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Thursday, December 31, 2009

Ask a Stupid Question...

In the wake of the failed terrorist attack by the Detroit Crotchbomber, Rasmussen decided it would be a good time to ask people what they thought of waterboarding. The results were a study in public ignorance.

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of U.S. voters say waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation techniques should be used to gain information from the terrorist who attempted to bomb an airliner on Christmas Day.


Keep in mind that Rasmussen regularly skews right -- so much so that I generally consider them to be not all that credible. But if these numbers are anywhere near right, it shows that a lot of people have no idea what the hell they're talking about. It also shows that Rasmussen doesn't really give a crap about reality.

See, the big problem here is that the would-be bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, doesn't actually need to be waterboarded. According to the Center for Independent Media, "The FBI has been interrogating him from the moment he was arrested and all indications are that he has been cooperative and has already revealed his connections to Al Qaeda, where he got the bombmaking materials and so forth." So what would we be waterboarding him for, exactly?

The moral of this story is that public opinion is shaped in large part by ignorance. And that this ignorance is influenced by ridiculous organizations like Rasmussen.

2 comments:

Mark said...

The media in general seems to have lost its mind over this the Detroit thing, though this must rank right up there in terms of silliness. It sounds almost like a push poll, as if we should be hearing the following question instead: "Do you think President Obama is soft on terror?" Good grief.

Wisco said...

-"Do you think President Obama is soft on terror?" Good grief.-

The same thing occurred to me.

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