Yglesias » On the Tire Swing
Q: "What does “on the tire swing” mean?
A: It’s a Josh Marshallism. It’s the image of reporters happily riding along with whatever silliness John McCain puts out. It’s a reference to this post. Watch the video to get the reference."
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
chartjunk h/t sullivan
see also
There’s a graph that Obama supporters are sending around, showing the differences between the Republican and Democrat tax cut proposals. It shows that Obama is not in fact planning to raise taxes - he’s planning to cut them for all but the very, very rich. I couldn’t help but notice though - the graph is still massively weighted towards the interests of the super-rich. For example, the bottom two-thirds of the population are given only a third of the space on the graph, while the top 0.1% of the population - one in a thousand people - gets almost 10%. What’s more, an “average tax cut” is then given, which seems to have been derived from taking a total of the nine income brackets shown and dividing it by nine. Journalists should really volunteer to take remedial arithmetic, you know. Once again, this ignores that one of the brackets represents one thousandth of the population.
So let’s make this a bit more accurate - let’s keep all the brackets, but draw it to scale.
see also
Monday, September 15, 2008
The Fourth Quadrant: A Map of the Limits of Statistics
Edge 257: "When Nassim Taleb talks about the limits of statistics, he becomes outraged. 'My outrage,' he says, 'is aimed at the scientist-charlatan putting society at risk using statistical methods. This is similar to iatrogenics, the study of the doctor putting the patient at risk.' As a researcher in probability, he has some credibility. In 2006, using FNMA and bank risk managers as his prime perpetrators, he wrote the following:
"The government-sponsored institution Fannie Mae, when I look at its risks, seems to be sitting on a barrel of dynamite, vulnerable to the slightest hiccup. But not to worry: their large staff of scientists deemed these events 'unlikely.'"
m & m
...so now I'm 110%+ behind Obama. A few months ago I told you I wasn't too excited but would vote partyline. Well, after watching the Demo convention and the Republican convention I'm totally in favor of Obama. I can't tell you how much I was disappointed with Sarah P. after watching/listening to her speech. I really think she's a woman that carries a chip on her shoulder and I was completely disappointed to see how immature and sarcastic she was with her speech. ...
-m
hi m,
one doesn't have to be excited about obama to want to run screaming from the other ticket.
but obama certainly is congenial to me. he seeks to enforce a logical consistency among the various things that are known, and always tries to promote substantive dialog to resolve disputes and reconcile differences of opinion. i also very much like the fact that he steadfastly refuses to be diverted from the merits by the various off-the-merits strategems that are regularly employed by those whose interests evidently wouldn't be served by candid discussion of the substance.
obama and his campaign administration deeply understand the significance of the fact that it is now hugely easier to collect, organize and link to the various things that are known, here in the present networked information age. the project of enforcing a substantive discussion bounded by logic has some traction.
by my lights obama is pursuing an honorable and highly pragmatic campaign, one that exceeds any expectations i ever had for a presidential candidate. there are policy issues of obama's that i may not like so much, but all of that falls away in the face of what I perceive to be the all-out assault on reason being waged by the other side. not to mention the rule of law. well, there i've mentioned it, haven't I?
-m
. . .. ... ..... ........ oOo ........ ..... ... .. . .
hi m,
one doesn't have to be excited about obama to want to run screaming from the other ticket.
but obama certainly is congenial to me. he seeks to enforce a logical consistency among the various things that are known, and always tries to promote substantive dialog to resolve disputes and reconcile differences of opinion. i also very much like the fact that he steadfastly refuses to be diverted from the merits by the various off-the-merits strategems that are regularly employed by those whose interests evidently wouldn't be served by candid discussion of the substance.
obama and his campaign administration deeply understand the significance of the fact that it is now hugely easier to collect, organize and link to the various things that are known, here in the present networked information age. the project of enforcing a substantive discussion bounded by logic has some traction.
by my lights obama is pursuing an honorable and highly pragmatic campaign, one that exceeds any expectations i ever had for a presidential candidate. there are policy issues of obama's that i may not like so much, but all of that falls away in the face of what I perceive to be the all-out assault on reason being waged by the other side. not to mention the rule of law. well, there i've mentioned it, haven't I?
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
