Friday, October 30, 2020

Another Former Embassy Employee Prosecuted; Limits of the Polygraph Exposed Yet Again


A former U.S. Embassy employee from Mexico City has been charged with a string of sexual predator offenses, as detailed in today's NYT story. The circumstances are highly reminiscent of a similar case from 2010, including the fact that both employees had been polygraphed multiple times without the exams detecting any criminal behavior. 

From the NYT story:
In a petition arguing that Mr. Raymond should not be held in custody, Mr. Kirby said that Mr. Raymond had taken more than 10 polygraph tests and had passed every one of them, including a recent one, which addressed the allegations against him.
So, what's the problem with the polygraph? It's almost like it doesn't work, or something. 

The polygraph was the invention of one William Marston, psychologist, lawyer, and cartoonist, who created both the polygraph and Wonder Woman - with her Golden Lasso of Truth - out of a stew of bondage fetishism, woman's suffrage, birth control, moral panic, feminism, and polyamory. 

It's a story far too strange for fiction. Please read The Secret History of Wonder Woman by the fine historian Jill Lapore, which also has a movie version. You can thank me later. 

Does Wonder Woman's Golden Lasso of Truth really work? Let us say that it works as well as the polygraph.

---------------------------------

P.S. I'd forgotten just how good The Secret History of Wonder Woman really is, but this blurb sums it up nicely:
“Even non-comix nerds (or those too young to remember Lynda Carter) will marvel at Jill Lepore’s deep dive into the real-world origins of the Amazonian superhero with the golden lasso. The fact that a polyamory enthusiast created her partly as a tribute to the reproductive-rights pioneer Margaret Sanger is, somehow, only the fourth or fifth most interesting thing in Ms. Woman’s bizarre background.” — New York Magazine

  

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

TSB: That's one where I would rather see the movie than read the book. Yesterday HL Mencken's "In Defense of Women" arrived in the mail. It is a series of essays covering his views on women. (47 of them). In Ch.32-Voting - he describes suffragettes as the worst kind of women who as the age and gain political power will become just like old men in politics devoted to nothing but preserving their power and wealth; turning politics into a creaking, failing machine that has lost all purpose or ability to even remember those crusaders who brought it about. (Susan Collins?, "If you see something, say something" of Arizona? I thing he was on to something. gwb

Anonymous said...

TSB: I'm sure Joe and Obama would have loved to have a sizeable crowd standing behind them in Detroit yesterday at the final campaign event, but I just checked the livestream and besides about 40 women on the left side the huge signs behind the big names featured only one message: "DON'T BOO, VOTE! (I wonder if Obama approved that message? lol He seemed a little anxious to escape once he saw it.

https://youtu.be/Tc0Gb6coKKQ The music was good though! I was hoping to see Gretchen Whitmer but I guess she was stuck at home? gwb

Anonymous said...

TSB:Nate Silver Hedges On Biden Win After Trump Draws Megacrowds In Pennsylvania
Watch: Caravan Of Vehicles For Trump Shut Down New Jersey Highway
Watch: Caravan Of Vehicles For Trump Shut Down New Jersey Highway
Watch: Young Minority Trump Voters Respond To Being Called "Traitors"'
I think this anti-media, anti-Biden backlash is what they call a fad. It was warm and sunny at the beach today with only 2 kids with one couple. I guess everyone was zonked out from all that candy.
Nate Silver is a character. Biden went from a 95% winner to and "UNDERDOG IF HE LOOSES PENNSYLVANIA in just 3 days with an endorsement from the Pittsburgh paper and big crowds for Trump. How come tiny crowds never mattered before? gwb
Even Fauci is campaigning for Biden.

TSB said...

GWB: Those *are* some mega rallies. About 58,000 in Butler PA. The LT. GOV in Penn posted a photo of that one to goose Dem. voters to turn out.

Anonymous said...

TSB: First results are in: Biden wins Dixville Notch 5-0 ... looks like 3 must have died since last time but this could election could be a landslide. gwb
Watching Crystal and Sagar is my favorite entertainment of the day. Happy election day to you!

TSB said...

GWB: The iconic Dixville Notch vote. I understand the place isn't a town but a now-closed hotel, whose owner staged the first-in-the-nation-vote thing as a publicity gimmick. The other tiny NH town - Milsford? - went for Trump 16 to 5.

Anonymous said...

TSB: That is definitely media bias not advertising Milsford results on election day morning. I heard a lot of media bias yesterday online especially from the ones who think "POLICY" actually matters to voters or candidates.
A "sex education referendum " passed in WA by a 2-1 margin for the first time ever. That is real progress what with there being so many more sexes to learn about and this new "Intentional Learning".
“This is a fraud on the American public, this is an embarrassment to our country... We’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court..." Well, we don't know who won the election yet but I think we have an idea who will be deciding it.
gwb

Anonymous said...

