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How well does your BS-ometer work?

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How well does your BS-ometer work?

I smell doo-doo....

from JoeUser Forums

I think that each and every one of us is born with a bullshit-ometer.  We all have the capability to detect BS when we smell it.....some of us have slightly more sensitive meters than others.  I like to think that I have a pretty dang sensitive, finely tuned meter...partially genetically inherited, partially honed because of the inerview and interrogation techniques I've been taught (and am still being taught).

My BS-ometer has gone off a few times in the last 5 months, and so far I haven't been proven wrong.  I may have been a little off about what type of BS was going down, but I detected it nonetheless.

Right now my BS-ometer is going nuts - lights are flashing, bells are ringing and a big voice is blaring out "Warning!  Bullshit alert!"  I have seen and heard things in the past few days that simply don't add up.  The don't make any sense, and they haven't made any sense for a couple of weeks. Usually, as any police officer will tell you, if someone's story doesn't make sense then you're being BS'd.  Maybe not totally BS'd, but there's still some fabrication of truth going on.

So, I'm going to go and do a little checking tomorrow.  See if what I'm being led to believe is true or not. If I'm wrong, then I will apologize to the people I'm not referring to here for ever doubting them.  If I'm right....well, let's just say that the lies that are being told are pretty damn heinous, and are about a circumstance that should never be lied about, ever.

Am I the only one with a BS-ometer?  Do you have one?  If you do, how well does it work for you?  Is it something that comes naturally to you, or do you have to work at getting it calibrated?  Do you feel like you're being BS'd at the moment?

I'm looking forward to your responses.....

misc
28,448 views 76 replies
Reply #26 from JoeUser Forums Top
I just replied.
Reply #27 from JoeUser Forums Top
I'm glad to hear that...does it come in handy when you're dealing with patients?


It can be extremely helpful. Especially when I was on psych dealing with drug addicts and such.

But even in the regular office visits it is amazing the amount of BS that some patients will try to pass off as truth. What I find even more shocking is how many times they obviously contradict themselves and then still expect you to believe it.
Offworld Trading Company
Reply #28 from JoeUser Forums Top

It can be extremely helpful. Especially when I was on psych dealing with drug addicts and such.

But even in the regular office visits it is amazing the amount of BS that some patients will try to pass off as truth


I can imagine....people trying to explain away injuries when the mechanisim is so obviously not what they're telling you.....drug seeking behaviour....must come in very handy.


I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I'm right, that my suspicions so far have been pretty much confirmed.  I have a couple of more places to check at, but.....I think I got the wool pulled over my eyes a bit.  Kudos to the person that pulled it off....but shame on you for doing it in the first place.  You know who you are. 

Reply #29 from JoeUser Forums Top
I believe that I have a BS ometer. I don't know where in the heck I got it from. It sure wasn't my family. I can get things past any of them just like that. I'm pretty good at telling when things aren't right. So far right now, for me everything seems fine.

~carebear~
Reply #30 from JoeUser Forums Top

I'm pretty good at telling when things aren't right. So far right now, for me everything seems fine.


I think that life experience and parenthood come into play here.  Those of us who have those attributes are all seeing the same thing.  No offence to you, carebear, but whilst you may have a good BS-ometer for your age I don't know that you have any experience in those areas.

Reply #31 from JoeUser Forums Top
this whole place tends to be full of bullshitters sometimes....it really doesnt bother me though, in fact, i find it amusing.


In this case, it's not amusing. It's wrong.
Reply #32 from JoeUser Forums Top
I'm new here, and have no idea what is going on, but it is amazingly interesting! Possibly because of the sheer lack of details....I would also like to hear about this and kept informed...if not ,that is cool.
Reply #33 from JoeUser Forums Top

In this case, it's not amusing. It's wrong.


Yes, it is.  Very wrong.  There are some subjects that you just don't BS about, and this is one of them.  It's really, really, low, and the person perpetuating it should be ashamed of themselves.

Reply #35 from JoeUser Forums Top
I wonder if this pertains in any way to an article that I responded to and said my BS detector was going off. At first I felt a little bad for writing it but then I saw Dharma's article the next day and I am wondering if it is the same blog. It would make me feel better if it was.
Reply #36 from JoeUser Forums Top

I am wondering if it is the same blog.

