Psychic* Sylvia Browne Dies

[Amaris]

The asterisk is there because I wanted to identify exactly who this Sylvia Browne was supposed to be, using the title that made her well known, while also removing any credence that may be lent to such a title.

I know, I read your opening post, but I think my comment still stands.

Well, I wasn't going for that.

 

[Awesome Possum]

She preyed on innocent people in a moment of weakness for financial gain. Even worse they now associated her lies with their missing loved one instead of actual memories.

We're better off as a species without her and anyone like her.

 

[scotpens]

OK. Do you know when you’re going to die?

Yes. When I’m 88.

I'd say any psychic who can't even predict her own death accurately is a pretty crappy psychic.

. . . I really don't see the need for the asterisk though, seems a bit err... point-scorey, just imo.

The asterisk is there because I wanted to identify exactly who this Sylvia Browne was supposed to be, using the title that made her well known, while also removing any credence that may be lent to such a title.

An asterisk indicates, and links to, a footnote. Maybe putting "psychic" in ironic quotation marks would have been clearer.

 

[Amaris]

OK. Do you know when you’re going to die?

I'd say any psychic who can't even predict her own death accurately is a pretty crappy psychic.

. . . I really don't see the need for the asterisk though, seems a bit err... point-scorey, just imo.

The asterisk is there because I wanted to identify exactly who this Sylvia Browne was supposed to be, using the title that made her well known, while also removing any credence that may be lent to such a title.

An asterisk indicates, and links to, a footnote. Maybe putting "psychic" in ironic quotation marks would have been clearer.

There was a footnote.

 

[scotpens]

The asterisk is there because I wanted to identify exactly who this Sylvia Browne was supposed to be, using the title that made her well known, while also removing any credence that may be lent to such a title.

An asterisk indicates, and links to, a footnote. Maybe putting "psychic" in ironic quotation marks would have been clearer.

There was a footnote.

And you did use ironic quotes around the word "psychic." Twice.

However, there should be a linking asterisk thus:

*As a side note, I added an asterisk to the title of "Psychic" because while that was her well known profession, I do not believe in the supposed supernatural abilities of psychics, nor do I believe her to have been a "psychic" by any stretch of the word.

Sorry, don't mean to be a Punctuation Nazi.

 

[Brolan]

One of the local radio DJs played a pretty devastating series of clips where she was telling parents of missing children that their child was dead, then following up with the info they were found alive years later. The only word I can use to describe this is "despicable".

 

[auntiehill]

James Randi will probably have something really classy to say in the next day or so.

What he has said on his Facebook page

When Sylvia Browne died, Montel Williams offered this sappy eulogy:

"A beacon that shined [sic] for so many was extinguished today, but its brightness was relit and will now shine forever for many of us from above."

To explain to this apparently dense man where his judgment has reverted to the level of a 5-year-old, I’ll point out that Browne was not at all funny "ho-ho" but frightening – to anyone with any compassion. She fed eagerly on the insecurities, the grief, the need and desperation, of her victims. They turned to her for help, at great cost -- $850 for a 20-minute telephone chat as she squatted before the TV camera like a taloned Jabba the Hutt confronting Luke Skywalker – played by Montel – and graveled out anything-but-funny, unfounded, useless, and damaging pap that added to their confusion and pain – but which made Montel and his sponsors ecstatic, because they could hear those cash register sounds as their products slid off store shelves.

And she let 10+ years go by yet never tried for the JREF million-dollar prize, as she’d agreed to do when we both appeared together on Larry King Live so many years ago…

I agree with JREF President D.J. Grothe that we do not celebrate her death, even as we criticize the way she lived. But I’ll be quite frank with you, I cannot mourn at Browne’s passing — she really hurt far too many people, and always so unapologetically.

It's unfortunate that she only stopped hurting so many people by dying.

Incredibly accurate summary of her, and her ilk, I should think, although Mr. Randi was far more kind and restrained than I would have been.

 

[Amaris]

That would be because James Randi is a truly classy guy. I think it saddened him that this was the way it ended between the two of them.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

If she stolen all that money from out of people's purses during funerals I don't think people would be saying they were sad she died. What she did was actually much worse.

 

[Amaris]

If she stolen all that money from out of people's purses during funerals I don't think people would be saying they were sad she died. What she did was actually much worse.

I certainly agree there.

 

[Sector 7]

Same here, we must be psychic or something.

Me too. But then, I am a bad person...

Everyone thought this. Everyone.

Yep. I said the same thing when I saw the article. Give me the winning lottery numbers and I'll believe you're psychic... otherwise you're a fraud.

 

[Brolan]

All in all the saying "Good riddance to bad rubbish" covers it.

 

[JarodRussell]

I think psychics who do it for money should be arrested and fined. It's fraud.

RAMA

If you're good at something, never do it for free.

 

[Sector 7]

I think psychics who do it for money should be arrested and fined. It's fraud.

RAMA

If you're good at something, never do it for free.

Sylvia Browne was not good at it. None of them are good at it. That doesn't stop them from making a fortune doing it.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I think psychics who do it for money should be arrested and fined. It's fraud.

RAMA

If you're good at something, never do it for free.

being good at being bad is not an excuse to be bad!

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I think psychics who do it for money should be arrested and fined. It's fraud.

RAMA

If you're good at something, never do it for free.

Sylvia Browne was not good at it. None of them are good at it. That doesn't stop them from making a fortune doing it.

I dunno, seems to me she was pretty good at spinning bullshit people would pay for. That's a skill! And one a lot of people make money at, it seems.

 

[trekkiedane]

I dunno, seems to me she was pretty good at spinning bullshit people would pay for. That's a skill! And one a lot of people make money at, it seems.

I don't know if it counts as 'making money' but doesn't most of them get elected!

 

[Sector 7]

If you're good at something, never do it for free.

Sylvia Browne was not good at it. None of them are good at it. That doesn't stop them from making a fortune doing it.

I dunno, seems to me she was pretty good at spinning bullshit people would pay for. That's a skill! And one a lot of people make money at, it seems.

Good point. But, why aren't car salesmen billionaires?