So will this movie get our goats?

[onager]

Just in case you are one of the 2.5 people in the entire world who hasn't heard of it...

http://www.themenwhostareatgoatsmovie.com/#home

"The Men Who Stare at Goats," opening tomorrow.

Based on the hilarious previews, I'm really looking forward to seeing it. Clooney, Spacey and Bridges? I might even break my usual rule of waiting for it to come out on downlo...erm, I mean "DVD."

What I'm NOT looking forward to: the crackpots will be falling out of the woodwork with all their tired old BS claims about how they used their psychic powers for the CIA/Pentagon etc.

e.g., Joe McMoneagle. Who has made a whole career out of mouthing off about all the Double-Super-Secret government programs he worked on. (Whatever happened to the treason laws, anyway?)

The History Channel should get at least a 12-part series out of this. Psychic Warriors! Unfortunately, HC will NOT treat it as a joke.

And I don't even want to think about all the Vewy Speshul PsYkiK types who will be lining up at recruiting offices trying to join the First Earth Battalion (which was never activated and existed only in the alleged mind of one crackpot Lieutenant-Colonel. You can look it up.)

I was just reading one of the woo sites (link below) about this crap. It mentioned that the government spent TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS!!! investigating pSyKiK powers...

Over 20 years.

A measly million dollars A YEAR? The Pentagon probably spends more than that annually on staples.

Most of you probably know this, but one of the prime movers behind this idiocy was Sen. Claiborne Pell. Officially D-RI, but many of his Senate colleagues called him "The Senator From Mars."

http://www.remoteviewed.com/remote_viewing_history_military.htm

[realisticphish]

1. i suspect

that the CIA did all kinds of this shit. paranormal nonsense. Not to actually research it, they're not stupid. It was to make the RUSSIANS investigate it, to try to "keep up."

[salvorhardin]

3. I think you have it backwards

The Soviets did it and rather than risk falling behind in the "Psy Race", the CIA and military (Gen. Stubblebine anyone?) got into the fun and games too.

[TZ]

8. Actually they probably did take it seriously.

Considering how many police investigations actually consult psychics, I imagine the CIA really believed it to be real. I've met plenty of intelligent people who firmly believe in psychic abilities.

[onager]

15. I don't think many police depts. consult psychics

Though the psychics certainly love to plant that idea.

On TV I occasionally see a cop in uniform praising a psychic, but usually it's Sheriff Goober from East Jesus, Arkansas who hasn't seen a science book since he failed Third Grade for the fourth time.

Here in my 'hood, the L.A.P.D. actually did a study on using psychics. (I'm tempted to add "naturally," this being Los Angeles and all.)

The conclusion of that study: "It is important to note that no information that would have been investigatively useful, such as first and last names, licence plate numbers, apartment house locations etc. was accurately produced by any of the subjects."

And that's why the official L.A.P.D. position today is: "The LAPD has not, does not and will not use psychics in the investigation of crimes, period. If a psychic offers free information to us over the phone, we will listen to them politely, but we do not take them seriously. It is a waste of time." - (Dan Cooke, PR)

Some other responses:

United Kingdom: "Scotland Yard never approaches psychics for information. There are no official police psychics in England. The Yard does not endorse psychics in any way. There is no recorded instance in England of any psychic solving a criminal case or providing evidence or information that led directly to its solution." (Inspector Edward Ellidon)

Australia: Australian police have said that they do not accept assistance from psychics. This was in response to an Australian TV show "Sensing Murder" in which self-professed psychics attempt to crack unsolved murders.

Additionally, an unnamed Australian federal police officer was suspended following his seeking the aid of a "clairvoyant" in regards to death threats made against Prime Minister John Howard.

Above info swiped from various sites, but here's a good Yahoo thread on the subject:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061130151557AAQxAPl

[TZ]

16. some do...small ertown departments

I remember years ago a murder of a classmate here (as far as I know its still unsolved) hearing about a psychic consulting. I think maybe its more like the psychics volunteer to help instead of the police soliciting--but when there is a high pressure crime to be solved I think the police are willing to try anything....

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. And then sometimes they give in, and waste public money:

Psychic 'leads' prompt murder inquiry

Welsh police investigate information that mediums claim to have received from dead man's ghost

A police force has defended spending £20,000 investigating a man's death after his ghost was said to have told psychics that gangsters had forced him to drink petrol and bleach.

