The idea of testing something to see its effectiveness and integrity is fine, and I have no qualms about it. But please do not consider that the words validity and Randi ever go together.
I'm all for people making weird statements of fact and then being asked to back it up, as it it isn't its just chreap talk.
But please Randi is as cranky as the oddballs who try to go for the prize. In his eyes every single area which falls outside of wetsrn science in his eyes he has proved (again in his own mind!) to be false and bogus. Who in the hell is he to be grand universal indicator of the truth. Some of his tests set up are pretty good but a lot of them are so rigid that they are almost deigned to register a negative reaction before the test commence.

He sets the conditions (which is fair enough as its his money he puts up fron!) but think for a second that also = conclusiveness.
Maybe he had a bad childhood or something but in his mind this totally unscientific scientist feels its his mission to rule out everything but Western science. Maybe his parents let him skip one too many sunday schools and he got a taste for atheism, I don't know but Randi is one of the most illogical men around.

Why do people accept what he says as truth??? I don't know, I know in my life I've yet to uncover some of the big truths in life but I certainly as know he hasn't for sure!