Rushin to sue

I wasn’t going to comment on this but reader Matthew emailed me to say

Skeptico, please tell me you're not going to let this one go... Marina Bai, astrologist, is suing NASA because they crashed one of their probes into a comet, thus screwing up her horoscope! It would be a crime to let this loon go unfisked, don't you think?

Well yes it would, although I note Randi pretty much fisked her today (I hope that isn’t rude in some European language).

Personally, I hope she does sue. Of course, she would have to prove that her fortune changed due to some change in this comet. So she would have to prove what her fortune was before, what it is now and how they differ, ie she would have to prove astrology works. She could have trouble doing that since, as we know, astrology doesn’t work. In fact, we know that astrology is just made-up nonsense. Still, I await her attempt to prove otherwise in a court of law.

Comments

[Rockstar]

Crazy astrologist vs. rocket scientists. Hmmm...wonder who'll win.

Kinda like Crazy Creationist vs. real scientist, right Red State Rabble?

[latibulum]

If her lawyer can get the right jury, she could win the first round.

[Joseph Thompson]

Since when did astrologers track small distant comets anyway? I've never seen anything like that on any chart.

Even if she gets the world's most credulous jury, she still has to point to a specific thing that it caused and prove that she predicted it beforehand. Not going to happen.

[tomitron]

You can really sue somebody for batshit crazy stuff like that? geeez--

[outeast]

Hmm... "Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, my client clearly predicted that in June this year America would be destroyed by a vast tidal wave. Due to the ignorant and malicious clumsiness of NASA this prediction failed to come true, causing my client a serious loss of credibility and consequent loss of earnings."

Case proven!