JPT @172

“Lie. Right off the bat. From the very start, I emphasized, repeatedly, that the trend was over a period of time.”

But conveniently refused to select a period of time or provide any links to support your hypothesis.

“Tell us. What institution gave you your PhD in ‘hard sciences’.”

If you think I am going to send you a copy of my CV, then you are out of your mind. Oh, wait … you are out of your mind! I will reveal that I spent at least 5 years doing scientific research at Caltech at some point during the past 40 years. I think that is both sufficiently informative to establish my credentials and sufficiently vague to maintain my anonymity.

“And NO ONE with any familiarity with hard science would confuse the two point equation for a line with the definition of a trend and tell one and all that only two points are needed to establish a trend.”

I said one must have AT LEAST two, never said ONLY two, while you claimed you had discerned a trend using ONE AND ONLY ONE data point. And the one and only data point you latched onto was a discredited Zogby online poll claiming an approval rating of about 50-50. What a F****** moron!!! Are you happy now? I used words you can understand.

Only after being pressed, did you finally pick a second data point that could be used to establish a time frame (Jan to Mar), which conveniently demonstrated a slight decrease in approval rating. What a surprise that you chose that time frame. You cherry picked data to support your hypothesis.

“As the discussion occurred several months ago, what happened over the intervening months is meaningless.”

Oh, no, you’re not getting off the hook. It is MEANINGFUL. After you cherry picked data to establish a time frame that conveniently showed a decrease in approval rating between Jan and Mar, you claimed this was a trend that would be continued into the future. Well, the future is now and your predicted trend did not continue as you predicted. Jan to May the trend is flat (ignoring minor fluctuations up or down). And because it is flat, your hypothesis (from Mar) has now been discredited.

So, what do you do? If you adhered to the scientific method, you would discard your hypothesis. But, no, you now want to pick a different time frame and – of course – one that will conveniently demonstrate how right you were all along. But in order to find a different time frame that supports your hypothesis, you now have to go back to the end of last year and pick a data point BEFORE Obama was inaugurated. Let me say it again. What a F****** moron!!!

Go back to your own posts and read WHY it is invalid to compare data obtained prior to inauguration to data obtained after inauguration. The former is a measure of expectation; the latter a measure of job performance. You are mixing apples with oranges. May I please say it one more time? What a F****** moron!!!

“So what do I put up?”

Put up links to data that support your hypothesis. Stop cherry picking data, mixing apples with oranges and resorting to the lame ‘that was then but this is now’ excuse. Something both David S and I have been asking you to do along. Like many posters here, you demand proof from those with whom you disagree, but think you do not have to abide by the same set of rules. What makes you think you are so special?

You (and others at this site) erroneously assume all Obama supporters are a bunch of young pot smoking slackers supported by their parents, paid DNC trolls, tree huggers, tree sitters, vegan PETA members, Hollyweird celebrities or poor ethnic minorities on the dole. If those were Obama’s only supporters, then he would not have won the election. Many of us are older, highly educated, gainfully employed, hard working, taxpayers fed up with 8 years of disastrous Republican rule. I can’t say why so many others became fed up because I did not take a poll. But for me, the number one reason was the utter disdain and disregard for all things scientific.

It was because of this disdain for science that I – for the first time in my long life – decided to give money to Democratic candidates last year. Now I am on their list. Last night I received several email requests for money to buy TV ads to support Sotomayor. After reading the vicious and unfounded attacks about Sotomayor on this site, I decided to give money. Although I am a registered Independent, I also decided I just had to have MANY of those I AM A PROUD DEMOCRAT eco-friendly tote bags, so I gave more money. And I am going to continue to give money to the Democrats because 1) I want to and 2) I have a lot of money to give. It is DRUG MONEY – drugs designed and developed from years of scientific research.

So, JPT, the DNC thanks you and your ilk on PJM for turning one wealthy Independent into A PROUD DEMOCRAT!