So, just what are we talking about?

[kandrathe]

You are willing to accept a tie between al Qaeda and Iraq on the basis of a few doubtful self serving statements by professional liars ...

I am unwilling to dismiss everything I might find against my beliefs as self serving statements of professional liars. If corroborated by other sources, the unlikely can sometimes be the truth.

...you don't care to accept the evidence of years of study by reputable scientists.

I would hardly call the professional scoffing of "The Skeptical Inquirer" as reputable scientists. One I saw was a professor of psychology, others are writers. I notice they stay clear of any mention of the hard to debunk stuff. Actually, I was uncertain exactly what "glaring evidence" was referring to, though. Paranormal phenomena, then. Well, certainly quite a few charlatans, profiteering psychics, and snake oil salesmen unmasked. But, just because there are all these tricksters trying to get rich off scams and the superstitious, does not mean I'm ready to dismiss everything.

The collective "paranormal phenomena exists" can be demonstrated by showing in a controlled and reproducible fashion that any one of those phenomena exist. If has been any such demonstration, then it has not come to my attention in spite of many years of interest in the subject. Every attempt at demonstrating paranormal phenomena to date has either failed (the practitioner or demonstrator could not, often with repeated attempts, bring the phenomenon about) or it turned out to have a simple scientific explanation.

Yes. I agree that the bulk of psychic, spoon bending, ESP, astral projecting paranormal crap is nonsense. I'm not sure I can buy the mass hallucination explanation though. How would that work? If Nessy had been observed by multiple credible persons over many months, well, then I'd have to revise my thoughts on it. It seems to me though that tricks of light on waves explains it pretty well.

The selective BS detector as you call it, is what I call leaving room for doubt. When "The Amazing Randi" claims to be bending spoons with his mind, I'm right with you on the skeptical -- let's get some controls on this and see if it's a hoax.