RedState Water Cooler – September 24, 2018 – Open Thread: Can a Liar Pass a Polygraph Test? and OK Pro-Choice Group Puts Up Questionable Billboards

Good Monday Morning! How Accurate Are Polygraph Test Results?

When Kavanaugh’s accuser was first outed last week, Democrats and mainstream media commentators kept spouting that “she passed a lie detector test, you know.” The accuracy rate estimates I found online ranged from 65% to 90% which, I suppose, explains why polygraph test results are not admissible as evidence in a court of law.

There are “friendly” lie detector tests and also decidedly “unfriendly lie” detector tests. I am willing to bet that the test administered to Ms. Ford fell into the former category. And yes, a person who is lying can pass a polygraph test.

Also, Ms. Ford may truly believe this happened to her.

Thomas Mauriello, a former polygraph expert at the DOD, and a current professor of criminology at the University of Maryland, spoke to Laura Ingraham to discuss what “passing a polygraph test” means.

It means absolutely nothing. First, we have to understand that the polygraph is not a lie detector. I never use the words pass or fail, I say successful or not successful. When somebody says they passed a test, it just means they didn’t react to certain questions that were asked. You have to ask, what were the questions, how were they asked? How were they formulated? What did the examiner say to you before the test began? All those things affect how a person’s going to react. And, most importantly, what is the reaction? It’s not a lie. The reaction is simply your sympathetic nervous system hearing a question and deciding whether it’s threatening or not. It can be threatening for a lot of different reasons other than whether you’re going to tell the truth or not.

“Russell Tice, National Security Agency whistleblower who blew the lid open on warrantless wiretapping conducted by the federal government on U.S. citizens post-9/11, says that he took between 12 and 15 polygraph tests during his nearly 20-year-long government career.”

A polygraph test “works by measuring and recording a person’s physiological responses—changes in a person’s pulse, breathing and blood pressure—to lying versus telling the truth.”

Tice says that he and his friends marvel at how easy it is to pass a lie detector test. He offers some of his own techniques below.

First, Tice says, a person can trick the tester on “probable-lie” questions. During a polygraph’s pre-test interview, the tester usually asks a person to answer questions they are likely to lie about. These include questions like: Have you ever stolen money? Have you ever lied to your parents? Or have you ever cheated on a test? Most people have done these at least once, but lie about it. So the tester uses a person’s response to a likely lie as a way to establish how a person physically reacts while lying.

Tice says to trick the tester, a person should lie in response to these questions like most other people would, but also bite their tongue hard while doing so, which will set off other physiological reactions in the body. The tester’s “needles will fly everywhere,” says Tice, “and he will think, ‘this guy is a nervous nelly. He has a strong physical reaction when he’s lying.’”

For more information, please go to the link cited above. Tice lists additional sources as well.

Ahead of Election, Oklahoma Pro-Choice Group Puts Up Billboard: ‘People of Faith Love Those Who Have Abortions’

Rosie O’Donnell Calls On GOP Sens. Grassley And Hatch To Retire, They’re Too Old

grassley and hatch – too old – they should be done – come on – at thanksgiving we don’t let the 85 year olds carve the turkey #retire

— ROSIE (@Rosie) September 20, 2018

She certainly has a point. But why doesn’t she include Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Dianne Feinstein, both 85, in that group? And Nancy Pelosi, who is a bit younger than the others, but seems to be showing signs that she…maybe…needs a rest.

Or do age limits, kind of like the presumption of guilt when accused of a sex crime, apply only to conservatives?

Audiotape of July Conference Call: Democratic Operative Ricki Seidman Discusses Strategy To Defeat Kavanaugh

Ricki Seidman, an advisor in both the Clinton and Obama administrations, also advised Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas hearings and is currently advising Christine Blasey Ford. This conference call occurred before knowledge that Ford would soon be making public accusations against Kavanaugh.

Nonetheless, it’s interesting to hear their “war room” strategizing and it gives us an idea how the other half thinks.

Quote Of The Week

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

— John Stuart Mill

As Always, This Is An Open Thread!

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