More on the Cleveland kidnappings: psychics
We still don’t know too many of the details about yesterday’s remarkable case in which three kidnapped girls, long thought dead, returned. But one thing I do know is that the timing of their escape is excellent—Mother’s Day is coming!
But unfortunately for one of them, Amanda Berry and her family, her mother didn’t live to see this day. Berry’s mother Louwana Miller died in 2006 at the age of 44 from complications of pancreatitis. Well-known TV psychic Sylvia Browne had told her back in 2004 that Amanda was dead, and her mother said that after that she “lost it” (meaning, lost hope that her daughter was alive).
But don’t sit on a hot stove waiting for an apology from Browne. And I bet her admirers will be making excuses for her. Too bad Browne couldn’t have done something useful, like key into where Berry and the others really were so that they might have been found earlier.
It’s not the first time for Browne, either:
Browne is a particularly loathsome example of the genre, IMHO. If you go to YouTube and do a search for her name, you’ll find any number of stupid screw-ups of hers. Why is this woman still appearing on TV and raking in the money? Human beings are both vulnerable and gullible, that’s why—but Browne doesn’t even have a decent bedside manner, so it’s hard to figure out on what her popularity might be based. I hope that this incident with Berry will make some sort of a dent in the number of people who will be Browne’s victims in the future.
[NOTE: More about cold readings and how they work here, with many links.]
[ADDENDUM: More here.]
The best way to undermine con artists and totalitarian governments is to steal away their clients and slaves by providing them an alternative, better service.
Same concept applies in counter insurgencies. Wiping out enemies, crooks, criminals, and Leftists will never resolve the issue. Only replacing them with a working system and defending it, will.
Of course, often to replace a system dominated by Leftists, most of them must be executed and purified due to necessity. Humans are stubborn like that.
Once you believe in ‘nothing’ (nihilism, atheism, etc), you will believe in anything.
Boy, I hope this doesn’t come off as blaming the victim, because anyone can be vulnerable and fall for something they wouldn’t in calmer, stronger moments. I know I’ve been less than rational at some times myself. But that said, I can’t help but think that part of the issue was the mother’s belief in Sylvia Browne’s statements about Amanda. Had she not taken her word for it, had she recognized a charlatan for what one was, then sure, she still would’ve have suffered from her daughter being gone for all those years, but at least she wouldn’t have suffered from anything Browne said.
Again, though, I want to distinguish between noting the issue and implying that it was the mother’s fault. It was not. Browne preys upon people, and the mother was definitely a victim, no question. She doesn’t bear fault at all for Browne’s behavior. But, a little bit of intellectual self defense could’ve shielded her from one source of pain. That’s all I’m trying to say here.
E.M.H.:
Browne seems like a vulture to me. At least now she’s getting quite a bit of flak for this. Good.
As far as Berry’s mom goes, people undergoing this sort of thing—one of the worst things that can happen to a human being, in my opinion—are intensely vulnerable.