Perhaps I shall get attention if I invoke a celebrity:
Unfortunately, or unfortunately, I did not see the Larry King episode last night. I never watch the show, because I find King egotistical and irritating, however last night James Randi was on with Sylvia Browne so she could accept the million-dollar challenge. (If you are unfamiliar see http://www.randi.org )
GOOD GOD LARRY, I find more objectivity in a Rush Limbaugh commentary. Why didn’t you just tell Randi that you believe in psychics and he is wrong na na na na boo boo! Why did you act amazed when people called in, admitted they had met Sylvia before, and then watched her “predict” stuff. Why did you sit there and act like God had been proven? Why did you act like Sylvia’s “challenge” to dis-prove psychic powers was legitamate.
Sylvia said in March she would do the challenge, ON YOUR SHOW, then never called Randi. Yet you never called her on the fact that she lied ON YOUR SHOW! You never let Randi deny the story that she told the last time she was on your show, where she claimed an entire audience was German when Randi exposed her.
This was rediculous. Do you really think you can be an impartial arbiter? Of course you do, you know everything dont you! The best movies, the best books and all the “hard-hitting” questions.
I am amazed at Randi’s patience in the interview (which I read 90% of, but I could not finish because it made me ill). I would have told Larry to call me when he wanted to be a journalist and not Sylvia’s PR rep.
Yes, and Larry is considered to be TV land’s primo honcho interviewer (alongside with Bahbwa, of course). He doesn’t know what’s going on half of the time, and the other half is spent asking the same questions again to the interviewee simply because he wasn’t paying attention/had lost interest the first time around when said interviewee did answer the question.
And when Larry’s not around, there’s his sidekick Wolf:rolleyes:
Now for those who’ve subscribed to the Randi-hotline, this Zantos fellow is a guy the true beleivers drag up becaus ehe had a conflict with Randi back in the 70’s. Randi told some kids who’s van was being searched what their rights are and Zantos decided to make harassing Randi part of his job description. Zantos is no longer a cop, and hasn’t been for years after being thrown off the force.
I guess Browne can’t communicate with the dead, just with dead careers.
Bringing this up is the whore Browne’s pathetic attempt to intimidate Randi. Nice try bitch, but you got lucky just because Larry wanted to lick your clit for some reason. I’m sure Randi will mention this in Friday’s commentary.
Oh, by the way browne, you are a complete fraud and a coward. Go snivel with your sycophantic fans. I’m sure it must be nice to get Jean Dixon’s corpse rot as followers.
Thanks for the nightmares, pal. Ugh. (Backdoor guy is-- John Edward?! No-o-o-o-o…)
Randi was a little disappointing last night, but I can’t blame him too much. He pasted that harpy to the wall the last time, so he couldn’t say anything he hadn’t said before and make either of those two lovebirds listen.
Still, when she said this:
**
And then her “proof” was a bunch of claptrap about some kids enjoying sunshine on a beach…jeez, Randi should have knocked that one out of the park.
I wish I could have called the show, asked Browne to tell me what was wrong with my father, listen to her prattle on about my dad’s illness, and THEN inform her that he died in 1985.
If this quote and response is too lengthy, I understand if a moderator cuts it or deletes it.
So, a little bit of broad fishing. After all, what person doesn’t know a young man with beautiful eyes? Especially if in love, I’ve yet to meet the woman who doesn’t think her love has beautiful eyes (broad generalization, not necessarily 100% accurate).
The caller doesn’t bite entirely on the “young” guess, so Sylvia sets it up that anything younger than 65 is young and then gives a twenty year range, knowing that the teens and twenties were probably out or the caller would have bitten initially.
Note that the caller here identifies this as her boyfriend.
A very broad statement about the nose. What exactly does “a little blunt” mean? My nose isn’t sharp, but I wouldn’t say it was blunt. It may be a little blunt, though. A hit on the cheekbones, apparently.
Another broad guess, it isn’t the rare man that is developing some jowels by his 40s. But even with this, the Sylvia doesn’t get a convincing hit, just an “I suppose”.
I’m not sure what is happening here, is the caller trying to get the reading back to the lost loved one? Is the boyfriend the lost loved one? But either way, it doesn’t read well for Sylvia if she doesn’t even know who the caller wants to talk about. But regardless, the caller volunteered that the male is her boyfriend, is it really that hard to assume that such a person is around her “all the time”?
Yeah, it’s my Aunt Donna as well. But I read this to mean that the caller is looking for information on her deceased grandmother. Is Aunt Donna dead as well?
Aunt Donna had a disintegrating illness or grandma has one? What is a disintegrating illness?
Well, now maybe it isn’t the boyfriend after all. But the caller sure is helpful in suggesting that it could be someone in her future. And Larry hardens that suggestion by saying “get ready, he’s coming.”
What is sad is that this probably looked like a success on television and left everybody jaws agape with wonder at Sylvia’s power.
I like how every psychic finds a different problem with a different internal organ in Randi. I thinkhe mentioned how if they were all right he would be completely falling apart.
