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Politics : Moderate Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (2258)	6/19/2003 11:24:43 PM
From: LPS5	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20773

Those 1100 people are in Iraq. Thus it gives us a window into Iraq, at the moment those people were polled. It gives one window into Iraq at that moment; a different 1100, or 2000, or 5000 at that same instant may have given completely different answers. In both cases, radically different conclusions could be drawn from amounts that are - and for which even multiples would be - statistically insignificant as a sample of the Iraqi population. Did I say it was a complete window? NO. Yelling isn't necessary, but where you said that it gives a "glimpse into Iraq," yes; that is the conclusion I drew. Semantics, phraseology? Perhaps. In my opinion it's a point worth raising, though, whatever the root cause. A glimpse is by nature an incomplete look- did you fail to realize this? I take the word "glimpse" to suggest a snapshot, which in this case - with so few people polled - at least suggests a guided leap; at best, it's an outcome merely consistent with randomness. No glimpse is complete (imo, and by definition of the word itself), and no poll questions everyone. Have you questioned every poll you have seen posted because it does not question everyone? Those polls discussing a topic which is of importance to me, yes - I question them. If you're lamenting the fact that polls rarely, if ever, represent anything even remotely indicative - congratulations. You, unlike the majority of other folks on SI, are well suited to consider them. If you have not, you need to realize... LOL! I 'need to realize...'? ...that you question this one because 1. you do not like that I posted it, or 2. there is something in it that bothers you and you would like to discredit it, or 3. you think I said it gave a glimpse into every heart in Iraq - which I did not say, and did not mean. I didn't say that you said you had a glimpse into "every heart in Iraq." You said that the poll "gives a glimpse into Iraq at the moment the poll was taken." "Into Iraq at th[at] moment"? I certainly wouldn't have phrased it that way. You are fighting a phantom that does not exist. "[F]ighting"? That's a curious expression for someone lobbing such an incredibly defensive reaction. I agree that it gives a glimpse into Iraq... I don't agree with that at all. ...[alternately] a glimpse into 1100 minds and hearts in Iraq. I am sure those 1100 minds and hearts represent other minds and hearts, but I've no idea how many. But I would agree with that. Were you looking for someone to argue with? Not in the least. I didn't expect you to respond at all, not only following this recent post... Message 19027895 ...but also expecting you to act in line with others who've ducked...perhaps knowingly, perhaps habitually...after being asked, rhetorically, about the statistical soundness of the polls they're citing and the implications they're drawing. Message 19034658 Perhaps you could look a bit further. I am not interested. Apparently you were, though. You weren't forced to respond, you elected to - whether you call the driving factor 'interest,' 'rectification,' or whatever captures your fancy. I reserve the right to respond, at will, at length or briefly, to any post I see in essentially any forum. In those (or other) cases, you are invited to respond if you so desire. You do so tua sponte, of course. LPS5