Posted on 10/12/2006 5:05:45 AM PDT by .cnI redruM
Credit the newsmaking scientists at Johns Hopkins with this: They know a political opportunity when they see one. This latest Iraq war-death estimate -- 655,000, four times higher than anyone else's -- is released a few weeks before Election 2006, just like their last Lancet study, which appeared right before the 2004 election. Here we are again, watching science meet anti-war politics. Yesterday the study got generous coverage in The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere. Why that happened is unclear, because the scientists -- the lead author this time is Dr. Gilbert Burnham, last time Dr. Les Roberts -- burned the media in 2004 by irresponsibly hyping a supposed death total of 100,000. The signs of politicization were clear enough: One author admitted to politically motivated timing. Lancet editor Richard Horton called the war "grievously in error." And sure enough, as Slate's Fred Kaplan showed, the study actually proved no such figure. Sampling Iraqis around the country by interview, the authors' survey really determined that the death toll in 2004 was somewhere between 8,000 and 194,000. As Mr. Kaplan put it: "This isn't an estimate. It's a dart board." Every other credible group or analyst put the number in the range of 15,000-30,000. The 100,000 estimate was nevertheless declared to be "conservative" by these political scientists.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
"Lies, damn lies, and statistics."
Nope, not when that scientific research is led or funded by those who want a particular outcome that would garner vast media attention.
Where do you bury 655,000 persons? You'd be able to see the sheer number of fresh graves from space! I demand satellite photo proof!
Yes, there is legitimate science. I suggest reading/joining The Science Wars. Paul Gross and Norman Levitt wrote the seminal Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels With Science (JHU, 1994) and edited NYAS conference minutes The Flight From Science and Reason. This latter's bibliography should keep one busy for a long time.
On line is Science Warrior Alan Sokal who wrote http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/transgress_v2/transgress_v2_singlefile.html
Transgressing the Boundaries illuminates well the follies of the CrEvo hysteria. Sound and fury signifying nothing. Tagline...
And the 655,000 figure does not include the additional 70,000 kidnapped by the US' ally, the Klingon Empire...
Haven't you heard? We're serving them in USMC mess halls.
Well, they've been beamed up, no methodology to accurately capture that figure.
I figure they ground them up and provided lime for the tulips. You didn't know Karl E. Rove Super Genius liked growing tulips?
"Is there still such a thing as legitimate science anymore?"
Awww, come on guy, it's so simple maybe you need a refresher course. [leans arm on hot engine part, then jumps away] Heyya! It's all ball bearings nowadays!
Political Science (Randy Newman)
No one likes us-I don't know why
We may not be perfect, but heaven knows we try
But all around, even our old friends put us down
Let's drop the big one and see what happens
We give them money-but are they grateful?
No, they're spiteful and they're hateful
They don't respect us-so let's surprise them
We'll drop the big one and pulverize them
Asia's crowded and Europe's too old
Africa is far too hot
And Canada's too cold
And South America stole our name
Let's drop the big one
There'll be no one left to blame us
We'll save Australia
Don't wanna hurt no kangaroo
We'll build an All American amusement park there
They got surfin', too
Boom goes London and boom Paris
More room for you and more room for me
And every city the whole world round
Will just be another American town
Oh, how peaceful it will be
We'll set everybody free
You'll wear a Japanese kimono
And there'll be Italian shoes for me
They all hate us anyhow
So let's drop the big one now
Let's drop the big one now
All I know of poly sci is that future lawyers have to major in it.
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