Deep dark confession thread

[mudshark]

Originally Posted by Tarn-Vedra

And not all Okies are scary Republicans ...

I know -- it's sort of the point I was trying to make (says he, hoping to avoid a spanking for making reference to the stereotype Okie in his earlier remark, ops: even though there are plenty here who fit it perfectly.) Blanket statements (e.g., California consists entirely of movie stars and broad sandy beaches, and everyone who lives there is a tree-hugging lefty) about things as large as states, countries or political parties are generally not terribly accurate.

Interesting illustrations -- 2004 presidential election results:

State-by-state -- Oklahoma red, California blue, right? Now ...

County-by-county -- Oklahoma still red, California looking not nearly so blue. But ...

County, shaded for percentage margin -- hmmm, not quite such a clear difference any more, is there?. So much for the Us-and-Them state some of our political "experts" and party leaders would have us believe exists.


These, and some other very interesting representations of statistical slicing & dicing, are from:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/