I'm hoping that morganplus8 is off composing a epic defense of TA, since no one else appears capable of refuting any of my technical objections. Apart from tossing insults, that is.
Oh by the way I agree with you that stock charts are a tool. However they are only good for looking backward, not forward. Those red and blue lines that people draw on top of stock charts? IMO those are as scientific as astrological charts. Those cups and handles and pennants are are real as those animals that you see in clouds.
I've also heard it argued that TA is a tool that is used to supplement fundamental analysis. Well and good. If you take homeopathic pills together with antibiotics, you'll still get better although you wasted money on the former.