COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina priest missed the $1 million top prize in a poker tournament to be televised this weekend but he won $100,000 for his church and he hopes his participation gives viewers a “fun twist” on their perceptions of the priesthood.

The Rev. Andrew Trapp said he entered the PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge in hopes of putting St. Michael Catholic Church “super close” to its $5.5 million fundraising goal to build a new facility. He also wanted to strike a public relations blow for priests.

“At the very least, even if I didn’t win any prize money, I was hoping it would help people to see that priests can have fun and be normal people and hopefully get a little bit of a fun twist on the image of the priesthood,” the assistant pastor said Tuesday.

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Believe it or not the author of the world famous Ziggy cartoon (Tom Wilson) also lives in Cincinnati.  My we are a talented bunch.  And a generous one. 

I mentioned before that Tom had written a book called Zig Zagging: Loving Madly….Losing Badly…How Ziggy Saved My Life.  I bought the book several months ago and read it in one sitting.  It delves into Tom’s personal battles with survival both after taking over Ziggy from his father when he became ill to dealing with his wife’s battle with cancer and her ultimate death from it. 

Not an emotional person but twice this year something I read or saw has made me cry unexpectedly.  The first was watching UP and the second was reading this book.    It is a great book and what makes it even better is that to celebrate his wife’s life, Tom is giving all the proceeds from his book between November 18, 2009 (the anniversary of her death) until January 19, 2009 (her birthday) to LiveStrong (The Lance Armstrong Foundation).

Go here to read more from Tom himself and click here to order the book.  

I created a fan art toon to promote this great cause.  So if anyone needs a gift for a cartoony loving friend/family member, get this book.

Follow me via TWITTER updates. or help share the post by clicking below…

I had an on-line discussion recently in which I debated the subject of Randi’s Million Dollar Challenge, about which I know quite a bit, so I completely punked the guy’s arguments. How he handled utter defeat was instructive, because it shows a lot about how skeptics think. Here’s the beginning. M is the skeptic, W is a neutral observer and I am C:

W: you honestly dont beleive ANY are real, anywhere ? or have some unexplained gift ?

M: Nope. None of them do. They’re mostly a bunch of con artists, and those who genuinely believe that they CAN predict the future, are insane.If they wish to PROVE their abilities at predicting the future, then ask them to accurately choose the next winning sequence of numbers in a major lottery drawing.

C: In case you’re interested, psychic ability has been proven to exist. There is a lot of science to back it up and it doesn’t conflict with physics.

M: NOT according to Dr. James “The Amazing” Randi. His entire life has been devoted to exposing fakes, charlatans and con artists.

He and his foundation have a standing offer of ONE MILLION (USA) DOLLARS, to anyone who can conclusively PROVE that ANY form of psychic phenomena or paranormal ability genuinely exists, in front of a panel of scientific experts from all over the world.

Take a look, for yourself:

http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/1m-challenge.html

Clearly, what we have here is an uneducated skeptic.  Anyone who uses Randi’s challenge instead of real science to determine the validity of psychic ability has already made a grave logical error and one that I have seen many times coming from skeptics.  Believing themselves to be rational and logical, they do not question their own assumptions.  Randi’s challenge is seen as the ultimate proof that psychic ability does not exist and they don’t need any evidence beyond that.  So they don’t look for it.  The belief is never challenged.  Now watch what happens when I call this into question:

C: I’m sure Mr. Randi is a nice man, but he hardly trumps 130 years of science. He has no experience with the field of parapsychology, no experience in running scientific experiments and has not published any scientific peer reviewed articles. A challenge in which he is judge and jury cannot be seen as scientific proof of anything. Although the challenge has been ongoing for what? ten years? We have only his word that no one can pass the challenge. There is absolutely no transparency in his process.

Compare that to the Parapsychological Association, which is a member of the The American Association for the Advancement of Science and regularly publishes peer reviewed studies. Here’s my article about the evidence for psi. You should read it.
http://weilerpsiblog.wordpress.com/evidence-for-psi/

W: nicely said

M: I am still waiting for Randi’s bona fide challenge to be accepted.

Note how he publicly embarrassed THESE phonies/fakes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch

http://www.youtube.com/watch

Know about James Hydrick? He’s now a prison inmate. Here he is, being exposed as a total fraud and fake, by The Amazing Randi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch (Part 1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch (Part 2)

Here is James Hydrick CONFESSING & ADMITTING to being a total fake and a fraud:

http://www.youtube.com/watch

Those who deride James Randi, have no idea about what they are talking. “They” prefer to believe in the unbelievable.

