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Sceptical about sceptics
Reading the latest editorial in the 7 July 2008 edition of the Spokesman-Review, I noticed that Penn and Teller were weighing in on global warming. More precisely, Penn Jillette was actually writing the editorial republished to the Spokesman-Review. First of all, Penn and Teller are a magic act that performs in Las Vegas. And so where these gents perform fake magic to wow the crowds; they also make the presumption that just like James Randi, their fake magic will help them get at the truth.
Penn Jillette first starts off with scoffing about 
U.F.O.s and goes from there to scoff about 
psychics 
before turning his attention to global warming. He touts James Randi as his "hero" who taught that fake magicians can expose the fraud and deceit of psychics and U.F.O. watchers. Well, if you have never seen a U.F.O. it is easy enough to dispute it. However, there is no mistaking a U.F.O. once you have. It is also easy to dismiss psychics as people who will bilk you out of your hard earned cash. However, James Randi made a profession of basically being a fraud that bilks people out of their hard earned cash. And why could he do it? Because people love to be fooled. What Randi never did apparently get sceptical about was that politicians are also in the profession of bilking people out of their hard earned cash. If elected, I promise you... easily made on the campaign trail, and then a total about face once in office. And why could people put such politicians into office? Because, I expect, they love to be fooled. If they didn't, both magicians and politicians would be out of a job and would have to do real work for a change. So, I found it to be the greatest irony that a fraud would try to claim that he could expose the fraud of others. I have been a U.F.O. watcher from back since I was a child. It is very easy to know the difference between a U.F.O. and an airplane or commercial jet, you can hear the latter, they have flashing tail and wing lights, they also travel slower and lower than a thing that seems to appear at the edge of the atmosphere, leaving no tail, and may appear to be a single spot of fast moving bright light in the night sky. Even further, fades out or follows no known flight path because you know where the airforce bases are as well as the local airports. They are too high up after all to be lights dancing along power lines. Which makes the argument that you have to wonder who is the more dumb or ignorant.
The sceptics after all aren't in the business of finding out the truth, but rather they are in the business of telling you how stupid or crazy you happen to be. Unfortunately, Randi was the guy who directly attacked his own customer base. And he personally persuaded me that I had better things to spend my hard earned cash on that watching magicians presuming that their customer base was both stupid and crazy. I might watch a magic act performed on TV. But I'd never visit such an act performing locally.
Now on to global warming. The politics of global warming is that of environmentalists against business interests, and on that basis, Democrats v Republicans. The fear factor of what must surely happen when we put too many pollutants into the atmosphere. The fear factor of what must surely happen if this nation actually honored the Kyoto treaties. Why business interests would go broke, and we can't allow that to happen. Unfortunately, since Republican G.W. has been president, businesses have gone broke, and that has come from many factors; deregulation in food safety and abruptly millions of dollars of contaminated food gets pulled from the market at steep costs to the industry that produced it. Or because we favor trade with China first and foremost, businesses that can not compete now go under. Also resulting in massive job loss. Fuel costs will also dictate whether you buy a Hummer today or a Tyota the next. Fuel costs will effect sharply where you shop, whether that pricey boutique today or the bargain store tomorrow. And the pricey boutique is now more likely to go under before the bargain store does. There is no arguing with market realities. And quite frankly, there should be no arguing about these realities in the facts that severe weather is becoming the norm in the U.S. and globally as well.
How do you dispute being neck deep in flood waters that sweeps away home, business, the crops on your farm. That would be a bit difficult. Just as it is difficult to dispute tornadoes occurring in places where they were never known to exist before. How about the spring that never came to North Idaho with 5 feet or better of snow starting in January, quickly melting off in the lower elevations, by February and then abruptly, more snow falls in March and April. That is the description of severe weather that comes as a consequence of climate change, the global warming that produces the sort of instability that as a consequence, destroys much of the farm crop in the midwest for a year. Yet, for all of the damage that weather has produced, you still have people who question the hows and the whys. Mr. Jillette is amusing. But he is the sceptic that buys into the politics of global warming. Whereby "he doesn't know" what the answer is, but he'll voice his opinions anyway. And it is the politics you have to take with a grain of salt.
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"However, James Randi made a profession of basically being a fraud that bilks people out of their hard earned cash"
I'd love to see some evidence to back up your libelous claim that Randi has ever defrauded anyone.
7/10/08 1:27 AM
Penn Jillette admitted in his editorial that his magic was fake. So was Randi's. Fake and fraud are synonymous. That is why, and I stand by what I wrote, that Randi in his time made a profession of bilking his customers out of their cold hard cash. It was his profession as a fake magician that enabled him to do that. And I highly suspect that the one real reason he started the Sceptical movement and magazine was that he didn't like the upstart competition. That was a published bio that I read years ago. And what of the "sceptics" since then? Well, now, let us put a camera strap in front of a camera and take that polaroid shot. Voila! A "ghost" in the film that of course looks exactly like a camera strap. A simpler explanation for "ghosting" effects in early polaroid film involved defects. The polaroid camera was the first camera I ever owned. After a while, the camera did not produce picture perfect shots. To put it bluntly, you don't have to go into the ridiculous to offer an "answer." Yet, this is what the "sceptics" offered following Randi's lead. Unfortunately, people were very prepared to buy into something that any intelligent person would realize was never true. Thanks to James Randi. Sorry pal, nothing libelous here.