Quote:
Originally posted by taxwonk
As Twain said, there are lies, there are damn lies, and there are statistics. What kind of asshole would even for a moment take seriously a mathematical progression as a likely scenario for terrorist casualties? Give me a fucking break.
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Hmm, lets see... how bout the drug industry, which offers piles of speciously derived stats to show why you need their therapies to avoid illnesses. How about medicine? Ever ask your doctor "Will 1 or 2 cigarettes actually do anything to me?" He'll never say 'probably not.' He'll cite some inapplicable study which shows that cigarettes - when smoked enmasse - cause cancer. Oh, here's another - breast cancer. Yesterday's Times had an ad saying one in seven women will get that during their lives. Of course, it offers no info regarding the variables in the study or the age at which the cancers are typically found. How about the government? We've had a war on weed for how many years, yet no one has ever died from a marijuana overdose, yet it remains a DEA schedule one drug? Statistics are the new bible. They prove everything.
Oh, according to the govt, I died of cirrhosis last week, have advanced throat cancer, have had about three heart attacks, am carrying about five STDs, have three children and have died in four car accidents. Just like about 3 out of 4 people you know.
