Friday, October 17, 2008

Fortune tellers and politics

Saera Kahn is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party of Norway. Recently she was forced to resign over a bunch of phones calls (793 to be precise) she made to fortune-tellers. The total amount comes to approximately $7500,00 CDN. Should we be surprized by this? I am not. After all Nancy Reagan hired Joan Quigley, an astrologer to advise the president on such important things as Air Force One flight schedules. Here is what I found on THIS SITE:




  • She devised elaborate horoscope charts that showed dates and times - down to the last minute - that were both good and bad for the president. Nancy would provide Quigley with the president's itinerary, she would calculate the times most advantageous for success, and then Nancy would pass along the scheduling requirements to the White House staff.
  • She contributed to the timing of international summits, presidential announcements and even the flight schedule of Air Force One.
  • Shortly after Reagan was shot by John Wayne Hinckley, Nancy learned through Merv Griffin that Quigley had told him that Reagan's chart showed that this would be a bad day for him. She could have warned him that his life was in danger. Of course, this was after the fact of the shooting.
  • Nancy Reagan had special private phone lines installed in the White House and at Camp David expressly for talking to Quigley.
  • "I was the Teflon in what came to be known as the Teflon presidency," Quigley later wrote, taking credit for the timing of his actions that would deflect criticism.
Normally, when people hear about psychics, astrologers and fortune-tellers, they laugh and make sure you know they do not believe it....but what they do is a different thing.

I guess my point is that we trust politicians, scientists and MD's with our economy, our future and our lives and then some of them ask for advice to a bunch of charlatans.....who should we trust?

Picture source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/designwallah/2414830087/

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