I believe them to be connected, Missi.  Did you get my email?  I can re-send if if you didn't.

Reply #37 from JoeUser Forums Top
Not yet Dharma. I'll keep an eye out for it. I'll probably print it and frame it since it is from the famous Dharma
Reply #38 from JoeUser Forums Top
- what the devil is going on here? a clandestine operation for those in the know to know who is BSing who!!!

great stuff...

I actually think i know what is going on as well... you know the difference between me and you though! I dont care! If it is BS - it's not our problem... stuff like this always comes back to haunt the perp anyways... build those bridges guys!!!

BAM!!!
Reply #39 from JoeUser Forums Top

If it is BS - it's not our problem... stuff like this always comes back to haunt the perp anyways... build those bridges guys!!!


I'm just a little miffed that such a thing would be lied about in the first place.  People's emotions have been played upon, and played upon publicly....that's just wrong.


Apart from that, do I care, am I going to make this the center of my blogging world?  Nope.  Like you said, Muggaz-The-Wise, this will come back to bite them in the ass eventually.  They're burning their own bridges...as far as I'm concerned, my bridges are intact.

Reply #40 from JoeUser Forums Top
Okay update me! Cause I just woke up finished the housework etc and yeah still feeling weird about this whole thing - You'd think after all the stuff thats happened in REAL life - that I'd have a BS metre - but I don't - I'm entirely too trusting of people = I take everyone on JU and real life at face value - which is my biggest problem with SPM *sigh*

(as an aside - Nick has his graduation ceremony later this afternoon 3pm my time - 11pm Karens and *shrugs* the rest of you work it out from there )
Reply #41 from JoeUser Forums Top
I'm just a little miffed that such a thing would be lied about in the first place. People's emotions have been played upon, and played upon publicly....that's just wrong.


Ah, the naivity of youth can be a curse... hopefully people will learn... we all know teenage girls love attention...

I will mark this one of as a learning experience

BAM!!!
Reply #42 from JoeUser Forums Top
I'm entirely too trusting of people


That's what makes you so lovely Trina, and why people shouldn't take advantage of me, and that's the only thing that's made me mad about this situation, that nice people have been taken advantage of. I follow Mugz school of thought, leave them too it, they don't deserve half the attention they are getting at the moment.

we all know teenage girls love attention...


I must still be a teenager at heart huh!
Reply #43 from JoeUser Forums Top
I think I know what you're talking about, and if we are all correct about this then some of the things that were said, should never be lied about, especially when taking the advantage of the kindness of nice folks.


You've got that right, Sally. This sort of thing should NEVER be lied about, and to think someone would stoop that low, just to get attention....makes me feel sorry for the perpetrator--but not sorry enough to stop being angry!

But to draw other people into it....to make fools out of people (which is what is happening if our suspicions are correct) ...well, that's just heinous and horrible.


ITA.....but at least I can pride myself on the fact that I had suspicions this time....there were an entire group of us in an email loop who got scammed about a year ago by a woman who claimed she had cancer and was on the verge of dying.......we almost all were blindsided when a couple of ladies began to get suspicious and did some research, after some pleas for money were made....she had TOTALLY bamboozled us, but at least none of us were foolish enough to send her money!!

People have to remember to take the moral high ground.

I'm trying to remember that....but in this case, with what's been said the last few days....well, my nasty, vindictive side wants to take over...and, since you guys have never seen the Evil Teresa.....let's just say that it would NOT be a pretty sight.......not at all.....

I'm pretty good at telling when things aren't right. So far right now, for me everything seems fine.

Ashley...this may be a parental intuition sort of thing....where we've been there, done that, and can feel when someone isn't making all the pieces fit together properly. Just let me say....be careful who you trust and befriend......

In this case, it's not amusing. It's wrong.


It's worse that wrong....it's hateful, heinous, spiteful, and a ton of other adjectives that I can't even begin to put into words right now.....it just goes to show, IMO, that I was right when I called the perpetrator mean, nasty, rude, cruel, heartless, etc., in regards to another matter.

(as an aside - Nick has his graduation ceremony later this afternoon 3pm my time - 11pm Karens and *shrugs* the rest of you work it out from there )


Congratulations!! There's something positve to focus on!!