TSB:https://youtu.be/oaczmYL9dms

Huge Dem turnout!! and signs and pamphlets all over telling you who to vote for in Phillie and Wisconsin.
Fill out your scan form with permanent marker or pen and we will put it in for you later. Volunteer poll checkers not allowed in.

Anonymous said...

TSB: They are finding lots of crazy voting irregularities in MI, WI,PA like batches of post-dated ballots, 98% turnouts for Biden, 0% Trump but most voters in the above states don't realize their voters have been disenfranchised by their state governments. So your state government in these states is bound to do that regardless of any kind of hi-jinx that happens in terms of running the election. This was the D response to Al Gore's defeat.
That's why Biden didn't have to campaign, Trump is screwed and Biden is working on his transition team before the ballots are counted. gwb (Ohio will be next to join)

National Popular Vote Interstate Compact: As of November 2020, it has been adopted by fifteen states and the District of Columbia. These states have 196 electoral votes, which is 36% of the Electoral College and 73% of the 270 votes needed to give the compact legal force.

TSB said...

GWB: The NPV Interstate Compact is premised on state legislators willingly appointing electors to NOT vote according to their particular states' vote, so I always assumed it's a non-starter. However, there is a double edge to that sword: nothing would stop the legislature in Pennsylvania - where both houses are majority Republican - from declaring the vote count has been irremediably compromised by the illegal actions of their Attorney General (who violated a U.S. Supreme Court order to isolate late-arriving ballots pending litigation) and election officials in Phily, and then appointing EC electors who are committed to Trump.

Heads would explode, but so what? BTW, Republicans control both houses in many of the states that have voting 'irregularities.' Trump could skip the lawsuits and just go to the legislatures.

Meanwhile, I gotta love how the vote counting stops in states where Trump is leading, and the ballot fairy visits every night to drop off more Biden votes.


Anonymous said...

TSB: LoL! There seems to be a civil war breaking out among Nancy Pelosi's flock of Democrats!
Crying, screaming, leaking ... calling for her ouster (by somebody else of course). Evidently they haven't been able to dislodge a single Republican despite tons of money and wildly optimistic polling data.
Then there is a new rumor about watermarks on the ballots:
Stories began circulating last night about the official ballots being watermarked. This looks like it is true! (not me saying that) The watermark is detectable under 640nm wavelength and also the individual printers of the ballots have the same micro dot signature so fraudulent ballots will be easy to detect and investigate. All printers have a micro dot signature that is like a fingerprint for that specific printer. Every ballot, real or fake, can be traced back to the source. This could get very interesting… The National Guard Emergency expires tomorrow night in Portland
but I'm starting to doubt that. gwb

Anonymous said...

The ballot fairy lololol
Sennacherib

Anonymous said...

It's interesting that there is almost no pretense to what is being done.
Sennacherib

Ps. The lawsuits I believe are unexpected by the Left and can go in very unexpected directions. I think the Left just assumed Trump would quietly go away. Trump will probably still lose but this is interesting.

Anonymous said...

TSB: And under the category: They are all lying!: NHS Nurse Publicly Resigns, Blasts COVID Lockdown Policy: The nurse then revealed how she received an email from her bosses demanding an explanation as to why she was being critical of official COVID policy and that people were “reporting” her.
“Unfortunately I can’t lie anymore,” said the nurse, explaining how she took a screenshot of internal hospital data showing there were just three people across three hospitals in the region infected with COVID.
The total deaths from these three hospitals across the last 7 months is just 76 people, roughly 10 deaths a month, according to the nurse, who questioned why it was necessary for her region to go into lockdown given such sparse figures. Good for her!! And I here Mark Meadows
infected 7 people at the WH Election Party. Now he's really famous!! gwb

Anonymous said...

TSB: It's starting to look like Uncle Joe pulled a fast one on Trump in Milwaukie. Here’s some damning analysis of the city’s vote from Jack Cashill of AmericanThinker.com:(short excerpt)“The most striking feature of the data is a fact that cries out for clarification: In seven wards, voter turnout appears to have exceeded [registrations by] 100 percent. In two of those wards, turnout exceeded 200 percent. In another 15 wards, voter turnout exceeded 95 percent. Joe Biden carried 21 of the 22 wards of the 95-plus-percent wards. But then again, he carried all but one of the 67 additional wards in which the turnout was above 90 percent and won 80 percent of the vote citywide. In 25 wards, Biden received 97 percent or more of the vote, none higher than 98 percent. Based on exit polls, it is highly likely that these were overwhelmingly black districts. No other demographic could produce those numbers.” (That is just for starters!) gwb https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/11/milwaukee_officials_have_some_explaining_to_do.html

Anonymous said...

