tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621026.post7827795222656265259..comments2024-03-29T06:05:04.162+01:00Comments on Robert's Stochastic thoughts: Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14455788499385673507noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621026.post-20042846240578384332010-12-29T22:36:16.843+01:002010-12-29T22:36:16.843+01:00I wanna to decide some of questions in this area. ...I wanna to decide some of questions in this area. Could u help me to do it?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621026.post-46920709188495841002010-12-15T02:32:26.842+01:002010-12-15T02:32:26.842+01:00I think about add this material in my RSS. Do u th...I think about add this material in my RSS. Do u think its ok?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621026.post-84721214768270522922010-12-11T18:01:53.932+01:002010-12-11T18:01:53.932+01:00Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, may all your w...Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, may all your wishes come true!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621026.post-70838749831338176642010-11-26T01:09:18.477+01:002010-11-26T01:09:18.477+01:00Hello, you site is very funny he told me to cheer ...Hello, you site is very funny he told me to cheer up .. Merry Christmas.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621026.post-3099952254710761802010-02-28T18:11:07.779+01:002010-02-28T18:11:07.779+01:00Here are the facts:
1. The State of Florida has t...Here are the facts: <br />1. The State of Florida has the lowest concentration of physicians in the U.S.<br />2. The State of Florida has the highest death rate in the U.S.<br />I therefore propose that Florida adopt a policy of heavy subsidies for new doctors to move to Florida to help lower the death rate. <br /><br />Is there any reason why someone opposed to this policy proposal, or even just interested in analyzing it, should be debarred from pointing out that (1) is false, however condescending that might seem?Alannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621026.post-33044610750794777022010-02-28T01:51:25.799+01:002010-02-28T01:51:25.799+01:00Dear Ben Ross
Thanks for the link to your article...Dear Ben Ross<br /><br />Thanks for the link to your article. It is excellent.<br /><br />Dear Steve<br /><br />You make assertions without any evidence. Also you are condescending in the extreme. You don't have to explain to Krugman or me that the fact about Florida doesn't prove that physicians cause death. It is breathtakingly arrogant for you to assume that you do.<br /><br />your condescending arrogance is particularly astounding since it is directed at Paul Krugman. Try googling the phrase "accidental theorist." You will find that Krugman notes from time to time that people who think they are making predictions based only on facts are, inevitably always, using theory which is all the more suspect for being unexamined. <br /><br />What are you going to tell him in your next comment ? Maybe that it would be interesting to put increasing returns to scale and imperfect competition into a model of international trade ?<br /><br />Your objection is that we assert that facts exist. You present no examples of arrogance as you describe it. In particular, you definitely do not argue in anyway that in the summit Obama displayed arrogance as you describe it.<br /><br />Oddly in a comment on a post about attitudes towards claims of fact you present no evidence. You have impressions about what is perceived to be arrogant and about left wingers and bumper sticker politics but you present no data no facts no evidence nothing with a time and a place.<br /><br />The closest you come is to note that the fact that the CBO predicts something doesn't mean that it is a plain fact that it will happen, that is to say you note that Doug Elmendorf is not God. <br /><br />Howver, the fact that the CBO predicted something does imply that the CBO predicted something. The allegedly false claims on matters of fact include false claims about what the CBO said -- not the opinion that the CBO is wrong but the claim that the CBO said something different from what it said.<br /><br />I am thinking of Alexanders misleading claim about premiums (it wasn't a false claim of fact and Obama didn't say that it was, it was a misleading true statement ab out the CBO's prdictions and Obama pointed out equally true statements about the CBO) and the claim that the bills are forecast to reduce the deficit because the 10 year window includes 10 years of tax increases and spending cuts and only 6 years of spending increases. This is a plainly false claim about the text of the bill made by rep Ryan. The timing of different provisions is clearly written in the bill under debate. This is not about predictions or opionions. Ryan lied.Roberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14455788499385673507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621026.post-39730986578959248082010-02-28T00:53:54.047+01:002010-02-28T00:53:54.047+01:00Please use a spell checker program or a dictionary...Please use a spell checker program or a dictionary. Your commentary is great, but Americans' language skills are bad enough without writers misspelling so many words in a single post!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621026.post-21148484897247598892010-02-27T22:49:30.520+01:002010-02-27T22:49:30.520+01:00I just hacked out and posted on Dr. Krugman's ...I just hacked out and posted on Dr. Krugman's blog the following reply to his link to and endorsement of your post:<br /><br />"Dr. Krugman,<br /><br />Contrary to the persistant trope religiously adhered to by the Left for the past several years, right-wing thinking is neither universally "anti-logic" nor "anti-fact." Please be tolerant of right-wing skepticism of "facts" put forward by people with a political agenda. I hate to commit the "reductio ad Hitlerium" logical fallacy, but in the 1930's, German athropoligists armed Nazi leaders with quite a few "facts" that they could use in an attempt to justify their policies.<br /><br />Even assuming that the data is accurate and everybody's using the same dictionary, in a world of incomplete information there are almost always several logically plausible ways to interpret a given set of facts.<br /><br />"Here are the facts:"<br />1. The State of Florida has the highest concentration of physicians in the U.S.<br />2. The State of Florida has the highest death rate in the U.S.<br /><br />We can interpret these facts a number of ways:<br /><br />1. Physicians cause death.<br />2. High death rates attract physicians.<br />3. Both the high concentration of physicians and the high death rate are caused by other variables (e.g. the high concentration of elderly Floridians).<br /><br />C'mon, Doc, I shouldn't have to make this point to an econ professor.<br /><br />I think the accusations of "arrogance" you describe are often a criticism of the speaker's rigid certainty regarding his interpretation of the facts (or the reliability of "facts" like CBO projections, etc.) and dismissiveness of any alternative (i.e. not supportive of his agenda) interpretations. Some might justifiably consider such an attitude to be "arrogant" and "condescending" because, well, it is.<br /><br />I was in high school when I discovered that I was smarter than most of my teachers, and I remember the anger (augmented by adolescent hormones) I felt when I would voice skepticism of this-or-that bit of curricular nonsense, and the teacher would rebut me not with reason, logic, or additional facts, but by "pulling rank." You know--"someday you'll understand," etc.<br /><br />I won't deny the existence of an anti-intellectual current within the American Right, but conservatives hardly have a monopoly on simplistic thinking (from my limited experience, left-wingers are, if anything, more likely to engage in "bumper sticker politics.") However, neither does the Left have a monopoly on critical thinking. I challenge you to re-think the stereotypes you perpetuate on this blog."Stevenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621026.post-79074293288160606122010-02-27T19:55:27.268+01:002010-02-27T19:55:27.268+01:00There is a hidden premise behind the view that poi...There is a hidden premise behind the view that pointing out factual errors constitutes "condescension." It is that the purpose of politics is the assertion of identity rather than attaining any concrete objective. I had more to say about that <a href="http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=151" rel="nofollow"> here</a>.<br /><br />Ben RossAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621026.post-87539864238421622622010-02-26T18:36:27.127+01:002010-02-26T18:36:27.127+01:00I've seen almost the whole meeting. Not that t...I've seen almost the whole meeting. Not that the Republicans haven't tried, but they didn't succeed. He made them respect him. I was in awe.Hans Suterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15643533748766695159noreply@blogger.com