No, if you re-read it the suggestion is that when you're offered something too good to be true or plays on human psychology i.e tv adverts, offers from banks etc then its generally a scam.
I'd put mediums, clairvoyants in this category and indeed some astrologers although I'd suggest they fall into a different category. Obviously skeptics will disagree here but astrologers rarely plant people, tape record clients and so on. In fact the Assoc of Prof. Astrologers has very stringent rules..I can't list them all now but rest assured I could give a whole host of differences.
James Randi is someone who I have some respect for. The Editor of the Skeptic by baffling coincidence actually worked at the Uni in Salford as me whe I was student. In actuality we agreed about astrology on many points...certainly he could see that 'in general' astrologers came from a different angle. More laidback, less evangelist about 'the other side' and playing on the fears of clients. There are exceptions of course but generally this is so. Possibly Randi is of the same opinion.
Of course Randi has done a service in revealing the widespread trickery used by mediums. He would know...thats his job title. Magician.
I suspect though that most of us were well aware that some trickery was used by Clairvoyants or whatever they call themselves. We would hardly be surprised if some friend were planted in the audience prior or during the show. After all its an age old scam used since the days of snake oil salesmen to modern day salesmen or at market stalls. Even the President of the United States to PM Blair scam the public...in fact thats my usual speciality and stock in trade. Most of my posts elsewhere are about revealing the scams used by Politicians...for example, the new PM has already scammed the public by reducing the main tax whilst subtly increasing a minor tax. Now even the media swallow the scam hook, line and sinker because they concentrate on the headline grabber rather than an obscure stealth tax.
When you check you wallet afterwards you find that you are several pounds lighter.
When I subscribed to both the US and UK Skeptic my interest dwindled because astrology featured less and when it did feature it was far less convincing than other subects from crop cirles to whatever was the current fad. I'm chary of using cliches but there is a case of 'throwing the baby out with the bathwater'. Seemingly they were sceptical of everything...in the early days they even ridiculed the use if acupuncture as being 'all in the mind'.
One of James favourite tricks was to give astrologers the chart of a serial killer and then wait for the results from various internet astrologers. Apart from the fact that many of them are computerised reading, thats a trivial point compared to the real flaw here.
No Astrologer would dispute that heredity and environment play major roles in the character. Its one of the reasons why most prefer a one to one meeting, although the internet has changed that to some extent. An anlysis for an Aristocrat would be viewed differently than someone who just arrived as an itinerant worker from Somalia...even in a scenario where they had similar charts.
Now if you are going to hand out the chart of a Serial Killer it is a false premise. The rationale of science is on the astrologers side here because we know that most, if not all, serial killers have some brain damage/dysfunction. Its akin to testing astrology be handing out the data for a person lying in a deep coma with severe brain damage and asking them for an analysis of that persons future.
Its merely a trick, a scam, a deceit performed by Randi on the astrologer yet he repeats this all the time as evidence. Its isn't. James.
My advice - stick to mediums, spoon benders and people with twitching sticks...theyre easily testable. If you can't find water with a dowsing rod then it don't work. Full stop.
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