devoted more to his writing to oppose scientism (like double-bind dogmatic empiricism) with a whole book, "The New Inquisition."
Another position is that of Ayn Rand and her Objectivist followers who accepted neither intuitive-mystical knowledge nor much empiricism, but only (or mostly) axiomatic-deductive reasoning.
In my opinion, a stronger view accepts all three and tests theories against all three.

For reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Smith_%28entrepreneur%29

Upvoting James Randi's pal.

The Amazing Mandi?>> ^lurgee:

The Amazing Randi is the man!

Your video, James Randi on Real People Bending Spoons, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

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This video has been declared a duplicate by the original submitter; transferring votes to the original video and killing this dupe - dupeof declared by eric3579.

*dupeof=http://videosift.com/video/James-Randi-exposes-Uri-Geller-and-Peter-Popoff

This is pretty much a dupe http://videosift.com/video/James-Randi-exposes-Uri-Geller-and-Peter-Popoff

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i hart James Randi!

Your video, James Randi on Dianetics and Scientology, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

>> ^rottenseed:

Why was he bugging him while eating?


That's a power you pick up when you achieve OT9. It's the GastronomicInterruptus +1 skill. So kewl.

>> ^mxxcon:

For a moment I thought that was James Randy


D E B U N K E D !

For a moment I thought that was James Randy

Your video, An Honest Liar: James Randi (Trailer), has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Hey, buddy. I don't know whether you'll be checking your profile much now that you've been sent on the CircleLine cruise, but I wanted to tell you that I for one am rather disgusted by the way this played out. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Northeast Irish-Catholic (now non-superstitious) liberal, and I don't give a flying fick about your politics.

You've been a QUALITY submitter & commenter here, and were probably one of the main reasons I came out of lurkdom and became a Sifter. When I saw your banination, I spent about two hours reading comments and looking at your submissions to try to rationalize your dismissal, but there just wasn't enough. I may be only a GoldStar, but I've been here longer than I'd like to recount. In all my days, I've seen few Sifters as committed to the QUALITY this site intends to promote. I suppose there is much to your banination that I'm not privy to, and I'm very sorry for that. Even though it seems you have trolled quite a few members in the recent past, I think this decision should have been opened to investigation and consultation with the community at large.

Over the last years, we've had a disappointing diaspora of QUALITY members, but yet you stuck around. As the years have progressed, the QUALITY of submitters and high-level, long-term members has dwindled. I came here for people like you, like @Farhad2000, like @eric3579, @djsunkid, @mlx, @silvercord, @dystopianfuturetoday, @NetRunner, @kronosposeidon, @dag, @MarineGunrock and even like Choggie. You are among these names.

A (seemingly) long time ago, this site celebrated its diversity of both style and opinion. We've banned, and supported the banination of conservative trolls in the last few years, but only because of EXCESSIVE violations (eg. CaptainPlanet, and (to his unfortunate discredit) Choggie; this is NOT an exhaustive list). I've watched the progression, and while I agree with the socio-political principles of those in support of the exclusions, I cannot but think how the actual QUALITY of the site has suffered.

This was a place I came to enlighten myself, with submissions like this, this, this, this, this, this, and this (which is truly just a smattering of the QUALITY you've brought here). I used to hit the VideoSift link and expect to see submissions that I wouldn't have seen elsewhere. Unique submissions, with a higher intellectual quotient than the rest of the horse-apple internet digest sites. But now it's a site nearly indistinguishable from this one, and this one, or this one. Certainly (and obviously) I like and frequent those sites, but this is VideoSift, and I have always expected more bang for my buck.

I'm sure you've realized by this point that this comment is not just for you to read, as it both is public, and draws the attention of many other QUALITY members of the community. But I assure you that whatever the reaction, I want you particularly to know that you've affected my understanding of the world-at-large in a most positive way over the last four years. It was a privilege to have had your influence, and I will miss it.