I've just discovered @ap_org, which seems to feel as strongly as I do that reposing our country's security in a took no more proven utility than a dowser has got to be a bad idea. Even if it elicits a few true confessions, the value is outweighed by the harm--
It makes us more stupid; it establishes that the government can not only withhold information from us in the name of NATSEC (which we all agree is the right thing to do, in some cases) but actively lie in a way that indulges magical habits of thinking, making the government--
--on the whole less credible and less ostensibly competent, making people more stupid (because they have to pretend to believe in this nonsense to keep their jobs), and often returning results that prevent qualified people from taking important jobs--
while giving others confidence in employees who don't warrant it, on the grounds that said employee "passed the polygraph." I'm fairly sure that overall it does more harm than good. It can't be a good thing for so many adults with serious responsibilities---
-- to make hiring decisions, or the decision to reserve access to secret programs, on a basis no more sound than noting the candidate is a Virgo whose ascendent is in Libra--a bad conjunction for discretion--and should thus be passed over for a Capricorn.
