Politics in SL

Not expecting you to be a journalist,

But to make wild claims with no basis discredits you.

That thing is freaky. Having a nick like mine, I strolled over to Moscow one day and saw this building and thought..."Hmmm, wonder what's in there." It was dark; tried turning world to noon and it was still dark so walked around and then saw...it. I gave a little scream and jumped a bit in RL. VERY realistic.

This was also during Halloween and I think that should have been included in the list of places to go.

Wow this part is interesting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_%28television_commercial%29

A political commercial done by LBJ supporters implying that his opponent wouldn't be able to keep America safe by using the hint of Nuclear War.

Reminds me of the sleeping girl ad used by Hillary.

From one of two surveys made in Iraq and published in the prestigious and normally honest British publication Lancet. The methodology is fatally flawed: Interviews of a sample drawn by going to certain selected locations around Iraq and doing "clusters" of interviews in those locations. The subjects were asked to count up the number of deaths they had experienced "caused" by the Iraq violence. The more obvious flaws: Selecting certain locations inherently means not considering others; the "clusters" increase the risk of anomalous local results distorting the overall result; the possibility of introducing bias by the means of selection - consciously or unconcsciously - is greatly increased; and perhaps most telling of all - it is commonplace to use deception as a weapon in the Middle East, and subjects of all factions would readily see an advantage to their side in exaggerating how greatly they have suffered. The first such survey produced an estimated 600,000 deaths. A second one conducted later came up with about 1 million. The degree of variation alone should cast doubt on the validity of the results.

Such efforts to reach politically useful "statistics" are more likely to discredit those who make them in the long run, while persuading only those already persuaded. But Election Day this November is not far enough in the future to constitute the "long run," so expect much more of this sort of thing in the months ahead.

The "official" figures count only those deaths known to the authorities, either through direct casualty accounts or reports from morgues and hospitals, and so are certainly understated - for one thing, it obviously will not include casualties inflicted on insurgent or Al Qaeda forces. The degree of understatement is necessarily unknown, but the assertion that they missed 80% to 90% of the total death count is so transparently dubious that it needs a lot more evidence than anyone seems even close to producing.

"In war, the first casualty is Truth."

Obama's been a state senator and then a U.S. senator for over a decade, has flashed a consistent voting history over that time and stance on the issues during his campaign, and you don't know how he stands on the "Core" issues? Have you tried Wikipedia? I know they've had some process reliability issues, but it's probably a better reference than your close personal friend DMX.

I keep expecting one of you people who keep denying we're a democracy to call Obama "well-spoken".

Here you go. You can look up all of his positions and solutions offered.

http://www.barackobama.com

You know it's not like the media will cover any of the actual issues that the candidates have stances on. Too long, too intellectual, too boring.

And Har, the methods they use to come up with millions of deaths is the same methods they use to calculate the dead in darfur or sudan or wherever. No one ever disputes those findings. They can't go around counting bodies or digging up graves.

Yes it was a little . . . scream worthy. Luckily the picture doesn't really show that aspect very well.

The fact that no-one wants to dispute the results of a fallacious methodology in Country A is hardly a validation of it for Country B. Doesn't make it any more valid. A person might arguably try to use it as a way to measure relative violence in Sudan and Iraq, for example, but it is still fatally flawed for coming up with totals, no matter how many countries it is applied to, and no matter how silent the press is on the subject because it does not want to question a source of useful headlines (the media privately refer to this phenomenon as having "a story too good to check".

I'm not sure that is the case theres often different estimates for death tolls given in large violent situations. You can find differing estimates in Darfur also.

I found the poll where the 1 million number is listed. ORB (Opinion Research Business) Poll. It is worth noting it is over 40% higher than the next largest estimate The Lancet Survey.

Those two surveys are much higher than any other sources which seem to give a number more in the 80-150,000 range.

I can see where she got 1 million now though, so I guess it makes sense she said such in her post, whether or not its the accurate number.

But also qualifies her as a journalist.

Wow I am looking at the methodology of the ORB (Opinion Research Business) Poll,

Basically they did detailed surveys of 2000 Iraqi households and how many had lost family members due to what source, and then multiplied the findings throughout the country's population.

That doesn't seem like a very thorough way to do research on something like this.

By LBJ retread, I mean a return of the "Great Society" style programs. The ones that didn't work the first time and won't work now.

Oh okay that makes sense.

I do not know if it was accurate or not but I was taught the only way LBJ got that stuff through was all the contacts he made in over 20 years on the Hill.

I don't think we can afford massive social spending in a recession particularly.