Carlos Assaf, 32, a baker, was found dead at his flat in Lampeter, west Wales, after a row with his girlfriend, Louise Edwards, 23, on 30 March.

An inquest this week recorded a verdict of suicide after hearing there was no evidence of foul play. However the coroner, Peter Brunton, queried the murder inquiry held after mediums tipped off police, suggesting that the words "lion, a horse and a man called Tony Fox" were significant. "There was a great deal of communication between the mediums and the police," he said. "A great deal of effort was expended in following these leads up."
...
A police source said: "We are becoming a laughing stock. We went haring across the country looking for a lion, a horse and someone called Fox based on info from cranks. Not surprisingly, it turned out to be a wild goose chase which cost at least £20,000 in time and resources."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/nov/06/police-psychic-leads-death-ghost

[uriel1972]

2. I wonder who the other 1.5 people are :)

I have the book, I suspect the movie won't be a documentary but a dramatization of certain parts. Not that I've seen the previews, so I wouldn't know for sure.

[onager]

4. Looks like it's being played as a comedy.

Which is just right. In one scene from the previews, a psychic-soldier at a wedding says: "I'm sorry it's not going to work out for you."

:rofl:

The previews remind me of the movie about Chuck Barris, "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind." Which also starred George Clooney as a crazy CIA agent, now that I think of it.

Barris claimed to be a CIA agent in his spare time, when he wasn't lowering American IQs with his crappy TV shows.

The producers really took his claims over the top, and it was hilarious. Barris is shown at a secret CIA training camp in the early Sixties. One of his fellow campers is Lee Harvey Oswald. And I think Che Guevara was in there, too.

Salvorhardin mentioned good ol' Gen. Stubblebine. That idiot is featured in the book, which I also got but have not read yet.

I did read the part where Stubblebine decided he could walk thru his office wall by aligning his molecules with the wall's molecules. And almost knocked himself unconscious. Bwah!

[charlie]

10. Here's old Stubbie on video

Still a believer, still thinks you can walk through walls. Has a nifty bent spoon collection, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RraLw0MIeY#t=4m0s

If you stay to the end of the video, you'll see that the Jedi gag was fortuitously based in reality. The Army's paranormal unit was called Project Jedi.

[Silent3]

12. That could be a bit dangerous...

...if it started to work, but then you lost your concentration on aligning your molecules part way through the wall. :evilgrin:

[charlie]

13. Or worse

Gravity. Stop your fall by "solidifying" under a couple hundred feet of dirt or burn up in the earth's mantle? What a pickle.

[mr blur]

5. Great book, doesn't need to be a movie.

[NMMNG]

6. I heard an ad for this the other day

I say 'heard' because I didn't bother to look up when it was on. The title alone sounded ridiculous. Now that I've read about it I see the rest of it sounds ridiculous. It seems to be what a former friend of mine would call "A waste of celluloid".

[Orrex]

7. I don't know

It looks to me as though it'll be pretty funny. Certainly none of the previews have given the impression that it's treating the subject seriously. Heck, Clooney's constipated psychic face alone tells me it'll be worth seeing. And Ewan MacGregor mocking the Jedi mind trick is a wonderful counterpoint to those awful little movies he was in a few years ago.

Sure, this will definitely kick up a bunch of "I Was There" zealots, and James van Praagh will be showing his ass all over the airwaves, but he was going to do that anyway.

[charlie]

9. I think I'm going to love this one

Nobody makes a more magnificent idiot than George Clooney ("Well, I don't want Fop, goddamn it! I'm a DAPPER DAN man!"). Cast him as a buffoon and I'm there.

[Warpy]

11. Same here

Plus, it's one of the films shot in my area, so I'll definitely watch it when it comes out on DVD.

Clooney has the same gift Cary Grant had for comedy.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

14. Cary Grant....you nailed it.

[Iggo]

17. Saw it today.

It was a little uneven, but it was real fun. Yes, it was dumb. Yes, it was ridiculous. And yes, many parts were fall down funny. I liked it.

[realisticphish]

19. was it credulous

or was it one of those movies where the wackiness makes it not even matter?