I like to argue. That should be obvious enough to anyone who knows me. But sometimes after I argue I feel bad. I recognize that while I was doing a good job of defending my position, that position wasn’t nearly as strong, when I’m being honest with myself, as I made it seem. I’m sure …
Category Archive: Skepticism
Mar 03 2013
Appeals Court Upholds Fortunetelling Restrictions
I recall writing a couple years ago, probably at the old blog, about a Virginia county that required a license to be a fortune teller there. My concern was that licensing gives a stamp of credibility to the practice, but the law was challenged as unconstitutional under the First Amendment. The 4th Circuit Court of …
Feb 15 2013
Woman Wins ‘Psychic’ Contest
I didn’t know that there was such a thing as the International Battle Of The Psychics, but if anyone shows up other than the winner, I think the whole thing is a fraud (because the others should have known they were going to lose). And I had to laugh when I read the start of …
Jan 30 2013
Confusing Intent and Tactics
One of the things that we often see — and often engage in ourselves, if we’re being honest — in political and religious arguments is the assumption that any disagreement over tactics is really due to a disagreement over goals. If we think an idea we oppose will lead to some negative result, we often …
Jan 28 2013
Another Psychic Arrested for Fleecing Clients
Another “psychic” has been arrested for defrauding clients, this time in Crestline, California. This time the “psychic” told a client that she could remove a spirit that had attached itself to her if she brought her more than $9000 in cash in particular denominations:
Jan 17 2013
Shermer and the Myth of Feminist Persecution
Michael Shermer has once again responded to Ophelia Benson for having dared to criticize him for saying something dumb and sexist and he’s going for the full persecution pose, complete with allusions to witch hunts, inquisitions, McCarthyism, purges and — yes — Nazis. You can read that response, which was published as a response to …
Jan 08 2013
No, Your Kid is Not Psychic
In the aftermath of every tragic event, there’s always someone who narrowly missed out on it. Think of those who didn’t go to work in the World Trade Center on 9/11 or who missed a connecting flight on a plane that crashed. And they almost always see mystical forces at work, usually thinking that God …
Jan 04 2013
Sylvia Browne’s 2012 Predictions
Pat Robertson and other Christian frauds are not the only ones who made blatantly false predictions for 2012. “Psychic” fraud Sylvia Browne did her usual terrible job of predicting what would happen, only hitting on the broadest and most obvious predictions and missing on some specific ones. You can find the full list here.
Jan 03 2013
Gorski on Quantum Quackery
Dave Gorski has an article at Science-Based Medicine about the use and abuse of quantum mechanics to justify pretty much any form of flim flam and quackery anyone wants to sell to the ignorant and the credulous. And as he points out, Deepak Chopra may be the worst at this:
Jan 03 2013
Florida ‘Psychic’ Charged With $25 Million Fraud
It looks like Florida is cracking down on fake psychic con men (or women, in this case). Last year they sent a woman to prison for three years for bilking clients out of $1.6 million; now they’ve charged another “psychic” with defrauding people of $25 million.
Dec 13 2012
Canada Cracking Down on ‘Fraudulent’ Witchcraft
The National Post has an article about an old Canadian law being used to prosecute con artists preying on people’s credulity in a number of different supernatural scams. The law prohibits “fraudulently…pretend[ing] to exercise or to use any kind of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment or conjuration.”
Dec 02 2012
The ‘Science’ of Bigfoot, Done by Press Release
Here’s another perfect example of pseudoscience by press release, making breathless claims about the DNA of Bigfoot being sequenced and found to be a new species of hominid that is a hybrid of Homo sapiens and some other species. Ben Radford of the Committee for Scientific Inquiry explains:
Nov 30 2012
Mark Cuban: Skeptic
I’ve always liked Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks. I like the fact that he speaks his mind even when it pisses off the NBA and that he matches all his fines from the league with donations to charity. And here’s another reason to like him: He’s hammering the NBA for partnering up …
Nov 25 2012
Stupid Cliche Debunked. Again.
I have long believed that if you ever hear anyone say “we only use 10% of our brains,” especially in the process of defending ESP or some similar thing, you can be absolutely certain that you are talking to an ignoramus. Claudia Hammond puts this myth to rest at the BBC:
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