Political Ideas in SL:

...and then there's Panthers United of Gor, promoting end of slavery and equal rights for men and woman on Gor. Panther tribes united - end Darwinism - preferably by force.

WAR ON GOR

Maggie

I'm reminded of a great quote, "....ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."

Ah, right, the LBJ Great Society programs. It would have been nice if some of them had proven nationally effective and beneficial and stuck around until the present day.

Like the bills he signed into law banning minority-blocking voting tests, segregated facilities, and housing discrimination.

Like federal funding of public schools and increased funding to land-grant universities.

Like Medicare, Medicaid, the National Endowment for the Arts, various radio and television channels, the Kennedy Center, D.C. art museums, the consolidated Department of Transportation (and my personal nemesis, the '66 Motor Vehicle Safety Act). Like a ton of environmental preservation legislation that protects the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the earth we walk.

You might even say that, in a way, he created the neocon movement as a reactive effect.

But really, too bad none of those stuck around. Well. It's a shame one did in particular.

That's not really exactly how these things work. They are a tad more complicated than that. (If they weren't, there would be a lot of statisticians out of business.)

Personally speaking I am fairly happy with the Lancet report (not that I have looked the ORB's) from my own statistical knowledge and that of epidemiologists with whom I have spoken on the matter. The various attacks on the figure and the responses are all documented on the net, in any case.

The 2000 households are spread geographically and demographically, there are adjustment factors,

But the core of the research data, the raw input data, appears to be essentially those 2000 surveys.

I wonder if it was a time related thing. Since that is the sort of Methodology you might use if you were trying to get ballpark type numbers.

I haven't skimmed over the other report you mention yet, but of course for it to be accurate, then the one I am discussing would have to be off by a substantial margin.


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Its important to note, that there are still conflicting data accounts of the Vietnamese military and civilian death tolls of the War in Vietnam.

Can you cite the Article and Section that authorizes any of those programs? Public schools are in so much better shape now then they were 40 years ago. Arts and television are perfect reasons to take money from people by force. Personally, I prefer freedom to forced integration, but then people might make choices of their own free will if we had freedom.

You might need the government to hold your hand, but many of us don't. I guess we should be robbed and oppressed to accommodate you.

OMFG. I have not looked at this thread at all until now. I thought all along it had to do with political posturing with being a FIC and being able to get the Lindens attention. I had no idea we were talking RL politics here.

*quietly sneaks out hoping to never return.

Robbed? Do you equate taxes to theft?

I should have expected this kind of follow-up to your original shortsighted, off-the-cuff denouncement of federal programs designed to serve citizens of this country. The rich and poor, the young and old, the fit, the wounded. Those who just got here, and those who have spilled blood for this land for generations...sometimes against each other.

You might not understand that LBJ opened the door to federal funding of public schools, and 40 years of improvement followed on from that.

You might not have noticed that enforcing the prevention of minority oppression by openly racist state and local governments (big words) and freedom (not so big) are actually pretty darn close.

You might not be capable of believing that while I don't need financial aid from the federal government, I do believe that we owe those who do a fighting chance.

For someone whose sig quotes Calhoun's tirade against voting interference, you're mighty adverse to everyone being able to vote. For someone who likes using the word "freedom", you seem real interested in denouncing measures taken so that as many as possible can learn to be be free.

Go do some reading up on history if you want those cites. You might need me to hold your hand, but all I can do is show you the water. You have to drink it for yourself.

(Aaaaaaand that's my rant against ignorance for today.)

We used to have an off-topic forums for politics too ..

Wonder if this lack of moderation is just providing proof about what people who use SL want to talk about.

There are definitely Political Hq's, etc in Second Life ..

Still we've definitely gone too far.

I admit I haven't helped I just wondered where people were coming up with this stuff.

Mainly I was expressing my lack of a personal desire to get involved in these types of debates here. But yeah, I think this is pushing the RA envelope way too far.

this stuff wasn't allowed in General either.

Just Off topic / the sandbox.

So tired of politics, especially from the Anti-Bush crowd. It's as if these morons don't realize HE CANT RUN FOR A THIRD TERM. And the "blood for oil" term was already used in 1991, for those of you that were still in diapers. The price of oil is $100 a barrel because CHINA IS BUYING TONS OF IT. It doesnt come from GWB's garage sale!

Besides, what do the Democrats have to do NOW besides waste effort and money? Three Democrats are running now. Obama, Clinton, and McCain.
I'm also keeping ALL my politics out of SL from this moment on.

Left wing, Right wing, either you have no brain or no heart. It just depends on your age.