Dumb "Polls"

It was reported in today's Centre Daily Times (State College, PA) that police will be working with psychic from Calfornia in an effort to find District Attorney Ray Gricar, who's been missing for about a month now. And I suppose it would be easy to bat away an entire spring afternoon discussing this weird case and the merits of engaging a psychic.

But the thing that struck me in the CDT article was this: a Web poll which asks the question: "What do you think? Will psychic Carla Baron be able to aid in the search for Ray Gricar?"

Just how dumb is this "poll?" What on earth difference will it make to anyone what anyone else thinks about whether a psychic can help? For that matter, who cares what anyone thinks about whether a psychic can help?

If you look just about anywhere these days, you'll see similar "polls." For one thing, they're completely unscientific, in that they can be easily rigged: you can vote as often as you'd like. And for that reason alone, they are entirely useless in gauging anything.

The only thing I can think of that may be more of a waste of time than creating or participating in these ridiculous surveys is if I were to write even one more word about them.