James Randi is one of the most respected members of the scientific community, and a hero to skeptics and logical-thinking folks, everywhere.

Make sure you have your “facts” correct, before publicly spewing them on AB. Otherwise, you display your ignorance.

At this point of course, the discussion has completely jumped the rails.  He does not address transparency, nor the actual evidence for psi nor calmly address questions of fairness that I have brought up.  Instead, he gives me a list of debunking success as though this were proof of any sort.  To him perhaps, it is.  He is having a logic problem; he does not understand that positive proof of frauds is not negative proof of psychic ability.  And note the use of the insult at the end of his statement.  It is an indication that at some level, he knows he is losing the argument.  We continue:

C: He is a debunker, not a scientist. You should know the difference. His value is only as a magician catching frauds. Please note that none of this has to do with the challenge, which, according to Randi, many people apply for. Where are the detailed results?

He has explicitly refused to test homeopath John Benneth and backed down from a challenge issued by Dr. Jule Eisenbud, who wagered $100K that Randi could not duplicate the “thought photography” of Ted Serios, even with the aid of a prop in which a gimmick could be housed. Randi has ignored challenges to the test such as English psychic Chris Robinson.
Dick Bierman, PhD proposed a presentiment test to Randi which Randi simply never followed up on.

This is from the book “Parapsychology and the Skeptics” by Chris Carter

M: I will respect your position, only AFTER someone from “your side” has COLLECTED the US$1,000,000 being offered by the JREF., OR you prove conclusively, before a panel of scientific experts, that JAMES RANDI is a “fraud” and “a fake,” which you will NEVER DO.

(And James Randi is MORE of a scientist, than those who castigate him.)

Or, failing that (as you certainly will), prove that Uri Geller or Peter Popoff are indeed “real.”

The ONLY WAY to get me to believe IN YOU, is to do the things I have previously mentioned.

James Randi is more REAL than Jesus Christ.

It should have been obvious to “M” that logically, once it is shown that the challenge is not offered in a fair and even handed way, that the discussion is over.  The claim that no one has demonstrated psychic ability and therefore it doesn’t exist, cannot be legitimately made if you leave anyone out.  The million dollar challenge is reduced to a mere publicity stunt at this point.  If “M” cannot challenge my facts directly, then he has lost the debate.  What you are seeing here though, is the main point of what I am talking about when I bring up the perils of skepticism: namely, that skepticism always has the danger of degenerating into a form of dogmatism.  While many examples are more subtle than this, much of skepticism goes down this path.

The problem with skepticism is that in operating from a position of assuming that they are right they inevitably give more weight to their evidence while trivializing evidence that they disagree with.  In this case, the skeptic has gone to absurd lengths to maintain his position.  He sides with a single publicized challenge over a mountain of scientific evidence; his need to be right has overshadowed any and all logic in his arguments.  Although the argument continues, nothing more can be gained from it.  The skeptic piles it on with his personally unchallenged belief that The Million Dollar Challenge is last word in evidence for psi.  To wit:

C: If James Randi is not taking everyone who applies and putting them through an open and well documented test whose fairness and rigor can be shown to be beyond question, then I cannot take his challenge seriously. It does not appear that he is willing to let anyone win. Therefore, I doubt that I can prove anything to you on your terms.

I consider Randi to be an excellent magician and extraordinary debunker. He is quite useful to parapsychology in this capacity. His flaw though, is that he lacks any sort of objectivity.
You have not commented on the Evidence for Psi article that I linked to. I suggest you do so. I think that the science is quite different than what you believe it to be. The tests have nothing to do with being duped by tricksters. They’re not set up that way.

M: In every case where James “The Amazing” Randi has refused to allow someone to participate in “The Challenge,” it was because the challenger has requested to CHANGE THE PARAMETERS in some way (as James Hydrick tried to do, in front of a nationwide audience, and a live studio audience).

James Randi has told every one of them, “There will be no changes to ANY of the protocols,” which have been agreed to by the scientific community who actually makes the final decision in awarding the money.

It’s like saying, “I’ll play baseball with you, but MY SIDE must be allowed FIVE ‘OUTS,’ instead of the normal three.”

It’s the foundation’s money (not James Randi’s) so the foundation protocols WILL govern the outcome, and with NO CHANGES, WHATSOEVER.