“This is a little [older] woman who comes around, sharp features, wore glasses, short hair.”
Oh yeah, that’s specific - practically every older woman has short hair and most of them will have at least reading glasses. I’d guess 50% of the population can be said to have “sharp” features.
What annoyed me the most was that no matter what that fraud Browne said, Larry took it as a factual statement:
SB: “You should get a bilirubin count, it’s something in the liver.”
Caller: Oh, thank you.
LK: Now how did you know what was wrong???
Larry, you dumb gullible idiot, she DOESN’T know. WE don’t know either. The CALLER doesn’t know either. SB could have said anything under the sun - unless we get a call back and a signed doctor’s verification that yes, the illness was identified through SB’s suggested test, then you can say that SB “knew” what was wrong.
Or Larry’s going to live a long time: well, that’s really difficult to guess - he’s already lived a long time, he leads an active life, he’s still working - chances are, he’s probably going to live for a while more.
I have heard it complained in threads on Randi’s message board (at http://randio.vwh.net/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi ) that Randi came across as cold and arrogant, whereas Silvia was all love and kindness, and that, for this reason, Randi’s appearance probably left most viewers feeling pro-Silvia. However, I think that Randi achieved what he went there to do, which was (I believe) first and foremost to get Browne to agree explicitly to taking the Challenge under a specific protocol. Browne’s previous agreement to take the challenge was kind of vague and in the heat of discussion. But there’s no way she can get out of it now.
So Randi’s thinking long term here. He knows that he probably didn’t win many minds in his appearance, and that he probably didn’t come off looking like a nice, likable guy. But he wasn’t hoping otherwise. He’s thinking months (or years) down the line when Browne takes the challenge and fails. This would then be broadcast on Larry King Live, and THAT might actually sway a few minds in favor of skepticism.
I’ve also been struck by some of the contradicting criticisms I’ve heard of Randi’s appearance. Some, as I’ve indicated above, say that he was too unfriendly, while others have said that he didn’t jump on Silvia enough, and that he should have exposed her cold reading techniques in more detail.
But imagine how heartless Randi would have seemed if he had proceeded to tear Browne’s statements to shreds while she was (in the sympathetic viewer’s mind) comforting someone grieving the loss of a loved one?
For example, many of Silvia’s “hits” (so perceived by King and many viewers) had to do with medical claims. But these “hits” were called hits because they were verified by the caller, who may not have had the medical knowledge to evaluate Browne’s claim. In the case of the clot, Randi could have pointed out that the caller is probably not qualified to determine if a brain hemorrhage could properly be described as a clot letting loose.
But this would amount to Randi calling the grieving caller ignorant, which, while it would be accurate, would probably come off looking pretty mean.
If Larry is going to be the “unbiased observer” in this affair, he’s going to have to get his tongue out of Sylvia’s ass first.
Sylvia Browne bugs me enough when she’s spouting her religious psychic mumbo-jumbo. But when she practices medicine, she should be arrested and summarily shot. Let’s take a few examples.
Let’s see. Randi is an older gentleman with (IIRC) a few extra pounds. He’s achieved a lot in his lifetime, suggesting that he is probably a type-A personality. And she’s suggesting that he might have a little bit of left ventricular dysfunction? Way to go out on a fuckin’ limb, there, Sylvia.
First of all, the woman is asking if her son will “ever get better”, suggesting that the doctors have told her that he will not. Saying that a young person with a bad prognosis has a neurological problem is not even going as far out on a limb as Randi’s left ventricle.
Second, I imagine this scene in a doctor’s office somewhere:
Gullible Mom: “Why isn’t my son on Tegretol?”
Doctor: “Because we’re getting good seizure control with the other medications, and he doesn’t have tic doloreaux.”
GM: “Yes, but Sylvia Browne said that it was for anybody with neurologic problems, and it might make him better.”
Doctor: “Uh…get the hell out of my office.”
And once again, neurologists hide the Truth from their patients.
If she’s been in the hospital for seven months, they’ve done a liver panel on her at some point. Again, we’re going to have Desparate Mom demanding that the doctor do a bilirubin count in her liver area, because that’s what Sylvia said.
I could write a treatise on what is wrong with this statement, but instead I’ll just let it speak for itself.
Some might argue that Sylvia is committing malpractice by giving such specific advice and claiming to know what she is talking about. Really, though, it reminds me of the guy who paid for his lunch at a Dairy Queen just down the road with a $200 bill with George Bush’s picture on it. They couldn’t call it counterfeiting, they said, because no reasonable person would believe that it was real.
In reading the info on Randi’s site, I’m confused about one thing. Randi has offered to let Sylvia know the identities of the people involved in the test, and give her their contact information. What’s to prevent her from contacting these people beforehand and arranging their testimony, so to speak?
If they’re already sympathetic to Sylvia, they might do this and lie about it later, to “prove” she has psychic powers.
It felt like she was wishing death on him or trying to curse him.
Did Radni ever get back to that Turd Jerker Lary King with the results of the test? cause ole Lar didn’t say anything on his next show.
