Submitted by John Spencer Yantiss, Jan 17, 2008 12:02

Mr. McWhorter's first paragraph illustrates, yet again, the utter insanity of our 20th & 21st centuries' addiction to poll taking. Statistical analysis can only be properly applied to laboratory-measurable substances and processes; it CANNOT be meaningfully applied to human opinion and, or behaviour. The simple fact that "professional" pollsters continue to futilely attempt to so do, and that a public fascinated with predictions, foreknowledge (either a divine attribute, or a science fiction/fantasy falacy), astrology, and sundry other occult air castles, is a burlesque of human society.

The first "modern" demonstration of how absurd this fallacious facination is was the 1948 Truman vs. Dewey contest. Even with that glaring example, the pollsters, the media, and a large percentage of the public still plays out the fairy tale, year after year.

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