Did Repubs come up with "You Can Use Statistics To Prove Anything" line

[neoteric lefty]

I was just doing my weekly check of MediaMatters.org, and of course O'Reilly was spouting the line "you can use statistics to prove anything" when it came to a caller pointing out that poverty levels went UP during each year of the Bush admin. versus the decline in the Clinton admin. I always hear that from the Right when someone brings up some stats to blow up any argument that they have. I guess it is in their handbook somewhere towards the back.

[tx_dem41]

1. Its in our handbook too, quite frankly.

Hell, I've never met a person that hasn't misapplied stats to attempt to prove a point.

Just look at the hurricane/global warming threads the last few weeks. (BTW...I believe in Global Warming).

[wtmusic]

2. I agree with O'Reilly, for the first and last time nt

[rockymountaindem]

3. I think so. They also came up with the oh so humorous line that

"90% of statistics are made up on the spot". That one drives me nuts.

[BlueJac]

4. There is not a book Bush could not cook!

[craigolemiss]

5. there is an old book

Written in the 50's?---still in print called "How to Lie with Statistics"

found it on amazon---Darrel Huff, 1954---looks like it runs 11.95 or used for about $5.

ISBN: 039309426X

If you have never read this book get it and read it ---very funny, and prob. about 120-150 pages or so--quick read

[skypilot]

9. When I worked at Borders Bookstore...

...I shelved books in the mathematics section. That book was the ONE book that I remember selling lots and lots and lots of copies of. I remember being afraid that people were using it as an actual "how-to" book. It was a scary thought.

[craigolemiss]

13. I used it often--It is really good to use to spot lies also

[kiki]

6. "You can prove anything with facts."

Said in jest by UK comedian Stuart Lee (creator of Jerry Springer The Opera), but look out for it (minus the irony of course) as the next talking point in the War on Facts that the RW is currently waging.

I'm sure the double standard is entirely lost on Bill that he is constantly "proving" things with statistics - of course, most of his statistics (like the results of his staggeringly effective France boycott, or the one about how it's safer in whatever US city than in Iraq) are misrepresented or (Bill's personal favourite) just plain made up...

[gratuitous]

7. "Pfffft -- Facts!"

Why, you can use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!

--Eminent philosopher Homer Simpson

I'm sure, however, that Mr. O'Reilly immediately launched into a detailed economic analysis of wages, CEO salaries, corporate welfare and corporate bankruptcies, linking those with increases in the Dow Jones Industrial Average over the past five years, comparing and contrasting same to the concomitant period during the Clinton years, as well as their relation to the national debt and annual federal budget deficits to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that even though more folks were in poverty every year of the Bush administration, it was a minor momentary adjustment of the macroeconomy.

Or, he just said "Shut up, SHUT UP, SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP" before cutting off the call.

[ComerPerro]

8. But, oddly enough, they are happy to use statistics

to prove their absurd points.

[Village Idiot]

10. Case In Point:

[yewberry]

11. I like Disraeli's version best

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

(Frequently attributed to Twain, but it was Disraeli.)

[seabeyond]

12. my husband did. been saying it for years

actually anyone taking a statistics class know this