Reply #44 from JoeUser Forums Top

Ah, the naivity of youth can be a curse... hopefully people will learn... we all know teenage girls love attention...

I will mark this one of as a learning experience


As will I, Muggaz.


Teresa: Ditto.  All of it. 

Reply #45 from JoeUser Forums Top

I have added a few warning signs to my internet addiction thread in response to this situation

I saw that....and yes, I agree. Perhaps we should come up with a bloggers 'code of ethics' as well?

Reply #46 from JoeUser Forums Top
I think that life experience and parenthood come into play here. Those of us who have those attributes are all seeing the same thing. No offence to you, carebear, but whilst you may have a good BS-ometer for your age I don't know that you have any experience in those areas


No offense taken Dharma. I totally agree that parenthood will come into play. And then maybe my BS-ometer will change. Who knows!

Ashley...this may be a parental intuition sort of thing....where we've been there, done that, and can feel when someone isn't making all the pieces fit together properly. Just let me say....be careful who you trust and befriend......


I totally agree Poetmom!

~carebear~
Reply #47 from JoeUser Forums Top

Ok, I think we all know what's going down now, so I'll address what happened and is happening:

Over the past 2 days I have done some searches for background information on the names of the people involved, and have come up with nothing.  Not a single hit.  I went through the list of Army posts in Kentucky, and didn't get a hit at any of them on a 'Private Shawn Rae'.  'Emma Rae' was also nowhere to be found. 

It is my belief that 'Emma and Shawn Rae' are fictional characters.  It is also my belief that 'Alysia Leah Rae', infant child of Shawn and Emma is also fictional, as are the circumstances surrounding her birth and subsequent illness. 

There are numerous inconsistencies in the stories we have been told...from Emma and the baby being released from the hospital as quickly as they were after the birth, Emma not knowing what rank her husband is, him suddenly showing up on leave from Iraq, taking 3 month's leave from the military, Emma stating first that they live on base in a home with 5 bathrooms, then changing her story to saying that they live off base, the baby being critically ill one night and literally at death's door, her making a miraculous recovery the next day despite having been taken off the ventilator and life support..all the way through to the picture Shawn emailed me to post being titled 'Ashlee_026'.

I also find it curious that despite having a critically ill infant, Shawn and Emma both managed to find the time to blog and joke about what people are wearing.  Still more curious is the fact that either of them have yet to show their faces here to defend the person we feel is responsible.  Emma has been quick to defend this person in the past, yet she hasn't shown up in her defense yet?  I don't buy it.

There was an easy way for all this to have been resolved:  I asked the person I felt was responsible for the name of the hospital the baby was in and the name of the post they are stationed at.  I have yet to recieve a response.  I have also been blacklisted from that person's blog.  Had they provided me with that information, I could have verified that it was true (the person denied they were lying and that they were responsible in an earlier post) and all this would have gone away.  I would have apologized for doubting, and that would have been that.

To the person we believe to be responsible for perpetuating these lies:

I want you to know that I'm not angry at you.  I have a problem with what you did because you drew so many decent people into this and played them for fools.  I think that there are some subjects that you just don't lie about, no matter what the circumstances, and that this is one of them.  I want to believe that you started this out with the most innocent of intentions, and that it got out of control...because to believe that you intended for it to go this far and to get so many people involved emotionally...well, that's horrible.  I would like to talk to you one-on-one about it, and if you would like to do that my email address is on my blog page.  I'm not going to be mean or nasty, I just want to understand why you did it. 

My best advice to you now is to come clean and apologize.  You've done it before, you can do it again.  Just don't expect people to be as forgiving this time.  You have left a lot of folks feeling slightly idiotic (myself included because I didn't come out with what I was feeling earlier) and people aren't going to get over that as quickly. 

That's all I have to say about that.

Reply #48 from JoeUser Forums Top
still want to know what is going on....
Reply #49 from JoeUser Forums Top

Amitty....what part of the above response don't you understand?  It's pretty self-explanatory, isn't it?


I case there are other people who don't get it, see the above post, and I'll add this:  I believe that a teenage blogger named Ashlee Ryder created these characters and perpetuated the whole lie. 


There, does that make more sense now?

Reply #50 from JoeUser Forums Top
Amitty,
Ashlee made up three fictitious characters and may be fictitious herself. See comment above yours.