RIP James Randi

nivek

As Above So Below
:huh8::ohmy8::laugh8:

Psychic Already Sick Of Spectral James Randi Ragging On Her From Afterlife

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MIAMI—Struggling to mentally close herself off from the recently deceased skeptic, local psychic Rosemary Shanley confirmed Thursday she was already sick of James Randi’s specter haunting her place of business and ragging on her from the afterlife.

“I’m sitting here with my crystal ball trying to see into the future, and it’s hard enough without the ghost of James Randi hovering in front of me and whispering that I’m a fraud and a huckster,” said Shanley, adding that she tried to banish the spirit of the famed debunker and stage magician by sprinkling holy water throughout the room, but the Amazing Randi just scoffed and called the ritual “easily disproved theatrics.”

“What’s worse is that he’s taken to appearing before my clients and showing them how he can do everything I can do using nothing more than simple trickery. I was impressed when he first showed up and appeared to roll a pencil across my desk using only his mind, but then he insisted it was basic misdirection and called me a dumbass for believing in psychic powers. That dude needs to get off my case and go heckle some other clairvoyant.”

At press time, sources from the beyond confirmed Randi had taken possession of Shanley’s body and was attempting to locate Uri Geller.


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nivek

As Above So Below
The man who destroyed skepticism

Last week marked the death at age 92 of James "The Amazing" Randi, a stage magician who became internationally famous as a skeptic — indeed Randi rebooted the term "skepticism" as a response to the boom in psychical claims and research in the post-Woodstock era. Today, thousands of journalists, bloggers and the occasional scientist call themselves skeptics in the mold set by Randi. Over the past decade, the investigator himself was heroized in documentaries, profiles, and, now, obituaries. A Guardian columnist eulogized him as the "prince of reason."

I mourn Randi's passing for those who loved him, and there were many. But his elevation to the Mount Rushmore of skepticism obfuscates a basic truth. In the end, the feted researcher was no skeptic. He was to skepticism what Senator Joseph McCarthy was to anticommunism — a showman, a bully, and, ultimately, the very thing he claimed to fight against: a fraud. This has corroded our intellectual culture — in a Trumpian age when true skepticism is desperately needed.


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