alternative hippopotamus

progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital

October 11, 2006

Little Piggy Goes A’Bloggin’

by AltHippo @ 5:02 pm. Filed under Uncategorized

Via the intriguingly named She Flies With Her Own Wings, who points out that the wingnuts aren’t happy (”They’re almost certainly way too high,” said Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington. …”This is not analysis, this is politics,” Cordesman said.) comes this this from Blue Crab Boulevard:

Absolute Bull. A “study” supposedly “shows” that 665,000 “excess” deaths occurred in Iraq since the US invasion. Thats almost 15,500 every month above the expected death rate. Bull. Throw the flag on this one, folks. That the media is even reporting this crap shows a venomous partisan slant.

(I’ll also add that Blue Crab throws in the predictable right-wing retort: “UPDATE: Game, set, match. The Iraqi government rejects the “study” as exagerated.” Really? That’s game, set, match? In the reality-based community, we’d say something like “for what it’s worth.” Anyway, I’m just saying the wingnuts love that “game, set, match” hyperbole)

These are numbers, after all. You can attack the methodology, but the numbers are the result of a process. Dismissing them on their own is like the little pig who went shopping, and didn’t know anything about shopping, but knew what he didn’t like. Blue Crab may not know much about statistics, but he knows what he doesn’t like, and he doesn’t like those numbers.

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7 Responses to “Little Piggy Goes A’Bloggin’”

  1. KCinDC Says:
    October 11th, 2006 at 11:24 pm

    I’m trying to come up with a set of underlying assumptions that makes the “Game, set, match” line make sense, but I’ve got nothing. Obviously the idea is that the number is false because even the Iraqi government says it is, but in what universe would the Iraqi government (especially a US-backed Iraqi government) be expected to embrace statistics that make the situation in Iraq look bad? That’s like saying “Game, set, match. Bill O’Reilly rejects claims that Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction.”

    And that’s not even getting into the point that it’s a study, and therefore disagreeing with it should involve, you know, pointing out problems with the methods or assumptions used, not just saying “bull”.

  2. eRobin Says:
    October 11th, 2006 at 11:37 pm

    He pointed out that he didn’t feel that the numbers can possibly be right. Any brainiac on the nerd patrol can discuss a study with you. Blue Crab feels it at you.

  3. AltHippo Says:
    October 11th, 2006 at 11:52 pm

    KCinDC, that’s the underlying humor in this kind of rhetoric. I don’t know who invented the “game, set, match” gambit, which predictably follows a post to the lamest explanation, but it’s one of the more amusing aspects of following the right-wing blogosphere.

    eRobin, you’re getting too good at this. We’re going to have to give you your own tv show.

  4. KathyF Says:
    October 12th, 2006 at 5:00 am

    I see that even Kevin Drum, who can be relied on to call bullshit when it exists, seems to think the numbers are pretty solid. That’s game, set and match in my book, but note that I don’t play tennis.

  5. AltHippo Says:
    October 12th, 2006 at 8:56 am

    Kevin’s got a pretty good math game, so that’s definitely an interesting data point. I work with statistics in my day job, but haven’t had the time to actually read through the report.

  6. KCinDC Says:
    October 12th, 2006 at 9:37 am

    Yeah, I know my comment was a bit redundant, but every once in a while the sheer insanity of the Bush worshipper’s worldview (or what they pretend is their wordlview) strikes me forcefully enough that it takes a minute to get past it.

  7. KathyF Says:
    October 13th, 2006 at 4:08 am

    You might be interested in this then:
    http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/daniel_davies/2006/10/how_to_not_lie_with_statistics.html

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hip·po·pot·a·mus n. A notion, perhaps distinct from conventional wisdom, that needs to be verified by reality-based scrutiny.

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