Comments on: Phoenix Blues

By: vincededoo

vincededoo — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 23:00:45 +0000

Last night was a truly awe inspiring experience. The follow up was no less engaging – your article covering the general sentiment that many of us feel after having endured eight years of incompentency, jingoism, and socio-cultural/ ideological division. Not sure if you saw McCain’s concession speech but the first thing he says was that this was a victory for “the African American community.” Correct me if I’m wrong, but when over 52% of the country opts in favor of your opponet, I would call it a resounding repudiation of your message and campaign strategy. Seems to me that old pa was throwing in his last attempt to minimize the significance of Obama’s emergence and the shift that it signals. Thanks, Marc, for eloquently capturing the vibe.

By: WitnessLA.com » Blog Archive » Newest DSM IV-listed Syndrome: Electoral Dysfunction

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 04:29:31 +0000

[...] a full blown Election Panic Attack, [WLA NOTE: I had one of those on Tuesday night. For details see Marc Cooper’s blog] at which point I go back to Nate Silver for comfort (he always comforts me), but then I start [...]

By: Randy Paul

Randy Paul — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:27:18 +0000

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

By: passing through

passing through — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:32:16 +0000

Never said I was a saint, but I’ll gladly let others judge whose behavior is more rage-fueled.

I guess argumentum ad populum is just one more arrow in your quiver of fallacies.

By: Rich

Rich — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:13:19 +0000

Back on topics of substance. Although I suspect Marc will link to it soon enough, here is his latest LA Weekly column:

http://www.laweekly.com/2008-10-30/news/hope-not-faith/

A shot in the arm and a pump of the fist. Way to get the blood flowing, Marc. Awesome.

By: Randy Paul

Randy Paul — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:18:13 +0000

Never said I was a saint, but I’ll gladly let others judge whose behavior is more rage-fueled.

Warm Regards,

By: passing through

passing through — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:11:09 +0000

You’re the one who brought it up, pal.

You really don’t understand what a strawman is, do you?

By: passing through

passing through — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:08:27 +0000

a good substitute for erudition and reasoned, fact-based argument

Like “blow it out your pompous ass”.

By: passing through

passing through — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:05:32 +0000

If predicting who is likely to vote is as cut and dried as whether the sun is going to come up in the morning or not, then why are there so many different models for predicting a likely voter? It’s so uncertain Gallup gives you two different models to pick from. Yeah, I can see why you ask that, since I had just said that predicting likely voters is cut and dried with no uncertainty when I wrote "the POLLS are just ESTIMATES, which depend on likely voter MODELS". Once again, dufus, My statement [about the sun] didn’t in any way equate probabilities, it made a point about the absurd idea that analysis and evidence can’t “tell you” about future events. You dismiss predictions based on analysis and evidence because we don't know what will happen until it happens, but you have no trouble offering up "common sense" as a guide -- a fine example of special pleading. Since you so misunderstand the point of my analogy, I'll offer another one: saying that analysis and evidence can't tell us how someone will vote until they vote is like saying that analysis and evidence can't tell us how a poker player will play a hand until it is played. That's just wrong -- it can't tell us for certain, but it does inform us and increase the chances that we'll predict correctly, and thereby play correctly against our opponent and make more money. Which is not to say that the probability of what a poker player will do is the same as the probability of what an undecided voter will do; the analogy isn't about that.

By: Randy Paul

Randy Paul — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:02:47 +0000

Would you mind turning off the comments section for a few days? I’d like to see if crime rates spike for a research paper I’m working on.

Alan,

It’s becoming more and more apparent that the internet is becoming a bubbling font of raging ids, and, as we can see here, is not limited to one side or the other.

Anonymity fuels this to some extent. The quality of discussion gets debased as some believe that bombast – on a level that is frankly onanistic – is a good substitute for erudition and reasoned, fact-based argument, the rest of us just hunger for an intelligent engaging discussion.

More’s the pity.

By: Robert Fiore

Robert Fiore — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:01:46 +0000

You’re the one who brought it up, pal. What exactly are you so angry about, anyway?

By: passing through

passing through — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 01:28:28 +0000

If predicting who is likely to vote is as cut and dried as whether the sun is going to come up in the morning or not

S
t
r
a
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m
a
n.

By: Sergio

Sergio — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 23:05:17 +0000

I though Fiore was funny.

Q: why no “reg” or Woody?

A: addicts = chickenshits.

By: passing gas

passing gas — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:21:48 +0000

Here a creative one I saw:

Obama
– bin -
Biden

By: Anna Churchill

Anna Churchill — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:53:37 +0000

The posse is out

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/30/uselections2008-florida-lawyers-democrats-republicans

By: Anna Churchill

Anna Churchill — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:37:35 +0000

Mr. Magoo
Mrs Venables

By: Anna Churchill

Anna Churchill — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:34:51 +0000

Chucky
—-*—-
Bride of Chucky

Macbeth
—-*—–
Lady Gruoch

By: Anna Churchill

Anna Churchill — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:30:02 +0000

Mr. Magoo
—–*——
Mrs. Simpson

By: Robert Fiore

Robert Fiore — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:02:57 +0000

Me, I’ve always thought of them as Popeye and Olive Oyl.

By: Anna Churchill

Anna Churchill — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:15:13 +0000

Did you guys see the one about the improved McCain/Palin lawn sign?

Geezer
—-*—-
Dingbat