Demonstrating Statistical Deception
Wesley Elsberry nails it in this post. He also mentions the great book How to Lie with Statistics, which everyone should read.
Wesley Elsberry nails it in this post. He also mentions the great book How to Lie with Statistics, which everyone should read.
… and so should mine. There are quite a number of ideas that I believe are quite good when practiced voluntarily, and become dangerous and destructive when backed by force. For example, let’s take “political correctness.” Much of what is labelled political correctness is, in my opinion, simple courtesy. Notice the bold text. I think…
In Preserving Democracy, Elgin Hushbeck quotes Alexander Fraser Tytler: A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public…
Though I have decided to support Barack Obama for president this year, one of the great negatives on my checklist for him and for the Democratic party is campaign finance laws. When I put the candidates side-by-side, however, McCain isn’t a significant improvement on that point. This is illustrated by this story on CQPolitics, informing…
There’s a good article on MSNBC.com titled: Fundamental failures led to current Iraq crisis. My arguments against the war have been primarily based no the first point: Lesson 1: Select an attainable objective While the Administration tried to build a case against Saddam on the basis of weapons of mass destruction, a principal motivation, ironically,…
Brian McLaren links to this article at the Huffington Post. It may be inconvenient, but is it truth? (I guess I need to tell my readers that I often like what Brian McLaren has to say, but then there are these moments.) I’m also opposed to those who think Israel is always right. But there…
I found the following article interesting but in no way surprising: Months before the invasion of Iraq, U.S. intelligence agencies predicted that it would be likely to spark violent sectarian divides and provide al-Qaeda with new opportunities in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report released Friday by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Analysts…