The polygraph does actually have a legitimate use for law enforcement. It doesn’t have to actually work: The suspect just has to think it works. If the suspect thinks that it works, then the threat of a “lie detector” test might scare the suspect into an (admissible in court) confession.
Of course, you don’t actually need to have a polygraph to do this, either. There’s one famous case where the police got a confession out of a guy using a colander and a copy machine printing out the words “He’s lying”. As has been observed many times, most criminals are stupid.
I love this story, it keeps getting better and better. The internet detectives are having a field day with it. Someone posted a screenshot from Google Maps showing the ATM in question. It is ten feet from the curb on a busy street with no alleys or even cover for anyone to hide from view at 9 PM on a Wednesday.
I expect a teary retraction any time now. The McCain camp must be telling her that Friday afternoons are the best time to let out bad news.
I hope she is both ridiculed, and that the McCain campaign removes her from anything having to do with the election, and that she gets the mental help she so clearly needs.
I’ll refrain from further commenting until much much later.
The effect was potentially nasty, sure. But this is clearly an unwell person. She deserves pity and support, and now thanks to the Internet, her life will be exponentially more difficult.
Assholes at the RNC mocked Kerry’s purple heart by putting bandaids on with purple hearts drawn on them. I don’t think any of the people doing that had seen a day of combat. McCain should be disgusted to now have these guys as his base.
Interesting blog post, made last night, from the Executive Vice President of FOX News:
I certainly hope McCain loses the election, but i don’t think that this should be the reason. I’ve never believed that politicians (or anyone else, for that matter) should be held responsible for actions beyond their control.
See the little sparkly purple heart there? Four years ago, Republicans were going after John Kerry’s Purple Heart decorations by saying he faked the injuries or didn’t earn them because his injuries weren’t serious. That’s a chunk of why I still think the 2004 campaign was nastier than this one.
Dam, I missed my chance to post about the “B” yesterday. It looked like it was done with a razor (I’ve seen kids who do the cutting thing}. If it was done with a knife it would have been much worse.
Perhaps, although I don’t particularly feel like I owe her any support, myself. I may pity her, in an abstract sense, but right now I remain more angry at her disparagement of African Americans, Pittsburgh, and Obama supporters.
But about the Internet, wasn’t she counting on using the internet to spread her story in order to damage Obama’s campaign? Reportedly, the police didn’t take that picture that was all over the place last night. Why should I be upset about the Internet and its effect on her life, when that was the very tool she was trying to use to wreak her damage on others?
