November 2008 Archives

The top-rated new show on American television this season is a rarity; it's a show that admits that all psychics are frauds, or at best deluded.

Not only does it admit it, it practically shouts it.

What a refreshing show in a medium that normally touts the likes of the evil fraud Sylvia Browne.

The series stars Simon Baker as a former television psychic, whose shenanigans ended up getting his family killed. So now he uses his powers of observation along with lots of old carny tricks to aid law enforcement.

In one sense it's just a standard tv crime drama.

But nearly every episode features some delicious dialog proclaiming the non-existence of real psychics.

In a recent New York Times interview the series creator, Bruno Heller, talks about "The Mentalist":

Take, for instance, the show’s unabashed message that television psychics in the vein of John Edward are shams. “The show is not directed at him particularly,” Mr. Heller said. “You name the TV psychic — they’re con men. I can say that with complete confidence because John Edward is not going to sue anyone for libel on that score. The reason I know that is because the techniques he uses are those carnival psychics and soothsayers have been using for hundreds of years.” (Asked for a response from Mr. Edward, his publicist sent an e-mail message: “No comment.”)

Howdy Doody was the first television show that I watched faithfully. One of the prime reasons was Buffalo Bob. Here's a clip from an interview in 1997.

I just wanted to add that I did indeed vote for Obama, just as I said I would a couple months ago. That didn't change.

What did change is that I've warmed up to him considerably in the intervening weeks, and I can now say that I voted for him enthusiastically. Basically, he became much more of a populist in these last few months.

Whatever the outcome of the election, for so many reasons this has been a historic campaign, one that I never thought I'd see in my lifetime.

It makes me just a bit more hopeful about the future of this country.

And now I'd better stop, or my curmudgeonly side will start to offer opinions about McCain and Palin, and I try to keep this a family-friendly site.

Nate Silver gives Ten Reasons Why You Should Ignore Exit Polls.

In a nutshell, they have wider margins of error, they overstate the Democratic vote, "leaked" exit polls may be completely bogus, and you'll know the actual results soon enough anyway!

The other day I was talking to my neighbor about the election.

Her elderly mother is in a nursing home so she obtained an absentee ballot for her.

"She's voted in every election that she could, so I thought I'd just let her pick for herself. I read off the list of nominees and she picked Bob Barr.

"I think she mixed him up with Bob Barker."

That's not a bad reason compared to some that I've heard over the years.

Anyway, Bob Barker and Bob Barr are, of course, very different.

One's an American game show icon who has become a laughing stock in his old age, and the other is Bob Barker.

So I went to my polling place early today, around 7:30am.

And I saw something that I've never seen before.

There was a line. Where there never was a line!

Not a very long line by some standards, but a line nevertheless. I'd guess about 40 to 50 people were ahead of me.

I'd have done better by going a bit later, as when I left about 20 minutes later, there were only about 20 people behind me.

There was a potential problem with the voting procedure, however.

When you arrive, you are supposed to sign in and let the voting officials verify your registration. Then you get in line.

Normally there's no problem with this because typically there are only about four or five people (at most) waiting to vote. But today the line snaked around into another room, so there was no way for the voting officials to keep track of everyone.

It would have been possible for someone to sneak into the line without signing in.

Now the folks in line were doing their own vetting ("Did you sign in?") so I suspect it would be difficult for a significant number of people to vote without signing in.

But not impossible.

Just got a call from my sister. She lives in Dover, PA. You know, the town that tried to force the teaching of creationism in its schools, which resulted in a major trial that ultimately vindicated the forces of reason (i.e., evolution and science).

Anyway, she called me from her polling place a little before 7am. She said she's never seen anything like it. Over 300 people already in line, and more people are streaming in. It sounds like a madhouse.