Those who can’t abide by the rules and protcols, CAN’T “play.”

C: There are really only two scientific communities who can scientifically evaluate a psi experiment. The Society for Psychical Research and the Parapsychological Association. No one else has the expertise or understands the subject as well. Parapsychology is a statistical science and there is a lot you have to understand to create a fair test. I guarantee you, the experts in the field are not involved with the challenge. So technically, no, it hasn’t been agreed to by the scientific community.

The most important part of the test is what odds against chance are considered sufficient to pass. Randi can win every time if he sets these to impossible levels. (In fact, that’s exactly what he does.) A test that would seem otherwise fair can be doctored this way.
You should read the rules more carefully. Challenges are strictly at the challengers’ expense.
-
This is all moot though. Since he has decided not to take on all comers, his claim of no psychic ability is void.

M: I’ve already explained that Mr. Randi and his group will NOT honor any requests of ANY kind, to change the test parameters. I suspect that you are one of those individuals who enjoys deriding folks like James Randi, because you know of no other way to tear him down.

But, you fail, because you can’t provide any EVIDENCE to prove conclusively that Mr. Randi, his foundation and his offer are “bogus.”

As far as the scientific community backing him up, here is just ONE organization that supports his challenge:

http://www.csicop.org/

That organization is composed of many respected members of the scientific community.

I suggest you utilize your energies towards coming up with as way to get the US$1,000,000, instead of arguing with me, because no matter how much you argue or belittle Mr. Randi, I won’t pay you US$1 Million.

After this I finished with an admittedly snarky comment about an easy victory.  I probably shouldn’t have, but I did.  The tone and arrogance of these discussions  occasionally get to me.  I could have pointed out that CSICOP, or The Committee for Scientific Investigation as it is now known, has no real investigators on staff and explicitly does not do investigations, and isn’t actually scientific, but why? There is obviously some serious cognitive dissonance going on here.  More arguments, no matter how sound, are not going to change anything.

How is this skepticism better than approaching things that I don’t understand with an open mind?  Why not suspend disbelief over someone else’s argument long enough to consider it?  From my side of things, I didn’t start out doubting Randi’s challenge.  I just started looking into it to get a feel for what it was.   I was willing to believe that it was legitimate but not without investigating it.  The more I found out though, the less I was impressed with it until finally the weight of facts and unanswered questions led me to understand that it was not worthy of inclusion in legitimate discussions about psi.

The trouble with skepticism is that it rests on all sorts of beliefs like this.  “If psychic ability were real, then they would be able to . . . ” if you’ve filled in the blank, then ask yourself the question:  How do I know that?  Did I pull it out of thin air because it sounded good, or do I actually have science to back it up?  A lot of what sounds logical and rational is built on nothing more than beliefs.  To learn anything, we have to give some topics room to be different than what we imagine them to be.  Skepticism simply does not allow this.  Consequently, it forces a person to unlearn something old in order to learn something new.  This is advancement by cognitive dissonance and it’s very inefficient.

Consequently, I try to keep my skepticism to a minimum.

This isn’t really a funny story, but I admit I let out a little chuckle when I read that one of the occupants of this building was a psychic:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Firefighters were called to the scene of building fire on Monday afternoon.

The building located near Mathewson Street started on the second floor. Officials say that is where renovations are being done. The fire quickly spread to third floor.

Businesses on the first floor of the building including a convenience store and psychic have suffered significant water damage.

About 50 firefighters were called in to help fight the blaze. No one was injured in the fire. Officials are still trying to determine the exact cause.

Do you think they’ll start doubting their psychic powers? Hopefully, now they can go and get a proper job. Unless they did predict the fire, in which case they should apply for the million dollar challenge.

And a Million Dollar Challenge to go with it! The other day I wondered how deep the well of human gullability is.  Today, I learn it was a bit deeper than I thought!

According to numerous eyewitnesses, the mythical sea creature looks like a cross between a little girl and a dolphin, and only comes out at sunset. “People are telling us they are sure they have seen the mermaid and they are all independent of each other,” said Natti Zilberman, a local council spokesman.

They’re independent of each other. Well that settles it! A creature out of a Hollywood cartoon must therefore really exist!

Whatever the truth of the tale, it has done wonders for the tourist economy.

Oh ABC when will you learn the abc’s or critical thinking? “Whatever the truth“? Here’s the trugh in simple terms: People are stupid! Period!

