Monday, September 26, 2005

Here's another example of how Bob Somersby has gone off the rails. Riffing on this Washington Post article, Bob says, "Such are the values that now obtain atop our academic prig-pile."

No, Bob, those are the values that will get you suspended and audited atop our academic "prig-pile." Those are also the values that will get you investigated by the FBI under subpoena and the IRS.

It's the guilt by association fallacy. It's not even well done, since who could possibly read that article as saying that this was a typical compensation package? No one.
Daily Howler takes on this NY Times article. And, in my opinion, completely bungles it. Pretty ironic for calling everyone who disagrees with him illiterate.

I'm not sure where exactly he gets his numbers, but the page he links to, does allow us to go to this report. [pdf]

This report tells us that contrary to DH's claim that 76-78% of the state's African American population is performing at grade level, the actual number is 67.2%. (p. 12 & 13) And, starting at page 54, the report shows that for every grade level except grade 5, less than 70% of the state's African American population is performing at grade level. Page 107 shows us that only 65.8% of the black students are performing at grade level for reading.

At some point in the recent past, Bob Somerby has gone off the rails, attacking everyone who writes anything slightly outside his worldview. That's a tragedy. Bring it back, Bob. Take a deep breath and calm down.

For example, maybe if multiple news sources look at the same data and get a different conclusion than you do, it might be you who has the interpretation wrong. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they really are out to get you!