Monthly Archives: October 2009

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (15): Measuring Public Opinion But Leaving Out a Chunk of the Public

Posted on October 18, 2009 by

There seems to be no end to the number of battles in our war against the abuse of statistics. Take a look at this graph: (source) A poll of presidential approval ratings is a public opinion poll, so one expects … Continue reading →

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Political Jokes & Funny Quotes (60): Racial Irony

Posted on October 18, 2009 by

(source unknown) More on the KKK here and here. More on racism here. More political jokes here.

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Human Rights Facts (46): A Country’s Responsibility to Promote Democracy Abroad

Posted on October 17, 2009 by

I believe that there are many good reasons why countries should be democracies (see examples of these reasons here, here, here, here and here), but does this imply that powerful countries such as the U.S. can/should promote democracy in certain other countries when these … Continue reading →

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Iconic Images of Human Rights Violations (26): The End of Colonialism

Posted on October 17, 2009 by

(source, this picture was taken in 1946 in India by Margaret Bourke-White who was sent there to cover a story about India’s independence) Gandhi‘s struggle for India’s independence has become iconic for the worldwide struggle against colonialism, one of the … Continue reading →

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What Are Human Rights? (21): Dimensions of Human Rights

Posted on October 16, 2009 by

It’s common to believe that human rights are rights that protect us against the state. Nothing wrong there, except that it’s a gross simplification. Human rights aren’t one-dimensional. In this older post (as well as in this one), I distinguished … Continue reading →

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Child Labor, A Collection of Images

Posted on October 16, 2009 by

(source, more on India) (source) (source) (source) (source) More on child labor. More collections of human rights images.

Posted in human rights images, work | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Political Artist (34): Enrique Chagoya

Posted on October 15, 2009 by

More on the artist here. I guess the “big Mickey” is Ronald Reagan. Don’t know who the small one is. In any case, I don’t agree with him (her?): keep art IN politics. More on international intervention here. More political … Continue reading →

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Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (14): Leaving Out Relevant Explanatory Variables

Posted on October 15, 2009 by

Another installment in our ongoing series on mistakes and fraud in statistics. Here’s a graph explaining that the top 1 percent of U.S. taxpayers paid 40.42 percent of total federal income taxes in 2007, and did in fact pay more … Continue reading →

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Human Rights Maps (68): Immigration in the U.S.

Posted on October 15, 2009 by

The maps below show - for the years 1920, 1980 and 2000 – the percentages of foreign born populations in the different counties of the US (foreign born by country/continent of origin). You’ll have to click on the images to enlarge them. … Continue reading →

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Human Rights Ads (30): Drop the Debt

Posted on October 15, 2009 by

(source) More on debt relief here and here. More human rights ads.

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