Local officials are now offering a cash prize of $1 million for the first tourist to take a photograph of the mermaid.

Heh, local officials are slick. They are guaranteed the price will never be collected and the extra tourist money won’t hurt either. I make a prediction:  Just like the JREF’s Million Dollar Challenge, this million dollar challenge will also go uncollected for a long, long, long…..long time!

Unfortunately I missed this event at TAM7, so the following video is presented without comment.

From The JREF:

Recorded Live at The Amaz!ng Meeting 7 July 13, 2009.

Connie Sonne from Denmark participated in the preliminary test for the Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge. Connie’s tested claim was her ability to dowse items sealed in coin envelopes.

Testing protocol available upon request.

Read the debate intro and Sports Geek’s argument that the USGA was justified in their decision.

Greetings from the deck of the S.S. Badger! If you ever get a chance, take a ride across Lake Michigan on one of the famous “carferries” – you will not be disappointed!

However, after a trying journey to my vacation destination I’m a little tired and crabby. So, I feel like I’m in just the right mood to tell the USGA what I think about their decision to revoke Dusty Schmidt’s amateur status. IT STINKS!

Schmidt, who had recently returned to the game of golf after recuperating from a heart-attack five years earlier, decided to issue a “Million Dollar Challenge.” You see, Schmidt was also a professional poker player, and he saw an opportunity to combine the things he enjoyed – golf, poker, and competing for money – and offered $1M to any person who could beat him both at 72 holes of golf AND several hands of heads-up poker.

Well, nobody took him up on his offer, so the challenge went dormant, or so Schmidt thought. Apparently, the USGA felt that his challenge, which never materialized and is therefore nothing more than idle conversation, was “in violation of the spirit of the game.”

So the question I have for the USGA is… “What about his actions was so wrong?”

Was it that he made a public offer looking for competition in a proposition game? I’ve got news for the USGA – that’s what a Skins competition is. When two people play the same hole, and the person with the best score wins prize money, THAT’S proposition golfing. So it’s okay for a professional to play a proposition game when the prizes are funded by sponsors, but an amateur is not allowed to put up his OWN money in a proposition game? That doesn’t seem fair to me!

Was it the fact that Schmidt brought the “seedy” element of gambling into this fine, upstanding gentleman’s game, besmirching the good image of this noblest of sports? Before I hear an answer to that question, let me be clear on something – John Daly, a PROFESSIONAL golfer, can publicly admit to drinking, gambling, and drug addictions. He can be charged with domestic violence, can physically assault fans of the sport – DURING PLAY, no less – and be charged with public intoxication… and he only receives a six month suspension from the PGA. But, an amateur who does nothing more than offer a prize to anyone who can beat him at both golf AND poker is acting inappropriately and should have his status revoked?! Where’s the consistency?!

I understand that the USGA and the PGA are two different organizations, but they represent the same game, and so fans will naturally associate the two as a single body. If the interest of the USGA is to protect the image of the game of golf, they are going about it the wrong way. Especially when you consider the fact that friendly wagers in private golf games happen every day!

Instead, the USGA should partner with the PGA to identify what type of behavior is REALLY unbecoming of a golfer – such as committing a crime – and let the guys who just want to have some fun playing the game they love have their fun.

Read Sports Geek’s argument that the USGA is justified in removing Dusty Schmidt’s amateur status and Bleacher Fan’s argument that they are not.

That leads into our debate on a topic that you may have missed, but The Sports Debates did not miss it.

Let me tell you about Dusty Schmidt. He was promising golfer from California who turned professional several years ago. Unfortunately, at the young age of 23, he suffered a heart attack ruining his chances at sustaining a prosperous golf career. While recovering from the heart attack, he became fascinated with online poker (which is a growing hobby on its own) and eventually became a professional poker player.

Then, a miracle happened and Schmidt was medically cleared to play golf again. He was granted amateur status by the United States Golf Association, which allowed him to compete in sanctioned events in the Northwest.

Combining his golf and poker skills, Schmidt issued a “Million Dollar Challenge.” The challenge was to anyone who could beat him at 72 holes of golf and at several hands of poker. No one took him up on the challenge so case closed, right?

WRONG!

The USGA caught wind of this and revoked his amateur status, claiming the “challenge” violated amateur rules. Schmidt filed a complaint with the district court, but his request was denied.

Is the USGA justified in revoking the amateur status of Dusty Schmidt?