TSB: TSB: The best news I've heard in a long time is that Tulsi Gabbard has launched a new organization! I immediately joined it. She says: "We have a lot of work to do so let's get started!" She is soon finished with politics and can continue or retire as a soldier in 2021, but her interests and talents are far wider... kids, environment, martial arts, spiritual values national security, patriotism and family. She did a great job of showing how rotten DC is. I think she will be doing podcasts soon while the economy goes into depression and economic warfare. www.tulsigabbard.com gwb

Anonymous said...

TSB: As President "Most Electable" Joe Biden kept reminding us he headed the task force to try to find a cure for cancer!: Tax filings reveal Biden cancer charity spent millions on salaries, zero on research. Biden brought in only the best and the brightest to his task force... his own former aides. Greg Simon, former executive director of the White House cancer task force and Pfizer Board Member...After only two years, the charity “paused” its operations when Biden and his wife stepped down for Joe Biden’s presidential run.
And then, a couple weeks ago Greg Simon came up with a miracle vaccine for Covid-19, cashed in his options and made a fortune! It just goes to show you that sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. I can't believe how many times this scam has succeeded. gwb
https://nypost.com/2020/11/14/biden-cancer-initiative-spent-millions-on-payroll-zero-on-research-report/

TSB said...

GWB: Tulsi Gabbard finished with politics? When they get Potomac Fever it's usually chronic. She did such a deadly job of taking K.Harris out of the primary, that I just expect she isn't finished quite yet.

Anonymous said...

TSB: Hqppy Thanksgiving! If you can believe it, Newsom has decided to limit Thanksgiving to a two hour “outdoor event”

https://youtu.be/rDlEx-Tvruo Tulsi's annual "DiWali Message" 2:28

Whatever Tulsi is up to, I support it! Doesn't sound like politics though. gwb

TSB said...

GWB: I think that message from Tulsi is a hint about how she'll proceed in Democratic politics now, splitting the difference between the old (now extinct) moderates and Marianne Williamson-ism hippie-Hinduism. The first time I ever heard of her was when she tweeted something about "Lord Rama," so this annual message is nothing new.

I haven't seen her cashing in as a media commentator yet, so I think her political career is still active.

Anonymous said...

TSB: A week ago Fauci said people who get the new vaccines should still have to wear masks and socially distance. This week over a million Americans are traveling for Thanksgiving. And Portugal's Supreme Court has struck down travel bans based on PCR testing because scientific studies show they indicate a Sars-Cov2 infection only 3-5% of the time.
This information has been available since June but it is being ignored by the US media and manipulated by the "scientists" here for profit. Everyone is rushing to get tested but a positive test mostly means you probably defeated the virus with little or no chance of spreading it to others. Of course if you tell this to someone at home they will not want anything to do with you. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/portuguese-court-rules-pcr-tests-unreliable-quarantines-unlawful
From my point of view this also means little chance of catching the flu or even a cold this winter because everyone is wearing a mask and distancing and got a flu shot. Tulsi Gabbard and Nina Turner did a Podcast yesterday talking about the dangers of the new nuclear weapons push warned about by Kennedy in 1963. I can't find that podcast but then our media is censored and if you don't know or care about something it can't hurt you. Right? gwb

TSB said...

GWB: I didn't find that podcast eitner, but I do know Gabbard has often spoken about nuclear weapons. Well if we don't have nukes, how are we going to fight China in defense of Japan's national interests? Answer me that.

Anonymous said...

TSB: lol I'm against nuclear war and I have never watched the Emmy Awards, but I hear Andrew Cuomo has won this year for his press conferences! That has to be a first. I'll be sure to get his new book though because I'm sure he will reveal his plan to avoid nuclear disaster by listening to the scientists. gwb

TSB said...

GWB: Listen to the scientists?? That's how we GOT nukes in the first place. I wish "The Scientists" would make up their minds about nukes.

Anonymous said...

TSB: Patrick Byrne is the guy who started Overstock.com. Before that he made a couple billion dollars as a financier and then as a financial fraud investigator. Today he was talking with Dave Janda for the first time about the election: Patrick Byrne: Dissecting The Electronic Steal: Byrne hired a bunch of hackers and computer experts starting in July 2020 to investigate and document how the election was stolen (he was sure it would be-this is sort of a hobby for him now) So he has almost a 6 month head start on J Powell. His conclusion at this point is that it only required changing votes in 5 counties across the country to assure Biden
an overwhelming victory. So it is clear to me that the American people will will have the lawsuits and judgements that will show how easy this particular steal was to pull off. gwb
https://youtu.be/5fs3tKtmiEA