People are Stupid, Part II

Here’s some disturbing polling data from Program on International Policy Attitudes:

Among those who approved of the decision to go to war and were not just supporting the president (53% of the sample), a majority of 52% said the US has found weapons of mass destruction (48%) or did not know (4%).

Among Republicans who said they follow international affairs very closely — and thus may also be more exposed to headlines reporting promising leads — an even larger percentage — 55% –said weapons have been found, with just 45% saying they have not.

Another widespread misperception is that Iraq actually used chemical or biological weapons in the war. Twenty-two percent held this misperception, with 9% being unsure, while 69% correctly said that Iraq had not used such weapons. However, unlike the question of whether weapons have been found, there is no greater tendency to hold this belief among those who support the war, or are Republicans who follow international affairs closely, than there is in the general population.

The above, combined with this, leads one to believe there are a lot people just not paying attention.

THE MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY COLORING BOOK

Here’s a good one from: APS – What’s New by Bob Park – May 23, 2003.

2. PUBLIC SUPPORT: THE MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY COLORING BOOK.

This year’s celebration of Public Service Recognition Week, we confess, slipped by without our notice. It is celebrated each year during the first week of May to honor government employees. We were reminded of our negligence this week when we received a copy of the Missile Defense Agency Coloring Book, prepared just for the occasion. The first page is President Ronald Reagan; it continues with an Aegis missile being launched from a ship, and an airborne laser zapping an enemy missile just after launch. You can’t recruit your supporters too young. The coloring book came complete with crayons, which were identified as “made in China.”

Oh the irony…
View the book here.

People are Stupid

Here’s some disturbing polling data from PollingReport.com (via Eschaton)

“As far as you know, how many of the September 11th terrorist hijackers were Iraqi citizens: most of them, some of them, just one, or none?”

Most of them 21%
Some of them 23%
Just one  6%
None 17%
Don’t know 33%

(Knight Ridder poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates. Jan. 3-6, 2003. N=1,204 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.)

According to this poll, about half of those surveyed believed at least one of the hijackers was Iraqi and about one in five believe most of the hijackers were Iraqi.

Most of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia and none are known to be from Iraq.

Summary of 2002

In 2002, 5 posts were added to this web log.

The number of posts in each month:

January:
  1 (20%)
August:
  1 (20%)
September:
  1 (20%)
November:
  2 (40%)

The number of posts in each day of week:

Sunday:
  1 (20%)
Monday:
  1 (20%)
Tuesday:
  1 (20%)
Friday:
  1 (20%)
Saturday:
  1 (20%)

At what hours I publish new posts:

0:
  1 (20%)
9:
  1 (20%)
12:
  1 (20%)
15:
  1 (20%)
23:
  1 (20%)

In 2002 the posts were commented 0 times, from which 0 comments (NAN percent) were written by registered users/authors.

TOP 10 commenters in 2002:

    TOP 10 most commented posts in 2002:

    The number of comments in each month:

    On what days people comment:

    At what hours people comment:

    This blog has one author. Here is the number of posts each one wrote:

    • rlrr: 5 posts

    AAAS Releases Statement on Intelligent Design

    Dear NCSE friends & supporters,

    The board of directors of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) released a “Resolution on Intelligent Design Theory” that states, in part, that

    Whereas, the ID movement has failed to offer credible scientific evidence to support their claim that ID undermines the current scientifically accepted theory of evolution;

    Whereas the ID movement has not proposed a scientific means of testing its claims;

    Therefore Be It Resolved that the lack of scientific warrant for so-called “intelligent design theory” makes it improper to include as a part of science education.

    The AAAS also called for “citizens across the nation to oppose the establishment of policies that would permit the teaching of ‘intelligent design theory’ as a part of the science curricula of the public schools.”

    The full statement can be found at:
    http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2002/1106id2.shtml

    All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Quotes from linked articles are probably the property of the publications linked or the property of the person(s) quoted. The rest © 2001- 2025 by James A. Chappell (chappell@amon-hen.com)