Chicago’s city council recently choked its own foie gras ban it had imposed back in April 2006. More on that shortly, but first, an appropriately gruesome video for your consideration:

(edit: Apparently the video originally posted was removed from YouTube, so I’ve replaced it with two more.)

Mayor Richard Daley had called the ban the “silliest ordinance” the city council ever passed and said it made Chicago “the laughingstock of the nation.”

I agree it was a silly ordinance, attempting to single out the sale of a product in a small area detached from the actual production of it, which is the real issue. It was met largely with disdain from Chicago restaurants or ignored, and some sold it nonetheless or “gave it away,” facing no punishment greater than a warning.

“I thought it was us sticking our nose in something we probably shouldn’t have even been in,” Alderman Dick Mell told the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper, adding that veal calves and chickens also suffer in confinement.

“There’s some cruelty out there, folks.”

Dick has a point. Why single out one product while the rest of the meat industry plods on with equally debatable ethics?

I think French foie gras distributor Ariane Daguin summed the issue up quite nicely with a quote in this interesting article by Marshall Sella, Does a Duck Have a Soul?:

“Animals have no soul. God made ducks to have that liver—and He made it incredibly delicious! Why would it exist if not for us to enjoy it?”

At 3:21, after a particularly awful, embarrassing cold-reading streak, Todd gets a lucky break from the Lord, who announces to him, apparently, something like “Todd, there’s someone here who got struck by lightning in the late ’70s/early ’80s… somewhere in there.. No later than 1982. This is urgent stuff.” Todd eagerly calls this “word of knowledge” out, and sure enough, someone off-camera comes forward. (It was 1978, it turns out.)

Now, at 4:25, you first see a well-built, healthy-looking man in a gray shirt standing just to Todd’s left. This guy looms nearby, in a disinterested sort of way, looking around and occasionally picking at his face. At 5:38, Todd turns to him and says, “Now. Did anything unusual start happening in your life that you can—really be aware of since you were struck by that lightnin’ bolt?”

“Yeah, uh, I can’t wear a watch,” replies this guy nervously. “[Something] battery-operated watch, I have too much elect—I guess, reverse current in me—”

What??? He showed up at this miracle healing conference because he’s been electrically charged for the last 30 years and can’t wear a watch?

Notice a grinning Todd trying to suppress a laugh. He covers his mouth with his hand a time or two before getting antsy and interrupting the guy by launching into some prophecy about how God is going to do something unique and amazing with Psalm 29.

Lightning Facts — An MD explains that those bizarre effects you sometimes hear of being caused by lightning are mythical

When lightning strikes people or Lightning Effects — lists of real effects of lightning on humans.

The Claim: A Person Struck by Lightning Retains a Charge —Spoiler: the verdict is “false.” Even for minutes or even seconds, no charge will be retained.

All this info, combined with the fact that the gray-shirted man’s face is never shown, spells out “p-l-a-n-t,” blatant and bold. I’d wager it’s one of his own staff. Bad cold reading, unprepared plants, silly power words (“Boom-bah!”), bad acting, awkward and unconvincing stage presence… This guy was just bad at what he did and would never have lasted a minute under critique from most secular mentalists and stage hypnotists. He may have improved somewhat since.

The purpose of this new blog:

• To provide a personal outlet for my views, observations, and ideas, mostly concerning science, philosophy, theology, religion, etc.
• To shed rational light on matters of pseudoscience, popular myths and scams, and more.
• To provide a place of interaction and discussion for anyone of any views or perspectives… questions and dissent are welcome.
• To learn.