See Blog Title for Article Description

We are taking a break from our blog silence to bring you Statistics, and what may or may not be called "lies." (Am I enjoying this too much? possibly)

At Gateway Pundit (via ASC, via ChrisB) today you will find the quote below, asserting that now after 6 years of Bush's Presidency:

US losses in Iraq and Afghanistan today (3525) are approaching the half way mark
(3750) of the military losses during the Clinton years.

Please note boys and girls the careful wording of this statement. It is good that the wording is SO careful, because it prevents the Gateway Pundit from actually outright lieing. Interesting no? Note how he is very specific about US losses In Iraq and Afghanistan, versus all soldiers lost in the Clinton administration. It only takes a moment or two to figure out that this is not a straight comparison.

The graph he shows is here.
He gets his Iraq statistics from this link, which I think includes only casualties that occured in Iraq or Afghanistan (Or possibly leaves out the first two years of Bush's presidency? ) He also links here, which is where he gets his statistics for Clinton.

Using that PDF the total number of military deaths under just the first four years of the Bush Administration was 5187. And for the purposes of comparison, the first four years of Clinton's Administration 4621.

And just for kicks, I made my own graph, and this graph shows the total number of deaths due to "Hostile Action" during All 8 years of the clinton administration, and the first FOUR years of the Bush Administration. PLEASE NOTE, this graph is HEAVILY skewed in favor of Bush!!

Clinton on the left, bush on the Right. The Blue bar is deaths from Hostile action, (Clinton had 1, Bush 1102, ) the Purple Bar shows total deaths.

Now I'm not saying that Gateway Pundit was exactly LIEing. I am saying that his comparison of Military deaths under Bush versus under Clinton is meaningless. Beyond the fact that the statistics he uses are from two completely different sources which means they are counted differently and therefore not comparable, the two Presidents are not comparable either. Bush's presidency is and will always be colored by 9/11, and our struggle against Terrorism, and Clinton's is colored by oral sex. Which do you think kills more soldiers?

Now I can understand wanting to be able to say that Bush killed fewer soldiers than Clinton. I mean wont that really get the left's panties in a twist. Quite frankly though, it just isn't true. It's not a straight statistical comparison that he is trying to make, and it ends up sounding a lot like a lie.

UPDATE: I had a discussion with Lance in the comments at ASC that I recommend everyone read. He says he really thinks the intention of Gateway's post was to point out that the same number (or more) soldiers can be lost in peacetime, and not to really make a comparison to Clinton's military. I still think the post could be clearer about what exactly those statistics that he is comparing are measuring. For while I guess it is technically stated, it isn't very explicit and easily misinerpreted. But I'm glad the intention was not to mislead.

I hope people will forgive the somewhat harsh tone of my post. I'd edit it but then apparently I'd be harming the intergity of the blogosphere or some such nonsense. I may have gotten a tad fired up for no reason. Maybe I should go out for a job in radio.

When in Quebec

A town in Quebec has released a notice, basically outlining their town's culture and laws. See the Telegraph article, it also includes a link to the translation of their document. (Via the Advice Goddess)

The purpose of this notice is to inform anyone who might be considering moving there about their customs and laws, so that people can chose to move their or not (I guess) based on them. Of course muslim groups are offended and people are saying it is racist.

But I don't think it is racist, I think it is perfectly resonable. It seems that some people who have recently moved to some countries have been misguided about the laws and customs of that country. And once there, finding that their religious or cultural customs were not followed have tried to change that society to fit their laws.

Apparently some cultures have missed out on the whole "When in Rome" proverb. In moving to any country most immigrants desire to maintain some semblance of their own culture. In America people have been doing this for centuries. Here in Chicago there are tons of neighborhoods that pay homage to the customs and cultures of people's homelands. (Polish, italian, german, mexican, chinese, indian on and on.) But the people in those neighborhoods, while they may maintain symbols of their home, their language, their food, do not require changes in the laws of this city. They do not require (to my knowledge anyway) local citizens or professionals to bend to their cultural needs. Besides carving out a space for themselves, they do not try to change the City.

I believe it is the responsibility of individuals who wish to emmigrate, to ensure that the location they are emmgirating to is compatable with their culture. Similarly they should ensure that any employment they undertake will not require them to do things that violate their religion. As such I think it is very reasonable to notify potential immigrators of the culture of a certain area, and what behaviors will and will not be tolerated, so that they can avoid moving to those places.

Bored?

Check out the Secret World Chronicle . It is sortof an apocolytpic meets superhero type series all in podcast format. I'm on chapter 3 and it's excellent so far, though some of the readers are better than others.

I wish they did more than one a week!!!

Light Bright Ridiculousness

Seriously, Does that look like a bomb?

No, it doesn't. Which is what makes the people quoted in this article sound completely stupid:

"It’s clear the intent was to get attention by causing fear and unrest that
there was a bomb in that location,” Assistant Attorney General John Grossman
said at their arraignment.

.... Uhm.... no?

"
"It is outrageous, in a post 9/11 world, that a company would use this type
of marketing scheme,” Mayor Thomas Menino said Wednesday. “I am prepared to take any and all legal action against Turner Broadcasting and its affiliates for any
and all expenses incurred during the response to today’s incidents.”

Conversely these men are freaking brilliant. Seriously, they are my heros. And how pretentious do those journalists sound, could we have LESS of a sense of humor! Just try a bit, maybe we could even be less interesting.

I hope that Turner Broadcasting doesn't cave to this completely ridiculous attempt to cover for a government that is overreacting. I mean, who is really trying to scare the public here? The people trying to advertise their show, or the government who is jumping at shadows?