Get Cynical

Aka known as The Barnum Effect:

The Forer effect (also called personal validation fallacy or the Barnum effect after P. T. Barnum’s observation that ‘we’ve got something for everyone’) is the observation that individuals will give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people. The Forer effect can provide a partial explanation for the widespread acceptance of some pseudosciences such as astrology and fortune telling, as well as many types of personality tests.

A related and more generic phenomenon effect is that of subjective validation (Marks, 2000, p. 41). Subjective validation occurs when two unrelated or even random events are perceived to be related because a belief, expectancy, or hypothesis demands a relationship. Thus people seek a correspondence between their perception of their personality and the contents of a horoscope.

Simpsons or South Park?

The Seinfeld Dictionary of Terms and Phrases.

It’s like having a five year old as president. If only the Democrats had a majority in Congress………

President Bush yesterday warned Democrats that if they do not confirm his attorney general nominee, Michael B. Mukasey, the U.S. might have no attorney general for the remainder of his term.

The president painted the nomination as a key part of the war on terror during two talks in a day during which two of the Democratic Party’s most prominent senators publicly announced their opposition to the Mukasey nomination based on his unwillingness to declare an interrogation technique called “waterboarding” to be torture and thus illegal.

Mr. Bush, while refusing to discuss or confirm any techniques, said Mr. Mukasey has not been briefed on classified government interrogation programs and should not be expected to give his legal opinion about such things.

“It’s wrong for congressional leaders to make Judge Mukasey’s confirmation dependent on his willingness to go on the record about the details of a classified program he has not been briefed on,” Mr. Bush said in a speech yesterday afternoon at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

Thanks to Pam for sending in a picture of the Cynikitty model in grey:

I ran across your site a while back…..we now have a kitten that looks just
like cynikitty but gray instead of black, even has one front leg with gray
like cynikitty’s black markings on front leg……this pic only shows smug,
content face….

That’s the catch with free speech. It requires that all speech be protected, no matter how vile we think it may be.

Leading constitutional scholars say the multimillion-dollar damages awarded this week to the father of a Marine killed in Iraq is likely to be overturned because the church members who protested at his son’s funeral enjoy broad protection under the First Amendment.

On Wednesday, a jury in federal District Court in Baltimore found in favor of Albert Snyder, the Marine’s father. Jurors unanimously agreed that the Snyders’ privacy had been breached by members of Westboro Baptist Church, who assembled on public property in Westminster on March 10, 2006, and waved anti-gay signs.

As mourners for Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder drove by, members of the fundamentalist Christian church based in Topeka, Kan., held up signs, including one reading, “Thank God for dead soldiers.” They contend that the deaths are punishment for America’s tolerance of homosexuality and of gays in the military.

The $10.9 million verdict marked the first successful civil claim against Westboro, whose congregants have picketed at military funerals across the country.

But First Amendment experts expressed doubt whether the verdict against Westboro would survive review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, in Richmond, Va.

“I have spoken to a number of First Amendment attorneys today, and every one of them believes the case will be reversed and should be reversed,” said Ronald K.L. Collins of the First Amendment Center in Washington.

Three adults and four children from Westboro picketed the Snyder funeral. Westboro lawyers contend that the demonstration, about 1,000 feet from St. John Roman Catholic Church, took place legally.

From BreitBart.com:

The number of foreign visitors to the United States has plummeted since the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington because foreigners don’t feel welcome, tourism professionals said Thursday.

“Since September 11, 2001, the United States has experienced a 17 percent decline in overseas travel, costing America 94 billion dollars in lost visitor spending, nearly 200,000 jobs and 16 billion dollars in lost tax revenue,” the Discover America advocacy campaign said in a statement.

Chairman Stevan Porter lamented the “extraordinary decline” in the number of overseas visitors to the United States, while the advocacy group’s executive director, Geoff Freeman, blamed the slump on the shabby welcome many foreigners feel they get in the United States.

“It’s clear what’s keeping people away in the post-9/11 environment: it is the perception around the world that travelers aren’t welcome,” Freeman told AFP.

“Travelers around the world feel the US entry experience is among the world’s worst,” Freeman said, calling on the US government to work with the private sector to make visa acquisition more efficient, the entry process traveler-friendly, and to improve communication.