Sports Geek will argue that the USGA is within their right to remove Schmidt’s amateur status, while Bleacher Fan will argue that the USGA has overstepped and placed too harsh a punishment on Schmdit.

Get your drivers guys! Your tee time is up!

READ THE FULL ENTRY AT RANDI.ORG

At the Amaz!ng Meeting 7, we conducted a Preliminary Challenge Test for the JREF million-dollar prize – the first time we’ve ever done this in front of a live audience. It was done with total transparency.  We invited all TAMgoers, as well as media representatives and famous skeptics and magicians, to attend a preliminary Challenge test of Ms. Connie Sonne.

For those who weren’t able to attend in person, we streamed the test live so those at home could watch from their computers. We had six hundred people watching from the audience, and 1,600 watching from home. The in-person audience included people like Penn and Teller, Mac King, Jamy Ian Swiss, Dr. Joe Albietz, and, of course, Randi. The video was viewed by people from all over the world, just as it happened in real time.

Connie Sonne had designed the parameters for her own test. She chose to dowse for the contents of double-enveloped playing cards on stage with the supervision of famous skeptic and mentalist, Banachek. She needed to identify three cards using her dowsing ability in order to pass to the Formal Challenge. She failed: she did not correctly identify any of the three cards, and her Challenge file has been closed – though she will be free to re-apply one year from the date of her test, assuming that she qualifies under the rules governing the Challenge at that time.

Sonne had agreed to give interviews and to participate in an exclusive press conference to discuss the procedure, following the test. Many in the audience were impressed at how gracefully she conducted herself despite having failed her test, while maintaining a firm belief in her dowsing abilities. The audience attending both the test and the press conference applauded her courage in appearing before so many people.

That opinion has since changed.

Sonne now claims that Banachek, who she agreed to accept as the official tester, had cheated her out of passing the preliminary test. As it happens, many individuals on both the JREF forums and attending the in-person press conference wondered aloud at our willingness to allow a “magician” to run the test, so I want to set the record straight.

Firstly, Banachek is a mentalist, not a magician. My response to the dissent in the press conference was pretty simple – Banachek simply did not have the opportunity to cheat in any way whatsoever. Even if you call him a “magician,” he is not actually magical. If I give a magician a top hat that I bought and searched, and never gave the magician any information on it before putting it in his hands, and then demanded that he make a rabbit appear from inside it, he would most probably be unable to do so. Magic seems unfathomable to an audience, but let’s face it, there is an explanation for each illusion that fits the laws of physics.

READ THE FULL ENTRY AT RANDI.ORG

Why are they such predictable sore loosers? Why Connie Sonne? If I had to make one psychic prediction I would bet everything that the MDC losers will inevitably claim that either they were cheated or that they did in fact pass the test with flying colors, even when they fall flat on their face.

Hi out there…now I know why Banacheck was “the card handler”. I have been cheated. I did find the right cards. And there is one more thing. At the stage, Banacheck said to me BEFORE he even looked in the envelope I had cut…and here is spade ace, the one you looked for!!!! I first hit me now about that ….but maybe you can see it yourself if someone get the video. I don`t care about the money, that wasn`t the reason why I came. So no matter what you think out there……I was CHEATED!!!!!

She capitalized the word cheated, so that settles that! Of course you were cheated dear Connie! Of course you did not do it for the money, dear Connie! May I suggest that next time you take the challenge and don’t do it for the money, that you arrange with the JREF to have the money donated, should you win, to the Red Cross or some other charity?

Via @krelnick on Twitter we get this bit of Amazing News:

BREAKING NEWS: @BadAstronomer announced at Amazing Meeting that the @JREF Million Dollar Challenge will continue!

YESSS!!!!

With the WSOP in full swing, no one expected to see any action at the durrrr Challenge.

They were wrong … sort of.

Although the two famous contestants in the durrrr million-dollar challenge did sit for a session Tuesday night, it lasted for only a little over 200 hands.

The hour-long session did however see Tom Dwan start to climb out of his hole, winning just over USD 36k.

Unfortunately for Dwan and his fans around the world, he still needs to win another USD 415k just to break even.

On the bright side, the challenge is far from over, especially if the players refuse to play more than an hour a week, and Dwan has almost 35,000 hands left to get even.

In fact, if both Dwan and Antonius continue to play a maximum of 200 hands (one hour) a week, the challenge should conclude around February 2013.

