I am kinda sick of people quoting polls and using that as concrete evidence to support points. I have never voted on a CNN, MSNBC or FOX news poll and I am an American. When I hear people referencing approval ratings and national opinion based on them, I cannot fully support their assesments. I do vote at the polls, but judging by the last election results even that is flawed. Before you guys pile on, I will reserve my opinion on Bush but do believe that we've got to play the hand that's been dealt to us and support our troops. Polls suck, soldiers rock!
It's called statistical sampling. It is not practical to interview each citizen to get an indication on where they stand on issues. Therefore, sampling methods are employed in order to accurately gauge public opinion. Margins of error are included in polls in which sampling is used to illustrate that the outcome is not precise, but within a narrow range of possibilities. You've used this polling argument before to complain about various alleged social injustices. If you choose to debate the merits of statistical sampling, I suggest you take it up with the mathematics and statistics scholars who have accepted the practice for a *very long* time. Here you go, read all about it: http://www.statpac.com/surveys/sampling.htm CLASS DISMISSED
Agreed! I hope they all return ok or at least the casualties are a minimum. However, in order for soldiers to be soldiers, they need to know there will be work. I want to make sure they are never have to worry about lack of work or layoffs, thus I support military action in Iraq!
AB, are you talking about all polls or just internet? A scientific poll fits was Jorge is talking about, but voting on CNN or FOX his hardly particitpating in a scientific poll.
Don't forget the losers who continuously vote in sports polls on various sports media sites, just to see their favorite player or team "win." Even worse are the no-life, bored as hell computer science students who write java programs to continuously vote for their choice over and over for hours on end.
I don't even believe the "scientific" polls anymore. I know a guy that worked for the Harris polls and he said that his boss changed his data more than once. Apparently it wasn't unheard of for that to happen. I agree, polls suck.
You can find stats or poll results to support or challenge ANYTHING! For example, if I conducted a poll to determine as to whether or not your sabbatical should continue, the results would probably be less than favorable. However, your being here is actually a good thing, because if you weren't we would have one less example of unmitigated narcissism and sophisticated conjecture. Furthermore I personally would have no other reason to use the word 'nincompoop', which I kinda fancy. BTW I never went to class