The largest hand of last night’s mini-session, worth just over USD 88k, went to Antonius after his 7  5  8  6  flopped the nut straight on a 4  5  7  board.

Dwan, having flopped two pair, was all too willing to call off a large chunk of his stack, donating it to Antonius after failing to hit a miracle card on the turn or river.

durrrr Challenge by the numbers:
• 100,407,856: Total amount wagered in the challenge
• 411,191: Amount Antonius is ahead
• 270,000: Amount the legendary Blade Runner gun sold for at auction
• 36,493: Amount Antonius lost in the latest session
• 15,338: Total hands played so far
• 4,658: Average pot size
• 300: Cost for a single pound of Kopi Luwak coffee beans
• 198: Number of hours played

A little while back I linked to the JREF entry about the failed Million Dollare Challenge test of  a certain Patricia Putt, who failed miserably with a score of 0!  Back then the good people at the JREF were giving her credit for being fair about the outcome of the test. As was reported:

According to the testers, Mrs. Putt took this failure well, and did not blame the test or the testers but rather her own powers for failing.

But I knew something was amiss. I knew that that could not last. So your good, friendly, and now psychic, Skepdude made the following prediction (at the bottom of my above referenced entry):

Skepdude predicts that even though she took the failure well and blamed her powers, this symptom is only temporary and within a short period of time, less than a full month, she will rationalize it away and keep on doing exactly what she was doing before she failed the test.

Was I right or what? JREF contacted the “psychic” to see what she thought of the failure, after she had had time to think it over. This is what she, unsurprisingly came back with:

“I’m not in the least disappointed that the results did not go my way.  I was stunned at first but when normal thought re-entered my head I realised that I was never going to win the barriers presented in the protocol were too much even for me to surmount,” Putt said in an e-mail on 8 May 2009.

Putt continued, “”With them [the volunteers] being bound from head to foot like black mummies, they themselves felt tied so were not really free to link with Spirit making my work a great deal more difficult,” Putt said.

I WAS RIGHT! She did rationalize it away! Of course it wasn’t her fault, she’s psychic no? So what were these insurmountable barriers that she had to face?

During the test, the volunteers were safeguarded from potentially giving information away with subconscious cues by donning a graduation gown and ski mask for the duration of their reading. They also faced away from Putt, and Putt was not permitted to see them enter the testing room.

She wasn’t allowed to cold read them! I’d say that pretty much wraps it up for all psychic “abilities”. Take away cold reading and they all strike out, swinging mind you, but they all strike out nevertheless. Looks like I’ve got a little bit of the cosmic power in me as well.

Patricia Putt, who claims she is psychic, took the preliminary test for the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge today. The test was conducted by Professor Richard Wiseman and Professor Christopher French. In order to pass her challenge test, Mrs. Putt was required to pen psychic readings for ten volunteers who were then asked to identify their own readings from the group. At least five volunteers would have had to correctly identify their own reading.

None did. Mrs. Putt’s readings were correctly identified by zero out of ten volunteers.

According to the testers, Mrs. Putt took this failure well, and did not blame the test or the testers but rather her own powers for failing.

READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY AT “RANDI.ORG”

Skepdude predicts that even though she took the failure well and blamed her powers, this symptom is only temporary and within a short period of time, less than a full month, she will rationalize it away and keep on doing exactly what she was doing before she failed the test.

Author: Rory B. Bellows

Libertarian Vice Presidential Nominee, and world famous sports handicapper, Wayne Allyn Root has a challenge for his fellow member of the Columbia graduating Class of 1983: Release your records. SO far, Barack Hussein Obama has declinedto release his college transcripts, and Wayne Allyn Root, a man who can smell a rat, knows there is something fishy going on.

In an interview with Reason.Com, Root offers $1 million to Obama to release his transcripts and prove he has a higher GPA than Mr. Root who claims he earned a B+ to A- average at Columbia.

Here are some highlights from Mr. Root’s interview:

Root is no fan of the Democratic nominee: “A vote for Obama is four years of Karl Marx, and no one should be happy about that,” he told us and a few genial young libertarian activists over cocktails. “He’s a communist! I don’t care what anybody says. The guy’s a communist…. And his mother was a card-carrying communist, and he says she’s the most important person in his entire life; he learned everything from her.”

I think the most dangerous thing you should know about Barack Obama is that I don’t know a single person at Columbia that knows him, and they all know me. I don’t have a classmate who ever knew Barack Obama at Columbia. Ever!